Summary: Can Fly (Back to You, Allah)”<br> As Salam o alaikum WA rahmatullahi WA barakatuhoo.<br> Alhamdulillah rabbil alamin…Insha’Allah, before I share with<br> you some things about the Ayah I have picked for this talk, I<br> want to tell you guys something about myself and Imam<br> Siraj. Back in college – this is like 98-99-2000 time when I<br> used to be in an MSA in New York city in Burlington college<br> and you know how MSA has club hours (we had club hours on<br> Thursdays – and we’re in NY city, and of course this masjid is<br> in Brooklyn so a couple of us guys would go on Wednesday<br> night because we knew there was no way to catch Imam Siraj<br> that time on the phone, it’s impossible, so, we used to go to<br> Masjid-e-eTaqwa for Zuhr - cut a class or two and go (I’m not,<br> I don’t recommend it), so we’d go before Zuhr up to the<br> security desk (there’s a real, big security officer there, so we<br> say. “Is the Imam there? We have to ask him something about<br> our MSA.” So Zuhr comes and there’s no Imam Siraj, “Aright<br> guys, let’s wait until Asar.” We wait until Asr, Maghreb, and<br> imam’s here. “Imam Sahib we got to talk to you! We’ve been<br> here since Zuhr. Could you please come to our program<br> tomorrow? There’s going to be only 4 of us, but that doesn’t<br> matter. Imam Siraj would consistently, every time we came –<br> we dragged him, and he’d consistently come to our program<br> even though there were only 4 people sitting there. It didn’t<br> matter to him. He just did it for us. He was this father figure<br> for us and ever since then (and this is before I could grow a<br> beard, mind you, okay. So, ever since then, he’s been picking<br> on me at conferences consistently. He does not stop. And he<br> has the right to do it. I’m not complaining. He’ll be like, “I<br> LOVE YOU Nouman, really, really love you. But this is easier<br> on me. But you know what he’d used to do back in the day?<br> I’d be sitting, back in the audience somewhere, and in the<br> middle of his talk – out of nowhere – he’d say, “Where’s<br> Nouman? I know you here!” Oh God!<br> 1. But anyhow, what I wanted to talk to you about in these<br> few minutes is Insha’Allah o Ta’Allah. I have to give you<br> guys credit for picking the weirdest titles for speeches<br> you know. You’ve beat the MSA and other conferences in<br> strange titles. “I Believe I Can Fly?” Are you serious? First<br> time I thought, is this going to be about drugs? What is it<br> really about? And the title of these speeches apparently<br> for me is I love you, bro. So, you can basically take that<br> anywhere you can. But I’ll take it to what I think is an<br> appropriate discussion, an important one especially for<br> young Muslims. Some of the older Muslims here have<br> suffered as a result of that understanding, and<br> internalizing some of these things in their lives. Look, I<br> say this in a lot of my talks but the most important<br> relationships you have are the relationships that are not<br> in public; the most important relationships you and I<br> have are in our homes; in our private lives. Even if you<br> have a great reputation outside but have a horrible<br> relationship with your brother, your own sister, your own<br> parents, your own close friends – you don’t have good<br> relationships with them, you end up in an argument<br> them very, very quickly, very easily you lose your<br> temper with them, or they lose their temper with you. Or<br> you notice that everyone in your family is upset with you<br> for some reason. Then there is a problem; then it doesn’t<br> matter what the people on the outside think of you. It’s<br> all hollow; it’s all empty because those relationships are<br> just of acquaintances. These are just people who know<br> about you,
