عبيبنا وسيدنا وسندنا وشفيعنا ومولانا أب القاسم محمد وعلى آله التيبين الطاهرين المأسمين المظلمين أما بعد فقد قال الله سبحانه وتعالى في كتاب المجيد وقول له الحق وهو أستقص صادقين بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم إنما المؤمنين الذين إذا ذكر الله وجلت قلوبهم وإذا توليت عليهم آيات وزادتهم إيمان وعلى ربهم يتوكلون صدق الله العلي العظيم سلوات ألا محمد وأهل محمد الله صلى الله عليه وسلم كل مؤمنين يؤمنون إلى الله ونبدأ في بلسة نام حين نحن في بلسة منطة فرمضان وانا بالطبع، يجب أن يخيط ألرتنس أمامه ويجب أن يجب أن يدخل مرسي ونحن أن الله سبحانه وتعالى أكبرنا ويجب أن نتواجه أكبر ومفكوز ويجب أن ننظر على وصلنا إلى كيف وماذا وإذا يضعنا على هذه الأرض وأننا نسأل الله سبحانه وتعالى أن نساعدنا من نفسنا من نفسنا المساعدات المساعدة بخارجنا المدينة وأنها أيضا بخارجنا ونحن في بلسة نام فرمضان يبهم أن نرد من الموقع ونحن أرى في هذه الألوات لدينا الكثير من أصدقائي و أصدقائيين الذين يتحدثون معي ونعلمون ما they understood in the presentation وماذاهم يفهمون وماذاهم يفهمون وماذاهم يفهمون وماذاهم يفهمون بحيث أنهم يفهمون بحيث أنهم يفهمون القرآن وماذا لا يوجد even God أو لا يوجد ويجب أن يتحدث في مختلفة أساس ويجب أن يكون ممتازا لأن هذا المساعدة في تحديث ومتعرفة هو ما أحبه الألوات المباشرة اللي يخبره بأن الله سبحانه وتعالى أن عندما أصدقائيين يجب أن يكونوا مجردين للمعرفة ألواتهم ويجب أن يدخلني even if death was decreed for them at that moment and that God disposed it now you might ask what Allah already knew that would happen that is true Allah knows what will happen but Allah also engages us in our own destiny Allah says indeed Allah does not change the affairs of a community until the community changes themselves first or at least not first but community changes themselves in the sense of proactiveness meaning we have to get involved so we can pray to Allah to change our destiny we can ask Allah to make our lives better but if we do not take the step forward towards that direction then this prayer is nullified and I'll talk about the power of dua in these nights how important it is to pray and to seek and why do we have dua and why does dua exist you know what is the function of prayer when Allah is merciful why does he want us to pray to him is he in need of prayer what is the function behind prayer all these are very essential pieces of the equation that helps us to become better human beings yesterday I touched on some critical social problems we're having in society today I'd like to continue briefly on that before I move on as I mentioned yesterday we have to find our balance in life television internet cell phones technologies laptops computers none of these are bad but they can become very bad if we abuse them excessively it's like food food is good for us it's essential but it can be debilitating and dangerous it can kill us even water water which is what we are composed of which is what makes us as living beings and the earth is predominantly water also you find that excessive drinking of water can kill you because there's a balance you find Allah has created the world and the universe in a balance and our objective is to find that balance you know when you talk about Haq Imam Ali A.S. describes it beautifully in Najul Balagh he says what is Haq what is justice and Imam replies that justice is giving everything its proper due meaning giving what it deserves not too much not too little he says why you to unfold the seat of justice for me I will not deny an insect the grain that it deserve because Imam is saying I'm a man of justice I bring balance I show you what to do and what not to do whereas this total condemnation of something is dangerous and total immersion in something could be dangerous you will find that there's a balance even Salah even praying you will notice that excessive praying and I'm going to define Salah here there are two kinds of Salah one is where your entire body everything does for the sake of Allah ولينا صلاة ونسك ومحيية ومماتي لله رب العالمين that form of Ibadah is encouraged at all times 24x7 there's no extremity to that but in that action you'll find there's a balance but if you and I come to the masjid or at home and we're constantly praying where we say today I'm going to do a thousand raka'a I mean we do just 17 raka'a for example 17 which is one day's amount of prayer it takes a while and if you do 100 raka'a which we do typically sometimes in the nights of Qadr you find it's tiring when you do 100 your knees start to hurt but to do a thousand it means you have no time for anything else now it appears good because this individual is in the worship of God but Allah has created a balance for us that we have social obligations family obligations we have obligations to go and earn a living we have obligations where we have to meet and greet society all of those are also an essential part of Ibadah so when someone says well I'm not going to meet people I'm going to lock myself in a room if it's for a short period of time it's a balance but if it's a continual behavior then it's an imbalance there's a hadith of a man who was always praying in the masjid constantly praying and the prophet would come and leave and he would come and leave and see this man is praying all the time so the messenger goes to him and says masha'Allah you pray a lot he said yes I love to pray he said who takes care of your family he said my brother go home your brother is better in the eyes of Allah than you because you are praying you have abandoned your obligation towards your family so you have created an imbalance in your obligations so this balancing act is why we need to gain knowledge because there is the 80-20 rule 80% knowledge 20% effort 20% knowledge 80% effort the first one is superior to the second because with 80% knowledge you are your effort is less which means you have more time to relax you have more time to think you have more time to do other things so acquisition of knowledge اطلب العلم من المهد إلى اللهد رسول الله has said acquire knowledge from the cradle to the grave for when you increase your knowledge your effort decreases and when your effort decreases you are able to do more now it doesn't mean that because the effort decreases that we are going to get lazy and we are not going to be healthy no because the more knowledge we have the more opportunities we have and the more the world becomes a canvas for us to achieve greater achievements which means that that 20% effort now has a great room for us to do a lot more so we should get together and gather in these scenarios and the function behind these to be to say how can I gain knowledge that I can live my life in a balanced way and sometimes one hour of reflection as the Prophet has said one hour of reflection is better than a thousand raka'a of these extra-rogatory prayers you know Salatul Layl the thousand raka'a that we pray sometimes the Prophet says one hour of reflection is better than going up and down in Salah when there is no thought الكتاب العقل والجاهل as you know Imam Ja'far Sadiq Imam states that a man comes to him and says my neighbor prays a lot and Imam first question was how much does he know and understand what he's praying he says well he prays a lot but his understanding is minimal Imam says unfortunately his reward is minimal though he prays a lot you would think that the action is a lot but if there is lack of understanding in it then the value is less it's like when we know each other when they praise each other but if we don't know each other well then the praise has less meaning but when someone knows you well and they praise you it's got greater meaning because the depth of knowledge has a direct indication to the values that we lay upon ourselves so in the month of Ramadan while we recite Quran and we have these gatherings and we abstain from eating temporarily and therefore we have more time within ourselves to be reflective which is why Allah SWT has instituted كتب عليكم السيار كما كتب على الذين من قبلكم لعلكم تتقود فاستن has been prescribed and knew like it was before so that you become more God conscious so I encourage us all as a society brothers and sisters let's reframe from gossiping let's raise our children to have low tolerance for gossip let's teach our children to have low tolerance for backbiting let's teach our children to have low tolerance for nonsense talk let's teach our children to indulge in reflective thinking and let them question even the most extreme questions let's not silence them let's have a behavior of constantly indulging in politics and social issues and psychology and philosophy and all the other matters of life that pertains to how we should grow and raise ourselves this is the sunnah of the prophets and Ahl al Bayt so in this month of Ramadan Allah SWT is encouraging us to do this and sadly sadly I must say as a human society we recycle religion Ramadan comes we feel burdened like oh God is going to stop me from eating and having my pleasures in life and then we cannot wait to find that moon on the last day of Ramadan we're so happy to celebrate it now those are not bad but holistically you find in his dua which is the dua he recites which he wrote for us to recite and we're telling he's basically thanking Allah for the Ramadan but he's very sad that the month is leaving he's very sad that this heightened alertness will reduce so Allah is merciful were he to make us fast for more than a month we would be burdened and Allah does not put تقليف on us Allah wants to make religion easy وما جعل عليكم في الدين من حرج it was he did not put religion to make it difficult but he gives us just the right amount of dose and scientists have shown that when a society indulges in the period that we fast the 30 days it has maximum benefit for society one day of fasting two day of fasting has benefit but a protracted 20 30 days of fasting is superior and if you look at the principles of Islam they are built on social grounds yesterday I spoke about the deleterious effect of extreme amounts of texting in the social arena for kids they are showing statistics that since 2012 even after 2012 homicide for 24 years homicide was higher than suicide more people got killed than suicide in the last 24 years it's reversed homicide has gone down and suicide has gone up and there's a reason for that one of the reason scientists have observed is that the children they are so addicted to this instrument go out much less so they kill each other much less they get into death much less so they are safer in their homes research shows now that may appear to be good but actually because they're anti-social they do not interact very well so socially they're inept meaning they don't grow properly they don't know how to communicate personally they lack personal abilities they're too engrossed in this but suicide has gone up because the level of depression has doubled triple quadrupled so research has shown and they have done direct studies even using Facebook that when children and adults even indulge in so many hours of Facebook you find that their levels of depression and sadness increases quantitatively now you might think they're indulging they're talking they're socializing yes but that level of socialization has a negative return post so many hours as I mentioned yesterday two hours is the cut-off limit anything less than two hours is acceptable within the balance anything more than that can be very dangerous for the children they become depressed now what happens as a result of depression many things end up they start cutting themselves they become suicidal they actually start to plan suicide suicide planning is one of the precursors of suicide they start to indulge in entire depressions and of course today with the opioid crisis you're finding that the availability and accessibility of such items is so prevalent that you can go online and order them you don't even have to leave your home this is what's making Amazon so successful the fact that everybody's lying in their homes they don't even want to go shopping so the mom and pop shops even the shops are shutting down because everybody's ordering things online so there's no interaction there's no getting out of the house now when we examine this we have to be very careful and see what has Islam prescribed for us within this balance to understand that are we within the jurisdiction of the Dean of Allah سبحانه وتعالى given the fact that we have such technologies are we violating them and wait what is the line you find salah جمع الله says فسع ولا ذكر الله when the time for Juma prayers becomes obligatory hasten to prayer فسع ولا ذكر الله وضر البيع ذلكم خير ولاكم how many of our Muslims today generally go for Juma not as much as they should we're all busy we have excuses we have no time we are engrossed in our pursuits of the surviving and money making machinery when in fact that exercise is extremely socially healthy it's actually a counterpoint to these depressions for many reasons if you examine very successful nations you will find that their media system and technology and information base is very powerful they manage in the control societies نوم شامسكي talks about this manufacturing consent where media controls the minds of the societies and we've become drones and we've become impulsive where when a movie comes out everybody wants to act like that India is like that the Bollywood industry is like that they can hardly afford food but they wait in line to go watch a Bollywood movie and then when the song comes out they live in the song and they become part of that fashion and all the shops start selling that fashion now it's an industry it's a multi-billion if not a trillion dollar industry we have the same problem here this impulsive compulsive nature is predicated on the basis that we are not connected individually with thinking with conversation with deciding our own destiny we have a higher order of instrumentation that's controlling our minds today and we are basically like drones like if you watch the movie The Matrix you will see that everybody is basically coming out of a pod and we're just following the rituals of what the masters have decided we're living The Matrix whereas the Quran has encouraged us to be reflective and if you look at the principles of Juma prayers when we come there are fouraka in Zahr you see it's واجب التخير meaning you can choose one of the two either you do Zahr Salah or you do Juma sadly we have this conversation today how important is Juma when the Quran has stressed on it we're discussing how important it is there's something wrong with how we're approaching this Allah's mercy is that he's taken two of the cycles out and made it as part of the خطب meaning that when you are speaking the two sermons they become equivalent to the additional two raka so you have two sermons one is on social matters political matters the events of the day and the other is a spiritual matter on how I can become a better person look at Islam solution on an amplified social system where Allah has enjoined humanity to come forward shoulder to shoulder to sit and to listen and to be given the latest and the greatest and you find that the western systems are most afraid of Juma their Islamophobia system today and it's trying to promote this hatred for Islam you'll find if there is one system they are afraid of it is Juma the power of Juma is a media institution more powerful than all media put together that's how powerful Juma is Hajj is another powerful social system that enemies of God are terrified when people come to Hajj because it brings you a portion of the human race together as a sampling of how we should be as one وعطصموا بحب لله جميعا ولا تفرقوا you find that Islam has put that solution fasting Allah could have told us fast whenever you can pray whenever you can whereas Allah says اقم الصلاة اقم الصلاة اقم الصلاة للدولوك الشمس الى غسق الليل maintain prayer وقام الصلاة ويتاء الزكاة why is Allah commanding that and Allah says we have given it time time for prayers and when you get together the messenger said if you do Juma you need two people only Juma you need five in Juma you need two and the prophet said the barakah multiplies when there are three you start cannot at the time you reach five the prophet says you cannot count the barakah the mercy of Juma with five people is much greater than an individual praying on their own but why is Islam promoting that why is Juma superior to Farada why is it superior precisely to create interaction social interaction precisely to make us social precisely to make us adapt to sit together to eat together and to plan that after Juma let's go out for lunch or this community right here when we have this lecture after this lecture we have Juma after Juma we have iftar together there are some communities they have no iftar in the community I come from in Michigan most of the centers have no iftar no iftar because we have assimilated into a lifestyle where we feel that there should be no iftar you know on a grander social scale people say well we are with the family okay but there should be both family and outside why are the restaurants so full communities Islamic centers should encourage iftar and it should never be built on financial reasons it's a shame on us as a community that if we cannot get together and contribute to have iftar together and to have the barakah of eating together the way to the sunnah of Rasoolillah then what are we encouraging our children to become sedentary to go into their homes and remain aloof in their homes on their technologies because what good is a social environment we can't even afford that we should encourage it we should try our best to be communal within our communities and have as many gatherings and sessions together but have dialogue with it open up the channels and invite even people of other faiths to come and sit with us this is the dean of Allah we don't do that so we are encouraging our children in the reverse but when we have iftar here and everybody sits together and we meet each other and we shake hands and we talk it's priceless that is the medicine for all these diseases we are talking about depression, drug abuse right low sense of self-worth all of these characters fade away when we become social but of course when we are social we must practice good akhlaq we should be kind with each other our tongue should not be harsh sometimes people stop coming to Islamic centers they stop coming to places of worship because some of us have a harsh tongue against them and we make incendiary comments we belittle them or we look down upon them maybe they cannot afford nice clothes and we make terrible comments or they come from other cultures or they are of a different race and we look upon them as reverts and converts or that's a Christian or that's an atheist this behavior is haram in Islam haram I am not holding anything back I am saying it beyond any doubt for us to be have bigotry within our hearts and to be very insular in other words to say people from outside my community don't belong here this act is detestable this is exactly why shaitan was removed from his status صلى الله عليه وسلم these communities this center a beautiful center you've got thousands and tens of thousands of people in this community surrounding us and of different cultures and of different backgrounds unfortunately sometimes we've insisted on our old cultural ways and forgotten the principles of Islam and we have now lost generations who don't come to such centers because they feel marginalized and they're not important anymore and they end up going to clubs and end up going to laundromats and malls simply to find their social grounds الله will hold us libel and judgment ثم لا تسألنا يوم اذن عن النعين ما شاء الله in this community I respect the sheikh Bahraini he's calling people of the Latter-day Saints the mormons who come here and you've got their leaders who come in here and who participate and they're writing articles on our community about how good Islam is and how much we must eradicate our hatred for Islam isn't that what the deen is about الله سخول لي أهل الكتاب تعالوا إلى كلمة سوائن بيننا وبينكم الله نعبدا إلا الله you and I all live among such people we socialize with them we have friends with them why is it we become so myopic that when it comes time to remember Allah we sanitize and we say no it's exclusively for us we're no different than those who claim to be chosen people of God like the bani Israel who the Yahud Quran calls them يَا يُلَدِنَهَا دُينَ زَعَمْتُمْ we're no different then and I say this with my heart my brothers and sisters we have an obligation today particularly in today's time when Islam is the number one agenda in the political fronts Muslims are being butchered as we speak and there's this silence while Gaza 50 people were butchered 18 out of 19 paramedics were shot directly with live ammunition 18 out of 19 paramedics unheard of when the Red Cross goes out or the Red Crescent goes out or any paramedic group that goes out to help people on battlefields it's international protocol to not touch them and they're being shot with live ammunition and 18 of them and some were injured directly nobody's mentioning any words and here we are bickering about our own little petty little issues on dumb little issues when we as Muslims are being taken like a soccer ball and kicked around like nothing الحمد لله the resistance is there الحمد لله some of them who have understood the message of Ahlul Bayt are the strongest indomitable forces forming as we speak الحمد لله and we pray for that balance for this hegemony of the superpowers that want to rule and dictate which nation should live which nation should die who should be a leader who should not be a leader and they cannot even choose their own leaders they've got clowns sitting in the White House and they think they are so smart I'm an American citizen I've got no compunction in saying that that we have a president today who is the chief executive bully who uses foul language who is known to be a misogynist if not a philanderer who is chasing women and paying off prostitutes and everybody is striking their shoulders in this leadership and we are going to decide on how the world should live I do not want my children to take their moral grounds on such bases I do not want my children to learn that such principles where we dictate and go and instigate and poke our fingers into the eyes of innocent people while they are being eradicated and their nations are being wiped out like the Rohingya Muslims or Yemen which is going through a massive massive destruction right now in this fluffed up society we are all comfortable thinking what a lovely society when we are imploding from within ourselves now are Americans bad people no they are one of the finest people in the world one of the most charitable people in the world I have met I grew up in this country some of the finest people I've ever met people ask me you speak about Islam who taught you my American society taught me Islam they questioned they guided they cradled us but it's not about that we are talking about this problem globally it's not only in America in all Muslim countries we have the same sickness in Muslim countries we have a lot of injustice in Muslim countries a lot of our youth are sad and depressed it's no different I've traveled the world I see it in Asia in America in Africa everywhere I see it it's pervasive and I hope we take account that Allah SWT has blessed us with the best religion I don't need to go too deep into this but the gift Allah has given us if you and I take it if this generation says I am going to take it it doesn't take too many people to change a society leaders need not be too many but they need to be profound and we need to take the essence and the power of the Dean Allah has given us and to utilize it properly in order for us to understand that we have a moral obligation and we are not bigots we don't look down on Christians or Jews or atheists no we honor them all we respect them you might say oh do we tolerate them I said no don't even use the word tolerate say the word we respect them لا اكره في الدين قتبين الرشة من الغي there is no compulsion in religion truth is clear from error my respected brothers and sisters I say to you sincerely I know these lectures are being heard globally and I hope society is out there and young generations out there hear these calls and to say yes we must all rise together and take the gift of God the way Allah has brought us to Hajj together and say we are a united ummah أمة واحدة one united body إنما المؤمنون أخوة فأصله بين أخويكم واتقوا الله على لكم ترحمون the believers are brethren make peace between them unite you think the nations that are superpowers they want us to unite I gave this example South Korea and North Korea they are eager to have peace between each other they are fed up with that border but the power says no you can't have it we are going to keep instigating you and the war mongers and the hawks in Pentagon and Washington are waiting to start war because they've got all this piled up stacked up machinery that they need to get rid of and the world becomes victim children become orphans limbs get blown away do you think they care they don't care at all they just keep charging forward like the way Hitler did he didn't care about how many Germans and how many Europeans and how many blacks and whites and Jews were killed he didn't care about any of that but your Allah says I will not change your affairs until you rise that in this month of Ramadan look at the sicknesses that our children are going through and the sicknesses that we have and the solution is very simple have social interaction have a sincere desire to meet there's a rahmah of Allah built within us there's a blessing between us Allah created us because of his mercy a brother came and asked me right now it's in Surat Hud verse 119 Allah says I'll read it in English if your Lord had pleased he would have certainly made a people a single nation but they shall continue to differ and the difference of opinion is here to stay it's a lovely thing when we have difference of opinion it's a barakah it's a rahmah God says ما خلقكم ولا بأثكم إلا كنصن واحدة we made you from one nation but we are different everyone even identical twins were genetically identical are different different characters they have similarities but they're different every child born of its mother and father they're different from the parents there's some overlaps but they're different that difference is healthy some of us cannot handle difference we want to eradicate difference oh he's a Christian bad oh he's a Sunni bad oh he's a Shia bad no no difference of opinion is healthy leave it talk about it agree to disagree agreeably and leave it it's the design of God Allah loves difference of opinion on judgement day Allah will not question us whether or not we eradicated differences Allah will question whether we came on the same terms to promote peace كنتم خيرا أمة أخرجت للناس تعمرون بالمعروف وتنهون عن المنكر وتؤمنون بالله you are the best in the community you promote good you forbid evil and you believe in God but not at the cost of your eradication of differences no today even within our own schools of thought you follow Marja A and you follow Marja B we have people who fight with each other because you follow one Marja and I don't like that Marja when did Allah allow us to pass such judgements when when people choose what they want or they want to declare Eid on that day sure we should come to a common term and declare Eid as a united body so we can pray together but if people desist or insist then leave them alone be happy that they have a difference of opinion our Marja different differ on thickly matters it's a barakah it shows that each Tihad is alive for if every Marja agreed on every other Marja it's a rubber stem then where is each Tihad each Tihad is dead Allah says you will continue to differ إلا من رحم ربك ولذلك خلقهم except those on whom your Lord has mercy and for this did he create them this Quran is saying in surat Hud 119 and the word of your Lord is fulfilled certainly Allah says those who reject I will fill hell with the jinn and men all together who reject me after having been given so much mercy and rahma so I conclude tonight in this time that I've been given within the next 6 minutes I like us to focus that the social implications are powerful very important for us to encourage it I was reading an article today that the rise in killings in school is becoming astronomical every week children are killed in schools it's unbelievable when you think about it school the most innocent place a place where children are gaining knowledge it's not a place that's building bombs or guns or it's a gangster that's robbing that's indulging in drugs it's a place of education for God's sakes in the most advanced nation on earth think about it you think we pat each other on the back it's the most advanced nation in the world we have the power to put instruments on other planets where we don't have the power to keep families together have you thought about that the opioid crisis has reached astronomical numbers I told you yesterday just fentanyl one carload there's such a market it can destroy all of America North America not America North America including Canada there's a market for it now we can talk about it some other time why is all of this coming I used to speak about this 20 years ago I said they took God out of the schools in one way I don't blame them because though some people who believe in God were extremists but they didn't know how to balance so they cut one off when you cut one off there's a charge back there's a relationship that's going to come today so many children are getting killed you know which industry is growing? security industry security they've got cameras that now can sense even the sound of bullet so now it's getting very technical you're going to enter a very highly technical it's like entering very very classified area you know like inter pentagon where all the cameras are on you and everything you move around children are getting terrified that I'm coming to school and I've got all these eyes looking at me I don't know what to do and I'm entering all these metal detectors and I've got teachers holding guns and I've got soldiers and I've got guards working around with guns in school can you imagine the psyche of education it's like studying in a prison it's happening so there's a billion dollar industry starting now called securities in schools and budgets are in the billions to now to arm schools public schools arm them the NRA is having a field day with that researchers have come and say what is the solution to this sickness subhan Allah and I'm reading this article the researchers say the solution is to sit with the children and talk to them the solution is to reason with them solution is to encourage them solution is to give them tranquility and stability with conversations human touch it's missing we run a school in Michigan the academy why is academy it's interesting kids when they come to us we have two to three two to three interviews we talk to them we ask them the school you went to did they have an interview they said no we're just a number as soon as we apply welcome come in because the state and the federal government is going to give us money it's money for us bring them in fill up the classes it doesn't matter you're a number come on in give us the money you find charter schools are like that charter schools just want to stuff the kids because the government is going to give them good money and they're going to get rich does anybody talk to this child does anybody care about this child's future you find ironically sadly across the board and I'm not pointing fingers to all the schools some are phenomenal but in general they have no time you're just a number like in a prison come inside run it given that degree get them out of here this is the problem and I'm generalizing here I'm making it very simplistic but it's much more than that but what I'm trying to say is the experts have concluded sit with them talk to them الله says إن في خلق السماوات والأرض واختلاف الليل والنهار لأيات لأولي الألباب الذين يذكرون الله قياما وقعودا وعلى جنوبهم ويتفكرون في خلق السماوات والأرض ربنا ما خلقتها ذا باطلا سبحانكا فقنا أذاب النهار here الله says إن في خلق السماوات والأرض خلق السماوات والأرض خلق السماوات والأرض خلق السماوات والأرض are signs for people deeply rooted in knowledge who are they they sit, stand and lie on the sides thinking الذين يذكرون الله قياما وقعودا وعلى جنوبهم ويتفكرون في خلق السماوات let's encourage our children to be conversational let's encourage our children to ask questions let's talk to them and if we come to a dead end where we cannot answer something then work with them and say you know son, you know daughter I haven't come to the answer yet but we will research it together we will keep asking till we get the solution that effort is what grows us that's what takes the sadness away that's what takes us into happiness that's what gives us succoon that's what creates a broader thinking person and of course I encourage all as much as we can travel please travel go out of your communities move out go see people of the different worlds خلصيروا في الأرض فندور go see it it's very important children, adults who travel have a much broader vision in life than those who don't travel in this month of Ramadan بارك الله has given us every single day I thank Allah that my life I remember from childhood because of this institution of جمع جمع حج عمر زيارة زيارة imagine how encouraged it is to do زيارة زيارة of prophets you know how encouraged it is it is highly encouraged why why those شهداء visit us in our homes if we are good but Allah says go to them travel it's good because it's healthy you will see your leader you will understand just going to the harams of our imma is so powerful I cannot describe it the incredible aspect of visiting the shrine of an Imam of the prophet going to the prophet's grave going to جنة البقي touching that ground and saying here lies that great person who once stood on this earth as the flag of justice and modesty on this earth you know how important that is it's different than when you read it online it's different than when you watch it on YouTube it's real when you touch that grave it's real when you meet the people around you it becomes a surreal experience I encourage us all as much as we can pray to Allah that we get the opportunity to do زيارة of قبل رسول الله ولا إم of the imams also and may Allah give us the tawfiq to become good role models for each other and to indulge in conversations and to reflect deep and to encourage our children to ask and come up with solutions and you will see the Quran is the answer وننزل من القرآن ما هو شفاء ورحمة للمؤمنين what Quran has is deep look at a verse it's confusing reflect on it look at another verse and try to understand this verse قرآن بالقرآن and then go to the hadith understand the hadith understand the sunnah practice that read the articles of society today read political articles read political science read psychology sociology compare and you will see the Quran has already mentioned it with perfection but these scientists out there are just beginning to discover may Allah give us the tawfiq and insha'Allah to achieve that بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم اللهم إنا نرغب إليك في دولة كريمة تعز بها الإسلام وأهلا وتضل بها النفاق وأهلا وتجعلنا فيها من الدعات لا تعتك القادة لا السبيل وترزقنا بها كرامة الدنيا والآخرة ربنا خفلنا والإخواننا الذين صبقون بالإيمان ولا تجعل في قلوبنا غلل الذين آمنوا ربنا إنك رأوف الرحيم وأخر الدعون الحمد لله رب العالمين السلام عليكم جميعا ورحمة الله وبركاته


The mistake we made in capitalism is that all we do is we measure and we manage and we optimize the return on financial capital. That's all we do. We do not care about anything else but return on financial capital. Rokey it's called. And that's a big mistake but that's how every business school in the world trains its students, share all the value thinking, return on capital thinking, it's always around financial capital. And what we should do is think more carefully because we use nature and that's a capital and we use people in value chains and that is capital, social capital. So the world we're going to move to is a world where we will change the rules of the game. Where a capitalist will not manage just financial capital but will also manage natural, manage natural and social capital and optimizes the returns across the three. That's what I call a revolution of capitalism. Or if revolution bothers you because it is identified with bricks and fire bombs, evolution I'm happy to. But it's going to be a revolution. The best example in the world today is Ikea, the furniture company, may have heard of him. They published their sustainability strategy eight weeks ago, nine weeks ago. It's called People Planet Positive. They're not a member of WBCD so I'm not promoting my own members here. People Planet Positive. You can download it on the web, People Planet Positive PDF and it comes in. Three objectives for 2020. Number one, Ikea will be energy independent by 2020. Meaning Ikea will produce more renewable energy than it consumes in all of its operations. These are great words. It's an extreme variation of saying I will green my operations. I'll be one of the good guys. The difference with Ikea is last week they have issued the press release. They will invest four billion dollars in solar panels on all the roofs, on all the stores worldwide. So they're serious. Number two objective, we will make the lives of all people in the value chain of Ikea better. So not just 100,000 employees of Ikea, but everybody all the way back to the people who make their raw materials. They will make their lives better by 2020. Third objective, we will inspire and facilitate millions of people to make their homes sustainable. This is new boundary. My leader so far talked about we're going to make our business sustainable or we're going to reduce our energy footprint or whatever. But these guys are energy will be neutral, value chain will be life better and all our customers will get to a sustainable house through us. Insight governance of business. There's a paragraph which is called risk management in which the board of a company has to disclose how likely is it that business will survive? What are the risks? And all of these risks are in words of financial risks. There are no risks related to sustainability yet. We need to change that. Sustainability, whether it's weather events or any other risks are going to infect the ability of business to go on. Where this all will go is this particular slide. And since there's only one accountant in the room, this won't look like much of a revolution to you. But I can tell you, show this to a room of accountants and the place will be shaking and not necessarily with a positive vibration. So on the left, you see what accounting does today. It tells you the story about business. It gives you a risk management framework. And then there's all kind of rules on how you actually do the financial accounts. I mean, I don't know if you've ever studied accounting. You should if you want to be in business because it's the language of business. But whatever you think of that, you will never ever be in a business meeting having a debate about how people calculate their profit. Never. You will never ever challenge that if ABITDA is 100, that's on never. There's rules. People just do the rules and come to a number and that's the number. And then you talk about the number is not good enough, but you do not talk about the number as such. When a company today publishes its CO2 number in a sustainability report, you or I or none of us have any idea how that was calculated.   And if we want to measure progress, we need to get comparability. We need to start saying, hey, this guy is doing a much better job than that woman. What is this woman going to do to improve? And then we get to focus in the rules of business, but redefine. And that's where we are going to go. The last step, and that's by no means the smallest step, is we need to get the capital markets to play as well. Because the best CEO on this island is a guy called Paul Pullman, runs Unilever. Pretty brilliant sustainability strategy by many in the world seen as one of the most forward thinking business leaders out there. A member of the high level panel for sustainable development goals, doing an incredible amount of work. But that person will still lose his job if he has one financial quarter. We can all agree he's the best sustainability CEO in the world. He will still fly out if he does not perform financially. So we need to get the capital markets to understand this. And that means we need to work with everybody, collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. And you will have to remember only one thing from this talk tonight. And that is, what are you going to do to scale up? Thank you very much.


The City of Brainerd will notice some changes with its leadership after a top administrator resigned. After 35 years in public service, two of them spent as the Brainerd City Administrator, Jim Thorin, is resigning from the position. Last night the City Council approved the resignation to be effective in October. His future plans include retirement, but there are many things he will miss about serving the community of Brainerd. It's working with the citizens firsthand, with council members, interacting between one organization and another, bridging the gap in information, and also aspiring to do greater things for the community for whom I am working at this point, Brainerd. Jim and his wife will be moving back to the small town of Glenwood, Minnesota to enjoy what they hope to be a peaceful retirement. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Le Crescent, Le Crescent. Le, le, le. My upbringing was very unique. I grew up both in the Bronx and the Dominican Republic. I was born in the Bronx, but every year I would go and visit my family in the Dominican Republic. And there is where I really learned how to appreciate food and what it does for us as a people, as a culture and how to utilize those ingredients that grow in my very backyard. Three, two, one, action. So I'm actually making blueberry plantain sticky buns. Yeah, you heard me correctly. Blueberry plantain sticky buns. We're gonna take sweet plantains, blueberries, cashews and our lecrescent baking dish. I'm gonna take fresh farmed blueberries and my favorite sweet plantains and make a beautiful filling. In the meanwhile, you're gonna make your pan caramel.   We're gonna let the caramel finish off in the oven with our sticky buns. That's why it's called pan caramel. We're gonna grab our baking dish and we're gonna pour our caramel. Coming from the diaspora, there are stories that maybe we haven't been able to tell but food is the perfect vessel to tell these stories in a palpable, less aggressive way. Food is something that we can use to unite, to love and to care for other people. So now we have our beautiful sticky buns out of the oven and onto our beautiful serving dish. You can actually cover your baking dish and use it as a serving dish too. And then I'm gonna top it with blueberry icing. When I think of my heritage and my culture, I think of color. I think of how we are able to express ourself through bold and vibrant imagery and Lecressa helps me achieve that same imagery and that same vibrancy through my food and through the vessels that I have to cook them through. Make sure that I grab all of that beautiful icing. It's super important for me to keep creating these kinds of dishes that have touches of my background and my influence.