 So my name is Saddam Safavi. I am president of the board for Carer San Francisco Bay Area. I've been on the board for Carer since 2018 and I'm also an attorney. I've practiced immigration law and I've been practicing law since 2003. In my free time during the pandemic I also helped co-found a Muslim mental health non-profit here in the Bay Area along with Dr. Renia Allah, different familiar with her. And so I come to you from a variety of perspectives and I'm really excited to be here this morning. I'm very excited because my brothers come all the way from Stockton. I'm from Sacramento myself so I'm very happy when I see folks from the San Joaquin Valley. But in any event I've been involved in the Bay Area Muslim non-profit space for a little while now. And from 2007 I was a board member for ICCNC in Oakland. I'm also a board member of NCIC which is a it's the NorCal Islamic Council which is an umbrella organization of Muslim non-profits. And in any event I'm really excited to be here and spend this Sunday morning with you. And that's probably enough about me. I'll tell you some personal things. I live in Danville. I'm nearby. I'm originally from Sacramento. My family is of Iranian ancestry. I have two daughters both of whom go to schools in San Ramon even though we live in Danville. And in my free time I love going to Halifaz. I love reading. I am an avid reader. I love fantasy and historical fiction. Just you know English literature. And I love hiking and camping. So that's enough about me. So today we're going to be looking at capitalism understanding trade inequalities. What does that even mean to you guys? I'm just looking for one person, one brave person. Maybe my history buff? No? What does capitalism mean to any of you? Nobody? Okay. How do you? Okay. So it's related to power. I think that's really important. And what about you? I thought you were raising your hand. No? No. Okay. Okay. So this session provides a platform for all of you to understand the machinery and the power dynamics within a global capitalist economy. A global capitalist economy. As well as the tools and frameworks for combating economic injustice. I'm going to stop for one moment. I know people probably go through the summary really quickly. But I just want to ask you, what does economic injustice mean to you? Because I don't want to throw around big phrases and then have it just kind of, you know, go over our heads. What does economic injustice mean? What does injustice mean? Not fair. Right on how to, like, drove all the way from Stockton, giving all the answers. If I had gold stars. So injustice is something that's not fair. What's economic? What is it related to? Jobs and money. Jobs and money. Right on. Sarah. Thank you for answering. So we're looking at the tools and frameworks for combating economic injustice. We're going to play a game called the trading power game, which God help you. I have never played, but I'm going to be guiding you. So it'll be the blind leading the blind with Wismann helping us out to better understand the asymmetries of power between economic producers and also how international trade law comes into existence. Just try to understand what's going on in this world. Why are things the way they are? Right? Why are some countries afforded a certain status on the world stage? And other countries are perpetually afforded another status on the world stage. And then understanding in the middle of all of that, where do me as Muslims stand on these issues? And what are the sources that we can draw upon spiritually and religiously to help guide us, to help calibrate us as we move forward in these discussions? And we're going to have a breakout session at the very end to look at those Islamic ethics of wealth and kind of debrief ways that we can combat economic injustice in our own lives and think about the types of consumer choices we make and also the types of commitments we're going to make for the future. Okay? So we have some official learning objectives here folks and this is what we're looking at. We want to understand the power dynamics by which international trade laws come into existence. So we're looking at what is going on between these countries that creates disparities between various nations, right? We're also looking at how global economic production takes place and how those priorities or prerogatives maximize profit and then short change workers. So you guys might have, I mean the simplest example I think of that when I was in college, the thing that really upset me was textile workers. Like you would have brands like Nike, Adidas, you know, take any brand gap and you would pay a certain amount for that item, right? And then when you found out what is the worker in Bangladesh yet and what are the conditions under which they have to live so that you can get that item for, you know, $20 or $30, right? So this is how it relates. It connects you here as the consumer to the people who are actually on the ground in the world, in many cases in the Muslim world and the injustices that are created through that system. Thirdly, to gain insight and appreciation of the Islamic ethics of wealth that's present in the Bur'an, in our Sunnah, through the stories of the Ahl al-Bait, the family of the Prophet and through the stories of the companions. And fourthly, to provide practical steps for consumers and economic producers to combat economic injustice through your daily choices and through, you know, steps you're going to take. I have a really, let me see if they're going to be talking about this. We have some key terms. Before we even go to these key terms, I kind of want to know what is the word materialism to you. Yay, Harun, what's up? Everything is based on materials, just that in the world, it's based on how much of something we have. That's good, then. Exactly. So it's putting an undue reliance on the physical matters, right, in our life, the things that are material. What are examples of material items? Come on, sisters, I think you're proud of somebody. I'm not very judgmental. What are the examples of material goods? Yes? Yeah, and what about clothes, right? Spot on. You've got almost all the ones I was thinking of too, right? Gold, jewelry, like these are all status symbols, right? Why does this matter? I'm going to bring one of my favorite quotes. You didn't think, if we were going to talk about capitalism, that I would bring in Rumi, but I'm bringing Rumi in. Do you know what he says? He says, the more one is awake to the material world, the more one is awake to the material world, the more one is asleep to the spirit. Okay, I'm going to cold call some of you. I went to law school. Do you know how terrifying it was? Our professors would call on us and then they would just question us for about 45 minutes sometimes. And we had to read our case law so well that we answered their questions. So it was a role reversal. Instead of going to class and sleeping through college and the professors droning on and on, the professor would come and just interrogate me and all of us for 45 minutes. So what did I just say? The more one is awake to the material world, the more one is asleep to the spirit. So I'm going to ask someone what that means to them. Either raise your hands or I'm going to call on you. Okay, go for it, Sarah. I think it means that when you're like more into you with like the material world, you care more about like buying things. And then you kind of forget about, you know, spiritual things. Like a lot of people, they're like, they go to parties and they want to show off their wealth and they forget to cry. And so you're basically forgetting about your spirit because you're more like into dressing yourself up for the material world. That's beautiful. Yeah, and that metaphor is really profound. The dressing up, right? There's like, there's a sense that it's ephemeral, it's temporary, right? That the spirit is something that's eternal, right? It spans not just today, not tomorrow, not just this life, but eternity. Did anyone else have any thoughts on what that means? Come on, brothers, give me some representation. Show me that you're profound. Thanks, brother. Your name was again? Yasin, okay. I know it was why. Eunice, Yasin, there's some letters there. Well, I think it's like, people can value like their dunya over like the need, right? Some people who focus on this life over the temporary materialistic stuff like carers, you know, jewelry and all that, not realizing it's only temporary. And then because of that, they forget what's going to happen and hereafter, which is eternal, right? So, yeah. That's beautiful. Thank you. I'm learning from you guys, really, with an honor. What are really like subtle ways that we, without even meaning to, kind of value material over the spirit? I know we're talking in theory, this is what some people do, but what are ways that I can reflect on? Because I always, you know, like this is nice, maybe your parents forced you to come. Maybe, you know, someone else told you, you should come. You thought it'd be good for your resume. I don't know. Maybe some of you really, really wanted to be here, right? But for me, when I go to a talk, the first thing I ask myself is what is the benefit of this in my life and the lives of those I care about, right? And then beyond. So when I say the more one is awake to the material world, the more one is asleep to the spirit, how does that happen in our lives? I think someone, yeah, go for it. No, you, the reader, the profound reader. If you have a bunch of stuff for like work and homework and stuff going on in your head, a lot of time it's hard to focus in prayer, at least for me. That is so true and isn't that odd because homework is good, right? Studying fisa bilila is a very good thing. But what happens when it's not fisa bilila, but it's just for ambition? Just. Ambition is good. Don't get me wrong. We need ambition. We need goals. Our nation, our community needs to be, you know, striving for excellence. But what happens when you're just doing it? To be cutthroat at the top of the top for no other reason than just to be, you know, free or ego? That's a great example. Sometimes we're watching movies. Where's my friend who watches movies? Sometimes we're watching movies and it's like, we miss prayers, right? You'll go, you'll go to the theater and there's no concept of time or we'll go shopping. We'll be in the mall. But I was telling Osamon this. This is like my confession. Are you guys ready? For the first time, I've lived in Northern California since I was born. I've been to Cambridge, Massachusetts for four years. I went to law school in D.C. I spent a year in Iran. But aside from that, I've lived here. And I went to West, what is it called? Valley Fair Mall. Yeah, Valley Fair, wherever it is. I went for the first time. And it's mainly because of my 11-year-old daughter. So they say, your children will be your tests, right? So for her, I went there. And of course, with the pandemic, I haven't gone shopping too much, not the shopping's had on, not the going to the malls. But I went there and I'm looking around and I suddenly had this realization that this is a temple of capitalism. And what do we mean when we say temple of capitalism, right? That in the olden days, whenever those olden days were, you would go to the Masjid to meet people. Or you would go to public, like I'm thinking in Iran, for example, there's this amazing Maidan, this amazing plaza that was anchored by the Masjid and surrounded by the bazaar. But everything in that social system rotated around the prayer times. So if you've gone to Hajj, has anyone gone to Hajj? Nobody's gone to Hajj? Oh my gosh, okay. When you go to Hajj, what's really interesting, especially in the shops right next to the hadam, the kala, what was amazing to me is that as soon as prayer time came in, what do you think happened? They closed their shops. But they just left it. You know what I mean? It wasn't like they took all their things in, put down this big gate, this like cage, no, no. They just left it and they went and prayed. They left it in the hands of Allah, right? And that's how it was. So you would have these public spaces, a beautiful plaza in the middle, right? There would be a bazaar around it and it was anchored by the Masjid and that's where you would meet people. And life rotated around the natural rhythm of prayer, okay? Why do I say that? Because you go into a mall and you lose sight of everything. There's no clocks. You almost, there's not even a lot of windows in the stores. Like do you see a lot of windows when you go into Macy's, right? You make a point of just having you lose track of everything in the pursuit of worshiping materials, consumption. And all of this is the groundwork for capitalism. I'm really sorry. I know this was supposed to be like a five minute thing that I thought it would be helpful for us to just have a little bit of groundwork on these ideas. I hope you're finding it helpful. So having discussed those objectives, we're going to kind of jump into the power trading game. Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's go through the terms. Pardon me? That's perfect if we can do that. So did you guys get this power of, I'm sorry, capitalism and consumerism key terms? You got it? Okay. Let's have everybody just read one sentence and just, if you don't mind me, can you pass it around? And we can just go straight like that so that brothers and sisters get to read. Capital wealth in the form of money, property, or human resources, which are used by a person or business to make profit. Okay. Consumerism theory that the more stuff people buy, the better it is for our economy and for people in society in general. Do you think that's true? Yeah. You think so? Yeah. That's theory that the more stuff people buy, more stuff you buy, the better it is for our economy and for people in society in general. No, I'm not like, I think that the term consumerism is like really prevalent in our economy. Yeah. And that's completely to more capitalism stuff. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of capital. Thank you. It is based on people making products in order to sell them to others for the purpose of making big profit. An economic system like that works most of the world. Socioeconomic studies is a relative economic and social position based on income, financial resources, education, and occupation. First world. The first world refers to countries that were aligned with the United States during the Cold War were capitalist countries and self-proclaimed democracies. They tended to be wealthier countries with advanced industrial and industrial economies. Almost all of these countries were also colonial countries that colonized or benefited from colonization. After the Cold War, first world came to refer to countries that were wealthier and had more developed industrial economies. So before you move on. Thank you. I, um, this word, first world, what do you guys think about it? Did you guys hear brother's last month? It's really politically incorrect. Maryam, what do you think? You thought you were going to get away? Yeah. Who got to the side? Who got to the side? Let's get him a microphone. I want this to be recorded. I love Edward Said. Right on. Creech brother. I just have to think of Edward Said's Orientalism, right? Creating that hierarchy that those of us here in America or Europe might be wealth. Most of those people live a certain way, right? But anywhere in the East and you are considered foreign, which is our cultures, our families, our history, which is so much more rich and full of, you know, life and values and family values. But we're considered as foreign, considered as lower, exotic, whatever standard that you want. But I don't want to just, the concept of first girl like Maryam is saying is so hierarchical. It's totally anti-Islamic also. It's antithetical to what we value and how we value the world. Basically, we all come from the same creed, the same career, but putting each other first. Creating that hierarchy individually is the opposite of what we preach and what we value. I don't know what Edward Said is looking at, but I'm sure he'd give us two thumbs up. That's beautiful. I mentioned hedge. And nobody thought I would talk about hedge and capitalism, but just to piggyback off of, and someone said, don't say piggyback, say camelback. But just to camelback off of what Osmond just said, how this notion of first world, first place, second place, third place, right? First world, second world, third world is so antithetical to our beliefs. And when does that even, when does that fully manifest for us to see? When I went to hedge, I was 17 years old. And this was, I'm not going to tell you what, I want you to do math. She might not look at me the same after I admit it. Maybe at the end, I'll tell you. But when I went to hedge at 17, I remember going there. Nobody had prepared me for this, but I looked out and I realized for the first time in my life, you know, part of getting ready for hedge is that you in some way say goodbye to the material consumerist world. You actually say goodbye to the doing that in many respects. You don't look at yourself in the mirror. You don't wear jewelry. You know, I don't even remember wearing a watch. You wear a harem, which is an essential uniform, right? You're wearing the same thing that you wear when you pass into the next life. You can't tell who is the wealthy CEO. Who is the attorney or engineer? You can't tell who is the artist or the basket mover. You can't see any of that. All that you can see is how people behave in terms of their character and in terms of their behavior. And really, all of that is a manifestation of their belief in Allah, right? Because your excellence and behavior is often a reflection of you're trying to follow the footsteps of the Prophet and trying to reflect the attributes of Allah in your life, right? So why does any of that matter? Because we're talking about economic socioeconomic status and we're talking about the first world. And I'm trying to take it back for you every step of the way. Take it back to our spiritual underpinnings, our spiritual foundation, right? That these two are not divorced. Sometimes we live in this country and they keep telling us we live the American dream and then on Friday for an hour we're going pray and then we'll go right back to your American dream. You know what I mean? Or you have multiple identities. You're a good American here and then you become Muslim in certain isolated places. But what happens if you change that paradigm? What happens if you actually invert it and say that my understanding of my relationship with Allah informs the way I deal with the people around me, with my community, with my society, with the globe, with economics, with politics, with racial justice, with economic justice, right? And what happens is it's a revolution. So that's my comment on first world. If you guys would like to continue, did you want to give it to Medea? Medea, I feel like I know your mom. My name's Rima. Rima and I think I do video. She's also an immigration attorney. Oh that's how I know her. I love your mom. I remember meeting her four or five years ago. And she's an immigration attorney, so send her my send-outs. Would you like me to just go for the third world? Okay. Third world. Third world refers to countries with a colonial past who do not online or the US, the first world, nor the Soviet Union, the second world during the Cold War. The third world will be termed as designated by leaders from those countries who hope to pursue an independent path of economic growth in the post-colonial era. After the Cold War, third world came to describe countries that were poor and had less developed industrial economies. Thank you, Medea. So just to kind of summarize really briefly, so the language that was used, and just to make it a little more even politically relevant, you guys are all familiar with January 6th. What happened? Yeah, like with the Capitol and all of that. One of the interesting comments by a lot of journalists was this doesn't happen here. This only happens in third world nations. So as recent as then and even now, people still persist in using these highly insulting and highly erroneous terms. So, you know, we don't have people storming state houses and the nation's capital. We don't have that. That only happens in third world countries, right? And then there's this kind of more subtle approach which talks about developed nations and developing nations, right? It's a little better, right? It's a little better, but even that is problematic. Osman, you were telling me a little bit about why that might be problematic. I was just, yeah, thinking about developing. I mean, they're developing because capitalist economies and countries take their resources forcefully or through predatory loans or predatory deals, whatever it might be, but they're developing simply because well, we take what they have and their resources. So that's why they're developing. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. So why are they developing? We're just focused on this conclusion. Oh, they're developed and these people are developing. No one asks the question before that. Why are they developed and why are these folks developing? It's a question of resources so there was an article I was reading and just it just stuck out at me. Maybe you'll find it interesting too. There's this gentleman, Dr. Aburaj Karan says he adds to these objections and he says there is no third world. There were the oppressed and the oppressors. Okay, the oppressors, he said, often took resources, like Osman says, from the countries they colonized, a reason that he's not a fan of the term low resource to describe countries that lack the wealth of Western nations. I don't know how many resources England had, really. I mean, they had some like mines, but why were they going around to Sri Lanka, the subcontinent and going through Iran and looking at these countries for oil and natural resources? So really, these developing countries, these third world nations are actually the resourced countries, these abundantly fertile countries with all these different resources that these nations just came and co-opted and took over. So that's a little bit on the key terms, inshallah. So let's move on to the power trading game. Okay, so the rules are all up here for you to look at. If you can't see them, I'm going to read them for you once, inshallah. Okay, folks. So the first rule is you can trade with anyone in your group. It doesn't matter if, oh, actually, forget anyone in your group or it can be anyone in another group. Yeah, you can walk around, visit your peers. You can trade with anyone here. Both individuals have to hold up their hands to make the trade, so you both have to be in agreement. Once your hands are up, you have to trade. Okay, no going back, no written ID. If you can't agree on a trade, you have to keep your hands up and you can't trade with anyone else. So if you don't play well, you're kind of out of the way. You can't trade coins of the same color. Okay, because it would be pointless. You can only trade different colored coins and you have to keep the same number of coins at all times. So no two for one, three for one trades. And if you don't want to trade, you just keep your arms folded. And the person with the least amount of points at the end of each round will get kicked out of the game. Okay, let's see how this plays out on the global stage. So can you tell me first of all, I started asking the team right here, can you give me some examples of real life, real world examples of who is part of the first world? Yeah, France, Western, UK, like, basically like Western Europe, and also Northern America, and then like some parts of like, you know, like China, Japan. Actually, Japan right now, I think China is in this interesting situation. That's like a, that's a good question right now. That's definitely very powerful. What are some commonalities that you notice between all these countries? Like you kind of said right here, but take it away, Sarah. Like so-called democracy. And love stealing. Love stealing. Yeah, they love taking resources from other countries, not sharing their resources. The countries have the cultural influence in order to like kind of establish what first world means? Anyone else? So one thing that I noticed when I was looking, and you kind of picked up on this, you said Western European countries by and large, although Italy was stuck in there too. One thing I would say is, are you guys familiar with the term colonialism and imperialism? And what does that mean? It's okay, it doesn't have to be a perfect definition, just like what you think it means. That's what matters to me. It's like when powerful countries kind of go to other countries and like enslave their people, take their resources, and they say it's for their own benefit. When in reality they're benefiting off of this other country's resources and their misery actually, because they're getting all that free work, that free labor, free resources, and then later on when they have benefited completely, they'll be like, oh they're just a developing nation. Do we think the United States would have been the power that it was if it hadn't been fueled off of the blood, sweat, and tears of the African slaves? No, absolutely not. We have to look a little further back, right? Medina, what were you going to say? I was going to add that one important part of colonialism that I think is the saddest is that when they enter in for resources, they also force the people living there to change their culture and their beliefs and their way of living, and the whole system there is completely altered, and like one of the best examples is like when the British came to India, and even today there's so many examples of things that are in the so-called Pakistani culture that are actually like embedded there by the British and that didn't exist before, and I think that's one of the saddest things that they're forced to change their own culture. I want you to come and sit here and I'll go sit there. Spot on, do you have any examples of aspects of Pakistani culture that was altered? I mean, one of the most basic examples is something really small that we're going to think much of. It's not necessarily of the 90s, but like the small things I noticed like Jai time, Jai down here and back, it definitely is like something that's from the British, and I'm sure it's also the major example that are more impacting negatively, but that's one of the small ones I have. I want to support a lot. It's really ironic that she says this because a few days ago I took my kids to Starbucks, and I don't go to Starbucks often, but there was no other coffee shop near the movie theater that I was going to take them to, and as we were sitting there, you know, if I go to a Starbucks, I'm always trying to be very conscious about going there, and I said, you know what's really interesting? You guys know that coffee came from the Yemeni traders, right? That's why it's called tahtha. Tahtha and coffee are linguistically very similar words actually, and in countries such as Iran, traditionally we had coffee houses until the British came and then brought tea from the subcontinent that they got how much off in the backs of the farmers from there, and then forced these trade agreements so that it displaced coffee coming from Muslim Yemeni traders, and we were forced to trade with the British, so it changed the whole culture. So when I go to Iran and I tell people this, that we actually used to have tahtha. We would have coffee houses, we didn't have tea houses, right? It's really interesting. The funny thing is, what do we all know about being in this country and knowing a little bit about US history? There's a famous thing that happened in Boston relating to tea. Awesome. Yeah, it's Boston Tea Party, and what was that all about? This is all about international trade. I mean, it sounds like, you know, we're talking about random things, but it's all coming together. What happened with the Boston Tea Party? The tea in the harbor? Yeah. Yeah, so the tea was dumped in the harbor because they didn't want to trade with England because ironically, the US recognized that this was an unfair trade agreement, and now look at what's happening, right? So they recognize that then 200 years later, they don't recognize what they're doing. So anyway, I hope we got some of those reflections clear for you guys, and we're going to kind of move on and look at the Islamic ethics of wealth and kind of tie all these different pieces together. You guys have a little flyer, and I would love to have you, those of you who happened to open up, yeah? Yeah. So what I'm going to do is, where's the microphone? Can we bring it up here because I think the folks in the front have it. Maybe we will choose, we'll start with the verses of the Qur'an. If everybody can just read one verse, and then we'll answer some questions together. It says discussion on Islamic ethics as well. You can see if it's on, the little green light will go on. Fatima, could you check to see if this is all? And then speak up because I have a job hearing. Okay. And why do you not spend in the cause of Allah while to Allah belongs to the heritage of the heavens and the earth? Beautiful. I'm actually going to stop there for a moment. What does that mean? And why do you not spend in the cause of Allah while to Allah belongs to the heritage of the heavens and the earth? Can anyone write that down for me? I would rather, instead of have us going through 10 verses, I'd rather have us like dig a little deeper and look at one verse and see how that relates to our lives. And why do you not spend in the cause of Allah while to Allah belongs to the heritage of the heavens and the earth? My history buff. Oh yeah. You don't have to be a shith. Allah gave you the faculty of thinking. Why do you not spend for me when I created that history? Like, why do you not spend when I gave you to the heritage of the heavens and the earth? So you must give me my new applications, right? Because I gave you that provision. I gave you that test. So why are you not spending in the cause of Allah? That's beautiful. You got it. 10 out of 10. So everything in creation, everything in your imagined, everything belongs to Allah, right? And he gave us a portion of this. And then he reminds you that this is all alone, that it all comes from him. And then we're suddenly acting stingy, like we don't want to give back. If we're individuals, we don't want to give back to those who are need. If we are countries, we see ourselves so removed and we have forgotten where it comes from. You know, like the whole idea of scarcity is really important here. Because what you're ultimately saying is that there are scarce resources. There's not enough. And so, oddly enough, I was reading an interesting critique of capitalism. Don't judge me in Teen Vogue. But just so ironic, like the irony is not lost on me. You guys are all familiar with Vogue Magazine, right? Vogue, right? So it's like French word for fashion. So it is this like symbol of materialism and consumerism. Ironically, Teen Vogue, there was a critique of it. And you know what they said? They said that capitalism posits that greed is good. But at the end of the day, if you were to get really simplistic about what capitalism is about, it's saying that greed is good. That having this scarcity mindset, there's not enough. There's not enough. So it's you versus me. That I have to accumulate more, more, more. And that whoever accumulates more, whoever has the higher net worth has the greatest worth. This is what it's all coming down to. So Teen Vogue says capitalism posits that greed is good because it drives profits. And that profits drive innovation. And that innovation drives product development. See, what is the root green? That if you are striving and striving and striving, now if you're striving for a law, it's a different thing because a law's guidelines will create equity and fairness. But if you're just striving for your own egotistic desires, is there going to be anything that's balancing that up? Not at all, right? And so opponents say actually capitalism is exploitative by its very nature. And it leads to a brutally divided society that tramples on the working class. How do you know this is actually happening? How do you know that in this, you know, paragon of capitalism, this country, that we are actually at the same time trampling the working class? Yes? Because of all the labor disputes and stuff going on constantly every day? Absolutely. Because of all the labor disputes. If you're driving down the highway, what are you noticing? Or have we also put on blinders and we no longer notice them? What's happened in the last two or three years that I didn't see before? People living on the side of highways and tents. This is the example, the quintessential first world nation. And we have what people call the fourth world in the United States. Do you know this? They call it the fourth world. So it's like two different realities. You have people who became overnight millionaires through the pandemic. And then you have those same people who are now living in trailers, motorhomes, if they're lucky, and then tents on the side of the highway. So that's at the microscopic level when you move our micro level. When you go up, you see how this is happening in the wealth of nations as well. So what is this idea? I think you explained really well what these verses mean in terms of the concept of ownership. And how does this challenge kind of our modern ideas about ownership? Does anyone have any thoughts? If you guys haven't seen the Ferris Fuelers day off, there's this line where he's like, anyone? Anyone? Anyone? I didn't see it. Go for it. Yeah. Well, I mean, we don't really own anything, right? It's a fun whole. Everything comes from a lot. So therefore, what are we compared to a lot based on our creation? So therefore, we don't own anything. He just gave us this trust. He gave us this temporary test, right? I think that's what he was like. What do we do with that? That's the test. That is so beautiful. Really? Did you guys hear what he said? He said, we don't own anything. We don't own anything. This body belongs to Allah. It is a trust that Allah has given us. This time on this earth is a trust that Allah has given us. We don't own it. That's why we come from Him and we return to Him. Our whole understanding about economic justice has to be anchored in our understanding of Allah. If you don't have a relationship with Allah, if you don't even recognize that Allah exists, if you don't recognize that one of His names is Ar-Razaq, who knows what that means? Provider, right on? Exactly. Ar-Razaq, the infinite source of all provision in all creation, right? In the universe. One of Allah's other names, Al-Wahad. What is Al-Wahad? That's what we said. The giver. I'm going to turn this off. Let's make a noise. Al-Wahad, the giver of gifts. And what's the other one? Al-Khari, the source of all generosity. If you recognize that Allah is the source of all generosity, all provision and all gifts, then do you feel like you have the right to accumulate it all for yourself? Or do you actually recognize at some fundamental level that this is alone that He's giving? And that He is watching you to see if you are dispensing it with justice, with equity, with a sense of God consciousness at the end of the day? And I'll just finish with this. I'll be finishing with this. There's a beautiful, beautiful story. Not a story. This is actually my friend here who's been studying the Khalifahs. Imam Adi has a beautiful sermon and a letter that he writes to one of his sons. And what he says, this is priceless. Have any of you gone camping? My brother here likes to camp. Have you ever gone backpacking? You're hiking and you're wearing a really heavy backpack. There's water in there, there's bars, sometimes there's apples. It's heavy. And if you're backpacking and camping at the same time as you've got your gear, your clothes, your food, imagine that metaphor as the journey that we are on in this life. I'm going to end on this note. You are carrying a really heavy burden and that burden is wealth. That burden is the power that you have been granted. So if you are living in this country, it is not an accident that you are here. Allah determined that you should be in this nation and that you should carry this wealth and power. And this is what Imam Adi said. He says, if you find around you those who are in need and destitute, who are willing to carry your load and burden for you as far as the day of judgment, then consider this to be vastly beneficial and a boom. Engage them and pass your burden onto them and relieve yourself. Take that hiking backpack off and give it to the person who said, I'll carry it for you. And recognize that even though it seems, you know, I'm talking about as a burden, as a weight, as baggage. In this world, we're told that wealth is just wonderful, so keep giving more. But if you look at with often a glass, what do you realize? That this is a heavy responsibility. Give it to whoever wants it. Thus, relieve yourself, says Imam Adi. From the heavy responsibility and liability of submitting on the day, an account on the day of judgment, of how you have made use of his bounties. What are those bounties? Wealth, power, position, everything that we're talking about when we talk about first world, vis-a-vis third world. And thus, you may arrive at the end of that journey, light and refresh, having enough provision for yourself at the ultimate destination. So, you know, I'm going to leave you with those thoughts because I think whatever we do in this world, we have to be grounded in our understanding of who a lie is, what our relationship with a lie is, and what our responsibilities are regarding him, his creation, and the entire world. It's been a pleasure being with you guys today. Thanks for having me, and I look forward to seeing many of you.