[Music]
oh
[Applause]
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
oh
all praises are due to allah
lord of the worlds
and surely the best reward
is for those who have taqwa
and surely there is no animosity
except for the oppressor
and i bear witness that allah is one
and has no partners
that muhammad the son of abdullah
is his servant and his last messenger
and may allah always and constantly send
peace and blessings to muhammad
and to his family
and his companions
and all those who call to his way
and establish his sunnah
to the day of judgment
as to what follows
when the armies of islam
had
conquered the mediterranean islands
it was a great day of cheer
the muslims were joyous law had given
them victory
in a place that they never thought that
they would reach
and as the armies
moved around in happiness
they found one of the companions of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi was so
they found him bitterly crying
and they came to him and they said
why are you crying
allah has given us victory
allah has opened up these lands
and he answered them
[Music]
these people have disobeyed allah
and he has given us authority over them
and i fear the day would come
when we would disobey allah
and he would give them authority over us
this day
has surely arrived
oh you who believe
muslims
are at the crossroads
and in few times in history
have there been such contradictions
in front of us
such a vast ummah
so much potential
so many
young prepared strong men intelligent
strong women
but yet
such defeat on the ground
confusion humiliation
and although the ummah is rising for
many people
who don't necessarily have that full
perspective
to realize that we are coming up
we're coming out of a low point in our
cycle
for many people it's hard to deal with
this contradiction
and so we need to have an honest
analysis
and we need to speak to each other in
sincerity
and so i want to speak to you tonight
not as a great scholar of islam
not as a movement leader
not as a mufti
but as a brother
who has been in the field for twenty
years
and has seen
lived with the with the problems of the
muslims
and looking at history and seeing the
condition
muslims are in today
i seek refuge in the words of allah
oh you who believe have the
consciousness of allah and speak a
straightforward word
he would repair your deeds
and forgive you of your sins
and whoever obeys allah and his
messenger
has surely gained a mighty triumph
and so i speak to you tonight
not just from the mind but from the
heart
and we need to speak to each other as
brothers and sisters
as people in the same family
and to speak
about our islam
from the ground up
and not necessarily from the high
echelons from the ivory towers and then
we look down on the people
because the muslim masses
and the majority of the muslims
are looking for a savior
and there's a strange phenomena that is
going on today
that in some cases
we find muslims victorious on the ground
we see allah opening up
victories for them in these times
but the question is now and we will all
make and all of us may have to face this
what is
after the victory
after the enemy has been
defeated and we have to deal with
ourselves
then the real war has begun
and so despite the fact
that the western press
and the history books
have targeted muslims
as
the new enemy
and are trying to make a clash with us
in a clash of civilizations
despite the fact
that they have focused on muslim women
as one of the groups
and have attacked the wearing of the
hijab
despite this fact
i believe strongly that we have to look
inside of ourselves
allah tells us
allah will not change the condition of a
people
until they change
that which is in themselves
and so we reflect tonight as we have in
the last few days
and the theme that we are constantly
hearing
change self
what we are constantly hearing that
allah has told us
who believe have the consciousness of
allah
and let every soul
look to what it has put forward for
tomorrow
and fear allah
surely allah is well aware of all that
you do
and be not as those
who forgot allah
and so he made them forget themselves
surely
they are the disobedient ones
they forgot allah
allah gave them victory
allah gave them authority
over the weak in their own families
in their own community
and they forgot their responsibility
and so the victory although it was sweet
could actually turn bitter
and so we need to look at some of our
internal practices
and i want tonight
to open up one of the veils
and to go behind the veil
of our homes
into our private life
into the very relationship between the
men and the women of islam
because the home is the base of islam
and if we do not have strong homes
that support the masjid the central part
of our community
then we have no future
if the home is not strong
the children won't be strong
if the children are not strong
we don't have leadership for the future
and so we need to be honest with
ourselves
and open with ourselves
we forgot allah
i was traveling in one of the muslim
countries
i won't say which one it is
and i was traveling with brothers and
we came by some madrasas
madadas islamiyah so alhamdulillah
the young people are learning to read
the quran they are learning tafseer they
are learning hadith
who is studying in these schools and
they said the boys
and i said
is there a school for the girls
they said no no no brother abdullah
the more knowledge they get is the more
problem you have
that's what they said to me
i said wait a minute
what religion is this
what are you talking about
when what i understood is that when
allah
says
he is talking to male and female
he's not only talking to males
so any uh ayah any hadith which is
directed to the believers as a jamaa is
directed to male and female
and when the prophet sallam has told us
that seeking knowledge is foreign
it is compulsory on all muslims
then that includes females
what religion is this
i recall the fact that ayesha
radhiallahuanha
reported
a number of hadith
and that if we
look into
our islamic
traditions
and we go to the books of hadith
then after a short time you will come to
her name
as one of the reporters the second most
hadith
2210 hadith
reported
by a woman
and she also became one of the leading
scholars
at the time
even great sahaba would come to her for
information and analysis
i also recalled
that according to a shelby nafisa a
descendant of ali radhiallahu
was such a great authority of traditions
that imam shafi
learned from her
in al-fustat
at the height of his fame
was a transmitter an interpreter for
sahih al-bukhari
one of her pupils a person who learned
from her was al-khatib al-baghdadi
i also recalled
that ibn asakir a famous hadith
transmitter had over 80 women eight of
amongst his highest regarded scholars
and that imam suyuti
and that many of the great imma of islam
would put women in their silsilla
in their chain of knowledge
as a person who they would refer to for
those
who were above them
in knowledge of hadith the knowledge of
tafsir
and that fatima
meant malikim and anas
may allah have mercy on them both
was a famous student of al-mawatta
and you can go on and on
and list the women
who have made valuable contributions
to islamic education
islam empowers people
it empowered the first generation it
empowered the second generation it
empowered the third generation it
empowered the great scholars of islam
how now
could we be disempowering people
in the name of islam
we forgot allah
in one muslim country
and i am reporting to you directly from
the community that i was involved in
before
the testimony from the women of this
nation
and i won't say which nations are one is
against the other
but in this live true report
the women said
we were taught
that you cannot enter paradise
unless you get a beaten by your husband
you can't enter
which religion is this
what sunnah are you talking about
when the prophet of solomon is recorded
never struck any of his wives you want
to do sunnah
like you do sunnah rakats
you want to be sunnah like you tell your
imam
the prophet saws never struck any of his
wives
that's a sunnah
but yet
we find something else
the prophet peace be upon him also said
inna
that women
are the blood relations of the men the
shaktika
this is not just
somebody who has a relation but a close
relation
so how could you be humiliating
and beating
and striking somebody who is a close
relation of you
how can it be done
how in the name of islam
could a woman be struck by a man who
claims he fears allah viciously struck
and yes there is
there's no doubt about it in surat nisa
as we know
there is a verse number 34 that allows
permission for a light tap to be given
to a woman who is disobedient
after counseling her
warning her
leaving the bed
calling in
our counselors on both sides
then a light tap is allowed
but how many how many men
in their rage
can actually give a woman a light tap
i want to deal with reality now brothers
and i'm talking to myself
how many can actually give a light tap
like a handkerchief or a miswak
most of the brothers they ain't they're
coming in like mike tyson
[Music]
this is far from islam
and allah tells us never forget
and i fear
one saying of the prophet peace and
blessings be upon him
and i wondered how could the enemies of
allah swine edith
defeat muslims
who had died
what is happening to them what is behind
them
what to ours against them
the prophet sallam said it tackled
hijab
beef beware
of the dua of the prayer of the
oppressed person
there is no barrier
in between that dua and allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala
and so if that woman is humiliated
if that woman is down on the ground
and she is crying to allah
and she raises her hand
she turns to allah and dua against you
or me
we're in trouble
we forgot allah subhanahu ta'ala
after years of being imam
in canada
in a community very similar to this in
australia
we found that there were serious
problems
and when we opened up the veil
and looked behind the veil
behind the thobe
the jalabiya
behind
the abaya
behind the kufi the khimar
we found something else going on inside
of the houses
and we forgot allah
and there were some cases
where we had what can be called today in
our community al-mu'allah
the one the woman who was hanging
hanging in between marriage and in
between divorce
and there were cases happening over and
over again
where the brother
leaves the house
he might abuse his wife
he doesn't pay the rent
he doesn't do the nafaka he's not paying
anything and then he says i i won't take
care of her but i won't divorce her
and she will stay in that condition
until yomokiyama
where did you get this from
i found out and i say this to myself i
say it with all sincerity because we
have to speak paul and sadida
the yahood
the orthodox yahood
we're the locks
they have a practice in their teachings
that no separation can come about in any
way unless the man himself
pronounces divorce
no matter what he does
no matter what happens
he must pronounce it
and somehow
even though we have been oppressed by
them
this thinking has drifted into our minds
because some men think that the only way
the marriage will be separated is if
they themselves say it
but the prophet sallam has established
the hola
and there is a way for the woman to pay
back the dowry and to come out of it
there is also there is a cancellation
where the imam can step in
and when oppression is done
when abuse is done
he stays away for a period of time
different uh sayings of the of of the
imma
whether it be four months or six months
or one year he stays away
he is in neem he can't fulfill his
sexual duty
and so the imam could step in and
separate that marriage without his
permission
and that is agreed upon by all of the
scholars of fick
and that is clearly within the sunnah of
the prophet sallallahu
and then this thing of talaq
they use talaq
and this talak comes out of the mouth
like water
they get angry than talatala there's
anything to lock it keeps pouring out
the mouth
when the prophet saw them whenever this
talaq is coming up he becomes angry
it's ignorance you call in a number of
times it's jahiliyyah
you're in a state of ignorance if you're
using this
it is a serious statement if you say it
jokingly is serious
if you say it's serious it's serious
but yet
it's used for a type of blackmail
to be put over the heads of people
to keep them in fear
brother
has informed us
allah
by allah we were in ignorance
and we did not
give women any rights
until allah revealed what he revealed
and divided up for them
what he divided up
our original sources of islam
our original revelation
was liberation of all people
and in the case of women
no
ideology
no political movement
no army
no civilization no culture has ever
given women rights on the ground like
islam gave
women were being buried alive that young
girls were being killed
in infancy
there was no rights
women would travel
in all societies
including european society
they were slaves
they could be bought and sold
they had no rights they could be killed
and then when islam came it gave them
equal rights under the law
it also
showed clearly
that a woman has a
soul now this might sound strange
allah tells us
every soul
will be held responsible for its deeds
now that might sound strange why are we
saying women have a soul we understand
that but the christian church
in the 20th century was asked
do women have souls and many of the
priests and ministers said no
they're soulless creatures
up until the 20th century
islam also gave property rights to women
that she can have her her own property
that the mahar
this dowry which is supposed to be an
amount of wealth
that has some meaning to it
not necessarily something just
symbolic not a trifling thing not a
bribe for the father
but something which is of meaning
that is the property of the woman
and islam established these property
rights
and so
up until today
she has the right to her own property
and she has the right for her own bank
account
she doesn't have to put her money
in her husband's account
this sounds strange brothers
oh no they marry her they say oh darling
you know we're in love put your money in
my accounts
uh-uh
she has the right for her own account
some people didn't know that
she has the right to her own property
that's her property
she's supposed to have power
and the ability to do things on our own
and if something happens last summer
and there is a separation this property
that she has gives gives her
independence
economic independence
so she's not totally dependent on a man
this is what islam gave long before
women's liberation movement
it also said
she doesn't have to take the name of her
husband
she keeps her own family name
she has her own father and her own
mother
now yes we are in western countries and
sometimes this lockable whatever it is
for the name of the tribe or the kabila
the people take it
but the reality is
the constant stress in this
is on independence
that these are two individuals who are
married together so jane
when zoge is being used
it is a companion
it's not just husband and wife
like they say in english
husband and wife
like slave master and slave
it is zojain
two companions
who complement each other
whose qualities should not be struggling
and fighting against each other
but should be complementing each other
we forgot allah
even in the islamic movement
a phenomena has happened
where many of the brothers
feel
that the more they're committed to islam
is the more they should suppress their
wife
lock her up shut her up
don't have her involved
hide her away
crush her intellect
and they think that this is islamic
and i'm not talking about the separation
which is a natural thing in islam
but
allah gave the rights of education to
the women
we didn't give it to them
and even what has happened in america
that they are in the case of some
african americans
and it happens to other people who are
entering into islam
where the woman during the period of
slavery
was the building block she was the
center of the whole family
most of the people in the slavery and
apartheid periods didn't even know their
father
because the slavery was killing the men
imprisoning the men
making them drink alcohol
destroying them
but yet the person accepts islam
and then tries to be little women
tries to put them down
when it was a woman who taught him
almost everything he knew
until he left the house to go to school
and even then he had to fall back on his
mother
not only for his emotional needs
but sometimes for his physical needs his
financial needs
all of his needs his protection because
in many cases she was the man and the
woman of the house
so how now can we enter islam and you
put her down
this is not what islam is saying to us
that is not the early generation
it is liberation it is freedom from
slavery to human beings
to the slavery to allah
and if we become a servant and a slave
of allah
then nobody
and nothing
should put us down
and the prophet saw assalamu said very
clear
there is no obedience to the creation
when the creation disobeys allah
there is no obedience
and so
we have to reanalyze the concept of
separation
i want to speak straight forward to you
because i feel in my heart
that you have the opportunity inshallah
to take islam to all parts of this
island
to take islam all around southeast asia
to be a beacon of strength for the whole
of southeast asia
we have this potential insha allah
but what has happened to us
in some cases we have created
second-class citizens
and if separation means that in one side
you have first-class treatment
and on the other side of the veil it's
second-class treatment then that is what
we call in south africa
apartheid
it is apartheid
it is not the islamic concept of
separation
where the men and women equally
listen to the words of allah
where they learn islam equally in
different areas that is the islamic
concept
in many cases we have conferences i've
experienced conferences on the brothers
side they're talking about phil akida
tafsir
they're going deep into islamic history
on the sister side
how do you cook islamic cooking
or they say what are the rights of men
and the obligation of women
not the rights of women what are their
obligations
in some muslim countries you come into
the masjid
and on the men's side the rug is clean
it is nice on the woman's side
the fleas are jumping all over the place
and the roof is falling in
and one of the things when i was
traveling in morocco al marip
that i love so much about the misajit
that the women's section had the same
wudu area and the same rugs as the men's
section
and they can enjoy the salat
it didn't have to be even in the same
area
but they could enjoy the salah they
could make wudu they had their entrance
they could pray to allah if they were
outside with their family
and so
separation
should not be
marginalization
there's a difference between the two
and so we need to be honest with
ourselves
and to look into this dilemma that we
are in this crisis it is a challenge
look at it in a positive way
because we can change the society
if a woman is educated
then the whole family is educated
you educate the man you educate the
individual
you educate the mother and you're
educating the children
but if the mother is afraid of the
masjid
if she feels negative about islam
then
how can the children love islam
if the prophet saws given certain rights
to women
how can we take it away
and so we need to look at this in a
serious way
number one
we all need to increase our taqwa
especially the brothers
and i say this with all sincerity
because we have a big task on our
shoulders
we have a mighty test
and the sahaba were mujahideen in the
daytime
and they were bad
they were praying to allah in the night
they feared nobody
and nothing
and they would speak out when you had to
speak out
and it was time to go forward and the
enemy was there ten times their size
then they would look at each other they
would turn around look at each other
and in the battle of motta
when they were facing the enemy in the
huge roman army
and the great sahaba
july even
and many other they look and they said
did we come here to live
or did we come here to meet allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
why did we come to this place
to hold on to the dunya
so we have a mighty task
upon our backs
and if the sisters are empowered
to take this message
and to stand
in back of the men
and to hold the rope of allah
then inshallah we can have that type of
structure
that will not be quaking
when it's under pressure
although when the ego and the nafs gets
involved
when tribalism comes in when
organizational fanaticism comes in
and so you see people fighting against
each other and you will see in some of
the muslim countries where the men are
the most intolerant
to the women
see how they act with themselves
you see how they act with themselves you
mock my words
look at the countries where the men are
the most intolerant to women don't even
want to see them
then watch how they deal with each other
they can't agree on anything
their ego comes in in a minute
and when another man opposes them they
try to kill him
why are they like that they need some
water to put out their fire
in many cases the presence of a woman
her opinion in matters
the thought of the families
when we are making our decisions for the
communities
it waters down the flame
it waters the flames down
when the natives in america
would build settlements and would make a
decision in their shora
they would say
what would happen three generations from
now
they didn't plan just for now
what will happen three generations for
now if we build a house on the right
side of the stream
because they were thinking about their
families
they were thinking about the future they
were thinking about their nation
not just the ego and their movement
and their reputation
so we need to fear allah
secondly
we need to focus more
on character on
we have focused heavily on ibaadah
on how to make the salah how to fasten
ramadan
the prophet sallam has told us
and we find this
that he said i have been sent in order
to complete
the best part of character
that's why i've been sent
it's the character
and so we need to focus more on
character on akhlaq when we are dealing
with the sunnah
also
interpersonal relationships
how did the prophet sallam deal with
other people
how was the muslim
committed
but yet he was humble
he was strong against the disbelievers
humble to the believers
easy to forgive
easy to forgive wanting unity wanting
peace inside of himself we'll reach out
to other people
that's our character forgive other
muslims
make make close our ranks make unity
whenever we can
the enemies of allah support our
marching on us
and they're planning day and night
and so we need to focus more on
interpersonal relationships
how the prophet sallam dealt with his
family
how muslims deal with each other
number three
a change in concepts of manhood and
womanhood
what is manhood in islam
what is womanhood in islam
there is a concept there's a wrong
concept we have about leadership
this idea of anemia
what does amir mean
what does the president mean
if you become the raise
or you are mudiya
or you are the amir you are the imam
what is the concept of leadership in
islam in many cases
we have a problem
because it's it's a concept of hierarchy
and so you have hierarchy versus
cooperation
in the concept of hierarchy
the leader is above everybody else
he has privileges
he looks down and gives orders
and the more names that you get and
titles that you get is the more worth
you think you have
the more money that you think you
deserve
this is a concept of hierarchy
and it influences
not only
our organizations but it also influences
our families
on the other side is cooperation
it is complementing that
muslim the muslims complement each other
and it is said that the prophet saw
[Music]
was a humble person
and when the people used to hear about
his reputation
and they would come to medina they would
be trembling they would be afraid but
when they met him they never wanted to
leave him
on one occasion the person came in and
looked at the circle
and he said which one of you was
rasulullah
which one of you
like he couldn't see he was not on the
throne
he was not special the people he would
come in the room and the people would
stand up
and he would say sit down
and he would shake their hands sitting
down
what do our leaders do today in the
muslim world
he wants to travel from his office to
another building and the police are
lining the road two days before
because he wants to go from one office
to another office
and he flies by
or he comes inside the masjid he wants
to make jumaa so everybody can see that
he's making salat and they won't
overthrow him
and so they kick people out the way let
them pray
this is not rasulullah
a humble person
but when the revelation came
when it was time for the command all
eyes were upon him people wanted to do
everything that he was doing
even how he moved his hand how he how he
wore his clothes how he ate his food
they wanted to do everything like him
they loved him that much
so cooperation the leader is the most
responsible person that's what the
leader really is he's the one who should
be thinking at night about the jamaat
when everybody's sleeping
he goes in the front lines
rasulullah sallam many of the battles
and who they beer especially
we see when the muslims were attacked
they were surprised
and the battle was hot muslims were
dying and the sahaba would say
when the battle got hot
we could see their eyes we could smell
them
we took refuge in rasulullah
we took refuge in him
in the heat of the battle
he was there
not way in the back somewhere
but he was there suffering as his
followers suffered
this is true leadership
and so hierarchy on one side
and cooperation on the other side
how does this affect our homes
this is a key problem
and if we can overcome this concept and
implement this concept i believe
a lot of the problems that we have in
our families would be solved or at least
we could see the light at the end of the
tunnel
it's cooperation
so the emir of the house the man is the
leader of the house
and he is the amir
but what does the amir mean he's not
supposed to be a dictator
he takes sure with his family
and if his wife is correct then he says
alhamdulillah you're correct
but in some cases that doesn't happen
man everything he says
i told you he calls home and he says i
want roti
no rice
boom
she doesn't have any any flour to cook
the roti man
and so the rice is cooking he comes in
you disobeyed me
is that disobedience to the amir
she had to make a decision
but it goes that far
it goes that far
never forgets and one of the great
scholars in west africa sheikh with
mandanfodio rahimahullah
he said to the women of hausa land and
this is unprecedented what he did
he was in the maleki fick
he was half of the quran he was a master
of tafsir
a master of hadith
did dawa for 30 years in the field
he had 1 000 students
by the time the 30 years or whenever he
travels from one place to another a
thousand students travel with him
the king became jealous of him and
called him to the court and aimed the
gun at him his courtier aimed the gun
and it backfired and killed the courtier
received it
he received it
and he made hijrah
just like the prophet saws
then he took baya
the prophet sallallahu came to him in a
dream
and gave him the sword of truth
and told him take it forward
and then they opened up
250 000 square
kilometers and they ruled with sharia
for over a hundred years to the coming
of the british
two hundred and fifty thousand square
kilometers
this is fake
in action
this is a scholar who now his students
became the governors of the areas
and he wrote to them in classical arabic
language
what did he say to the women
he told them if your husband
will not educate you
allah said you're supposed to be
educated you disobey him
i will have a circle every day after asa
if they don't educate you in the home
you come out why
why do you say this
[Music]
there is no obedience to the creation
when that creation disobeys allah
and it's happening to us
we had a case of a brother
and i'm talking reality now
we want to feel good i'm a little light
sometimes because this is really a sad
story the whole thing
but this was happening really one
brother he accepted islam
and then he got married to the sister
he was a good brother
you know a very hands-on type of brother
she was from she was a college student
and so she began to study hadith
memorize the quran
and then whenever they got into an
argument she brought the hadith he
brought dalil
she gave him the dele
and so finally he said i your husband
don't study anymore
i prohibit you from studying
and he ran in the room and tried to
study the hadith
that's not the way brother that's not
the way man
because if she knows the hadith that's
going to save you from the fire
she's going to save you from the fire
so cooperation
cooperation if we see the qualities of a
woman the qualities of the man
and i say this also to the sisters as
well
because it's not just the problem with
the brothers
it can be the problem with the woman as
well in the home
her husband makes a mistake
he loses his job
he's in a weak condition
and how does she deal with him then does
she support him in some cases she looks
at him and said you little boy
look at you
you can't earn money
you're a shame and disgrace to the
manhood
how does he feel she makes him feel so
low she knows his secrets right
what does khadijah
when the prophet sallam came back from
the mountain and he was trembling
this thing had come to him and said
he didn't know what it was
a power beyond human imagination he was
trembling and shaking she covered him up
she didn't belittle him she believed in
him
and she used her wisdom
went to her cousin waraka
and so she strengthened islam
she was the first to believe
this is what we know of muslim women
but not to put the man down
not to find his weaknesses and
constantly be on his back
talking against him and putting him down
and then expecting him to treat you
right
it's not going to work like that
it has to be cooperation
the two sides cooperate with each other
they have strength like a football team
one is in the middle the big guys the
other ones run on the side throw the
ball
everybody cooperates
that is the islamic family and if we
could understand that
then the whole all the concepts and
problems we have who's the leader of the
house who will make the decision
who will get this inheritance all of
these things come clear when we see that
allah has given us
if he has given a man an advantage it's
not because he's a higher human being
it's because he's going to have more
responsibility
and he is he will be answerable on the
day of resurrection
another suggestion
is that we develop
special institutions
and support mechanisms
for the protection education
and empowerment of muslim women
and also
anybody
who has serious problems in our
community
and i want to uh give you this concept
and also uh pledge myself inshallah in
the future
it needs to be to come and deal with
workshops in this area
right that we need a new institution
that happens and this developed is
developed in canada and now it's
spreading all over america now
it's a social service organization
because what i found after years of
being imam five years of the biggest
mosque in toronto
most of the problems that were coming
were not problems in fit
it was not akita problems
they weren't asking me these questions
they had economic problems
psychological problems social problems
all kinds of things they would come with
and and so i needed to have somebody
with me i wasn't qualified i wasn't
prepared to do this and what happens in
many communities and i can see it
happening here there's a few sincere
individuals they start handling social
problems and suddenly the whole world is
on their back
and you they get burnt out
because there's only so much you can
take as an individual
and the emotion that will come into you
from dealing with with social problems
we need training
and so we established this center
we established a hotline
a telephone line that people could call
when they were in crisis
and
after two years we were receiving 5 000
phone calls per year
and registering it
and we opened up the office like a
doctor's office
the imams cooperate with the doctors
with the lawyers with the social workers
with the psychiatrists and we make a
list
we have a database of all of the muslim
professionals in our area so if a person
has a drug related problem then we find
the muslims who have been involved in
detox
if a person has a psychological problem
then phone a muslim psychiatrist if a
person has an economic problem we have a
brother who's working in the government
we have another one who's an accountant
the person has a legal problem there are
muslim lawyers you have a list you have
a data bank of information and so when
the hotline when you answer the phone
the person is trained
to deal with crisis
it's a crisis
people are calling in you're trained to
deal with the crisis
and then you either put them on to
somebody else
or you bring them into the office and
the social worker
works along with the imam
and so sharia
is the limits it sets the limits
we don't go outside of the limits of
islam but also we benefit from the best
professionalism that is in our community
and so we handled counseling
we handled
family problems youth problems housing
marriage
abuse problems
so many problems of abuse behind the
veil
we also gave people referrals
we referred to immigration problems
housing social assistance
legal problems
shelters food banks
employment centers
health
muslim community resources
we got the the green book we had set up
with all the resources in the community
also education
we had classes for deaf muslims hearing
impaired
because you may have some hearing
impaired muslims and what we developed
and this is another level which which i
make
as a suggestion when we had a speaker
come we would have a signer standing
right here
and the deaf muslims would sit uh there
near the signer he would listen and he
would do the signs
so they would get the lecture also
and there are many hearing impaired
muslims that need to hear the word of
allah
also guidance counselors
education
islamic heritage dawah classes training
and development burial services
also community development
our community is in in crisis or in the
midst of a society in crisis so we need
to have discussions and programs along
with our ficonopida
anti-violence
health
anti-racism
youth employment
consultation
recreation
youth development
camps develop out of this
workshops training think programs for
the youth
and so we we we developed this
institution to empower the community
and sisters need to be empowered
not only just reading the books
but sisters need to have skills
and when we are involved in education we
naturally continue to practice our islam
we wear our clothing
we are modest male and female
and if we have to sacrifice our islam
then we're not going to be involved but
if we can go out and get the education
then we need it for our community
sisters need to be empowered with skills
education
also even physical training
the sisters need physical training as
well
but that might sound strange to you but
you know what happened to us in toronto
we had a rapist
and he only raped muslim women
or
shaytan or a devil out of hell
only followed the woman with with a skit
with with scarf
okay so then we train the sisters
so the sisters started to take what they
call a window
a soft form of self-defense wendell and
so when she finished the course she
broke a board
and it said zainab
broke this board
on april 22 2001
and she went home and put it over her
bed
and the next time her husband was about
to hit her he looked at the board
and he said masha allah to vatikallah
masala
and then he remembered the ayah
well um
and their affairs are handled in mutual
consultation
and so it empowered the sisters
alhamdulillah they caught the rapists
they got them
threw him in jail
but the sisters realized then they were
empowered
and they needed this
it's part of the islamic personality
they are attacking people with hijab in
other countries
i don't know if it's happening here i
don't believe it's happening yet but in
france
and in quebec
in canada and other parts you can be
attacked on the street
if you are wearing the scarf
and so it is happening in western
countries and it will eventually come
forward the stronger the muslim world
gets and the weaker the western world
gets and so we need to be empowered
we need to fear allah subhanahu ta'ala
and we need to close our ranks
and i leave you i say this to myself
with all sincerity
it takes
long for lasa naha wabain allahi hijab
fear
the dua or the call
of the oppressed
there is no barrier in between that and
allah and i ask the sisters to forgive
us
forgive us
we don't know what we're doing
i asked the brothers
if you are on the right path
alhamdulillah if you have made a mistake
we need to make toba
and we need to ask allah subhanahu wa to
have mercy on us and and to empower our
families and to give us the strength to
stand up to this tidal wave of kufa that
is growing in the society today i leave
you with these words and i ask allah to
forgive me and forgive you apollo holy
be