Middle Nation is live

It should be live now.

Fourteen seconds ago. Okay. So this this should be it.

It doesn't have the Okay. The hundred day challenge title because I just didn't bother with changing it again. I'll change it afterwards, InshaAllah.

Of course. It's clear. It's better now.

Okay.

So I'm just

saying I'm sorry everyone that it was such a hassle to try to join. I'm not I'm not great with the technology. So when I I I I scheduled the live, but then I didn't know how to activate it once I scheduled it. Alright.

So we're now on. Let's now proceed with June. Let me just get to the channel and make sure that I'm having all the chats in. We are now a third into the challenge.

Yeah. It's going by quickly.

Has gone by very fast.

Around day thirty one, right?

Day 31. And we have completed two videos over the past ten days or so. We started with sorry,

it's OCGFC, right?

No. OCGFC series is over.

I know, but we started with that, didn't we?

Yes, we did. Yeah. So we did, we began with the yeah. Maybe somewhere else, we began with the OCGFC series, that was a seven videos.

Mhmm.

And then we proceeded to talk about to explore the videos on political independence. And so we began with Islamic real real politics. And then we moved on to the next video, the second video, which is a mouthful, so I can't remember.

Epistemological sovereignty?

It's in that theme.

So

from Islamic realpolitic to epistemological sovereignty. So we we covered over the ten days and the participants were very actively contributing.

I mean, I said in the chat. Yeah. Just the prompts by themselves. The prompts are fantastic. The prompts by themselves, the prompts are an education.

It really summarizes everything. Leaves me with nothing to say. Really, it's that the prompts are so good, and then the the the work that the that the people are doing

Yeah.

It's it's remarkable. Yeah. Allahu Akbar. The Especially on Twitter, I see it mostly. But then also there's brother Yusuf who keeps making videos, which are excellent.

Exactly. If you're not following him, I don't know offhand what his if you're on TikTok, I don't know offhand what his

Handle is.

His handle is. His user his his account name.

His sister Lisa can help us

Because brother Youssef is making very nice videos on TikTok.

Yeah. We need to get our

And brother Muhammad has now also a YouTube channel.

Okay. Of of your

everyone. Thank you for joining. I again, I apologize for the awkwardness of being able to find the right link.

I recognize doctor x large from TikTok.

Oh, doctor x. Here.

Doctor x is here.

Doctor doctor x large.

I see your videos a lot too. Please

Yeah. He's he's he's he does very good work, and he's and in terms of spreading

Yeah.

The messages and and sharing the videos. Okay.

I I I don't see any more admins, but okay. So we will line up the different creators' accounts in the next round.

Yeah. We need to actually, you know what we should do? We should what what okay. This is live, but then it's gonna be the recording of it will be available. Or, anyway, I'll I'll do an edit probably Yes.

To edit out whatever is unnecessary Yes. And then upload the edited version. And then maybe in the description box

Yeah.

We can put the the accounts of everybody who's been who's been participating. If we forgive us if we if we miss anyone. We'll we'll do our best to include everyone because there's some really good good work. Introduce really. For the knife.

Yeah.

And and just the the the the expression of the prompts, you know, and the way they extract information from the prompts and in their own thoughts, you know, it's just really really remarkable work.

I mean, this this whole thing, this the the whole challenge and with the prompts, all of this is part of what we're talking about now, is the epistemological sovereignty. Mhmm. We're setting our own terms Mhmm. For how we engage with topics, how we engage with issues, how we engage with our own societies and with other societies. Mhmm.

Defining our own sources and structures of knowledge Yeah. Rather than outsourcing that Mhmm. To the West and assuming or or taking upon ourselves their frameworks, their understanding, their sources of knowledge, their definitions of knowledge, and so on. This this this whole challenge is a part of that because everyone who's participating in this Mhmm. Is, you know, is, taking the prompts

Yes.

And then developing their own way of saying or explaining. Yeah. Yeah. Their own way of conveying, their own way of explaining these ideas, which is redefining

Yeah.

And reclaiming our own epistemology, our own definitions, own ways of framing, our own frameworks.

In in in other words, we we are building our own we are equipping our viewers in developing their own tools of expression with this challenge.

Not just expression, understanding.

Understanding.

Much more important, our own way of understanding. According to our own epistemology, our own sources of knowledge. The way the way that we identify as Muslims, the way that we identify and know what the truth is

Mhmm.

And then apply that in our understanding of the world. Mhmm. Indeed. Because without this, there's no mean, the the the three core objectives of Middle Nation is, as everyone should know by now, economic sovereignty Mhmm. Political independence, and the decolonization psychological decolonization of the Muslim world and Muslims in general, and the global South more broadly.

And really, all of this, each each one of those three relies upon epistemological sovereignty. Without epistemological sovereignty, your mind is gonna remain colonized Yeah. And your economy is gonna remain colonized, and your politics are gonna be going to remain colonized. Because you've you've already colonized your mind if you are outsourcing your own understanding of the world and your own sources of truth and your own sources of knowledge, you're outsourcing all of that to the West, you're adopting their frameworks, their definitions, their understanding, their terminology, their philosophy, their ideology, and all of that, even if you change the language, you know, even if you're even if you're putting it in Bahasa Melayu, or you're putting it in Swahili, or you're putting it in Arabic, you're putting it in Turkish, it's the same ideas, it's Western ideas.

Yeah.

And and you have to understand that they put all of their ideas together to serve themselves. Yeah. They put their philosophies together to to serve themselves, and the way they defined everything is based upon or grew out of, it originated from their kufr. And their kufr is what has has determined their framework for understanding the world and approaching the world. So if we adopt their mentality and we adopt their frameworks, then we are inadvertently adopting a a a kufr influenced approach to the world, a a kufr influenced paradigm no matter how Muslim we are, no matter how Islamic we are, no matter even how much iman we have.

Mhmm. If our if if our mentality is firmly rooted in Western terminology, Western frameworks, then we are going to misunderstand the world, and we will be subject to the the colonizers permanently. Exactly. Even even if we even if we become you know, like, for example, people talk about the and I talk about how how Westerners are basically going extinct. European yeah.

Europeans are basically going extinct.

Uh-huh.

It's not as much the case in America, but the French are going extinct, the Germans are going extinct, the the the the English are going extinct, and this is making them all very paranoid. And and we, you know, understandably Mhmm. They're an endangered species. And we talk about how well, Muslims are gonna take over these places because we keep having babies and we and not to mention also migration.

Yeah.

But, you know, we are productive in terms of, having children. And so it's not inconceivable that at a point in the relatively, you know, near to mid future, for example, Muslims will be a majority in France or Muslims will be a very large minority across Europe. But what difference will that make practically? Obviously, it makes a difference makes all the difference in the world in terms of your imam, but in terms of structures and the way the society is run Mhmm. And the way the economy is run and the way it, interacts with the rest of the world, you might still have a French mindset.

Mhmm. You'll still have a German mindset. You'll still have an English mindset. You'll still have a Western mindset, which is Kufr based.

Mhmm. So it's important for you to break it down for yourself in how to untangle yourself from this, you know, confusion.

Yeah.

And so in in in with the intention of doing that for viewers, so again, I mentioned this before, instead of being passive consumers of the content, we would like for you to participate

in Exactly.

In order for you to be able to, you know, again, internalize the content and also by doing so, you'll be able to be equipped with the tools necessary for you to actually convey this the messages.

You know, one of the one of the things that I've noticed in the discussion group, and and again for anyone who is, watching, who is not part of the Telegram discussion, would invite you to please join us on Telegram. I'm participating there daily or almost daily, and there's many really, great minds who are participating in that discussion. But one of the things that I've noticed, very often, people will ask a question to me specifically, or sometimes just a general question to to whoever is there, but they'll ask a question about, you know, some some political issue or some some policy that's that's taking place or some current affairs or some news event and ask why, brother Shahid, why do you think this is happening? Or why do you think the West is doing thus and so? Or why do you think Israel is doing this and that and the other?

Mhmm. And very often, I will answer them by saying, well, what do you think? Because you probably already know the answer, and very often they do. Mhmm. Very often, they will answer that question by explaining why they think it is, and they are informed by having followed the channel and having participated in the discussion for, you know, weeks or months or years.

And very often their answer is absolutely spot on. So so, you know, don't don't just because obviously we encourage people to ask questions, but you also might already know the answer, and you should have confidence in the knowledge that you have gained, that you are in a that that you even understand it better when you force yourself to try to explain it to someone. That means that you you strengthen your own grasp of the thing that you understand. You strengthen your grasp of what you already understand by articulating it to others, by explaining it to others. That's what I said in in, I think, one of the very first lives that we did during the challenge, is that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it.

Mhmm. Like brother, Mazdara is saying, I have learned a lot from this hundred day challenge. Teach

each

day and topic like a master class in the way I divide the topic and find evidences, and references for each point, and write small bites of information applicable for a tweet. It's like having a master class and master's degree with professor Shay as the mentor.

I enjoyed the support. Brother, have to forgive us because we are struggling with how to pronounce your name. Because my wife insists on saying it's Mazdar even though the z comes after the d h, but it's a it's a it's an odd spelling for a name, so we're saying it wrong. I would appreciate if you can be in maybe in the ASEAN regions group Yeah. Or one of the other groups.

Actually say the name for us.

Al Madzhar.

Mad

M a d z h a r. So he's his spelling.

But that sounds like Madhar. Madhar. But anyway Okay. He's a great brother, He's doing fantastic work. I really apologize for the for the you know, write it in Arabic.

Can you write it in Arabic? It would be easier. We would understand Yeah. Yeah.

Write that. Be

easier to understand Okay.

So let me just go through the prompts over the last part ten days. We began with day 22, Islamic realpolitik, and we started by defining the what is Islamic realpolitik, then we contrasted it with the secular understanding of realpolitik. Okay. So in secular realpolitik, it is put forth that decisions are often presented, you know, as non ideological. When in fact, secular real realpolitic does involve ideology, often prioritizing profit Correct.

And and market control and economic growth, even though it is often perceived as amoral or without ideology. So because it's

Amorality is an ideology. Yeah. Exactly. It's it's already an ideological position that you can remove morality from policy. That's already an ideological position.

So it's you are serving an ideology, but you wanna pretend.

It's objective and

Yeah. Because and and and see, this is the thing is that and this is another reason why we have to work on our own epistemology. Mhmm. Because it's part of the the deceitful and dishonest epistemology of the West that morality is subjective. Mhmm.

And so so that's a judgment that you're making already. That's a satanic judgment that you're making, in fact, that morality is subjective, and therefore morality should be removed from all practical discussions. Okay. That's a you're you're taking a moral position by taking an amoral position, which is to pretend that morality is subjective and therefore not practical and should and and shouldn't factor in to to policy making. Yeah.

The the is this is a philosophical epistemological position that you're taking that's that's based on lie, that's based on a a deceit, is based on dishonesty, a satanic belief that morality is is relative, which is the same thing as saying that it's subjective. Exactly. It's relative. It's one person says this is good, another person says this is good. Mhmm.

Another person says it's bad, another person says it's bad. Mhmm. And and and but but, you know, you have reasons. This is the thing, is that in the West they have reasons for why they are this way. Mhmm.

They have reasons practical reasons for why they are this way. They have historical reasons for why they are this way, but we are not this way.

Yeah.

We cannot be this way. That that's fundamentally contradictory to who we are Yeah. As a people, as a nation.

So so what this what this day one of the I'm sorry, day 22 in this case has done for viewers is to dismantle completely that they're coming from a neutral position. Mhmm. That they don't come that they do not come from an ideological position. That is not true at all. And that's clarified for you know, listeners.

And then we go went on on day 23 to now emphasize what the prophetic examples of Islamic world politics is.

There's so many. I I I can't even count them really. Yeah. I mean, if you if you go we were talking about this because we we we're also doing simultaneous to all of this an ongoing we have a book discussion club for Middle Nation. And every every roughly every week or every every two weeks or whatever depending upon the availability of the people Mhmm.

We have a space on x where we talk about we're going through the of Rasulullah the book by Muhammad Ali or Ali Muhammad Saljabi. Yeah. Which, you know, it has its flaws, but it's a good sort of starter book

Mhmm.

For for dealing with the Sira. But we we go through this every week or every couple of weeks on on spaces. And we were going through the last the the most recent one was the the period of the Treaty of Hudaybiyah Exactly. Which is a marvelous example of realpolitik. Mhmm.

But when you go through the Sira, I really believe that the Sira needs to be almost put on the same level as Quran and Sunnah in terms of as a source of guidance. Mhmm. As a source of guidance, it is absolutely you you can't do without it. You you can't do without learning the Sirah because you will you because in the Sirah, in the in the story of Rasulullah in the lifetime of the prophet in the the early days of Islam, you find all the archetypes. You find all the all the archetypes of of Kufar.

You find archetypes among class. You find archetypes, obviously among the the Muslims, all the different types of people who made up the Sahaba, and all of the different situations that they faced, all the different types of resistance that they faced, all of the different tactics that that they faced, the different strategies of Kufar, and then the different strategies and tactics that the Muslims used to face those challenges. And this just keeps getting repeated. Like, look at what what they just did with the, with the Palestinian representatives who are gonna come to the UN, and the The United States, barred them from coming they they they, canceled their visas. Uh-huh.

So not allowing them to come to the United Nations. Well, this is very similar. I mean, it's not an exact parallel, but tactically, it's the same as the Quraysh not allowing Yes. The Muslims to make Umrah to to Makkah. Mhmm.

Because you are trusted, The United States, you're trusted with the UN headquarters. Mhmm. You have been entrusted with that to prove to the world that you're supposed to be an objective, non biased, impartial actor. Mhmm. That everyone is gonna be safe to come to the United Nations.

Yeah. Everyone will be allowed to participate in the international processes. Mhmm. You have been entrusted with that duty as the custodian of the United Nations in the same way that Quraysh was entrusted with the custodianship of the Kaaba. Mhmm.

That you are going to allow anyone and everyone to come and worship at the Kaaba. And then you rejected, you refused to allow the Muslims to come. When they did that, they completely lost their credibility. When when when they, refused to allow the Muslims to come and make umrah Mhmm. They already lost.

That was already the defeat of Quraysh. Mhmm. And the knew it. When they refused to allow them to come, now you have discredited yourself, you have delegitimized yourself to such an extent that you don't even deserve to be the custodians of the Kaaba anymore. Because you are now politicizing who you will allow and who you will not allow

Exactly.

To come. Exactly what The United States is doing with the United Nations Mhmm. And the and the Palestinians.

The whole world is watching.

And the whole world is watching and you've lost it. I mean, not, you know, not that you haven't already lost credibility to to us, but to to everyone else. You you are it's like you're on a mission to lead to delegitimize yourself, which is exactly exactly what they are Mhmm. In my opinion. They are on a mission to to delegitimize themselves.

They are on a mission to discredit themselves as an international actor. As because they are no longer a global superpower, and they're trying to withdraw from the rest of the world. Mhmm. But the point is that the Sira is so informative that you really you really should refer to the Sira, you know, and obviously, I'm not, you know, making some kind of a fatwa that is on the same level as Quran and Sunnah. No.

But the Sunnah takes place within the context of the surah. Uh-huh. Learning the Sunnah takes place within the context of the surah, the timeline of the surah. Mhmm. And and you you will not fail to learn from the experiences of the early Muslim of the early Muslims in their confrontation with the kufar.

Exactly. I mean, in the in the case of the Treaty of Hudayiyah, we raised that example in this prompt to highlight how there were initial disadvantages in the treaty, and how that eventually led to a period of peace allowing Islam to spread and strengthen and paving a way for the eventual conquest of Makkah.

Right. Because like I say, the and the and this is why we why I started talking about it. Sorry, I kind of got sidetracked. Because of realpolitik. Yeah.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyah is a is a marvelous example of realpolitik Mhmm. In in so many ways. Like for example what I just said, Rasulullah recognized Quraysh has already lost by their own actions. By their own actions, they have lost because they have delegitimized themselves and they have discredited themselves, and they have made themselves unworthy of the position, that is the only thing that really gave them any status.

Yeah.

That gave them special status. Exactly. And now they've they've they've they've lost it. Mhmm. By their own actions.

Mhmm.

They've lost it. So Rasulullah agreed to the treaty, almost as a a mercy to them that he knew that over the course of that year Mhmm. Because they said very weekly, you can come next year.

Yes.

This is this is so pathetic. I mean, remember even when I read it the very first time, when I read the the the very first time when I was still a new Muslim, and I read that that was the what the Quraysh did. Okay. You can't come this year, you can come next year. Mhmm.

It was like so pouty and so, you know, it was so pathetic. You really lost your status, and Rasulullah knew you've lost your status. And between now and the and the time that we come back again Mhmm. We will be nothing but more powerful, and you will have done nothing but erode.

Mhmm. You you pretty much, you know, lost your grip

But these are his people.

From reality.

These are his people. The Quresh are his people. Mhmm. The people of Makkah are his people. It's his town.

It's his city. It's his homeland. His his hometown. Mhmm. So he has mercy towards them.

And it so it's no harm for us to let it go.

Okay.

It's no harm for us to let it go a year. Yeah. And then we will not conquer you, we will absorb you. By the time we come back, we will just absorb you. Mhmm.

And this again is very similar to what's going on right now with Palestine. Yeah. And with so called Israel Mhmm. Because that's what's happening. They're being surrounded, and they will be absorbed.

Exactly. I mean, okay.

This is what I mean again. I'm sorry to interrupt. This is what I mean again. By the lessons that you can learn from the Sirah Mhmm. Because it just keeps happening.

The same sorts of patterns keep happening. And you and and and so many the the lifetime of Rasulullah and the Sirah is endlessly informative for you. I don't think that you can really be even a very good first of all, you can't be a good geopolitical analyst unless you're Muslim. Mhmm. Period.

Mhmm. You cannot properly understand geopolitics and cannot properly analyze what's going on in the world unless you're a Muslim and you are informed by Quran and Sunnah. Mhmm. And second of all, even if you are a Muslim who is informed by Quran and Sunnah, if you are not familiar with the there will still be some some flaws Yeah.

In your analysis. And yeah. Moving on from day 23, I'm just going according to the prompt. I know we've talked about this, this part of prompt quite a lot over the course of the week actually, the parable of the babies.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've I've said it more than once on the on the channel. I've told

this Exactly.

This parable.

Parable of the babies. If you're not familiar with it, please head on to the main discussion channel and look at look at the prompts for details, or go back to the video, Islamic Real Politic for elaboration on the parable of the babies. So that was also a very excellent contribution.

I mean, I'll I'll I'll repeat it just for the sake of of anyone who hasn't heard it. Okay. Just very briefly. Very, very briefly. The parable of the babies is that a man sees a baby floating down the river, and the baby is obviously going to drown.

Then he sees another baby and another and another and another. So he rushes into the river like any normal person would. He rushes into the river and starts trying to save the babies. Mhmm. But there's too many.

Then he sees another man on the shore of the river or the riverbank, and he shouts to that man, please come help me save these babies. And the man starts to walk away. And so the man in the river starts to shout at the man on the riverbank, where are you going? You have to help me save these babies. And the man responds, that's what I am doing.

I'm going to where the babies are being put in the river. Mhmm. I'm gonna try and solve the problem at the the the source of the problem. Now both of those men are doing something helpful, they're doing something useful, they're trying to solve the problem. Both of them are.

The one who's in the river is doing the immediate thing, but he will inevitably fail to save. He he will save some babies but he will lose many. Many will die as a result of the strategy that he is using. The other one is ultimately going to solve the problem completely, But while he's doing that, babies will drown.

Yeah.

While he's doing that, the the reality of the problem is ongoing. Mhmm. And so it's a judgment call. Which one do you think is ultimately the most useful?

Yeah. Based on your capacity and the strata from

Right.

The society you're from also.

Right.

Okay. We have a question from

And I and and sorry to sorry. This is what I I wanted to say about that. I don't criticize anyone who who is taking the position of getting in the river to save the babies. I don't criticize anyone who does that. It's a it's a human moral thing to do.

But don't criticize the one who's going down, who's going upstream to try to solve the problem because he's not taking your approach. This is where I have a problem. If you're gonna get in the river and try to save one baby at a time by being a so called activist, for example, by doing relief work, what have you. All of this is noble work, but don't now denigrate when someone else is taking a different approach that is ultimately going to solve the problem once and for all.

Okay. So someone called James Space. Mhmm. He's got he's got a question. Which specific sectors, nodes of power are most important for targeted disruption today, and how should movements prioritize these areas within?

It's too general of a question.

Okay.

I I I appreciate the question, and I understand what you're what you're why you're asking. But it's, I think, too general of a question because it it it it would have to be depending on where you are, depending on obviously what you're trying to target, what in terms of results. What the issue is, I assume you're probably talking about Palestine, but it will depend on what what capabilities you have built up in terms of your ability to disrupt, what outcome you're looking for, and so forth. I mean, this is this is the, if you take a realpolitik approach to activism, it becomes much more, complex than I think the the general approach to activism Mhmm. Which is a sort of a expressive protest, as I've talked about before, expressive protest.

And again, I'm not I don't I don't belittle or minimize the effectiveness of any of these approaches. Or a general disruptive approach. Like for example, say what we're seeing in Indonesia right now, which is a general disruptive approach. Not particularly targeted, although they are targeting the I think the police and the the parliament and the specific politicians and so forth. But if you if you if you wanna take a very, very tactical strategic approach, then you have to do a lot of evaluations.

Where you are geographically, where what what's within your reach, and what tools you have available to yourself to legally participate in this sort of thing.

Okay. He's asking again, I'm just seeing your question, James, the broader corporate state apparatus.

Okay. Well, mean, in the okay. If you're talking about the broader corporate state apparatus, then obviously what you need to do is is actually building sufficiency. That's the that you can't do anything. Anything that you do is gonna be temporary Yeah.

And will ultimately just make it harder for yourself. Yeah. It it Ultimately, you're gonna make it hard. Yeah. Ultimately you'll make it harder for yourself until you're able to break the dependency Yeah.

Of yourself and your community, your family, yourself, your family, your community from the corporate state. Mhmm. You have to build sufficiency. And I have, I think there's a series of lectures, the sufficiency lectures where I talk about that, and there's and there's, different ideas that are discussed in in several videos about, building sufficiency and and, extricating yourself

Mhmm.

From that system.

Okay. Sorry. Has a question. I have a question and an observation concerning the story of Hibab in Hibab had knowledge from Allah, and that justifies his action. And it was inferred that he was expecting from Musa by inferring that Musa wouldn't be patient.

My observation is if it is expected to have for who had divine knowledge oops, I lost the question, sorry. What then, then what more of our leaders who don't have who only rely on the information available to them and their limited capacity? Is this observation correct?

Well, first, I don't know I don't know to what I think I I think knew that he could not really expect Hosnatham Yeah. Because he knew that that his actions would be inexplicable to Yeah. So I don't know to what extent he was expecting it. He was he was almost saying preemptively, I know you're not gonna be able to give me that.

Yeah.

But try to remain patient. Mhmm. And I think that that applies now. Mhmm. I think that's that same thing applies now.

I think it's a good observation that that our leaders obviously know more, have more information than than the people on the ground have. Even have more information than knowledgeable geopolitical economic Mhmm. Political analysts have. They have

They have intimate

They have intel. Yeah. Have they have confidential intelligence, and they know about long term planning, and they know everything that's going on in the back channels, they know everything that goes on in the back rooms, they know everything that goes on diplomatically, we only know what is released to the public, we By only can know

virtue of the strata that they're from.

Yeah. So so as far as I'm concerned, it it's the obligation of anyone with any intelligence to recognize the limits of our own knowledge, the limits of our own information. And like I've said before, you can see what a leader is doing, what a government is doing, what a state is doing, and try to figure out how what they are doing could have can can have a positive outcome. Mhmm. What is a plausible, not not idealistic, not unrealistic, but a plausible positive outcome to the actions that they are taking?

Mhmm. And very often, this isn't hard to figure out because very often they tell you this is why we're doing what we're doing. Mhmm. But even if they don't tell you this is why we're doing what we're doing, you can try to figure that out yourself and see what's a plausible positive outcome for why they're doing it, and then the Hasan al Dan comes in where you say that's probably why they're doing it. It's probably not because they're evil.

Mhmm. It's probably not because I have all the information, and therefore, based on all of the information that I have, the thing that they're doing has no justification. It's it's incredibly simplistic Mhmm. To make these kinds of to to that that that the leaders of the Muslim world or leaders of the Muslim countries, leader of of any country. Mhmm.

But especially in the Muslim world, to believe that that that the leaders of the Muslim countries are just evil Mhmm. Or that they are just happy being subordinate, that they're happy being subjugated, no one wants that. Especially if you're a leader. Yeah. Especially if you are a prominent person, especially if you're a king.

Mhmm. You're a prince, you're a king, you're an emir, you're a sultan. You don't wanna be subordinate to anyone. If you if you I mean, if you just just like everyone understands the truism that that power wants to have power, power wants to consolidate power, power wants to spread their their power and influence. Yeah.

They wanna grow stronger, nobody wants to grow weaker. Yeah. No one wants to be under someone else. No one wants to be humiliated. Mhmm.

So you should you should you should put that out of the of the scenario. You should put that out of the equation when you're trying to understand why a leader is doing what they're doing.

Yeah. Which then sorry. From the parable of the babies, we are now moving on to the next prompt on day 25, leadership qualities and challenges in Islamic realpolitik. And we thought about the example of Abu Ghar and how Abu Ghar's narrative serves as a reminder that effective leadership, especially within an Islamic realpolitic framework, requires a robust understanding of practical realities and strategic action. Mhmm.

And while immediate moral action might feel right

Mhmm.

It can have immoral consequences or lead to greater harm in the long run. Leaders must then be able to make, you know, this tasteful or seemingly contradictory decisions in the short term if they are necessary if if if they are necessary in order to achieve long term moral outcomes. Mhmm. You know, just this is just to continue on from the parallel babies to, illustrate with the example of Abu Dhabi. If you're again, if you're not familiar with Abu Dhabi, please, once again, go ahead.

Right. Because because Abu Dhabi, Raiya Wahan, was was an ex an incredibly brave, strong, courageous, fearless individual. Yet, when he asked Rasulullah to appoint him to a position of authority, Rasulullah denied him that and told him it was because he was weak. Mhmm. As I talked about in that video or that podcast about Realpolitik, weakness is not a term that you would generally associate with Abu Dhar.

Yep. Because he was in incredibly forthright, and and he he wasn't scared of anybody. But his weakness was his inability to compromise, his inability to hold his tongue, his inability to discern when it was good to be to to to speak out and good to be silent, and good to sort of trust in what what the Muslim leadership was doing

Mhmm.

And to not just, as you said, get the get the sort of instant moral gratification. Sure. That sometimes you have to have patience, and I think his weakness was maybe in in a lack of patience.

For again once again, if you are joining the live for the first time, and if you're not familiar with the content of this particular video, just look up Islamic Realpolitik on the Middle Nation Channel. Yeah. And we'll we'll we'll be directed to the video in discussion. Now continuing on to the same video, Islamic Realpolitik, we now decided to explore further on the broader implications for the Ummah and countering the misinformation that's spreading among among us about the Islamic leadership. Now it's viewed Islamic leadership is viewed as an from Allah implying profound responsibility and accountability on the day of judgment.

Allah sees both the good and the bad deeds and the ultimate judgment considers the full context, including the necessity of actions for long term welfare. So it is crucial for us to counter narratives that portray Muslim and Arab governments as sellouts for engaging with Western or Zionist powers. Such criticisms often ignore geopolitical complexities and immense international pressure these pressures these leaders face, and Zionist propaganda aims to deepen divisions within Muslim communities by exaggerating or even distorting, you know, these motives of these governments. So this is very, very crucial for us to understand. And as you were talking about, in order to consolidate their own power and their own security in order to pursue positive actions, positive outcomes.

There are certain things that they have to, certain actions that they have to take.

Yeah, and what bothers me about this, and what I find very hypocritical about this, is that everyone understands this in their own life. Everyone understands this on a personal, individual level because you do it. You do the same thing on your job, How many times have you held your tongue on your job? How many compromises have you made on your job? Because you have to take care of your family, you have to pay your bills.

So you're able to to grit your teeth and deal with people on the job who you can't stand, deal with people who are backstabbers, be nice to them, be nice to your boss who's who's a terrible person, be nice to your colleagues, some of whom are terrible people, and hold your tongue because you have to take care of your own, you have to take care of your family, you have to pay your bills, you don't wanna lose your job, and so on. You you all do that, everyone does that. And and and like I've talked about before in terms of like, for example, blaming the Arab leaders for, quote, unquote, not doing enough for Palestine. This is why I always bring it back to what have you done for Palestine, because the fact of the matter is every single one of us could have done more than we have done. But we are all limited by our actual commitment, and our willingness to face the consequences of certain actions.

And that's called being a rational, mature, wise person. You are not in a position to throw yourself into destruction for the sake of a moral cause because that's in and of itself an immoral action, in my opinion. Because if you are a moral actor and you are in pursuit of moral outcomes, and then you destroy yourself, then you are removing from the battlefield someone who is acting morally, or someone who is pursuing moral outcomes. So taking an impractical approach, taking an unrealistic, idealistic, self destructive approach to pursue moral outcomes is itself an immoral action. And Allah also tells us to not throw ourselves into destruction.

You should listen to that again when the recording is posted. Mhmm. This is a very important section, you know, for us to

And so so my point is everyone does it. Mhmm. Everyone does it in their own life. Mhmm. But but you you impose idealistic standards, idealistic demands upon people who have immensely more responsibility than you ever will.

Mhmm. Immensely more accountability, immensely more people who are dependent upon them making the right decisions than you ever will. But you want them to behave negligently. You want them to behave haphazardly. You want them to behave rashly, whereas you won't even do it for the for the for the for the comparatively minor interests of being able to pay your rent, your personal rent, or being able to pay for school or medicine or what have you for your family.

Mhmm. The the the compare by comparison, it's incredibly minor. But you are wise not to make those sacrifices. You're wise not to throw all of that away. Mhmm.

But when the leaders do do things that are tactically, serving long term solutions, long term, resolutions to the Palestinian issue, it's dissatisfying to you because you want them to do what you won't do on the job, which is, you know, throw the copy machine out the window and break your computer and shout at everybody and tell everybody what you think of them, what you would what you're looking forward to doing on your last day of work. But you want them to do that now. Mhmm. You want them to all act rationally Mhmm. Now even though millions of people are depending upon them not doing that.

Mhmm. Millions of people are depending upon them making rational long term decisions. And I'll just say another thing, even though it's not not necessarily related to epistemological sovereignty, although it also kind of is. I will be accused of being of defending the Arab rulers or defending the Muslim rulers. Yes.

Guilty as charged. I defend them because they're part of our people, and I defend our people. I defend the Muslims, and they are from the Muslims. I'm defending the ummah against our enemies, and that includes the leaders of the Muslims. Why do you think that it should apply to everyone except for our leaders?