00:00:02
alhamdulillah
00:00:30
alhamdulillah uh I have to feel
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to visit this
00:00:36
community
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again uh you may know that we have
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alhamdulillah a regular
00:00:46
uh program with world council of
00:00:50
churches so this is the fifth time that
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uh we have come as a group
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uh to
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Geneva and we have program with the
00:01:06
ecumenical institute of the world
00:01:08
council of churches
00:01:18
so everyone has got the translation or
00:01:21
they understand
00:01:23
yes there is translation by French also
00:01:26
okay yes
00:01:29
uh this time we are a group of 16 people
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alhamdulillah uh we have four sisters
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from Michigan Dearborn
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uh we have a sister from New York a
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sister from Dallas so six people from US
00:01:48
we have uh a brother from Toronto a
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brother from London Ontario two from
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Montreal one from
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Vancouver we have a sister from
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Birmingham UK sister from London and um
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so we are from different parts of the
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Shia community
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and we started this
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uh from 2017
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uh after knowing World Council of
00:02:19
Churches for several years uh we started
00:02:22
this in 2017 then we had
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2019 2020
00:02:30
uh 2020 after we left the borders were
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closed and then 2003 and this year
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alhamdulillah and I don't have time to
00:02:40
talk about uh this aspect of our work
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uh which is very
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important uh why we do this and what we
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want to achieve and also similar work we
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are doing in other countries like uh
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especially in Italy with the Catholics
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so inshallah another time or those who
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are interested they can find
00:03:03
online because my time is very limited
00:03:06
so I talk about something which is I
00:03:08
think very
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important and very
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central and that is what I call social
00:03:17
vallaya uh we are very fortunate and we
00:03:22
are very grateful to Allah for knowing
00:03:25
the concept of laya and subscribing to
00:03:28
wlaya
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as you know
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Imm
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said Islam is
00:03:44
built upon salad zakat so etc and but is
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different
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the relation
00:03:59
between and Islam is not like salat and
00:04:03
Islam or zakat and Islam or s Islam
00:04:09
relation of Islam is a different kind of
00:04:13
relation uh sometime I say something to
00:04:18
provoke
00:04:19
people so I say wlaya is not part of
00:04:23
Islam
00:04:26
because if you deny part of Islam you
00:04:29
are not
00:04:30
Muslim yeah so is not like salat if you
00:04:34
deny
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salat you are not a Muslim maybe you
00:04:38
don't say salat but you don't deny it
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because if you deny it then you are not
00:04:42
a Muslim if you deny Hajj or salat
00:04:45
fasting etc you're not but there are
00:04:47
many Muslims who don't believe in
00:04:51
so wlaya is not part like other parts of
00:04:55
Islam wlaya is the soul and the life of
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Islam sometime a person has just died
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without accident what so the body is
00:05:08
complete nothing is missing from the
00:05:10
body but there is no
00:05:12
soul there is no life
00:05:15
so we
00:05:17
believe is like the soul for the body so
00:05:22
it's different kind of relation relation
00:05:24
of soul and body is not like relation of
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hand and body or you know heart and
00:05:30
body and therefore Sunni Shia all have
00:05:34
narrated
00:05:41
so if someone dies without knowing Imam
00:05:44
of his or her time dies like the people
00:05:48
who were in the time of Jah of course
00:05:50
this doesn't mean that our Muslim
00:05:54
brothers and sisters thank you much from
00:05:57
other schools of Islam they are in Jah
00:06:00
we don't want to say that this is for
00:06:02
the people who reject after knowing and
00:06:05
after completion of hujah there are
00:06:07
people that they have excuse and still
00:06:11
they and be benefiting from the light of
00:06:14
Islam and the Quran but anyone who
00:06:16
rejects anyone who is able to discover
00:06:19
and doesn't bother about this then they
00:06:22
have
00:06:23
responsibility
00:06:27
so is what gives us direction in life
00:06:31
what saves us
00:06:33
from what makes our
00:06:36
Islam
00:06:38
effective we see sometime there is Islam
00:06:42
sometime there are signs of Islam you
00:06:44
see so many mosque you see so many I
00:06:47
don't know uh classes for the Quran you
00:06:50
see there are many um I don't know
00:06:54
schools etc but there is
00:06:57
no fragrance of Islam there is no impact
00:07:00
of Islam everything is just plastic
00:07:03
everything is just artificial
00:07:06
uh there is Islam but no reaction to
00:07:09
injustice there is Islam but no reaction
00:07:12
to racism etc so this is not true Islam
00:07:17
because this Islam has no life has no
00:07:19
soul
00:07:21
but after being grateful to Allah for
00:07:25
having this idea
00:07:27
of we have to admit that we have not
00:07:31
grasped wlaya completely
00:07:35
so we are only committed to some basic
00:07:41
levels of
00:07:42
wlaya and this is what we can see
00:07:45
reflected in the way we re relate to
00:07:48
each other because
00:07:51
wlaya is social is collective
00:07:57
is not just a relation between me and
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Imam of my time and B and Allah and
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Allah subh tala we have thought is just
00:08:07
a vertical
00:08:08
relation every person can connect to
00:08:12
them without bothering about other and
00:08:17
in their city in their country in the
00:08:19
world so we have made the wlaya
00:08:22
something very personal something very
00:08:26
much
00:08:29
individualistic although the personal
00:08:32
relation is very important
00:08:35
but part of my please listen very
00:08:38
carefully part of my relation with my im
00:08:43
and Allah and Allah subhana wa ta'ala is
00:08:47
what I believe and do personally but a
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greater part is in our
00:08:55
relations in the way we connect with
00:08:58
each other in the way which support each
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other we love each other this is a very
00:09:04
important aspect of vlaya that we have
00:09:06
not unfortunately grasped
00:09:10
You see there are many good people
00:09:13
alhamdulillah in the community there are
00:09:15
many people who sincerely try to worship
00:09:18
to do charity work community work to
00:09:21
seek knowledge to pass on knowledge
00:09:25
but the same people you see when it
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comes to
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collaboration to working together
00:09:32
planning things together sharing
00:09:34
resources you see this is very much
00:09:40
lacking with all my
00:09:43
sadness i say this I have traveled to
00:09:47
many many countries many many cities
00:09:50
different
00:09:51
continents but up to
00:09:54
now I have not seen unfortunately and
00:09:59
inshallah this is lack of my information
00:10:02
i have not seen so far even one city in
00:10:06
the world that I can say the Shia have
00:10:10
implemented
00:10:11
social i have not seen even one city in
00:10:14
which I can say the Shia come together
00:10:17
and plan together and work together and
00:10:21
share the resources
00:10:24
together there are many times
00:10:26
unfortunately
00:10:28
conflicts competitions or if not at
00:10:32
least they are independent from each
00:10:35
other we have many centers many
00:10:37
communities you know centers I don't
00:10:40
know masid amara etc everyone is doing
00:10:42
their own sometimes once two I say year
00:10:45
maybe they meet each other but is there
00:10:47
any collaboration is there any one
00:10:50
central body that plans for the whole
00:10:52
community anyone thinking how we can
00:10:54
raise awareness about our ideas how can
00:10:57
we can add to the respect of our
00:10:58
community how can we contribute to the
00:11:01
life of other people
00:11:04
no the maximum is that they are busy
00:11:07
with running their own center and as
00:11:10
soon as a problem happens we have a new
00:11:12
center once in one of the cities in
00:11:15
North
00:11:16
America someone said alhamdulillah for
00:11:19
Muharam we have 14
00:11:23
males and I said to myself I don't know
00:11:27
I should be happy or I should be sad do
00:11:30
you have 14 males because you really
00:11:32
needed to have 14 males and these places
00:11:36
are really scattered with a plan all
00:11:38
over that city or every two
00:11:41
group after a few years become three
00:11:43
group three group become four groups
00:11:45
four become five groups you know this is
00:11:47
not a sign of growth
00:11:49
necessarily you know sometimes growth is
00:11:53
needed sometime growth is just by
00:11:56
splitting away from each other
00:12:01
so and
00:12:11
today they expect from
00:12:15
us
00:12:17
to love each other to connect with each
00:12:20
other to form one united body
00:12:35
said the example of believers in their
00:12:38
affection in their love in their
00:12:40
sympathy is like one
00:12:44
body if one part of the body has fever
00:12:48
the rest of the body cannot
00:12:51
asleep cannot be indifferent one
00:12:55
body but we don't see one
00:12:58
body we see a
00:13:00
scattered parts of body bits and pieces
00:13:04
but there is no one single brain that
00:13:08
keeps together one single heart that
00:13:10
keep these things together everything is
00:13:13
you know
00:13:15
scattered so this is very important
00:13:18
aspect of vlaya that
00:13:21
unfortunately we have missed
00:13:23
If some Muslims have missed the first
00:13:26
level of we have missed the second level
00:13:29
of
00:13:34
laya
00:13:46
said he doesn't need to swear he doesn't
00:13:49
need to
00:13:50
make but to make us
00:13:53
believe he says "By the one in whose
00:13:57
hand my life
00:14:05
lies." You will not enter heaven unless
00:14:08
you have
00:14:14
faith and you don't have faith unless
00:14:17
you love each other
00:14:20
if you don't love each other you don't
00:14:22
have
00:14:27
faith a hadith that I very much like and
00:14:30
many times I have quoted in my lectures
00:14:34
is a conversation between Musam and
00:14:37
Allah subhana wa
00:14:39
t'ala allah said to Mus
00:14:42
Alisam "What have you done for me?"
00:14:48
He said "I have prayed i have fasted i
00:14:51
have given
00:14:52
arms." And Allah said "Your fasting has
00:14:55
this benefit for you your all giving
00:14:57
arms has this
00:14:58
benefit fasting prayer all benefit you
00:15:02
what have you done for
00:15:04
me?" Ma was surprised because he saw the
00:15:08
best thing we can do for Allah is to
00:15:09
pray and fast you know and give zakat
00:15:11
and this kind of thing so he was
00:15:14
surprised he
00:15:18
said "You please tell me what is an
00:15:21
action that can be considered as action
00:15:24
done for
00:15:25
you?" And Allah
00:15:33
said "How has been your relations with
00:15:37
people tell me about that
00:15:40
have you ever adopted relation of vala
00:15:42
with someone because of my
00:15:45
sake have you distanced yourself from
00:15:49
someone because of my
00:15:52
sake imagine you meet someone from
00:15:55
another part of the
00:15:57
world they don't come from your family
00:16:00
or tribe or you know city or nation they
00:16:04
don't speak maybe the same language they
00:16:06
don't maybe even have the same ethn you
00:16:08
know color of the skin but you see they
00:16:11
have the same love for Allah subhana wa
00:16:14
ta'ala the same love
00:16:16
foram are you able to connect with them
00:16:19
are you able to be like one body with
00:16:22
them or you say no because we speak
00:16:24
different languages
00:16:27
no you know sometime people you
00:16:30
know split just because of language or
00:16:35
say In muharam we want to for example
00:16:37
serve you know this food you are serving
00:16:39
another food we cannot get
00:16:43
together in such
00:16:46
a big world and with such a small number
00:16:49
that we have still we see we cannot
00:16:52
easily work together and get together
00:16:55
it's impossible to be true lovers of and
00:16:58
be so much divided and
00:17:02
scattered so when Allah asked Mal
00:17:15
Then MS
00:17:23
realized MS realized that the best thing
00:17:26
is not salat and fasting and zak the
00:17:29
best thing
00:17:31
is to love for the sake of Allah and to
00:17:34
dislike for the sake of
00:17:36
Allah salat is to help us to reach this
00:17:40
fasting is to help us to reach this but
00:17:43
this is the core of
00:17:46
IM this is what Allah considers as a
00:17:49
fruit of imam
00:17:55
now I quickly share with you few
00:17:58
aspects of the teachings of B about this
00:18:02
concept how much time you have
00:18:05
mol you have more 8 minutes
00:18:10
okay for example in
00:18:14
du yeah we are supposed to recite dua in
00:18:19
the
00:18:20
morning it's early morning maybe you
00:18:23
want to go to sleep
00:18:25
again yeah but you don't want to forget
00:18:27
Imam Zaman we cannot start our day
00:18:31
without remembering imam of our time and
00:18:34
we cannot end our day without
00:18:35
remembering imam of our time yeah we
00:18:38
should always be mindful of IM of our
00:18:39
time but how should I remember imam of
00:18:45
my time
00:18:47
one of the best ways is to pray for him
00:18:51
to send salutations to him okay
00:18:55
but tell us if you want to send
00:18:59
salutation to
00:19:01
Imam don't send salutation only on your
00:19:05
behalf or of behalf of your parents
00:19:10
send it
00:19:15
and on behalf of all believing men and
00:19:19
women not only in your city maybe you
00:19:22
say "Okay not in my city." No
00:19:40
so love for iman is not disconnected
00:19:44
from love for and in any part of the
00:19:51
world you cannot say I love but I don't
00:19:56
bother about his shia it's impossible
00:20:01
if someone says to someone you know I
00:20:03
love you but uh I don't bother about
00:20:05
your children i saw them starving to
00:20:08
death i saw someone was you know running
00:20:11
after I don't know taxi to go to
00:20:14
hospital i saw them but I didn't bother
00:20:16
i love you so much but I don't bother
00:20:19
about your children he said you are not
00:20:22
honest how can you you know love me and
00:20:26
know that I love my children and you say
00:20:28
you know I don't bother about your
00:20:29
children
00:20:33
if a man for example is present and we
00:20:35
say okay we are very concerned about his
00:20:37
for example you know meal and bring him
00:20:42
100 you know dishes of food here but his
00:20:46
she are starving what would the mom say
00:20:49
you said you are making
00:20:51
mockery I don't need 100 dishes I I
00:20:54
prefer to remain hungry but look after
00:20:56
my shia but we say no we don't bother
00:20:59
about your shia we just to look after
00:21:01
you this doesn't work we are happy to
00:21:05
spend millions of dollars every year for
00:21:07
Imam Hussein alhamdulillah but this
00:21:10
would be accepted if you have made sure
00:21:11
that the Shia of Imam Hussein are in
00:21:14
good
00:21:15
condition not that you know we die for
00:21:18
you but we don't bother about the Shia
00:21:20
it's impossible it's like to be on the
00:21:23
day of Ashur and say to Hussein we
00:21:25
protect you but we don't bother about
00:21:26
aliyah we don't bother about aliyah we
00:21:29
don't bother about your companion we
00:21:30
just want to protect you no one doesn't
00:21:34
accept so even from beginning of the day
00:21:38
we have to start thinking how can I
00:21:43
connect with
00:21:45
believers from east to the west north to
00:21:49
the south even we should not forget
00:21:52
those who were with us but they have
00:21:54
passed
00:21:55
away
00:21:56
our connection doesn't stop with
00:22:00
death wlaya is to enter into a relation
00:22:03
that has no end it's eternal
00:22:07
relation and inshallah even on the day
00:22:09
of judgment we don't forget each other
00:22:12
many people think that and also would be
00:22:16
forgetting or running away from each
00:22:18
other because they read the Quran
00:22:20
says the day that person runs away from
00:22:23
brother sister wife tribe etc but this
00:22:26
is not
00:22:28
for Quran
00:22:34
says all friends become enemies which
00:22:39
means all friends were enemies already
00:22:42
in this enmity becomes obvious except
00:22:45
those whose friendship was based on
00:22:48
tawa this friendship
00:22:51
remains on the day of judgment if you
00:22:54
see a moment you are not going to run
00:22:55
away from a moment you get closer to
00:22:58
each other you get benefit from each
00:23:01
other in
00:23:05
Zarat there is depths of teachings
00:23:11
of about how we should connect with each
00:23:15
other but we normally don't get the
00:23:17
message
00:23:19
for example you
00:23:20
say "Oh I im
00:23:31
Hussein." We don't
00:23:35
say is very easy i am at peace with you
00:23:40
it's very
00:23:41
easy but we say I am at peace with every
00:23:45
person who is at peace with you
00:23:48
who can say this
00:23:50
honestly can you say to Imam Hussein
00:23:52
that never in my
00:23:55
life I had fight with anyone who was at
00:23:58
peace with
00:24:00
you so then why we have so many fights
00:24:02
inside community even inside
00:24:04
families if someone loves Imam Hussein I
00:24:08
cannot fight
00:24:10
him if I fight anyone
00:24:14
is if someone is fighting one Hussein
00:24:17
and he
00:24:18
scores so it's like when you are players
00:24:21
in the same football
00:24:24
team you cannot bring your personal
00:24:27
problems into the team you cannot say
00:24:30
you know this person this player comes
00:24:33
from another place we have problem with
00:24:36
each other or you know this person has
00:24:38
annoyed me and my family so I don't want
00:24:40
to you know pass the board to him it's
00:24:44
not
00:24:47
acceptable being a follower of belonging
00:24:50
to the camp of means you have to say
00:24:53
goodbye to your personal choices and
00:24:55
preferences and take everything from the
00:25:00
leadership if they are working for the
00:25:02
same leader and for the same cause I am
00:25:05
more than happy to help them and serve
00:25:08
them and there are so many things I I
00:25:11
think it's a time of salah
00:25:17
in all our duas teach
00:25:21
us something and that is to change your
00:25:25
mentality from me into
00:25:31
the we have sometimes duas that we say
00:25:36
me or I but that is a beginning for
00:25:41
thinking about me
00:25:46
you
00:25:51
say
00:25:54
not we not
00:26:05
me is always is we
00:26:12
in we say to Allah
00:26:26
Oh Allah please forgive us and our
00:26:28
brothers and sisters please protect us
00:26:30
from our
00:26:31
[Music]
00:26:32
enemies please make the word of truth
00:26:35
and to be the dominant
00:26:45
you say
00:26:54
to when we see you and you see
00:26:58
us when we can get around
00:27:02
you
00:27:06
notic even in salat
00:27:13
Which one is
00:27:21
correct
00:27:23
not so everything is to teach us that
00:27:28
you need to think like one body act like
00:27:32
one body but distribute tasks heart has
00:27:35
a role kidney has another role liver has
00:27:39
another role no problem with
00:27:40
distribution of task as long as the
00:27:43
decisions come from one central body
00:27:45
yeah someone says you should be doing
00:27:48
for example you you can be doctor you
00:27:50
can be a nurse you can be a teacher you
00:27:52
can be a driver you can be a sh you can
00:27:55
be I don't know a nurse no problem we
00:27:57
can do different things but we need to
00:28:00
make sure that all these task are
00:28:04
distributed with understanding our all
00:28:08
our needs and with taking into account
00:28:10
the capacity interest talents skills of
00:28:13
everyone and then in a very efficient
00:28:15
way we distribute task among
00:28:18
ourselves but we don't see such a thing
00:28:21
at least I have not seen this so far
00:28:24
so if we want to inshallah be really
00:28:28
counted as believers
00:28:29
in to be true of
00:28:34
im we need to start from tonight not
00:28:38
from
00:28:39
tomorrow from
00:28:41
tonight start thinking and planning how
00:28:45
we can implement this concept of
00:28:50
social i end with what I imam wrote in
00:28:55
his
00:28:57
to it's very famous you find it in every
00:28:59
book about
00:29:01
IM he
00:29:07
said if our shia may Allah give them to
00:29:11
obey
00:29:12
him if they were united in their
00:29:16
hearts and loyal to our affair
00:29:28
If they were united the blessing of
00:29:30
meeting us would not have been
00:29:34
delayed indeed it would have become
00:29:38
earlier that means it becomes
00:29:43
earlier the blessing of meeting us so
00:29:46
what keeps iman
00:29:50
away from
00:29:50
[Music]
00:29:52
us despite all the love that he has for
00:29:55
us what keeps him away from
00:29:57
[Music]
00:29:58
us the sad news that he receives about
00:30:01
us and what is the greatest source of
00:30:04
sadness of Imam Mai our lack of
00:30:08
unity any father any mother when they
00:30:13
travel the greatest worries are my
00:30:16
children are fighting with each other or
00:30:17
they are working with each
00:30:20
other even if they go to a school they
00:30:23
get the best marks but they don't talk
00:30:24
to each other they don't help each other
00:30:27
they fight each other you are not happy
00:30:30
so you don't say okay they don't you
00:30:32
know talk to each other they don't you
00:30:33
know connect with each other but
00:30:35
alhamdulillah they are getting very good
00:30:36
results in the university but this is
00:30:39
not
00:30:40
important the first thing how much they
00:30:42
love each other how much they support
00:30:44
each other if external enemy comes how
00:30:47
are they going to help each other how
00:30:48
they going to sacrifice for each other
00:30:50
that's the
00:30:51
problem so lack of unity makes Imam
00:30:56
Zaman unhappy with us lack of unity
00:30:59
makes Imam
00:31:01
away from us but if we are together if
00:31:06
we are united then inshallah we will
00:31:09
bless with coming of
00:31:13
imm we pray to Allah subhana wa ta'ala
00:31:16
to bless the souls of all people who
00:31:21
have helped so that today in this time
00:31:25
and age we can know Islam we can know
00:31:28
the teachings of our parents for parents
00:31:31
teachers am martyrs whoever has played a
00:31:34
role as molana said we have to be very
00:31:36
grateful so we first of all want to show
00:31:39
our gratitude to Allah by remembering
00:31:41
any person who has played a role so that
00:31:43
today me and you can sit
00:31:46
here and be showing our love for Allah
00:31:51
and I iman so we ask Allah to send their
00:31:54
souls the best of blessings and light
00:31:56
and forgiveness we ask Allah to prolong
00:32:00
the life of anyone who is serving the
00:32:03
truth who is serving justice who is
00:32:06
serving the cause
00:32:09
ofam we ask Allah to give long blessed
00:32:11
life to our maraj to our leaders to our
00:32:14
volunteers our teachers our seekers of
00:32:17
knowledge those who dispense charity and
00:32:20
good and light in the world we ask Allah
00:32:22
for shafah for all people who are ill
00:32:26
and in particular we ask Allah for
00:32:28
illnesses in our
00:32:30
heart we are going to face a day that as
00:32:33
I
00:32:40
said there is a day that only having
00:32:44
pure heart is going to help nothing else
00:32:46
is going to help so we ask Allah for
00:32:48
pure heart inshallah we ask Allah
00:32:50
subhanana wa ta'ala for of and to be
00:32:55
given with ease and soon inshallah and
00:32:58
we ask Allah inshallah to unite you in
00:33:02
this city in this country and make you
00:33:04
inshallah an exemplar community of B who
00:33:08
would shine who would spread light
00:33:11
Muhammad and Muhammad
