The Story Of "Londoniyyah" | Mohammed Hijab (2022-04-30) ​

0:00:00 i think i should mention something about
0:00:02 how this all started you know and why
0:00:04 this started and i think the barakah
0:00:06 that could have come about because of
0:00:08 the reason of how it started
0:00:10 you know some some months ago maybe
0:00:13 nine months ago or something like that i
0:00:14 was in a hospital i'm not sure i've even
0:00:16 told you the story but now i know might
0:00:18 be the first time i tell you this story
0:00:20 and
0:00:21 i had blood clots i had something called
0:00:23 pulmonary embolism in the
0:00:26 lungs many of them
0:00:28 and as i was in the on the hospital bed
0:00:32 the doctor told me
0:00:33 you might go to sleep and not wake up
0:00:36 and he said you know the mortality rate
0:00:38 is about 50
0:00:39 for what you have
0:00:40 and it's something that we can't do
0:00:42 anything about because you they put you
0:00:43 on blood thinners immediately but they
0:00:44 said we have to we have a duty to tell
0:00:46 you this and
0:00:47 so obviously i started to to think about
0:00:49 it
0:00:51 i thought
0:00:52 obviously i have to leave will behind
0:00:54 and all that kind of stuff even though i
0:00:55 don't have much
0:00:56 things to contribute
0:00:58 but i left something behind
0:01:00 sorted out my will and i encourage
0:01:02 everyone to do the same thing here if
0:01:03 you haven't already done that you have
0:01:04 to have an islamic will you know i
0:01:06 encourage everyone to do that so
0:01:09 i did that i had i sorted out the will
0:01:12 and i said to myself well what do i what
0:01:14 have i left behind
0:01:16 and the hadith of the prophet muhammad
0:01:18 sallam where he said
0:01:22 that all of adam benny adams
0:01:25 amal
0:01:26 is
0:01:27 ceased except for three things and the
0:01:29 prophet saw he said
0:01:33 a child that you leave behind that he
0:01:35 supplicates for you
0:01:38 which is continuous
0:01:41 which is a beneficial knowledge that
0:01:44 you know
0:01:44 that you leave behind now i couldn't
0:01:46 have i was it was
0:01:48 not practical for that time for me to
0:01:50 have any more children
0:01:52 i said
0:01:52 that was something i was not planning to
0:01:55 do
0:01:55 and in terms of soraka tonjariya you
0:01:58 know you can only leave so much behind
0:01:59 that's depending on your wealth at that
0:02:00 time you know i couldn't really do that
0:02:02 much
0:02:04 but well the the thing that i thought
0:02:05 about was
0:02:08 a beneficial knowledge that you leave
0:02:09 behind and i thought to myself probably
0:02:11 the best thing i could leave behind is
0:02:12 not just debates online
0:02:15 it's not just you know these informal
0:02:16 things i go to speaker's corner or
0:02:18 whatever it may be podcasts or whatever
0:02:20 i thought the best thing is what have i
0:02:23 learned in all the years that i've been
0:02:25 not just in the dao but preparing for it
0:02:28 what have i learned what have i been
0:02:29 able to get from different people
0:02:31 different specialists
0:02:33 that i have had the pleasure and honour
0:02:34 of being work being able to work with
0:02:36 people like sabor ahmad who's uh he's
0:02:38 here today actually he's a specialist in
0:02:40 in by philosophy of biology do his phd
0:02:42 in it people like hamza zorsus who's
0:02:44 also a specialist in philosophy
0:02:46 and others you know uh in terms of uh
0:02:49 uh in terms of um the
0:02:52 islamic studies side in the shora
0:02:56 other brothers that maybe don't want to
0:02:57 be mentioned in the camera
0:02:59 that are also here today so i thought to
0:03:00 myself
0:03:01 i put it all
0:03:02 together and
0:03:04 let's make something out of here
0:03:07 and uh the story was this is that in the
0:03:09 beginning i thought
0:03:12 this this was the plan this was the idea
0:03:13 abdulrahman was there he remembers this
0:03:16 quite vividly i'm sure as well
0:03:18 the the plan was to
0:03:20 in in islamic history you've always had
0:03:22 these kind of like
0:03:23 poems for
0:03:25 different funun for different sciences
0:03:28 uh like el fiotic
0:03:32 you know and it's usually named after
0:03:34 the city that the person's in sometimes
0:03:35 it can be yeah sometimes his name sounds
0:03:37 like a person or the fen
0:03:39 but even tell me i had this idea of when
0:03:41 he went to a city the the poem would be
0:03:43 named after that city like a
0:03:44 hammerweight
0:03:47 these are actual names of seas so i
0:03:49 decided to call it london a year in it
0:03:51 london here so okay now in london so
0:03:53 there's issues that affect us in london
0:03:55 because these are the new aquila issues
0:03:57 that affect us in london
0:03:59 obviously then at that time it was
0:04:00 martezalism versus this for us it's
0:04:02 feminism for us it's liberalism for us
0:04:04 it's materialism it's atheism
0:04:06 these are the big picture things that we
0:04:08 need to focus on
0:04:09 so i started constructing a poem in
0:04:11 arabic language
0:04:13 and obviously like you know i'm not
0:04:14 really the specialist in the i'm not
0:04:16 super way i'm normal you know i know
0:04:19 these these big poets
0:04:21 and there's rules in arabic language to
0:04:23 make poems it's not just you can just
0:04:25 make any poem you have to it's like 16
0:04:27 uh bihar or behold different or else
0:04:30 then and this is very difficult so i did
0:04:32 it anyway
0:04:33 and i sent it to rahman i said send it
0:04:34 to you because you had some you know
0:04:37 he had some scholars and teachers that
0:04:39 were very good at poetry so he wouldn't
0:04:41 send it to some people
0:04:42 they said no this is not this is not
0:04:44 that
0:04:44 it does not fulfill the criterion
0:04:46 so i said what do we do because you know
0:04:48 this was actually when i was on the
0:04:50 death bed and i said this is not going
0:04:51 to realize my dream here
0:04:54 so sheikh al khademi
0:04:56 who is a specialist in poetry and who
0:04:58 actually wrote the london ear
0:05:00 he he came forward and he
0:05:02 he kind of took out all the kind of
0:05:04 information that we had we had
0:05:05 conversations with him
0:05:07 in the party and quickly just understood
0:05:09 everything and put it into poetry format
0:05:11 it was almost a miracle
0:05:13 the quickness by which he was able to
0:05:15 make that transformation and able to to
0:05:17 do it i was very surprised and very
0:05:18 impressed
0:05:19 and that's how londoner came about
0:05:22 so it came about i think it came about
0:05:24 in a time where i was actually sincere
0:05:26 there's only a few times where i can
0:05:27 tell you in my life that i've been
0:05:28 sincere
0:05:30 that i can actually tell you this
0:05:32 no no you know but when you're on your
0:05:34 deathbed that's one of the most sincere
0:05:35 places
0:05:36 that you can be because you're thinking
0:05:38 to yourself you know
0:05:39 you're gonna die you've got to lose
0:05:41 something for the people you have to
0:05:42 it's for your own uh grave and for your
0:05:44 own self
0:05:45 and so what happened after that was what
0:05:47 happened after that was you know it
0:05:48 became a londoner
0:05:50 and it was even ratified and very given
0:05:56 from big big people like
0:06:00 and other people from the like the
0:06:01 rabbit islamia
0:06:02 people all different kinds of i was
0:06:04 interested because people from all
0:06:05 different kind of critical backgrounds
0:06:06 were accepting this poem
0:06:09 and it's been a long time since asha has
0:06:10 accepted something and others accept
0:06:12 something all of them accepted this
0:06:14 you know except not all of them but
0:06:17 there were people from each group that
0:06:18 accepted this thing
0:06:20 so there's a lot of kabul there was a
0:06:22 lot of acceptance of this particular
0:06:24 poem
0:06:25 and then i said to myself well the time
0:06:27 is limited i need to i need to go
0:06:30 through
0:06:30 an explanation of it
0:06:32 so i put the proposal to hamza's sources
0:06:34 and you know and then it became official
0:06:37 and we said it has to be an invite-only
0:06:39 class
0:06:40 because we can't just have anyone here
0:06:42 you know
0:06:43 we we brought the people that we thought
0:06:46 would
0:06:47 would have the most effect
0:06:49 in the future based on what they sent us
0:06:50 and stuff like that
0:06:52 and
0:06:53 eight months later i have to say you
0:06:55 know
0:06:57 i am
0:06:58 very impressed i'm surprised at the
0:07:00 extent to which people can transform
0:07:04 you know people coming in quite timid in
0:07:06 the beginning you know quiet mannered
0:07:08 well you know that's good you know but
0:07:10 then now you're going into discussion
0:07:12 with the brother
0:07:13 this one especially in the back here is
0:07:15 trying to hide this guy who lives in a
0:07:16 village all his life
0:07:17 you know this guy for example he's a
0:07:19 great example of that he had the
0:07:20 intelligence sorry um
0:07:25 as well but you might it's a great
0:07:27 example of that you know and you came in
0:07:29 you were a little bit you know with your
0:07:31 wording and stuff like that and then
0:07:32 afterwards i see him on one of them he's
0:07:34 going against you he's trying to cut you
0:07:36 up and interject and you remember that
0:07:38 one you remember that don't you
0:07:40 we'll never forget that how about the
0:07:42 time when uh for
0:07:44 was was attacking us
0:07:46 and and and playing devil's advocate and
0:07:48 stuff like that we wouldn't
0:07:49 expect that from the first session the
0:07:50 transformation has been uh amazing how
0:07:53 do you agree
0:07:54 you know and um
0:07:56 and this is exactly the dream
0:07:59 you know and another something that we
0:08:00 can say is substantive that we leave
0:08:01 behind and we're the first batch of
0:08:02 people to do it together
0:08:04 i don't see myself here as being some
0:08:06 kind of a teacher i'm just a facilitator
0:08:07 here
0:08:08 and in fact everyone has been teaching
0:08:10 each other people don't realize that for
0:08:12 the most part these little lectures that
0:08:14 we put forward is the tip of the iceberg
0:08:17 of the interactions that we have in this
0:08:18 class
0:08:19 and then after that we have more more
0:08:20 interactions and stuff like that and
0:08:21 it's been
0:08:22 amazing interactions where we've learned
0:08:24 from each other
0:08:26 one thing i'll tell you never to learn
0:08:27 from me is manners
0:08:30 this is the wrong person you know that's
0:08:31 why i never put myself in these kinds of
0:08:33 positions
0:08:34 i've got a long way to go you know and
0:08:36 everyone knows that here so just just
0:08:39 look to tariq for that please
0:08:41 because i'll be honest with you
0:08:43 uh since we're in this uh in the process
0:08:45 of talking about uh
0:08:47 things
0:08:48 you know i've learned the most from from
0:08:50 this this man has been unbelievably
0:08:52 generous unbelievably honorable
0:08:54 the most punctual the most uh
0:08:57 you know i've learned more more from him
0:08:59 than he's learned from me i promise you
0:09:00 that and i think all of us can
0:09:03 can attest to this reality you know
0:09:05 and so this is has been something
0:09:09 you know it's been one of the most
0:09:11 important projects i think i've ever
0:09:12 undertook in my entire life
0:09:15 you know
0:09:16 and i'm very happy that we have now
0:09:18 reached
0:09:19 the end of this series and we're going
0:09:21 to go into another series which is uh
0:09:23 going to be equally important and
0:09:25 another series after that and after four
0:09:27 or five of these series you can imagine
0:09:29 with the islamic studies that we're all
0:09:30 doing on the sides now
0:09:32 as well where we'll be in two or three
0:09:33 years we'll be in a position where we're
0:09:35 all rounded we'll be in a position where
0:09:37 we transform ourselves and i think this
0:09:39 what's happening here
0:09:40 it's not happening anywhere else in the
0:09:42 world
0:09:43 not because of
0:09:44 anything else but the fact that we can
0:09:45 facilitate certain things that other
0:09:47 people in the world cannot facilitate
0:09:49 so this is a golden golden golden
0:09:51 opportunity
0:09:52 this is such a golden opportunity that i
0:09:54 can't even imagine
0:09:58 anyone would voluntarily forego it and
0:10:00 that's why to be fair everyone that
0:10:01 started practically has ended with us
0:10:04 which is a great sign a great sign that
0:10:06 there's been valuation of knowledge from
0:10:08 both sides
0:10:10 and of course i'm not going to forget
0:10:12 carlos
0:10:13 how could i and how could we and you
0:10:15 know
0:10:16 he's been the most professional uh you
0:10:18 know uh
0:10:20 he's his he's not just his editing his
0:10:21 graphics but people don't realize that
0:10:23 this man has facilitated discussion
0:10:25 you know he has facilitator he's been
0:10:27 himself the leader of discussions
0:10:29 um he's facilitated guests his his
0:10:32 contributions have been just about right
0:10:35 you know not too antagonistic and not
0:10:36 too passive
0:10:38 and so he's been i consider him as a
0:10:40 member of the team actually and i think
0:10:41 all of you
0:10:42 uh would agree with me and attest to
0:10:44 that fact as well
0:10:46 and so i want to give everyone a thank
0:10:48 you from in this class and to those
0:10:50 who've been watching at home because i
0:10:51 know there's lots of people that i'll be
0:10:52 watching at home
0:10:55 who
0:10:56 have also been benefiting and benefiting
0:10:58 us because without them any any of this
0:10:59 would not be possible anyway let's be
0:11:00 honest
0:11:02 the people watching at home they're the
0:11:03 lifeblood of the sapience institute