 Let us begin in the name of God, the most compassionate, the most merciful, and ask that He bestow His light upon us this evening so that we may perceive truth in its brilliance and that we may understand with greater insight the revelation of the Qur'an. Today, insha'Allah, or this evening, I want to do three things. The first is I want to say some general comments about the Qur'an. The second is I want to do a close reading of Sura Fahad. And the third is I want to explore the idea of leadership based on the example of Sura, of Prophet Musa A.S., in the story of his life and mission as told in chapter 20 of the Qur'an. So let us begin. This is going to be interactive. So I hope you became prepared to engage. As for the general comments about the Qur'an as a text, how many of you in here have read the Qur'an from cover to cover in a language that you understand fluently, English or whatever? Raise your hands high. Okay. The Qur'an as a text has themes. What are the major themes of the Qur'an? What are the major ideas conveyed in the Qur'an? It's not a trick question. This is a very straightforward question. Patience. All right. Patience. Tawhid. Who said Tawhid? Who else said Tawhid? All right. Tawhid, I would say, is the number one theme of the Qur'an. Patience is up there. But Tawhid, the oneness of God, that God is one. And his other attributes, without question, the number one idea conveyed with a focus, with a repetition, with a nuance, parallel to nothing else in the Qur'an. That is the number one theme in the Qur'an. God and his attributes. All right. And his singularity. Or uniqueness, I should say. What else? Yes. Can I ask you something? You said Tawhid is number one thing is mentioned in the last chapter. There's nothing but the after life. This is the number two theme. In the 30th of Joseph, you mean? Yes. Yes. The number two theme, I would argue, is the Day of Judgment. Heaven and Hell. Accountability. All right. The number two theme. Number three theme, four, five, revolve around what? Ahkan. Ahkan meaning what? Sharia. Meaning what? Conduct. Conduct. How you conduct yourself in interacting with each other? And vis-à-vis God. So prayer and other things. But also, how do you deal with one another? Moral composure. Moral composure. Forgiveness. Patience. That's where patience comes in. All right. Character. Character. Charity. Justice. Justice and mercy are two of the major aspects that govern how we treat one another. Or how we should treat one another, I should say. All right. Any other ideas or themes in the Qur'an? I guess included in Sharia is also ibadah. So worship. So we have worship and we have, you know, ibadah and mu'amalat. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Yes. Stories. Stories. Excellent. Stories, I would say, are not a theme, but they are a mechanism to convey the theme. It's more of a style of conveying the idea. But yes, there are a lot of stories of what happened in the past. Anecdotes. The stories enable us to access the themes. Yes. Allah's mercy. Mercy. Allah's mercy. And I'm going to say all of the attributes of Allah is within the first theme. So it's Ta'heed and his other attributes. Number one, all of his attributes. And the number two theme is the day of judgment, heaven and hell, et cetera. Someone at the back had their hand. Also how to navigate through life with all the things that we have to deal with. Yes. So I'm going to say that the how to navigate through life fits into the category of Sharia, which is a pathway to God. And yes, it has rules and regulations and virtue and morality and ethics. All of that is combined in Sharia in a general, if you understand Sharia in a broad sense. Yes. All right. And the messengers. So belief in the mess, so belief in God that we should believe what it is, what is our Aqidah, right? So we believe in one God, but also belief in the prophets. All right. Belief in revelation, belief in scripture, belief in the divine inspiration of these human beings who served as role models. Yes. The Ajaz, the miraculous nature of the Quran. Style, I would argue. Also in substance. I mean it's both. Style and substance, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily a theme, but there is this, indimitability is the way that it's generally translated. The word Ajaz is oftentimes translated as indimitability, meaning you cannot, you cannot reproduce it, the light thereof. Yes. That's the whole idea is that it is in Arabic. Yes. It's being first called to the Arabs, and yet repeatedly Allah would ask them, you know, it is in their own language, but you cannot duplicate it or come close to it. Yes. So that's over and over and over and over. So the miraculous nature of the Quran is a theme in the Quran. Yes. I would say that is a theme. Yes. Sharia has seen its laws, regulations. Yes. So Sharia has laws, regulations, how we deal with one another. All right. So I think we hit upon the major ideas, and there are many others, but we hit upon the major ideas just to repeat. God and His attributes, number one. Number two, day of judgment. Number three, mercy, justice, compassion, how we deal with one another, prayer, Ibada, charity, how we engage with Allah swt, and patience, etc. Now, why is number two the number two theme? Number one is clear. Why is the number two theme, i.e. the day of judgment, the final hour, a sa'a, why is that the number two theme in the Quran? Why is there so much hellfire and brimstone in the Quran? As the brother pointed out, you were the khatib earlier today as well. Last minute, I'll tell you, but I understand you stepped up and saved the day. May Allah bless you. So, why is there so much hellfire and brimstone in the Quran? I mean, the 30th Juz is filled with very descriptive details about how horrible hellfire will be and how beautiful and glorious paradise will be. Why is this the second most important idea conveyed in the Quran? Yes. Alright. So, that we're motivated to conduct ourselves in accordance with the Quran. Imagine this. Imagine you're the Prophet Muhammad. And this is going to come up in the context of the story of Musa. So, listen carefully. Imagine you are the Prophet Muhammad. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Who was a human being? We don't worship our Prophet. He was a man. He was a human being. He had his feelings. He had his emotions. He had his strengths. He had his weaknesses. Yes, he has asthma. But, you know, he's protected from major sin. But he gave it his best effort. He made judgment calls. He made decisions that he made as a human. Everything wasn't provided for him predetermined by God and he just was an atomic on. No. He gave it his effort and that's what makes us love him because he put forward that human effort. We admire him. It's that humanness that really makes him so admirable. Because he's not God. He's a human being. So, imagine you're the Prophet charged with nothing less than transforming the society in which you live from a society in which people worship false gods and they treated each other sometimes with great generosity of spirit but also they were mistreating one another in regards to how they treated women, slaves, marginalized individuals there's great injustice. Great injustice. And you are charged with not only transforming the society's belief but also their sense of social justice and practice. And you have 23 years to do it. Ready, set, go. How are you going to do that? How are you going to do that? What is going to make an impact on the society to the point where they are going to transform their customs, their tradition, what's familiar, what's comfortable? What are you going to do? This is not a rhetorical question. It's an actual question. I want an action plan. Who has one? Okay, so to warn them how. So here's the thing. As the Quran indicates if you ask them who created the pre-Islamic Arabs or the Arabs at the time of the Prophet before they had embraced Islam if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth guess what these pagan Arabs would say? Allah. They believed in God. The problem is they believed in false gods in addition to God. But if you said who is the creator who created the heavens and the earth? God. So they already believe in God. What are you going to tell them? Be aware of what? They believe that when you die the only thing that lives on after your death from this world is your reputation. And that's why that's why they were so resistant to his teachings because all they cared about was what other people thought. All they cared about was their reputation. Some of the things that they valued as a society and you can argue that they were an honor shame society that they had certain things that they thought were honorable and certain things that they thought were shameful and some of those aligned beautifully with the values of Islam and some of them are diametrically opposed to the values of Islam. The things that align beautifully the generous treatment of a guest this is a deeply rooted pre-Islamic Arabian custom and tradition and value that aligns beautifully with Islam. We should be generous to our guests the prophet Muhammad whoever doesn't treat his guest with generosity isn't one of us. That's a pretty harsh statement. That was right in line with the pre-Islamic Arabian culture and tradition. However, who can name for me some things that were common in that day that were diametrically opposed to the teachings and values of Islam? One is of God. What's that? One is of God. So the oneness of God that's on the theological side bearing their daughter bearing a female daughter who's a first born alive it's known as female infanticide you're all familiar with it so what a horrific practice they considered it shameful to have a daughter as a first born and honorable to have a son as a first born and you can argue from a sociological point of view as many socioscientists have argued historically in a tribal society there's a utilitarian often times a utilitarian explanation for why certain things are valued over others and in a tribal society where the man contributes to the strength of the tribe and the survival of the tribe and when he gets married he brings someone from outside the tribe to increase the resources to the tribe whereas if a daughter you raise her, you feed her then when she gets married she leaves so from a utilitarian point of view in a tribal sense in a pre-islamic mindset you could argue that the pre-islamic Arabs had less value for women as a first born at least because they're ultimately not going to help the tribe in the long run whereas a male offspring will and so they considered it this is horrific but sociologists would try and explain why these values might have evolved that being said Islam is not simply a utilitarian evolution of society Islam is a higher notion of morality and ethics and so the teachings of Islam as we all know are diametrically opposed to that of pre-islamic Arabia in that the Prophet peace be upon him his companions to have three daughters and to raise them well is a ticket to paradise it's guaranteed paradise so inverting the moral the moral paradigm of that time so here he is he comes and he says this is shameful, why would you do such a thing and the response of the pre-islamic Arabs would be everyone else thinks it's great everyone else thinks it's the right thing to do everyone else thinks it's honorable now we can sit from this day and age and look back and say what a ridiculous mindset what a ridiculous mindset until we look in the mirror today and we see and I don't know if any of you saw the film Girl in the River you don't even know what I'm talking about they want an Oscar so I'm in LA we pay attention to those things so I was at the I was invited to a dinner with this filmmaker from Pakistan and Shadla I think is her name she won a second Oscar for this film it was her second film, the second year in a row that she won an Oscar and this film followed the story of a young lady who was married by her father to someone a young man from another village and they were islamically married they didn't have the Waleema and the Roksati and all of that but they were islamically married and the uncle comes and says you know what I found someone better from a higher standard or higher status in society from a different village and so the uncle convinced the father to try and get the girl to marry the other to divorce the first one and marry the second one because there wasn't consummation so the girl she was a young girl she had been speaking to this young man that she was married to now for the first time probably ever speaking to a boy and she developed feelings and she didn't want to switch so what did she do she moved in with her husband against her parents permission but she was already islamically married and so what did they do the uncle and the father sweet talked to her she was concerned she was worried that they might do something but finally she came in she went and visited them what did they do they took her on a trip to the river bank where the father and the uncle I think it was the father took out a gun pointed at the face of his daughter and figured point blank range then put her in a bag and a sack tied the sack and threw her in the river because they thought what she did was shameful and what they did to regain the honor of their family whose daughter disobeyed them they wanted to regain the honor in their in their community by showing that they don't put up with rebellious daughters and so they did this miraculously the bullet entered the girl's face and came out by her ear it didn't even enter her brain she somehow escaped from the tied sack without drowning found her way to the bank and made her way right to the police station the police then came and arrested the father and the uncle the filmmaker got wind of the story the police station she started filming the father and the uncle who was in jail behind bars and they're both saying we did the right thing and the way we know we did the right thing is everyone tells us that we did the right thing the reference wasn't to God or the Quran or Islam and they're all Muslim the reference was what everyone else said what we did was the right thing since we did this we've received 50 marriage proposals to the younger daughters of our daughter who we shot because we're an honorable family now in the eyes of everybody else in our community so we still have a little bit of jahadiah in us and by the way I'm not picking on Pakistan I could tell you stories in the Arab world there's the story this came out on NPR in 2003 where in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein there were a lot of gangs roaming around kidnapping people for ransom and they did this to a daughter and they to a young lady they kidnapped her for ransom the family, the tribe raised the money and they paid for the ransom and they brought her back and what did they say? okay someone has their lights on it's Alexis E703C0 it's black I think so so the family paid the ransom they went and they got the daughter back and the uncle who was very close to her went to her and then shot her in the temple and point blank range killing her in cold blood looking around free in society because there was no law and order there and being interviewed by this NPR reporter and said what did you do that for? he said you know I was very close to my niece and I see her in my nightmares I wake up in a cold sweat she's asking me why you do this and he said you know I'm a lawyer by profession I'm an educated person and I know that what I did and if I had the chance to do it all over again I would this is what he said to the interviewer if I had to do it all over again I would he said even though what I did was against my religion and she said why why would you do that he said we live in a culture where if a woman gets kidnapped or molested or raped or whatever that means that we are a family or a tribe of loose morals and the women of our tribe walk around unprotected unguarded without the mahram and so it reflects poorly on our tribe and so if a woman has this happen to her that must mean that she is rogue or she goes against the morals and values of our tribe this is why they call it honor killing so so we had to demonstrate that we are a tribe of good morals and honorable and so we performed this you know this punishment on her and if we didn't do that we couldn't and he said this we couldn't walk in the streets with our head held high no one would do business with our tribe no one would marry into our tribe we still have some jahidi in us as an umma because what they are thinking about and what the guy articulated his paradigm, his moral framework isn't what does God think what does everyone else think so this was the challenge of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam at his time everyone was so focused on what everyone else thinks so the Quran, God gave him not just the miracle of the Quran but knowing the mentality of human beings emphasizing the Quran that it doesn't matter at all what other people think God is the decider God is the judge God is the one who will determine the fate of your soul you die, your soul lives on and there's a heaven and there's a hell and it's very horrific in hell and beautiful in heaven and you don't even want to be in hell for a moment so conduct yourself in a way that's most pleasing to God he is the moral frame of reference he is the one who will determine the fate of your soul and it matters a lot this is emphasized over and over and over in the Quran because it is the foundation that will motivate people to change their behavior if properly understood now we're 1400 years later and we're still acting in ways that are reflecting that we're not thinking through the lens of what does Allah swt want from us, what are the Islamic values as taught by the prophet, we're still at the realm of what do other people think why is that why is that this is a little bit of a tangent why is that, what's the mechanism by which we know what other people think anyone, because what it comes to somebody else's face we're gonna judge other people the same way we're gonna think it we're gonna think it only if we're judging someone else's children we're not gonna hesitate to say it it's called what liba, gossip, slander all of these things social media perpetuates it potentially it's just a vehicle or a means by which we can perpetuate this they call it in sociological terms reification of mores this is how we reaffirm social values through gossip even though the Quran tells us that what you say with your tongues you consider a trivial wa-hu-la-ang-da-lahi-al-dheem and it is in God's perspective from God's perspective an enormity now the word enormity doesn't mean enormous the word enormity means a great sin enormity is a negative big thing it doesn't just mean big people oftentimes misuse the term it's in God's eyes an enormity a great sin we all know it's like eating the flesh of your dead brother it's emphasized over and over again yet we take it so trivially and God even says you consider a trivial what you utter with your tongues wa-hu-la-ang-da-lahi-al-dheem and it is with God everything so the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was challenged to transform the whole society knowing that he has to an uphill battle everyone is always talking and reinforcing these values that some of which are completely opposed to the values of Islam and so the emphasis of the Quran and the beauty of the Quran and the eloquence of the Quran and the laser focus of the Quran on those themes that are repeated was his biggest tool to help him slowly but surely transform the minds and hearts of the believers and that had a gradual effect on society alone but it took a lot of time after 13 years of preaching how many people followed him by the time of the hijrah who knows more than 73 but there were 73 people at Haqaba 73 people at the Ba'a the oath of Haqaba but just a few hundred after 13 years of preaching and this is the prophet only a few hundred people had followed him but it was a difficult and arduous transformation that he was a difficult mission that he was undertaking so now the Quran it's important to note some western literary critics would look at the Quran and say this Quran it's incoherent it's not organized in a way it's the identity of the world starting with Adam the Genesis and the beginning and then it goes through the history of the Israelites and it's chronological it makes sense where's the Quran it's incoherent so one of the scholars early on American Muslim scholars Dr. Mustansed Meir who lives in Ohio he wrote a book about the racism of the Quran and he wrote a book entitled The Coherence of the Quran but one of the things that those critics of the Quran failed to realize is how we as Muslims engage the text of the Quran it's not a book that we sit and we just read from cover to cover in different thematic chapters how is it that we engage the Quran we engage the Quran by reciting any portion, any few verses in each of our daily prayers and guess what if you take any page or two of the Quran from anywhere in the Quran you pick up the Quran you read two, three, four pages of the Quran guaranteed you're gonna hit two, three, four of the major themes of the Quran the oneness of God in his attributes the day of judgment how to treat one another the patient mercy, justice compassion, etc a bad dad, charity, etc you're gonna hit those three or four themes, guaranteed no matter what's cross section of the Quran you pick because the nature of the Quran and how we engage with it is it supposed to remind us as human beings alright, so the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was given this big mission he was given the miracle of the Quran it has stories, it has themes it helps him by emphasizing that God is the decider the paradigm of people from what other people think to what God thinks the eloquence of the Quran, the beauty of the Quran it blew away any of their sense of aesthetic it was just magnificent plus his character so he had a lot of things going for him despite the uphill battle he had now this is the first thing I wanted to say was that the Quran has themes the second thing I wanted to say was about the style of the Quran the second thing I wanted to say was about Taha and the third thing I want to talk about the conclusion is leadership the leadership that we can extract from the story of Musa al-Isra so with regards to the second theme which is the close reading of surah Taha one of the beautiful things is that some of the longer surahs in the Quran they have a preamble they have a beginning they have an intro some of the major themes of the Quran are touched upon then it gets into the story and Taha is not an exception it's a longer surah and it begins after Taha with a preamble so it begins, let's begin Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Taha what does Taha mean? it's mystical only Allah knows, I love it Omar so this is a whole other lecture we're not going to get into it but the shortest answer is Allah there's in one of the tafsir I'm trying to remember the author one of the major tafsir works 70 different opinions he recounts of the possible meanings of alif, namim, Taha, Yasin etc but we're going to skip it for time's sake we did not bestow the Quran on the from on high to make the unhappy this is a little bit of a bummer start to a surah isn't it? we didn't send it down to you to make you unhappy implied in that is that this Quran might make you unhappy this revelation might make you unhappy but the singular second person the second person singular we did not send up Taha because Taha and then Allah swt addresses the prophet Muhammad Yasin and then the next ayah Allah swt addresses the prophet Muhammad so these may be our nicknames for the prophet Allah knows best but it says we did not send the Quran upon you to stress you out to make you overwhelmed meaning that this is a pretty weighty text and you might it might be burdensome this is a serious revelation and this is emphasized in the Quran and zanna had the Quran on a jabanin in another verse if we sent down this Quran this revelation on a mounted it would couldn't handle it it would crumble couldn't handle it human beings can handle it for those who are in my hookah today because we have free will we have the intellectual capacity to handle free will other species other inanimate object they can't handle it human beings have the capacity a unique capacity to handle the weightyness of the revelation so we are going to send upon you a weighty word the prophet Muhammad was feeling the pressure he was given a weighty mission this revelation is no joke so he was Allah is reassuring him speaking to his psychology this is an intimate conversation between God and his prophet that we are privy to in which God is speaking not just to his intellect but to his heart and telling him and that wasn't the reason why we sent it down yes, it's part and parcel of the nature of the revelation that it is a heavy burden and going on he says it's only sent as an exhortation to all who stand in awe of God a revelation from him who has created the earth and the heavens so immediately going to theme number one a revelation from the creator the creator of all that is the heavens and the earth the Rahman the merciful who is firmly established on the throne the most gracious established on the throne of his almightiness as Muhammad Hassan transcends it and to him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth as well as all that is between them and all that is beneath the earth or the saw so further clarifying and focusing and refining this number one theme which is all about God it's all about God ultimately furthering further emphasizing God's power his might, his attributes and I'm going to skip to the English for time's sake now and if now says anything aloud he hears it since behold he knows even the secret thoughts of man as well as all that is yet more hidden within him now he gets to the most succinct articulation of God and his oneness of Ta'id Allah Allah God there is no deity except for him his alone are the attributes of perfection now that was the preamble now we get into the story how does the story begin an attack a Hadith of Musa it begins with a question has the story of Moses come to you now this is the prophet Muhammad in Arabia receiving revelation that he's going to then tell his followers and his society and this is a real question did they know the story of Moses did they? how many say yes how many say no how many didn't raise their hands alright how many didn't raise their hands when I said they didn't raise their hands yes they knew the story of Musa they knew all the biblical characters they were Jewish they were Christian Arab tribes they traveled around they knew the history of their own ancestry going back to Abraham they were keenly aware of all these stories why is the Qur'an repeating these stories because stories are a method or an approach that helps us absorb the moral of the story and the Qur'an is laser focused on the moral of the story has anyone read the Bible alright one person in this room has read the Bible chapter 12 in the Qur'an is which Surah not Maryam you said yes so what you said it's a chapter on Joseph the story of Joseph is also told in the Hebrew Bible I challenge you to read the story in the Bible and then the story of the Qur'an very different styles the Qur'an is laser focused on those morals and those themes that I talked about the biblical story is different in its style the Qur'an is very focused on those things and it repeats them over and over because of what I said we engage with the Qur'an to be reminded and to be inspired and stories help us absorb and understand and we need the repetition we are intent, we are forgetful alright so they already know the story of Moses telling the story of Moses with a laser focus on the principle of the morals of the story so when he is telling the story here you can imagine different places to begin one of them would be at the beginning but if you are not going to start at the beginning and we all know the story where in the story would Allah SWT choose to begin here and you are disqualified if you have Surah Taqa memorized in the mountain alright yes you begin the story at the watershed moment in his life he is at a watershed moment he is at a moment in his life of making an ultimate decision up until this point in this point is obviously when he received revelation at the Mount Sinai or Jabra Tour and what's interesting is he was miraculously saved at birth put into the basket into the Nile River saved by the family or the wife of the Pharaoh raised by them, reunited with his mother who was able to nurse him and his sister helped and played a role in that and then he grew up in the house of this tyrant and when he became mature there was an injustice there he had a conscience and a morality some of this detail is left out in the forehand but it got to the point where he couldn't just sit idle by and watch this injustice take place he intervened one punch to defend the guy who was being beaten up by the henchmen of the Pharaoh one punch killed him maybe he didn't mean to go that far but he did and then he knew he was in trouble and at that time it was after him so he fled he fled to escape and to be free and when he did that he encountered two young ladies who were facing another injustice they couldn't get water for their flocks so he was very chivalrous and proper and he intervened and helped them get water for their flocks because the men there weren't allowing them to do that and so a little bit of a Quranic and Halal love story unfolds so they were very grateful and they said we would like to introduce you to our father very proper that was the right thing to do and so they introduced him to the he agreed they went to meet the father the father said basically I like you you can marry one of my daughters and all you have to do is wait for me for seven years and just for good measure if you want to if you're a good guy three more on top of it so what does he do he agrees he marries one of the daughters and he's that kind of a guy he does the three more years on top of it then he sets out on his own he sets out on his own he probably at that time and it's not mentioned in the Quran probably at that time had children had his own flock was out as an entrepreneur he's pursuing in the the American dream life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness he's trying to establish his own business and probably looking for where the reins fell maybe there's some place to graze or a watering hole or a trading route or something he's not experienced in that so he's out with his family and his tribe and his growing entity and enterprise and he's behold he sees over under a light a fire he says to his family wait here right low he saw a fire in the desert this is where the story begins because it's the up until this point he was making choices but his choices were and he was standing up but it was for himself and for those who he was encountering but at this point in his life he's looking for directions but God then calls that to the ultimate direction to the ultimate purpose beyond just providing for his family even a higher calling and this is a watershed moment in his life so he says to his family wait here behold I perceive fire far away perhaps I could bring you a brand there from so in other words making fire for nothing is we take it for granted with a lighter or matches or something but back then it was hard to start fire so he said I'll borrow some fire so we can have some warmth or maybe I'll get directions I'll get some guidance as to where we can go and he was looking for some mundane guidance and he got the ultimate guidance it wasn't just about providing for his family it was about transforming the world establishing justice freeing of people who were enslaved standing up to tyranny he was called to a higher purpose and remember he's a man he's a human being this is his moment in which he's he's elevated in his mission so when he approached it imagine you're Musa now so imagine you're the Prophet Muhammad and you're hearing the story of the Prophet Musa and you're the Prophet imagining that you're Prophet Musa so it's kind of a dream within a dream just follow me here so imagine you're receiving this narration as narrative told by God with this perspective now we're perceiving things as Musa must have perceived them when he came close to it a voice called out O Moses in the Anarabuka verily I am your Lord a booming voice God speaks directly miraculously intervening for the first time in human history in this realm to a human being this is a major event Moses is affectionately known as an evil law, the one to whom God spoke God says to him I am your Lord O Moses I am your Lord take off your sandals verily I am your Lord take off your sandals what's going on there why would God for the first words he's saying to human being I am your Lord take off your sandals do you ever pray with your sandals on or their shoes never? yeah, I do yeah, you can do it, it's allowed alright, so I'm so clean etc. so what what's the focus on taking off the shoes what's going on here you're in the sacred valley of Tua but what's going on here someone help me out take your statement and you have to humble yourself so this is not I mean it's this is not the most important idea this is to prepare Moses to receive the most important idea for his own psychology his own mental preparation he needs to prepare himself to enter into a sacred conversation with God Almighty when we do will do we sometimes think so we're cleaning ourselves but if you pass gas there's no embarrassment in matters of religion if you pass gas it has nothing to do with washing your extremities again but when you're in a sacred space you don't want to be passing gas eating onions and garlic and other things that are distracting from the worship of God so that's why the sacred space it creates an ambience it creates a mentality a mental state where you're prepared to engage an important conversation an engagement with God Almighty so some of these things create that the environment that is ripe and fertile for fruitful engagement with God Almighty psychologically emotionally so God is telling him verily I am your Lord take off your shoes you're in a sacred space and you're about to enter into a sacred conversation so prepare yourself and he even tells him he goes the next step and actually tells him I have chosen you verily I have selected you I have chosen you so listen up to what's going to be revealed prepare yourself listen I'm going to say something important take off your shoes you're in a sacred space sacred conversation I've chosen you this is special this is important listen to what's going to be said what do you think is going to be said I'll give you four guesses and each one should be correct what's he going to say he's prepared he's primed Moses is ready now he's taken off his shoes God has spoken to him he's in a sacred space he's listening up what's God going to tell him what's he going to say you're a prophet I'm your God you've already said that but he's going to emphasize it again yes in the back what are you going to say that's later alright so something to do with Tau'id I'm going to venture to say that we just talked about the major themes of the Qur'an guess what's coming the major themes of the Qur'an they're listed right here something about the day of judgment something about how you deal with one another it's going to be there so listen up in me and Allah there I am God there is no deity except for me there is no deity except for me so worship me so worship me and give me prayer and establish prayer in order to remember me so Tau'id and Ibadah in this first idea two themes in the sa'at atiyatun the final hour is coming prepare for it alright when is it going to happen? you don't know you're going to keep you guessing so that you're always on edge and you're always mindful don't know what it's going to be this is really what God is saying behold although I have will to keep it hidden the last hour is bound to come so that every human being may be recompensed in accordance with what he strove for in life akad ukhfiha it's kind of hidden it's unknown exactly when it's going to happen so be prepared alright then he says this and this is a little bit in English convoluted in Arabic beautifully eloquent but in English it's a little bit hard so someone translate to English to English for me hence let not anyone believe in its coming and follows but his own desires divert thee from belief in it lest thou perish what's the idea here I'm going to say it again hence let not anyone who does not believe in its coming and follows but his own desires divert thee from belief in it lest thou perish don't get distracted don't be distracted by anyone and if you follow them you failed you failed people are going to try to distract you if you're believing in the day of judgment that's an uphill battle because everyone else is kind of through gossip, through this, through that trying to get you to focus on other things what other people think don't be distracted by that focus on only what God thinks focus on what God says is important good and true what God says is bad and avoid that because that's all the only thing that matters because if you follow other desires you're going to be a loser you're going to fail so don't let anyone who does not believe or focus on the day of judgment distract you from it alright then he goes so after saying these really important things and remember he's God almighty he just said he knows everything that's more secret and even more hidden he didn't even say it he just thought it, he knows it then he asks Moses what do you got in your right hand there, Moses? yeah, Musa that tip could be eminic that tip could be eminic, yeah, Musa what do you have in your right hand there, Moses? oh, Moses now God already knows the answer to that so if you're Moses and God asks you a question as simple and straightforward as what are you holding in your right hand how would you answer it? one word, a stick what does Moses do? not one word he kind of rambles a little bit, doesn't he? he seems to what does that indicate? what does he say? he says oh, it's a staff I use it to walk and I use it to hit the leaves to make the we're almost finished four minutes, of course what's that? we're getting the tea out there but I have four minutes until then alright so he said I knocked down the leaves and then my flock eats from the leaves and then, right? he's explained to God what a stick is why is he doing that? well, he just realized he's in a company of awesomeness so he wants to do that so a lot of the Mufesidines say he's trying to prolong the engagement with God because it's a special and awesome thing possibly but you just remember two minutes ago, he was just looking to get some coal or find out where the watering hole was all of a sudden he's talking to God Almighty, he's probably a little bit overwhelmed he's a human being he's probably feeling a bit he's probably not so strategic that soon into the conversation with God Almighty that he's thinking oh, this is great let me prolong it, he's probably a little bit overwhelmed and nervous and processing what he's receiving but it also yes, revealing that humanness of it, does something else that's really important for the reader which is, explain to us that what he's holding in his hand is a plain, regular ordinary stick and that's important for us to know because something is going to happen to that ordinary stick and you may get extra ordinary or extraordinary miraculous intervention God is going to transform the nature of that ordinary stick so this does and this is part of the miraculous style of the plan we're speaking at multiple levels at the same time now remember taking a step back and don't forget this this surah started out with God speaking to the prophet, don't be overwhelmed then what does he do? he tells the story of the prophet Moses who had to face the Pharaoh now remember, he has to transform his society Muhammad, peace be upon him, does but guess what? Moses before him had a similar circumstance why do you think that plan tells the story of Moses over and over and over more so than any other prophetic figure in history there's a parallel there that's reassuring to the prophet that's a clear admonition to the Quraysh to those who oppose him and that's a support to the believers so let us pause here for Aisha and we'll continue for those who want to afterwards Jazakum Allah, peace be upon him, peace be upon him Bismillahirrahmanirrahim let's begin again after the Aisha prayer who remembers where we left off what do you have in your right hand there, Moses what is that? it's a stick it's an ordinary stick it's going to be transformed to something extraordinary so the Qur'an is miraculous and it's speaking to different audiences all at the same time it's speaking to the prophet literally speaking to the prophet Musa but he's also indirectly speaking to the prophet Muhammad and he's speaking to us in today's age and he's speaking to the companions of the time of the prophet and he's speaking to the enemies of the believers at that time who were analogized in the story to the Pharaoh who opposed truth and goodness and met their fate so the Qur'an is a rich text it's a beautiful text and sometimes when we take our time and do a close reading we start to appreciate some of the nuance and sophistication of the style of the Qur'an and this is part of the jazz of the Qur'an this is part of the inimitability the miraculous nature of the Qur'an is this literary style that's one aspect of it so Moses answers in that way describing the stick in some detail and then God after he does that asks him to throw it down now what's going on here this is going somewhere right he didn't say I am your lord there's one that you know there's no God but me there's a day of judgment don't let anyone distract you from that for the path of doing what's right and what's good establish prayer go to the pharaoh he didn't say that he said all of those first part the major themes of the Qur'an then he changes the focus to the stick and then coming up soon is going to be the hand what exactly does that mean it's unclear but there's something miraculous that happens to the hand it glows white why why the shift to those things make him comfortable comfortable in what sense how is a stick turning into a snake and the hand turning white going to make him comfortable it is but how just to see to experience when we start with God so it's reassuring Moses that God is real that God is powerful that God is capable possibly that's one aspect of reassuring but how else might it be reassuring to show that God is the most powerful more powerful than pharaoh that God is more powerful than pharaoh but clearly the creator of all that is is more powerful than pharaoh it's not even a it's not a close call there I mean God created pharaoh God created the entire universe all of existence all of nature God created all of that so it's not a close call but how he created weakness so he would know that he has some miracle with him yes so it's not so much to demonstrate that God is powerful but to demonstrate that God's power is going to be helping Moses on the mission that's going to be handed to him shortly he's going to be called upon to do something major shortly this is laying the groundwork for the ask God is going to ask Moses to do something he didn't need to do that God is merciful he's generous God is compassionate look what he's doing he's helping Moses psychologically wrap his mind around what's about to be asked of him so he's saying look at your ordinary stick it's going to miraculously turn into a snake into a snake so he says throw it down and then lo and behold it becomes a snake rapidly moving then he says take hold of it and fear not overstate and it becomes a stick again then he says now place the hand within thy armpit that's a Muhammad Assa translation it will come forth shining white without blemish as another sign of our grace so it's unclear what exactly is going on there but what is clear that's a miracle that's not a human sleight of hand that is something truly divine that involved divine intervention and he says that we might make the aware of some of our greater wonders then he makes the ask now go to Pharaoh go to Pharaoh yeah the most powerful guy on the planet the one who wants to kill you go to him yeah the guy with the big armies and you know he's the mean brutal dictator go to him for verily he has transgressed all bounds of equity so this is the story of Moses telling this story of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but also equally emphasizing our role as believers who are carrying the mantle of the prophet or inheriting the mantle of the prophet forward you know moving forward in establishing justice go to those who are establishing tyranny approach them challenge them establish justice overturn the system that it leads to oppression and marginalization and inequity so he says go to Pharaoh now that's a big ask of anybody and Moses just two minutes ago was just looking for directions he's just stopping I'm just going to get some directions honey hold on all right and then all of a sudden go to Pharaoh what is his reaction does he say you'd be okay what is his reaction he's a human man what is his reaction he didn't say no he didn't say I can't do it he might have been thinking it but he didn't say it he didn't say no God just did speak to him did remind him of what's truly important and truly real what is the ultimate reality what is the ultimate destiny it's God but for you know Almighty himself showed him the miracles that he's empowered him with and then he asked them go to Pharaoh what is his response so nervousness afraid not sure how to do it afraid to God too so he didn't he didn't say yes right away he didn't say yes right away the first thing he asked for he was in shock the first thing he asked for was for God to help him process the question or the mission he said oh Allah let me breathe let me breathe now sometimes I translate it literally he's just asking hold on just let me take a deep breath here when you take a deep breath what happens your whole chest expands your lungs are filled with air now there's expression and Farsi and other languages when you say that you're nervous or you're feeling under pressure you say that your ribs feel constricted then Peng should there's an expression when my heart feels closed in on you can't fully breathe you have shallow breaths this is part of our physiological response to feeling stress so he says oh Allah let me not be so stressed out with this big ask that you just made of me let me process it let me breathe deeply let me wrap my mind around what you just asked me so literally he says ishrahali sadri expand my breath that doesn't mean anything in English it means let me breathe so let's just put that in perspective he's having a human reaction to this very overwhelming ask that God made of him and then he says will yassirli agri and make this seemingly impossible task easy for me because he can't even wrap his mind around how he's going to go and keep that thing going and speaking to the pharaoh without being cut down immediately how is that even going to happen he's uncertain so he says make this thing seemingly impossible make it easy for me make it something that I can do he keeps asking and some of these asks by the way are part of the third part of the conversation tonight which is leadership he's asking first things that will help him be a good leader he says and loosen the knot from my tongue now how many of you know about the coal and the lisp and how many know that story alright what is going on here is the coal mentioned here is the lisp mentioned here let's not get caught up in the details that have already been mentioned before what is he saying here what's he asking of God for this one what's he saying you don't know huh what's he saying let me be an effective communicator let me he said let me speak with eloquence so that I can be understood so the pharaoh can understand the words that are coming out of his mouth for those who understand that cultural reference I'm not going to explain it to the rest 3 people are nodding their heads alright he wants to be understood it's not just for sounding wow that's very fancy he said let me be eloquent so that I can be understood let me be an effective communicator the purpose of communication is to be understood by those listening to help them in being an effective communicator he didn't stop there he asked for more and a point for me out of my kin kin's folk one who will help me be help me to bear my burden so he says give me some help I don't want to do this alone and like any good sibling he asked that his sibling be burdened with the same responsibility he didn't just say let my brother help me listen to the next line he says what should it be he says and let him share in this burden let him share in this task and give him a portion of this burden good sibling so he asked for that and then he makes the case he tries to plead his case to God he says so that perhaps we may abundantly extol thy limitless glory and remember thee without cease inna kyakunta bina balsira verily thou seest all that is within us so he asked for several things let's recap what did he ask for you asked me any let me breathe you guys weren't paying attention let me breathe all right let me not be so stressed out make the impossible task easy make the impossible task easy help me communicate effectively and help from his brother all right give him some help so he's not alone and that they can remember God a lot so he asked for those things and then God says you have been granted God said you have been granted all that you have asked for all right so basically without saying yes it was assumed that he's going to do it the question is here's what he's asking for to do it effectively and God grants him those things now we all know the story and the story goes on it's a longer story I'm going to stop here in terms of our close reading but I don't want you to stop here I want you to continue reading the story but slowly one aya at a time and just reflecting as we were here today asking yourself the question who's the audience, what's being said why is it being said this way there's some I know you usually have a woman's halapa I don't know what you did to your estada today but there's some very fascinating themes in this story related to women fascinating for there is a verse coming up shortly after making this ask God reminds him of all the blessings that he had given him up to this point as part of like the inspiration and the motivation to Moses he's already agreed but God is still inspiring him even after he's agreed inspiring him to go forward and reunite you with your mother so he tells him all of these things kind of like in surat duha when the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam is told I didn't know I didn't know I didn't know I didn't know I didn't know he's reminding the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam of all the blessings that God had given him now go forth so he tells him he reminds him of all the blessings he was given throughout his life now go forward and share the good news and help other people and do good so he's telling Moses go and establish justice and free the Israelites and face the tyrant remember how we saved you from certain death and reunited you with your mother and raised you under the protection so but in that portion I just wanted to highlight here we're not going to get into it now but something very fascinating is said here about the mother of Musa if if we wake up to your mother don't you ever heard the word wahi before revelation who receives revelation well in this case and remember when we inspired your mother with this inspiration and remember sent wahi to the mother of Musa, something to consider, just reflect upon a little bit. There's something special about the mother of Musa that Allah SWT in the Qur'an says that she received wahi. Alright, so I encourage you to continue on reading the Surat Taha and other Suras as well with the same kind of lens, looking at the major themes, looking at who the audience is, who are the different, the sophistication and the nuance of the style of the Qur'an. It's beautiful. The third part of the talk is to talk about leadership. So looking at so far what we learned of Musa and just generally what we know about leadership from our experiences in life, what would you say are the most important aspects of a good leader, of a good leader? Alright, communication. You need clear communication. Alright, you have to have clear communication. You need to know what your mission is. Aha! You have to have clarity of vision of where you're going. Because if you don't have that, you're not leading people anywhere. Alright, you're just, you know, going around. But if you have clarity of vision and you're able to articulate and communicate that vision, you're on your way. That's not sufficient. Common connection. With people, you have to have a love for people. You have to be connected to, if you are, if you have clarity of vision and you can talk about it and you go there by yourself, you're a pioneer, you're an explorer, you're an adventurer, but you're not a leader because no one's following you. You have to be connected to people, yes. Compassion. And part of connecting with people is to love people. Yes, we're not there yet. We're not at the promised land. We haven't achieved the goal. You don't have disdain for people. Don't turn your cheek up, or your nose up, as we'd say in English. Don't turn up your nose in contempt of people. You should still love people, have compassion for people, be connected to people, and then pull, tug, push, walk with, you know, get people to move closer towards that goal. But you have to do it with people, otherwise you're not a leader. Belief and confidence. What's that? Belief and confidence. For both sides of the aisle here, yes. Belief in what you're doing. And have conviction. Have conviction, firm conviction, yes. Be a just person. Be a person of good integrity, of good morals. Be worthy of being followed. Have good character, yes. Yes, and know how to engage other people so that it's not just you. It's not just you, you're not by yourself. Delegate, seek help from other people. Don't take on too more than you can handle. So you have to be able to have these qualities and characteristics. Anything else, yeah? Recognize your deficiencies and challenges and address those like how Musa the Islam addressed them. Is it speech impediment? Yes. So recognize your shortcomings and your challenges and try to address them to overcome them. All right, yes. Be humble. Be humble, yes. Be humble. It's part of good character, integrity, being worthy of being followed. Yes. Bravery. Bravery. Have courage. Part of what's difficult of being a leader is being unpopular because if you are simply reflecting the sentiment of your community, you're a spokesperson, maybe you're a cheerleader, but you're not taking your community where they need to go, you're simply reflecting what the status quo is. A leader might have to be unpopular and therefore exhibit courage to take a position that's going to pull, create tension, pull and push and tug to get people to go somewhere where they wouldn't necessarily go without that encouragement. So you have to have courage to be unpopular but still be connected to people. Don't let that friction or that tension that's created from trying to move people in a certain direction create in your heart an animosity, a contempt, a resentment, a negativity towards people. You have to love people. And we learned that from the example of the prophet. He loved people. Even those who were so mean to him, he loved them. He didn't turn with resentment to them. He never gave up on them. So that was one of the most important parts of the leader. All right. So to summarize, we'll do popcorns. Any other characteristics? Confidence in your conviction. Confidence in your conviction, yes. Inspiring. Inspiring. You have to inspire. That's part of the articulation as well. Yes. Learn to forgive. I'm sorry. Say that again. To be clear is what you're saying. To be clear, yes. Learn to forgive. To be forgiving, yes. About the old grudges. All right. So to summarize, I'll say there are five characteristics from what I heard and the five buckets, if you will. The first is you have clarity of vision. You're able to articulate that vision. You're a person of good character where you're worthy of being followed. You have integrity. You have honesty. You have good character, et cetera. You love people. You love people. And you can inspire people to move. You can motivate people, delegate people, get people involved to help in the mission of moving in that direction where you're headed. And the rest of them, I think, fit into those five categories for the most part. All right. So all of that being said, we have just a few minutes left. I wanted to, in the last few minutes, share with you a little bit about the Islamic graduate school that I'm heading up. It's called Bayan Claremont. So my background is I'm an American kid from Arizona. My mom is Christian, Caucasian-American from Oklahoma. I'm sorry. I'm from Arizona. My mom's from Oklahoma. My dad is from Jerusalem. So he's Palestinian and moved to the States here in California, actually originally in 1956. And my mom got married, moved to Arizona where I was born and raised. Now, when I went to college, I asked my dad what I should study in college. He said, something doesn't matter what you study. You're Palestinian, you're going to go to business. So he wasn't very helpful. But I was good in math and science, so I started on engineering track. But I looked around and I saw a lot of other Muslims in engineering at that time. Because we go into medicine and then engineering and then business. And if you can't make it, then you go into religion. But that's back home. Over here it's different. All right. So when I was on a spiritual journey, my mom's Christian background, my dad's Muslim background, I knew some, but I didn't feel like it was fulfilling enough and so I didn't speak Arabic very well. So I finished my freshman year, but then I applied to another guy's scholarship to study Islamic University Medina. So I withdrew from school. I went and I studied for a couple of years, learned Arabic, found something very beautiful and decided to take my walk about there, what I was going to do. I wanted to come back, go into academia and go and become a professor and then teach Islam so that the engineering students could take an elective on Islam while getting their engineering or medical degrees. But also provide opportunity for the society at large, the American society of life to learn about Islam in a way that was fair and balanced. No, that's a different tagline for a different organization. But in a way that is unbiased or at least not hostile to Islam. And so I transferred to Berkeley. I went to Berkeley here and then I went to Texas for my master's degree and came back to UCLA for my doctoral degree. And I began that in 1999. I graduated with Berkeley in 1996. And so I was six years into my PhD program and I was teaching at UCLA at adjunct and in a law school and at USC doing Islamic studies, teaching Islamic law. And I was approached by the oldest and largest mosque in Southern California to serve as the imam. So I was a little bit reluctant because I said I'm going into academia but they encouraged me and so I gave it a try and I found it very rewarding. So I served as the imam at the Islamic Center of Southern California for seven years while continuing my academic pursuits. While I was there, I was approached by the president of 130 year old Christian seminary, Dr. Jerry Campbell, who came with me, came to me and he said, you know I was brought on to this historic well respected institution to revitalize it because the number of Christian seminary students is declining and we want to revitalize it and I've been working on a vision and I need your help. I said, great, how can I help? He said, well, we want to reclaim the role of religion to be a force for peacemaking in the world and we want to do that by desegregating theological education. I said, what does that mean? He said, we want to partner as a Christian seminary with a Muslim seminary, a Jewish seminary, a Buddhist university, graduate level so that we can have our Christian students learn about Islam and the other major world religions from those professors and scholars and then on top of that learn peacemaking skills, conflict resolution, learn how to collaborate and cooperate across the religious divide for the common good. I said, wow, that's a brilliant vision. How can I help? He said, this is in 2009, he said, I need you to help me identify an accredited Islamic graduate school for us to partner with. I said, oh, that's easy. There doesn't exist any in the United States, let alone here in Southern California to partner with, this is in 2009. So I said, but we need one. We have over 2,500 mosques in the United States. Only 44% have a full-time emam. 93% of the emams were born-raised and educated abroad, which might mean that they have authentic knowledge but also means that they're challenged relevant to the youth, inclusive of women, or civically engaged. And our three biggest challenges that we face as an American Muslim community are passing on the faith to our youth, having a message of Islam that is relevant for today's world and reclaiming our narrative in our own words to society at large through representing our faith and through engagement, civic engagement. So I said, we need one and I think the Islamic Center gave one for you to partner with and we can educate and set the bar for what it means to be an American Muslim emam, a youth director, an Islamic school teacher or principal, or a chaplain in a hospital or the university or a prison system or a military. So he said, great, if you do that we'll help you in three ways. I said, how would you help us? Well, we have this well-established institution we'll share it with you. We'll share the campus with you. Classroom, office space and student admission office, the student information system, the payroll office, the library, everything. I said, wow, that's very generous of you. He said, we'll also give you the start-up funding for the first couple of years. I said, wow, that's very Christian of you. And he said, there's more. I said, what more could there be? He said, well, we'll give you accreditation. And I said, well, hold on a second, I'm an academic, I know a little bit about accreditation. You don't give it, WASC gives it, the regional accrediting body gives it. He says, yeah, I know, I'm one of the officers there, commissioners there in the accrediting agency. There's a little, no pathway to accreditation called incubation. We can incubate you. And we'll have the degree in our name, but you know, say by Anne Claremont, but in fine print a division of Claremont School of Theology. But we don't want to tell you who to hire, what to teach. We want you to be authentically you as Muslims. Have your own board, have your own faculty, your own programs, et cetera. So I said, this is too good to be true. So we, they were doing it for self-interested reasons. So they said, we want to attract more Christian students and we want to be relevant as a Christian seminary. And this is how you know, they were progressive and liberal Christians. There are different kinds of Christians, as you know. And so we worked out the details over the next year and a half. We announced it in 2010, June of 2010. And I know because when I lived 45 miles away from the school I had driven out there and was about to go to the press conference, we were going to announce it on June 10th and my wife gives me a call. She says, I just went into labor. And I was just about to walk into the press conference. I said, alright, I'm canceling the press conference, I'm just going to go. She says, no this is my fourth child. It takes me 12 hours from beginning of labor to to delivery. So go ahead to your press conference, take your time, come home. Her mom was with her. It'll be fine. So I said, are you sure? And she says, yes so anyway, she divorced me. No, I'm just kidding. So she says, yes, I'm sure. So we went forward, we announced it then and then, sure enough 12 hours later we had a little baby girl. But the first entering class of students of three was in 2011. The next year we had eight students and then 16, 32. We were almost doubling every year or more than doubling. On some occasions now we have about 80 students, we've graduated five classes of graduates and you've never even heard of us. All right. Because we're we're growing slowly and organically but now we're ready to announce our existence in a broader with broader effort and one of the, I'll just say three things about the school because leadership is part of it. When we were developing the curriculum we said what do we want our demands to be able to do? We said we want them to know the tradition authentically the Quran, the Sunnah, the Islamic history, Arabic language we want them to understand Islamic law and philosophy and theology but we also want them to have critical thinking skills where they can apply, not just following a narrow point of view but understand the richness and the beauty of the tradition mainstream but big tent from across the spectrum and we also on top of that want them to have leadership skills this is why leadership is an important topic we want them to have leadership skills because we expect more from an imam here than we do from an imam back home wherever that may be for an imam here isn't just an imam an imam here, a good one is a community organizer is a counselor to younger people is someone who helps in faith formation a term that's foreign to us but it shouldn't be because we can't just through osmosis expect our children to absorb the faith in the society and culture once we live because if they did they wouldn't be Muslim because that's not the culture and faith of our society at large we have to figure out and curate the environment for them to be able to absorb this faith so someone who helps in the faith formation of the next generation someone who is civically engaged and can help rally the resources of our community to represent ourselves in our own words to our neighbors to the news media who can do a media interview who can be active on social media and can be relevant and who can be involved in community organizing meaning helping young people have a purpose in going out and contributing to the betterment of society young people need a sense of purpose and so an imam a leader, a director should have those skill sets on how to do all of those things so we developed courses such as in addition to all the Islamic studies and the degrees called Islamic studies and leadership we have a course on preaching in the public presentation how to speak publicly how to give a hookah how to untie the knot from your tongue and be understood by people we have an entire course on that by Dr. Raghina Shashiba who just got the MacArthur Genius Award in October of last year he teaches a course called community organizing as spiritual practice we have a course on counseling Muslims taught by a Yale psychiatrist Dr. Hamad Hamid we have a course on Islam in America not a historical class but a landscape of what is the predicament of Islam in America and how to navigate issues like power, culture, race as a community we have a course on civic engagement on interfaith relations so we teach leadership skills that we want our leaders to have our imams, our youth directors our chaplains men and women chaplains who are helping in the faith formation of our young people on college campuses more and more universities Stanford contacted me in a chaplaincy position said this one of your graduates as an applicant for our position and said we just launched the chaplaincy degree last year they're not ready yet but there are more and more universities hiring Muslim chaplains which is crucial because when you send your children off to college that's when they can go in different directions so we launched a degree in Islamic studies in leadership for Islamic schools as the Imam of the Islamic Center we ran four full-time Islamic schools over 800 students and whenever there was an opening for an Islamic studies teacher I was responsible for interviewing the person and we would get scores of applicants and in all of my years of being responsible for interviewing and filling the positions only one time did we have a qualified teacher and this is Southern California 700,000 Muslims there one time we had a qualified teacher who had a teaching credential and who had the skill set for teaching Islam and foundation for teaching Islam, one time so we said there's a need we have over 35,000 Muslim children enrolled in full-time Islamic schools around the country but no master's degree in Islamic education to educate the teachers nor an educational leadership track for Muslim principals so we devised a degree with two tracks Islamic study Islamic school teacher training and Islamic educational leadership and then lastly the chaplaincy degree so we launched we have all three degrees and just this last year just a very year ago we partnered with the family of the Boxer Muhammad Ali they gifted us his name so that we can raise money from the immigrant community to bridge the socio-economic gap with the African American community to support their leaders to become credentialed and help uplift their communities to a position of excellence we received 17 we've gifted 17 students who've been accepted to Bayan with full tuition scholarships in the name of Muhammad Ali this year our students just got elected to the city council position in Cleveland, Ohio you might have seen his viral video Bashir Jones where he was in his first speech in the city council chambers concluded by saying Takbir, Allahu Akbar and everyone a lot of his family there and community members that supported him saying God is great in the Arabic language and so we have the daughter of Imam Wurthadid Muhammad we have an Imam from Houston, Texas an Imam from Memphis, Tennessee an Imam from Las Vegas an Imam from Atlanta, Georgia an Imam from Sacramento an Imam from Fresno three women from Oakland who are receiving this Muhammad Ali scholarship we have a prison chaplain here in Sacramento area we are I'm sharing this information with you tonight there's information out back one of the things that we did some of you might be asking well, how does this relate to us two things we designed the program for working professionals around the country to be able to benefit from these courses and the degree because we offered an executive master's format in other words six days intensive in a row 30 hours of instruction or face to face on campus one week the rest is online we have two courses in that same week so five hours in the morning for class A five hours in the afternoon for class B you can take two classes in one week face to face on campus and the other 15 weeks of the semester is online almost all of our students live and work around the country they have time have families have communities that they serve but they are enrolled full time in Bayad because they are able to enroll in this program where it is designed for working professionals around the country that's number one and it's also not very expensive it's $21,000 a year for tuition and you get a credit master's degree in a two year time span because we offered in this format we are able to attract the dream team of Muslim faculty from Ivy League schools around the country we have two Muslim faculty members from Yale we have the chair of Islamic studies at Duke the chair of Islamic studies at Georgetown the chair of Islamic studies at Toledo, Ohio the chair of Islamic studies at USC a Muslim professor here at UC Berkeley a professor from Stanford we have professors from Wisconsin at the law school we have professor tenured professors in Islamic law from Toronto University of Toronto which is the Harvard of Canada as they say we have people like Edward Madsen Sherman Jackson all teaching at Bayad and they are able to do that while having their full time commitments at their respective institutions because they only have to be on campus one week a semester and then the rest we have a virtual classroom engagement online we have tried it out as an experiment four years ago and it is going beautifully we have done it ever since so what does this mean for you? you can enroll in a course you can enroll in the degree even while living and working where you are here in beautiful Pleasanton but also we videotape those 30 hour in person lectures video podcast broken up into 15 minute segments and we put it on a website a learning platform called teachable.com so it is accessible for all of you so I have cards outside on the table if you want to have a 30 hour course with Sherman Jackson on its slam and the black American from slavery to hip hop or a 30 hour course on the lifetimes of teaching as a prophet Muhammad from Jonathan Brown at Georgetown you can enroll in that $10 a month and it is very mobile friendly you can listen to it as an audio podcast but it is also a video podcast so you can do that as well and if you have any more questions about the institution I would love to take your questions I think I am a little bit over time wise but you have been very generous inviting me here to give two talks in one day and to stay extra because I was only planning on coming for one hour but because of the illness of your teacher extend this evening talk and you have been all very gracious and hospitable in receiving me may Allah bless you let's ask Allah for forgiveness for our missteps and our misdeeds for our transgressions against one another against God and against our own selves O Allah enlighten us illuminate our hearts and our minds with the beauty of the wisdom of the revelation and of the Sunnah of the prophet Muhammad peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and we conclude with gratitude all thanks and praise is due to Allah peace and blessings of Allah be upon him