 My name is Shah Abbas, I am in Imam Hussain TV, sitting right close to Abu Fazl Abbas Shrine where I can see while we're recording this show and we've got Imam Hussain on the left hand side. So today is the 11th of November that we're recording this show and it's a day after It's a very humbling experience to be on the show and presenting the name of Imam Hussain So today's show is quite unique. We're going to be talking about what has Imam Hussain inspired, who has Imam Hussain inspired and a number of organisations have been inspired by Imam Hussain and one of the organisations that has been inspired is an organisation that goes by the name of Who Is Hussain? It's an interesting organisation which I'm part of as well and we have our guest Malahad and she's basically from America. So Malahad we're going to start by introducing yourself. Tell me about yourself, tell me a little bit about you and what brings you to Karbala today? Well I came here for the walk. I walked from Egypt to Karbala to pledge my allegiance to show my devotion to Hussain. I'm a mother of four, I do a lot of social work and volunteer work in the school and that's pretty much how I keep myself busy. You do volunteer for the organisation which is Who Is Hussain? So what drives you to volunteer for this organisation? It is a need to want to present him to the world. There are billions of people out there, non-Muslims who are not aware of him, of his personality, of his legacy, of the values that he stood for and just like there are so many other people that people love, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, who are loved, admired, respected. Regardless of culture and religion, we feel that Hussain needs to be up there, admired and respected and known for what he was. Absolutely, I think one of the things what Imam Hussain has done is inspired millions. Let's take this walk for example. I think people all over the world, I don't have the exact numbers right now and there was media going, some said about 18 million, 20 million, some said it was on a lease of 25, 30 million. I don't have the exact stats because it's literally a day after a buy-in, inshallah, when the stats gets released out, we should have a better idea. This man, Hussain Ibn Ali, 1400 years ago, made a stand against injustice. He said no. He made a stand against oppression. He said no. He made a stand for equality. He made a stand for the people needy. His lively principles is what Hussain is about to showcase the world that the principles that Imam Hussain goes by. And the lively principles, so the aims and objectives of the organisation itself, which we're going to talk about, is more about doing the right actions, doing the lively principles where Imam Hussain has done, inspiring the people around them. And also, the other objective as well is why doing that is to promote the name of Imam Hussain al-Islam to the wider audience that hasn't been aware of. So today we are on the show. The objective for today's show is for recruitment, for volunteers, and recruitment in regards to volunteers in your local country, your local cities. And also, if you are looking to donate, please feel free to donate. And also, if you want to find out more, our website will be on that. Charlotte is whoishussain.org. So you are from America. You're from Texas. So tell me more about what the Texas Hussain team does. Texas does annual blood drives, annual homeless dinners. We have gotten together with a lot of other bigger nonprofit organisations and we work with them during their annual events. Our past big independent individual event was together for Texas, where after Hurricane Harvey, there was a drastic need for help all across the board and our volunteers got together. Even on Eid day, we went there and spent hours sorting donations, taking donations over. And we did set up a GoFundMe page with a go of $10,000 which we exceeded. And we took the check to Houston in person to deliver to the mayor. We happened to have three minutes to speak on the city hall floor. I think that's a video that went viral. It did. And we spoke from the council members and the mayor and it was very well received by public in general. So what was the atmosphere like once that was done? What was the atmosphere like within our community, within the Shia community? What was the atmosphere like within the non-Shia community? I think Hussain just brings everybody together. When we start doing community work in his name, he is so inspiring. His personality just draws you to do more, to give more, to do as much of yourself as you can. And when people, we've had children come in and drop quarters and we've had elderly citizens come in and put whatever they could, it was a small collective grassroots effort. And it makes everybody come together in his name and own the organization, own the imperative, the mission. And it made our spirit soar to see what it... I think the Shia community, the wider Shia community in the world, they have kept Imam Hussain and Islam for ourselves. And we know of Imam Hussain and Islam in the mosques, in the Imam Bargaz or in our local madrasas. What he aims objective of who is Hussain as our organization itself is to get that beautiful man, the beautiful things that he has done in his life and understands that he's made to the wider world, is to share him and making Hussain. He is a universal figure and people don't see that. I'm talking about non-Muslims who don't see that. And this organization he aims is to inspire the communities, the people around them to do the right thing, which is the blood donations, which is feeding the homeless, which is making a stand when the hurricane that hit in Texas. Imam Hussain and Islam has inspired people to do that. What Hussain wants to do is when things like that happen, Imam Hussain is in off-front and taking actions to do it while doing that, telling the world about Imam Hussain. So my dear brothers and sisters, if you're watching this and you want to get involved with this organization, you want to know more, please visit our website, which is whoishussain.org and you can email us, the email is world-w-o-r-l-d at whoishussain.org So please get involved. So we've got about 80 different rips all over the world. So we are in America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, London, UK we've got in London, we've got in Africa, we've got states in Africa, we've got in Nairobi, South Africa, you can name it, India and Pakistan. We're going to go into some stats in a minute. We're going to talk about the bigger things that we have done. But I want to come back to yourself, Malahat, again. So do you think there's a need for Hussain in this world? Most definitely, most definitely. I think the inspiring figure that he is, if people have him in his life to look up to, whether they're up or down in their lives, he gives strength, his actions, his legacy that he's left behind gives you personal strength. He gives people hope. He gives people hope, he gives people a reason to continue and to give back, because I think he brings out compassion in us. Because when you see what he did for others, not just for himself, it makes you want to give back as well. I think one of the things as well is when we have young people that are probably in the western world or people ask you, why are you going to Iraq to do the Najaf to Karbala walk? People are not used to the idea of walking from Najaf to Karbala and people don't know what is Arbaeen. People don't know why we're doing what we're doing. And there are people out there, including myself, that we struggle to explain that to the non-Muslims. So we don't know how to tell an individual who doesn't know or understand about what we're doing. So communication is quite key. So this is something that Hussain has been doing for a while now and, inshallah, hope to be good at this, is communicating the name of Muhammad SAW in a dialect, in a way that people can understand it. For example, in London, there's food drives that happen in Charing Cross, where they've been doing it for the last couple of years now. And the objective for the food drives in London is to, number one, to feed the needy. That's why Imam Hussain said to Jews, look after the people and need his father to look after the orphans. And again, grandfather, Prophet Muhammad as well. Hussain in London have been feeding the homeless for the last couple of years on a weekly basis. They're doing CV workshops as well, which is good. It's not about just feeding the people. As you said earlier on, hope, giving people that hope. It is to just step up when you're needed, regardless of who needs it. If you look at Flint, Michigan, when they had a water issue, the representatives there just purchased as many crates of water as they could, and they actually just put it in the car and they drove over. And then, of course, online they did fundraising, which received, I don't know, a very good amount of money for water to be delivered to people of Flint. It is regardless of where they are, if they know Hussain or not even. The point is not to make sure to only help those who know Hussain or who admire Hussain already. The point is to bring him to those who do not know him and inspire them with the knowledge and the values that he brings. No, absolutely. That's the most important part itself. The other part itself is getting the whole communities involved. So, Hussain, I think the thing I like about Hussain personally is it's not just a Shia organization. It's not. It's not. Hussain doesn't say Shia is Muslim or it's not. It's universal. Hussain is a humanitarian organization. It is an organization that has been established purely A, number one main objective is to do good, to feed the people in need, feed the homeless, do medical procedures on people that in needs. For example, we've had people from Iraq that got flown into India for the heart surgeries. We've had people in Lebanon donating blood so in Lebanon they've broken records or getting people to donate blood. We've had Michigan as you said earlier on. We've had Texas as you said earlier on. We've got in India. They've fed about over 100,000 people. Massive scales. Absolutely humbling. It brings communities together. It does. The aims of the organization itself is once we are presenting them on Hussain, we're working with Muslims and non-Muslims alike together and we're not telling the people that it's an Islamic organization. It's not. Mama Sain was not just for Muslims. It was not just for Shia Muslims. Mama Sain, Hussain Ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad was for everyone. He was a universal figure. People know, as you said, Mandela, Malcolm X, Gandhi. People know that. But the person inspiring these figures was Hussain Ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. Nelson Mandela writes that when he was in the prison, after 20 odd years, he was close to giving up. And when the government was asking him to sign all the papers, and then he thought of Hussain and how he did not give up. And he drew strength from that and he continued and we all know what happened in history. I think the best part, instead of having Hussain, is inspires the political figures in the history, has inspired. But also the most important is inspire the volunteers, the young people, inspires the youth to getting them involved. I'm talking about when I was 16, 17, I would just go for video games in my house. And you said you've got children yourself. When I was young, I used to go to video games, spend my time in the house and not really do much. But having Hussain around where I can go out and serve the needy. Yes, I'm serving the needy, but also I'm having fun. I'm enjoying my time by doing the right things of a little bit. I'll tell you a story. When we had last year, when we were focusing on the refugees, because of so much political stigma around it, we did that whole Ramadan was focused on refugees. And in Texas, there are a lot of Muslim refugees. So we did an Eftar dinner and then we also did goody bags for the children. We made around 250 goody bags. And when we arrived there with all of our materials to make the goody bags, we didn't have too many volunteers showing up. And it was actually at our center after hours. And there was a seminar session going on and the kids, it was all 12 and under. No way. Who ended up coming. And at first we were wondering, are they going to sneak out some candy out of there? Or you know, like keep an eye on them. But they were tirelessly, the session was over, their mothers were waiting saying be done, be done. And those 20-odd kids made those 250 bags. Amazing, amazing. They were so excited. The spirit of giving at that time, they were infused with that spirit of giving. Amazing, amazing. It's inspiring the people. It's inspiring the world. And that's what Hussein Ibn Ali has done. The bigger picture itself is just to do that in a maximum capacity and be more efficient as we can. Right now, as I was saying, we're in 80 different cities. But we are looking to expand. And hence the reason why Hussein decided to come to the lands of Karbala. A couple of days ago, we had a stall on the way from Najaf to Karbala. The idea for the stall was of those people that are walking from making their spiritual journey from one city to another, the holy lands of Karbala, we want to speak to those people and say, hey, would you be interested in finding out more about Hussein? Would you like to volunteer? We met individuals. I'll share a story that I met. I met an individual from Indonesia. And he came. He said, I saw a picture of Hussein on Instagram. I liked it. And I said, I want to go. And I just left my group early. I paced myself so I can come and talk to you guys. And so I know how to volunteer. And he had to make that journey. And well, then he said, I am looking forward for the email. Please send us. That is so nice. That's humbling. It is. Humbles the organization. And then when people around them are inspired by me, a man called Hussein bin Ali. So my dear brothers and sisters, again, I urge, if you're not part of this organization and you would like to be part of it, please visit our website, which is whoishussein.org. You can email us, which is worldatwhoishussein.org. So we're going to talk about a couple more things before we wrap up. One of the things that I want to talk about was the events that happened, the bigger events that caught the media's attention. Now, unfortunately, the world that we live in, the media reflects on the bad things about it. And again, they don't see the good qualities of what the people want to do. So Hussein London, they did an event in London feeding the homeless, CV workshop, and also cutting the homeless people's hair. So the aim of the event was to restore honour and hope and humanity for the forgotten ones of London. Give them dignity. I'll share myself. If I get a haircut and taking a shower after a haircut, I feel so fresh. I feel so good about myself. And that's the feeling we wanted to give the volunteers to the homeless people. They did it. And they recorded a Facebook live and that video over multiple streams went over 10 million views. So in theory, 10 million people have seen the name of Mam Hussein Hussein, which is Hussein organization itself. That is a huge step for people again. Michigan, again, you said earlier on as they did donated water. They got mentioned in press. They got mentioned in the media. So it is the thing that you did yourself. You got a lot of media attention, didn't you? We did. Well, on social media, at least, on Facebook, we did get a lot of attention. After we set up our GoFundMe page, we set up a goal of $10,000, exceeded it, and went and delivered it. And I think the video made rounds on WhatsApp as well, the uploaded video. But on Facebook as well, a lot of people shared it, mentioned it, tagged who is Hussein. It did receive a lot of attention. And I think I hope it touched a lot of people. It did. It touched me. It inspired me. Do you know what that reminds me of? I think it deserves to know this. It reminds me 1400 years ago, after the day of Ashura, when Mam Hussein's sister, ladies, then made that exact similar speech in the present of Yazid, the dictator of that time. And she said, do you know who Hussein is? Do you really know who Hussein is? And do you know who Prophet Muhammad is? And this is my religion. So I think you inspire the world. You inspired us here. Absolutely. So I think, thank you very much for doing what you did. Please, can speak consistent. It's been an honor. And doing what you've been doing for a long perspective itself. And the future for who's Hussein itself is yourself. You are the future. We've done things so far. So let me give you some stats of what Hussein has achieved. So number one, we've collected over 2,000 units for blood. So that saves about 6,000 people's lives. That's incredible. And also, we've fed about over 200,000 people. Now, I'm not just telling you the number is because we need to show these numbers. It's an act of kindness. It's an act of charity. It's called Sadaqa Jaria. So once we share these achievements that Hussein has done, it should inspire you. It should inspire the world who's watching this to see how can you be part of this movement? How could you get involved? You should get involved. Why you should get involved? Number one, is the man Hussein Abinani made us standing as injustice. Made us stand for equality. Made us stand for self-giving, self-righteousness. And every day, we always say, I wish I was there on the lands of Karbala 1400 years ago. But guess what? You are there right now. So you are here right now. Play your part. You get involved. Visit our website, whoishussein.org. Email us world at whoishussein.org. Now, before we wrap it up, we do want to take some time to thank you for coming on the show. And thank Imam Hussein TV as well for having us on. It humbles us to be on the show when we have... Do you want to add something? I just want people to know that if you want to step up and do something, it does not have to be on a grand scale. We started very small. It's a small grassroots movement. If you just bake cookies and take them to the park and pass them out as an act of kindness inspired by Hussein, that is a big step in itself. It does not have to be something that involves a lot of money or even a lot of time or a lot of people. It can be just you and your family doing your bit. Absolutely. I think every little help, little drops of water and makes a mighty ocean. It's the ripple effect. You drop a water in a pebble. The waves come across. The idea is, my dear brothers and sisters, make that first stand. Make that first step, just aware Hussein had been elated. Thank you for coming over. Thank you. And God bless you. And if you would like to get involved again, the website is whoishussein.org and the email address is worldatwhoishussein.org. Thank you very much from Mahmousen TV. Stay tuned. Good office.