 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to this exciting new series in which we are going to be exploring an issue that particularly affects our communities in the West but also in other countries as well. It is an issue that sometimes we don't talk nearly enough about and that is how do we welcome new Muslims, convert Muslims, revert Muslims into the Muslim community, into the Muslim family. How do we make them feel that they are part of the ummah? What kind of problems are they facing that we can help with? Now, I'm going to tell you a secret. As a wise person once said, good advice is good advice. And the advice that we're going to be discussing on these programs is not only useful to help those people who are converting to Islam, but is also good advice for everyone, perhaps yourself or people you know. Because some of us may be facing some of the same challenges and situations as people who convert to Islam, especially if we're on our own. Perhaps someone, for example, comes to the United States as a PhD student from Muslim country or doesn't have any family. Maybe they don't have practicing Muslim family or for whatever reason maybe they're returning to Islam. Many of the things we discuss on these programs will be relevant to many people. Albeit the main focus is with respect to how to find some practical solutions to some of the challenges that new Muslims face. Because it is very sad. Do you know that out of every 10 people who become Muslim, so every 10 people you can look around the masjid and find 10 new Muslims, seven of them will leave Islam within a couple years. This statistic is astounding. Why would 7 out of 10 people leave Islam? Do they have a problem with Allah? Is it theological? It's very rare that you find people who become Muslim saying, oh, I left Islam because I decided I don't believe in Allah or I don't believe in the Holy Quran or I don't believe in the Holy Prophet. No. Usually it is social issues, community issues, the challenge of finding a Muslim husband or wife, acceptance in the community, access to Islamic knowledge. These are the things that unfortunately drive some people away. It is very sad. But we can change this. We can have a positive outlook to life and inshallah by considering what we can do to make a better community for everyone we can turn this statistic around. Allah tells us to call people to the path of Allah with two things, with wisdom and with good advice. This ayah contains a very straightforward statement, a very straightforward assumption, and that is we should be calling people to Allah. And this is something we may do on a daily basis. You may be calling your children to Allah. You may be calling your spouse or your brothers and sisters to Allah. And also one of the best things we can do within society is invite people to the worship of Allah, not in an annoying way. And we all know what I mean by annoying, like those people who come knocking on your door eight in the morning, they want to tell you why Jesus is going to save you. That can be a bit annoying, but rather in a way which is tactful and appealing to people. And inshallah, they appreciate the discussion whether or not they choose to embrace Islamic monotheism. So, calling people to Islam is an essential part of our religion. But I am going to ask a question. And I would like you to self-reflect on this question. Really, give it some thought. Ask yourself, what do I truly believe? And that is, do you? Do we? Do we truly believe that Islam is the one religion or the correct religion for all peoples and at all times? Now, you may be thinking to give a logical answer and saying, well, yes, of course, Islam is the religion for all people at all times. The Holy Qur'an is for all people. The Holy Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi came for all people. But is this really what we believe? Or is there somewhere inside where we believe that Islam is only for a group of people? Maybe it's for the East. Islam is for the East and Christianity is for the West. Maybe it's for an ethnic group, a language group. Maybe Islam is for people whose parents are Muslims. How can we figure out what we really believe? Let me put forward a scenario. Let's say someone immigrates to the United States from Korea. There was a fair number of people from Korea. And let's say they become a Christian. I'm sure you've met many dedicated Korean Christians. Are Christians going to look at that person in an amazement and say, you converted to Christianity? That's so good. That's so amazing. You're so much better than us. I've never met a Christian who was Korean. Can you come on our television channel and talk about how you became a Christian? All right, that doesn't happen. Why doesn't it happen? Because Christians in the West believe that Christianity is the right religion. They believe that everyone should be a Christian. It doesn't matter where they're from. They actively invite people to Christianity and they think it's normal. Now it is possible that in the olden years, in those medieval olden years, when Islamic civilization had civilizational ascendancy and was the dominant economic and cultural force in the region, it is possible that people had the same sort of blasé approach to people converting to Islam. You're a Muslim. Well, of course you're a Muslim. Who wouldn't want to be a Muslim? Islam is for everyone. But nowadays we know the situation has been reversed. There are some Muslims, even if they won't necessarily say it to your face, they do feel a little bit shy about Islam. Sometimes they feel like Islam maybe isn't good enough. That's why some people get very surprised when they see white people like me who are Muslims because they say, oh, white Americans, white Europeans, your culture is so up there and we're down here nowadays. How could you become a Muslim? If we are thinking like that, that is not only a social issue. That is an issue of faith because part of our faith is to fully acknowledge that the Book of Allah and the Messenger of Allah, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him and his family, are for all peoples and all times. Now, how do we know this? Of course, it is something that is commonly known. But for example, Allah Ta'ala says in the Holy Qur'an, that Allah Ta'ala has sent the Holy Prophet, to all of the peoples. Allah Ta'ala frequently throughout the Holy Qur'an addresses people in general. He doesn't just address Muslims or a specific group. It is a human being oriented book. In fact, he even speaks about the jinn as well. Additionally, the Holy Prophet, also said in the narrations that we have from him, it's narrated that he was sent for not only his people at his time, but all peoples afterwards. And that every people receive the Messenger in their language, except when it comes to the Messenger of Allah, in that his language is Arabic. But he is still the Messenger for all peoples. And as we see today, most Muslims are not even native Arabic speakers. Islam has spread far outside the confines of the Arabic speaking world. So this has not proven any hindrance in communicating the message. And I would point out just in passing that Jesus, peace be upon him, for example, obviously he did not speak English. I mean, he didn't speak English to the masses. I'm not going to get into the theoretical question of whether he could speak English, but he didn't on a practical level. The Old Testament prophets did not speak English. The Bible was not written in English, but Christianity has spread to the English speaking world. Similarly, it should not be a barrier for Islamic source books to be in Arabic. So there are some interesting narrations with respect to spreading Islam. Because the other question that sometimes arises is that, okay, we may agree that Islam is the religion for all people at all times. We don't get unusually surprised if we see people becoming Muslim. We think it's something normal and something good. However, sometimes there is a question in our minds, I mean in our hearts, not necessarily in our minds, but in our hearts about whether we really should be trying to spread Islam. Now, this is one of those areas where we do find at least in the West, there is a bit of Sunni Shi'i divide on this issue, and that the Sunni community, by and large, I'm not saying 100%, but by and large, they tend to invite people to Islam quite actively. You find people giving out books about Islam, they're there to answer questions, a new person comes to the mosque, they welcome them, welcome brother, welcome sister. I'm not saying the community doesn't have its challenges, but this is one area where they're doing quite well. However, sometimes in the Shi'i community, we find the opposite, even if someone wants to come and learn about the Shi'i school of thought, they can't get answers. People don't always want to talk about them, no one perhaps will speak to them when they go to an Islamic center or a mosque. So, this is definitely one area of improvement. And there isn't the same culture among many of the Shi'a, for various reasons, that we should be doing outreach work. Now, of course, when we look at the time of the imams, peace be upon them, the Shi'a were the ones who were actively spreading the teachings of Ahl al-Bait, alayhimu s-salam, among the people, whether they did it overtly in terms of calling people to the imamate or whether they did it covertly, one can say, because of the political situation at the time, whereby they couldn't necessarily always say that they were followers of the imam. So, how did the imams feel about this? Now, very frequently we hear the narration saying, be silent callers to us, right? Call people to our path, though Islam, Ahl al-Bait, alayhimu s-salam, with other than your tongue. We've all heard that, right? So, sometimes some people get the idea that we shouldn't call people to Islam. But is this the only narration we have about calling people to Islam? The Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, did he call people to Islam without speaking? Did he only call people to Islam through his good behavior? Does this mean that we're not supposed to speak about religion at all? And, of course, it does not. Even in the ayah of the Holy Qur'an, which we are just discussing, it says that we should invite people to the way of Allah, to Allah. And this was the sunnah of the prophets. As a matter of fact, we even have a narration from imam, alayhimu s-salam, that speaking, in terms of speaking versus silence, speaking is good when it is inviting people to the way of Allah, because this is the sunnah of the prophets. So, this narration, to call people to Islam or to the path of Ahl al-Bait through other than speaking, it has a good message. The good message, of course, is that our actions speak louder than words, and people will be more influenced by your good behavior, your honesty, your reliability, your hard work, and so on. Then, if you just sit there and talk about all these things, but it doesn't mean that you don't speak about Islam at all. We have so many narrations, also encouraging us to speak about Islam. There's one in particular I find that's, at least for me, I find it very relevant when living in the West. And that is, someone came to al-Imam Asadik, alayhimu s-salam, and he was concerned. He said, I live most of the time, or I go and visit a place, which is a place of polytheists. So, polytheism is the main religion there, and people are telling me that if I die there, I will be raised among them. So, he was worried, basically, about living in a non-Muslim country. So, the Imam asks him. He says, when you are living in this land of the polytheists, do you invite people to the way of Allah and to our cause? So, he says, yes. Then, the Imam asks him, when you are here in this Muslim country, maybe even in this area with many shia, do you call people to our cause? He says, no. So, the Imam tells him that if you pass away when you are living among these polytheists, you will be raised up as an entire ummah, all on your own, and light will be shining in front of you because of his efforts to call people to the way of Allah to Allah. And, indeed, it's related from the Holy Prophet, that anyone who is a cause for inviting someone to Islam is guaranteed jannah. Masha'Allah, who doesn't want to be guaranteed jannah? Now, of course, I want to emphasize that latter point in the narration, a cause of calling people to Islam. Many times when someone becomes a Muslim, people ask questions like, well, who converted you? Who was the one who made you a Muslim? We don't do that. I don't do that. You don't do that. Guidance comes from Allah. This is why we say, Alhamdulillah, We thank Allah for guiding us to these things. It's when Allah wishes to open someone's heart to the truth that, insha'Allah, we will follow the path of faith in Allah and his messenger, and Ahl al Bayt, alayhumu s-salam. However, insha'Allah, may Allah give us the blessing to be causes in that way. So I hope, insha'Allah, these few thoughts have given all of you something to reflect on, because first and foremost, I think this is an issue of reflection, that we have to sort out in ourselves before we make a change in the community. Do we really believe that Islam is the religion for all people and all times? Do we really believe that we should be inviting people to Islam? And if we do, then how can we express those values in society? Stay tuned for another exciting episode on this very important subject.