Hello, Mike testing. Hello. Hello. Hello. Mike testing. Hello. Are we good to go? We are good to go. Perfect. Salamu alaykum Sayyidin. Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah dear brother. How are you doing? Alhamdulillah, I am well. I congratulate you on the blessed occasion of Eid al-Mubahala and also the blessed occasion, the greatest of all Eids Eid al-Ghadeer. Thank you so much Sayyidin, on behalf of everyone who is listening to us, Eid al-Ghadeer and Eid al-Mubahala, greetings to all of you. And even though Sayyidin has been very close to us, he has been always there in all our campaigns, but I believe this is the first time we are going live with Sayyidin. Yes, this is the first time. Alhamdulillah, it's my honor to be part of this program. It's an honor for us to have you with us and we were so, so many times were thinking of how to bring Sayyidin on board with us in a live session. And finally, we thought that this was the right time to have Sayyidin with us, where we not just explore the connection between Ghadeer and Karbala, but also announce the winners of the GPD to kids, which is an initiative we started last year. And Alhamdulillah, it has been very praised by parents in which we encourage parents to write a letter to their kids and telling them what is the importance of this day. And along with that, give an Eid or Eid or a gift so that they can always remember not just the letter, but also the gift they can cherish. And this way, they can realize that this is for the followers of Al-Huwaid, for the lovers of Al-Huwaid, this day is completely a different story. So, coming directly to the question set, why Ghadeer, why there has been so much emphasis by our imams and exactly what has been the emphasis by our imams when it comes to the specific day of the announcement of the Relayah of Amirul-Namini. The Ahlan-Maid peace be upon them have considered the day of Ghadeer, the Eid of Ghadeer as the greatest of all Eids with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So, why do we have so much emphasis on this very important day? The day of Ghadeer represents the divine leadership after the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW. It's actually a continuation of 124,000 prophets beginning with Prophet Adam SAW and all the way to the Khatim SAW. The willaya of Imam Ali SAW represents that pure leadership that you can trust. I want a source of guidance that is not 90% correct or it gets it right 99%. I want an infallible source of guidance whom I can trust appointed by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Ghadeer represents the protection of my iman. Ghadeer represents that pure source of knowledge, leadership that I seek after Rasulullah SAW. And when you consider that this leadership is appointed by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, then we come to realize that Ghadeer is the source of solutions to all of our problems. We have many problems today, Brother Mahdi. One problem is global poverty.  As we speak right now, imagine how many children are dying. Poverty is a global problem.  Just imagine the severity of this poverty. Imam Ali SAW through his leadership, he eliminated poverty during those four years that he had the opportunity to rule such that the Imam Ali SAW beautifully states that there is no one in Hijaz or Yamamu, these areas that I am ruling, who sleeps hungry. At that time, if you slept with a full stomach at night, you had a loaf of bread, you were not considered poor.  Imam Ali SAW also instituted the welfare system. For instance, we find that the Imam Ali SAW teaches his governor, Malik Al-Ashta. He tells him, I want you to put these categories of people on a monthly payroll from the government, from the public funds. For instance, someone who's disabled, someone who's ill, a woman who has been either divorced, no one is taking care of her, or she's been widowed, and she has no husband to take care of her. Put her on the monthly payroll and a number of other categories. You find that this is a welfare system that the Imam instituted. I support Ghadir because Ghadir brings me these solutions. Imam Ali SAW had the solution to every dilemma and problem that humanity faces. Today, we're talking about climate change, right? Many fires have been destroying so many communities in the East and in the West. Many places are flooded. So, Michigan, where I've been living the last few years, in the Detroit area last month, we had severe floods where the east part of Dearborn, which is a suburb of Detroit, was submerged underwater. Severe damages were done. Today, we're talking about climate change, the environment, how to respect the environment. Imam Ali SAW had a policy to respect the environment, to save on resources. For instance, I would like to share with you a couple of examples just so you know why Ghadir is so dear to us. The Imam Ali SAW would frequently write letters to his governors, right? At that time, this is how they would communicate. The Imam, in one instruction to his governors, he states, adiqqu atlamakum, sharpen your pens. Brother Mehdi, why does the Imam want his governors when they're writing to sharpen the pen? What's the point? Why would you want to sharpen the pen for the font? So, they use less ink. Exactly. Use less ink and less paper. Then the Imam states, don't put any gaps between the lines. Fill the piece of paper as much as you can. Wahdifu annin fudhul al-kalam. The Imam says, get to the point. I don't want any fancy intros. The Imam wants his governors to save on paper. By the way, paper was really valuable back then, right? They would write it on deerskin or some other valuable material. But it shows the intensity. Exactly. It shows you how the Imam is training his government's officials to not waste resources. Ghadir represents all these problems, spiritual problems, the psychological problems that we have, the climate change and the environment, poverty. So that's why we believe Ghadir is the source of every solution to every problem. And that's why there is a blessed verse in the Holy Quran that states If people, they uphold the original books of God, the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, we have the Hadith that states by following the leadership of Ali Ibn Abi Talib. If they follow this, Allah will drown them with His blessings. They will eat from above them and they will eat from beneath them. This is an Arabic expression that means there are abundant blessings around you. For these reasons, Ghadir is absolutely significant and important for us. But say it, on the day of Ghadir, I was seeing a few questions raised by especially those who are from our school of battle. Or even those who have been turned out to be agnostic and inclination toward atheism. Their main concern was keeping in mind that sadly we haven't been able to see a lot of the time where the control of the matters of the society were in the hands of our Imams. So their concern was what difference does it make? So how do we tell someone who hasn't had any idea of the importance of Ghadir and the overall importance of Ghadir? And how do we tell them of what difference does Ghadir make in a person's personality or in a society? How do we introduce this to someone? So what difference does Ghadir make? Right now, 14 centuries have passed since the events of Ghadir. What difference does it make whether we celebrate it, we uphold it, we commemorate it or not? The difference that it makes is that Ghadir instills the proper values in us. Ghadir teaches you to be a just human being because Imam Ali A.S. is the symbol of justice. Today there is so much injustice at the individual level, at the family level, at the social level, at the global level, the economic level, the political level. Injustice is rampant around the world. By commemorating Ghadir, we are reminding ourselves to uphold justice. Allah wants human beings to deal with justice. Ghadir is a reminder that you have a leader who showed you how to be just. See, sometimes I can bring you some nice, beautiful theories. But then you'll tell me, look, your theories sound really nice. Can we see the application of these theories? You know why Ghadir is so important? And why it's the greatest miracle of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi? Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi brought these amazing values and he did implement them. He brought these beautiful theories. How did the Prophet prove to the world that my theories are right and they are applicable through Ali ibn Abi Talib alaihi sallam? Ali was that witness who demonstrated that every aspect of Islam can be implemented. You talk about poverty, I brought the solution. You talk about injustice, you talk about bribery, political corruption, economic corruption. The Imam alaihi sallam brings you the solution to all these problems. So indeed Ghadir teaches you how to apply these nice theories. The Imam shows you literally how to apply them. When you study his life, when you study his legacy, you see that the Imam alaihi sallam brings antithetical qualities together. At night he sits in his mahrab and he cries. When he sees the yateem, the orphan he cries, the Imam is teaching you as a believer. You have to have that emotional side, that soft spot in your heart. You can't be aggressive and hard-hearted, but at the same time look at Ali ibn Abi Talib in the battlefield. He's the biggest flying warrior you'll ever see. See, the Imam teaches you how to bring that balance. These are just small examples, but Ghadir basically allows us to see these values, to appreciate them, and it practically shows us how to implement them. This is why Ghadir is so important. This is why Ghadir makes a difference. Unfortunately, and I'll be honest over here, I have to be honest. Unfortunately, even we, the followers of Anid Bayt, I don't think we've done justice to Ghadir. Now you can tell me, okay, say it, you know, you're talking about how Ghadir makes a difference, then why our communities are in a mess around the world? I agree with you. We have not really upheld the legacy of Ghadir. We talk about Ghadir, we celebrate it, we love the day, but how many of us actually implement the spirit of Ghadir? Not many. And this is a problem. It's a shame for us. But Insha'Allah, this should motivate us to take this more seriously and to bring the legacy of Ghadir into our lives, such that we feel those values, we implement those values. If we do, it makes a huge difference. Perfect. So for someone who is from the school of Ahlul Bayt, like most of us, even myself, a lot of things that you just shared with us from the examples of the life of Imam Ali, particularly when he was governing the Islamic states, is something which is new for myself also. So if someone from the school of Ahlul Bayt, someone who is a follower of Imam Ali, wishes to learn more about this governance system of Imam Ali and by knowing that, can know the importance of Ghadir. Where should he start? Are there any good books that he will suggest for him or her so that he can have an idea of what exactly is the meaning of Ghadir and what will be the Ghadir when it will be implemented in its tourist form when, insha'Allah, our Imam comes back from the occupation? Yes, if we want to better understand Ghadir and appreciate Ghadir and see where we can start in implementing the beautiful values of Ghadir, there are many good resources out there for us. Most of Ghadir, the title of this Encyclopedia is Ghadir. It's an Arabic and, insha'Allah, this will be translated into English. This is one of our dreams to have this book translated into English. But this 11-volume series tells you everything you need to know about Ghadir with all the sources, with all the applications, with the context, with the lessons that we can learn. So this would be one great book to look at for those who do speak Arabic. For those who do not speak Arabic, we have Imam Ali, the voice of human justice, the voice of justice. This book by George Jarda gives you an idea of the justice of Imam Ali, and how Ghadir prepares the grounds for a just society, for a just government. I would recommend that the brothers and sisters read this book. Another book, if you're interested in the economic policies of Imam Ali, how the Imam came up with strategies to produce wealth. Because that in itself is a strategy, right? The Imam Ali actually takes amazing steps in producing wealth and eliminating poverty. I recommend the book, Economic Success, Strategies for Developing Wealth. Imam Ali's system in developing wealth. You can find this on Amazon. It's available and it's authored by Aitullah Shirazi. So you can find these books to appreciate the legacy of Imam Ali Tabi Talib and what Ghadir has to offer for us. Perfect. Now, coming to the actual topic that we have for today is how there's ultimately linked to an event which comes after, say, 20 days after it, which is the event of Karbala, the day of Ashra. How these two are linked? And is this link established in the generations of Ahlul Bayt that these two days are actually linked with each other and they should be seen as linked to each other? Lady Zaynab A.S. has a powerful statement on the 11th of Muharram when she goes to farewell the body of Imam Hussein A.S. And it's a very tragic moment or scene when you visualize it. Lady Zaynab A.S. makes a powerful point. She says, may my life be sacrificed for the one who was attacked or killed on Monday. Now, this is vague. When you hear this from Lady Zaynab, she doesn't tell you what Monday that is. Ashura, by the way, was not Monday. The day of Ashura when Imam Hussein A.S. was martyred. Many narrations say it was a Friday. Some say it was a Saturday. Between Friday and Saturday. There are two opinions, but not Monday.  What bells does Monday ring in our minds? Is she referring to the incident of the door? Yes. Monday is the day the Prophet, Salallahu Alaihi was martyred and he departed to his Lord. And when the Saqifah occurred, the meaning of the Saqifah occurred on Monday. And basically what happened at the Saqifah, just to summarize it for our Muslim brothers and sisters who'd like better context to this discussion, basically while the Prophet was still not buried, people were still offering their Salah on him, the namaz of the dead on him, a group of companions they met under the canopy, the Saqifah of Bani Sa'ida, who were a well-known tribe in Medina, and they were discussing the caliphate. And it was at that place where Abu Bak was selected by a few to be the caliph. And then his caliphate was imposed on others. This is called the event of Saqifah. Ladies Zaynab A.S. is saying, oh Hussain, yes, you were killed here in Karbala on the day of Ashura on a Friday. However, you were actually killed on that Monday, on the day of Saqifah. Why is ladies Zaynab A.S. mentioning this? Because what actually led to Karbala is the fact that many of the companions, the moment the Prophet SAW left this world, they abandoned their allegiance of Ghadir. They did not follow the divine leadership of Imam A.S. and they took a different path. Those caliphs who came after the Prophet SAW, they did not implement the justice of Rasulullah. They did not carry the knowledge of Rasulullah. They didn't have the full knowledge of the Quran. And therefore, they took a different path. They did not continue the same legacy of the Prophet. Yes, maybe they took some elements from the legacy of the Prophet, but they did not protect the message of the Prophet and continue it. That led to the destruction of the Muslim Ummah. That led to the rise of the Umayyads, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, who appointed him as the governor of Sham in Syria. The second caliph, he appointed him as the governor of Syria. Then Othman, the third caliph, empowered him, gave him all the money. He gave him autonomy. And Muawiyah, we know what he did to this Ummah. And then he brought his son Yazid. His son Yazid had Imam A.S. killed him. See, these are all a chain of events. It started on that Monday, the Day of Sapifah. This is the link between Ghadir and Muharram. Because Ghadir was abandoned, Ashura occurred. The grandson of Rasulallah was massacred mercilessly. Had the people upheld the willaya of Imam Ali, the spirit of Ghadir, Karbala would not have happened. The Imam would have turned this Ummah into an oasis of peace, of progress. The original Islam would have prevailed everywhere. The Umayyads did not have a chance to come and wreak havoc in the Ummah of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. This is the connection between Ghadir and Karbala. By abandoning Ghadir, the greatest tragedy in history took place. And that is the killing of Imam Hussein, Alaihissalam. So when commemorating the Day of Ghadir, and even when commemorating Muharram, which is about to just start, how do we make sure that this core message, this message of willaya is reflected in our rituals, in our commemorations, in our bajales, in our azar. How do we make sure that? Or just this commemoration itself is a revival of Ghadir? My recommendation is, before going to any of these commemorations, which we highly respect, they are sanctified, they are the symbols and the Sha'a'ir of Allah SWT, take the spirit of Ghadir and implement it at the individual level. My dear brothers and sisters, we all go through our trials. But our trial starts with our own self, with our own nefs. This heart that Allah has given you is a purity of this heart. From what? From jealousy. Imam Alaihissalam and Ghadir, you know the biggest trial of Ghadir was jealousy. Why did the people abandon Imam Alaihissalam? They knew he was on the right path. They knew the Prophet SAW appointed him. People had no doubts. Those companions had no doubts. How come they abandoned Imam Alaihissalam? One factor was jealousy. Imam Alaihissalam was young. On the day of Ghadir, he was 33 years old. A 33-year-old man is a young man. You had companions with a white beard. You think it's easy to follow someone who's half your age? That's your trial. Allah tried them. And then Imam Alaihissalam had all the accolades and the recognition from the Prophet. At Khaybar, the Prophet praises him. At Hunayn, he praises him. At Badvi, he praises him. At Ahudi, he praises him. Versus coming left and right in honor of Imam Alaihissalam. Honestly, there were companions who found this too much. I can't handle this anymore. This is a reality. Ghadir is about freeing your heart from jealousy. And today, one of the destructive diseases that I see in many of our communities is jealousy. A cousin can't stand the success of his cousin. A brother or sister can't stand the success of their siblings.  Why? Because of jealousy. Ghadir means free your heart from jealousy. And sometimes, you know, you go to some of these majadists, you see jealousy there. Either has to do with the reciter or the organizer or the volunteer. Before you go to the Majlis of Imam Alaihissalam, start with your heart. Remember, Ghadir is to free your heart from jealousy. What goodness for Allah, for everyone. Because look, the reality is that person who's successful and you can't stand that, who made them successful? Who? Allah. Who gave them the resources to be successful? Allah. Jealousy means that I have a problem with what Allah has given to the people. See, it's a problem with your Lord. That's why Ghadir states, jealousy is kufr. It's a type of disbelief. Because it indicates you're not happy with the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And you actually object to the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the reality of it. So before you go to the Majlis, free your heart from jealousy, from arrogance, all these values that Imam Alaihissalam upheld during his lifetime. This is extremely important. Then going to the Majlis itself, when you go to the Majlis of Imam Hussain, and you remind yourself to reject injustice, to reject oppression, that is keeping the message of Ghadir alive. Because Imam Hussain Alaihissalam sacrificed his life for the same values of Ghadir. All those same values, some of them that we discussed, Imam Hussain Alaihissalam implemented them. He upheld them. So the Majlis of Imam Hussain Alaihissalam are a great opportunity to remember the leadership of Ahlul Bayt, the values of Ahlul Bayt, the guidance of Ahlul Bayt, and how we can interact with that, how we can instill these values so we never forget them. And the Majlis have actually had a great effect. That's why you find many, many of the followers of Ahlul Bayt around the world. They resist injustice. They resist oppression. Why? When you look at their backgrounds, they've always been oppressed. They've been victimized. And usually, if you ask a psychologist, people who are victimized, they tend to victimize others. People who are oppressed, they tend to oppress others. It's just a problematic human psychology, unfortunately. But when it comes to the followers of Ahlul Bayt, for the most part, you find that this is not the case. Why? It's because of the Majlis of Aba Abdullah. These Majlis keep the legacy of Ghadir alive in our hearts. Most of the time, we see that when it comes to specifically the topic of Ghadir and the topics related to it, the topic of Karbala, we see that most of our brothers from the school of Ahlul Bayt are followers of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein. When they engage with brothers of Ahlul Sunnah, most of the discussions tend to go towards the historical site. And when things go towards the historical site, it's the history and my story. It's the highway or the highway kind of discussions. So what is the actual method when it comes to someone? Because most of the time, whenever the topic of Ghadir comes, or whenever the topic is related to Ghadir comes, it's mostly the brothers get defensive, we get defensive, and it's not a very healthy discussion. So what to make sure that it's a healthy discussion in such a way for even those who are interested in history and even those who say that it's history, let's not go into this. So what's the right way to engage in a healthy discussion when it comes to both Ghadir and Karbala? That's a very good question and you're right. Whenever we have these discussions, you know, tension is high sometimes and you find that tension occurs between both sides. I feel passionate, the other side feels passionate and sometimes we don't arrive at any results or conclusions. Here's my recommendation. Number one, we cannot eliminate the historical aspect. Those who say let's not delve into history, we don't know what exactly happened, or let's close these historical files. This contradicts the approach and the message of the Quran. Half of the Quran is history. Allah tells us what Bani Israel did, how they used to kill prophets, how they worshiped the camp. Why does God need to tell us about these stories? Who cares? Someone could argue those children of Israel, they had an issue, they had problems, they made trouble and that's it. It's gone, 3,000 years have passed. No, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la brings these stories to our lives so we learn from history. Allah's teaching us don't make the same mistake. Don't fall into the same trap. I cannot eliminate the historical aspect. I cannot find the truth without the historical aspect. So it is important to examine the street. But when you examine the street, examine it objectively. I'll give you an example, a very simple example. Today is the day of Mubahra. We consider the day of Mubahra a day of Eem. On this day, all Muslims have narrated. This is filled in our Hadith books and the verse in Surah Ali Amran that speaks about Eid al Mubahala in the books of Tafseer. When the Prophet went to meet the Christians of Najran, he only took four people with him. Who did he take? Imam Ali, Lady Fatima, Imam Hassan, Imam Hussain, despite that they were young. See, this is a solid historical fact that the Prophet did this. The Prophet is wise. He does not act upon himself. He acts on the instruction of Allah SWT. See, when you discuss Ghadir, bring up this point that when the Prophet goes to this sensitive meeting, he brought the closest people to him, the most whom he trusted. Why didn't he bring other companions? Because the Prophet is telling this Ummah, I trust these the most. Yes, there are good companions. Sure, we respect them. But you want that source of guidance after me? Those whom I trust unconditionally? It's these four after me. This is the spirit of Ghadir. Find an infallible source whom you can trust. Now, how can I guarantee that I can trust the Ahlul Bayt? Other, of course, than the verse in the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith that we have, this incident of Mubahila. The Mubahila actually confirms Ghadir for us that this is the leadership after the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, trust them unconditionally. So this is one aspect, the historical aspect. It's very important for us to know the historical aspect. And Brother Mehdi, most of our Sunni brothers and sisters, they don't know the logistics of Ghadir. They've heard of Hadith of Ghadir. They have different explanations. If you have an objective, honest discussion on the logistics of how it happened, it changes the whole meaning of Ghadir in their minds. When they come to know through evidence that the Prophet in that heat coming after Hajj, Brother Mehdi, have you gone to Hajj? So far, no. Insha'Allah, soon. Do you know people who've gone to Hajj? Do you know people who have gone to the Hajj? Yeah, definitely. I'll go to the Hajj six times. Now I'll tell you from my experience, when I go to the Hajj, I'm flying on an airplane. I'm not walking on my foot or riding a camel like they did in the past, right? You stay at a hotel, there are... I mean at the Hajj, there are five-star services. Every year after I go to the Hajj, I get sick. When I finish the A'mal, I get sick. That's it, because it's a very difficult journey. Many A'mal involved, and it's not easy. Now imagine at the Prophet's time how difficult it was to travel. Now when you finish the Hajj, you just want to go home. The Prophet says, no, no, no, no, no. You're not going home. I invite all my companions. In fact, I command them, I want you, before reaching Medina, to stop at the Oasis of Gadir. It was a well-known oasis. Stop over there. The Prophet gathers over 120,000 companions who were dead tired. They just finished the Hajj for God's sake. The Prophet doesn't let them go. But there may be...  What would you say about this event? You would naturally say, this is an extremely important announcement that the Prophet wants to make. Confusions and the controversies around Gadir. So the historical aspect is very important, but also let's look at the application of Gadir. When we discuss Gadir, we should focus on the historical aspect, but we should not stop only at the historical aspect. Let us look at the achievements of Ahlul Bayt. Let us look at Imam Ali, alaihi s-salam, his leadership and the leadership of others. I'll just give you, Brother Mehdi, one quick synopsis, one quick glimpse. When Uthman died, the Third Caliph, how much money did he leave behind? According to historical accounts, he left eight million dinars. Dinar is a golden coin. It's about four grams of gold. What's the price of gold right now, per gram? Gold price. Do you have an idea? I believe it's somewhere around 30. For 10 grams, it is somewhere around $70, if I'm not wrong. Okay, so do the math. Eight million by four grams, that's 32 million grams, and then multiply, I don't know, whatever it is per dollar. In today's value, you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Uthman leaves behind when he's killed, when he dies. Imam Ali, alaihi s-salam. Technically, Muslim fund, which wasn't used in the right place. Yes, it was funds that were not used in the right place. So he left, and that's how much money he had. Like he had for his possession. It's not like he had given it to the charity. No, no, this was money in his possession. Imam Ali, alaihi s-salam. A father takes his son to the Friday prayer in Kufa when Imam Ali was the Khalifa. As the Imam is giving the sermon, the Imam is holding his garment and he's flapping it against the wing. He's moving it, waving it like that. The son asks his father. He tells him, my father, why is Imam Ali doing that? He says, I don't know. Let him finish the sermon, let's go and ask him. So they ask the Imam after he finishes the sermon. The Imam says, I have one piece of garment. On Friday today, I washed it for the Salam. I did not have enough time for it to dry. So as I am giving my sermon, I am drying my garment. Look at these two. I'm not making any judgment right now. I'm just telling you, look at these two examples. Ghadir teaches you which one do you want to follow? Be honest with you, with yourself and Allah, which of these do you want to follow? This is just a small example. So focus on these examples as well. What does Ghadir mean to me? What are the principles of Ghadir? What are the values of Ghadir? So if I can take a conclusion from the discussion that we are having so far, what we see not just in our practical lives, especially when it comes to students who are at the age of universities in late 20s, late 20s, early 30s. So what we see in the practical life as well as in the comment section of our YouTube channel and comment section of our Facebook is that it's mostly reference after reference. The reference from their side, the reference from our side. So what I conclude from our discussion is that more than your references and giving historical accounts for a layman who was not a scholar and the other person is also not the scholar whom you are sharing the references is it's much better to share the examples and the reason to have Ghadir more than the historical references. Absolutely. Sometimes we can get lost in all these historical references. It does get overwhelming, to be honest with you. Even if you're someone who's experienced and an expert, when you look at all these sources, sometimes you do get lost. Always go back to what you're certain of. Imam Jaffa al-Sadat al-Halisa has a very beautiful Hadith in the book of Qafi. He says whenever you're in doubt, you're confused, go back to what you're certain of. What's the yakeen that you have? Go back to that yakeen. The yakeen that I have is the Prophet trusted his Ahlul Bayt unconditionally. I have yakeen over that through mubahala, through the verse of purification, through the Hadith of Saqlain or Saqlain, right? And the name of your blessed organization is Saqlain. See Saqlain is yakeen. Quran and my family of the Ahlul Bayt. Go back to this yakeen. You can overwhelm yourself with all these historical references when it's as simple as that. And I'll share with you just one final example to convey this point. Many years ago I was in Canada after, you know, the speech on the program in the month of Ramadan, a fellow brother came from another school of thought. He was a very educated man, a doctor. He sat next to me. He told me I have a question. Why don't you Shi'a follow Aisha? And why do you exclude her from the verse of purification? Chapter 33 verse 33. Why? Can you explain that to me? I told him, look, I can explain that to you through sources and references, but we can spend endless time and we can get lost in all these references. I can share with you the Hadith in Bukhari and Muslim that shows you why it's only the Ahlul Bayt and not the wise. But let's not take that route. I'll just ask you one question and you answer me. Come with me to the day of Jamin, the battle of Jamin, right? On one side you have Imam Ali, and his supporters. On the other side, who's leading the armies? I asked him, he said, okay, Aisha, so what's your point? I told him, I'll tell you what my point is. Imam Ali, do you have any doubts that he is from the Ahlul Bayt? He said, no. We accept him fully. He is part of Ahlul Bayt. We don't deny that. I told him, okay. So there's consensus that Imam Ali is from the Ahlul Bayt. Okay, let's come to this side. Aisha, your claim is that she is from the Ahlul Bayt and that's what we don't accept. If Aisha is from the Ahlul Bayt and Imam Ali is from the Ahlul Bayt and Allah is saying, I have thoroughly purified this Ahlul Bayt.  I told him, put the references and the sources and all that to the side.  He purifies Aisha supposedly thoroughly and they fight and 20,000 people get killed. You want to call it a political misunderstanding? You may call it whatever you want. Is this possible in your mind? Just tell me. Be honest with me. It was very tough for him to answer. He lowered his head. He told me it's a tough point. I honestly can't answer that. I don't know. You're right. It doesn't make sense that it's a contradiction in the Quran. If both of these are thoroughly purified. And then I kind of joked with him.  Had he not purified them, they probably would have burned the entire planet. Do you really accept that? Is this even possible? And Subhanallah, that led him to read more about the Ahlul Bayt. And finally, he embraced the path of Ahlul Bayt. See, use this very simple strategy. Go back to certainty. Don't get lost in all these references. What you're certain of, stick to it. And Allah will show you the hack through certainty. So before moving forward, we had a question on our YouTube of where to find more of these anecdotes about the Ahlul Bayt like these. So Sayyed has already shared three references. One in Arabic to in English. The one in Arabic is Al-Qadir by Al-Lama Amini, which goes in detail of the event of Qadir and how Qadir was implemented when Imam was in power. And two books. One in regards to the voice of human justice by George Shardar and the another by Al-Shirazi, which was in the economic side. Sayyed, if there is any other book where we can have these stories. I highly recommend my dear brothers and sisters to study Nahjul Balata. If you really want to know Imam Ali, his mentality, how he views the world, what lessons he offers us. The science that's contained in Nahjul Balata. Study Nahjul Balata, my dear brothers and sisters. Today there are commentaries.  MashaAllah, we have fascinating commentaries for you to read about the context of those sermons. Or today there are online classes on Nahjul Balata. Sign up for an online class as well. My recommendation is to further your understanding of Imam Ali's contributions is to study Nahjul Balata. You will explore gem after gem after gem. It's honestly the most fascinated book in history after the Holy Quran. So study Nahjul Balata as much as you can. You will discover the gems of Amir al-Mu'mineen and these amazing anecdotes. Perfect. Before moving to the last portion and announcing the winners after that. This exactly is the last portion. If you don't get any more questions from our YouTube channel. Said the whole world is going to a tough time. We have COVID-19 which is with us. MashaAllah for now two years almost. And then this overall situation, the poverty, the injustice, the natural calamities, the floods, the wildfires, all of these. So how does the event of Khadir and the event of Karbala Bacha to interlink each other give us hope, give us a reason to live, give us a reason to fight the injustice that are happening around us. The event of Khadir and also the leadership of Imam Hussein al-Islam both teach us that Allah has a leader who is the source of blessings and guidance for us on the planet. Today when we look at what's happening around the world, the last year or two with COVID-19 and all the difficulties that came with it. I've seen many people who lost hope. Many people who were struggling with anxiety. What's happening to the world? What's happening to the future? Am I going to lose my job? My kids, what's going to happen to them? There's a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of fear. There's a lot of concern. Khadir teaches you, look, Allah is in charge of this universe. How big is planet Earth in this universe? It's a spec. Have you seen those videos where they zoom out and basically the planet just vanishes? That's how small it is. Allah is managing the whole universe. He's got a plan. Khadir means Allah is in charge and he appoints an Imam. The Imam of our time today is the Imam of Mahdi. Khadir teaches you, you have an Imam, don't worry. Yes, you're going through trials. Allah created you for trials. It's expected that you're going to go through trials. But are things out of hand? No, they're not. Allah is still there. He's still managing the universe. Imam of Mahdi is still here on Earth. Let that give you comfort. Let that give you hope. Yes, there are people who do bad things. We don't deny that.  The Imam also has a plan. The Imam also is working on behalf of Allah, preparing this world. So Khadir reminds you that you have a living Imam. Believe in his authority, believe in his leadership, have hope in him. And the more we turn to Allah, and we seek closeness to the Imam of our time and the teachings of the Imam of our time, the more at peace we will be. And the more Allah will hasten the reappearance of our Imam. So just remind yourself at night when all these thoughts overwhelm you and you're concerned about the next day and the future. Just tell yourself, there's a Lord. It's okay. He's managing the universe. It's not out of control. It's still within his control. And we have our beloved Imam. He's with us here on Earth. He's with us. I don't see him physically, but he sees me. He's with me. Let that give you patience. Let that give you confidence. It's okay. We go through trials, but in the end, Allah is in charge. At the end, Imam al-Mahdi is in charge on behalf of Allah.  And inshallah, we will all live to witness that era of the reappearance of Imam al-Mahdi. And he will show you the justice of Imam Ali. If you want to really see Khadir in its full form, in its full application, it's the government of Imam al-Mahdi. That's why we should supplicate day and night for the reappearance of Imam al-Mahdi because he will show you exactly what Khadir looks like. A very connected question to this. One way of handling the current situation, particularly in the case where the one who's facing injustice is not ourselves in person. One way of handling it is to stand up for the justice and to protect and to save the one who's facing injustice, be it a he or she is a human or it's an animal or it's a natural resource. The other way is of course to shift the onus from ourselves to the coming of Imam and saying that when he will become, he will make it right. So we are followers of Khadir and Karbala but when we see that apart from the political uprising, we have seen very little from the followers of school of al-Mahdi when it comes to the injustices that are happening within their society, the injustices that are happening to the environment. Why is that so? And should the followers of al-Mahdi be the leaders when it comes to raising a voice or doing an effort towards the injustices within the absence of our Imam? The Imam of al-Mahdi al-Bayt, peace be upon them, expected their followers to be the best of the best, to be at the forefront, to be the pioneers of justice. Wherever there's injustice, we should be the first to speak out because the Imam of al-Mahdi al-Bayt, that was their priority. You know, we the followers of al-Bayt, we are actually living, walking, talking, catalogues who point the people to al-Bayt. And whenever I think of this reality, it really brings sadness to my heart. See, the people today did not see the al-Bayt. What do they know about them? They look at their followers. These people claim to be their followers. Let's see what they have. Are we really reflecting the true values of al-Bayt? When you want to buy a product, there's a brochure, there's a catalog, you see it, it presents it to you in a very beautiful way. They even take nice shots to entice you and encourage you to buy it, right? The product that Allah gave to people is the al-Bayt. Today we've come to catalogues for the al-Bayt. People look at us expecting us to reflect their teachings. Unfortunately, we've not done justice to the imams of al-Bayt. Do we reflect their honesty? Do we reflect their truthfulness, their humbleness, their sacrifice for justice? Are we doing that? We the followers of al-Bayt, we have to ask ourselves these serious questions. What does it mean to be a shia? I think this is a good starting point. We consider ourselves shia. It's an honor to be a shia, but who are the shia? Am I implementing the qualities? I have to get a checklist. Write them on a piece of paper and you have to check them. Do I fulfill this quality? Do I fulfill this quality? And sometimes our priorities are messed up, honestly. They're mixed up. You know, we look at the outside appearance. We judge people according to their appearance. Imam al-Sadiq, al-Assad says, you want to know my shia? See how trustworthy they are and how truthful they are. This is more important than everything else. More important than everything else. But today, we have a different skewed understanding of who a shia is. If the person's praying and fasting and he's doing these outwardly things, but let's say he comes to a political position of power or a community position and he lies and he fabricates, it's okay. We tolerate that. Why should we tolerate that? Imam al-Sadiq says my shia is the one who's truthful, who's trustworthy. When they make a promise, they stick to their promise. That's who a shia is. I think we have forgotten who a real shia is. By looking at the original sources and the qualities of who a shia is, I think that's a good way to start putting ourselves back on track in order to truly reflect the teachings of Adam and Bait and be the best of the best. And when it comes to values, when it comes to injustice, we should be the first one to oppose it. We have all these tools that the imams have given us. Unfortunately, we're distracted. We are distracted by this dunya brother mangy. Let's face it. We are distracted. I hear from many, many fellow shias who complain, you know, it's difficult to be religious. It's difficult to wear the hijab. It's difficult to avoid music. It's difficult to avoid the hiba sessions. It's so difficult. Do you know what your forefathers went through to keep this faith alive? Do you know what they went through? The persecution, the hunger, the poverty, whether it may be my grandfather who's in Karbala right now and he prays at the shrine of Imam Hussain. He once told me that when he was young, his father one day went to the shrine and he prayed the namaz of hunger. Up until that moment, I did not know that in our law, we have a prayer called the prayer of hunger. There's a salaf for hunger. I honestly did not know that. I had not read that anywhere up until that moment when my grandfather told me. I told him we have such a prayer. He's like, yes, we have such a prayer. See, our generation, we don't even know such a prayer exists because we don't go through this anymore. He says, my father, because of hunger, that day we literally had no food in our house. No, not even a crumb of bread. He says he went to the shrine of Imam Hussain, he prayed the prayer of hunger, namaz of hunger, and subhanAllah, that evening, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed us with some food. See, we don't go through this. We complain about these other issues. We've been distracted by dunya. We need to refocus. We need to be aware of what our ancestors went through, the difficulties they had to go through, the persecution, the killing, the hunger, the poverty, all of that.  You literally live like a king. Allah has drowned you with blessings. That, inshaAllah, gives us a lot of motivation and energy. InshaAllah. So, concluding the session, we have two new ideas that, inshaAllah, one is presenting the stories of our scholars and the journey that they went through. InshaAllah, we're taking your help in this. And secondly, inshaAllah, on the next Qadir, or inshaAllah, if we're willing, we get a chance of doing it before Qadir as well, that we do a session with you on what it means to be a Shia, and specifically what means to be a Shia until the end of the time. I think that would be a great suggestion. And perhaps maybe you could do a series of what it means to be a Shia. I think that's something that our youth need to be more exposed to. Definitely, because when we see that there are two types of Ahadis. One is for the Shias in general, and then we have very specific Ahadis for the Shias who are in the end of time, who are more closer to the time of reappearance of Imam. And many of them are really tricky. For example, in the initial time of COVID, a lot of those Ahadis were shared in regards to which are small. We need to stay at home. So what exactly is the responsibility for the followers of Allah, for living in the end of time. And I know that that itself is a complete topic and we are almost reaching our ending time because we make sure that the live sessions are not more than 60 minutes. So InshaAllah with this teaser and trailer, we hope that InshaAllah we will be working soon on this series of sessions or at least one session with you on this topic so that we can go more in depth and it can be enlightening for the followers that will be with that. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Sayyed for giving us time today. And before we leave, I would like to announce the winners of Give We Do Kids. We are happy as the norm, we decided we five names based on their creativity and content. The letters written by these individuals will be inshaAllah shared on all our social media platform be it WhatsApp and Facebook and Instagram. The winners are Hena Kausar, Saba Raza, Hasmi Fatima, Usmah Wajid and Muhammad Shabbar. On behalf of Team Sacklen, we are grateful and thankful to all of you who participated in this activity. May InshaAllah we pray that your children are more aware of the in its true essence and they can implement this in their lives. With that, thank you so much Sayyed any final words and Duwas and then we inshaAllah confuse. First of all, I'd like to congratulate the new winners as well. May Allah SWT bless them and their families. And I would like to thank you and the team that is working with you for all the great resources that you are producing around the year. May Allah SWT bless these efforts. May Allah grant us the Shafa'ah and peace be upon them. And I conclude with this final statement on the day of Ghadir the Prophet SAW made a du'a when he raised the hand of Imam he says O Allah O Allah support whomever supports Ali and betray whomever betrays Ali. And we know when the Prophet makes a du'a Allah answers this du'a guaranteed. The Prophet made a du'a supports whomever supports Ali if you want Allah to support you support Imam Ali dedicate from your time every day to the legacy of the Imam knowing about the Imam doing something in the name of the Imam establishing justice in honor of the Imam do something for Ali if you support Ali guaranteed Allah will support you and peace be upon you and blessings be upon you. Thank you so much once again Sayyed and I would also like to thank my team who have worked tirelessly for this session as well and the sessions before that the campaigns before that with that thank you so much to all listeners who are with us during this session may Allah bless you all and on behalf of myself and I'm signing off thank you so much thank you


ows is that all this what this does basically the presidential records act is make presidential records with the president deems so as public record which anybody from the public can request through the uh public uh uh freedom of public freedom of information acts yeah that oh are you trying to tell me right now wait wait are you trying to tell me i'm drunk i'm sorry guys i'm trying to tell me right now the presidential records act um allows anyone from the public to have access to top secret information i think luck might be the only sober one here yeah i'm maybe so i'm pretty drunk maybe so but he's not the correct Thursday is my drunk night well hold on don't take what are you so it says here let me say okay let me try to finish his sentence okay establishes a process but was the president may restrict and the public may obtain access to these records after the president leaves office but it says by which the president may restrict and the public may obtain so the wording here is a little bit dodgy so why don't you explain that to me well so wait what is your claim around these things what are you saying my claim is that this is bullshit this is like generalized bullshit that was enacted under obama but considering considering it just said up here it's all meant to be it's all meant to be manipulated the prd was amended in 2014 two years before trump came in office so what do you think wait do you think they amended it because they knew trump would be doing this bullshit and that they would be like absolutely yeah absolutely absolutely oh my god isn't jimlin we got people okay i'm crazy no so you're reading doesn't even have anything to do with why trump is in trouble i'm so lost at what even the top what even i believe you i really do i believe that you are out of it let's play well all right you guys will play a game well i am um i am done for the night yeah me too all right well as always y'all have a good night okay we'll see you later later i think i'm gonna dip as well yeah that's it guys i'm trying i gotta tell you i i i gotta tell you i have been at it all day i'm done too thank you for showing up guys everybody i really appreciate it i'm ready to crash gonna end it here we'll keep doing this every thursday we'll we'll get better every thursday uh next thursday yeah we're gonna look that we're gonna be doing this every thursday uh next thursday we're gonna be reading on uh nibble gold ceo is gonna be coming on here we're gonna talk to him who we're gonna yeah yeah he's gonna come on here and hang out with us so that should be nibble gold nibble gold no really the ceo yeah he's gonna come hang out with us yeah oh wow okay yeah it should be cool yeah i'm gonna talk to him a little bit and he's gonna hang out with us yeah should be sure not being you're not being trolled i'm not being trolled okay all right he's a sponsor he's just sponsoring that's actually he's just sponsoring our channel for like three years now so all right you have a point all right he's a good guy i have yeah i know i'm good friends with him so i'm not good friends but i know i was gonna say good friends yeah i'm not good friends uh i'm friends with him online you know what i mean you know what that is yeah so anyway i should probably speed away should take my camera off it's good to see you though yeah it's good to see you too riddle hey riddle hey riddle buddy what what are you gonna camera oh because uh oh you want to see my yeah man it's good to see you for once i'm i'm glad to place the space i'm glad to place face with the boys yeah yeah well i look terrible honestly this is i hate this fucking shit i i that's why i don't like going on camera but um yeah it was good to talk i mean you said you said that uh maybe coward cowards if we didn't uh put the camera on so yeah we we have to put our faces out there man yeah don't be a plus hey fair enough well it's out there now so all right well i appreciate you hey hey buddy i appreciate you coming on and see you finally i've i've known you for a while now so yeah it's good to finally put a face with the name so well it's a portion that i'm just gonna feed it on into the terrorist watch us no i'm just yeah thanks a lot dude me even more watched now before before that or that ever even though i'm already on it that's cool hey if you want to stick around and play some games i'm gonna play i'm staying on anyway all right i'm in the stream good night okay yeah in the stream but that already streamed they already had it i don't even know


The Facebook photo competition was held in conjunction with World Water Day and World Forest Day 2021 celebrations and formed part of an effort to raise awareness of the importance of protecting our natural resources. To qualify for the competition, persons were required to photograph themselves in an ecosystem and give a brief description of how it contributes to their life. Chief Forestry officer, Orloy Donnelly, highlighted the role these activities play in raising awareness of the increase in deforestation as well as contamination of our natural resources. He commended the participants on their involvement in safeguarding St Lucia's ecosystems. The forest is not only there for our survival. We don't exist in isolation of the wildlife, the other resources that depend on the forest. We all form that network where we depend on each other within that brother ecosystem. So the wildlife as well, they depend on the forest and sometimes when we destroy the forest we destroy wildlife and we also ultimately we would be destroying ourselves. Director of the Water Resources Management Agency Jason Ernest encouraged the participants to continue their efforts in sanitizing the public on the importance of protecting our natural resources. I also see you guys as being ambassadors, so for your households, for your family friends and for your communities to spread the message that we need to continue to protect our resource because it is very finite in St Lucia. It's limited and we should be aware of that. We realize that right now you see that there's a lot of indiscriminate dumping of waste and refuse into our water systems and this is where our water supply comes from. So this is very critical that we protect it and World Forest Day and World Water Day is two of the days where we can look to raise the awareness and sensitize persons as to the importance of what is going on. A first and second place winner was chosen from both the north and south of the island resulting in four winners total. The winners of the World Forest and Water Day competition were awarded prizes that included Samsung tablets and cell phones sponsored by the Southeast Coast Project. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.