 Many times when we look at ourselves, we consider our life and we even think about possibly being someone who changes the world in some way. Some of us want to be people who leave legacies. Some of us want to somehow find a solution of poverty. There are so many things that some of us dream about that might be bigger than ourselves. But at the same time, some of us may feel a little confused on what our place is supposed to be. We may be dealing with our own struggles, whether with family or with school, drama with friends or issues with our own faith. And because of those realities, sometimes it becomes very difficult for ourselves to feel like we can actually make changes that we want to reach the goals that we want to have. And sometimes we're not even sure what those look like. So today, God willing, what we're going to talk about quickly is how we can be individuals who leave legacies. Looking at what the concept of being legendary actually is, and how being somebody who leaves a legacy isn't necessarily somebody who changes the face of the earth radically, but instead somebody who's connected to Allah SWT, and who through their small but consistent actions also impacts the people that are around them. So to begin, inshallah, what we're going to do is look at what it means to impact the world around us. In order for us to be people who want to change the world or individuals who want to be legendary, we need to be people who care about our community. And so what we're going to talk about is how to be close to the community, how we ourselves, through that closeness, can be people who change the face of the earth slowly. So to begin, let's talk about what close means. Let's get a look at the word see. The word see in close, stand for closeness to God, closest to Allah SWT. How many of you in your communities, I'd like to raise your hand, have heard somebody make a racist statement before? Raise your hands really high. Look, okay, I look around the room. That's almost everyone's hand up. Let's look at what that means. Let's look at what it means to be close to Allah SWT and what it means to leave a legacy in the context of racism. So two companions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon them, Bilal and Abul-Lar radi allahu anhu ma may God be pleased with both of them. They're both incredible companions who we take his room out. Both of them were talking one day. They got in an argument and Abul-Lar speaking to Bilal, whose mother was black. And Abul-Lar says to him, you son of a black woman. Now that's beautiful. He is the son of a black woman. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's beauty. But the way he said it in the context that it was set in was very offensive to Bilal. So Bilal, he's hurt by what he said. Now Bilal, he may not look at himself as a legend, although we look at him as a legend. But he recognizes that by helping his brother see his wrong, inshallah he's able to help change the way that his own brother looks at an issue such as racism and the way that it affects his brother in Islam. So Bilal goes to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The Prophet, peace be upon him, asked Abul-Lar to comment. When he talks to him, he reminds him that he has some ignorance in him. The fact that he's able to say this shows that perhaps he doesn't understand the Quranic concept, the Islamic concept that Allah swt, he doesn't look at our outsides. Instead, he looks at our hearts and at our actions. So when Abul-Lar was told this, his reaction isn't, but I have black friends, his reaction isn't, but I like that black singer. He doesn't try to justify what he said by saying it's not racist. Instead, he owns his own actions. And by doing so, he recognizes that this ignorance that the Prophet, peace be upon him, has pointed out in him is one that's ignorant of the concept of the Quran. His closeness to the Quran in the ayah that Allah swt talks about are different colors and are different tones being a sign for us. When Allah swt tells us that he created us from a male and a female, put us into nations and tribes so that we can know one another. By being able to understand these Quranic concepts, he's then also able to understand himself as a person in the life of being close to Allah. So because of his closeness to Allah, he's able to go back to Bilal, not making excuses for what he said, but apologizing for the way that he hurt his brother. He put his face onto the floor, his cheek, and Bilal was asked by Abul-Lar to step on his cheek as a means of asking for his forgiveness. Bilal, who's seeing this, he picks him up, picks up that cheek and he begins to kiss it. Now this interaction between them happened in that moment, but do you think that any of them thought centuries later in the United States, people are going to be using this example as a means of talking about race relations in the Muslim community? They're very likely we're not like, okay, let's set this up so that, you know, in a thousand years, people will be using our example and trying to create this understanding in our community. But because both of them recognize their closest to Allah is rooted in their interactions with one another, Allah's panel to Allah out of their sincerity honored them with us continuing to use their example in our own interactions in the United States today. So their sincerity through their closeness to Allah, their closeness to their society allowed them to be role models for us today, even though they themselves may not have thought that to be a legendary moment for them. Look at Kuntakinte, how many people have heard of Kuntakinte here? Okay, how many of you have heard of Malcolm X? How many of you have read Malcolm X's biography? Who is that written by? Alex Haley. Alex Haley's great, great, great, great grandfather is Kuntakinte. If you read the book Roots, which Alex Haley also wrote, he talks about his great, great, great, great grandfather being kidnapped from his, from his village in the Gambia. He's kidnapped by individuals who take him here to be enslaved. He goes through all the hardships and the injustices of slavery, a free individual who's put into this situation. His family never knows what actually happened to him. When he creates another family here, his own daughter is sold away from him. So his own family that continues never knows what actually happens to him. But every time he goes through the pains of his life, he continues to say it was Allah's will. And I tried to pay my soba for prayer. And he continues to talk about this connection to Allah in a place where he's forced not to speak his native language, in a place where he's forced not to have his Islamic identity, but he continues to be close to Allah despite the struggles that he's going through. Now that understanding of Punta Kinte at one point, I mean this, this, this brother SubhanAllah, he's in one of the most difficult situations ever. He's in, he's, he's enslaved. And yet through all of that, the power of his closest to God, he eventually says that he didn't do all the things that he might have done in the beginning when it was easier. But he hoped that Allah would accept from him, that he never touched pork and he never drank alcohol. He hoped that Allah would accept from him. And he talks about the things that he tried his best to do regardless of his situation. Now Punta Kinte, no one in his immediate family knew what happened to him. But look at how many centuries later, his grandson wrote a book that affected our understanding of Islam in America. Malcolm X, Rahmatullah, has been a means of people not only finding the beauty in Islam, but understanding the concept of social justice within an Islamic perspective. His great, great, great, great grandson was somebody who helped America understand Islam in a different way. And Punta Kinte Rahmatullah Ali was so removed from every single Muslim that he grew up with. He was so removed from his community, yet his sincerity to Allah, his understanding of maintaining that connection despite the struggle, his closeness to God was what allowed for him, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to allow his actions to continue despite the fact that nobody in his immediate timeframe knew what happened to him. Look at us. Every single one of us are going eventually to leave. But we may be doing something right now between us and Allah that affects people that may not even know what affects them, that continues to help people inshallah centuries later. And inshallah those people like us will make du'a for them like Punta Kinte Rahmatullah Ali. So looking at what close means, the beginning means to be close to Allah, now in order for us to be legendary, we also need to love. It's very difficult for you and me to want to change the society when we don't love the people around us. Let's look at what that looks like. Raise your hand if you have ever been to a message or to an MSA or to an IOC, where you might have felt or someone you know might have felt out of place or judged or isolated or not welcome. Raise your hand if you know someone who has gone through that type of experience. Take a look around. That's quite a few hands. Sometimes in our community we don't understand that people struggle, that it's a process to come to Allah. And that there are differences of opinion. And because of our own lack of understanding, inshallah we care so much about inshallah. So sometimes we become emotional and overzealous. Because of that we unfortunately sometimes drive people away instead of venturing ourselves and other people. So let's look at the Prophet Muhammad to Allah. And his love for his society. There was a man named Abdullah who used to drink. And we know that especially in a society where that's not okay in a certain way, there can be consequences for that. So this companion, he keeps dealing with the consequences of his drinking problem. And at one point the other companions, they get frustrated with him. And they're like, man, what's wrong with you? And they begin to say mischief things to him. The Prophet to Allah alaihi wa sallam stops them. And he tells them, this is a man who loves Allah and his messenger. He attests to the love of this man for Allah's panel and his messenger. And he reminds them not to say things like this. That we shouldn't help she upon overcome our own brothers and sisters. But look at the love of the Prophet to Allah alaihi wa sallam versus us sometimes. And I'm sure you've heard it in your IOC. Sometimes you hear people in MSJs go, oh my next sister, I saw her do this. Or in that brother, he was in that spot. We hear people talking about others sometimes instead of loving each other, loving one another to the point that we want people to grow together. And so we're there to help them let their own relatives, when their relatives are loving. But the point is that look at the Prophet to Allah alaihi wa sallam's reaction. He doesn't say, oh, you're right. This isn't a believer. Oh, you're right. This isn't someone who belongs in the most highest community that ever existed. Instead, he attests to his love for the Prophet to Allah alaihi wa sallam and his love for Allah's panel to Allah. In order for us to be legendary, we have to love the people that are around us. And love is in two different ways. The first one is we have to love our own selves. Raise your hand if there has been a point in your life where maybe you don't necessarily feel comfortable with who you are. You've maybe dealt with issues of self-esteem or not really like the way that you look. Raise your hand if you have those types of struggles and it's a hard struggle to admit. But look around the room, that's a number of people. This isn't something you're struggling with alone. So many of us have this struggle. But loving ourselves is one of the ways through which God willing, we can help create an environment that we leave an impact in because we care about ourselves enough. And we have, there is that, or we have this honor, but this humble honor in who we are. An example of the wrong type of love is Shayfan. Adam relates to that. Allah asks Shayfan to bow down to Adam. What's his response? I'm seeing this. What did he say? You're right, that was a no. Seriously, what did he say? Exactly. He said, I am better than him. I'm made from fire and he's made from clay. That's exactly what racism is. I'm better than this person because of an attribute that I had no control over. Allah is going to tell the one who created Shayfan and yet he's taking pride in simply his race. That is a problem when we're talking about loving oneself. But loving oneself doesn't need to be arrogant as sometimes unfortunately we're maybe mistocked. Loving oneself simply means feeling that pride in oneself in a humble way that also benefits other people. So let's take the example of Asimab bin Tumiz. How many people have heard of Asimab bin Tumiz? Few of you? Yes, does anyone want to tell us who she is? That's okay. Asimab bin Tumiz, she was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. She accepted Islam in Mecca. They were persecuted in Mecca. She settled with her family to Abyssinia. She lived in Abyssinia. So she stayed in Abyssinia for a number of years and eventually she and the people in Abyssinia moved to Medina and moved with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So by the time that this group from Abyssinia moves into Medina, it's already been like seven years of the community of Medina establishing. So one time she's sitting, she's with the daughter of Amr al-Dilah and she's with Hafsa and we know those of us who are Sunni, Amr al-Dilah is a huge figure in our lives. We love Amr al-Dilah. We consider him as one of the people of Chanda. Yet he's a human being and he makes mistakes just like human beings do. So one time he's visiting his daughter Hafsa and Hafsa is sitting with Asma and he's like, oh who is she? And then he realizes that she's one of the women who came on the boat. So when he realizes that she's Asma bin Tumiz, one of the women who came from Abyssinia, the way he responds to her is, we got here first. Therefore, we have more of a right to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ than you do. In other words, those of you who found Islam later on in life, those of you who've been converts, those of you who've come to realize what Islam actually means in your life at a later part, those of you who dress a certain way that's acceptable that we consider acceptable for the mission, those of you who have certain lingo that we think of the norm, those of you who are the bigger, bigger constructs of what our community accepts. When you are that, you have more. We have more of a right to the message than you do. We isolate and we excommunicate people from our community. When in reality, if we were people who mentored ourselves and the people around us, we could be individuals who are covering so much good to our community because we are a healing community. We allow people to start loving themselves instead of hating who they are. So, Asmaa, she recognizes this love for herself and her community in the sincere way of recognizing that Allah has blessed her with these experiences for a reason, not just to test her to be away from the Prophet ﷺ, but also to be somebody who speaks up for her community. So, Anu, for all the love for herself, she says to Amrullah, because she's proud in a good way, in a sincere, confident way, she responds to him and says, by God, you are wrong. You were with the Prophet ﷺ while we were hungry and we were thirsty and we weren't being taught the way that you were being taught with the Prophet ﷺ. I swear I'm not going to eat or drink anything until I go to the Prophet himself and tell him what you said. I'm going to say it like it is. Now, the incredible thing of what Asmaa did is that she herself, maybe in that moment, didn't realize what an impact that would have, not only for her smaller community, but for us today who are talking about her. But she actually took a direct action that would be helpful. Unlike sometimes us, maybe something happens and we're like, oh yeah, I'm going to post it really quickly on Instagram and let's count back those. Or maybe we post some like passive aggressive status on Facebook and then like, you know, whatever Lee Sam would happen, whatever Sam would happen and everyone knows who we're talking about, but you're all right. I mean like going through all of those different roads may not necessarily help the person realize their mistake. It could even cause bigger issues of love in our community. But what happens if it's not the Prophet ﷺ? What does he say? When he heard what she said, he told her ﷺ. Now Omar and his companions, they don't have more of a right to me than you do. You and your companions have made Hijrah twice and they've only made Hijrah once. Okay, I'm not false. So by saying this, she's being told that her and her community of people who came from Abyssinia have doubled the reward than the people who came immediately to Medina. In other words, those of you who have struggled, those of you who have been trying, those of you who may have felt unwelcome, who've had issues with the way that you look when you've been created, Allah Almighty recognizes your struggles and when you're struggling and sincerely trying to come back to Him. There's double reward for the person who's striving for his sake. Now, Asmaa, radiAllahu anha, when she was told this and she told the other people who came with her, the other members of her community were so overjoyed by what they heard that they kept coming back to her over and over. The men and the women of her community, they wanted to hear this Hadith again and again and again because they made them so happy to know that the Prophet ﷺ declared that they could double the reward. So the point here is that Had Asmaa decided that she was just going to sit back and say, he is Amma. I mean, who can know more than Amma will be loved by Allah. May Allah bless him. He's such a high person who we have high instinct. But the point is that she recognized that she had a voice that she needed to use to create agency within her own community. And through that voice, she continued to alter the way that we look at history. And she left a legacy in that moment that we reflect upon now in America over 1400 years later. Let's look at people who are a little more recent, people that you might have heard of who had some struggles, maybe made a few mistakes, failed a couple of times, but are considered great people of their field. How many of you like basketball? All right. Okay. Give me this name. This guy got cut from his basketball team and he wanted to his room and he started crying. Michael Jordan, this guy was told that if he continued in school, he was told that he was deaf, that he shouldn't continue in school in any type of intellectual ways. He should instead get into a trade that would be solely based on his personality because he had a pleasant personality who wasn't smart enough to continue in the field that he wanted to study. He was told this by a teacher. Who do you think that was? I'll tell you, it was Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison, would you think Thomas Edison isn't an intellectual person? No. No, but he had enough love for himself and confidence in his abilities that he kept going regardless of how many times he was told that he was a failure. Third person, he was fired from his newspaper for lacking creativity and original ideas. Walt Disney, and how many of us would think of him as someone who wasn't created? The point is that throughout history, there have been people who have been told you're not worth it, who have been told through actions that they're not worthy, yet they continued out of love for themselves and understanding of themselves, this concept of feeling honor for themselves, and striving to pursue something that they knew they could make a difference in regardless of the boundaries that they faced. So that's loving oneself. Let's look at loving society. In order for individuals to become legendary, we need to love our society. So let's take a couple of examples. Nana Esmet, has anyone heard of her before? She was from the Khalifa of her time period in Nigeria. And Nana Esmet, she's a princess. I mean, she is in riches, but she seeks education. She becomes a scholar of Islam, and she focuses on the rights that Islam gives to Muslim women. Now, she could have chosen, especially considering her background, considering her field. She kind of decided that since she's from a family of the palace, she's going to stay in the palace. And if she wanted to teach people, maybe she could only teach people who were other royal members like herself. Instead, what she did is she got together teachers who she mentored, and then these teachers went into rural areas of Nigeria, and taught women who didn't have access to education the same way that people did in her place. So because of her love for society, she was able to help create an entire system that brought women opportunities to learn because of what she did for her community. Look at Sulaq-e-D. How many of you have heard of Sulaq-e-D? Okay, how many of you have heard of Sulaq-e-D? Okay, let's see those hands again. Sulaq-e-D, put them up really high. A lot of hands. The rest of the names he didn't really hear too much about. Sulaq-e-D was Kurdish. He wasn't Palestinian, yet he was known as someone who liberated Masjid al-Aqsa, and who liberated that area not just from Muslims, but to bring justice for Jews and Christians as well. Now, Sulaq-e-D, even though he wasn't the same race as the very people who he helped, he wasn't this anomaly that just showed up and changed the face of the world. Most of us are not going to find the answer to peace and war and solving poverty and homelessness. That's not what most of us are going to do. But every single one of us are going to impact certain influences in people's lives that are around us, that will create an effect that can help people in the future. Esmet-e-Din, Nur-e-Din, Milam-e-Muqt, Esur-e-Din, these are all individuals. Esmet-e-Din was a female by the way. All individuals who came before Sulaq-e-Din that changed the shape of the area that he lived in that built the opportunity for him to come in and finally take Masjid-e-Aqsa and liberate Jerusalem. If it hadn't been for the work of all of these people who so few of us have heard of, Sulaq-e-Din wouldn't have been in a situation in a position where he could have taken the haunt. We name our kids Sulaq-e-Din. May Allah bless them, Rahmatullah alayhi. But we don't recognize who had to build Sulaq-e-Din for him to come in and how many centuries before he even existed they had to come in for that to happen. Us too, right now, we're living in a time where we're dealing with, we're dealing with Islamophobia, we're dealing with struggles in our own communities, women, we often talk about how little space we have in our own life. We miss out sometimes. We're dealing with struggles, but it's one of my teachers once said, if you lived in a time where everything was perfect, your existence wouldn't make that much of a difference. Whatever you do right now is going to affect people to a greater level because of the hardship that we're going through. So recognize that by loving our society, we can be means of helping change the way that people not only look at our religion, look at them as a community, but also bring benefit to the society as a whole. So we must love our society. Finally, there's E in being close. E is in education. Sometimes we see things in our community and we get a little frustrated. There have been times that you might have heard things and you were told that those things were haram and then later on as you started to learn a few more things, you started realizing that scholars have differences of opinion, that Islam is vast, that scholarship is great, and it's deep. And through learning all of that, sometimes we're able to respect one another a little more. We're able to understand where one another is coming from. Educating ourselves is one of the means to loving the people around us and that love, as we've been talking about, is something that can influence our actions. Let's look at the concept of having a female present in front of both man and woman. That's an issue that a lot of communities have a contention with still. But let's look at Ibn Taymiyya, a huge scholar in our Islamic history. He had a student whose name was Faltima al-Baghdadiya. Faltima al-Baghdadiya used to be such an incredible student that Ibn Taymiyya in his encyclopedic brain would still have to prepare for her studies with him. She used to teach from the memoir of the Masjid in Damascus, not Juma'at, not Salat al-Juma'at, but just in general. She would give lectures from the memoir, and men and women would learn from her in the Masjid. That's Ibn Taymiyya's student, but look at the way that we ourselves sometimes look at what it means for a female to be in a space of scholarship. Yeah, our history is filled with women who were teaching. Like, for example, Sheikh Faltima al-Baghdadiya, has anyone heard of her before? Yeah? Okay, who was Sheikh Faltima al-Baghdadiya's teacher? In the works of Ibn Taymiyya, huge works in Islamic history. Think of, like, huge scholars you've heard of. This is the greatest scholar of Sheikh Faltima's time in these works. Any names? Great scholars? If y'all come out with me, I can't hear. I was like, what are you doing? Huge scholar names. What was that question? Thank you for asking. Sheikh Faltima al-Baghdadiya used to learn from another person, and that person was the greatest A'alim of that time in the books of Al-Qabrani. Who was that scholar that Sheikh Faltima's A'alima learned from? Sorry? Her name was Sheikh Faltima al-Juzdaniya. Sheikh Faltima used to learn from A'alima, who was a female in her time period. The works of Al-Qabrani were the most understanding of those books. The most licenses in those books was a female, and men and women would study to travel with her. And then Sheikh Faltima al-Sa'adiya learned from her, so that men and women would study to travel with her. The point is that in our history, we have so much scholarship from young people like all of you, from females like all of you, from converts like many of you, from individuals who might have been those who are involved with things that they made mistakes in, but then changed over history, like Malik ibn Dinah, some of us have things that we're maybe trying to become better through. We're trying to reconnect with Islam in different ways. Some of us may feel like we're already there and we've left that way of the past, but the point is that through educating one another, we can then be individuals who are accepting of the fact that sometimes we may not agree with something, but there's still a basis for it within Islamic history. Sometimes there are differences of opinion, but we can't know that until we educate ourselves about them. So the point is that in order for us to be individuals who are legendary, we need to do just a few things as we talked about. The first one is being close to God, the second one is having love for ourselves in our society, and that those four are together and with education. Educating ourselves whether Islamically or whether the science is that you're learning, which all can be related to Islam with your intention, inshallah will be means of us helping create not only a legend for ourselves, that doesn't mean that everyone's going to know our names, that doesn't mean that everyone's going to remember who we are, but because we're sincere, we're close to Allah, and we try our best to please Him through helping our society. God willing, He will provide spaces for us for our deeds to continue even after we're gone, and that is what legendary is. For us to be sincere enough that we invest in things that continue to help people around us regardless of what who we left as, inshallah God willing if our actions can continue, God willing we will be legendary in His sight. The point is to be close to Him, and part of closeness is loving one another. So because we're talking about being close, what I'd like you to do as we end is go ahead and stand up, hug someone next to you, or give them a handshake, and show them your close steps. Go ahead. So I know that they've passed out some note cards and some pads, so if any of you guys have any questions that are already ready, sisters you can pass them to like Yusmeen, and brothers you can pass them to Anu and Reshan, those of you who are selecting them up, and you can bring them up and we'll read them, and so you can see your actions in turn. What are your views regarding parents pushing or recommending their kids into careers on the basis of money, as opposed to careers that build worldly change, i.e. more social workers or educators? My view with regards to parenting is that every child has different interests and has different skills, and that parents should try their best to understand what those are and help encourage them into a field that they could use those. I know many parents have a specific view of a doctor, engineer, or doctor, or an engineer, or a doctor, and I understand that that's not very wide in terms of the range that we're given, and at the same time though, if that's something you're actually interested in, it doesn't need to mean that you are money company or you're driven because of success, because that's why our communities sometimes consider successful. These types of areas can be used for social justice and for social work and for helping other people. It's just about the intention that you have and the way that you pursue that. So I don't want to create a dynamic where social justice fields such as social work or areas where you work with nonprofits is on one side and then the quote-unquote successful money-driven fields on the other. I don't want to create that type of paradigm, but what I would do is just look at what works for you as an individual, what is your passion, and sometimes you don't know where your passion is. So take a test that can help you kind of figure out what those areas are and then try your best to compromise with what your parents want. Sometimes you're still going to push you into the medical field, for example, and maybe you want to be a writer. You need to be a problem from the beginning and let them know that that's not going to work long term if eventually you see yourself talking at a medical school. And if you think you can go ahead and do that, that's great. If you can compromise somehow, that's awesome. But be aware of yourself too and try to compromise with your parents and see what your parents would be accepting of. We do want to please our parents and respect them, but at the same time that doesn't mean that they need to make major decisions for us that's going to affect our lives long term, that may not necessarily work for us long term. At the same time, most of you are still young and most of you will change your mind in some ways. So be very open to your parents' wisdom because as much as most parents understand us, sometimes better than ourselves, they care so much about us most of the time they just want us to be successful. So the issue is work on your intention regardless of what area you go into. And as you go into that area with your intention, try your best to help your parents compromise what they actually want you to do. This is what you may be interested in and try to find something that kind of brings together both of those. How important is this phase in social justice and should Muslims be more involved in causes fighting oppression? The phase is incredibly important in social justice. There are two verses in the Quran that are almost identical. They are slightly changed in their versing, their wording, but they both say oh you who believe stand up against oppression or stand up for justice, whether it be against yourselves or your family members, your own parents, whether it's scripture or forks, that's okay. Regardless of who it, regardless of that, because God is going to be, God is going to be, right, I'm very loosely translating that. But the point is that the Quran explicitly talks about standing up for social justice and the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has done this throughout his life and you see the Prophet, so many of them are coming and saying worship God directly and be just in your dealings. Worship God directly and be just in your interactions. This was part of their message. Social justice was a part of the message of the doubt of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the point of social justice is incredibly at the core of this step and the problem for us sometimes we don't necessarily know how to implement it. I'll give you a general ruling about implement this. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was asked to participate in help and forlure before the Prophethood. This was a means of, this was kind of like a group of people that came and who stood up against injustice when somebody was wronged within the Mexican community at that time. Now the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked your Prophethood said that were he called to join him again, he would have done so. This is after he's a Prophet. Now the people that he worked with were pagans. They were people who were sometimes not involved in things that you know we wouldn't be full with. So they'd be drinking and sometimes burying their women or let their big girls alive. These are pretty big issues. Yet he still would have worked with us for the cause of social justice. And even after he became a Prophet, where these same people went to war with him, killed people that he knew, mutilated his own relative. After all of that hardship he still said he would have still gone ahead and worked with if it was for the sake of standing up against injustice. So when you're looking at should I work with this group of people? I don't know if I agree with these issues. Should I work with these people? I don't know if I'm comfortable with this. Look at the issue. Is it one that's standing up against oppression? Is it one for social justice? Yes. Then join them. And you be firm about your own sincerity and your beliefs. You don't need to go around telling everyone that. But you know your limits. You conduct yourself as a Muslim who somebody other people God willing I hope would find that they can relate to. And just go ahead on your own principles, but work with people. Work with people. What I've always said that I think would work for justice even with the same people. So the point is it's super important and please make sure to do it. You yourself are a Christian. Frequently in America, the wider Christian community is disconnected from the Muslim community. Either by sectarianism, ECR differences, differences in culture, religiosity, or lack thereof. Do you have any suggestions on how to approach an injustice problem? Most of my family members are converts. The majority of my family married someone who wasn't a Christian. So even though my parents are ethnically a Christian and another one of my cousins is a ethnically a Christian, the rest of us are racially mixed and are converts. So I honestly do not relate to the Christian community the same way somebody from a real Christian community might. I wasn't really raised with that culture. I honestly don't feel comfortable answering the question because I know yet. So I hope some of us can. Is anyone else a Christian in here who can answer this? No. Sorry? Yeah, sure. Okay. I mean, of course I have I have personal relatives who I love deeply, but this this is not my expertise because that's not that's not my focus. So I honestly can't answer it. How to deal with people telling you about wearing hijabs the right way? Okay. So people ask me how should they give advice to someone about wearing hijabs? My typical answer is don't give them advice about wearing hijabs. And the reason is because hijab is a very it's a very difficult thing to wear. And I don't mean just because you're you're judged immediately by what you wear. It means so many things and not every person is comfortable wearing that that outer garment so publicly for so many different reasons. We can't pinpoint it to a specific reason why someone's not feeling that that's the way they want to represent themselves at this point. So the point is I would not recommend giving people advice on hijab unless you're really really close friends and you know that they want that. Unless they've asked you to give them advice unless you have that type of relationship where you know they're comfortable with that that's different. But just coming up to someone to be like wear hijab because the law wants that be careful because you could be somebody else who could turn someone away from the community and hijab was legislated 14 years at minimum 14 years after after the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam started to begin the Dawa. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had mentorship in his community. He created this bond between himself and the community. He helped people love Allah the sooner the work revealed has to do with it hereafter. I'm not saying people will don't wear hijab, don't have a close connection to Allah. But point is as a general community as a general community we cannot expect people to do things when we do not have programming like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did. We don't have mentorship programs in general. We don't have spaces for women in general. Maybe we have a prayer hall but it's not typically the prayer hall that the men have and the same access to knowledge. We can't expect people to be like the companions of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when we are not the companions and the way that we mentor people in our communities. So the point is you as somebody who might struggle with being told that you need to wear hijab this way or you need to wear hijab that way. You know your struggles and you know that Allah the Almighty knows your reality. You work on yourself to the best of your ability with mentors who can help you get to wherever you're trying to go for the sake of Allah. Have supporters who understand you and who are willing to be your friend and who can help you in those times where you're really offended or hurt by someone. But realize that your issue of dealing with the struggle with hijab is one of so many issues our community is going through. So you're not alone. There are many people who feel like they're isolated. Recognize that of course hijab is a beautiful thing in Shalom when it's possible. But at the same time being consistent and slow in your growth is insha'Allah going to be pleasing to Allah the Almighty versus doing something overnight. And I'm not not encouraging it. Do it overnight if you're ready. Do it overnight if you're ready even if it's a slow process. But the point is that it's okay if it takes you some time to get there. Your point is just you know that you have a goal to get to. And there are so many other aspects of that all that needs to happen for you to get to that point where you're comfortable and ready. And no one's going to tell that knows this. Now I'm not saying to make excuses for everything. All of us whatever whether it's hijab or anything else. We don't make excuses. But we do know that we're trying our best. We have people to support us and love us. And at the same time we know that Allah recognizes how hard it is for us. So insha'Allah take things to the best of your ability. Have mentors who can help you and find friends who can support you through that time. Because it's very hard when you feel like you don't belong and you don't have a place that you can contribute. There was a sister recently who was telling me she doesn't work hijab and she was saying that she just doesn't feel like she can have a place in the community because people immediately make assumptions about her simply because of her dress. And if we're to a point in our community where we're causing people to feel like they can't be a part of our community. Heck yeah they're going to go somewhere else. And then what are we going to do? And then we complain or we don't have people. One is kind of like we haven't provided those spaces for people. Yeah. So I have a question about what you were saying. What do you think you should do if you're struggling to kind of find your place in the community, in the community, or in a time of general, especially if you're a woman? I mean that's a really difficult reality for women especially. And I know it's a difficult reality for men too. I know we talk about women a lot but men also are expected to be a certain way and then you're not necessarily given relatable mentors to be that person. So it's very difficult on both sides whether you're a female or male. There are systemic issues in our community that haven't been addressed and that affects both genders. So what I would recommend if you're going through this whether you're a male or a female is that you see how you want to grow as a person, what your goals are, and number two how you want to contribute to the community. If you have tried your best and created the alternatives, tried so many different ways of making that happen and it still hasn't happened, maybe it's time for you to create a third space. That doesn't mean you break away from the message. It simply means that you also maybe can create something where people like you who feel the same way can grow together, can learn together, can come together as a community. You're still involved with the greater community where you're creating something new where people can be themselves in a way where they're not feeling like they're forced to be who they're not or where they don't have the space where they can actually contribute. It's a long process but it's so important to have mentors through that process. Don't do it alone. Five people who are grounded in Islamic knowledge, people who've studied and who've been involved with activism so that they know how to help you through that process because a lot of times the problem is we get excited and we want to change and then we do things that aren't necessarily Islamic-ly grounded. So make sure that through that process you have mentors and tell us how to help you through. Sorry this is the same question. These are all the same. A lot of stories we learn from and listen to are from the Prophet's time where if there was a dispute or conflict it was taken to the Prophet's wisdom and subtle on his authority. It is authority within question. He was widely respected and we learn from his wisdom. Right now we live in a world with no Islamic leadership so much the time the Prophet's always so enough. Or for example in Catholicism. Does that lead to any difficulties and who can Muslims turn to? Of course it leads to difficulties but you know what's incredible? The Prophet's wisdom laid the groundwork for Islam to be relevant until the end of time. So what that means is that even though there were questions during that time and they could go to the Prophet's wisdom immediately and they could get advice on what to do, there were also times when the companions had to make their own decisions and they came to the Prophet's wisdom afterwards and told him what they had to do and making those decisions and he mentored them through that process of the decisions. So the point is yes in general they had that type of leadership but at the same time he set groundwork for them to make their own decisions after he was gone. So so yes right now of course we have difficulty with this we're not now always sure who to go to. What I would recommend is number one recognizing that it's okay that sometimes there are going to be differences but you need to find someone personally and as a community who you feel is relatable to your situation and who has a strong understanding of both the Qur'an and the Sunnah and the gospel works, the gospel understanding what the Shia is. Be able to have that person grounded but also involved with the general community merging those two ideas helps people connect to them and understand how they're supposed to be as a student in Florida and also be a strong person. So what I would recommend is find someone like that in your community who can mentor you as a person. Mentorship is so important I keep using that word and also as a general community hire someone who can help be that point person for your community in a general process. If there is one tip for time management what would it be not including making a Provedure? May Allah bless you for saying that including making a Provedure. I would recommend the one tip I would recommend is writing down your goals long term and short term and writing out what's most important for you to do in that day because setting up a schedule like I don't know checking Facebook B not as important. Studying for exam tomorrow A super important. So like just make a time management schedule keep up with it every single day and having short and long term goals and then challa you will achieve a lot more than I need to do all these things but they're in my head and oh my god it all goes out of luck. I'm going to wake up at two in the morning and then I'm going to setting up a good actually wake up Provedure. So just make a time management system that has to be with a plan or outright. There have been fewer intellectual thieves than Thomas Edison in history. He stole everything from Tesla. I will say that I am not in any way an expert and expert in Thomas Edison or Tesla. Other biographies or the realities. So forgive me for mistaking something in my lecture if that's the truth and I'm not saying it's not the truth and thank you so much for clarifying. I can definitely see that throughout history we've attributed some ideas to others one that's not actually their idea so may Allah forgive me if that is the case and I give all credit to the other person. Often as a Muslim or some whatever I whatever's right which all of that's the one I would say if I can. Often as a Muslim thank you for correcting me. And as an active member in Muslim organizations there is a stigma against certain social justice organizations and people find it foreign when deciding how individuals to be suggestions. I think I answered this earlier when we talked about health with the law and choosing to involve a social justice by also recognizing what your specific sentences are personally and just being grounded while you're working with everyone who's standing for justice. Final question as a woman I have to find myself pulled in many directions and perhaps pushing myself too far by being a doctor, a wife, mother, friend, a scholar. No those are not big deals all together. How do you find this balance? Well I think I think what's really helpful is recognizing what your priorities are and then working based off your priorities. So for example if your priority is let's say if you're a mom and your priority is your children you're gonna you're gonna change the rest of your life based on that or if your priority is to be a wife or your priority is to be a doctor or your priorities to be a scholar and then seeing how that can maybe be the focus at certain times but then also being able to balance the rest of it by giving each thing a good time. So I'll give you an example. Sometimes what I do is I work with my husband and we work on scheduling my schedule of traveling and for me I want to make a priority our relationship as a married couple. So of course at the same time I need to prioritize the issues of the community and being there to help specifically women and talk about issues that sometimes we don't get the chance to talk about when there are male scholars. So what is what is the priority there? Both are so important. So we work on balancing it. Some weekends for travel, some weekends for working on errands, house stuff, our relationship. So the point I'm only giving you this personal example super curious and I wish I had a point is that sometimes what's helpful is to just look at the different aspects you have in your life, work with the people that are around you and try to make something that balances them. They may not be 50-50 but you see giving each thing is due time. Now at the same time you might find that you wish you could give more time to your studies but you have too much on your plate when it comes to family. That's okay sometimes that's going to happen in your life but later on in your life you're going to have a different situation. There's a quote that my mother-in-law loves and it's bloom where you are planted. So bloom wherever you are planted, deal with that situation when you're in that situation and then as time changes inshallah you can change your priorities at that time as well. Just work on what you have within that time span inshallah. And inshallah we're going to head now for Salah. Salah, if you can forgive me for my mistakes, it was an honor to be with your community. I'm very excited for what you're going to do. It's kind of a long, long behind the kitchen on that and stuff. We're going to do that. So I'm going to come back to you.