Category: Sermons

Summary:

In this live Friday sermon, Alban Fejza introduces the new chat feature on thesubmitters.org, explains the rules for using it during Friday gatherings, and how to avoid divisions when different submitters focus on different parts of the truth.

Video Transcript:

Sermon Introduction

Praise be to God. There is no other God except God.

Today I would like to introduce the new chatting feature which we have added in our website : thesubmitters.org. Some of you might have already noticed it, others might not have noticed it yet. So I am just going to share the screen and tell you what’s new on in our website. So let me share the screen :

So this is our new chatting feature. It’s below the Friday Sermon. If you guys are watching the video, all you have to do is scroll down and here it says “Sign in with Google.”

By the way, let me just read what I wrote here. It says:

  “During Friday gatherings, being signed in is mandatory for the submitters (from 12:00 UTC until 12:30 UTC) so that we can witness who is online and attending the Friday gatherings and to communicate with each other when necessary.”

This is important so that you guys know among each other who is attending the Friday gatherings, and also so that I know who is watching. It’s important so that we know who is a Submitter. It’s not that we are trying to spy on one another, but we want to know who is a submitter and who is not. We know that doing the Friday gathering is obligatory for submitters and it is done in public. So we should be able to know who is doing it like us and who is not doing it like us.

So for those who haven’t signed yet, if you just go here to “Sign in with Google” it is going to ask you to choose an account:

By the way, we don’t have access to your Google accounts, so this is totally under Google’s control. We don’t have access to it. So when you sign in with Google, Google does not send us any information except your name, which is shown in the website, and your photo, which is taken from Google. But that is a standard signing procedure for most of the apps, it’s not different from other apps.

I kind of like the way it came out. It is a very simple app, but it has some unique features which I think are useful for the Submitters.

Guidelines for Chatting During the Gathering

One good thing about this is that you can both watch the video and see who is online at the same time. Plus, we can chat when necessary online. By the way, you should not chat during the Friday gathering unless the Congregation Director asks you specifically or in general, you should not do that because it distracts the viewers, the listeners.

So this chatting app is useful for outside of the Friday Sermon. You can talk at any time. But during the Friday Gathering, you can talk only if you are asked or if absolutely necessary. So unless you have something absolutely necessary to say or I ask you to say something, then there is no need to say anything during the Friday Gathering because during the Friday Gathering we’re supposed to pay attention to what is being said in the video.

I want to use the opportunity to mention the names because if people are embarrassed to be public about the fact that they are Submitters, I think they should not be Submitters.

So who do we have here right now online?

We have Sinan Abal, Adam Fraser—sorry for mispronouncing the names—Adnane Tidghi, Luna Thabet, Habiba Abdullahi, Seymur İsmayılov, Jad Abou karroum, Munira Sultana, Faisal Ayache, Nathalie Abou karroum,

Elhame Gashi, Matvej Loptev, Nikki Chavis, Başak Urhan, Mhamed Ait Lmaalem, Taliye Alan, Merazul Alam, Fannol Gashi, Gillaume Guy, Arafat Ahmed, Christopher Summers.

Sow Mamadou Oury, Marzia Sultana, Abdul Rasheed Ahmed, Shkronja Berisha, Fatih Alan, Gurgin Tehtap, Trevor Chavis, Ahmed Isa Hassan, Mehdi Akouche,

Fleta Berisha, Kevser Alan, Avdyl Berisha, Alban Fejza, Moneruzzaman Sikdar, Lavdije Berisha, Robert Szilagyi, Arjeta Fejza, Muhammad Rakibul Hasan,

Ruksana Yeasmin, Vlora Fejza, Abdul Hayat Piash, Arlind Fejza, Rayan—I don’t know the last name of this person—Habiba Abdullahi, and Nahida Mili.

So these are the names which are online right now. As we know, there is more Submitters. So others will eventually learn how to do this and they will do it in the next time.

For some of you, if you have signed already, it might show you the older version before the Friday Sermon. God willing, if you have any problems, you can contact Fannol and see how to fix that.

Group Transparency vs. Private Meetings

I want to focus on why is this chatting app different from a typical chatting app. It is different because, first of all, it’s a group chat, so if someone has to say something, it has to be fully transparent.

When I used to work in my previous jobs (most of them in Kosovo), quite often people would have informal meetings over coffee, and then someone would tell someone something and they would actually reach an agreement about what to do at work, and no one else would know. And then I would be surprised : “Oh, you guys reached an agreement already? Like, I was not in the meeting.” They say : “Oh, we spoke about it over coffee.” And that’s actually not the way Submitters do things. For example : we have done a lot of work with Fannol, but that was the only option we had. We had a lot of discussions which were just personal, just me and him. It would be much better if everyone knew. In this way, they would know how much work was put into this chatting app. They would know what the problems were. They would see if there’s something they can help with.

So this chatting app is different because it’s a group chat, so everyone sees everyone’s chat. That’s important, because sometimes people will say something else if it’s sending a message to only one person. But if it’s public, they will probably be more careful about it. So that’s one difference in this chatting app.

The Deletion Feature and Guarding Against Satan

The other difference is that unlike most of the chatting apps, this chatting app allows every Submitter to delete everyone’s message. So right now, even if I don’t like a message, I can just delete it, not just me, everyone. Every Submitter can delete a message.

And why is this important?

This is important to keep the peace within the community.

Let me just give you an example because there’s a verse in the Quran which says try to be with each other the nicest possible because Satan will always try to drive a wedge between you. Satan is always trying to make us fight each other. And one way to prevent that fighting is if we allow everyone to delete the message if he does not like it.

And because you can post here photos as well, let me just give you an example : Let’s say a woman has a new child, and she wants to show the group : “Oh, alhamdulillah, thanks to God, me and my husband have been blessed with a new child. We named the child like this name.” But in the photo, she is kind of not dressed very well. Yeah, it’s a good message in general that she’s telling everyone that there is a new submitter among us. That’s a good message, but the photo might not be very modest. In that case, instead of us telling her : “Oh, you have to change the photo, we don’t agree with this” anyone can just delete it. If you don’t agree with it, just delete it.

Now the question is : What if we delete all the messages? So what?

 It’s okay. We don’t write any message, it’s still fine. God willing, in the future I might change my mind, I might make it so that two submitters have to delete it so that the message can be deleted. But for now, I want to try it like this, and if it works, I will just leave it like this.

Let’s say someone says something which is partly right, partly wrong. Instead of arguing and saying : “Oh, by the way, you’re wrong about this, you’re wrong about that, I have a different opinion,…” In this way, only the positive messages remain. And when only the positive messages remain, there’s less chance for Satan to drive a wedge between us, to kind of make us hate each other. If you don’t like it, just delete it, and it’s not a problem, even my messages.

Only the submitters can delete messages. The non-submitters cannot delete messages : They can delete their own messages but not someone else’s messages.

So let’s say if I go here in any place, I can just delete it.

By the way, every submitter can also block a non-submitter, but not a submitter :

For example : Fannol here has signed it, with a non-submitter email at this «Fannol Public». I can block this account for example. So basically if an outsider comes and says something bad, and we think he had really clear bad intentions to fight our group or to hate our group, then we can just block that person.

So we cannot block submitters. No submitter can be blocked. I cannot even block a submitter, so you have a guarantee that you will not be blocked. However, anyone can delete your message if they don’t like it. And this goes in line with the idea in the Quran which says that submitters reach agreements with consensus. So everyone has to agree. If one person does not agree about the message, they can just delete it.

For example : someone might post a vacation photo which might be fine for most people. But maybe someone lives in a poor country, he thinks that’s bragging, that’s too much. They can just delete it. If they don’t like it, they can delete it. At the same time, no hard feelings. Someone can try and post it and see if it’s deleted, fine. If it’s not, it’s kind of like a way to see if other people are liking what you’re posting. So yeah, you can delete anyone’s message, and please, if you think it should be deleted, delete it, don’t think twice. If you think : “Okay, I don’t like this”, just delete it.

And why is this important again ? This is important for the peace in our group. Let’s say that someone’s message is correct, but it’s not full. So let’s say that someone says : «it’s not Ramadan which brings us closer to God, but it’s fasting». Which is true. It’s not complete, but it’s true. There’s more to it in the Quran, but it’s true if you say that : «It’s fasting, not Ramadan, which brings us closer to God». That is true. However, it’s not the complete truth. There’s some more to it.

What’s more to it is that during Ramadan, the Quran says those who witness the month : they fast. It’s the fasting which brings them closer to God, not just the fact that it is Ramadan. So that’s a more complete truth, it’s totally true but there is more to it, and someone might notice the part which is missing and they mention only the other statement which would complete it. Then they post just a verse to complete that statement.

What Satan can do here (even though both of them are correct), is make one submitter pay attention to one part of the truth, the other submitter to the other part of the truth, and then in this way, if they couldn’t delete the messages, they might start to have an ego discussion : “Oh no, you’re wrong. He’s wrong.” Especially as if other people are involved there is some ego there. The easier option is : if it bothers you, just delete it. So this app enables it, you just delete it, so there is no argument. If there is something you don’t like about the message, just delete it.

Submitter Verification and Zakat

So another feature in this app is that you can tell who is a submitter and who is not a submitter by this tick mark.

So if you have this tick mark, that means you are a submitter. If you don’t have this tick mark, that means you are not a submitter.

(By the way, Seymur İsmayılov, I think he has actually asked us to be a submitter. We haven’t enabled him to fill the zakat yet. There is a verse in the Quran which mentions those whose hearts have been inclined, meaning those who in their heart, they are submitters, but they haven’t officially joined us. Rashad translated this as converts. Because there’s different levels of people. There’s non-submitters, there’s people who are exploring, there’s people who think that maybe this is true, but then there’s people who have decided to join, but they haven’t gotten a chance yet, we didn’t let them report the zakat yet.)

And this is pretty much it. It’s a simple app.

Let’s repent.

Community Testing and Support Feedback

Praise be to God. There’s no other god except God.

Maybe we can just test the app now. So I am asking you to chat and see how it works. By the way, all the chats disappear in seven days, so you don’t have to be embarrassed whether you’ll post something and it’s going to stay there. It’s just going to be deleted in seven days. But this video is public, just so you know, this video is public. So maybe we can just test it and see. A lot of people are writing. I want to test deleting a message.d

• • Faisal is writing in the chat : «I want to test deleting this message.»

• (The message was successfully deleted)

• Matvej Loptev writes in the chat : « Hello! »

• • Faisal writes in the chat : «hi»

• Alban says : «Maybe I don’t like this message, I can just delete it. There we go. » (Alban deletes the message successfully)

Let me give you an example of how this can be useful : So in the last Friday gathering, I introduced The New Call to the Friday Gathering online, and I said that anyone can do it and it’s better if anyone who can should do it and post it online.

• Is anyone willing to share where they posted the call to the Friday gathering?
• In which social media, what form?
• Was it a Facebook story or a Facebook post? 
• And how many people they think saw it? (Can be an estimate)

• Merazul Alam is saying : “I posted the photo to Facebook post, 1 people liked it.” 
• Guillaume posted it on Instagram at The Submitters.
• Abdul Rasheed made the call to the Friday gathering on WhatsApp.
• Arafat made it on WhatsApp status and Facebook stories.

I think Facebook stories is useful for this, like it’s probably the right place to do it.

By the way, those who are not submitters yet, who have asked to join, God willing, we’ll enable you to join at least by the end of the year, if not earlier.

(A lot of people from Turkey have joined us recently, so I see some messages from Turkey)

And one more thing, the non-submitters are supposed not to be able to message during the Friday Gathering. They cannot message because we don’t want them to interrupt us.

• • Tasim Ali is saying, “Praise be to God.”
  • Gurgin is showing us like what he posted.

• Trevor Chavis is saying : “I’m seeing people that don’t have the check mark but are submitters on the website.”

I can see a potential problem. The way the website knows if you’re a submitter or not is the email with which you filled the Zakat. If that email matches, then it considers you a submitter. If the email address doesn’t match, then it doesn’t consider you a submitter. So if someone is signed in with another email, it’s not going to know that you’re a submitter. So that’s probably the problem.

So let me check a name, for example : So Captain Md Nuruzzaman Sikdar is not recognized as a submitter here, but we know heis a submitter. He even came to Hajj with us. Captain, probably this doesn’t recognize you as a submitter because you have signed in with another email.

Taskin and Nuruzzaman. They are submitters, but if they have two Gmail accounts, please sign in with the one which we know, the official email with which you have joined as a submitter, because otherwise the website cannot know if you’re a submitter or not. I hope that answers the question.

Okay, just a few more messages and I’m going to end this stream, God willing.

• Jad Abou Karroum is saying : “God is great.” 
  • Alban says : «Yes, God is great, Jad.»

By the way, this brings me back to the idea of The Call to the Friday Gathering, which is in English. Some people like it because I have many different styles of it. Some people might like some of them, maybe not others. Some of them are cheesy, I know it. But I just wanted to capture many different versions of what people like. A lot of them I don’t even like myself, like the music style, but it’s okay. People like different styles of music.

• Erblina is saying : “Peace. After some time, my status becomes offline, but I’m still online, though.”

• • Alban says : « Okay, we need to double check why that is happening. »

• Faisal is saying : «this chat is available outside of the friday gathering ?»

• • Alban says : «Good question Faisal. This chat is available outside of the Friday Gathering. If you go the Group Chat here in our website, you can still chat within the same app. The only difference there is that you don’t see this video, but you still see the chatting app and you can chat at any time.»

• Trevor is saying : “[20:14] ‘I am God. There’s no other god beside me. You shall worship me alone and observe the contact prayers to remember me.’”
  • Alban says : « Okay, great point, Trevor.»

Okay guys, I just see that people are typing, that’s why I’m waiting, but I think we should finish it soon.

• Rakiba Khanom is saying : “Peace be upon you.”
• Katy Brahim is saying : “God is great.” 

Okay, I don’t want to waste too much time for all the rest of the people. I’m going to end it here. Let me stop sharing.

So that’s it. I hope you guys like the chatting app. You can use it outside the Friday Sermon as well, outside the Friday Gatherings for anything. Even if you have questions for me, please just post it there. If I don’t like the question, I’m just going to delete it, or someone else can delete it, whoever wants can delete it.

In this way, if someone can answer the question for you without me having to be involved, that would be even better. Whoever sees it first and knows the answer, they can answer, or we can have discussions even. You can post about let’s say where you went to vacation last week or things like that.

The most Important Rule on Social Media

This is most important rule. This is the principle on how to use social media. If you are going to post photos for any social media (not just this Group Chat), think about it: 

• Is this in a private space?
• Why would you put a private space in public? 
• What do I mean by private space?

Let’s start with the worst. A lot of girls these days, but even boys, will go and take a picture in the bathroom, even with clothes, and kind of like make a duck face or whatever in the bathroom mirror. Anyone can see that it is a bathroom. 

It’s a bathroom! That’s a private space. Why would you put the private space in your life into a public space?

So don’t mix private and public. Bathrooms are private. Even the bedroom is private. Even the living room is private. So don’t post something : “Oh guys, I want to share how lovely my family is” but you have a photo of you in your living room. So try to post only public spaces. We don’t want to know what your home inside looks like. You can post it from outside, like you can take a picture outside of your home from the outside.

Maybe you want to show your car, (some people like to brag). That’s public, but at least it’s within the rules. But do not post private photos in private spaces in public. And this is for any social media, (not just this Group Chat), any social media.

We should learn how to separate public versus private. What’s inside a home is private. God designed it so that others do not see it. So don’t post the living room, your bedroom, your bathroom, even your kitchen, unless there is an angle where you cannot tell what it is, that’s different. But always try to post only public things in a public internet space. That is the most important rule : I don’t care what your living room looks like. I don’t want to see it.

It’s different if you just send a message to a friend who has been to your home, or to just one person, or a brother or a sister, because it’s already kind of a private conversation, that’s different. This group Chat is a public space. Most social media are public. Don’t post private spaces into a public online space. This is probably the most important rule, and this fixes lots of issues.

You can take a photo while walking in the street, that’s fine, you can post it. But why would you post it from a private space?

The inside of cars are semi-private because the Quran says God has designed homes which move. So the car is partly private, partly public. So there is a gray area. I wouldn’t make a rule about it. If you post a picture from inside the car, that’s semi-private, partly private but also partly public. In that case, that’s the great feature, is that we can delete it. If someone thinks it’s a little bit too private, they can just delete it. If someone thinks : “Oh, this is fine for me”, they don’t delete it. So that’s it.

For those who have to do the contact prayer, do the contact prayer. Peace be upon you.

Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director

Summary:

In this live Friday sermon, Alban Fejza explains the new introduction to the online Friday sermons, discusses the call to prayer as described in the Quran and in history, why he chose its specific words for the online call to the Friday gathering, and how the community can help promote it.

Video Transcript:

Sermon Introduction

Praise be to God, there is no other god except God.

As you guys saw this sort of Adhan or Friday sermon intro, let me just tell the story about it. It’s mainly compiled of footage which we did from Hajj as some of you might have noticed. Some of us took some footage from Hajj. And I think it came out nicely, and the background music is taken from one of the movies which Rashad used as well.

I want to focus on today is because the words which are there are :

Allahu Akbar

Allahu Akbar

Allahu Akbar

Allahu Akbar

La Ilaha Illa Allah

So I want to focus on what is known as Adhan, which from now on I’m going to call it in English :The call to the Friday Gathering. And the reason for this is because I have what turns out to be good news. Because what you just heard here online was actually not the Adhan, it was just an intro video which I used to buy some time for the people who have technical difficulties to watch us live.

And the actual Adhan, or let’s call it in English : The Call to the Friday Gathering was actually done when you received the email from me. As you, the submitters, know that you received an email which said :

God is Great !

God is Great !

God is Great !

God is Great !

There is no other god except God.

That was the actual Call to the Friday Gathering.

What I showed here is just an intro to buy us some time. And God willing, during every Friday gathering I will have a slightly different one. And hopefully, this will motivate the people to join in time so that they can see the different intro. It’s going to be the same footage, or similar footage, but it’s going to have a different music every time. Same words, but kind of different music just to make it more festive. I did it with AI, so it wasn’t that much work. It’s not really my work, it’s AI work.

Understanding the Call to Prayer in the Quran

I want to focus now on the actual topic of this Friday Sermon. The actual topic is : 

• What is actually the call to the Friday prayer?

• How do we do the Call to the Friday Gathering online? 

The intro that you saw was not The Call to the Friday Gathering. It was the one which you received in the email.

How can we reach that conclusion? This is the key verse for it :

[62:9] “…Oh you who believe. When the call is made for the prayer on the day of Friday, then hasten to the remembrance (or the mentioning of God) and leave (the) business. That is better for you if you know.”

Now the key word in this verse which I want to focus on is the word “call”. Here in the Arabic Quran, it’s not actually using the word Adhan. And when you look in the whole Quran, you do not see the word Adhan at all mentioned for calls to prayer. It is not mentioned at all. Here the word «nudiya» is mentioned. So this word, which means call, is mentioned in another verse where it’s talking about how the disbelievers laugh at the call to prayer, but even there the word Adhan is not used. It’s the word «nudiya» which is used. You do not see the word Adhan used for the call to prayer at all in the Quran. What we see is this word being mentioned, which is «nudiya».

• Then why did God leave it for thousands of years for people to call it Adhan in Arabic ? (which is translated as the call or the announcement to prayer)

• Why did God leave the people use a word which is not even in the Quran for their call to prayer ?

That is because the word nudiya : “call”, is bigger than the word Adhan, it includes the word Adhan. I am not saying that the way people have done it traditionally is wrong (the way Rashad taught us : « Allahu Akbar,… ») .I am not saying that is wrong. All I am saying is that there is more to it, meaning the word nudiya  does not include just that version, it includes other versions as well.

And what do I mean by this ? Let me give an example : 

Let’s say that the Quran tells us to wear upper body clothes (it kind of says it anyway). And then imagine in the time of Muhammad that he is telling them : “Wear a shirt.” A shirt is upper body clothes for a warm weather. But in today’s world, someone in a colder weather might say : “Wear a jacket.”  Or “Wear a sweater.” That’s also upper body clothes. So as you can see, the word “upper body clothes” includes both the shirt and the jacket. In the same way, the word nudiya  here includes both the Adhan and what I’m going to call it in English : The Call to the Friday gathering.

And here, probably it’s important to specify something more : The Adhan, as we know, is the call to the « Salat », to the contact prayer. They’ve translated it here as prayer in this context, but actually, as we know, this word actually means connection. And it’s on purpose like that. It means connection with God. So there is another context as well.

Let me be clear, I’m not denying what we know so far. All I’m saying is that there is more knowledge which is included in the Quran compared to what we have known before. So I want to draw the attention to the fact that the word “prayer”, which here it has been translated as prayer, in Arabic it literally to connect. And here in this verse, we can understand the word “connect” in two ways: One way is to connect with God. But it’s also talking on the day of Friday, and jumaa’ in Arabic means gathering, when people gather ; So to connect on the day when people gather. 

What does it mean? 

The word « nudiya » also means to connect with people.

So, in this verse, the word connection is about connecting with God, but also about connecting with people. In our case, because we are doing it online, we have connected with each other. Basically, I am live streaming, and God willing we will add the chat function in the future. So basically, The verse is telling us to connect. It is not specifying what kind of connection. We definitely know that it’s connection with God when we do the contact prayer, but here it is talking about connecting on the day when people gather, so it must be also some sort of other connection, to connect with other people, to connect with God together with other people.

A Human-Made Decision Across History

So, given this additional meaning of the word « salat » in the Quran, then when we talk about the call to connection, it specifically means two things : First meaning is the Adhan which we know traditionally, and the other meaning is The Call to the Friday Gathering, which specifically has to do with the connection online. I think I have explained it partly (Can We Do Friday Sermons Online ?), and God willing I will explain again in future videos that Friday gatherings or Friday sermons are okay to be done online in specific circumstances, which are our circumstances.

It is on purpose that the word Adhan is not mentioned. Because if God used the word Adhan, we would have to assume that it is the traditional Adhan in the way it was done, which was in Arabic : « Allahu Akbar,… » and they do it in the mosques to this day. And by the way, if we have a local mosque, we should do it like that as well in Arabic. But we here we are talking about online, and the question is: 

• Why did I take the liberty to do it English online? 

• Who gave me the right to do it in English when we are doing it online? 

No one had to give me the liberty.

The reason is that the Adhan which Muhammad did, which also Rashad did, if we analyze it carefully, it’s actually a human decision. So it’s not that God said : “This should be the Adhan.” God told us about about Nudya, which is the call to prayer, which one version of it is the Adhan, but that version is a human-made decision. Let me go back again to to the same example : If God told us to wear upper body clothes, it is a human decision whether they wear a t-shirt and what type of t-shirt, or whether they will wear a jacket and how thick that jacket will have to be. It is a human decision.

And how do we know that it’s a human decision?

First of all, studying the Quran : If God wanted specifically to tell us that these words are the words of the Adhan, God would tell us, but he did not. And he did not because God knew that people will reach the correct decision about this, a specific decision for every time. During Muhammad’s time, they reached a specific decision and it was correct; it was correct for them in that specific place and time, in those specific circumstances, they reached the human decision. And by the way, if any Sunnis or Shia might think that I am changing something, I just want to remind them that even according to their hadith, this is how Adhan came to be. Their hadith proves that it was a human decision.

Before I tell the story of that Hadith, let me just say that the word nudya, which is the fifth word in 62:9, it actually includes even the human decisions which existed in the past. But of course, here it is talking about the Friday prayer. they did not do the gathering on Friday, they did it on Saturday before Muhammad. It includes even those because it is a human decision.

In the past, during the time of David, it was a human decision, they decided that they are going to use the horn to call the people to the congregational gathering. Then it was Saturday. And then the Christians, after Jesus, use the bell. What I am saying is that even those are legitimate as long as people agree that that is the correct thing to do, as long as they agree and it is a correct decision. It was correct for the time and place. And Muhammad never actually sort of said that they are wrong,  he never said : “Oh, if you call the people with a horn or if you call the people with a with a bell like they do it in the churches that is wrong”  He never said that it is wrong.

What Muhammad said, according to the Sunni hadith and the Shia hadith, is that he wanted to have it different, not that it was wrong. He just wanted a different version so that people can distinguish whether they are being called to a church, to a synagogue, or to a mosque, which shows that he was aware that it’s a human decision. He just wanted to have it different so that people know where they are being called now. So what I’m saying is this : The word nudya includes even the horns and the bells which the church has used (for the past of course) and the Adhan, the traditional Arabic Adhan for circumstances outside of online, but it also includes this word also includes what I have sent in the email earlier. It also includes that because God left it up to us to make a human decision. It does not have to be revealed by God whether we want to wear a t-shirt or whether we want to wear a jacket, God told us : “Wear upper body clothes” . Let’s say that is just an example.

So let me go back now to the hadith which the Sunnis and Shia use. By the way, we do not believe in hadith, we do not rely on them as a source of religion, we know that. However, the Sunnis might say : “Oh, you guys changed it online.” If they say we changed it, we tell them that their hadith, the Sunni hadith and the Shia hadith according to them, tells us about how the Adhan came to be like this. So Muhammad one day wanted to come up with a way to call people to prayer, but he did not want to mix it up with the bells which the churches use or the horns which the Jews use, so he wanted to have a different version, which shows that he was aware that it is a human decision and while he was discussing it with the believers, according to their hadith, a person from the group came, and he said : “I saw in a dream that someone was just saying aloud…  [the Adhan]… ”, and Muhammad said : “Oh, that’s a good idea, we should do that.” So basically, Adhan was not revealed by God to Muhammad. Adhan is a human decision which Muhammad made for that time in their circumstances. And the idea came in a dream to another person, it was not even Muhammad. And God did it like this so that we can have the liberty to do it in our way, not thinking that we are going against Muhammad, because it was not never revealed to Muhammad, it was never Muhammad’s idea, it was someone else’s idea. Anyone can go and search online how the Adhan came to be, and you can see that someone else proposed it by saying that : “Oh, I saw it in a dream,” and then Muhammad Muhammad liked it and he said : “Oh, let’s do it like that.”

Preserving Unity and Language Online

So they made a human decision how the nudiya, the call to prayer which is mentioned in the Quran, how the nudiya will be executed in Muhammad’s circumstances in the Arabic world in the seventh century. And that is what they called Adhan. We don’t need to call it Adhan. That is the Adhan, the Arabic one which was done in that specific form. But here in the Quran, there is more than that.

So then when Rashad came, he made again a human decision that we should still do the Adhan the same way in circumstances within mosques even in places where people don’t speak Arabic : (US, Canada, Europe,…) . Rashad thought that it’s a good idea if we still do it in Arabic so that we can keep the unity. If we today have a mosque, I would still do it in Arabic. And the purpose and the reason is not because that’s how God revealed it, but because I don’t want to break the unity, that’s how people have done it. 

First of all, there’s a verse in the Quran which says that the believers are united. So if you change it, you are kind of causing disunity. And second of all, there’s a verse in the Quran which says : “Do not betray those who trust you,” we should not betray those who trust us.  Rashad trusted that we will do it in Arabic in a mosque, but he never did it online. So what I’m saying is I do not want to go against the verses which tell us to not break the unity, to be united, and to not betray each other. I do not want to go against that verse. That’s why I still believe that’s how it should be done in mosques. It is not God’s decision, it is a human-made decision, but we respect it. I respect there is nothing wrong with the way Adhan was done during the time of Muhammad, the way Muhammad approved it. There’s nothing wrong with it for that circumstance. There is nothing wrong to do it still in Arabic in a mosque outside of the Arabic world.

But because we are in a circumstance which has never happened before, I would not cause disunity if we decide to do it the way we do it. I know it’s a human decision, just like during Muhammad’s time it was a human decision, just like during Rashad’s time it was a human decision. In our time, because it has never been done online. People publish it online, but they don’t believe in the online Friday Gathering, so it has never been done online.

That means that we get to decide, we have the privilege, we are the lucky ones. God gave us the opportunity to decide how the Adhan should be for the online circumstances. And for the online circumstances, I am deciding. It’s a human decision, but it’s binding, because why would you break the unity? By the way, I am not breaking the unity with the traditional Adhan because this is a totally different circumstance. I still want to do it the way they have done it in mosques. Let them do it in Saudi Arabia. But online they have never done it.  So that means that God gives us the privilege or the chance or the opportunity to decide how the Adhan should be so as long as it is within this nudiya idea, the call to prayer, in a similar way that God gave us the opportunity to decide what type of clothes we want to wear as long as they are within the Quran. 

The reason why I want to do it in English is because there is a verse in the Quran saying that all the messengers are sent in the language of the people, and the language online is English. So from now on, the Arabs are going to have to get used to the online idea of doing it in English, just like the rest of the world was used to the traditional idea of doing it in Arabic. So from now, we are going to do the call to connect for the Friday gathering in English. I am not talking about in mosques, I am talking about online.

The Online Call to Friday Gathering

Why did I decide on those specific words?

Because those specific words are here where it says : “When the call is made for prayer, hasten to the mentioning of God”. So basically, I wanted a call to prayer where God is mentioned, and when we say : “God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great !”  God is mentioned, so we Are fulfilling that commandment. And then we’re specifying which God: “There’s no other god except God.” So basically, that’s going to be the call to prayer in English now online. Now because online, people don’t hear it unless they go online already. They probably read it first, so it is going to be a written version.

God gives us the liberty to decide about this on our own. I am deciding for us because I happen to be the leader for our group. So as a human being, I am deciding that for our circumstances, the Adhan online, only online, is:

God is Great !

God is Great !

God is Great !

God is Great !

There is no other god except God.

Live Friday Gathering within minutes at :

TheSubmitters.org

Let’s not call it Adhan anymore, because Adhan is that specific Arabic version. Here I’m talking about the English version, which is still within what the Quran says, it’s still that word, the call, nudiya. And it’s easy also to remember, we know the words, so it’s: « God is great, God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! There is no other god except God ». And then every person can add in their own way where the person can connect. Here I said : “Live Friday gathering within minutes at TheSubmitters.org.” In the future, these specific words might be different.

Why did I say “within minutes” ?

• We are fulfilling the verse in the Quran which says the minimum unit of time is the hour. So the Quran doesn’t mention minutes or seconds, that means that as long as we do it within that hour when the time for the gathering is, as long as we do it within that hour, it’s specific enough.
• You can send this Adhan 10 to 40 minutes ahead of time, and it is still within that unit of time which the Quran mentions. So basically, it’s specific enough. Some people might have to wait a little bit, but as long as it is within that hour, then it’s specific enough, and that’s why I said : “within minutes,”  because minutes are within an hour, so it has to be within an hour.

It is a human decision, but that is what I am deciding. The call to the prayer for our circumstances online should be :  « God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! there is no other god except God ». And everyone can decide how they put the link there, you can decide on your own.

Let’s repent first.

Utilizing Social Media for Promotion

Praise be to God, there is no other god except God.

So we just included what the call to the Friday gathering should be for live online circumstances, which is our circumstance. We also came up with a photo version which can be posted on social media.

Let me share the photo version :

It is with a darker background. The reason is so that it can stand out a little bit more when you post it on social media. Again, it says : “God is great ! God is great ! God is great ! God is great ! there’s no other god except God.” And my words are : “Live Friday gathering within minutes at the submitters.org.” 

Why is this still within the Quran and kind of like is confirmed that it is within the Quran?

I am not saying that this is what the Quran tells us to do. What I am saying is that the Quran gives us the freedom to do things like this, and all of this is within the Quran. There’s a verse in the Quran which says : « Force yourself to be with those who call God ». And here, we are calling God. This is the best way to call people to us. We do not go there and say : “Oh, can you please join for the Friday sermon? Can you please  guys join in this group ?”  That is almost like begging. You know what they do, half-submitters and traditional religious people, they will go online and they will call people : “Oh, can you please join us?”  That is actually a sign that you should not join them, because God tells us : “Join those who call on God,” not who call you. So here, we are calling God. We are not necessarily calling people, we are calling God. We are saying : “God is great ! God is great ! God is great ! God is great ! there is no other god except God.”  And then there is a verse in the Quran which says to the believers : “Go after those who call God.” So this call to the Friday Gathering is within that verse, it confirms that verse.

And then the other reason why we should do it like this is because there’s another verse in the Quran which says : « If you support God, God will support you ». So basically, we should not go there and call people : “Oh, come here, let’s do this, let’s do that.” The verse says you support God. We support God, God supports us. So this is the best way to promote the message, to have more people join us in the cause of God. The best way is to support God, and then God will support us, God will let other people join us. This is the best way.

This solves one of the most long-standing problems which we’ve had as a community. We have talked about this a lot, especially with people who had marketing backgrounds about what is the best way to promote the message. And finally, I think we have found most of the answer. As you guys know, we have tried many methods, I compiled an email, we tried Facebook ads, we have tried many different things. And finally, I think this is the answer. This is the answer to how we should promote the message, and it is simple. It has been all along in the Quran. All we have to do is saying in front of others : “God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! There is no other god except God.”

And because it’s online, we tell them where the link is. In this case, I’m saying : “Live Gathering within minutes at TheSubmitters.org.” By the way, the reason why they did not add this part in the past (they actually added it in certain circumstances) but the reason why they did not add it because they would call it from the mosque, everyone would know where the sound is coming from, so they would go there. Here they would not know where the message is coming from, they have to know where the message is coming from, where they can join, so we had to add that.

And again, this is a human decision just like in the past it was a human decision. There is historical sources which say that Muhammad, when it was raining, he would say : « Allahu Akbar, … » and then he would say : “Pray in your homes.”  He would add that because the circumstances were different in that day. Let’s say it was raining too much, he didn’t want people to get all muddy, so he told them : “Pray in your homes” at the end. And in the same way, we are adding this because it is a necessary information where to join us. Today we are doing it in this website, which I do not think we will ever change it God willing. But if we ever change it, that link is going to be something else, some other information. But the actual Call to the Friday Gathering is : « God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! God is Great ! there’s no other god except God ».  This solves one of our biggest problems because we could not figure out how to promote the message to other people. We just could not come up with the best way to promote the message, to call the people to God’s cause, and finally I think this answers most of it. It solves one of the biggest problems we’ve had as a community.

The Role of the Community

• What is your role in this?

• Who is supposed to do the Call to the Friday Gathering ?

The answer to this is similar to the Funeral Prayer. Both the funeral prayer and the call to the Friday gathering, are mentioned in the Quran but not as an individual obligation. They are mentioned that they exist. For example the Quran says : “Do not do the funeral prayer for the disbelievers, for those who were believers once and now they are disbelievers, do not do the funeral prayer for them.” That is what the Quran says.

It is not giving a rule that every individual should do the funeral prayer, but it is mentioning it. The fact that the Quran is mentioning it assumes that at least someone is doing it. So basically, the rules of the funeral prayer are that at least someone in the community should do it. It could be one person, but more people is better. As long as one person does it, the obligation is fulfilled, but if more people do it, it is better. In the same way with the Call to the Friday Gathering : If one person does it, the obligation is fulfilled, but more is better. If other people do it as well, it is better.

And in the traditional circumstances, that is why many mosques have many minarets. If you go to so many mosques in the Middle East, you will see that some mosques, the big ones, have more than one minaret. Some of them have six minarets. Minarets are the places where they make the call to prayer. So why six minarets? The reason is that they understood that more than one person can do the call to prayer. When someone does the call to prayer, some other people don’t hear him, then another person does the call to prayer. This is even according to historical sources : Muhammad would tell someone to do the call to prayer, and if others did not hear it, someone else who heard that first person then would call the others. So it’s a way to call the people to the Friday Gathering.

Now in this case, I wrote it once and the computer sent it automatically, but God willing, it is going to be sent automatically by the computer. Once you received that call, let’s say you are on Facebook at that time or some other social media : Did the people to whom you are talking or socializing with hear the call? No, you heard it, they did not hear it. So in that case, the best thing you can actually do is to make that same call to other people, on Facebook, or Instagram, or other social media, or even direct messages.

Especially the ones where you can delete it later, because this is a call for a specific time. We are calling God, but indirectly the people are supposed to join at a specific time, which in our case is 12:00 UTC. It does not have to always be like this, but in our case, it is at 12:00 UTC. So it is for a specific time that we are calling them, let’s say 20-30 minutes ahead of time, so that they can see the message or the post. This is actually most suitable for social media, not emails, because emails you cannot delete them later. If you call them at a specific time and they see it later, what are they going to do? It is not very useful.

But it is very useful if you post it on social media, God willing. This is the best way you can help. You do not have to try with old methods we have done, or that others have done, or traditional Muslims and Christians do. God willing, you will see this will work the best. That is all we have to do.  You decide based on how fast people see the messages on social media : You decide whether it’s going to be 10 -40 minutes ahead of time, or 5 minutes if it is a direct message, etc.

• You take those words.

• You copy-paste them from the email.

• You post them where you want to post them.

Just post that, and you don’t have to engage. If they say : “What is this?”  you do not have to engage, because now we are doing the Friday sermon. You do not have to engage with them. When the Friday sermon is finished, you go and delete it, because it is not applicable anymore. Next Friday, you can do the same thing, call them again. In this way, they do not get bored as much, in the sense that the post is not going to stay there all the time. So this is how you can help.

So God willing, from now on, the way I am going to do the call to the Friday Gathering online is through an email with those words. That is the call to prayer, that is the call which is mentioned in the Quran. But because most people who are communicating with you do not hear it, it would be best if you share it. It’s not an obligation, because as long as one does it, it’s done, but it would be better just like in the funeral prayer. It is better if more people do it within practical reason. I would say it is actually an obligation within practical reason, meaning : Do it if it makes sense. In most cases, it makes sense.

Let’s say you know the Friday prayer is going to be 20-30 minutes later, if you have some time and you’re out of work and you receive the email, you copy-paste the message and post it on social media. You can post it as a photo or as text depending on the social media. In this way even the non-submitters can join and check what the message is.

The additional reason why this method is good is because you can also post it in groups of other religious groups. You can post this message at a specific time. The reason why this method is so good is because the administrators or leaders of those groups do not have time to delete it so quickly. So within minutes, some people might join and listen. And then after that, you delete it. The leader might not even see it. It’s fine; if two or three people see it, you’ve done a good job. It is okay as long as you do it.

Now, not everyone uses social media, and that’s okay. What I’m saying is within reason. Whatever social media you use, if you use it, why not use it to call God, which indirectly calls people to the cause of God?

I hope I did not forget something about this. It is quite an important Friday Sermon because I think it is going to resolve a lot of issues.

For those who have to do the contact prayer, you can do the contact prayer at this time if it is the due time. For the rest of you, peace be upon you, peace.

Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director

Summary:

In this video, Alban Fejza explains where the Ihram should be put on before entering Mecca for Hajj and demonstrates how men and women wear it.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God. There is no other God except God. So in the previous Friday sermon titled my 2025 Hajj travel checklist, I mentioned that one of the items that I need to prepare for Hajj is theam. And in this video, I’m going to show you how to wear it. But before I do that, let me first talk about where to wear it. Theam should be worn before you enter the borders seen in this map. These are the borders of the Mecca state. And what I mean by Mecca state is that in a more advanced world, Arabia would be a democratic country like Italy is today. And then Mecca, this region of Mecca will be a religious state separate from Saudi Arabia, just like the Vatican is a religious state separate from Italy. Now, traditionally when you enter this region for Hajj or Umrah from any of these borders, you are supposed to wear the before you enter. However, one of those borders entrances extends all the way to the sea. And there was a general consensus since before, during and after Muhammad that people who come from the sea should first step on land and then wear the am because it would be uncomfortable and unreasonable to change your clothes in a moving ship where you might not even have sufficient privacy. But then the question is where should you wear the Aram if you land in this region from the air with an airplane? Well, we can reach the conclusion about this from the Quran. The Quran in verses 3512, 55:19, and 2553 mentions only two seas. The Quran does not mention five oceans, for example, like they teach you in geography courses because according to the Quran, correctly. So, the so-called oceans are just one continuous body of water that makes just one sea. But where is the other sea then? The other sea according to the Quran and the Bible is the atmosphere. It is called the upper sea which is separated from the lower sea by evaporation. The atmosphere also contains water which is why it can be considered the sea. The Bible in its first chapter also mentions this idea of the two seas. The lower sea the oceans and the upper sea the atmosphere. And once we realize that the atmosphere is one of the seas, we realize that the Quran whenever it mentions ships, it also talks about airplanes as just one of the ship versions because the airplanes float in the upper sea just like ships float in the lower sea. For example, in verse 55:24, God says that to him belong the ships which are elevated high like mountains. Obviously this also refers to airplanes because they are elevated high like mountains and they fly or float in the waters of the atmosphere. So this means that what traditionally applied to ships in in relation to it applies to airplanes as well. And this means that we should wear theam after we land on the Mecca state. Just like for centuries, the people who went to Mecca on ships were their am after they landed in Jedha. Let me use another example to explain why this makes sense. Let’s say if you travel to Moscow, Russia, for example, when the plane enters the atmosphere, the atmosphere above Russia, they do not check your passport up there in the air while still on the airplane. First, the airplane lands and then they check your passport at the airport inside Russian land. But if you travel there with a car through land, first you show your passport and then they they let you enter Russia. And the same logic applies to. If you travel with an airplane or ship, first you land and then you wear theam. But if you travel through land, first you wear theam and then you enter the Mecca state. Unfortunately, the Saudi religious authorities reached the wrong conclusion about this issue without any basis in the Quran or even in their hadith. They apply the rule of the land to the case of the airplanes instead of applying the rule of the ships to the case of the airplanes. So they actually require you to wear theam before you land there at the Jada airport. This is a requirement with no basis, but I plan to obey it regardless because it is such a small price to pay to be able to per perform such an important religious ritual like Hajj. God willing, one day this will be corrected and they will have changing rooms at the Jada airport for people to wear theirs. But for now, let’s just wear the before we land at the Jada airport. You can wear it at home before you leave or you can wear it at the last airport before you fly to Jedha. The airports have bathrooms after you pass security when you wait at the boarding gate for the airplane. So you can just use the bathroom to remove your clothes and wear the air. So here is what I plan to do. I take a shower at home and then I wear the air either at home or at the airport bathroom. So now here is how I wear my ear. I take my pants, my t-shirt, and the undershirt off. I’m not going to do it here on video, of course, because it would not be modest, but you can just imagine that I removed my clothes. By the way, I plan to leave my underwear on and wear theam on top of the underwear. Traditionally, people used to wear the aam without underwear, but this is actually not religious requirement at all. The purpose of the Aram is so that people cannot see the shape of your body. Which is why is supposed to be a simple fabric which has not been sewn together with other fabric because suing them is what enables you or the or the factories to shape them according to the shape of your body. So ultimately what makes theam a trueam is not allowing the others to see the shape of your body and whether you wear underwear underneath the iram or not that should not make a difference in revealing the shape of your body. In fact for people of the modern world it is better to have underwear underneath the aam because we do not have very sophisticated privacy protection habits. We are not as careful in how we sit in different situations for example and we wouldn’t want to flash somebody by accident while we are sitting to eat for example or maybe while we are standing up and someone accidentally steps on our aam and it falls off that would be totally embarrassing for you and for the other person. So to avoid such an accidental situation where the aam might fall off it’s better to have underwear. By the way, even Jesus wore an undergarment. And if underwear was not too unholy for Jesus, the definitely are not too unholy for us either. But bedwins at the time of Muhammad did not have underwear, but they did not have underwear even when they were not going to Hajj. And that is because they had mastered the art of not wearing underwear in the desert since their childhood. They were taught by their parents how to be mindful about how they sit and in what positions they eat when and where they eat and in what positions to sleep and so on. But for people of the modern world like us who typically wear underwear, underwear is a better method of protecting us from the unintentionally from unintentionally revealing our private parts during the whole hutch process. For women, if they wear underwear, it’s important that they do not exaggerate some certain shapes of their bodies. Now, what does the Quran tell us regarding how to wear the Before we go there, let’s first take another example with which we are familiar to understand the logic easier. For example, what does the Quran tell us about how to use a fork? Basically only one verse in the Quran advises us about this. Verse 6 141 tells us not to waste the food. So just don’t drop the food outside of your plate when you use the fork because when because then it might be unclean to eat it and it goes to waste. So basically the only rule in the Quran about how to use a fork is to simply make sure not to drop the fruit. It doesn’t matter if you hold the fork like this or like this or may or like this or with your left hand like this and so on. Just don’t drop the food. In a similar way, the only rule in the Quran about how to wear the is just don’t drop theam. Don’t let it fall off from your body. It doesn’t matter if you hold it with your hands or use this method or that method or use a belt. There are no specific rules as long as you don’t let it fall off. And this rule is given to us in verse 727. It says, “Oh children of Adam, do not let the devil dupe you as he did when he caused the eviction of your parents from paradise and the removal of their garments to expose their bodies. So just don’t let the devil expose your body in public. So which one of the many available methods of wearing the am you use is not important. As long as you do it in a way where you feel comfortable that it will not fall off. So here is one of the methods which I use. I take the aram. Here it is. I put it behind my body. I spread it like this. And then I grab with my right hand all the way to the corner. All the way to the corner. But with my left hand, I don’t need to go all the way to the corner. Just somewhere here. So, I tuck the right side underneath like this. Make sure I pull tight. And then the other side on top. And then I roll it as far as it goes. Like this. And then to make sure that it doesn’t fall, I roll it down on all sides. Like that. If it feels tight, you’re doing it well. And there we go. And then I can test it if if it’s going to fall. Look, I’m pulling really hard. It’s not going to fall. So yeah, that’s the method I use. Or God willing, this time I also plan to use a belt. So, what I can do is put a belt, an inram belt, put it like this, and then for to be extra modest, I’m actually going to cover the belt. I’ll I’ll cover the belt with the ear. There we go. So, yeah, that’s it for the lower ARM. Very simple. Now for the upper body aam there are quite a few methods basically you just do it like a shawl like a winter scarf. You put it around and then you throw one side on top of the other like that at the back of your body. And that’s it. And even though I did it like a scarf because it’s much wider than a scarf, it kind of covers all my upper body. And this method is actually useful when you are not very active. If you are in a situation so when you want to be more active, what you can do is in instead of throwing this up like this, you put your shoulder out and then you throw it. In this way, you have extra mobility or you can do the prayer or you can walk around or even run. This has extra mobility. Or if it’s really hot and sunny outside and you have no protection, no umbrella and let’s say you want to do the prayer and you cannot hold the umbrella and you need your head to be protected from the sun. What you can do is just put it like this and then just put these two sides like that and that’s it. So now you’re protect pro protected from the sun. Some people think that we shouldn’t cover our head during Hajj. However, that rule only applies to you wearing an extra hat or an extra cap. But if you use the Aram itself to cover your head, that is totally fine. You can and if it’s really really hot and and in a dry desert climate, what you can do is sprinkle some water in the it’s actually going to really keep you cool. And that’s it. The upper air and the lower Aram. Now for women, women don’t wear a by the way. women wear a modest dress. For example, my wife plans to wear this dress. It’s a very simple black dress. It can be I would recommend that it is either black or gray or white because those are neutral colors which are more modest. And then so she plans to wear this before we go to Saudi Arabia. And then on the plane when we are about to reach Saudi Arabia, before we land, she plans to wear the headscarf as well. What they call the hijab. It’s a simple it’s a simple headscarf. So she plans to put it on her head. That’s it for women. So this is all you need to know about or the models dress for women.

Summary:

In this video, Alban Fejza goes through his checklist of items to prepare for his 2025 Hajj journey, explaining what each item is for.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God. There is no other God except God. Are you planning to travel for Hajj pilgrimage during this year? If yes, let me give you a helpful checklist about what items to prepare for your travel. I titled this video my 2025 Haj travel checklist because this is my checklist for this year and some of these things might not necessarily apply to you or in another year. So, it’s not a one-sizefitsall type of video, but it’s very helpful to give you ideas about what might apply to you. Then, based on your own circumstances or depending at what time in the future you are going to Hajj or from which place you are going to Hajj, you might have to remove some things or you might have to add some things. Nevertheless, this is a good starting point to just give you a general idea about what you have to prepare for the Hajj travel. So, here is my checklist. You can take a screenshot of it to use it to doublech checkck what you might want to prepare for your Hajj. Now let’s go through all the items in the checklist one by one. Passport check. Umra visa check.

Phone check. Airplane ticket check. I saved it on my phone so that I can access it even without internet. Reserved hotel name and address. Check. I also have it saved on my phone. Very important. So that when you go to Saudi Arabia, you can tell the taxi driver where to send you. Next item, wallet, check, about $300 cash for emergency purposes and food, plus the credit card. You might need more money if you haven’t paid your hotel room or some other payment yet. Iram checkram is basically two very big white towels. Today they mostly come in similar sizes with very slight variations. I’m quite also I went for the ones which are 45 in by 90 in which is 114 cm by 228 cm. But any of the sizes on the market will probably work for anyone. I also got one which is not too thin so that the shape of my body cannot be seen through it but also not too thick because it would take too much space in my luggage. I tell you how to wear the amam in another Friday sermon video titled how to wear theam. If you are a woman, you have to wear a modest dress instead of anam. Next item belt foram. Check. Not necessary, but I wasn’t so comfortable without it last time when I went to Hajj. So, I plan to use it this time because it’s not easy to find it in the market. God willing, I am bringing one for free for each submitting man who is coming to Hajj with us during this year. When we get there, God willing, I’ll give you one. Phone charger, check. Travel adapter, check. In Saudi Arabia, they have type G sockets like this, which are the same as the ones they use in UK. I have an international one here, which includes the UK plug type. That should do the job. If you really can’t find one, you can coordinate with your hotel roommate to see if you can share one or you might have to use your phone less during Hajj to make sure that you have enough battery for emergency purposes. Underwear, check. Undershirts. Check. Three shirts or t-shirts. Check. The one which I’m wearing, of course, and two extra ones. Pants like this. Check. Just the ones which I am wearing should be enough. I wanted to get better ones which I have, but they don’t fit me comfortably anymore. I have gained some weight. So, I’m settling for these jeans. Not the best option, but they are allowed. I only need one pair by the way because most of the time I will be wearing the aam, God willing. Next item, toothbrush, check. Toothpaste, check. They don’t allow toothpaste which are bigger than 100 ml at the airport. I got one which is only 20 ml here. If you can find a small one like this, then you can take chewing gum which refreshes your breath. This is only important because we will be sitting near the other people that are at the sacred masjid and we don’t want to make it unpleasant for others if our breath smells bad. Next item, backpack check. Now I won’t need this when I and it is not recommended when I visit the sacred masjid because it takes too much space in a crowded place. So God willing I will leave it in the hotel room during the visits to the sacred masjid and Safa and Marba which are indoors environments and I will take it when we go to Arafat Musa and Mina which are outdoors environments. It will be very useful there to carry food and water and other necessary things. Next item, carry-on baggage. Check. It’s smaller than 55 cm by 40 cm by 23 cm so that it can fit in the overhead cabin in the airplane. In this way, I don’t have to pay extra at the airport for the luggage. Plus, more importantly, I do not have to wait for my luggage at the airport when I get to Jeda. Next item, sandals. Check. These are my sandals. My Crocs. They are just about within the religious requirements because they do not cover my heel and my ankle. I had these already, which is why I’m taking them. They might not be perfect for stepping on hot pavements in the desert, but I will take my chances this time in case they don’t work perfectly. I can stay more under the shades. Sun UV umbrella check. It’s hard to find this umbrella in the markets outside of the American online markets like Amazon. So for those who do not live in the US, God willing, we will bring a free umbrella for everyone when we meet you there, God willing, we’ll give every submitter an umbrella like this. And last but not least, coupon for animal sacrifice. So the way it is set up today is that I bought the coupon for the animal sacrifice online and then this authorized the agencies which are appointed by the Saudi government to sacrifice a sheep on my behalf and distribute it to the poor. They can do it anytime even before I travel for Hajj and that is fine as long as it is done before I finish Hajj. They already sent me the confirmation that they did complete the animal sacrifice. So I’m good to go in this aspect and that’s it. These are the things which I have prepared for my Hajj travel God willing. And now let me remind you about the most important one. Verse 197 in chapter 2 of the Arabic Quran tells us to take provisions for the Hajj travel which are these or others. But it also tells us that the best provision is righteousness. So righteousness is what you should truly care about when you go to Hajj. Now when I get there to Mecca, I plan to buy food, water, and the prayer mat. I don’t need the prayer mat when I visit the sacred mazjid and Safa and Marva because it is indoors, clean and nicely paved. But the prayer mat will be helpful when I go to Arafat, Musalifa, and Mina because those are outdoors environments. And there in addition to using it for the contact prayer, I can also use it to sit and rest on it to protect myself from the potentially scorching rough ground when I sit. So these were my Hajj preparations for this year and may God bless your Hajj travel if you intend to go.

Summary:

In this Friday sermon, Alban Fejza explains what riba, the interest prohibited in verse 3:130, means, and shows with examples how much of modern bank interest is actually service fees and inflation adjustment, and how to estimate the part that remains prohibited.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God! There is no other god except God.

In Sura 3, verse 130, God prohibits us to engage in what is called “riba”. Let me give you an example what “riba” is. Let’s say that I live in the 15^th century, in one of the medieval kingdoms, and I go to a friend, and I tell him that I need 100 gold coins as a loan for a year. He says, “Yes, you can have them, but at the end of the year you have to return 107 gold coins” Now, this is “riba”, prohibited interest – and it literarily means “increase”, and in this case we can see that my friend increased the number of gold coins which I have to return to him compared to what he gave me. And this is prohibited in the Quran.

Now, let’s take another example. Let’s say that I don’t live in the 15^th century, but I live today in a democratic country, in Canada for example, and instead of going to my friend, I go to the bank to get a loan of 100,000 dollars, and the bank tells me. “OK, but at the end of the year, you have to return 107,000 dollars.” Now, the question is, “Is this also riba?” Before we answer that, let’s first list the differences between these two examples:

Now, do these three differences mean that the second example is not an example of ribba (prohibited interest), or is it still prohibited interest (riba)? Let’s analyze it.

So, as we can see, the second example happens in a democracy. But what does it mean to live in a democracy. Democracy in Greek means, “people rule”. So, in a democracy, we do not serve the government, like you do in a kingdom (where you serve the king). In a democracy, the government serves us, which means that the decisions of the government are ultimately a shared responsibility of us, the people in that country. Now, in democracies of today, on behalf of the people, the parliament creates a central bank, which prints money. So, we the people, in a democracy have ordered our servants, the state, more specifically, the central bank, to print money. And guess what, the central bank, as ordered by the parliament, which represents us, distributes that money through other banks by giving it to them as a loan with interest. So, effectively, we the people in democracies have charged interest on the banks first, before they did it to us. And in addition, we the people, listening to our naive economists have authorized the states to print about 2, 3 or 4% of money more than it is needed every year, which they call “inflation”, and this additional printing of money out of thin air is technically stealing from those who have the money – the banks in this case- and giving it to those who borrowed the money, the borrowers. So, we have effectively charged interest on the banks, before they did it to us. You as an individual, and I might have not wanted to do it, but we live in a society which does it on our behalf, and when we use the money, we are implicitly agreeing to it. If you don’t like it, don’t use the money. Go to a country which doesn’t use money. There is no such country today. And if you use the money, you are part of the system, and you have effectively charged interest on the banks first. Maybe not intentionally, but that does not change the fact that it happened under your watch, being one of the rulers in a democracy. Of course, because for you as a submitter, it was unintentional and unavoidable, God will forgive you for this unwanted situation, as I explain in another video titled “The Global Forced Behaviour”. But the fact is, we effectively did charge interest on the banks first.

Now, when we go to get loans from banks, the banks make sure that they charge us a higher interest then we charged them so that they can make a profit. However, at least part of it, part of their interest, as you can see is just the cancelation of our interest on them. So, that part is not really true interest. It’s just the cancelation of your interest. So, because we unfairly took from them, if they also take from us up to that same amount, that is fair, and just. The Quran says, “an eye for an eye” and that’s allowed. But, as I said, the banks actually charge us more than what we charged them. So, what about that additional portion? Is that portion prohibited interest? Now that additional portion consists of two sub-portions:

The first sub-portion of the interest, even though it is called interest, it is effectively a fee which the bank charges, not for the loan, but for the services it provides connected with that loan. See, in the first example of how it worked in the past, where you went to a friend to get a loan, you would be doing all the work- you go to his home, you might or might not find him, so you might have to go to 5 friends before one of them actually has the gold coins, and maybe that money might be available, but maybe he needs it, so he can not give it to you. In that case, you are going through all the work, and the risk , and the inconvenience, and your friend is not providing you any additional service except for the loan. But, imagine if that friend said, let me actually open an office close to you, and hire some employees, and make sure that they stay there all day for you, only so that when you need a loan once in a while, we are there to serve you. That service would cost. You didn’t just get a loan, you got the loan and a service, the convenience of finding it whenever you need it, the technology involved to make it easier for you, through online services, cards and things like that. It’s the same when you order ice cream at a restaurant, for example. It is more expensive then when you buy it from the shop. It’s because you are not only getting the ice-cream. You are also getting the service. They put it nicely on the table for you. They’ll wash the ice cream bowl for you, afterwards. All of that service, of course, costs. People are staying away from their families, so they can be at your service. So, a portion of the interest which banks charge is not interest at all. It’s a service fee for the costs which they have to go through to serve you.

Now, the last portion of interest, the portion which is neither interest cancellation, neither a service fee, that portion is true prohibited interest – riba.

Now, the question is, how big of a portion is that? How much of the so-called interest which the bank charges you is actual prohibited interest, riba? And thankfully, it is easy to calculate, because banks get almost all their revenue from interest. Their total interest is pretty much their revenue, and their total expenses are all for services and the cancelation of interest which they had to do. So, this means that to calculate the remaining prohibited interest after service fees and cancelation of interest, all we have to do is calculate the remaining revenue after expenses. And if you are an accountant, you know that revenue minus expenses equals profit. So, the profit of the bank is exactly the prohibited portion of interest, the riba. So, when it comes to banks, not everything they charge you is riba (prohibited interest). Only their profit portion is “riba” (prohibited interest). And how much is that? Well, on average, the owners of banks have a profit margin of about 15% after taxes and inflation adjustments. So, only about 15% of the interest which the bank charges you is actually riba, the interest which is prohibited in the Quran. This means that  if someone says that bank interest is prohibited in the Quran, they are about 85% wrong. And in the future, they will be even more wrong, because true business profits will gradually go down close to 0% just before the End of the World, but that’s another issue. But today, in 2025, bank interest is about 85% allowed according to the Quran, and about 15% prohibited.

Now, the question is. Should we avoid bank loans completely, just because only 15% of that deal is prohibited? And we can not separate the allowed portion from the prohibited portion, because they come together within the same loan. Well, we have two choices here. We can avoid bank loans, or we can decide to use them, and then atone for the prohibited portion through Penalty Zakat. And this is an option which is allowed in the Quran. In Sura 9, verses 102 and 103 tell us that if someone engages in mixed deeds, which include both good and sin in them, then we should compensate for the sinful portion with charity, which I have labeled “Penalty Zakat”, because it is obligatory charity as penalty for your sinful portion of the deed. Now, knowing that bank interest is about 15% sinful, in another video I explain the details why we have to pay 7.5% of the sinful portion. So, 7.5% of 15% is about 1%. So, if you work in a bank, you have to give 1% of your income as Penalty Zakat, unless the owner of the bank gave it, but that’s very unlikely, so you have to give it. But, if you just take a loan from a bank, you were already financially penalized by the bank through the slightly higher interest rate than you deserved to be charged, so you don’t need to pay penalty zakat for loans which you get from a bank.

However, just because it is permissible to get a loan from a bank, that doesn’t mean that you should. Just because something is not a sin, that doesn’t make it a smart decision. So, let me give you a friendly tip on how to be smart with loans. There are two types of loans: Consumption loans and investment loans. Consumption loans are for example, a loan to cover your wedding expenses, or a loan to go on vacation, or a loan to refurnish your kitchen, or a loan to buy a bigger house, because it just looks better, or a loan to get the newest PlayStation, or a loan to buy the more expensive car than you have the money for because it just looks better. These are consumption loans. Investment loans are loans for a new business, materials for your business, or to buy a basic car because you need it for work, which makes it an investment in some ways, because it enables you to earn money at work. So, if you want to be smart about loans, avoid consumption loans, and take investment loans, when you have a very good investment idea, of course.

Mortgages are between consumption and investment loans, because they are essentially a consumption loan, where the investment component is just as big, because it enables you to escape out of the situation of paying rent.

Now, credit cards are generally consumption loans, so when you have to use them because they make transactions easier, always make sure to pay them as early as possible, before the interest kicks in. One of the best ways banks take advantage of greedy and financially stupid people is through credit cards, because they have among the highest interest rates.

Now, in a democratic country, with free markets, banks compete against each other to offer the lowest interest rates on investment loans, and the investors are only willing to take those loans, if their interest rates are lower than what the expected return on investment would be. This means that in in true democracies, average bank interest rates are forced to be lower than the average return on investment. And the economy of a truly democratic country has never grown more than about 20% per year. You can only get that rate of growth in a non-democratic country, or a country which just came out of devastating war, which is not a democracy either. So, because in practice, it has never happened for a truly democratic economy to grow faster than 20%, then having bank loans with a higher interest rate than about 20% can only happen in a country which is practically not a democracy. And in that environment the interest rates are prohibited, because as we said in the beginning, for interest rates not to be prohibited, they have to happen in a democracy, through banks (not through people), and with fiat money (not with gold and silver).

Now, if you get a loan from an actual person, not a bank, then all interest is riba (prohibited interest). However, because we use fiat money (paper money), which has an unfair inflation attached to it, because the government keeps stealing it’s value by about 2 to 3% every year on average, then you are allowed to adjust for that inflation during that period. And if there is deflation, which is very rare, you can also adjust for deflation. Think of it like this. If a person loaned 100 sheep to his friend. Of course, he should return 100 sheep back. Any other number would be prohibited interest, “riba”. However, if while he held the sheep, he starved the sheep so much so that now they are 10% thinner. He can not come and say that because he received 100 sheep and he returned 100 sheep, that is fair. No, it’s not fair. Look at the sheep. They look like goats. You either bring the sheep as healthy as they were, or if you returned them 10% thinner, then the fair thing to do is to return 110 sheep. And the same with money. Inflation makes the money thinner, with less value, just like in the case with thinner sheep. So, it’s unfair if you don’t take inflation into account, for any loan which extends one year or longer, where inflation matters. And this has nothing to do with ribba. You are just making it fair. The same real value for the same real value.

Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director