Hi, this is Coach Dave Burdan, and I am the head track and field and cross-country coach here at Stevenson, and this is episode 14 of the Mustang Success Trail. I am here today to tell you about our Career Connection Center. Even before you decide on a career, the Career Connection Center can help with self-assessment and career advising. They have a unique program called the Mustang Mentor Program, which sets you up with a mentor in your field, and their website has a comprehensive list of internship opportunities for you to explore. Good luck the rest of this semester, Mustangs.


If we can work together, inshallah, move faster so we can start, because now if someone comes they would have to find a place to sit. So let's try to provide a space that when newcomers come they can just sit down. And I have to protest this one issue, huh? They tell me that you have to stay, you know, your time is specific time, but the announcements they get longer every day and, you know, but thank you, they were, they were beautiful announcements. I am only joking, huh? Don't put anything in my tea.   O mercy of Allah the Exalted, O doorkeeper of the nation, O prophet of every believer and believer, I fear not Allah, I fear not Allah, Who has touched you. And I fear not Allah, Who has touched you. O our Lord, O our Lord, we have been with you for a long time. We have been with you for a long time. Allah says in His Noble Book of Judgment, and His Word is the Truth, and it is the most truthful. I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Be patient with those who believe. This way, you are gathering with a lot of remembrance upon Muhammed and his family. As a gift to the soul of Sayyidi and the master of Ali, the eldest son of Hussain, the son of Ali, the son of Abi Talib, recite the second Salawat. As a gift to the soul of Sayyidi and the master of Ali, recite the third Salawat with the loudest of your voices. Patience is a virtue which must exist within every believing man and every believing woman. Sabr is a quality that every mu'min and every mu'minah must enjoy within their existence. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, enumerous verses within the Holy Quran, speaks to us of the virtue of sabr and the quality of sabr. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala within the Holy Quran tells his prophet, tells his messengers. He informs him that since the inception of life on the face of this earth, since God created the very first human being, and until the last existence of the last human being on the face of this earth, Allah will test every single one of us. Allah in the Holy Quran states, every one of you will be tested, this is a promise from Allah, with no exceptions, with fear, starvation, hunger, financial crisis, poverty, and the people with illnesses, with death, with threats. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala states, Wa Bashir Al-Saberin, and give glad tidings and good news to those who exercise patience. Wa Bashir Al-Saberin, Alladina Ida Asadatum Mus'ibah, those who are inflicted by a tragedy, those who are inflicted by poverty, by illness, by death, Alladina Ida Asadatum Mus'ibah, they say, Inna Lillah, we belong to Allah, Inna Lillah, Wa Inna Ilayhi Rajiun, and to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala we shall return. And if you examine the Holy Quran, the number one theme within the Holy Quran is the theme of Sabr. Because Allah speaks of numerous prophets within the Holy Quran. Allah mentions 25 prophets within the Holy Quran. And from the story of every prophet, we learn Sabr, we learn patience. When Allah tells us of the story of the prophet Nuh, Nuh lived for a thousand years amongst his people. And for a thousand years he kept trying to install faith and piety and righteousness and the oneness of Allah within his community. But no one believed in him. No one recognized him and no one recognized his call. Allah in the Holy Quran states, Rabbi Inni kullama de'autum Nuh says, Oh Allah, every time I called on to them, Rabbi Inni kullama de'autum litagafira lahum for them to embrace you.  Then Allah says to him, Nuh built an ark. When Nuh began to build the ark, he was not in close proximity of water. So they mocked him. They made fun of him, but he exercised patience. Allah also gives us the story of the prophet Yaqub. His sons took away his beloved Yusuf and they returned with a shirt stained with blood. They said to him, Oh father, the wolf attacked Yusuf and he ate him and this is his shirt. So Yaqub says that you cannot fool me with your fabricated lies. Walakin sabbrun jameel, wallahu al mustaanu ala maa taqoolun. But I will exercise the beautiful patience. Sabbrun jameel. What is the difference between the beautiful patience and the patience that is not beautiful? The mufessereen have stated that the patience that is beautiful is that patience, is that sabr where we only confine to Allah, where we speak to Allah, where we share our problems only and only with Allah. That is sabrun jameel. And of course it's difficult, it's not easy. Therefore the prophet says, wallahu al mustaanu and Allah shall help me in this process. Wallahu al mustaanu ala maa taqoolun. And Allah similarly gives us the example of his son Yusuf. Yusuf that goes with 10 of his brothers and they take him and they collaborate against him and they conspire against him and they threw him in the well. When they threw him in the well, he smiled. So they said, Yusuf, what's wrong with you? Why you're smiling?  Who can harass me? Who can come near me? I have 10 strong brothers who will protect me, who will look after me. But now that you threw me in here, all by myself I have realized that I have no one besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then they took him away from the well as a slave.  They sold him with several dirhams. The young Yusuf, they sold him with several dirhams to get rid of him. They sold him with several dirhams. The Mufassireen state that the price in which they sold Yusuf in was equivalent to purchasing a guard dog. That's it, they sold their brother. He had to exercise patience. Then he became a slave, he had to exercise patience. In the house of Zuleikha, he had to exercise patience. Allah gives us the example of the prophet Ayyub and he's famous for his patience, Sabru Ayyub. Ayyub who was the wealthiest man, who was the most loved, who was also a prophet of Allah. Allah tested Ayyub by taking away all his sons, all 10 of them at once. He said, Alhamdulillah, al-Lahil Ladi, A'ta. Then I asked, I thank Allah who gave me and took away. Then Allah took away all his wealth, all his property, everything he owned. He again said, I thank Allah who gave and now took away. Then Allah took away his health. He once again said, I thank Allah who gave me this health and now took it away. To a point where no one would go near Ayyub, people thought that his illness was contagious. Nobody would, he became a homeless on the side of the streets. His wife had to become a maid in the people's homes. And every day, Ayyub says, Alhamdulillah. This is easy for us to hear the story. It's easy for us. But imagine yourself for one second in his shoes. To a point where his wife one day was fatigued, she was tired, she was exhausted. She couldn't work. So she went and she sold her hair to bring a piece of bread and to give it to the prophet, Ayyub. Allah also gives us examples of women within the Holy Quran who are role models of patience. One of them is whom, Asya bint Muzahim, the wife of Far'aun.  I believe in the Lord of Haroon. I believe in the Lord of Musa. He said to her, listen Asya, you can believe in whoever you like. You can worship whatever god you like, but not in public. Because as soon as he come and you say Far'aun is not god, people will say if his own wife says he's not a god, then he really isn't a god. So you get to do whatever you like in private, but in public, no. She went and she announced to the public, I believe in the Lord of Haroon and Musa. I worship the Lord of Haroon and Musa. He took her, he captured her. Traditions say he cut her body with a knife, the entire body. Then he threw her in a bucket of salt. He tortured her until she died. But what did she say? Listen to this. Daraballahu methalan li'l ladina amanu. She's an example for all the mu'mineen, man and woman. Daraballahu methalan li'l ladina amanu mu'mra'ata Far'aun, the wife of Far'aun. If the qalat, when she said, rabb ibn li'l yandaka baytan fil jannah, wana jini min Far'aun wa amalih, wana jini min al-Qaum al-Zalini. Oh Allah, I look forward to that rest, to that residence that you will put aside for me. Oh Allah, I look forward to entering paradise. And here I will exercise patience. Allah gives us the example of Maryam, Maryam ibn At-Tu'umran, al-Lati ahsanat farjahaa, who, the Prophet Zakaria, every time he went into the muhrab, to the sanctuary, he saw Maryam, and she had received heavenly food. Qaala ya Maryam wa anna laki haadha. Maryam, where did you get this food from? Qaala tawamin, al-Llah. Allah has sent me heavenly food. She goes and returns with a child. They accused her. They fought her. They excommunicated her. And all she said in return was to remain patient. Saabira, when Rasulullah arrived to Medina, he went to the house of Abu Talha al-Ansari. Abu Talha and his wife on Talha could not have children, but after Rasulullah left, they, Allah gave them a son by the name of Talha. Two years later, Talha became very ill. And Abu Talha loved this child. One day, Um Talha woke up, and she saw that Talha has passed away. So she washed his body, she wrapped him into the coffin, and she put him on the side of the room. Abu Talha came home for lunch. He said, Um Talha, where is our son Talha? She said he's sleeping in the side of the room. Have your lunch.  You cannot put a price, you cannot even, this is the tafsir of Rabbana atina fid dunya hasana. A good spouse, fid dunya hasana refers to, a good spouse, this is a good spouse. She said to him, Abu Talha, if the neighbors two years ago came and gave us an amana, they entrusted us with something. And now they've returned, and they want their amana back. What should I do? They said, Um Talha, of course, you give the amana back. She said, are you sure? He said, yes. She said to him, Abu Talha, two years ago, Allah gave us an amana, and today he took it away. Abu Talha took the baby. He went to Rasulullah, and he told Rasulullah the story. Rasulullah says, Alhamdulillah, al ladhi ja'ala fi umma ti nisaan ka ummi Talha. I thank Allah that has placed woman in my umma such as Um Talha. Rasulullah thanks, Allah for such woman. Rasulullah in our tradition states, al sabru min al iman ka raasi min al jasad. Patience to iman is like the head from the body. Can we have a functioning body without a head, without eyes, without ears, without a tongue, without our intellect? No. Similarly, that is the grand position of iman. That is the grand position of sabr, patience from iman. Rasulullah says in the day they place us in the grave. Our good deeds try to come to our rescue. So we see them, they're embodied in beautiful physical entities. They will come to our grave. And when they enter our grave, the salah comes, a beautiful entity. Tries to take care of us. If it fails, then it goes to our siyam. If it fails, then it goes to the Hajj. If it fails, then it goes to zakat. If it fails, then it goes to Amr, then it goes to Zakat. Then it goes to zakat. If it fails, then it goes to Amr glacur. If they all fail, then Rasulullah says Sabr comes. If it was there in the dunya. If we were amongst those who said what, إِنَّا اللّٰهُ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَجِعُونَ Al-L でْنَا إِذَа أصابتهم مصيبة If we were amongst those, then the sabr will come and there is no problem that the sabr and the patience cannot solve. Those are the words of Rasulullah. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wasallam says inna lil jannati baban yuqalu lahababu s-sabr. For Paradise there is a small door and it's called the door of patience. Inna lil jannati baban yuqalu lahababu s-sabr. And those who enter from the door of s-sabr, first of all why is the door small? For obvious reasons because people don't have patience. Many of us don't have patience. The people that enter through this door enter without hesab. They don't go through the judgment. They don't go through the lines. As soon as they arrive to the judgment day they open the door for them, they say go in. So the melaika will ask man antum. You came through the back door, the VIP line. What type? Who are you? A antum al anbiya? Are you prophets? No. Are you saints? No. Man antum? Nahlu s-saberun. We are the patient ones. The melaika will ask wa ala ma sabrtum. What were you patient with? They said sabrna ala ta'atillah wa an ma'siyatillah. We exercised patience and obedience of Allah and we exercised patience not to disobey Allah. Two things. How do we exercise patience and the face of obedience of Allah and facing the obedience of Allah? It's not easy for us to wake up sometimes at 5 30 in the morning to get ourselves out of bed, to do wadhu, to pray salat al fajr and needs patience. It's not easy for some of the sisters to wah hijab and needs patience. It's not easy for some people to depart away from their wealth. Of course, it's easy to throw a dollar or two or five dollars. This is easy. No, I'm talking about the more difficult amounts. And you cannot really set a specific amount. Say, for example, the amount is five thousand dollars. No. This goes back to the capability of the person. It needs patience if we are departing from a great amount of wealth. Some of us have family members who we may dislike. Some of us, for example, have elder parents and we might not be on the best terms with them. But Allah says you have to be respectful to your family and especially to your parents. If your parents are old, uncle, aunts, grandparents, you still have to respect them. You still have to keep that relationship with them, even if you dislike them. This is being patient with the obedience of Allah. We also have to be patient not to disobey Allah, not to eat the haram, not to look at the haram, not to listen to the haram, not to engage with the haram and needs patience, especially for the youth living in this society.  You say, no, but the person next to me was smoking.  Do you think colleges don't leave such an effect on people? Do you think the television and the lifestyle today doesn't influence our youth? Of course it does. Of course it's difficult and that is why as parents, we also have to be kind and merciful to some of their mistakes. We have to be understanding to some of their mistakes and we have to help them to improve themselves. Therefore, those individuals are patient, not to disobey Allah and also to obey Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ayatullah al-Uzma An-Naraqi about 250 years ago wrote a beautiful book by the name of Jam'il Kamalat, the abundance of virtues. He speaks of all the virtues and amongst the chapters in his book is a chapter dedicated to the virtue of patience, Sabr. The book reached the hands of Ayatullah al-Uzma, Sayyid Mahdi Bahra al-Uloom. Sayyid Mahdi Bahra al-Uloom was not only the Marja of the time residing in Najaf, but he was also the personal friend of Imam al-Mahdi. He got to meet the Imam whenever he wished. He had a grand position. He was the man who saw Imam al-Mahdi in the 10th of Muharram in the Aza of his grandfather Abu Abdullah al-Hussein. They saw the Sayyid, he was in the Aza, he was running, he was doing matam. He was crying and the Sayyid every year would go barefoot without his amama. Weeping and crying and doing matam for his grandfather Abu Abdullah al-Hussein, suddenly he collapsed. They said to him, Sayyid, what happened? He said, I saw, do not blame me for I saw Sayyidi wa Mawlai sahibu al-Asri wa al-Zaman, not only weeping, not only beating his chest, not only barefoot, but crying tears of blood for his grandfather Abu Abdullah al-Hussein. This was the position of Sayyid Bahra al-Uloom. Months later, maybe a year later, Iitullah al-Naraqi from Iran visited Najaf. So all the ulamas, all the Maraji, all the Mujtahids came to visit Naraqi, accept Bahra al-Uloom. Three days later, Naraqi said, I will go and visit Sayyid Bahra al-Uloom myself. There's no reason for him to come. So he went and he visited Bahra al-Uloom. Bahra al-Uloom was very cold. He didn't even stand up for him. He didn't respect him. So Naraqi sat and he left. The people said, Sheikh, you should not come back here. This man disrespected you. And you should treat him the same way if he comes and visits you. But the Sayyid never even came to visit him. Three days later, he said to his people, I'm going to go and visit the Sayyid again. Maybe on that day he was not feeling well. Maybe he had a bad day. So I'll visit him again. He visited him again and the condition was even worse. This time the Sayyid didn't even speak to him. So they said, maybe he's going to come and repay you the visit and tell you why. Tell you, maybe you've done something. Maybe he thinks something of you that is wrong. And the Sayyid never came to visit him. They say the night before Naraqi left Najaf, he secretly didn't tell his people because they wouldn't allow him. He secretly wore his clothes and he went to the door of Sayyid Bahra al-Uloom. He knocked at the door of Sayyid Bahra al-Uloom. The Sayyid came running without his amama, without his abaa. He opened the door. He held the hands of Naraqi and he kissed it. They said to him, Sayyid Bahra al-Uloom, one hour, one time. You don't speak to him. You don't stand up for him. You don't respect him. Now he kisses his hands. What's happening? He said, I read his book, The Abundance of the Virtues. I read his book, Jam'ul Kamalat. I wanted to see if he truly acts onto what he writes. And I found that he is not only the book, but he is beyond the book as well. I was testing him. And of course, do you think it was easy for Naraqi to overcome the feeling inside of him that the Sayyid is disrespecting me? The Sayyid is not visiting me? The Sayyid is not speaking to me? A Sayyid that respects children? Disrespect me? It was not easy. But yet, this man exercised sabr to obey Allah, to seek Allah SWT's satisfaction and pleasure. And today, in the past years, as I travel in different communities, I find many people complaining of the economic situation. Many people, I know them, they have lost their jobs after 30 years. 30 years working for a company suddenly laid off. I know many people have lost their homes. I know many people have lost their vehicles. I know many million-dollar companies that have gone bankrupt. And when we come to this issue today, while being in the Madrasa of Imam Hussain, when we look at the school of Imam Hussain, the very first lesson on top of the list of the lessons that we learn from Imam Hussain is the lesson of sabr. Patience. The first lesson that we learn from his brother, Abul-Fadil Abbas, is the lesson of sabr.  We say, Ash-Hadu An-Naka Sabar. The first lesson that we learn from Sayyid-e-Zaynab, sallallahu alayhi alayhi, is the lesson of patience and sabr. When Rasulullah was departing from this Ummah, he said, An-Nitarekun Fikumuthaqalain, Kitab Allah Wa Atrati Al-Bayti. I am leaving two weighty things amongst you. Number one is what? Kitab Allah. Today, if I cannot relate Kitab Allah, the Holy Qur'an to my life, that is not the problem within the Qur'an. That is the problem in me understanding the Qur'an. Some people say, What's the Qur'an? Today, how is it going to solve my problem today? We're going through a worldwide global economic crisis. I'm going through difficulty in my marriage. It's in the Qur'an. I'm going through difficulties at work. It's in the Qur'an. Rasulullah says there isn't anything, any cure to any problem, the solution to any problem, but it's been mentioned in the Holy Qur'an. Therefore, if we cannot bring the Qur'an into our lives today, that is not the problem of the Qur'an, but it is our problem of understanding the Qur'an.   I'm leaving Hassan. I'm leaving Husayn. I'm leaving Aliyabna Abi Talib. And if I cannot relate the message of Husayn to my life today, that is my problem in understanding the message of Husayn. If I cannot relate to Aliyabna Abi Talib, that is my problem in understanding Aliyabna Abi Talib. Therefore, when we come to the School of Imam Husayn, we have to learn patience in facing the financial crisis. And I have to say this, not only for those here, but elsewhere as well, that Allah gives us a promise in the Holy Qur'an, a big promise, a huge promise coming from Allah, not from my insurance company, not from my boss, not from my family, from Allah. Allah says, inna ma'al usri. After all difficulties, there shall come ease. So, when you reach the peak of the difficulties, you have to realize that soon it will be the beginning of the ease. It's a promise from Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. A beautiful tradition states that when we wait for the yusr to come after the usr, when we wait for the ease to come after the difficulty, we have to await this ease like a farmer awaits his crops. A farmer goes and he does whatever he needs to do. He plants the seeds, he waters them, he takes care of his plants. Then he goes and he sleeps. Comfortable. People come and say to him, are you sure those apple trees this year, they're going to give apples? I'm 100% sure. I know they'll give apples. Are you sure that the plants or the, for example, this tree will give oranges this year? He says, I don't think I know they will give oranges this year. Today, if someone comes and tells you this person in your family that's ill, do you think they will ever be cured? Say, I don't think I know they will be cured. Do you think in this crisis you're ever going to find a job? I don't think I know I will find a job. Do you think in this crisis you're going to buy the house you always wanted to buy? Say, I don't think. I know I will buy the house I always wanted because I entrust myself in Allah SWT. I put my faith in Allah SWT. And yes, maybe things don't look right today, but in the end everything is in Allah's hands. When Hussein was murdered, he was beheaded. His family was taken captive. Did anyone think that Hussein is going to be the victorious one? Hussein is ever going to be the man that's won this battle. Allah SWT decides otherwise. Allah SWT decides for Hussein to rise and to rise and to rise. And every year, year in, year out, Hussein becomes greater and greater. Many of you have gone to Ziyarat. Rivers of people, rivers of people, millions upon millions of people giving away everything, knowing that there could be danger in their ways walking all the way from Basra to Karbala. But yet they come and the love of Hussein is what drives them and motivates them. Another issue that we have to understand while being patient and receiving the ease from Allah SWT is that we also have to be the making of our decisions, not our circumstance. Don't say, well today the economy is terrible, so what am I going to do? I don't have any other options. No.  The deeper you are buried, the stronger the roots will be. And the more powerful you arise and the bigger fruits you will give. They give an example of a farmer who lost his mule. So he walked around. Where is my mule? His mule had fallen in thee. Well, old mule. So he said, let me bury this guy. Let me bury the mule. It's over for him. So he began to take the dust and to throw it in the well to bury the mule. But the mule was not the making of his circumstance. He kept moving the dust, stepping over it and raising himself. And soon the farmer saw the ears of the mule. Some of America's biggest businesses were formed in times of difficulties. Marie was a lady who came as a foreigner to this country. And she used to work in a restaurant six days a week. Her boss came to her and said, Marie, you have to work seven days a week from tomorrow. So she said, I can't work seven days a week. He said, you have to. People loved her pies. She began to only, for seven days a week, bake pies left and right. People coming now to the restaurant just to eat her pies. When she became famous, she left and she opened her first Marie calendar. Today, there are over 125 chapters of Marie calendar in America. When she felt that she has to work for the seventh day, that was the beginning, that was the last step of her misery. It was also the first step of her ease. So for many of us, let this be a lesson, a lesson of hope from the school of Imam Hussain from the Holy Quran. And when we come to the principle of patience, I have chosen to speak of this ayah in Surah Al-Ankabut. Ya Rasulallah, give yourself patience with those believers who stay up the day and the night and praying to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Why was this verse revealed? And what are the four stages of sabr associated within this verse? This verse was revealed in regards to Salman, and other companions, but mainly of those three. Those three were impoverished companions. They were poor. They could not afford two sets of clothes. So they wore the same thing that they wear in the winter, they wore it in the summer. And Salman himself, he says, he says summertime, you would sweat. And we would not have the best smells, obviously. And we could not afford to go and wash or to buy a new set of clothes. And we could not afford buying atar. So the rich would come, they would sit next to them, and they would be disturbed. So they came to Rasulallah. They said, Ya Rasulallah, make the masjid two shifts, one shift for the poor, one shift for the rich. So that when the rich come, and we will support Ya Rasulallah, we'll give big money, but those guys can't be here. So when we come, we sit next to you, we speak with you, and when we leave, they can come. But we can't be with those guys in the same place.  Don't be fooled by their wealth and their money. Remain patient with those guys. Exercise sabr with those guys. You read on our wajah. Ya Rasulallah, those guys want Allah. Those guys love Allah. Those guys are there for the sake of Allah. And if the others want to come, they can also come. They're welcomed. If they really want to come for Allah, they're welcome. But if they want to come for any other reasons, no, Ya Rasulallah, you remain with them. You remain with them. The ulama have stated four stages of sabr. When defining sabr, wasb, nafsak, they have given four stages of sabr. The very first stage of sabr is defined as chastity for us to overcome our lust. The illegitimate desires, they said, al-alaam al-majlis narrates in Bihar al-Anwar. He says there was a abid in the time of Musa. When he would raise his hands to Allah, Allah would answer his dua. So people would bring their family, their friends, the L ones, and he would pray for them and they would be cured. But he would only do this one hour in the day. The rest he would be praying for himself, as in praying to Allah. So four brothers came and they brought their sister. They put her there.  This man prayed on every single one of them. They were cured. He went to this woman and he saw the beauty in the woman. And shaitan came to him right away. What does it mean? When the ayah was revealed that Allah forgives all the sins. Listen to this. Shaitan gathered all his guys, all his gang. He said to them, have you realized that Allah says he will forgive all the sins? They said, yes. He said, what should we do? They all said one thing. Waswas al-Khanas then said, I will whisper in their ears until they commit the sin. When they commit the sin, I will whisper in their ears to forget asking for repentance. Meaning the repetitive. He took advantage of this woman. This ill woman. Then shaitan, again, he came to him. Now her brothers are going to come. What are you going to do? Get rid of her. He murdered her. Rape, murder. After he murdered her, he buried her. Her brothers came. He said, I prayed on her for ease. She died. I buried her. They said, that's fine. But now we have to transport her to our city. We've lived far away. So then when they opened the grave, they realized that she had been murdered. They took him for a trial. When they took him for a trial, they wanted to execute him. Shaytan came to him, al-Waswas al-Khanas. He came to him, and he said to him, listen, you want me to get you out of your misery? Ask me for help. That's it. Say, oh, Shaytan, help me. That's it. Ya Shaytan, say ya Shaytan. So he was hesitant. He said, no, I can't. I know what you're doing. You've already got me to this. I can't do anything else. That's it. I'm not trusting you anymore. He said, listen, just once. It's worth a trial. Just once, say ya Shaytan, and that's it. And as soon as he said that, he was executed. Aabid, because of the lack of chastity and na'ffah, goes to that level. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in the holy Quran says, Tell the believers to lower their gaze, to look with modesty, and tell the believing woman to also lower their gaze, and to look with modesty. When Allah speaks of hijab, Allah says, Inazalna ilaykum libasan yuwari, so'atikum warishan, the hijab. Then he says wa libasu taqwa, but the greater hijab is the hijab of taqwa. Can you wear the hijab called taqwa? No, taqwa is the hijab of the heart. So this is the first form of sabr, chastity. Second form of sabr is halm, to forgive. Not only to forgive, but to control our anger. When we become angry, to control our emotions, to control our anger. Not to start breaking the plates, slapping our employees, using foul language. That happens.  And he said a man came to me after the Majlis. He said, Said, I need to speak to you privately. So he said, I gave an appointment. He came. And he was in a very bad shape. He wasn't doing well at all. I said to him, what's wrong with you? He said, say it. I work very hard. I work many hours. And I'm tired when I come home. My wife that day decided that she's going to leave the newborn, six months you're old with me in the house. He was quiet. As soon as she left, he began to cry. So I gave him the bottle. He didn't stop crying. I held him. He didn't stop. I tried to play with him. He didn't stop crying. He said, I became very upset. Upset to a point where Sheban took all over my existence. I threw the kid. He said, I threw the kid. The kid, 10 seconds, 30 seconds later, I realized, what did I do? But the kid was sleeping. He stopped crying. So I went to pick him up, to put him in his bed. And I realized that he is dead. He's gone. Said, I killed my own son. Halm, patience. When we become upset, sometimes we don't know what we're going to get ourselves in. We don't know where we're headed. The third is Shaja'a bravery. And not the bravery that many of us are thinking now. Picking a fight everywhere we go and acting macho. No, that's not it. They say a story of one of the grand scholars of Irfan. One of the grand scholars of Irfan. He was a wrestler. Can you believe that? He was a fighter. He would fight for a living. He was a street fighter for a living. He would go from village to village, city to city, and fight. And then they would pay him, if he won, they would pay him. He arrived to a city, and he had the fight the next day. So they bring the biggest guy in town, and he fights him. And if he wins, they give him money. It's a show. Back then, people didn't have movie theaters.  This guy that's coming, he is very strong. He never lost a battle. My poor son tomorrow has to go and face him. And he's going to crush him. He's going to defeat him. And my son is not going to be able to live with that defeat. Allah help him. Allah give him victory. And she was praying and praying for her son. The next day, this man woke up. They began the fight. And he continuously was allowing this man to win until his opponent defeated him. They gave the other guy the money and the prize. And this man was picking up his things to leave the city. As opponent came to him, he said, listen, I knew for a fact you let me win. I knew for a fact that I didn't win this fight. So what happened? He said to him the story.  And in that time, I realized, what am I trying to prove to those people that I am brave? Let me for once prove to myself that I am brave. For once, let me prove to myself that I'm brave. And I proved to myself that, yes, I was. And I let you win. This is bravery. Another brave man who was associated with Ashura and Imam Hussein. And I believe one of the 10 nights, we have to designate to this man, Meitham Uttammar. Meitham was one of the companions of Amir al-Mu'mineen, Ali ibn Abi Talib ibn Salawat, sallallahu alayhi. Amir al-Mu'mineen would tell his secrets to Meitham. Amir al-Mu'mineen would give Meitham the special knowledge of the unseen and the future. Many events, Amir al-Mu'mineen would share with Meitham. Once Meitham arrived to the house of Umsalama. Listen, from Kufa to Medina. He wasn't a companion of the prophet. Umsalama had never seen him after the demise of Rasulullah. He went to the house of Umsalama. He knocked at the door. She said, who is it? He said, my name is Meitham Uttammar. She said to him, yeah, Meitham, taalama. Listen to this, taalama. Sama'atu Rasulullah, yuhadithubika aliyyan fee jaufu l-layl. Yeah, Meitham, many nights I overheard Rasulullah speaking to Ali in your regard with your name, carrying out your name. Many years before Meitham existed. Many years before Amir al-Mu'mineen even moved to Kufa and became the Khalifa, Rasulullah in the middle of the night. Would speak to Ali and carry the name of Meitham, telling him what you should tell Meitham, how you should act with Meitham, who is Meitham. This is the position of Meitham Uttammar. He had a position that Amir al-Mu'mineen would go sell dates for him. Meitham didn't know anything. When Amir al-Mu'mineen purchased him as a slave, he said to him, Meitham, what do you know? He said, nothing. He said, you don't know anything? I said, so what are you going to do? He said, I know how to sell dates. I put the dates. I take the money. I give them the dates. That's it. So sometimes, Amir al-Mu'mineen would go to the store of Meitham. He would say, Meitham, take a break. I will sell the dates for you. This was Meitham Uttammar. Amir al-Mu'mineen also told Meitham exactly what will happen after Amir al-Mu'mineen all the way to his own demise. So Meitham was captured by whom, Ibn Ziyad? Days before Ashura, days before Ashura, he was captured by Ibn Ziyad. And he was imprisoned with Muhtar al-Thakfi in the same prison. And he told Muhtar that he was going to take the vengeance of those who murdered Imam Hussein. And he also told Muhtar what will happen to him. He said, Ibn Ziyad, soon will come and take me out of the prison. He will trial me. Then he will crucify me on a palm tree. And Amir al-Mu'mineen has told me this. That is why Meitham would go to that palm tree and he would water the palm tree and he would pray by the palm tree. He knew that this is the palm tree that he was going to be crucified on. So Ibn Ziyad came, he trialed him, and he said, we have to take you. He said, Ibn Ziyad, listen. Amir al-Mu'mineen has told me exactly what you will do to me. You want me to tell you? He said, tell me.  He will cut your tongue. He said to him, I'll make sure that I make your Moula Ali al-Lair. Meitham smiled, he said, my Moula Ali never lies. He's always truthful. So they took him to the same palm tree. And they crucified him but they didn't cut his tongue. What did he do? This brave man began to speak of the fadah of Ali ibn Abi Talib. He began to uncover the true reality behind Bani Umayyah and Ibn Ziyad. He began to expose Bani Umayyah and he began to speak of the position of Hussain ibn Ali, welcoming people towards Ahl al-Bayt. People would gather 10, 200, 5,000, he would have a huge crowd and he would speak to them. Then he was reached ibn Ziyad. Ibn Ziyad said, go and cut away his tongue. When the man came to cut his tongue, he said, I told you, my Moula never lies. This is a brave man. A brave man that dedicated his entire existence for the cause of Ahl al-Bayt, for the cause of Amir al-Mu'mineen. A brave man like Zuhair ibn al-Qayn who he mentioned in the night of Ashura stood, this man was Uthmani yul-Hawa. I spoke of Zuhair ibn al-Qayn. He was one of the supporters of those who took the vengeance of Uthman from Ali. We spoke of this several nights ago but he was transformed to a point that in the eve of Ashura, Zuhair ibn al-Qayn gave a speech.  This is the position of a brave man. Today, we barely even give time for Ahl al-Bayt. We barely even show our love for Ahl al-Bayt. This is the truth, true bravery. The second stage is Qana'ah to be content with Allah and it needs patience, it needs patience to be content. I don't have time to dwell over the notion of being content and Qana'ah but I'll give you the story. Rasulullah states, Qad amarani Rabbi, Allah has ordered me to love four people of my Ummah. He's ordered me. One is Meqdad, Meqdad al-Kindi. One is Ammar, Ibn Yasir. Third, Salman al-Muhammadi and fourth Ali Ibn Abi Talib. Allah has asked me to love them. This companion that was in Uhud, this companion that was in Badr, this companion that was in every battle and he has such a position after the demise of Rasulullah, Amir al-Mu'mineen would no longer receive money from the treasury. Meqdad would not receive money from the treasury. Salman would not receive money from the treasury. Ammar would not receive. Abu Dhar would not receive. They were excommunicated. Meqdad could have easily said, I'm not content with what I have. Let me go, give my allegiance. I am Meqdad al-Kindi and I will not only receive my share from the bayt al-mal but I'll receive triple bayt al-mal. But he didn't. He was content. He was content with a state of poverty and impoverishment. One day Fatima al-Zahraa said to him, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, listen. Allahu Akbar. She said to him, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, for the past three days, Hassan, Hussain, and Zainab have not ate. They have not ate anything. This is how they fought Al-Muhammad. Al-Muhammad for three days, they don't have food to eat after the demise of Rasulullah. Amir al-Mu'mineen went to borrow money but from whom? Allah, this is the greatest Masa'at. He went to go and get a loan of one dinar. One dinar from a Jewish man, a Jewish man. Fatima says, Ali, when you go on the streets, do people give salam to you? He said, no. Ya Fatima, when I give salam to them, they don't respond to my salam. So Amir al-Mu'mineen went and he took the dinar and the dirham and he was going to purchase bread for his children. He saw Meqdad. He said, Meqdad, it's in the middle of the heat. It's noon time. What are you doing out here? He said, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, Ya Abul Hassan, for three days, my children have not ate anything. And my wife asked me to go and get them some food. Amir al-Mu'mineen said, Ya Meqdad, Allah, Meqdad, the reason why you are out of your house today has driven me out of my house as well. Take this dinar. Take it. And he gave him the dinar. Bana'a, being content, not to bring disgrace to ourselves because of what we do not have. Sometimes when we don't have something, if we're content, we say, Alhamdulillah, I am content. As long as I have my dignity, as long as I have my honor, that's what's important to me. But others sometimes they're willing to give their dignity and their honor to gain what they don't have, whether it's money, whether it's popularity, whether it's position. Amir al-Mu'mineen says, Al-qana'atu kenzun laifna. Bana'a is the greatest treasure. Allah's stage of sabr that was only and only observed from al-Muhammad is the stage of ridah, the acceptance, to accept everything, to be content, completely content with what Allah has chosen for us. And this is the message of Imam Hussein. He was content. Ilahi ridhan beridak. Ilahi ridhan beridak la ma'budah siwak. Every time they gave him the news of a calamity, every time they told him this companion has been murdered, this companion has been slaughtered, this family member died, he would say, Ilahi ridhan beridak. I am content, ya Allah. Ridhan beridak la ma'budah siwak. There's no Lord besides you. And tonight is a special night that belongs to the man that sleeps next to Imam Hussein, the son of Hussein, the love of Hussein, the light of his eyes, Allahu Akbar. Hussein kept him close, right next to him. So that every man and woman, every believing man and woman, every mu'min and mu'mina, when they go to the grave of Hussein, they also stand in front of the grave of that young man that brave man. And they say to him, As-salamu alayka yabna Rasulillah. As-salamu alayka yabna al-Husayn al-Shahid. As-salamu alayka ayyuh al-Shahid bin al-Shahid. Allahu Akbar. They say the whole journey Imam Hussein kept telling everyone, including his brother Abbas, Qasim, everyone, that you are free to go. You are free. But only keep Aliyun al-Akbar with me. I cannot separate myself from my son Ali. Allahu Akbar. Ajarak Allahu ya'aba Abdullah. And Aliyun al-Akbar holds a dear position in the heart of Imam Hussein. Let us go to Karbala. Let us take our hearts, our souls, our minds, our entire existence to that shrine of Hussein.  We say to him, Sayyidi, ya'aliyun al-Akbar, the beloved of Hussein, yabna Rasulillah, inna tawajjahna, wastashfa'na, wa tawassalna bika ilallah. Tonight I want this place. All of us, every man and woman and child and everyone in this Majlis to cry with Hussein because Imam Hussein cried for Hassan Ali and Al-Akbar. He wept for Hassan Ali and Al-Akbar. Ya Sayyidana wa maulana, tawajjahna wastashfa'na, wa tawassalna bika ilallah. Tawajjahna wastashfa'na, wa tawassalna bika ilallah. Wa qaddamna kaba'ina yada'i, hajatna. All of you, ya wajihahna, wa tawassalna bika ilallah. Ya wajihahna, he came into the tent of his father, Abu Abdullah. Imam Hussein looked at Ali and Al-Akbar. He realized why Ali and Al-Akbar had come to him. He said to him, buna'ya Ali, buna'ya Ali, kaya shumka wa tashummuni, wa waddi'uka wa tawaddi'uni, my son, come and hug your father. Come and embrace your father. I would like to smell your scent. And I would like you to smell my scent so we can say our goodbyes. They hugged and they cried and they cried. And tell him, Imam Hussein fainted. Allahu Akbar. They woke him up. Traditions say he never gave permission for Ali and Al-Akbar, only with the hand gestures. He told him, buna'ya Ali, buna'ya Ali, after you, ya Ali, my son, my life will have no more meaning to it.  Ali sat on the back of the horse as he was exiting his father's tent. Imam Hussein went outside the tent without his amama. Barefoot. He raised his hands to the skies. He said, Allahumma jihad ala haa. Ashbaghunnaasi khalqan wa khuluqan wa bantqan l-Rasulillah. Wa kunnaa anda mashtaqna ila Rasulillah. Imam Hussein says, ya Allah, be a witness. Allahu Akbar. That the man that is going to them now resembles Rasulullah. And this Rasulullah, he would look at the face of Ali and al-Akbar.  And then Imam Hussein stated, ya Umar ibn Asad, ta'ta rahmi. It's like you're taking my son Ali and al-Akbar. Imam Hussein then went and he stood next to the tent of his mother Layla. He was observing his son Ali, the brave Ali, the grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the nephew of Abbas. He stood in front of them and traditions say they removed themselves away from Ali and al-Akbar. So he actually went to them. He says, aanaa naahnoa azribukur bagulamin haashimi. He began with those lines of poetry those who do not know me. I am Ali, the son of Hussein, the grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib. And today I will protect my father. I will protect the son of Rasulullah with my sword. faqaa ta'laum qita'laan kathiraan hatta qata laa tamaa maa maa maa maatain. He fought and he killed 200 men. Then he returned to his father Abba Abdullah. This shows that he, until that point, was even shy to tell his father that he wants water. Imam Hussein satan bunaia Ali, come back. He came. He said, Ali, feel my tongue. He said, I touched the tongue of my father and it was like a piece of wood. So he returned to his father. He said, I touched the tongue of my father and it was like a piece of wood. So he returned to the enemy. He looked at the face of his father. She said, Abba Abdullah, why is your face changing? What's occurred? He said, Layla, Layla, go to the tent and pray to Allah to return your son to you. The mothers tonight, the mothers cry with Hussein. She went inside the tent with Layla. She said, Ilahi, who returned Yusuf to Yaqub, returned my son Ali to me. Then she made this powerful dua. Allahu Akbar. What did she say? Layla said, Ilahi, Rabat al-Hussein, Atash al-Hussein. Oh Allah, in the thirst of Hussein, in the loneliness of Hussein, return my son Ali to me. Ali in Al-Akbar came. He came to his father.  He went, he embraced his mother. He said his goodbyes to his mother. And he went to the enemy. They surrounded him from every. Shimr said, Do not allow this man to fight. You have to go to him from every angle. They surrounded him and they bombarded him with arrows. Imam Hussein, I see my grandfather. This is the grandfather of the messenger. He has stabbed me from the heart of the infidels. Oh my father Hussein. I see my grandfather, the messenger of Allah. And quenching my thirst, Imam Hussein went to Ali in Al-Akbar. I want you to imagine the state of Hussein. Assaid, Zainab says that when Hussein heard the call of Ali in Al-Akbar, we all felt that he was good was going to die in that moment. Going to go towards his son? Is he going to stay in the tent? Imam Hussain was confused. He ran towards his son. He held his son. He said, Oh son, Ali, if they killed you into pieces, your father is not in a good state. What should I do? He said, she got out of the tent because she didn't do this for her own sons. She came out of the tent, she called out, as soon as Imam Hussain saw his sister Zainab, he then went to his sister. He said, sister, go back to the tent. It's not time for you now. Then he came. He said, Oh the youth of Bani Hashem, come and carry Ali, you're like war, but they couldn't carry him. Last night, we didn't do this tonight because he is named after his grandfather, Amir al-Mu'mineen, those who have hajjat, it is Thursday night. The time of istijabah to dua, all of us, those who have shed tears especially, do not forget me and others in your family, and the mu'mineen and mu'minat and your dua. We go to this dua with this application, with this dhikr. I said, Allah gave this dhikr to His Prophet Rasulullah. He said, Ya Rasulullah, if you are in need, if you need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to remove your agony, then say this. I want you to shake this building with Ya Ali. The Malaika love this. How can you be not present in this Majlis? We are calling the name of your grandfather Ali, Ya Rasulullah, we are calling the name of your brother Ali, Ya Hussain, give us that visit in the first night of our graves. We want you to take us by the hand. Step us as one of your followers, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen. We all have hajjat, we all have our prayers, one more last time.


Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, and I'm back with another comic book Wednesday. This time we will be looking at G.I. Joe number six. That's G.I. Joe, a real American hero, the comic book series published by Marvel Comics starting in 1982, and we're looking now at the sixth issue. Before we get started though, I want to remind everybody to smash that subscribe button, and if you liked this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up, and if you don't like this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs down. I've got a lot of great videos coming up, you will not want to miss them, and since my subscriber base is increasing, I have some pretty cool plans for when we hit certain subscriber milestones. You will not want to miss that, you will definitely want to be around for that, but of course we've got to approach those milestones first, so don't forget to hit that subscribe button. So let's look at G.I. Joe number six, starting with the cover. On the cover, we have a big picture of Cobra Commander's helmet with his face mask reflecting two images. On one side is the G.I. Joe team, and on the other side is some unknown team. This is a team that we have not met yet. It's a pretty cool image, nicely designed, and it gives us some hints at what's going to be in the comic book. On the splash page, we have a title. To fail is to conquer, to succeed is to die. In parenthesis, it says, Ancient Afghan Proverb. That's a very ominous title, I wonder if it is foreshadowing something that will happen in the comic book. We have a creative team of Larry Hama as the scriptor, and Herb Triumph as the plot and penciler. The story opens with the G.I. Joe team getting an escort back to base from tactical air support. This is before G.I. Joe had its own jet, the Skystriker, and Pilot Ace. Later on in the series, of course, I think Ace would have fulfilled that role, but they didn't have Ace around at the time. The Joes all get a ride back to the pit in a doos and a half truck. Later in the series, the APC would fulfill that role. This is still 1982, so really, come on 1983, you cannot get here fast enough. The G.I. Joe team needs some better vehicles. The Joes are returning from a mission, and apparently it was a really tough mission. Now we don't get to see the mission, we don't know exactly what it was. The only way we know about it is that they're just talking about it, and they're telling us how tough it was. Before they have a chance to relax, Hawk walks in with another mission, and this one he says is going to be on an all voluntary basis. Why would the mission be all voluntary? That also seems kind of ominous. It seems like there's something going on here that we're not being told. In the briefing room, we find out what the mission is, and I've said before that I like this aspect of the comic book. I like it when it brings us into the planning phase. I do think that that draws the reader in and makes the story seem more realistic. The Russians apparently have an anti-gravity plane, oh boy, anti-gravity, more science fiction. Anyway, the plane, it goes down in Afghanistan, and this was during a time when the Soviet Union was occupying Afghanistan, and the Afghan rebels have the plane, and they will give it to the United States. So the G.I. Joe team's mission is to go into Afghanistan and retrieve the Russian plane. You have to keep in mind that we're talking about Afghanistan pre-911. This is back in the Cold War, and nowadays we are familiar with certain place names like Kabul and the Hindu Kush Mountains, but for 1982 this was a really advanced story. This is a kind of story that you wouldn't expect, kind of detail that you wouldn't expect in a comic book that is intended for kids. One of the things I really liked about the comic book when I was reading it as a kid is that I didn't feel like it was treating me like a child. Here we are talking about real parts of the world where there is real political conflict, and reading about that as a kid definitely made me feel very grown up. It made me feel like I was reading a mature story. So the Joes are going to go into Afghanistan and they're going to take out the plane on this vehicle called an RTV, or Rough Terrain Vehicle. It's a vehicle we've never heard of before and we will never hear of again after this issue. Hawk asks for volunteers, and of course everybody raises their hands, and this should be no surprise. I mean, we're talking about an elite military unit. So all of these guys are like alphas and jocks, and not one of them would want to be the sole guy who doesn't raise his hand when there's a call for volunteers. So of course, when there's a call for volunteers, everybody's going to put their hands up. It doesn't really matter though, because Hawk has already selected the team that's going to go in.  I mean, suppose somebody on that list did not raise his hand. Do you think they'd get to stay behind? I don't think so. So the Joes are on their way. They're on the plane flying to Afghanistan. But in the meantime, something strange and mysterious is happening in the dark end of the communications bunker of the Jiojo Command Center. Some mysterious person is calling Cobra to inform Cobra of the Joes mission. And that mysterious person turns out to be Hawk. Hawk is actually calling Cobra and giving them all of the Joes mission secrets. Is Hawk a traitor? Oh my God. Say it ain't so. The Joes parachute in and they don't see the rebels at first. The rebels are hiding and then they pop up and surprise the Joes. We get to meet the CIA operative who is working with the rebels and he turns out to be a real douche nozzle. An exchange between the rebel leader and the CIA agent gives us the impression that we are supposed to trust the fighting man. And CIA agents don't fight so they just wouldn't understand. The Russian plane is boxed up in a crate and the Jiojo team assembles their RTV so they can drive the crate out. And once it is assembled it is actually a really cool looking vehicle. You know what? I really wish there was a toy of this thing. Of course this comic book is selling toys but it's actually selling toys that don't exist. I kinda wish they had made a toy version of this. It would have been really cool. I would have bought it. As they're leaving Stalker tells the rebel leader that they will try to get them anti-tank weapons and ground to air missiles. Now this is kinda creepy and really, really ironic. At the time the US kind of thought of the Afghan rebels as, you know, the underdogs and they were the enemies of our enemies so they had to be the good guys. In 1982 they had no idea that these same rebel groups would produce some of the most evil enemies that the United States has faced in the modern era. The naivete that the Joes demonstrate here is almost heartbreaking. So the Joes are on the move driving through the Afghan mountains and the vamp jeep is on point and the RTV is carting the secret Russian plane and as they are driving they are being observed by persons unknown. Then they run into a ravine that is not on the map. There are no bridges and there's no obvious way to get over it.  Last we have a firefight. We have action in this action comic. We don't know who exactly is shooting at them but at least some hot lead is being exchanged. We really haven't seen a firefight like this since the first issue of the comic book. The Joes have to get out of there so Steeler comes up with a plan. He picks up the vamp using the crane on the RTV and he carries the vamp over the ravine. He also drives the RTV over the ravine but the artwork here is really confusing. In one panel it shows the ravine as being very narrow but then on the next page the ravine is huge. Now I think I understand what the artist was trying to convey here. Basically Steeler used the width of the RTV to kind of stretch the wheels across the ravine but it's not drawn that way. It really doesn't actually make any sense the way it's drawn but I'll just chalk that up to the difficulties of illustrating that particular maneuver. As the Joes are crossing the ravine we finally get to meet our mystery force. It is the October Guard, a Soviet Special Forces unit. The October Guard includes Colonel Brekov, Horosho, Stormovik, Dina and Shrage. I guess that's how that's pronounced, it's really an odd spelling. The October Guard and their little dune buggy, Dukes of Hazard jumps over the ravine and a lot of dialogue is exchanged in the few seconds before they hit the other side. Yeah, that happens in comics a lot. There are scenes where there is far more dialogue than could actually occur in the time that's being illustrated. I'll just have to chalk that up to a limitation of the medium. As the October Guard is jumping over the ravine and being stereotypical Russians, Scarlet shoots the front wheel of the dune buggy with a bolt from her crossbow. The tire, which is designed to self-seal against bullets, does not seal against arrows, so when they hit the other side, they crash with a great big cronk. Now with both teams on the other side of the ravine, they take cover and they start exchanging fire again. There is a dialogue error here where Grand Slam is called Flash. The team roster clearly indicates that Grand Slam and not Flash is on this mission. And the comic book coloring has the pads as gray, which is probably meant to represent Grand Slam's silver pads. Steeler decides to press an advantage by taking the high ground. He extends the cab of the RTV to get a very advantageous firing position on the October Guard's position. The October Guard is pinned down by the Joes and so they say some stereotypical Russian things and they attack. They abandon their cover and they just rush toward the Joes. The Joes are firing at them and the October Guard should be mowed down at this point, but of course they're not because nobody in this comic book can shoot worth a damn. And so the fight becomes hand to hand.  Colonel Brekov is fighting Stalker when he says, look behind you. Is it your backup team? No, it is not the Joes' backup team. The Joes never have a backup team. It's Cobra. They are surrounded by Cobra soldiers and Cobra Commander himself is there. He orders his troops to line the prisoners up by the ravine and kill them. Wow, there is a lot going on here. I always like to give the good and the bad points of every issue and I did like this one, so I'd like to get the bad points out of the way first. First of all, all of the jokes in this issue fall flat. None of it's funny, all of it's really hokey. There is a somewhat implausible firefight where the Russians and the Joes basically just run at each other. This battle was more like what we saw in the cartoon. You remember in the cartoon how when G.I. Joe fought Cobra, the battles mostly consisted of G.I. Joe and Cobra running at each other out in the open, firing their lasers randomly and nobody hitting anybody. Well, this fight was a lot like that. You would think that with all that hot lead flying around, somebody would at least accidentally get hit. But no, apparently one of the safest places on earth to be is in between the G.I. Joe team and the October guard when they're in a firefight. Nobody gets hit. We also have some uncomfortable irony in that the Joes in this story side with the Afghan rebels. This is really uncomfortable reading this now with knowledge of how history plays out. Even though it's somewhat uncomfortable to read now, I say don't run away from it. Embrace it. There is a really interesting story to be told here. You could really explore how there could be unintended consequences from some of these missions. We have Hawk giving G.I. Joe's secrets away directly to Cobra. So it raises the question, is Hawk a spy? Now that we've got the bad parts out of the way, let's talk about the good parts of this comic book. We have our first cliffhanger. This is our first two-part story, the first G.I. Joe story that actually spans more than one issue. And I think that's great. This is a milestone in the comic book series. And it probably marks the first point in the comic book series when they were pretty sure that they weren't going to be cancelled before the next issue. So they actually had the confidence to stretch a story out to more than one issue. So that's great. This is a turning point and this is going to lead to some great stories in the future. Not only that, we have action and we have great action. We have a firefight, which is awesome. You know, that's what we want to see from the G.I. Joe team. A lot of our stories up to this point have not involved very much actual combat. So it's nice to see this elite combat unit actually doing some combat. We get to meet the October Guard, which is the Soviet answer to the G.I. Joe team. The October Guard will play an important role in the G.I. Joe universe going forward. Again, like issue number two, this issue is set in the Cold War. Which does date the comic. You know, you can really tell that this occurs in the early 80s. But again, it sets the comic in the real world, which I like. And let's not forget one great aspect of this comic book, Cobra. We see Cobra again. Yes, I love Cobra as the adversary for G.I. Joe and their back. And they're in uniform. And they've got the Joe's held at gunpoint and we don't know what's going to happen. We have to read the next issue. That's exciting to me. I really, really liked this. I love this issue in case you couldn't tell. And I'm really, really looking forward to reviewing the next one. That was my review of G.I. Joe number six. I hope you liked it. If you did like this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. And if you didn't, go ahead and give it a thumbs down. And once again, don't forget to subscribe. I've got some great stuff coming up. And you know, now we have a cliffhanger. The next comic book Wednesday, we will be reviewing the conclusion to this two part story. So stick around for that. And once again, don't forget to subscribe. I've got some great stuff coming up. Thanks for watching and I'll talk to you all later.


Hey guys, it's Nate, A.K.A. The Photo Count, and welcome back to the channel. Today, we are continuing in the Team of the Season Preparation series with Todd's Preparation Number Two. And today, the topic we are going to be talking about is SBC fodder and SBCs during Team of the Season. Of course, everybody knows about the Guaranteed Todd's SBCs, where you get a guaranteed player from each of the Team of the Season squads that are dropped throughout this promo. We expect that to continue this year. But also, how does SBC fodder move? And that's what we're going to take a look at in the first couple weeks of Team of the Season versus how it could move later on, as there's a lot of saved up packs at the beginning and a lot of supply. That's going to be a big point of consideration that we'll talk about today. But also, not just look at last year's cards and how stuff moved last year, but just think about how cards have moved in price this year, how SBC fodder has been moving this year even more crazy than ever, because the SBC content on FIFA has just gotten better and better every single year, and this year is another step up. All the crazy player SBCs we've seen, the upgrade packs that we've seen this year that we've never seen before in previous FIFAs. So I want to talk through all of that today in this video. And of course, we're going to take a look at the current state of the market as we have some card prices that are actually going up a little bit. I think some people are just seeing how low the prices have gotten, and they saw some of the drops from the past couple of days, and they said, man, yes, this stuff has dropped off a lot, but I think it's too low, and some people started buying, and I think that's caused a little bit of panic buying on just a few cards. But again, I'm going to exercise some patience here. A lot of these cards that I want to buy as potential investments, I'm not buying them just yet. Even though I've seen their prices go up a little bit, like yesterday Paqueta was what? He was like 450K, 460, now he's 485. The Sancho that we just looked at was up like 30K. These cards are not done dropping yet, in my opinion. They will get back down, so don't feel like you have to panic buy them at the moment. They are in the low, but I don't know if we're at the peak optimal time yet. I think we're still going to see a couple rounds of panic selling, depending on what content EA dropped, and with some other things that I'm going to talk about here just in a second, I think could be related to that. So if you're excited to talk about Team of the Season once again, get prepared for it. And of course, learn about some SBC fodder, hit the thumbs up on the video, and of course, subscribe if you're new. Now, first things first, right before we talk about SBC fodder, I want to look at this webpage. I did not know this webpage existed when I recorded last night's YouTube video. This lays out, and if you guys haven't seen this, I want to talk you through it really fast. This lays out the schedule for Team of the Season right here in front of us. There's no questioning. There's no like, okay, what date is it going to be? Here answers my questions from what I had last night when I didn't know this video or this webpage existed. The reason why the Tots vote is so short for Community Tots is because we're voting on every single league that is going to be dropping for Team of the Season. Yes, we're going to vote on Community Tots, Premier League, Bundesliga. It's every single Tots squad this year is going to be Community Voted. Well, Community Voted plus EA's input, but that's why the voting period is so short. Community Tots vote goes from the 17th until tomorrow on Wednesday when it closes and then on Friday, it doesn't seem like we're having a promo, but we're going to have Premier League Tots voting. That voting will close and then next week we'll have Bundesliga Tots voting. We're going to have three different Tots squads that we will have voted on before we actually see Team of the Season cards in FIFA. April 29th is Community Tots. That is the confirmed date when they'll release them out into the game. That's the reveal, but we'll have voted on Community, Premier League and the Bundesliga before then. So I don't know if you guys have seen this webpage. I'll leave a link down below in the video if you have not, if you want to check it out, of course. But these are the guaranteed dates. It's crazy that we're getting to vote on every single Team of the Season release this year, which is honestly just kind of crazy. But let's get back into what we're talking about today and preparing for inside of Team of the Season. There's a lot of SBCs and that means there's going to be a lot of SBC fodder that is required to go inside of these. Of course, everybody talks about the Premier League Tots guaranteed and all the other top five leagues, Tots guaranteed SBCs that we will get.  We'll talk about how to prepare for those. We get a bunch of player SBCs, of Tots cards that didn't make the team, a lot of flashbacks, and also we get, and we saw a lot of this last year, I think we're going to see even more of it this year, are a lot of these upgrade packs, right? Of course we have the 81 plus double, but SBCs last year, like the LaLiga 85 plus player pick, that 85 times five upgrade, that was non-repeatable, it was released multiple times, as you'll see down here, it was down here again, right? Where's it at, 85 times five and the LaLiga 85 plus player pick, just throwing it back to last year. If you guys remember at all, we always say this, right? But the content always fluctuates back and forth. Some weeks it's really good, some weeks it's not that hot. Last year, if you guys remember, LaLiga and Bundesliga Tots, which were two weeks in a row right in the middle of Team of the Season, had insane content, like off the walls, types of SBCs, the 85 times five, the 85 plus player pick for LaLiga that we looked at right there, those were all a part of LaLiga, Bundesliga was just as cracked, but those were like the third and fourth weeks of Team of the Season. The first two weeks of Tots were not that good and that coincided with a lot of SBC fodder getting absolutely destroyed right off of the bat. So this is of course, last year a screenshot during LaLiga Tots, like Trippier, Coutinho Flashback, 85 times five, upgrade packs for days are released out in that time of the game. But take a look at this screenshot right here. This is from a different video at the start of Community Tots. Last year, and this is what I wanna start talking off and talking about is, when we're heading into this timeframe where we're about to start Team of the Season in the next week and a half, you do not want to be holding SBC fodder cards on April 29th, the Friday when they drop Tots. You do not wanna be holding cards at all because they're going to get supplied like crazy. Just think about all the packs that are gonna be saved up. After Footcaptains ends, people are gonna be saving packs for all their might for the next week until Team of the Season Community starts and all those saved up packs get opened or most of them, like 99% of them, get opened between Community Team of the Season Friday and Premier League Team of the Season Friday. And that of course coinciding with not the best content last year made a lot of these fodder prices drop a lot. Right, you see here, look at this drop off on the index 86. We're like, it was just a complete nosedive, right? Take a look at these fodder cards from last year. This is 84 Philippe. First week of Team of the Season starts right here. Friday, the 23rd. Yeah, Friday the 23rd was Community Tots last year. You went from 10K, which is very expensive for an 84. Down to like 8K, Prem Tots comes, more packs, not a ton of great SBCs. 84s go from 10,000 coins all the way down to 4K. But then the content goes crazy during La Liga and Bundesliga and these cards absolutely explode. Same thing happens with Paul Pugba. He goes low and then explodes. And if we go up to the higher ranges of fodder as well, Tony Cruz from 27K all the way to 40,000 coins, even 90 rated Allison going from, let's see, it was back here all the way down from 46K all the way up to above 60,000 coins when that SBC content was absolutely insane. So how does that look for this year with SBC fodder, right? Like what does that tell us? Well, first things first, I mean, I'm sure a lot of your guys has saved up packs stash. If you've started saving packs for Tots, then your store is gonna look a lot like mine. You've got packs that are saved up that you're waiting to open during Team of the Season. Some of them are untradable. A lot of them might be tradable. Saving week and league awards, stuff like that. There's gonna be a ton of people with packs saved up ready to go for Community Tots coming. The first week of Tots on the 29th. I honestly think with this stuff, you're going to want, I mean, you can trade with fodder in the meantime from now until Tots starts. But what I think the play is gonna be with fodder cards this year is buy them on the weekend and then depending on how the content is during that next week, then you'll potentially see those fodder cards going up. We don't really know, we can't really estimate what content or how quality the content's gonna be during each week of Team of the Season. So probably what the play is gonna be is, again, like I mentioned, the supply the first weekend of Community Tots, like we just saw from that graph, knowing all the saved up packs are gonna be out there. The supply for Community Tots and Premier League Tots is gonna be crazy, but it all depends on the content after that, whether or not the fodder goes up. So that just cements one thing into the ground. SBC cards are not going to be an investment as we head into Team of the Season. You're going to want to sell all the fodder that you have if you've invested in it, whether it's Inforums or whether it is these, you know, gold fodder cards, you're gonna want to sell these, right? I mean, these guys reached peaks to the last couple weeks of like 16, 17K, 85s, 86s, all your fodder even yesterday from Monday went up just a little bit. Again, your 85s are up like 1,000 coins a piece. So if you're investing and trading in fodder right now, this is not like OMG Panic Sell. It's basically just next week before Tots starts, get it out and then probably go in on investment on the weekend and hope that EA drops some good content which they have been doing. And again, the buying on the weekend's timeframe is not something that has been like weird as of late. Like watch Shesney, right? All these cards have been going on this trend. They get low on the weekends or Friday, Saturday with supply, then they bounce up into the early part of the week or the mid week, a boom. You see here it goes 20,000 coins up to 24K, 18K to 25. It all depends on the content but they're lower on the weekends when there's more landing rounds and more packs open than during the week when they drop the gamble SBCs and all that sort of content. That's when you see these players rise up a little bit more. So I think that's gonna be the play during team of the season. That's gonna be kind of what you're gonna look for. And then like again, like I mentioned, we have a lot of SBCs that are out right now at the moment. We don't know how much EA is gonna run lightning rounds during the week, during team of the season as well. That could impact preview packs, could impact the market. But just looking at it and thinking about how they've been doing content this year, I think that it's gonna be buy the fodder on the weekend, sell it during the week and then repeat. Also what I would mention is too, since we're getting a lot of team of the season items that are gonna be coming out and as you notice here, even for the secondary league cards, they're still pretty high rated. And what you saw last year was, take a look at 90 Allison, right? He peaked at like 80 to 90,000 coins at his absolute highest point. Most of the time he was 60, 70 when he would spike up, right? 59K, 56K. But after team of the season and his card kind of started just slowly creep down because team of the season just bringing so many higher rated cards to the game that specifically for these guys that are up here right now, like some of your 89s, 90s, 91s, 92s, like Lewandowski has been crazy, crazy expensive when we had big-time SBCs. I don't ever expect Lewandowski to go to 95,000 coins again unless he's like out of packs and crazy expensive or something because you're gonna have a lot more of the 89 to like 93, 94 rated cards on the game with team of the season being out. So if you have some of this higher tier fodder and it spikes this week before Todd starts, I would plan to get out on some of that stuff as well just because I think that that tier of the market is gonna drop a little bit with all the higher rated players that do come on the game. Now let's talk about league upgrade SBCs for a second because I know a lot of you guys like OMG and Nate, do I need to buy Premier League rares ahead of team of the season because they're going to be required and asked for in the upgrade packs for that second week of Premier League Tots? The answer for me is no, because again, just like last year, they did not require league specific rares inside of the upgrade packs. They have not done that for a long time and I can even show you, I went back and looked at the upgrade packs that we had last year. If we get the same ones that we had for team of the year just a couple of months ago, they should not require any rares. Last year during the team of the season, no league specific rares required. It was just 11 gold rares, 45 chemistry. That was for the Premier League premium upgrade pack which is a 25K pack, three rares, 12 gold players from the Premier League. I hope that we get those same upgrade packs again. Those are the great ones to grind. Yes, they're like 14, 15,000 coins apiece, but that's just what you grind and these are the best for crafting as well. Then you can turn them into a lower tier upgrade, SBC, if I go back and find that page, you've got the premium upgrade and then you've got the other upgrade which gives you, this one in LaLiga gave you a player pick up three LaLiga players, 80 plus, that one was super duper cracked. During Premier League, I think the upgrade pack, the lower tier upgrade was not as good. Yeah, it was one 80 plus rated player pack. It wasn't a player pick. So we'll see if they do any sort of variation with the upgrade packs. But honestly, if you wanna get ready for tots in terms of upgrades, and this is one thing that I did, I think in FIFA 19 or FIFA 20, I actually went unassigned on the gold rares heading into team of the season because I wanted to go out and stock my club and get ready to do a bunch of upgrade packs. And I believe if I take a look the Premier League upgrade packs, I'll go back over here to football and look at the start date for when these were released. These were released on May 2nd, which I believe, yeah, May 4th was, I think it was released on Sunday. Yeah, so Sunday was the release day for these. Last year, upgrade packs always came out on Sundays last year. This year, it's Monday. So I hope they would give us that extra day and put them out on Sunday this year like they did last year. I don't remember what they did during team the season, to be honest, if it was Monday or Sunday, but hopefully they'll drop those on Sunday, give us that extra day to craft and to grind that stuff. So just stock up on gold rares. You can buy Premier League rares if you want to. People are probably gonna invest in these cards first off, just in case, especially since we know what leagues are coming out. The Premier League rares are probably gonna rise up a little bit in that week before Prem Tots and we'll talk about that, of course, as the time comes. But I don't think you have to specifically buy those specific league cards for that. So that's kind of what I'm talking about with the league SBCs for the upgrade packs and stuff like that. Now, that's all about fodder, right? I mean, that's kind of, we've covered it all, basically, with SBC fodder. You're still trading with it this week. A lot of you guys are invested right now and if we can just transition to talking about fodder right now in the current state of the market if you have a 22, again, prices are up a little bit because we had that icon moments pack released yesterday. We had the 86 plus double that was released yesterday and we had a Robin Van Persie and the 81 plus player pick, which the 81 plus player pick, some people don't like this because it's only three choices instead of two. Last week, of course, the 80 plus four was so cracked. I still think this is a W. I probably did like maybe 10 to 15 of these, not a ton, but I did pack a Ramos, packed a few walkouts. I actually have a duplicate Ramos at the moment. So these are definitely not bad and they're still the same cost as last week. They just, it adds a rare in. So it's really cheap. Only nine players, 7,000 coins to do W, right? 100% a W. The 86 plus double is really craftable as well. Pretty cheap. Technically, it's not worth it because it's 51,000 coins and 86s are 15K a piece. So if you get to 86s, you're losing money on that gamble. But the icon moments upgrade is out again as well. No, it's not any cheaper, which is why I think you have a higher downvote percentage here. And it's only out for five days though. Last time it was out for a whole week. This one's only out for six days with five days now remaining. Robin van Persie, if you wanna get him done, very cheap, 400,000 coins. Craftable as well. And that's what I wanna start talking about next is we have now, we're in a very, very interesting point heading into this half of the week of foot captains because we have not one, not two, but now four insane icon moments players that are leaked to be added via SBC. And Sheriff says here, now we have more players than days. Let's see what they will do because now instead of just having, who are our other two, Zedan and Maldini, we also have Patrick Vieira and Cantona. Yes, there is a Vieira leak that was tweeted out as well by Mr. Foot Sheriff. He said, Vieira, prime icon moments are also added to come as an SBC. So Vieira, Cantona, Maldini and Zedan are all leaked to be coming. And you would think that it would be during this week because again, like we've been talking about and like we've been seeing, we've been getting these daily icon moments player SBCs. So if that's the case, then they're gonna be somehow dropping more than one icon moments player per day or some of those leaks are capped. So we'll see what EA does. But if any of those four, I mean, even if they drop like two of those four, like if they drop Vieira and Zedan or Cantona and Maldini, something like that, like that would be huge, right? People would be pretty excited with the craft that you'd be able to put in right now with the upgrade packs during Foot Captains. To get those cards done, that would be really, really big hype. So just watch out for that. Some of the content might start getting really spicy this week. They dropped the 86 plus times too. You would really think that they're gonna continue that gamble pack type of mentality. Drop another sort of gamble pack today. We don't have any leaks about what that could be. It would be a perfect day for a campaign bag type of thing. You know, last week we had the campaign bag that included captains from team one. Maybe this week they'll drop a campaign bag that would include the cards from team two. So we will have to see again what they do with that. Today would be like they're, Tuesdays are usually campaign bag days. They've done it on Mondays before too, but that could be some content that we see today. And again, like I mentioned, at the beginning of this video, you have seen some cards that have rebounded back in value a little bit. But I mean, as I still scroll through a lot of the market right now, like I bought a Coutinho yesterday. You saw that on my transfer list. I bought this Coutinho at 1.32 because again, you still have these hours of panic selling on these cards. He's 1.489 at the moment, but I'm still looking really, really good with this card. He is still down really low. I think you're gonna see more periods of panic selling later on this week and especially this weekend, right? Again, like I see with this, the whole thing about primarily voting, like people are gonna see on Friday's content, like this Friday when we don't have a promo, which by the way, who knows what this Friday could be. They could run foot player days. They could run whatever pre-tots warm-up series, pre-tots series, whatever they want. You know, we still have this next week of timeframe when it's like legit right before team of the season. So we'll have to see what happens with this, but I just think that there's a bit more panic selling to come and I think that if you're worried about missing out on some of these card prices that you've seen rebound a little bit on the game, I don't think you have to be worried. I really don't think that you have to be worried at all. You're gonna see prices drop back down again in my opinion. We're still over a week away and again, what people just love on this game of FIFA this year is the gameplay. I think the casuals and most of people on this game love the gameplay. They're going out on today on a Monday, getting their rivals' games in, qualifying for footchamps because there's a lot more gameplay demand this year, it seems like, and the market crashes have kind of showed that and they've explained that because what we've seen also this year is that player prices, especially if you think about Black Friday, in yesterday's video we talked about the Usman Dembele, the rule breakers card from earlier this year. A lot of our market crashes this year have originated like the week before the promo actually dropped. It's not like two or three weeks before and then that's kind of your lowest point in old FIFA's. It was like two weeks before was your lowest point because so many people would panic sell, then people start to buy back and you would see it kind of go up from there but now people are waiting to sell until the last second. So I think you're gonna see a little bit more of that later on this week.  He's never gonna go back down. Neymar is gonna go back down. Don't worry, he will drop definitely throughout later this week as we get towards community tots with more hype, more build up, more content, everything along those lines to come. So that's kind of how I'm feeling right now with the market. I'm kind of keeping it in check. Yesterday was a good day to trade but I'm not going too crazy. I bought a lot of Payets at 150, sold them at 180 which was nice. Is my Coutinho down to be re-listed, right? And I'm not trying to just sneak every little bit of profit that I can out of this Coutinho. I'm probably gonna list right now for like 147 because I'm just gonna try to get the sale. He could at any moment be back down to 1.4 mil and then I'm not making coins. So if you're trading in this market just be careful with it like I said once again. I think that 1489 might have gotten bought actually. So I'm gonna try to get that sale at 147 and hopefully take my coins there but that's the kind of quick flip trader if you have fodder, hold it, right? Hold that fodder because I think again, later on this week as the supplies rise up if you bought 84, 85, 86's you're waiting for more SBCs to come out or if you bought Team of the Weeks you're just sitting on it right now. You're waiting for this to rise up more 86's. You need them at like 17, 18K and I think they'll be there either this week or next week. And I think you have that opportunity to hold that fodder throughout that timeframe. So that's gonna be the video for today boys to be completely honest. I know we talked about a lot related to fodder, related to market and we're just gonna keep continuing to monitor this thing as we go throughout this week as we watch prices. Marcello, I'll cover this for a second. Marcello is actually, this is kind of a crazy fluctuation. He was panic sold big time yesterday. It seems like a lot of cards got low Monday but he's rebounding back up like low Monday morning during rewards. He's rebounding back up back to 1.25 so if you bought this at 1.3 you're really not losing that many coins. I do think this will drop lower though as we head throughout the week. So if you have one of these, you're trying them out. I think I would get them out. I really do. I think I would cash this card as soon as possible because I think he will be back down to like 1.1 mil later on this week. And even next week heading into team this season that's just kind of what I'm thinking with that card. So that's gonna be the video for today lads. I know it's a bit of a longer one and I appreciate you guys sticking around for those but we just had to talk about everything related to fodder and to the current market. Again, we're gonna continue to cover it every single day that we go on through this promo. If you did enjoy the video, smash thumbs up on it, comment down below if you have any questions and subscribe if you're new. It's Nate's Butte account and have a great day. Peace.