واندوا جذادي والإتقرامي سيد الأخواني هو المنابي جنني أبو عضي سيدنا وعظيمنا وحبيب قلوبنا النبي المؤيد والرسول المسدد والمصطف الأمجد والمحبود الأحمد حبيب إله العالمين أب القاسم محمد صلوات الله وسلامه عليه وعلى آل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين وصحبه المنتجبين ومن سارا على جربهم وتمسك بحديهم إلى قيامي يوم الدين ثم أما بعد برزن سيستز السلام عليكم جميعا ورحمة الله وبركاته يجب أن أعطي أخواني كندولنسي أصحب العصي والزمان عجل الله تعالى فرجا وشريف ومكتب بطريقة إمام صلوات الله ورحمة الله وعلى آل بيته الطيبين ومن سارا على جميعنا وعلى آل بيته الطيبين نحن الحالة ما إردتنا من من من المكان haven't Today ونعود إلى طور قلوبち وعلى إيجاد وخوانيا ورحمة الله وعلى إيجاد وعلى إيجاد وخوانيا ورحمة الله ومتسلس بشكل مننا أن now we have lost touch and base with what religion is supposed to mean and how it can affect and impact on our life ورحمة الله وحالي بخلوة من المواضح وحيث أن الوصول كان في أول مكان ليس لكي يبقى مجموعة ولكن يساعده لكي يجب أن يساعده إلى مجموعة المعرفة ومعرفة المعرفة وليس لكي يجب أن يساعده في حياته ويجب أن أقول هذا ويجب أن أقول هذا إذا كان مجموعة ليس لكي يجب أن يساعده إلى مجموعة المعرفة ويجب أن يساعده في حياته ، فهذا ليس مجموعة ما أحاول أن أقول في another word إذا كان يجب أن يبقى في حياته ويجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن تحاولك مجموعة ويجب أن يبقى في حياته ، فهذا ليس مجموعة لأن مجموعة is a natural flow that should come out of the human being in the most basic of ways لا يجب أن أقوم بأمر شيء right the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم his aura صلى الله عليه وسلم was natural people would come to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and feel the affinity with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم because he did not pretend to be something he's not yet he was the Prophet of Allah yet he was sent by Allah as a guide to mankind leadership in Islam is of the same caliber that people need to approach the leadership in Islam no matter how high that leadership in Islam without having to feel that I need to go to extra decorum and I need to extra doctrines in order to be able to sit with the Alim or to sit with the leader or to sit with the president or no, it should be one and the same like for example we are told in history that the community of Ahlu al Bayt صلى الله عليه وسلم the community at the time of the Prophet used to come to the Prophet and approach him normally people would come and knock at the door of Imam Hussein as if he was an ordinary member of the society he didn't have security guards he didn't have people to lead him he didn't have to lead the visitor into it we didn't have people to take protocols of appointment we didn't have to be called a week in advance an e-mail three weeks before followed up by a fax three weeks none of this existed a person would show up at the doorsteps of Imam Hussein you have no Rasool Allah I have a problem even in the streets there was no question of putting on أنا اتற每ه نشر، اناك ألحان شر einzelوس نهمت نجاح اخرو ، نهو رائق نقر وشو التجاهر والإلعاب في الرئيس ورزصه ال Attack والوضع فdramatic جو بني تركها ك thrust حدث حدث ووضع ووضع اول comes ووضع صلى الله عليه وسلم ، نحن نتكلم في محبسة歷ه حسب الذين يفعلون خلال بيغربي من صلى الله عليه وسلم والعليه والعليه ، أن the Prophet would stop in absolute humbleness. كم أردت أن هذا المرحب أني أخذ لي أنك الآن where that woman stopped him in the streets of Medina. They quoted the Prophet to have bent his back of respect so much أنه كان يرى كما لو كان في رقوم رقوم. لقد كان لديه حلوة لأسفل في السرعة لكي يمكن أن يسأله وإفتحها لأسفله. كثيرا كثيرا كثيرا أن أدان يأتي ومالفتر يستمع لأسفل هذا المن. كثيرا كثيرا كثيرا أن أدان يتمتل ومالفتر من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يجب أن يأتي إلى المسلمين ومسلمين الله ومالذي يأتي إلى المسلمين من اللعين حتى المنطقة يتلسط ومساعدة من المسلمين ويقول خالا أنتي يجب أن أداني إلى المسلمين هل يمكنني أن أسأل بأسفلك لأسفلني أن أداني ومساعدك سأعود لتنقل معك my discussion. أدان يأتي now when she wants to ask me for example a woman all you know is talking you don't know anything else but how to talk so much so that you know I received tonight a caricature as an email two men and one woman representing Adam, Iblis and a woman standing behind Adam speaking to Iblis he's telling him I have decided to teach her how to speak he said Banna you are creating mischief on earth this is our conceptualation of what constitutes a woman a mouthpiece بطرسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم he's so fit to stand and listen to a concern of a woman and it doesn't stop there it goes beyond that because the woman of Medina now received the news that the Prophet stopped for an hour listening to concern of that woman so the woman of Medina the next day come and flock the mosque of the Prophet to offer or to open or to vent their concerns to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and to share with him what their concerns are it's how manute or how small or how grand are the problem or the concern may be but the Prophet was willing to accommodate it Imam Hussein would walk the streets of Medina someone comes to him and says I want you to help me find myself a meal for a day what's a meal five dollars six dollars whatever it is Imam Hussein pulls out somebody gives it to the man the man leaves Imam Hussein calls him back he says is there a problem يبنى رسول الله he said no no no here is another eleven thousand dollars or dinars at the time he said I asked for a meal you're giving me eleven thousand dollars he said yes I remembered because my grandfather رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم I taught that خير العقائما أغنى the best of giving is the giving that makes you independent so that you don't have to roam the streets of Medina so that I can honor your humanity go take the eleven thousand invest them invest them make a business launch yourself into the horizon of becoming self sustained when we want to give someone we give him or we have Parkinson's disease as we are giving him يا أخي give for the sake of Allah don't give for the more you give the more Allah will give give without even anticipating poverty that's what Allah says if you were placed on the treasures of Allah you would hold back out of fear of poverty but the hands of Allah are stretched wide open you are the one in need and he is the one who is self sustained and self sufficient he doesn't feel giving he gives and giving brothers and sisters does not entail money no sometimes giving is more grander than money رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم خلق this and this is what we call religion because it's a natural affiliation with the rest of the world that you are living in رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم says by God you will not be able to satisfy people with your wealth because you don't have enough to go around ولكن سعوهم بأخلاقكم but by Allah you are able to satisfy and sustain people with your ethics and morals you can please every Tom Dick and Harry in the street every أمر جعفر and Ali every whatever with your أخلاق with your mannerism with the way you approach people and talk to them with the way you deal with them with the way you interact with them رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم someone comes to the mosque enters the mosque sits next to the prophet he's a youth doesn't know much about the world doesn't know much about the experiences of adults he comes to the prophet he said يا رسول الله give me permission to commit zina bomb shell everyone in the mosque is fuming and the swords are already out one guy here says يا رسول الله يا رسول الله let me chop his head off the other guy let me put him to death the mentalities of that time that did not know the language of dialogue they only knew the language of killing right let me this let me that رسول الله simply diffuses the whole situation he said brothers hello hey guys did he ask you or ask me الله أكبر is he soliciting permission from you or from me no يا رسول الله sorry he's talking to you okay come closer to me the young boy comes closer to رسول الله he said come come come put your knees next to my knees he's a sinner he's a sinner but the prophet says no no I want you to come closer I want my knees to touch your knees I want to develop that affinity on the basis of my humanity to your humanity tell me something now the prophet is conversing with that young man because he has to go to his level we the family of prophets have been sent by Allah to communicate with people at their level I can't raise you to my level first no I have to come but I have a turban on my head which is 13 17 meters no it doesn't matter come down from your pedestal come down from your pedestal it's not going to take your ego away or take your manhood away from you and if this عمامة is going to be a hindrance to communicate me and you I will take it out even I will take it out let me communicate with you as a brother to a brother tell me something he says yes يا رسول الله he said would you allow it to your sister أستغفر الله good we are getting somewhere right now we are speaking the language of humanity not the language of swords would you allow it to your mother come on يا رسول الله I asked for me leave my family alone would you like it to your aunt the prophet mentions all the محرم the young boy saying no no no the prophet says so do other families do not allow it for their family members simple logical the man says يا رسول الله you know something man you are something I have never seen someone speak so eloquently and softly like you the man looks around and everyone is fuming steam is coming out of their ease because they want to kill him so he raises his hand towards heaven he says اللهم اغفر لي واني محمد ولا تغفر لي احد معنى says oh Allah forgive me and forgive Muhammad don't include these dudes huh these killers رسول الله laughs the Rewire says until his back is bent for those who say رسول الله doesn't laugh huh for those who want رسول الله to be that rigid drone no رسول الله wasn't like that رسول الله makes it an act of charity to smile towards your brother he said does it cost you anything to smile it doesn't then it is an act of charity it's an act of charity when we were starting Islam and we were becoming religious and we were told this is religion the first thing I was told you know what it was don't smile it's not part of a faithful character to smile and then I went to the books of hadith the prophet smiled the prophet laughed Imam Ali joked huh so where did this character that a mu'min doesn't smile or laugh Imam Ali sits at the table with the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم eating kajur dates and the prophet is eating kajur too but every time the prophet eats a kajur he puts the seed in front of Imam Ali right at the end the prophet remarks he said wow علي ابن عبي طالب today is so hungry look how much kajur he ate علي ابن عبي طالب said يا رسول الله it seems you are more hungry than me because you ate the kajur and the seed because there was no seed in front of رسول الله they were allowed to joke but we are not allowed to joke are Maulana jokes man this will put his value down it will put his rank down in which books and in which religion and in which faith and in which standard it does or makes that we need to be approachable we need to be hands on towards so يا رسول the prophet laughs he said you know what let me change a little bit of your dua he said be my guest يا رسول الله he said says oh Allah forgive me and forgive muhammad and forgive my brothers and sisters with me maybe Allah will soften their hearts with your dua don't close what is so huge and abundant which is the rahmah of Allah don't tighten it stretch it stretch it as much as you want because the rahmah of Allah is more elastic than you can ever think more elastic than you ever think our approach towards religion religion is what brothers and sisters Allah doesn't want people to go to hellfire we want to send them there by the dozens where Allah says no no no I did not create hellfire so you can enter it I in fact created hellfire as a deterrent so you will not go towards it سبحان الله where we want to put them by the bucket full you know يا الله everyone makes this like جهنم فشاري قبر الله will babish you and you know the funniest thing the funniest thing that I heard from a mother once telling her daughter to wear hijab the daughter could not affiliate with the concept she's still young she doesn't want she said if you don't put the hijab Allah is gonna swing you from your hair in a fan in jahannam I said the a fan's in jahannam wow let's go man if they are fans in jahannam tomorrow the koreans will turn them into a conditioning so what are we worried about لا حولا ولا قوة الله is that possible is this how we encourage people to come towards Islam and religion that God is gonna swing you from a fan doesn't make sense and that's why I say brothers and sisters that religion is not to be will demand it's not to hinder him but rather to establish a natural bond between him and his creator الله سبحانه وتعالى it is not to debase him but rather to elevate his moral nature it's not there to make him a subject without value you know someone who walks the earth without any means of pride in him positive pride I'm talking about I'm not talking about negative pride when someone comes and asks you what are you say I am a Muslim not a Muslim we are not mozzies we are Muslims say it with pride come out and say and if someone challenges you be proud enough to rebut the challenge because you know what you have you know that religion that you have be proud of it come out and say it don't let people slip away that religion from you which they are fighting you against because they know it's value you know I read a report on the net and God bless Hajj Google due to the wealth of information that this network has that information is at the tip of your finger type anything والله والله if that technology was available أو الشيخ المفيد they would have created wonders in terms of Islamic heritage but these poor they had to travel east and west just to collect a hadith here or there while all these hadith are at the tip of your finger a pentagon produces 500 papers on Islam a week 500 paper studies if this faith is so bad if this faith is so backward why produce 500 study papers on such a faith what's so special about it that I have to understand it from every avenue and every angle and every perspective in order to appreciate it and know what goes in the mind of a Muslim but you know what the studies about Islam that they make it's about the true Islam of Muhammad not the Islam that we have made into MS not the Islam that we have turned into set of rituals that are empty from that connectivity with Allah I'll show you how someone wants to come and do the عمالة القضر what's better than the عمالة القضر can anyone deny that the عمالة القضر are so important yet that very person who is so concerned about the عمالة القضر does not speak to his brother what's the worth of your عمال or does not speak to his cousin or does not honor his mother or does not look after his aunt or does not visit his cousin you think that you standing on the مسلة saying يا الله and saying Allah you want me reach me by reaching your cousin and your mother and your brother that's how you reach me that's how you come to me because it is Allah who said that when he created the womb he called it رحم he called it رحم in Arabic which is derived from what kinship kinship from mercy right what did Allah say to that رحم to that womb he said you are the rahim the diminutive form of mercy or I am the rahman the grand form of mercy whoever connects you connects me or whoever service you service his relationship with me don't come to me on the night of قدر saying امان يا جيب المطر don't don't go reconcile your problems first today go home and see if you have an issue with anyone pick up the phone don't lower your pride a little bit here lowering pride is good huh humbling oneself even if you are wrong even if the other party is wrong doesn't matter doesn't matter what makes you a human being is when you begin to become a human being no one is born a human being yes you are born in the species of a human being but in order to become a true human being the moment of your humanity begins from the moment of your giving and sharing not from the moment of your birth the worth of a human being is from the moment that he gives not from the moment he is born for example those who celebrate their birthdays I don't have any problem with people celebrating birthdays but those who celebrate their birth someone celebrating his birthday at the age of 70 I stand there and ask this guy not him he has to ask himself what have I offered humanity in 70's 35 years on social benefit right the other 25 years that I started I never even went to college I was just clubbing and what have you the last 10 years of my life I was just abusing my wife and children yet I'm celebrating the golden jubilee of my existence what are you celebrating what are you celebrating celebrate your worth when you are able to give and share this what you celebrate شيخ العلام المجلسي or الصدوق one of them I'm not sure when he became baler he celebrated his first birthday Subhan Allah he was asked are you celebrating your birthday how come you are شيخ الطائفة you are the sheikh of the madhab he said yes I will because I'm so jubilant at this moment he said why he said because before I became baler I was a non entity now God recognizes me as an entity Allahu Akbar now I can relate to the cause of my existence of course I'm going to celebrate my birthday because today is the day I am born because now I can give now I am a person who has an entity and can be recognized so we say that religion does not come to debase you on the contrary it comes to elevate you and elevate your moral worth it is not to deprive you of anything useful or to burden you or to oppress your qualities but to open for you an inexhaustible treasures of correct thinking and sound action Islam does not take anything from you brothers religion does not come to curb you no if it takes something from you it gives you a thousand other avenues but you know what it gives you this is the amazing thing about Islam is that it takes what is unuseful and it gives you what is useful the head of the French army in Syria when Syria was under occupation by the French invited a group of alims for Iftar during Ramadan so when he came in in order to tease him in order to squeeze his morality and his respect he ordered that alcohol will be served on the table Ramadan who people wearing turbans and you are ordering alcohol on the table so he came his wife his daughter that the the head of the army was sitting down he turned to the chef he said why is it that you don't drink alcohol when alcohol is made from grapes so what is made from grapes if it turns into juice there is no difference one and the same and he cracked the biggest law the sheikh looks at him and he says you know what your wife is sitting here and your daughter is sitting here your daughter is made from your wife you can go to your wife would you go to your daughter they are one and the same they made from one another why is it that this you can go to and this you can go to because this is useful and this is unused that's Islam that's religion it comes to make things useful to you so you can use it and abandon what is not useful it does not take something from you simply because God wants to make things difficult because God does not contradict himself he is the one who said in the Quran God does not wish to make religion difficult on you right? no it is easy simple سيد محسن الحكيم when he wanted to perform his Hajj he has never been to Hajj when he wrote his رسالة عمالية you know the book of edicts it was so to the point and so strict that when he went to perform Hajj he couldn't according to his تقليب subhan Allah he couldn't do it he had to do to his son who was a مشتهد he is a grand marja of his time why? because now he is with reality his face to face with reality he knows that Allah does not wish to make things difficult to you he didn't say but this is my opinion he couldn't perform it Allah says that God wants to make things difficult for you it is not to confine you brothers and sisters to narrow limits of fanaticism either my opinion or my way or Faisal road or the highway no man sit in dialogue sit and let's talk even if I disagree with you on a point sit and let's talk maybe I can learn from you and you can learn from me maybe we can share ideas together even if you were more learned than me because the prophet said رب حاملي فرقهن إلا من هو أفقه من there is someone who is holding a piece of information towards someone who is more learned than him but that more learned than him does not have this particular point of information that is missing so he will utilize it he will benefit from it Imam A.A. in another narration says what he says من شاور الناس شاركهم في أقولهن whosoever consult people will add part of their intelligence to his intelligence he adds part of their brains part of their mind to their mind why because he is stroking into their way of thinking don't narrow yourself to limits of fanaticism this is my way you don't follow my way see you in your you know aunt's house the Arabs when they say aunt's house means descending to jail okay either my way or your aunt's house you're going to jail you're going to hellfire no no you know what so amazing the approach of Allah in terms of leaving room for dialogue that he had a dialogue with Iblis does Allah need to have a dialogue with Iblis brothers and sisters but he knows him when he comes to him and he says why didn't you prostrate before Adam why would Allah ask him he wants Iblis to present his point right he says you created me from fire and you created him from clay well your excuse is lame it doesn't make sense and he consider your position he said no I am better than him Allah says the question is not about who is better the question is about who will submit that's the question I have no problem between you and him I have no problem between you or Adam the problem is who is going to submit and when I issue an order I want people to comply when I say something put a full stop don't put a question mark right put a full stop don't put a question mark Iblis put a question mark but Allah did not condemn him straight away he asked him he dialogue with him and Allah says if I was willing and I'm the creator and the sovereign owner of this world I was able to dialogue with Iblis what stops you or human from dialogue with one another why why limit yourself to your own ideas to your own limitations walla our imams were so open to everyone and I quoted in day one what happened with Imam Ja'far Sadiq and Abu Hanifa when Abu Hanifa came and said to Imam Al-Sadiq what do you think about this issue he said well Abu Hanifa you in Iraq say this and the people of Hijaz say this and the people of Basra say this and the people of Egypt say this and we Ahlulbayt say this take it or leave it it's up to you you know what Abu Hanifa then says he says by God this has always been my opinion Abu Hanifa the Imam is speaking to the Imam he's saying you know what I've always held the view that the most learned among people are those who know about their differences not the one that says this is my way but what do you know about my I don't know but you're wrong hello man and you didn't even ask me you don't even know what my opinion but you're wrong have listened to me you're wrong you know like we migrate to the west we live for 30 years we make wealth we experience what it means to be a human and then when someone asks us what do you think about the west شيطان عجيب and our countries are Rahman سبحان الله سبحان الله the one that does not respect you the one that does not honor you the one that does not even give you status does not and you know what Imam Ali says I'm not a pro-western person I'm not advocating west I'm advocating truth wherever the truth comes I am more worthy of it than anyone else and you are right Imam Ali when he was asked about which is your country what constitute your country in order to kill this patronism among his followers that I am from Ben Kamim or I am from Benny Arnawat or I am a Hashemite or I am a Quraishite or I am what he says no no no the best of countries is the country that offers you service and honors you as a human being خير الأوطان محملة the best of countries that provide for you Imam Zayn el-Abideen said it is not part of fanaticism to love your countrymen no no no it's okay I'm living in London all of a sudden I know the new arrival of Pakistani family oh I feel good because they're from my country fine Imam Zayn el-Abideen no problem he says but fanaticism is when you prefer your countrymen over someone else though your countrymen are bad and the other is good that's fanaticism that is being fanatic and being patriotic in the wrong way as you know the Arabs say me and my brother against my cousin and me and my cousin against the enemy if I don't have a brother but there is no question in the whole formula whether who is right or wrong doesn't matter me and my brother against my cousin even my cousin is right I'll kill him amazing and Allah سبحانه و تعالى draws to us an analogy of truth in the Quran when we even deal with those who hate us with those who don't like us he says he says to make you unjust no don't allow the anomosity and the hatred of others towards you make you unjust no you should be just for it is more righteous in the eyes of Allah even if someone doesn't like me the principle and the maxim of justice should not be determined on the basis of whom I'm dealing with it should be determined on the principle that I believe in I am a just person I don't compromise in order to weaken my principle of justice when it suit me and when it doesn't suit me no I don't twist religion like when it comes to divorce and this is something we are having so much problem with it what does God say about divorce he says in the Quran don't leave her hanging she doesn't know whether she's married or divorce why because there is a dispute and then the man says what to his wife walla I'm gonna leave you hanging until you die it's like he is rebutting God himself God says don't leave her hanging he says I will leave you hanging why because he wants to twist religion why he wants to twist religion because he doesn't want to pay the mahar because if he divorces her he has to pay the haq right so he will coerce her coerce her tighten her kill her until she said listen man I don't want your haq just divorce me okay now this is unjust this is unjust and Allah says don't use religion and twist it when it suits you and when it doesn't أمير المؤمنين gives us an amazing bill of rights and bill of justice صلوات الله وسلام علي I will continue my talk on the question of religion over the next insha'Allah 7 days because we have to do some massage أمير المؤمنين was visited by his brother عقيل one day عقيل had fallen under debt he says يا أمير المؤمنين I'm your brother I have fallen under debt due to some bad investment and I have fallen in debt to the value of about 120,000 dinars أمير المؤمنين says you know what I get paid a year 12,000 do you want them take I don't get paid more than 12,000 take them or leave them he says يا أمير المؤمنين I'm telling you I'm under 120,000 dollars or whatever worth of debt you giving me 12,000 what they gonna do he says so what do you want me to do he says the treasury is under your command سبحان الله the treasury of the Muslims is under your command one order from you one order to the people in the treasury one small letter you know تي عقين ابن عبد المطالب or ابن أبو طالب 120,000 because he's the brother of أمير المؤمنين who's gonna question you no one أمير المؤمنين it was a cold night there was some charcoal in front of him you know fire he grabs a piece of wood he says to Aqeen open your head open your head he says yeah أمير المؤمنين you wanna burn your brother he said you didn't think about burning your brother in the hereafter he said you didn't think about the consequences of أمير المؤمنين sanctioning a check a check behind Muslims you know Muslims back so that he will satisfy your debt this is something that أمير المؤمنين will not tolerate or do أمير المؤمنين سلام الله عليه even with his killer عبد الرحمن ابن مولجه was a and honest human being صلوات الله وسلام علي he would not see it fit in himself that أمير المؤمنين صلوات الله وسلامه عليه would be lying on the lap of Al-Hasan while his blood is coming out of his head who's suffering the very ailment and the poison that he was struck with on his head by his very own killer عبد الرحمن ابن مولجه when he saw that عبد الرحمن ابن مولجه was brought in front of علي ابن أبي طالب صلوات الله وسلام علي with his hand tied behind his back أمير المؤمنين realized that the cuffs were tightened on his hand that they were so tight it began to create scratches on his wrist أمير المؤمنين said to Imam Hassan sit me upright let me sit right despite untighten your slave untighten him and in as much as you have offered me food offer him of the same food this is علي ابن أبي طالب that offer him that milk that you are offering me the same milk that was oozing out of the strike that علي ابن أبي طالب sustained سلام الله عليه he offered the same glass of milk to his killer and he said to him أبن مولجه was علي ابن أبي طالب about room to you الله أكبر ما أعظمك يا علي how great are you علي that you are conversing with your killer and you are saying to him was I a bad ruler to you that I deserve to be struck by you at that moment ابن مولجم cries and he says by Allah أمير المؤمنين you are the fairest of the fairest you have to admit to the truth you have at that moment أمير المؤمنين turns to his two sons and speak to them صلوات الله و سلام علي and he says what to them he says أو حسن و خسين remains steadfast in piety resign yourself to the will of God never aspire to anything which is beyond your reach always be truthful and merciful towards the offer and help the poor and the needy and try to live in the world in a way which may help it become better stop the tyrant from his oppression assist the afflicted and act upon the commandments of Allah and do not put off by any obstacles do not be deterred by the obstacles that you will face here and there no, no, not at all and then Imam Hussein Imam Ali turns to Imam Hussein because Imam Ali knows what can happen to Imam Hussein صلوات الله و سلام علي he says أو حسن I as if I can see the strike of your name it is as if I am present on that day when the killers will come and they will cut your throat or sun it is as if I am there and Imam Hussein you know what he says to Abu Abdullah when he was passing away after he drank that poison that his wife gave him جعدة or جدع her name he says او أبو حسن لا يوم كيوم يكيا أبا عبد الله there is no day like your day او أبو عبد الله when you face the killers face to face even when you face your killers face to face you will be crying for them او حسن when Zainab comes out of her tent and she says she sees Imam Hussein crying she says أبو عبد الله why are you crying you've already left you've already lost your brothers your children your companions no one no one made you cry when you saw them now dying in front of you what makes you cry at this moment of time when no one is left except the woman of the household of the Prophet he said او زينب I am so concerned about these people entering hellfire on my account I don't want to be the cause of these people entering hellfire on my account that is not my duty in life and then أمير المؤمنين صلى الله عليه وسلم this is a child I am entrusting to your king he will represent me on the day of your supreme sacrifice and will lay down his life in defending you now Imam Ali speaking to أبو الفضل he is saying to Imam Hussein I entrust this child in your hand because he will be my representative on that day then Imam Ali turns to أبو الفضل he says what أبس my child I know your unbounded love for Hussein when that day comes consider no sacrifice to great for Hussein and his children Imam Ali breathes his last saying to his children I make you my representative be conscious of Allah and make sure you organize your affair Imam Ali's soul departs when Hussein fell down on the plains of Karbala زينب rushed to him when he was breathing his last عمر ابن سعد look towards Imam Hussein زينب looked him in the eye she said عمر ابن سعد يقتل ابن بنت رسول الله وانت تنظر إلي she said عمر ابن سعد well the grandson of رسول الله be killed while you are watching him عمر ابن سعد shed his tears for Imam Hussein look what he says instead of putting stop to evil he says to his henchmen isn't there anyone among you who will go down and relieve him of his suffering and kill him ten men go down to عبي عبد الله سلام الله ten men among them the shimmer who goes down to Imam Hussein but you know when you look at this okay they killed Imam Hussein سلام الله I will conclude I want to ask a question the question to any sane person in the world why then after you kill the grandson of رسول الله you order ten men to walk on the body of Imam Hussein with the hooves of your horses why what justifies the ten horsemen will run up and down the body of Imam Hussein سلام الله وسلامه علي إنا لله وإنا إليه راجع وسايعلمو الذين ظلمو أيامو قلبيني قليبون بردس and sisters لتستن to Allah with sin see heart calling on him for those who have asked us to pray for them on this night and every night for those who are suffering from problems for those who are sick for those who are going through difficulties for the emancipation and forgiveness of our sin let us turn to Allah and cry out أمان يجيبون مطر إذا دعا ويكشفوا السوء together brothers and sisters أمان يجيبون مطر إذا دعا ويكشفوا السوء أمان يجيبون مطر إذا دعا ويكشفوا السوء أمان يجيبون مطر إذا دعا ويكشفوا السوء أمان يجيبون مطر إذا دعا ويكشفوا السوء بحق محمد وآل محمد وبحرمة الفاتحة مع الصلوات الله وسلم وعليكم السلام أبسلوتي أفهم أعتقد أن one of the easiest approaches to this is to understand the severity and the consequences of being judgmental of others because الله سبحانه وتعالى and the Prophet he says in سورة الفجرات for example يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا يغتب بعضكم بعضا ولا تجسس ولا يغتب بعضكم بعضا أحبوا أحدكم أن يأكل لحم أخيه ميتا فكريه تموت the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says that you should not put yourself in a position and implicate yourself in a position where you suspect and you uninformedly blame gossip slander your brothers in faith or your brothers when you relate to a chance that if you do you are actually making an accusation because it's not a fact and then Allah سبحانه وتعالى says would any of you allow himself to eat the flesh of his brother alive would you be in a position to cut a piece of your own brother's flesh and eat it surely it is detestable so I think the onus on educating ourselves primarily that do I need to be in that position when Imam Ali for example says yesterday I mentioned that Ali solicit 70 different excuses on behalf of your brother before you begin accusing him now we accuse him 70 times before we solicit one excuse for you which is a double standard what we need to do is that I think often we face the dilemma that this is the status quo this is what everyone does what is going to make me so different to everyone else that is in fact what is going to make you different that you must challenge the status quo you must take initiative and be the sacrifice even if it had to come to that far the sacrifice of correcting people's perception and understanding about what they perceive something normal يعني for example the Prophet and that's how people perceive things normal brother the Prophet ﷺ goes to a a symmetry and he says the owners of these two graves are being tormented and they are being tormented for something that is not major but not major in what in people's perception so they said for what reason are they being tormented يا رسول الله they said one of them was always backbite people and slander them to us slandering and backbiting this is not a big deal we are chilling brother or we are chillaxing right chillaxing يعني we are chilling and relaxing you put them together it becomes chillaxing so we are chillaxing what's the big deal if we said something about this brother here and it's the norm in fact if you go to a a gathering and you don't gossip you'll find that this gathering is dry يعني it doesn't have any taste to it we have to you know eat at each other's blood and flesh no رسول الله ﷺ once in the month of Ramadhan in regard to this issue he called two ladies to come to his house and he sent Bilal to call them initially he was told Bilal go take these two buckets give each woman a bucket and tell them to throw up and open their fast and tell them to open their fast your rosa is not accepted so they went the man went Bilal he went to this woman he said رسول الله says open your fast your rosa is bottom فعوز بالله how can we open our fast this is before Allah we are fasting so Bilal goes to the prophet the prophet summons them he says come come come alright you don't want to open your rosa okay then I will ask you now I want you to throw up in this bucket now throw up the Rewire says they did they threw up blood with flesh of meat in the bucket it's a true Rewire they were shocked رسول الله ﷺ says see why I told you to open your rosa they said yes yes yes now we understand because we couldn't leave one woman in Medina we didn't speak about her she's this and she's that her hair is ugly I don't know I don't know which hairdresser she goes to what's it to you what hairdresser she goes to leave people alone but change has to come from within if I see the community doesn't affiliate with that let me at least affiliate if I see that judgment is being passed on someone unfairly I should withdraw from the whole gathering as a form of protest to what is being happening people will not repeat it how does sin spread in the world brother by consent approval of the rest of the community someone comes introduces something that is not right people turn a blind eye he will do it again he will do it the third time the fourth time it becomes the norm it becomes the norm and how that is how it grows here there is a very interesting question have I satisfied my here there is a very interesting question that talks about commemorating the 40th of our loved ones but the way that the question has come it says that we have been told and I don't know where this is coming from this is the first time I've heard it or the second time I've heard it is that when we are commemorating the 40th of our dead ones we should not make it on the 40th out of respect to the Imam so we should make it 38 39 we celebrate once and then after the 40th passes we celebrate another 40th out of respect to the Imam because only the Imam should be observed or should be honored with the 40th day of practice of commemorating the Imam where do we have a reference to this in شريعة beat me if I know beat me if I know I don't know no شريعة no no مدهب no school of thought no nothing says that you should have 240 you know the logic says if you are having 240 one before one after that means this guy is more honored than the Imam himself right in order to skip the 40th now you are doing you are doing two instead of one يعني that even the concept of 40th where did it come from it came from the fact that جابر even عبداللانصاري decided when he heard that Imam Hussein had been martyred in Karbala he decided to come and visit and he was among the first people to visit Imam Hussein and it happened to be on the 40th where he met with the caravan of Ahlulbayt upon the return from Sham at that moment according to history and they met there and they you know spoke to one another and that were the commemoration of the 40th come from but there is nothing in شريعة to say even if I don't commemorate the 40th of my loved one am I doing something against شريعة there is no question there is no question you know you want to commemorate commemorate but don't make it a ritualistic commemoration as if if I don't do it am no longer a follower of the school of thought or I am not a person to be reckoned with as a follower of Ahlulbayt Salam okay someone in the yes yes okay I don't want to talk about the detail but I will talk about the sorry I will talk about I've been told to make my answers brief something I don't know how to do please be sorry but I will do my level best the Imam was specifically told by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that in order to keep intact the unity of Muslims when it comes to the question of your Imam right I'm talking about from my perspective يعني when I say my perspective I'm talking about the perspective of the school of Ahlulbayt صلى الله عليه وسلم with all your respect to other schools of thought when I speak from that perspective I'm speaking as to what I believe the Prophet called the Imam صلى الله عليه وسلم and then this can be verified from books of history biographies wherever the case may be if your Imam is gonna cause a rift among the Muslims after my demise and Islam is still fresh and you in the minds of people you must advocate unity and not advocate this unity among the Muslims and that's why the Imam himself said لأسل من or لأسل من meaning what I shall surrender what is mine in lieu of keeping the unity of Muslims intact this is the statement of Imam Ali not my statement now having said that in order to keep the unity among the Muslims and I know that I am more worthy of that post of Imam than others from my own perspective from what the Prophet has told me right should I then isolate myself if I want to keep that unity or be part and parcel of that setup until I am in a position to correct it and rectify it and that is the position that Amir al-Mu'mineen took he did not consent to the government being just or not or right or whatever the case may be we're not talking about that I'm talking about the fact that Amir al-Mu'mineen سلام الله عليه saw himself in a position that if I feel that the situation is unjust the situation is not right I must still participate in the system at hand until I am in a position to correct it and veer it back to the right course and that is what the Imam was trying to teach us throughout the course of history that we should never go underground we should not form our ghettos we should not shun ourselves from the rest of the community we should be part and parcel expose ourselves expose our thinking participate in the system at hand that we live under so that we can gain momentum and understanding and respect in the communities we live in for the sake of keeping that unity intact right and if we do that then surely we would promote the Madhab of Ahlulbayt in a better dimension and if anyone wants to question this argument of the Imams then they should question the very argument that Imam al-Mousar رضى سلام الله عليه was accepted in the government of Ma'amoon right why did Imam al-Rıza accept the government of Ma'amoon was a Ma'amoon what Amir al-Mu'mineen he was not Amir al-Mu'mineen Ma'amoon was as tyrant as any of the tyrants of Bani Umayyah and Bani Al-Abbas right yet Imam Mousar رضى wanted to show us that even when you have a so called tyrant government right if you are unable to remove it join it to correct it so that you can have a say in what is going wrong this is Amir al-Mu'mineen أنهي على المنكر Amir al-Mu'mineen is not sitting at home waiting for the Imam عجل الله تعالى فرجو الشري to come and change the whole world for us and make it easy for us you know the Imam is coming I'll chill at home you'll chill at home and the Imam has to do the house the hard work for you no these are examples living examples so that we can move forward in the life setup that we find ourselves in next okay any questions from the audience before I go to the list of questions okay سلام I do understand that men have the option of variety of their wife for their satisfaction but men want women to accept them as they are but they don't accept women as they are men always joke about how women especially marriage or married one I think live their life can't men accept family life as a matter of joy and be in a state of acceptance rather be wishful of bachelorhood forever please throw some light wallah this is the best lecture I've ever heard in my life what throw light I'm gonna this is the best lecture I will invite the sister to continue deliberate on that I have no comment honest to God I'm mesmerized by such eloquence but I will add one thing to this the one thing I will add to this is the following why can't marriage life be as joyful as bachelor life if not better right and I said two days ago I don't know if I said it here I said when God regulates your life by the medium of marriage as opposed to the medium of fornication when he says fornication is haram and marriage is halal that means Allah is regulating not restricting so if I want to explore my fantasies then let me explore my fantasies in marriage right and not even when it is marriage say I'm not used to this then you are pushing me to bachelor life right women and men must understand that what they need to make inside the home should be at the apex of sexual satisfaction within the parameters of religion and this is your right Allah says نساءكم حرثوا لكم فأتوا حرثكم أننا شئتون of course your men are the same don't explore your fantasies outside explore it inside it's only befitting to do something like that what does it mean when people say that heaven lies under the mother's feet in what context does this fall under in the context that the mother first should be an ideal mother towards her children in the context that a mother should art her love to her children to appreciate and understand that jannah do really lies under her foot because you know what the prophet says صلى الله عليه وسلم in one of his hadith and this hadith should send shivers down each and every one of our spines he says for those who understand Arabic may Allah's mercy be withdrawn from parents I don't want to use the word curse because the word cursing in Arabic means according to the Quran withdrawing Allah's mercy you know why I don't want to use the word curse because the word cursing in our terminology does not mean that it means a swearing word but if you know we use in that context that Allah uses no problem but in our community that is not the meaning of I'm swearing at your dad that's what I'm swearing you know so Allah here he says the prophet says may Allah withdraw his mercy from a set of parents who are the cause of their children rebelling against them don't be as a parent the cause of your children rebelling against you no be there as your parents so your children can appreciate you as a parent and then they will understand the meaning of what it means to but wallah the parents to take the liberty for example of always using that you know rocket launches wallah I will not be pleased with you bomb mom I want to I'm not pleased with you dad I'm not pleased with you if you don't change the couch from red to orange I'm not pleased with you يا حبيبي my wife lights orange why is it that I have to change it to your liking you don't live with me at home dad with all due respect to you this is not challenging the authority of the dad but the dad should not put himself in that position the prophet says don't put yourself in that position so that your son will rebel against you you know son I don't like the shades of your lounge room they don't make sense I've never heard of blue going with brown the odd colors but dad I love brown and blue will change it or no inheritance لا حاولا ولا حاولا over shade and a color of of don't be in that position now when parents as you look the prophet sorry where is brother Ali I have to these questions they're not allowing me brother Ali I have to go into a lecture I alright with your permission and the permission of the audience please this is a learning experience for all of us the prophet a man comes to the prophet with a young child 14 years old complaining to the prophet about the recalcitrant attitude of his son you understand the word عقوب عقوب he's a rebel he said he doesn't listen to me he doesn't honor me he does not the less goes down the prophet is about to speak then he wants to find out the young child jumps in he said يا رسول الله I hate to cut you off but I want to ask you something my father is asking for his rights from me do I have a right on him very logical رسول الله says بلا of course my son he said رسول الله I plead to you to tell me what are my rights he said first and foremost your dad should marry a good mother for you يعني the right of the child begins before his birth not up يعني the prophet says marry someone good marry someone religious marry someone that will help you through life marry someone that affiliate with your ambitions and you affiliate with their ambition marry someone that is natural marry someone that يعني who is not blonde and brunette for the sake of her eyebrows and whatever no no no marry for the right reason the son says yeah okay what's next يا رسول الله anything else he said yes and he should give you a good name يعني he should honor you he should honor you when he gives you a name he is honoring you he said next يا رسول الله he said he should teach you the son is nodding he says what's your problem he said firstly my father married a very bad woman no respect you know no sense of motherhood nothing secondly he said he called me a beetle would anyone call his son a beat an insect جعلان he called his son imagine someone calling himself a beetle not those beetles of Great Britain beetle that insect that walks you know beetle لا إله إلا الله and then he says and the third one he said not once he sat with me and taught me a word what did the prophet say he said to that man he said you became very consultant towards your son before he became very consultant against you we need to reciprocate rights and obligation brothers having said that of course the position of mother is very high in the eyes of Allah and that's why the prophet says literally literally if this reply is authentic and correct generalize at the feet of mothers يعني if basically you go to your mother and you say mom tonight girls boys go to your mom and say left your feet left left and please just put them in my lap why because I literally want to sit in general I literally want to sit in general and that's what that meaning of the Halil طيب is satan a jinn yes he cannot be an angel because Allah said إن إبليس كان من الجني ففسق عن أمر ربلي meaning إبليس was from the family of jinn and he turned against Allah's order he is not an angel yes he used to worship in the company of angel but he is not an angel can he eat food made by Hindus oh parises is it haram to fast when on holiday during Ramadan is it haram to fast when on holidays during Ramadan what is that supposed to mean I don't understand يعني if you are on holiday it's better to fast it's twice the merit that you should fast but if you are on holiday it doesn't mean you have a holiday from fasting as well you have holiday from school but not holiday from fasting question of eating food from Hindus or parises I don't want to go into the debate or dwell in it too much it depends on your marja of Khalil what he says about the tahaara or non tahaara of these people how can life be called a gift when it is full of worries full of worries from our perspective we make life miserable life is beautiful in Safin a man was condemning life life is this life is that life is condemned why are you cursing life when Allah made life the cultivating land of His rightful servant it is what you make of it you wanna make it miserable you make it miserable you wanna pick a fight everyday with the labour that's your problem you want to pick up a fight with your wife it's your problem if the wife wants to pick up a fight with her husband it's her problem but if you sit and discuss and dialogue and come to a common term together yes, life has challenges but not worries because if you look at a challenge from a positive point of view that challenge will help you become a better human being because without challenges you cannot grow and develop I said the question of water leave that water unchallenged here at this podium for two months you come back can you drink it? no but tip it everyday and tip it back into the glass and keep doing this for the course of two months can you drink it after two months or not yes you can because it's being challenged the position of the water is being changed tip played with it is not the same water it's constantly moving and you as a human being God wants you to constantly move and the only way God will make you move if he challenges you but you determine the severity of the challenge God gives you the challenge how do you deal with the challenge is what makes life miserable or good right? tell me something if in our standard life was miserable when Imam Ali was struck on his head what should have he cried out? he should have cried whoa, what a miserable life this is that after all these sacrifices I also get struck on the head right? instead what did he say? he said by Allah the world of the universe the glory of the universe I have become triumph and jubilant first of all first first that challenge gave me an entry into heaven positiveness look at things from a positive nature I think there is more if we deliberately commit a big sin knowing it was wrong and did it many times how can we ask God for forgiveness if it took God's yeast to forgive Adam what hope is this for us? now I want to really go into it this is what God wants you for God wants you to sin really? let's all sin then tonight brother no no no I didn't mean that I mean that if you happen to sin and you repeat your sin look what Allah says say all my servants who extravagantly sinned against themselves extravagantly more than once extravagantly you are continuously indulging in what? in sinning do not despair of Allah's mercy the ayah doesn't end there is a continuation because God forgives 30% of your sins no 50% no 75% no 99.99% God is still not satisfied إن الله يغفر الزنوبة جميعا God forgives all sins not 99.99% like our elections no no everyone that comes to the elections always wins by 99.99% سبحار الله anyone that comes anyway Allah says no no 100% then what? then listen to this a man this is Rewire in either وسائل الشيعة or one of the other book and this Rewire has also been authenticated and mentioned in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim and the books of our Sunni brothers and it is also in our books and kills 99 people comes to someone who is religious he says I've killed 99 people I've decided to repent بانا what are you talking about get out of here man and you are the fuel for Hellfire he said is that the case he killed you if that is the case he killed 100 the man, quest and thirst for tawba and repentance is in his heart he wants to repent he went to a scholar he said look I've killed 100 people and I want to repent he said and what stops you from turning to Allah and asking for his repentance he said really? after 100 people he said yes but you have to do one thing he said what? he said the city you are staying in it's an evil city leave it change the environment change the company of friends you know sometimes we want to die but we still want to hang out with the same group we still want to go you know barbecue tonight I don't know what tonight we still want to hang with the same people and chill with the same people يا أخي you want to change change the setup of course there's nothing wrong with barbecue tonight I don't know the place I'm just don't think I have an issue with it لا أستغفر الله please I don't want to break the man's income go صلى الله عليه وسلم يا محمد so what happens he goes he said change the environment but Allah will accept he said Allah will accept your thought and this is hadith from Rasool Allah the man moved with the intention that he wants to go to Allah on the way he died on the way he died Allah sent angels to take him but he sent two groups one group to take him لأنه يقتلوا 100 الناس ويأخذوا الناس ويأخذوا الناس إلى جنة لديهم محاولة من يأخذهم الله سمع جبرايل لتأثير بينهم يقول لديهم طريقة ما هو طريقة؟ يقول لديهم طريقة إذا كنت أفضل إلى المدينة الأخيرة دعوا أن أخذ عداب إذا كنت أفضل إلى المدينة الأخيرة دعوا أنه يأخذ أقل الإنسان من الرحمة الله يحرى إلى المدينة ويأخذها الله يريد أن يتعرف المشاهدين عندما يأخذهم المدينة إتفضل They measure the distance They found the distance to the city of Rahmah closer The angels were jubilant that they want someone that came back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى Don't despair الله يتوقف في أخر هدية أنت تعلم what Allah says and he tells the prophet to inform us he says all my servant if you approach me a pen span i will approach you an arm span or if you come to me walking i will reciprocate by coming to you running this is Allah don't despair another hadith and i'll conclude all the prophet says by Allah i have been told by ar-Rahman ar-Raheem the the majestic the the order of the the prophet is praising Allah he said i have been informed by Allah that if your people don't sing and repent i will change him with a group that will come to sin and repent so i could hear them calling and this is the god that we want to relate to not the god that wants to barbecue people and make them tandoori chicken god does not have an oven for tandoori chicken call jahannam brothers and sisters now Allah he has the rahmah which is as vast as the سماوات and the arab the four the four خليفة of islam are they a reality they are as real as this cup of water of course there are reality i mean they exist to do they govern why do shea muslim not accept this fact re charity what is the actual requirement zakat versus homes what is the annual calculation okay let's are they a reality yes they are a reality and they govern and they wear at the time of Imam Ali and Imam Ali was part of their government and he participated in their government all right fine are we going to debate the question of the خليفة after the prophet on the basis of what happened or on the basis of an academic research which is unbiased on the part of both groups in order to find out what did the prophet want that's all i want to say i want to say let us as muslim leave our biases aside let us bring our proof and debate the question academically not with the flex of the muscles no that is not debated who is stronger physically i can kill you and you can kill no yes they came after the prophet yes but was their rule after the prophet in the way the prophet envisaged imama to be let us examine what we have in history and move forward and stop this bloodshed and blood path between us as muslim because it's not going to get us anywhere on the country it's going to end our relationship expand the split between us and our enemies i will assure you are sitting day and night laughing at us at both of us for what we are doing to one another in that regard as far comes and زكاة is concerned for the school of thought agree that comes and zaka are a requirement يعني our sunni school of thought does not say that comes doesn't exist there is a different interpretation of the question of comes in regard to its application our sunni brothers say that the application of comes is only applicable when it comes to the booties of war you go to a battle you want those booties from your enemies when it is an imposed war on you whatever you get and collect from the spoils of this war fifth 20 percent of these spoils will go towards charity and the sadat of اهل البيت even even among the sunni school of thought there is we say no the question of comes means فعلموا انما غنمتم you should know that whatever you gain is not restricted to the question of the spoils of war because the word غنمتم is a generic term means anything you earn is subject to 20 percent tax when it comes to the question of زكاة our sunni brothers say زكاة is on everything that you earn we said no زكاة specifically says according to the Quran is what is a crew when there is the نصاب يعني there is there actual percentage of something that has reached when it flows beyond that particular percentage you have to pay two and a half percent of it or whatever the ratio it is like in every 40 sheep you give one sheep in every farming so it is to do with cattle herds and farming and silver and gold if you deal with this does a Shi'a have to pay homes yes he has to pay homes and he cannot escape paying homes on these things so the subtle differences in the انتفاقية of the lord does not make us hate or break each other's back there is a study that has been made by a very renowned scholar and of the Shi'a's in south liban on his name is شيف محمد جواد مغنية he wrote a book say called it jurisprudence according to the five school of thought where he makes a comparison between the five school of thought abu haneeta مالك احمل ابن حنبل and شافعي and the school of thought of shea he concluded what did he conclude what are the similarities between the five school of thought يعني امام جعفر صالح if you didn't agree with abu haneeta it will agree with شافعي if you didn't agree with شافعي it will agree with مالك if you didn't agree with مالك it will agree with احمل the school of thought if they don't agree with one another they will agree with امام جعفر as well what did he find this study to be 85% to 95 to 90% similarities between the school of thought in there jurisprudential issues now we're gonna talk about the major issues of امام and let if we can agree on 85 it would be ludicrous not to sit and talk اه it does not make sense not to sit and talk then if we have 85% similarities between one another on the question of jurisprudence how is it possible that 85% to 90% similarities and we are at each other's throat i don't understand i really don't understand what more similarities not a single denomination under the sun even you know the protestants and the catholics the catholics and the seven-day adventists the seven-day adventists and the jahava's witnesses jahava's witnesses and god knows what church of england they don't even have 40% similarities not even 40% similarities not one single bloodshed among them except in island between the catholic and the protestant you know and these people have huge differences and we can't find it in ourselves to sit at the same table leave our differences and they just talk about these issues so that we can reconcile can you clarify again what is fanaticism i said fanaticism is not not to love your next of kin i'm finished is not to love your sorry your countrymen but fanaticism is to prepare your countrymen if they are bad or but someone else's countrymen if they are righteous and good that's fanaticism according uh i'll stop sorry can i leave these for tomorrow i promise the brothers and sisters who have not had the chance for me to answer the question that tomorrow i will begin in answering their question thank you for your attentiveness thank you for your support may Allah bless you forgive me if i have يعني raised my voice it is not raising at voice at you it is raising my voice out of concern and out of these deep love and sentiment to my brothers and sisters forgive me والسلام عليكم جميعا ورحباة الله وبركاته


Hi everyone, welcome back. So our next speaker is Brian Wilkes, and he'll be comparing the performance and security characteristics of some zero-knowledge proofs that are commonly deployed in the Ethereum ecosystem. So Brian? Hello, wow, that's loud. So who are my data scientists in the room? Raise your hands. Very few. Devs, devs out there? Lots of devs, nice. Investors, DGENs? Yes, put it down. How about expertise? Who's a beginner in zero-knowledge? Just get the basics. Cool. Who knows what's going on, but has not written a circuit before? Who's a true ZK expert? Knows a ton about ZK. You, perfect, all right. Well, thanks for having me. My name's Brian. I am a grantee with the Ethereum Foundation Privacy Scaling Exploration Team. So today I'm going to be talking about ZK-proof performance and security characteristics. So what's in the docket for the day? Search for it to go over some background. So we'll just give some background on what ZKPs are, try and work through what they actually mean for on-chain data. Then we're going to look at how to actually find those zero-knowledge proofs and verifiers on-circuits on and off-chain. Then we'll look at some of the characteristics behind those and what they mean. Unfortunately, Waldo's not going to be with us today. So this is the second best piece of art I've ever done. So I hope you appreciate it, everyone. So what are ZKPs? About high level first. We'll go through this quick and then move on. But we have Alice. Alice wants a drink. She's a prover. We have Bob. Bob is the bartender, is a verifier. Alice does not want to give all of her information to Bob. And so therefore, she can put in her birthday. The circuit will output a proof. Bob can verify that proof is correct that she's old enough to drink and the survey so will flow. So what's important for this is you have a prover. You have inputs. You have the circuit itself. You have the proof popping out. And then Bob decides if it's true or false. It then does an action based on whether that verification is true. So why do we need zero-knowledge proofs in Ethereum? So the first thing that we struggle with is scalability. So right now, we can do about on main chain, 13 transactions per second. And we really need to get into that 13K transactions per second, if not significantly higher, to get in the visa range. So how does zero-knowledge proofs help us? They can take fully separate chains and they can impart the full security of Ethereum to those chains. So privacy as well is something that's a hotbed issue to me. Ethereum is public.  So I don't want to live in a world where you have scalability and everything sits on that platform without having the privacy behind it. So let's talk about on chain. So this is what it looks like. You have your layer two blockchain here. So they have the blocks going. You aggregate some of the transactions together. And then you batch them into a ZK circuit. So you take those transactions. They go into the circuit. The circuit produces a proof. This is all off chain. So then you have your Ethereum main chain where things are expensive. So you're able to take your proof and post that to the Verifier smart contract. And then the layer two state source of truth can get updated. So that's what happens with the scalability side of things. Now let's talk privacy. It's very similar. I won't have reveals for you. I'll just go right to it. There's the secret. There's the ZK circuit. You put the secret through. It produces a proof. And then that proof goes on chain to the Verifier smart contract and funds are released. So that's very similar. That's going to be your mixers, your chain of caches, different things. What's important for both of these two is that you have off chain and on chain. And on chain is where the Verifier and the proof gets posted. And off chain is where the circuit and the proofs are. So this is the best piece of artwork I've ever done. So I appreciate it while you can. So let's find some ZK proofs on chain and figure out where they're at. So this is called the search for Verifiers. So why are we searching for Verifiers? The important characteristics of a zero-knowledge proof are in the circuit. So the circuit's going to generate, they're going to have the different characteristics that are important to us. Let's look at a particular ZK sync transaction flow, for instance. So between September 20th and September 26th, there were 2,170 blocks, 265,000 transactions which were batched together into 214 inputs, proofs, brought on chain. So what you want, the ZK circuit did not change, but those inputs and the proofs did. So each circuit has a unique Verifier on chain. So for each circuit or circuit systems, they have their own unique Verifier that's there. And if you want to know about circuits and you want to use on chain data, you need to go through the Verifier. So going through the Verifier, you use the L1 chain data. So let's talk about how to find Verifiers. So the first section is, if you guys haven't used BigQuery from Google, I highly recommend it. It's a great tool. It allows you to search through lots more data than things like Dune do, as much as I love Dune. So different queries that time out within 30 minutes for Dune will go in about two seconds for BigQuery. So check it out. The three tables that I used for this project were contracts, traces, and transactions. Since you're almost all devs, I won't go over traces versus transactions, but the start versus end of things. So, okay, so the first way to try and search through bytecode is to go for constants. Constants will show up in bytecode as a big hex. So if you can get a big enough number that's unique enough for what you're looking for, you can take that and search with very simple SQL queries in through the bytecode. So this is both a big and unique value. It's the finite field. So the finite field is the range at which you modulate over when you're doing different cryptographic things for zero knowledge. So this is it in hex form. It's massive. So the first way that I looked through the data was to search for this finite field. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly give me all the verifiers. So it gave me a lot of different noise. There's 558 contracts that have the finite field constant and after checking every one of them manually, most of them were not verifiers. So I moved on to trying to get into method IDs. So the second tool that I think is really important and apparently it's new according to EtherScan is the transaction decoder. So the transaction decoder, what it does, if you look through it, is if you go through and look at a transaction, it will tell you the exact flow of what happened through that transaction. So looking at this here is another ZK sync example. First it proves the blocks after going through some proxies and then in the verifier contract, it calls a function called verify aggregate block proof. So after doing some modular addition down below, it outputs true and the state gets updated. So method IDs, the method IDs are the first 10 characters or four bytes that come through with any input or transaction call for traces or transactions. So just going through them briefly, you can see that this function here is for starkware and it's a fry verifier. So this is what is actually verifying the proofs.  So that there, the OXE85A6A28 is the method ID. It'll be the first 10 characters in any call when you look through the data. So a great resource, again, I like to show the resources that I get to use. The four byte directory is fantastic. You can input any method ID and it will tell you what the text signature for what it should be is. So now what do we find? Essentially, there's about 65 confirmed verifiers on main chain. Now there's probably a few more, maybe 30 more that are not verified public contracts. So in those 65 confirmed verifiers have done over 600,000 verifications. So of those, there are about 16 that are active still. That's active according to me and some of them are very minor projects. If you're trying to squint, it's because I made it small so you'd have to go on the GitHub at some point, so sorry. I was surprised by how few verifiers that are actually on main chain, but moving on to the characteristics. So we'll look at proving systems. So your proving systems here that are actually being verified on main chain you have your classics. I'm sure you guys have all heard of these, but your Grot 16 from 2016, that runs your tornado cache, your Hermes, your loop ring in a bunch of other different privacy functions. You have Planck, which is Aztec Connect ZK sync. Then you have Turbo Planck, which is the original Aztec. Aztec Connect uses Turbo Planck before it gets on chain, but then it uses Planck on chain, if that makes any sense. Then you have Halo 2, which is coming out. ZCash uses it, and then also scroll is gonna deploy with it. Most people I talk to are really moving towards that Halo 2 move. It seems like it's a really good proving system. So it's not on main chain yet that I've seen. So then you have your Starks, and that includes all your Starkware projects. So Starks versus Snarks. Snarks, the succinct, non-interactive argument of knowledge. And then there's Starks, which are scalable, transparent arguments of knowledge. And the major difference between the two, there's a bunch of them. These are the base level for what happens. But quantum computing is probably going to be able to take down Snarks, but Starks will probably be resistant to it. So what is quantum computing? When will it come? I have no idea, but if it does, this will happen. So looking at these different proving systems, you have Groth 16, which is in blue, really taking off. That's on the back of Tornado Cache, as well as Bloopering. And then you have down below, you have your Stark slash Fries that are coming through. Those are the Starkware projects.  DYDX posts a lot of data to chain often. Then you have your Plonks, and unknowns are probably Plonks, but I wasn't quite confident enough to say that, so. Okay, let's talk about trusted setups. So a trusted setup is where on the elliptic curve you should evaluate the different ZK proof. So it's kind of an agreement in a spot that a prover or verifier can kind of verify through what that Snarks can look like. So I like to think of it like a trust fall. How many people have done trust falls before in their life? A couple, yeah, it's scary. So you get up there on a big standing, and then you fall backwards, and as long as one strong person below you is there to catch you, then you should be good. So as long as the trusted setup is kind of similar. If everybody's toxic waste gets collected together, if everyone gives their secret out, I mean doesn't want to catch you or is distracted, then the Snark can be, then the trusted setup will not work, and someone will be able to write proofs that will be false positives, and they'll be able to take money from you, if that makes sense. So this requires one honest participant from the MPC ceremony. I also like to think of it like Thanos. If you have enough Findi stones, if you have them all, you can destroy the proof, and it'll be good, so bad actually. Okay, so what are the trusted setups? We have Grout 16 over there on the end. It has a two phase trusted setup. And then the universal setups came in, and that's a Planck and Turbo Planck, and that only requires one. So whereas Grout 16 needs a new ZK circuit, or needs a new trusted ceremony for each circuit that it produces, Planck and Turbo Planck have a universal setup, and that allows them to only have one total ceremony. So if anyone here wanted to create a Planck, you could use the universal ceremony that's already been created and already been done. And then you have Halo 2 and Starks. They do not require trusted setups, so that's obviously you want the least amount of trusted setups as you can. So moving on, the actual projects themselves, you have Grout 16s are loopering, polygon Hermes, they're withdrawal, and then Trinocache. Those are the major ones that are currently being in operation. So the number, these are trusted setups. They use the perpetual powers of Tau, which is basically an on-chain step one for the different trusted setups. Then they had a step two. That step two, these are the number of participants that were in those ceremonies. So if you can get to 16 people from the loopering that did it, if they all compromised, then that will not be a valid trusted setup. Then those funds will be able to be taken. So you have 16 for loopering, you have six participants in the polygon Hermes, then Trinocache had a whopping 1,114. Moving on to plonks, so like I said, you only need one trusted setup ceremony to be correct, and then anyone can use it. So they're all using the Aztec Plonk universal setup. It is, all these you can see access stations on GitHub to see how they worked, but they had 176 participants in that. So that's all your ZK sync, your ZK space, Aztec connect, Aztec, all the way down the line. And then you have your Starks, which do not have any trusted setups. We'll talk about recursion. This is the other major thing that people are looking for for performance.  So what this allows you to do is parallelization of proof generation.  So get out your Asics, because you just got rid of them for the merge, but, and then it also lets you do proof chaining. So you can have the output of one proof be the input for the next proof. So what provides recursion? Pretty much everything, but Grot 16 is now doing recursion and they're doing it in better ways, I guess, as you move forward. So that was the other, why would anyone use Grot 16? If you can't do recursion and you have a big trusted setup, it's faster and it's cheaper to verify. So it's the OG, it's been there for a long time, but people are moving on because of those two problems mostly. So now I guess we can talk about my favorite topic, which is data availability as a data scientist. So we'll talk, this is gonna be about L1s and L2s. So for the purists out there, L2s would only be roll-ups, but I'll use both back and forth. So ZK Validiums, Validiums, they have their state route is on the bridge contract and then they have their state reconstruction that's off chain. It goes through a data availability committee to go on chain to be able to make it so you have that data, but it is permissioned on that side of things. Then the alternative, which is supposed to be gold, it kinda looks like bronze, so forgive that, is you have your state reconstruction and your state route for the ZK roll-ups down on the bridge contract. So that allows you to always have that data to be able to generate a proof in case you do escape. So why would you do a Validium over a roll-up? It's many more transactions per second. So your IMXs and your different StarkX projects are able to be a lot cheaper. So moving forward, let's look at your Validiums that are currently operating. You have StarkX, which is immutable X. You have Rynify, SoRare, Apex, other ones that are coming out. You have ZK Porter, which is coming out from ZK Sync. Then your roll-ups, I'll run through these because you guys probably all know them, but you have the YDX, loop ring, ZK Sync v1, use ZK space, StarkNet, so I'll pause for the camera. Then moving on, there's a couple more that are, the newer ones that are coming up for roll-ups that are exciting. You have ZK Sync v2, which I think is under 30 days now, which is exciting to mainnet. You have Scroll, which is going for a higher level of EVM compatibility. And then let's see what's next. Then you have all of Polygon's projects, which are all exciting in their own right. So let's talk about what it means to be a roll-up. So everyone talks constantly about how the full security of Ethereum is being inherited by these roll-ups. So what does it mean to have the full security of Ethereum? You need to have the right to be able to force exit from that chain. So if you have on your Layer 2, if they have decided to be against you, you need to be able to submit your transactions directly on Layer 1 to the Ethereum bridge contract and get your funds. So right now you have your happy user down here that's from Walmart. It's kind of creepy, actually, the more you look at it, so don't stare at it too long. That the transaction goes to this, the happy sequencers here, they put the transaction into the Layer 2. Those transactions are batched into the ZK circuit. It produces the proof and it goes to the Ethereum bridge contract as we talked about before. So this is how it's supposed to function. So let's say that the sequencers become evil and start smoking cigars. You get unhappy. So your transactions can't make it to Layer 2 and your funds are frozen. So what do you do?  So when you take your Layer 2 transaction, you go directly to it, then the validators have a certain amount of time to actually include your transaction into the Layer 2s. So usually it's between seven and 14 days.  So your Layer 2 cannot update state on Layer 1 and the zero knowledge circuit, then you as a user can produce a proof from the circuit, then that proof will provide you the ability to get your funds back. So that sounds great, but it's also kind of difficult. How does the average user, especially when these proofs are off chain in usually sometimes proprietary, how do you generate that proof? That's one of, there's a few things that you have to really do to inherit full Ethereum security. So let's go through them. You have to have the available data on Layer 1. So if you don't have that available data, then you can't reconstruct the state proof and therefore you won't be able to properly get your funds back from the L1 contract. Secondly, you need to have functional and accessible force exits. So those force exits have to be in code and they have to be accessible for the average person. They need to be able to generate those proofs. They need to be able to take that data and pool and directly send it to that L1 contract. That for a lot of devs, it's not a big deal that the front ends are all centralized, but we need decentralized front ends to allow people to escape in the case of one of the sequencers going evil. So then thirdly, you need time delays for the L1 contracts. So if the Layer 1 contracts have time delays or if they're immutable, then it gives people the chance to actually exit from that Layer 1. But if they don't have time delays, then they can just change the contract and everyone's funds will be frozen from there. So then last is, this is a nuanced one, but the amount of money that you can secure from L1 is really based upon the amount of locked funds on Layer 1. So if everyone force exits, then the Layer 1 contract, which is the bridge contract with all the assets, they will impart all their assets to the people, but if there's more total locked value above on Layer 2, then somebody's gonna be out of luck. So the best way to think about this is, a lot of the L2s are starting to get traction with direct transfers to them. They might even have their own state from different contracts and native tokens. If you have a native token on an L2 and you don't have assets backing it up on the Layer 1 bridge contract, then the ability for you to inherit Ethereum security and take your assets off isn't there. So it's really important that as we move forward, that any state that is native to the L2 is known for that risk that it has. Now, let's get into, I guess this is the end of my talk, so I'm gonna try and implore you to get into the data directly. Don't be like Waldo and be sad because other people tell you what's true and what's not. We have, I tell you, I'm very impressed with these projects. I think you guys should all check them out. They're all open. You have BigQuery, you have Dune, the Dune's getting better and better and then the BigQuery is a public database that has all of Ethereum Layer 1 posted there. They'll give you $300 credits to go on the query through it and you can really differentiate yourself, especially as a data scientist. You have the project that I actually completed. Please check it out. There's the QR code for it. I'll have it at the end too, so if you miss it, it's no big deal, but please go check out the data tables, all the SQL queries, any of the different things. Please feel free to let me know what I screwed up. It'll be good. And then L2 Beat is just such a great resource. I'm sure everyone's heard of them and I'm sure you've been to their booth yesterday, but they categorize a lot of risks and a lot of specific things happening within these different projects and I just can't recommend them enough to check them out. They're doing bridges now too, which is exciting. And then the Layer 2s. I haven't got to the data on Layer 2s, so it would be really great for everyone to check out the different. We're going to a different layer, modular blockchain, where you have Layer 1s, Layer 2s, and Layer 3s and these Layer 3s are going to be deployed on Layer 2s and the privacy things already are for like semaphore. So I highly recommend that I'd really like to see somebody check out Layer 2s and be able to do the same data type projects for that. So I have some thank yous I'd like to get ahead of. So I'd like to thank the Daily Glay Discord channel and podcast for being so great. That's my favorite Discord channel there is. If you need studs, know things. There's so many helpful people. There's the Zero Knowledge podcast. It's so good for all the new pressing things. I highly recommend them as well. L2B, I'll show them again. And then the Ethereum Foundation Privacy Scaling Exploration Team. That's not their symbol, but I think that their new logo for DevCon is really cool, so I put it up there. And then I'd like to thank Justin Martin for all of his help in getting me into this and I'd also like to thank Mark for all your help getting me through this stuff and really brainstorming through it all and trying to get through all those issues. So I got, thank you very much. I will take, yes, please. I'm sure. Yeah, they'll have a mic for you. Unless you're really loud and then you can just go for it. I was wondering if you comment a little bit more on the security considerations when dealing with native assets on L2's. Like I get that you can't withdraw the funds on the L1, but can you double spend or can you validate like forge a balance or things like that, given the stage rolled up? No, I don't think that those are concerns to do double spends and things, but I do think because your state is, the state source of truth is really sitting on layer one. So you're not gonna be able to, one of the reasons they do some of the delays and things I believe is to stop double spend from happening. But the, and that's why they freeze the state route on layer ones, but I don't think that, if you understand, I won't go back over the ideas of, but if you have tokens that are here in the values more there than on the bridge contract, then you won't be able to get your money back off of that. So that makes sense. Hello, when you're talking about state on layer one, have you had any thoughts in regards to upcoming state expiry? Not yet, but I would love to hear your thoughts on it at some point. I'm kind of practical on the side of things as far as what that should look like and what you believe in. Yeah, please go ahead. Sorry. Yeah, I don't have any particular thoughts just that I think current plans are to expire state after a year or so and then you'd need some other way to get the state. My understanding is there will be, I mean, zero knowledge proofs that we'll be able to construct that and prove that that's true. But then you'll also have, so you're kind of using the same different technology, but I'm not gonna speak too out of turn when I don't know what it's all about. It's a great question though. I'll definitely, I can look into it and get in touch with you about it.


How can you actually believe the Bible? I mean, it was written over 1500 years by 40 different authors in three different languages on three different continents. Wait a minute, say that again. Which part? You mean the part where it was written over 1500 years by 40 different authors in three different languages on three different continents?  You should really read it. Huh, yeah, I guess I will, but still some people might say,