Rise and Fall of the Islamic Civilization-Sh.Zaid Shakir

(RIS Retreat)
-notes by Br.Firas

As Muslims we should always be positive and optimistic, having رجاء, having smart optimism.

Imam Nawawi says in his commentary about Saheeh Al Bokhari, that Qadi 'Iyad (Morocco) mentions
That Ibn Abd Al Barr says there might be from these who come after the companions some people who
Are better than them (regarding the Hadeeth of "my brothers to come").

Allah promises these who work for Him that He will establish them on earth as He established these who preceded them.

The Hadeeth of the every 100 years reviver.

"What Went Wrong" by Bernard Lewis (a much quoted and relied on by American policy makers).

American are 5% of the world's population and they use 1/3 of the earth's resources.

Before 1968, because Cleveland river was so polluted, it caught fire!

It wasn’t until 1919 until women had their suffrage.

Allah has brought us to these Western lands and we should make use and learn from it intellects in the service of our Ummah.

We are blessed to have so much equally varied backgrounds in our community that never existed in anywhere else on earth at a time!

A lot of Muslims in NA do not see their presence as a legitimate presence in "The West", with no sense of belonging.

Islam was in America before America was America!

20% and some area 50% of the slaves like in some parts of Virginia are Muslim.

There has to be legitimacy in the eyes of others and that has to be earned.

Its our problem if they don’t see us as we really are, we need to work on that as they control us here.

Power revolves around intangibles.

A lot of the intangibles that one can change revolve around him himself.

The Sahabah didn’t have a lot of numbers but they had great intangibles and the greatest intangible is being in touch with Allah.

Another one is Will coupled with Ability.

In order for Islam to be viewed as legitimate for the universe it has to be viewed as legitimate in the eyes of others and in order for that we cant be a self-serving nation we have to serve others.

There has to be an agenda to define us as servants of others سيد القوم خادمهم

Building a youth centre is phase one before building a mosque and a school, as in a generation or two people (who didn’t have a youth center) will not send their children to Islamic schools and may not go to mosques, or maybe their sons wont.