Update on Submitter’s Apartment Project
Praise be to God, there is no other god except God.
Someone just informed us a few minutes ago that Emin’s older sister has died. We send our condolences to Emin. I am not sure if his sister was officially a submitter, so unfortunately I do not want to do the Funeral Prayer if she was not officially a submitter. But if I find out that she was officially a submitter, then we can do the funeral prayer maybe next week in the next Friday Sermon.
By the way, my grandma died a few months ago, and she was not officially a submitter. I think she was a believer, but not a submitter; someone can be like that. But because she was not officially in our group, I did not want to do a funeral prayer for her. Let other people do their private prayers or whatever they want to do, but we do not have an official funeral prayer if they are not officially in our group.
God knows people’s souls, God knows who goes to heaven, God knows who goes to hell. God knows best, but we have to sort of play by our rules. If someone is officially a submitter, we do the funeral prayer. If someone is not, we do not do the funeral prayer, and we just send our condolences. In this case, I do not know, because someone just informed us a few minutes ago. If someone can tell me if she was officially a submitter, it is okay either way. God willing, if she was officially a submitter, then we can do the funeral prayer next week, God willing.
And by the way, this is why we should not start bringing new topics too quick before the Friday sermon, because now people are still chatting.
Unfortunately, I have to continue without knowing what the situation is.
Apartment Project Survey Results
I have to continue with the topic which I was planning. I want to give an update on the Submitters’ Apartment Project.
The reason why I wanted to do a questionnaire is because I wanted to know what the interest or the willingness of the submitters was to participate in such a project. I think it was actually helpful for me at least, God willing it is going to be helpful for all of us, so we kind of know where we stand with these ideas.
As you remember, I proposed a draft project about apartments for submitters which would include a sanctuary on top of it. Or we could have done it otherwise in a different case, maybe we do the sanctuary in the basement if it is in the US, because the building rules are different there. But I presented it as one version out of many versions because I wanted people to know what exactly I am proposing so that they could fill out the questionnaire in more detail and know exactly what we are talking about.
There is good news and bad news about it. The good news is that a lot of people were interested. The bad news is that they were interested only for investment, except for people who were already from Kosovo, almost none of the others were interested to actually go and live there.
Let me go into the details : 17 people filled out the questionnaire, but only 9 out of those 17 reported over a 60% chance of actually doing it or actually being interested. As you guys remember, I asked you how likely it is that the conditions are going to be fulfilled. I did not consider the ones which had less than a 60% chance of actually doing it, because it is not serious. It is okay if it is something that does not interest you, that is fine. However, I cannot move forward with a project with people who are less than 60% sure that they are actually going to do it. It is kind of like hiring someone for a job and asking him : “How sure are you that you are going to actually perform well?” and they say : “About 30%.” You probably would not hire him; it does not make sense to go forward with that. If they are not interested then they are not. Everyone has individual freedom but that depends also on his situation of course. Most people are not in a situation where they can afford to invest. What I am saying is that I could not seriously consider people who are not serious anyway.
Out of those 17, only 9 reported over a 60% chance of actually doing it, so I only considered those people seriously. Out of those 9 people, 5 of them wanted to use it as a primary home, and all 5 of them, except for one, were already from the same country, from Kosovo.
Feasibility and Regional Execution
What did I learn from this questionnaire?
I learned that the project which I proposed is a good project, but mostly only within countries for the most part. At least we know that the project is something people are interested in investing in and that it is doable. However, we know that it is probably a much better project within countries rather than across countries.
What do I mean by within countries? Let me explain. When there is about 50-60 submitters in France, then we can talk about it, so we can do the project only for French people in France. Or let me say there is about 50-60 submitters in the US; we can do it for people within the US. Or let’s say Canada, Lebanon, Bangladesh, or Turkey. By the way, what do I mean by 50 or 60 people? I do not mean children or submitters who are not independent or not officially in our group. I mean actually official submitters who can make their independent financial decisions.
If any of these countries have 50 people, they can just write me a message and, God willing, we will revisit the project if it makes sense, meaning that people are interested to invest and willing to move into that apartment building, then probably out of those 50, about 9-10 would be interested. The way we sort of imagined the building was to have about 9 apartments, and then another 9 in another building.
I will probably not remove the video from YouTube, but what I am going to say is that even though we might not do it exactly the way we planned it, at least we know there are options to do it within countries. If there are enough people within Kosovo, we can still do it in Kosovo.
Actually, people were more interested to invest than I thought, in the sense that they are not that willing to move, but they want to invest so that other submitters can rent the place and live there. Unfortunately, there are not enough people who are willing to move and rent the place, so I would not want to invest in a project where you guys would invest and then there is no one to live there. We do not want an empty building, because the main purpose was so we can have a full building that we can use, so that the people who live there can use the sanctuary to do the contact prayers together. That is the general idea.
Financial Logic of the Project (“Triple Win” Analysis)
Before talking about that, let me talk about why I even proposed the project in the first place :
First of all, the main solution which it could bring if we did it soon is that it would give us a proper place to do our contact prayers together as submitters, what I called a sanctuary. But the business reasons were that I thought it would actually earn much more than stocks. The reason why it would win much more than stocks is because it sort of has three ways of winning.
This reminds me of a Charlie Sheen meme or joke. Most people probably don’t know who Charlie Sheen is. A journalist asked him once if he is bipolar, and he said : “I’m bi-winning—winning here, winning there.” The idea of this project was to win here and win there: double win, triple win. What do I mean by triple win?
- First Win (Standard Rental): The typical way people who buy apartments win is that they buy an apartment, the price of the apartment increases, and they rent it out to someone. On average, people win about 8% per year with this method. With stocks, you win about 9%. Only one reason to build the apartments is not good enough, it is probably better just to invest in stocks. So if it was just a typical project of buying an apartment and renting it out, I would not propose it, because it has a little bit less winning chances than stocks where you average 9% per year.
- Second Win (Build & Markup Savings): The second win comes because we would build it ourselves. We would not buy it from a construction company, we would build it ourselves. Then we could win from the markup price, which is about 10% to 20%. Let’s say we cannot do it as well as construction companies, so let’s say 10%. Now it is 80% of the original price if we build it ourselves as a group of submitters.
- Third Win (Geographic Savings): The additional win would come from buying cheaper apartments in a country where apartments are cheaper. This would enable people to invest and still have lots of money left over for stocks, for those who would have otherwise bought an apartment in their country.
So as you can see, this is a triple win. We could win in three different ways, and in total it would be an estimated 25% per year compared to stocks which is only 9%. We could win 25% per year, which is much more than 9% per year.
However, if we do it within countries, this third reason does not exist, which is winning from living in a cheaper place while investing your money somewhere else, this third reason would not exist. For example, if you live in France and you do this apartment project with other submitters in France, you still would have to buy an expensive apartment. You would run out of money basically if you only had money for one apartment, and you would not be able to invest elsewhere. So if we do it within countries, it’s only going to be an estimated 18% profit per year, and probably only within the first year because the markup price is not always there.
We can do it within countries, God willing. We can postpone this project to do it within each country. However, the win percentages are not going to be as big. They are still better than stocks, they are not going to as big as in a cheaper country. So do not expect big wins. At least the good part about it is that we can have sanctuaries in different parts of the world, in different countries.
Keep in mind that even though it looks hopeless sometimes, like : “How are we going to get together and build a place or mosques?” .This project is one very good option. Just by having 50 -60 people within a country, it is possible to do something about it and have a sanctuary where they can pray together. We will talk about the details when the time comes. If you are in Lebanon, and you work hard, and 50-60 people from Lebanon join us in our group, we have a plan for how to deal with that, how to move forward, and how to make it suitable for them so that they can worship God.
Future Options and Next Steps
How do we move forward from the actual project?
- Option One: We can postpone the project, meaning we will wait until more people are interested.
- Option Two: We can implement the project backwards : Initially, the idea was to build a building with a sanctuary on top, and then build another building when more people join. But we can do it backwards: build the building without the sanctuary first, and then build the building with the sanctuary later. Based on the questionnaire, there would be enough people interested to build the building without the sanctuary, because even if they do not live there, it is just a building and they can earn rent from it. However, that building would have to be rented to non-submitters.
- Option Three: We can hand over the project and make it a private idea. In that case, I would not talk about the details of it in the Friday Sermons. The Quran says that the disbelievers, when there is a business deal during the Friday Sermon, they rush to the business deal and leave you standing. The Friday sermons are meant for community and remembering God; they are not meant to do private business within them.
For the third option, this is not a very likely option, but it could happen. I am just going to mention that it exists, but I do not want to go into details because that would be a private business. The idea for the third option is that I could take the list of about 9 people who already showed interest and send it to my sister. She has experience making money through buildings, rents, and Airbnb. She started with her husband from half an apartment and by now she has built 10 apartments through this method. She has experience. If anyone has more experience, I would be willing to let that person deal with it. It is likely that I might just hand over the project to my sister, and she can do private business with it if people are interested and if there are good chances of profit. If it goes like that, I am not going to deal with it anymore in the sense that I do not want to talk about private business in online Friday Sermons. That would be through private chats or whatever.
By the way, these three options are not mutually exclusive.
The most important part we should remember is that it is still a good project, but within countries, especially with reliable and serious submitters within a country, let’s say in France, Lebanon, Bangladesh, or Turkey. This should give you an idea of the path forward.
What I have to do is focus more on spreading the message within France, within Turkey, or wherever. If there are 50 people, we have a plan for what to do with that in a way that benefits them, benefits the community, benefits everyone, and ultimately allows us to worship God together in a sanctuary or in a mosque. So let’s just think of this project as something that is better executed within countries, it would be even better within cities, but that is still far down the road.
Let’s repent.
Second Sermon: Recitation of Surah 64
Praise be to God, there is no other god except God.
Recently, I feel like I have talked too much about specific details, community stuff, and even scientific stuff about Adam and Noah. I feel like we have not mentioned God enough in our Friday Sermons. The main reason why we do the Friday sermons is so that we can mention God. The Quran says commemorate God and remember God.
I just want to spend some time to commemorate God. I asked AI to give me an average Surah of average length which mentions God a lot, so it gave me Surah 64. I am just going to read Surah 64 so we can remind ourselves why we are here.
In this second sermon, I’m just going to read the Surah. The purpose is so we can remember God more and more.
Let me share it :
[64:0] In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
[64:1] Glorifying God is everything in the heavens and everything on earth. To Him belongs all kingship, and to Him belongs all praise, and He is Omnipotent.
[64:2] He is the One who created you, then among you there is the disbeliever, and the believer. God is fully Seer of everything you do.
[64:3] He created the heavens and the earth for a specific purpose, designed you and perfected your design, then to Him is the final destiny.
[64:4] He knows everything in the heavens and the earth, and He knows everything you conceal and everything you declare. God is fully aware of the innermost thoughts.
[64:5] Have you noted those who disbelieved in the past, then suffered the consequences of their decision? They incurred a painful retribution.
[64:6] This is because their messengers went to them with clear proofs, but they said, “Shall we follow humans like us?” They disbelieved and turned away. God does not need them; God is in no need, Praiseworthy.
[64:7] Those who disbelieved claim that they will not be resurrected! Yes indeed, by my Lord, you will be resurrected, and you will be held accountable for everything you have done. This is easy for God to do.
[64:8] Therefore, you shall believe in God and His messenger, and the light that we have revealed herein. God is fully Cognizant of everything you do.
[64:9] The day will come when He summons you to the Day of Summoning. That is the Day of Mutual Blaming. Anyone who believes in God and leads a righteous life, He will remit his sins, and will admit him into gardens with flowing streams. They abide therein forever. This is the greatest triumph.
[64:10] As for those who disbelieve and reject our revelations, they are the dwellers of the Hellfire; they abide therein forever. What a miserable destiny!
[64:11] Nothing happens to you except in accordance with God’s will. Anyone who believes in God, He will guide his heart. God is fully aware of all things.
[64:12] You shall obey God and you shall obey the messenger. If you turn away, then the sole mission of our messenger is to deliver the message.
[64:13] God: there is no other god besides Him. In God the believers shall trust.
[64:14] O you who believe, your spouses and your children can be your enemies; beware. If you pardon, forget, and forgive, then God is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
[64:15] Your money and children are a test, and God possesses a great recompense.
[64:16] Therefore, you shall reverence God as much as you can, and listen, and obey, and give (to charity) for your own good. Anyone who is protected from his own stinginess, these are the successful ones.
[64:17] If you lend God a loan of righteousness, He will multiply the reward for you manifold, and forgive you. God is Appreciative, Clement.
[64:18] The Knower of all secrets and declarations; the Almighty, Most Wise.
For those who have to do the contact prayer, do the contact prayer. To the rest of you, peace be upon you.
Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director