Nuh

In the name of Allah the All-Merciful, the Ever- Merciful. All thanks be to Allah (SWT). Prayers and blessings of Allah be upon the most noble Prophet Muhammad (SAWS[1]).

Welcome to the third stage of Sunaa’ al-Hayah (Life Makers). We want to trigger a revival in our countries and take part in it together. This is our aim. In how many fields do we want to achieve this revival? Eleven fields: industry, agriculture, education, health, unity of our countries, social serenity, family, women, scientific research and technology. We also want to find a solution to the problem of unemployment.

You might think, “How are we to tackle eleven subjects in one go?” We have agreed on a method of work with regard to the eleven points. Let us review it together. We first dealt with each field separately and asked the youth to send us their dreams relating to that field. We received 700,000 dreams relating to industry, agriculture, education, health, etc. We collected the dreams and asked the youth to classify them by importance. A million voters, men and women, classified them: in industry, so and so are the priorities, in agriculture so and so are the priorities. We took all that and went to experts in each of the fields. We asked the experts, professors and businessmen to give us their opinions on these matters and point out the main project we should start with. They worked for two months, and then worked out projects for industry, agriculture, education. They worked out a main project that can trigger a revival in our countries if realized.

We took this project and went to the governments and authorities and chambers of commerce. We presented them with the ideas of the youth and the opinions of the experts and asked them, “Is this feasible?” They studied the matter and approved it, and so we have a project; a project for each of the eleven fields. Do you see how we are progressing? We are now past the stage of ideas and preparations. Eleven fields, and in every field we have a basic project. The youth can carry this project, but with the help of the experts. In every episode we will present a project. Of course, it will take more than one episode to layout one project; it’s something that will take 20 years, hence its presentation might take one or two episodes. What are we going to do?

This episode will deal with industries, the following two: agriculture, and then education. Each time, we will present a subject. Don’t worry about getting confused, is it industry or agriculture or what? I will put your minds at rest. Do you know the puzzle games; each consisting of many small pieces that once put together will give you a big picture? On this box, there is a picture that when you look at, you admire. However, when you open it, you find that it is made of small pieces. Every time you put two together you get a shape until you complete the picture. We are going to work on the same principle, but we only have eleven pieces, which represent the eleven fields of revival.

In each episode, we will try to put the eleven pieces together to create a beautiful picture called revival. We are going to put the pieces together: each group will come with its completed piece. “This is the industry piece,” and “this is the agriculture piece,” and they join together. Others fit the education piece from the bottom and others, the women piece from the top, because the woman’s role is crucial in the revival.

The more capable you are of imagining the picture of the revival, the more able you will be in producing it. What a beautiful picture! Can anyone see it? Can anyone see how unemployment dropped from 35 % to 5 %? Can you see how education has improved and is no longer about memorizing but deducing? Can you see how many young people are employed and how women have regained their status? Can you see the crowds at the dawn prayer and the love in the families? Shall I give you a few seconds to imagine the revival that will happen at your hands, you the youth, because you are the ones who will live it? Someone saw it like the European revival and he is wrong, because the European revival is incomplete. The picture might be complete but it is pale because it is based on materialism and lacks spirituality and closeness to Allah (SWT). Our revival is different, because its achievers are people who pray and worship and read Qur’an. Our revival won’t just be materialistic but also spiritual to create the needed balance, because we are faithful to Allah (SWT).

Today we will start with the first piece. By the way, we are asking those who can do animations, to create an animation for us. They will find the subjects in order of importance on the net because the order is related to the completion of the picture. If they can submit their work, we will choose the best one and present it during the program. Today we lay the first piece. It is the ‘industry.’

Last week we spoke about unemployment. We said that unemployment has soared to 16 million citizens. We also said that the highest unemployment rate worldwide is present in the Arab world. According to the UN report for the year 2003, unemployment among the Arab youth alone had reached 26.5%. This means that we have 265 unemployed youth for every 1,000, which means that by the year 2013, we will end up with 80 million unemployed citizens and that is according to the International Labor Organization. In other words, some children will be born, they will be educated, they will graduate, and will end up dying without finding a job. Can you imagine this?

Today we are talking about ‘Industry,’ not just for the sake of unemployment, but because it is one of the means of achieving the revival; in the past, the present and the future. No country has ever achieved a revival without industry. In the history of humanity, no country has achieved a revival without industry, not in the past nor the present nor the future.

Let us review the history of revival of the Muslims. The Muslims would have stayed stranded in the Arabian Peninsula had they not ventured into the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Muslims then took off in all directions, and the Mediterranean and the Red Sea became two Islamic waters. However, the Arabs did not know how to sail initially, they feared the sea. When people suggested sailing to Omar Ibnul-Khattab (RA), he did not refuse but pointed out that they did not know how, so what did they do?

Some Muslims specialized in building ships, sailed and excelled in that domain to become masters. The first revival of the Muslims came through when they acquired the ability to manufacture ships. Imagine that the key to the success of the Abbasids and the revival of Baghdad, the city that illuminated the world with knowledge, was down to one book. A book entitled ‘The Basics of Mechanics.’ A book full of mechanical structures, this is how the Muslims were! The book was by the sons of Musa Ibn-Shaker, they all knew the Qur’an by heart. The book had 100 mechanical structures that were the basis of revival.

Industry means that you change something of little value into something of a greater value, and in turn giving you status in society. It is like this piece of metal. We will resort to examples all throughout the program to simplify things. This piece of metal is of little value. What is the difference between it and this camera? This came from this. Do you understand the meaning of industry now? A thing of little value becomes a valuable thing and gives you status, because it is a wanted product.

Our lands were blessed with many bounties from Allah (SWT). Because of Allah’s love for this Ummah (Islamic nation); he placed all the bounties of earth in our countries. Oil, minerals, sun, all we could want, just for us to work and produce, because ours is the best Ummah, but did we make use of these bounties the way Allah (SWT) wanted us to or did the entire benefit go to others while we settle for the leftovers? We export crude oil, crude sand and crude iron in exchange for a few dollars. Then they all come back to us in the form of aircrafts and cars costing millions of dollars. In other words, if we sell a ton of iron for one or two thousand dollars, we get it back in the form of Mazdas, Fords, Mitsubishis, etc, which cost us millions of dollars.

Japan consists of small islands that are poor in resources, since 80% of its area is composed of mountains that are liable to constant volcanic and seismic activities. Despite all these predicaments, it produces four-times more than what is produced by the whole Muslim world, including petroleum. The difference between them and us is that they make industry, and industry makes revival. We export raw materials but raw materials don’t trigger a revival; that is the difference. The renowned Japanese cameras are made of plastic and steel that are not worth more than five dollars a camera, yet this very same camera is sold for 800 to 1,000 US dollars, so why the huge difference? All I want to do, is to convince you that industry is crucial. The only difference between the 5 and the 800 dollars is the thinking effort. Can you see any other difference? If you find brains busy thinking, you know there will be a revival.

If you find exported crude substances then you will know that no revival will take place. Why? Industry changes things of little value to valuable things. When machines turn, this means that minds are occupied with constructive thought, meaning that you will see a revival. If you see industry and production then you will see a revival, but if you find exported crude material and no products then you will find backwardness. The proof is that the Arab world is the richest in resources and still has the highest rates of underdevelopment. Why? Because industry is the basis. Because industry means that brains are being inventive. Because every transformation process is a proof of a thinking brain, and a thinking brain means revival. It also means that there are sound education, health, money and economic systems, and so the wheel starts turning. Hence, we have a revival. I believe you all agree with me now that industry is indispensable for our revival. Stay with us, we’ll be back again.

Our project is an easy one; it is not complicated. It is very achievable and its success depends on two factors:

· We will achieve what no one has before in the whole history of the Arab world.

· We will achieve a vow with which to meet Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment.

The project of Life Makers in the area of industry, which we discussed in the last episode, is the small project. Let me first ask you: what is a small project? It is when one, two or three youth team up to make a small project that will produce a simple product that does not depend on complicated technology. They can depend on themselves or use the help of others, be they one, two, five or ten according to the project’s needs.

Examples are clothes, furniture, leather, carpets, chandeliers, stationery, antiques, gifts, spare parts (like belts, screws, uncomplicated motors), toys, household items (furniture & equipment), office items (furniture & equipment), school and university requirements (furniture, stationery, paper), and various requirements for hospitals, schools and clubs. All these are small industries that are needed for various institutions in our countries. They are different from the heavy industries like the petrochemical, car and aircraft industries. They are also different from medium sized industries like the weaving industries, refrigerator or washing machine industries. All of these require complicated technology and very large investments. Smaller industries however are more liable to be achieved by the youth. That is why we chose them.

Another important thing is that it will participate effectively in solving the problem of unemployment. Can you imagine that a country like Italy has 2,300,000 small projects? Imagine the job opportunities. If one project can provide work for 10 employees, that means that 20 million employees are working in small projects. That means that 2 million Italians have revived 20 million others. Unemployment could have wiped them out like it did to our youth. Do you understand the meaning of small projects now? Are you happy that we are importing very simple things instead of manufacturing them? This is because we do not have youth that are smart enough to take the initiative to manufacture these things.

It is a pity that we import these simple things instead of manufacturing them. We need to have our small industries; otherwise it would be a shame for us to meet Allah (SWT) the way we are. Shame on us. Actually it is not only shame, but also it is a sin to meet Allah (SWT) the way we are. Let me explain. There is something in Islam called individual duty and something called collective duty. Has anybody heard about them before?

The individual duty is what every individual should do on his own, like praying and fasting. Nobody else can do these duties for you as long as you’re alive. Even if they’re done by someone else on your behalf, they won’t be accepted. The collective duty is a command which is imperative upon all Muslims, but if only one performs it, it will be sufficient. However, if no one performs it then the whole Ummah is in great sin. The whole Ummah would have this sin added to their pane of bad deeds. Are you paying attention to the seriousness of this issue? What about collective duty? People have a misconception about collective duty. Let me give you an example. If someone enters as we’re sitting right now and says, “As-Salam Alaykum (Peace be upon you).” All of us must then reply, “Wa Alaykum As-Salam (Peace be upon you too).” No, just one person can reply and this would be enough for the whole group. See how beautiful Islam is! However, if no one replies, the whole group has sinned. It means that one person will suffice the whole group. It is the same if someone sneezes, but don’t do it now, we’re on the air, if just one person in the group replies, “May Allah bless you,” that should be enough for the whole group, but if no one replies then the whole group is in sin. This is the very limited concept that we all know for collective duties.

There is more. Anything that is needed for our countries, anything at all that requires us to perform our habitual duties, be respected, suffice ourselves and elevate the levels of our lives, is indeed a collective duty. In other words; our medicine is collective duty and small industries are a collective duty, so if no one is doing a small project, we’re all in sin. We are indeed in sin, as long as we can produce this small product. I’m not saying that we won’t import anything. No, this can never be, but we can’t import what we can produce. If we cannot produce 70 million erasers for our students then we are in sin. Do you understand the meaning of collective duty now? If no one produces the Ummah’s necessary and simple needs, then the whole Ummah is in sin. If just one of you takes the initiative, he would be relieving the whole Ummah from these encumbering sins. I hope you can realize the meaning now!

It is as if I can visualize our pane of bad deeds on the Day of Judgment filled with millions of erasers, hole punchers, clothes. Can you see it? Imagine that it is now the Day of Judgment. Remember when I told you in Ramadan and in “Meet the Beloved Ones,” that you should always try to imagine yourself standing in front of your weighing scale. I want you to imagine the same thing right now. Now, you’re facing your pane of good deeds with: salat (prayer), fasting, hijab (veil) and all your other good deeds. On your pane of bad deeds you have this sin and that transgression. How about the scale? It looks good; your pane of good deeds has barely made it. Then the surprise comes. Millions of sins land on your pane of bad deeds. They are your share of collective duties that were never done by anyone of your Ummah. Even if your own job had nothing to do with these sins, you will still get them because no one in your Ummah did them, so you must bear some of these sins. You’ll say that you were fasting and praying, yet Allah (SWT) will tell you that He didn’t order you to just pray and fast. You were asked to fast and pray and develop your Ummah, so what did you do? This is how all these sins will be on our pane of bad deeds. Did you ever think about it that way?

One of you might come saying, “O Allah, I did some of these collective duties.” (Brothers and sister, this is the pledge I was asking you to take). Then Allah (SWT) will relieve this person from all the sins of his other undone collective duties. Not just that, but you will help relieve the whole Ummah from such sins. You will also get good deeds equal to the bad deeds you’ve relieved your Ummah from. Even if you did something very small for children, try to imagine your pane of good deeds growing heavier and heavier.

When it comes to small industries, we are burdened with deeds. Please relieve us from these deeds. Do you know now what collective duties are? Stay with us, we’ll be back with you again.

In the name of Allah the All-Merciful, the Ever- Merciful. All thanks be to Allah, Lord of al-Alameen.

We were talking about collective duties. We don’t want to bear sins due to undone collective duties. Not because we were the cause of such undone duties, but because the whole Ummah was lenient.

Let me quickly explain to you (over to the table right there) about the very small things that we import. I’ll only show you things that we import. While I’m talking, please try to visualize the pane of bad deeds. Imagine that all of us are responsible for this, until one of you takes the initiative and starts relieving us from all these sins. You might face some difficulties at the beginning, but depend on Allah (SWT) and you’ll succeed. What if you do it? What if you relieve the whole Arab world from such sins? We are bearing all these small things on our shoulders right now. If you fear our situation on the Day of Judgment then please understand what I’m telling you right now.

Can we go on with our episode now? I’ll tell you something very funny. I went to a friend and asked him to compile for me all the things that we import in the Arab World. He is specialized in statistical studies and works at one of the ministries. I told him that I wanted a list of all the things that we import. He said, “Are you kidding, you should ask me the opposite. This is what I can compile in a list. What you’re asking for can take endless sheets of paper. You should ask me to compile the things that we produce. Not the things that we import, because we import everything.”

Do you know now what small industries are? In this episode, I’ve shown you what small industries are; easy and simple. How to do them will be explained in details during the next episode because this episode will not be enough to cover everything. I just wanted this idea to fill your mind.

Who will logon to the internet after the episode and register his name with those who will start small industries? Whether he has an idea or he has the capacity but needs the potential ideas. We will help you with all this in the next episode. I just need this idea to settle inside you. Why are we doing it?

The Prophet (SAWS) said, “If the Iman (faith) of Abu-Bakr is placed in one pane and the Iman of the whole Ummah is placed in the other, the pane of Abu-Bakr will be heavier.[2]” Do you know why? The Prophet (SAWS) told us that Abu-Bakr (RA) didn’t exceed us with his prayer or fasting, so what did he do? Whenever the Ummah needed someone to say a word of assurance to secure them all, he would always be that person. He relieved the whole Ummah from that collective duty. That is why he weighed more than the whole Ummah. We want people like Abu-Bakr (RA) to relieve us from all these sins. Our intention is pleasing Allah (SWT), not to make money or fame. We will be successful but right now we’re here for something more important. We want to meet Allah (SWT) with what we’ve done. I came to meet you, Allah (SWT), with this simple eraser. This is the core of our religion, did you ever think about it that way before? At night we pray and cry from fear of Allah (SWT). In the morning we work to produce; hole punchers, erasers, bed-sheets. These are the small industries. Small industries also do something else. Right now we’re exporting jobs. In what way? When a product is produced in another country, then other citizens have worked to produce it. It is as if we had a job to do but we let others to do it instead of us, so our youth keep sitting around doing nothing, while others work for us. Do you get it now?

I will show you a movie now. The film is about a product that falls under ‘small industries.’ This product that we chose is manufactured in a big factory, so don’t be alarmed or think that we should all do this. I’m just showing you the idea of manufacturing a shirt; a very huge company working in manufacturing clothes. This company started with 2,000 workers. One of the products they manufacture is shirts. Right now, it has 26,000 workers; so 26,000 homes are running under this company. We want to show you this movie only to tell you one thing, when you produce a product in our country and this product is so good to the point that the citizens seek to buy it, the whole world would be working with you. The movie is called, ‘The Journey of a Shirt.’ We will show you all the stages a shirt undergoes to come out as a final product at the end. We want to show you the number of hands that were involved in producing this shirt. How many mouths were fed? How many brains functioned? We want to show you how a small industry can move the whole world. Let us watch ‘The Journey of a Shirt.’

“We started initially with 2,000 workers. Now we have 26,000 workers working over two shifts. Buying a high quality shirt, at a reasonable price can help in feeding many mouths. It can also help us in developing and advancing ourselves. The more production we have, the more we can sell and the more we can improve our technology and our quality to be able to offer reasonable prices at the end.”

We don’t have to do something that big. I was just showing you the idea. Look at how many families have worked to produce a shirt starting from raw cotton until it came out as a final product! I wanted you to see the number of mouths such a project would feed. You preserved the jobs for your country. You preserved your money inside your country.

The money you send outside is exactly as if you’re bleeding. When the money is inside your country you spend it inside your country. Someone else takes it and spends it also in the same way. That way money keeps circulating inside your country and in turn generating development. Like the blood inside your veins providing nutrients for all your organs. If you bleed, you will never retrieve the blood that you lost. The same goes for money that escapes to the outside. When you bleed you become pale and weak, you might even collapse, like we all have right now. Even if we can’t do such a big project we can just do the buttons for instance. If you can’t make a whole shirt, just do the buttons; a simple buttons factory.

I will now show you something very interesting. The story of a young doctor who didn’t accept the fact that we’re importing wound plasters. He couldn’t manufacture the whole thing, so he chose to manufacture just one stage of it. He did a collective duty. We will see him now on the screen. He only chose to partially produce plaster. He started a small project that kept growing. He only saved a quarter of a dollar but at least he managed to keep it inside. He fed many mouths. Let us all see him now.

Young Doctor: “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Prayers, peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad. In brief, I have the agency of a company that produces adhesive substances that have special properties. I thought that we could produce it here partially instead of importing it as a final product. We could then complete the final stages here in Egypt. That way, we were able to provide many job opportunities. Instead of importing this product for a whole dollar, we’d be importing it for three quarters of a dollar and we’ll save a quarter of a dollar here for our country to make others work. Many workers will work in cutting it, packing it, packaging it. All of these are job opportunities that we have provided. They work and produce and then get paid. The money we pay them is what we could’ve paid anyway in importing it as a final product. The whole idea is that any stage that we can cover here, any stage that could be easily covered, has to be covered here. This can also give us the benefit of thinking about producing the previous stage and then the previous, until we reach the point where we can produce the product from its raw materials.”

This partial production done by a brother of ours has relieved us all from the burden of a quarter of a dollar. I’m asking all the youth to work, to have patience and determination.

I know an Egyptian who lived in England and worked in the reception of a hotel. While working, he noticed that the purchase manager of the hotel was complaining of the high prices of tablecloths and bed-sheets in England. The manager of the hotel was also complaining from the same thing, so he went and made them an offer to buy these tablecloths for a very cheap price from Egypt. They asked him to get a sample. He came to Egypt and bought them the tablecloths which they liked very much. However, because of imperfection, they started sending tablecloths with many faults. This man thought to himself, “What am I doing here working in a reception? Why don’t I return to Egypt and do these things myself? It’s just a simple bed-sheet! I can send it to this very same hotel.” He opened his own workshop in a basement with only two sewing machines. Then Allah (SWT) helped him, because Allah (SWT) would definitely send his bounties. This man has now signed contracts with all of the national hospitals in the UK to supply them with bed sheets. His tablecloths are sold at Harrods (the most famous shop in Britain, where HM the Queen buys her things). The sheets and linens department have products manufactured in Egypt by this man. He has a huge factory now in Amiria, Alexandria, as big as the one you’ve seen a few minutes ago, producing bed-sheets. I know that when you saw the shirts factory you thought that it would be too much. Look at how a huge factory started as a small workshop in a basement. One of our ladies can start with a small sewing machine. What do you think?

Now I’ve finished this episode and as a final note: there’s no revival without industry. The project we will start with is ‘small industries.’ Do you know now what a small project is? How it works; its importance? How it gives life to dead souls? How it relieves us from collective duties? It is very simple and easy. It won’t require a high capital. No complicated technology. How will we execute it? We need four things:

This is the project and all the details will be discussed in the next episode. Before I end this episode I want to pass to you the great hopes that I have. These hopes are assuring me that we will make it. Everything will depend on you after we finish the next episode. I’m sure we will succeed. I asked people to send us ideas about small industries. I was surprised that we got 500 ideas (some of them were even illustrated) from students at universities and girls. They sent us the details of their ideas. We got 500 ideas in one week. We got them from the youth who are accused of superficiality and laxity. They aren’t any of that. They just needed a chance. I have great hopes after seeing these ideas.

We asked the youth to contact any experts they knew to ask them to join. Seven hundred experts logged on and sent us their CV’s; in agriculture, in industry, professors, expatriates, Muslims, Christians, businessmen. Seven hundred experts in one week; all of them are willing and ready to work. All of these are the cause of my great hope. We asked them to use the sticker and brochure provided on our website. We asked them to give it to everyone they knew, so that everybody could watch the program. We want them to be our own media, so that everybody could watch the revival. The brochure was downloaded 130,000 times and the sticker was downloaded 60,000 times and sent to offices and mosques. These great hopes are telling me that the youth want to work.

I also have great hopes because Allah (SWT) is the Most Generous. He will never leave us astray. Wake up at night, pray and call for Allah (SWT), “Allah let me be a cause for the revival of this Ummah. Make me but a simple cause for reviving this great Ummah.” Pray and make supplications and read Qur’an. I’m sure that great prosperity will be achieved by our hands, Allah (SWT) willing. Next week is very important. Until next week what should we do?

Ask them to watch it so they would help us all. At the end they are the ones who will really help us.

[1] Sala-llahu Alahi Wa Salam = All Prayers and Peace of Allah be upon him.

[2] Weak Hadith. Narrated by al-Iraqi.

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Episode 35: Small Industries – Part 1