The University Life & the Muslim Life - Part 2

The University Life & the Muslim Life - Part 2

The Story of the Anglican Bishop Who Embraced Islam

Anglican Bishop, Anglican Bishop. He had, he was in charge of the whole Western Diocese, the whole Diocese of Western Kenya. 40 parishes, something like 400 and something churches, all under him.

And he showed us some pictures. One picture of this guy standing next to, I don't know what his name is, Edward Kennedy, you know, John J. Caves, I don't know, brother-in-law or whatever, or something like that, and some other pictures. The guy's a professor in psychology. He's a counselor. He's taught at universities in America, in Oregon and in California. The church, really, believe me, you know, they look after people, that's what it's about.

That's his job. His whole life has been working for the church. He had a beautiful car, a beautiful house. Of course he's lost all of that. This guy doesn't even have a pair of socks. People said to him, you're mad.

They said you gave up your car and your house and your income for Islam. Now he's running after Matatu. Matatu is one of these taxis that everyone squeezes in, you know, they call it a Matatu. These taxis that everyone screws. Now he's running for one of those. This is a bishop.

The guy doesn't have a pair of socks. He left all of that for Islam. And he was happy. And as we all agree, when he was talking about why he became Muslim, it's just his heart was not happy. His heart was not happy. He had all of these things.

The True Wealth: Happiness of the Heart

He had all of these material things. And on top of that, position, power, respect. Well, he wasn't happy in his heart. None of it made him happy. He just questioned him, why? He just couldn't, funnily enough, he said, you know why? When I thought about it, I couldn't put my hand on my heart and say that when I stand in front of God, I'm going to go to heaven. That's how unconvinced he was about Christianity.

He went to the Masjid al-Aqsa as part of a Christian tour group. They were going to the holy land, saw the Muslims praying, and that's it. Touched his heart so much. And there he was. But this is the thing. You know, he realized that all that power, what was it? Nothing.

The true wealth is the happiness in the heart. What does it matter if you're a multimillionaire? What does it matter if you're a multimillionaire and you're a Muslim? What benefit is that going to achieve for you? What does it give you? You have all of that and you're not happy. And then what need do you have for the world and the things of the world? If your heart is happy, what have you lost if your heart is happy? Even if you've got nothing.

Even if you are running for a matatu with no socks, right? If your heart is happy, what does it matter? You've got all the wealth you need. And that's the reality. The real success is what is in this heart of yours. That's where the real success is. The real joy, that's what all of these people, that's why they drink. You know why they drink alcohol? That's because that's what they're looking for.

The Trap of Temporary Happiness

They're looking just to be happy. Maybe just for a little bit. They seek it in these things, in music. Why do they listen to music? Because it takes them away from that little bit of moment when they're plugged in, right? They feel a little bit happy. They sit and watch these movies and they escape. And they feel a little bit, as they imagine, happy.

Although, what they don't realise is all of these things are like a drug. They're like a drug in the sense that it works for a bit, but then your body becomes immunised to it. That's what happens. And then you're always chasing the high. You're always trying to get back that nice feeling you had when you started smoking spliff and taking heroin or whatever. You felt good in the beginning, but you lose it.

And then you're always trying to chase that feeling you had and you never could get it. And that's why you take more and more and you smoke more and more and you drink more and more. Until what happens, you just become an addict. And then what you find you're doing is that you don't know how you're enjoying it anymore. You're just doing it because you've got so used to doing it. That's it.

Don't Be Like Lemmings: Think for Yourself

So, brothers, you know, you know there's some kids who you tell them, don't put your hand in the fire. You tell them a hundred times. You know what, some of them, they just have to do it. They just have to put their hand in the fire. Others, you know, that's one of the ones we call the sensible ones. They listen and they believe, you know, like these warnings.

And some people, I guess they, you know, get addicted to pain or something, I don't know. They actually, maybe they enjoy suffering in some sort of weird, perverse way. Or maybe they just get used to it. Or maybe, hey, everyone's putting their hand in the fire. I'm just going to do what everyone else is doing. Like lemmings, you know the lemmings? You know the lemmings, they've created their computer game.

The computer game is based upon a real animal. When they migrate, they go in one direction. Even if it means they go over a cliff and they all kill themselves. That's what happens. They just follow one after the other. And they just go one after the other. And that's what people are like in this society. Like lemmings. You know, like sheep.

Baa. You know, the way everyone tells them to do it, they do it. But brothers, we shouldn't be like sheep and sisters. We should not be like sheep. You know, and this is the first thing you've got to get in your brain. Don't think you have to do anything because everybody else is doing it.

Do not think like that. Just do what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you to do. You don't have to conform. You do not have to conform. You don't have to fit in. You don't have to.

Dressing Appropriately: Protection and Da'wah

If I try and conform and fit in, you know what, I admit, I used to walk around all the time with a thobe. You know, just because I didn't have anything else. I'm not comfortable in this world or whatever. But the reason I changed is not because I want to conform and fit in with society. It's only for one simple reason. I want to give these people da'wah.

If I begin by looking like something from, like, you know, like a brother that's come from Saudi or from Pakistan, you know, my chances of being able to communicate with them has already been reduced by 90%. It's already started to be reduced by 90%. I'm not saying it's wrong to wear this because believe me, if I was in another time or another place, I used to wear this for one reason, for one simple reason.

If I wore a thobe and a turban, could you go into a disco wearing a thobe and a turban? Tell me honestly. You couldn't do it, could you? Right now, all of you could quite happily walk, even with your beard, you could walk into a disco. You could stand at that bar, couldn't you? You could stand at that bar and shout out to those pretty girls, so many pretty girls out there.

Serious battle out there. See, in battle, engagement is what you want to do. In this place, engagement is what you want to avoid, especially in the wrong time, that's what I mean. But, no, I mean, if you dress in that dress to protect yourself, Alhamdulillah, that's good. You know, like forcing yourself, the way you look, you know, you will yourself feel shy because I'm dressed like a Muslim, I will not let myself be seen in a place where Muslims shouldn't be seen. And maybe you need to do that in a place like this.

Maybe you need to protect yourself. For me, the way I dress is really to do with the fact that I need to communicate with people, and Alhamdulillah, I don't say I'm not afraid, you know, to fall into fitna. I'm not that afraid, I don't think I'm really going to, Inshallah Allah protect me from, you know, drinking alcohol. I just, you know, never used to like it anyway. But I mean, I don't think I'm going to do that or fornicate with some, I wouldn't do that, you know. That's all, exactly, I wouldn't do that. Some nasty, whatever.

The Purpose of University Education

Okay, so, really brothers, these are things you have to think about. Being a Muslim, what really is being a Muslim about? What really is this university right about? Really, what are you doing here? Exactly. You know, you're going to spend three years, or four years, or six years, or five years doing what? Studying something, 90% of that knowledge you learn in the Muslim world. And that's if you follow your chosen profession. If you follow, if you do the thing that you're studying for, then you'll only use about 10%.

Right? You'll study seven years to be a doctor. My friend who's a GP said, I will tell you everything you need to be to be a GP in three weeks. I can tell you everything you know to be a GP in three weeks. But you're going to study seven years, or what is it, six years for architecture, yeah? I don't know how many years for law. Three years. 90% of this knowledge you will never use again.

Why are you doing it? I'm not saying don't. I'm not telling you to leave. You will get the wrong idea because we do need people to be qualified and there's many good reasons. But make sure you have a good reason. You know, make sure you do have a very good reason. And not only make sure that you have a good reason, take your deen as seriously as you take your studies.

Intelligence as a Trust from Allah

Take your religion, and I mean here, take studying your religion as seriously as you take studying this, whatever it is you're studying. And I know that sometimes there's a conflict between the time you need to spend studying and the fact that you're here brothers and sisters means that you're already supposedly in the top, what, 2 or 3% in terms of intelligence. Yeah? Huh? No, it's supposed to be in the top 3%, top 5%.

No, it's a small percentage. The fact that you're in university, yeah? The fact that you're in university is supposed to, there are some exceptions of course, that you're supposed to be on that sort of level. And if, brothers and sisters, this is a responsibility. I mean this is something that Allah is going to ask you, just like your wealth. Just like your wealth. Allah is going to ask you where you got your wealth from and how you spent it.

If you're handsome and good looking like me, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to ask you, I'm just joking, I'm not going to lie. Allah is going to ask you about everything, seriously, sisters, seriously. You know, your intelligence, that is a gift Allah has given you. He's going to ask you about what you have done with it. How did you utilize it? What did you fill this brain with? And you're going to be asked, and these years that you've got now, you know, this is the time when really your brain is going to be very active, very capable of assimilating and not only assimilating but sorting out information.

Seeking Knowledge of the Deen

It is very imperative, brothers and sisters, that you also utilize your time at university seeking knowledge of the Deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I don't mean coming to talks like my talk, that's just, you know, something you can do, but I mean really, you need to sit and study and learn and memorize and read books. It shocks me how many Muslims don't read books, or reading, I don't like that much, I prefer listening to tapes. Allah said, (اقْرَأْ - iqra) (Quran 96:1), not isma, He said (اقْرَأْ - iqra) read, you know

You know, brothers and sisters, so many advice I could love to give you, but my main theme of today is just to think about this issue, okay? What is this whole lifestyle, what is this university about? It's not just a place of learning, I'm sure you'll get, there's a lot more going on here than that, there's a lot more taking place here than that, okay?

Islam: A Complete Way of Life

And think about really what Islam is all about, it is a way of life, you know, you always say that, Islam is a way of life, what does that mean? It's a way of life, meaning Islam has got something to do about every single thing you do in your life, brothers and sisters, everything. If it tells you and teaches you how to go to the toilet, yes, even the toilet, it's going to teach you, that's the most mundane thing you can think of, and you know, the way you do it has its etiquettes from Islam.

You walk in with your left foot, you seek refuge with Allah from the evil jinn and devils, when you come out, you say, (غُفْرَانَكَ - ghufraanaka) you wash yourself with water or three stones, you don't put your back towards Qibla, all of these things we've been taught, we don't face the Qibla, these things we've been taught about going to the toilet, this is how comprehensive Islam is, it's really a way of life.

And actually we need to study the etiquettes, we've become very ignorant, very sad, ignorant of the etiquettes, how to behave, the manners, you know, how to treat your elders, how to treat your teachers, how should we behave with non-Muslims, how should we behave, very important here, with the opposite sex, ok? These things are very, very important, we need to study them, brothers and sisters, we need to learn them inshaAllah, because it's something that adorns us, Alhamdulillah, part of the beauty of this deen of ours, and it's part of its completeness.

Question: What Made You Come to Islam?

So my brothers, any questions? I've got a question, what made you come to Islam? What made me come to Islam? Well if you want to hear a lecture on it, you can go to Islamway.com, Islamway, I haven't heard it myself, I mean I heard it when I gave it, but I haven't heard it, but I know that on Islamway, there's a lecture about how I came to Islam, but very briefly, I was brought up a Roman Catholic, sent to a monastic boarding school, studied lots of different religions, one day came across a translation of the Qur'an, read it, and decided that if I had ever read a book that's from God, this is it, and that was it. That's more or less how I started.

Understanding Other Religions

So you've got a good understanding of other religions as well? Yes, mostly Christian, but other religions, yes I was a Buddhist for about two years, I know a little bit about Buddhism. It's amazing actually how little, I mean this bishop who I was talking about before, even though he's a bishop, hardly, he wouldn't know anything about Christianity, very surprisingly little.

In fact, like a lot of us, we learn more about Christianity after we become Muslims, seriously, after you become Muslim, so much is close to you, there's so much stuff they don't want you to read, they don't want you, because when you start investigating, when you start finding out, the more you look at it, the more questions you're going to ask, and the less convinced you're going to be that your religion is true.

This is why this Christian evangelical fundamentalism really relies on indoctrination, these people do not study, very few of them really study their religion, they just have these little passages and these things that they're brainwashed into, saying very few study the history, for example, of Christianity. But yeah, I'm a bit familiar also with Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism a little bit, some of the new age sort of stuff, yoga, I'm quite familiar with that. I'm not saying that I know all that stuff.

Question: Making Studies an Act of Worship

How can some of us understand it through their studies? Like for example, some of us do IT, study computer science, how can we practice it? What are the opportunities? Well I think, Alhamdulillah brother, it's a very nice question, with the early sisters listening, the brother was asking about how can we do that through our studies, especially if we're studying IT or something.

Well I don't know through the studies, I mean in the sense that, if your intention of studying from the beginning, if your niyyah, actually this is not your question, I was just thinking how can your studies be ibadah, as opposed to mere studies, there's a difference, you can make your studies ibadah, like you can make eating food, instead of really eating food, you can make your eating food an action of worship which Allah will reward for you.

So you can do that by your intention, by the way intentions cannot make haram things halal, but intentions can make halal things acts which you are rewarded for. So for example, I'm going to eat my food now, not this food I don't know what intention can make me eat this, but you can, when you like the taste so you say Alhamdulillah, but if you eat some food in order to give you energy, for example, to worship Allah, this would be itself an act of worship, yes?

Ok, if you ate food to make yourself strong, or you took some exercise and you build your muscles to make yourself strong or something, to fight jihad or I don't know whatever, to some other good intention, you know, then Alhamdulillah it would become itself an act of worship, even your enjoyment, you go to the garden, you go to the park to relax, not to look at nice pretty girls, but to look at trees and flowers, ok, to breathe the fresh air, to look at Allah's beautiful creation, the halal beautiful creation, this is, then this also becomes an act of ibadah, and even your rest, if you are resting to get yourself strong to work, Alhamdulillah, so, work, you know, learning knowledge, even for dunya, if your intention, so you can earn a halal livelihood, then Alhamdulillah, or if it is to help the Muslims, with some knowledge, then this can become an act of worship, as opposed to you just, you know, working because I have to work or I'm getting a degree because I'm supposed to get a degree, it's a difference, what drives you, your intention.

Giving Da'wah Through Good Character

As for giving dawah, then there, you know, there are a few ways, one of the ways is through displaying the character of a Muslim, through the correct etiquettes and the correct character, I'll give you an example, there's a well-known story about a brother who used to go frequently to a bank to pay his wages, and at the till was an extremely beautiful girl, extremely beautiful girl working at the till, but this brother, MashaAllah, never looked

down, whenever he went to the till, he'd keep his eyes down, he would never look at her, SubhanAllah, and one day she asked him, why is it that you never look at me?

Obviously she's totally used to people, you know, looking at her, more than looking at her, he said, why? She said, well, my religion, Islam, you know, teaches me that you should not stare at women, you know, it's a type of respect for a woman, you know, you should not treat her in that way by staring at her, she's some object of desire, and I don't know how it happened, but these guys eventually ended up getting married, and she was so impressed with this, she wanted to find out about Islam, and when she read and found out about it, she accepted Islam, and now I'm not trying to corrupt your intentions, but the point being, not the marriage bit, but the point being, you know, really, the point here being his manners, you know, his manners, you see, and the manner of the Muslim really itself is a type of da'wah.

If we are just, and you know, we shouldn't be swearing and behaving like idiots, you know, like, I'm sorry to say, so many of these people, you know, our manners should be polite, and our manners should be soft, and, you know, we should not easily be provoked, you know, into argumentation, and we should not easily be provoked into saying really, you know, answering people back in a rude way, you know, if someone is insulting to us, you know, whatever, you know, there's no harm to overlook that, you know, you don't have to be aggressive and noisy and loud, you know, these are the things that, yes, in this society, we are expected and taught to be like that, but the manner of the Muslim should be mild and gentle and soft.

The Impact of Good Manners

These are the type of things, and you may not think it impresses people, you may imagine that what impresses people is you being the baddest boy, alright, that's what maybe you think, alright, or maybe you imagine that what impresses people is being, you know, the smiling, chatty, whatever, most flirtatious girl or whatever, but believe me, in reality, that's not what really impresses people, not really, if you behave like that, you will not be the one that sticks in their mind, you know, the one that they will remember at the end of the day, it's not the one who answered them back and was rude and who fought them back, the one who was patient, the one who was soft, the one who was gentle, so the manners.

Learning the Skill of Da'wah

The other thing is, you know, is learning how to talk to people and how to explain Islam to them, and I think for all my brothers and sisters, this is fard upon you to seek this knowledge, it is fard, it is obligation upon you to seek the knowledge of how to give da'wah to Islam, and I say you as in you guys here at university, every one of you should be proficient, if not expert at giving da'wah and explaining Islam, and actually believe me, if you do that, you will learn a lot about your religion, you will learn a lot, because people will ask you questions, and then you will need to go and find out the answers to those questions, so in the being asked the questions and the finding out the answer, you will start to learn a lot yourself about your religion.

I learned a lot about Islam, people ask me how do you get your knowledge in Islam, a lot of it was from that, from people, from me, because I went, you know, I started giving da'wah, and people would ask me questions, I wouldn't know the answer, so I'm not going to talk about Allah and His deen without knowledge, I wanted to know what is the correct knowledge, so I would go and I would read and I would study and I would ask the people of knowledge until I would find the answer, and so in this way you can learn a lot, but the whole how to give da'wah brother is a skill, yes, it is a skill.

Overcoming Fear and Gaining Experience

Some of those things you will learn, you can learn from someone else, some of the things you will only learn from experience, yes, you will only learn from experience, and some of it just takes a bit of courage, you know, people sometimes I'm afraid to initiate the discussion, sometimes I don't know how to start to give da'wah, yes, people ask me, you know, I can't be a speaker like you, why, when I used to start going down to Leicester Square and speaking in the speaker's corner and stand up, you know, even if I went down there today I would get butterflies in my stomach, and I've been doing it for 18 years, since I became Muslim, I still get butterflies, not when I'm sitting in front of you guys, Alhamdulillah, you know, but if I go down to the speaker's corner I still get, I still think what am I going to say, what am I, I don't know, I get there and I don't know what I'm going to say, I do not know, I'm thinking what am I going to say.

But you just have to have the courage to do it, to start, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make dua to Allah and ask Him to help you and Allah will help you, He doesn't need you, this is for you actually, it's for your benefit, if you guide one person to Islam, if Allah guides one person to Islam because of what you said, that is better than all of the best wealth on this earth, one person, Alhamdulillah, imagine every time one person became Muslim, every time they pray, every time they fast, every time they give charity, every time they say Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, you will get rewarded, without their reward being taken away, Subhanallah.

Da'wah Beyond Converting: Reducing Hostility

And dawah by the way is not only, this is something someone reminded me about, I had not thought about this, or even really realised this, and someone told me just three months ago, blew my mind a bit, they said you know dawah is not just about bringing people to Islam, it's about making people less hostile towards Islam, if you can't bring them to Islam, at least make them less hostile to Islam, Subhanallah, and I thought of course, you know, it's not just about bringing them to Islam, if we could make someone who initially is very hostile and anti-Islam, what if they change their views, what if they even get to the stage that although they're not Muslim, but when they hear other people attacking Islam, they say no Muslims are not like that, Islam is not like that, and I met actually Alhamdulillah many people that are not Muslim, but they're very defensive about Muslims and about Islam, and think that dawah is not only there for making the Muslims, even those things, and we are in desperate need of that brothers and sisters, in our situation today, with the image of Islam that it has, we are in desperate need of as much support as we can get.

Warning: Don't Lie About Islam

Don't however fall into the temptation of actually changing the religion, some people unfortunately what they do, is they lie about Islam, or they say Islam is something which it isn't, or they say we don't have this thing in Islam when we do, okay, because I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, I heard about from a brother in America, someone who was given dawah, but it was a dawah of lies, you know, it was a dawah of things, you know about Islam and he asked some things and they told him something different, and when he became Muslim, but when he actually became Muslim and started to study more and more about Islam, he found out that people had lied to him, he became murtad, he left Islam, okay.

And actually I had this experience myself not with Islam, but when I used to work in the city, I worked for this life insurance company before I was Muslim, and they really lied to me about the product I was selling, so I was so enthusiastic in the beginning, but when I actually got to meet a banker, who started interrogating me in detail about this fantastic plan, it really made it look like you were going to get a lot of money, right, okay, and he said well if this is true, it's the most unique investment opportunity ever I've come across, but he's a banker, so he wanted to know exactly how it worked, and when he started to examine the details, then it came out, there was some stuff they didn't tell him, and for example your whole first year's investment, you can never take it out again, it always stays with the company, so that was the catch, they never told us about it, and I could never believe in that product again, because they had never, they had lied to me about it in reality.

So we shouldn't be tempted to do that, we shouldn't be tempted to lie to people about Islam, you know maybe it is that the very thing that you are going to lie about is the very thing that actually might bring that person to Islam, yes, you don't know.

Question: Advising Fellow Muslims

I'm going to finish now anyway, your sister's asked a question, was it that one, okay this is more, this is more like how do you advise other Muslims to practice Islam, for example coming to the prayer room, wearing hijab etc, you know funnily enough sometimes I've found it is more difficult to give dawah to Muslims than it is to give to a kafir, you know, especially Muslims who think they know the religion, and they don't, they're the worst, you know, because a person who is ignorant and they know they're ignorant, it's easy to teach them something, but a person who is ignorant and they think they've got knowledge, it's very hard to convince someone like that.

But you know really the same, it's the same thing, it doesn't make any difference, you know, to give dawah to a Muslim should be with patience, with kind words, with good example, think, really love for others what you love for yourself, treat other people the way you would like them to treat you, give them da'wah the way you would like someone to give dawah to you, it's not that difficult, you think about yourself and you think, what words and what way would I accept someone to give dawah to me, and if someone talked to me like this or

approached me like that, what would make me reject them and turn away from them, so this is the way you need to think.

The Wisdom of Hassan and Hussain

If you want to bring someone to Islam, if you want to bring someone to the mosque or to wear hijab, you know, then when you're actually giving them dawah, right, think about how you would like someone to talk to you, would you like someone to say, by the way sister, you know, what sort of way is that to dress, that's not the right way to dress, or they're wearing hijab, you criticise their hijab, and say it shouldn't be like that, and you say it in a very straight rude way, I mean, would you like to meet someone to talk to you like that, I don't know, most people I don't think they would, okay, so you have to think about who you're talking to, you have to know, some people they don't mind, some people they like it, some people like that someone talks to them like that, that's why it's important to know something about the person you're giving dawah to, you should know something about the person you are giving dawah to, that's part of the skill of dawah, understanding people's different personalities, understanding that you talk to people in different ways.

For example, there's a famous story when Hassan and Hussain saw this old man making wudhu in the wrong way, so they thought to themselves and each other, how can we tell this old man how to make wudhu, so they said, they devised an idea, so they went to the old man, and they said to the old man, me and my brother, we've been arguing with each other about how is the right way to make wudhu, so we're going to make it each of us, and you tell us which one is wrong, right, so they made wudhu, and the man said, you know what, you are the ones that are doing it right, and I was not making it right, he figured himself, he realized looking at them that they knew how to make wudhu and he didn't, so they found this way of giving da'wah without going up to him, because they're young and he's old, and without saying to him, you know, or even you could say, uncle, you know, in a nice way, you know, that's not the way to make wudhu, but even maybe that's too hard to take, so they found a way of doing it, okay.

The Art of Gentle Nasiha

And I give you another example, it's a very nice example, these two Muslims were sitting one with the other, mashallah, one was an imam from a masjid, and the other brother was, you know, like a brother who gives dawah and stuff, and they were eating in a restaurant, and in the restaurant on the opposite table was this very pretty girl, so one of the brothers, his eyes kept going from his dinner to this girl, you know, and it was very obvious to the brother sitting next to him, you know, very obvious, so this brother, he said, he said to the other one, he said, ya akhi, do you have this problem, do you feel like I have this problem of keeping the eyes down and not looking at the women, you understand, he said, and the other brother goes, yes, it's very, very difficult, may Allah, you know, help you, I find it really hard, he said, I'm so glad I'm not the only one that has that problem, but of course afterwards the brother realised, in fact, that this brother was not the sort of person who, his eyes, he doesn't seem to have that problem actually, it was just his way of giving dawah to the other one, but he felt shy because the other one was like giving lectures and this and that, and so it was a very, very nice way

to give dawah, subhanAllah, to advise the brother, without even saying to your brother, I'd like to advise you, such and such, you know.

Sometimes if you go, brother, ya akhi, I'd like to advise you, I'm your brother in Islam, right, ya akhi, you know, even that, that's not, sometimes that's not nasiha, you know, that's not, don't talk to me like that, you know, so even the way you give nasiha, you have to think about it, okay.

The Influence of Good Company

The other suggestion to all the brothers and sisters is the way to give people good dawah is by keeping them in the company of good people, and actually that's my general advice to you, be careful of who you take as your friends, because you take your deen from your friends, if your friends are kuffar, you will follow their deen, if your friends are Muslims, you will follow their deen, if your friends are 50-50 Muslims, you will be a 50-50 Muslim, if your friends are the brothers who pray and read Quran, and you know what, even if you don't become like them, the good qualities of them will rub off on you, just like if you live with the one who smells perfume, even if you don't buy perfume, you'll come out of that person's house smelling of perfume, and if you live with the guy who makes, you know, the blacksmith, even if you don't, even if some fire doesn't drop on your clothes and burn you, you'll still smell of smoke, the people you keep company with affect you, so one of the ways to get these brothers and sisters, Alhamdulillah, to practice better is to bring them in the company of people who practice better.

Anyway, I think that's the end of it. Looks like there's some healthy crisps and biscuits, MashaAllah, the brothers are prepared, so Subhanaka, Allahumma wa bihamdika

inshaAllah.