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We always praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala upon every condition. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad Salallahu Alaihi Wasallam, his entire household, all his companions.

We ask Allah to bless them all and to bless every single one of us. To bless our offspring, those to come up to the day of Piyama, to grant our steadfastness and to protect us, to keep us on the straight path and to keep us from amongst those whom he is pleased with.

And to make us from those who can understand the importance of living within the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Brothers and sisters in Islam, I'm indeed humbled by the great numbers that are attending here this evening.

It is my first time in this particular town, if I may call it. And the people who are here as much as I may not know you personally, but I feel there is a bond.

The bond is that of Iman. We have the bond of the Shahada. We probably have a few differences in likes and dislikes and a few other matters perhaps, you know, you may like a pizza and I may not like a pizza, but you are still my brother, believe me, or my sister.

And if we ever happen to sit together on a table, I might not eat what you will be eating, but you are still my brother in the deal.

And believe me, if anything goes wrong, I will be the first one to stand up in inshallah to protect you and I'm sure if something happens to me, you will also be from amongst the first to get up and to help.

Now I accept that from us. Brothers and sisters, the topic I was given is, oh umma, unite. The importance of unity. We can speak about unity from so many different angles. Some people, the minute we say unite, they develop a rash and you find that they start scratching and it becomes worse because they don't like the word unity.

They think we cannot unite. It's impossible. It's impossible. We cannot unite because you are halafi and I'm shafi. It's impossible. We are not going to see eye to eye. Believe me, people are small minded.

Remember point number one, we are the creatures of Allah. Did you hear that? To start with, we are the creatures of Allah.

So we need to understand what is the meaning of unity when it comes to the various categories of creation and categories of people.

I am in unity with the entire creation of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala but in what way I need to understand that. I'm not trying to promote something silly or clandestine that will put my e-man at risk.

No, but I'm telling you if there is an animal that is suffering, it is up to me to make sure that I do whatever I have to to alleviate the suffering of a dog Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

Do you know that? It is part of the compassion that I have. So the level of unity with the entire creation would firstly start with compassion to be able to have a feeling for the creatures of Allah.

If you see the ecosystem and the forest is being burnt and there is a huge forest fire, if you contribute towards adding to the fire, you are sinful because you are destroying the creatures of Allah, the ecosystem, the plan of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

But if you are to try and extinguish the fire in order to save the trees for them to fulfill the role that Allah has placed for them in our ecosystem, you have understood this issue of living together with the other creatures of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

I cannot say I am a human being so I need to kill all the birds, I need to kill all the things that are not human because I am the human and I am the only human and we are human beings so everything else is by the way.

If that is our thinking, we will not be able to exist because a fool is the one who thinks that I am the only species that is allowed to exist or has the right to life.

Even the plants have the right to life according to Islam.

What about vegetation that we eat, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala? Today someone asked me a question, I would like to be a vegetarian not because I have anything wrong with the Islamic laws and not because I disagree with eating of halal, meat and beef.

But because I have read so much about genetically modified foods and so on that I feel at this particular time all chickens and all beef and lamb and everything has been modified to the degree that it is unhealthy for me would I be wrong only if I were to choose to eat vegetables for that particular reason.

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