Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / Muslims who don't pray (ft. Nabaa Baher)
Transcript
- 0:00Smila Rahman, Raheem Assalamu Alaikum, and welcome back to
- 0:03another episode on your favorite Shia Muslim podcast after
- 0:06Maghrib. If this is your first time
- 0:08tuning in, go ahead, hit that subscribe button.
- 0:10And inshallah, you can also follow us on our social media
- 0:12platforms as well as Apple and Spotify.
- 0:16Over the last few weeks, no doubt you've been attending
- 0:18Majalis and you've heard many times from the pulpits Imam and
- 0:21Hussain about Abdullah Salamullah Alayhi.
- 0:24On the 10th of Muharram, in the battle of Karbala, he stood, he
- 0:28paused and he stopped and established Salah.
- 0:30In the middle of battle, even though arrows were aimed towards
- 0:34him, he established Salah. And it's a time where when we
- 0:39reflect on these holy nights, we reflect on the message of
- 0:42Karbala. What did Imam Persain stand for?
- 0:44We know where he stood in terms of his relationship about last
- 0:47panel Wattala and it's time we reflect and ask ourselves and
- 0:50give ourselves a reality check where do we stand when it comes
- 0:53to our Salah and our relationship with Allah.
- 0:57We are joined by an amazing guest all the way from Canada
- 1:01and before we introduce the sister.
- 1:03I can't have these conversations alone after introduce my amazing
- 1:06brother Ahmed Gokul Salaam alaikum Salaam, what Allah have
- 1:20you? How are you doing?
- 1:21I'm all right, brother, How are you doing?
- 1:22I'm well, I have a question. Oh no.
- 1:25Did you pray today? I'm not asking you to make that
- 1:28question. I'm not seeing the question, I'm
- 1:30just reading what's on your. What's on my jumper?
- 1:32I don't know if you guys can see this at home.
- 1:34Did you pray to today? This is actually obviously the
- 1:36theme, one of the themes for today's conversation, and we are
- 1:40proud to be sponsored this week by the rejecters.
- 1:43If you've heard of them, they're an amazing fashion brand which
- 1:46promotes being proud of your Shia identity and they are of
- 1:50course shipping worldwide. So you guys can get a jumper
- 1:53like this, which I've heard is really popular.
- 1:55And of course there's so many others.
- 1:56Got a T-shirt and a Marmala Mehdi T-shirt, which I went to a
- 2:01sit down the other day. And Muhammad Ali from
- 2:03Aftermarket Appeal was also there.
- 2:05And we both walked in and we were both wearing the same
- 2:08T-shirt. Amazing.
- 2:08And the only seat available in the room was the seat next to
- 2:11him. So you had these two guys in the
- 2:13corner wearing the same T-shirt and they're both from
- 2:15aftermarket. And it looked like we had
- 2:17planned it, but I promise you we didn't.
- 2:18It's just because the fashion was so good.
- 2:20Brothers, sisters. So go to the rejectors dot com,
- 2:23use the code after Maghrib 15 to get your 15% off code for all
- 2:28products on the website. Make sure you check that out.
- 2:31So said good topic inshallah, and I know that this is of
- 2:35course something which we've had a lot of anticipation for.
- 2:39We have, and I'm surprised we haven't discussed it earlier.
- 2:42On in depth as well for sure. Like I think it's one of a
- 2:45given. Like it's a given topic, we put
- 2:48out polls before we introduce our guests and of course with,
- 2:51with with your permission, we put a poll out on on Instagram
- 2:55today and we've already had 4000 views and thousands and
- 2:59thousands of responses. The first thing, did you pray
- 3:01five times? Do you pray five times a day?
- 3:0458% said I pray daily, but I either miss some praise or I
- 3:07pray late. Only 34% of people said they
- 3:10pray on time. And the remaining people said, I
- 3:13only pray once in a while or I don't pray at all.
- 3:16We asked people what's stopping you from praying more.
- 3:19Just under 50% said I'm too busy, my schedule's too busy.
- 3:22Some other people said they struggle with addictions and
- 3:24their demons. Other people said they're not
- 3:27spiritually complete. Then there's other things which
- 3:29we'll talk about, I'm sure across the episode.
- 3:31But if I'm honestly, this is something which I've had a
- 3:35hesitance to speak about. Yeah, I told you this today.
- 3:38I think mainly because I don't want to seem like a hypocrite,
- 3:42you know, we're, we're privileged to be in a position
- 3:44where we can address thousands of people a week and to sit here
- 3:48and talk about the importance of Salah and everything is very
- 3:50important. But I don't feel like I have
- 3:53reached my pinnacle by any means.
- 3:56I have a long way to go in my journey towards improving my
- 3:59Salah and my my attention and my timeliness.
- 4:03And these are all things which I think we'll get into today.
- 4:06So I'm very pleased and honoured to welcome and introduce Sister
- 4:10Naba Baha Salaam, Alaikum's sister.
- 4:12Alaikum Salaam. Thank you so much for being
- 4:15here. Thank you for having me.
- 4:16You have been speaking in London, Al Hamdullah, over the
- 4:20last week or two, yeah. How has your experience been?
- 4:25Honestly one of the best experiences that I've ever had.
- 4:27One of the best Muharams that I've ever had.
- 4:29Although it's been the busiest. I don't know how the 1st 10
- 4:32nights finished and how we're already moved on to the next 10
- 4:36nights, but it's honestly when Barakatar has saying, that's all
- 4:40I have to say. It's, it's been such a blessing.
- 4:42Yeah. That's amazing.
- 4:44Can I just ask, Yeah, how do you see a different between London,
- 4:47Canada and the US? What stands out about London
- 4:52was. London, the youth, someone's
- 4:55going to say the youth. The youth in London here are
- 4:57like no other. You truly do feel like they are
- 5:00Husseinis at heart. And Windsor, perhaps because
- 5:04Windsor there isn't that much opportunities for the youth or
- 5:07even with Michigan there, they might be restricted here and
- 5:09there. But in here in London, you have
- 5:13a 19 year old running an entire. Hey, a 19 year old.
- 5:18I was shocked at the amount of youth who are running.
- 5:22Hey, odds and they're successful.
- 5:25Yeah, I need to see. I was invited by a 19 year old
- 5:29and honestly, I was in awe and I was so inspired.
- 5:36And even now, inshallah, going back to Canada, I carry so much
- 5:40of that inspiration from them. Just seeing how they are, seeing
- 5:44how strong they are and just how they know so much Hamdullah,
- 5:49Hamdullah. I'm, I'm, I'm so blessed to have
- 5:51that. You know that makes me proud.
- 5:53It is our youth of our city like to say, you know, we have
- 5:57someone who who is your first time here is your first time
- 6:01reciting here. Yeah.
- 6:02To come in and to to witness this, the personification of
- 6:04this, you know, massive credit. Of course youth around the world
- 6:08is serving, but I always Rep London because London is is, you
- 6:12know, we say it's the Karbala in the West.
- 6:14Not just that, but I think there's a lot of talk about our
- 6:17generation and, you know, Gen. Z and how sometimes Gen.
- 6:21Z might be a little problematic or they're going down the wrong
- 6:24path. But when you see teens in the
- 6:27community, especially here in London, and you see how they're
- 6:30working so hard day and night and during these hey odds and
- 6:33they're, you know, organizing these majonas, there's some sort
- 6:37of ultimate non that, yeah, our youth are headed in a good
- 6:40direction. Yeah.
- 6:42You know what it is? I think I'll be honest.
- 6:44I say that Ali and I are privileged because we've grown
- 6:47up in very hosseini environments.
- 6:49We've grown up in, you know, said Ali's father, Ali Ahma was
- 6:52a scholar and of course, a leading scholar in the
- 6:54community. My family had had to love raised
- 6:56me in an environment which were I've been allowed to participate
- 7:00in and being, you know, in charge of things like you've
- 7:02said, projects and youth camps and events and inviting speakers
- 7:06and so on. However, I think one thing
- 7:08unanimously faced across all youth, especially in the Western
- 7:11world, is the battle with their Neffs, being able to to battle
- 7:16the distractions of the wider world.
- 7:18And I think this is something we face from a young age.
- 7:20We now live in a in a world where we're bombarded, we're
- 7:24sabotaged by misinformation, by distractions, by demons all
- 7:29around us. And for the youth, a lot of the
- 7:31time those come in the forms of pop culture, social media,
- 7:35television, YouTube, whatever it might be, gaming, it could be
- 7:38anything from a young age. And then as you grow older,
- 7:41those demons start to develop. Maybe they start to to to worsen
- 7:46they. Change because they start.
- 7:48I don't know if blossom's the right word.
- 7:49Yeah, but you know I. Mean yeah, like they, they yeah,
- 7:53I know what you mean though. Yeah, but they definitely get
- 7:56more. Definitely more visceral.
- 7:57Yeah, for sure. But yeah.
- 8:00And as you become older, it might be something else, You
- 8:02know, that people struggle with apathy and laziness for sisters
- 8:05there. You know, we had a lot of
- 8:06responses today from sisters who struggle anatomically.
- 8:11So at certain times of the month or for example, in the period of
- 8:14pregnancy or whatever it might be.
- 8:16So the challenges, new mothers, of course, the challenges for
- 8:19men, men and women are different.
- 8:22And I think generationally there are challenges.
- 8:24But no doubt people struggle with attention in Salah,
- 8:28understanding what Salah is and the importance of Salah being a
- 8:33standard, a compass in their life.
- 8:34So I think maybe to kick off sister, I know we, we exchanged
- 8:39dozens of topic ideas, but this is something you singled out.
- 8:42Why is it something that's important to you?
- 8:45I mean, because I feel like prayer is a lifelong struggle
- 8:48for a lot of people, regardless of how young or old you may be,
- 8:52even if you're just starting off at 8 or 9 years old or you're in
- 8:56your 50s or 60s. I think it's a constant
- 8:59struggle, that concentration, feeling like there's while
- 9:04you're praying that there's presence of the heart and just
- 9:07feeling like after I prayed, that was a good prayer.
- 9:10Some people don't always feel that every day and some people
- 9:12go on for several years praying and they never feel spiritual
- 9:15while praying. So I think there is a need to
- 9:19have that topic being discussed. Although, you know, sometimes we
- 9:23might pray and our prayer might not be a 10 out of 10 that
- 9:26night, but I think it needs to be talked about because these
- 9:29are reminders and inshallah, these podcasts are supposed to
- 9:32be reminders for us as well as the watchers and viewers.
- 9:35OK, Inshallah, let's talk about it.
- 9:38I mean, I'm going to ask you a question, sis and I, and I think
- 9:41Ahmed Maymak can speak on your behalf as well.
- 9:44And if you get with your permission.
- 9:45Yeah, of course. We've all had our times where we
- 9:46have like spiritual fatigue when it comes to Salah, and this can
- 9:49be all the way from our teenage years becoming, you know,
- 9:53starting a new family and now we're from below our fathers.
- 9:57We're busy, we run businesses and things like this.
- 9:59So at times we feel like, I'm not saying Salah is not a
- 10:02priority, but there are days sometimes it may become two or
- 10:07three days back-to-back where it does happen, where focus is not
- 10:10strictly on Salah. It's about OK, I need to do XYZ
- 10:13and then I pray rather than OK, I need to pray and do XYZ around
- 10:19my prayer. Is that something considered
- 10:22spiritual fatigue, or is it a choice we're making?
- 10:26I think it depends at times. At times, sometimes we go
- 10:30through spiritual low seasons. Yanni.
- 10:33I'm one to say that there are days that I wake up and I just
- 10:36feel like my spiritual battery is low, just like how we have
- 10:39that mental battery. I feel like my spiritual
- 10:41battery. Sometimes I wake up and I'm
- 10:42like, OK, I'm out of 50, so I'm not going to push myself to do
- 10:47every single thing. Like I'll do my prayers, I'll do
- 10:50the wajibaat, but I'll stay away that day from the mustahabaat
- 10:53because I don't have it in me to do that.
- 10:57Other days I wake up and I'm like, OK, I'm at an 80, I'm at a
- 11:0090. Let me go do the mustahabaat,
- 11:03the tacklebaat, the idea, do a little bit more.
- 11:06They care, test, be, but I don't push myself because sometimes it
- 11:11comes naturally. Like there are days where you
- 11:13just genuinely feel like, OK, I really need to pray and other
- 11:17days, no. It's just that spiritual low.
- 11:19Sometimes it is a choice. Sometimes we do live very busy
- 11:24lives, but those busy lives continue regardless and we're
- 11:27still going to have to pray regardless.
- 11:28So you're going to have to make a choice.
- 11:29Am I going to show up to God? Am I going to show up?
- 11:33How am I going to show up? Am I going to show up half
- 11:36asleep, I'm worrying about all the other things that are going
- 11:39on in life, or am I going to dedicate these 5-10 minutes to
- 11:41God? I'll, you know, just kind of
- 11:43calm down, relax. I'll concentrate on what I'm
- 11:46saying. So I think it's, I think it's a
- 11:48choice. And, but at the same time,
- 11:50sometimes we do go through spiritually low seasons and
- 11:53that's normal. I think a lot of people feel
- 11:55like God hates them or God doesn't love them or God's
- 11:59turning away from them when they're going through these
- 12:01spiritually low seasons. But I would say, although this
- 12:04sounds terrible, but sometimes the spiritually low seasons that
- 12:07we go through are the best seasons because those are the
- 12:09seasons that make us realize just how good the spiritually
- 12:13high seasons are. How?
- 12:14Lost. We are without a lot.
- 12:16Exactly. And the importance of just like
- 12:18having God in our lives, because I think for many youth growing
- 12:23up, from what I've heard, there's always been this
- 12:27portrayal that's painted that God is not a merciful God.
- 12:31That this God that we're worshipping is a God who's
- 12:34angry. And any, any slip, any fall, any
- 12:38mistake that we'll make, he's going to throw us right away in
- 12:41the depth of hell. And that he's always angry at
- 12:44us. But when you take a minute and
- 12:47you reflect and you realize, no, this, this Lord of ours is so
- 12:50kind and so merciful and so compassionate, and that prayer
- 12:55has been prescribed not to burden us, but to allow us to
- 12:58establish that connection with him and to humble us and to make
- 13:01us realize that we're the ones who are insignificant and we
- 13:03need him. So I think there needs to be a
- 13:07little bit of that clarity between.
- 13:09I think just to add to that as well, deconstruction of this
- 13:11topic is the hard part. Exactly.
- 13:13So like I had so many thoughts pop into my mind while you're
- 13:17speaking. So let me try and chronologize
- 13:20what I was thinking. You mentioned firstly about
- 13:23spiritual highs and lows and your spiritual battery.
- 13:26I agree with that. I think for one person a
- 13:28spiritual 80 is for someone else a spiritual 20 and vice versa.
- 13:33So for example, for you, when you're at a spiritual 80, you
- 13:35might do that A and the takabat and the mustahabat.
- 13:38For someone else that's a spiritual 200.
- 13:41Do you know what I mean? And for someone else, that is
- 13:44the low. So I think that's the first
- 13:46thing, to recognize that we're not homogeneous as a community.
- 13:49And I think as individuals, people go through these ups and
- 13:52downs. So for me at 15, my spiritual 20
- 13:56or 80 is different to maybe what it is now.
- 13:59Forget even generationally, but even what it was yesterday or
- 14:02last year or five years ago and probably what it will be in 5-10
- 14:06years time inshallah. That's the first thing.
- 14:08The second thing is, you know what you mentioned about prayer,
- 14:13like life will continue, but we still have to pray.
- 14:16Like we'll just have to at some point.
- 14:18I fully agree with that. But I do also think that there
- 14:20are people who don't see it like that.
- 14:22So I think there are people who put off the concept of prayer,
- 14:27not just the, the today's Boha or today's Maghalib or whatever
- 14:31it is. I think they'll, they'll put off
- 14:33the years of Boha or the years Maghalib or you know what I
- 14:37mean, the, the period of life they're in.
- 14:39I'll pray when I'm married or pray when I become a dad to set
- 14:42a good example, or pray when I get older because, you know, I
- 14:46feel more spiritual right now I'm studying.
- 14:47On I've heard I'll pray when I go to Hajj.
- 14:50Really. Yeah.
- 14:51Like, and I know this sounds cliche, but I think that's
- 14:54common. There are so many people who,
- 14:58like, they'll pray, they go to the mosque, they'll pray.
- 15:00Like, they have nothing against prayer.
- 15:01They like praying, but the routineness of prayer is the
- 15:05hard part. So for example, and I was
- 15:07speaking from experience, so earlier my earlier my kind of
- 15:11stage in my matter of, of Salah, I'd be one of those people.
- 15:15So I would pray and have no issue with praying, but I
- 15:18wouldn't enjoy it necessarily. I wouldn't look forward to it.
- 15:21It's just something that I do. I've seen it since birthright,
- 15:24but like it's not something I want really in my routine in
- 15:29school. I remember when I was in school,
- 15:30we were maybe 17, I moved to a new school and there were other
- 15:34guys from my school who I knew from the mosque.
- 15:37And we pushed to get a prayer room in the school.
- 15:40And we kind of made it a habit. We prayed jemar together, the
- 15:43Shia prayed Jemar together. And we kind of made a nice habit
- 15:46of it. Then that kind of prepared me
- 15:48when I went to university. Then we fought for the Shia
- 15:50rights in the prayer room. Huge scandal.
- 15:53Like, online they were throwing out.
- 15:55Yeah. And the bins, like.
- 15:57Yeah. Like.
- 15:57So you developed like it becomes part of your identity, you know,
- 16:00your core defence system. I need to defend my right to
- 16:03pray. But that comes with experience
- 16:05and exposure, I think. What would you say to people
- 16:08right now who? And I think most anyone who's
- 16:11tuning in and they're now whatever, 15 minutes or so into
- 16:14aftermath, they know that it's an important topic.
- 16:17People at home are probably like, yeah, I know, but I can't
- 16:19push myself. I know I want to pray, but I
- 16:23know I'm probably not going to wake up tomorrow morning for
- 16:25Fudger, for example. What would you say to them?
- 16:30I would say it takes discipline and that's the difficult part.
- 16:33I can only speak from my experience and from what I've
- 16:35realized from my struggles over the years with Salah, but I
- 16:39think for a minute it was all about discipline.
- 16:43Waking up for Fajr was one of the most difficult things,
- 16:45especially if you're staying up late, which I know we all do.
- 16:49And it, it's easy to, you know, keep scrolling until 23 AM and
- 16:53you got to wake up at what, 4 AM, 5:00 AM for Fajr.
- 16:57So I think for me, it was in the beginning, it was more so
- 17:00discipline. But like you said, I was praying
- 17:03because I had to, not because I wanted to.
- 17:05And there was that kind of internal battle.
- 17:08And I know a lot of youth probably go through that, but I
- 17:12realized that if I'm going to live until, let's say 607080, I
- 17:18don't want to continue. I don't want to continue praying
- 17:20this. I want to say dull prayer
- 17:24because I was praying and I didn't feel much, or I was
- 17:28praying and I didn't understand much and I was praying and I
- 17:31just didn't feel spiritual. Because we have a hadith that
- 17:34speak about, for example, the Prophet or even the Imam staying
- 17:38standing in prayer all night long.
- 17:40Or for example, Imam Ali who would stand in prayer and he
- 17:44would shake or say the Zaynab who on the 10th of Muharram, she
- 17:47still prays a lot too late. And I sit there and I read the
- 17:50hadith and I read the narrations and I'm like, I didn't go
- 17:53through half of what Zaynab did or say Zeynab went through.
- 17:56And yet I don't even have the motivation to get up and pray.
- 18:00So I think sometimes you got to sit with yourself and just talk
- 18:03to yourself for a minute and tell yourself, I don't want to
- 18:06continue praying this dull player prayer.
- 18:08I think for me, the real turning point was when I started
- 18:12learning about prayer in terms of, OK, what's the meaning of
- 18:16this when I'm saying Bismillah Rahman Rahim?
- 18:18Although it's so simple, what does Bismillah Rahman Rahim or
- 18:22even I used to teach in an Arabic school back in Windsor
- 18:27and I was teaching a course about Arabic, about prayer and
- 18:32we had a 12 year old in the class who I had asked what does
- 18:36Kulu allahu allahu. I had mean she said God is
- 18:40Sunday and I didn't know God is Sunday and I didn't know if I
- 18:45should laugh with the other students with her or she was
- 18:49being serious. I had she genuinely and for a
- 18:54minute I thought, should I laugh with you or should I stand in
- 18:58the corner and worry about how are you if they're going to and
- 19:01so. No, that's quite funny.
- 19:02Something that's so simple like Allahu, I had a lot of some.
- 19:06When you start to understand the meaning of what you're saying,
- 19:10the Salah automatic automatically is elevated,
- 19:13revolutionized right then and there.
- 19:15Like semi Allahu and Hamid did that Allah.
- 19:17Here's what I say. Or Allahu Akbar when you first
- 19:19start. I think I'll be, I'm going to be
- 19:21very like, I'm going to just be critical of yeah, if not of you
- 19:25more So what you're saying, I think, and this is not a cop
- 19:30out, but I think being Arab, being raised in a religious
- 19:32household makes a world of difference.
- 19:35So you guys, when you say allahu ahad, you know what it means
- 19:39without having to think what it means.
- 19:40So you could speak to a Christian Arab and they'll know
- 19:42what it means. Fair, right.
- 19:43Yeah. And I think immediately and
- 19:45automatically there's an advantage that I'm not saying
- 19:47that, you know, like you said, there's discipline.
- 19:50No, you're right. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm 30 in a few
- 19:53weeks. God help me.
- 19:54And you know, I'm still learning the Arabic language, I'm still
- 19:58trying my hardest. I hear Arabic everyday.
- 20:00You know, I'm surrounded by Arabic, my children speak
- 20:02Arabic, but I'm still getting there.
- 20:05And I think that that's an important thing firstly because
- 20:07I really feel like that. I remember one of my friends
- 20:10who's actually been on the podcast, he told me a few years
- 20:12ago, he says I'm trying to learn everything in the Salah and what
- 20:19it means because then it will help me with my focus and
- 20:22prayer. I try to consciously do that
- 20:24when I pray. And it's very difficult for
- 20:26someone who doesn't speak Arabic.
- 20:28That's the first thing. I think the second thing is,
- 20:30like I said earlier, the three of us and Hamdullah have been
- 20:32grown up in, you know, we've grown up in that environment.
- 20:34There are brothers and sisters at home who are reverse, for
- 20:37example. So Salah and as a concept is
- 20:39new. You know, there are people at
- 20:41home whose parents don't practice maybe, or who maybe are
- 20:44more liberal than their practice.
- 20:45So parents who don't wear hijab or youth who don't wear hijab,
- 20:50youth have been raised in a family which is Sunni and Shia.
- 20:53The parents are either and just I think that the context for
- 20:57them is really different than the context for us.
- 21:01Does that make sense? No, it is, you know, kids and
- 21:03youth who don't know what Salah is, They don't know what it
- 21:06means. They're not grown up around it.
- 21:09Hamdallah, we have, we've been to Majalis, we've been to Jamal,
- 21:11we've been to all the environments which have like
- 21:13ingrained it within us. But that development of love you
- 21:18mentioned about this, like not wanting to pray the dull prayer
- 21:22until your old age, right? So developing that love, that
- 21:25matter of Salah is so important. There's one thing which I wanted
- 21:28to mention. It's a hadith which we read
- 21:32earlier today. If I can find it, the middle,
- 21:37not minin one, if I can find it. Yeah.
- 21:42OK, fine. So it says Bismillah Malhem.
- 21:45Where are we whenever the commander of the faith of
- 21:47Middlemark Mini and Ali Salaam begin to perform Waldo, his face
- 21:52would change out of fear of a loss.
- 21:53Panel to Allah also, that is a Middlemark mini and peace be
- 21:57upon him. Entered into prayer.
- 21:59He was as if he was was a fixed building or an upright column
- 22:03that he did not move. He would sometimes bow or
- 22:05prostrate and birds would land on him and no one else could
- 22:08recount the prayer of the Messenger of God except Alib
- 22:11Dalib and Alib Nad Hussein Alehim Saddam Imam Sajad Ali
- 22:16Salaam, Amira Mahmanin and Salallah Salah Salem they all
- 22:20had. And of course, all the Emma name
- 22:21was Saddam, but they were all noted specifically for their
- 22:25level of conviction in their prayer and in their Lord and
- 22:29their level of spirituality. Because they knew who the.
- 22:31They knew who. Was about to occur.
- 22:34They know that meetings. But have you heard this thing
- 22:35say, do you know that thing? Which is like when you're
- 22:38praying, you're having a conversation with the last point
- 22:40on that when you read the Quran, he's having it with you.
- 22:42What do you reckon? I like, I don't disagree and
- 22:46especially I think even you, your references reference semi
- 22:49Allahm and things like this during prayer.
- 22:52This is something I've been doing in the last few years and
- 22:54I think since the beginning of the podcast, since after market
- 22:57initiated was that we had the conversation.
- 23:01I can't remember the which brother he was like just just
- 23:04listen Panda on what you're saying, Reflect on the words
- 23:07that you are uttering during Salah.
- 23:08And I went and done that and I do that until today that when I
- 23:11pray at Hamden, when I pray now, since then that I'm not just
- 23:16saying the words. No, no, I know what I'm saying.
- 23:19So for example, when I say Allahu Akbar, I know Allahu when
- 23:24I when I say this picture on the sun, first of all, the Torhid of
- 23:32Allah gives you marathon Allah, it gives you some belief and
- 23:35you're in of your existence of life.
- 23:37You are nothing without Allah and it's an opportunity.
- 23:41I, you mentioned an example of families and when you were
- 23:44saying that the phone had, if I can add to this, and inshallah
- 23:47the brother that gives me a what mission, his name?
- 23:50I knew a person, Muhammad. I was 17 or 18 years old here
- 23:55and I've known this brother for about 4-5 years, 4-5 years.
- 23:59I've never seen him pray never. So when they asked him, I was
- 24:04like, you know, let's pray like he only prayed with Jemaah, but
- 24:08he'd never prayed on his own. And I was like, you know what,
- 24:12let's pray, Let's let's get to pray.
- 24:14And he messaged me later and he was like my dad, my dad, his dad
- 24:22has never taught him how to pray.
- 24:26I was shocked that we have families.
- 24:28She have families. Love is a very little bait who
- 24:30attend Majalis and they serve majalis raising children without
- 24:35teaching them how to pray. And Handel, I was blessed to
- 24:38help him on that journey. But for me, that was like, where
- 24:43are our our elders? What are you doing our
- 24:45community, What are we doing? And the worst thing about it is
- 24:48OK, if he didn't know how to pray, why was he shy to ask
- 24:52someone to teach him how to pray?
- 24:54Why was there a broken relationship with him and his
- 24:57father? You know, as as fathers handle
- 24:59our fathers now we know first we have to make ourself ready and
- 25:06then teach ourselves our new ones.
- 25:08The I was so shocked that I was thinking to myself we live in a
- 25:13society where fathers don't care about their children and I know
- 25:17of many families. May Allah bless all these
- 25:19families and guide them and protect them on the Zenish Allah
- 25:22where a conversation I had with a father once Ahmed and he said
- 25:27MD may finally not that I'm here to come and tell them to get up
- 25:31and pray. Sometimes I need reminders
- 25:32myself at that age right and then I was like, OK, tell them
- 25:36to get up and pray or show them to pray.
- 25:37He goes no what you tell him. Why should I tell him?
- 25:41Is it because the son doesn't respect a dad?
- 25:43Or no, he just doesn't. He's not bothered, He doesn't
- 25:46care. I'm being very real.
- 25:48Like we have children that grow up, and I think this is a result
- 25:52of how it is at home during the early years of them growing up
- 25:55is that they don't see love for Salah.
- 25:57They don't see much of, for example, OK, now is the time for
- 26:00Salah. You got to go lay that prey,
- 26:03Emma. You got to prepare yourself,
- 26:05even like the way we do sometimes we just splash the
- 26:08woods and we go, no, there is a process.
- 26:11Sister, before you, sorry, sorry before you, before you
- 26:14interject, if I can ask you what are things that has increased
- 26:17your personal love for soil? So for example, for me, things
- 26:21that improve and increase, you know, and shadow Milan, what do
- 26:24we do? We like beautify the house.
- 26:25Everything looks great and smells good and for me that's
- 26:28helped. So like a nice sajada as as as
- 26:31simple as I am, I like these simple things.
- 26:34Yes, a nice sajada, nice talk about.
- 26:36I like to listen to a nice Avan or do Avan out loud in my own
- 26:40comfort of my home. Sometimes when I pray Gemma with
- 26:43my wife, it makes me focus on it more.
- 26:45If my kids are praying with me, I think okay, I need to set a
- 26:47good example and pray. So is that maybe is a simplistic
- 26:51understanding and approach us a lot.
- 26:53But I think for someone who's struggling at home, if you want
- 26:55to develop a love, like a relationship of love, and I
- 26:58speak to myself first and foremost, start with that.
- 27:00So find ways to make it more enjoyable.
- 27:03Maybe some people put utter or wood on themselves before
- 27:06because you know, your mind just triggers the thoughts of
- 27:09spirituality when you enter prayer, things like that,
- 27:12focusing on your wood law. The wood law is the how many a
- 27:15hadith do we have? And I've just mentioned one
- 27:17about Woodall being the beginning of the prayer in a
- 27:20metaphorical sense. So yeah, what what what has
- 27:23worked for you? Is there something which is
- 27:25instilled that love for you and your heart?
- 27:28I would say the more that I invested in my prayer, the
- 27:31better and the more elevated my prayer became.
- 27:34So something as simple as, you know, investing in a nice prayer
- 27:37mat, which there's so many businesses now who are selling
- 27:40the overpriced. Just like, for example, if you
- 27:43were to go to the gym, you'd buy a nice fit, as they say, some
- 27:48nice shoes, a nice gym bag, and the same thing.
- 27:52Yeah. And the same thing you should do
- 27:54for your Salah. A nice prayer, Matt, a nice
- 27:56child wearing the best of your clothes.
- 27:58Sometimes I'm guilty of this. I'll put the nicest clothes the
- 28:01back of my closet whenever there's an event, not knowing
- 28:03that I should probably wear it when I'm meeting with my
- 28:06creator. So something as simple as that.
- 28:10The perfume that you mentioned, of course.
- 28:12But I think personally, for me, what elevated my Salah and what
- 28:16made me love prayer even more was just understanding.
- 28:19Understanding what I was saying because we could pray five times
- 28:24a day and still not feel it. It becomes very mechanical, very
- 28:29robotic, but only when you understand what you're saying.
- 28:32And that's why I will always emphasize for the youth is
- 28:35understand what you're saying. Even if you have to read a book
- 28:38or take a course or just especially if you're an Arabic
- 28:41speaker, just understand Sami, Allahu and Hamidah.
- 28:44What does that mean? Allahu Akbar?
- 28:46Why do I start with Allahu Akbar?
- 28:48Because God's greater than everything and everything that
- 28:50I'm going through is to put to be put behind me when I'm
- 28:54starting this prayer or even the sujood.
- 28:57We have narrations from immutable minion that speak
- 28:59about when you go down into frustration, that means one
- 29:02thing. When you go back up, that means
- 29:03another and you So just taking that, that, you know,
- 29:08responsibility upon yourself because our parents may not
- 29:11always do the job right. We, I think a lot of my friends,
- 29:17perhaps they grew up watching their parents pray, but
- 29:21sometimes it's a small things like you hear, I have to go
- 29:23pray, not I need to go pray or I want to go pray.
- 29:27Or when they're doing their, they're rushing through it.
- 29:29And even as a child, you see that.
- 29:31I mean, for example, the mother, she might be busy in the kitchen
- 29:35and she notices the time of Salah comes.
- 29:37Well, I can't turn off the kitchen burner.
- 29:38I'm going to have to pray really quick.
- 29:40So I think we have to take it upon ourselves.
- 29:44And sometimes we can't always blame the community.
- 29:46And you can have 100 different speakers coming in and speaking
- 29:49about the importance of Salah, but that can only do so much.
- 29:53You have to take it upon yourself.
- 29:55And I, yeah. And I grew up in Majidas and
- 29:57Hamdullah. I grew up with parents who took
- 29:59Salah very seriously. My dad has always been an
- 30:02inspiration when it comes to his prayer.
- 30:03He takes his prayer very, very, very seriously.
- 30:08But at the same time, even if you grow up in that environment,
- 30:11you're going to have to take it upon yourself because you can
- 30:14grow up in the best of environments.
- 30:15But if you don't take it upon yourself to go in and do the
- 30:19research and invest yourself, no one's going to do that for you.
- 30:22You know what I mean? And Hamdullah, my mom taught me,
- 30:25my dad taught me, but that can only go so far, you know what I
- 30:29mean? So if you take classes, if you
- 30:31read books, if you even if you watch short clips of how to
- 30:35pray, something as simple as that, I think that always has
- 30:39elevated my Salah and that continues to elevate my Salah
- 30:42Hamdullah. Oh amazing, We Allah protect
- 30:44your parents for you. And you know, you have the
- 30:46example of there's clips available to watch online and I
- 30:49and I I and that's something that's helped a lot of people
- 30:52correcting the Bobo pronunciation.
- 30:54So this is this is a good recommendation you gave.
- 30:57I want to add something to this conversation actually, and it's
- 30:59something that I believe it's one of the the core reasons why
- 31:03people struggle with Salah is that they don't understand it as
- 31:06it's, they just see as you have to, but they don't see it as
- 31:10it's if you choose not to, you are openly disobeying a loss
- 31:15upon the water Allah. And we know, for example, we've
- 31:18heard Daniel Handler, we've, like you say, we've grown up in
- 31:20these environments and we know we're from the Jafari school of
- 31:23thought. Imam Jafra Sadak, he says the
- 31:26Salah is the barometer between Iman and kafir, between belief
- 31:31and disbelief. So we're not saying those who
- 31:32don't pray Akufar, but the there's a, there's an emphasis
- 31:35on the reasons to pray, even to an extent.
- 31:38Ahmed, there was a hadith that I read.
- 31:42Imam, Imam Jafar Assadiq was asked a question, is prayer
- 31:49neglecting prayers more sinful or fornication?
- 31:54What did the Imam say? The Imam said neglecting praise
- 31:57and the guy was confused like Imam how explained and Imam
- 32:00Jaffa Assad that he says because committing sins such as
- 32:04fornication in this example, that was that of desire.
- 32:08Not praying is a choice. You are choosing not to pray.
- 32:12And so I think I think if we can come to the court like even it's
- 32:16like Salah, I still hate. Let's let's be honest.
- 32:19Let me add another hadith which reminded me of this.
- 32:21I'm not sure which of them. My name was Salaam, said it.
- 32:24But our Wasila will not be there for one who takes his prayers
- 32:28like, you know and you know, we call ourselves Hosseini and we
- 32:33say yeah, I'll beat my chest for the imam, but I'll be Hunter.
- 32:37Like we'll go. We know what I mean.
- 32:39We'll we'll be all in. How many videos?
- 32:42Let me ask your sister, on an average year, how many videos do
- 32:45you see on average of Hajis stirring the ghetto?
- 32:49Yeah, Hidma. Right.
- 32:51Like climbing ladders, rolling car.
- 32:53It's like the the level of but I'm saying people will go to the
- 32:58ends of the world to serve a Barbula Ali Salam as they
- 33:01should. Like this is court.
- 33:02This is, you know, identity, our DNA.
- 33:04But like, what's the point if the imams Salaam have told us
- 33:09that we will not do anything for you?
- 33:11Stir as much claim as you want. We're not going to be there for
- 33:14you if you take your prayers lightly.
- 33:15And that's why. You're worrying, bro.
- 33:17It scares me. Yeah.
- 33:18That's what it should lose. It scares.
- 33:20Me saying those who don't pray, those who take care lightly.
- 33:25It's even for the ones who do pray but don't give attention.
- 33:29Like that's the way I kind of see it.
- 33:32Like, you know, we, we, we will do Latham and we'll think of
- 33:36we'll cry when we hear beautiful poetry.
- 33:38We'll cry when we hear Mossaheb and all of these things.
- 33:42It does not mean anything. And I don't want to say this,
- 33:46but I'm saying that of course we know about Abdullah is the ark
- 33:48of salvation, the beacon of guidance.
- 33:51But what it's hypocritical for me to do all of that, to want to
- 33:56change the world. If like in the Quran, Allah says
- 33:59you cannot can change the condition of society until you
- 34:01change yourselves, what is the point?
- 34:03Like that is for me the most striking thing when I think of
- 34:06that on a day-to-day basis. Like, and you have to balance
- 34:10out, you have to have, you have to have the carrot in the stick,
- 34:14you know, the carrot in the stick, right?
- 34:16You have to have the incentive and the disincentive, right.
- 34:19So people understand the beauty and the reward of praying, but
- 34:22also the reckoning that comes if you don't.
- 34:25So. Yeah.
- 34:26I would say you got to choose your heart.
- 34:28You have to choose your heart in life.
- 34:29Allah, yeah. I mean, if you don't want to
- 34:32pray, you're choosing your own heart, that you're ruining your
- 34:37relationship with God essentially in this world and
- 34:40you're ruining your hereafter, which I hate to go there because
- 34:42I always say don't think of heaven or hell.
- 34:45But in all honesty, it does come down to that.
- 34:48Yeah, that. Is the only guarantee, and
- 34:50that's why we're. Right.
- 34:51But then when you choose to pray, you're also choosing some
- 34:54difficulty that comes with it when it comes to, for example,
- 34:58work. I'm going to have to sometimes
- 35:00for some youth, they don't want to tell their manager that I've
- 35:03got to take 5 minutes out to go pray or I've got to pray in
- 35:08front of a bunch of mixed Muslim groups and I'm the only Shia
- 35:12with a turbo. So it you've got to choose your
- 35:15hard, but at the same time, Yanni, I would say just invest
- 35:20in your relationship with God. Because I, I genuinely think,
- 35:23and I grew up with a lot of you thinking that if you don't pray,
- 35:26God's going to throw you in the depths of hell, which to a
- 35:28certain extent, to a certain to a certain extent, yeah.
- 35:31But we also have to rewire our mind when it comes to prayer and
- 35:36especially when it comes to God because God's a lot more
- 35:38merciful than we could ever imagine.
- 35:40And if they say that God is more merciful than our own mothers
- 35:43and just, you can't even fathom that mercy.
- 35:46So I think we have to rewire our mind when it comes to when it
- 35:50comes to pray, when it comes to our relationship with God.
- 35:53But like I said, you have to choose your heart.
- 35:55If you're choosing not to pray, you're choosing a certain level
- 35:58of difficulty that you're going to have to deal with.
- 36:00And if, when you're choosing to pray, you're also choosing a
- 36:02certain level of difficulty that you're going to have to deal
- 36:04with. But it's, it's, it's difficult.
- 36:08And especially with with everything that's going on
- 36:11around the world. Why is it difficult?
- 36:14Because I would say personally from my own experiences and what
- 36:18I've heard is that there's no flavor because it becomes so
- 36:22mechanical and it becomes so robotic.
- 36:24For example, fasting comes, Ramavan comes one once a month,
- 36:28once a year, right? So you get that.
- 36:32I would say that spiritual high. Yeah, is a yearning for.
- 36:35It yeah, there's that yearning for it.
- 36:36And, and the other thing is that, you know, some people
- 36:38might say, well, for Ramadan, we're meeting up with our
- 36:41friends. We're going to the Husseini
- 36:43after, you know, the vibes. Of just your brotherhood.
- 36:46But with Salah there isn't much in terms.
- 36:49Of lives, just to add to it as well, if I and I agree with
- 36:52this, the congregation of Salah of, of Psalm or fasting or Siam
- 36:57is it adds to the apparent beauty of it, right?
- 36:59The apparent. And I use that word carefully
- 37:01because in Ramadan you have 30 nights which are different.
- 37:04Everyone's in this together. We're starting at the same time,
- 37:07we're stopping at the same time. You have many different meals
- 37:10are adorned upon us and are in front of us.
- 37:12So every day feels like a new beautiful, hard journey, but
- 37:15it's short lived enough to enjoy it by the end and to forget it
- 37:18by the start of the next, if that makes sense.
- 37:20So with Shahid Al Mahvan, you're on this journey as a group,
- 37:23we're all heading towards Alas, Pantala in the same motion at
- 37:26the same time. And then, for example, with with
- 37:31with Salah, you're on your own. It's quite literally a personal
- 37:34journey. So you could be driving from
- 37:36London to Manchester and you know, it's, it's a 5 hour
- 37:41journey and you know, there are certain times of the year that
- 37:44say winter, where in that five hours you go from before the to
- 37:48quite literally after Maharan. And you're literally passing the
- 37:50Bahar Asana Maharan and you're approaching Asia.
- 37:53We've passed Asia in that one car journey.
- 37:55And you're telling me you're going to stop, you know, twice
- 37:57at the minimum to pray. I'm saying that these are things
- 38:01which make it difficult for people, right?
- 38:04So I'm going to throw, if you don't mind towards this kind of
- 38:06like last segment of the episode, I'm going to throw
- 38:09scenarios or circumstances towards you or or reasons why
- 38:13people have said we've had hundreds and hundreds of
- 38:16responses why they can't pray. And I want you to address them
- 38:20at home as if someone is asking you these themselves was telling
- 38:23you the confessing to you as their counsellor or their
- 38:27advisor or whatever it might be spiritual mentor someone who a
- 38:31reason why someone can't pray. The first one is sleep and and
- 38:37struggling to wake up for salata fungal.
- 38:40I can't because I'm lazy or I I I prefer to sleep.
- 38:44Salata had them in a knob. Do you?
- 38:46Want me to honest? I could be honest but it might
- 38:49be harsh. Honestly, the truth hurts.
- 38:52Set a timer, go to sleep early, stop scrolling on the phone.
- 38:55That's that sounds so I'm sorry, but it sometimes it's as simple
- 38:59as it's it. It honestly is.
- 39:00And I know you want to scroll for another few hours and we all
- 39:03fall into that trap, but you just got to prioritize what you
- 39:05have to prioritize. Set the timer, go to sleep, put
- 39:09the phone down and you'll wake up for Fedja.
- 39:12There are even there are supplications and there are
- 39:15specific verses of the Quran that you can recite to wake up
- 39:18early. I've heard this by.
- 39:19The yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it works do.
- 39:22You know what I've heard about something my mom told me I love,
- 39:24bless her years ago, like when I was young, make the near before
- 39:28you sleep to wake up and you'll never not wake up.
- 39:31And so such a I'm like, I'll just tell myself my brain, yeah,
- 39:35wake up. But it does work, by the way,
- 39:37like, and you get to that point like my mother or like there are
- 39:41others who they don't need alarm clocks.
- 39:43They'll wake up like their mind just wakes them up.
- 39:45You think a minimal million had an alarm clock?
- 39:47Do you know what I mean? I'm just quite literally saying
- 39:49like these, these are these are our infallibles who their mind,
- 39:53their body and their soul are yearning for solar.
- 39:55They're yearning for it. So they will not waste the
- 39:57opportunity to pray. Oh, we'll walk like that in the
- 40:00right opportunity immediately when they can.
- 40:02OK, I said, you've got another one.
- 40:04I've got a few. OK, I'm going to focus this one
- 40:09on a sister, if that's if that's OK As is, I'm on a sister asking
- 40:12this question because it does happen.
- 40:14And I think it's very common, especially at school
- 40:16universities in the workplace, is that they don't have a
- 40:18suitable place to do so. They choose to say, you know
- 40:20what, because I'm not comfortable doing with all in
- 40:23the workplace on the educational setting in front of other people
- 40:27all the way and pray at cover at home.
- 40:29Why is that wrong and how do you overcome that?
- 40:32That's a lot of questions. That come similar.
- 40:33It is difficult because I was in high school online.
- 40:40I was in high school online for four years, so I was in the
- 40:42comfort of my own home. So a lot came I'm putting away
- 40:45that laptop. Whoever's teaching, I'm telling
- 40:47that I'm going to go pray. But with university, it's 1-2 in
- 40:53the afternoon. Salah starts.
- 40:54I can't get out of that lecture or my lecture is during after
- 40:59Salah. And I do understand where
- 41:02they're coming from that the space, it might be
- 41:04uncomfortable. You got to take off your head
- 41:06job. You've got to and it and it, it
- 41:08is a big hassle, especially in the colder seasons.
- 41:11And it I would say it just takes discipline.
- 41:14Discipline. I think for me, honestly,
- 41:17there's that guilt of not praying.
- 41:19And there's this one line that Sheikh Al Meyahi spoke about.
- 41:23He says something along the lines of more adminiszara.
- 41:27And that has stuck with me with every little possible thing that
- 41:34anything that I do, the one thing that stops me is more
- 41:36adminiszara. Wouldn't it?
- 41:39Wouldn't that disappoint? So yeah.
- 41:41So now I'm like, I can't be in this class or for example, I'd
- 41:48rather go through an embarrassment than disappointing
- 41:50Fatimas. But I understand that not
- 41:51everyone thinks that way. But sometimes you just got to
- 41:53understand that at the end of the day, if Fatima Tzahat was
- 41:57here or Imam Hussein was Imam Hussein, who stopped the entire
- 42:00battle or delayed the entire battle or because of Salah, So
- 42:04what does that have to? We can't delay it just for a few
- 42:06minutes. I know it's uncomfortable and
- 42:08you have a right to be uncomfortable, but at the same
- 42:12time, God sees all of that struggle.
- 42:15Can I just add to that as well something which works?
- 42:18Especially if it's a workplace or university.
- 42:21Don't be shy to ask a person of authority for a space.
- 42:25Yeah. So in our workplace we have.
- 42:29It's a disabled bathroom basically, but no one knows the
- 42:33code in the whole building except me, my brother, my father
- 42:36and one of my colleagues to Shia and one of the other brothers in
- 42:40another company who's a Shia and Al Hamdallah.
- 42:43We're the only guys who have access.
- 42:44So we know there's this is level of pahada there as well and it's
- 42:48comfortable, you know, we can book a private room.
- 42:50Obviously it depends. School is very difficult.
- 42:53A lot of schools nowadays in the Western world, especially due to
- 42:58law, have, you know, freedom of religious belief and expression
- 43:01of religious belief. And you have the right to go and
- 43:04ask for a space to pray. If not a prayer room, go and
- 43:07ask. And a lot of the time these
- 43:09rooms will have a designated washing area or whatever.
- 43:13So yeah, I fully agree. I think that's a good one.
- 43:15I'm going to ask you another one.
- 43:17This is maybe more tricky for you as someone who's a bit
- 43:21younger, but specifically parents.
- 43:23And we had a lot of requests from mothers who have young
- 43:29children. A lot of people said if someone
- 43:31could take my kids for a couple hours, if someone could, you
- 43:33know, distract the kids, this that will have peace in mind,
- 43:36Peace of Mind and and opportunity to pray.
- 43:39I get that as a father of two young children.
- 43:43But what would your response to that be?
- 43:45In terms of them delaying their solar or not even praying at.
- 43:47All for someone who's struggling for that reason.
- 43:49How would you console them? It's, it's difficult not being a
- 43:54mother, but my sister is a mother and I understand the
- 43:57struggle because she went through a period of time where
- 44:00when her daughter was young, she felt so guilty for not having to
- 44:04pray on time. And even when she prayed, she
- 44:06was thinking, is my toddler going to run down the stairs or
- 44:08so I, I, I get it. And it is difficult.
- 44:13I could only imagine how difficult it is as a mother,
- 44:16especially with mothers, because the mothers, most of the time
- 44:18the mothers are with the children.
- 44:20Yeah, they are. I think again, you got to choose
- 44:26your heart if you prioritize it. I know that doesn't that might
- 44:29not sound. Helpful to do your best.
- 44:31Yeah, yeah. Even if that means putting the
- 44:33child right in front of you. Let them do whatever they need
- 44:35to do. And you have to pray, you know,
- 44:37And it might not be the most fulfilling prayer, but again,
- 44:40God does see that struggle. And that's the beauty of all of
- 44:42it, that regardless if you're struggling or you're not, God
- 44:45sees all of that and He'll reward you accordingly.
- 44:48Oh, there's reward in that struggle.
- 44:49May Allah bless our sisters, our mothers.
- 44:53There's I think this is important to mention and I think
- 44:55there was a lot that came in regarding this, which is I'm
- 44:59praying, but I feel distracted. I'm praying while focusing on
- 45:04other things and, for example, you know, saying Allahu Akbar
- 45:07and we're thinking about, OK, we need to pay that bill.
- 45:09We need to know respond to that e-mail to that work colleague
- 45:12and things like this. How do we get away from that
- 45:14state? You know, it's easy to say, just
- 45:16focus on the words you're reciting.
- 45:18Is it like you have to mentally prepare yourself before the
- 45:22Salah time? Because normally we see a Salah,
- 45:24then we get prepared. Yeah.
- 45:25But I think it has to start earlier.
- 45:27Starts before. I would say it starts before as
- 45:29well. I think it's all in how you
- 45:31approach it and your attitude. And I think even what you're
- 45:35doing before, for me personally, right before Salah, if I'm on my
- 45:39phone, I get over stimulated to the point where I go and
- 45:42approach Salah and I'm like, what was that?
- 45:45What was that real about? That or the LA to me, sometimes
- 45:48that happens way too much where I'm praying, I'm praying and I
- 45:51I'm like, I should be probably paying attention, but the LA to
- 45:53me in the background that I heard 20 minutes ago is still in
- 45:56my mind. So you got to it.
- 45:59Yeah, it you've got to figure out what works for you, and
- 46:03everyone is different. For some people, they'll just go
- 46:07alone in a quiet room. And that's me personally.
- 46:10The minute it hits like 20 minutes before so long, I'm like
- 46:12OK. Silence really helps.
- 46:14As well. Yeah, I need to be alone, even
- 46:16if that means just sitting alone and just doing Vika before you
- 46:20start, OK Or you're doing your beforehand.
- 46:23And like I said, it's all about the attitude, even it's changing
- 46:25the small things like I have to go, no, I want to go pray
- 46:29because you're rewiring your mind and that mental state when
- 46:32you walk in it makes a big difference.
- 46:33Couple things which which have helped me over the years as
- 46:35well. And this is at times where I'm
- 46:39praying well as as like a trend. And obviously I'm not always in
- 46:43that zone and I wish I can be more, but I've done in a karma
- 46:47before you start. Like I started doing that before
- 46:50every sell out quite late, but for me quite late, which is in
- 46:52my 20s, early 20s, late mid 20s actually.
- 46:56And then when I started that, I made life a lot easier for me
- 46:58because that helped me zone in. That's the first thing.
- 47:02Just be hard. Fatim Sahara Salaam alayhi live
- 47:05without bro like that's a that's a must, a must, a must, a must.
- 47:09And by the way, we grew up in the community, which obviously
- 47:12uses fingers as well. I'm the one guy in the mosque
- 47:14doesn't have to do that. So I worked out myself.
- 47:17So I've done divisibles of three, if you're good at math.
- 47:19So I do 333 and then I, I, in my mind, I'm like that's nine and
- 47:24then I do 273034. And then so I've got my own
- 47:28mechanism there. But you developed like a, a sort
- 47:30of chemistry with your Salah. So you know, like this is my
- 47:33routine. This is what I like to do.
- 47:35This is where I like to do it. It becomes something personal
- 47:38for you. It's your thing.
- 47:40No one can interfere. It's you and God, nothing can
- 47:43get in the way. She saw what I mean.
- 47:45And I think once you get into that, you're like, I can't now
- 47:48live without it. You know, you ask someone who
- 47:50goes to the gym five days a week or whatever, why do you go to
- 47:54the gym? That's for me.
- 47:55It's my time, mental health, body.
- 47:57There's like my uplift, my well-being, right?
- 48:00You ask someone who reads books before they sleep, say I do it
- 48:03for me. self-care. We live in a world which
- 48:06prioritizes self-care in the most hedonistic ways.
- 48:09But when it when it comes to loving Allah and putting on wise
- 48:13slam, so important because you're putting something before
- 48:15yourself as your Lord, your creator, when you're
- 48:18prioritizing your Lord, a last panel to Allah, Malik and Mulk
- 48:22before yourself, everything else as secretary, including
- 48:25yourself. And I think that's what Salah
- 48:27does. He teaches you to know your
- 48:29place. Your place is secondary.
- 48:32You're not important. However, your place is that you
- 48:34still feel like you're the only creation Allah spent Allah made.
- 48:38So in that zone in Salah, despite there being, you know,
- 48:42quintillion numbers of, of occurrences and events happening
- 48:46around you, which allies also simultaneously focusing on you
- 48:50feel like in that moment, a lie is only focusing on you and
- 48:53you're the only one focusing on Allah.
- 48:55That's the beauty of Salah that you have that one to one direct,
- 48:58uninterrupted connection and signal with your Lord, your
- 49:01creator, and you feel like nothing else in the world
- 49:04matters. So I think that's something
- 49:05which has helped me at least. And I think these are really
- 49:09good tips for sure. A last one for me.
- 49:14If there is something that you could maybe encourage community
- 49:19leaders, centers, leaders of organizations to do more of,
- 49:25whether that's speaking more about this topic, changing
- 49:28something in our centers, something as a youth, both as
- 49:31someone who's been, you know, through the struggles and may
- 49:34still do as well, and also someone who addresses
- 49:36communities around the world. What would that piece of advice
- 49:39be? What I've noticed is a big hit
- 49:42with a lot of communities is those workshops or their
- 49:44seminars. Those ones have been a big hit
- 49:47because you can address all you want in a lecture, but sometimes
- 49:51half of the crowd isn't even listening.
- 49:53To be honest, that's half of them are scrolling on the phone,
- 49:56on their phones. Other of them, some of them are
- 49:58staring off into space, which is normal, but you can only address
- 50:01so much in 40 minutes, in 45 minutes.
- 50:04And this is the first Mahadam where I've been giving 4045
- 50:07minute lectures and I go through the topic and I'm like, I could
- 50:10have spoken about 20 other points and I and I, I'm over the
- 50:16time limit, I'm 4045 minutes in. So lectures can only do so much,
- 50:21but I think if you take a more engaging approach, especially
- 50:25when it comes to youth workshops, seminars, short
- 50:29courses, especially if you bring in one of those big speakers
- 50:32that everyone you know kind of loves.
- 50:35That's what they did. With you, right?
- 50:37You're a big speaker. I want to see a big speaker.
- 50:39I don't think up there you, you create kind of that FOMO, that
- 50:45fear of missing out, that someone's coming to town.
- 50:48They're going to be giving these classes just for a few days.
- 50:51You guys can chill after and there's refreshments and snacks
- 50:55that'll bring people in. And I think as community
- 50:58leaders, sometimes you got to put your foot down and bring
- 51:02those. Even though sometimes donations
- 51:04might be tight or it might be difficult.
- 51:06We need to invest, especially when it comes to because prayer
- 51:09really does change you when you understand the very purpose of
- 51:13prayer and when you pray, I would say a spiritually high
- 51:16prayer, it really does change you internally and then it
- 51:19starts to create a domino effect in the community.
- 51:22I. Sent You Beautiful beautiful.
- 51:26Beautiful. Yeah, Really, really beautiful
- 51:27points. I think there's a lot, I feel
- 51:29like, you know, we have to work on a lot.
- 51:33And it's ironic that now as we're finishing, so a lot of
- 51:35time is upon us. So I think it's a good time to
- 51:36stop. However, Last question, two or
- 51:39three last questions. I understand you are an after
- 51:44market viewer as well as now a guest.
- 51:49So thank you. Obviously that means a lot to
- 51:50us. As I mentioned to you before the
- 51:51podcast that you know, we've been able to play hopefully a
- 51:53small role in your community work.
- 51:56Is there any specific episodes which stand out?
- 52:00Any conversations which you remember?
- 52:02Anything which you really like about the podcast?
- 52:04I would say I think one of my favourites.
- 52:08That has always stood out to me. Was there was an episode that
- 52:11you guys did about humility? I think you guys did it with
- 52:14Yasser. It might have been right.
- 52:17Yeah, the very beginning. Yeah, yeah.
- 52:21And that. One was one of my favourites and
- 52:23he was flying through that topic.
- 52:24It was a nice yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 52:29That one was a while. Back, yeah.
- 52:31Yeah, yeah. I think the first season a
- 52:33friend not mistaken, you guys brought in Maria Maheli.
- 52:38That was very early on, one of the first.
- 52:40Episodes, one of the first episodes episode and I was in
- 52:42because I've, I've always been a fan of her work, seeing what she
- 52:45does around the community, but also to have a female obviously.
- 52:50And I think there's a need for that and how she was speaking
- 52:52about female role models and mentors and things along those
- 52:55lines. And I think those were the 2
- 52:57episodes that stuck out for me. That's very nice because we
- 52:59usually get like more or less we hear the same names when people
- 53:05say, well, my favorite episode was with this share or that
- 53:08share. And you know, those episodes we
- 53:10do 2% of talking, for example, in 1% each.
- 53:14No, but like Mashallah we have, we've had an abundance.
- 53:17So thank you so much say. I think you've been amazing.
- 53:21You've given so much gem, so much treasures.
- 53:23I think that even young children, adults, wherever we
- 53:27are struggling now, a General Salah, there's always something
- 53:29that we can learn from. But I would say it's one thing
- 53:31to our listeners at home. If you know someone who's
- 53:32struggling, share this episode with them.
- 53:34Yeah, and it is subscribe that smash button.
- 53:37Smash that subscribe button. Smash that subscribe button.
- 53:39Subscribe. Yeah.
- 53:41Scratch. Thank you so much sister.
- 53:43Now God bless you always and inshallah Granny Mortal feel and
- 53:46more opportunities to serve. Hopefully inshallah we'll see
- 53:49you again on after Magleb. And yeah, thank you so much.
- 53:53Thank you. Thank you.
- 53:54It's been my pleasure. And brother, sisters at home,
- 53:56thank you again for tuning in. We will be back next week.
- 53:59As always, please don't forget to subscribe, like, share,
- 54:02comment and also support after Magleb.
- 54:04If you are, if you've got to this stage and you've benefited
- 54:07from this episode, please consider supporting what we do.
- 54:10We're trying to grow what we do, which hopefully moving into a
- 54:13bigger space soon. With your support, and only
- 54:15through your support, we've been able to start thinking about
- 54:18that, starting new shows, moving into bigger spaces, producing
- 54:20more frequent content with higher quality topics and stuff
- 54:25like that as well. So you can visit
- 54:27aftermarket.com/donate. You can also, of course, get
- 54:30your 15% off from therejectors.com and you can get
- 54:33a jumper like mine or anything else on their website.
- 54:36We'll see you next week. Thank you for tuning in.
- 54:38Salam Alaykum.