Finding Faith & Meaning in the Road Ahead

Finding Faith & Meaning in the Road Ahead

Opening Greetings and Praise

As-salāmu alaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. As-salāmu alaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. We begin by praising Allah. We beseech Him to send His peace and blessings upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, upon his family, his companions, and those who follow them until the end of time.

Assalamu alaikum everybody. It's great to be back in MCC after a number of years mashallah. It's good to see the community has grown, that it's healthy, moving forward. May Allah bless this community and continue to shower you with His abundant, infinite mercy.

The Greatest Test Belongs to the Righteous

The Prophet ﷺ, when he was asked a very powerful question by somebody, responded with a very shocking answer. People were actually shocked by this answer. And that is that the Prophet ﷺ was asked: who will be tested the most? Who will be those who receive the greatest difficulties and trials? Perhaps people would think the evildoers or the hypocrites or some kind of nefarious characters, but the Prophet ﷺ responded and said:

(الْأَنْبِيَاءُ ثُمَّ الصَّالِحُونَ - "The Prophets, then the righteous.")

And in fact, as related by Sayyidina Ali, the Prophet ﷺ said: (وَإِنَّمَا يُجَرَّبُ الْعَبْدُ الْمُبْتَلَى كَمَا يُجَرَّبُ الذَّهَبُ وَالْفِضَّةُ بِالنَّارِ - "A person will be tested and tried, and the word he uses is a word which means to cleanse something, so a person will be cleansed through tests and trials, just as raw silver and gold is tested and tried with fire.") Meaning, over time all of the filth and impurities burn off. So tests are a very crucial part of our growth and our development as a community.

Tests as Signs of Differentiation

Allah mentions in numerous places in the Quran, whether it was the changing of the Qiblah: (فَلَن يَضُرُّ اللَّهَ شَيْئًا - "You will not hurt Allah") if you stay with the Prophet or not (Quran 3:144). And so in Surah Ali Imran : (وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلَّا رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ أَفَإِن مَّاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ الْقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَى أَعْقَابِكُمْ - "Muhammad is not but a messenger. Messengers have passed on before him. So if he were to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels?") (Quran 3:144). This is considered an incredible test for the companions of the Prophet, and it helped differentiate the community.

Also, of course, later the Isra and Mi'raj - Allah made it a sign not only of the prophethood of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ and his superiority as a prophet, as Khatamul Anbiya (the Seal of the Prophets), but also He made it a sign for those who would stay dedicated to faith after tests and trials. It's called tamhees. Tamhees means almost like when someone - we're in California, you know - would pan for gold. You mahas, right? So that person would pan through the dirt and then what would be left is the gold.

So Allah says about the Battle of Uhud that Allah can purify and differentiate between the believers. Who are those who say, as is mentioned in Surah Al-Ahzab : (مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ - "Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah") (Quran 33:23). Those who are honest to their commitments to Allah. (الَّذِينَ يَنقُضُونَ عَهْدَ اللَّهِ مِن بَعْدِ مِيثَاقِهِ - "Those who break the covenant of Allah after contracting it") (Quran 2:27). Those who will break the promises and dedication that they had before hard times are those that are exposed through these hard times and difficulties.

The Challenge of Belief in Qadar

And time is really one of the greatest challenges of the Sunni Muslim community. In fact, the Prophet ﷺ - it is reported that, more or less, the meaning of the greatest challenge for Muslims will be belief in qada and qadr. That the most difficult thing for us to stomach is faith. And he said this, or the meaning of which he said, and of course in the famous hadith of Sayyidina Jibreel.

Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ - this hadith is called umm al-sunnah, the foundations of our religion. When he was asked about faith, he said: (أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَتُؤْمِنَ بِالْقَدَرِ خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ - "That you believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and you believe in divine decree, both its good and its evil") (Sahih Muslim 8).

If you pay attention, you see something in Arabic. It's very remarkable - the verb "to believe" is repeated twice. And this happens in Arabic, you know, like if you have your children and they're out of control, you have more than like three or four kids like: "I'm gonna kill you, kill you, kill you, and I'm gonna kill the last one." It's like that was always me, so that's how I know. That was the one that was gonna get it, right? So it's used to emphasize.

So the same thing that the Prophet is doing here, of course in a much more positive way. He's saying: to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Day of Judgment, and then he repeats it: and to believe in al-qadr, the good and the bad. The reason he says "and to believe" is that most people will have a problem with fate. Out of all of the things that we're asked to believe with - notice I'm not saying believe in, but to believe with - the most challenging is faith.

Understanding Faith Through Two Lenses

It's very important that we have the etiquette with fate. But one of the pillars of our belief is etiquette with fate - that everything good or bad is from Allah. Everything good and bad is created by Allah. Everything that befalls us, whether it's hardship, whether it's unemployment, whether it's life, whether it's death, whether it's children, whether it's getting into UC Berkeley, whether it's not, whether it's - you know - whatever. Everything falls under it.

It's important for us to believe this because everything that happens in our life as Muslims, when it comes to fate, as Orthodox Sunnis, we are encouraged to see it through two lenses, two qualities of Allah that our

scholars talked about.

Imam al-Marzuqi al-Maliki, in his book that we translated for children which will come out inshallah in the summer, he says: (وَجَائِزٌ فِي حَقِّهِ - "It's quite possible to believe with Allah") that: (وَجَائِزٌ بِعَدْلِهِ وَفَضْلِهِ تَرْكُ كُلِّ مُمْكِنَاتٍ كَفِعْلِهِ - "These things happen, good or bad, either it's from Allah's fadl." And fadl means things that are just like extra, right? I don't have to do it, but I did it out of being virtuous. So everything that is created, we consider it to be from His fadl, because Allah doesn't need any of us.

Or His adl - and that means difficulties, hardships, punishments, trials. We see this as being from His justice. So we look at faith through two lenses : (وَأَنَّ الْفَضْلَ بِيَدِ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَاءُ - "And that bounty is in the hand of Allah; He gives it to whom He wills") (Quran 57:29). Whether it's from His virtues and His benevolence or His adl. (وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِلْعَبِيدِ - "And your Lord is not ever unjust to [His] servants") (Quran 41:46). He never practices any wrong or oppression to people. It's all from His justice.

The Reality of Things Known Only to Allah

The second thing that we believe about fate is that the true reality of things, the haqa'iq of issues, is known only to Allah and no one else, unless Allah has told us - like the Prophet is a prophet, Allah is Allah, what we should believe in and so on and so forth, what we should practice. But for example, authority and power - Allah says very beautifully:

(وَعَسَى أَن تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ وَعَسَى أَن تُحِبُّوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَّكُمْ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ - "But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not") (Quran 2:216).

(وَعِندَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا إِلَّا هُوَ - "And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him") (Quran 6:59).

(وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ - "And they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills") (Quran 2:255).

And Allah says to the Prophet ﷺ: it was by His mercy and His blessing upon you, Sayyidina Rasulullah ﷺ, that Allah taught him and allowed him to see the realities of things. Allah says: (وَعَلَّمَكَ مَا لَمْ تَكُن تَعْلَمُ ۚ وَكَانَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكَ عَظِيمًا - "And He taught you that which you did not know. And ever has the favor of Allah upon you been great") (Quran 4:113).

Allah taught you, and it was a great fadl - because we mentioned earlier we see faith, knowledge, blessings through the fadl of Allah. And Allah says to Sayyidina Rasulullah (بِمَا أَرَاكَ اللَّهُ : - "By that which Allah has shown you") (Quran 4:105 meaning: (فَاحْكُم بِمَا أَرَاكَ اللهُ - "So judge between them by what Allah has shown you."

And here the word is: Allah gave the Prophet the ability to see doesn't mean not only to see physically, but to see nuance and subtleties and the unseen, as mentioned by our scholars, as a gift to him ﷺ.

Just as Allah blessed him in battle to throw sand in the face of his enemies, and this sand was effective. Allah said to him: (وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلُكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَى - "And you did not throw when you threw, but it was Allah who threw") (Quran 8:17).

Three Warnings About Dealing With Fate

So it's very important for us to understand that fate - it's very difficult for us to have any definitive position on fate. It doesn't mean that we should not be strategic. Allah says: (خُذُوا حِذْرَكُمْ - "Take your precaution") (Quran 4:71). But we should not allow our assumptions of fate to cause us to do three things as we move forward. We should make sure that we don't get trumped by fate - the first "trumped" means duped, not the name. The first is the verb.

First: Avoiding Pessimistic Theology

The first is that we should not fall into pessimism while still not knowing if things will be better. You know, it's funny like, wallahi, everything will be fine - allahu a'lam, no one knows that but Allah. But regardless of if things get better or worse, we are commanded to work hard and to struggle.

And often times we see some irresponsible content providers in the community, teachers who may have not really sat with ulama or scholars, and they will mention prophetic narrations that they have failed to understand properly or the context of prophetic narrations, and they will use these to really intimidate Muslims, to create a theology of doom and gloom.

When I was in Egypt - you know, I have a great love affair with Egypt, I lived there for seven years so once I was at one of my teachers' houses. I used to read to him on Friday mornings before Jummah, and he was bound to a wheelchair, he couldn't walk. So we were sitting there one morning and this guy came. The doorman starts banging on the door: "Sheikh, sheikh, wallahi the khateeb didn't show up and Jummah is like 15 minutes. Can you come and give the khutbah?" The sheikh said, "I can't even go up the minbar. How am I going to give the khutbah? I'm in a wheelchair." He said, "Wallahi, we don't have anybody who's going to give the khutbah."

So the sheikh said, "You know, I know someone who can give a good khutbah, man." So that American guy, he can give a good khutbah. I said, "Man, in English?" He said, "So, so." This halaqah was actually with a group of other students. So then I started to get worried. It's one thing to not have a khutbah ready; it's another to calibrate the khutbah in 5 minutes and then translate it into another language and give it in that language.

So one of the brothers, he looked at me and he said, "You know what you can do?" I said, "What?" He said, (خَوِّفْهُمْ بَاسًا - "Just go scare them." You know, you don't have to prepare, just go scare them. He said, "Mashallah, that's the secret all these years - just scare people."

But that's the attitude, right? Fear is important, but fear and hope are like wings on a bird, like salt and pepper. There has to be a balance. So we find sometimes people - they invest in trying to terrorize the other Muslims.

And what's interesting is, one time I heard someone give a speech like this where everyone in the crowd was

freaking out. You know, parents were going home and destroying their PS4s and canceling their Comcast subscriptions and throwing out the internet and destroying the eyeliner, and contours flying in the trash can. All the kids were being put in home school - that's the quick reaction to this.

And afterwards, I went to him - and after giving a litany of misused prophetic narrations and misused verses of the Quran, because unfortunately our people in our community, the only thing that works for them is fear, the only thing that can motivate them is to be scared, to create - it's like Tupac, you know: "Me Against the World," "All Eyes on Me." You know, everyone's against me, right? That's a very cheap, low-budget, genetically modified theology. It's cheap. Anyone can scare people.

The Hadith About Worsening Days - Properly Understood

So after he gave the speech in this litany of kind of terrorizing texts, you know, I went to him and I said, "I want to ask you honestly a question." And he said, "Yes." I said, "When you were talking to the audience, did you feel that you were talking to yourself, or did you feel like they were all heathens with impunity and somehow you were the right guy?" And he said, "No, I am the right guy. Like I don't have these problems."

So then I said, "Well, let me show you a text from your son he sent me last night." And he said, "What? I didn't read this." And then he said, "Don't worry, I never show your parents texts, but this is like a mercy." And he said to me, "You know, I had no idea that my son was doing blah blah." I said, "Look, so maybe you should think about yourself. The mercy that you have on yourself, you should export that to other people."

And one of the texts that is being used nowadays to terrorize people is the hadith of Sayyidina Anas ibn Malik, related by Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim, which we heard from our teachers. And this hadith is that the Prophet said that every day will be worse from this day till the end of time. Every day will be worse. This hadith was related by Abdullah ibn Masood, it was related by Abdullah ibn Abbas and other great luminaries from the Prophet's companions.

So people are now using this hadith and saying, you know as though Barack Obama didn't kick out 2 million people from this country, as though there weren't Black children getting killed in large numbers, as though there were no drones falling on weddings. It's like we were in Paradise and suddenly we got kicked out of Paradise and now we found Trump. No doubt Trump will be a lot worse, inshallah. But this hadith, if you read what the sahaba said about it, it's very important to understand.

He said most of them said: he was only talking to us, the sahaba, because a short time later after he said this, he became sick, so we didn't see him anymore. So every second, every minute divorced from the hadra of Sayyidina Muhammad - being in the presence of our Prophet - is worse. Every second that we - the last second that we were with him - every second that we were away from him is worse than the second before it. This is what the hadith means. And of course, then he passed away.

The Virtues of the Later Ummah

So most ulama said this hadith - it's a hadith which looks to be general, but it's specifically only talking to the sahaba, not the Muslim community, not the rest of the community.

In fact, we have numerous hadith about the great virtues of being from the later part of his ummah. And the Prophet said, as related by Imam Ibn Majah, that there will come a time in my community where people will worship under hardship, and one of their deeds will be equal to 30 of you. One narration says 50 of you, another narration says 20 of you - 20, 40, 50, whatever. It means that it's a huge number of people.

And then they said - the sahaba, actually, they were shocked, they were jealous - and they said, "Like 30 of us?"

And he said, "Yes, 30 of you." We know that the Prophet said, you know, worshipping in times of hardship is like migrating to me, like what the muhajireen did. These are all authentic hadith.

And the Prophet, as related by Imam Muslim - he actually loved to see you, and it was his dream to see you.

Anas ibn Malik says that the Prophet - from Abu Hurairah - was walking in Jannatul Baqi' with his companions, and he said: "I would love to see our brothers and sisters."

And the sahaba became offended. In Arabic, this is called - like you say, it's kind of disrespectful, right? Same thing, same feel. So they said, "Aren't we your brothers? Aren't we your sisters?"

He said in this hadith that the Prophet forgave them, because every lover of the Prophet is excused in their love of the Prophet. No one can not be jealous of his attention and his affection and his love. That's why Sayyida Aisha, once the Prophet mentioned something and then she said something back to him about this woman in Medina. And then the Prophet said, "Are you jealous?" She said, "Who couldn't be jealous of you?"

And then the Prophet said, "No, you're not my brothers and sisters. My brothers and sisters are those who will come after us. They'll come later."

Another narration, he said in a good hadith: "Paradise is for the one who believed in me and saw me" - the companions. Then he said, "But paradise, paradise, paradise" - meaning I promise paradise, I promise paradise - "for the one who believed in me and didn't see me." That's you.

One of the narrations, he said it 12 times. When we memorize it from our sheikh, I always made the mistake: 10, 9, 8, 12. "Ya walad, jannah, jannah, jannah." So in your high school, you're struggling. So we're trying to talk to you. Someone's messing with you: jannah, jannah. You're at work, you're worried about your job interview, what people are going to say: jannah, jannah, jannah. When you're worried about your neighbors: paradise, paradise, paradise for the one who believed in me and didn't see me.

So the first is that we should not fall into this pessimistic theology which creates a very negative attitude.

Second: Having Adab (Etiquette) With Qadar

The second thing is we should have adab with qada, etiquette. You know, unfortunately, I was watching from a distance silently on Facebook - I live in Washington DC, I live in the swamp. It looks like we're not being drained. It looks like it's being raised with this new cabinet.

But the night of the elections, Muslims were excited, of course. Everybody was voting for another war criminal - although a better war criminal, undoubtedly. And I remember people before the election were saying, "Mashallah, alhamdulillah, it's going to be a victory inshallah, everything will work out." And then by 8 o'clock I was like, "Yo, I'm going to the masjid to go make salah."

But to have etiquette with hard times is very important. We don't have a lot of patience with each other.

Someone will give a lecture and say one thing we don't like and we'll leave. We're patient at restaurants, we're cool with wet samosas. We're patient in everything else but with each other. And often times our impatience causes us to misunderstand what people are saying in the first place, and that causes us not to have empathy and love for one another. And that's a sign of not being pleased with situations.

The Prophet, in numerous narrations, shows us incredible etiquette with fate. Let's just take a few from the Quran, inshallah. But on Facebook, I saw people after the Trump victory basically questioning God, questioning Allah, cursing fate. And this is not from the etiquette of the believer.

The Prophet, when his son Ibrahim died, he shed tears. And then he said: "Allah doesn't punish with this or with this, but He punishes with this" - meaning speaking against His fate, not having etiquette with His fate.

Examples of Etiquette With Fate From the Quran

We find this really beautifully articulated in the story of Sayyida Maryam. Her mother, when she gave birth to her daughter - we know that she wanted to have a son. She was very passionate about a son. Doesn't mean that boys are better than girls - just what she wanted. It's her prerogative. And when she gave birth to this daughter, right, she gave birth to this baby girl, she was shocked. She said: إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنثَى - "Oh, I gave birth to a girl." Like there's this lapse. It's okay to struggle with fate. It's okay to be human, by the way.

So when she realized that she gave birth to a baby girl, she said, "I gave birth to a girl." There's two qira'at here. One says: وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ - "Allah knows best what she gave birth to" (Quran 3:36). But there's another qira'ah which shows her etiquette with fate, because after she said, "I gave birth to a girl," but "Allah knows best what I gave birth to" - that's the different qira'ah. So she like catches herself. Like, snap: "I gave birth to a girl. Allah knows best." That's the feeling. She catches herself.

In Surah Al-Fatiha, we see this. Surah Al-Fatiha teaches us everything we need to know about Islam, especially creedal issues and philosophy. And in the end of Surah Al-Fatiha Allah says: أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ - "Guide us to the way of those You have favored" (Quran 1:7). So when we talk about guidance, we mention Allah directly.

غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ - "Not the way of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray" (Quran 1:7). It's translated wrong in English. It says "the wrath of God." God is not mentioned. It's the passive noun, meaning somebody's angry at them, even though we know it's Allah's anger. Out of etiquette with fate, we don't mention anger and Allah together here.

وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ - "And those who went astray." We don't say "adalluhum Allah" - Allah says that about Himself, but we don't say it about Him out of etiquette, out of adab.

We see this also in Surah Al-Kahf. Allah in Surah Al-Kahf, we find Sayyidina Musa with Khadr: إِنَّكَ لَن تَسْتَطِيعَ مَعِيَ صَبْرًا - "You can't be patient" (Quran 18:67( وَكَيْفَ تَصْبِرُ عَلَى مَا لَمْ تُحِطْ بِهِ خُبْرًا - "How can you be patient with what you don't know?" (Quran 18:68).

And then what happens? He knocks a hole in a boat, he kills a boy, he rebuilds the wall. Then at the end, Sayyidina Khadr says: سَأْنَبِّئُكَ بِتَأْوِيلِ مَا لَمْ تَسْتَطِعْ عَلَيْهِ صَبْرًا - "I'm gonna tell you now about those things that you couldn't be patient with" (Quran 18:78).

Then he mentions the boat - knocking a hole in a boat, appropriating someone else's property, gentrification of the boat is not acceptable, property damage. So what does he say فَأَرَنَا - "We wanted to" (Quran 18:79). When he talks about the killing of the boy, as Sayyidina Musa reacts he says: أَقَتَلْتَ نَفْسًا زَكِيَّةً بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ - "You killed somebody innocently" (Quran 18:74). What does he say? فَأَرَدْنَا - "I wanted to" (Quran 18:80( فَأَرَدْتُ - "I wanted to" (Quran 18:82).

But when he talks about rebuilding the wall to protect the treasure of orphans, he says what? Wallahi, this is the Quran : فَأَرَادَ رَبُّكَ - "Your Lord wanted to" (Quran 18:82). When he talks about something good, he says, "Your Lord wanted to."

So that's etiquette with qada, etiquette with faith, etiquette with difficulties, etiquette with hardship.

Three Ways Communities Should React to Hardship

Sometimes in order to shoulder fate, communities need to react in three ways.

First: Education

Number one is education. The Quran really is a book about fate, as is the seerah. I mean, the Quran talks about when you're born, and it talks about الْقَارِعَةُ Quran (1:1)fter death when you're going to be judged.

The second is studying the seerah, Sayyidina Muhammad, because the seerah is really a story of fate, a story of how to deal with loss. He loses his father, he loses his mother, he loses his grandfather, he loses his uncle, he loses his city, his wife. It's loss after loss after loss for Sayyidina Muhammad. But he shoulders tragedy in a way that's extremely powerful.

Second: Supporting Each Other Through Services

The second thing, after making sure that people have the opportunity for education, is to support each other as a community through mental health services, emotional health services, through focusing on building relationships with one another, not just being like, you know, here for events and we leave. There should be events that encourage us to interact and to build very strong relationships with one another.

We've been successful at building institutions. Now, under Trump, and we'll talk about it shortly, perhaps the continued visceral language directed at our communities - it will be more important for us to create emotional value amongst ourselves.

The Prophet said: to make a fellow Muslim happy obligates paradise for you. Allah guarantees paradise for the one who brings joy to a Muslim. And we see the Prophet invested in the emotional health of his community

For example, the Prophet noticed that a woman was upset. So he said to her, "What's wrong with you?" She said, "I had a miscarriage." The fact that the Prophet asked her, right - he didn't use gender in the name of piety to be apathetic to people as we do now. He's a caring person. And she said, "You know, I had a miscarriage."

And then he said: "As you carry this child, this child will carry you into Jannah"

There was a man in the masjid of the Prophet. He used to come to the masjid with his son. The Prophet never told him to take his son home or put your son in the back. And then the Prophet noticed that, you know, after some time his son he wasn't there anymore. So the Prophet said to some people, "Hey, where is his son?"

Look, he didn't ask him directly, because maybe, you know, it's going to hurt his feelings. So he asked people, "What happened to his son?" And they said, "You know, his son - he died."

And then the Prophet said, "Tell him to come to me." All narrations are authentic. And he came to Sayyidina Muhammad, and the Prophet said to him: "Your son is refusing to enter Jannah, waiting for you and his mom.

And he's saying, 'I'm not going to enter until they come and they enter with me'''.

The Prophet really loves people. Our communities - we were good at hating each other. We were very good at being jealous, hating each other, having bad suspicions of each other. Right? You know, every time I give a talk, afterwards there will always be someone like, "I know you don't know me, but I know you were talking about me." "I don't know you, but I'm talking about you, dude." I mean, hashtag: you ain't that important. Hashtag: I ain't that important either. Like, I don't have some secret power, "Ooooh," that's like a reach out, right? But that's that negativity, right, that we have.

The Prophet - there's no dichotomy in his emotional investment in his community. So he had a Black woman who used to clean his masjid. She was African, she was Habashi. And he noticed that she was gone (Sahih Bukhari). And then he said to the sahaba, "Where is the woman who used to clean the masjid?" And she used to have epilepsy. And the Prophet - he loved her so much, he loved her so much that she came to him and she said,

"You know, can you make dua for me?" He said, "I will not only make dua for you, I will teach you a special dua to save for your sickness" .

And he asked his sahaba, "Where is that lady?" And they said to him, "She died." And he said, "You didn't tell me." And then he asked them, "Tell me where she's buried." So they showed him where she was buried, and he prayed on her grave, salatul janazah.

The Prophet's Love for His Community

The sahaba were legitimately confused about the Prophet's emotional investment in them, to the point that it became an issue of contention amongst them. They started to argue, like, "Who does the Prophet love the most?" Nowadays it's like, "Who does the Imam hate the most?" "I swear to God, it's me." "You know, it's me, man. It's me. It's me." "I wore my kaepernick jersey and he got upset with me." Thank you, sir. God bless you. Now they can't see you, so cute, kid.

So the Prophet - they began to argue. And they said, "Who's the person he loves the most?" And they began to fight and argue about this - sahaba we don't even know their names, sahaba who weren't famous, sahaba who were famous. Like, there was legitimate confusion because of the amount he invested in people's lives emotionally.

You know, one of the goals of communities that we see communities lack is being able to perform namaz and ibadah and an Islamic school and a youth group and educational opportunities. Those are all extremely important. But where we have not really done well is making people feel valued. The Prophet does this. In fact, he does this before everything else.

If you think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs - educators, you know the importance of being secure before you can learn, safe before you can learn. Then he sends them a prophet. They're secure, then he sends a prophet to them.

He said, "That's it. Men have had enough of this, this fight about who he loves the most." So he goes to Sayyidina Muhammad and he says: "Ya Rasulallah, ayyu nas ahabbu ilayk?" - "O Messenger of Allah, who do you love the most?"

Sayyidina Muhammad - brothers, write this down, it's the best answer you can ever give - he said: "Aisha, my wife." Man, you're gonna get me in trouble. Sayyidina Aisha. Then he said - but look how confused they were - he said, "But what about the guys?" He's a guy, right? So maybe I got that hook-up. And the Prophet says to him: "Abu Bakr" - another smart answer, her father.

Creating Emotional Value in Our Communities

How can we create that emotional value? I mean, we should tell people we love them. We should give salams with a full heart. We should have visitor cards at Friday prayers, and then we ask our youth to volunteer and call

Lessons From the Late Meccan Period

The last thing - I'm not here to give a policy speech, so House of Cards starts in a few months. But there are a few things we should think about at a more macro level. And that is that in the end of the Meccan period, which is considered the most difficult time in the life of the Prophet, you know, a number of chapters are revealed that warrant our attention. Because these chapters are really sent to medicate an injured community.

The Sunni Muslim community needs to heal. There's a lot of hatred and anger and angst in our community. Everybody's mad. And one of the reasons we're mad is we think we can change the world. That's a problem. We're going to change the world. We're going to change America. We're going to turn San Ramon into San Norman. We're here to change the world. And what happens is we buy into this kind of meta-logic of the superhero, and then nothing else is acceptable.

That's why Muslims - we're always late, we're never on time, we don't know how to park. Have you ever been to a church? They don't park right. I've seen deacons go fist to fist. But there's always this idea - I'm not encouraging us to park wrongly. I'm just saying there's always this idea of we have this massive calling, and that massive calling actually becomes a convenient alibi not to love each other, not to serve a local community, not to volunteer in the community, not to appreciate the small stuff.

It's a great book: "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff," back in the days. And the Prophet said: the Prophet said: never underestimate the value of good, no matter how minuscule.

Healing Our Fractured Community

So these chapters that come in the later Meccan period are really speaking to a fractured community. We are a fractured community. Millennials are mad. Generation Xers are still waiting to achieve power, and they're waiting and they're getting old like Prince Charles, just waiting. The older generation who don't trust the generation Xers, who don't trust the millennials, who don't trust whatever the next group will be - Xennials, whatever they're calling them. And there's just this tremendous amount of frustration and anger.

Some of those things are very legitimate. Women being frustrated with communities - that's a very legitimate complaint. Converts upset with the lack of convert participation. You go to communities across the country and every dawah program is run by someone who's not from this country or has not converted. That's obviously a legitimate strategic gripe. Young people are upset because they don't really have a hired youth director. They have some volunteers who are at home on summer vacation from Columbia and didn't really have any other way to get a job, so they thought they'd volunteer at the mosque, and they're not really in it. So young people feel it.

Those are all legitimate gripes. But there has to be some healing in the community. Let's not forget that we are brothers and sisters. Let's not forget that we are supposed to love each other. Let's not forget that through the good and the bad, we stay together, because that's really what brotherhood is about and sisterhood is about.

Think about your brother or your sister, honestly. I can't stand my brother, but I love my brother. My brother and I - he's a Trump supporter. Yeah, he's not Muslim. We don't get along. Although 13% of American Muslims probably supported him. But I'm saying we are opposites. He's an evangelical Christian. He listens to Stephen Emerson and the hadith explanations of Daniel Pipes. We are polar opposites. But it's ride or die, because it's my brother.

That's really what relationships are about. That's why I tell young people: don't marry who you love, marry who you can hate. Because if you marry who you love, you can't hate them. But those of us who are married or been married, we know that the reason we really love each other is because we can hate each other with etiquette. It's true. That's why you're laughing. All the married people are like, "Yeah, I knew it. I love you so much." No. But seriously, right?

The relationships that are very meaningful are relationships that allow us to talk about our emotions, to address concerns, to address pain, and stay committed to one another. So that meta-narrative of saving the world and transforming the Golden State, kind of is an alibi for us not to take care of the little things and to care for each other and to heal and to forgive each other and to turn to each other knowing, really, we need each other.

Abu Bakr and Sayyidina Umar - they got into arguments, they maintained their friendship. Sayyidina Ali and Sayyida Aisha got into arguments, but they maintained relationships. Ibn Abbas and Aisha became so angry at one another that they didn't speak for years. They did not speak to each other. But when people would ask her, she would tell them, "Go to Ibn Abbas, he knows more." And on her deathbed, she called him, and he came to her. And she said, "Please forgive me for these last few years." And he said, "No, no, forgive me also."

So they were human beings. There's good and bad. Sometimes you don't have to like each other to love each other. The love is a given. The like is extra, like syrup on the gulab jamun. I ain't gotta give you that.

Three Chapters Sent for Healing

But that community needed healing. And Allah sent three chapters to them at the later Meccan period that we should think about moving forward in the age of Trump, that provide us with an infinite number of lessons.

First Chapter: Surah Yusuf

Number one is Surah Yusuf. You know, why would this chapter come in the last three years of Mecca when things are so bad? But if you really think about the story of Yusuf in the contemporary scheme of America and where we are positioned now as Americans, the Muslim community represents almost every aspect of the electorate in this country.

We are white Americans, we are Black Americans. So white Americans come from privilege. So the white American Muslim's job is to calibrate Islam in a way to white America the way that Black American Muslims did years ago, so that in the future, next to every Richard, Caleb, Amber, and Tiffany is a Ruqayyah. And that's our responsibility. White Muslims - their responsibility is Moses in the house of Pharaoh. That's really their job.

Black American Muslims - I'll let them talk about their responsibilities. I'm not Black. Immigrants who come to this country - many of you came here because of the genius visa, because we ain't producing geniuses no more, so we imported them. It's true. Someone gave a great speech about this, about how the fact that the way that America has maintained its edge in technology and so on and so forth is through people coming to this country as immigrants and bringing their skills and talents to this country and contributing to the greatness of this country. That's our story.

Athletes, artists, college students, college grads, Native Americans, Latino communities growing by leaps and bounds, the rich and the poor - you will find Muslims everywhere.

Prophet Yusuf Represents Every Marginalized Community

So moving forward and thinking about our responsibilities, let's look at how Prophet Yusuf represents every marginalized community you can think of in this country. And this is how we should read the Quran. We love to read the Quran to go back to Mecca. Look, you gotta bring Mecca here, bro. You can go back and live romantic notions of history all you want. You wake up, things still ain't changed. But the challenge is to calibrate religious information. And then our college students will love this - intersectional piety - finding powerful intersections between your life here and your faith.

Sayyidina Yusuf is an abused child. This is perhaps one of the most - especially abused Black children in this country and Native American children are the most, as one writer talked about, under-talked-about marginalized community in America.

Sayyidina Yusuf is a person of color. He's not white. I know how they like to make all the prophets look like, you know, Justin Timberlake, but that's not how it went down. So he's a person of color. He was abused as a child. He was homeless, and he was homeless as a child. The greatest demographic of homeless people in this country are children, subhanallah. The greatest number of sexually trafficked people in this country are under the age of 18. Some statistics show America is number one or two in sexually trafficking people. It's a reality in this country.

So he's homeless, he's a child, he was abused. Thirdly, he was trafficked. He was sold. Fourth, he was a slave. Allah says he was sold for nothing, a paltry price. Not only was he a slave, he became an immigrant. He's forced to leave his land and go to a new place.

Not only is he an immigrant - watch how deep this is - he becomes part of the prison industrial complex. He's put in prison and forced to share his talent, and he's not paid for it. The Republicans, now as we sit, are already preparing new legislation to undermine the little legislation that the Democrats put in to shut down the prison industrial complex. This is a prophetic issue. This is not something that doesn't affect us.

Sayyidina Yusuf was in prison, forced to work and not paid for it. What else? He was sexually harassed. He understands what it's like to have someone harass you sexually.

So if you go through the whole chapter, when you go home tonight and you read Surah Yusuf, and you think about all of those who will be the potential objects of the next four years - an aggressive policy that shrinks the role of government when it comes to social services, expands the role of government when it comes to law enforcement, military, surveillance - you will see that Sayyidina Yusuf falls under almost every marginalized demographic in this country.

But ultimately he succeeds. And he succeeds with three things: his relationship with Allah, good character, and maintaining good ties with people.

Second Chapter: Surah Al-Kahf

The other chapter that's sent is Surah Al-Kahf. We already talked about it. What does Surah Al-Kahf teach us, and what did it teach the people of Mecca? Bad things happen, but there may be good behind them. Difficulties may befall you, but you have to trust in Allah. And good things may happen, and if you fail to recognize the source of those good things is Allah, then they may end up being bad things.

The man got that nice garden. He's got, you know, children and property, and he forgets Allah. So those good things become a curse for him. In the story of Sayyidina Musa, bad things happen, but ultimately the wisdom is behind his ability to understand, and he sees that there's good in it.

Third Chapter: Surah Hud

The last chapter that was sent in this time we'll finish up is Surah Hud. Surah Hud wasn't an easy chapter on the Prophet. All these things I'm saying - it's not like it's easy, like, "Okay, cool." No. I mean, morality requires investment. A relationship with Allah requires work. What you appreciate, appreciates. And I'm not just saying like, suddenly this is going to happen out of nowhere. You gotta push yourself a little bit. You have to make effort.

I was at the gym with my trainer a month ago, and they have like one of those bars, you know, where they serve like juices and smoothies and stuff. And there's this dude there eating french fries. And the brother's, you know - mashallah, we say in Oklahoma when we're trying to be polite, we say "very healthy" brother, very healthy, mashallah. And, you know, my trainer said, "You know, I trained that guy." I said, "How long you been training that man?" "For like 3 or 4 years." He said, "Wow, you must be a bad trainer." He said, "No, he thinks he can out-train a bad diet. He doesn't want to work. He doesn't want to put in effort."

So he comes to the gym. We talk more than he works out. Then he complains to me, "Like, why am I not changing?" Dude, you're eating fries at the juice bar at the gym, dude. Like, what the heck? This is like a cardinal - this is like a major sin, dude.

So we have to work. So Surah Hud is sent to the Prophet, and the Prophet says - the Prophet said about Surah Hud, the 11th chapter of the Quran - it aged me. He said it made me old. Like it stressed me out. You can think about Obama. Before, he had like nice, you know, but now it's like gray, because the responsibilities of leadership age people.

Surah Hud comes to him, and he says it aged me. The sahaba - many of them, Imam al-Razi says many of the sahaba said: we saw the Prophet in our dreams, and we asked him, "What in Surah Hud aged you?" And he said in the dream back to them: one verse, the 112th verse of the 11th chapter.

The Verse That Aged the Prophet

What does that verse say? In Mecca, after he lost his wife, lost his uncle, only had 67 followers. In Mecca there were only 67 Muslims. What does the verse say? After all that, everything is falling apart. What does the verse say?

We'll translate it in English in a way that we can understand it. The verse says: stay down. The verse says: stay down. Don't give up. Be consistent in goodness.

Ibn Abbas, he said about this verse - he said: no verse was sent to the Prophet more difficult and more powerful than that verse, more burdensome than that verse.

This verse really provides us with a plan to think about as we move forward and deal with all the phobias that perhaps are about to come our way. And, you know, I believe good will come, alhamdulillah. You know, young American Muslims - like they're incredible. If you look at - another lecture for you, it's kind of a feel-good lecture - and that is like, you know, why Islam is great for the future of this country, why this country - our young people will be able, hopefully, to do good. But I don't want to be that one white person.

The Future Demographics of America

So if you look at the future of this country, by 2043 it will no longer be white. It's going to look like this. The Muslim community is positioned strategically, as a church - using this way just to help social scientists out. I know we have a student here from Berkeley. But we are uniquely positioned because of our demographic to really speak to what America will become, because of our diversity.

When I was in Boston, a woman came to me and asked me to endorse her for the mayoral candidacy of Boston. Charlotte - brilliant Black woman. I mean, man, she's sharp. So this was after the Boston bombing. And after Fox News basically ran like a whole season on me - Megyn Kelly, that's my girl. She called me her boo, but she didn't mean it like that. She meant like a ghost.

So Megyn Kelly had a go at me. And I said to Charlotte, I said, "I don't know if you know who I am, but I don't think this is the smartest strategic move." And she said, "Mr. Imam - " No, Imam is a title. I didn't say that. It's cool. She's like, "Are you aware of the diversity ethnically of your church?" You know. And I said, "Yes, a lot of people." "There's quite a few people here." The mosque in Boston sits really strategically between food stamps and Harvard.

And she said, "You have 91 ethnicities in your mosque. I did a study of your mosque." I was like, "Wow." She said, "Do you know what that means?" I said, "Yeah, headache as the Imam, especially if it's Eid time, dude." Everybody has a different - like food - I don't know what. But we have great, you know, we have great potlucks.

And she said to me, "No." She said something I'll never forget, brothers and sisters, which makes me hopeful. She said, "It means power. It means collective power."

You think about Alinsky - who's not Lucifer - Ed Chambers, community organizing. You think about community's potential to organize on issues if it focuses. And she said to me, "Your community is represented in every demographic in Boston - immigrants, students, Black Americans, white Americans, Irish, Italian, South Asians from the Far East, Arabian countries, Ethiopians, Somalis. Holidays in public schools, paid leave for mothers." She said, "There's not one issue on the ballot that does not implicitly or explicitly impact Muslims. And that is power."

But you guys can't organize. In fact, one of my friends in Boston said, "I have never seen a community so successful at shooting itself in the foot." Watch out, we wear rubber socks.

So that's why I think the future is great. It'll be hard. It'll be difficult. Some of us may have to sacrifice. But that's how it goes. That's part of the process.

But you, young American Muslims - stay down, because you are representing the future of this country, and the demographic of this country will change over time.

Four Points for Moving Forward

But Allah says to the Prophet: stay down. So that's the first thing we need to think about moving into a Trump era.

People ask me the day after Trump won, "What are you going to do?" I say, "Pray Fajr." "Well, what if we all pray together in concentration camps?" We'll be like a big ISNA, and it'll be free. We are the ummah that always finds good in everything. The Prophet said: "I'm amazed at the affairs of the believer. Everything for them is good." We turn lemons into lemonade all the time, because we believe that there is a greater power. Evil is only a means. It's not an outcome or an end.

First Point: Stay Down - Be Consistent

The second thing that the Prophet said - these are the second two points of the three. So the first is to stay down, be consistent. Your silence in the face of Islamophobia gives them a victory. When you start to say, "I don't think I'll be Muslim," or "I don't think I'll be an MSA," or "I don't think I'll join a non-profit and help out," or "I don't think I'll go out and be active because I'm worried" - your silence is victory for Islamophobia.

I realized this when they came after me, that their number one goal is to marginalize normal Muslims and to drive the narrative of abnormal, freaking lunatics. So the guy who does the Orlando massacre becomes the norm. ISIS becomes the norm. But they don't spend a lot of time attacking them. But when Sheikh Hamza comes on TV, or Dr. Ingrid Mattson comes on TV, or a chaplain that we saw, for example, in Massachusetts comes out on TV or writes an op-ed, they go after those people - Debbie Almontaser in New York City around 15 years ago.

Why do they go after those people with such anger and angst? It's because those people - just for the same reason ISIS wanted to kill me and Sheikh Hamza - is that a normalizing, mediating agent is always the greatest threat to the extreme. Balance is always the greatest threat to imbalance. So a balanced model is the greatest threat to Islamophobia, because they can't justify their hatred for you.

So if you and I pull back and pull out of society, we're not really protecting ourselves, but we are implicitly throwing fuel on the fire that is being used to burn us down.

So Allah says to the Prophet in that moment: stay down. Stay the course.

That's why we see Muslims in America - mashallah, after Trump victory, donations to non-profits rose, alhamdulillah. Memberships in MSAs began to swell. People started coming to institutions, just like many of you here after 9/11. You got religious, because that's tawfiq from Allah, and that's beautiful that you did that. Because the impulse to pull out and be quiet and become William again and move back to Oklahoma - because white people, our privilege just waits for us. That's the reality of this country.

As one Islamophobe told me in DC, "I know how to make you a millionaire, William." My mama calls me William, dude. He's like, "Apostate and write a book called 'Sheikh Gone Wrong on a Roll.'" He said, "I'll make

you a millionaire." I was like, "You people are like - you people sit at night and just think of the most nefarious, freaking stuff, man." I was like, "No, why don't I write a book called 'Hate' and write it about you?"

But your silence is their victory. Your fear is their victory. But what we've shown - the resiliency of the Muslim community in America - what Muslims have gone through in this country, it's nowhere near the struggle of Black Americans, by the way. It's nowhere near the struggle of Hispanics. And to be honest with you, it's nowhere near the struggle of Palestinian Muslims or Christian Arabs in this country.

You look after 9/11 - what happened to Palestinian non-profits in this country? And it's absolutely unbelievable - decimated, shut down. How many Palestinians, like Sami Al-Arian, are forced to just leave? Sheikh Mahjoubi in Washington DC, who's married to a white American woman, never received his paperwork, never, after 15 years, because he's Palestinian.

So within our own community, there are people that are suffering in ways - I can say at least as a white dude, because we're at the top of the totem pole in this country. We're born into a current of privilege that we may not really understand what's happening. But we have to stay down. We have to be together. We have to force our voice at the table.

Second Point: Welcome Those Who Return

The second thing that we learn is: stay down, and those who return to you. That can have two meanings. The first is those who repent, those who made mistakes. The other meaning of it is those who wavered - hard things happened in Mecca, they got weak, they flipped the script, they got scared. But then they realized, "I gotta go back to Muhammad." So they came literally back to him.

And that implies the third thing, it's very important. And we don't have time to talk about it, is the need for community organization.

Third Point: Strategic Community Organization

We have to start thinking strategically. Flowery speeches and awesome talks are not going to cut it. We have to begin - we've done great, we build institutions. In Arizona and Phoenix alone, now in the last 20 years, they have 32 masajid. This is Phoenix. Who wants to live in Phoenix? It's Orange County without a beach. Go there. But San Diego without an ocean. There's no La Jolla Shores. But they have 32 institutions.

That's great. And I believe we're evolving in a healthy way. I get tired of people always complaining. No, we've evolved. We've been through a lot, and our community that's come to America - many of you have been through tremendous challenges. You know, I'm tired. I'm tired of this whole indigenous-immigrant - I don't like this rhetoric. We are Muslim brothers and sisters. Some of us were born here, some of us were born in other places. But Allah has brought us together for a great purpose. And we should think about it while being constructively critical.

But we have to organize around issues locally. Moving forward, we're going to have to make local issues our first priority. Imagine all the charity that we've given overseas - and I'm not saying this to be controversial. It's great. Institutions are doing great work. Organizations are doing great work. But imagine if we built a hospital in every city in this country with all that money that we donated, and people are trying to call us terrorists and murderers. Imagine if we built YMCAs across this country. We have that kind of money. We're the third or fourth richest religious community in America.

Elijah Muhammad understood that under the Nation. So that's why one of his goals in Chicago was to build a hospital for people, because he knew that hospitals - and we have enough doctors, mashallah, which is awesome. Our young people, medical schools can serve in these institutions. You go to Brigham in Massachusetts, you see a large number of young Jewish Americans giving back to their communities.

Our priorities, for good reason - I understand we have family overseas who have needs. I get it. But if we just balanced it a little and built charitable institutions in this country, no one could call us terrorists and crazy, especially someone who's like, "I go to that hospital run by the Muslims - Hussain Hospital. I go to Hussain Hospital or Jinnah Hospital or whatever you want to call it. Cardio Clinic, I go there for my dialysis every week. Those people are keeping me alive."

But our focus, naturally - and because of point of priority, I get it. Certain places, I'm not talking to you. If you're in Palestine, you're giving everything to Palestine. I'm giving with you. I get it. At the same time, I give to organizations like IMAN. I give to organizations like Zaytuna. I give to organizations like Umma Clinic in South Central, because I know that those are working to create a rhetoric around who we are.

But we tend to prioritize everything outside of our own backyard. So as we move forward strategically, we have to begin to create a local narrative for this city. Don't tell me San Francisco. Don't tell me California. What can you do in this city to create a powerful moment that shapes the collective rhetoric of the citizens of this place? That's really one of the greatest things you can do to undermine Islamophobia, because Islamophobia is a battle of rhetoric and a battle of meaning.

And it's very difficult. You know who you are. Have you ever read to someone and they're like, "Are you guys terrorists? Are you guys crazy?" And you're like, "No, you should know who I really am." Well, that just doesn't happen. That happens through interaction.

So organizing around local issues. The second is - talking about something I'm working on. You can write it down. Just remember who you heard it from. Bars for days, like Hershey's. And that is: intersectional piety, intersectional religiosity.

Intersectional Piety - Working With Other Communities

We have to begin to partner with other communities and other movements, whether it's Black Lives Matter, whether it's the brothers and sisters in North Dakota, whether it's the Jewish community who are not Zionists or

related to MLI - whether they're pro-BDS, I would say, is a condition for me to work with anybody. Whether it's with Christian communities who are not involved in Islamophobia - you should have asks when you go to join interfaith groups. Just don't jump in, and you don't know who you're swimming with. You may be swimming with people who are supporting Islamophobia, and you would never ask.

As one person told me, "Muslims come, but they don't have any asks." I have asks when I sit with someone. I'm like, "Do you implicitly or explicitly support Islamophobia? I can't work with you. That's it. Are you somehow implicitly or explicitly supporting the occupation of Palestine and Gaza? I can't work with you. Have you in any way, shape, or form harmed marginalized communities in this country purposely? I can't work with you."

Those are asks that have to be there. Those are asks that bring respect. But just to be like, "Oh awesome, we're all together as an interfaith group," and this person is using money to give to the IDF to kill our brothers and sisters in Palestine - kind of hypocritical.

But intersectional piety demands that we work and explore relationships with others that are in our strategic best interest, because moving forward, we're not the only ones threatened by this administration. Its list is infinite.

Now, Muslims always want to fiqh it out. Like we're so fiqhed out. We fiqh everything out. Fiqh is not everything. I know, because it's what I studied. That's my specialty. But look in Zad al-Ma'ad - the Prophet, when he's coming back to Mecca, his camel stops. His sahaba, they begin to make fun of him (Sahih Bukhari). Then he says - he points to Mecca, this is the height of their hatred for him and his community and his community for them - they said, "Those people in Mecca, if they ask me to join them in doing something good, silat al-rahim, or establishing family ties, or honoring Allah, I'll work with them to do it."

This is community organizing. And Ibn al-Qayyim really says: this is a proof that a Muslim can organize with anyone, with any organization, with any people, as long as the goal and the means are good.

So young people - you know, that's why young people come to the mosque: "Sheikh, is it okay if I organize with this group?" Why are you asking me? I don't know. Ask an activist. Ask people who understand activism.

But as we move forward, we no longer have the budget to be so insular. The gay community - hate them or love them - they're down for the Muslims. Whether you love them or hate them, you know why? Principle.

I know a couple - the night after Orlando in Washington DC, which probably has the second or third largest gay community after San Francisco - they're walking down the street. She's Iranian. She has a hijab on. This white dude, of course, jumps out in all his privilege and all his glory - because white privilege is really about the ability to hurt without responsibility, the ability to blame without repercussion. So I can send letters to mosques and say, "Hitler is going to do to you what he did to the Jews," and that person will not feel any guilt about it. That's white privilege. That's privilege in general.

This man jumps in front of this girl - she's from Iran, so she's 5'4" - jumps in front of her, 5'5", and starts calling her the B-word and cussing her out, saying "Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar." The brother told me, "You know when

Question and Answer Session

So we are about 15 minutes away from Isha. We're going to have Q&A if that's okay, and I'll come around with the mic. I'll hold the mic and try to keep your questions concise and actually have questions.

Moderator: I just want to go through a few things that Imam Saheb talked about and how this mosque is trying to work on that. So yesterday, this mosque partnered with the Lighthouse Masjid and gave out blankets, socks, jackets, and gloves to 150 homeless persons living in parks in Oakland.

December 10th is a Saturday. We have a Muslim panel at lunch here for our interfaith allies, for anybody who's interested in Islam, to explain our faith and the American Muslim experience. So we need your help for this. We are trying to get your co-workers, your neighbors, your friends, anyone who wants to learn about us, anybody in the Tri-Valley here. So please put that out.

Also, we were talking about Islamophobia. We have the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project here from UC Berkeley. Sister Rhonda is looking for 18-35 year old Muslims, males and females, who have lived in the Bay Area for one year. Because alhamdulillah, we're about 250,000 Muslims in the Bay Area, 3.5%. And according to their research, 77% of the participants who they've interviewed have felt anti-Muslim discrimination. So they want to document that with you. So right there in the meeting room, next to Imam Saheb's office, Sister Rhonda is there.

So I'm going to go around first and get some questions. Who's sister wants to ask a question to Imam Saheb first? Raise your hand. Shy? Alright, we're going to move over to the guys then. Okay, oh, you'll hold it? Okay, following you.

Question 1: Overcoming Racism Within Our Communities

Question: So my question is, you're talking about intersectionality and faith. How do we overcome the racist themes and undertones within our own communities?

Answer: Yeah, that's why I started with the community and the idea of healing. We need to sit down and talk about this and then create policies within institutions that address it. So that's why I said first, before we can organize necessarily externally, we need to heal.

And one of the bigger challenges - you know, I was called a cracker yesterday by a Muslim. Yeah, I mean, the outcome of Trump is interesting to see how Muslims are reacting to this. I understand that my Black Muslim brothers and sisters who are my friends - I've grown up with since I was 20 - the things that they've seen, it's a miracle they're still Muslim. My Latino friends that I converted with, it's amazing that they're still Muslim.

White Muslims also get - it's more of an implicit weird type of treatment. And then also at the same time, we hear people talking about immigrants: "These immigrants."

This is a dual problem. It needs to be sat down and talked about. Healing needs to happen, and then we need to move on. Like, what is the problem? Let's address the problem. But just to not address it and keep throwing salvos at each other is not a viable strategy for moving forward.

Brothers, brothers, questions? No questions? Go back to the sisters.

Question 2: Mindfulness as a Healing Practice

Question: Thank you. I really enjoyed your speech today. I wanted to ask you a question which is related. You talked a lot about healing. I do notice that there's a big fear-based culture right now, especially post-election. And I've been studying mindfulness and the power of now. Can you comment about mindfulness and just having presence, especially as a healing practice, especially to combat a lot of the fears that we're experiencing right now about what's going to happen? There's so much right now in the media, and I think that's the biggest issue. When you look at Facebook and immediately you start experiencing fear.

Answer: Well, first of all, let's be honest about the media. The liberal media is not necessarily your ally. And this is what we did in Boston. After the Boston bombing, our biggest challenge was shaping our narrative. We felt that, of course, the far right was trying to say we were all, you know, terrorists or whatever, and somehow complicit in the bombing. That was pretty easy to refute.

But on the other end, we had challenges within the liberal media who was trying to drive the narrative that Muslims in Boston are under siege, Muslims in Boston are like living in fear. We're like, "No, we're not. We have great community partnerships. We have a great partnership with the governor, Deval Patrick - amazing person. Great partnership with the then-mayor, Mayor Menino."

So we actually had to refute the liberal media in its effort to drive this narrative. Now we're receiving phone calls - I was talking to Imam Zaid a few weeks ago - from Muslims that are saying the BBC is reaching out to them and saying, "We want to interview and drive the narrative of you being mistreated." But they're like, "I'm not being mistreated." They're like, "Well no, but is there anything you can give us?"

So what we had to do is train 50 people in our mosque through media training to be able - these are the people you talk to. That's about having presence and owning your narrative as a community. You have to decide what is your narrative as a community here. What is the mission statement of this institution? What is the charter of this institution that can be said in one sentence? Anyone who comes here regularly should be educated on.