[Applause]
[Music]
I'm going to ask you to come with me on
a journey again just or even at least
think that you're going in this uh time
machine time
[Music]
machine
[Music]
We Begin by praising Allah we praise him
we we seek his help and we ask for his
forgiveness and we take refuge with
Allah from the evil of
ourselves and from the evil
consequence of our evil
actions whoever Allah guides no one can
misguide but whoever Allah leaves to go
astray no one can guide and I testify
that Allah along
is worthy of
worship and that Muhammad s.
wasam is his servant and his
messenger just
over 24 years ago Subhan
Allah I first went down to Speaker's
Corner let me tell you a little bit
about my situation at that
time I had spent about
four months with my
parents in
Portugal and that's where I really
started practicing
Islam and I lived a very isolated life
there I didn't know any Muslims the only
thing I had as a companion was the
Quran I think a no's 40
Hadith I think Bertrand Russell's
history of Western philosophy which I
used to to
read uh and really a lot of thck a lot
of
thinking a lot of
praying and my early very clumsy
attempts at da very clumsy attempts at
da I mean the first thing when I started
to practice Islam
properly was the
feeling was so
fantastic I felt so
good Subhan Allah the world was a
different world world it's as if I was
looking at the trees the sky the sea the
Earth the animals the insects in a
totally new
way everything I looked at I could
see the ayat of Allah subhana wa tala
the signs the proofs the evidences of
Allah it's just
amazing
and I used to make a lot
of Subhan Allah I
remember I used to make the aan to pray
I was just by myself there was no one
else to pray with me and I used to
almost feel as the prophet sallallah
wasallam said when a man he is alone in
the
desert and he makes the call to prayer
the Angels line
up to make the Salah behind him and I
used to feel like
that sometimes my brother he had a dog
which my parents were looking after it
was a doberman called
flopsy yeah I know a doberman called
flopsy this dog I mean I know we we have
a thing with dogs or at least some
Muslims do but it was amazing dog I have
to say sometimes I used to talk to
flopsy I say you know what flopsy the
only Muslims in this house is you and
me right and heed to look at me like
Yeah
man so I know where you're coming from
this is a he was a cool dog I tell you
it was
amazing flopsy yeah and uh and in my
enthusiasm in my enthusiasm you know I
was just you know I mean the only people
really to give down to my parents and
their neighbors right and I was telling
them whatever I could about Islam but
you know in retrospect what I realizes
the way it came across to my mom and dad
was as as my mom actually quite she
actually pointed this out to me and one
day she I was sitting in my room and she
came down sat down next to me and she
said you know what she said if you want
to be religious why why don't you go and
live in a monastery I said that's not
Islam in Islam we don't do that you know
we we worship God but we live in this
world as well he said well you know what
since you hate us so much and since you
hate everything about our lifestyle so
much I just thought I'd let you know
that I've taken you out of the
inheritance that's quite a thing to be
disinherited by your parents I said
thanks Mom it's nice you know but you
know alhamdulillah honestly really I
didn't care because I really knew in my
heart that Allah subhana would look
after me but like I said my early
attempts at da were I I could say really
crude and I really thought that I had
this idea that every single wrong I saw
happening I had to do something about it
and I was so extreme on that regard that
when it was Christmas time my mom
decided she never goes to church but she
decided she was going to go off to
midnight mass and I actually had I had
this I nearly did it I nearly decided to
sit in protest in the middle of the
driveway she she couldn't drive the car
out to go to m I wanted to stop her
worshiping Jesus you
know um my mom and dad pretty much soon
got fed up with me and basically asked
me to leave and sent me back to London
my dad more or less said it's about time
you left and you know go back and he
actually said it'd be good for you if
you spend some time with some other
Muslims that's actually probably quite a
good piece of advice he gave
me um I came back to
London um and pretty soon soon it must
have been within the first
week I went down to Speaker's Corner I
met some Muslims in the London central
mosque who ended up being friends of
mine for many years and we went down
together to Speaker's
Corner and there in Speaker's Corner was
a Christian standing
up and he was shouting and screaming
about how Jesus he's God and he's the
son of God and even though I used to be
a Christian I was sent to a Roman
Catholic monastic boarding school but in
spite of that fact that I used to
believe this stuff when I heard this
Christian insulting Allah because let's
remind
ourselves of what Allah says in the
Quran that the heavens are ready to rent
a under the mountains are ready to
crumble into ruin and the Earth is ready
to split apart because they say that
Alman has a
son this is what Allah tells us about
the state
of the
universe this is an insult to
Allah and when I heard this Christian
saying that Jesus is the son of Allah I
was so angry and I pointed my finger and
I I said no he
isn't and I didn't know what else to
say I I honestly I didn't know what else
to
say so Subhan
Allah I went to a book sh in fact this
is the place where I first actually sort
of embraced Islam and prayed with
Muslims just out not Finsbury Park not
the new Finsbury Park you know the
famous the infamous Finsbury Park Mosque
but the Muslim welfare house which is I
don't know if it's still there I think
it is and I was browsing through the
bookstall and and I saw this book the
choice now some of you may be familiar
with this book The Choice the choice of
Co course is a
compilation of Ahmed D's
booklets and I picked this up and I
started looking through it and I just
couldn't believe it I said this is just
too good to be true this is
brilliant I took this book was reading
it and reading it and next week I went
down to Speaker's Corner and I had my
ammunition and for the next year weekend
after weekend I pested these Christians
with verse after verse and quote after
quote and actually what I realized is I
actually knew the Bible better than even
Ahmed I could think of a few arguments
that he hadn't even come up with so I
started adding my own stuff this is how
I started giving
da but after about a couple of years of
this I also realized that wait a minute
okay this is very good for bashing
Christianity but I'm not actually
telling people about
Islam and actually really that's what we
need to do I realized that's what I
needed I wanted to tell I didn't really
want to bash Christianity I wanted to
tell people what Islam was really
about and Subhan Allah brothers and
sisters the most people often ask me
could you recommend a book a really good
book that can teach you how to give
daah I was asked this question a lot and
I
always and I still would say the same
thing the best book for anyone who wants
to know how to give da is the
Quran and they said no no no I I know
the qu I said no no no it's the Quran
believe
me the Quran Subhan Allah brothers and
sisters
the how many times in the Quran does it
say if they ask you about this say to
them that if they say this then say
that whether you are arguing with an
atheist whether you're arguing with a
Christian whether you're arguing with a
Jew whether you're arguing with a
polytheist you will find the essence of
every argument you need is in the
Quran but something else about the Quran
brothers and
sisters in respect to
daah it's not only a book that
practically can guide you how to give da
to tell you what to
say but another thing is it's a book of
motivation it's a book of
guidance in the Quran Allah subhana he
tells
us
this is the
book without
doubt in it is guidance for the pious
people the Quran is a book of
guidance primarily the Quran is a book
to guide us and to inspire us and to
motivate
us and when we look at the Quran
and we look at the teachings of the
Quran and we look at the stories in the
Quran and we look to those
people who are the best of all the human
beings the
prophets and Allah tells us their
stories
because they are examples for us to
follow the messengers are examples for
us to follow
they are the most Pious the most
righteous and what they occupied thems
themselves
with was the best thing that a human
being can ever occupy themselves
with and I've made this challenge many
times before and I make it again and
even though I repeat myself I will re-
repeat myself I invite you to read the
Quran
and find for me in the
Quran and describe to me from the
Quran the
Salah
of the tud of the of the of the
of this messenger of Allah who is an
example for us all to
follow you will not find anything and I
challenge you in the Quran about his
Salah or his or his fasting or his s or
his renouncing the
world everything we know
about is about
what
sorry his
da his
da and really if you look at the rest of
the prophets
whether you look at
ibraim most of what we find in the Quran
about ibraim is about what
his his da most of it yes there is other
stuff but most of it is his da Musa
again most of what we find in the Quran
about Musa is his
da ASA the same
thing because this was the task of all
the
prophets but Allah did not send a
messenger to Any Nation except that he
called the
people to worship Allah to single out
Allah
alone for
worship and to reject the worship of the
false gods and every God other than
Allah is a false
god this was the task of the
messengers and this of course as you
heard from Adnan
Rashid may Allah have mercy upon him and
increase him in goodness and his ability
to give daah a
mean you heard about the life
of.am you heard about his endeavor and
his efforts and his struggling and what
he suffered in the path of
da now my dear brothers and sisters may
Allah shower his mercy and blessings and
forgiveness upon
you my dear brothers and
sisters are there any other prophets to
come are there any more prophets after
Muhammad S.I
wasallam no cuz Muhammad
s he
is he is the Seal of The Messengers
there will be no more prophets even when
isaam returns he will return as a
follower not in the capacity of a
prophet he will return as a
follower of Muhammad sallallah alai
wasallam so now if there are no more
prophets brother brothers and
sisters whose duty is
it to continue the task of the
messengers on Whose shoulders does it
lie to spread the message to give the da
whose responsibility is it let me ask
you
ours
absolutely
there are two reasons why we're having
this Retreat number one is that from
what we can gather the main thing the
main barrier between a new
Muslim um taking the shahad and then
going back to whatever they were on
before uh and staying a Muslim is
knowledge if they are equi with
knowledge and the right understanding of
the religion inshallah they will stay
Muslim if they don't have that knowledge
base the likelihood is they'll just slip
back into whatever they were before so
we want to provide new Muslims with a
good knowledge base the second thing is
we want to create an emotional
experience an emotional space it's not
really about knowledge in the sense of
knowledge but it's knowledge I suppose
of a different kind emotional knowledge
in emotional space we want to make them
feel connected to other Muslims
and in fact in reality connected to each
other and so a lot of what the retreat
is about is about creating an experience
creating an atmosphere I'm sure a lot of
people will go away from here um not
maybe having leared that much in terms
of information but what is really
important is they do go away with a
really positive experience that is going
to stay with them for a long
time it's our responsibility brothers
and sisters individually according to
your capacity and
collectively the duty is
ours and what I am doing
today and what the brothers and the
sisters may Allah reward all of them for
their hard work in bringing these events
together what they are trying to do for
themselves and for you brothers and
sisters is to help you fulfill your
duty your
obligation to be callers to
Allah it is a duty and it is an
obligation Allah subhah wa ta'ala
he told the prophet Muhammad
s
say oh
Muhammad this is my
way this is my way Allah is telling ouro
Muhammad s. wasallam to say to
us you want to know the sail of the
Prophet
sallallah you want to know his way you
want to know his
path
this is my way what is
it I call to
Allah to call to Allah this is our da to
call
to we are not calling people to be
pakistanis or to be bengalis or to be
Saudis we're not calling people to be
Arab or to follow some culture or or to
follow some she or to follow some
or no Allah did not ask us to call to
those
things he did not say to the prophet
sallallah wasallam to call to those
things he said for the prophet and this
is his sail to call to Allah to call to
Allah to call
to this is the
da of all Messengers this is the duty
this is the
obligation and
how with certain
knowledge with definite
knowledge call with
knowledge calling is an obligation and
in order to F fulfill any obligation in
Islam you must have
knowledge action precedes knowledge
sorry knowledge precedes action before
before before action has to come
knowledge was thinking about that there
something wrong there before action has
to come
knowledge otherwise we would be like
that famous story of the man in ancient
times in our
history who once who was very
enthusiastic it was a really he wanted
to give down of this guy so he sees this
Jew walking along that's it grabs the
Jew gets out his sword says Jew become a
Muslim I'll chop your head off so the
Jew goes all right all right what shall
I do tell me what
shall I don't
know
right and and
that's that's you know like me when I
said in the beginning you know full of
enthusiasm you know you have to get the
knowledge it's not it's not a question
it's not a question of if
but it's a question of you have to do it
brothers and
sisters before you pray you have to
learn how to pray you can't just do
anything you randomly think might be
prayer you have to learn how to pray you
have to learn how to make you have to
learn how to make Haj you have to learn
the rules of fasting you have to learn
these things you have to learn how to
give daah because it's an obligation
along with every every other obligation
that you have in
Islam and you will be asked by Allah on
that
day about which there is no doubt that
day that is coming very very soon
brothers and sisters W it's coming soon
it is coming
soon the prophet sallallah alai wasallam
said and he was sitting with his
companions and the sun was about to
set and the prophet said between my
coming and the end of the world is like
the time from the Sun to its
setting and that was 1,400 years ago so
how close are we now to the end of
days the first sign of the last days was
the coming
of.ai
wasallam and how soon is our
death how imminent is the end of your
life and my
life Subhan Allah I was saying to my son
Abdullah Mah I just got married recently
alhamdulillah I was embarrassing I'm
going to embarrass him even more
now you know but seriously brothers and
sisters I remember and I remember this
vividly lying on my bed with Abdullah
little baby lying on my chest like this
and and I couldn't
sleep because I was thinking is he
breathing you know your first kid it's
like that right it's like is he still
alive you know right this fragile little
thing you know you got know the second
one is like yeah Chuck him here Chuck
him
there they're all right they're tough
you
know but but Abdullah got the you know
like is is he alive I I remember
literally lying is he breathing and
then yeah
okay yeah know and he he's he's he's got
married he's got married Subhan Allah
that's the life brothers and sisters
like it seems like
yesterday it's like
yesterday this is the life is just so
short you know we might as well be those
you know those flies that exist for a
day those Gad flies that just that's it
our life just like a day a butterfly for
a day but you know this little day that
we have this brief moment in
time at the end of the day brothers and
sisters it's you in front of Allah on
the day of judgment and this brief day
that you have that's what you need to
make use of because this little time
that you have this moment that you have
that will end very very soon is what you
need to make use of in order to get to a
place to get to a
place
that will never
end its happiness will be Eternal and
every day there will be more will be
better more exciting more stimulating
more beautiful than the day before every
moment will be better than the moment
that came before it a place there is no
hatred no Envy no greed just
peace Gardens rivers of
delight this is
Paradise eternity forever
and they will stay in there
forever but what you do here this little
moment that you have this brief moment
of time is going to decide what's going
to happen to you my brothers and sisters
forever and honestly if anyone can tell
me a better way to spend your time a
better way to earn the pleasure of Allah
than doing what the prophets
did if you can show me something that
has the potential for so much
reward tell me
please show me what has the potential
for so much reward as
da show me a
deed that is so consistently done by the
best of human beings
other than
th Subhan
Allah the quality of the one who calls
to Allah subhah wa ta'ala the potential
for reward imagine this and you already
already heard Adan he
mentioned about the red camels here's
another Hadith of the Prophet sallallah
alaihi wasallam The Prophet said whoever
invites a person to a righteous action
will get the reward of that person
acting on that righteous action without
that person's reward being diminished in
the least so if you are the means
through whom Allah guides just one
person to Islam think about
it every time they pray every time they
fast every time they give Sak every time
they say Subhan Allah
alhamdulillah when they make ha when
they read Quran when they get married
and have kids and teach their kids Salah
and to read Quran you will get rewarded
for it and their kids kids and their
kids
kids because you were the means through
whom that person became
Muslim what has a potential for so much
reward brothers and sisters our life is
short our time here is
short we have a duty an obligation to
pass on this
message to commit ourselves
to make the word of Allah subhah wa
ta'ala the
highest to save ourselves from the
Hellfire and of course to do whatever we
can to save our fellow human
beings our fellow human beings brothers
and sisters in
humanity and that's true we are all from
one father and one mother all of us came
from Adam ad and Eve that's true there's
no doubt about it we are the Human
family whether the people admit it or
not it's the
truth and just a thought brothers and
sisters of anyone suffering in the
Hellfire Subhan Allah the
Hellfire whose fuel is men and
Stones a place where people will be in
such pain
where the Skins will be burnt and
recreated and rebirt so the people can
taste the
punishment where the Heat and the thirst
and the hunger people will be screaming
and calling for drink and the drink will
come the drink will come but this drink
is boiling water like molten copper that
will sco their faces and burn their
insights and how long is this Hellfire
brothers and sisters for how long will
people stay in
there forever
they will stay in there forever this is
the
consequence so we have a
duty we have a duty of care we have a
duty of compassion we have a duty of
concern what does it say about us as
human
beings that our
neighbors our
friends our
colleagues how many of us we can
complain about this Society but how many
of us benefit so much from this country
in which we live we benefit so much I
don't find us all running to go back to
Pakistan oh let me catch the next
flight that's where I want to live no no
no no we're quite comfortable here
settling down our kids live
here come on let's be
honest don't we have a
duty don't we have a
duty at
least to tell them to let them know to
pass the message to warn them think
about it brothers and sisters think
about this imagine the
situation imagine a
situation that you
lived or that you human beings we human
beings existed in a vast Labyrinth a
maze a maze of
confusion and the people were running
around trying to get out of this
maze
confused and you had the
map and instead of trying to tell every
everybody I've got the map here's the
way out you just pick it up and you just
walk out yourself and imagine all of
those people seeing you getting out of
the maze going to this beautiful palace
on the hill which they're all trying to
get
to and they see you there holding this
book what are they going to think about
you what does that say about
you brothers and sisters this is a duty
and to think about this Duty I want to
give you another story this is the story
of Abdullah Abdullah and the King you
see there was this great and powerful
King brothers and
sisters and he received news that a
land was agreeing to make
itself subservient to
him so the king sent his trusted servant
Abdullah oh Abdullah said the king go to
that land and tell the people I am their
King they should obey my laws and pay my
taxes so Abdullah
goes and years
pass years
pass and the King has heard nothing from
Abdullah so the king sends his another
trusted servant Ahmed Ahmed go and see
what has happened to Abdullah I'm
concerned about him
so Ahmed goes and travels to this land
and he begins to ask the people he says
people have you have you have you seen
Abdullah they say Abdullah who we never
heard of anyone called
Abdullah so he starts to describe
Abdullah he looks like this and you know
he wears a hat he has a beard you
know they
yes but his name's he's not Abdullah he
ABS yeah we know ABS very nice man he's
very friendly very nice yeah yeah he
lives on the outside of the town in a
nice house he's got a nice
business selling
vegetables
right so he goes there he goes to the
house sure enough there he finds
Abdullah Abdullah Ahmed said I've been
sent by the king and the king is asking
after you what has
happened didn't the king tell you to
come here and tell the people that he is
their King and that you should obey his
laws and pay his
taxes and Abdullah ABS he says yes yes
that's true he said you know I love the
king I've always loved the king I always
praised the king I have never had
another king besides the king
but I thought you know what I'd do is
I'd just come here and start a business
and show the people that you know we're
nice
people you know we can get on you know
bit by bit I was thinking maybe one day
I'd get round you know the the maybe
they'd accept the king through my
example does that sound familiar
brothers and
sisters is Abdullah you is that
you brothers and sisters Allah gave us a
command to warn the people arise and
warn the first thing the prophet s.
wasam when he he was told to call the
people publicly to Islam he went on the
top of Mount Safa and he called the
people he called them by name of each
tribe and each tribe their leader came
and if the leader didn't come they sent
a
representative and he started by saying
oh my people I have come to warn you of
a terrible punishment from your lord in
another narration I warn you of Anar I
warn you of AAR I warn you of AAR three
times I warn you of the fire he warned
them brothers and sisters he said if I
was to tell you there was an Army about
to attack us from behind the hill would
you believe me they said of course
Muhammad we never heard anything but
truth from you I've come to warn you of
a terrible punishment from your
lord we have to warn the
people because the threat is real the
danger is
imminent our duty is
clear
that's why we're here brothers and
sisters I era is here to help you
fulfill that obligation so you don't
have to be in the situation like I was
when I first started practicing Islam
full of
enthusiasm really out I wanted to tell
my parents and their friends about Islam
but I just didn't know what to say like
that when I time when I went to Speakers
Corner uh no he
isn't no why not educate at yourself why
not
benefit from years of experience my
experience Hamza sort experience Saleem
chai's experience Adnan rashid's
experience many of the brothers and
sisters mashallah who have joined us and
who have now huge amounts of experience
marah in giving da every day because
they've made da a part of their everyday
life so one of the first things we're
going to be doing here in Birmingham as
soon as we can is we're going to be
holding one of our da training courses
right it's a one-day da training course
where we will teach you some simple
basic techniques on how to give da so
you know what brothers and sisters all
I'm asking for you is a commitment I
want you to put your hands up if you're
going to do everything you can to try
and come to that Dow training course let
me see your hands up can't really see
much but inshallah sister you got your
hands up excellent mashallah I don't
know how we're going to fit you all in
because usually there's about 50 in a go
but
inshallah inshallah if you have to come
here I don't know 10 times inshallah we
will do it inshallah brothers and
sisters yeah because we want to empower
you to give the da to fulfill that
obligation to Islam I pray to Allah I
ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala that he
allows you to taste the sweetness of
someone being guided to Islam through
you it's the most beautiful thing may
Allah bless you may Allah guide you
asalam
alayum would you had
[Music]
for
be