 ربما one of the most important books that have been written is the introduction to history and really the treatment of history of Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun had the book title كتاب العبار و ديوان المتدئ والخبر it's the long title it's the history of Ibn Khaldun which is still as a book is read and engaged with so many different specialization it is seen as to be the book that has founded the field of anthropology the field of sociology even his area of division of labor on economics theories of state formation and rise and decline of states and some of your major thinkers today will always in the list of 10 important books to read Ibn Khaldun is often offered as a book to read so his work is really monumental and I think that as we continue to deal with the complexities of what Muslims are facing I wanted for us to maybe to elevate our discussions and our understanding to at least see what Ibn Khaldun was engaging with at the time importantly that Ibn Khaldun is actually also is credited of beginning of the scientific method and he put the scientific method not only in relations to science but also scientific method in relations to the field of social sciences so in one of his books specifically in one of the chapters he says that history as a field or as an understanding it's an art that is subject to being examined of having veracity or a falsehood and he says some people will accept the opinion of people because it matches their group which what we call today is like my group right or wrong and as we know Muslims we tend to be almost falling into this field where our opinion because of our group we accept the opinion without any examination and he says that this is a faulty understanding right he says فمن هت تشيعاته للأراء والمداهب from it is taking the opinions of individuals and particular groups and I know in that history we always say oh masha Allah the Sunnis are together at certain points حنفه is Malik is شافع is would not pray behind each other right in such a way that we actually reach a level of what you call missing the forest for the tree not recognizing that the ultimate goal is for us how to worship Allah rather than trying to prove that أبو حنيفه شافعي مامالك حمد بن حمبل and also other scholars we tried to do defense of them rather than defense of the dean overall so there is this aspect of how we begin to actually undertake this aspect relative to taking the opinions or of sectarian opinions and so on ساكن هي point out to us that sometimes because we value someone highly we begin to actually leave our intellectual capacities and reasonableness to actually ask the question because we assume that the person is of a higher status or magnitude and he says more so also when we have a relationship with somebody of religious status so in essence we begin to almost dispense with our intellect الله سبحانه وتعالى always ask us أفلا يتفكرون don't you contemplate in Allah's creation but also every matter that is introduced to you to reflect this is not a lack of adab it's just a lack of using Allah give you responsibility to yourself we did not ask you to follow my opinion and I don't want you to follow me I want you to examine my opinion أبو باكر رضي الله عنه as soon as he was nominated and took the khilafa he said if I do something right obey me and follow me but if I do something wrong correct me this is أبو باكر رضي الله عنه today in almost the smallest affairs we say we can't as if we are doing putting a pedestal on individuals and that's again leads to misunderstandings both on matters of religion and matters of the world so for example if somebody asks me about issues can you resolve issues of marriage divorce I say I have not done any work on this so I can't help you that's not my field but we assume that just because I'm giving a khutba I'm going to give you what you call from A to Z I'm a specialist in that field I would be practicing psychology, anthropology, sociology, child rearing and so on that's just a completely wrong in our history there is specialization and you go to specialist that's why we know Imam Al-Bukhari he had many different fields but he's understood to be a specialist in hadith and same other ska so we need to make sure that we ask the person appropriate question to their appropriate specialization you don't go to somebody let's say who's a dentist to say can you work on my toe if you're confused about which one is which that's your problem not the dentist's problem or the person who's going to work on your toe so in matters of specialization to understand this third ابن خلدون says that it is the nature of human being to begin to take on fantastical news and begin to convey it fantastical news because again we have in our mind sometimes again in relations to the unseen world that we get into this fantastical world and Allah سبحانه وتعالى differentiate between Islam which is something you practice prayer you see me pray fasting again unless you go in the assumption is that you're fasting hajj its performance you go and see people performing hajj the Shahada chain likewise and zakat all are visible article of faith are unseen right and right so all these are matters of faith so sometimes we accept fantastical narration because it actually gets us into the realm of you know almost a dream world so we need to be very careful that we don't use our faculty that seeks the fantastical news and then we begin to convey it I'd say this because today in the matter of social media the more fantastical than news the more you share it which often again it becomes that not only that you're conveying something that is falsehood but you also you're in matters of religion you are a person that should be the measure of what is truth and what is falsehood الله سبحانه وتعالى gave that وجعلناكم أمة وصطة a middle nation تكونوا شهداء so you'll be witnesses what is the witnesses don't think witnesses is only going in court to be a balance people that actually decipher for the society in these affairs so fantastical stories issues that are there is also for us to recognize now interestingly enough a French scholar who dealt with issues of at the moment of crisis and societies some elements of learned helplessness as well as imposing on oneself a type of incapacity as a citizen he says in moments of difficulties people will be occupied with three things getting their sustenance trying to go and get work and to eat second entertainment in the context of France he said soccer and third that they will be preoccupied with religion in a fantastical way so religion rather being the measure of justice and balance of the society becomes a way to actually escape from what is being asked again الله سبحانه وتعالى says الله سبحانه وتعالى says الله يأمر بالعادل والإحسان والإتائذ القربا God commanded to justice and therefore religion is to actually go around to manifest justice both individually and collectively but because of the crisis we begin to have religion as an escape and he says in particular during that period people begin to be preoccupied with the actions of religions rather than the meaning of religion they will be preoccupied with making sure that the particulars of structures carpet again beautiful carpet they look at the Mabani and Laysa Almaani they can preoccupied with the structures and the forms rather than the meanings and again we see this in general as part of where we are at in relations to our engagement and you could see in the Muslim world two countries went to war over a soccer game again a soccer game people went to war and called their ambassador between Egypt and Algeria over a soccer game there is a person also in Jordan just recently killed as a result of a soccer game and we are not talking about what is happening in England and other places but you could see in here people are taking in here entertainment one but the second is in terms of preoccupation with these aspects relative to the forms rather than the content now Ibn Khaldun also speaks about عصبية and he is one of the early people to speak about what's عصبية as a form of nationalism some of the scholars again look at his writing on عصبية as the early formation of the idea of having nationalism as a foundation he says that in the rise of governance and power عصبية is needed but it has to be remedied or always being balanced with religion that is looking for the best interest of the society now عصبية he argues have won the day over Islam because as the early Muslims were trying to be universal everybody is included it became عصبية a form of Arab Protonationalism early on and that became the foundation and now we have ما شاء الله 55 Muslim countries with a nationalism without cooperation in such a way that we have the organization of Islamic cooperation I call it the organization of an Islamic cooperation because there is no cooperation to the extent that we don't trade with each other Muslim states they don't trade with each other like 90% of their trade is outside their area and anyone that knows business like if you go down to Silicon Valley everything talk about synergy right how we could be synergetic with each other our company, our company we could have mutual relations Muslim worlds don't have synergy with each other they would rather go all the way up to Alaska and possibly Siberia to get a product rather than to go next door which would be there right there with their next door neighbor and in sometimes two villages that actually just there's a line between them that's it they will not actually they will not talk to them they would not sell or buy they would not even have marriage relationship between them and I had a number of cases can you advise us because my daughter or my son are going to marry from across the street right Syria to a Palestinian or Egyptian to a Libyan or a Bangladeshi to a Pakistani is like crisis well 70 years ago you're all part of the same nation 200 years ago you're all part of the same society you could go from China all the way to Spain and you're just a Muslim that's the only thing that you were about today you're just like well you need to be 5-4 you need to be this major and so on and you have to be from the particular village if you're not from the particular it's haram now we have to go to Dr. Phil to resolve the conflict so Asabiyah has been reduced to such an extent that it's just like it's a calamity we don't trade with each other we don't engage with each other we don't correspond with each other and that results in learned failure learned failure again we don't have synergy in business relations we don't have synergy in any other element we don't have synergy in terms of marriage relations especially in this country if your daughter or son are marrying someone from the Muslim you should just do تكبير from here to judgment day usually just like learn how to do تكبير الحمد لله especially in the crisis but they say no no I want somebody from the same village and if it will be from the same yellow house like our house then this is what I want like the insanity is just compounded so this Asabiyah has been really our calamity I do believe Muslims are powerful but they don't understand their power center we just don't we think that is just like if we just got get somebody maybe from whatever consulting company to tell us what it is no you just need to understand what you have there is no lack of resources Muslim lands have plenty of resources every ingredient is there Muslim world is centered on trade routes all across the world you cannot move right, left, north, south, east, west up and down even if you are going to go to Mars you have to pass through Muslim territories waterways and so on talent wise again if you just think about the Muslims in this country but look at it we have a wealth of human capacity I know they say Mashallah there is 1.4 billion people if there is 1.4 billion I am not cooperating then they are zero they are zero because at the basis of it cooperation is what makes strength يدو الله مع الجماعة that's what Allah said what the Prophet SAW said يدو الله مع الجماعة didn't say يدو الله مع المصم الجماعة مع الجماعة people cooperate and there were 4 1.4 billion not cooperating is net effect zero وكمن فئة خليلة غلبت فئة تبيره بإذن الله a small group can outtake a larger group why because they know how to cooperate and therefore there is a net energy value that adds to them again I am a Palestinian I work in Palestine the Jewish Zionist population around the world is less than one-twentieth or one-hundredth of the Muslim population they cooperate they work together again as a person whose work and I need to understand my opposition to see where they are coming into strength versus us lack of cooperation is the cause of our weakness and for that we have where everybody wants to be a leader there is no body follower so we put four of us in one room or three of us in one room we come up with four organizations each one of us has to be a president of their organization and then a fourth organization will pretend that we work together and we say masha'Allah there is a lot of Muslim organizations but again it is four of us who are not cooperating so again I think visiting and considering Ibn Khaldun because he focused on how the society manages how the society benefits what are the bases of rising and power relations not in a bombastic way but how to actually develop a society that at a certain point was the envy of the world and now we are not even on the rank they had a service last week what are the most miserable populations in the world nine out of ten are Muslim countries and then people say well we need to do a hijrah to the Muslim world I said Muslim world are leaving 95 million immigrants and refugees are on the move 65% of them are Muslims and then somebody says I need to do a hijrah I'm just like what are the bases because again you're praying here nobody's actually this person who just did a tweet is 14 years in jail in a Muslim country another person who was invited because he prayed in his own country he's in jail for 12 years you're able to do all your five obligations so I'm really asking the question hijrah to where I can understand Elon Musk wants to go to Mars that's his point but for us what is the question there being asked so really we need to think in the questions both for us in here and the Muslim world and to begin to resolve some of these contradictions that we have within ourselves how we view our religion how we view our work how we view other Muslims and the relations in order to have a collective strength I think we have the ingredients of things is just we have to find ways and compel ourselves to cooperate and ourselves again so don't say I see it this way can you compel yourself because sometimes if it's not my idea he's from the other village I'm not going to take their idea because if I take their idea their village is going to be ahead of us masha'Allah both your village and his village are occupations so what are you both thinking about right so again I'd like to come up with materials for you that makes you think and engage in a higher level because I think for me the Friday خطب is for us to share in materials and information that can get us to think and come out after جمع and hopefully for us to change and alter our perspective so my challenge for you is to find ways for us to cooperate to cooperate in every area يضو الله مع الجمع we celebrate the صحابة right we look at مدينة الأنصار والمهاجرين what happened they cooperated they made brotherhood and sisterhood in a way that transformed history the only place the only time in history where a group that comes destitute from مكة again مهاجرين and the people who receive them give them half of their wealth there is not a single instance in history that you could pointed that's our example they cooperated and through that cooperation they transformed the world that's our point of strength that's what transformed the world don't worry about risk your risk is coming from Allah from the time that your conception in your mother womb your risk is guaranteed to you by Allah when you're in your mother womb and no soul is going to exhaust this life until it gets its risk now distinguish between risk and collecting somebody else's risk many of us work for 20, 30, 40, 50 years your risk but actually all what you work is to give the risk for your inheritors who are going to go and do with it as you want you will be asked about it and also they're not they're just receiving so distinguish between risk and your work for somebody else's risk so let's make Insha'Allah make it a commitment for us to cooperate to transform ourselves both in here and across the world I do feel that this is within our capacity and Allah SWT put us in this world to fulfill his objective for us which is to elevate us above the angels but it is based on cooperation