 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to this series in which we are exploring the many ways in which we can be a united community, a united ummah, and indeed a united human family by uniting in all of our diversity. In the previous episodes, we were looking at different ways we can integrate different groups of people, which I or you may or may not consider ourselves a member of. Maybe cultural minorities, religious minorities, people with obvious disabilities, things that make them different. Today we are going to look at a different group, indeed a different subject, a subject you know a lot about, and that subject is you. That's right, yourself. Instead of looking at how we can be inclusive of others who are different from ourselves and to try to appreciate and benefit more from their contributions, I would like to turn the entire subject around now and look at the subject from the inside looking out. How do you deal with being different? You may feel different from other people. Now you may not feel different from people. It depends on who you happen to be, but I know some of you out there feel different. It may be something that's just innate. It may be a personality difference. You may be extremely introverted for example, extreme introverts sometimes feel like they don't fit in. You may be physically different from other people. Your family circumstances may be different from other people's. You may have a medical condition that makes you different. You may be the only Shi'i for example in your city. You may be the only Muslim in your city. I can guarantee that the vast majority of Muslim sisters living in non-Muslim countries who wear headscarves and even some in Muslim countries as well feel different on a daily basis. Indeed, just being a Muslim in some areas can make you different or a cultural minority. There are so many things that make us feel different from other people. This can be difficult. I'm not going to lie about it. If I may be colloquial, I'm not going to make any bones about it. It is difficult being different. It is stressful being different. People are sometimes hostile and non-accepting to people who are different. And I'm sure all of us have experienced that in one way or another throughout our lives and we know it is painful. And that is why we wouldn't want to do the same thing to someone else, of course. However, the things that make us unique are also our strengths. They are also things we can draw on to provide our own unique contributions to the world and with respect to the Muslim Ummah, to provide our own unique contributions to the Muslim community. After all, if we were all the same, then we would have a very boring community and it wouldn't grow. And when we think of truly great people in history, were they like everyone else? The Prophet. Was he like everyone else? Did he go out and worship the idols like everyone else? Was he engaging in the tribal raids like everyone else and God forbid, burying girl children like everyone else? No. The Prophet was different. He was different in a good way, of course. He was different in a way that made people look up to him. But to be honest, when Islam was new, sometimes they would make fun of him. But he stayed strong in the face of opposition. And those who chose Islam from the beginning and the early Muslims, they also stayed strong in the face of opposition and said, yes, we are going to be different because we are doing what we believe is right. And now, Alhamdulillah, many, many people in the world support and remember them. So many people, whether it is Rasulullah, or even great artists, great authors, great thinkers, have been a little bit different. And that's okay. As long as these are differences in a good way, such as being different in terms of maybe being committed to a certain interest, being committed to worship, staying strong to your beliefs, and so forth. There are also life challenges that make us different. However, many people, when you ask them, if you had a choice, for example, you went through something that's very difficult, whatever it happens to be, or even something happened to you physically. Perhaps you had an accident that changed your body in some manner. Many people would actually say in retrospect that they wouldn't want to not have gone through this, that although these experiences were very painful and very traumatic, they also shaped them into the people they are today. They made them more compassionate, wiser, and able to give more back to the world. And that's really a testament to the human spirit, that people who do go through immense suffering nonetheless look back and value it and say, yes, this has made me who I am. Likewise, whatever you have gone through in life has made you into who you are. And this also has given you special ways in which you can use your experience and the understanding and empathy you've gained through it to be able to contribute more to the world around you. What are some other ways we can benefit from being different or deal with being different, despite all of the challenges? One thing to remember is that Allah Ta'ala creates all of us in the way that He wills. He has perfected His creation. He says this in the Holy Qur'an when He says, اللذي احسنة كل شيء خلقا, that He has perfected the creation of everything. He did not exclude you from that, nor did He exclude me. Sometimes we feel very down on ourselves if something makes us different from other people. However, in the eyes, proverbially speaking, of Allah Ta'ala, He has made us according to how He willed. And He's also not going to be judging us according to these material standards. He's not going to judge us about what we look like or whether we have eczema or whether our parents are divorced or whether we're divorced for that matter or what language we speak or whether we stutter when we speak or whether, you know, we fill in the blank, anything else. He is going to judge us according to whether or not we lived with belief and in a manner which was ethical and we did the best that we could in the circumstances we are in. He's not going to judge us based in our circumstances, right? We all know this intrinsically. He's not going to say you go to heaven or hell because you're in a wheelchair or you're unemployed or you're widowed or adopted or whatever it happens to be. He's going to say either, you know, you believed in me and did things with good intentions and you did your best to make right decisions, you know, did you harrow the nefs or you didn't. That's what He's going to judge us on. Now other people, granted, they judge us in all sorts of ways, but when it comes to standing before Allah, many, you have these material things in the life of this world are no longer going to be significant to Him. What we're going to take with ourselves is what we do to our own souls, how we react to things and also our deeds, whether we acted for good or for ill in this world according to our capacity. So remembering that can help us to keep things in perspective. Also being different from other people, although it can be a bit stressful and challenging and tiring, we all know. Nonetheless, it can be an opportunity when people notice these differences to help educate people a bit more about the variety of the human species. So for example, some of us might have had the experience of being the only Muslim in our class during the month of Ramadan, all right? So you may have to explain to people about fasting. Why are we fast? It's in the Holy Quran. What it means to be a Muslim and so on and so forth. It gets tiring, but at the same time, it is an opportunity to have a special role to spread who we are and what we believe in. And it's not only about religion. Like I said, it cannot have to do with anything. That makes you different from other people. And so this will actually elevate you in the eyes of other people, inshallah, if they are people of wisdom. Another thing to remember is that while human beings, we do like, generally speaking, to be social, in the end it is important that we can be content with ourselves and with Allah Ta'ala. Now that is, we should appreciate the company of other human beings. And indeed, socializing with the believers. The mu'minin and mu'minat is something which is very recommended. At the same time, it's good to be comfortable enough with ourselves and with the presence of Allah that we're not so dependent on human beings that we want to change essential aspects of ourselves to try to please them so we fit in. Human beings do have this desire for belonging, obviously. It's very natural. We do all sorts of things to try to fit in better in society. But we feel best when we're accepted as we are. We're all of our quirks and differences and situations and whatnot. We like being around people who just accept us as we are and encourage us to be better people and to grow. So not encouraging us just to change or pretend to be someone else, but encouraging us to reach the height of our human potential. And also, another thing that is good to remember is that, well, we may feel very self-conscious and sensitive about ourselves and we may feel like everyone is looking at us. And to be honest, in some places they may all be looking at us that most people in the end are more concerned with themselves than they are with you. Because this is human nature again. Most people tend to be very self-centered and while we feel like people are looking at us, judging us and thinking about us, we're only taking up a fraction of their brain. They're really thinking, what do I look like? What are people thinking of me? How am I coming across? What does this person think of me? And so on and so forth. And so keeping that in mind does help to put some perspective and remind ourselves that, well, we feel like the universe is staring at us sometimes. And I would reiterate occasionally, the universe does stare at you, especially if you happen to be right here on television. Nonetheless, in the end, people tend to be thinking more about their own situations and especially if you're not their relative or family member, then their concern with you is likely very tangential. Now, there will be people who are negative, especially if you're online. People can be very negative online. People will say the most astoundingly impolite things online about people, ethnic slurs, slurs on people with disabilities, making fun of people's accents, making fun of people's weight, making fun of people's appearance and wrinkles and God knows what else that they would never say in person, I don't think anyway. You just have to let these people go. There is no need to have negative people around you. Sometimes you just have to look at people and say, this person is acting that way because they're insecure inside themselves. That if they were truly a person who was healthy inside, they would not be making fun of me for my height or my shoe size or my skin color or my accent or my language or my nationality or my, you know, whatever it happens to be, whatever situation you happen to be facing. In fact, this is even narrated in Hadith. I think it's from Imam Hassan al-Askari, that when people act like that towards you, it's because they've got an inner insecurity. And so remembering that and ultimately keeping our focus on what is most important, that is pleasing a lot to Allah and through that, trying to interact with people in the best way that is possible. Insha'Allah, this will help us to flourish in our differences. And although the road is rough when you feel you are different from other people and the road is rough when you are significantly different from people, insha'Allah this will help you to make the best contributions to the world as well as to the faith. Thank you for joining us. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.