Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim al-hamdulillah wa-salatu wa-salam wa'ala ashraf al-anbiya wa-al-mursaleen Sayyidina wa-mawlana wa-habibirah Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa-salam wa-alayhi wa-sahbihi wa-salam tasliman katira As-salamu alaykum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuh dear brothers and sisters Al-hamdulillah It's great to be with all of you We had a missed week last week because of the Nisb Al-Shaaban program So, al-hamdulillah, I am happy to be back with all of you And this will... We're actually going to try to close out the book, inshallah We did chapter 4 last If you remember, where we talked about the inroads to the heart And al-hamdulillah, I mentioned that the next class would be the last section which is chapter 5 So, let me go ahead and share the slides I did type out some of the slides But there's a lot of text in chapter 5 It's on page 61 for those who have the book So, I'm going to be reading and commenting But I'll still post or put the slides up for those of you who want to follow along So, inshallah, let me go ahead and do that Bismillah So, one second here And here we go, inshallah Alright, so chapter 5 What we want to understand is up until now the entire book, Agenda to Change Our Condition has really been, there's been an inward focus How to develop oneself, how to attain taqwa Obviously, how to look at the inroads to the heart and take practical steps doing exercises daily on how to protect those inroads So, there's been a lot of inward focus So, we start to shift now in chapter 5 to the outward focus And so, I'll go ahead and start reading here and then we'll stop for some commentary So, they started off here and said As we conclude this agenda, Agenda to Change Our Condition Let us now direct our attention from our inward state to that of worldly matters This orientation is not an effort to encourage us to take from the world as this would contradict much of what was mentioned earlier So, this isn't about suddenly becoming super materialistic or chasing the dunya Rather, it is part of an effort to improve the world in which we live We believe that this is an Islamic imperative that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says in the Qur'an Quntum khayran ummatin ochrijat linnaas Which is what? You are the best of communities brought forth for mankind So, then they provide this quote from this Abu Surood who says in his commentary about this verse that this means the best people for others This is an unambiguous expression which states that the good mentioned here in this verse lies in benefit provided to the people This is also understood from the expression brought forth for mankind Namely, brought forth to benefit them and advance their best interest So, this is his commentary And then the hadith that also they cited here is and we switched the slides here Our Prophet Salaam said Allah will continue to assist the servant as long as the servant is assisting his brother We can thereby understand that divine aid and sucker will accrue to this community, to the Muslim Ummah as long as we are providing the same to fellow members of the human family So, this is also a really beautiful commentary here that the brother here isn't speaking of blood brother or brother in faith but rather brother in humanity And this also reflects what we've talked about before with regards to the sunnah of this world This law of reciprocity that what we put out into the world will be returned unto us So when we are servants and we are helping and we are aiding and we're benefiting, inshallah that will then come back to us inshallah in the form of divine aid which is a really beautiful sentiment and something we should all be very very aware of So, it's interesting this discussion the timing of this particular chapter Earlier today I was in a clubhouse room I don't know how many of you are familiar with the app called clubhouse If you're not familiar with it I do recommend that you check it out It's for iPhone users only But, inshallah, I found it to be a beneficial social media app It's not like other apps where you're consuming a lot of visual content We talked about last time when we talked about the inroad to the heart we stressed the importance of lowering our gaze and making sure that we're really filtering the content that we take in with our eyes This is very difficult on social media because we're bombarded with imagery we're bombarded with videos and things that we really should not be looking even if we're not intending to you could just go through Facebook for example and you're trying to maybe look at some news content and then the ads pop up and they're inappropriate the same with Instagram and of course other mediums as well Twitter and TikTok is a whole other issue of just really visually terrible things but anyhow and the point is a lot of these other mediums they do test us in those ways with clubhouse what I found to be beneficial is first of all there's no real visual there's nothing really visual about it other than profile pictures that people use to you know to basically identify themselves with but there's no ads there's no videos there's no chats private you know type like text chat you can open up a room it's an audio input device or an app where basically people are kind of having like live podcasts in real time and you can go into different rooms as they call them based on the topics of those rooms and shall I listen and benefit you can go up on what they call the stage and actually comment and have these live interactions so I found it to be very beneficial but earlier today I was in a room I was invited to participate in a conversation on how to do Dawa and this topic came up of the importance of Muslims recognizing that we do have a responsibility as believers to really look out for our fellow human being and what better way of doing that than to teach them about this Dean and of course in the most beautiful way following the example of the Prophet's Islam which is to invite people to know Islam but that we really have to take that as a responsibility that we want to be people who are beneficial right that in general to our family members our loved ones are close intimate circles we should we should certainly strive to be beneficial but also to our community right our neighborhoods our our cities our towns and the humanity at large and so this is really what this chapter is about is how can we again as we are working on ourselves and trying to really perfect our character and strengthen our own belief and work inwardly also move from that inward you know focus to the outward to try to be more beneficial to humanity as a whole and so this is really what we're going to focus on but this Hadith again is reminding us that as we behave in this world right what we put out there that energy that we put out there that in sincerity that is sincerity that we put out there the help the assistance all the good intentions the good deeds the good works that we do inshallah it will be reciprocated back to us so that's a really powerful reminder now we move into the next page here on page 62 and they now go into a little bit of history so again there's so much text here I did not type a lot of it so I will be reading but let's go ahead and get into it the historical basis for involvement so in today's socio-political environment concern and benefit can be understood as civic involvement the word civic is derived from the word city hence civic involvement refers to the meaningful ways in which a private citizen is best involved in the life of his or her city despite its appearance in a largely agrarian context if we consider the nature of the dominant means of economic production at the time of its emergence Islam is best associated with the city our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam is identified with the city Allah mentions in the Quran la'uqsimu bihaadal balad wa anta shillum bihaadal balad I swear by this city and you are a free man of this city so the prophet's migration was from Mecca to Medina from one city to another Islamic learning and culture is associated with great cities if we look at the Muslim world there are many cities that we can identify as hubs or centers of learning Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Isfahan and Iran Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Kairawan, Fez, Kordova, Seville I think that's the pronunciation in Spanish Granada, Istanbul, Sarajevo, Zabed, Timbuktu, Delhi and many others so they're just highlighting that city is actually a really powerful reference when we're talking about the public sphere where Muslims dominated and are associated with oftentimes it was the involvement of Muslims in the lives of these cities many of which were established before the arrival of Islam which defined them in their historical context as Muslims are involvement in the life of our cities should similarly leave a lasting and positive mark on them and you can tell again you know I'm kind of looking at my own past and you know being in the Muslim community active for over 20 years or so back you know maybe about 20 plus years ago this message wasn't really very common it was you know to be active you know civically to be engaged in politics, local politics or to be concerned about one's you know civic duties and responsibilities unfortunately we didn't really have this message I remember because you know this is kind of the community that I you know saw around me and the and what some of just the discussions that were happening I think there was more a desire to keep the Muslim community very insular and there was almost fear of getting too active and I'm sure many of you may or even remember the issue of voting for example I mean it was kind of like you know there were there were actual debates about whether or not Muslims should vote in this country and so it's and there are certainly people who may still hold those views but it's just interesting to see that here is a historical precedent it is clearly part of the way of Muslims and you know and many you know parts of the world to be actually involved in their cities and you know I mean much all they took us all the way back to again of course the Prophet's life so I'm just reminding us that this isn't something new that we should be you know that we should be debating we should just look at the precedent before which is that indeed Muslims were very politically engaged and involved so it's a it's a good reminder for all of us inshallah so then they go on to say surely we have much to offer in that regard this is especially true if we can be people whose lives are changed by the principles and exercises outlined earlier in this agenda so that's also a really powerful reminder if we're doing all of that internal inward work that you know working on our character development and really trying to you know to to reflect the beauty of our faith and the ways of the Prophet's life and his virtues and really trying to you know inculcate that within ourselves then that makes us actually the best representatives to be engaged in the public sphere right so that's all that's like a prerequisite we should be working on that first and then inshallah we can look outwardly which is really what the book is doing right it's giving all that content before that's really more inwardly focused and now once you're ready once you've done all that internal work you can now use the skills that you've acquired and and all that of that towards benefiting other people so that's a really good reminder too and then they go on to say it is not without purpose that Allah has placed us in significant numbers in and around the great metropolises of America now is the time for our constructive involvement in the lives of these cities to commence that's also something to be mindful of right because we do see a lot of what we would call ethnic or religious enclaves right but but for our community there are quite a lot of different whether they're immigrant communities or established communities that have been here for decades there are a lot of Muslims in major cities right we have I'm here in the Bay Area we certainly have hundreds and thousands I actually don't know the exact numbers but I'm very well aware of the fact that there are massages in every city that it's it's quite a very active Muslim community and of course we could go through all of the major cities in the U.S. and even in Canada and we find that there are a lot large numbers of Muslims so that point is also important that we shouldn't look at that as as it's just some coincidence but rather than maybe inshallah this is you know by with that all of us that wants us to be here you know for the purpose of inshallah making some positive changes right such involvement is especially critical in these times of political transformation and the redefinition of both the role and scope of government here in America as the two major political parties become increasingly responsive to special interest groups particularly those with big business large unions and wealthy individuals their role as facilitators of Democratic and civic involvement is being eroded this shift in responsiveness is leading to what is referred to as a de-alignment of those parties this de-alignment causes private citizens to search for new institutions to serve as their primary means of political involvement which consequently results in the proliferation of smaller grassroots civic organizations the collective weight of these organizations and their facilitation of direct citizen citizen involvement in local politics is viewed by some as the reinventing of American democracy and I think we're pretty much witnessing everything they just described right we're seeing that the Democratic and the Republican parties are seeing this it's completely changed and transformed especially over the past maybe a couple of decades with more diversity and more groups special interest groups or private groups or even minority groups that are now more civically engaged and so they're actually really transforming the political landscape here in the US but as Muslims we do need to look to how can we have a seat at the table what are we doing in terms of our own involvement on a local level and on a state and federal level to be active in the political life of this country and kind of deciding how we're going to do that and so then they get into some ideas around that so the next section here is on the position of Muslims and contributions so now it's really giving us like laying out a nice plan for us in a way of how we can use our current you know our first of our population demographics are and the different they'll they'll get into it now as far as the capital that we have to to benefit the you know our cities our country as a whole our communities as a whole as well as ourselves right so there's this mutual benefit there so let's now read this section and just FYI because I was you know as I was preparing for this I realized that this is a really short chapter so today's class unless there are questions and people want to continue the discussion we will have a shorter class today because there's not that much content to cover but inshallah we'll go ahead and and finish this section so now they talk about the position the current position right of Muslims and contributions so let's look they say that the potential contributions of Muslims and the benevolent influence of Islam in this process are tremendous for a number of reasons in terms of addressing issues associated with poverty the social welfare policy of both governmental and non-profit organizations has centered on what has been referred to as a deficit model that focuses on the deficiencies of individuals and communities rather than building upon the individual associational and institutional assets and networks that already exist so they're just kind of giving us some insight into the current situation right this deficit model systematically weakens citizens and communities as the power of governmental and private agencies ascends as government retreats from the obligations assumed by the welfare state the aforementioned organizations are threatened hence the existence of this ineffective model is also threatened as a result an opening exists for Muslims to provide an alternative model of civic involvement in activism so now they're going to lay it out what is that alternative model the unique position of Muslims is rooted in the dichotomous nature of our community so we have we're positioned well is really what they're saying first they focus on what they say here is that there's the less affluent largely minority converts and recent immigrants who live in inner cities while more affluent and established immigrants reside in suburbs so these are the two groups we have the minority groups that are in the inner cities and then you have those who are more affluent and they're established in the suburbs right now how can we use this position the position of these two groups in a unique way this dichotomy creates a situation in which the Muslims of inner cities have a tremendous potential of social capital right or the ability to draw on developed internal communal support systems and networks with other organizations such as churches schools neighborhood associations local politicians and small interest groups so that's really important to highlight the fact that because we are as we mentioned there's so many Muslims who are you know who are living in very highly densely populated major cities across the country that gives them advantages to be able to work with other organizations in particular as was mentioned here churches and schools neighborhood associations and just to be more politically engaged and active because of the proximity of being so and close to all of these different institutions or organizations and having common interests right so that increases their social capital and you do see this you find Muslims who are in major cities they're much more again active in the public life they they tend to have more bridge building you know or efforts whether it's organizational or inner faith but they do tend to be more in tune with what's going on on a local level because of that proximity so that's one group right then they focus on the Muslims who are in the suburbs right the established immigrants or other more affluent Muslims who live in the suburbs so let's see what they offer here they say on the other hand Muslims living in the suburbs have tremendous intellectual and financial capital so that's also important I mean we you know we know from the just basically being in this world that money is power wealth is power and so when we have Alhamdulillah Muslims who are still part of the the community who identify as Muslims who are strong in their faith and they also have the financial capital that's a tremendous advantage right for the community as a whole because they can support programs they can you know be the backbone that really holds up our infrastructure and gives us again advantage to work within the system so they say here now that if we could constructively right in a healthy way bring these two reservoirs of capital together so the social capital and the financial and intellectual capital all of those strengths and again these are privileged positions that each group have bringing them together right we could then develop a demonstrable model that could initiate a revolution in American civic participation and you know this quite fascinating if you think about it because Alhamdulillah we are such a diverse community we're certainly not monolithic you know in terms of our ethnic ethnicity the representation in terms of ethnicities or or cultures but the faith brings us together right and so Alhamdulillah when we think about the Muslim community vis-à-vis other communities we do see there's more cohesiveness and so this isn't as implausible as some may think or idealistic because other faith groups for example Christians there's so many different denominations and they each are very separate in many ways right and so they might have their own interests independent of one another because of their differences whereas for our community for the most part we do have very common held common interests and we do so that it's quite possible that this could actually happen if we find a way to marry these two groups together and the capital that they each have to work for the betterment of the entire community right so then they go on to say that that revolution lies in our potential to reverse one of the most damaging implications of suburban sprawl which is the depletion of intellectual and material resources from the inner city and that's actually a really great reminder because again as we're finding which is very true that yes if you look at our major cities in the way that the you know the that are that our cities are run you find that those who are in inner cities do tend to have diminished resources as opposed to those in more affluent areas so this is what they're really speaking about here right that that's something that we have to certainly prevent because if the Muslims that are in the inner cities are not able to get access to the same type of education or other resources then certainly it's going to be difficult to implement this but if we can find a way to around that problem right then inshallah we can maybe try to implement this right so it's it's again something to really think about and consider but this is all context about how again we should be having this large sort of view you know of optimism you know we need that we need optimistic people to be leading these conversations because people can get really cynical and just kind of negative especially when it comes to politics and it's like oh we can't change systems these are all you know oppressive systems how are we going to change them well we know and I think we also have to just look at historical precedent that if you have you know if you if you collect if you gather and you really mobilize and you have a strong vision and you have those leaders who are in the forefront who have the vision and who can you know kind of be patient and work within the system you can make change it's just not something that's going to be done overnight so we do have to be realistic right that these things take time to bring you to come into fruition but it's just you know nice to see it kind of spelled out in a way for us about how our community is positioned in a in a way where we could potentially really you know do something that hasn't been done before because of the fact that we are we do have these strong positions we just have to bring them together right so then they go on to say rudimentary efforts undertaken by Muslims to counter this trend have already begun so the organization such as inner city Muslim Action Network in Chicago combine the material and intellectual resources of suburban Muslims with the organizational expertise and networking potential of inner city Muslims to create a dynamic synthesis that is having an ever greater impact on the life of both Muslim and non-Muslim communities and it's true Alhamdulillah I don't you know know a lot about the work of you man but I've certainly heard of I think brother brother Rami Nashi Shibi I think that's how you say his last name that he's Masha'Allah very highly you know praised for the work that he's done for what he's provided the Chicago Muslim Community but also the the community at large the city of Chicago has recognized him for his efforts so I think the fact that we do already have an example of this model working in this organization Eman is really encouraging right Masha'Allah that we can do this so that's they mentioned that and then they also mentioned that in Los Angeles and this is also another organization that I am familiar with the Oma Community Clinic right demonstrates how the vision and focused action of suburban university students can create a major center that provides one of the few venues where poor residents of the south central Los Angeles community can receive free basic medical care and referrals from for more advanced treatment Masha'Allah I used to live in Southern California and Oma the clinic was very well-known and had a great reputation with the community not just the Muslim community because of these services as they provided so again Masha'Allah this is faith in action right it's taking the principles and values of our faith to be serve you know to serve to serve people to to try to be engaged and involved and to benefit bring benefit to people and it's actually you know bringing it to life and so these organizations are great representatives of our community and Alhamdulillah they go on to mention also that in the in the Washington D.C. area by the All-Delus Area Muslim Society the Adams Center right builds bridges of goodwill and helps to initiate avenues of communication and coordination between the wealthy Muslims of the Suburban Northern Virginia and the poor communities of inner Washington D.C. So Masha'Allah they're going one by one city by city major cities and identifying leading organizations and the work that they're doing that actually does use these two positions right the more privileged affluent to community you know those resources to be able to benefit those who are in the inner city so it's really incredible that Masha'Allah we have in a relatively short amount of time if you really look at the the Muslim community in terms of the immigrant Muslim community of course we know that Masha'Allah African-American our brothers our black brothers and sisters are African-American brothers have been here for for several decades and they've certainly established themselves here but when we do find you know Alhamdulillah that in a relatively short amount of time we've been able to do quite a lot when it comes to the infrastructure and these organizations Masha'Allah so then they go on to talk about sort of where okay here and Richard and Richard in Texas the Islamic Association of North Texas I am T provided the funding to renovate one of the oldest mosques of inner city Dallas in Santa Clara right here in the Bay Area a suburb in the southern San Francisco Bay Area the Rahima Foundation works in collaboration with Masjid Worth worth a Dean of inner city Oakland to help feed 300 families a month and this is this book I'm not actually sure when the last publication was of this but that's likely higher even now I'm assuming Masha'Allah they do they've been working so diligently for a very long time the Rahima Foundation and so then they you know this is now the closing we've just got a couple paragraphs left but Masha'Allah ending on this high note this note of hope right this note of Insha'Allah you know that this isn't just ideals that we're we're sharing here these are actual real really because they're implemented they're real they're real ideas that can be implemented so now they say if we can expand and develop these efforts a new an unprecedented model of civic involvement can emerge this development is in no way limited to the social service sector mobilize social capital would inevitably engender deeper models of citizen involvement that involve greater forms of self-governance and enhanced collaboration with other economic social and political actors however for these developments to occur we need a revitalized type of Muslim one who is instilled with a bold and God conscious vision this is why the agenda to change our condition is so important if implemented it will engender Muslims with a healthier relationship with Allah and a healthier relationship with Allah will lead to a healthier relationship with our neighbors that enhanced relationship will in turn lead to a change in our collective condition God willing may Allah may may blessings and peace be upon the messenger of Allah as long as those who remember him continue to do so Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam what a wonderful way to really wrap up this text right to give us first of all reminders of everything that we should be working on up until this point but also a plan a vision and also some you know examples to look forward or to look to to see how this is possible that once again we work on ourselves we work on really cultivating all of these wonderful virtues that we've covered over the past how many weeks has it been I've lost track you know Mashallah there's just been so many gems in this book that we we've covered but to really take the time to transform ourselves and go through this transformational process that we can eventually get to that place where now we we take this healing right and that's really how I see Islam and I mentioned earlier too in the room that I talked about on clubhouse the app that Islam to me is a medicine and it is you know something that I've personally benefited from tremendously ever since I became a practicing Muslim that I was born into a Muslim family that I was in college and I started to really appreciate and value my faith and take it seriously and commit to my faith that I realized the power and potential of it right and so Alhamdulillah it's such a gift that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala blessed me with and blessed my family with that for me when I do any type of Dawa whether it's to Muslims or interfaith work it really does come down to this a responsibility that I can see that so many people are suffering in the world and if they take the same medicine that I took that helped me that inshallah they will also come out of that and this is just a proof right our Dean Alhamdulillah has literally transformed people's lives and if you've ever worked with converts or people have come into Islam they've come from all different backgrounds and all experiences but they will attest to the fact that Islam offered them something that they couldn't find anywhere else and it did it improved them it just made them better versions of themselves it refined them to be the best versions of themselves and that's what this beautiful tradition of ours can offer anybody regardless of where they're at in their life where what stage or age they're at in their life if they take this faith seriously and they start to with intention work on bettering themselves then they will see the transformation of the or the transformative power within themselves and in their relationships right your families will just start to get healthier and then of course it has a ripple effect because when we have healthy families we have healthy communities and neighborhoods and then healthy cities and inshallah healthy states and inshallah I mean you know we can hope for we should always have the highest hopes and aspirations when it comes to these things that inshallah you know it will just continue to spread in that direction but the starting point is of course ourselves which is why this text is such a wonderful gift and we have to make immense you know just have immense gratitude and make da'a for our teachers our scholars shahmza yusuf and imam zed shakir for putting this together for us and such a concise thoughtful really just easy to follow structured way that anybody even if they're not Muslim can just pick up this book and gain a lot of insight and benefit from it but I've I've I've really enjoyed this class and I I think all of you for tuning in week after week or every other week I should say and being patient when we we've had some technical difficulties but you've been very mashallah consistent and I appreciate that and just for those who may have kind of caught the class like midway I want to invite you to go back because the way that I started the class was a little bit unconventional and that I didn't begin with the beginning of the book I actually started with the appendix the appendix a at the end of the book so right after chapter five is the section that I started with and I did that intentionally because I found what what is the appendix a again if you don't have the book I highly recommend you getting it but this is where the advice from city Ahmed Zaruq called the foundations of the spiritual path they've actually added it to the book to this book agenda and change our condition and this is an incredible advice it's a long text but it's just one of my favorite absolutely favorite things I think every single believer should read it and should be very familiar with it because it gives you again it lays out the foundation I mean watch all the teachers our teachers Sheikh Hamza and Imam Zaid they've given us really a guide and a very elaborate explanation on how to do this on a practical level dated you know day to day and kind of just the roadmap of it all with this advice it's very precise in terms of just laying out the you know the foundations and and kind of for all of us to really think inwardly about how sincere we are in what we want if we do want to be on the spiritual path and how to start filtering and kind of making those necessary changes you know what are the prerequisites of even being on a spiritual path I mean we can say that we all want to be on a spiritual path but if that claim or that wish and that desire is true and sincere then you'd have to really be willing to do the work and so he kind of lays it out for you like what you know if you want to be on this path well the first five things that you need to have and are you willing to have them is are you willing to be mindful of Allah publicly and privately right so that's the very first thing he lays out that this is the foundation you have to be willing to be consistent that it's not just a display or a show or a performance but you truly are mindful of Allah you truly have that awareness that God is watching you and that you're thinking about him right and that's privately and publicly publicly then he he says are you willing to basically adhere to the sunnah right in word and indeed so it's not just that you know certain teachings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that you may know certain aspects of his life but you actually follow them right because there are many people who know but unfortunately they don't they don't implement and that's that's the real danger of not being consistent there then he says the next quality is that you're indifferent to the acceptance or rejection of others right so that you're not really affected by praise or criticism but you kind of you know because it's all about Allah it's not about people right so are you willing to to work on that you know because this is foundational you know in order to be on a spiritual path you have to have these qualities right a satisfaction with Allah and hardship and ease right are we the type that have very a conditional relationship with Allah or a transactional relationship where it's like okay as long as I get what I want then I love you then I worship you then I have you know I see you and the best light is that how we are or is it really even if life is really difficult and he's testing you that you still have ridah with Allah that you have no complaints you don't look to Allah subhanAllah with this negative lens ever you just won't allow yourself to do that you accept everything he gives you because you know it's for your best is that the case if not again it's a prerequisite it's a foundational part of being on a spiritual path you have to get there to do that and that requires a lot of introspection and commitment right and then the last one is related in a way but turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity are you is that does that come naturally to you that you turn to Allah when you're going through some you know challenges in life or when things are going really well or do you only go to Allah when you're in a desperate situation right where's your well how strong is your connection and so this is just the foundation and then he goes on it's a much longer text but he goes on to provide all of the the foundations that proceed these and so it kind of builds upon itself in a way to to arrive at these five but the point here is that you know it's such an incredible text and so I really invite all of you again if you don't have the book to please get the book it should be really in every Muslim home library and as someone who works with teens and youth I think this is also something that we should be sharing with our youth you know a lot of times we work backwards in our community where people will take classes that should be really taught at a very early age much later in life and that's no fault on anybody sometimes those resources aren't available but if we're doing it the correct way we should be teaching these things to our kids from a young age they should know you know for example you know just basic introduction introductory like Akeda you know concepts they should know about the Skiat then a nefs you know purification of the soul purification of the heart they should be learning about the disease of the heart because it's about character development right there so they should be learning these concepts Fiqh of course I mean to do their Ibadah they should know those things but we shouldn't wait to be in our 20s and 30s and then arrive at a place where we sat suddenly now because we have free time we want to you know study Islam as as some leisure activity these are you know treasures that have been left for us so that we can really navigate this very complex place called Zinnia so we have to just appreciate when our teachers have put these things together whether they're teachers of the past or the present that these are all like I said you know medicine they're medicinal they're they're healing for us and so I really think it's so important that we are grateful for the knowledge that has been given to us and preserved for us and then also the access to this knowledge because many of these texts traditionally are in languages whether it's Arabic or Persian or otherwise Turkish or whatever what have you would do so the fact that the teachers went to the that you know the next step of translating it into a language that we can all access here in the West is also another great blessing that we have to ask you know make make a lot of for on their behalf to Allah for them because of their contributions but you know so anyhow if you join the class midway through towards the end you can go back and watch the recordings where we do go over the appendix first and then we jump into the book if you if you want to kind of catch up but I just want to think all of you again for tuning in inshallah I hope to be doing some programs during Ramadan I'm kind of trying to figure out my schedule but I do want to do something so inshallah look out for some some notice about that but this will be our last official class of agenda to change our condition I want to think again the team at MCC in particular Brother Salaman who has been you know mashallah he he's why we're able to do these every week he does all the tech work in the back to set it all up so I want to thank him immensely Brother Muneer and of course all of the people at MCC for making this possible and all of you for your contributions to the discussions when when you've had questions or what have you I've appreciated that feedback so thank you so much and I'm going to go ahead and stop the screen share now and see if there are any questions maybe I don't know I'll go ahead and try to pull up the screens here and see if there's any lasting comments that anyone has inshallah and then we can we can end it for today so I'm just going to check a few pages please give me for any delay okay so I'm checking the MCC Facebook page I'm doing I don't see any questions or anything I mean I see some very nice comments thank you but I don't see any questions I'm just going to check the YouTube page and if we don't see anything we can end early for today and inshallah I will I hope to see all of you at a for another class soon but just give me one moment while I get the YouTube page inshallah okay Hamdulillah Oh alright I always do that forget to press me alright Hamdulillah well thank you sister Lisa MashaAllah for your kind comments there and Hamdulillah so I don't see anything else on us brothers on the man it has something that I don't know about but I want to thank you all again inshallah we'll go ahead and end in Dua and I pray that Allah Subhan with that makes the month of Ramadan easy to witness the month of Ramadan or Allah Mubarak Ramadan inshallah and that Allah Subhan that facilitates the month for all of us that we're able to inshallah be with our loved ones that we're able to fast with ease inshallah and that Allah Subhan that it gives us rewards us for our fast for our prayers our Dua that we're able to really connect with the book of Allah Subhan that we should all try our best to really commit to all of these things. And you know we had the experience of of Ramadan and COVID or quarantine last year so inshallah it's going to probably look very similar to that but hopefully our state is a little bit more settled now certainly we were very tense and there's so much uncertainty a year ago but Alhamdulillah wa shukr to that Allah's promise is true for the Ma'a al-Asr Yusra because there is immense ease much more ease now we should be positive we should feel encouraged and we should be hopeful that this will be a beautiful Ramadan experience even though yes we're not likely going to have access to the masjid as we did last year the same situation I should say we didn't have access then either but again attitude perspective all of that has been shifted to inshallah a more positive mindset and we should enter the month with a lot of hope and also gratitude because time that we are given it's another year of time if we really think about the you know the the windfall of time that this entire experience of being unlocked has given us it's been an immense blessing Alhamdulillah I don't know a lot of people have struggled with it but I'm specifically speaking about time because in Ramadan I think that's always something that we want more of right not necessarily maybe for the fasting part of it but more for the stretching out of the barakah of the month right people really I think observe that that there is immense barakah in the month and we're we're always heartbroken when it's time for it to end so inshallah you know may Allah make it easy and may we all have the most beautiful Ramadan of our lives I wish all of you nothing but the best and thank you again so much for being here consistently for every session and inshallah we'll see you soon inshallah we'll go ahead and routes evening inshallah we'll see you soon we'll see you Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.


Black Lives Matter is in the news a lot, but do you know what it is and what its goals are? A quick note here, this is the perfect kind of topic for these videos. We make them so you can get the big picture without doing a ton of research yourself. But at the same time, this is the kind of topic people get into fights about at Thanksgiving. So we're going to try to be really careful. We always base what we say on research, so we'll focus on what we can learn from the movement itself and try to get multiple sources for everything so you can be reasonably confident in what we're telling you. We actually have to start with how Black Lives Matter is organized to even understand what its goals are. Black Lives Matter is a very decentralized movement and started in 2013 as a Facebook post in hashtag, as more people used it to label calls to action and online commentary around police killings of black men. That online network started to be used to organize protests that might include people who didn't participate in any of the online organizing. So different chapters in online groups may use the Black Lives Matter name and not all be doing the same thing or even be connected. One of the founders, if you can say that it has founders, has said that the National Movement doesn't organize everything. They just give a framework for local groups to lead themselves and focus on their own priorities. So people outside and people reporting on it in the media will get confused about who represents the movement and who counts as part of it, which is important when there are different people giving different statements that contradict each other. That's why it's hard to talk about their beliefs as just being one thing. No one person or group is in charge of Black Lives Matter, so it's hard to say that they only believe one thing. There is a bunch of things that different people in Black Lives Matter disagree about as well. And not everyone who uses the term considers themselves part of the movement or it's considered by other activists as a part of the movement. There's no one to approve your application for membership or kick you out. We can talk about what the national group says they believe and also look at some of the chapters to give you an idea, but it won't cover everyone who considers themselves part of Black Lives Matter or everything that's been argued for by individual groups. Now that we've admitted you're not actually getting any answers, this seems like a good time to point out that all sales and anime educate are final. Obviously, the big issue everyone thinks about when they think of Black Lives Matter is the police and the criminal justice system, since the biggest topic of protest has been police killings of Black men. The Black Lives Matter website itself says that 2.8 million Black people locked in cages in this country is state violence, as they put it. The movement for Black Lives describes itself as a collective of organizations representing Black people and is connected to Black Lives Matter and their website has more detailed statements about what policy changes they want made, which they released as part of the election. Their platform related to the police and courts includes no zero-tolerant school policies where students are arrested for breaking school rules, no death penalty, no money charged for bail, no court fees for defendants, meaning the fees you pay when you're charged even if you win or the ones you pay on top of your punishment, not the fines themselves, no using criminal histories and job applications, no deportation for Black immigrants, no mass surveillance of Black communities with things like drones, software to predict crime patterns or cell phone signal grabbers, no military tactics or technology for cops, no prisons run by private corporations, no solitary confinement, no shackling of pregnant women, and more community control over law enforcement. The movement for Black Lives said that they would be starting local campaigns to try and get different individual police departments to change the way they do things, though other people in the Black Lives Matter movement have focused on trying to get politicians to change the law and government regulations or even running for office themselves. Some other activists have said that their goal is really to make all Americans understand what life in America is like for a Black person as a way to change the system. All these different goals just prove the old saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Some in the movement have said that they are about more than just police and crime issues, though, and that their goals include addressing many different kinds of injustice. The Black Lives Matter website talks about guiding principles like being unapologetically Black, about supporting Black women, being open to Black families, and being committed to a restorative justice community that can include all people. It also talks about being part of a global Black community, being transgender affirming and being queer affirming, which means that transgender members can freely participate and it's not assumed that anyone is automatically straight, or that being straight is better. The movement for Black Lives list of demands outside of just criminal justice stuff includes a constitutional right to college education for all, more funding for education in Black communities and within the prison system, universal health care, less military spending, less use of fossil fuels, more government job programs, the right for workers to form unions on demand, to break up big banks, to change the tax code to redistribute more wealth from the rich to the poor, more environmental protections, renegotiating trade agreements, support for Black financial institutions, more regulations protecting workers, publicly financing elections and ending corporate donations, as well as super PACs, and universal voter registration that includes former felons and illegal immigrants or undocumented workers, depending on your side of that issue. So there's a lot there. Looking at the chapters, and this is just the ones listed on the Black Lives Matter website, which doesn't include all the groups considering themselves part of the movement, there are 37 around the country plus one in Canada. The Chicago group organized protests to try and get rid of the police superintendent after the shooting of a Black teenager and they also campaign against closing schools in Black neighborhoods. The San Francisco Bay Area group has been part of the campaign to increase the California minimum wage to $15 an hour. The New York City group started a super PAC. If you'd like a reminder of what a super PAC is and what it can do for you, you can check out our videos on campaign finance. The DC Area chapter offers emotional emancipation circles for members to discuss and process the emotional trauma they feel from slavery and anti-Black actions, runs social functions for Blacks only, is putting together a Black Lives Matter curriculum, and organizes protests. And then the Seattle chapter, just one more random example, coordinates protests and charitable collections for things like legal defense and flooding in Louisiana on its Facebook page. So that's a Black Lives Matter. It was probably a little less certain than you were hoping for, but hopefully it helps give you an idea of what the movement's all about. And there you have it. As always, sources are in the description. Please like and subscribe. I'll keep making new videos about twice a month, so if you subscribe, you'll know what new stuff comes out as soon as possible.


Hello everybody! Today we're going to be looking at indexing in pandas. If you remember from previous videos the index is an object that stores the access labels for all pandas objects. The index in a data frame is extremely useful because it's customizable and you can also search and filter based off of that index. In this video we're going to talk all about indexing, how you can change the index and customize that, as well as how you can search and filter on that index and then we're also going to be looking at something a little bit more advanced called multi-indexing and you won't always use it but it's really good to know in case you come across a data frame that has that in it. So let's get started by importing pandas, import pandas as pd. Now we'll get our first data frame say df is equal to pd.read underscore csv and I've already copied this but we're going to do r and we're going to put this file path. So I have this world population csv, I will have that in the description just like I do in all of my other videos. Let's run df and let's take a look at this data frame. So we have a lot of information here. We have rank, country, continent, population, as well as the default index from zero all the way up to 233. Now if you haven't watched any of my previous videos on pandas the index is pretty important and it's basically just a number or a label for each row. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a unique number. You can create or add an index yourself if you want to and it doesn't have to be unique but it really should be unique especially if you want to use it appropriately. For what we're doing the country is actually going to be a pretty great index because the country you know is going to be all unique because we're looking at every single row as a different country as well as the population. So let's go ahead and create this country or add this country as our index. Now we can do this in a lot of different ways but the first way that you can do this if you already know what you are going to create that index on we can just go right in here when we're reading in this file and we'll say comma index underscore oops I spelled that completely wrong index underscore column and we'll say that is equal to and then we're going to say quote country so we're taking this country and we're going to assign it as the index. Now let's read this in and as you can see this is our index now it looks a little bit different we didn't have this country header right here which is specifying that this is still the country but you can tell that this is the index based off the bold letters as well as it being on the far left and all the regular columns for the data is over here while the country header is right here and it's lower than all the others just a quick way that you can see that that is the index. Now before we move on I want to show you some other ways that you can do this as well but I'm going to show you how to reverse this index before we move on and we'll say data frame so we had our data frame right here so we have data frame dot we'll say reset underscore index and then we'll say in place is equal to true which means we don't have to assign this to another variable and all that stuff it'll just be true so now when we run that data frame again the index was reset to the default numbers so now let's go down here I'll show you how to do this in a different way you can do df dot we'll say set underscore index and then we'll just say country so very similar to when we were reading in that file and we said set the index or that index column we said index column equals country if we do this and we run it in it works but if we say data frame right down here it's not going to save that if we want to save it just like we did above we're going to say in place is equal to true that is going to save it to where we don't have to assign another variable so now when we run this the data frame right here which is going to populate this the data frame is going to say in place is equal to true so that country will now be our index again let's run this and there we go really quickly I wanted to give a huge shout out to the sponsor of this entire panda series and that is you to me you to me has some of the best courses at the best prices and it is no exception when it comes to pandas courses if you want to master pandas this is the course that I would recommend it's going to teach you just about everything you need to know about pandas so huge shout out to you to me for sponsoring this panda series and let's get back to the video now what's really great about this index is we're able to search based off just this index and so we can filter on it and basically look through our data with it and there are two different ways that you can do that at least this is a very common way that people who use pandas will do to kind of search through that index the first one is called lock and there's lock and I lock and that stands for location or integer location let's look at lock first let's say df dot lock and then we'll do a bracket now we're able to specify the actual string the label so let's go right up here and let's say Albania so we'll say Albania so again this is just looking at the location let's run this now it's going to bring up all the Albania data just like here where it kind of looks like a column in a column and we can get this exact same data but using I lock right here and when we ran lock we're searching based off Albania which is in the zero one position so if we actually pull the one position for that integer the I lock we can look at the one position and this should give us the exact same data now let's take a look at multi indexing and we'll come back to a little bit of this in a second so multi indexing is creating multiple indexes we're not just going to create the country as the index now we're going to add an additional index on top of that so let's pull up our data frame right now we have the country but let's do dot reset index and we'll say in place equals true oops let's run it so now we have our data frame now let's set our index but this time when we set our index we're going to add the country as the index as well as the continent as an index so we'll say data frame dot set underscore index then we'll do a parentheses and instead of just doing country like we did before we're going to create a list oops and we'll do it like that and then we'll say oops continent and separated by a comma so we have continent and country let's just say in place is equal to true now when we run this we're going to have two indexes let's see what this looks like and let's run this so now we have country as well as continent as our index now you may notice that these indexes are repeating themselves on this continent index we have europe right here and europe right here as well as asia and asia and it looks a little bit funky but we are able to sort these values and make it look a lot better so let's go ahead and try this we'll do df dot sort underscore index and when we run this it should sort our index alphabetically and we can also look in here and see what kind of things we can you know specify we can specify the axis but it's automatically going to be looking at the zero this is zero and this is one so we have two axes within our data frame you choose the level whether it's ascending or not ascending in place kind string sort remaining all of these different things the only one that i really you know think is worth looking at is the ascending we already know some of these other ones but if we look at ascending let's run it now it's sorted these and so now it's kind of grouped together so we have africa and all the african ones as well as south america and all the south american ones let's really quickly say pd dot set underscore option and we'll say display dot max dot columns and just like this let's run it and i need to specify specify right here let's see how many rows we have 235 so let's do 235 let's run this and now when we run this you can see that africa is all grouped together and all the countries are in alphabetical order under it and then we go all the way down to asia and again just all in alphabetical order if we wanted to we could say ascending equals true and then when we run this oh i meant say false and then when we run this it's the exact opposite so it starts with south america the last one and then goes in reverse alphabetical order we could also say false make a list and do comma true and just like this and then it would sort this first column as false and this next column as true so you can really customize it but you know for what we're doing we don't need any of that we just need to be able to see this right here so now when we try to search by our index like we did before we did data frame dot look now when we did that and we said you know let's say angola when we specified angola it's not going to work properly because it's searching in this first index for the first string that we have we can search africa let's search for africa and now we have all of the african countries and if we want to specify to angola we can also go down another level oops by doing angle angola and now we have what we were looking at before where we're calling all the data within those but we couldn't do it just based off africa because we had an additional index right here so once we called both indexes now we get this view but let's look at that i look really quick when we run this let's just say one because right up here oh we have angola zero and then one so you think it may pull up angola let's go ahead and run this and it's still pulling up albania let's go right up here if you remember when we didn't have the multiple indexes it was pulling up albania the difference when you're doing these multi indexes is that the loke is able to specify this whereas this one does not go based off that multi indexing it's going to go based off the initial index or the integer based index so that's a lot about indexing in pandas we'll cover even a few more things in future videos as we get more and more into pandas but this is a lot of what indexing looks like within pandas and again super important to learn how to do and know how to do because it's a pretty important building block as we go through this pandas series so i hope you enjoyed this video on indexing if you did be sure to like and subscribe below and i will see you in the next video


water so sacredly. I just saw how when you drink water, you touch it with so much reverence like how we touch a god's photo. So what is it that you want to tell us about it? See, you are reverential to gods that you have not seen. I am reverential to god that I have seen. The food that you eat, the water that you drink, the air that you breathe, the soil that you walk upon, these are the ones which are keeping you alive, you are made of that? Yes. Your very body is made of that, isn't it? I heard that you said in the interview, it's an ingredient. Isn't it? It's a life-making ingredient. Absolutely, very true. So what is the most valuable thing in your life right now? Life itself. Life itself? Nothing else? You are alive right now, that's all.  What will you ask? For water. Water, then what? True. So, we've always been conscious of it that water is alive, it's a life force. If it's not alive, how does it make you alive? If air is not alive, how does it make you alive? True. It's the very basis of your life? Right. But the so-called physical sciences have been denying it for a long time. Water is just H2O, all this is rubbish and everything. But now you see, I think in the last couple of years, somebody got a Nobel Prize. People have been asking, I said I won't. We've been saying this for thousands of years. Right. Because we have always known this, water is life. True. And we know water has memory. In South India, we store water in a certain way. We keep it in a certain kind of pot. We… people even worship the water pot. I just saw you do that. That is what really I thought that's something we need to teach our kids. If you have no reverence for what is source of your life. Right. What other things have your reverence? It's all empty reverence. Truly true. You're reverential towards something that you've not seen. Just because somebody has thought you. No, I am reverential to all those things that matter to me. Water, soil, air, food, people. Right. Of course. People. Man, woman, child, animal, tree, everything. And I'm very reverential to all of them because I know this is what is making our life right now.  That's a basic fact. Rest is all made up by you. Isn't it? True.   Right. You're mistaking psychological reality for existential reality. That's the main problem. What's happening in your mind, do you think it's real? I'm sorry you're in cinema. But so I can use this example.  It'll not work if lights are on. Lights off, then watch the cinema, get involved, enjoy the movie. When it closes, they must come out. But a whole lot of people think that's for real. That's what is happening to human beings. You have a cinema theater in your mind. It's playing all kinds of badly directed movies. True. Very true. And you start thinking that is the reality. No, it is just your psychological nonsense. So your psychological drama, your thinking is existentially true. That is the basis of all these problems that we have. So today, you pray to some other god. It's your psychological stuff. Depending on which culture you're born in, which family you're born in, accordingly you're looking up to some god, isn't it? True. Everybody is looking up only. So all of them are side by side on the cloud. Am I asking? No. I mean it's more of imagination. So it's your psychological reality. Yeah. But water is existential reality. Right. If one day you don't have water to drink, it's not psychological. True. So Kaveri calling is not a psychological thing. It's existential. It's real.


Later on when John the Baptist starts his ministry and starts to baptize people into water Jesus comes to John's baptism and when John dips him into water the scripture says that Jesus prayed in Luke chapter 3 it says as he prayed Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and filled Jesus So we see Jesus was being born by the Holy Spirit but we also see now Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit and this is different that just because you are saved and Holy Spirit lives in you the Bible also says that as Christians we must continuously be filled with the Holy Spirit we are filled with the Holy Spirit many times we think well Holy Spirit is going to fill me when Holy Spirit wants to fill me but the scripture compares being filled with Holy Spirit equivalent to like a drunken being filled with liquor or with alcohol now an alcoholic doesn't sit at home and waits for alcohol to come from the bar into his house knock the door, go through his living room, jump on his lap and fill his body with liquid that's not how it happens you don't get drunk on accident being drinking is a choice you get up, you go to the place where the bottle is and you drink it to be filled with Holy Spirit is actually not a chance it's a choice it's a choice you make where you put yourself like Jesus in a place of prayer and you open your heart to God you open your life to God and then God's Spirit fills you to simply be preoccupied with the things of life and expect that somehow somewhere when I'm going to be driving or somehow somewhere when I'm depressed, stressed and just brought down God's just going to fill me with Holy Spirit that is an illusion being filled with Holy Spirit is a command and it's a choice we make it's not something that just spontaneously happens to the lucky few it's just something that we make as a decision to be in God's prayer, to be in God's word and Holy Spirit fills us as a result alcoholics don't get filled with alcohol because alcohol is so demanding no, yes the alcohol attracts them and draws them in but at the end of the day it is their choice and that's exactly how it is to be with Holy Spirit now Holy Spirit is not like alcohol it's holy water it doesn't have a person but Holy Spirit is a person but Holy Spirit wants to fill you just like an alcoholic a drunken is filled with alcohol it is your choice