SPEAK OUT: The Debate FINAL

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Wessex Jamaat
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Al Mahdi Madrasah presents..
SPEAK OUT - WJ's First Ever Debate Series

Watch as the winners from debates 1 and 2 go head to head in the grand finale

The Motion: This House believes that our communities are failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (ajtf)

Transcript

[4:51][Music] is [Music] there is a consistent theme in almost every major

[5:20]world religion a belief in the coming of a messiah a savior

[5:23]who will emerge at the end times in buddhism his name is

[5:32]matriar in daoism he's known as lihong and in hinduism his name

[5:35]is kalki in the abrahamic faith a messiah from the lineage of

[5:39]prophet ibrahim will be the savior our brethren know him as al-messiah

[5:47]or jesus but we muslims however believe the awaited savior is al-qaeda

[5:50]from the lineage he will reappear and with navi issa they will

[5:56]together fulfill their divine mission while opinions may differ one is undisputed

[6:03]we are in the midst of the end times corruption and indecencies

[6:12]arrive moral lines are blurry social and economic deprivation is widespread injustice

[6:17]and inequality has spread to all corners of the globe war and

[6:21]bloodshed reaps more war and bloodshed and there is no respite no

[6:26]accountability instead impunity for those who need to be held to account

[6:34]and worse still indifference the world is crying out for a savior

[6:40]born 1187 years ago our twelfth imam the mahdi al-hujjah the proof

[6:46]al-hadi the guide jalallah was placed on this earth with one mission

[6:52]to restore the true islam and by doing so wiping tyranny inequality

[6:57]and injustice off the face of the earth for over 1 100

[7:02]years we have been in his intervar awaiting his lahore but most

[7:10]importantly he is observing waiting his 3 13 those who are actively

[7:16]laying the groundwork for his mission and for those who claim to

[7:20]be his mother there how are we preparing join us on saturday

[7:25]26 june at 6 30 pm for the speak out debate series

[7:29]grand finale and that is where the winning teams from debates one

[7:34]and two will go head to head this house believes that our

[7:37]communities are failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of imam mahdi

[7:45]allah we will open your eyes and convince you of the sobering

[7:49]truth of this motion and we will debate otherwise we'll give you

[7:54]hope that yes our actions are valid and we are indeed inactive

[8:00]in desire so tune in on the wessex jamaat youtube channel on

[8:06]saturday 26th of june 6 30 p.m inshallah he is waiting he

[8:23]is ready but the real question is are you right on behalf

[9:23]of the organizing team under the almaty mother star i am so

[9:27]excited to welcome you all back to the final installment of our

[9:31]seek out debate series and i'm sure you'll agree with a suspenseful

[9:34]promo video so for that a huge thank you to sister zainab

[9:38]sergeant john for for putting it together in a very short time

[9:43]frame we would also like to thank brother zahir muhammad for being

[9:47]our tech man for the day and inshallah ensuring we have another

[9:52]smooth program so what happens when two winning teams go head to

[9:58]head i'm just as thrilled as you all are to find out

[10:00]as we welcome back the winners from debates one and two to

[10:05]face each other in the grand finale will it be reminiscent of

[10:08]the rumble in the jungle or the thriller in manila whilst opinions

[10:12]may differ one is undisputed this is the match of the century

[10:21]so wesley are you ready the motion for today's debates is this

[10:25]house believes that our communities are failing to appropriately prepare for the

[10:28]reappearance of imam mahdi this debate promises to be an interactive one

[10:36]and of course we want to hear from you as always so

[10:39]tell us what you think of the motion by voting on it

[10:42]join us on slider.com with the code speak out and vote on

[10:47]the poem uh just a note that is not case sensitive so

[10:51]feel free to just type in wj speak out please refer to

[10:56]the communication we sent out via email on how to use slido

[10:58]and we will keep coming back to it so please keep it

[11:04]open uh you will notice that we have a q a section

[11:05]there and we encourage you all to post your questions your comments

[11:09]to the speakers throughout the debate as you know we'll use those

[11:11]um and throw it to the debaters during the free-for-all round but

[11:16]before we begin i'd like to invite sister fatima merhi one of

[11:21]our mothers of students to commence the event with a recitation from

[11:25]the holy quran [Music] [Music] indeed we send the quran down during

[12:13]the night of decree and what did what can we make you

[12:19]know what's the in the is the night of decree the united

[12:21]decree is better than 1 000 the angels and spirits descend therein

[12:26]by permission of their lord forever and peace sitters until they emerge

[12:38]of dawn salaam thank you so much for that beautiful recitation fatman

[12:53]uh we're truly lucky to have such funny uh beautiful reciters such

[12:58]as yourselves and and al martin madrasa to the audience please may

[13:02]i remind you all to vote for poll number one on the

[13:06]motion on slider if you haven't already done so we will be

[13:09]closing it soon it's currently open the code is wj speak out

[13:11]and you can also post your questions and comments during the debate

[13:15]so today's debate will be moderated again by sister sajida jaffa who

[13:21]needs no introduction having moderated the previous two debates you've all seen

[13:25]it sajidabar is completely phenomenal at it and i you know generally

[13:29]would not want to be in her shoes um so let's take

[13:32]a closer look at our teams for today's uh match both have

[13:39]risen far both have so far risen to the challenge presenting convincing

[13:43]arguments whilst maintaining exemplary o'clock however they have both pulled some powerful

[13:51]verbal punches and we expect no less from them today in the

[13:54]blue corner once again proposing the motion are the heavyweight champions of

[14:00]debate too please welcome back to the ring sister fatima hamir rahmani

[14:04]sister zainable called me brother sadja jaffar and brother muhammad jaffer with

[14:10]the loud virtual solo muhammad the last debate saw the team successfully

[14:19]argue that the mother tongue has no future once again they are

[14:24]here with the sobering reminder proposing the motion this house believes that

[14:30]our communities are failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of imam

[14:36]mati whilst they may float like butterflies their words promise to sting

[14:40]like a bee let's hear more about who they're facing today in

[14:45]the red corner once again playing the role of the opposers are

[14:50]the reigning champions of debate one whilst they successfully argued against the

[14:55]motion this house believes there can be no western muslim identity during

[15:00]the first debate are they up to the tougher challenge today brings

[15:04]please welcome back to the ring sister sabiha chandu sister leila dory

[15:10]brother fazley abbas nanji and brother huda in keeping with their theme

[15:16]of hope they are here to convince you that our communities are

[15:21]indeed appropriately preparing for the reappearance of imam mahdi can they roll

[15:28]with the punches and develop and deliver some blows themselves after all

[15:33]in the famous words of rocky balboa it ain't about how hard

[15:38]you hit it's about how hard you get hit and keep moving

[15:44]forwards we're thankful to the judges for their encouragement their support and

[15:48]for taking time out of their busy schedules for the vulva and

[15:51]zeal with which they have approached this challenge today we have professor

[15:56]reza hanby sister rukaya datta nanjiani and returning in top form brother

[16:00]muhammad hassan banji we will welcome our judges in true west expression

[16:04]towards the end of the program insha allah in keeping continuity from

[16:09]the previous two debates the judges will use their strict points-based criteria

[16:14]to score the two teams however we have listened to the feedback

[16:18]that we have been receiving from the audience and we want to

[16:22]assure you that you as the audience will have a more say

[16:25]in deciding the winning team so more about that later stay tuned

[16:32]thank you kalaja poll one is now closed and the results are

[16:40]in and let's see how everybody has voted so 86 of the

[16:55]audience feel that our communities are failing to appropriate appropriately prepare for

[17:02]the reappearance of imam mahdi ajalallahu faraja so let's see what the

[17:11]debate brings and it's the main event what everyone has been anticipating

[17:18]so the proposing team are arguing in favor of the motion this

[17:21]house believes our communities are failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance

[17:28]of imam mahdi abdullah and the opposing team are arguing against this

[17:36]motion in debates one and two the moderators selected the team however

[17:39]to mix things up a little bit for the final their fate

[17:43]was this time decided by a method which has withstood the test

[17:47]of time the trusty coin flip as was the case with previous

[17:54]debates i must again stress that the arguments being presented are for

[17:58]the sake of the debate only and do not necessarily represent the

[18:03]views of those raising them the speakers on the proposing and opposing

[18:09]teams will follow their speaker's order and will alternate between the two

[18:14]teams so the first speakers beginning with the proposing team will give

[18:20]their opening statements and outline their arguments then the second speakers on

[18:25]each team will come forward expand on the team's arguments and they

[18:30]can use this opportunity to refute the other team's arguments the third

[18:36]speakers will then also have their turns to speak and refute each

[18:40]speaker is allowed five minutes and sister khadeja is once again playing

[18:46]the role of timekeeper she will announce the time elapsed at four

[18:52]minutes and an alarm will ring at five the teams will be

[18:56]penalized for going over the five minutes or not using their allocated

[19:01]time adequately and this will be taken into consideration by the judges

[19:06]after the first three speakers from each team have spoken there will

[19:11]be a free for all round sister khadeja will fire questions at

[19:18]each team with some selected from the audience so so please visit

[19:29]slido.com use the code wj speak out and you can post questions

[19:32]for participants there and add on your comments and please do keep

[19:37]your slider page open we will be referring to it throughout the

[19:42]debate after the free-for-all round speaker four from each team will be

[19:46]given five minutes to make the closing statements for their teams once

[19:52]the debate ends the judges will discuss their findings according to the

[19:57]judging criteria which centers on style content and strategy whilst the judges

[20:03]convene we will run some polls which allow the audience to have

[20:09]their say and these will be taken into consideration by the judges

[20:12]so please make sure you take part once again before we begin

[20:18]i'd like to stress that the arguments being presented are for the

[20:23]sake of the debate and do not necessarily represent the views of

[20:28]those raising them so this house believes that our communities are failing

[20:34]to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of imam matli agillalahu i would

[20:42]like to invite sister fatima hamir rahmani to make the opening statement

[20:49]for the proposing team sister fatima your time starts now my respected

[20:56]elders esteemed judges brothers and sisters today's debate holds a grim truth

[21:02]that necessitates acceptance and demands change and that truth is our communities

[21:08]are failing to appropriately prepare for the mathy the messianic concept exists

[21:13]in all major schools of faith the need for truth and justice

[21:19]to prevail stems from the essence of god within every human being

[21:22]and as such the significance of the mahdi to establish the ultimate

[21:27]moral system of allah is inherently appealing to all of mankind to

[21:32]guarantee we are worthy of being the mahdi's devoted companions in fulfilling

[21:37]this mission requires no demands the most diligent of preparations right so

[21:44]let's revisit the motion the motion says our communities are failing to

[21:49]appropriately prepare the word appropriately highlights a fundamental distinction on which this

[21:56]entire debate hinges upon our communities are preparing that is undeniable but

[22:01]is our preparation appropriate or are we deceiving ourselves with an inefficient

[22:06]insufficient and false sense of preparation a kind of preparation that is

[22:12]not appropriate and ultimately futile it is very likely that you and

[22:16]i will fail to even recognize the imam it is very likely

[22:20]that you and i will join the army against him it's a

[22:23]condemning fact in history how many did our people kill when they

[22:28]were the same ones who called upon allah to send one imam

[22:31]hussain's argument was precisely that o people of kufa how is it

[22:36]that you have sharpened your swords against me now when you are

[22:39]the ones who invited me to bring justice against yazid so what

[22:43]keeps going wrong why is it that our holy personalities who perform

[22:47]the greatest feats imaginable have only a handful of friends my dear

[22:53]brothers and sisters it all comes down to one underlying principle in

[22:58]the dwarf of imam we recite o allah grant me your recognition

[23:02]for if i fail to recognize you i will fail to recognize

[23:07]rasulullah and if i fail to recognize rasulullah i will fail to

[23:10]recognize the our connection with allah is the greatest measure of our

[23:18]connection with my team members will examine a three-step process for appropriately

[23:22]preparing for the mathi sister zaina will explore the first and second

[23:26]steps which are theoretical in talar and intellectual intadar and brother sajad

[23:32]will explain the third step behavioral intidar to give you a brief

[23:36]overview theoretical integhar the first step is to gain the knowledge the

[23:41]ilm of the mahdi the next step is intellectual integra which is

[23:47]the modifier a deeper understanding of the mighty cultivated how through our

[23:51]connection with allah and our understanding of the quran our communities have

[23:56]failed to realize that our readiness for the money can only be

[24:00]established if our very system is built on the quran how can

[24:05]this be achieved there is a need for our communities to invest

[24:09]in an accessible well-rounded universally recognized education system of our own that

[24:16]combines secular and quranic learning from the very beginning currently as a

[24:21]community the majority rely on secular education systems to teach our children

[24:25]a system that at its core promotes materialism over spiritual development thereby

[24:30]failing to inculcate islamic value-based attributes so where is our system that

[24:38]ingrains and promotes theoretical and intellectual in davar these two steps then

[24:43]manifest into the ultimate behavioral individual a community that is ready is

[24:49]one that is driven by the need to serve allah serving humanity

[24:52]to place the needs of others before our own to be a

[24:58]voice for justice with the strength to face the repercussions we can

[25:01]be small but the world is always driven by a vocal minority

[25:05]no society has ever been driven by the silent majority our communities

[25:10]have stopped and taken comfort in the first step theoretical and bilar

[25:14]we need to progress to intellectual and behavioral intigar which is the

[25:19]of the mahdi a desire to be like the mahdi a state

[25:23]of constant restlessness resulting in active productive individual that is called appropriate

[25:31]preparation and our communities are nowhere near that waste thank you so

[25:47]much um sister fatima a lot to take on board there so

[25:51]in essence what you're saying is that until our education system is

[25:59]built on the quran which inculcates all facets of of life um

[26:05]we will be nowhere near where we are required at the moment

[26:11]um our system is built on secularism materialism but until we serve

[26:19]allah and we ingrain that in ourselves we will not be able

[26:24]to serve others and by serving others um that is how we

[26:29]will achieve the state of active indivar through constant restlessness you talked

[26:35]about the three stages of preparing for imam mahdi however your focus

[26:40]is that we are essentially stuck on the first phase with no

[26:47]progression forwards thank you so much um i would now like to

[26:53]invite sister sabiha chandu to make the opening statements for the opposing

[27:00]team sister sabiha please your time starts now rahman may allah hasten

[27:13]his appearance our imam our guide our savior the one who will

[27:19]bring bring peace and justice to this world this name these words

[27:23]what do they do to you what feelings do they evoke shivers

[27:29]down your spine a longing in your heart but why are these

[27:34]feelings natural or have they been cultivated in our hearts by external

[27:40]forces our families perhaps or by our communities let me remind you

[27:45]of the motion that we are opposing this house believes that our

[27:51]communities are failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of immorality i

[27:54]want to bring your attention to the words appropriately prepared just as

[27:58]our worthy opponents have the cambridge dictionary defines prepare as to expect

[28:03]something will happen and be ready for it furthermore the definition of

[28:08]the word appropriate is suitable or right for a particular situation or

[28:14]occasion so if we combine these definitions and apply them to today's

[28:19]motion the premise is that the way our communities are getting ready

[28:23]for the imam is not suitable for the current situation or time

[28:27]but what does appropriate preparation look like does it mean we all

[28:32]need to be on salas reciting does it mean we all need

[28:36]to be scholars does this mean that the only ones who are

[28:38]preparing are those who are deemed to be religious we believe that

[28:43]this does not correlate with appropriate preparation our team will prove to

[28:48]you with examples that our communities are truly preparing in a manner

[28:51]appropriate to our current situations and in ways that will be appropriate

[28:56]for our imam when he does reappear we will prove to you

[28:58]that no not only have our communities prepared in the past but

[29:01]are cultivating and watering the fertile ground for our new generations to

[29:05]continue with the preparation we will show that every member of our

[29:12]communities is preparing from the mother who is bringing up her children

[29:15]to be the fervent supporters of the imam to those in every

[29:21]career field striving to perfect their craft and skills in order to

[29:27]be of service to the imam we will show that there are

[29:31]people from our community strategically placed in the media structures in place

[29:35]for social change the social media harnessed by our youth and our

[29:40]communities always reinventing themselves and creating ways to ignite the love of

[29:45]our imam and the preparation for our imam just like the debate

[29:51]today these platforms are all ready to be at the service of

[29:53]the imam when he reappears this is truly preparation that is appropriate

[29:57]and necessary for the times in which imam will arrive a further

[30:02]definition of the word prepare from the oxford dictionary is to make

[30:07]something ready for use or consideration our team will unequivocally prove to

[30:12]you that we are a community at a community level and at

[30:15]an individual level preparing in the most appropriate way to be of

[30:19]use to the imam the word preparing is also a continuous present

[30:27]verb we cannot ever claim to be prepared as this is illogical

[30:29]we are all on a journey of continuous struggle and striving towards

[30:33]being the best versions of ourselves in order to be of use

[30:37]to the imam our worthy opponents will attempt to persuade you that

[30:40]our communities are not preparing they will argue that if we were

[30:45]prepared then we have we would have had our 313 and the

[30:46]imam would have come they will say that we are two westernized

[30:48]and secular traits that do not show that we are preparing for

[30:52]the imam if this is the case then what of those other

[30:55]faiths that will join the imam when he comes those that we

[30:59]perceive to be western or secular they too must be preparing if

[31:01]they are of the people of the mahdi if they are without

[31:06]being religious in the islamic sense then how can we not be

[31:10]we who have had the love of the imam running through our

[31:11]veins since childhood i will leave you with this with all due

[31:17]to respect the proposers unless and until they can see into the

[31:20]hearts of the people and see their intentions they cannot say that

[31:23]there is a lack of preparation our esteemed opponents have said that

[31:26]we are not worthy that this is a grim truth that our

[31:32]efforts are futile who decides this the fire of the revolution of

[31:38]the mahdi burns in the hearts of the believers and this cannot

[31:43]be measured thank you assalamu alaikum thank you sister sabiha so the

[31:53]fire of the love of imam mahdi runs through the hearts of

[31:57]the believers um amazing words and um you know just looking back

[32:04]at what you've said that the preparation you know has come from

[32:08]every member of this community on an individual level starting with the

[32:13]mothers raising their children to people strategically placed ready to serve the

[32:19]imam and the two definitions you gave you know of preparation um

[32:27]not only preparing um ourselves but preparing to be of use to

[32:34]him through the various platforms and that essentially um nobody knows what

[32:41]is in our individual parts as we continue on this continuous struggle

[32:46]thank you sister saliha um now i would like to invite um

[32:53]well virtually as we all are sister zainab who will be giving

[32:59]us her thoughts unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances she can't join us

[33:04]live today that she has recorded her segment salaam alaikum brothers and

[33:17]sisters firstly i'd like to apologize for not being live for this

[33:21]debate but whilst i may not be there in person i still

[33:24]try to appropriately prepare before we start i want you to reflect

[33:29]on what you first thought of when reading today's motion how about

[33:31]we do a quick little test what year was imam mahdi born

[33:36]how many years was his minor occultation how will the imam look

[33:43]when he reappears what is the translation of the al mujir pretty

[33:46]fundamental questions don't you think are you able to confidently answer them

[33:51]all if the imam knocked on our doors right now would we

[33:54]as a community be ready for him i think if you're truly

[33:59]being honest you know the answer to this there are three steps

[34:03]to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of imam mehti as sister father

[34:08]mentioned earlier let's explore the first step theoretical interval this is done

[34:12]by increasing our knowledge of the imam he is the mom of

[34:16]our time so it only makes sense that we need to consolidate

[34:18]our learning of him to increase our faith how can this be

[34:24]done by fully investing in our youth but they are the ones

[34:29]that will be standing during the time of our imam our communities

[34:32]are failing to mobilize resources in a manner that will achieve the

[34:35]ultimate goal which is serving allah hence serving the mehdi when we

[34:41]are born we have a natural inclination towards the right path it's

[34:43]when we get exposed to a system that is not aligned with

[34:47]the principles and teachings of the quran and the bates that these

[34:50]qualities are suppressed this demands our communities to have a system in

[34:55]place based on the quran and then teachings of the bay that

[34:58]facilitate and nurture the right attributes attributes that strengthen and equip us

[35:02]are more importantly our children to help the pressures that surround us

[35:06]today such as the media or peer pressure powers that are working

[35:10]against our core beliefs we therefore need a strong foundation to overcome

[35:14]these challenges and stand firm we are underestimating the power of our

[35:18]communities our education system shapes us personally we need a strong foundation

[35:25]from the start and this is where our communities are failing why

[35:28]are we not giving the learning of the quran our history and

[35:32]our books such as the same importance as academic subjects and we

[35:38]can't be limited to just madressa once a week and we can't

[35:42]be limited to our own homes it has to be collective as

[35:45]a community otherwise it's insufficient hence doesn't qualify as appropriate preparation now

[35:52]let's move on to the second step intellectual interval this is done

[35:57]by developing more of a deeper understanding of our religion whilst our

[36:01]communities serve many purposes it's important that they teach us in a

[36:04]way to help our foundation and develop more later on we need

[36:09]that we need more to be done let me use an analogy

[36:13]of a school to help me explain this when a child goes

[36:17]to an outstanding school they recruit in a manner where they hire

[36:20]people with backgrounds in their areas of expertise because they understand the

[36:24]future of that topic beyond the classroom and can inspire them to

[36:28]go further when they talk about it passionately they then invite those

[36:32]students back to talk and teach the next generation of youngsters that

[36:35]come through as role models and peers if you have a teacher

[36:39]of english that has studied pe in further education compared to a

[36:43]teacher with a background in literature the former will be able to

[36:48]teach you the syllabus whereas the latter will be able to use

[36:51]their passion of the subject to inspire those students to go further

[36:54]in their specific area reaching gender is not a past failed situation

[36:59]there are different levels of gender just as there are different levels

[37:02]uh grades at school reaching heaven can be seen as attaining a

[37:08]grade c but there are levels above that for our communities to

[37:10]inspire us to attain the highest grade they need to have people

[37:14]at each level of the institution this needs to take place by

[37:19]inspiring and where possible facilitate the youth to go and further study

[37:21]the religion and then come back one minute to aid with the

[37:26]next generation by bridging the gap this needs to be a proactive

[37:29]process that our communities should be striving towards schools take pride in

[37:33]the number of students that they send to oxbridge our communities should

[37:37]also celebrate and take pride in the number of students they send

[37:40]to study in higher institutions of islamic education such as hausa it's

[37:45]only through a strong foundation that fundamentally aligns with the teachings of

[37:49]the quran and [Music] that the mehdi will be made very apparent

[37:53]to us and we will be alongside him our communities are failing

[37:58]to help us failing to help us appropriately prepare and diligently pursue

[38:03]theoretical and intellectual intellect this should be the very basis of our

[38:06]community which then manifests into the ultimate step behavioral interval that brother

[38:17]sajad will explain further inshallah thank you very much sister zainab for

[38:26]your appropriate preparation of your peace so in essence you again touched

[38:35]on the three stages of intivar and you said that without the

[38:39]theoretical which is increasing our knowledge of the imam hand in hand

[38:45]with that intellectual intivar where you have deeper understanding of the religion

[38:59]next generation so you're continually perpetuating that message where that is absent

[39:07]you will not reach that behavioral intidah which is required and in

[39:12]your team's opinion that is not happening appropriately so thank you very

[39:19]much sister zainab um sister leila um i would like to invite

[39:26]you now please to speak and give us your team's arguments your

[39:32]time starts now thank you thank you everyone assalamu alaikum firstly thank

[39:39]you to all the speakers thus far for sharing their excellent points

[39:43]it's been very interesting hearing all the different views and perspectives surrounding

[39:47]this subject as a community we need to make sure that we

[39:51]are preparing well for the almaty amati's return and their coming fight

[39:56]against the oppressors what i would first like to point out is

[39:59]that in order to prepare for imam mahdi's return many muslims stated

[40:03]that we need to improve our knowledge on islam so heed being

[40:08]a major part of it we do we do not all need

[40:13]to be scholars but it still plays a big part i believe

[40:16]as a community we as a community are preparing sufficiently for the

[40:19]amount of return by sharing islamic knowledge through sermons and manchester's we

[40:25]also practiced tawheed regularly through recitations such as by listening to these

[40:35]sermons and taking part in these recitations souls are being uh in

[40:39]the process of being purified which in a time which in time

[40:43]will end up emulating the soul of nafsul ziki who according to

[40:48]hadith by the prophet will announce the arrival of al-mahdi in the

[40:55]kaaba having a pure soul is paramount to a muslim spirituality as

[40:59]it will guarantee a place in jannah moreover the imam sees a

[41:03]pure soul as a reliable soldier to fight in the fight against

[41:09]the oppressors and will guarantee a success there's there is also an

[41:13]act that we do weekly that strengthens our reliability it's the highly

[41:18]recommended john marcella do you know why it's white so highly recommended

[41:21]it reminds us of and renews our piety within us as it's

[41:26]which is a significant order of the imam as we need to

[41:31]know islam to prepare for its coming praying in con congregation is

[41:37]a call to arms in preparation for the coming fight surah jummah

[41:41]tells us to respond to the adhan and leave behind all worldly

[41:45]affairs the replacing of the third and fourth rakat cuts by talks

[41:50]on taheed and a topical issue prepares us to listen to the

[41:55]imam's instructions and it incites discipline within us so that when the

[42:01]imam reveals himself we will be able to work cohesively as a

[42:04]team to defeat the oppressors and it prepares us for the day

[42:09]of judgment when we'll leave this world to meet other speaking of

[42:12]judgmentation the fact that we know that it's imminent meaning that we

[42:16]that we are preparing for his return there have been so many

[42:21]signs of the imams of the imam's return the threat of wars

[42:24]the pandemics and climate change are all compelling us to be prepared

[42:27]and there's evidence of this in a survey in 2012 um it

[42:35]showed that half of muslims in north africa south asia and other

[42:39]countries stronger belief that they will see the imam in their lifetime

[42:43]precautions that we take with coveted such as covering up and washing

[42:47]hands are all principles found in the prophet's islam and it is

[42:51]clear that communities are acting upon these principles which are which are

[42:56]good preparation for the amount hums money we collect as a community

[43:02]go to ngos such as the world federation and red crescents which

[43:04]is used to further the imam's cause for social justice like my

[43:08]teammates said before there are many ways to prepare than just allah

[43:13]it's the little things that once either don't make a huge difference

[43:16]so as a community we excel at reging ourselves for his arrival

[43:21]and little by little with the knowledge and discipline to fight with

[43:26]the knowledge and discipline to fight the imam one suit once he

[43:31]returns so when he does to arrive i believe he'll be sufficiently

[43:36]prepared one minute as a community to fight alongside him and this

[43:39]goes this also goes against what the opposition what what our opposition

[43:45]is saying in that there isn't a strong foundation for uh learning

[43:50]about the islam and and the imam um because we have things

[43:55]like mattresses and and the sermons in jerusalem which are all things

[44:02]that we do regularly that not prepare us for the imam and

[44:08]we do indeed fight indeed recite like dua ma refer uh constantly

[44:14]and we do and so we do end up having that deeper

[44:21]understanding that of the imam and islam and and we we do

[44:29]we we'd also use the quran we all do use quranic um

[44:33]sort of as to further our our knowledge as well thank you

[44:39]for listening [Laughter] thank you sister leila so with your argument you

[44:47]know um we aren't just sitting here saying allah there are systems

[44:52]in place and the two um systems that we have that we

[44:57]are using are those of knowledge and discipline so programs such as

[45:04]um you know programs the sermons we listen to now obviously online

[45:08]the dua programs that we learn give us that deep understanding give

[45:12]us that knowledge and purify our souls and um you know the

[45:19]juma programs jamasala although it's difficult to meet now inshallah we'll be

[45:23]reconvening and you know juma's sermons it inspires that discipline in us

[45:30]uh we are furthering social justice causes you know through comes through

[45:35]the different facets that we have and we are aware that the

[45:42]signs you know indicate an imminent um reappearance so really it's these

[45:48]little things that will make the difference and they are things that

[45:53]we are doing continuously so thank you very much um now we

[46:00]will have the third speakers from each team uh before the free-for-all

[46:07]segment so brother sajad i would like to invite you to present

[46:10]your team's arguments and continue with your team's arguments please brother sajad

[46:17]your time starts now my brothers and sisters in islam islam ali

[46:21]come up to the library i'd like to first start by responding

[46:25]to the esteemed opposition regarding a couple of issues uh the first

[46:29]assistant speaker spoke out and said uh how the proposals will speak

[46:31]out about being too western we are not saying that and it

[46:36]is not part of our argument and secondly uh also kind of

[46:39]to talk about preparing for an event uh and to prepare for

[46:44]an event a cohesive plan must be put into place all events

[46:47]uh stating individual examples is not quite a long term plan all

[46:50]events slash projects in the world have a step-by-step process that's produced

[46:53]within the world of business this is known as a gantt chart

[46:56]to objectively see the starting point and end point with a clear

[46:59]direction the same is required in preparation for imam mahdi and our

[47:02]communities currently do not have that you've heard from my teammates again

[47:07]today regarding the manner in which our communities are not appropriately preparing

[47:11]us for imam mahdi my teammates discussed how our communities are failing

[47:16]with regard to the theoretical and the intellectual intadar and i will

[47:20]be explaining the behavioral aspect which only manifests correctly if the first

[47:24]two steps sufficiently provide a strong foundation it is the responsibility of

[47:28]our communities to ensure those core principles are instilled within and to

[47:32]set an example for best practice such that we can be better

[47:35]versions of ourselves however there is a chasm of difference between a

[47:38]better being a better version of oneself and being appropriately prepared for

[47:43]the return of imam mahdi we need to strive to be amongst

[47:47]his sincerest of companions and it's the duty of our communities to

[47:49]inspire us to reach this level by ensuring the theoretical and intellectual

[47:53]are ingrained and the framework of behavior is reinforced it is all

[47:57]well and good performing actions but unless the intended outcome is achieved

[48:01]the practice becomes ritualistic and futile sister the second speaker did speak

[48:06]up about this about some of the practices which were done but

[48:08]this was the case of the enemies of hussein at the battle

[48:12]of prabhala many of them were people that prayed to allah but

[48:14]then failed to recognize the systems must be put into place such

[48:19]that we do not fall into this trap as a simple example

[48:22]we are recommended to recite dua nudiba every friday this dua is

[48:25]recited to grieve our separation from almighty but are we trained to

[48:28]recite it in this manner are we trained to recite it as

[48:32]a lamentation with sincerity or we just talked ritualistically unfortunately it is

[48:37]generally the latter which is an example in which in how our

[48:39]community are failing to prepare us appropriately my next point addresses our

[48:46]shia communities as a wider society when imam mahdi returns there will

[48:49]need to be a system that is in place for him to

[48:50]carry out the will of allah there will need to be strong

[48:52]distribution channels and collaboration amongst communities in our community we have the

[48:58]world federation coalition etc etc but the shia community is not just

[49:03]korja our governing bodies need to interact and communicate with other communities

[49:06]around the world and operate as a unit bridges need to not

[49:10]only be built but also strengthened and fortified by reaching out to

[49:13]other communities through social sporting and islamic events we can see these

[49:16]bonds come to fruition it is a sad fact that most people

[49:20]only come across shias from other communities when they go to university

[49:22]why is it that they do not interact with them at a

[49:25]younger age as well we hold sporting events such as mount and

[49:28]the different golf tournament but with a simple element of integration we

[49:31]can easily open these tournaments up to other shia communities or hold

[49:35]additional ones entirely to enable these channels to prosper this is the

[49:39]desired standard but unfortunately at this moment in time our communities are

[49:42]failing to create this cohesive structure my last point comes now to

[49:47]our community with the wider society and the servitude to others one

[49:49]of the pillars of our religion is the tragedy of kerballer the

[49:53]grandson of our prophet standing up against tyranny oppression and injustice regardless

[49:57]of what happened to him as a community we need to be

[50:01]vocal and take a stand against all injustices that take place around

[50:04]the world we need to speak up about all issues that affect

[50:06]our world whether they are social environmental economic or political many of

[50:11]us talk about the issues surrounding muslims around the world such as

[50:14]our brothers and sisters in palestine yemen and china about how many

[50:18]of us talk about or are even aware of the ethnic cleansing

[50:20]of the neura group in south sudan or the cultural tamils in

[50:25]sri lanka our communities need to raise awareness of all the atrocities

[50:28]that take place worldwide that not only affect our muslim brethren but

[50:31]also those that do not our service to humanity is an obligation

[50:35]and it means our communities need to set up initiatives to tackle

[50:39]worldwide issues proactive steps to ensure we too are doing our part

[50:43]must occur how much disposable plastic do our communities go through each

[50:47]year how many of our communities actively promote and facilitate being on

[50:50]the front line of global humanitarian causes our communities must inspire us

[50:54]towards position of influence and be at the forefront when it comes

[50:58]to championing social justice causes green initiatives and politics they must set

[51:01]the example for us to follow but more importantly also have the

[51:05]strength to face the repercussions it is clear that we are not

[51:08]ready for the return of the budget but it is even more

[51:11]worrying that we are not moving in the right direction and therefore

[51:14]we cannot say that we are appropriately preparing for the return of

[51:19]imam mahdi thank you for listening thank you brother sajad so again

[51:25]building on your team's arguments that to be able to build a

[51:31]framework of behavioral individual the theoretical and intellectual intima has to be

[51:37]in place and without a framework um that is is not possible

[51:45]um and that there has to be a system in place collaboration

[51:48]with other shia communities so that when imam mahdi faraday returns there

[51:58]is there is something there for him to work with that we

[52:02]need a cohesive structure and not just with other shia communities but

[52:06]on a wider level we need to be at the forefront and

[52:11]setting an example in service to humanity for issues that do not

[52:16]affect only muslims in all areas social economic political and environmental and

[52:24]until we are doing those things we are not appropriately preparing brother

[52:32]fazler bass i'd now like to invite you to um give us

[52:37]some more insight into your team's position please uh brother foss your

[52:43]time starts now um firstly i'd like to um thank my opponents

[52:52]for their arguments and i just like to say when i was

[52:56]young and i went to madressa i was taught the following things

[53:01]that i'd just like to read out to you our store imam

[53:02]ali passed away at the age of 61.

[53:05]man hassan passed away the age of 47 hussein at the age

[53:10]of 57 so on so forth um for example imam jawad passed

[53:15]away at the age of 25 but when it came to the

[53:19]12th in my mortal he's still alive and i went how old

[53:21]is he they told us how old he was about 1400 years

[53:25]and we're like how is that possible wait um god has kept

[53:30]him alive because god can do that from a young age we

[53:33]were cultivated to wait for the iman now i just like to

[53:39]bring a point to fruit which i think this notion is slightly

[53:42]been misunderstood by my opponents they slightly misunderstood this motion says are

[53:50]communities appropriately preparing but from what it sounds like it sounds like

[53:55]they were saying the individuals are failing in my humble opinion i

[54:01]was taught like sister zainab asked do we know when the imam

[54:04]was born well i was taught in madressa so madressa the community

[54:08]tried but i failed to remember okay let me let me bring

[54:15]this further sister fatima said recognition of god and she talked about

[54:20]dua marifa i agree but recognition of god is an individual role

[54:27]um god will not on the day of judgment judge wesley's jamaat

[54:32]who will judge me as an individual secondly the community is trying

[54:38]we are trying our best to do things we have interfaith events

[54:44]we have educational events we have madrasah yes i agree mother says

[54:47]once a week but then parents are with his children at home

[54:50]seven days a week what are parents doing mother i can only

[54:54]do so much it is up to the individual to prepare now

[54:57]sister zainab talks about us being too secular and we should be

[55:03]proud of our community members going to hosa i agree and we

[55:06]should be proud of our community members point houser but will the

[55:10]imam only require scholars will he only require religious scholars we do

[55:16]not require doctors engineers pharmacists we do not require someone to cook

[55:21]food um brother sajad i definitely definitely agree with your point that

[55:26]there needs to be more collaboration between share communities why just cultures

[55:29]yes why not the others but he talked about no not there

[55:35]being strong distribution channels imagine if every center every shia center in

[55:39]the world or whenever they are just think about how many they

[55:42]are in the uk imagine if every center was used as a

[55:47]hub for the imam in every center when the imam arrives he

[55:52]can use every center that we currently have as shia and use

[55:55]it as a hub to spread his message that is a strong

[56:01]distribution channel secondly you talked about behavior and the community not behaving

[56:05]appropriately i'd like to um once again say um i think we

[56:11]all behave really well when we go to mosque we all behave

[56:14]really well when we go to the church for an interfaith event

[56:17]we all be we all behave very appropriately it's more the individuals

[56:22]who are failing to behave and maybe we need to address that

[56:25]and secondly i feel like there were a lot of methods on

[56:31]how we can better prepare and not enough methods on how we

[56:34]are failing to prepare and as my colleague said at the beginning

[56:38]we are preparing we have not finished we are not prepared but

[56:43]we are on our way to preparing okay at the end of

[56:47]the day one minute allah subhanahu will decide when the imam arrives

[56:53]has anyone heard of a initiative called active interval now this is

[57:02]an initiative brought about by um a group of shares and it

[57:08]is they give you weekly tasks that you can do to help

[57:10]you await for the imam and the first thing they say you

[57:15]should do is have an empty picture frame in your room or

[57:19]in your house that will remind you that there is a void

[57:22]in your life and that is the imam of our time and

[57:26]with that i'd like to end thank you thank you um thank

[57:36]you for talking about your experiences and how the community itself has

[57:46]actually fulfilled its duty in terms of um areas such as um

[57:52]sermons madrasa interfaith events and how the behavior of our people are

[57:58]exemplary during that but actually the premise of the motion is flawed

[58:02]because we are looking to palm this off on the community whereas

[58:06]we need to look at ourselves on the individual level and until

[58:11]we make those steps we will not achieve what we need from

[58:18]the community um and you know building on your team's position that

[58:23]nobody can ever say they are prepared but the steps that are

[58:28]being taken show that we are preparing and continually preparing and one

[58:35]of the first steps is the recognition of the void that we

[58:39]don't have imam mahdi in our lives through the initiative of active

[58:45]indivar and its initiatives like this which show that we are preparing

[58:51]so thank you brother fazlebas um everybody at home i would like

[58:58]you to invite i would like to invite you to join us

[59:03]in a virtual recitation of a very loud salawat for all the

[59:09]participants i will now hand over the moderator's hat to sister collager

[59:20]for the free for all segment and please do use the slido

[59:27]code wj speak out to post any questions or comments that you

[59:33]have thank you satya dawai firstly a huge well done to all

[59:36]the speakers so far this time we're turning up the heat we've

[59:39]asked the audience to submit questions but we've also got some pre-prepared

[59:43]questions um and these are designed to get your mind sticky so

[59:49]bismillah this question is firstly uh directed towards the proposing team so

[59:56]some may say that religion diminishes over time as in it was

[60:02]in this purest form at the time of prophet muhammad and now

[60:04]as time has gone by it has become more and more diluted

[60:08]however progress is seen to improve over time granting more rights to

[60:13]those who are marginalized how do you view this given that imam

[60:17]mahdi will return in a time when religion the true religion is

[60:24]lost can you take us from the proposing team if you need

[60:27]me to repeat any questions please let me know if you don't

[60:31]mind repeating it thank you sure of course so some people may

[60:35]say that religion diminishes over time as in its purest at the

[60:39]time of the prophet muhammad and has been diluted over time however

[60:42]progress is seen to improve over time so for example granting more

[60:48]rights to those who have been marginalized so how do you view

[60:51]this given that imam mahdi will return in a time when true

[60:55]religion is lost assuming that religion gets diluted over time okay so

[61:06]i mean the true religion will be lost but not to everyone

[61:10]first of all as and obviously that is why there will be

[61:13]uh you know people which imam can rely upon um and talking

[61:19]about about progress and kind of linking this to appropriate preparation uh

[61:23]preparing in the wrong direction is not preparing appropriately um a very

[61:28]very common sort of phrase which comes to mind is people think

[61:31]of practice makes perfect right but it's not really true that the

[61:35]concept of practice techniques mix permanent i think it's a better way

[61:39]of looking at that and whilst we're preparing for immati in this

[61:46]manner um if we are preparing and sort of doing the wrong

[61:50]things then we're praying down the wrong route and those practices which

[61:54]are which we think are going the right direction are no longer

[61:57]perfect but are permanent and incorrect if that makes sense thank you

[62:04]um before i come to uh sabi habai again steam do you

[62:10]have anything to say against that thank you yes um thank you

[62:13]i would just like to say in terms of progress this word

[62:15]progress is a really interesting word i feel and our team feels

[62:21]that we are progressing and the trajectory of progress is just going

[62:23]up in terms of progress socially we are progressing the number of

[62:29]um institutions that are available these days in for for social change

[62:33]for example a world without barriers who is hussein who does not

[62:39]just um benefit the muslim community by the way as our esteemed

[62:41]opponents were saying that we that benefits the society at large um

[62:47]things like like active inteller um we are progressing spiritually our our

[62:53]speakers our uh spiritual levels our um understanding of spirituality is increasing

[62:59]and that is our upward trajectory intellectually we are in progress we

[63:06]know so much more than we did before about imam about his

[63:09]reappearance about so many more deeper concepts and we are progressing in

[63:14]terms of how the imam is going to use these things when

[63:17]he um when he reappears we have systems in place which is

[63:21]showing progress we have media systems in place we have people in

[63:24]strategic um places in the media for example versi we have the

[63:31]muslim news these are all things that it can be used when

[63:34]imam comes and this is all showing progress we are showing progress

[63:38]in in our terms of social justice we uh our assumed opponents

[63:42]are saying that we don't know what what is happening in many

[63:46]parts of the world the genocides that are happening um the ethnic

[63:48]cleansing but we do we have a way of knowing through social

[63:53]media through um twitter through hashtags through so many different uh avenues

[63:57]we have all these platforms that that show that we have progressed

[64:02]and now we can use that knowledge people before did not know

[64:06]a lot of these things people were in darkness people had the

[64:09]blinkers on not knowing what happening and what's happening around the world

[64:13]we know now and we can lobby our governments we can stand

[64:16]up for social change we can protest this is all progress for

[64:23]preparation of imam thank you you made an interesting point about uh

[64:27]progress that we didn't know before the question is are we did

[64:30]we really not know um but fatima by would you like to

[64:36]take that uh uh yes please um i'd like to actually again

[64:39]focus on this word progress the definition of the word progress is

[64:42]very relative and i appreciate yes um the opposing team you know

[64:47]said that but what is it that we're gauging our progress on

[64:50]we don't even have a coherent plan in place what are the

[64:55]yardsticks we are using to measure that progress is it an alignment

[64:59]with the quran and the little bait so this progress is a

[65:03]very relative term so you cannot just go by the secular definition

[65:06]of it and say we are appropriately progressing because that you know

[65:11]that doesn't it doesn't suffice it's not worthy of the preparation that

[65:15]the matthew deserves in regards to the question that was um asked

[65:19]uh says khaleeja so the islam is being diluted true and there

[65:25]are so many pressures around us especially today which is why we're

[65:28]saying that even though the islam may be diluting because of the

[65:32]peer pressure the media and everything if our fundamentals are strong if

[65:36]our communities give us this well-rounded integrated secular religious learning from the

[65:43]very start then we will be on surat al-mustakhin saratham mustafe is

[65:46]the right path which is the path of allah and if we're

[65:48]on that path we are in alignment with the mati so let

[65:53]there let the religion you know seemingly dilute around us but if

[65:56]we're strong we will be on the right path that is the

[65:58]right definition of progress and we must have an overarching fundamental vision

[66:05]created by our communities to help us fulfill this thank you very

[66:10]much for redefining the word progress i feel like this is very

[66:12]much coming to play uh in this debate um may i just

[66:17]uh kind of remind it to all the speakers um if you

[66:20]want to say something please may ask you to put your physical

[66:22]hand up rather than a virtual hand if that's okay thank you

[66:25]um i believe sister sabiha has a rebuttal to make yes sorry

[66:30]the one thing that i forgot to mention which does uh tie

[66:33]in with what uh my dear opponent just said um the the

[66:38]system that has been developed there is a system that is in

[66:41]progress and is being developed by our communities and that is that

[66:45]there be a curriculum and the very premise of that therapy curriculum

[66:48]is that it takes the quran it takes hadith it takes everything

[66:52]it and it merges it together into one holistic um curriculum for

[66:58]our generations to benefit from and from our children to benefit from

[67:01]from a very young age so this is something that that you

[67:05]you have all been saying that there isn't something but there there

[67:07]is and it's it's not a it's not a stagnant thing it

[67:11]is forever in progress it is progressing and it is changing and

[67:14]it's being reviewed so every time there is a lack in one

[67:17]area feedback it is being improved and that is the the basis

[67:23]of what our children are learning today to be a curriculum has

[67:29]been dropped fatima by anything to say to that i totally understand

[67:32]you know and i appreciate that our communities are preparing we're not

[67:36]denying that what we're saying is it's not appropriate for preparation which

[67:41]is what this motion is saying our therapia curriculum is beautiful yes

[67:44]it's trying to incorporate it's holistic it's a saturday thing it is

[67:49]not again i i you know i cannot place emphasis on this

[67:51]enough that it has to be integrated 24 7 to help our

[67:56]children to equip them with the tools they need against everything that

[68:01]they're facing today everything is being so normalized everything is being so

[68:05]desensitized the lines between right and wrong are being blurred out but

[68:09]if we limit our theria curriculum to just saturdays what happens the

[68:13]other days of the week so we agree i agree our communities

[68:18]are preparing we may be moving there but it's not appropriate preparation

[68:22]worthy of our money uh perhaps we need to have a home

[68:29]care of your curriculum and i wonder the only takers for that

[68:31]i believe uh brother father boss has something to say to that

[68:34]i believe i already um with all due respect already mentioned that

[68:39]um yes mother says once a week but yes parents have an

[68:43]exemplary role to play in in you know preparing which furthers the

[68:47]point of um as a community we're doing what we can maybe

[68:51]but um as individuals is where we're actually failing if there is

[68:55]any failure thank you brother muhammad thank you um thank you to

[69:06]my has come up a couple of times uh and we've just

[69:14]heard on a couple of occasions our uh opponents referring to the

[69:17]error or the mistake of individuals rather than our communities and i

[69:22]think you know that might be a reasonable argument if what we

[69:26]were talking about were exceptions to the rule but actually the reality

[69:29]is that this is not an exception to them this is unfortunately

[69:34]a general reality where um those who are leaving madressa are actually

[69:39]not retaining the large um a large proportion of what they are

[69:42]learning as a simple example um you mentioned about how long it

[69:50]has been since the birth of imam matthew as about 1400 years

[69:53]whereas actually it's closer to about 1200 years um if we're not

[69:58]able as a community to get these basics uh understood and not

[70:03]just when we're learning them but to be able to continue them

[70:06]and develop on them and build on them into adulthood then this

[70:09]is a systematic failure of our communities in in the workplace for

[70:15]example um many of you who are in various organizations and businesses

[70:18]will know that if an individual makes an error then that error

[70:23]gets looked at and to actually see why they the reasons for

[70:28]that error happening and actually it is the case from analyzing such

[70:33]individual errors that these can mostly be put down to systematic errors

[70:37]within the system and i reiterate we're not talking about exceptions here

[70:41]we're talking about our communities as a whole being underprepared being insufficiently

[70:46]equipped from an in a theoretical and an intellectual level that is

[70:50]impacting on our behavior and therefore to purely dismiss this as individual

[70:55]errors is i think grossly grossly underestimating the problem without music thank

[71:04]you very much um sister leila you put your hand up alia

[71:08]would you like to sweep in here uh yeah i would thanks

[71:15]yeah mine's quite a short one uh it's going back a couple

[71:19]of points where we were talking about how madrister once a week

[71:23]wasn't enough um and how we should be doing things at home

[71:28]and just within the mosque but um in england there are several

[71:31]um islamic schools um that do teach about islam and al-mahdi like

[71:42]five to five places a week and i've actually just been looking

[71:47]somehow and um there's things like um alma the school and um

[71:54]and let me yeah and dummy so there's so it's so we're

[72:01]not just um so it's not just limited to once a week

[72:08]but we are indeed practicing islam several days a week um yes

[72:12]so and we are progressing in our knowledge because we also can't

[72:20]go back as well so i think um so i've just been

[72:25]given another point to say and um and there's also like the

[72:29]fifth imam said that um there's also no other thing authentic knowledge

[72:33]in the east or the west and that has not been expanded

[72:37]by a household so um yes and so for example our eighth

[72:43]imam right wrote a dissertation on the human body and that was

[72:48]and i think that was just like in his yeah in the

[72:57]1800s and 800s and he was separated um and then they separated

[73:00]circular and non-secular ideas um if that makes sense i'm not sure

[73:11]thank you very much sorry did you have something oh no i'm

[73:16]sorry i'm finished that was it really thank you thank you so

[73:20]much um i'm sorry i'm gonna have to cut this question short

[73:23]at this point my apologies without but i'm really sorry um there

[73:26]is a question that's coming from the judges and this kind of

[73:31]taps into the systematic uh the teams were talking about um so

[73:36]the question is it is easier to educate and prepare strong believers

[73:41]how can weaker believers be prepared we mentioned mother style a couple

[73:50]of times is mothers are good enough for you know recap believe

[73:53]us um at home do we have the right support is there

[73:57]a systematic system in place so we have ai so the term

[74:04]weaker believers is an interesting term um i do not believe there

[74:08]is such a thing as a weak believer there is a believer

[74:11]who is on their journey it depends where on their journey they

[74:15]are they may be at the beginning of their journey they may

[74:19]be far ahead in their journey but they're on their journey which

[74:21]makes them a believer it doesn't make them a weak believer or

[74:24]strongly they are on their journey and um i just wanted to

[74:30]say that this uh going further on this journey no matter how

[74:33]much at the beginning you want this is all in preparation for

[74:38]imam if this is the major struggle this is the jihadist this

[74:42]is the area where it is the key place to be it

[74:44]is here because only through this jihadist and this preparation up the

[74:50]ladder of spirituality no matter where you are on it that is

[74:54]what is going to prepare us for the minor jihad which is

[74:57]when the imam comes this the major jihad which is now is

[75:00]going to prepare us for the minor jihad when the imam comes

[75:03]so the whole term of a weak believer doesn't doesn't exist here

[75:07]it's all about progress like we said it's all about progress and

[75:11]this progress is very much part of this like you know your

[75:16]guys were mentioning behavior in silver this jihad enough is behavioral intellect

[75:20]by trying to change and you think that being a best version

[75:24]of yourself doesn't play a part here it does this whole hard

[75:27]enough being the best version of ourselves and progressing towards the in

[75:32]in preparation of imam thank you thank you so much siri have

[75:39]i uh leila would you like to add something to that please

[75:43]yes so um i believe there's like several ways of of learning

[75:49]like um whether regardless of whether you're weak or strong like it

[75:53]depends on how you learn such as um like whether you're kinesthetic

[75:59]learner or a visual learner i just think that whether or not

[76:04]you're weak enough doesn't really hinder your ability to uh um to

[76:08]become a better a better muslim so we just need with the

[76:14]whether um we can means um the people who aren't that pious

[76:19]for example it just means that we need to find um other

[76:24]ways like other ways to engage them and help them believe in

[76:28]god in their own way and um that's me speaking as lsa

[76:32]and just like finding different ways of teaching people um so it

[76:37]all depends on the person really and how they learn regardless of

[76:42]their level if that if that makes sense thank you um we're

[76:47]gonna have to cut this short so if there's a quick um

[76:50]point that i can make is that what we're gonna try and

[76:54]do in this free-for-all round is we've talked briefly about religious um

[76:58]aspects and cultural aspects if that tied in i would now like

[77:03]to move into a social element of this topic so a few

[77:05]days ago we heard sheikh hilly's lecture uh during the willard of

[77:10]imam right that some traditions narrate that imam's mother was of african

[77:15]origin and it was also specified that the mothers of most of

[77:18]our later imams as in the 7 8 9 10 and 11

[77:23]they were also from africa therefore there is much debate about imam

[77:27]mahdi's skin tone and racial status we're also aware of the prevalent

[77:35]racism in the times that we live in and we have heard

[77:36]that racism can and does even extend into our own communities now

[77:40]in light of that the question is how can we discuss how

[77:44]prepared we are for the reappearance of imam if some of our

[77:50]communities might not even be prepared to accept the imam uh brother

[77:57]muhammad i think it's a really good question and we've heard from

[77:59]uh our opposition um one of the points that was raised was

[78:06]that um you know if the imam had control over every center

[78:08]and then that would that would form you know an amazing infrastructure

[78:13]for him and yeah i agree that would be absolutely amazing but

[78:15]you know the reality is that he wouldn't even be able to

[78:17]be allowed to serve on the ec for most of our communities

[78:20]so um you know unfortunately you don't have a point there and

[78:24]you're quite right we have a real problem um in our communities

[78:29]and so i think it's an absolute great question and unfortunately our

[78:36]communities have got a lot of work to do thank you i'm

[78:43]going to have to take someone from the opposing team thank you

[78:53]now very uh interesting uh question that was brought up and um

[78:56]the boss raised uh uh a valid uh point but actually when

[79:00]we were preparing for this the idea or the definition of our

[79:05]communities to us the koji i didn't even come into it we

[79:09]our as far as we were concerned when we when we saw

[79:13]that in the motion that our communities we took that to be

[79:17]the shia world the shia communities because it's the shia who are

[79:21]the ones who are actively anticipating the advent and the whole of

[79:25]our imam so as far as we're concerned there is yes there

[79:29]are some in terms of you know different communities for uh whatever

[79:33]reason in terms of governance structure and all the rest of it

[79:37]and organization that these things are written into certain constitutions that doesn't

[79:43]mean that fundamentally in terms of the tenets of our faith equality

[79:48]is there as as as muslims everyone is equal we all go

[79:53]to hajj we all stand next to each one another in terms

[79:56]of the fundamentals and the tenets of our faith there is no

[80:01]superior race there is a full equality between one and all so

[80:05]as far as we're concerned our community when we look at this

[80:09]we're looking at as a shia community globally thank you very much

[80:20]although brother has uh you know made a very important point talking

[80:24]about the equality when we go to places like hodge et cetera

[80:27]et cetera but it sounds that racial bias does not exist and

[80:31]we live in a utopia and the the reality is that we

[80:36]don't all across the world there are issues of racism we've got

[80:40]so much more awareness now of things like black lives matter and

[80:44]a variety of other causes and these are there is you know

[80:47]deep or uh what's the word there is so racism which is

[80:52]sort of underlying within within our within all communities it's not just

[80:58]our culture when we say our culture means we meant our communities

[81:00]as well but we may have highlighted more in the corridor but

[81:03]you know we we need to bring about some form of you

[81:06]know diversity training um you know racial things uh racial diversity training

[81:12]as well to ensure that we are at least aware of it

[81:14]because there are things which you know there'll be videos which you'll

[81:17]come across about different racist issues for example i came across a

[81:21]video recently about uh the racial elements of the hair of black

[81:24]people and how that can stop people getting jobs i had no

[81:28]idea of this i had no idea this this existed because it

[81:31]didn't it wasn't something which i was aware of but there are

[81:36]deep lying rooted very it's maybe slight elements of racing which need

[81:39]to be addressed as well because as we said when imam aki

[81:41]does reappear so we don't want to run away the first thing

[81:45]being that takes place or or not listen or be fearful of

[81:49]someone just because of the color of the skin thank you sajad

[81:55]sabihabai from so it's interesting um that you mentioned like the progress

[82:03]that we're making in terms of racism and that's the key thing

[82:05]isn't it there's there's so much progress being made um things we

[82:10]are much more aware like you said we are much more aware

[82:14]of of racism we are much more able to tackle racism we

[82:16]are much more able to look at it in a different light

[82:20]now imam when he comes he's not going to be just the

[82:22]amount for this yeah he is going to be imam for the

[82:24]world so all the progress that the world is making in terms

[82:28]of racism is always also in preparation for the imam so it

[82:33]is it doesn't matter where the preparation is happening but the preparation

[82:37]is happening it's progress in terms of racism as well the entire

[82:40]even you know it is readying the way for imam so that

[82:43]even our communities are being affected by for example the black lives

[82:47]matter movement and all of these movements and will if there are

[82:51]any elements of racism in our communities then those will also change

[82:56]as well and that is all part of the preparation thank you

[83:00]sabihabai uh there's a comment that's coming from the audience racism is

[83:04]to do with one's mentality their state of mind and understanding one's

[83:09]unconscious biases racism is worse than any pandemic and requires to be

[83:17]uprooted uh bruh no way hang on sister fatima would you like

[83:19]to take the lore so i think that comment was very you

[83:24]know very important and that further emphasizes you know what we're saying

[83:29]today in our arguments that we've proposed today um sisters to be

[83:33]a very you know clearly mentioned that progress again um you know

[83:37]it can be happening in other parts of the world other communities

[83:41]and it's all in preparation for imam mahdi definitely we agree but

[83:43]surely we want to be a part of that not only a

[83:47]part of it we want to be pioneering that we want to

[83:51]you know we want to cultivate that you know inherent but we

[83:57]don't have a bias towards anything apart from our spiritual perfection so

[84:03]again that can only be inculcated if our fundamental vision if our

[84:08]fundamental principles are based on the quran there are so many eyes

[84:12]where we are allah tells us you know there is no differentiation

[84:16]between any human being except for their spiritual level it is only

[84:21]when these are inculcated in us from young age that we're able

[84:24]to then you know serve the true purpose so i agree yes

[84:29]a lot of our communities not just shia all other christians and

[84:32]they're at the forefront of so many good causes but we have

[84:37]to be at the front line too we cannot just depend on

[84:39]them doing a good thing and then we follow what they're doing

[84:43]we've got to be the leaders and we've got to try and

[84:45]nurture that amongst us thank you would anybody from the opposing team

[84:53]would like to make any comments um brother thank you i would

[85:02]um i would come back to our esteemed opposition and say that

[85:04]who says that we are not uh not doing such who says

[85:08]that we are not living our lives by the koran who says

[85:12]that progress hasn't been made i i heard i've been hearing from

[85:16]the opposition on several occasions this need for a vision and a

[85:21]step-by-step process and they are talking about bringing you know in the

[85:24]corporate world where you have these gantt charts and gantt charts are

[85:26]designed for a production process where something starts here and it ends

[85:30]here and there's a very clear system as to what is required

[85:32]in our case there is no step-by-step system there is nothing written

[85:37]down in in the quran to say right this is what you

[85:39]need to do a b c d and e and when you

[85:41]get to the end point that's when the amount will come there

[85:44]is a reason why it hasn't been clearly articulated between a and

[85:48]z and a gantt chart like we've heard before the reason is

[85:52]is because there is no limit to human potential as we heard

[85:57]there the level of humans can can reach even greater than the

[86:00]angels and that is what we are designed to do we are

[86:03]designed to progress there is no finish line we are playing an

[86:07]infinite game we are playing the game of continuous improvement and uh

[86:12]progress towards that ultimate utopia when we get there the imam will

[86:19]come so there is a reason why there has been no step-by-step

[86:22]process written down it is to make sure that we are on

[86:26]this continuous journey this continuous evolution towards fulfilling our true potential if

[86:32]anything if we are to determine whether we have made progress we

[86:37]can simply ask our elders and if you ask our elders they

[86:40]will tell you that yes as a community we are more religious

[86:45]we are more closer to our faith we are doing more now

[86:48]than we have ever done so simply put you ask those before

[86:52]you have we made progress from where they were and they will

[86:55]resoundingly tell you that yes we absolutely have and long by it

[86:58]continue uh thank you i apologize for cutting out um wi-fi at

[87:07]its finest the perks of having a virtual event um but thank

[87:11]you for your patience i'm gonna let uh brother muhammad take this

[87:15]one and then we close this question so actually um otherwise i

[87:29]took your own interpretation of that um but actually this might be

[87:33]the case many of our communities um there was the question about

[87:37]uh the fact that progress is being made and you know on

[87:43]a global scale perhaps but you know the motion we have to

[87:47]talk about the motion as our communities and as even uh you

[87:51]know within our opposition team um this has been referred to as

[87:54]our global shia communities and therefore you know what is happening within

[87:59]a wider society we can't say that our communities are doing that

[88:01]as appropriate preparation for the imam um and thirdly on the point

[88:08]of uh racism and discrimination yes we've heard you know very important

[88:11]islamic concepts that are clear in the quran this brings up for

[88:18]example those that are most pious um you know that is what

[88:21]a lot looks the best of you are the most pious that

[88:23]is what you know is what differentiates between us um let's look

[88:28]at an example we know within the convert community that unfortunately many

[88:32]many of them struggle to integrate in our communities because of the

[88:37]racism and discrimination that is prevalent um and so you know that's

[88:42]just a very clear example of how this is an issue within

[88:44]our communities and we can't just we can't just shake it off

[88:47]and say that it's not happening and finally uh you mentioned uh

[88:51]uh dear brother that um there is no step-by-step plan written for

[88:57]us whereas actually we do have a lot within the rewards that

[89:02]speak about the sequence of events that occur step by step leading

[89:07]to the rabul and following the we know about the the heavenly

[89:10]cry that will be heard from the heaven for her we know

[89:14]about the nafsta zakiyah that will be um killed in the proximity

[89:17]of the kaaba we know about the bay of the landslide between

[89:21]makkah and medina where the army of the sufjani will uh perish

[89:25]we have these uh these individuals the sufjani the foreign all of

[89:30]this information we have the signs of the horror of the imam

[89:33]but our communities generally we don't actually know these things there is

[89:38]so much available there you're absolutely you know there is so much

[89:41]available for us to be learning about the imam if we were

[89:45]claiming to appropriately prepare then why aren't we talking about these things

[89:50]without within our community why do we not know these simple facts

[89:53]when our imam was even born let alone how we're going to

[89:59]be our you know the closest uh servants towards the imam so

[90:02]i think it is very clear that that was falling far far

[90:04]short of anything that we could deem to be appropriate preparation thank

[90:10]you very much uh brother muhammad abbas um there's been one thing

[90:15]that's coming from the audience specifically directed towards riddhaba i may go

[90:20]off the screen as i read this out um okay so racism

[90:26]black lives matter mental health me too wealth equality democracy all of

[90:32]these things they're not championed by muslims uh why we are simply

[90:36]following what western society is doing we are not leading so why

[90:40]are we taking the credit to say that we are doing these

[90:43]things the same with science western society is about to build shelter

[90:46]on the moon and move to mars whilst the people doing intis

[90:50]are busy fighting about the moon sighting on 29th ramadan god help

[90:55]us when we have to find qibla on the moon is there

[91:00]anything you would like to add to that i'll say to that

[91:06]rhythm i'm happy to move on if there's no no no no

[91:08]absolutely um i mean i think it's uh in terms of that

[91:11]this is solely down to western is making these uh i think

[91:18]it's very much a a huge generalism i mean what what is

[91:21]western society western society is made up of many many thousands and

[91:27]millions of individuals and we form part of that there are muslims

[91:33]who are actively contributing to all these breakthroughs that you have just

[91:37]mentioned we are actively taking part there are people in our communities

[91:41]are excelling in every field that you can think of in engineering

[91:45]in medicine in business our people are leading the way in some

[91:50]areas in terms of we are such a minority yet you see

[91:55]examples that uh my my colleague uh fuzzier mentioned a couple of

[91:59]examples people at mcdonald's here and there are many more that we

[92:04]could name in different fields in the fields of business and uh

[92:07]uh technology we have individuals that are representing the shia community and

[92:12]all these advances that are being made by humanity at large yes

[92:17]i agreed which is being led by kind of western society but

[92:21]we are part and parcel of that thank you very much brother

[92:26]i would not like to close this question here uh i think

[92:29]we have time for maybe one more um if we try and

[92:32]squeeze it in and be a little bit quick um so this

[92:35]is taking a more of a political stance towards this topic uh

[92:38]one attitude of a true believer of imam mahdi is to stay

[92:42]with the truth even when he or she is the minority how

[92:46]much has the community tried to remind people that going with the

[92:51]flow is not usually right at times this may include supporting political

[92:55]movements that the government of the day is against how often do

[93:00]our communities stand up for the right causes even if they may

[93:05]lead to political or media backlash which i think we sort of

[93:10]touched on at the moment but is there anyone from the proposing

[93:12]or the opposing team who would like to take on this comment

[93:20]sabihabai um i think my esteemed colleague has already has already mentioned

[93:25]this that these people especially those who are high up in in

[93:28]the media in in journalism these people are at the forefront battling

[93:33]it out with of the governments of the time and and and

[93:37]making their point known even if it is against what the the

[93:43]mainstream media and what the government their stance is they're actively going

[93:47]against it and um and they're they're they're leading the way in

[93:51]in those things so just uh just a reminder that we have

[93:55]already mentioned that thank you very much um uh you're absolutely right

[93:59]um in the uh interest of time i think i'm gonna leave

[94:03]this question here but there is one quick question that has come

[94:05]up which i hope both teams can address how do you prepare

[94:09]those who have left the faith and yet at one time they

[94:14]attended our mother saw how do you prepare those who have left

[94:16]the faith and yet at one time they attended our mother's son

[94:24]is there anyone who would be uh brother muhammad so i think

[94:30]this is you know another example of uh really where our communities

[94:37]have unfortunately failed to a large degree and it is very sad

[94:41]to actually hear of these kinds of cases that are unfortunately becoming

[94:45]more prevalent um and so yes i think you know we need

[94:48]to we need to revisit our community structure we need to actually

[94:52]build our community and our uh you know our education establishment in

[94:56]in a way that's actually going to be providing that strong foundation

[95:01]for our youth and i think the very fact that these uh

[95:05]these kinds of examples are happening um you know it's it's further

[95:10]proof if we needed any more of the fact that you know

[95:14]the motion that we are arguing today is unfortunately true um so

[95:18]yes what can we do to guide them there's an awful lot

[95:21]we can do and i think it will probably take i know

[95:24]we don't have that long so um but i think suffice it

[95:28]to say that it shows that it's you know that we're failing

[95:30]to do so at present thank you uh time for just one

[95:37]more um anyone from the opposers uh sorry i'm working on my

[95:41]phone i need to scroll it's just to be how i think

[95:44]has her hand up here bye please go for it so um

[95:48]with all your respect i think that the people who uh with

[95:52]the examples of people leaving um addresses and then leaving um the

[95:58]faith i don't necessarily believe that that is because our communities have

[96:02]not appropriately prepared them i believe that that is again like i

[96:06]said before it is part of their journey perhaps there are many

[96:08]cases of people who have left the faith i'm not advocating this

[96:11]in any way but i'm just saying there are many cases of

[96:14]people that have left the faith but then have come back stronger

[96:16]in their convictions maybe it's just part of their journey and then

[96:21]they will eventually because of the foundations they have been given come

[96:26]full circle and come back to the face even stronger than ever

[96:28]and i truly believe that each person is on that journey and

[96:31]we cannot say that that that person's journey has ended because they

[96:35]have left the faith thank you um i think we have a

[96:40]balanced opinion there there's a another question i really really wanted to

[96:44]ask from the audience but i think in the interest of time

[96:46]we're gonna have to leave it here however such that by and

[96:49]i may perhaps come back to it later so with that i

[96:53]would now like to close the referral round and thank all the

[96:55]participants um for their improvised arguments thank you very much we had

[97:07]some good um sparring going on there i would like to now

[97:10]invite the fourth speakers from each team to conclude the team's arguments

[97:15]so brother muhammad from the proposing team if you would please summarize

[97:21]um your team's position on why they are in favor of the

[97:25]motion brother muhammad uh your time starts now thank you viewers judges

[97:34]and my esteemed opposition salaam and alaikum i'd like to just first

[97:39]respond to what we've heard today from the opposition consisting of my

[97:43]dear respected brothers and sisters quite literally firstly to appropriately prepare for

[97:48]the imam we need a plan the opposition have failed to demonstrate

[97:51]that our communities even have a plan secondly the the opposition have

[97:56]argued that our communities are heading in the right direction the word

[98:00]progress has been mentioned but really the only way we have justified

[98:03]this is with isolated examples of good practice within our community it

[98:08]would be all too easy for me to give examples of ways

[98:11]in which our communities are heading in the wrong direction for example

[98:14]look at the increased use of drugs and alcohol in our communities

[98:19]and the diminishing attendance in our centers particularly when it comes to

[98:24]programs such as the aquamale or d'arnot thirdly we have heard some

[98:28]positive initiatives such as our mosque programs the derby our curriculum however

[98:31]these practices alone are simply not enough if they were we could

[98:37]we could point towards the countless secular organizations that are far outperforming

[98:40]our communities when it comes to humanitarian causes and say that they

[98:46]are better prepared for the imam than we are as my team

[98:49]have clearly explained for our actions to truly represent behavioral intella it

[98:54]requires a solid foundation of theoretical and intellectual into that i.e a

[98:59]solid belief system structure that gives meaning to our actions it is

[99:02]for this reason as per the famous tradition that an hour of

[99:06]reflection is greater than 70 years of worship because one hour of

[99:11]refining and building our belief structure is what gives value to those

[99:16]70 years of actions and deeds but yet our communities have chosen

[99:21]to prioritize secular education and careers over religious education with madressa being

[99:27]only one day in the week to the extent that our foundations

[99:30]are weak even the definition of appropriate preparation given by my esteemed

[99:37]opposition is based on secular dictionaries how then can we claim to

[99:42]be appropriately preparing over the course of this debate we have outlined

[99:45]the three stages of appropriately preparing for the imam and how on

[99:51]each level our communities are failing so what does a community that

[99:55]is appropriately preparing actually look like of note we haven't really heard

[99:59]this from our opposition but don't worry i'll tell you drawing upon

[100:03]the points that my teammates have presented it is a community that

[100:08]is built on the quran and the athlete it is a community

[100:13]whose interpersonal relations are guided by whose relationship with allah is characterized

[100:18]by sahaba to say whose beliefs and government it is a community

[100:25]who prioritizes allah and religion over secular education careers ego and materialism

[100:32]a community with an education system that nurtures scholars who then in

[100:37]turn inspire our future generations a community that nurtures its youth into

[100:42]positions of influence in all sectors to be able to further the

[100:47]imam's mission and we can only perhaps think of some isolated examples

[100:51]of where this is happening in our communities it is a unified

[100:55]global shia internationally community with strong ties links and distribution lines that

[101:01]will run like a well-oiled machine in the service of our beloved

[101:05]imam on his return the reality is that our communities are nowhere

[101:09]near this but do you know what the real problem is it

[101:12]is that our communities don't even have a plan to get there

[101:15]the very crux of this debate is whether our preparation for the

[101:20]is appropriate to say that our communities are preparing appropriately suggests in

[101:25]the words of our opponents that we feel that our preparations are

[101:28]suitable that they are enough to those who believe this one minute

[101:34]i say wake up look at who we're talking about here we're

[101:38]talking about allah on this earth our opposition have argued that our

[101:43]preparation is appropriate for our time but how can we have the

[101:49]audacity to state that our preparation is appropriate for what our imam

[101:54]deserves esteemed judges and dear viewers if you ruled today against this

[101:59]motion the minute we state that our preparation is appropriate or enough

[102:02]then this in fact means that we have all failed why because

[102:05]to be imam's most sincere companions we must always strive to be

[102:13]preparing more therefore we can only rule in favor of today's motion

[102:15]it is only by accepting that our communities are failing to appropriately

[102:21]prepare that we can resolve to further develop ourselves as a community

[102:24]in preparation for the thank you all s thank you brother muhammad

[102:38]so kind of the crux of what you're saying is that the

[102:44]actual recognition that our preparation is not appropriate is the catalyst that

[102:51]is needed to be able to do the work that is needed

[102:54]which is a step-by-step plan which you feel that is not in

[103:02]place um that examples that have been given are just isolated that

[103:05]essentially are foundations in intellectual and in davar are not solid and

[103:12]without that foundation based on the quran the atherobate and the various

[103:18]texts that we have until those are in place we will not

[103:23]get to the stage of behavioral intitar and that the imam deserves

[103:31]a community that nurtures one another to progress you're telling us wake

[103:37]up our imam deserves more thank you very much um i would

[103:41]now like to invite brother riddha to summarize the team's arguments and

[103:48]tell us why you are opposing the motion brother that your time

[103:58]starts now thank you very much everyone and uh thank you to

[104:04]my esteemed opposition for making their very able points failing to appropriately

[104:12]prepare failing these are tough strong words to fail is absolute who

[104:16]is the judge in this context appropriate preparation this is highly subjective

[104:22]it's the efforts that count we are constantly reminded in the quran

[104:26]and several times that it's it's the efforts it's the toil it's

[104:31]the jihad that is expected of us the outcome is out of

[104:36]our hands we'll be judged by the almighty on the outcome i

[104:39]think suffice to say this is probably the most important point to

[104:43]drive this home to be fundamentally opposed to this motion the fact

[104:47]the mere fact that we are debating this motion proves that as

[104:52]a community we are striving to prepare for the imam because his

[104:56]remembrance is constantly in our minds and we are preparing adequately for

[105:02]his arrival as you can see here we are all gathered here

[105:05]to talk about this very subject if we were not adequately preparing

[105:09]if we were not conscious of the need for us to prepare

[105:13]to do whatever it takes to pave the way for our imam

[105:18]to come then we will not be debating this topic at all

[105:20]our opposition talk about this plan this plan has been enacted each

[105:25]and every day the fact that we remember the amount we long

[105:29]for the imam we yearn for the imam we remind our children

[105:33]about the imam the fact that we recite the dua faraj after

[105:36]every single salah five times a day the fact that we have

[105:41]dua nude about the fact that the way how do i forage

[105:42]these ones they weren't recited when i was young this is a

[105:47]recent phenomenon and that shows that progress has been made this is

[105:49]a community initiative that has come around the last 10 to 15

[105:54]years i'm sure anyone in the same generation as myself anyone more

[105:58]than sort of 30 40 years old these duas weren't recited now

[106:04]suddenly even within the madrasa curriculum that my son raheem was was

[106:10]was talking about mahdi this morning it is it is ingrained and

[106:14]woven into everything that has been taught to our children these days

[106:17]if this is an adequate preparation i don't know what is this

[106:22]motion is is akin to saying that we are failing to practice

[106:26]our faith because a fundamental tenet of our belief is that we

[106:31]should know our and part and parcel of knowing our imam is

[106:36]knowing what to do to prepare for his arrival something that i

[106:40]said we are reminded of daily and we take steps to do

[106:43]each and every day which is which is demonstrably the case in

[106:46]the fact that we are living and breathing our faith the fact

[106:49]that we are we are making a difference in community we are

[106:53]we are we are um in terms of comparing us to to

[106:58]where we were if you if you said to the elders like

[107:00]i mentioned earlier the elders would say that we have much higher

[107:03]levels of really uh geoscity the fact that we are uh there

[107:07]there are more ladies and sisters in our community that were wearing

[107:10]the hijab than perhaps did 25 30 years ago we are constantly

[107:15]making this progress the fact that our madaris are full now we

[107:22]have waiting lists our esteemed opposition said that they are reducing numbers

[107:25]in uh in thursday night modulus for example we would argue the

[107:28]opposite actually our centers now are more busier than ever madaras are

[107:32]full they're all waiting lists we are bursting at the seams when

[107:35]it comes to ourselves the youth are highly engaged we have organizations

[107:41]like who is hussein which has been run which have been set

[107:45]up completely by the youth the youth are making a real difference

[107:49]a real impact into not just within our communities but in humanity

[107:53]at large we are actively preparing we are making a difference so

[107:59]my dear brothers and sisters to conclude we have i would say

[108:06]we have centers throughout the uk we have since we came to

[108:09]this country who came to the west our communities have have set

[108:14]up the base have set up madrasas are making an impact on

[108:18]the wider communities we do interfaith work the mere fact that our

[108:26]imam's name is emblazoned across our own center in wessex the fact

[108:30]that imam's name is repeatedly used in the media when we talk

[108:33]about wessex it is it is is evident that we are adequately

[108:37]preparing for the whole of our imam we are doing our best

[108:42]we are making an impact where we can our communities are progressing

[108:45]continuously so i'm sure my dear audience you will agree with me

[108:52]uh with this statement that we we deflete this motion because we

[108:56]are indeed appropriately preparing in the best way that we can and

[109:01]that is all that we can do thank you very much brother

[109:09]so using our community itself as an example that our jamaat is

[109:15]actually named after the imam of our time and that when you

[109:17]talk to our elders and we look at the progress our communities

[109:22]have made in the last 10 or 15 years we will see

[109:24]that this progress has been made and we are bringing the youth

[109:28]up our centers are not diminishing in fact especially with the youth

[109:35]and the children they're bursting at the seams and it is the

[109:38]youth that are taking us forward with with the initiatives they are

[109:44]having an impact on wider society not just the muslim community that

[109:50]the fact that we teach our children to remember the imam every

[109:54]day and that is one of the um most important acts that

[109:59]we have yearning constantly for him that shows that that progress is

[110:05]being made and that a plan is um in action and at

[110:11]the end of the day um it is our efforts which will

[110:14]be recognized by the almighty that jihad of the nufs that we

[110:18]are doing and progressing on this journey continuously and that we are

[110:24]making a difference thank you very very much um brother river for

[110:29]that um i would like to request a very loud virtual silhouette

[110:35]from everybody at home for all the participants and especially sister khadeja

[110:41]who really had a challenging task um in the last round not

[110:47]just doing the questions but with the joys of technology as well

[110:54]so a loud silhouette please [Music] we're now going to give the

[111:05]judges um time to confer but please stay tuned in we have

[111:12]several polls lined up whereby you the audience will help us to

[111:15]decide the winning team so we're now conducting three polls the first

[111:21]of which determines the audience response after watching the debate and will

[111:26]be compared to poll one um this is the one that we've

[111:30]done in our previous two debates so it should be pretty straightforward

[111:33]inshallah and then the second two polls are directly related to each

[111:38]team's performance and will be used by the judges when considering their

[111:42]verdict so please make sure you stay on with us and give

[111:44]your team some points but don't worry we have a scheduled break

[111:46]coming up very very soon so first of all we would like

[111:51]you to vote on the basis of what you have observed during

[111:53]the debate after listening to the arguments presented has your opinion swayed

[111:58]from what it was before the debate commenced again please jump on

[112:02]slido the code is wj speak out and please vote on poll

[112:08]number two regarding the motion do you think that our communities are

[112:12]failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance of imam mahdi or jalallahu

[112:18]ta'ala sharif paul two is open only for a few minutes so

[112:21]get voting now and then i'll close it shortly during debate too

[112:25]whereby the preservation of our mother tongue was discussed until nilifa imparted

[112:31]some valuable pearls of this wisdom unfortunately the full clip could not

[112:35]be played and we did not do it justice so for the

[112:39]benefit of our community we are going to play that clip now

[112:42]in its entirety um after which pole two will close uh polls

[112:47]three and four which contribute to the team's score will open after

[112:52]the video finishes hari we protect and guard farsi because they have

[113:16]said the value of the gold is known by goldsmith and the

[113:19]value of the gems by the person who knows it it's nearly

[113:24]35 years that i have been teaching varsity institute with students in

[113:29]southampton on saturday and sometime on sundays most of the parents who

[113:45]live abroad from their homeland know the importance of speaking their mother

[113:49]tongue and they would like to pass that on to their children

[113:54]so and teach them the mother tongue a part of linguistic benefit

[114:02]of learning or knowing more than one language the mother tongue is

[114:09]like a bridge between them their children and the culture left behind

[114:14]for me it is part of my identity so i would like

[114:20]to pass that on to my children as their uh as a

[114:27]precious inheritance since there are so much in our history literature custom

[114:31]and in our communication which will enrich them and make them a

[114:38]better people in understanding uh other people one person somebody said once

[114:45]if you know one language you're one person if you know more

[114:48]than one you're you're more than one person you're two people um

[114:52]there are many saying about the importance of speaking modern language but

[114:59]i he would like to emphasize not just speaking more than one

[115:04]language but the mother tongue um many years ago our first language

[115:08]speaking at home here in uk was english because of my husband

[115:14]and therefore our children mainly spoke in english and sometimes they picked

[115:21]up wars and when they saw meme nating their friends and family

[115:25]when they came over and speaking farsi however they the shock was

[115:32]when we traveled to iran with my second daughter at the time

[115:35]three or four years old and she felt absolutely alien not being

[115:40]able to understand speak and communicate properly with her grandparents her cousin

[115:46]the relation people came visiting and going to places and not knowing

[115:50]the language and sometimes um he was ridiculed by other children that

[115:56]they did not have the understanding thinking he she is illiterate um

[116:02]but that was the aim and objective of mine so when we

[116:07]came back to uk i started talking to them in farsi mainly

[116:10]mostly and my husband continued speaking to them in english when our

[116:16]third daughter was born i spoke to her even from the time

[116:20]she couldn't speak in farsi all the time and my husband in

[116:22]english and sometime i used both language for all of them to

[116:29]understand that was when i started thinking about this starting party school

[116:32]and party classes so we did those many years ago and the

[116:38]benefit of it was not only for my children but also for

[116:44]oldest parents they had the similar experiences and they wanted their children

[116:48]to progress and learn farsi my aim and objective wasn't just teaching

[116:52]them how to read write and speak but also gradually i introduced

[116:57]the culture to them all the beauty of their cultural literature into

[117:02]the language that they could understand and simplifying it since not all

[117:07]the students were muslim or practicing is muslim and still we use

[117:12]the dua at the end of our lesson by finishing with allah

[117:17]and also doing a lot of praying farsi which really comes from

[117:21]the islamic joy can you do for them when you do for

[117:26]parents and travelers and all the people and at the end of

[117:30]it we used to end by your china that's the guard oh

[117:38]lord do with us that which makes you happy and satisfied with

[117:42]us at the end of it and also makes us among the

[117:48]rushes and i feel that it is very important that the children

[117:53]understand that and pass it on to the next generation we may

[117:58]not always be successful with all of them but even some of

[118:02]them it still means a lot i'm here if you need more

[118:15]and i've got so much to say but i think i stop

[118:20]here so i think some really amazing pearls of wisdom as you

[118:33]said kuleja from antinellipha and the efforts really that are needed to

[118:39]you know inculcate the language in the children and the value that

[118:44]that brings and the barriers that you know our children face and

[118:50]you know the way that antonellapha along with other members of the

[118:55]iranian community took that forward it really sets a an example for

[119:00]all of us and anti-nilopha if you're listening i hope you'll be

[119:04]pleased to know that i have now enrolled my daughters not in

[119:08]farsi classes but in gujarati classes so that their mother tongue is

[119:13]preserved inshallah so it's a start so now poll two is closed

[119:18]and now for the exciting part where you the audience will decide

[119:23]the impact each team had on the motion and this will be

[119:29]added on to the judges scores so please go to slido.com once

[119:36]again and enter the code wj speak out there are going to

[119:39]be two consecutive polls and you will be asked to score each

[119:42]team out of ten based on the collective impact you felt they

[119:49]had on the motion please make sure you vote in both polls

[119:52]poll three and poll four poll three will ask you to score

[119:58]the proposing team out of 10 and poll 4 will ask you

[120:03]to score the opposing team as mentioned please make sure you enter

[120:07]a score for both polls and they will run one after the

[120:15]other so poll three is now open for a few minutes so

[120:18]you will find that on slido.com and the code is wj speak

[120:27]out thank you the answers are coming in and it looks very

[120:31]exciting so uh in keeping with the boxing theme there is a

[120:36]quote from muhammad ali we can't be brave without fear he says

[120:41]we can't be brave without fear bravery is no doubt one characteristic

[120:46]that we will need to embrace to stand up against the mainstream

[120:52]to speak out against injustice that's not always easy it's not all

[120:55]about being in passive in tidar it's about being inactive into their

[121:01]fear not of backlash but of the state of society and our

[121:07]own enough's questioning our own actions definitely i think you know questioning

[121:18]our own actions and that fear is what will actually drive us

[121:24]to be better and it was touched upon within the debate that

[121:30]you need to have that individual responsibility as well and not just

[121:35]a community responsibility um kind of on the sphere on this um

[121:40]theme of fear i remember listening to an interview with seymour barresi

[121:45]and he was asked you know what is your biggest challenge when

[121:49]you are giving a majalis you know what do you find most

[121:53]difficult or what is most important rather and he said maintaining that

[121:57]balance between hope and fear because you need to have that fear

[122:03]there that recognition um but not so much so that it drives

[122:07]people away and you need to have that element of hope but

[122:14]not so much that people then become become um people don't care

[122:22]and pay attention to their responsibilities so what we've seen today is

[122:27]that one team may have portrayed that element of fear more and

[122:32]one team may have portrayed that element of hope but in essence

[122:37]it's a fine balance between both that is required both of these

[122:40]elements are just as important as one another and we needed to

[122:47]hear from the proposers that no we are not doing enough that

[122:49]we need to do more and in the appropriate way and at

[122:54]the same time we needed to hear from the opposers that we

[122:57]are on our own jihad we need to continue the way we

[123:03]are doing and and not give up so you know i think

[123:06]that's a really um important point to make um poll 3 is

[123:14]now closed and poll four is opening poll four will be open

[123:17]for the next five minutes so please enter a score for the

[123:22]opposing team out of ten based on their impact on the motion

[123:28]um we're going to keep this open for five minutes we are

[123:34]now taking a 15 minute break so please use the opportunity to

[123:38]stretch your legs grab a drink we will reconvene on youtube to

[123:44]hear the judge's verdict which incorporates these scores from polls three and

[123:51]four at um 8 45 p.m so please make sure you're back

[123:55]by 8 45 so you don't miss out on the verdict thank

[124:00]you we'll see you soon and welcome back everyone thank you for

[145:44]hanging around i hope you had a refreshing break the suspense is

[145:50]certainly killing us but uh the judges are still at it so

[145:55]clearly it's gonna be a tough one for them so we will

[145:57]be invited now shortly but before we do that there is one

[146:00]more call to vote on the best overall speaker of this grand

[146:04]finale that is decided by yourselves the audience so again like you

[146:09]know we've done previously jumping slido uh code is wj speak out

[146:15]not case sensitive so based on your observations today please vote for

[146:20]the best overall speaker the best speaker term doesn't really do the

[146:25]actual term the concept any justice the best speaker should be the

[146:30]one overall who has been the most impactful in your opinion whose

[146:33]argument was most valuable to the motion and how held good oratory

[146:39]command the speaker who perhaps packed the most precise punches so for

[146:43]debate three there's going to be just one overall winner in the

[146:48]previous debates one and two we've been having one from each side

[146:50]but in this case we're only going to have one overall winner

[146:54]and they will be announced at the end when we close the

[146:59]program by shay puzzler bus thank you kadeja so while we're counting

[147:04]the votes and letting them come in and um as we await

[147:10]the judge's return myself and khadeja um and also brother muhammad her

[147:14]son because he is part of our organizers team you know we

[147:18]wanted to thank the um the audience the community members sheikh fazlabas

[147:26]and everybody who's been behind us from the onset sincerely especially the

[147:34]participants because you know without you we wouldn't have been able to

[147:37]do this and of course the judges but we wanted to talk

[147:43]to you about our vision for um the debate series so yes

[147:48]you know we've talked about the importance of critical thinking of seeing

[147:52]other people's opinions of instilling confidence in youth um instilling skills such

[148:01]as public speaking and debating which is what we want to do

[148:03]we would like to take this forward um in the community you

[148:11]know especially with our youth now apart from that what we really

[148:16]wanted from the debate series is actually that unified community that community

[148:24]spirit that we haven't really been able to harness since our center

[148:29]closed in march 2020 alhamdulillah slowly were opening up but we wanted

[148:35]something that would get the whole community excited the whole community talking

[148:39]and engaged and really feel that community spirit and what we likened

[148:46]it to was um the annual maher ramadan desert auction where the

[148:52]whole jamaat would gather and uncle hamid and uncle tucky would do

[148:56]their thing and really you know everybody was so excited and so

[149:01]happy and united um in you know what might be to some

[149:06]people a small thing that just bringing our community together and that's

[149:11]what we wanted to achieve with the debate series and seeing the

[149:17]feedback that we're getting the conversations that people are having families are

[149:20]having friends are having the actions that are being taken as a

[149:28]result of the debates we really feel that um you know our

[149:30]vision has come to fruition and we want to thank each of

[149:34]you for that because you've been a part of this journey which

[149:38]we hope to continue which we hope to progress going forward and

[149:43]inshallah we hope that you know this is one way we can

[149:49]appropriately prepare for imam the angelo actually would just like to echo

[150:02]those words and inshallah we have many exciting things also planned in

[150:05]due time and every single person every speaker who has gone through

[150:11]this debating process will inshallah add to the pool of people the

[150:14]pool of mentors that we will be having for our mothers our

[150:20]students um so without further ado the segment you've all been waiting

[150:32]for let's welcome back our judges with uh making his first appearance

[150:41]as a judge during our debate series is professor reza handy professor

[150:45]sahandi completed his bachelor's science degree in physics at isfahan university in

[150:53]iran in 1974 and his masters in control engineering at bradford university

[150:59]in 1978.

[151:00]a year later he took up the position of manager at the

[151:05]starch and glucose company of iran subsequently he returned to the uk

[151:08]and completed his phd at bradford university in 1987.

[151:13]professor sahandi has held various academic posts at universities in the uk

[151:18]and is currently a professor in computing at bone marrow university his

[151:23]many leading roles include head of department and professor sahandi has also

[151:28]been a member of several national and international committees his research areas

[151:34]include computer networks and multimedia systems he has supervised 13 phds and

[151:40]two mphil students to completion and has published over 59 papers in

[151:46]international referred journals and conference proceedings welcome professor sahandi we're confident that

[151:52]you've applied your vast skill skit skill set clearly my skills are

[151:58]limited at the moment with words um an analytical approach to your

[152:02]role as a judge inshallah so we're looking forward to hearing from

[152:05]you shortly and next we have sister rukaya datu nanjiani whilst born

[152:14]in mombasa kenya she is actually a true wessex girl at heart

[152:18]rakia moved to the uk with her family after completing her igcs

[152:24]and they settled in portsmouth raquela is the daughter of our dear

[152:28]resident arlem sheikh fazley abbas and tahirah antidata and big sister to

[152:34]our very own moderator kudeja and not forgetting young mahdiya however she

[152:40]is a force to be reckoned with and has made a name

[152:45]for herself in her own right rakia holds a bachelor's degree in

[152:50]llb law and has undertaken internship roles at various law law firms

[152:55]raquel has worked at her majesty's courts and tribunal service within the

[153:01]ministry of justice as a caseworker enforcing laws under the proceeds of

[153:06]crime act which sounds very menacing upon promotion to the commercial directorate

[153:13]of hmrc raquela is now a business manager to the chief commercial

[153:21]officer raquela has had an immense enthusiasm for community services since childhood

[153:25]which of course all stemmed from wessex jamar and here she was

[153:32]an integral part of several projects in both leadership and team capacities

[153:36]in teaching in mentoring in interfaith in fundraising web management and directing

[153:43]to name but a few and of course a wessex girl never

[153:48]leaves her base so it's great to have her back um inspired

[153:53]by a desire to serve the imam of our time imam raquel

[154:00]was appointed as assistant secretary general of the world federation in august

[154:08]2020 and now holds the position of world federation councillor according to

[154:12]sheikh suffojs she is the youngest ever to take on these positions

[154:18]in addition to this impressive portfolio rakia is mum to young aliyah

[154:23]so she is a true supermom and while she is left behind

[154:28]her law background according to her family rakia is most certainly still

[154:33]a devious little lawyer in the house we are confident today that

[154:41]raquel your service to the imam of our time will extend to

[154:44]also include your fantastic input as a judge on a motion not

[154:51]only dedicated to him but by a jamaat named after our awaited

[154:57]savior last but most definitely not least we welcome back brother muhammad

[155:01]hassan banji brother muhammad hassan was a judge during debate one and

[155:06]we touched on his notable debating background and experience then today however

[155:09]we want to give you some insight into his world during the

[155:13]debating series brother muhammad hassan has been an integral part of the

[155:19]organizing team what initially started as a random idea on the phone

[155:22]with a few voice messages between two people turned into a labouring

[155:27]jamaat y three-month project for the three musketeers with his expansive experience

[155:32]and expertise in debating and judging debates brother muhammad hassan was just

[155:37]the perfect ingredient for success for a successful debate series in the

[155:42]late night meetings when on occasion would metaphorically bang our heads on

[155:46]the wall and sometimes quite literally brother muhammad hussein would jump right

[155:51]in with his lighthearted demeanor and samosa talk which you can imagine

[155:54]during ramadan was no help at all jerks aside with his clear

[156:00]vision and passion for debating brother muhammad hassan has competently guided the

[156:05]debate structure and even produced the detailed points-based judging rubric which by

[156:11]the way is a super hefty document we're delighted that brother muhammad

[156:15]hassan the organizer is also muhammad hassan the judge today and we

[156:21]have no doubt that you will do the role a whole load

[156:25]of justice so we welcome the judges with the muhammad muhammad muhammad

[156:36]so over to you judges let's hear the verdict please tell us

[156:41]who has the eye of the tiger salomon [Music] i have the

[156:57]privilege to be involved with this activity and i am really delighted

[157:02]that i have become involved and i had the opportunity to listen

[157:07]to all these debates very high level debates very impressive debates and

[157:15]there are really opportunities i know uh sheikh paslov is listening to

[157:21]me there are many many opportunities to broaden this and make it

[157:28]international the standard of the debate is such it deserves really to

[157:34]be international so well done everybody who has been involved with this

[157:40]debate i would like to thank especially the moderators they have been

[157:46]brilliant and honestly i must say hand on heart i wouldn't be

[157:50]able to do what you did fantastic really brilliant so well done

[157:56]and thank you for it now coming to the you mentioned the

[158:01]the rubric absolutely right the rubric is designed written very nicely comprehensively

[158:08]which made the judge the job of the judges much easier so

[158:14]thank you mohamed hassan for doing this so it has helped us

[158:18]um in terms of the debates and presentations i i am i'm

[158:26]providing feedback to the first group the the proposing group and my

[158:33]colleague rocky i will be giving feedback for the opposing group the

[158:41]presentations as i said really very very high class presentation with reasoning

[158:48]um with the logical um and using all kinds of this style

[158:56]of presentations that one expect looking at the audience etc etc and

[159:02]very very interesting to to listen and continue so starting with sister

[159:10]fatima well done excellent and i couldn't fault the enthusiasm brilliant spot

[159:16]on and trying to put across your views your comments providing evidence

[159:26]and also towards the end introducing the rest of the members of

[159:32]the team really spot on well done couldn't fault it excellent please

[159:37]keep up the good work sister zainab the same very very good

[159:45]presenter [Music] following all the rules and guidelines that you should do

[159:53]um using uh some of the relevant and correct expressions uh for

[160:05]example intellectual educators i made a note in here so interesting and

[160:11]very very um useful and keeping your time to the time without

[160:20]having any um issues uh controlling your your argument so again um

[160:26]good starting with a good ask good set of questions that was

[160:30]very impressive it really hit me it drove my attention to to

[160:34]your presentation and the discussion well done that's very very good as

[160:41]well uh coming to brother sir yes i could see the enthusiasm

[160:44]going there um started talking about the behavioral aspects yes interesting um

[160:51]talking about sheer community bringing the the wider issues into it in

[160:57]fact perhaps i should mention it now most of the presenters as

[161:04]the the actual the expectation was to focus on communities it wouldn't

[161:08]have been wrong to also broaden it further as some of the

[161:15]presenters like brother muhammad [Music] it is nice to broaden it and

[161:26]bring it to the whole sheer community which makes it even much

[161:34]more interesting and respected um at the end of the day as

[161:40]i said as a proposed at the beginning let's make it international

[161:43]let's come out of our smaller communities and go much much broader

[161:48]so very good presentation kept the audience growing um etc um there's

[161:56]one minor point in terms of by the same subject and that

[162:00]was one or two on one or two occasion you brought in

[162:05]some um issues which were semi-relevant to the topic so that was

[162:09]the only thing i could sort of point out or pick up

[162:12]as the things which were just minor uh relevance uh otherwise brilliant

[162:18]fantastic good work and by them having a boss excellent really um

[162:28]spot-on well-presented full of confidence and you have the audience with you

[162:34]you had the audience with you all the time brilliant i couldn't

[162:37]say anything negative about it perfect so now i must say that

[162:43]uh during the discussion with the other judges our scores for individuals

[162:49]were very close they were not identical in some cases they were

[162:52]identical in other cases were very close one or two marks difference

[162:56]and so we were in sort of in a way partial or

[163:04]full agreement in our schools so um again i would like to

[163:08]congratulate you all for what you've done and what you are doing

[163:14]and i hope the good works continue for the future and we

[163:18]have more of these debates at the international level and let the

[163:23]community to learn enjoy and to join the debates for the future

[163:31]thank you again ma salama for the office to the rest of

[163:42]the audience and our very very dear speakers you've blown us away

[163:46]today um quite literally to be honest and before i move on

[163:51]to the formal side of the feedback i just want to echo

[163:55]what uh result has said with regards to uh both the speakers

[163:58]and the moderators who also have double hats as organizers you've all

[164:04]done amazing work getting this together i'm sure it's not been easy

[164:07]um i i can definitely speak about the time and effort that

[164:13]i've seen pleasure put into this so i'm sure sajdah and um

[164:19]been equally or if not more from your side also so uh

[164:21]just thank you very much for doing this putting this together and

[164:25]inshallah we hope to see this grow develop and evolve into like

[164:30]uncle riza said an international platform inshallah so um i will then

[164:40]move to the feedback and uh just kind of before i get

[164:42]into the feedback i want to say this i really feel for

[164:46]you muhammad abbas you've you had to go head to head with

[164:48]uh your sisters in two rounds so i'm sure you've had to

[164:54]toe the line a bit um but anyway that's just on a

[164:57]side note um i i will uh start my feedback at this

[165:01]point then so uh uh i i think you were just profound

[165:11]in your delivery and uh i you know your uh you you

[165:16]came through with a very clear strategy you came through with very

[165:19]clear definitions um and that the definition of appropriately of uh uh

[165:28]the continuous present term of preparing was not missed so i was

[165:33]very pleased with that and you also took the proactive act and

[165:36]cutting of potential arguments that could have come your way from the

[165:39]next couple of speakers of the proposing side you took the opportunity

[165:46]to uh conclude in may i say a very appropriate manner the

[165:49]only thing i would have wished is perhaps that the roadmap that

[165:54]you were outlining for the team would have been followed through by

[165:58]the team much more evidently and much more obviously um and obviously

[166:04]without taking away its essence but that would have been just the

[166:08]icing on the cake so thank you so much amazing job and

[166:13]i you know i admire how you persevere through two rounds of

[166:16]this with two very little ones at home and i'm sure they

[166:17]will uh they're cheering you on inshallah uh moving on to leila

[166:24]leila i uh i've watched the first debate and hand on heart

[166:27]i was taken aback by the layla i saw you know it's

[166:32]very different to the young quiet girl that i once taught at

[166:33]madrassa so you know i'm super super proud of uh of the

[166:39]leaps you've made and inshallah you continue to grow and develop and

[166:43]you know i look forward to seeing you take part in more

[166:46]of these stuff inshallah in the future uh with regards to feedback

[166:50]i was very impressed by the examples that you gave from our

[166:53]daily lives that we are taking uh that we are all acting

[166:59]upon to uh appropriately prepare for the reappearance of our imam and

[167:03]the fact that it was you know they may seem minor stuff

[167:06]art nomads it's something that we do without thinking much but you

[167:12]made that tangible for us you made the audience immediately engaged and

[167:15]be like yeah i do that so that kind of connection that

[167:19]you made immediately with the audience with seemingly minor stuff but very

[167:23]obvious was much appreciated so thank you for that you also um

[167:26]in the free-for-all round i'm so glad you took the opportunity to

[167:31]speak and one thing that you particularly did really well was that

[167:34]you immediately researched up islamic schools um which was obviously a very

[167:38]impromptu action you made reference to your personal experience which was obviously

[167:43]much well you know very well welcomed so thank you so much

[167:47]for that again the only thing i would have liked is perhaps

[167:50]a more sleeker conclusion on your part um and i know it's

[167:53]not easy you know convening your thoughts together when you're watching the

[167:57]clock and the time sticking against you but it's an ash that

[168:01]inshallah i'm sure you will work on um as you get along

[168:05]so uh first of all you came on with so much energy

[168:09]you know immediate rebuttals in quick successions you picked up on very

[168:14]pertinent points that uh your your uh opposes had raised and uh

[168:19]you unpicked the wordings of the motion and made the distinction between

[168:22]communities and individuals you delivered counter arguments that were laid at your

[168:28]tables that were fired at you and you fired back so which

[168:31]is exactly i guess what someone in your position should have done

[168:34]anyway so you know job well done and you also made reference

[168:37]to your previous teammates arguments you reiterated them you gave practical examples

[168:43]like the active into there so some homework for us all to

[168:47]do inshallah there the um kind of uh only you know wish

[168:51]i would have had and uh something for you to build up

[168:56]on inshallah is that uh um you know much as the rebuttals

[168:59]came in such quick succession in such energetic levels i think to

[169:05]a certain extent they may have uh um rambled your prepared content

[169:10]so you know you were delivering all these rebuttals very well but

[169:14]then what happened was the content that you then eventually came on

[169:18]to which you had prepared um i think you lost some structure

[169:21]over there so again that's just something that would come with practice

[169:25]i'm sure that's an art that you will pick up insha'allah but

[169:28]well done thank you thank you for that finally arizonva so i

[169:32]think this is the most nervous person that i have to give

[169:37]feedback from that that i feel most nervous about because obviously like

[169:42]um you just you have a certain uh there was a word

[169:46]i'm looking for um a certain finesse about your delivery it was

[169:52]absolutely phenomenal uh for me at least um the way you carry

[169:56]your words your tone your composure your flair your debonair on point

[170:03]so uh thank you you know it's very engaging and very uh

[170:07]pleasing to to hear and see someone speak in such a manner

[170:12]so well done for me um i think in in true reserva

[170:18]fashion because i know you like your emojis so much i'll just

[170:21]put a thumbs up for you there um the only thing i

[170:24]would have said and i think this is something the judges also

[170:27]agreed is that you know much as it saddens us that um

[170:32]our mosques actually aren't bursting at the seams and so it was

[170:38]a point that you related to kind of implying that there were

[170:42]so it was just uh i guess what you would call a

[170:46]slight inaccuracy uh which is a shame but uh you know that

[170:49]that's maybe that's where you lost out on some points but um

[170:54]yeah so that's me all done and as much as i want

[170:57]to hog the mic and you know because i'm so excited to

[170:59]see all of you again and say hello to all my wife

[171:05]tonight family i'll now pass it on to madison to continue with

[171:06]the feedback and inshallah eventually we'll get around to the school don't

[171:11]worry just we're getting there thank you so much thank you so

[171:15]much for that require um before i begin um i'd like to

[171:23]first thank the actual organizers sajdah and and kudasa you know all

[171:26]the story about hard work it's been them through and through i'm

[171:30]gonna i'm gonna hold my hand up and say i am the

[171:32]weakest link in the team um and you know they have done

[171:37]an amazing job you know they are by far the most efficient

[171:39]people i've ever worked with and and and you know that that

[171:44]says a lot um you know the agendas come well before meetings

[171:48]there's a structure they're absolutely brilliant to work with uh and and

[171:53]they've really put in a lot of time and dedication to this

[171:56]um i would also like to thank my fellow judges uh professor

[172:03]raza and rokaya for taking the time and honoring us with their

[172:08]presence um they've been uh i've really enjoyed working with them uh

[172:10]you know and they both bring a level of professionalism to the

[172:16]panel uh both in you know with with their respective fields and

[172:19]with their respective skill sets i think the combination of the two

[172:22]of them on a judging panel is is absolutely amazing um my

[172:29]my job today um it's not as hard as the participants but

[172:33]it is very difficult to give you feedback for the free for

[172:36]all um and and before i get into that i have to

[172:40]say i really enjoyed this free-for-all you know um to to to

[172:47]stick with sajdah by his puns this was a jabbing contest of

[172:53]its finest um you know if muhammad ali and mike tyson ever

[172:57]went to the ring i think a debate version would be the

[172:59]free-for-all we saw today it was exemplary you know wonderful performance all

[173:04]around i think you all deserve a a a round of applause

[173:12]um with regards to individual feedback um it might be difficult to

[173:16]to to pinpoint um you know directly on each on any situation

[173:20]but i'll try and give feedback generally for the questions um overall

[173:24]i think everybody answered the questions really well um there were certain

[173:30]attempts sometimes to to to twist the question around to make it

[173:34]fit or to mold the line of argument which i personally really

[173:37]it um but i'll try and give you a a a a

[173:42]more thorough breakdown so with regards to question one um question one

[173:46]i think sevilla you jumped in with the terria system i think

[173:49]that was absolutely brilliant very good shot fired there uh fatima you

[173:54]came in with a solid rebuttal and i thought you know that

[173:57]that that that play between the two of you on that topic

[174:02]was really well and it was really excellently picked up by both

[174:05]of you um the one thing that i would have liked to

[174:10]see when this question was answered was a bit more evidence um

[174:13]that that that was generally for all the free-for-all questions however having

[174:20]said having said that i need to also uh point out the

[174:23]fact that that sister laila did pick a particular text there i

[174:29]think a text by one of their moms i i did get

[174:31]that written down somewhere but i can't seem to read it very

[174:36]clearly and i thought uh you know leila that was excellent we

[174:38]don't normally see as much evidence being given in the free-for-all and

[174:44]you picking that up was absolutely amazing question two we didn't have

[174:47]as much feedback for um question three question three uh dr sab

[174:55]uh dr jaffa i have to say the way you jumped to

[174:57]answer this question was amazing um you know this point was giving

[175:03]you the direction and you went in directly you grabbed that opportunity

[175:07]that was really good um there was a rebuttal from the other

[175:11]team but sajaba was very quick to close that up uh and

[175:16]i think the the balancing between the two of you you know

[175:18]for your team was absolutely brilliant there um you know i'd also

[175:22]like to add uh motherboards that your demeanor when you answer questions

[175:26]i think boris johnson has a lot to learn from you if

[175:30]you are to exercise that in prime minister's question i think he

[175:33]would be a far better politician um but but you know the

[175:38]way you go about it you got the composure the respect and

[175:40]the clock and one of the factors that we include is a

[175:44]flock when answering or when debating it's it's part of our rubric

[175:47]and and you've executed that really well um with regards to the

[175:55]opposition um there was there was uh you you know you you

[175:57]referenced the quote from the quran that was amazing um generally i

[176:02]think uh the opposing team here did try to dodge the question

[176:05]a little bit i would have liked to see you answer the

[176:09]question a bit more i do appreciate it did put you on

[176:12]the back foot um but i would have liked to see some

[176:14]sort of direct attempt to answer but having said that i think

[176:18]that's just to take it from a to one to a first

[176:20]class it was still brilliant um question four question questions i found

[176:26]very interesting that was the question directed to to reserva and um

[176:30]it's just a point for the moderators whoever asked that question if

[176:34]we could please get them on to the next debate because that

[176:38]question was phrased really well um and and then you put one

[176:43]of the strongest speakers in the debate in a corner but um

[176:47]in reza fashion he came back punching and your response was brilliant

[176:52]you know you came back you picked out things that are absolutely

[176:56]relevant you picked out the fact that we have muslims involved in

[176:59]so many organizations you know the ability to think of that on

[177:03]the spot when a question has been fired directly at you that

[177:06]was brilliant that was out of the box thinking that was you

[177:12]know exemplary play last question was question five um with regards to

[177:18]question five i think there's there's a a small wish for both

[177:25]the teams um for uh for the team that was proposing the

[177:29]motion um in in your speech you had mentioned you're deluded to

[177:32]palestine and that sort of movement i would like to see you

[177:35]jump in with that uh here because i think that tied in

[177:39]really well to the point that you had made um with regards

[177:41]to the against team i think you you know there was a

[177:45]bit of contradiction there because one of your speakers come up and

[177:49]said that you know the the the motion is community and not

[177:52]individual the individual failure should not be seen as the communal failure

[177:56]but the response quoted people like mahdi hassan um who are acting

[178:02]in an individual capacity so there was that slight array there that

[178:06]i think um you know in the future needs to be looked

[178:08]into a bit more carefully um but all in all um brilliant

[178:13]performance by both teams you know uh that the free-for-all was amazing

[178:19]i you know put put judging aside as a member of you

[178:23]against me and and and my fellow judges we both we all

[178:25]enjoyed watching it i think it it had its own charm and

[178:30]its own fun to it um coming to my actual purpose uh

[178:35]today to announce the results of today's debates um and as as

[178:41]professor said we were very close in our telling um but as

[178:44]with any debate there has to be one clear winner um and

[178:48]and it is our opinion taking into account the crowd and and

[178:55]the public voting that the team that has carried today's motion is

[178:59]the proposing team so it's the team that was arguing for the

[179:04]debate um you know it was brilliant performance uh so i've just

[179:08]seen rakaya's balloon i think it was brilliant performance by both teams

[179:12]the team that was arguing for i think you came in with

[179:18]uh with a level of uh of of debating that that was

[179:19]you know uh absolutely brilliant you ticked all our boxes uh and

[179:25]because of that you have been crowned the winners of wessex jamaat's

[179:31]first ever debate so congratulations to you all congratulations to the team

[179:35]that was against uh you know you've done a brilliant job getting

[179:39]to the final in itself is easy is is an amazing achievement

[179:43]uh and and i think both the teams today can sleep as

[179:47]as victors can can go to bed tonight as victors because you've

[179:52]all won in your own ways um without further ado and now

[179:54]uh yield the floor to shake firstly you know filibusters are being

[180:03]stopped in the us but i'm still continuing it's uh before i

[180:05]go on too much thank you um brother muhammad hassan the sheikh

[180:12]before i hand over to you um on behalf of the organizers

[180:16]a huge congratulations to the winning team and all the participants who

[180:20]worked extremely extremely hard it's indeed you know been a blow-by-blow show-stopping

[180:25]nail-biting performance that both of the teams have put over here tonight

[180:28]um we just want to say that we will be we i'm

[180:32]getting so excited we will be giving out prizes to the winning

[180:36]team and the runners-up team um as well as the best speakers

[180:41]coming up uh with shay fans of us so please keep an

[180:43]eye out for that thank you uh thank you kadeja i just

[180:47]need to step in very quickly to say that we have the

[180:53]results also from the audience polls so we saw that according to

[180:56]the judges it was the proposing team who won the debate um

[181:03]so let's see how that compares to how the audience voted so

[181:09]at the beginning poll one showed a skew um in favor of

[181:12]the motion 86 percent of the audience felt that our communities were

[181:21]not appropriately preparing poll two which was taken after um the debate

[181:30]showed 59 um in favor of the proposing motion so whilst the

[181:46]um proposers also won the audience vote it was very very close

[181:53]and the opposing team you um managed to swing quite a number

[181:58]of voters in your favor so as brother muhammad hassan um you

[182:03]know eluded all of you really are winners you've done a fantastic

[182:11]job um and sheik will now shortly be announcing the best speakers

[182:14]salah time is drawing very close i don't know if we are

[182:19]able to convene with the participants and judges once we finish but

[182:22]i will hand over to sheikh now it has been indeed a

[182:49]very very jabbing moment this afternoon to be able to participate and

[182:53]attend the final round of the speak out series of i would

[183:03]like to take this opportunity to extend the deepest gratitude to the

[183:09]judges for once again taking on a most honorous task to brother

[183:14]muhammad son banji uh professor riza sahandi and of course to the

[183:19]most uh what you say devious lawyer you know family home thank

[183:24]you very much to one and all of you for this wonderful

[183:27]job which you have done and it is indeed very gratifying to

[183:33]note that the wording which you come in is also in tune

[183:37]with what the audience has been also giving after the poll as

[183:42]such at the same time there is great appreciation due to the

[183:46]organizing team of sahaja yoga muhammad hassan and khudeja masha allah you

[183:53]have really really put in a lot of energy effort and enthusiasm

[183:59]and this can be seen from the way the whole program has

[184:05]been handled so professionally and the fact that you have been able

[184:09]to attract the quality speakers to be able to be part of

[184:12]this program this is really wonderful and i pray insha allah that

[184:16]you will be rewarded for having been able to ignite conversations with

[184:21]regards to the various three different uh themes of the debates of

[184:25]the motions within the community and keep alive the spirit of being

[184:32]able to continue the displays of the discussions in sha allah on

[184:36]a lighter note if i may say the motion for today was

[184:40]indeed very interesting and relevant that the house believes that our communities

[184:45]are failing to appropriately prepare for the reappearance the of imam al-mahdi

[184:51]sharif you all must be very relieved as part of the organizing

[184:58]team to say that now you have come to the end of

[185:00]the first series of the western debate but let me tell you

[185:06]even though this is the end of the first series of western

[185:08]debate in our home all these days we have been having a

[185:15]debate and the motion for the debate is that this house believes

[185:18]that kudeja is failing to adequately prepare for her marriage to shahidabhastafa

[185:25]and i pray insha allah that we are now continuing this debate

[185:33]at home that now that kudeja has finished with this series of

[185:37]debate she is now going to be able to convince us that

[185:39]she is adequately preparing for her marriage with chai the was tougher

[185:43]so that inshallah she carries this motion on the winning side insha

[185:46]allah so with your duas please insha allah we pray that you

[185:53]really remember us into us to be able to see towards the

[185:58]success of the fulfillment of our responsibility as parents for this noble

[186:01]occasion insha allah and khadeja i must say specifically as the parents

[186:06]together with the mother tahira that we are really amazed in the

[186:11]way you have been able to juggle all these responsibilities with your

[186:17]university academic area with your own home domestic task helping hand to

[186:22]your parents and plus this professional role in the organizing team and

[186:26]finally to be able to see that you prepare for your big

[186:31]day in sha allah you will have it the big then you

[186:35]will be the winner insha allah at the end of the day

[186:38]insha allah assang i am conscious of the time that you are

[186:41]growing very close to salah so i would not like to put

[186:43]any further comments it would not it would it would be really

[186:46]worthwhile for us just to recall one hadith with regards to the

[186:53]role of the ja the imam of our time and the hadees

[186:55]tells us that the world cannot exist even for a moment without

[186:59]the imam who is the khuja of allah what would be the

[187:04]effect if the imam wants to be taken away the effect from

[187:07]that the hadees tells us that the imam want to be taken

[187:11]away even for a moment then the earth would swallow up all

[187:15]its inhabitants in other words this whole earth would be destroyed there

[187:18]would be a massive destruction so in concluding our session for today

[187:23]let us blue great sugar to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we

[187:28]are able to enjoy and derive benefit from the presence of this

[187:33]world the stability and the various benefits of this world is due

[187:39]to the presence of the imam of our time sahaba in a

[187:43]result of his presence of the imam sabha zaman is where we

[187:47]see that the world is giving us its benefit assert so it

[187:50]calls upon us to now adequately prepare for is the whole the

[187:54]europeans of the imam of our time uh there was really very

[187:59]high standard of presentation and indeed this was a great opportunity for

[188:03]each and every one of us to be able to broaden and

[188:07]reflect into what is our role towards the preparation for the of

[188:12]mawlana sachibala so finally i would like to extend heart yes congratulations

[188:20]to all the participants fatima by romani zainab al-khadimi sajah jaffar and

[188:26]muhammad abbas jaffar together with sabiha by chandu leila bhai dhori firstly

[188:32]was nanji riddha huda in being able to go again for this

[188:40]final head-on-head debate of the west 16 march series insha allah and

[188:45]heartiest congratulations to the proposals fatima by romani zainab al-qaeda and muhammad

[188:53]allah you and together with the opposing team have done a very

[189:04]well and commendable presentation may you and your families be rewarded with

[189:10]increased barakah and be counted amongst those all of you insha allah

[189:14]to be with the imam of the word of the to be

[189:19]during the time of the lord of allah insha allah with regards

[189:24]to the question which was sent for the power for the poll

[189:32]of the public is in your opinion who do you think was

[189:36]the overall best speaker in the debate the first speaker who was

[189:40]the most impactful person and it is my honor and delight to

[189:45]be able to now share with you and announce the results of

[189:49]this poll the third place who was the most impactful according to

[189:56]the public in this poll was fatima by congratulations to you and

[190:02]the second place who was the most impactful according to the public

[190:09]opinion was rather by huda who has adequately prepared with his flask

[190:13]of water at all times masha allah and the first place who

[190:19]had the most impactful who had been the most impactful opponent upon

[190:27]the audience was once again sister sabiha chandu heartiest mubaraki to one

[190:35]and all of you and sabi hachando wonderful keep it up insha

[190:39]allah we look forward to be able to continue these rounds of

[190:43]series of debate and as per the suggestion of brother river not

[190:48]only to be a national one but the vision is to have

[190:54]something within the interfaith local community enforcement insha allah thank you to

[190:58]all the organizing team all the participants and to the audience and

[191:02]a lot of shukra to allah and the imam of the time

[191:08]for ibrahimovic thank you so much as we mentioned um earlier on

[191:16]this would not have been possible without the support of everybody but

[191:21]really it has been yourself shake from the very onset who have

[191:25]incur who has encouraged and supported us so jazakallah thank you everybody

[191:32]once again for joining we will let you have your leave as

[191:38]it is solar time and watch this space love it you

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