 is 1400 years ago. It's the ninth of Muharram, the night of Ashura. You leave your tent because you hear noises outside. You come outside and you see people leaving in their hundreds and thousands. For a split second, your eyes fall on the face of Muhammad ﷺ and next to him, Aba al-Fadl al-Abduas, and you really see the sadness and sorrow in their faces. So there and then you decide you're going to stay, knowing full well what's going to happen to you when the morning comes. So the morning comes, it's the day of Ashura. You're now the 73rd companion of Imam al-Hussain, of Aba Abdullah. You go to him to offer your service and he leaves it in your hands. He says you can help me in whatever way you like. So for example, you can go and bring back water with Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas. You can try to protect the women and children from being beaten. You can help to bring back the severed bodies of the companions. You can try to console the Imam al-Hussain. Where would you like to offer your services? What would you want to do on that day? Well, first of all, I think it's a very interesting question. And ironically, throughout Muharram, throughout the lectures, these kind of questions actually come from my head. I don't know if I'm the only person, but I'm sure a lot of followers about al-Bait have a similar kind of thoughts that go through their head. What would I do and how would I do? Well, I choose the right path or the wrong path. And one thing always has resonated with me, one of the Imam. Imam Zain al-Abdin, alayhi salam. I feel like because of his illness, because of his weakness, he couldn't defend the women. I believe we're all men. We are able to fight for ourselves. We don't need any support. We can have support. It's not necessarily a thing to survive. But especially for a woman, she wasn't created for this. Her body is not designed for the torture of the wives, and the sisters, and the family. So if I had a choice to ever be in service like in the days of Imam Zain alayhi salam, I would definitely have supported the wives and the sisters of the Ahl al-Bait. And the reason for that is because I think it is for a man to protect, a man is created to provide, to protect a family, a woman. So I think, is that okay? Is that with you? It's completely up to you. So it's something that always has hurt me when I feel and it has always like ashamed me that I had to come to a certain extent where Zain had to reply to Yazin, right? Because there's no one else to support her. It's not a single man. They're all killed and martyred, right? So from my perspective, from the way I was growing up and everything, I have four sisters, three sisters actually, and I've always cared about women. I've always understood the value of a woman in a family, in society. And there are some certain things that it's out of control of a woman. I know we're moving to an independent stage where women are becoming very independent and they're working and there are some aspects about a woman that can never be changed. And I think a man should always be there to provide and to protect a woman. So that's where my position would have been. So now imagine one day you come home from work, you open your house door, you see your family are all frantically running around the house. You mentioned you have three sisters. One of your sisters is preparing fruit, another one food, another one tea, and your mom, your dad are all gathering stuff as if you have a guest at your house. So you come up to one of them and you say, what's going on? Why is everyone so ecstatic, so excited? And one of them replies, someone's come to see you. So you say who? And they say, well he's waiting for you in the living room. So you come to the living room, you open the door, you walk inside and you see Aba Abdullah al-Hussain, alaihi salam, sitting there waiting to see you. Now in that moment, what would you like to say to him? What would you like him to say to you? I'd like to thank him. I think if it wasn't for Aba Abdullah al-Hussain, alaihi salam, we wouldn't have Islam and I truly, truly believe that. And if it comes to one religion, I sometimes go to churches to see how they operate, right? I have Jewish friends, I have atheist people in my work. And there's not a single religion that ever designated me and made sense to me as much as Shiaz, as much as Islam. Okay? And I know the sacrifice of Imam al-Hussain, alaihi salam, kept this religion intact, kept this religion alive and to be even more specific and more powerful if it wasn't for Imam al-Hussain's sacrifice, right? I don't think people would still believe in the Prophet. I don't think we, I believe the story of Karbala connects us to Islam. And in a way, because you have to remember that we're 1,400 years further down the line. We haven't seen God, we haven't seen the Prophet, we haven't seen Imam al-Hussain, we haven't met Imam Ali, alaihi salam. So for us to believe in something because of a story like Karbala, how powerful must the soul of Karbala mean? I know there's a lot of sacrifices that have been made, a lot of families that have been hurt, a lot of damages that could never be cured. But the vision that Imam al-Hussain had to keep this religion of his grandfather alive had to be accomplished through his sacrifice. So in the instant where I'm standing in front of Imam al-Hussain, I definitely want to thank him that we have such a thing like Islam, where you're allowed to do this, you're not allowed to do that, you have a structure in our life. Even when I feel lost in my professional life, I look back towards Islam and I know, listen, I'm on the right path, this is just temporary. I have bigger dreams, I have bigger aspirations in life, right? So what would I like for him to tell me? That's a tough one, I'm not gonna lie. Reassurance, reassurance would be a good thing to get from a man like Imam Hussain. Like you know, you've had faith in us, we'll be there for you. Although you weren't there with us 40 years ago, we'll be here 1,400 years later, right? And we know because you've had faith, you've kept our principles alive, you've shared our story with other people, we'll be there for you one day. I think that's a blessing, I think that's a ticket, you know? And what else could you ask for? What else could you ask for, right? So, at the start I asked you about 1,400 years ago, obviously knowing what you know about Ashurah, knowing what you know about the events that took place, albeit just maybe 1% of the actual things that happened. A lot of people often forget that we have an Imam amongst us in this day and age and it might be easy to say if I was there I would do this and I would do that and I would help this and I would stop that. But we have an Imam today who's in his absence basically given us the choice in how we decide to serve him, in how we want to aid him on his mission. So how do you think you've helped the 12th Imam and laugh us in his reappearance in your lifetime and what do you think we should do going forward in terms of being a person he can rely upon, that he can trust, that he can turn around and say actually this person is a companion of mine or like you said come and say you know what you've been good to me, I've got your back. I believe justice is the answer to that question. I believe there's a reason why the story of Karbala existed and the reason why Imam Ali went through hardship and the reason why Imam Hassan went through hardship it's all because of justice. And we have justice here today and we see this every single day on a big skill and on a very low skill and I might ask myself, can I one day affect the big skills justice? Maybe I can, maybe I can't. But on a daily life between of mine if I see justice in front of me, I'll oppose it. If I see a guy cheating, stealing, I'll oppose it. Whether that endangers my life, I'll take the risk. And subhanallah not too long ago I've had a junk guy steal one of a kid bike. And now this is a very simple story right while I was having my lunch. Now justice could be done on different kind of levels but this is a very, this is a kid's life, a kid right? A bike is his everything right? It's a big thing for him. The kid starts crying all right? And without hesitance, without a thought of me what shall I do? I just stood up, took the other kid's bike and chased the thief right? Now I left my stuff there, I had my wallet on the table, I had my phone, my laptop. But it didn't matter to me because justice needs to be accomplished here right? So I went then not to make this story too long. I went to get the bike and the guy started attacking me but of course called the police on him, took the bike, went back to the restaurant. The kid was still there, had a couple of guys trying to reassure him right? But the moment he saw me with the bike that smile on his face I'll never forget. Now I'm not saying this is any comparison, I can compare this to what happened a thousand, four hundred years ago. But because of my values and ethics they didn't allow me to just say well tough luck, good it's a hard world right? It's a tough world. Now I'll just do my part in this. And in sha Allah maybe one day I'll get blessed or I'll get the opportunity right? To overcome justice, to overcome these kind of things that are happening in our world on a much larger scale. But these things are out of my control.