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to
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some people think they can find
happiness through their children since
they can't personally achieve certain
things they hope that through their
children they will achieve these things
but
again children often times put stress in
people's lives you know you have to
raise the kids and the problems that
come with raising those kids because
they don't do what you feel they should
have done so
happiness we can't find it
there money
income money well according to the media
money should
be what can buy for us happiness the
happiest people the person who has the
yacht they can go off to the West Indies
or to seashells and just you know live
that nice comfortable luxurious life but
what happened to that couple that went
from the UK right retired couple they
got their yacht they're circling around
the world Somali pilot Pirates got
them you know that happy happy life Got
Hijacked so even where you think money
can do it for
you you get hijacked money doesn't
necessarily do
it
Dr Abu Amina belal Phillips his quest to
search for the truth led him from the uh
his
birthplace uh in Jamaica to the streets
of Toronto in Canada where he grew up
and accepted Islam in
1972
that Journey has left him right
down uh many paths and he's obviously
now to Islamic scholarship lectureship
authorship and a
thinker Bilal Phillips Abu Amina
completed his ba from the College of
Islamic disciplines Ulin at the Islamic
University of Medina in
1979
thereafter thereafter he went on to to
complete his Masters in Akida in the
University of Riyad in 1985 he finally
obtained his PhD in the University of
Wales Far Cry from Medina Subhan Allah
in the UK war in Islamic theology in
1994 he taught Islamic education in
Arabic in private schools lectured in M
Ed a students in the Islamic uh studies
Department in various universities is
founded Islamic information centers
while traveling extensively across the
globe imparting Islamic knowledge as
dictated by the Islamic
tradition apparently he likes he enjoys
to play squash and that's what he does
to keep fit teaches his children also to
do martial arts of which uh be careful
cuz he's a black
belt wow he's a black belt very
accomplished man you know
alhamdulillah I I think what he
considers and we'll be talking about
that a little bit later on to be uh
something which is uh he's very happy
about is he founded an Islamic online
university which has over 20,000
students worldwide and we're going to be
talking about that he's authored
authored over a 100 Islamic books
including uh the books we see outside
the fundamentals of toed which is his
own favorite
apparently he currently resides in
Doha and he's uh in the summer of 2009
established a Preston International
College and fud international schools in
chai in chai in India needless to say I
can go on and the list uh of his
achievements to be honest is quite
extraordinary for you know one single
man in this day and age in
this in this age of of global
international
capitalism and tonight he's going to
address
us and address all of us whether we are
Muslim or non-muslim
on the way to real happiness the title
is now the way to real happiness so if
brothers and sisters you'd like to
please sit down uh so that we can
welcome the Shea so please sit down
everybody calm down sit down get your
places I know there's lots of people in
the
room okay so everybody sitting down now
so now I think we're going to Welcome to
the stage for the last lecture in this
uh peace conference today of course
we'll be here tomorrow as
well the way to real Happiness by Dr Abu
Amina below Phillips please come to the
stage
now
alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
and may Allah's peace and blessings be
on the last messenger of
Allah the topic the way to real
happiness is one
which concerns all
people happiness first and
foremost is a contented State of
Mind where a person
feels peace inner
peace even in a state of difficulty or
even in a state of torture
a person may be
happy to sacrifice
himself under circumstances that would
make most people unhappy so it is really
a state of
mind and all people strive for
it regardless of their
backgrounds regardless of their
positions in
life what we find is that
people try to find that
state commonly today through
drugs trying to achieve that state of
Happiness feeling contented feeling
pleasurable because they're associating
happiness with pleasure but reality is
that people who take drugs end up
miserable it provides a temporary
release or a temporary state of pleasure
but that pleasure doesn't last it
quickly goes away and to be able to fund
it it requires a lot of money it leads
people into all kinds of crime and those
people who have a lot of money what do
they end up doing eventually overdosing
because you can only take so much of it
and it's going to overcome
you regardless
drugs does not provide
happiness also people try to find
happiness through music music is a a a a
means of people being emotionally
motivated when you're down you play your
favorite song it makes you feel up but
you can only play your favorite song so
much eventually you have to get on with
life you can't stay in your room playing
your favorite song over and over again
so music doesn't do it either because
where music truly the source of
Happiness then musicians should be among
the happiest people in the world but
what we find is that musicians get
involved in drugs because they're not
getting the happiness through the music
so they're looking for it through the
drugs and the drugs end up in overdoses
and all these kind of things so it isn't
in music though it seems to be at the
time also some people find or think they
can find happiness through
sex sexual
relations but were that the source of
Happiness then the prostitutes should be
the happiest people in the world but
again we find that prostitutes are not
the happiest people in the world they're
complaining they're you know it's not a
happy life so it's not there either
other people seek it through
material
uh items or products
or
possessions the car the
ultimate
Maserati Ferrari
right but we hear of so many people with
these cars killing themselves committing
suicide it's not there either or a home
you buy the biggest home you can still
those people with the huge
homes castles
palaces what happened with Princess
Diana didn't she have the castle the
ultimate
home did she find happiness
no or in children some people think they
can find happiness through their
children since they can't personally
achieve certain things they hope that
through their children they will achieve
these things but
again children often times put stress in
people's lives you know you have to
raise the kids and the problems that
come with raising those kids because
they don't do what you feel they should
have done so
happiness we can't find it
there money
income money well according to the media
money should
be what can buy for us happiness
the happiest people the person who has
the yacht they can go off to the West
Indies or to seashells and just you know
live that nice comfortable luxurious
life but what happened to that couple
that went from the UK right retired
couple they got their yacht they're
circling around the world Somali pilot
Pirates got
them you know that happy happy life Got
Hijacked so
even where you think money can do it for
you you get hijacked money doesn't
necessarily do
it so Sports people sometimes they focus
on the emotions that they're built up in
sports you know your favorite team you
know cheering for them you feel hyped up
you feel that Euphoria when your team
wins but the team doesn't always win
there are times when the team loses and
you feel down you feel bad you're crying
and all these other
so it's not there in sports either so
where is it where will one actually find
happiness true happiness well Steven
kovi identified a principle which if a
person could live it it would in fact
represent a state of Happiness he called
it the
winwin
situation where you're winning on both
sides it's not a win loss you don't view
life from a win loss perspective if I
win he loses if he wins I lose no if he
wins I win if I win he can win too so
where one looks at things in a positive
Life Light all the time that could in
fact create a state of happiness
but reality is
that people don't function like that
unless there are other factors to
motivate
them we do see people's
success when it's at our own
expense as their success and our failure
very difficult to find the positive side
unless there are some higher principles
that can guide us and 1,400 years
ago in
Arabia a man by the name of suib IB
sinan who was a disciple or follower of
Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and
blessings be upon
him he quoted the prophet as
saying the affair of the believer is
amazing the whole of his life or her
life is
beneficial and that is only in the case
of the True
Believer when Good Times comes to him or
her he or she is
grateful and and it is good for him or
her and when bad times befall him or her
he or she is patient and it is good for
him or
her and this is only in the case of the
True
Believer in this statement of the
Prophet may God's peace and blessing be
upon him the last prophet of God he
identified three principles
for true
happiness the first was
Faith the second gratitude and the third
patience three principles
Faith gratitude and
patience meaning that gratitude and
patience without faith it's not going to
work you may be happy for part of the
time but without faith you can't keep it
up in terms of
Faith modern
research Western researchers looking
into different groups of
people analyzing their stress levels
because stress which
produces
depression is one of the major diseases
of our
times according to recent statistics
more than 20 million adults suffer from
depression yearly in the us alone I
don't have the figures for here in
Norway but I'm sure percentage wise it
would be
similar in fact the death rate due to
Suicide was double
the rate of those who died from Aids in
2000 the year 2000 in the US the death
rate for those who died from suicide
that is depression stress
producing these
acts was double that of those who die
from AIDS but what we hear about is AIDS
and the problem of AIDS but depression
is even more so also more people die
from suicide in America than actually
die from homicide homicide where
somebody kills you there are more people
who kill themselves than are being
killed and the crime rate in the US is
very high so what we're looking at when
we talk about issues of stress and
depression is something very very
serious because obviously one cannot be
happy in a state of stress and
depression it doesn't
work what they found was that religious
people are happier and less stressed
than non-religious people in general
when they went across all of the various
groups they came up with the statistics
it showed that high
religiousness predicts a lower risk of
depression and drug abuse fewer suicide
attempts and more reports of a sense of
well-being all of the various
research that was done showed these same
conclusions that
Faith practically speaking produces a
better sense of well-being among people
than a lack of
faith if we look into terms of
gratitude we find we we're just looking
at the
research uh products what has come from
Modern research with regards to these
points that the prophet mentioned
1,400 years
ago what they found is that people who
were grateful they had higher levels of
well-being
they were happier less depressed less
stressed and more satisfied with their
lives and social
relationships grateful people people
also had higher levels of control of
their
environments and that's really important
because people who end up depressed one
of the big factors that lead people into
depression is feeling a sense where you
have no control over your environment
your life is just running out of of
control you're spiraling downwards you
can't stop it so when you have this
sense of control that is going to
alleviate
stress so such people have greater and
higher levels of personal growth sense
of purpose and
self-esteem so it has been
shown that that state of
gratitude is
something which is uniquely important
though in a lot of the psychological
studies they don't put you know very
much stress on this at all maybe it's
not even mentioned but modern research
has shown that it has a Major
Impact even more so than what are known
as the big five these are the big five
factors s which psychology teaches as
the broad uh
personality uh
Dimensions they don't mention gratitude
in it but modern research shows
different and as a result of a new trend
in Psychology from the year
2000 where we had what came to be known
as a positive Psych pschology there was
a positive psychology movement you know
gratitude became the mainstream focus of
their research that this was a key
figure we find in the
Quran where Allah states in
the 14th chapter verse
7 if you are
grateful I will give you
more if you are
grateful I will give you more if you're
grateful to
God grateful in your life you will be
blessed with more and actually uh modern
research has shown that it does have an
impact on people a very positive
motivational impact
because they did some uh studies in
restaurants where the waiter would put
on the
check thank
you just right personally as a thank you
after the person had paid the check and
they found that there was a 60% increase
in customers coming
back they found in a jewelry store they
did a a similar test in a Jew jewelry
store where after people bought jewelry
went home the store would call up the
people or email them if they gave their
emails and just thank them for having
bought from their store and they found a
70% increase in people coming back and
buying from them you know
so it's this is something which is real
on a spiritual level and it's real also
on a material Level
the third principle that of
patience is something which psychology
doesn't tackle as a
characteristic but it really looks at it
really as a
uh issue of decision making you know
whether you're
patient uh in making a decision or you
are Hasty they look at it from that
perspective and they have concluded they
concluded
that human beings on the whole if they
look at the shortterm benefit and the
long-term benefits they will be Hasty
and choose the short term that's was the
norm and of course it's mentioned in the
Quran also where Allah
said that human beings are created in
haste that is a part of their nature but
still we are encouraged to be patient
great stress placed on
patients and some Modern researchers
have in fact suggested that it should be
included in the character strengths and
virtues system it's called the
CSV
uh program or
CSV
system as one of
the key character strengths
of course the
Quran
stresses that it is critical because of
the fact that our lives are lives filled
with
tests life doesn't move along a smooth
pattern they're ups and downs that's the
nature of life it's going up and down
for
everybody so what gets you through the
ups and the
Downs as Allah said in the 2 chapter
verse 155 I will certainly test you with
fear hunger loss of wealth lives and
fruits so give Glad Tidings to those who
are
patient and the prophet may God's peace
and blessed be upon him it said no one
has been given a greater gift than
patience so patience is key so we have
these three basic principles
faith which modern research
has
proven
improves our state of
well-being and gives us a better shot at
being happy gratitude also which
motivates others to do good and
also increases that person's self esteem
sense of uh self worth
worth life has a
purpose and
patience critical to deal with the
stressful circumstances of life because
without patience there's no way to
handle
it so the question then
is how do we develop
these how does one develop Faith GR
itude and
patience if we were to achieve
this first and foremost
Faith from the Islamic technical
perspective consists of belief in the
heart a belief which is stated on the
tongue one expresses that
belief and is a is acted upon by the
limbs so it's translated into action it
is not just a concept
concept but a concept in
action it begins with
knowledge as God said in the Quran 47th
chapter verse
19 not know that none has the right to
be worshiped except Allah this a person
has to know this is the beginning of
Faith to know to have
knowledge that none has the right to to
be worshiped except
Allah meaning that without that
knowledge one may have faith based on
worshiping other than
God worshiping animals
trees these are all levels of faith and
these levels of Faith even though they
may be wrong they may still have a
positive impact on the person but if
won't have the full
impact unless that faith is the correct
faith that correct Faith begins with
knowing that none has the right to be
worshiped except
Allah of course that raises another
question as to what is
worship it is also knowing that worship
from the Islamic
perspective is not merely going to a
mosque and
praying that is an aspect of worship but
in fact we have the whole concept of
worship described in another verse in
the Quran wherein Allah said or told the
prophet to state to people say indeed my
prayers my sacrifices my living living
and dying are for Allah the Lord of all
the worlds meaning that living a life in
which one seeks to do what is pleasing
to God this is true worship that worship
covers all aspects of life it's not
limited
to prayer or limited to beseeching God
in times of difficulty
everybody can do that anybody can do
that prayer involves living the whole of
one's life from the time one gets up in
the morning to the time one goes to
sleep at night doing what is in fact
pleasing to God and of course that
requires
knowledge and for the increase of Faith
because that's the question people say
well okay I believe that I want want to
try to do that but my faith seems to be
low how do I increase that Faith well
there's a very simple formula which
increases faith and that is that Faith
increases by doing acts of obedience
good
deeds and it decreases by committing
sins very simple formula doesn't require
a lot of
psychological you know uh psychiatric
delvings it is
clear you do sins your faith goes down
you do good deeds righteous Deeds your
faith goes up in fact so those people
who are involved in psychological
programs to help people under stress one
of the things they tell them to do is go
out and do a good
deed they tell them go out whatever you
consider to be a good deed think what is
a good deed and then go out and do
it and they found really that people
when they went out and did Good Deeds
they came
back with a higher sense of uh happiness
or contentment in their lives many
experiments were done with students and
this consistently came out in the
results
secondly gratitude gratitude which is
thankfulness or
appreciation it is a positive emotion or
attitude in acknowledgement of a benefit
that one has received or one will
receive it is a positive
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emotion it is
showing
thankfulness when people have done
things for
us this is something which
can be
learned we learn it first and
foremost by realizing that whatever good
is in our lives ultimately comes from
God as is stated in the Quran in the
53rd verse of the 16th chapter whatever
blessings you have are from
Allah and in order to
develop that human characteristic of
gratitude then it must be implemented
practiced
among our fellow human
beings that is why the prophet may God's
peace and blessing be upon him had said
whoever doesn't thank
people doesn't thank Allah that if we
are to be thankful to God it should be
manifest in our being thankful to those
people around us besides the fact that
being thankful to them motivates them to
want to do more
good with at the same time we have to
recognize what good is done for us even
though we know it is ultimately coming
from
God and in order to preserve our state
of gratitude the prophet may God's peace
and blessing be upon Him further advise
us do not look to those of above you but
to those below you as it is best for you
to remember God's favor on
you our nature is to always look at
people who have more than we
have and wish we had what they
had and what does that do it makes you
feel depressed why don't I have what he
has sometimes it takes people to the
point of God this is not fair why should
he have that and I don't have
it why was she born beautiful and I was
born ugly you know comes down to that
this not fair there couldn't possibly be
a God what's the fairness in it you know
where we start to look at others who in
the material world seem to have more
than us so the prophet said don't do
that don't look at those who seem to be
better off than you are better to look
at those who are are worse off because
you can always find
them there are always people no matter
how bad your situation is you can always
find people worse off so then what does
that produce in you a sense of gratitude
alhamdulillah alhamdulillah I'm not in
that
situation so that is what helps to
preserve that sense of
gratitude with regards to the
third characteristic patient
and this is a tough
one so tough that when a man came to the
prophet may God's peace and blessing be
upon him and asked him what do I need to
do to get to Paradise he said to him
what don't get
angry that's all don't get
angry to have the patience the control
where one stops
oneself from
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exploding and of course this is talking
about anger over things that it is not
necessary to be angry over things that
can be overlooked of course one should
be angered if one sees evil being done
to others you know if one doesn't feel a
sense of anger this is wrong and be
upset about it then of course there's
something wrong with one's Faith but
we're talking about General
circumstances where somebody just
uh does something to you it could be
accidental but you're
exploding you know you're just a time
bomb waiting to explode just take
something any little thing pressing a
button and there you are so the prophet
Sall wasallam said to this
individual don't get
angry that patience would be enough to
carry him to Paradise that's how
important patience is
so how can we develop this
characteristic it's so important and of
course Allah refers to it as
being
the solution for the trials of
Life those are those who are blessed by
Allah those who have that sense of
patience they are the ones who are
ultimately
successful
so how do we develop it some people just
seem to be bor and patient they're just
naturally
patient whereas the rest of us we're
struggling how to be patient well
Prophet Muhammad had
said that is
whoever pretends to be
patient Allah will grant him patience
some people might say that's hypocrisy
what do you mean you're pretending to be
patient you know you're exploding on the
inside but on the outside you're
patient it's hypocrisy you're not really
patient but the point is
that this is the nature of how we can
develop positive characteristics that if
we repeat this time and time again
eventually this will become a real
characteristic in the sense that we are
able to put whatever is turning burning
inside to put that flame out it comes
eventually it's like they say practice
makes
perfect so you work on it if the prophet
may God's peace and blessing be upon him
said that this is the best way then know
that it is the best way and it does
work even though people might say no
it's hypocrisy no
it is a means because you're doing it
sincerely for the sake of Allah because
you're striving to achieve that level of
patience if you're just doing it to show
off of course then it is hypocrisy
doesn't really benefit you but if you're
doing it really striving to achieve that
state of patience in your life to make
patience one of the your your normal
characteristics then it is something
pleasing to God and you will be granted
patience also being patient
involves doing things consistently
because patience is not just being able
to hold oneself in times of
trial it's also patience in doing what
should be done to to patiently persevere
to endure circumstances and keep keep on
at
it so patience is involved in doing good
deeds consistently it involves patience
also and the prophet Salli wasallam
advised that the good deed done
consistently is most beloved to Allah
even if it is small so that's what we
should struggle for and strive for is
consistency better to do a little bit
all the time we establish then we
can build on top of that then to jump in
and do
everything but then like they match you
light it big flame and
then and you're
out so better to be
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consistent
now what are we talking about
here we're talking about change in our
lifestyle to achieve these
characteristics whether it be Faith
gratitude or
patience then it involves us making
significant changes in
our course of life and this is the
challenge the challenge which is before
us
tonight we have to ask
ourselves why did we come here
here
tonight did we really come here to
benefit to take something that we will
leave which will change the course of
Our
Lives to help us really find true
happiness in our lives or did we come
here to be
entertained you know
speakers can become come like
entertainers for people people come to
lectures after lectures after lectures
after lectures they enjoy they come they
feel entertained yeah he was a funny
speaker he made me laugh
yes
but we come back to the next lecture and
we're still the same way we were after
the first lecture and the third and the
fourth and the fifth no real change
or we come to
socialize
socialize we're looking at the reasons
why people come to conferences and
lectures they come to socialize because
we're leaving are living scattered lives
out there this is a chance to come hang
out you know with the
brothers or the sisters with the
sisters or it's a question of peer
pressure you know some brothers are
coming and they say aren't you coming to
the lecture you really didn't feel like
coming to the lecture but okay yeah yeah
I'm
coming you feel the pressure of your all
your friends are going you don't want to
be not
there
or people come to lectures for what for
romance Brothers get to see the
sisters
sisters get to see the
brothers this is some of the motivating
factors this is real we're talking real
talk here now right why people come
here some people came if you ask them
tonight why did they come they say we
came to see
BP who is BP belal
Phillips the mystery
speaker some people came just to get a
boost in their Iman you know they feel
the Iman down so can we come hang out
with the the Believers we get a boost we
get leave here feeling a better Muslim
but the bottom line is that if we keep
coming back to the lectures and to the
conferences the same way in the same
state we were from the previous then we
are engaging in what the psychologists
call
obsessive
Behavior obsessive Behavior meaning what
you keep doing the same
thing expecting different
results this is called obsessive
Behavior we also call it banging your
head against the
wall the Wall's not going to break it's
your
head so we have to ask ourselves
seriously
when are we going to make this
change why shouldn't it be
tonight why shouldn't we make tonight
the beginning Point people say well no
change takes time you know it takes time
Rome wasn't built in a
day yeah that's true Rome wasn't built
in a day but change doesn't really take
time if you think about whatever changes
you've done or we've done in our
lives for each instant where we have
change you can see a specific time the
day before we were doing this thing the
day after we no longer did it or the day
before we weren't doing this thing the
day after we started doing
it change actually is
instantaneous what takes time is the
decision to change change that's the one
yeah we can sit and think about it yeah
I'll think about it next week and after
the next lecture and yeah that can go
on till we reach the
grave the decision to
change so what we need
tonight for this lecture on the way to
happiness we've seen it's clear what
needs to be done we need to be
committed to striving to establish real
faith in our
lives Faith which is based on
knowledge Faith which is implemented in
our
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actions we have to become grateful
people who are patient with the
struggles of Our
Lives the question is are we ready to do
this from
tonight we've looked at the issues we've
looked at the way the method it's just
about implementing that
method so what I want to
ask of you
tonight is for you to put up your
hand to show your
commitment before God before
Allah that you will try to implement
this knowledge in your
life and make that
change
tonight how many people are ready to do
it this is what we'd like to see yeah
and this is
something which is between you and Allah
in the end
because I'm not going to be here next
time I'm invited here to give a talk and
say hey I remember your hand was
up I don't see any change in your life
no I'm not going to be here to do that
this is between you and Allah but this
is what makes these types of conferences
worth it that we take something
practical and we leave with it and use
it to change and to benefit Our
Lives otherwise as I said we're just
wasting our
time and we will be
asked about our time and how we spent it
okay Barum I ask Allah to bless all of
you to make that commitment
real
and to Grant his Mercy
and his forgiveness for what has gone
before and that he bless us with
guidance in our lives to really be on
that
path to Paradise where the ultimate
happiness
lies for those on that path are those
who have also found happiness in this
life am mean
for your patience and uh it's really
nice to see so many people here in Oslo
in Norway it's the first time I've been
to Oslo in Norway like I I said when I
landed from the plane the other day I
thought I'd landed in Paradise when we
woke up in the morning I just saw this
snow and this beautiful scenery outside
the wood I thought alhamdulillah I got
there but
unfortunately I saw you ugly faces right
but never mind anyway alhamdulillah it's
so good to see you all really it's
fantastic sorry about the
jokes it's beautiful to see all of you
guys no really it is it's so good it's
refeshing to see all of you guys I mean
we're in Scandinavia Subhan
Allah and I hope you appreciated Dr bow
Phillips's talk if you want to um you
know there are some copies of that book
it's a slightly different uh uh title
the search for in a piece which we do
have so if some of the not yet Muslims
want to read that more thoroughly and as
understand the the whole argument with
the doctor doctor's talk they can get
that outside
inshallah so we'll move swiftly over to
the uh the next the last phase of um the
second day which is the question answer
sessions pertaining to the
topic um before we move into the
questions and of course you know the
rules about the questions so you can
start come you know thinking about your
questions or if you've already got the
questions particularly not yet
Muslims Brothers over here sisters over
there okay you can um start thinking
about your questions or compose yourself
you can start standing up near the mics
and just try to say who you
are you know where you're from what your
profession is how many children you've
got you
know that's but be prepared okay before
we do that before anyone leaves we've
got some uh new good news some more good
news
alhamdulillah so um we'll firstly uh ask
the my brother Norwegian brother to
attend he knows what is happening next
to take
shahada Norwegian
brother please come
[Music]
up are you okay don't be nervous don't
nous nous no I'm I'm more nervous than
you are
how's your
English
fine don't worry about it simple but you
you studied about this
now you care
about you feel you have enough
background to commit
yourself know it's it's one step forward
is steing back afterwards right you want
to be
serious okay anyway your name is B
[Music]
huh
B okay we have uh with us brother Bart
who has been doing some reading about
Islam and uh he has concluded that he
wants to join the faith and that um of
course
it's the first step in the journey which
involves much more study and and
understanding and um he is joining of
course with that with the step the whole
brotherhood of Islam and uh he has now
uh become a member you know me being
first among them relative to yourself
you know your brother in Islam so of
course uh whatever uh help we can
provide for you or any issues or
questions that you have you know that
you would come back to us huh so to
become a Muslim of course very simple
you just have to repeat after me I will
say it first in English and then we can
say it in Arabic afterwards okay I bear
witness I bear witness that there is no
God there is no God worthy of worship
worthy of worship but Allah but Allah
and I bear witness and I bear witness
that Muhammad that Muhammad is the last
messenger of Allah it's the last me
messenger of
Allah
Allah muhamad
muhamad
make it easy for
you give a little gift package don't
feel don't feel
[Music]
nervous
welcome you want
do it from just do it from where I don't
want to come sure sure it's have enough
this coming for
real so whilst all the uh excitement is
going on down
here we've um now the brother's like I
said he's never been hugged by another
man in his
life he's got another thing
coming so
they mean well Ro
um so I'd just like to
also you know whilst this don't want to
distract you guys from this beautiful
scene that's going on down here there
are some sisters who also want to take
shahada in the balcony so I understand
that we we want to get there's two
sisters Allah abbar
so
so if they can come down uh to the
microphone over
here there was some uh brother that came
to me
yesterday and he said there are not
enough Norwegian sisters Muslim sisters
so I have to marry
aab it's happening
Brothers No Excuses now huh
alhamdulillah so
sh okay sisters uh can you say your
names please M
hus and The Other
Sister Sarah Sarah okay um you've both
studied about Islam for some time yes
yes huh and um nobody is forcing you to
accept Islam No Okay uh
of course I won't go into details about
exactly why you're choosing to accept
Islam I just assume that you have enough
knowledge about it to make this step huh
yes so as you saw before to become
Muslim now you just have to repeat after
me you can both do it at the same time
together I bear witness I bear witness
that there is no God that there is no
God worthy of worship
worthy of worship but Allah but Allah
and I bear witness and I bear witness
that Muhammad that Muhammad is the last
messenger of Allah is the last messenger
of
Allah in Arabic
ashuu Allah
Allah
ill
muham
muham welcome to Islam
sisters Subhan Allah right
you want to ask if there's anybody
else um just in the time on onor fashion
than brothers and
sisters
um is there anybody else who wants to
take shahada I mean you know you've seen
the other brothers and sisters in
humanity
yeah very very good point the brothers
saying we should look after the new
Muslims
what a you know we got the same thing in
England going on and some of the
statistics are pretty frightening about
the number of people who come into the
Deen of Islam they don't get looked
after and they actually apostate yeah uh
I think um there should be for each of
the sisters there should be a sister
amongst you there who commits herself to
follow up with a sister like the
practice of the Prophet may God's peace
and blessing be upon him when Muslims
came to Medina that he made a
Brotherhood packed with the people of
Medina similarly for our brother who has
come in is there somebody who's
responsible yeah who will be his buddy M
okay so you will be following up with
him and uh whatever help whatever he
needs then you Channel it back through
the organizations that they can make
sure to help him huh so similarly do we
have two sisters that are responsible
for these two
sisters huh that's one two okay three
even good
masallah for that and just remind the
the uh the new Muslims there are some
new Muslim courses coming up with
Hussein y so all of you people who've
accepted Islam and those people who've
accepted Islam relatively recently or
even even as it's years ago and you
don't don't know too much because maybe
you haven't interacted with the right
Muslims or read anything well then it's
up to you to come to those courses and
then you can go to the stores at the
back you know in the entrance for and
sign up for those courses and make sure
that you engage and learn as much as
possible about your new way your new
Direction inshallah your new found
Direction okay so I take it from that
that that was just a question or an
observation look after the new Muslims
there's no other people who want to
accept
Islam Upstairs Downstairs okay well if
you do you go to the uh microphone here
and here and we we can deal with that
inshallah in the meantime so we crack on
or resume the question and answer
session uh for the Sher on the topic so
do we have any questions from all that
halabaloo and the shahad you know I
people are any brothers down there one
question over here okay we'll start with
the brother over here if you come to the
microphone just mention who you are what
your profession is and then question I
have a question from a non-muslim uh how
does he know that uh inside or in the
heart that Islam is the right religion
if is there any advice uh if you have
any
doubts uh the question question uh how
does a person know in his heart that
Islam is the right religion
well I think first the person should be
convinced that there is a right
religion that's what they need to be
clear on because for a lot of people the
issue of is there a right religion has
to be clear so once they've accepted
that yes there must be a right religion
that God in his wisdom didn't leave
people on their own that he did send
Messengers to guide them then the simple
way is to
compare to compare the religions look at
what is being taught and then look at
what is a true candidate for being the
True Religion then one turns to God and
ask for God's guidance and God will make
it clear and plain for them but it's
true knowledge what we don't want people
to to join religion on the basis of
emotion where you're emotionally you
know caught up but it should be based on
knowledge after knowledge then you give
your emotional
commitment so the advice would be to get
all your questions answered all the
basic
questions uh study some of the other
religion so it doesn't mean doesn't mean
you don't come into the religion you
didn't know about any other religions so
you have an idea and then when you're
convinced in your heart then
inshallah that's the time to make the
move is that that it Che yeah okay good
maybe maybe you want to see if there are
any non-muslims present would like to
ask the question yeah that's that's a
good point Sorry I'm I've been saying
that throughout the last two days but I
forgot she is reminded me if there is
any not yet Muslims they want to ask
questions if you feel shy write them
down write the question down believe me
and I I mean I i' I've listen to Abu
Philips until I well before I embrace
Islam I was reading his
books and listening to his they were
tapes then they weren't
DVDs they were tapes audio tapes I used
to put them in the car and listened on
Journeys and I got Knowledge from that
alhamdulillah so those people who want
to ask questions pertaining to you know
any issue non-muslims please do write
your question down or come to the um you
know come to the uh microphones do we
have any question from
sisters there is a question there's a
question about actually which is
pertaining to the top a lot of people
are struggling with the concept of
buying their own house and finan ing the
purchase of their own house in Norway
particularly a lot of Muslims have
mentioned that and they were talking
about the prohibition of riba and they
wanted you to
explain she that um is that I mean is
there any permissibility at all in
buying a house or you know if you're
here and you can't maybe you've got
nowhere to live a lot of people they
don't they don't have welfare state
system with social housing here in
Norway
more than half salary goes to the half
the salary goes to the rent more than
that yeah it's like London anyway so
they're asking for a bit of advice on
that Ian
alhamdulillah uh to deal with uh issues
of purchasing one's own home what was
done in Canada uh where I grew up was
that uh Muslims formed an association a
Housing
Association
where the members of that Association
all contributed a certain amount monthly
into a
fund and they then Drew by straws who
would get the first house when the
amount of money reached sufficient to
get a house then the person who was
first in the list they got the house but
the house remained in the name of the
Cooperative until everybody received
their house so what it's saying is that
uh this situation forced Muslims to come
and to work together you couldn't the
only way to do it on your own was to go
to the bank and get the
mortgage and this was Haram
so the alternative is that the Muslim
Community work together and develop the
Alternatives and that is the proper way
as opposed to just saying well you know
I cannot afford it so therefore I'm
going to the bank no you
sacrifice even if it
means half of your salaries going to
rent at the end of the year you don't
have a place but you have to know
that if you're paying half of your
salary in rent that every croner that
you pray pay is blessed by
Allah that's what you have to be certain
of because you're paying it to
avoid going into riba going into
interest so know that every croner is
blessed by Allah whereas if you do the
mortgage know that every croner you pay
is cursed by
Allah so though you may end up with a
home but it is a cursed home as the
prophet Sall wasallam had said about the
man on the journey who dust in his hair
falls on his knees raises his hands
prays to Allah but the prophet wasallam
said how is Allah going to answer his
prayer when the food that he is eaten is
Haram the money that he has earned is
Haram the flesh that has grown on his
body has grown from Haram how is Allah
going to answer his prayers so that is
the bottom line we should know that even
though that person was on a journey and
we know that's the best time to make Dua
isn't it he raises his hands that's one
of
the correct actions in making
Dua but his Dua was rejected because his
food his earnings were Haram so my
advice as I said for the community to
come together create that Association we
did it in Canada you can do it
here but it requires effort sacrifice
commitment but it can be
done just to let you know also that's
gone on in um Leicester in London and in
in in England as well whereby they've
set up cooperatives and there are many
cooperatives actually all around the uh
the Western sort of Europe area of
people buying houses and helping each
other to obtain like the she is saying
um we
have we have one from the sisters and
one from here who are we going to go
to oh yeah sister's
chance go
ahead
Alum uh I got a question from a sister
she says how can one person get better
at controlling one's negative emotions
when someone tries to be patient but has
a problem being consisted in daily life
any
advice uh in terms of controlling
negative
emotions uh it can be it is countered by
positive emotions that one has to
develop uh
positive uh outlooks and that's what we
spoke about uh
where positivism in Islam begins with
gratitude and it is nurtured by patience
so one has to do uh Good Deeds one has
to be grateful whenever Good Deeds is
done and at the same time one has to be
patient and make patience a part of
their day-to-day uh lifestyle when that
happens then the negative uh
pessimistic Outlook will start to change
but one has to make that commitment and
make those steps and ultimately it has
to be for the sake of God for the sake
of Allah because that's what's going to
keep them uh committed and consistent if
one is doing it just for people just to
prove something to other people then we
not be able to
maintain uh gratitude and patience
throughout our lives we'll always falter
we'll always end up falling apart
because there are a million and one
reasons why not to be grateful and why
not to be
patient um there's another one which
says uh there are many people who say
they love the teachings they like the
teachings of Islam sh and uh if you ask
them why they haven't become Muslims
they have no answer um but they've
heard they've heard about the the
teachings of Islam and they're just sort
of waiting for a sign is there any
advice that you would give to those
people if they're in the
room
well I would say that um one needs to
answer the question why
not you know one needs to address and to
find out what is the reason why one is
hesitating I mean usually it comes down
to issues of family what are people
going to say what are my friends going
to say that's the usual you know factor
which will hold certain people back and
we know that happened even in the time
of the Prophet may God's peace and
blessing be upon him where his own Uncle
Abu Talib didn't accept Islam for that
same fear so it means that it is and
it's something I've heard many many
times in many many places but for those
of you in the audience who might have
that uh thought or have that obstacle
then you have to reflect on the fact
that we don't know when our time is
going to come we don't know when uh
we're going to die if we have an
awareness of the truth then we need to
commit ourselves to the truth take it on
and know that God ultimately will
provide will protect and will help us
through the rest of our life there are
people uh all through the centuries from
the earliest of times who have made this
choice and they have been successful in
their lives they've gone through
difficulties they have suffered Etc but
all of this is for the good if one is
sincere it will serve to make one a
stronger believer and ultimately when we
stand before God on the day of judgment
he's not going to ask us about our
family our friends our neighbors Etc
he's going to ask us about
ourself why we didn't make the choice
when we
could and another question from the
sister or sisters umam
alayum um I have a friend that is not
yet a Muslim and she wants to become a
Muslim but there's a lot of things she
doesn't want to give up like partying or
yeah um alcohol but she's not addicted
she just likes
alcohol okay and she wants to become a
Muslim but she doesn't want to give up
that part of her life what should I tell
her just the alcohol is it or and
parting
parting well I would say that um I'm
sure there's a lot of Muslims here who
are
partying you know I won't ask you to to
put your hands
up but I'm sure there are a lot who are
partying so um she can come and become a
Muslim and still
party it's not to say that it's
something that we're going to encourage
you to keep on doing but we believe that
having become a Muslim and learned about
the religion and started to practice it
then the need to party will get less and
less until inshallah you give it up and
even in the case of alcohol some people
might say well no how are you going to
let her take shahada and she's still
drinking well is it better for her to
take shahada and still
drink or is it better for her not to
take shahada and still
drink take Shada obviously so I would
say if she wants to become a Muslim let
her become a Muslim let her know of
course she knows that alcohol is
forbidden that she will have to deal
with it she has to go beyond it but
better for her to go ahead and become a
Muslim than
not I think that's very clear thank
you a Brother's question how is she
going to make prayer if she's drunk
no we don't we're not g to no what what
did Allah say in the
Quran in other words don't come to
prayer Don't Pray when you're
intoxicated so we tell her that simply
as Allah said Don't Pray when you're
intoxicated no I'm saying we understand
this brother I'm saying you asked how is
she going to pray when she's intoxicated
we tell her don't pray when you're
intoxicated that's
it that's the start yes she she could be
intoxicated with the worship of
Allah instead of
the pray for her to reach that stage
inshallah inshah may Allah make it easy
for her to take that decision and soon
as possible before she meets meets Allah
inshallah uh then we got another
question quite a nice question what does
Islam say about
love um it's very vague I think it
means I'm not sure it probably means the
love of Allah does it or love as in
women and men loving each other well
maybe the person who asked the question
should clarify what did you mean by that
question if we knew what it meant but
cuz it's a big big topic yeah but what
we can just say in general that um as
the prophet s wasallam had said you know
one is not a True Believer unless one
loves Allah and his messenger more than
anyone or anything in this
world that the basis of our belief is
love love love of God that the love of
God should be greater than the love of
the material world and the things of
this material
world and question about hijab halalam
Sunnah it's a long one well hijab is
quite simple hijab is an obligation on
Muslim
women and uh of course
it doesn't mean that if a Muslim woman
doesn't wear hijab she's no longer a
Muslim but she is in Sin from the
perspective of God she is in sin if she
doesn't wear hijab hijab meaning that
she covers her body the whole of her
body in loose garment from head to toe
uh nothing being seen of her except her
face and hands and we should also know
because all the time we talk about hijab
we always speak about the hijab of women
but we should also know that there is
hijab of
men the hijab of men not not just
there's a mental hijab also as we know
about that hijab but there's the other
hijab which is the external hijab where
it is prohibited for a Muslim man to
wear
pants which expose his private parts
because at the same time we say women
cover yourself but then we're walking
out with spand
expans men so there's no double standard
in Islam as a woman it is not acceptable
hijab for her to wear something on her
head but she wears a top which is so
tight she may as well not be wearing any
top or a bottom that is so tight she may
as well not be wearing any bottom we
don't accept that as hijab it's not
hijab similarly for men particularly
between the naval and the knee their
garments should be so loose that private
parts are not exposed and this is a big
issue because a lot of the Muslim
Community males in the Muslim Community
have ignored this and SCH Scholars will
tell you and you will know that one of
the uh
conditions for the uh correctness or
acceptability of
Salah is
what covering the private
parts so covering the private parts is
no different for men than women in the
sense that between the nav and knee
which is the private area of the male
that is supposed to be covered in a
similar
manner the Garment should be loose so
pants that are western style pants for
Muslims is really not acceptable unless
you're wearing a top which comes down to
your knee or you're wearing loose pants
like the
shoir
Pakistani pants the waist is like this
wide you know it comes together whatever
this is a point that you need to address
because if you are serious about the
dean then we don't have a double
standard one standard of exposing AA or
covering AA for men and another standard
for women no we have one standard in
Islam phips alhamdulillah well
unfortunately that comes really drawing
to us to a close for the second day
because
we have to be out of the building pretty
[Music]
soon