All praise is due to Allah Allah has white, tall has short, fat has skinny.  Heaven is Iraq, of course.  To everything there is an opposite. Now, especially when you come to good and evil, this is probably one of the most prominent opposites that you find. And this progression and this battle of good and evil has existed forever. For example, you have Habir and Qabil. And to find this progression of good and evil exists, examine the people that live in their time. In the time of Habil, you had somebody clashing with him who was Qabil. In the time of Ibrahim, you had Nimrod. In the time of Musa, you had Pharaoh. In the time of, for example, somebody such as the Holy Prophet, you had Abu Sufyan. Imam Hassan, you had Muawiyah. Imam Ali, also Muawiyah. Imam Hussein, you had Yazid. Imam Al-Sajjad, you had Walid bin Abdul-Malik. Imam Al-Baqar, Hisham bin Abdul-Malik. You have Imam Al-Sadiq, Mansour Al-Dawaniqi. Imam Al-Kawthum, you have Haroun Al-Rashid. Imam Al-Rubaa, Ma'moun Al-Abbasi. Imam Al-Jawad, Mu'taz. Imam, for example, after him comes Al-Hadi, you had Mutawakkil. You have, for example, somebody such as Al-Haskari, you have Mu'tamid.  I necessarily don't agree with that hadith because there isn't one Shia hadith that mentions a Jewish lady coming and killing our 12th Imam.  That wherever you find there's a good person, a protagonist, you find there's an antagonist. Wherever there's good, there's evil. Wherever there's black, there's white. Now, my point, what I'm trying to make is that when you look at Ahlul Bayt, alaykum as-salam. Sallallahu ala Muhammad wa alaykum. Ahlul Bayt, alaykum as-salam, have made it clear that they themselves are the partition between good and evil. They are the line that differentiates between Haqq and Batan. Somebody come and tell me, brother, what do you mean? You're telling me that al-Muhammad were the line between Musa and Farahun? Yes, absolutely. You're telling me that al-Muhammad were the line between Ibrahim and Nimrud? Absolutely. You're telling me that al-Muhammad were the line between Jesus and the Jews of his time? Yes. Because every single prophet was sent to do one thing or two, we can say, for sake of argument. Number one, to propagate the word of God. Say there is no God except Allah. There is a heaven, there is a hell of justice. Basically, the Haqqat, to give Haqqat to the people on one level. On a second level, prophets came to prepare for Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. That's why you find the Surat al-Safat, Jesus alayhi wa sallam, he comes and he says quite clearly. He says, He comes and says, oh children of Israel, I have come indeed to tell you that I confirm the teachings of Moses being the Torah. And I have come to give you the injeel. And I have come to prepare for the coming of a man by the name of Ahmed. And by the way, this isn't only something mentioned in the Quran. When you're sitting down with your Christian friend, your Christian buddy, tell him, have you heard of John 16? He's going to say, yeah, I've heard of it. Tell him, have you heard of the Comforter? He's going to say, yeah, I've heard of it. Tell him that Comforter, who is it? He'll tell you the Holy Ghost. Tell him the Holy Ghost was already there in Chapter 40 with Luke. How is it the Holy Ghost? It's not the Holy Ghost, it's Muhammad, very clearly. Even in Songs of Solomon, Chapter 5, Verse 16, I'm giving you references to write them down, to give them to your Christian friend, to give them to your Jewish friend. Songs of Solomon, Chapter 5, Verse 16, Hebrou. Jesus comes and says, I have come to tell you of a man who is altogether sweet, Muhammedam Hebrou. Christians have come and translated this verse by saying, oh, well, it's altogether sweet. Yes, that's the little translation of the verse. Yeah, who is this altogether sweet? No other than Muhammad. Within the Torah, Muhammad is mentioned. Within Injeel, Muhammad is mentioned. That you find every prophet came and said, I'm coming to prepare for the coming of a man by the name of Muhammad. Why? This is the question. There's something special about al-Muhammed. There's something special about ahlul-bayt.  Why do you prepare for him? There's even a man by the name of Ali Haider. He's a man who was Jewish, he became Muslim. Very rarely would you find Jews, he become Muslims, but this man who was a Jew, he became Muslim. He says, I can give you a scripture within the Jewish history and Jewish literature that comes and gives you a specific scenario where Moses is walking and he says, ya Ali. Now somebody come and tell me, brother, this is gholu. This is exaggeration. What do you mean, ya Ali? That's the biggest shia crime you can mention on a member. Moses is coming and saying, ya Ali. Yes, it maybe is a shia crime. You know what a shia crime is. The definition of shia crime is basically when you raise Ali above the prophet. And I mentioned this yesterday. They actually say one day the prophet was arm wrestling with Imam Ali. And the prophet beat Imam Ali. How did he beat him? Because he said, ya Ali. That's a shia crime. We don't like shia crimes. Or for example, you know, or Allah uses the voice of Imam Ali to speak to the holy prophet. That's a shia crime. We don't believe in shia crimes. But this is a Jewish man saying, I can give you something in Jewish scripture that proves to you that Moses mentioned the name of Ali bin Abi Talib. Now, what's the point I'm trying to make? Every prophet prepared for the holy prophet. Verse number 23, chapter number 80 of the holy Quran. And if he says, Allah has come and taken a covenant with every single prophet. Allah has made an oath with Musa, with Isa, with Ibrahim, with Nuh, with all of the prophets before they came into existence. Telling them that your job is to prepare for Muhammad. That's what you're supposed to be doing. Now, my question is why? You see brothers and sisters, because the goal of every prophet is to come and bring good and to forbid them from evil. Al-Muhammad were the peak of good. And Al-Muhammad, within their time, coincided the peak of evil. You see, why is Ahlul Bayt so special? Musa, alaihi s-salam, may have been a good prophet. Far'aun may have been a bad man. Yet, within the time of Ahlul Bayt, goodness reached a peak and evil reached a peak. You had the best of the best within the time of the prophet, being the prophet himself.  Karbala is so special, why brothers and sisters? Because Karbala is when the peak of good, the peak of evil. You see, when Musa is at HaShura, very clearly, we say, We say, We say, May Allah curse the people who built the foundation of evil against you, O Ahlul Bayt. Meaning, the peak of evil was there. Yazid represented the peak of everything that was evil. And everything that was good was found in Aba Abdullah al-Husayn. Karbala was not Husayn against Yazid, brothers and sisters. No. Karbala wasn't the grandson of the prophet against the son of Mu'awiya. No. Karbala was Haqq versus Baatul. Karbala was certainty versus doubt. Karbala was satisfaction against this content. Karbala was materialism against spirituality. Karbala was everything that was good against everything that was evil. It wasn't Husayn versus Yazid. It was Husaynism versus Yazidism. There's a big difference. Aba Abdullah was not a walking human being. He was walking values, his arm was certainty. His leg, for example, was generosity. All of the values, that's why even one of the poet comes and he says, Husayn on the sands, you didn't see arrows in his chest. Each arrow represented a value. One arrow was certainty. One arrow was generosity. One arrow was kindness. That Imam Al-Husayn, alayhi s-salam, came as a reflection, as the same teaching of Ali ibn A'bi Talib, that when the prophet comes and says, ظاهر الإيمان كله, بالكفري كله. Complete iman has one to fight complete shirk. Therefore, Ahlul Bayt, alayhi s-salam, there was something special about them, why the prophets were preparing for them. When we come in, we say, in Surah Al-Ma'idah, chapter number five of the Holy Qur'an, verse number three, يا ايها الذين آمنوا. Rather, اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم وأتممت عليكم نعمتي وراضيت لكم الإسلام. دينا today I have completed your religion. Meaning what? With Ahlul Bayt, goodness reached a peak. They were the filter between Haqq and Baql. That's why Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen, one of the descriptions that we have of his character is what? قسيم الجنة والنار.   He's saying I'm the split between good and evil. Furthermore, when we mention the Surah Tiasin, Imam Ali ibn al-Aibital comes and says, or Allah comes and says in reference to Ali ibn al-Aibital وكل شيء أحصيناه في إمام مبين. Everything we have manifested it within a clear Imam. Imam himself comes and says in reference to this verse, أنا والله الإمام الذي يفرق بين الحق والباطل. He says I am the Imam that splits between Haqq and Baql. One of the other names of Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen is that he is الفاروق الأكبر. He is the greatest splitter. What does he split? Oranges? Fruits? No. He splits Haqq and Baql. When he comes and says I am the splitter, he's not only busy splitting doors such as Khaybar. He's splitting Haqq from Baql. You see typically when we speak about Ali ibn al-Aibital and we speak about him as a man who was busy splitting doors and splitting people. For example, many something that we always hear on our manabar is that Imam Ali ibn al-Aibital killed people in two ways, either horizontal or diagonal. If you want to know who Ali ibn al-Aibital killed, for example in Badr Uhud, Khandagh, Hunayn, Niharwan, or Jamal, or Safin, you go and look at the people, the casualties. If he split in diagonal or horizontal, that's someone who Imam Ali ibn al-Aibital killed. Yes, Imam Ali was splitting people. Yeah, he was busy splitting Haqq from Baql as well. He was busy splitting evil from good. This was the character of Amir al-Mu'mineen. Now I am going to give you in this Majlis three things that Imam al-Ruza, Taurus, that Ahlul Bayt split. Partitions. They were a partition between three things. Number one, between ignorance and knowledge. Ahlul Bayt were partitions between and what?  He says, Listen to this profoundly astounding hadith by Imam al-Ruza, the man we have come to commemorate today. He says, Rather excessive obedience is to think about the decree of Allah, You see, because one of the biggest problems that you'll find in many communities, especially amongst, I refer to myself as a youth, especially amongst the youth, is that we do things but we don't necessarily think about them. For example, I'll beat my chest for Hussain but I'm not thinking about the message of Aba Abdullah al-Hussain. Allah comes and says what differentiates insan from haywan is one thing and one thing only. Not just said, me and an animal, for example, you put a cow in front of me, he has a body and I have a body as well. He has blood flowing in his skin, I have blood flowing. He even, for example, has a heart, I have a heart. There is one thing that differentiates animal from insan, which is what? Aqil. Allah mentions within the Holy Quran over 50 times the word Aqil. Allah says, do they not ponder, do they not contemplate? It's not for no reason, brothers and sisters, the hadith comes and says, thinking one hour is greater than 70 years of worship. Why? Because Islam is a religion of intellect. This hadith of Imam al-Ruza, he comes and he says, obedience to Allah is not fasting. It's not Salah. It's not hitting the chest. It's not crying. It's to know why I'm doing all of these actions, why I do them. You see, when you look at Imam al-Sadiq, our sixth Imam, whenever he would answer, by the way, our sixth Imam, Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, we have to be very proud of this man. When we go to our schools, I have to tell them, I'm not, you know, typically when we refer to Shia, we don't say we're Hussainis, we don't say we're Muhammadis, we say we are what? Ja'faris, why? Because Ja'far al-Sadiq is the cornerstone of Shia Islam. Ja'far al-Sadiq is the bedrock of Shia Islam. Do you know, Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, I'll come back to the story I was about to mention in a second, Imam al-Sadiq at the tender age of 12 in Medina disproved the theory of Aristotle. Aristotle comes and says that there are four elements to this world, water, air, earth and, what else? Fire. Imam al-Sadiq at the age of 12, he came and said, Habibi Aristotle, you're wrong. They came and asked him, what do you mean? He's wrong. He said, Aristotle comes and says that the world is made up of four elements. I disagree. Earth itself has many metals within it that each one of these metals is considered an element. Aristotle doesn't know what he's talking about. This is Islam, science, ideology. One day a man by the name of Hisham was walking and an atheist approached him. Very famous story. I'd like to mention it to show to you. He comes to me and tells him, Hisham, you're a believer in Allah, right? He said, yes, I believe in God. He said, I have a question for you and your God of yours. He said, go ahead. He said, could your God fit this whole world into an egg without the egg getting bigger and without the universe getting smaller? Hisham looked up, he looked down. He said, that's a quite interesting question. I don't know the answer with all honesty. Hisham goes back to Ja'far al-Sadiq. He goes back to Ja'far al-Sadiq. He tells him, oh, Imam, Hisham asked me a quite interesting question or a man, an atheist, asked me a question which I don't know the answer to. He told him, what's the answer or what's the question? Go ahead, ask it. He said, the atheist came to me, he asked me, could your Lord fit this universe into an egg without the egg getting bigger, without the universe getting smaller? Look at how our sixth Imam didn't answer with emotion. He didn't tell him, how could you ask such a question? Bizarre, you know, today in our Sunday schools, a child stands up, he says, I don't believe in the existence of God. We yell at him, we get mad. Look at the answer of Ja'far al-Sadiq. Ask me, could you find a more bizarre question than this egg universe? No, but look how the Imam answers with eloquence, with intelligence, and indeed with a man of vision, not a man of emotion simply. He tells him, Hisham, you should already know the answer to that question. He told him, what's the answer? He told him, Hisham, do you have senses, faculties? He said, yes. He said, how many? He said, five. He said, name them. He said, I have eyes. I could smell. I could touch. I could do this. I could do that. He said, what's the smallest of your senses? He said, my eyes. He told him, Hisham, go on that building and come back to me. Tell me what you did with those eyes. Hisham goes on the building. He looks all around. He comes back to the sixth Imam. He told him, what did you just do with these eyes? He said, I went on top of the building and I saw there are trees. There are cars, or not cars. They didn't have cars back then. He saw horses. He saw this. He saw that. Hisham, did you see the whole world in your eye? He said, yes. He told him, if Allah could fit the world in your eye, which is smaller than an egg, why can't he fit it into an egg, being larger than your eye? You see that Imam came with intelligence. He didn't get mad at him. That when the Imam, Ali Ibn Al-Abiqal, comes and says there are three kinds of people, the student, the teacher, and the rest are sheep. Who is this, Imam Ali? He says, you have three kinds of people. You have the teacher, one who is busy giving knowledge. Then you have the seeker, who is busy gaining knowledge. And then he says, the rest are Hamajun Ru'aa, scattered sheep. Wherever you throw them, they follow. Go follow that leader. He'll go and follow him. He doesn't mind. Imam comes and says, these are the three kinds of people. We as a Shi'a community, one thing that we have lacked is to have a strong vision. You know, Shahid Mutahari, who is one of my greatest role models, Shahid Mutahari comes and says, we the Shi'a are supposed to know what's going to happen 50 years down the line. Not only in regards to religious issues, sociologically, physically. He even says, anything from all aspects we should know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone 50 years down the line. Imam comes and says that you have to be people of vision when Allah comes and mentions 50 times within the whole Qur'an. For example, he comes and he says the mu'mineen are those who think, they contemplate, they connect dots. He sees something happening politically. He takes the initiative to connect it. A mu'min, one of the signs of a mu'min, even one of the signs of the Holy Prophet of Islam, they say he would speak very little. He was always thinking. Qalilul kalam, kathirul tafakkur. Little would he speak. Much would he think. Always thinking. What's happening? You know because when you're silent, silence is a form of wisdom just as Imam Rouha, alaihi salam, says. He says silence is a form of wisdom. A person who is silent is respected in the community. They say our Imam, when he would walk, he would walk with silence, but the world would fear him. You don't have to use this mouthpiece to fear the world or to let the world fear you. Just simply walk with elegance, with intelligence, with charisma and the world will understand who you are. Ahalul bayt, alaihi salam, focused on what? On intellect. Why? Because they were the split between aqil and between jahl. That's why Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen, he mentions within ahaj al-balaghah. He says laa faqr wa ashaddu min al-jahl. He says there is no poverty as intense as ignorance. Why? Because when I'm ignorant, I may think what I'm doing is correct, but an essence is wrong.  But in reality, he's doing nothing except getting him further away from Allah. Meaning what? When I'm praying, I have to do it with understanding. That's why one day a man comes to our fifth Imam, Muhammad al-Baqr, salamullah alaihi salam. He comes to our fifth Imam and typically Imam Baqr would have like a hausa class. You know, people would come and learn from him. One day a man stops showing up. First week, second week, third week, he's nowhere to be found. All of a sudden, Imam would go to one of the campaigns. He would tell him, why isn't that guy showing up? What's going on? What's the situation? He told him, Imam, this man has reached the highest levels of Imam. Unbelievable. He's worshiping Allah day and night. He went to Hajj at least 30 times this year. Salat al-layl, ah, forget it. He's always doing it. He told him, can I ask you a question? He said, yes, go ahead. He told him, who gets food for his family, his wife? He said, oh, his brother does. His brother does that job. He told him, go quickly to that man and tell him that the man who is getting food for his family is greater in the eyes of Allah than he is. Why? Because that man is proactively following the religion of Islam, not simply ritualistically. You see, because you have a ritualistic Muslim, then you have a pro-active Muslim. Ritualistic person, he says, I love Hussein. He says, I love Abbas. He says, I love Al-Muhammad. And then you find him behind the building, backbiting. The minute that basket comes around, he's not interested in putting money inside of it.  See, because a Muslim isn't somebody that's busy speaking. Allah comes and ridicules those who say, but don't speak.   And why do you say that which you don't do? Meaning what? Hypocrisy. Basically, a mu'min is somebody who uses his intellect. He thinks. Remember me as a child, one of the biggest problems I had, is that you would go upon the mimbar, you would give a medjins for Imam al-Husayn, you would come back down feeling all nice and relaxed, thinking that you just did something great, and then I would sit down with my friends and I would backbite. Or I would go, for example, and blast fifty cents. You would do these certain things which you're not supposed to be doing. See, because the dots aren't being connected. Allah says, how do I connect the dots? By using that aqil. Alladheena yathkuroona Allah Yatafakaruna fi khalqas samawati wal-arab. Rabbana ma khalaqta haadab Adab al-Nar. Those who think, contemplate through their intellect, they connect the dots, they conclude, they rationalize, they analyze, and then they gain wisdom through that whole process I just mentioned. Number one, the barrier between intellect and ignorance. Number two, the second partition that Ahlulbayt served as, now before I go, there's one more point to mention in regards to ignorance and intellect. There's a hadith which comes and says, awwala ma khalqa Allah al-Aqil. The first thing that Allah created was intellect. And then there's another hadith which says, awwala ma khalqa Allah Nur Muhammad. The first thing that Allah created is what? The light of Muhammad. Is these two hadith contradicting each other? No. When Allah comes and says, the first thing that Allah created is intellect, then another hadith comes and says, the first thing that Allah created is the Nur of Al-Muhammad. Allah is saying, the Nur of Al-Muhammad is intellect. Salawat al-Ala Muhammad. The second partition is the partition between material and spiritual. When you look at Karbala, Karbala was nothing except material versus spiritual. In what sense? Yazid was pure materialistic. Hussain was pure spirituality. What do I mean by this? You see, because one thing that makes Karbala so special, Karbala was the phase in the religion where material transcended to spiritual. What do I mean? You see, when you look at Hajar, Hajar is the wife of Ibrahim, alaihi salam, Hajar would do Sa'i between Safa and Marwa. Those of you who have been to Hajj, you know that there are two mountains, one known as Safa, one known as Marwa, and you go between them seven times, back and forth. This is a symbolic way of remembering Hajar, going back and forth between Safa and Marwa. Hajar would do Tawaaf between Hajar and Hajar. Karbala transcended until Zaynab didn't do Tawaaf between Hajar and Hajar. She did Tawaaf between Bashar and Bashar. She did Tawaaf not between Iraq and Iraq. She did Tawaaf between Hussein and Abbas. That if Hajar was doing Tawaaf between two rocks, Zaynab was doing Tawaaf between two human beings with a soul. Meaning what? Religion transcended into something which was not only spiritual or physical, it was now something with spiritual. Karbala was the time where religion transcended to that phase of spirituality. That's why you find many times within our discussions, people come in, they detest this world.  Many times, speakers come in, they tell you, don't get involved in this world. Don't wear nice clothes, Hollister, Gucci, all these nice different clothing, Canal Street. Don't do all of these different things. Why? Because a mu'min is not supposed to be materialistic, right? Many have this idea. This is incorrect, brothers and sisters. Allah comes in and says, قل من حر مزينة الله التي أخرج العبادة. Who has made forbidden that which Allah has made halal? You know, they would come to our first imam, Amir al-Mu'mineen, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Salatullah. They would come to him, they would tell him, oh imam, give us advice. He would say, الدنيا أحب إليه من الآخرة. He would say, this world is dearer to me than the next. They say, yeah imam, what are you talking about? Everything okay? How many times has Allah mentioned within the Holy Quran be aware of this world? This world is a snake. It's nice on the outside, poisonous on the inside. He said, الدنيا أحب إليه من الآخرة. He said, what do you mean? He said, in this world, I am serving Allah. In the next world, Allah is serving me. And there is no comparison between me serving Allah and Allah is serving me. Look at the ideology of the imam. He's not saying, get away from this world, but deal with it wisely. Meaning, I see this world as a tool. Money is not a problem. Money is a problem when it owns you besides you owning it. You see, Zuhud, aestheticism within Islam is what? Zuhud is not that you don't own anything. It's that nothing owns you. Al-Muhammad looked good. They wouldn't wear ripped clothes and go out in society. No, they wear decent clothing, but they would do it for Allah. If it wasn't for Allah, then you find Ahlul Bayt, Aalim, and Salam would dress differently. I'll give you a simple example. Imam Al-Hassan, Aalim would walk into a masjid, Salat Aalim Muhammad. He would walk into a masjid and he would have beautiful clothing. Look at how he's doing it for Allah. A man would come to me, tell him, O Hassan, what do you mean? Your father? What do you mean? Aalim would dress very badly. Imam Ameer al-Mu'min had two different types of clothing for the whole year. His shoe would be so disheveled and ripped that he would even say to Ibn Abbas, O ibn Abbas, my shoe is so ripped that I'm even shy from the patcher, meaning the very thing that patches my shoe. We hear these kinds of hadith, so he comes to me, tells him, you're very different than Aalim Ibn Abbas. He said, come to me. Imam had beautiful garments. He said, he would remove it to the side and underneath his clothing, he would see ripped clothing. He would say, do you see these ripped clothing? He said, yes. He said, this is for Allah, whereas these clothings are for the people. Meaning, I understand who I am. I know what I'm wearing. I know what I'm doing. But, Allah swt allows me to wear clothing indeed which are beautiful. Allah says, who has made that which Allah made Halal Haram. Why? Wear beautiful clothing. That's why Imam Amir al-Mu'mineel, he comes and he says that Khilafa over there, I'm not interested in it. Khilafa is interested in me. You see, when you look at the difference between some of the Khulafa, who wanted Khilafa and Ali Ibn Ibn Iqtalib, who also wanted Khilafa as well, the only difference is that Imam Ali Ibn Iqtalib wanted Khilafa because he saw it as a means. Others saw Khilafa as an ends. You see, many times when we say Imam Ali was busy running after you, we get this question from our brothers from different sects. They come and they tell you if Imam Ali Ibn Iqtalib was really such a zahid and such a good man, why is it that he wanted Khilafa as well? No, there's a difference. Imam Amir al-Mu'mineel wanted Khilafa because he saw it as a means to establish justice of Allah. Whereas others saw Khilafa as an ends simply for their own pleasure and there's a big difference. Thus, Ahl al-Bayt, alayhum salam, come and mention clearly within their ahadith this world is not a problem. It depends and dictates who you use this world. Go to the best of universities. Go as much as money as you want. Suleiman alayhi salam, they say was rich. We speak about Bill Gates, you know, Donald Trump, all these different guys. Suleiman was on top of the list. Mulken Azeema that he would have Jinn and Inns building his castles. That one filter that Ahl al-Bayt, alayhum salam, served between was the filter between material and between spiritual. The third partition that Ahl al-Bayt served as which is one of the most crucial partitions I'm going to conclude on is the fact that Ahl al-Bayt were the partition between discontent and satisfaction. Rida and burghub. These are two antithetical qualities that exist. Rida is satisfaction. Today we're commemorating the death of a man whose name is what? Arrida. Do you know why his name was Arrida? Because he was always content with that which Allah has given him. He was always happy. One hadith that really got to me when I mentioned it and when I heard it first in Hajj Al-Balaghah, Suleiman, 123 Imam Amir Ramoumin comes and says Look at the hadith of our first Imam. He mentions in Hajj Al-Balaghah. He says, What is he saying? Satisfaction of Allah. I'd rather take one thousand strikes of the sword on my body. I don't care. Not only wouldn't I care but I'll feel pleasure with it. They would come to our first Imam. They would say, Oh Imam, what's your most beautiful timing? We feel so much relaxation. What is it? When you sit next down to Faltum al-Zahra, when you're for example caressing your children, he says no. My most relaxing moment is when I'm on the battlefield with a vest made of metal with the sun hitting me while I'm fighting for Allah while sweat is falling from my forehead. Imam, what do you mean? That's your most relaxed moment? He says, yes. Because the most difficulties I go through and the more I get trialed and the more I get tested, the better I feel. The closer I get to Allah, that's why you as a mu'min if you feel that Allah is testing in your life, say Alhamdulillah because Allah is thinking about you. Our sixth Imam was once in a house and he saw an egg fell from the shelf and it didn't break. He got up, he left. They came to him, they told him, you do nothing except there's wisdom in it. Why did you do that? He said that egg was supposed to break. It didn't break. I recognize how much Allah has forgotten in such a family. Meaning if there's trials in a human being's life, say Alhamdulillah. The problem is that we only remember Allah when we have trials. I remember falling or driving with one of my friends and you know we're talking about sports, we're talking about everything. The minute he saw the police behind him, he went down in the state of Khushu'a. I don't know how he went in Khushu'a that quickly. He said, I told him, brother, we were speaking about many different things. Why is it just now you chose to remember Allah? He said, brother, the police. You don't see the lights? I told him, well, Allah only wakes up when there's a police behind you. It's a problem. Only when we have problems in our life, remember Allah. You know when we're taking our ACTs, we begin to do what? We begin to do Salah. We begin to do tatsbih. We take the tatsbih to school. Could you imagine? Just tatsbih, oh Allah, please, you are the best. Oh Allah, if you give me an A, I will do ni'az for three weeks in Sijni. You know, masha'Allah, we get all close to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah comes and says, Allah says those who give in good times and bad times, those who remember Allah in good times and in bad times. Imam Ameer Al-Mu'mineen comes and says that the more difficult I feel, the happier I am because Allah is thinking about me. Now, when I say satisfaction, discontent, what do I mean about satisfaction of Allah? Ridh Allah. Brothers and sisters, please, if there's one thing in our life, let it be satisfaction of Allah. There's three things you could strive to satisfy in your life. Number one, yourself. Number two, the people. Number three, Allah. If you strive to satisfy your life, that's called egotism. If you strive to satisfy the people that shirk, yet if you strive to satisfy Allah, that's tawheed. That's true tawheed. True tawheed is what? That I strive to satisfy Allah even if I have to dissatisfy anybody else. And they were so strong, they were so courageous and confident on the battlefield. Why? Because Allah was primary. To the extent that they wouldn't even feel the strikes of the sword on their body. Because they were so focused on one point. Psychologically, if you're focused on one point, you forget everything, except that one point. Imam Sadiq comes and he says He says He says Indeed, the companions of my grandfather Hussain didn't feel the strikes of the sword in Karbala. Why? Because they were so focused. Somebody comes and says Exaggeration, take it easy. No, no, no, no. Story of Yusuf. Ladies walk in. Or Yusuf walks in. Ladies are looking at Yusuf. They begin to cut their fingers. Did they feel it? No. Why? Because they were captivated by Yusuf. I'm going to ask the question. If you could be captivated by creation and forget yourself, why is it difficult for you to be captivated by a creator? And forget yourself as well. That you're focused with Allah SWT. You forget everything else. Therefore, you find Tawheed is that you strive to satisfy Allah SWT. Ahlul Bayt were the partition between Bughud and Satisfaction. Now, how do we put Allah as the primary focal point in our existence? I'll give you a very deep philosophical yet. Also, I'll try to make it practical as well. Us human beings, we have three elements. You have a body. You have a heart. And then you have a soul. Satisfying Allah is found in paralleling these three elements. Because many of us live divided lives. My heart wants something. My mind wants something else. My body wants another. Satisfying Allah is found in paralleling these three until they become an eclipse. You see today, astronomers come and tell you one of the strongest forces within the galaxies is when the moon collides with the sun, which is known as an eclipse. We have to become an eclipse. What do I mean? My mind, my heart, my soul, my body has to be parallel. How? Look at Ibrahim AS. Ibrahim mentions within the Holy Quran, Allah mentions, Ibrahim AS is walking. He sees the moon. He says that must be Allah. It disappears. He says no, that's not Allah. He keeps on walking. He sees the sun. He says that must be Allah. He sees something else. He says that's Allah. Until Ibrahim comes to a realization. He says all of these things are disappearing. Allah must be something that doesn't disappear. He said, O Allah, I repent to you. Please forgive me. O Allah, I believe in you now. What was Ibrahim doing this whole process? I'm sure we've heard this story numerous times. What was Ibrahim doing? He was saying, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, Ibrahim AS, the second law of thermodynamics, for example, of Nuhun. You have to be able to give them these kinds of theories. That's how we're supposed to be able to prove the existence of God. Ahl al-Bayt, yes, they would do amazing things. For example, somebody would come to you, I'm sorry to tell them, oh, Imam, prove the existence of God to me. He said, look at the sun. He would look at the sun. He would begin to look down. He can't handle it. He said, if you can't look at the creation, then how do you expect to look at the creator? These sound nice, but you can't prove the existence of God to an atheist through these kinds of things. You have to know science, logic, and that's the only way. Now, on the first level, Ibrahim was trying to understand intellect. Yet that wasn't enough. He wanted to parallel it with his heart. What do I mean? He would turn to Allah. He would say, Rabbi, arni, kaifa tuhyil, kaifa tuhyil mouta? He said, oh my Lord, show me how you resurrect the dead. Instantly, he would come to me, tell him, ya Ibrahim, awalam tu'min, do you not believe? He said, bala wa lakin liyatma inna qalbi. He said, I believe, I want my heart to feel it as well. What is he saying? He's saying, intellectually, I've understood you, Allah. But spiritually, I still haven't. I want to feel it in my heart. Now, an atheist differs from a spiritualist is what? Hinduism is spirituality without what? Intellect. Atheism is intellect without spirituality. See, a Hindu is just as bad as an atheist. An atheist removed from his life. Every single type of faith, spirituality, anything that's not empirical to the naked eye, he removed it. A Hindu did the exact opposite. Everything became completely spiritual. That's a big problem. Because I must have faith, but faith has to be paralleled with logic. I'm a firm believer that faith always could be substantiated through the door of logic. I can not simply say I love this guy and I love that guy. No, you have to believe in Allah, love him and have logic to substantiate that belief. It must be that way because Islam is a religion of logic, a religion of Haqqal. Yes, there's some things which you can't prove, for example, logically. But still, there's a logical reason as to why you have to believe in such a thing. In Hinduism, you find some of the most absurd stories because they removed intellect. For example, you'll find Parvata one day and Ganesh, all these different lords. One day he would go into a house, he would see Parvata in the bathroom and then there's a Ganesh sitting right next to the door because Parvata had to create Ganesh to protect her when she's in the bathroom and that's a God as well. So what you find is that he would get mad, he would say move out of the way, she wouldn't move, so he would slice the head. So he would slice the head and then she would come out of the bathroom. She would see that there is a baby with a head detached, she would get mad. He would say don't worry, the first elephant that I see, I'm gonna take his head and I'm gonna put it on his head.  Right? 80 bucks, you can golden Ganesh. Now am I here to ridicule Hinduism? No, with all due respect, I have Hindu friends and I respect them and some of them have better Akhlaq than Muslims themselves. But you find when intellect comes out of the door, you begin to come up with these kinds of stories and don't get surprised, we have the same exact stories in our religion. For example, Imam Hussein killed 12,000 people on the 10th of Muharram. Could he, yes, did he know? Imam Hussein could kill 12,000 if you wanted to. For goodness sake, he is the one who has ism al-a'zam, if Asif bin Barqiya could go from the shrine of Sheba back to Sulaiman and blink of an eye, then Ali ibn al-Mata'alu could do much more than that. Imam Hussein could do much more than that. But we don't need to resort to these kinds of mystical stories to prove the greatness of Ahl al-Bayt. We don't brothers and sisters. Or for example, you'll find there's a story that comes and says, when Ali ibn al-Abi Talib you know, struck Amr bin Wood, Amr bin Wood was confused, didn't know what to do. And then he told him, oh, Amr start walking. He started walking, then all of a sudden he split open like a banana. I mean, these kinds of stories, brothers and sisters, are nice, but I don't need them to prove the greatness of Ali ibn al-Abi Talib. If Amir al-Mu'mineen, in my opinion, had no fadah, it's suffice and honor that he was the cousin of the Holy Prophet. That's enough for me. Suffice and honor that he was appointed by Allah as a Khalifa. That's enough for me. But those fadah are there for us to love them and to instill that love within our hearts. I'm not here to neglect them, but let us not use them to prove the greatness of al-Mu'mineen. Thus you find intellect within the religion of Islam should be paralleled with faith. Ibrahim al-Salam, he parallels the heart with the intellect. And only when he paralleled all those three, he became a muwahd. You know, Ibrahim is known as al-Muwahd, the one who believes in the oneness of Allah. Why? Because he didn't keep the belief in Allah something theoretical. He made it practical. Tawheed is not theory. Tawheed is practice. I believe in one God, I become one. What differentiates me from the Christian is that a Christian believes in three different parts of in God. You see, what's the problem with believing with three gods? When you believe in three gods, your own vision becomes disoriented, it becomes disheveled. But when I believe in one God, I have one goal, I have one target. Thus this is the philosophy that Islam come with brothers and sisters. Unite the self. I can't love haram and halal at the same time. I can't love haqq and baqal at the same time.  Or our master, for example, Muawiyah killed our master Hassan. What do you mean our master? Both of them are masters? Doesn't work like that. When there's a killed and a killer, there has to be truth and falsehood within the picture. Us, the same thing, as youth, and I speak to you as a youth, and I refer, whenever I say a youth, I'm referring to myself, as youth, you can't love halal and haram You go on Facebook, you'll find favorite book, Quran, favorite singer, Britney Spears. Favorite book, Quran. Favorite singer, for example, Britney Spears. Now, Quran comes and tells you not to listen to Britney Spears. How is it that you love Quran and Britney Spears at the same time? That's a different discussion. So what you find is that Quran comes and says have that firm character. Allah says a good word is like a tree with firm roots. Its roots are in the ground, whereas its branches are in the sky. Thus, Ahlul Bayt, Alayhum Salam, came and gave us how to satisfy Allah and what is the means by uniting the self. I have any jealousy in my heart, get rid of it. I have arrogance, get rid of it. I have any problems in my life, let me try to solve them today. And that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the power of Allah. I'm talking about the power of Allah. I'm talking about the power of Allah. And that's why Imam Al-Ruza, Alayhi Salam, is known as Al-Ruza because he strove to satisfy nobody except Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Do you know how many people through Imam Al-Ruza got closer to Allah? Do you know Ayatullah Sistani? Ayatullah Sistani, I was just in Iraq, I had the honor of visiting him. Ayatullah Sistani, do you know much of his childhood he was paralyzed. They took him to Imam Al-Ruza. Within a few minutes he was cured. Imam Al-Ruza, Alayhi Salam. You know Imam Al-Ruza, Alayhi Salam, he died on a day like this, to 29th of Safar. Imam Al-Ruza held such a prominent position. Why? Number one, because of that hadith that he came with. Do you know that hadith that comes in and says, paradise is under the foot of your mother? That's a hadith of Imam Al-Ruza. He comes in and he says, paradise is under the foot of your mother. Imam Al-Ruza, Alayhi Salam is the one that comes in and says, be careful of heedlessness, because that is one of the greatest arrows within the heart of the mu'min. Heedlessness is what? Is that I'm on the computer and nobody's home, only me in the computer. I have the opportunity to do something. That's when Shaytan plays games with us left and right. He says, nobody's looking. Go and do what you wanna do. Go and search www.this, this and that. Shaytan, he attacks us when? Not when we're in the medjid listening to a medjilist. Not when we're, for example, outside where people can see you. Shaytan attacks you. I ask you a question. When you're hunting deer, I don't know if there's anybody here that hunts deers. When you're hunting a deer, when do you attack it? When it's looking at you? No. When it churns its head, you strike it with an arrow. Shaytan does the same thing to us. He doesn't attack us when we're aware. We're in our djidasha, praying, giving medjis or listening. No, no, no, no. He attacks us the minute we go into a state of ghafla. Ghafla is what? Heedlessness. One of the biggest problems in the world today is heedlessness. I don't know what's happening. For example, you'll see him smoking. Brother, why do you smoke? Well, everybody's doing it. Why shouldn't I be doing it?  Well, everybody's smoking it. Why shouldn't I be smoking it? Heedlessness. I don't act using my intellect. Imam Al-Ruwa comes, he says, beware of heedlessness. A third hadith of Imam Al-Ruwa is the very famous hadith. He comes and says, La ilaha illallah husni, man dahilah husni, amina hadabi. He says, La ilaha illallah is my cave. Whoever enters this cave, indeed will be protected from the wrath of Allah SWT. Now, this hadith itself could be examined thoroughly so that we can understand exactly what Imam Al-Ruwa, alaihi salam, is saying. But that's a different discussion that you find Imam Al-Ruwa on the first level, the narrations that he came with, he was revered for that. On a second level, Imam Al-Ruwa was revered for being one of the Imams that always focused on remembering Aba Abdullah al-Husayn, salawatullah wa salam alaikum. You know, every Imam, he would mention Aba Abdullah al-Husayn. Forget every Imam, every prophet cried about Aba Abdullah al-Husayn. Ismail ibn Husqeel lives in the time of Bani Israel. They tortured him to such an extent that they had the audacity to rip the skin off his face. Instantly Allah would send Jibra'il to him. He would tell him, Oh Ismail, do you need any help? He told him no. What do you mean no?  He said no, I don't need the help. He said why? He said li uswatun hasana bil Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib. He said I have, I know that I'm not gonna fight with Husayn. I know I'm never gonna see Husayn, but let me feel some of the pain that Husayn will feel on the 10th of Muharram. Zakaria, alayhi salam, within Surat Maryam, when Allah comes and says, Kaaf ha, ya'ain sad, dhikru rahmati abdika Zakaria, or abdahu Zakaria, five letters that Surat Maryam begins with, these are known as hroof al muqattaa, the cut letters. Zakaria would turn to Allah. He would tell him, Ya Allah, what are these five letters? He would tell him, fa ammal kaaf, fa hiya karbala'a, fa ammal haa, fa hiya halakul aitratu taahira, fa hiya karbala'a. He says the haa is the fact that ahlul bait were punished and indeed felt torture on the 10th of Muharram. He says, fa ammal yaa, fa huya zeed al-zalim li'itra. He says, the yaa is yazeed, the one who oppressed al-Muhammad. He said, fa ammal haaain, fa huya atashul hussain fi karbala'a. He says, as for the haain, it's the thirst of hussain and karbala'a. He said, fa ammal sad, fa huya sabr al-hussain al-al-adha. He says, as for the sad, it's the patience of hussain on the oppression. Every prophet would remember, yet one of the saddest narrations I came across was Adam, alayhi salam, when he would turn to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. He would tell him, oh Allah, you mentioned in surat al-Baqarah, wa allama Adam al-asmaa kullaha. And Allah taught Adam all of the names. He would tell him, oh Allah, what are the names? He would tell him the first name. One narration comes and says, the first name is Muhammad, salawat al-alam. Allah. The second name is Ali. The third name is Faqima. The fourth name is Hassan and the fifth name is Hussain. Adam would turn to him. He would tell him, oh Allah, when you mentioned the first five names or the first four names, I feel happy. I feel tranquil. I feel a purge of relaxation entering my heart. Why is it the minute you mentioned the fifth name all of the sudden I feel sad? He says, there's something special about that name, Hussain. He would tell him, as for Hussain, he is a man that every Imam, every prophet will shed his tears upon. That Hussain is very dear to me. Who is this speaking? Allah to Adam, alaihi salam. Allah is speaking to Adam about Hussain. He tells him, that Hussain will lay on the 10th of Muharram with Shimmer sitting on his blessed chest. And he will sever that neck and he will strike it 12 times. On every strike, Hussain will be saying, Inna lillah wa inna ilaihi rajaoon. Riven be revoc. Look at satisfaction. Riven be revoc. Taslima li amrik. Satisfied with what makes you satisfied and dissatisfied with whatever you're dissatisfied with. That on a night like this, Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam. Wallahi, it amazes me. That every Imam would remember Aba Abdullah in their last moments. Every single Imam. Imam al-Ruza is laying on his deathbed. He would turn to his son. He would tell him, Oh my son, I want you to put me on the ground and remove the carpet from the ground. Put me on the floor. Hard floor. The son would turn to him. He would tell him, Oh Imam, why? He would say, Aba Abdullah didn't have a carpet. How do you expect me to have a carpet to lay upon? Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam. You know Imam al-Ruza, he was poisoned by who? Ma'oon al-Abbasi. He would invite him to his palace. He would give him a drink of pomegranate. He would tell him, Oh Imam, drink it. He would tell him, I don't want to drink it. He would say, No, no, no drink it. I insist that Imam knew what was coming to him. They say that Imam would take that cup. He would begin to drink it. He took a little sip. He put it back down. Ma'oon al-Ruza, tell him, No, no, no drink more. They say that Imam would pick up the cup. You know, brothers and sisters, pomegranate, it's very easy for juice to go within it. That's why he would use these kinds of drinks. They say that Ma'oon would come to the man who was designated to put the poison within the drink of Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam.  Grow them out very long. Told him why? He said, Because I want you to put your hand deep within the poison and pull all of that poison within the drink of Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam. They say that Imam al-Ruza finishes drinking that juice. Instantly he feels a sense of sickness taking over his body. Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam, would lay down and there you find his son sitting next to him. Our blessed Imam, alaihi salam, al-Jawad. They say that there he is, Imam al-Jawad, alaihi salam, sitting on the chest of Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam.  Imam al-Baqarah would tell him or Imam al-Jawad would tell him, Oh my father, why is it that you cry? Is it because of the pain of the poison? He said, no. He told them, then why do you cry? He said, you are now on my chest but I ask you who was on the chest of my grandfather Hussain. He says, Oh my son, do you know Imam al-Ruza, alaihi salam, alaihi salam, what happened to that blessed rabbi? Imam al-Ruza closes his eyes. He leaves this world. He tells him, do you know what happened to the ribs of Hussain? Do you know brothers and sisters when Umrob Nasad killed all of those on the sons of Kabbalah? He announced that the horses would go and trample upon the bodies. They came to the body of Haleel Aqbar. He said, oh horses, trample on the body of Haleel Aqbar. All of the sudden, the tribe of Haleel would stand up and say, no, do not trample it. That body is ours. He would then go to the body of Qasim. He would say, go and trample on the body of Qasim. The tribe of Qasim would stand up and say, no, do not step on his body. That body is ours. He would then go to the body of Qamar. He would say, go and step on the body of Habbas. The tribe of Habbas would stand up and say, no, do not trample that body. Because Habbas was the cousin of Shimr ibn al-Jawshan. He then came and said, is there anybody that doesn't have a tribe? They said, yes, that body. No one is claiming it. He said, who is that body? They said, that is Hussain. Don't trample upon that body. He said, oh, the horses of Allah. Go and trample on the body of Hussain. Zaynab, alayhi salam, at this moment, was sitting down in her tents. She heard something crushing. She would turn to Zayn al-Abideen. She would tell him, oh, Zayn al-Abideen, I hear something breaking, almost as if glass is being thrown on the ground. What is that sound? They say, Zayn al-Abideen would remove the tent. He would see the body of Hussain being crushed. The ribs of Abba are being trampled upon. They say that his head was in one direction. And his body was in another. That's why you find today, if you go to Karbala. I was just in Karbala. I was visiting the shrine of Imam Hussain, alayhi salam. You find the area where his head was supposed to be and where his body are very far from each other. Because the head was thrown somewhere and the body was thrown somewhere else. They would trample upon the body of Abba Abdullah. Me and you, it's sad for hearing these kinds of stories. You know, I ask you, what did Zaynab have to do when she saw the body of Abba Abdullah Hussain? She would see that blessed body.  As-salamu alayka, ayyuhal-muramal-biddimaa.  Yet on a night like this, I leave you with only one more narration. They say that when Zaynab, alayhi salam, was there sitting in her tent, she saw the shadow coming closer to her, huh? We've heard this many times. You know where I'm going. She looks left, she says, where is Abba? She looks right, she says, where is Hussain? She sees the shadow coming closer to her. She says, yaha, the, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, aqsimu alayka berrabbu al-lady ta'abuduh, la tuaddini.  I swear upon you, by the Lord, that you worship the air, the shadow keeps on coming closer to Zaynab. She says, once again, aqsimu alayka berrabbu al-lady ta'abuduh, la tuaddini. Do not harm me, oh shadow. Once again, she says, aqsimu alayka, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Bi abbi Ali ibn Abi Talib la tuaddini. She said I swear upon you, by my father Ali. Do not harm me, yeah. The shadow says, my daughter Zaynab, ay am your father Ali. Ana'buki Ali, listen, a dialogue comes with Zaynab and Ali, be Ali, look at what she tells him, She tells him, father, where were you when they put the sword on the neck of Hussain? Father, where were you when they took that arrow and pierced it into Ali al-Azgar's neck?  He would say the arrow into Aba Abdullah's chest, the arrow into the eye of Abufal al-Abbas. Yet then he asks him, he told him, what was the saddest arrow that you threw on the 10th of Muharran? He said, wow, the saddest arrow was the arrow that I threw into the neck of Ali al-Azgar, salamu alayhi alayhi, you tell them why?  You know, the neck of a camel is very thick. He said, I took that three-pronged arrow, I put it into my bow, and I released it into the neck of Ali al-Azgar, salamu alayhi alayhi, Zaynab would tell him, father, did you see when the enemy of Allah slapped these very cheeks that you used to kiss? Father, did you see the enemy of Allah cutting the hands of Abufal al-Abbas? Zaynab would go to the al-Qami, and she would take the hands of Abbas and try to put them back onto his arm, saying, Abbas, you are the one who brought me from Medina with these arms, please stand up and protect me. Raise your hands, brothers and sisters, let us ask Allah SWT with these tears in our eyes, five times M-A-U-G with the loudest of your voices. I was asked to do a short du'a because we know the taboot is coming, but I want you with the loudest of your voices, five times M-A-U-G, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, just one more time, M-A-U-G with the loudest of your voices. By rahmatika, by rahamur rahmeen, this is my last night, brothers and sisters, I'd like to thank the organizers of this majlis, my dear brother Riaz, my dear brother Munawwar, all of the brothers and sisters that came together to make this a beautiful, inshallah, successful program. I apologize for any condescending or shortcomings that I have made in this majlis. It was not on purpose, but hopefully Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, may forgive us and forgive all of us for our sins. May Allah bless us with the desire of Imam Rodha, alayhi salam, in this world, and the shafa'ah of Imam Rodha in the next. By rahmatika, by rahamur rahmeen, to answer our praise and to hasten the appearance of our tooth-enweighted iman. Let us recite the loudest of your salawat. Allah bless the camera.


The most important part of that shelf, and the one I have the greatest pride in, is the books that are in there that are made up of my former students. Hi, I'm Pete Becky. I'm a university professor of economics and philosophy at George Mason University, and the director of the F.A. Hayek Center for Advanced Study and Politics Philosophy and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. I've been very fortunate to publish a lot of articles and books, and to be involved in editing with books at some of the most prestigious publishers in the world. And so I take great pride in that. I have a bookshelf in my living room here in my house, which is filled with not only all the books that I've written, but all the books that I was an editor of and helped promote. But the most important part of that shelf, and the one I have the greatest pride in, is the books that are in there that are made up of my former students. So one of the great joys of my life is the teaching role that I have at George Mason University and through the Mercatus Center to work with emerging scholars and teachers themselves to help give them the space and opportunity to develop their own voice and their own approach to teaching economics and pursuing economic and social science research. That among all of the things that I've done, that's the thing that I'm the most proud about and the one that I would most want to highlight is not so much my own writings, but the writings that my students have done and the important breakthroughs that they have had in their own careers and whatnot and to whatever small extent that I helped in promoting that, I'm thrilled.


No client has ever developed a product in 48 hours But you want us to develop a message to sell that product and explain it in a way that they'll encourage people to buy it Change behaviors and everything and you want us to develop that message in 48 hours Hello intelligent beings of this marvelous planet Welcome to the 42 courses podcast and thank you for being here Today we are honored to speak to Derek Walker who is the owner of advertising agency Brown and Browner Derek has worked in advertising for nearly 20 years on an enormous amount of impressive clients and accounts He's very active on twitter and linked in in the advertising community And is also currently working with the american advertising federation to help introduce advertising as a career choice for minority students As Derek states when he isn't rescuing small children and puppies He's hard at work helping to educate people to the power and benefit of advertising This podcast is jam packed full of Derek's wisdom realism and important messages for the copywriting community It's totally full of juicy goodness So welcome the fantastic Derek Walker. Hello. How are you? Hi, I'm really good. I'm so grateful to speak to you. Thank you for your time Thank you You are a bit of a copywriter guru on twitter and linked in Can you can you explain to the list is what what you what you get up to these days for clients? I'm old school So we do for clients. We do whatever the client needs I don't believe in specialization You know, there there was a time when copywriters and art directors had to learn the client's business Not that I know the business as well as the client, but I understand What's pertinent to me doing my job So, you know one day you're doing construction equipment next day you're doing Organic food You know It's and that was the joy of being in copywriting early on so when I opened the agency in 2009 I opened it under the old model You know, I don't specialize in clients. I've done cars, but I wouldn't specialize in cars because that's how cars get crappy we do work For whatever a client needs right now though, we are um Mainly focused on small and medium clients because I think the Mount Everest Is to take a client that isn't no and grow them into a mega brand You know, everybody's chasing I want procter and gamble. I want coke. I want apple. I want google whatever, but they're already huge What makes widen and shy it's so different as shy it took this little computer company called apple That nobody wanted because IBM was the big beast on the block And look at what shy and others have done with that apple Look at what this little independent shop in portland, oregon did what named widening kennedy did with nike They didn't get nike when nike was big They had nike when nike was nothing kids cried if their parents brought them nikes when when widening kennedy got it, you know We we if my parents bought me a 1990 and nike used to be 1999 They were cheap I'm like, no, I want to I want the the chucks from converse that you bought me Nike, oh, you know in kids would give you a hard time rappers were rappers were wearing puma and adidas And you brought me nike So think about what widen did to bring that so when I opened the agency I thought You know what I've worked on those brands that are established But I've never been able to work on a brand where we go from ground zero or close to ground zero and grow it out And i'm still chasing that and that's what we're chasing. We um, we do that okay, and I've seen your video in in the 42 courses the copywriting course And and you speak very eloquently about the the power of listening. Is this is this the most important or the most powerful tool for a for a copywriter It's a time I think linking listening and being curious So I guess Being curious leads you to be listened to listen Or does listening lead you to be curious? I don't know which one comes first Which you need both of those um, if you're not willing to learn how You know the massive amount of information that copywriters have to consume It's it's it's hard to explain the system think about it. We've got to read all this information about a client's product or service Then we have to think about their customer Or their potential customer We have to understand them and then we have to take what the client's saying And translate it into a message that that customer wants to hear or it's beneficial to the customer I don't know what we would call that it's not Not just translating but it's it's manipulating and discern it's a whole bunch of other kind of terms, but It starts with being curious if you are not curious then you don't dig deep enough But if you don't listen you don't hear the real The real notes that are in there There's that Ogilvy quote. I think isn't it who says that the The the great copywriters are the ones that are interested in in everything or the broadest range of things Yeah, which one of my friends said to see those copywriters the keepers of the most the the keepers of The most of useless knowledge until it's not useless, you know It's like you're sitting there and you're going why am I learning about this stuff and then later It's something pops up and you go. Oh, I know about this. Did you know the whale shark is you know? And it's like oh So, yeah, but It's really Amazing to consider In a world that we we we think um People are short attention span How much knowledge and information copywriters are just soaking in and I know this is about copywriting, but let me also say Good art directors do the exact same thing Because they're in the same meetings and they're there so I think to your question to answer your question Being curious and listening are great Then follow that with collaboration. I need that art director I need whatever partner we have because You need somebody that's going to go you may have missed this you know, um Some people believe the strategy serves that purpose. I I think sort of but not like an art director can for a copywriter because I'm focused on what said The art director is focused on the what's what's presented the visual part of And that takes a load off of the copyright. So there's some I think bernbach was brilliant in teaming up Copywriters and art directors and he may not get the full credit for it. But yeah, I think So you got curious and listening and then collaborate when when you are let's say you're In the middle of a big thing for a client a big creative thing Where do you go for inspiration? Okay, you've spoken. Yeah, you have to know the product You have to know the people you have to know the customers But on top of that or the side of that for inspiration Do you do you walk the city? Do you take photographs of copy that you see around or images? Where's your inspiration coming from? Sometimes we really need to get to the I like to see how the clients product lives in the world I like people watching So if you can Why wouldn't I go to A client store or a restaurant or company or factory or whatever Um Britain has I don't know if Europe has a version of undercover boss Yeah, you see we know it. You see me. You see the american version, right? Yeah. Yeah There's a lesson in marketing there That the individual running this company Has to go undercover To learn about his company or her company And when they get out there they find out how little they know So why wouldn't As a as a lonely copywriter Part of my inspiration is to actually sit and watch and listen You know I'm not a park kind of person So I'm not out in nature and Walking in Columbia, South Carolina is is not an option because Oh, it's hot here extremely hot.  I'm gonna go open the open the door and let creative out and creative like Did you ask me?  So you're sitting there.   So the brain that part of your brain is actually working and we have unfortunately We have individuals that run agencies and creative departments who are not creative And don't understand how that process works So we are forcing people to sit at a desk for six or seven hours a day And you're by god, you're going to push out that creative line and you're going to push it out on time And creative is going that little creative being you just got this article that going no Not today So you get the work that's Not horrible, but it's not the right work It's acceptable and it's the bare minimum or it's a little above the bare minimum But that brilliant idea was like i'm not coming out. You can't make me These conditions are not what I you know So to your point, I'll throw on some gospel. I'll throw on some gospel music Because in my house my mom when she was cleaning the house Or when she was working on something she'd put on gospel music And she just would sing the song she knew And do a task So i'm sitting there and i'm on i'm i'm put on some music or r&b and i'm gone i'm singing the song and then i'll send it go Oh That's the line Yeah, I wish I wish we could say okay write 50 lines and you get it right I think that is the worst copywriting advice on the planet For me, it's I have two dogs. So when i'm walking it's been all the ideas come But I have to I have to write them in my phone immediately because I lose them I'm like, oh my god. What was that thing? Anyway, so to your point just then Derek, uh, what do you think is one of the some of the big Mistakes that copywriters can make or fall into the trap of First of all, it's um ego I give I give no no cares. I'm trying not to curse. I give no cares for your ego I don't need to know how smart you are how vast your vocabulary is How intelligent you are We know you're not writing to show me that You're writing to communicate So if the target audience isn't talking like that, why are you putting 15 set words? Where a five or a six set word could work and would be more real and you know That's the big one. I got to show you. I'm a great American. I'm a great writer. No If you can communicate what's the Einstein quote about genius is being able to explain the complicated simple Well, think about it most the too many copywriters that have reversed that Genius is taking in the simple and making it complicated. I would be says doesn't either it's I don't I'm not interested if it's clever I'm only interested in cells Yeah And what cells is what cells is the human? I mean think about I don't know if you were in the states, but where's the beef It's such a simple line that doesn't say Our hamburgers are more beef than your than everybody else's hamburger. That's where's the beef It's not even a complete sentence It's the language of the street Yeah, um And I like like what you just said I'm going to show you two brands that figured that out three federal express international house of pancake and kentucky fried chicken The street always called federal express fedex international house of pancakes i-hop and kentucky fried chicken kfc It took all three of those brands Nearly a decade a minimum of a decade to figure out to go with the name that street had for and You're sitting there going Really, how much money did you pay to have that designed? You know You know, there are people on the street that you owe money to You pay some ad agency to do this But that's where a copywriter um That's where I think copywriters get it wrong. I I borrow from whatever you say as a client. I'm listening to the client um I don't need to reinvent it. I need to find out what you know And sometimes the client doesn't know what they know because they're so close to the product or the service and um The other I guess ego and arrogance go hand in hand. Yeah Um The arrogance is I have learned everything I need to learn. I don't need to learn anything else Oh, well, you know, um No other copywriter or writer is as good as I am so I don't need to study anybody else's writing Um, I think you know, I think it's it's not the technical part of it. It's not time management.  How much time do you spend on it? If we were making widgets The only time I'm working on the widget is when I'm sitting at my desk working on the widget Because we bill by the hour we're saying Bill every hour or every increment of an hour Where you're working on the idea But to your point when you're walking your dog, how much time did you Did you spend thinking about that idea that comes to you? You don't know because you weren't running a clock on and you didn't know that part of your brain was working Oh, how do you organize that? How do you measure that you can't? What we also can't do is though we can't tell anybody that that part is unmeasurable.  How do you How do you build a client? Is it I'm going by the job? Uh-huh I don't build them by the hour And I don't make people keep up. I don't I don't track hours You know It's like, how do you know you're getting the most of them? if you think if you know the the scope of the work then first of all I think Telling creatives the budget and the time and I'm when I said budget. I'm talking about the time Because time is a budget when you tell them the budget They're keeping that clock in their head We only have 140 hours to work on You know that that ticker started You know I'm working so I don't believe you tell them that You tell them look How long do you think you need to to complete this task? You know, um We we bring in everybody that's going to work on the job And we Ask them. What's this going to take? And then we we come up with a figure. We're moving more towards um On its pay So there's a flat fee But then there's a percentage tied to any increase and it's an agreed upon increase between the client and the agency And it's historically it's based on historical sales or performances so If your growth from last For this quarter of last year and the year before was eight percent it averaged eight percent then Historically you can project that this growth is going to be eight percent Now if we run a camp we do the work in this quarter for this quarter and the growth is above eight percent Then we get a percentage of that that growth I love this way clients want us to have skin in the game It's you know, we got skin in the game. But what it does is it frees up my people not to have to worry about time Some people work better in the morning That's me Some folks work better in the afternoon But our business day is what time to what time? So I'm saying Here's the deadline The deadline is two weeks out I don't care how you get it get to the deadline You know, what's what's what's amazing to me is we set that deadline and then we want to tell people how to get there What if you let the creative just get there? And if the creative comes back to you later and goes I work the copyright it comes back to you and says I worked too hard on this. Okay, then then what we would now we've learned something See you're still getting your check as a copywriter. Yeah, I'm not docking your pay You know I'm not building the client anymore. What I'm saying is now we know the next time around that flat fee needs to be a Little higher Do you think there's something in it when people talk about, you know creatives need deadlines because as that deadline looms it it all start that that It all starts firing It is knee constraints period I'm not going to pretend that a copywriter doesn't need. Oh, no that brief is You know what I curse about briefs But you need all those constraints in the brief No, you cannot curse in the ad No, you can show no nudity violence and sex and none of that I need you to have it done by now I win My problem is out of respect for the creatives I don't think anyone should be setting that deadline without the creators input No, it creates though. Okay. I'm right in the radio spot. I need three months And I'm looking at no You mean more realistic goal You know And I use radio because radio is a strictly copyrighted thing So, okay, I can do that in two two and a half weeks Okay Because And it's incumbent on me as the agency only to go back to the client say the client goes Well, why is it gonna take them two and a half weeks? How long did they take you to develop your product? Oh, it took us two years Three years five years, you know, no no client has ever developed a product in 48 hours Nobody But you want us to develop a message to sell that product and explain it in a way that they'll encourage people to buy it Change behaviors and everything and you want us to develop that message in 48 hours? No You know, but but part of that is on me as a leader to explain this Now I bring my creators along so that they can learn this because when they leave me They need to be able to defend Why it takes as long But do you do you get clients? I mean, uh, no, this is every copyrighted listening to this will understand that what you've just been explaining But would you get clients that will go? Okay, if you don't do it in 48 hours, I'm going elsewhere fine. Yeah Bye Yeah, okay um If you walked into a of any five star restaurants that Set down and say they make a souffle Souffle's take time You haven't ordered a head jet and called and made a you made a reservation, but you didn't tell them You wanted the souffle souffle takes an hour and a half two hours I don't know. I'm just doing that number out that work that number out So you sit down you go. I want a souffle, but I need to be out of here in 30 minutes What does the restaurant tell you? No There is power in us saying no and it's hard I'm not saying it's easy but there's power in saying no because We get ourselves in trouble When we say yes the things we know See if you say the client says I need that in 48 hours Then nothing can ever take longer than 48 hours with them.  They're overworked and they're stressed For for what? You know As a copywriter, you know your manager or the CEO of the agency or whatever They're not thinking like this They're thinking we need we need to take this business win this business while they're small or win this first win the low hanging fruit Then we get the big stuff later Then later never comes Let's be totally honest How you how you allow people to treat you at the beginning of a relationship Is how you are going to be treated forever So Let's not even pretend they it ain't low hanging and easy you can My dad's drill instructor was a drill instructor in the army And he used to say it's always easier to go from hard to eat to soft But it's never easy to go from soft to hard So if I start off hard and I explain this to clients, I'm not for you if you think we're mcdonalds If you think you walk in here and get this in two and three minutes, no And clients try and I say well, why do you need this in 48 hours because we're blah blah blah blah blah right really Think about this now You know, and I'm not being funny or aggressive with I'm just saying I understand what you're trying to do, but really so And you have to there's some questions to be asked So if we give you a subpar work And it really is just to fill a void And you get it out there and you piss people off. What have you accomplished? It's better not to say anything than to say the wrong thing As copywriters and art directors and creatives we've lost that part of our business You know people want to be healed of cancer instantly, but what does the doctor tell you? You know, you there's no instant cure Yeah, so Yeah, I get that and and I think It's that compromising that has gotten us into trouble where deadlines are so tight And some agencies only have one copywriter for five art directors That poor copyright is overworked Um, or if they even have a copywriter on staff So We have got to learn to have some standards And to hold our standards It's not easy.  You know what I have repeatedly Gone to the wall about certain things with clients. I've won some I've lost them But we have never starved and I've never laid anyone off and we hadn't gone broke If you part of that part of that fear that these leaders have is an imaginary fear see I'm testing the water the clients are testing the water to see how far they can push us Our excuse my language, but our dumbasses don't realize we're being tested We think we're being mandated too. So we all we must do this to get the business As a client and just I'm gonna ask you this one as a client if you knew you could walk in and bully somebody And get what you wanted at a cheaper rate faster How much respect do you have for that person? That's a rest of the bottom, isn't it?  If they know they they can bully you around If they can beat you down, then I can beat you down on your rate I want copywriters to get paid what they are worth But I want them to work under the best conditions so that they can they can grow their careers And part of that is having a standard that goes, you know what? You're not slapping me around I've had one client. I've had one client actually where that's been a problem I had to stop the meeting and tell him you'll not talk to my people like that And he was worth a lot more money to us than I would care to admit That I would care to admit But I'm like look you can't do this And I have to say it in front of my people They need to understand I got their back And they also need to know there's a standard never in your life. Do you take this abuse from any human being? and in the exchange I could see that the client was testing us And he was a bully But he came to understand I'm not the one you don't bully And he stayed with us for another year or so and bless your heart if you leave after a year. I got my money My people did the work they needed to do but you didn't come in here and talk to them any time the way Copywriters have got to defend the craft as much as their bosses If you know that it's going to take you a little bit of time to do this Don't let somebody else set that deadline and come back and tell you Well, it shouldn't take that long You know, how how long does it take you to to make a cake? You know, yeah, you can make a cake in a microwave But really does anybody want to eat a cake that comes out of a microwave? Are the microwave people going to come after me on that one? You know, um It's so funny that we don't rush things I live in this I live in living in the us We're we're a car country I take my car and to get an oil change. It doesn't come out in 15 minutes It's two or three hours to get an oil change If I do the oil change myself is 20 minutes There's 102 degrees outside And there's no shade And my car is hot. I don't want to crawl up under the car to do this So I take that inconvenience for those of those two or three hours Do I go into that car place and yell and scream that it's taking two or three hours when I know it can be 20 minutes? No But the only people that are supposed to take that abuse on time are copywriters and art directors ad folk It's unrealistic. It's it's to your point. It's a race to the bottom. You know, I practice this as a copywriter Honestly, god, I today agencies and get the job and go. What's this? We need three radio spots and you want them in a week Lightly go and sit down next across my creative director and go. Have you looked at the deadline? It's like what did you know, you know, because think about it creative directors don't always Are so busy at some of these agencies. They're seeing so many briefs coming by. They're just signing the briefs and I'm like But we as copywriters don't understand that they may not have gone over all the details and realized that So I'm going there and I say no They're giving me a week To write 360 second spots and 330 second spots and 310 second spots Did you approve this? Because you do know I'm going to be working. You know, I don't know if I can do this To the look on your creative directors faces. It generally tells you that they didn't realize the scope of what they had signed Yeah And then, you know, then that's incumbent on the creative director to call up the people who submitted the brief and go That that deadline will not be met That's unreasonable If the brief doesn't have the right information and you realize that because you've read the brief and you're trying to make this work And you're you're realizing something's missing Coming on you to contact the person that wrote the brief as a copywriter It's incumbent on you to go to your supervisor as a copywriter and go This is missing something Just like if you are doing this and you discover something totally new and cool that isn't in the brief That the client didn't say but as you were doing the research into the brand you go, oh This is a cool idea And it may make the more money Do you sit on that as a copywriter or do you go to everybody else on the team and go I think we might have we might be going down the wrong path. Here's why Now if the team vetoes you cool go back and do what you you're assigned to do But but also hold on to the idea that whatever you discovered you may actually need to be out there I think We think copywriting is just writing And it isn't it's thinking And it's got to be thinking first on all aspects But but Derek you you're you're you're of a certain age You're a confident guy. You had a confidence building childhood that we spoke about before before we started and You know, what would you say to young copywriters or just getting into it? And then they've got these crazy pressured deadlines on them. Can they really stand up to their creative director and say no, this is I can't do it in this time They they have to say they have to start questioning the deadline Or they'll be slaving away forever You know If if you don't come to me and tell me it's a problem. How do I know as a boss there's a problem? Oh, yeah, I might get you may make me do it But once you tell your boss that this deadline is kind of is too short Now When the boss sees you are frazzled and hopefully and this is a question of whether or not you want to stay at that agency If that if that doing that job takes a toll on you physically and mentally And your boss doesn't give it down It's time to go They will work you to death And we have to come to that conclusion all bosses aren't great bosses But the really good ones and i'm just saying good i'm not even talking about great the good ones go Let me look at that damn deadline again Can I get them more days You know maybe three or four, but it's more days But do they know to get you more days if you've never said anything part of this is Yes, you're young and you want to make a lot of money and you want to do this But guess what to make a lot of money you've got to be You can't be a sheep The sheep don't get paid well So so what what would be your if you had a billboard in every town for like copywriters Young copywriters out there. What would be your message on there? I know i'm putting an instant deadline on you No respect the craft respect the craft nice And in in respecting the craft you learn about the craft you understand what was done in the past You see the future you study about what the future of the craft is copywriting is changing We don't do as much print as we used to do But I think that's a lie I think social media is printed Unless you're on clubhouse Um, or or any of the voiceovers, but a voice voice on platforms, but think about it I cheat on twitter and and anybody that is hearing this follow me on twitter and notice I write headlines on twitter I open I I Consciously think about the opening line of a tweet Because I needed to stop you grab you and pull you in That's a damn hit Yeah, so you got to study the craft See what what works in print? Works in social media What works in radio and tv and let me tell you I I fear the day that good radio copywriters Discover social media They have been working for years in the radio medium really good radio writers With no visual and just sound effects of a voice Yeah Imagine what they can do with some of our social media platforms With long copywriters, and I'm talking about really good long copywriters discover blogging You know, so that's why you have to respect the craft you have to learn, you know It's not New versus old it's taking what's old and making it new again And using it to win So they respect the craft they study it They but they also understand their responsibility As a writer ask questions Be present in the meeting If somebody says do you want to attend the meeting and you really don't want to go? Guess what you've already lost the battle on when that deadline is set Yeah You know be in the meetings. Yeah, it's hard to work Learn the inside workings of team so I'm not going to my account service people Just to complain I go to the account service people go guess what I discovered You know and the account service what what account service person is unhappy that Someone comes to them with something cool about the client You know So we're talking about building relationships But what what we've done is we've put everybody in a silo So the copywriter is over there writing words They should be questioning and listening and and and and talking I sit my account. So I let my account service people sit in on on radio sessions When they don't need to be there I'll let the strategist sit in on radio sessions and tv production And all of that because you got to understand what a copywriter and an art director really do You know, they're sitting on set on tv or radio and they're actually Participating in the creation of the work. They're just not writing it or they should be all of that Even as a junior if you're not Turned into to starting those practices It's hard to do that when you're 20 10 5 10 15 years down the road. Yeah, you are she you know If you never say no You'll always be saying yes Hey, that's biblical I'm sorry, but it's it's it's the I disagree a friend of mine put out a blog the most powerful word in In businesses. Yes, and I I sent him an email going No, the most powerful word in in businesses. No Yeah You know, and I don't explain my nose And if you can learn that that's important if you say no to something don't attach a reason No, but no, but is a negotiation If you don't intend to negotiate on your note, just no Yeah Okay Derek I could talk to you for the whole weekend, but and I just ask you two quick fire questions to wrap it up because I'm taking up so much of your time If advertising left field questions, okay quick fire if advertising we're a food What kind of food is advertising?  Wait a minute. You're not gonna cook you're gonna cook the rice With all this and make it crunchy Yeah, so it's pie. Okay. Nice one big mess And final question. I asked everybody this but I have never been so excited to ask somebody And it's you so There's two options for you. You have to choose to fight between A horse sized duck or a duck sized or 100 duck sized horses Which do you choose to fight and why? Ducks are vicious animals I go with the horses that are duck sized Because I figure after the first 20 or 30 the rest of get the message But if you've ever faced a duck A regular duck side. No, those are mean animals horses.  I'm gonna take the horse sized ducks Very good. Duck sized horses Yeah Derek it's been such a joy to speak to you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. A real gent Oh, yes, go ahead and enjoy Berlin, sir A real rallying cry to all copywriters from Derek Walker there Just to let you know that Derek is one of the many thought leaders along with some legends of advertising in our new course on Copywriting go to 42 courses calm and take a look inside the copywriting course to learn how to write words that sell Thank you so much for listening Until next time