Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

What distinguishes people who never experienced subjugation from those with a collective memory of empire and subjugation, is their willingness to speak up, fight for their rights and to pay for what they enjoy, while the others only complain but do nothing to change the situation. This is the ‘learned helplessness’ of people whose bodies are free, but minds remain enslaved. To own responsibility for our destiny, and work and pay for what is important is a sign of a free mind and emotional maturity. The solution to the copout of globalizing is to localize. If you can’t feed a hundred, feed one. Ask, ‘What can I do?’ And then, do it. Because when we meet Allahﷻ, we will not be asked, ‘What happened?’ We will be asked, ‘What did you do?’ The Arabs of the Hijaz in the 7th century were not subjugated to any empire. They had no king. Their millionaires used to meet in a hall called An-Nadwa to decide on emergent issues. They didn’t have a codified law or judicial system. They had no rulers and bowed to no man. That is why it was easy for them to accept responsibility for taking Islam to the ends of the earth. Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (R) reported that Rasoolullahﷺ ordered us to act to stop injustice. Change it or speak out. The third ‘option’ is a reprimand. عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيّ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ بِيَدِهِ فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِلِسَانِهِ فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِقَلْبِهِ وَذَلِكَ أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ “Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which is the weakest level of faith.” This was the speech of a man free in body, mind, and spirit. A man who was subjugated to nobody but Allahﷻ. And he told us to take charge of our lives, stop blaming others, and work to make things better. Today our biggest challenge is to reboot our mindsets and learn to think about the community as one and work together to change our lives and destiny. Each of us must learn to pull his weight and not wait for someone else to bleed for us. Muslims are 1.1% of the population in this country. There is no way that any Muslim can ever get elected to the Congress or Senate unless others vote for them. The only way for that to happen is by winning hearts. Our isolationist way of life is suicide. But what do we do about winning hearts? If we want to be taken seriously, we must stand for elected office at the local, state, and national level. Ask how many Muslims are Mayors, Aldermen, State Senators, and on School Boards? Yet we complain that nobody cares about us. Are you surprised? We must encourage our youngsters to make career choices that are different from what they do today. We don’t need more Muslim doctors and engineers. We need more Muslim Senators and Reps. The two paths are different. We must support our youth by working with them to build credibility. And by setting up an endowment fund to support their choice of career. We must accept that only we can save ourselves. But sadly, we hate anyone who tries to awaken us from our stupor. We will not invest what is necessary to change our situation and are satisfied with ‘doing at least something’. Sorry to disappoint you. ‘At least something’, is not from the Qur’an. It is not Sunnah. It is not what the Sahaba did. It is not only useless, but worse than useless because it gives a false impression of action and success. It takes the edge off the pain which is necessary to motivate us to do more than usual. It will never take us to the tipping point and so the scale will never tip for us. We must check what is necessary and do that. If you need to clear a 10-foot trench, you must leap 10.5 feet. If you leap 9.5 feet and say, ‘At least I did something,’ you will be speaking from the bottom of the pit. That is the truth, and you know it. Therefore ask, “If not now, then when? If not me, then who?” There are three major changes that happened after the end of empire and the rise of nation states as we know them. One was the creation of the Middle Class. This was the result of two things: the demise of nobility and class hierarchy and the rise of egalitarianism and free market economies. Much can be said about the defects in all of these, as can be said about any human enterprise. Only the work of Allahﷻ is perfect. But defects and all, these changes gave political significance and opportunity to the common man. That is the single biggest change from the days of empire. And that is what must be leveraged. For the first time you didn’t have to be born into a royal or noble family to have a say in public affairs. You could be from any background but if you managed to get elected to office, you could make laws, and change the path of destiny for populations. Therefore ask, ‘What can I do to get there?’ It is a numbers game. You need critical mass to tip the scale. And so the sooner we start, the

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Most of us are historically illiterate and our cherry-picking approach to history ensures illiteracy. However, our lives won’t change until we learn lessons from history and break out of the vicious cycles that we are caught up in. We don’t learn the lessons because we can’t differentiate between critiquing and critical analysis and criticizing. We have no capacity to objectively analyze incidents in history without either hero-worshiping those involved or trashing them. People who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. That is what we are doing today, both globally and locally in our organizations. We do the same with each other and have this insane, unspoken rule – For me to love you and be your friend, you must agree with everything I say. We must develop the capacity to not only accept dissent but to encourage it and learn to disagree without being disagreeable. We must not only accept those who disagree with us, but value them, because they help us to look at another side of our pet theory. Without that it is very easy to blind ourselves to reality until we meet it face to face and realize that it is the face of Malakul Mawth. Here's a short history lesson. Since the late 7th century, Muslims have lived in empires and have imbibed the culture of feudal subjugation. First the Banu Umayya (661-750). Then the Banu Abbas (750-1258). After that arose three great Muslim empires, the Safavid (1736), the Mughals (1857), and the Ottomans (1927). Today most Muslims live in democratic non-Muslim countries. The dynamics of society, opportunities for development, citizen’s rights, and obligations, have all changed. If we still want to live in the fantasy of empire, we will be discarded. It is time to wake up and face the reality of our existence today that we are far better off than we were under empires. Let me share my perception through the lenses of political science, and psychology. Emotional maturity is the process of changing our mindset from – Others are responsible for me – to – I am responsible for myself and others. So, are we adults or still children? In (Transactional Analysis) Eric Berne calls it the Parent-Child Ego State. The Parent is ‘authority’, and the Child feels powerless and blames authority for whatever happens to him. It is always someone else’s fault. To mature emotionally is to break out of this cycle and become Adults. Most people are physically adults but emotionally still Children looking to the Parent, to solve their problems. Let’s do a self-check. What is your greatest, most urgent desire? Job? Car? House? Marriage? Holiday? Umrah? What is it? Things for ourselves or for the Ummah? That’s why they say, ‘The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.’ The sign of emotional maturity is to think of others. The finest examples of this were the Anbiya. At the end of his life when Rasoolullahﷺ was passing away, Jibreel (AS) came to inform him that Allahﷻ wanted to meet him. Rasoolullahﷺ didn’t ask about the future of his family. He asked Jibreel (AS), ‘What will happen to my Ummah?’ Concern for others is the sign that we have matured. Concern means action. Without action it is only words; useless, powerless, and worthless. So, the next question is, ‘If you claim to be concerned about the Ummah, what are you doing about it?’ We had a self-test last week, the 25-mile march for Ceasefire in Palestine. It was an opportunity to see our faces in the mirror. You know if you participated or not. You know why and why not. However, let me remind you that the march was organized by Jewish Voices for Peace under the leadership of a college student, Molly Aronson. Ask why? In material terms what happens in Palestine makes no difference to her. And doing this resulted in paying a very heavy price. Yet she did it knowingly. So, on the Day of Judgment when she and we will be asked, ‘What did you do?’ she will have an answer. What will the answer be for those who didn’t participate? That is what growing up means. That is what true freedom and dignity means. To step out of our comfort zone and do something for someone when we are not personally affected by the hardship. Our parenting, oppressive governments, our schooling system, all contribute to delaying maturity and prolonging childish thinking and behavior. To change our future, we must grow up. This means to simply ask one question, ‘What can I do?’ It means that every one of us must donate time, energy, thought, prayer, and money to things that help us all as a community and not expect some authority figure, government, philanthropic people, or institutions to do it for us. Empire and slavery ingrain the Child into us. Globally, that is the state of Muslims today. We must break our mental shackles and take charge of our destiny. Allahﷻ told us that He blessed us so much that we can’t count his blessings. وَءَاتَىٰكُم مِّن كُلِّ مَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُ وَإِن تَعُدُّوا۟ نِعْمَتَ ٱللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَآ إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَ

My brothers and sisters, in these series of my 7 – Khutab called, ‘The way forward’, I will try to define for you the problem that we Muslims face globally and to suggest the way forward to a solution. There are two critical things which you must remember as you listen to me. One, that we didn’t reach this state of being overnight. And therefore, neither is the solution going to work overnight. It is not magic. Second, the only way for the solution to work is if all of us commit to working with total sincerity and enthusiasm to create the solution and continue to work even though many of us will not see any change. It is the theory of the tipping point to which I will return in my 7th Khutba. I just want to highlight this now and ask you to make dua that Allahﷻ gives us the Istiqama (perseverance) to succeed. We are living in a revolution, but it is perhaps not what you may think. Let me explain. We are living today in times that I call, ‘Forks in history’. Forking times in history are characterized by turmoil. Epidemics, wars, economic collapse, political instability, civil war and so on. But it is precisely for that reason that the foundations of the structures of society are shaken, and for a short time, it is given into the hands of ordinary people to change the path of destiny. The Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), the War of Independence in India (1857), the American Civil War (1861-65), the 1st and 2nd World Wars, the Great Depression of 1930 which ended with WW2 in 1939 which shows that endings are not always happy. All these are markers in history of changes in paths of destiny. There were others but this list will suffice for us to see how the decisions of people of the time, leaders, and followers, changed the path of destiny for others. We don’t have the time to do an analysis of each of these events to point out what the decisions were. But we must do it because today as I mentioned, we are living in another revolution and what we choose to do or not to do, will define the path of destiny for coming generations. Believe me, our destiny is in our hands. In the hands of adults. Not in the hands of children or the youth. It is we adults who created this society and we adults who can act to change it. That is why Rasoolullahﷺ focused on teaching adults. Children learn from adults, be those parents, teachers, or others. What they learn, they teach their children. So, be careful about what you teach your children. Children listen with their eyes. They don’t care what you say until they see what you do. We Muslims globally are like a ship caught in a storm. Battered by winds and ocean currents, striving to drive it onto rocks. As captains of such a ship, we must do two paradoxical things simultaneously. Be aware of the hostile forces that surround us, yet not allow them to distract us from our goal of navigating the ship safely out of the storm. The good news is that all storms end. The bad news is that any storm can sink a ship where the captain has no idea about the destination or how to get there. Navigation, whether it is of ships or of life, must be learnt. This means that in order to learn, we must spend time and effort with teachers who know what to teach and how. It is not instant coffee and won’t happen in your spare time. This is the choice that each one of us must make. Because it is we who will have to live our lives. If you think learning takes too long and is too expensive, try ignorance. Our biggest problem today is the absence of viable alternatives to leadership. Our challenge is to produce ethical, moral, global leaders. Without that the world is doomed. It is as simple as that. We are fed and most of us believe and have internalized the myth that technology and wealth can solve all our problems. But both are value neutral tools. Neither good nor evil. It is the mind that decides how to use them and so it is the mind that we must work on. The biggest and most important change that has happened is that today, and especially in this country, we live in times when the voice of the ordinary individual is heard. Not every individual, but those who are elected to office. And that process of election is open to everyone, especially at the local level. The question to ask is how many of us take the trouble to get elected? Election doesn’t happen by magic but by first getting visibility through social work. Through helping people, participating in public projects, working with people across boundaries of race, religion, and culture. It happens by changing our isolationist ways and getting involved in our communities. It happens by thinking of where we live as OUR community. If you want a metric to see where we are on this index, see how many people participate in our Hunger Walk, Town Cleaning Drive, Black Lives Matter protests, and Food Pantries. See how many of us participate in interfaith work. Please add to this list and see what you can say about yourself. Ask yourself how many of us ha

Video of the reminder: https://youtu.be/mb4vgF-EqSI

If I must die,you must liveto tell my storyto sell my thingsto buy a piece of clothand some strings,(make it white with a long tail)so that a child, somewhere in Gazawhile looking heaven in the eyeawaiting his dad who left in a blaze–and bid no one farewellnot even to his fleshnot even to himself–sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up aboveand thinks for a moment an angel is therebringing back loveIf I must dielet it bring hopelet it be a taleLast poem of Refaat Alareer, academic, writer, poet, and the voice of Gaza for the English-speaking world. He died with his family yesterday. We live in troubled times, a huge sign of which is the very sharp increase in mental illness of different kinds. Ranging from anxiety to much more serious ailments, resulting at the extreme in despair and suicide. In 2021, 48,183Americans died by suicide and there were 1.7 million suicide attempts. An estimated 49,449 people died by suicide in 2022. The rate of suicide is highest in middle-aged white men, the most privileged section of the population who accounted for 69.68% of suicide deaths in 2021. The strange thing is that this is happening in the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world. While in Palestine there are no suicides. Not one. People are being massacred but they have set such an example of Ridha bil Qadha and Shukr that it has become the reason for a lot of people converting to Islam. We don’t know what Allahﷻ has decreed for Palestine and Palestinians, but if we look beyond the material visible world, we will be able to see the gates of Jannah open above Gaza and the angels escorting the souls of the Shuhada into everlasting grace and beauty. We will be able to smell the perfume of the most beautiful musk as the curtains between the A’alam ush Shahada and A'alam ul Ghayb are parted for those who Allahﷻ chose to honor. Like it happened with the Mongols, who destroyed Baghdad and the Abbasi Khilafa and then became Muslim and became the defenders of Islam, the West which is blindly supporting genocide will wake up as it sees the true strength and power of the human being, which is not in weapons or money but in heart and spirit. As someone said, ‘Courage is made in Palestine.’ Our Palestinian brothers and sisters are demonstrating a level of this, which I am not sure, has ever been seen in the history of humankind. To mention just one clip I saw, a journalist asks a Palestinian man, ‘You have no bread, no water, no electricity. How will you live?’ The man smiles, looks up at the heavens, raises his index finger and says, ‘But we have Allahﷻ.’ You can see the wonder on the face of the journalist. The reality is that you can’t kill someone who refuses to die. Because death is not the death of the body but the death of the heart and spirit. The body will perish, no matter where we live. But the heart and spirit live and die by different rules. They live when they are connected to Allahﷻ and a weakness in that connection makes them sick and a break, kills them. The response of the Palestinian brother points to the meaning of real wealth. Truly Rasoolullahﷺ would have been proud of these people. I remember the Hadith of Rasoolullahﷺ in Musnad Ahmed. عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَدِدْتُ أَنِّي لَقِيتُ إِخْوَانِي قَالَ فَقَالَ أَصْحَابُ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَوَلَيْسَ نَحْنُ إِخْوَانَكَ قَالَ أَنْتُمْ أَصْحَابِي وَلَكِنْ إِخْوَانِي الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِي وَلَمْ يَرَوْنِي Anas ibn Malik (R) reported: Rasoolullahﷺ said, “I wish I could meet my brothers.” The Sahaba said, “Are we not your brothers?” Rasoolullahﷺ said, “You are my Sahaba, but my brothers are those who have faith in me, yet they never saw me.” Wallahi, this Hadith belongs to the Palestinians in Gaza In-sha-Allah. Allahﷻ mentioned those who know Him and love Him and said: ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ ٱلْقُلُوبُ Ra’ad 13: 28 those who believe and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of Allah. Surely in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort. Let us see what Dhikr of Allahﷻ does and how it produces peace of mind. The word Dhikr means to remember. This implies that we know the one we are remembering. You can’t remember anything or anyone the first time you encounter them. So, do we know Allahﷻ? I don’t mean, know about. I mean, know. Knowing about deals with the intellect. Knowing deals with emotion. The difference between knowing about and knowing is the difference between sterile, academic knowledge and a personal connection which guarantees a response. When you think of someone who you may know a lot about, nothing happens to you. But when you think about someone you know, you can feel the emotions in your heart. Your body temperature and breathing changes. It may bring a smile to your lips or a frown on your brow. This is what Allahﷻ described as a sign of the Believer. A responsiv

History teaches one critical lesson: Only those who contribute are valued. Only they have leverage, are influential, and have power. Their religion or ethnicity doesn’t matter. What matters is their contribution to society on a local or global scale. The world works on one overarching principle: What’s in it for me? WiiFM. That’s how it was and that’s how it is. Our belief and personal acts of worship add value to us individually because if we work for the pleasure of Allahﷻ, He will reward us in the Aakhira and put Baraka in our work in this life. But as far as the world is concerned, it doesn’t matter what you believe. If you contribute to society, you are valued. When you stop contributing, it doesn't matter what you did in the past, you are discarded. Allahﷻ told us about our role in society. He said: كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ A’al Imraan 3: 110 You are the best community ever raised for humanity—you encourage good, forbid evil, and believe in Allah. Allahﷻ is not talking about ethnicity. He is talking about action. We are the best if we do what we were created for. To help us understand, let me ask you to list the top three universities, hospitals, libraries, research laboratories, factories, or things you use daily and without which life would be impossible or terribly inconvenient. You may like to start with your cell phone. Then ask, “Which of these is made by a Muslim company or is in a Muslim country?” My question is, “If the world wakes up tomorrow and all Muslims and signs of Muslims and Islam including all contributions of present-day Muslims have vanished from the earth, what will be lost for the others?’ Who will mourn our passing? Will anyone shout, “Bring back the Muslims?” What is our contribution to the world today? We are net consumers. Not contributors in any field. Contributors are valued. Consumers are used. That is why nobody cares about us. In 1631 the foundation of a building was laid in India. It was completed in 1653. In 1636 the foundation of another building was laid in America. Both buildings exist. The first building was built by a man whose personal wealth was equal to 25% of world GDP of the time. The second building was founded by a Puritan priest. The first one has two occupants. Both dead. The second one continues to contribute leaders to every walk of life in the world and to influence society in profound and lasting ways. It has an endowment of $50.7 and the biggest library in the world. That’s the story of the Taj Mahal and Harvard University. There is a difference between building structures and building people. Impact on society and life comes only from people. Not from structures. That is why I want us to think about the way forward. What must change with us? What must we focus on from today? The Abbasi Khilafa ended in 1258 and the Umayyad Khilafa in Al-Andalus ended in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella expelled Muslims from Spain. After that there were three great Muslim empires in India, Iran, and Europe – Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman. But apart from building magnificent palaces, masajid and forts, and supporting art and music, and fighting wars they left no mark of their passing except ruins. This is why others have the world and we have the tombs. Allahﷻ told us what to do. وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ كَمَا ٱسْتَخْلَفَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ ٱلَّذِى ٱرْتَضَىٰ لَهُمْ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْنًا يَعْبُدُونَنِى لَا يُشْرِكُونَ بِى شَيْـًٔا وَمَن كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَـٰسِقُونَ Noor 24: 55 Allah has promised those of you who believe and do good that He will certainly make them successors in the land, as He did with those before them; and will surely establish for them their faith which He has chosen for them; and will indeed change their fear into security—˹provided that˺ they worship Me, associating nothing with Me. But whoever disbelieves after this ˹promise˺, it is they who will be the rebellious. We understand from this Ayah that success comes from Allahﷻ alone and that is dependent on our obedience to Him. Let’s get that sorted first. Then it means starting out with grassroots social work in our neighborhoods, towns, and cities. It means knowing our neighbors, helping them, and participating in neighborhood and town projects. It means being genuinely concerned about others, not only Muslims, but others who are different from us in every way but are still our neighbors. Why is there a Jewish Family Service, Welcoming Alliance for Refugee Ministry, Catholic Charities, Parish Cupboard but no equivalent Muslim organization? Sure, we support some of these with some annual donations. But that is not the point I am making, is it? If you want to know where we stand as a community on this index, simply se

Video of the reminder: https://youtu.be/2r8HE7WVhuw

Think long term. It is not about winning one conflict. It is about becoming influential and creating a situation where there are no more conflicts. It is about becoming influential where you can initiate and direct local and national policy. It is about being in positions where the decisions you take will positively impact people across the globe and become Sadaqa Jaariya for you. Let me mention for you just two such decisions the effects of which the world is feeling to this day. One was the Sykes–Picot Agreement, of 1916 (Nov 23, 1915 – Jan 3, 1916); a secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual carving up of the Ottoman Empire. The British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot drafted the agreement which was ratified by their respective governments on 9 and 16 May 1916. The second was theBalfour Declaration (1917) which was a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, which was an Ottoman region with a small Jewish population. The big lesson to learn is that what matters even more than who you are, is where you are. Environment dictates effectiveness. A fish can’t even breathe on land but in the water, it is the epitome of speed and grace. Today we have as many capable people as anyone else, but they are not in the right places. That must be our goal, right person in the right place. To change anything, you must own it first. You can’t change what you don’t own. Your country is America. Not Syria or Pakistan or Iraq or Lebanon. It is America. You are a citizen. Not a visitor waiting to go home. The truth is that this is already the case with your children. Not one of them is capable of returning to your country of origin and living there. This is critical because only when you think of America as your own country can you work to make it beneficial for the world. If you read history, you will see that in every age there has always been some empire or nation which dominated. In this post WW2 age, it is America. Given that China or Russia are the other options, I am thankful for this. The citizens of this country have the opportunity to make that a blessing for the world. Only you can do this. Not outsiders. Therefore, you have two choices: to complain about what’s happening or to change it. Allahﷻ encourages us to become powerful and establish justice on earth. إِنَّا لَنَنصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ يَقُومُ ٱلْأَشْهَـٰدُ Ghafir 40: 51 We certainly help Our messengers and the believers, ˹both˺ in this worldly life and on the Day the witnesses will stand forth وَأُخْرَىٰ تُحِبُّونَهَا نَصْرٌ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَفَتْحٌ قَرِيبٌ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ Saff 61: 13 ˹He will also give you˺ another favor that you long for - help from Allah and imminent victory. ˹So˺ give good news ˹O Prophet˺ to the believers. To create change we need people in four critical areas. Legislature, Judiciary, Executive, and Media. Lawmaking, interpreting the law, administration, and mind-steering. That means we need attorneys, judges, politicians, administrators, journalists and media specialists, professors of political science and sociology, and financial experts. We have enough doctors, engineers, MBAs, and Mom & Pop shops. We need ethical, moral power brokers with a sense of accountability to Allahﷻ. Think of all those people in this community who you think are wealthy. Ask how many of them are in positions of power? How many are on School Boards? How many are City Councilors, Aldermen, Selectmen, Mayors? Ask why not? How many of you are hearing these terms for the first time? So, when you meet someone, don’t ask, ‘What car do you drive?’ Ask, ‘What decisions do you take?’ Personal wealth makes you comfortable but keeps you vulnerable. Power changes that equation. The road to power is totally different from the road to personal wealth. You need to decide what you want for your children. By minding your shop and inheriting it after you or studying medicine, pharmacy, MBA and so on, 20-30 years after they graduate, they may own their house and have a couple of nice cars and be able to take annual holidays. But someone with power can take that away from them with one stroke of a pen. By pursuing influence and power, after 20-30 years they will be in positions where their decisions can change the destinies of entire populations. But the paths are totally different, and they must start on the path they choose, now. Let us consider four

Video of the reminder: https://youtu.be/2b6qiU9Axys