Sheikh Abdurraheem Green | The Evolution of iERA | ReRooted #34

my name is Musa Adnan that shaykh abdul rahim green this is rooted and here's what we have coming up next favorite ayah in the Quran right now not just just impossible to how can you even ask if there's an ayah that comes to your head I don't know something oh yeah you had a few my talk take a needle yeah and go to the seaside with the needle okay alright and go away you can see the sea is like the ocean is in front of you there's no land it's just ocean yeah yeah take the take the needle dip it in the ocean and pull it out then look what's left on that needle that is the dunya and the sea is there places like Leicester Square is not where it's happening anymore the places where people are lost they're lost on their phones they lost on snapchat they're lost on Instagram they're lost on tick-tock right that's where they're lost now right and whether they know it or not they're going they're searching for something they are everytime you flicking you're going through you're really at the end of the day what are you really doing when you open it up what's really going on you're really and why is it so addictive why is it so addictive because really deep down inside you're hoping there's something there that's gonna just change your life [Music] I have the luck other things you're looking a little bit each other we get to wake you up a little bit with a quick-fire so as some of you guys may know there you know some of the special episodes we start them off with a quick fire round and we get to know our guests even though she hope they're human green isn't really a guest he's very much at home but we get to know our guests on a on a more personal level so inshallah Alice let's tie off first one is Portugal or UK UK very on your Mandy brandy the really mixed very I don't even know what Mundy is what is Mundy you know it's just like the way the Arabs eat meat and rice Briony that man coal motorbike car Android or Apple Apple it's the first one thank you so much what what what is your actual name Anthony Anthony Vaught soif Gavin green well that's the first one for me favorite place gosh my house yeah coffee or tea coffee favorite food biryani really it's difficult it depends well it depends like if you're gonna put me down to one food it'll be biryani if you ask me what's my favorite breakfast there'll be a different subject what's much but biryani if there's one thing I you know like if there's only one thing I was allowed to eat the whole time it would definitely biryani you have to be there okay best that's probably the best thing in the world man Michael Medina aye mmm gosh yes probably Medina I'll be yep yeah I'll bake or KFC I've no I don't remember ever having I'll bake really yeah and I don't really like okay I've see that much either you need to try a bake it's nice you know as a regular thing advice nice yeah Pizza hood or double or dominoes dominoes samosa or pakora samosa favorite ayah in the Quran right now not just just impossible to if there's an ayah that comes to your head I don't know something oh yeah yeah some people need to remember that particular surah but anyway yacon 100% how far back could you name your ancestors not very far too generous - maybe - I know some light spots in my ancestry okay but I couldn't name them like this one was married to that one to that one so only - my great-grandfather okay which person from the past inspires you the most what you mean other than the prophet muhammed sallalahu yeah well I mean any of the prophets Allah that's really difficult my out honestly I can't even think of someone you really landed me on it with that one that inspires me from the past a person who really inspires me that's so hard perhaps someone you've read about or someone whenever you readings there's so many hmm I'll be honest ibrahim alayhis salaam okay right for me my ibrahim is one of the most he's probably my most inspirational the most inspirational figure for me and is it like a brief reason for that yeah I think because he was all in his own like I sort of connect with it a lot when I first became Muslim mm-hmm and he was just like he was the only more warhead and he was all in it he was just up against so much and he was so brave right so courageous so intellectually astute the way his dour it's also his dour was so powerful just you know just the or inspiring figure for me Ibrahim alayhi Salaam right yeah I you know I have to say it's like it's hard once you exclude the prophets that I have many left they're sort of I think um I think on a little level like both the man the founder of the earth mani dynasty I don't know much about him right but the little I know about him the fact that he was so inspired by the hadith of the Prophet like the best you know that the army that opens Constantinople what a bleeder and what an army and the fact that he was literally driven by that hadith of the Prophet to want to be the guy who did and also he was a remarkable character as well so I think in relatively modern history he's someone that definitely just for that particular thing there's so many people I guess is too is difficult most different least favorite companion in a way Messiah Ben oh my okay like so underrated as a companion like yeah I could you could argue that he was pivotal he's maybe one of the most pivotal companions and in the sense that the the mission that he had right of opening up Medina of giving down Medina was what was the pathway for everything so he literally in in so many ways the whole future of Islam rested on what his his mission separe literally like people you don't don't think about if he hadn't gone to Medina and he hadn't had that success that Allah hadn't given him that success and he hadn't been able to literally you know it was that I think in every house that because of his dower there was a Muslim it was his dower that transformed Medina and like open the pathway for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to go there so most and again the fact that he was from a really wealthy background that what he put up from his mum so that stuff I can really relate to as well yeah and how the Prophet used to cry about him because he used to wear all these beautiful fine clothes and he was like you know so hallelu so Mosab definitely you know something you remind me of about him subhanAllah when he passed away would you know and obviously they would shroud you they would try and cover you and when they would cover his head his feet would become unclear if it's not something awesome when he was like crying yeah that's right remembering yeah it's upon that and in the background he came from as you said that context he came from a very wealthy background now look we can't even cover in properties these people sacrificed everything your favorite recital I'm not into anything like that I wouldn't even I couldn't even name you know Abdul Basit but I don't I'm not particularly fond of that touchstart of recitation so yeah like it's I am clueless about recite exclude us okay favorite book obviously other than the Quran gosh there's a really really I bet I don't want to say I don't want to say okay you don't understand that the only because I don't people start reading it and you start so this happened to me before right it's like so people's asked you know I said record saying oh this is a really good book it's and people ready it said always full of qu4 abdul rahim and it's like alright okay you know like people are soul it's fair enough they don't have that understanding to be able to extract information that's useful from something and leave the stuff that is whatever saul right there there's a book that i find it's just absolutely brilliant like for a person there's a good amount of knowledge yeah and it has that discernment the ability it's it's incredible i'm not going to say what it is because I don't want people to get confused I assure you there's this these books like that one that I've read I wouldn't recommend because I know we're just gonna you have also by most amazing recent country visited obviously we've been in lockdown so Philippines Philly Philippines yeah okay we're gonna to my trip to the Philippines was just yeah Philippines yeah loved it amazing amazing what did you love about the Philippines people you know the food the Dower was amazing the trip was amazing you know it was just yeah III guess it's you know I guess the whole combination of stuff mm-hmm but I think you know I think the people really helped make a place as well if the people are nice and friendly in welcoming and you know I I really like the Philippines a favorite form of exercise mountain biking yeah well skiing like skiing is not as practical as mountain biking so morning person or night person yeah morning definitely you know that my favorite product maybe this is something you use your face your bed I don't know okay my favorite products right yeah probably has to be what my wife gave me for Eid okay Gucci beard oil really oh my god I did this off smells the smell of it is like it sends you in as your head in a spin and it's beautiful yeah I'd say I'm not really a big into anything like that but that and before that she got me some Tom Ford beard oil tobacco and vanilla I was trying to get all subhanallah amazing yeah my wife I have to say Marshall hit the spot with those those gifts though that sounds good yeah oh yeah definitely recommend it dour in the East or in the West probably I probably say in the East now hmm I've got a feeling dour in the West might be a bit dead I don't know it's like seems to not maybe it's because of us maybe we're not enthusiastic and committed and I don't know where it's going I want to speak to you about we're gonna speak about this more in the episode inshallah city person or country person country side definitely Allah protect me from cities and that this is gonna be a good one favorite employee with an IRA Wow really the guy's a soldier man that's really good I is within with a so long and he is so patient I never shall I never heard him get upset I never heard him hardly ever complain about anything movable does its and he is a soldier he has salt like there's a there's expression from you know like at the Gospels when Jesus talks about the salt of the earth right does that expression we have sort of the earth people who are they're essential you know they they are the backbone they give the flavor they are and I'll sort of the earthers that he's one of those people though best country you've been to for Dawa for Dao specifically a Ford our probably mmm doesn't necessarily anywhere in Africa Malawi maybe Burundi were along with your dad that was amazing like I don't know how would he he'll remember we took we did a speech and literally I think what 100-200 people to it shot those speeches are crazy yeah yeah it was like that what that was yeah African though is different your favorite type of clothing t-shirt yeah I'm I'm addicted to t-shirt whenever anything I love t-shirts yeah vegan meat or vegetarian now I'm I'm a meat person yeah best short advice you could give us don't eat too much meat okay said advice I could give you it's fear Allah isn't it have taqwa last probably the best advice you can never give out anyone one thing we should avoid in life deluding yourself hmm yeah absolutely if there's one piece of advice I would give to everybody right don't don't fool yourself like develop self honesty its little I actually think it's probably the single most important thing it's like the root of everything if you can yeah and it's very very hard to achieve like that level of complete self honesty yes but strive for that yeah be brutally honest with yourself and don't be don't delude yourself because the opposite of that is having delusions about yourself yes thinking you're capable of stuff that you're not capable of right thinking of good at something which you're not right but let alone all the lies and the stories and the things we tell ourselves to you know make ourselves just to really pander to our egos right that that get rid of all of that stuff this is very deep advice yeah favorite animal that's the probably cheetah might make my my kids ask me that a lot you know what's your favorite animal I suppose cheetah but I I love dogs cuz I'm a you know I brought up with dogs as opposed I know a lot of Muslims don't like dogs and think they're like whatever dogs of this but dogs are extremely loyal right and make amazing friends be a maliki it's the best thing when it comes to dogs your number one thing that makes you ponder on the creation of Allah number one thing yeah like whoa maybe you go to Seaside there's something like one of my friends let me tell you something right here's something I recommend anyone does this yeah okay I recommend anyone to do this yeah take a needle yeah and go to the seaside with the needle okay right and go away you can see the sea is like the ocean is in front of you there's no land it's just ocean yeah yeah take the take the needle dip it in the ocean and pull it out then look what's left on that needle that is the dunya and the sea is that after Allah that's deep that's a clip ready hello yeah there's really a favorite color yeah probably blue you know and which prophet story do you find the most interesting yeah Ibrahim like I said yeah maybe yeah interesting mmm in terms of interesting I think the encounter of Musa that's what I was it the sponsor is very very deep seriously deep story I won moot when moosa' has a lot of lessons there yes right about human psychology about the way we think about how we understand stuff all right about yeah and that classic statement what the fiddler says how could how are you gonna be patient with something you can't understand Wow yeah you go how can you be patient with something you can't understand somehow Lala yeah that's a really deep story that so that's the Quickfire done yeah we'll get straight into the topics inshallah so the first thing that I wanted to speak quite a long quickfire you what it was long actually yeah yeah alright I added on some questions because I thought it's too sure but that's a podcast we can talk all day if we like most definitely so when we speak of speaker's corner you know speakers corn has been something and I actually checked the last episode you know just to actually check if I even spoke spoke to you about this but I I didn't and when we think of speaker's corner recently in recent years in the last couple of years speakers corn has become very very trendy if I can say people go in there's a lot of drama I very entertaining excetera always was everyone has different views on it when if we're gonna speak about like oh geez of speakers corner you know you're definitely one of them way like if you look at the classic videos you know the blurry VCR type video yeah you're there Allahu Akbar you standing there giving Dow it cetera in your view how has dower changed since the days of speakers corner those days specifically of speaker's corner perhaps 15-20 years ago I don't know how long ago that was - now you know what we're seeing now online I mean I haven't really been so I don't I haven't been speaker's corner since I stopped going okay I don't I've watched a few like I've watched a few things Muhammad hijab probably and a lead hour and your dad hmm I watched a few little clips here in there so the difference is is that like all of that stuff was going on back in the days by the way right so there's one to one or those group interactions yeah talking that was always happening that excuse me in many ways that was always the interesting stuff that was going on a speaker's corner but like a major part of speaker's corner back in the days was the fact that you had speakers who stood up and spoke and they became known as speakers now I don't know if you have that anymore right if the people who are and you had to developing you had to develop your public speaking skills like really strongly right you could not get away like for me that was the great thing about speaker's corner in terms of an arena to develop it's like cage for it's the equivalent of WFC right it's the equivalent of cage fighting with our gym right if you yeah no I'm not doubt but like I guess public speaking debating public debating it's that is literally was like that it's like it's it is you could give the equivalent it's the you know well you could literally say anything you could those no-holds-barred hmm hmm I think they would say that the only thing you can't do is insult the queen and you probably could insult the queen and still get away with it yeah you can look for so it was it was an all you know I think that's the big difference now it's all very much you know and I suppose like you said the VHS videos like we were the first people that as far as I know to do that or we started filming in speakers corner yeah so maybe we're guilty we start but it would have happened anyway with the coming of the mobile phones and says go it's inevitable so the whole dynamic has changed but it's really like I remember my dad sitting down and watching those videos of you yeah and he he sat there for an hour and a half two hours well I couldn't stop watching it he said this is so engaging well I said I can see why people like these videos and it was it was like it's like not like anything you it's not Talking Heads it was like real you know there's there's emotion in there there is expression there's there's verbal combat is it's very engaging about fun but it's definitely engaging in the way that like this podcast will never be in gay like that right not on the same level right so and people love that people love debates people love clashes they love those type of engagements they love their energy you know so yeah III think it has its place absolutely it has its place speakers corner I think the the the real challenge there is to keep your decorum right is to keep your manners right not to allow the fact that you're having an argument I say here's the thing is that it's not it's not about you winning an argument like from the dower perspective from the perspective of giving dower you have to always understand you're not here to win arguments you're here to change hearts and minds right and often it's more about engaging with people's hearts than it is with their brains so if you're going there thinking yeah I'm gonna win this argument I'm gonna you know know that from at our perspective that's that's not the right way to be yeah so yeah you know one of the things that you said that I mean on this specific podcast I've said in the past on the Mohammadi job episode when we had Mohamed a job in one of the things I said to him is that at that time I didn't agree with speaker's corner even as a concept because I said like because obviously I had been going speaker's corner since even before the camp like all of these before was with my father like so when I was young and I remember seeing it and how it has changed except or a little bit hasn't really changed to be honest with you it's just a whole dramatization now yeah online I was saying this to someone I was saying that it's like a reality TV show and you've got different characters yeah so you got this crazy one yeah so so it's funny in a way so but but what I was saying is that but now subhanallah wa not when I look at a and I've had a little bit of time to think about as well and and speak to some of the brothers obviously I know pretty much all of them or majority of them that go there and do the Dhamma there on a regular basis one of the things that I have seen is it definitely has its place you know and what you just said really really resonated with me about how when you speak to people in speakers corner in a place where people are attacking you excetra a new show exceptional mannerisms and you show like for example in the Arabic language is called lean like Abilene you know you you you're you're easy with the people you speak to them in a very very nice way and give them down it also allows you to think without getting emotional you know and be like razorblade when it comes to your arguments in your Dawa and when you see those type of conversations I mean even the people you know the people they love those speakers that contain themselves they don't get personal et cetera and yeah as you said Sao Paulo I think it's definitely you know a place where people can develop their public speaking skills and is there a reason you stopped it's just not productive for me personally it was a lot but it's one of me one for me yeah for me like I'm a I'm a very big believer in being efficient in whatever you do I believe in like you could call it laziness and maybe it is but I think the the the sort of positive side of what we call laziness right is that it's not I'm not I mean I I like to say I'm lazy right and I probably am lazy but I'm not lazy and necessarily necessarily was a negative way right I'm lazy in the sense that I hate putting unnecessary effort into something like why if there is a more efficient way of doing something why not do it a more efficient way I mean that's why human beings are where we are because I think fundamentally like there's a whole lot I think there's a whole book written on this the fact that it's laziness that's got us where we that's advanced us so much because it's always our desire to be more and more efficient so I speakers corner is not an efficient place it's not an if you want to give dower it's not efficient yeah yeah and you can go there for a bit and you'll get everything you'll ever get from it you know you go there for I mean I went there for 10 years right you don't need to go there for 10 years so from what year to what year did would you think you might only late I started almost straightaway when I became Muslim right so very very late 80s yeah - yeah early 2000 yeah early 2000s when I stopped yeah and and I mean obviously as I started getting invited more and more abroad and I started giving lectures or the world and then I went to speaker's corner less and less became more international yeah but then I mean the thing I guess the thing was is that when I started getting invited to universities and I did a lot of talks and lectures and universities then I started realizing that you know the reach that I had in universities and the amount of people that I could talk to you and have really constructive conversations with was so much more than what you could get you could go to speakers corner so here it was I would go there literally from what was it we had a habit we get there sort of 11:00 12:00 right maybe after the hora and we would usually stay there in summer we'd stay there until maybe 10 o'clock at night so it'd be there the whole night right until Margaret yeah and so you could talk the whole day I mean I remember once my longest speech ever was six hours non-stop six-hour speech so you know I mean and it's not speech remai you're shouting right you're not just you know you're not just giving a talk it's a normal thing to lose your voice there you know you have to do its training right you have to train your voice I couldn't do it now I could probably talk there far after now and you'd lose your voice for a day or two days but it's with training and training and training your voice gets trained right so but what what I would find is that I would be drained I mean Musa I would be drained to the point that if you talked to me at the end of the day it's I cut I sort of can't describe it it was just like my brain is just fried and I can see you're talking to me and I know words coming out of your mouth and I'm just going I'm he's just like in a zombie zombie state right and that would last until the middle of the week I would not recover from speaker's corner until Wednesday so that means basically I've got one day in speakers corner I've got three days that are literally non-productive I can virtually do nothing because my mind I am so physically and mentally exhausted that's not efficient and to do what to shout a twenty thirty people right it doesn't make sense and come the advent now I don't even believe in going to conferences like why am i flying getting on an airplane spewing out carbon you know carbon dioxide into the atmosphere right you travel across the world to talk to an audience for an hour right and then you come back and it's ridiculous like why I can go on my facebook right I can do a live and 20,000 people are watching it listening to it I mean it reach more but that's like how many people actually why why would you spend all of their energy and all of that time and all of that effort for what right for nothing that is for something that is really not really it maybe it's productive for your ego because you love it yeah you're standing there the lights are shining yeah look everyone's listening to me yeah oh ma sha Allah chef Marshall so I'm go from chef oh it's such a pleasure to meet you chef yeah isn't it oh I thought I wanted to meet you in my life chef yeah falafel art we'll start this and that yeah night-night massage for your ego right but in terms of actually being productive right is it really productive no I don't think it is and I know that there's this nice thing of actually mean people and yeah there's a time and place for it like there's still I don't diss anyone for going to speakers corner it has its place these conferences have these place but for me it's done like why am I gonna spend so much energy to get so little benefit hmm like so in terms of the training I've done it I've had it I like I don't need any more public speaking training like you know I don't I don't need that yeah you know so um yeah that's what I don't go anymore yeah yeah not interested at all so alhamdulillah I think obviously what what one of the things that led on from that is I you know in your journey in Dawa and since its inception over a decade ago alhamdulillah I think after we done our podcast we had our it was a Catania anniversary event yeah that was a good event yeah pretty much everyone for Mayor was there hamdullah and it was a beautiful event many people attended etc benefited you spoke about that wah we don't live we really podcast hasn't been released yet I'm not sure if it's going to get released but you know we have to talk about that but hamdullah know it was it was an amazing event so i era has actually been going strong for over ten years now and now we're in many many countries six continents if I'm not mistaken I can't name the countries and the outreach specialist because I lose count I genuinely lose count every month it seems to be changing or so luck for it's amazing it's the work the work is being done now on the ground how how do you how how is I era currently in relation to the way you envisioned it is this what you envisioned is this what you wanted from the organization or do you feel like there's still a long way to go yeah I think I think what is interesting is that it is actually now materializing into the organization that I envisaged it to be in the beginning okay so so we went through various it's interesting because we went through a lot of you know we went through various stages like you could call it even suppose you know like we went through various stages and some of it was driven by the need to do stuff I'll be frank right so we did debates we did various things you know and some of it was just driven by the need to be seen to be doing stuff it was not really what we wanted to do but we had to do it from the point of view of just getting our message out yeah some stuff we had to do because it's just circumstances that dictated it but I think now it's like what I realize is that we've come back to a place where we are actually now we have that strength and we have that experience to really focus start being efficient and that's what it is it's really about focusing right back to what we started this organization for and sort of trimming I could say you could say trimming them it's not probably not the right the expression trimming the fat because it's not about it's just about making it more efficient and making it more Street it's about focus that's what is is about focus i I believe that you benefit a lot from focus so for any new viewers what yeah I mean what what is that what was that purpose what was that goal what is the public you see yeah so the goal was really to have an organization that was focusing on giving dhow to non-muslims yes all right that's it yeah and and and I think something that we decided very early on was that it wasn't just enough to invite non-muslims to Islam that when people became Muslim we needed to try and do our best to make sure they stayed Muslim so very soon although that's not why we found the organization like in our first light you know what we should do guys we should do this yeah but soon pretty soon after when we started getting down to the details of yeah okay let's let's let's outline the details of this a bit more we realized that no we have to we all so what's the point but what's the point in giving light from the point of view of an investor right and the investor are our listeners who donate to us all right what's the what's the point in you donating to us if all we do is get your heart and it's not it's not look so it's not hard to get people to take Shahada it's not difficult now you can get people to take charge what's really hard is to make that show harder genuine right and to make sure they keep practicing the Deen right and sometimes if people look at our numbers you may think wait a minute you know you're this organization you're doing all of this and this is your numbers of Shahada it's cuz we're very strict and how we measure what is a Shahada it's not just some ayah for us to show HUD is like we don't go to village in Africa or a bunch of suitcases and say full of watches for example and say hey guys whoever says Leila Hillel are my Hammond daughter so I can have a watch if we could get shot technically they would all have said Shahada right yeah although we never explained to them what it means we just get them to say some words they don't understand me like I'm gonna get for it yeah we don't do that right like no you know when we go somewhere we want to make sure that those those people who take sure hard it is genuine and and that they get the support they need all right so those are the two things that we did so we went through I said I guess we went through some stages and and we were thinking look I guess who were primarily motivated by like like earth man the founder of the Ottoman dynasty right he was inspired to conquer Constantinople by a hadith and the simile were inspired by a hadith and the hadith was that Islam will reach country every town every village love every home even if that home is made of mud or hair they will be on Muslim inside it I'm paraphrasing the hadith but this is the me this is the actual meaning of the idea it doesn't mean there will be a TV with someone talking about yourself know the hadith the meaning of the hadith is that there will be a Muslim inside every home inside every home there will be someone who is a Muslim so it's that that is what really that's what motivated us that's what drives us that's what we go that's what we want to achieve that's what we want to do as I era like not what not necessarily we as I era but we want to be part of trying to make that part of the hadith a part of making that and at least we can try right at least we can try so that's that's what sort of motivates us a week we were thinking about how can we do that how can we achieve that yeah so our initial idea was that look there are already muslims in every country there's probably muslims in more or less like many towns if not most towns right I mean like you'll find Muslims in you know like places you can't imagine like almost every town maybe not every time but almost every town is a Muslim not every village yeah but almost every town so it's like well if we could only get those Muslims to fulfill their obligation of Dao because if you're a Muslim living in a non-muslim land Dowie is something you should be doing that should be part and parcel of what you do as a Muslim that's how Islam spread in you know Malaysia and Indonesia in so many places through Muslims and traders so our idea is to reinvigorate Andrey inspire Andrey motivate the Muslims yeah to give that and and present to them a very simple method of giving dower a very very simple method that anyone could learn and that's how the go-rap method of dower became developed and we try to squeeze it down to make it super simple so like anybody could do it and then we started we're going out going to massage it going to and trying to teach to ordinary Muslims to give dower yes and it didn't really work okay that's the thing so we spend a lot of energy doing that hamdulillah we motivated people we reminded people and we knew that people loved our they do people love it you know they feel it in their hearts and they like their biggest barrier most of the time is like I want to talk to people about Islam but I don't know how to do it right but despite our efforts I don't think it really works because yes people they will come to the courses they would learn but you know it takes a type of commitment and dedication it's like however whatever I say you can't learn how to give dower in an afternoon course you have to apply it you have to make an effort yes so basically that we you know we reached a stage where we thought okay this is not really getting where we want to get to and then we went back to the original idea that we had the original idea that we had was you know it was to find door so it was to find people who are specialized in giving down okay and to support them and train them or develop those people right and from that they could develop other people so it's a much slower process than interval yeah it's a much slower process but it's again it's about focus it's about finding the people who and developing the people who have those skills and I think that's what we've come full-circle to so now when we talk about we have teams and when we have to art that's what we're focusing on yeah those individuals that we've selected who are driven by this desire to spread the message of Islam to non-muslims and to support them give them the support they need given the training they need and that's the way we're doing it now and hamdulillah so far I mean it's yes it's doing amazing you know so the different countries that we're in and I'm sure you'll agree with me that their dynamics this is something you know even from the Quickfire that I wanted to speak to you about in spod caste the dynamics of Dawa in different locations are very different they're very different so to give an example just before the lockdown literally just before it hamdullah made it back in the country but I was in New Zealand yeah and when we were in New Zealand I was there share hues of chambers with was there with us and me and him had a conversation about how the dynamics of dawa even in New Zealand which would wouldn't be classes like a third-world word world country it would technically would be closed as the West right no matter where it is on the on the world map it's like the West right and we were saying how the Dow wahey even is very different the people you know what he was saying is like there's so much closer to the fitler yeah and you can see it it's like the way that they are that when you interact with them they're so much more receptive it's so much easier speaking to them so what do you think about the dynamics of Dawa with you know the West where for example we are in the UK and perhaps America and countries like where we've had a lot of success alhamdulillah and continents like Africa Philippines Latin America we've had immense al hamdulillah success in the in these places in these areas what do you think about the dynamics I think we haven't I'd be honest like we haven't yet kept pace with the change of the dynamics of dauer in the West yeah yeah that's what I believe yeah I don't I still think that people look back in the days when you know before the internet and before mobile phones and stuff and like that's it you talk to people that you don't know if you wanted a community give them a leaflet a book local you talk to them we go down to Leicester Square in fact funnily enough the best place to give dower was not speakers corner speakers corner was not a really good place to give down yeah Leicester Square that that was like a that was like when you go looking for a goldmine it was literally a gold mine yeah you would go down to Leicester Square and you could probably still do it and I'm sure that at the end of every knee evening you'll come away with five ten fifteen shoulders every every evening you go down there Wembley told a chef chef from yemen's a chef in one of Chef what bills students actually he you know he he said yes I remember brother told me the same thing in America he used to go to you know what Times Square or someone he said he said but it's not surprising and the way he died something it's not surprising because people go there because they're lost they're looking for something why did they go to these places cuz they're lost they're looking for something and when you give them Islam that's what they're looking for they they just no one was there to tell it to them right so but that I think that is like not that so places like Leicester Square is not where it's happening anymore the places where people are lost they're lost on their phones they lost on snapchat they're lost on Instagram they're lost on tick-tock right that's where they're lost now right and whether they know it or not they're going there searching for something they are every time you flicking you're going through you're really at the end of the day what are you really doing when you open it up what's really going on you're really and why is it so addictive why is it so addictive because really deep down inside you're hoping there's something there that's gonna just change your life that's just gonna make my life some somehow better right whether it's an email whether it's I don't know some I don't know what it is you just you fool yourself into thinking there's going to be something there and we haven't really reached out on to that realm we haven't moved our dour efforts into that new that new area and part of the problems it just changes so fast like you know like people say old Facebook is for dinosaurs it's like okay come on man like you can say that but in reality like it's still the biggest platform and there's people who are still going to be using Facebook for the next 30 years it's not quite extinct yeah it's not dinosaurs like there are people who use it and will be using it for another 30 years and they will not use another social media platform they will keep using Facebook right and just because a bunch of youth they're like going tick-tock and whatever it doesn't mean everything else is finished but like it's true the pace of stuff is like from Instagram to tick-tock and so which is not keeping pace with that we're just totally we have done almost nothing to keep pace with that sphere we have to reach people because that's where people are lost and we have to we have to find people where they're lost that's what we have to find them yeah so I think that that's how the dynamic of dauer in the West is changing right is how do we find those spaces we can reach the people and get their message to them and that old-school way of like going on the street and handing out leaflets and talking to pee it still has its place just like speaker's corner has its place right but if you really want to reach people you have to reach them in those places where they're lost 100 percent percent and I'm on the flip side I mean the dynamic in in these other countries like the Philippines yeah they're not really into that stuff they're not they don't it's a very grassroots yeah it is they still meet with each other talk with each other sit with each other eat with each other right they don't they don't walk around with their faces buried in their phones the whole time they don't they're not like that that's that when you go to the Philippines you don't see that you don't see people walking down the street with their faces I mean they have phones but they're not they're not absorbed in it quite to the same extent yes yes and perhaps them that maybe because of the society that they live in it's not as materialistic and as you know you know consumerism and materialism driven as our society and all the reasons you know I mean in some countries it's just affordability right yeah they just can't afford those smartphones and they some what they have access to such high speed technology so when you go to Malawi like it's really probably like not like you you might see anyone hardly anyone with a mobile phone you you know for me chef a lot of people you know indeed it's probably people even listening to this right now they're in a very very day in their own bubble yeah they don't realize what's happening around the world honestly like and for example where you just said Malawi I remember when I went to Malawi now I was in a bubble and when I remember when we went to one of the villages I got my phone now and and I put it on the I put it on the camera you know the front-facing camera and I was showing I was showing them little kids themselves on the front-facing camera yeah and they weren't wild yeah like they sing see her in front of them honestly like they sing some sort of magic like black magic going what like it was shocking to them and the point is this is a rural village where they don't have no phones they don't have anything like that you're wearing ripped up clothes you know the ladies are going out and they're you know picking the maize from the from the area this is literally the kind of areas that we went to and for these type of people they're living as if they're living 500 years ago it's like nothing's changed for them and one of the things they don't they don't have time because their their life is a battle for survival right yeah in the sense that they wouldn't have time to spend even if they had the mobile phones they wouldn't have time to spend a lot of time on that yeah there's the other thing you have to realize is that their life that everyday life is a battle for just survival right yeah they don't have this you know what they call it disposable income right like the even you know I dare to say it you know it's a long time since I've been on Social Security but like you know like even people on Social Security right they have some they may argue and say you don't know what you're talking about but no like even some people I'm not saying everybody but some people on social scoot still have disposable income in the sense that they can spend that things on they can spend some of that money on things that are not absolute necessities of course yeah right they can still do that yeah they can still pay for a plan for a mobile phone you may think of that isn't it's not an absolute you're not gonna die without your mobile phone you will not die without it it's not absolutely it's a luxury it's a it is a luxury right and people will still have money to pay for their you know to have some sort of mobile phone to have some sort of plan in those countries there many most people don't even have that that their everyday life is a fight for survival day by day you know that's their existence right but you know in many ways there's so much better because of it yes yeah and and one of the things I've noticed is on the on the onset they're very very they're much closer to the fitara yeah you know when you speak to them and you give them dour and you there's not this clouding yeah you know we have here there's no ego as well you know there's no I'm I'm better than you and oh you know why do I need this for I've got money excetera it's not like that of them it's very very you know down to earth and their beliefs the very religious people you know atheism hamdullah is not a thing existent in these places and and it's it's it's it's actually absurd and laughable you know you know in these places social Panola I mean we're in many countries and hamdullah era and countries you know for example like the UK you know places like the UK the US which are you know towards the west and we're also in hamdullah in these locations as well we've got outreach specialists working excetera so what are our future plans now if anyone's watching anyone new anyone that has been supporting us you know what would you say ah where are we going where we're driving towards as I era well you know I think the thing to do is what we want to do is see what works yes that's the key thing so um one of the things you always wanted to do as an organization from the very beginning is to be driven try to be like directed more by research than by anecdotal you know this feels right to me type of stuff yeah yeah so you know we wanted to do our best to make sure that you know we're driven by some sort of tangible observable data okay and that includes you know like where we give dower yeah so we you know like obviously there are some places where we are getting moisture hodda's than others there are some places where people stay Muslim more easily than others why what's the reason is it to do with the people is it to do with the way that the Dow has been given mmm all right what are the reasons for it we're not always sure right why do people take Shahada you know in the Philippines and not you know in London like what's the reason it may seem obvious but sometimes it's not always obvious you you that's the difference between something being anecdotal right and something being actually driven by what you can actually quantify yeah so it's really about digging down right now I'm finding out what is working and why it is working and then let's see what's working and see if we can replicate that in other places and see if it works in other places because what works in the Philippines may not somewhere else yeah this is we don't know but the thing is that you know I think sooner or later you get down to some sort of formula you get down to cuz you look despite everything human beings are not really that complex we like to think we're super complex but the things that drive us right psychologically spiritually they're not you know that they're universal right they're universal things that drive us and those universal things that distract us right and there are some variables from time to place and culture to culture right but whatever it is we need to do our best to dig down to find out what is the common thread if there is a common thread what is working why is it working and how can we replicate it and then once we can do that inshallah we have a more successful model inshallah inshallah and obviously we need everyone's two hours and support etc I'm sure you know we couldn't do it without the support of the people and a hundred are watching us you know all of the donors etc that support the work and the towards everyone you know for a lot of people you know this is their life you know for some Muslims you know we have people doing different things you know people studying people you know trying to become this and that etc everyone has their place you know it's been mentioned multiple times in this podcast but for us alhamdulillah we have we have a group of strong you know that people who are giving Dawa calling to Allah they need that support the getting results on hamdulillah and and we just need to continue with that insha'Allah no it's the Joseph or each other to continue that show but chef de zaak allows Ecuadorian folk coming on the podcast once again it's been a pleasure having you and we just wanted to speak about you know just just give some of the newer viewers as well I you know of the reroute it podcast of the IRA YouTube channel you know some context behind what we do as I in Sharla so brothers and sisters is a cool now heron for watching this episode of reroute it please do subscribe if you haven't subscribed already in charlotte ape up to date with all of our social medias all of the work that we're doing around the world we don't only post podcasts excetra we're doing many many other things we'll handle on different parts of the globe keep up to date with that as well follow us on instagram inshaallah at IE arrow org you can listen to the reroute podcast on Apple podcasts on Google podcasts as well you know if you're still on the other side of Defense and you haven't made it over yet and we'll see you in the next episode look after yourselves Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu peace

Channel: iERA

Views: 33,106

Rating: 4.9615121 out of 5

Keywords: abdurraheem green, dawah, islam, speakers corner, 2020, rerooted, podcast, musa adnan

Id: iO1wKFtCwoI

Length: 52min 27sec (3147 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 17 2020