Are You in the Arena or on the Sidelines?

That should remind us where we should be standing up. Teddy Roosevelt said, "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where of the deeds could have done it better." The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust, sweat, and blood. Who strives valently who errors and comes up short again and again because there's no effort without error or shortcoming. But who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end triumph of a triumph of high achievement. And who at the worst if he fails at least he fails while do daring greatly so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who ne knew neither victory nor defeat. I couldn't have said it any better than Teddy Roosevelt himself. Islam is not a spectator religion. Allahh reminds us Strive for Allah with striving with the striving that is due to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Better a believer bruised by truth than untouched by it. Malcolm was not an important was not important because he was angry. Many people are angry. He was important because he changed after encountering Islam. Malcolm said I was wrong. Those are not weak words. Those are Islamic words. Allah praises those who grow when the truth becomes clearer. Allah subhana t says those who listen to what is said and follow the best of it. Islam took fire and gave it a direction. My young brothers and sisters, do not let this world convenience you. The faith is weakness. The conscience is a liability and silence is maturity. Allah subhana t reminds us in the Quran the story of the people of the kaf. Allah says they were young people who believed in their lord and we increase them in guidance. Youth Islam in Islam is not a waiting room. It's a launching pad. Malcolm said we can think of uniting we cannot think of uniting with others while we unite amongst ourselves. Our children will ask us, they will ask us where we stood. Allah subh reminds us in the Quran that he does not change the condition of people until those people change their own conditions. Do not shrink. Do not disappear. Stand upright. Malcolm is Malcolm today because he stood up for what was right. A man who stood up for justice and courage even though it cost him his life. For most of us, Malcolm is just a figure that appears in the books and that's it. Yet, the true injustice lies in a in a system where MLK is celebrated by a national holiday and Malcolm is just pushed in the back of the syllabus books. A man who died at the age of 39 where 40 years old, the human intellect kicks into the man's intellect kicks into a high gear. a man who was very well-versed even though he was an eighth grade dropout, but he spoke most eloquently than a lot of PhDs and scholars today. A man who spoke at the Oxford Union, the epitome of the Anglosaxon, we made it. If any of us ever get to that level, you just get a standing ovation for walking in the room that you've made it to the Oxford Union. This man, Re Niche Spinosa Chopenhau Malcolm said, "There's hardly a person I know who benefited more from prison than I did." You see the divine hand in this man's life. How Allah subhana ta guided Malcolm to the path. Yes, Malcolm stood for black nationalism. But he struggled with it when he came back from his hajj. When he returned from Mecca, Malcolm struggled greatly with the word black nationalism because he saw Muslims who were white. He saw Muslims who were blonde hair and greeneyed. He saw Muslims from Africa and Muslims from from Turkey. And that word no longer made sense to him. And dare I say, people me who today have the courage to stand and speak and to show up in places and ask for our rights. Though right, those rights were not given to us. Those rights have been paved. That road to those rights have been paved by the blood and the souls of those who stood before us on the path, people Malcolm who spoke about injustices from American streets to Philstine and the world over. And that's the reason today Makob doesn't have a national holiday but MLK does. We are at a crossroads of history in our lives. Our children will ask us 10, 15, 20 years from today, what did you do? Where were you? telling them that I chose to be silent and I chose to be quiet. It's not going to be the part that we want. Don't get me wrong, the path some of us chosen to speak about and to educate others is not the path for everybody. And I don't expect everybody to be on that path. The least I can do is educate and leave something behind that will give you the hope. If the masjid is not a safe place, then I don't know what will be a safe place to speak about the injustices that we have amongst ourselves. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam taught us there's three levels of faith. The first is we change something that is disliked by our hands. The second is the tongue. And the third, the lowest level of that is we think in our heart it is wrong. The today has lost the plot. Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam did not create passive people. He created people who stood upright. Let me bring it back and try to conclude on this note. A while after the Sahaba had migrated to Medina and things had settled down, the Sahaba one day gathered and asked, "Yeah, why did he used to say a and Bal said, "I didn't know anything else. All I knew is that one word would one word would irate the mushik of Mecca beyond its control. Every time I said it would tick them further. Every time I return after they hit me or they stabbed me or they put me on hot stones and hot sand, it will keep turning the pressure on their anger. They will get more and more furious with me. And that's all I knew. I know a lot of us have that question in our mind, but I don't know what to do. We all have an answer what to do. We all have a in us the beloved Allah who left behind for us. All of us have that. So as we depart today, I remind you of your moral responsibility and these are not my words. This is what Allahh and his prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam has said. We have a choice of what kind of Muslim do we need to be or what Muslim looks or who we are. The Islam that spread around the world was never spread on the tip of the sword. But it was spread by the justice, the humility and the self-consciousness of Muslims. We ask Allah subhana tala to make us one of the people who hears his word and hears the words ofam and becomes the best imitator.

[Silence]

Alhamdulillah. Standing is not rage. Standing is righteousness. Allahh reminds us in the Quran or you believe if you support Allah, he will support you and make your feet firm. Allah does not promise ease. He promises firm feet. And Allah reminds us again in the Quran, indeed Allahh commands you with justice and excellence. Justice does not justice without mercy becomes cruelty. Mercy without justice becomes weakness. And that's why Islam commands both. To my youth, build discipline before popularity, character before influence, faith before fear, and never trade your consciousness, your Islam, or your dignity for acceptance. I've said this many times before and I'll repeat it again. When Allah subhana ta looked at each one of us in the and he chose us to be a Muslim. It was not a mistake. Allah subhana t looked at each one of our souls and said this soul is the best soul to carry my message and he didn't place you in the foreign lands because he hated you or because you were thirdass Muslim or you're a weak Muslim. He put you there because he saw you as somebody who can complete the responsibility of.

[Arabic recitation]

Each one of us has a calling. Each one of us what we call has a why. Why do I do this? And it is our job to find the why. Allah is not going to provide the answer. When Allah subhana t says that he's going to aid us, he means by the avenues that are around us. I'm often reminded of the verses from Bakar when Allah subhana t decides to to create Adam and the have a conversation with Allah subhanaa tala and says why are you creating a a a human being who's going to create destruction and Allah says I know something I know something that you do not know and used to remind us that when Allah said that he did did not need a person sitting in the masid all day saying subhan allah subhan allah subhan allah he needed somebody who was balanced who would go and take care of the people and the responsibility and still connect with Allah subhana tala and one of them is not prioritized over the other when Allahh calls us a middle nation that's what middle nation means we're neither to the left or the We are balanced people who speak balanced truth even if it is against ourselves. I remind you of the instance mentioned in the hadith when a woman from an upper tribe was caught stealing in the Medina and the tribe people came to and tried to convince him to let the let her go without cutting her hands said even if it was my own daughter I would have chopped her hand that's in that's justice even it affects ourselves else. People around you are struggling. Your children are struggling without you knowing. We have an identity crisis amongst our youth. Our communities are scattered and we choose not to speak about these issues because a lot of times for us it's inconvenient or choose not to stand for these truths because it's inconvenient. We choose to ignore them. Just because a bird sees the the the cat approaching on the tree branch and closes his eyes, the cat doesn't disappear. That threat is as real as it was before. Create safe spaces around you. Uplift people. Do not destroy people. My job and your job. Allah will never ask me or ask you what the other person did. It will ask what I did. I have to be answerable for my conscience and you have to be answerable for your conscience. And as such, we have to do that. As we close, we ask Allah subhana ta to give us the insight to be people who will stand upright come Monday morning and people who will practice our faith outside these four sacred walls and stand upright and speak for every single person who doesn't have a voice and be a guide and a shining light in the darkness of the darknesses. We ask Allah subhana ta to make us from the people who unite hearts and not divide hearts. We ask Allahh to make us one people who unite not divide the we ask Allah subhana tala that he makes us from those folks that wasallam will be feeding the water of the the from his hands to us. for.

[Silence]

Allah. forch.

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Allahbar.

[Silence]

Just make sure back of your foot is on the white line behind you. Your row will be straightened automatically just the back of your foot shoulder to shoulder. Make sure all the rows are filled in front of you before you start on your row. Inshallah. May Allah subh have mercy upon us. Amen. Allahbar. Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

For.

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Amen. coming Allah. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!

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Allah.

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Say Fore! Foreign! Foreign! for.

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Allah abbar. Allahbar.

[Silence]

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

Amen. for.

[Silence]

Fore.

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S Allah Allahbar.

[Silence]

Stop. Stop. Brothers and sisters, asalam allaykum, I just want you to have some patience with me today because I got few things to cover and hopefully that information will be helpful to all of us inshallah. First of all, I want to thank Imam Hassan for his five years with this community. He served this community for five years and most of us if you ask you know how long has he been there they can you may not be able to get a right answer but it has been alhamdulillah long five you know good five years and it went by fast we wish him the very best and inshallah he'll be just not not too long too far away he'll be in Phoenix area inshallah and you will be able to see him periodically and maybe he can visit us again he's welcome to come back anytime and see us and see his community here inshallah. We wish him the very best in his new job. Now there are couple of things that follow up on what we have to do. There are a couple of programs that Imam Hassan was running youth program and the Sunday school program. Both of those program has been is going are going to be led by our Imam Hassan inshallah and he is committed to I'm sorry she Ali Imam Ali will be the one who will be leading the two of the both of those programs. I certainly apologize I just switched the names here because I've been having difficulty between the two brothers here in me in in remembering the names. But anyway, Imam Ali will be leading the both programs, the Sunday program and the youth programs inshallah. Now the Rama Academy is also looking for a teacher. So if you have somebody who interested, please talk to Jabra Jabra. Now that brings me to something very important. By this time every year we had some good success in getting the pledges for the Rahma Academy. That means diverting the state of Arizona liabilities to the masjid to the Rahim Academy. And this year we are running a little slow here. So please take a look at it and see what you can do. I understand the tax season is just beginning here. So please help us in getting those numbers as strong as we can to benefit the Rahama Academy. Now let me talk about the Ramadan. The according to the Imam Council of Arizona, the TAVAI will be on Wednesday night, pardon,.

[Arabic recitation]

First Ramadan will be the 19th. So, inshallah, you will see the schedule posted. That leads me to the next subject here. We are going to be looking for people who could help us sign up for the iftar. And the ifar expenses, it'll be during the weekday. It's going to be $2,000. On the weekend, it will be $3,500. And you can talk to brother Jabber. There's a detail all posted on the wall here. see what you can do to sign up for that. And our tavi will be led by Imam Ali. and half is dari and half is aim inshallah. So you'll have a pleasure of having three of leading the prayers inshallah and we'll be having a very very spiritual Ramadan inshallah. So looking forward to that inshallah. on the way out please donate generously for your masidam. Again my apologies to Imam Mixing the nails.