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We can say the main goal of man
is to find happiness
everyone including me you is
looking for the happiness and enjoyment
You strive to find that happiness
and Islam doesn't stop you
from seeking your happiness
Islam tells us the correct
way to find happiness
We can divide happiness and enjoyment
into two
One is physical or material happiness
such as eating food you like
when you eat it and it gets into
your body reacts to it and
uplifting chemicals are released
making you feel happy
Now looking at qat the user is looking
for happiness by chewing the drug
by chewing the drug
Its chemicals cause a change in your body
systems and and from that
a form of happiness comes
Now this form of happiness
is the lowest form and is short lived
An example of the higher form of happiness
is spiritual happiness
Getting happiness from spiritual means
for example
when you preform daily prayer
You can get happiness from prayer
that will last longer
and better than the false happiness
from drugs such as qat or alcohol
and you would not leave prayer
for anything else
because this is a higher form of happiness
that doesn't rely on materials
You gain spiritual happiness
That is why our prophet peace
be upon him and his companions
when they go for prayer they
used to say oh bilal ( a companion)
relax us with prayer
That happiness is what the qat user is
also looking for when they go for qat
he says 'today i'm going to relax with qat'
If i may give an example
One of the prophet's companions
this is to illustrate the difference between
higher and lower forms of happiness
the companion was injured
by an arrow in battle
and it was very difficult to remove
and he had to be operated on to
amputate the leg and he was told
that in order to numb the pain
the only option back then was to drink alcohol
in order to numb his pain
He was told to drink the alcohol
and then start the operation
he said to them
I know how to deal with the pain
I will go into prayer and once I say
Allahu Akbar and begin i will not feel the pain
and you can begin the operation
He began praying and they began
and he felt no pain till he finished praying
His brain was engaged on a higher level
to not process the pain signals
When we talk about qat
it mainly concerns the Somali community
therefore we need to ask
a question
the question is
Is qat a drug or not
If qat is not a drug
then there is a way to deal with that
and if qat is a drug
Mr Said we want to deal with
whether qat is a drug or not
at later stages
lets address the problems
and how to tackle qat
We discussed why people use the drug
and we agreed it was to get happiness
We all
agreed on the harmfulness of qat
But one point i disagree with
Mr Awale on
qat is bad and harmful
harmful is harmful you cant break it down
so small use is as harmful
as everyday use and we shouldn't accept that
But Mr. Said some people
don't believe qat is harmful
and that is a point we want to tackle
If we tackle their belief
that qat is not harmful
all we have to do is look at the science
and see the harmful effects
but there is a saying
The blind don't see the light of the sun
and the one who says qat is not harmful
is like someone
who blinds themselves
from the truth in front of them
Sh Said
they will give reasons as to why
qat is not harmful
they will in fact tell of the positives of qat
the creative side the economic positives
how qat helps clear thought and other things
Ok lets address all those so called positives
If you could summarise Sh Sid
this really needs a detailed look
One of the goals of Islam
is to maintain a fit mind for everyone
The Islamic religion is concerned
about the well being of the individual
and teaches us the common sense
good path and lessons to follow
So Islam has something called
the five goals
these 5 goals are not just for Muslims
and non Muslims know these points are
beneficial to all
One of these five goals
is look after the mind or to maintain a fit mind
to maintain a fit mind
And this is one of the main
points Islam wants to establish
and I hope you agree to that point too
of course I agree
So in order to maintain a fit mind
Islam forbids
any and everything that takes
away your mind and harms the mind
be it anything including qat
alcohol and drugs
Anything that tampers with the fit state of mind
is haram forbidden be it in small amounts
or large amounts equally forbidden
Apologies Mr Said but lets
get back to Mr Abukar Awale
Abukar
We are yet to discuss if qat
can be classified as a drug or not
Sh Saciid touch on it and we will get back to him
We are still discussing the harm of qat
and your experience of it
and how u stopped using qat
While you were a user
of qat what was the strangest thing you experienced
thing you experienced
The period that
I was a qat user
The things i find now to be strange
and embarrassing didn't bother me
when i was qat user
but there are
incidents in the period that
I campaigned against qat
The strangest I saw
was a Somali young lady
who had 4 children
The children were taken into foster care
the young lady then got pregnant
She was taken to hospital
Gave birth then the child was taken
as soon as it was born into fostering
They said to her we have to take
this one too as you are an unfit parent
This event was one of the
upsetting incidents i saw
So is this one of the reasons you
started to be anti qat
I started the campaign
after i was hospitalised because of qat
after i was stabbed because of qat