Ali Dawah - MUSLIM YOUTUBERS STARTER PACK

00:00:00.000 As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu brothers and sisters and dear friends,

00:00:29.440 welcome to this show, thanks for that Musa, Muslim YouTuber Starter Pack, everything that

00:00:36.920 you need to know to be a Muslim YouTuber. So we're going to start off but before we start 0.91

00:00:41.540 off guys don't forget I need you guys once you finish watching this video to share it

00:00:45.660 with your YouTuber that you listen to. Don't forget that, now let's get straight to the

00:00:49.480 point. I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 points which you'll see, no, one second, there, there,

00:00:56.340 you'll see, sorry, 8 points there which I'm going to be covering inshaAllah. Now obviously

00:01:00.400 before I start guys, as you guys know there is books behind me. Now just because there's

00:01:03.660 books behind me does not mean this is a refutation video or anything like that. This is just

00:01:07.280 a general, this is just a general video out there for new YouTubers and also for you guys

00:01:13.860 to have a better understanding of us YouTubers. I believe YouTube is an amazing platform given

00:01:18.860 to us by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because back in the days before people would open TV

00:01:23.480 and they will believe everything they hear. And not only that, you did not have another

00:01:26.820 option. Yes, a different TV channel, same rubbish. Now alhamdulillah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala 0.99

00:01:31.260 has given us this option of YouTube where people can watch what they want, when they want

00:01:35.980 to watch instead of watching TV and believing everything they want to believe or just being

00:01:39.940 brainwashed. So YouTube is a platform given to us by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for us to 0.95

00:01:43.600 take advantage of and make the most out of it. And obviously every single one of us are out

00:01:49.320 there to do something beneficial for the ummah. Our intentions are correct but unfortunately

00:01:54.500 just intentions being correct, the correct way of doing it is to have correct intentions

00:01:59.020 and your actions follow forth. But anyways, let's get straight into it. Now I just want

00:02:04.620 to go into intentions. The second point, intentions are really important. Before any YouTuber or

00:02:10.420 anyone wants to comment on the social platforms here or wherever it may be, why do you want to

00:02:15.320 do what you want to do? This is something that is really, really important. If you are coming

00:02:22.540 to the YouTube scene, your intentions are to make money. You need to make those intentions

00:02:28.880 clear. Your job, you want to make money. You have that right. If you want to do that, you

00:02:34.140 have that right. You can go and choose to do that. Do you get it? Put my opinion aside.

00:02:38.260 Yeah? You want to go on YouTube and make money? You can do that. How you go about and do

00:02:43.260 it? It's another story which we're going to, it's something else which we're going to come

00:02:46.280 on to. So if your intentions are to make money, you have the free will to do that. If your

00:02:52.580 intentions are to come on a social platform and do dawah and help the ummah, etc., give

00:02:59.840 nasir to the brothers and sisters, etc., you have the right to do that. And I would recommend

00:03:04.820 you to do that. If your intentions are to give dawah and make some money, you have the

00:03:11.280 right to do that. It's totally fine. You want to do that? You have the free will to

00:03:16.060 do that. If your intentions are to get on YouTube, become famous, get known, if that makes you

00:03:21.680 feel better, you can do that. That is your free will. You can do that. I'm not putting

00:03:27.000 Islam into this. I'm just telling you, you want to do that? Nobody can stop you. Nobody 1.00

00:03:32.040 can stop you. You can do that. Now, me personally, when I wanted to get into the YouTube scene,

00:03:36.600 me personally, I did not, and I do not mean this into sound pious or anything special.

00:03:41.160 May Allah protect me from arrogance or thinking that I'm better than anyone else. You know,

00:03:45.480 that is something, a character that a Muslim, a believer should not have. May Allah protect 1.00

00:03:48.660 us from that of arrogant behavior. I wanted to do dawah to the non-Muslims and give nasir 1.00

00:03:53.200 to the Muslim youth. This was my intentions. And I thought, this is what I want to do.

00:03:56.080 Now, once you have those intentions, now you take your first step. Now, I had the option,

00:04:03.380 especially at the beginning when I started YouTube, I was financially in a bad place,

00:04:07.220 like really bad place. I had family issues because I was new to Islam. It was absolute 1.00

00:04:12.140 madness. But I could have had the option of getting paid by YouTube, but I personally,

00:04:19.060 personally did not want to. Now, the reason why I didn't know, and this is personal to me,

00:04:24.280 this is other brothers who are in the dawah, which I know, who are the same like me. And I know some

00:04:29.880 good brothers, lovely brothers, mashallah, may Allah bless them, who do get paid. And there's nothing

00:04:34.040 wrong with that, you know. But my opinion was, I did not want to. Why? Because I thought if money is

00:04:39.900 involved, it would mess with my intentions. Now, different people deal with that in different

00:04:44.440 ways. Some people are stronger. I found myself weak on that point of thinking, okay, if I do get paid,

00:04:50.440 it would mess with my intentions. So I thought, I don't really want to go there. So I thought,

00:04:54.900 I don't want to get paid by YouTube. Until they say, alhamdulillah, I prefer not to get paid by

00:04:59.160 YouTube. And alhamdulillah, praise it belongs to Allah, that financially I'm okay, and I don't

00:05:04.520 need that extra money. And even, if I need it, alhamdulillah, a lot of brothers, some brothers do get

00:05:08.540 paid by YouTube, and they use that to facilitate their dawah, or their videos, and their production,

00:05:13.240 which like I said before, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is something that was

00:05:16.500 personal to me. But if you've gone in with the intentions, you're a Muslim, you've gone in there 1.00

00:05:22.300 with the intentions of making money, or for fame, like I said before, for fame, then that is not a

00:05:29.080 big problem for you, because I think maybe that's the least of your worries. However, as a brother,

00:05:32.920 of course, like I said, you have the free will to do what you want. I'm not going to come and say,

00:05:36.240 you can't do this, you can't do that. Islamically, going and making money out of it, as long as you're 0.74

00:05:42.240 not doing nothing haram, if you are not doing nothing haram, nobody can come and say to you,

00:05:48.100 you can't do this. If you, for example, let me give a beautiful brother of mine, Musa, as an example.

00:05:53.220 Brother Musa started off doing dawah. Then afterwards, he liked it, I know Musa, he liked

00:05:57.400 to be creative, and stuff like that. So he thought, look, this is, I want to do vlogs. And I said,

00:06:01.460 it's a good idea, because you're young, even though Musa, he does look a bit old, he looks like a 40

00:06:05.300 year old, no offense Musa, if you're watching this. But he's young, he's 18, he started when he was 16,

00:06:09.620 he's 19 now. So I thought, Aki, what you're doing is perfect. You know, as long as you're not

00:06:13.700 doing nothing wrong, which you don't, doing vlogs and giving general reminders, because that's what

00:06:18.520 the youth at your age does, showing them. Because a lot of youth go out doing clubbing, all kind of

00:06:23.000 madness. But Musa is doing vlogs and just giving general reminders and living his way, living in

00:06:27.880 halal way, giving reminders. And I thought that is absolutely nothing wrong. However, if you're going 1.00

00:06:31.240 with intentions of getting fame, then I would say to renew your intentions. Because fame, a lot of people

00:06:38.220 want it. But believe me, it's something that you really don't want to. And especially if you are

00:06:43.180 a Muslim, and if you're going, especially if you're a Muslim, you need to understand, even if you don't

00:06:47.980 go out there doing dawah, put that to a side, you're going out there with the name of you're a Muslim, 0.82

00:06:52.260 that's going to cause problems, because people are going to have expectations, my brother or my

00:06:56.160 sister. So you need to really understand that. Now, let's move on. Let's talk about new YouTubers,

00:07:01.180 YouTubers, people coming into the YouTube scene new. Now, it is good that we should have

00:07:08.140 more YouTubers. It's good. It's good for the dawah. It's good that we can show positivity and

00:07:13.340 etc, which I agree with. But it is very, very crucial that we understand that being a YouTuber

00:07:21.080 comes with, with responsibilities. So now these two link new YouTubers and the responsibility

00:07:26.980 of YouTubers, I'm going to cover these both at once, inshallah. Now, as a new YouTuber, it's easy.

00:07:31.660 Get a camera, record yourself, whatever you do. These days, people just vlog in their life,

00:07:36.200 whatever it may be, you just become a YouTuber instantly. Now, what we need to understand,

00:07:40.780 brother and sister, it's very simple. It's very easy. Get a camera, you're a YouTuber. But what we

00:07:45.740 fail to understand, and it's so sad, is that once you become a YouTuber, and people, and

00:07:52.020 unfortunately, people look up to us. And genuinely, like I'm in the YouTube scene, and this is the

00:07:57.840 reason why I'm doing this video, to give you guys a background and understanding for both

00:08:01.920 the new YouTubers, and for those who are watching our stuff, to understand where we're coming

00:08:06.980 from. Is that, look, you need to understand when you're a new YouTuber, people will start

00:08:10.840 looking up to you. Now, I am, sometimes, I get treated like I'm something special. But this

00:08:17.240 is what YouTube comes with. I didn't choose this. The work that I wanted to do for the sake

00:08:21.700 of Allah brought that with it. Now, sometimes my intention goes up and down. This is something 0.93

00:08:26.400 that's really big. But what you need to understand is if you're a new YouTuber, you can't just

00:08:30.640 say, let me get a camera, record myself, that's it, I can do whatever I like. Like I said before,

00:08:35.460 you have the free will to do whatever you want. You do as you please. But what you need to

00:08:39.540 understand is it comes with a responsibility. If, for example, you are a YouTuber, and then

00:08:45.000 in your social platforms or on YouTube, you start swearing, you start using foul language,

00:08:49.080 you start using racist terms towards other people. What you need to understand is that

00:08:54.720 people are looking up to you. So when they look at you, and this comes with you, you can't

00:08:58.660 say, hey, I don't want them to look up to you. But it comes along with it. It's attached.

00:09:02.520 We need to be careful how we conduct ourselves in public as much as we can. And this is the

00:09:08.900 reason why brothers and sisters, it's such a crucial topic. I would highly, and brother

00:09:13.960 Khalid did a video on this matter as well. And even though I love him, I genuinely love

00:09:20.100 him. He's an amazing brother. I've met him. He's a good brother. I like the stuff. But

00:09:24.180 the fact that he said that everyone should do YouTube, I just disagreed with that with

00:09:28.420 the brother. But he's still my brother. We went to eat like a couple of days ago. We

00:09:32.460 talked about it. It's just he agreed. But what it is, my brothers and sisters, is that

00:09:36.700 what you need to understand is if every Tom, Dick and Harry gets on the YouTube platform,

00:09:41.420 like I said before, you have the free will to. But what you understand is if you don't

00:09:45.740 understand the responsibility that comes with it, what you're going to do is you're going

00:09:49.340 to end up misguiding people. There is so many people out there who do absolutely disgusting

00:09:54.320 videos. Absolutely disgusting videos. Like, I don't want to go into it. And you need to 0.98

00:10:00.340 understand people are looking up to them. And people are thinking, oh, there's something

00:10:06.180 special or they're doing something right. So that's why one thing that I would advise

00:10:10.100 you is that, look, and this is one advice that I get, is that, look, make yourself free

00:10:15.720 from me. With me, de-attach yourself. Yes, see me as a good brother, etc. But the moment

00:10:21.040 you see me doing something wrong, do not think that is right. Don't think just because it's

00:10:24.720 Ali and I love him and I like his videos or whatever he may be or he's Turkish and I like

00:10:29.440 kebabs. He's Turkish. They make kebabs. So that means what he does is right. No, you might 1.00

00:10:34.200 like kebabs. I might be Turkish. There's a connection there. But what I do is wrong. So

00:10:39.180 you should detach yourself from me as a person. This is why it's so important. And I want

00:10:44.300 to give you guys a narration of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when a sahabi came 1.00

00:10:47.760 and said, oh, Rasulullah, do we get rewarded when we have intimate relationship with our

00:10:53.300 wives? He said, of course, just as you get a sin when you're in a haram relationship and

00:11:00.960 just as you're in a haram relationship and you commit zina, that is a sin. When you do it 1.00

00:11:05.140 the halal way, you get a reward for being intimate with your wife, kissing her, whatever 0.93

00:11:10.620 it may be. Do you come to being kind to her? You get rewarded. So I want you guys to understand

00:11:15.840 something here. Yeah. I'm going to link this hadith with the YouTubers. What we need to 0.83

00:11:20.940 understand is that if you're just as if you're a, you come into the YouTube scene for fame

00:11:26.360 or whatever it may be, and you start misguiding people because there's a responsibility on

00:11:32.580 your shoulders, you're a YouTuber, people looking up to you. If you start misguiding

00:11:36.120 people, you are going to be blamed for that. So this is something we need to understand.

00:11:41.440 So before you get into the scene, you need to understand this. So you're going to go out

00:11:45.640 there and then you're going to start misguiding people. And every person that you misguide,

00:11:50.500 you are going to be blameworthy of because you are telling them, for example, do this

00:11:56.120 or do that. You're showing, for example, let's say you're going out there and you're like,

00:11:59.020 hey, I'm with my girlfriend or hey, this, that. What you're doing is now you are putting

00:12:02.480 it into the people's mind. Okay. I'm a Muslim. I can have a girlfriend too. You are going

00:12:07.280 to be blameworthy for putting that out there. Now, just as the way that when you do something

00:12:14.360 wrong and you're misguiding people, you get sins. When you call people to good, the

00:12:19.420 Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, whoever calls anyone to good will get the reward thereof

00:12:25.320 of every good that they do. So when you do something bad, just as you get a sin, when

00:12:29.680 you do something good, you get a reward. And also for the rewards that you get other people

00:12:34.340 to do. Yes. Like I said before, you are free. Do a YouTube video, do whatever you like, but

00:12:39.880 know that brothers and sisters on the day of judgment, every single thing that you did is

00:12:44.860 going to be, is going to be brought in front of you. And that is very dangerous because

00:12:49.500 when this one person, you guys will watch us. When you guys do a sin, it's between you

00:12:54.240 and Allah. It's between you and Allah. Let's say you did that sin in public. A hundred people 0.78

00:12:58.500 sorry. It's between you and Allah and a hundred, you expose it to a hundred people. But when 0.92

00:13:02.360 we do a mistake, now if it's obviously genuinely, we did not mean to, inshallah Allah

00:13:07.680 forgives us. But if I'm intentionally going out there and saying, I'm going to do a video

00:13:12.320 calling people to go and get girlfriends and commit zina or whatever, for example, steal

00:13:18.280 money or whatever it may be, then you need to understand. Then you need to understand

00:13:23.900 is that you are going to be getting the sin of how many people watch the videos? Roughly.

00:13:29.180 Look, I'm not even that of a big YouTuber. Hundred thousand views over a certain period

00:13:33.660 of time. There are people out there who get millions of views. Can you imagine one million

00:13:39.380 people watching a video? And out of that one million, a little percentage of 200 people

00:13:44.660 think that's okay and then go and commit zina. You are accountable for that. So this is why, 1.00

00:13:49.640 this is the reason why I wanted to expand on this a little bit more. Now let's move on.

00:13:55.000 Okay, let's move on. Why I don't associate myself with everybody. Now, this is a topic for

00:14:01.280 new Muslim YouTubers to really keep an open ear for this. Please, yeah. You can do this with

00:14:07.420 ears and you can listen, inshallah. Sorry, I am working on my jokes. It's a bit dead.

00:14:11.800 Now, guys, association is very important. Now, I'm in the YouTube scene. People look up to me

00:14:17.280 like I'm something special, but I'm not. This comes along with it, like I said before. Now,

00:14:21.240 I need to be very, very careful who I work with. So I have a responsibility of who I work with.

00:14:29.340 Now, if I'm a YouTuber, I'm known to be in the Taoist scene, I can't go and work with somebody else.

00:14:37.920 For example, let's say some brother is a new YouTuber. He just comes up. I have to do my

00:14:44.620 intelligence. I need to go and look what the brother is doing. Is he doing like, I'm not like

00:14:49.120 obviously harampleasing. Hey, let me catch him. No, no. Just to say, okay, what is the brother doing?

00:14:52.060 Okay. Okay, good. Okay. So when I see a brother, for example, he starts swearing. He starts backbiting.

00:14:59.420 He starts promoting things that are not permissible Islamically. Now, I will have a big responsibility

00:15:06.700 on my shoulder if I go and say, hey, let me go work with him. I go and work with him. Two months down

00:15:11.840 the line, if he turns around and says, oh, I, for example, I'm going to go clubbing. Now, you need to

00:15:18.380 understand. People are going to be like, hey, hold on a second. Brother Ali Daw was chilling with him.

00:15:22.560 So damn it, brother Ali is cool with him. He's going clubbing. So brother Ali Daw must be cool 0.98

00:15:27.040 with going clubbing because why would he be friends with someone that, do you get what I'm trying to say?

00:15:31.200 So this is the reason why it's so, so crucial. As a YouTuber, it's so important for me to know who I'm

00:15:39.540 working with. Now, the example I'm going to give is, and I've asked the brother's permission as well,

00:15:42.800 may Allah bless him, it's brother Khalid. He's a new YouTuber and I follow this stuff, you know, and obviously,

00:15:48.260 I follow this stuff. And I personally found the brother sincere. I found him sincere. I found

00:15:54.700 his akhlaq, his adab on point, his manners, how he conducts himself. Like, may Allah bless

00:15:59.480 him. Obviously, I know he's going to be watching this, getting gassed to himself like, yeah,

00:16:02.660 whatever it may be, yeah. He's going to be getting a bit excited. May Allah bless him and I shouldn't

00:16:07.400 be praising him like that. But obviously, I have to be truthful. The brother does, and may Allah

00:16:11.120 keep him firm on that. May Allah keep him firm on that, yeah. Now, I personally believe music is

00:16:15.200 haram. I personally believe music is haram, yeah. So, I spoke to brother Khalid, met brother Khalid,

00:16:20.940 and we was planning on doing a video. Now, before I did this video, and the brother knows as well,

00:16:24.240 I said, look, Aki, yeah, you're my brother, I love you. You're my brother, I love you. If you need

00:16:29.160 anything, whatever, I will try my best to help you. But in the public scene, Aki, we need to understand

00:16:33.200 something. That I said to him, Aki, do you believe music is permissible? And this is not me saying, hey,

00:16:38.080 you need to believe that. This is just saying, look, Aki, I believe it's impermissible. What's your opinion?

00:16:42.020 Because if we're going to work together, and you don't mind using music, then what happens is,

00:16:46.160 not that you're a bad person, but if you think that is correct, and you want to put that out,

00:16:51.740 then people are going to think, okay, music is okay, brother Ali, do you get what I'm trying to say?

00:16:54.760 And we came to an agreement, etc., and I thought, Aki, I have no problem working with you, yeah? I have

00:17:00.280 no problem working with you, and being seen within the social platform. Why? Because I have done my

00:17:04.780 search, I've looked into it, just as me, when I was doing the, when I wanted to do the video with

00:17:10.140 Mufti Menk, yeah? I did a couple of months ago. Before I did that, I got in contact with

00:17:14.540 his cousin, and obviously the brother said he did a research with me for one year. One whole year,

00:17:20.960 he was watching my stuff, what I'm doing. Then, obviously, all praise belong to Allah, not that

00:17:24.980 I'm anything special, but he thought, okay, the brother's doing something good, whatever it may be.

00:17:29.160 Okay, then they gave me the permission, do you get what I'm trying to say? So I'm not trying to seem

00:17:32.680 here like I'm this guy who gives permission, who I work with, I'm something special, no.

00:17:35.860 But, the same is done with me. So that's why association is so important. Hope you guys

00:17:41.420 understand. Okay, the last two points is, basically, don't take from any YouTuber. What does this

00:17:46.580 mean? Now, guys, what you need to understand is that I am not a Sheik. A Sheik on his own 0.99

00:17:50.800 is somebody that's knowledgeable, who's given his life to Islam, I am not that. Not any YouTuber

00:17:56.540 is not that, yeah? Okay, obviously, there is, if a Sheik comes on YouTube, then he's a YouTuber, 0.99

00:18:02.360 but that's a Sheik, if that makes sense. But what you need to understand is the matter

00:18:05.840 of religion, and this is my personal opinion, this is my personal opinion, take it or leave

00:18:09.960 it. The matters of religion, throwing fatwas around, or for example, saying haram or halal,

00:18:17.400 my opinion is that, look, don't take from me. If I come to you and say to you, the issues

00:18:24.960 of fiqh, yeah? I can't come and say to you, I believe this ruling is halal, and I have 0.98

00:18:32.860 the evidence, so you believe that, whatever it may be. If I come and sit down, like I'm

00:18:38.000 planning on doing that, for example, let's say with a certain topic of student loan, with

00:18:42.400 Sheik Haytham, I'm planning on sitting down with the Sheik and doing a Q&A with him, asking

00:18:46.680 him. But if you see me coming out there and saying, for example, I read this book, or I

00:18:52.120 looked into this, or I spoke with the Sheik, and he told me this, that, don't take my word.

00:18:57.320 If I sit down with the Sheik, and I'm doing a Q&A with the Sheik, I'm conveying to you 1.00

00:19:01.320 what he's telling me, then you're listening, you're just basically listening to him, I'm

00:19:05.420 just conveying, I'm just the guy in the middle. Go to the people, the scholars, yeah? The

00:19:10.120 scholars, and when I mean scholars, we're not talking about every Tom, Dick and Harry,

00:19:13.200 yeah? Go to scholars, the Sheik, people that have given their life to this, but take nothing 1.00

00:19:18.180 that comes from me, or any Tom, Dick and Harry. This is why, this is my opinion,

00:19:22.120 and this is what I want to tell you guys. Last point, there is two extremes. One extreme

00:19:26.940 is harsh. Everything is haram. It's haram. The only word they know is haram, haram, haram,

00:19:34.740 haram, haram, haram. Is this haram? None of us are perfect, yeah? So I believe that is one

00:19:39.860 total extreme, which certain groups, sects do that, yes? Now we have another extreme. This

00:19:46.320 extreme is, hey, we can do as we like. Nobody can say nothing, yeah? Basically, hey, I'm

00:19:53.640 going to go have a girlfriend. It's going to be on my vlog. You can't tell me what to

00:19:57.500 do, haram police. It's halal. Everything is halal to him. So we have one side, everything 0.99

00:20:02.460 is haram. We have the other extreme, everything is halal. So this is the two extremes I've 1.00

00:20:08.340 stayed from. Take the middle path. Okay guys, we went through the eight points. Hope you guys

00:20:11.980 have benefited. Don't forget, before you guys go, share this video with your YouTuber.

00:20:16.860 Hope they can benefit. This was a reminder to myself first. Share it with them. Don't

00:20:20.620 forget, we've started a new channel called Halal Dining, which we go around restaurants

00:20:23.820 all around the world and we check how halal they are, etc, etc. Do check the channel out.

00:20:29.980 Just type in Halal Dining. Don't forget to share this video with every YouTuber that you

00:20:34.640 know. Inshallah, they will benefit because it was a reminder to myself first. That's about

00:20:38.220 it from me. Have a beautiful day, Inshallah. Take care of yourself, guys. Assalamualaikum

00:20:41.740 wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Ali Dawah - April 13, 2016

MUSLIM YOUTUBERS STARTER PACK

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