Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / Broken souls need Hussain (ft. Nouri Sardar)

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Broken souls need Hussain (ft. Nouri Sardar) · After Maghrib 🌙

0:01
Smila Rahman, Raheem Salallahu Alayhi, ABBA Abdullah, Salaam
0:04
Alaikum and welcome back to another episode on the aftermath
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of podcast. I really hope you've been
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benefiting from our week in week out releases throughout the
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month of Muharram. And we are approaching very soon
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the 40th of Imam Al Hussain and we've reached a point in time as
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Shia, we should be asking ourselves what have you really
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learnt from the life of Imam Al Hussain?
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What lessons can we take from Karbala, from Ashura and how can
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we truly live as Hosseini is not just throughout the months of
0:29
Muharram and Safar but rather 365 days throughout the year.
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I can't have these conversations alone.
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I learnt from my brother Ahmed and we are joined by a very
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amazing brother who means a lot to me.
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And Insha Allah, we're going to benefit and learn a lot from him
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on how we can for example, use Imam and Hussein to help us with
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the work called use Imam and Hussein to help us get along
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with life, real life struggles. And I can't have these
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conversations alone. And before we introduce him,
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inshallah, I need to introduce my amazing Hussein, your
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brother, my muscles brother, my my brother in service Salaam
1:04
alaikum. You know I can't have these
1:15
combos without you. I'm being very real.
1:19
But I feel the same man. I don't have.
1:21
A Hamdallah, I'm good, I'm good Hamdallah.
1:24
I'm proud of everyone. I'm grateful to everyone who's
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been engaging, who's been commenting, who's been sharing
1:32
your work and of course more than that, the amazing work in
1:34
the community across the board. So God bless you all.
1:38
We have a conversation today, like Said, Ali said, which is
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going to be really deep, powerful, thought provoking,
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raw, authentic. I'm looking forward to it, and
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not for the first time, or for the second time or for the third
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time. We did 3.
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We've done. Three, we've done 3.
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Nori Sadat Saddam, how you? Doing OK I'm doing that bro.
1:59
Thanks for having me 4th. Time a charm 4th time A.
2:01
Charm. I'm actually get a handshake on
2:02
this one. How you doing, Nori?
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You're well, good. To see you.
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Bro it was always good to be in your presence for some.
2:11
For some reason it gives me memories of our first day of
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friendship back in the day. I.
2:16
Love it. Yeah, there's a lot of nostalgia
2:17
when it comes, when it when it comes to, especially when we
2:19
come back to London. Yeah, there's a lot of
2:22
interesting memories. How is Muharram in the US
2:25
compared to here? Mine's such a depression.
2:28
I think it's, it depends where you are in the US, this is a
2:31
huge place. I think we forget that, you
2:32
know, whether in New York or Chicago or Dearborn or, you
2:35
know, West Coast Alaska, anything is different.
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Everything is different. Everything is different.
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And you have, you have, what's interesting about America is you
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have these really like you have these communities that are very
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like isolated, like in Utah, for example, Arizona, other parts of
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the country where they have very small but tight knit
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communities. I haven't actually visited many
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of them where I'm where I'm Dearborn, Dearborn's like Shia
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central, Shia central. So it's like there's so many
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Majalas, so many. 313. 313. What's I know about it, but St.
3:02
Ali probably doesn't. Why is the?
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Area code of of of of Michigan, specifically Detroit is 3 on
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three. No way.
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Yeah. That's crazy.
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So some would say it's coincidence.
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I would say it's meant to be coincidence.
3:14
No, Yeah, someone's who knows. That's part of the.
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Amount, you know, I remember hearing a lecture, I think it
3:21
was Haj has named Rajabali who said that, you know, we have
3:23
hadith about how the sun will rise from the West for the
3:27
times. And he was always saying that in
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my his perspective ones I guess in some people's perspective,
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what that really means is that the Mount Menin will rise from
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the West. Interesting in the UK or the US
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to help him Ahmedi in his in his mission.
3:40
Yeah. But Charlotte, we see the the
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brothers, the sisters who are doing great work in the US, in
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Canada and of course a lot of love for for aftermarket about
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them. We love them back and in
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Charlotte we will be back in North America at some point.
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I think it's great. Love that Charlotte, love that
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and love that Nouri. Listen, when I think of Nouri
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Saldah, yeah, my earliest memories of you link to
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Muharram, right? So obviously your work in the
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community, I'd say for whatever 15 years now has has revolved.
4:14
I want to say, yeah, let's say this revolved around thicker of
4:16
the Ahmedabad Ahmed Salam. So of course, the stories of the
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Ahmedabad, specifically Imam Hussein Ali Salam, mean a lot to
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you when you're in this period between Ashura and Arbaeen.
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And of course, Mashallah, you've been Arbaeen every or nearly
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every year, right? Yeah, since your revision.
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This is my revision since 2011. 2011.
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Yeah, Mashallah, Mashallah, Mashallah.
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I mean every other year. So in that period, obviously
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you're it's like a transitionary phase in terms of going from the
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heavy grief of Ashura. And then you're you're kind of
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approaching the season of collective action of Aruba.
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And that's the way at least I think of it.
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What goes through your mind when you think about what I've been
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through emotionally, spiritually and what I'm approaching now?
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I'm sure you guys will agree with agree with me on this, but
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I think what's beautiful about Muharram is that it revives the
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spirit. You know, you get the spiritual
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revival that you feel every single year.
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And in my experience, you know, throughout the year, you have
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ups and downs when it comes to spirituality.
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And always in Muharram, when it Muharram hits, it's like you
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get, you get to that kind of peak.
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And I always look at it like, if you're trying to figure out what
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is the best version of myself, what is the best version of
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myself as you Ali, as you Ahmed in myself, I think about what
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is, you know, what does God want from me?
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What does Imran Hussein want from me?
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And what is the pinnacle of myself?
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And if I was to think about it and, and, and really reflect on
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it, I would say the pinnacle of myself is when I'm staying in
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the shrine, for example, in Hararma, Aruba, in facing the
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Imam, because that is when you're at you're furthest away
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from sin. That is when you want to do the
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most for yourself and your religion.
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And it really kind of re energizes you and brings you
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back toward that path of the elevator in Salaam.
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Over the years, as someone who's Shia but also comes from a Sunni
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background, I've always tried to what juggle, but kind of like
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look at the different sides of myself, the cultural side of
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myself and figure out how does it kind of all come together.
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And for me, for example, like when I go to Centers for
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Muharram, Iraqi centers, other centers, it's always beautiful
6:24
for me, but also strange because I don't fully kind of fit in
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because then grow up around it. So I'm always asking myself, OK,
6:29
what's the correct way to, to commemorate or how can we
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explode from different angle, You know, how can we create a
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culture that has more accessible to others as well?
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But again, like all those, all that thinking and reflection,
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when it comes down to it in Muharram, I come to the the, the
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the real answer, which is to be a Hosseini, to be steadfast for
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Imam Hussein, to be going for Ziara, to be in a measures for
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Imam Hussein. That's the best, that's the
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closest you can get to a last one.
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As we as we see the Hadid that says that there are many ships
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of salvation but Monsein is the fastest 1 to reach a lot.
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Faster and widest. Possible Ali and I obviously we
7:06
we are close to off camera. We're obviously brothers, but
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the wider community know you for your poetry.
7:14
They know you for your books. They know you for your albums
7:17
back in the day, also for your podcasts.
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But one main major thing which I think a lot of people are
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learning about you the last few years is your film making work
7:28
and your your incredible talent. For those of us who worked with
7:33
you in the media space, we know that you've got Marshall like
7:36
immense level of talent and that and you've found a niche to be
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able to link that craft of yours in in filmmaking to the vicar on
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the Mossahib of the Ahlu beta name of Salaam.
7:50
And of course, you've released now Keys to Love.
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The key to love. The key to love?
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Which is a short film which you're, you know, I, I had the
8:00
honour and privilege. Of acting inside.
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Of yeah bro being a key member of the cast.
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Main billing. Shake my name out of the
8:07
credits? No, but what a beautiful project
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and like I remember a few months ago you sent me the script and.
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You have office the beginning I sent you the script straight
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West or do you think? Yeah, it was emotional, bro.
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I, it was crazy. I was putting my son to sleep
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one day. I was like ready to knockout.
8:23
1011 PMI was finished and Nori just as I was about to.
8:27
Fall asleep. He sent me a script and it was
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like 7 pages long. I read it, I read it and I
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visualized everything. And then when I saw the raw
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footage before it came out, I was like, Subhanallah, I feel
8:42
like I've seen this before because the script was just
8:45
exactly how I imagined it. And I was like, that is talent
8:48
beyond talent. And you were able to to show
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emotion in a very personal way. What was that film about?
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And and why did you do that? You put in a lot for those who
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don't know. So I'm just going to say one
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more thing I saw obviously the behind the scenes, you travel
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the world to film it. So you filmed in different parts
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of the world. You you put your own money and
9:06
time into it. You did it off your own accord.
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Feast Sabella. Obviously, I feel on a personal
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level that the community needs to invest in these kind of
9:15
things, get behind it, support it.
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This is how you present him with Hussein through real life,
9:21
contemporary examples, perspectives, emotions, and in a
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way which is engaging. Do you know what I mean?
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So just for those listening, when you finish this pod, if
9:30
you've not seen it, watch that film.
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But why did you do it in the first place?
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So for me, I mean, from a technical side, I'm always
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trying to people know if my poetry, as you said, which I'm
9:39
very grateful for, but I'm always trying to, I always feel
9:42
like my, the, the, my other, the other side of my creative brain
9:47
being the filmmaking side is never, it's never, it's never
9:50
really where I want to be. So I've always tried to find a
9:52
way where I can link those two things together, the filmmaking
9:55
side and the the poetry side. The stuff that I do on the
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filmmaking side, a lot of the work is commercial or it's
10:00
Islamic. But even the Islamic stuff, even
10:02
though it might be impactful, it's still very like.
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It's not you. Not me.
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It's like it's very traditional. It's like, you know, let's do
10:08
documentary about this Elevate, this member of the Elevate, for
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example, very historical, you know, go to the which is a
10:13
beautiful thing, go to the shrines and talk about their
10:14
life, talking heads, that kind of stuff that we used to do for
10:17
Elevate TV back in the day as well.
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But for me, it's like I want to make a film, and by film I want
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to make something that you know. Bring something to life.
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Bring something to life, but something that you can, you can
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watch it on on on a stream platform or in cinema and be
10:31
like that was a film high by high quality.
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Not just high quality, but the way it the way it moves you, the
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language of the storytelling. It's not very overt.
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You know, it's something deeper. It's something that moves you.
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So that was kind of like the technical aspect of it.
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On the other side of it, I'm like all of us, you know, we
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spoke about this in detail on the last podcast.
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All of us go through very difficult things in life, very
10:50
difficult things. And I wanted to create something
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that kind of acknowledges that pain that we all go through that
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we don't we want to talk about sometimes, but also do it in
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such a way where it gives people hope and connects it to Imam
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Hussein. The short of it is when we go
11:05
through difficult times, you know, whatever it may be, it can
11:07
be, you know, the worst things, the small things, you know,
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death, I think is a very big example of this, which is why
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death is portrayed so much in the film.
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Where does it take us? If we if we utilize it well, it
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takes us back to Imam Hussein. And it's almost like Allah is
11:20
telling us, you know, your love is only for Hussein.
11:24
The place where you find the mercy the most is going to be in
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the shade of Hussein. So that was always the, the, the
11:30
kind of goal, you know, that that was that was what I wanted
11:33
to portray. And the main thing for me was
11:36
like, even I'm spelling out now, I don't want to spell it out.
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I don't want it to be spelled out for you when you're watching
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it. I want you to watch it be like.
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Where is this? Where is this taking me?
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Yeah. And then when you finish it, let
11:45
me watch that again. Let me think about it this way.
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I want, I want it basically to linger with you and explore this
11:50
idea of longing. I think all of us have this
11:53
longing inside us where we long for things.
11:55
And that is really the antithesis of how movement
11:57
should be. I think we shouldn't long for
11:59
things in this dunya. You have to have to work.
12:01
You have to be content with where we are.
12:03
And I think that is the root cause of a lot of our issues
12:06
when it comes to, you know, the trials that we face.
12:08
We're continuously longing. We're longing for tomorrow,
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we're longing for that job, we're longing for that marriage.
12:13
We're longing for whatever it is we want to long for in life.
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And what I wanted to talk about was portray this idea of longing
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and how kind of how much pain it brings us, but also how it leads
12:24
us ultimately to the true mercy of Allah and the true love of
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Allah, which is the love of Imahassein, the door of
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Mahassein Isalam. And I wanted to also to linger
12:32
with you. So longing and lingering are the
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two keywords. You finish it, it lingers with
12:36
you. You think about it.
12:37
It's like when you watch a very powerful film.
12:39
The stage with. You, yeah, it's like, you know,
12:41
you can go to watch, for example, The Avengers or
12:43
something in cinema. Oh, that was a great film.
12:45
Yeah. But sometimes you go watch a
12:46
film. It's like, oh, that I'm thinking
12:47
about that now. You're right.
12:48
That was deep. So, you know, it kind of stays
12:50
with you. Thinking about two for four and
12:52
you. Know yeah that's that's that's
12:53
the difference between entertainment and art.
12:55
I want to create art something a powerful movie.
12:57
Those kind of films, yeah. And those kind of shows have
13:00
taken off because they're abstract.
13:02
They're dystopian sometimes. Like the reason why Black Mirror
13:04
and these kind of things linger with people is because it's
13:07
thought provoking, right? Like it's, it's, it's like a
13:10
real world but not a real world. And it, I know it's a different
13:14
type of emotion, but obviously what you're portraying
13:17
transcends the physical and the tangible.
13:19
It's a mirror to yourself, Yeah. It's asking you to look at
13:22
yourself, all at you. And why do you feel this thing?
13:24
I have someone very close to me who lost a member of family a
13:28
year ago. So this time last year.
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Yeah. And the bereavement process for
13:33
them was difficult. They told me when they watched
13:35
the film, they were sobbing before the end of the film.
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They were so in tears because it was very personal to them.
13:40
And they had their own connection to your films.
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I mean, oh, God bless you. And I love the way you, you, you
13:45
just it's cyclical. Like you bring someone's
13:48
personal stories back to about Abdullah and it's it becomes
13:53
personal. I want it to be real, man.
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It has to be like, like, it's not going to be.
13:56
It's abstract in the way it's done, but it deals with real
13:58
things with death, heartbreak, you know, with, with abusive
14:02
relationships. It's like this is this, this
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really happens in our lives. You know, it's really happens
14:06
in, in the people that were in the circles that were with, it's
14:09
like, no, this happens to you. But don't forget where it takes
14:12
you. It takes you to, you know what
14:14
I'm saying? There's a line in the, in the,
14:17
in the, in the poem, in the film, which says that, you know,
14:20
when you learn how to truly love, you never know who's
14:22
listening. And that's when it should cut
14:24
straight to, you know what I'm saying?
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Because like all this, all these trials that you go through,
14:28
they're just there to kind of break you down and break you and
14:30
break you and break you and make your heart soft.
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But the, the decision you have to make when your heart is soft,
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when you're in that position where, for example, you face
14:37
death, or for example, you face something else, which is very
14:39
difficult. It's like, you can like go off
14:41
the wall and say, screw this, you know, I reject everything.
14:45
I can't handle this, you know, or you can be like, you know
14:48
what, my heart is soft. I am now going to give my heart
14:50
to Allah and give Allah whatever he wants.
14:53
And, and the point I'm trying to make is that that's when Imam
14:55
Sein starts to listen to you. You know, he's there for you.
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And that's why I wanted the film to portray.
14:59
And hopefully I, you know, I, I know the person you're talking
15:01
about. And I hope that anyone who has
15:03
been through something difficult can watch it and feel that same
15:06
emotion. You know, I think I was reading
15:08
a very wonderful book called Tabin, which I really recommend.
15:12
And he says something really nice in the book.
15:13
He says, your duty is to give people hope.
15:17
That's your duty because the enemy, what they're trying to do
15:20
and by the enemy, you can kind of translate that into Hollywood
15:23
right now and media and TV, which we're consuming.
15:25
They're trying to make you hopeless.
15:26
You look at images, you know it's coming out of Gaza right
15:29
now and everything happens in the world.
15:30
You feel hopeless. That's their job.
15:31
They're trying to make you hopeless.
15:32
So it says your duty is to give people hope.
15:35
So for me, it's like I want to try.
15:37
I want to give people hope in the most beautiful way I can, be
15:39
it through poetry or with with remaking anything else.
15:42
I'll handle that. Again, like I'm really happy
15:43
that I made it. Like you said, I did it complete
15:46
my own accord and because these aren't things that our
15:48
community, I feel like funds at least, you know, based on what
15:51
I've kind of exchanged myself. But I hope it can open the door
15:54
to really creating things that are, you know, professional
16:00
mainstream, like made to a mainstream standard and moving
16:04
pieces of art. And Charlotte, hopefully.
16:07
And Charlotte Santos, you know, you, you, you speak about it as
16:10
if though it's it's the best thing you've ever created.
16:13
And no doubt I think there was a lot of passion, a lot of effort,
16:16
a lot of sweat went into this project.
16:18
May Allah bless you. And I encourage everyone to
16:20
watch the short film. And Charlotte, I'll make sure
16:22
I'll rewatch it to understand fully because now you're saying
16:25
it from this perspective, this angle.
16:27
And as you're explaining the whole work behind it, you've
16:30
mentioned certain keywords, softening of the hearts, mercy,
16:35
love and Subhan Allah just reminds you of this is all from
16:38
about Abdullah Hussein. Like when we talk about Allah,
16:41
we know the Hadith Habullah and Habba Hosseinah.
16:43
When we talk about mercy, we say you're Ahmad Allahallah.
16:46
Who is that about Abdullah Hussein?
16:49
Like everything with about Abdullah and God just goes hand
16:51
in hand. And then when you bring it into
16:53
your own work, it just makes it real.
16:56
You know, it brings it out. But you mentioned Tawakkul and
16:59
we've had previous discussions on Tawakkul before, and you
17:02
mentioned, for example, how nowadays, like society wants you
17:05
to be hopeless. How does the saying give you
17:08
hope? Like, like if if you're facing
17:10
something very difficult, And I know we've had conversations off
17:13
the podcast as well. And I think you can have some
17:16
great advice that you can give myself, Ahmed, and those
17:18
listening when you're, let's say, not at the lowest of your
17:21
low, but when you're at a point where you don't know who to turn
17:24
to, you know, Allah is there. You know you can rely and have
17:26
to watch from the idle debates, But what aids you or what guides
17:32
you where you can say, you know what?
17:33
I do my best and I live to God the rest.
17:36
How do I achieve that mindset? You know, I think trying to get
17:39
close to Imam Hussain is very important and you know, I, I've
17:42
been asking myself recently how can I get close to Imam Hussain?
17:45
And we can do that through doing Ziara and you know, dedicating
17:48
at hand, but also reading about him.
17:49
You know, it was a wonderful book which I wrote with me,
17:51
which I highly recommend, which is called From Medin to Karbala
17:54
in the Words of Imam Hussein. Amazing book.
17:57
This book, the author, the author is Ayatullah Muhammad
17:59
Sadek Najmi. It's a, it's a, this book is
18:03
like, I can't recommend it enough.
18:04
It's, it's, it's so phenomenal. Yeah.
18:07
It basically does make very simple, which is it collects all
18:09
the sayings and sermons. Imam Hussein from Medina to
18:12
Kabila. Wow.
18:13
So I was like, you know, I had this book in my library for
18:15
ages. Let me just sit down and read it
18:16
because I, I have to know this person I I I love so much.
18:20
And what's so amazing about it is it really gets you into who
18:22
Imam Hussein was as a person, His mentality, his mentality,
18:25
how he thought, how he was thinking and what he was saying
18:28
as things were going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:30
And the one thing that really got to me or the one thing that
18:33
I really like, like, like, like stuck with me was his Tuaka.
18:37
He's consistently, consistently saying, talking about Tuaka,
18:41
talking about what Allah wants will happen.
18:42
You know, we trust Allah. Don't be too attached to this
18:45
world continuously again. And you think, for example, you
18:48
know, you mentioned that what can we, what can we take from
18:50
trials and how do we overcome trials?
18:52
Learn from Hussein himself. He's he's going through the
18:54
worst thing in his in his lifetime, when the worst thing
18:57
that happened in the history of the world.
18:59
And he keeps saying the solution is to a cup.
19:01
I trust a lot. I feel like sometimes we don't.
19:03
We don't really understand him, he who he is as a man.
19:10
I don't want to sound degrading or disrespectful in any regards.
19:12
No, it's true because because we, we, we, we sanctify him,
19:15
which is important, of course, you know, through poetry and
19:17
everything else. But we forget that he was a
19:19
walking, breathing forget. But we don't.
19:21
We don't think. Too much of his tragedy is with
19:23
like we may think of the Imam Ali Salaam as the figurehead of
19:28
all the tragedies that happened around him.
19:30
Of course, he was the central, the pinnacle of all the
19:32
tragedies, the tragedy of Abbas, the tragedy of Zainab, all of
19:35
the companions and the family members who were butchered.
19:38
And, and it all comes back to him, the Imam on the earth and
19:41
the, you know, the one who's just a laugh at all.
19:44
But he himself, his, his reasoning, his rationale, his
19:49
ambition, what he set out to do, how he, how he feel the best way
19:53
to achieve it was and whether he felt that that was being
19:56
achieved. That is Manafort of the Imam.
19:59
So to know you're Imam and to not die a death of ignorance is
20:02
to know why he's doing what he's doing.
20:04
And Kullu Nah Muhammad. The Imam of your time will have
20:08
that same mentality. Now obviously there's a whole
20:11
argument here, a kind of philosophical argument of
20:17
whether the imams do things differently, why they do it,
20:21
this, that some rise, some, some subdue themselves slightly.
20:26
That is, as we've talked about off camera, quietive aquatism
20:29
versus activism. Different, right?
20:31
So some imams rose and Fort, some didn't.
20:34
Obviously. The idea being is that each Imam
20:36
did what the right thing was to do at the time, and had any
20:40
other Imam been in Imam Hussein's position, they would
20:42
have done the same thing. I don't know Saddam, but what we
20:45
know is the Imam of our time will have the same level of
20:48
Tawakkola Abdullah had, and that Tawakkul is what we try and
20:52
emulate in terms of the way we see ourselves.
20:55
Yeah, you know, speaking about that Tawakkul, I just want to
20:57
quote something from the book it's from.
20:59
It's full of jazz, by the way. Yeah, it's like I've highlighted
21:01
some stuff like. Look how look how much about
21:02
Abdullah relies to God the way he converses in supplications.
21:06
He says, oh Lord, I am patient with your will.
21:08
There is no deity other than you or hope of those who seek help
21:12
to me. There is no Lord except you and
21:14
no one deserves to be worshipped except you.
21:16
I am patient with your decision. Like look at these.
21:20
And he's saying he's saying it in the worst of times.
21:24
Imagine your lowest point, like all of us had low points.
21:26
Imagine your lowest, lowest point.
21:27
I can imagine my right now imagine what you were saying to
21:30
Allah in that moment. You know, let's be honest, a lot
21:32
of us be like you, Allah, you know, even though we might not
21:34
say Allah to other people, you know, to ask you Allah why,
21:36
Please help me out. Like, you know, I was saying I'm
21:39
I'm patient. I'm patient with what you're
21:42
giving me. I accept, I accept.
21:44
You know, if you remember the last podcast that we did, what I
21:47
spoke about was one of the things I mentioned was like, how
21:50
can we get to a place where we're not just, we're not just
21:55
OK, we don't have the logical, we're OK with what's happening,
21:59
but we're embracing it and we're kind of almost joyous that it's
22:01
happening to us, whatever it is, you know, and I think, you know,
22:04
I'm saying himself is a perfect example of that.
22:06
You know, it's like even at the lowest point, you turn to a lot
22:09
and say you know, you know better than you know better.
22:11
Than me, you know better than me speaking about this being in
22:13
this lowest point. I'll double up for me to say
22:15
this, but I genuinely believe Imam Hussein when he held, you
22:19
know, I need Oscar on his hands that to that to any father, let
22:23
alone say Imam any father. That is a point where bro, your
22:27
heart. You're finished.
22:28
You're finished. Yeah.
22:29
What does he say? He says if this pleases you,
22:33
God, take it. By all means, if this is what
22:36
you want from me, I'll be patient with this.
22:38
Don't forget what they said about him, they said.
22:40
We've never seen a man so composed seeing his family being
22:43
bushed in front of him. Yeah, yeah.
22:50
And I, I think, I think for us, like, like that's something,
22:52
it's something we hear about, we cry about.
22:54
It's something we need to kind of learn from.
22:56
And implement and. Implement, you know, always
22:58
being calm and composed about what's happening.
23:00
Do you know what? I'll be all because we hear that
23:02
a lot. We hear every single year.
23:04
But there's one thing hearing it and then another thing applying
23:07
it. And I feel like everyone who
23:09
hears this podcast, they're like, yeah, yeah.
23:10
Do you know what? Yeah, I'm going to do this.
23:13
I'm going to, you know, like they feel this hype.
23:16
Just take it a step at a time. Just apply it to something
23:20
because let me tell you from from the way I see it, OK, over
23:23
the course of history, millions of people have learned from the
23:28
story of Imam Hussein Salaam, how many millions of people have
23:32
become who they are as a result of him, of his story, his
23:35
sacrifice, everything he gave from something as as simple as
23:40
just an act of kindness. Even if it's one act of kindness
23:44
up to those who've given their lives for Allah and who have
23:46
committed entirely their souls to the the deed of Allah.
23:50
Even for example, something that they see in Karbala, they can
23:53
apply because there's a difference between like we
23:56
talked a few weeks ago in the podcast about goodness and
23:59
godliness, right? So the acts of kindness being a
24:02
good thing, but a godliness being something else.
24:04
For example, the, the, the, the small change of mindset and,
24:10
and, and thought process. When you see someone starving on
24:13
the street, you see an orphan, someone in need, someone without
24:16
access to clean water. And then they remember Imam
24:18
Hussein was approached by horn and his army, 2000 horses and
24:22
and soldiers who gave them water.
24:25
And he said, I'll give you water.
24:27
You wouldn't do the same for me, but I'll do it for you.
24:29
It's something like that shows that if this guy could do that
24:33
and he did it for a reason, that reason being his Lord, his
24:37
creator. You remember these things Allah
24:39
has. Obviously we don't get a party,
24:41
but Allah has different elements of his dog heed and his oneness.
24:46
You have his Jalal, you have his Jamal, you have all of these
24:49
different levels, the essences, the VAT, the safat, all of these
24:53
different essences of historiid. But something that Allah does.
24:57
There's things about Allah which are ever present in His essence,
25:02
right? For example, Allah being all
25:05
powerful, Allah being all merciful.
25:07
These are inherent qualities, essences of Allah.
25:10
Then there's things which are circumstantial, I should say,
25:15
for example, Allah being the creator.
25:17
You can create or not, it's up to Him.
25:19
You know what I mean? Allah being al Razak, you know,
25:23
al Shafi, all of these things are circumstantial.
25:27
And what you realise is when the Imam in different stages
25:31
throughout the saga of Karbala, when he talks about Allah and
25:35
even in the quote you just read, by the way, I was thinking of it
25:38
on a, on a level which is a bit deeper.
25:40
So for example, when he talks about Allah's power, he does
25:44
that intentionally. When he talks about Allah's, the
25:48
protection that Allah gives him does that intentionally.
25:51
It's because he knows his Creator.
25:53
So talking about Imam Hussain is great, his tawakkul great, but
25:58
he knew his Lord. So he knew the essence of Allah,
26:01
he knew the attributes of Allah. What's the point?
26:04
Like if you don't know your creator, how you're going to
26:07
know how to trust your Creator? You don't know him.
26:10
Do you see what I mean? So I think a big part of it for
26:12
us at least as as Hosseini's, as we aimed and aspire to be
26:17
called, is to develop a knowledge of Allah, Spano to
26:20
Allah, you know who he is and the attributes of Allah.
26:26
He is 1 in number and one as a composite being.
26:30
He's not divisible. All his qualities are there as
26:33
one. Do you see what I mean?
26:35
He's not sometimes this and sometimes that, but it's it's
26:38
amazing because you when we research and learn these things
26:41
until he'd we see that that in in their statements.
26:46
Do you see what I mean? It's like a crazy thing that I
26:48
on the learning process. I'm trying to go through
26:50
knowledge of God and how the imams Alayhi Musallam and of
26:54
course Musallam Muhammad implemented like that knowledge
26:58
in this. They didn't say these things
26:59
because they sounded poetic. Do you get me?
27:01
Yeah. It was all that.
27:02
No, I'm reasoning. Yeah, sorry.
27:03
Can I just? Add to that point, you know, if
27:05
we want to reach that stage. Yeah, it's that it's not hard.
27:09
It just takes willpower. It just takes the right
27:11
intention. Discipline, sincerity and
27:13
discipline. Yeah, of course, but discipline.
27:15
Not that we make a routine because we want to have Mara for
27:18
the laws of a jail and for us to reach that stage where like, why
27:20
did about Abdullah have full certainty?
27:22
Of course it's about swim and everything.
27:23
Yeah, but what was this? How did he reach that stage?
27:26
And how can we aim to reach a stage like that?
27:29
Is that, for example, bro, we got everything in check.
27:31
How was Salah's on time? You know we're not we're not
27:34
we're not messing around. Then when it comes to time
27:36
Salaam we take we say about Abdullah is our Imam not just on
27:39
our shut up, but every single day we had a life lessons from
27:42
him. Karbala.
27:43
The battle happened he was praying so a lot of time came he
27:46
prayed right. So when he treats Allah as this
27:50
closer to him than his jugular vein right.
27:52
How can you not rely on? You would not have that.
27:56
You would not, have you thought? Yeah, he knew God.
27:59
Oh yeah, he. Knew he knew who.
28:00
He knew who his God was. He was bro.
28:03
He was. I don't know the rest.
28:06
Fuck yeah. You called this all the.
28:08
Time yeah, I quote all the time. I think this guy doesn't know
28:11
anything. Bro come on man I.
28:12
Learned it from you, yeah. But anyway, what I'm saying is
28:15
he knew a lot. And The thing is that the
28:17
tragedy, the biggest tragedy of of Karbala, in my humble
28:20
opinion, is that he was just trying to enlighten people, bro.
28:23
He's trying to bring back something that existed and that
28:27
got distorted you and all these all these like absolute dogs.
28:33
I'm going to say it the. Horse were asleep at that time.
28:35
Bro, forget, you know, you know, partly The thing is, you know,
28:39
what's interesting is that when you read, when you read read up
28:42
more and more, you begin to see more and more things that are
28:44
just so simple. Like for example, I'm saying he
28:48
points to the people that are killing him.
28:49
He goes, their stomachs are full of Haram.
28:53
He's basically saying he goes because they eat Haram, because
28:55
they're not careful of their food.
28:56
Look what they become. So very simple lesson.
28:58
Be careful of what you eat because you don't know what
29:00
you're going to become. You know, I'm sure, I don't know
29:02
if you guys experienced it, but sometimes, for example, not that
29:04
you Haram, but sometimes you, for example, eat something that
29:07
maybe you not is not as halal or as they as you thought.
29:10
And for example, you might pray a bit later.
29:11
I don't know if you guys see a has a direct impact on your on
29:15
your on your character, even for example, the animals that you
29:17
eat, you know, for example, certain animals might be allowed
29:20
for you, but they have very bad characteristics.
29:22
Yes, you know, and they're saying.
29:24
You are what you eat. Tell them, tell them, tell them.
29:26
How are you 15 shot Bond or pod? We mentioned this.
29:30
Oh, this was a. Yeah, you tell them.
29:31
This was like a key highlight of the episode we had with same
29:35
Hamad Baker Kazwini and speaking about this point of the
29:37
stomachs, I followed Haram. You know, he took it a step
29:41
further is that the stomachs was not just food, by the way,
29:44
that's filled with Haram. It's it's.
29:49
The income, yeah, the income. Even if the income is Haram, the
29:54
food is slaughtered halal. The point was it becomes Haram
29:57
for. That was the point.
29:58
They believed in lala. They were doing the they were
30:00
eating halal meat, but the income to purchase that meat
30:03
was. Haram Wow makes the food Haram
30:05
bro. You know how mad?
30:07
And I remember I said to the state on the pod, yeah, I was
30:09
like I said, I've never thought of it like that.
30:11
I thought I just meant these guys don't care much of Haram
30:13
food. He goes no bro, he's like we
30:15
didn't call me bro, but he's he's like there's levels.
30:18
To him or push things into perspective.
30:21
Mom, I saw that. I think the point is that we
30:23
again we aggrandize this whole thing because we we sanctify it.
30:26
We recite poetry about, you know, we go to Muhammad.
30:28
It's this big thing by the same time, like we forget how simple
30:31
sometimes this is. You know, it's what made these
30:34
people go against it. What was it that made a whole is
30:36
what I think about a lot whore. What is it that makes a good guy
30:40
work for bad people? It's such an interesting thing
30:42
to think about, right? And that day he decided to make
30:45
that switch. You know, again, like it could
30:47
be maybe the food or the income that he's receiving was
30:50
different. You know, it could, it could be
30:52
something very simple that he's doing, for example, praying
30:54
Salat Leil every night or reading this door every morning.
30:57
That kind of saves you. You know, Imam was saying
30:59
himself, by the way, you know, you spoke about how each Imam
31:03
did something different. We forget again, like his, his,
31:05
his. I don't want to pretend to like
31:08
and I'm not professor or scholar.
31:09
I want to tell you exactly what the admission of was about.
31:11
But from my understanding, Imam Hussein, when he was written to
31:16
by the people of Kufa, it was wide behind the rise because his
31:19
people are coming and saying we want you to come and save to to
31:21
to help us. So as an Imam, as a
31:23
representative representative of Allah, it's his duty to respond,
31:26
right? Secondly, Yazeed, when he came
31:29
into to power, there's three things he wanted to do.
31:31
The thirdest case, me one, was he wanted to marry his aunt.
31:34
I know this is very common knowledge.
31:36
He wanted to marry his aunt. And the second thing was he
31:38
wanted to make alcohol halal or he consumed alcohol.
31:41
These two things, if the caliph does it, it basically Zawaj and
31:45
Muharram. So basically you marry people
31:46
that are not meant for you. One that creates a lot of issues
31:49
when it comes to kids and generations #2 alcohol.
31:51
If alcohol becomes halal, that also destroys society, right?
31:54
So his rise based on those and those.
31:57
Yeah. There was a third thing that I,
31:58
I forget, but basically it was about the society at large.
32:01
When we say what I'm saying stood up for justice and stood
32:03
up for reform, it was basically my understanding that society
32:07
was about to be corrupted, Islam was about to be destroyed
32:10
because the color for the time. Was at the peak of his
32:12
corruption. Right.
32:13
He was logistically actually destroying it through these very
32:16
practical ways, right? So as a result, he had to rise
32:18
up, you know? And the other thing was, it's
32:21
like we think about Tuaka and we think about what we're going to
32:23
do. I think when it comes to Tuaka,
32:26
looking at the sounds of what I'm saying, again, it's very
32:29
simple. Something happens.
32:31
He reacts in the right way, people write to him, He has to
32:34
react in the right way. A caliph rises up, does these a
32:37
few things. He has to react in the right
32:38
way. We are basically the pawns in
32:40
Allah's, do you want to say game in Allah's story, right?
32:44
Yeah. In his decree.
32:45
That's what we are going to do, right?
32:46
So even when it comes to like to work, can I think about this a
32:48
lot? I think a lot of our issues, I
32:51
speak to myself, I speak of myself as well.
32:53
A lot of our worries, a lot of our sorrows are because we do
32:56
not fully deep down tastes and appreciate to a kill as it as we
33:02
should. You know, we're worried about
33:04
tomorrow, the day after next week, a year from now, five
33:08
years, 10 years, bro, who said we're going to be live tomorrow?
33:11
Who said we don't know if we're live tomorrow, right?
33:14
All we have to focus on is today.
33:16
You know, obviously plan for tomorrow.
33:18
You know, God forbid any of us right now could die tomorrow.
33:20
So when you think about life like that, how can I now live
33:23
my, live my day and work my day in the best way possible?
33:28
You know, I'm not gonna die tomorrow.
33:29
If I, if I knew I was gonna die tomorrow, what would I do
33:31
differently? How much about it would I do you
33:33
know, what kind of work would I do?
33:35
How would I treat people around me, right?
33:37
And then if you make it till tomorrow, you carry on and do it
33:39
again, right? We, I really believe, you know
33:42
how we have that thing. You have one hand on the wheel,
33:45
you know, and you can like, you know, tie your camera kind of
33:47
thing. I really believe that it's, it's
33:49
closer to us having less control than we like to admit.
33:52
You know, Allah's in charge of everything.
33:54
All we need to do is just try our best.
33:56
I'm staying in a podcast. I'm going to try our best to
33:57
give you some sort of valuable information that I can right
34:01
now. Anything else outside that
34:02
outside this room, it's not in my hands.
34:04
You know, I know what's going to happen when I step outside that
34:06
door. You know, I also think about
34:08
this a lot. What we can control really is
34:11
ourselves. It's.
34:12
The present. Under the present and our homes.
34:14
So think about this as a kind of metaphor, right?
34:17
You're home to a certain extent. You can control, You can
34:20
control, you know, what's inside it.
34:21
You can control how it looks. You can control how you set it
34:23
up. You control how comfortable you
34:24
are inside your family. The second you step outside the
34:27
door, it's the Wild West. You know what's gonna happen.
34:30
You know, it might be the best day, might be the worst day.
34:33
You might be the best person, you might be the worst person
34:35
and you have to deal with it accordingly.
34:36
Essentially, think about that as a metaphor for Twerker, you
34:39
know, and, and trying to basically do the best with what
34:42
you have. And again, I really think all of
34:44
our worries stem from that idea that we just want to be in
34:47
control continuously. And Mahan Singh teaches us that
34:50
you have to let go. You know what we?
34:51
Talk about sorry, we talk about letting go so much.
34:53
Yeah, yeah. Let go of control, let go.
34:56
It's not up to you. You want that thing.
34:57
Who knows if you're going to get it.
34:59
You want that thing next week. Who says you're going to be
35:00
alive next week? So forget it.
35:02
It's not in your hands, you know, and I think and I think
35:04
sorry, that's very last thing. I think, I think again, the
35:06
reason I'm so passionate about speaking about this is because
35:08
last time I was on this podcast, I spoke about getting to that
35:11
point where you are content with every, everything, you know.
35:14
And I think the mistake I was making was thinking that I have
35:17
to worry about, you know, being pleased with it or being joyous
35:20
about it. It's not about that.
35:22
It's just about controlling what you can.
35:24
Yeah, that's it. No, this is beautifully said.
35:26
And my mind is ignited when you said let go because I have been
35:30
in so much situations myself where I'm like, I'm trying to
35:34
make things go a certain way. Yeah, or I'm trying to be at
35:39
work, be at home, be with family, even be with everything,
35:42
every aspect of my life. I'm trying to make it go sign
35:45
away, bro. It just doesn't.
35:46
The moment you leave and say oh God, this in your hands. 100
35:48
what that habits or 100% always. I would say 99% of the time it
35:52
goes the way you want it to go because you left it.
35:54
I struggle with that a lot. I'm going to speak on behalf of
36:00
people who are listening, yeah, but I struggle with that, man.
36:02
Struggle that everyone struggles.
36:04
No, we all do. That's the point.
36:05
Bro, I I feel I'm thinking of things happening in my life
36:08
right now. Things are my phone, things are
36:10
my work, things are my home, things are my friends, things,
36:13
my family, everything. I'm like, it stresses me out
36:17
thinking about. I'm sure there's people I'm I'm
36:19
the kind of guy I compartmentalize so.
36:22
I'm the same. If I'm in work mode thinking
36:25
about work, I cannot think about after marketing.
36:29
It. So you get me?
36:30
If I'm at podcast, I cannot, No, But you understand what I'm
36:36
saying. So if I'm in a place mentally
36:39
and then I get like a phone call saying this bill is due on this
36:43
day. Yeah.
36:45
I've been there bro. It's.
36:47
Leave me alone. I don't want to think about
36:49
that. What it comes down to is like
36:52
what you said, yeah, about trying to make things go the
36:54
right way. If, for example, a member of
36:58
your family, something bad happens to them, you want your
37:02
to do all you can, your level best to resolve it.
37:06
Anything bad, anything. Or sometimes you do your best.
37:12
Sometimes you submit. You just have to submit.
37:15
That's the struggle. I have the submission.
37:18
Yeah. The submission is for me, on a
37:20
personal level, the hardest thing.
37:21
You know, it is like The thing is like I've been there and, and
37:26
what I would say what I would recommend to you because this
37:29
really helped me. Like I've, I've really worked a
37:30
lot on myself to try and be in a better place.
37:33
And for me it's just like all you need to do is take one step
37:36
forward. This is a very easy, simple
37:38
example. The film, right?
37:39
I want to do it. I really want to do it.
37:41
I tried to get funding for it. I couldn't try hard enough, but
37:44
I was like, you know, let me just.
37:45
Stop. Who cares?
37:47
Let me just stop again. I don't know if I'll have
37:49
tomorrow. Let me just book the first
37:50
filming, write the script, book the first film, book the second
37:53
filming and things were falling into place.
37:55
You know, again, it's like, but for me, it's like if the door
37:57
closes, you know, if, if I, if I had to call 10 people for the
38:00
film, for example, and none of them answer for me, it's like,
38:03
OK, you know what? It's not meant to be.
38:06
Let me ask me a question here. And it's OK.
38:08
It's OK because that, that, that that idea stays there maybe in a
38:12
year, in two years, in three years, you'll do, I've had this
38:15
idea for like 5 years or so. But again, I know it's a very
38:19
simple example, but the point I make is that again, all you need
38:21
to do is think about the day ahead of you every day.
38:24
I heard this from, say, Mustafa Kosi.
38:26
I think I said it on your podcast, actually, no.
38:27
Maybe on Russell's podcast or song shortcuts.
38:31
I don't know who was. Behind the member.
38:33
Behind the member he says every day when you wake up, recite the
38:37
verse of Quran for a forward amarilla in the lah.
38:41
That's why I'd. I can hear that in his voice,
38:42
yeah. It's like I wake up, I say I
38:47
leave, all that is not Allah. I don't know what's going to
38:49
happen today. I'm just going to try and have
38:50
my schedule. I have my workload or today is a
38:52
a chill day or whatever it is, you know, even for like this
38:54
trip, for example, I've got a plan for tomorrow, Friday.
38:56
I've got a plan. Will I be alive tomorrow?
38:58
I don't know. I'm going to wake up and just
39:00
kind of see where it takes me, you know, and not worry too much
39:02
about it. Leave my message to our last
39:04
part, OK? So it's a dangerous mentality
39:06
because there there's going to be people who are home thinking,
39:09
yeah, it's sounds all flowery, but it's naive.
39:12
So for example, you're thinking about these things and there's a
39:16
difference between like between being naive and being Zahid and
39:21
being all of these. Different.
39:22
Yeah, absolutely. You mean?
39:23
Right. So there's guys who is like,
39:25
yeah, I'll take what God gives me.
39:27
You know what I mean? I'm just playing devil's
39:30
advocate. I know obviously what you mean.
39:32
You know what the keyword here is For me, that kind of got me
39:34
to this this based on my answer, your point is resistance,
39:37
meaning that we resist too much. So resistance, what I realize
39:41
goes both ways. So let's say, for example, you
39:44
really want a job, for example, it's a very poor example.
39:47
Let's say you really want a job. You really want that job.
39:48
You want it badly. You know you'd be good at it.
39:50
You don't get the job, right. Resistance comes in very
39:53
different ways. You can be like, you know what,
39:55
I accept I'm not taking the job. I accept.
39:58
I submit the will of a law, the job not coming to me.
40:00
It's not going to happen, right? But then when you leave your
40:02
house, whenever you've got to drive past that same place, a
40:05
business, you take a different St.
40:07
You know, you want to think about when someone text you
40:09
about the, the, the work. You don't want to think about
40:11
that that his name again. The issue now is that you're not
40:15
just resisting the fact that you know, you're accepting that you
40:17
didn't get it, but you're resisting the fact that you
40:20
might get it later. Does that make sense?
40:23
So resistance can be both ways. It's not just that you're meant
40:25
to accept what Allah has given you, but also don't resist what
40:28
Allah can give you. I think that's, and again, the
40:31
film for me, the reason I called The Key to Love is about getting
40:35
to that place of softened hearts and true love, because true love
40:39
isn't about resistance. It's about acceptance, but also
40:42
being open to whatever comes. You know, I know someone, I
40:45
don't know if I can mention this, I know of someone.
40:48
They went through a really, really difficult time in a
40:51
certain country where they saw their whole family get killed.
40:55
And they basically said that after that, they are no longer
40:58
going to be open to love. They're not going to, they're
41:02
not going to be, they're not going to get too attached
41:04
basically to things too attached to future, you know, family,
41:07
wife, kids, whatever it is, right.
41:11
And again, it's like there's a whole story there, which I don't
41:13
get into. But the reason I mention that is
41:15
because, you know, you can go for something very difficult and
41:18
you have that trauma, which is now pushing you away from any
41:21
future blessings and pushing you away from being with people that
41:24
you actually love and that they're actually with you.
41:26
You know, let's say, for example, a friend backstabs.
41:27
You say, you know, really badly. And as a result, you kind of cut
41:32
off Ahmed, for example, You're not, you don't get too close
41:35
anymore because you're traumatized, right?
41:37
Yeah. What you need to do, that's
41:38
resistance, exactly what you need to do is be like, you know
41:41
what? That friend cut me off, but
41:42
Allah's giving me a friend an anger.
41:43
Can you go back to your friend who lost his family?
41:47
It's someone that I know. It's not like a friend.
41:49
Yeah. But OK someone.
41:51
That you know, but. What?
41:52
What? What do you do in that
41:54
situation? Well, it's just a really messing
41:56
situation. Because how can you?
41:58
How can you? It takes, it takes, it takes a
42:02
lot of hard work, man. It takes a lot of hard work to
42:04
get there. And, you know, it's interesting
42:05
to say that because one thing I've been doing over the past
42:08
year is that whenever I meet someone who's a very content
42:10
person, I'm sure you know, people in the community that you
42:12
meet, you know, because they're just, they're so content.
42:14
Yeah. Not flowery.
42:15
It's the kind of wrong word. So, man, very nice.
42:17
Yeah. Yeah.
42:18
Just very calm, so spoken. And I always, I always ask them,
42:22
like, I always make a point. How did you become like this?
42:24
Because I want to become like that too.
42:25
Yeah. The answers I receive are so
42:27
interesting. One guy, for example, I was with
42:29
him is the and Ramadan. He was, he was a kind of big
42:31
guy. He was very, very calm.
42:33
I was like, bro, just what is it that makes you so calm?
42:35
Like, I want to become calm too because I'm a bit like, wound up
42:38
all the time, as you know. No comment.
42:43
He bowed his head And he's like, bro, you know, until that it was
42:47
like it was a Thursday until Monday.
42:49
Before I came here, I was always very, very angry.
42:52
Very. I was always angry and wound up.
42:54
But the second I came here, I decided to change another guy I
42:57
know again, same like I met him in in Iraq and he was so happy
43:01
and flowery to extend. I was kind of making fun of him.
43:04
Or how did you decide? I was like that kind of stuff,
43:06
right? I found out afterwards that just
43:10
literally a month ago, two months ago, he was in a really
43:12
bad car crash and his sister died, right?
43:16
The point being, you don't see what it takes to get to these
43:19
these points, right? And when I mentioned this story,
43:22
by the way, again, I don't know the guy personally and I'm not
43:24
going to pretend to do anything different that's in that
43:26
situation. That's a mess of situation,
43:28
right? But the point I'm trying to make
43:29
is that when you go through difficult challenges in life,
43:32
you have the option of closing off or you have the option of
43:36
opening a heart and really giving it to God.
43:40
And it's not easy and it can be a very small thing.
43:42
You might be, you might be a good guy, you might still be
43:44
praying, fasting, you know, trustable people still like you.
43:47
But maybe even deep down inside, you're still resisting, You
43:50
know, you're still like you still don't trust people,
43:52
whatever is or you're obviously you're not open to the best
43:55
things, the mercy of Allah. And that's not what Imam is
43:57
saying did because you saw even on day of Ashura when Hora came
44:00
to him, the man who cut off everything from him, who
44:03
oppressed his like, imagine someone, for example, you know,
44:07
shouts at your wife. This guy literally cut off water
44:10
from his family, wife and kids, right?
44:12
And he came to us saying, I want to forgive you.
44:14
Any of us would be like, you know what, I'm sorry bro, but
44:16
no, what I'm saying said, I forgive you and you're with us.
44:19
You're with us now and he's buried in Kabbalah.
44:21
Next thing is one of the commands of what I'm saying,
44:23
right? That's what we have to kind of
44:25
get to, and that's what we got to take from the lesson of, you
44:27
know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know, saying all of
44:29
these points, you know and you know, being Haram and Sunu
44:34
approaching the arbaeen, we remember the first steps Lady
44:38
Zainab Ali and Salam talk right When people reach that stage,
44:41
for example, they become calm or they change or they just leave
44:44
everything. Umbrella Allah and things like
44:46
this. It reminds you of say the Zainab
44:48
100% all that tragedy that she saw she says am I right Allah
44:52
Jamila like you for you to say something like that.
44:55
I think of it, Ahmed Ahmed, you already think of it like there's
44:59
contentment, there's to what call there's IE leave everything
45:04
in the house and in the hands of God.
45:06
Whatever happens, I accept. Like it's not just one thing
45:09
that leads you to say those words.
45:11
It's like you have to check box 10 things and to reach that
45:15
stage. It's it's I think you mentioned
45:17
that word submission. And that's what Islam is about.
45:21
Slam is the slim. It means you submit.
45:23
Yeah, doesn't mean the SLAM is a.
45:24
Piece that's you know what it's for religion that is that's what
45:27
it is yeah, it's. Just that's it bro.
45:29
That's it. Yeah.
45:30
You know what? Hold on, hold on.
45:31
You know what I'm saying? All we can say is that's it.
45:33
But that's what it is. That's it.
45:34
Yes, that's it. That's simple.
45:36
That's all it is. But listen, you know when when
45:38
you grow up here, when you hear the word submit submission.
45:42
People say everything by. The way right, 'cause there's
45:44
connotations of coercion. Yeah, of all.
45:47
Hold on, hold on, guys. If you're home, yeah, you're,
45:51
you're clocking. If you're watching until now
45:54
after.com, make sure you become a partner by our merch.
45:57
Carry on. Subscribe, subscribe.
45:59
So we're on the mission. 8 million subscribers. 8,000,008
46:03
billion 8 billion. Yeah, worldwide.
46:06
So by the way, I want to shout my good friend Nicole Milano, he
46:10
gave us some good tips so shallow.
46:12
We're implementing those as well.
46:16
So yeah. Anyway.
46:18
So anyway, where was that? Yeah, submission.
46:22
So submission, we always have connotations in our mind of
46:25
coercion or forceful submission, because submission across human
46:30
history has always meant like, I'm going to make you submit to
46:33
something which makes it sound like it's a reluctant choice or
46:36
reluctant action. Or you're forced.
46:38
Islam bro. Submission is voluntary.
46:41
It's wilfully. It's something you're doing
46:43
because you want to do it. You see what I'm saying?
46:46
And that's like a very hard place to get to as a human
46:48
being. Very hard place to because we're
46:51
not wide like that or condition like that society.
46:53
We're not. There's nothing voluntarily that
46:56
you will submit to in this life other than the things that are
47:01
intangible and not transcendental.
47:04
Yeah. Like love.
47:06
Yeah. So you'll submit to anything.
47:08
Why do people say I'll take a bullet for someone?
47:10
Yeah. Think of your kids.
47:12
Mashallah mail. I'll protect them.
47:14
But all of our children, young children, broke.
47:16
All our kids are under 10 years old.
47:18
Yeah. Children are pure.
47:20
They're innocence, you know, beautiful souls.
47:22
We would do anything for them. We would.
47:25
They are what we love more than ourselves.
47:27
We're grown men. We're, you know, we've been
47:29
around for three decades each, but the point being is now we're
47:33
at a stage where like, yeah, these tiny human beings would
47:36
give ourselves for their protection, for their future,
47:39
for their, for, for their potential, right?
47:41
That is, that is submission to to love for them, but that is
47:46
nothing compared to submission to love for Allah.
47:49
She saw what I'm saying. And the pinnacle example, the
47:52
prime example of that. Is the Mother's Day, you know,
47:57
like when it comes to like understanding who I'm saying was
48:00
and specifically whose companions were what, whose
48:02
companions were. And I guess sometimes I think
48:05
about some people, you know, you know what I'm speaking about
48:08
when you go to Kabul and Najaf, different types of people live
48:10
there, good, bad, liberal, conservative, you know, because
48:13
it's a very diverse society. But this when you find more
48:16
meaning in these, in these, in these cities, this is kind of,
48:19
you know, people have, but they're very and they've got
48:22
great energy, but they're also like they've got a bit of grit
48:24
to them, though you can't mess around with them.
48:26
You don't need to say the wrong thing to them, because they'll
48:28
eat you alive. But they're grounded.
48:30
But they're very grounded in themselves.
48:31
They're men. They control themselves, you
48:34
know, They're very, you know, they're very loving.
48:37
They're very generous. And I think to myself like a
48:41
mote man who lives there, there's no way that you do Ziara
48:45
every single day or every other day.
48:47
And Imam Hussein himself doesn't kind of rub off on you.
48:49
His energy doesn't, you know, you don't, you don't become like
48:52
him, you know, So sometimes I think about, you look at these
48:54
people and you can imagine people in your minds like real,
48:57
real what meaning real selfless people who are beyond us, but
49:01
practical, physical people you can say Salaam to and how you
49:03
know all that stuff. I really feel like that is how
49:06
Imam Hussein's companions were or that is how Imam Singh
49:09
himself was, you know, a very grounded person, you know, a
49:13
very a man who of, of, of, of immense to work.
49:16
But at the same time he can fight if he needs to, you know,
49:20
And I think what that kind of shows us is that is how you have
49:23
to become as a person. That's a practical example of
49:26
what you can work towards even in Gaza right now.
49:29
You know, if put a side cover on the Jeff, how many videos have
49:31
you seen coming out of Gaza of a guy whose house has got bombed
49:33
and his kids got killed or worse?
49:37
And he's like Hamdullah, We don't, we don't, we don't
49:41
complain. Like what does it take to get
49:44
there? You know, and that is really
49:46
what we have to strive to kind of become in every single way
49:50
that we can. And like you said, it's about
49:51
getting to know Allah, getting to know Mahamsein and even
49:54
practically, for example, like we have so many to us that we
49:57
should really dedicate our time to.
49:59
You know, I started reciting used to share based off your
50:01
podcast but I think you mentioned it one of your
50:03
podcasts. Mohammed's recommendation?
50:05
Yeah, every week, bro. Not that I do every day.
50:08
Try reciting every day, every day, every morning.
50:11
Oh my. The things, the things you see
50:14
in life, it's like things. Things just kind of fall into
50:16
place. It's crazy, bro.
50:17
The biggest crazy crazy to get back to that, but the broadest
50:20
spiritual time around in my life was when I was.
50:22
Rose since that's because I read about Alice hadith where he says
50:24
the prophet told me to recite it every morning and night so once
50:27
I started doing it almost every day.
50:28
Changed everything. It's not that a changes thing,
50:30
this thing just start to fall into place.
50:32
Yeah. Do you see everything
50:33
differently? Yes.
50:34
They give you clarity on life. Yes.
50:36
Yeah. 100% even if in real terms things don't change, they do
50:40
change to you. They change internally.
50:41
They change internally. They change internally.
50:43
It's like you, you, you know when you wear a pair of
50:45
sunglasses, your vision changes, right?
50:48
It's perspective, right? You can see things, but the
50:50
vision is different. Aside from that, the armature,
50:52
the armature, the reason I recommend the amateur is that
50:55
sometimes we forget that a lot of the issues that we go in
50:58
life, a lot of trials we go for life, are from our own sense.
51:00
You know, it is said, don't I miss quite anything, but it's
51:03
said that a lot of what we go through, especially actually, I
51:05
think maybe people generally is because of our own deeds.
51:07
So for example, they say that I read a hadith or I heard a
51:10
hadith in lecture that the reason Yaqob was taken, Yusuf
51:14
was taken from Yaqob is because he didn't commit a sin, but
51:17
because he didn't share his food properly or something like that.
51:19
So after Yaqob was taken, he made sure that there was an
51:22
announcer every day saying who wants to come eat with us,
51:24
basically showing you that everything that we go through,
51:26
all the difficulties we go through because of our, our,
51:29
our, our misdeeds and our sins. Which means that, you know, if
51:33
you're depressed out there, anyone's listening who's
51:34
depressed, who got anxiety. A lot of people, a lot, a lot of
51:37
us are. Sometimes you have to be
51:39
steadfast and it's too far because we're, we're being
51:43
punished, you know, for the sins that we've committed.
51:46
And Dharmajir is the way to alleviate that.
51:49
Dharmajir even even Josh and Kabir, by the way, you can sit,
51:54
you can sit by yourself and finish it in half an.
51:56
Hour. You know what the each star
51:58
doesn't each star have like a special feeling for you?
52:01
100% but like, if you implement it in your life, like generally,
52:04
generally do alongside reciting Quran, you know, we, we hear
52:07
these things again, we hear that the Imam spent hours on the
52:09
Prem, you know, praying to Allah.
52:11
We hear what you think, Oh, that's very nice, That's very
52:12
cute. One day I'll become like that,
52:14
you know, but it's not just that you're using it to worship
52:17
Allah. It has an immense benefit on you
52:19
as a person. You know, you want to break that
52:21
ego, you want to get to a point of twerkill.
52:23
You know, these are the tools that you can use to do that.
52:25
And the proof of that is that Imam Hussein up until his last
52:28
moment was continuously supplicating to Allah,
52:31
continuously reciting things that we can recite right now,
52:33
you know, continuously saying Allah, I trust you, you know,
52:35
always hanging his hands to Allah and were saying he spent
52:37
the last night of his life before Asherah doing what in
52:41
Ahmad. He specifically requested that
52:44
that time so he can spend that time.
52:45
All of them were saying Quran and they say, you know, for
52:47
example, the they said the the camp of Hussain sound like the
52:50
buzzing of bees. I was very lucky to go to this
52:54
is the best night of my life, hands down.
52:57
Later Cutter in the shrine of Hussain, 23rd of Ramadhan in the
53:01
shrine of Hussain. I went there and I saw the
53:04
shrine was packed like this. Just the people who are sitting
53:08
down with the Qurans and then photogenans just reciting da
53:11
just doing Salah. And it sounded literally like
53:14
the buzzing of bees. And it reminded me of the evil
53:17
Ashura when the companions were sat there and, and, you know,
53:20
and basically giving the lives of what I'm saying, meaning that
53:22
any of us really, if we work on ourselves and we become like
53:25
that, any of the people who went inside that shrine, excluding
53:28
myself, can become of the answer of what I'm saying can be the
53:31
changes of what I'm saying. You know, these are again,
53:33
practical ways where we can use them all saying to get to a
53:36
point of, of twerkle. And, and, and I want to be very
53:40
cautious here. I don't want to say happiness
53:42
because I don't think there's a way we can ever be 100% happy.
53:45
Life is 2 days, as my ID says, one day is for you.
53:49
One day is against you. Today I'm in a good mood.
53:51
Be upset. Being content.
53:55
Being content. True happiness isn't happiness.
53:58
True happiness comes from contentment because you really
54:00
want something stupid. Example a phone or a car.
54:03
You get it happy for a day, a week, a month in law.
54:07
You want marriage? You get it.
54:09
Give it some time. You want kids, you get it.
54:11
When your son 20 years old and it's difficult to deal with, you
54:14
kind of forget what you're praying for before.
54:16
Happiness is an impossible thing to chase, but content?
54:19
What you can get awful contentment should be a primary
54:21
daughter because you don't know really what you want, but you
54:25
know that you want to be in a place where you're grateful for
54:27
what you've got. But you don't have to.
54:28
This is this point I try make is you don't have to worry about
54:30
what you want. You don't have to worry too much
54:32
about what you're going to get. You have to worry too much where
54:34
you going to be. And I think the more you get to
54:35
that stage, the more you do our changes because what you want
54:40
becomes immaterial. Yeah.
54:41
You start to pray for things that are immaterial.
54:43
You don't pray for things. He knows how you're going to be
54:46
most comfortable in your life. Yeah, of course, You know, be at
54:48
home or what job you get or where you live in the world.
54:50
You know, can I, can I ask something to both of you, you
54:52
know, speaking about being content and you're giving
54:55
examples of iPhone or things like this.
54:56
I'm not saying this is what we pray for, but generically like
54:59
if, if I, if I can be honest here, majority of my praise, if
55:03
I pray, I never ask for anything specific.
55:06
I say, for example, if if this is good for me, I want to give
55:11
it to me. Like is this how is this the
55:14
mindset that everyone else has or do people?
55:16
Say you're just special. No, I mean, one, I'm being, I'm
55:20
being very on trend, you know, Subhan alive Even this causes me
55:23
trouble sometimes at home. Everywhere SO.
55:25
Someone says, you know what, Ali, pray for us that I'll say
55:28
if it's good for you or. You know, I'll, I'll give it.
55:30
To you like, no pray, I want it. It's so funny because I was in
55:33
the shrine few months just for Madan Shaban.
55:35
I was in the shrine and a friend of mine from Dearborn was there,
55:41
Sadiq, he's watching my guy from Dearborn come upon though, and
55:47
dramatic Shazia. So yeah.
55:53
So I have this thing where when I go to try to ask for
55:56
everything, every big and the small, every, everything.
55:59
And then he was like, I stay, I can't do that.
56:02
I was like, why? He goes, you know, I'm not going
56:04
to go to mom asking for like, you know, small things here.
56:06
I said, Bill, I guess it's worse.
56:07
This is my me saying my own, my own mouth.
56:10
It's worse that you want something and you don't go to
56:12
Mahsayin. You tell yourself I can get it
56:14
myself. You want a job, you try you, you
56:18
want a job, you go apply for ACV and you say I can do this.
56:20
It's almost like you're saying I can do it that Mahsayin and
56:22
Mahsayin Abuna. But do you have Mahsayin Abuna?
56:24
Mahsayin's our father. You know, we go to him for
56:26
everything, every issue, every problem, everything we want in
56:30
life, you know, anything we need.
56:33
I believe, again, everyone's different.
56:35
I believe we should go to the grave. 1 Singer asking for what
56:37
for? Parlors, not just to ours and
56:39
hajas. And speak them.
56:40
Speak even in your like, whatever, wherever you find
56:45
yourself. I for me personally, if, if, if,
56:48
if I'm feeling low, yeah. If I'm going through something
56:51
that's serious, that's affecting my home, my mental state,
56:54
whatever is, all I need is to head number Abdullah.
56:57
And it fixes me, bro. It fixes you.
57:00
You don't need anything else. Speaking about Ziara, when you
57:02
go to the shrine and you feel the serenity and the peace and
57:05
the sukoon you have in the heart, if I'm honest.
57:09
I don't, I don't think what you said here, if I'm going to be
57:11
no, I don't do that. Yeah, a lot of people don't, by
57:14
the way. My mind's not there, bro.
57:17
I'm in front of the imam because.
57:19
You're you're, you're a pure person than me.
57:21
That's why bro. No, no, no, not even that.
57:24
Not even that. When, if and when I ask for
57:26
things, if I'm honest, I'm asking for like, this is me on a
57:30
personal level. Yeah, I think about people.
57:33
So I think about I love, protect my family, protect my loved
57:35
ones, protect this person, this person, this person.
57:38
Give them what's good for them, like you said.
57:40
But for me or myself, if I, like you, gave the example of a job
57:44
or a phone or a car or whatever it is.
57:46
Yeah, Those things don't really cross my mind, bro.
57:50
I'm coming to the plains of Karbala, bro.
57:52
Yeah, I'm standing. I'm not.
57:54
Saying you're going as a business transaction.
57:57
I have a list of things asking for.
57:58
You're saying you? Know you're still there to
57:59
watch. Online you're saying normalize
58:02
the the the wasila of the Imam? No, as it what I'm saying is
58:05
there's there's different things doing that again there with him
58:11
reading Ziara. But again, like if there's
58:13
anywhere to go or you need to speak, forget, forget, forget.
58:17
Asking for things are very it's. The best, best place to ask?
58:19
No, forget asking. Forget asking inside to speak
58:22
about your issues in life, whatever.
58:24
They are that I agree with. Whatever they are, there's no
58:26
better place to be then with your Imam, you know, and, and I
58:30
used to think I was somewhat crazy by standing there.
58:32
We were speaking to, to, to, to the grave.
58:34
Until I hear stories about people who do this a lot.
58:36
Say, for example, I heard he stands by the, the grave.
58:39
He speaks for like half an hour just speaking to him.
58:41
What I'm saying, just speaking. There's a lot of scholars that I
58:43
know say Bacchus other, for example, whenever he had a fat
58:46
weight, he couldn't figure out the answer.
58:48
He'll go sit in the shrine. I think it was nature for
58:49
Kabbalah until the answer comes to him.
58:51
You know, there's a lot of people that we hear from
58:53
history, you know, you know, from our community that have
58:56
that they have issues. They need to figure they need to
58:58
figure things out. They'll go to the shade of the
59:00
Imam because ultimately, bro, the Imam is not dead.
59:03
The Imam is not dead. If he was alive and you had an
59:05
issue and you needed something or guide, you need some sort of
59:07
guidance. Where do you go?
59:08
You go to him. And even when you do ask for
59:09
stuff, by the way, it's still with that I said, I said if it's
59:13
good for me, you know what's best for me, give me what's best
59:16
help. Me.
59:16
But we should be doing that. I mean I.
59:18
Mean it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like
59:20
planning your whole year and the Dome of the.
59:23
But I mean, obviously, 15th Shaaban every year we do.
59:26
And I don't know about Iraqi culture, if I'm honest, but in
59:29
our culture we do the Ariza thing.
59:31
You know about Ariza, You write your ariza, you write your
59:33
message to the Imam of the time. And we here on a daily talk to
59:37
the Imam, talk to the Imam, Imam al Mehdi, talk about your
59:41
problems, your issues with the Imam.
59:42
He's the Imam of your time. He's living Imam, your Hodger
59:45
like he's there for you to help you, to aid you, to assist you.
59:48
So I feel like that that that talking process should be very
59:53
normalized. We did the podcast two years ago
59:55
and said Ali, Ali, it was called Mathy is calling.
59:57
Will you pick up basically cheesy tiles?
1:00:03
But no, the context being. What's your verbal relationship
1:00:07
like with Imam? Yeah, and like I said earlier,
1:00:11
Colin Muhammad, bro, you talk to Imam and Mehdi, talk to Imam
1:00:14
Hussein, talk to Sallallah. You're talking to the athletes
1:00:17
of Salaam. I have a friend who says his
1:00:19
dad, every morning he speaks to the imam and just tells him what
1:00:23
he's going to do on this day. Yeah, he says, you know, I'm
1:00:25
going to do this, normalize my just.
1:00:27
Yeah, I thought such a beautiful thing because it creates that.
1:00:29
Connection with you. You can, you can lose people
1:00:32
like like the the the dear brother who lost his family
1:00:35
members, may Allah bless them and you know their souls.
1:00:38
Or you can either lose people or you can lose hope in people.
1:00:42
So either you're cut off from them or you're betrayed by them.
1:00:46
You will never lose your Lord. You'll never lose the ones who
1:00:50
your Lord appointed. These are these are things which
1:00:53
will stay with you. They will be there for you from
1:00:55
start to finish. And the only hope we have is
1:00:58
that we get to the end of our lives.
1:00:59
So whenever that is tomorrow or in 50 years time or whatever it
1:01:02
is, but at our last breath, we're at a much greater point
1:01:06
than where we are now. Yeah.
1:01:08
Shot Allah. Becoming so Allah can take us
1:01:12
all back, that's always the goal, right?
1:01:14
That's always the goal. Get to.
1:01:15
Say Allah humala to horizna when Hadi haddonia hatta talba and
1:01:20
these things are important. Now you're speaking about death
1:01:23
right now and we always say, you know, we, we, we answer the call
1:01:27
like Becca Hussein, you know, later, no, Malcolm Rojiwa
1:01:31
things. I think these are statements.
1:01:33
If we don't just say them, we start thinking about what we're
1:01:35
saying. It will change our perspective.
1:01:38
It will change our life, our mindset, and not just ourselves.
1:01:41
I think it will positively impact our families, our
1:01:45
community, our future offspring, because it starts here.
1:01:50
It starts in the heart or just in the mind and notice because
1:01:52
wanting something, no submission.
1:01:55
It's the reliance of Allah. It's as you said, speaking with
1:01:59
your Imam. These are something we can do
1:02:01
with imams. He's our living Imam.
1:02:04
Talk to him, as you said, 15 Shaaban, write a letter to your
1:02:07
imam. Yeah, why we were not doing
1:02:09
this, just normalizing it. This.
1:02:11
Is the thing because people find it cheesy?
1:02:13
Yeah, don't find it cheesy. Thing.
1:02:14
Yeah, yeah. We can't find it.
1:02:16
Cheesy. Why are you paying some guy £150
1:02:19
an hour to vent about your marital issues?
1:02:20
Bro. Get on the prayer mat.
1:02:22
I'm not even joking bro. No, he's right.
1:02:24
Get on the prayer mat. Go to your Lord.
1:02:25
Talk to your imam. Do you see after Salah the best
1:02:28
thing? My love, Bless my my parents, my
1:02:31
grandparents. One of the best things which we
1:02:35
were embedded in from young ingrained in from young, even
1:02:38
our communities after your Sonar Dusiana face the Qibla Dusi out
1:02:43
of the 14 months, so mean and their companions and everyone,
1:02:47
but make that a habit because what you're you're continuously
1:02:50
giving your Salaam to at least 14 individuals who's widened for
1:02:54
them to say like Salaam five times a day, bro, it just
1:02:57
changes your perspective on things.
1:02:58
Well, no, in the beginning of the podcast, I'll talk about how
1:03:00
like Mohammed kind of like recenters you and brings you
1:03:03
back to the grounds you more. And over the years, like what
1:03:05
I've found is that not every year, but some years, many years
1:03:08
ago toward Muharram, I'll be like, you know, what am I doing?
1:03:11
You know, like, again, like just trying to find alternate ways to
1:03:14
kind of ease myself and make myself calm, be it through like,
1:03:16
you know, as you said, like mental health therapy or
1:03:18
whatever it is or different things that our culture kind of
1:03:21
dictates to us that we should be doing in order to be happy or
1:03:26
content. But really true.
1:03:27
But our moms, again, like it's sometimes we find it cheesy.
1:03:30
You might not say out loud, we find it cheesy, you know,
1:03:33
hearing imams saying, for example, when that is what it's
1:03:36
in my eye on his and his Wasira, he tells his children Hassan
1:03:40
Hussein, he says never, ever paraphrasing, never ever say I
1:03:43
wish this happened. You know, that's not like a cute
1:03:47
phrase that you put on Twitter or Instagram.
1:03:49
That's that's your imam telling you this is how you have to be.
1:03:52
I never say I wish this happened.
1:03:54
So we should. Take this as an instruction.
1:03:55
Right, 100% or and he's saying the Prophet told me to recite do
1:03:59
I used to share every morning and every evening he's saying
1:04:01
you told me. That's the lesson.
1:04:03
That there he's thinking this is how this is the answer.
1:04:05
You know, reciting a lot of our going for Ziara getting to know
1:04:09
your mom's increasing in knowledge.
1:04:10
These are all the things that will take us to that point of
1:04:13
and our culture. Unfortunately, the society that
1:04:16
we live in has kind of put this thing in our heads that this
1:04:20
what we have here is just in this room.
1:04:22
The second we go outside, we worry about work.
1:04:24
And you know, not that we shouldn't wear work, but we have
1:04:27
to be more, you know, kind of water ourselves down terms of
1:04:31
identity and our culture and our religion to be able to live in
1:04:34
the society because we're just Muslim by secondary nature.
1:04:37
When a reality deep down our arms are told how to live, which
1:04:39
is to become more mini? Can I just add, yeah, especially
1:04:44
in a day and age, especially 2025 Western social media world
1:04:49
we live in, the multimedia around us, affirmations, words
1:04:53
of positivity. Or nonsense.
1:04:55
Self development, western mentalities of leadership, and
1:04:59
all of these. These Western mentalities, by
1:05:01
the way, have done what? They all exclude God by the way
1:05:04
they exclude. God, spirituality.
1:05:07
Sometimes I think intentionally, by the way.
1:05:08
Yeah, but forget that. Look what happens.
1:05:10
Look what's happening in Gaza. Yeah, I was gonna.
1:05:12
Say, look at who's Silot and Gaza.
1:05:13
Yeah, these are the same people that are trying to push toward
1:05:15
you certain, you know. What it is?
1:05:17
And it's all nonsense because it's a facade.
1:05:19
It's a small. Screen it's it's a self
1:05:21
aggrandizement scheme yeah it's selfish it's about ego it's.
1:05:24
There to make money. Yeah, of course it's keep you on
1:05:26
social media. It's about people.
1:05:27
To buy stuff. You know about affirmation,
1:05:30
right? Yeah, words of affirmation.
1:05:32
And it's a thing, bro. Like there's a footballer called
1:05:36
Miles Lewis Skelly. And for Arsenal fans or for any
1:05:38
football fans out there, they'll know about this.
1:05:41
He's a he's a kid. Yeah.
1:05:42
He's 17 years old. This is this.
1:05:43
Yeah, 17 years old. He was nominated for best young
1:05:48
player in the Premier League, burst on the scene this year.
1:05:51
He's already like world class, like 17, bro.
1:05:55
Anyway, everyone asks him, how are you at this level, at this
1:06:00
age? You've not even finished growing
1:06:03
in your height and you're still you're competing against guys in
1:06:05
their 30s, twenties. He's like words of affirmation.
1:06:08
My mum taught me from young words of affirmation,
1:06:11
manifestation, all of these things tick tock culture about
1:06:15
manifestation, words of affirmation.
1:06:18
Don't get me. Wrong.
1:06:18
There is some truth. There is some truth, there's
1:06:20
positivity there because you have self belief, you have
1:06:23
confidence, you exhume confidence, right?
1:06:26
But there's a difference there because you, you, you, you
1:06:29
might, you might, you believe in yourself and have self
1:06:33
affirmations, but you exclude your Lords, you exclude anything
1:06:37
spiritual and it becomes about ego.
1:06:39
It becomes I am this, I will get this.
1:06:42
You'll push us down to get where you want, perhaps.
1:06:44
Nothing, nothing, nothing happens without the will of your
1:06:47
Lord. And if something is not meant
1:06:49
for you, you will not get it. So you can say day in, day out I
1:06:52
will become a Premier League footballer, I will become the
1:06:55
world's greatest Lotmeat reciter or for example, anything.
1:06:59
If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be.
1:07:01
And sometimes you just got to accept.
1:07:03
It, I mean, funny enough in mind, I say, he said if the son
1:07:06
of Adam has a goal and really works toward that goal, he will
1:07:10
achieve it or a little bit less or a little more.
1:07:13
So there is again truth to it. But like I said, there has to be
1:07:15
some sort. Of said Ali has a favorite
1:07:16
saying bro, he says. Adam to redo, what's that all
1:07:21
sort of Adam, you want something and I want something.
1:07:23
And I encourage the viewers to go back to an episode that we
1:07:25
had with Sheikh Muhammad Ali, where we spent, I've got 10
1:07:28
minutes on the signing of this phenomenal Hadid.
1:07:31
That changed. My life hadith could see the
1:07:33
way. Oh, my daddy.
1:07:35
How life works. And just on your point, if I can
1:07:37
add Ahmed, you know, you know people saying I me, I this, I
1:07:41
that I have, I'm blessed with so many friends I get to have.
1:07:46
I get to see everyone for who they are off screen, behind
1:07:49
screen. I'm not talking about you.
1:07:50
I'm joking, but but the friends I have sometimes, sometimes I
1:07:53
feel like they say I want this, I'm working for it, I worked for
1:08:01
it. You don't deserve this.
1:08:03
You don't like they they solve in a way.
1:08:05
I suffer a lot. I feel like they think they're
1:08:08
in control or for example, they they have a certain plan, they
1:08:11
have a certain target. They want to achieve other.
1:08:14
They want to save £50,000. They want to earn 80 K from this
1:08:17
guy. They want a client from this
1:08:18
guy. Bro, relax.
1:08:20
Wanna relax, chill. Work for it if it comes, it
1:08:24
comes your way. And the reason why I say this
1:08:26
because I, I, I see things a bit differently when I started
1:08:28
gardening. Oh.
1:08:30
But gardening changed your. Body, because it's not that I
1:08:32
garden. Don't even do something very
1:08:34
simple. Yeah, just like.
1:08:35
Every time summer comes, I fix the grass.
1:08:36
That's what I mean. Yeah, but there was a time where
1:08:39
the grass was dying and it was like 3 weeks and the spring and
1:08:45
I'm doing what I usually do, not always dying.
1:08:47
Like even like things were turning black in the grass, like
1:08:50
what the war on earth is going on.
1:08:51
And I was like, you know what? I, I, you know, I was like.
1:08:55
You can do a grass. I went online.
1:08:56
I want to lie. I was like, how do I revive this
1:08:58
grass they gave me? There were certain steps.
1:09:00
I done the steps. I waited.
1:09:03
One day didn't come, two days didn't come a week, 2 weeks and
1:09:07
then I was like I give up because I was watering
1:09:09
everything. I was like I give up.
1:09:10
If it comes out, that's because of you.
1:09:11
One line of the next day I was like, you know if it comes out
1:09:13
it's because a lot you make that happen.
1:09:15
It's in your hands. But the next day the grass is
1:09:17
not popular. I'm not saying it was because
1:09:19
of. That you had to do is go to the
1:09:21
other side. The grass is greater, no?
1:09:22
Listen, I'm being serious. Yeah, you put in a lot of
1:09:25
effort. You know, you know, like this
1:09:27
whole ego thing, like I can do this.
1:09:28
I can do the irony. The moment you move, I.
1:09:31
The thing is, within reason, you can do that if you add a lot
1:09:34
into it. Don't forget a lot of these.
1:09:36
Making part of the equation. Don't forget a lot of the guys
1:09:38
in Kabbalah when they stood in the battle.
1:09:39
I am this, I am the. I'm the guy that is like that.
1:09:41
You can do that with the. I'm saying that because you have
1:09:45
to believe in yourself. Yeah, you do have to have that
1:09:47
thing. Yeah.
1:09:47
Yeah. I'm just winding down.
1:09:48
I know. There is a fight line.
1:09:49
I'm just winding down, you know, again, like we're in a culture
1:09:53
and leaning back to my other point from that book Tabian,
1:09:55
where Saudi talks about hopelessness and how we live
1:09:59
inside the hopeless. We are in a culture and society
1:10:01
that wants you to ruminate on things that happened in the
1:10:04
past. It wants you to to talk about
1:10:07
how difficult life is, how painful life is.
1:10:09
Everything from your TikTok feed to Instagram reels to the movies
1:10:12
you watch are all about that. It's all about rumination.
1:10:14
It's all about, it's all about hopelessness.
1:10:16
It's very bleak. You know, Ali again has a very
1:10:19
simple hadith. You know, ignore pain and grief
1:10:22
and you'll be ever happy. Ignore pain and grief and you'll
1:10:26
be happy. What does that call the
1:10:28
teachers? I'm not against therapy, but I'm
1:10:29
just saying it's just to speak about our problems.
1:10:32
Just like relive relive. It I think, I think, let me go
1:10:35
outside. You're gonna get, you're gonna
1:10:36
get backlashes. No, but again, what I'm saying
1:10:38
is within reason, therapy is within reason, therapy is good.
1:10:42
You have to, you know, I'm not mental health mental health
1:10:45
expert, but I'm saying our culture is continuously pushing
1:10:47
this almost hopeless narrative. You mean western culture?
1:10:51
Western culture, yeah, Not our culture.
1:10:54
Our Western culture, this hopeless kind of gothic, you
1:10:56
know, like everything's messed, you know, bleak and grim, bleak
1:11:00
and grim kind of kind of lifestyle where MO Ali is
1:11:03
teaching you the antithesis of that, which is to ignore it
1:11:05
completely, you know, And that's not something that again, we
1:11:08
hear that. We hear that quote, we read it.
1:11:10
That's a very nice, cute quote. It's quite cheesy.
1:11:12
We had outside right now, me and you have a conversation.
1:11:14
We're going to start moaning about life, you know?
1:11:17
How it goes? Honestly so on the real podcast
1:11:20
starts after this here. Point view of my conversations
1:11:22
with Lori. Yeah, we'll start like the other
1:11:25
day. I called Laurie and we spoke
1:11:27
about SO. It's good he picks up your call.
1:11:31
I called him randomly and. Bro I've I've been trying to be
1:11:36
nicer over the past few weeks that's why you saw me so so
1:11:39
happy and like accepting your. Noise.
1:11:41
You're always nice. I'm trying to be more like I'll
1:11:43
tell you where people are calling me.
1:11:44
No, bro, you know, the first time I ever walked into the
1:11:47
office we used to share back in the day 10 years ago, I walked
1:11:50
in because I won a prize on the on the quiz show question of
1:11:54
Dean. I was like maybe 17.
1:11:56
Quiddon, or. Nah, absolutely.
1:11:59
Yeah. So I walked in and you knew me.
1:12:03
We knew each other, but we didn't really know.
1:12:04
You have friends up close to my brother and whatnot.
1:12:06
I was like 1718 at that time, so we'd like known each other,
1:12:10
whatever. But I walked into the office.
1:12:13
I came to collect my canvas. You know that.
1:12:17
I forgot her name. ABTV.
1:12:18
Loves giving her cameras. Yeah, Sister Siddiqa or
1:12:21
something anyways. Yeah, I.
1:12:24
Remember, I think so. La La, the canvas, the car,
1:12:26
whatever. Classic ABTV price Yeah cameras.
1:12:28
Bro, I loved it. It was the first thing I ever
1:12:30
won. It was.
1:12:31
I still have it in my parents' house anyway, bro, I walked in,
1:12:35
I saw Noori. I was like going to be like
1:12:37
Salaam, bro, He always says to me like we did it.
1:12:40
I've. Noori told you?
1:12:44
Yeah, that we did it. I was like come on bro I'm
1:12:47
joking but nori's the reason why I say this I've.
1:12:50
Become a lot better. No, no.
1:12:51
Nori's family to me, bro. He's like my brother.
1:12:54
But you talk about like, no. By the way, I make the worst
1:12:57
first. If you ever met me, I'll make
1:12:58
the worst first impression. Once you get to know me, I'm a
1:13:00
nice. Guy yeah, it's not, it's not
1:13:02
it's. Not, but I'm trying to be
1:13:03
better. I'm trying to be.
1:13:04
More No. The reason why I say this is
1:13:06
because you mentioned about us moaning and complaining.
1:13:08
Yeah, the other day I called Nori and the first like 2-3
1:13:11
minutes, bro, we, we were like emotional.
1:13:13
We're talking about Bibi, Mulbanin, Salaam, Alaileha,
1:13:16
we're talking about Majalis and just all of that emotion, bro.
1:13:20
Within two minutes we're talking about why isn't the community
1:13:24
doing this? Why are we doing that?
1:13:25
Why aren't people? Because I think this is what it
1:13:28
is when we're involved. And inshallah we're all at a
1:13:31
stage where we are involved in the HIDMA to put where we see
1:13:34
gaps, where we need to improve because then you.
1:13:36
Know it's, it's nice to also kind of share your burdens with
1:13:39
of course, of course, you know, that's also a therapy, an
1:13:41
Islamic thing, you know, and that is very.
1:13:42
And that if anything is not a bad thing, but it's a beautiful
1:13:44
thing that you have that you can be close to someone enough that
1:13:47
you can do that with someone. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
1:13:49
Not everyone. Has that.
1:13:50
So that's why four times you've been off the.
1:13:52
Walk at a fourth time. 4th time Charlotte Long may continue,
1:13:55
yeah. If I call you tomorrow, you pick
1:13:57
up. Depends on time you call me.
1:13:59
That's what you want. Let's call one that you're.
1:14:03
Amazing. Brother Charlotte and Charlotte,
1:14:05
we we continue to see you again and and you planning to go out
1:14:08
of mine this year of God wills Charla Charla.
1:14:12
So let's see if you like tomorrow, think about buying.
1:14:16
Charla, Charla got decrease. You'll be there.
1:14:18
This is Torakal. What if you want?
1:14:20
If I say once you're there, you're there, bro.
1:14:22
Sometimes, by the way. About the lowest sometimes.
1:14:25
By the way, I'm saying wants you somewhere else.
1:14:27
I sent like somewhere else I. Remember, this is a very funny
1:14:29
but I don't mention it's a very funny point, but it was a period
1:14:32
of my life where my favorite place in the world outside of
1:14:35
Kabulas was LA at that time. That's the most lorry thing I've
1:14:42
ever heard in my life. My favorite place is #1 number.
1:14:45
Two, but there's a very but The thing is, there's a very funny
1:14:48
there's a very funny story there.
1:14:49
So there was the one. I couldn't make it.
1:14:51
I couldn't I couldn't leave the country, couldn't travel, but I
1:14:54
was invited to recite where Los Angeles.
1:14:58
So for me, I started laughing to myself because Imam was saying,
1:15:00
I said, you can't come here, but I'm going to give you something
1:15:02
else, which is which is take you somewhere, but not not not even
1:15:07
it was a beautiful program where it was like a poetry slam.
1:15:09
So there was a lot of like non-Muslims there, a lot of
1:15:11
Sunnis there as well. And there was like poetry slam.
1:15:14
There was a really well known poet from the Sunni community
1:15:18
who was there, Mir Saliman. So I got to to perform alongside
1:15:21
him. So again, it's like Imam was
1:15:23
saying this is where you need to be to act this this kind of
1:15:26
basically everything is in Allah's hands.
1:15:28
And sometimes when I was saying, I feel like his hand pushes you
1:15:31
to where you meant to be. So even if you know, we have the
1:15:33
we, we say this whole time, you know, if if mom was saying bites
1:15:35
you, you'll come to our buying. Sometimes mom wants you to be
1:15:38
somewhere else. You know, sometimes mom wants
1:15:39
you to be a lot specifically, you know, through mom was saying
1:15:42
wants you to be in a certain place or doing a certain thing.
1:15:45
So I think that's it's very important to have that
1:15:47
perspective. And Sharla, you do get to go to
1:15:50
the shrine of Imam Hussain Self myself, like everyone is we
1:15:54
were. There together last year.
1:15:55
Yeah, we're together to go guess the opportunity.
1:15:57
Deep chats, man. We forget.
1:15:59
Oh yeah, we did. We had some deep joy to.
1:16:02
Walking, yeah. Yeah, it was.
1:16:03
It was nice. Charlotte and Charlotte, listen.
1:16:05
Last question for you. You were with me.
1:16:07
When did you? Were together, you were walking.
1:16:08
Yeah, you were walking behind us.
1:16:09
I mean, him walking. Yeah, we were.
1:16:10
Holding forward to love a lot. Yeah, you.
1:16:13
I can't remember who you were with but we had some nice chats.
1:16:15
Ali Alvi I think no. Someone I knew it was.
1:16:17
Might be, I don't know. Anyway, Charlotte Alvi, last
1:16:21
question for those who have not yet seen the film, where can
1:16:26
they find it? And for those who want to be
1:16:29
involved in a future project, either as a sponsor or as
1:16:33
anything, anyone in the community who's involved in
1:16:36
script writing or film maker or anything like that, or who wants
1:16:39
to support this kind of thing, is it something you're going to
1:16:41
be doing again? You can watch the film on my
1:16:47
Instagram feed on my YouTube page, Noori Sardar.
1:16:52
I would recommend watching on YouTube on a big TV as big as
1:16:55
you can and literally like turn off all the lights and just
1:16:58
really experience it because it's not meant to be a piece of
1:17:00
entertainment or something to watch in passing.
1:17:02
It's something you meant to feel.
1:17:03
So I really recommend doing that and and what you can help by
1:17:06
just sharing it and all your circles, sharing the link with
1:17:09
your family, friends. I want to go as far as possible.
1:17:11
This ammo, like I said, was really from myself to him.
1:17:14
I was saying, so the further it goes, the more I'd, you know, be
1:17:17
grateful of that future projects, if you're serious
1:17:19
about helping me fund a future project, be a short film, a
1:17:23
documentary or a narrative film. You know, these things are very
1:17:26
costly, as you're very well aware.
1:17:28
And I feel like I feel like it's very important that our
1:17:30
community supports this stuff because nothing to me is more
1:17:33
important than storytelling. You know, if a story isn't told,
1:17:36
it dies when that person dies. And if it isn't told properly
1:17:39
either in the book or in it's one thing to tell in the book,
1:17:43
but also also in a moving form of, of imagery, you know, that's
1:17:47
the best way to tell stories. And the proof of that is, again,
1:17:49
going back to the point of hopelessness and how our culture
1:17:52
is feeding us hopelessness is through this kind of this, this
1:17:55
this media industry. So it's very important that we
1:17:58
we support projects that kind of offer people hope and bring
1:18:02
people toward the path of elevate.
1:18:04
If you're serious about it, drop me an e-mail,
1:18:06
info@norrisother.com or reach out to me directly.
1:18:08
If you know me, Cello and. Just as a reminder, you can
1:18:12
watch on Instagram or on YouTube and you can see yours truly as
1:18:16
well make a nice appearance. Whatever you see in the film
1:18:19
does not reflect me and I don't endorse any actions, no.
1:18:22
Spoilers. Watch your first.
1:18:23
No spoilers, but yeah. Enjoy Nori.
1:18:26
Thank you so much bro. Thank you bro.
1:18:27
Thank you. I appreciate it.
1:18:28
I know it's late and you're tired.
1:18:30
I. Really, I'm really happy to have
1:18:32
this platform to be able to to share whatever this podcast,
1:18:35
yours honestly and hopefully whatever I say, people can, you
1:18:38
know, hopefully it reaches the hearts of people, benefits them
1:18:40
and please forgive me for anything I.
1:18:41
Know it does, Bless my friend. Reward you and allow you to
1:18:45
continue progressing in the field of Hudman and filmmaking
1:18:48
and of course, and spiritual growth.
1:18:50
All of us and we learn from you, inshallah.
1:18:51
And inshallah I learn from Muhammad as well.
1:18:53
And whoever is hot as Charlotte's journey to visit
1:18:56
Karbala, please, please, please make sure you do go.
1:18:59
And there is a special group I want to give a shout out to,
1:19:01
which are the Shia of Australia. They go annually.
1:19:04
They walk from Butler to Karbala.
1:19:06
And if you are from Australia, New Zealand, wherever attack,
1:19:10
wherever you are from around the world, from any western country,
1:19:13
join them. They they want to serve the
1:19:15
Zawah. 17 days is it? Yes, I think I believe this.
1:19:20
I'm not mistaken, just on the 600 kilometres they wrote from
1:19:23
Basra to Karbala and they've been doing this every single
1:19:26
year. Wow.
1:19:26
So keep an eye, watch out and. Is a great company.
1:19:29
By the way, yeah, yeah, yeah. You enjoy yourself, Shallah.
1:19:32
May Allah bless you. I will end with this verse if I
1:19:34
can. From Surat Imran.
1:19:36
Put your trust in Allah. Indeed, Allah love those who
1:19:43
reply upon him. And we cannot live without
1:19:46
Allah. We always rely on him and shall
1:19:48
we continue to try on him and relying on Allah.
1:19:51
It means not just relying on yourself.
1:19:53
No, it means relying on others as well because sometimes a lot
1:19:56
of fun. I want to either for certain
1:19:57
people in your life, certain organisations, you makes you
1:20:00
involved with certain things you may find yourself you're like,
1:20:03
how did I get ahead? This is all thanks to a lot of
1:20:05
fun over to Allah. So we thank him and we continue
1:20:07
to rely on him. Stay tuned for the next week's
1:20:10
episode. Was Salaam Alaikum What Ahmed
1:20:13
Allah he or Barakat?