Abdullah Oduro – Motivation-Discipline-Disposition
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Of his parents' eyes, You Rabbi Alameen, and
make him among the righteous, You Rabbi Alameen,
and make him a make him a beacon
of light, You Rabbi Alameen.
Make him among the ambassadors of Islam,
growing up saying, La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasool
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And, Ollayhi, I give
a lot of credit to his sheikh, Sheikh
Abdul Nasir Farah from Minnesota.
From the Somali community, mashaAllah.
They're doing massive work, Sheikh. MashaAllah. SubhanAllah, today
Sheikh Abdullah,
your name was mentioned in a gathering,
that I had with Sheikh Abdul Nasr among
his students.
I mean, I was just sitting with at
And then I was just looking at Sheikh
Abdul Nasr, and I asked him, how was
that to you as well? How do you
you have many many many students of knowledge,
many hafal.
Some of them, you know, successfully
memorized the Quran,
and others dropped in the middle. What is
what is this secret that made
many of your students finish the Quran?
And then we spoke about this concept of
motivation,
discipline,
and disposition.
So I was mentioning that your
your, mashallah your terminology that you use,
about this concept of
motivation,
discipline,
and disposition.
And I was telling Sheikh Abdul Nasr, yes,
some of them, some of his students, he
was elaborating on these concepts as well, and
obviously inshaAllah we would love to hear more
about this from you, Biyudmila
Tawes telling him, SubhanAllah,
as students
of knowledge,
who's coming into memorizing Quran, it's a tough
journey, very tough journey.
Now, motivation is not the goal here. Right?
Because I can be motivated to come and
to memorize the Quran,
but I can be motivated for a couple
of days, and this, and then this motivation
will go down, and then I stop.
And many people actually, you know, fail this
journey. They're just a little bit motivated at
the beginning, and then eventually they slow down,
and then eventually stop.
But then that needs
the discipline aspect of it, which is pushing
yourself,
putting your ultimate effort to stay on the
path, on the journey of memorizing Quran.
But then you said it beautifully before, Shaykhna.
That this is not only the this is
also not the goal.
The goal is not
It is not that you stay with the
discipline of the journey that you're actually pursuing.
The goal is beyond this, and that's this
concept of
disposition.
And disposition is this this eager want to
do and to love what you're doing. That's
ultimately what we want to be at. So
I'd love to hear from you. JazakAllah Khair,
first and foremost, for
blessing us with your visit. May Allah
bless you Sheikh and bless all of your
endeavors.
It actually came about because Masha'Allah Sheikh Youssef
took upon himself to just text me,
and invite me over to his home, Masha'Allah.
We used to be neighbors.
Like, he was in the house right next
to me
and, alhamdulillah, he got tired of me and,
Stop talking about
that.
No. Alhamdulillah.
He he moved and then I moved in.
He's in the area that I'm in imam
and now in, in the Kopel area.
How much I love you, Sheikh. I love
you. I moved to the area where you're
imam.
But,
now this whole concept of discipline is is
very, very important, especially for the Muslim because,
I mean, just to start out, you know,
this is one of the characteristics
that
how many of you have had the opportunity
to speak to a coworker,
non Muslim friend, about Islam?
Okay.
Okay. Usually,
usually,
when I speak to non Muslims about Islam
or they tell me about Islam,
one characteristic
that always mesmerizes
them and it always makes them say, wow.
This is definitely something that distinguishes you as
a coworker.
That you leave to go pray. Or that
you don't eat pork. And I used to
work at a tire station and there was
this guy called Ronnie. I tell you all
this
time. Ronnie used to work at a Sears
tire station when I was younger. And I
just became a Muslim.
Just so I used to work downstairs in
the tires and bring the tires up.
And Ryan was like, you a Muslim, man?
I said, yeah, man. How you got a
strong shipment like this? I don't know. Maybe.
I was like, yeah. I'm a Muslim man.
He's like, man, how you leave a pork
chop, man?
How many of you know what a pork
chop is? Get your stock for laws out
the way, and then just raise your hand.
It's okay. It's alright.
Pork chop.
For those that don't know.
Right? So he was like,
how you gonna a pork chop is your
best friend.
He said, how you gonna leave a pork
chop? It tastes so good. I said, man,
life is much more than a pork chop,
my friend.
Right? So he said, man, I don't know,
man. And you not, you know. It was
just so weird to him.
But then he said,
man, you gotta have some discipline
to do that.
I mean, I know you pray downstairs all
the time, but that I pray too on
Sundays. Here's what he's telling me. He said,
you gotta have some discipline to leave a
pork So leaving a pork chop
was more important to him than praying and
being on time consistent with prayer. I mean,
this is
the inference that I understood. But,
definitely discipline is a characteristic
of a Mu'min, a Mu'usin, a Muslim.
Because within the fabric of the Sharia, within
the deen of Islam,
Allah
wants you to transcend.
He wants you to go beyond
your norms that you had before you were
practicing or before you, you know, you decided
to make that move to become a Muslim.
And I'm saying this don't cover the
microphone from here because it blocks the voices.
And I'm saying this even, subhanAllah. I mean,
there's many youth. There's many collegiates. And there's
those that have come, you know, later in
life.
Those that have countless times, I hear, okay.
I've come in I've come to America, and
I had to make a choice. Do I
want to continue practicing this religion? Because there's
an easy way to go down the dark
side.
Right?
I had to have a level of discipline.
I had to have a level of consistency
in that. So the religion of Islam, from
the fabric of Islam,
is that it makes you a disciplined person.
And what's so beautiful about it is when
you try I don't even wanna say when
you practice,
because I don't wanna mix that up. Sometimes
when people hear the word practice Islam,
they make it sometimes it seems unbearable for
them. It's like, I'll never be this person.
But Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, just wants you
to try.
He wants you to try.
And trying is the religiosity.
Trying is what pleases the law.
It's the sacrifice. It's making the effort. And
that effort
is well rewarded. And that's why Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says,
and your effort, your your
effort to get up and do something, that
is what what is well appreciated. You know,
Sheikh, one of the,
questions I usually get about kushua, what kushua
means.
And there is a misunderstanding
about this concept of kushua.
People think kushua is the ultimate focus
you reach during your prayer. Uh-huh. But actually,
Khushur means
the effort that you put to actually get
to that ultimate
moment of
focus. And some of us, we will never
reach that level of focus.
But the effort itself is the kushoor. SubhanAllah.
That's beautiful. It reminds me of, Ibn Uqayim,
Jaziah, a Damascus scholar. Student of Sheikh Islam,
Tamia,
he mentions
it's so practical of a point,
you know, for all of us that are
working and busy, especially in this world of
distractions where we're
doom scrolling
and just distracted all over the place. He
mentions a beautiful yeah. It's here. He talks
about the salah, because he's given an explanation
of a hadith,
where Yahya and Asa are speaking, and then
Yahya,
is telling or Asa's reprimanding Yahya because Yahya
was ordered to tell the Bani Israel about
the, some 5 pillars of Islam.
And then from them, he talks about dhikr.
And this book is in, this this this
portion is in the book called Wabil al
Sayyid, the Invocations of God. You can find
it in English. But then he talks about
the prayer. When he gets on the prayer
portion, he mentions that Sha'aban will try to
come to you
by causing you, wanting you to leave the
prayer. So when the time of prayer comes
in, you know, you may do something. Maybe
watching a show. You may be binging on
Netflix. You may be looking at your spreadsheet.
Whatever the case is, but you are not
going to pray. You're doing something that may
not be haram in essence
at that moment, but if it's leaving their
prayer, it could
be something that is haram.
But here, ibn Qayyim says, okay, shaitan will
try to get you to not pray. But
then if you fight him, and you go
to the masjid, you go to make will
do, you start to pray.
He said shaytan will continue.
And what will he do? And this really
is, subhanahu alaihi is deep. You'll think that
when you're in prayer
and shaitan will try to affect you, it
will cause you to think about bad things.
But even Ulquayin
gets so deep, he says,
Shaitan will cause you to remember the thing
you are trying to remember before the prayer.
So like I'm on my way to the
Masjid,
I'm driving down Ranch Trail, Ranch whatever,
McArthur, Mcgregor. I'm driving. I'm like, man, who
was that
who was that who was that brother that
I was trying to call today?
Who was you've been thinking about it. And
then as soon as you come to the
masjid, allahu akbar, you start to pray. The
brother comes
oh, that was the brother that that said
that in the WhatsApp group. Okay. I got
it. Man, when am I gonna respond? And
you know, fatah is being recited.
So is that why you texted me right
after salashiv?
After after.
No. But see, that's that's what happens. SubhanAllah,
shaitan will come, and he will try to
distract you from that which is ola. Which
is much more beneficial and what's much more
needed. SubhanAllah. Shaykhna, let's let's break it down
now.
To talk about
this concept of discipline when it comes to
our children.
And how discipline plays a crucial role
on their own development. I always talk about
this and I would love to also hear
from you, Bimillah.
The difference between again these three concepts, motivation,
discipline,
and then
disposition.
These three concepts, and how these three concepts
play a role on their own growth as
as boys and as girls as well. Right.
I think it's important,
you know, we as parents and,
guardians,
is to understand that this is not an
easy journey.
You know, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, by giving
us a child,
it's a huge honor,
and it is probably the strongest form of
of an investment that you can put on
this earth.
Allah has given you a razzak, has given
you someone from you
to be of you and like you,
But it's not going to come just like
that.
From a genetic perspective, yeah, there will be
certain characteristics that they have. But it's important
for parents to know that it's about consistency.
You can never give up on your child
by not being with them. Right? So it's
about
initially knowing that I'm going to have to
be consistent
in these adab, in these manners, in these
ethics and values. I have to be consistent
in that. Because if I'm not, someone else,
or something else is going to take control
of them.
Something else is going to influence them. They're
going to understand the meaning of life through
this.
They're going to understand certain values.
What is honesty? What is beauty?
They're going to understand it from other than
you, if you are not voluntarily
inculcating that within their lives. So that's the
first thing that's important for parents
to realize
in regards to their children. Because that consistency
is teaching them discipline.
That's teaching them discipline.
It's nothing like growing up and you hear
brothers, especially
those that memorize the Quran, that say, you
know, my father used to always tell me,
always used to wake me up for fajr,
or he always used to do this, always
used to do that. That teaches him that
you have to be consistent in order to
reach a specific goal, and towards from your
disposition, which we'll talk about inshallah. So there
is an Ayah, Sheikh, you reminded me with
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I believe
Like, istabr is a very unique word here
in the Quran. I think it's mentioned just
very few minute very few times in the
Quran. But Allah here is saying
that throughout this journey of ta'a, and obviously
raising your children is a form of ta'a,
you need to do what?
Means what, Shaykhna? Perseverance. Perseverance. Consistent patience. You
you you the the concept of consistency that
you're talking about is that you're disciplining yourself
to be consistent
with raising your children. Eventually that will make
them disciplined. Exactly. Exactly. Because you know, it's
beautiful with that word and that's one that's
one verb that I use as well when
speaking about discipline. In another verse,
And order your family with the salah.
And
to have perseverance. And perseverance is patience over
a long period of time. That's beautiful because
some of the scholars mentioned,
the people that are around you. Because you
are an Nabi, so you're calling all of
the people that are around you in your
locality with salah. And that's not going to
be easy.
Because they have to change their way of
life, they have to be consistent with it,
and subhanAllah, that's why within
the fabric of the language, the Arabic morphology
is so rich because
the more you add letters onto the verb,
it increases, it emphasizes the meaning. So definitely
that perseverance is very very important with with
children.
We're talking, Shaykhna,
couple of days ago, we're just doing a
presentation about a camp that we had recently
with the boys. Yes. As salamu. And as
we were just as as we were hiking,
we had overall 12 miles of hiking, masha'Allah.
The boys were just, like, sweaty. They were
pushing through it. It took a lot of
mental
discipline to actually go through it. Right. And
then I was, I was highlighting how that
plays
a huge role on their own development. Oh,
yeah.
I want you to elaborate more on this
issue. So, subhanAllah, this is this is why
I love fitness, by the way. This is
why I love working out because, you know,
I define discipline
as consistent acts of control
to reach a desired goal.
Consistent acts of control
to reach a desired goal.
So the first thing is that it has
to be consistent. It can't just be 1,
2, 3 times. Because that is what motivation
is.
Motivation is it lights the fire.
It gets you motivated.
30 minutes after the Khutba,
mashallah.
27th night.
Even if it was
21st.
And 27th night of Ramadan,
motivated. This is not bad.
But the hope is to where we at
least have one habit
that we want to try to be continuous
in
in that following year.
Whether it's leaving off a bad deed,
or doing a good deed or lessing it.
Right? So there has to be a level
of consistency,
and it has to be an act. You
have to be voluntary
in doing that thing
with the correct intention, the nia. Because you
know there's there's there's the there's the the
fleeting thought, and then there's the asm, like,
okay, I'm gonna do this. But the knee
is where you are going to actually do
it, and get up, and do the action.
And there's the fear. And so when looking
at consistent acts of control,
there has to be a level of suppression.
You know, I was in California, and we
we we we rucked. I didn't know what
rucking was. I thought, okay. We're gonna go
ruck. Cool. It's fine. But then the brother
comes with a big camp bag and it
has 2 bottles not bottles. It has the
the 5 gallon water in there. So I'm
like, what is this for? He said, we
gotta go up the hill. Man, that was
the roughest. Subhan Allah.
You are literally
battling your shaitan.
Give up. You're tired.
Go back, man. You're hungry. It it was
tough even to you, shaitan?
Yeah. Oh, yes. I don't know about me
then. You're gonna be sore. It's hot outside.
Wah wah wah.
Right? In the end of the day, you
have to repel that Shaytan because
you know that doing this is going to
be much better for you in the long
run. So there has to be a level
of suppression,
control. Why? Because I have a destination I'm
trying to get to, to reach a desired
goal. And I can even say a purposeful
goal because I want to do that to
get better. It's not just the physical. One
of my mentors told me, he said, look,
the way that I look is a byproduct
of the way that I'm I physically motivate
myself during the workout.
It's not about the way I you look.
Even though that's a byproduct,
but it's pushing through. Man, if I was
able to do 10 reps of this, or
I do not like running. I do not
like running.
But I know I have to do it
if I want to challenge myself
and see the world of opportunity that's out
there for me mentally.
Because if I can do that, then I
can wake up for tahajjud.
It's possible.
And with that possibility,
and I'm Muslim?
Oh, come on, man. Like, I can I
just turned to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and
I asked for Allah's help? And I just
have to put put the work in.
Seek help in Allah and be patient.
That is what discipline is. So really when
looking at this in this physical aspect, especially
for young men, subhanAllah,
that physicality,
they consistently learn their reality. When they fall
deep, they fall short, you tell them get
up. I remember there's this one, subhanallah, I
advise all of you, look at this this
man called Jason Wilson.
He's in Detroit. He has a dojo and
it's called
Cave of Shalom, I think. But Wallahi's been
on Joe Rogan and all these. Wallahi, he's
so inspirational to me because
he has a book called Battle Cry.
And he talks about the importance of men,
and young men particularly, those that have come
from single homes,
how it's important for them to have a
lot of emotional intelligence and not be afraid
to cry. So there's one video.
The kid is, he's hitting mitts. So he
has a camera on the kids. I think
it's his son. He's hitting the mitts. And
he's like, no, you gotta put your right
foot forward. He's missing. And all of a
sudden the kid starts crying.
The kid starts crying, man.
And as a father, you know why.
But then he said, what's wrong? He said,
I'm just not I'm I'm missing the mark.
I'm not successful. He said, don't worry. That's
okay. That's life. You have to keep moving.
Keep pushing. It's okay. It's alright. He needed
that.
He needed to cry.
He needed to go through it. But he
needed someone that he trusts and that loves
him
that tells him, keep going. That's what I
love about fitness, and that's what I love
about being around young men, when they face
that. I love that. My son was training
basketball. He said he was teaching his kids
to shoot, shoot, and he said he was
just crying. I said, why was he crying?
Because he kept missing the shot.
He said, I told him, just keep going.
Keep going. You keep pushing. You'll eventually make
the shot. You'll eventually make it. I just
I don't know if y'all watched the game
today. USA versus,
if y'all saw that shot by Steph Curry,
man. That was just
anyway.
But you have to be disciplined. You have
to keep practicing and move forward and go
through those sleepless nights. And Chaitan's going to
play with you. But that experience is priceless.
And that's what is imperative,
imperative, imperative for young men to go through
nowadays.
For for not having mental discipline, Sheikh,
How that plays a role on
marriage when things get tougher?
On,
jobs when you're uncomfortable in your job, and
you face, you know, issues with your co
workers or with your boss. If I wasn't
trained
to have that mental discipline,
how that will affect my future jobs or
my future marriage?
You'll have you'll have what is called a
fixed mindset.
There's a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
There's a book called Mindset by Carol Dweck.
It's a really good book. It talks about
how people
say,
I am this.
He is that.
It's a fixed mentality.
I am son, you are lazy.
I am not good enough.
I am weak.
No. You put into it, yet.
You know? I will get there. Inshallah. We're
Muslim. Inshallah.
Right? So when it comes to someone realizing
that they give up a lot,
that they never finish anything in life, there's
a lot of brothers like that, a lot
of people like that. You know, I've never
finished anything. I never I always give up
and stop. You know, to where they look
back and they say, man, what have I
really accomplished?
It's important for them to,
subhanAllah,
to look at people that they respect and
that have reached some kind of goals that
they want to reach, and try their best
to, you know, see if they're able to
be around them, and to talk to them,
and take them as mentors.
And then also,
it's
pushing through.
You know, with procrastination,
one of the ways
of eliminating procrastination, as some mention, is you
just have to get up and just do
it.
And do it,
not worrying about accomplishing
that goal.
So like when you wanna get up for
fudger, some of us have made the intention
to pray fudger the next morning, and we
wake up and the sun is in our
faces, you know? But that doesn't mean, do
I don't pray fudger anymore? No. You keep
pushing through. You keep going,
And you will eventually get there. And that's
the level of discipline. So those, especially when
it comes to marriage, especially when it comes
to there will be signs that show you
that you are not disciplined in this particular
aspect. And especially as an adult, you really
have a choice to make in making those
those changes. And that's what being mature is
for. You have to know how to be
responsible in these particular situations. So if I
keep pushing, I keep pushing, I can beat
you in Jesus' suit, Sheikh Mohammed? Of course.
Yeah, inshallah. I can? Yes, you can. You
can. I can take it down? Yes, you
can. It's possible. I'll try I'll try, Jeff.
I'll try this. You'll try. That's all I
know. I'll call you your advice and we'll
see how it's gonna
happen. Yeah. But, Shirdna,
since you mentioned
Al Qayb, he said something very beautiful, very
profound.
He said that
human beings
are unique creatures
because Allah
has created
angels
with purpose but no desires.
And Allah has created animals
with desires but no purpose.
But then Allah has created us with both
purpose and desires.
Mental discipline gets here
to tell you,
well,
the only way that you can actually fight
your desires and get closer to your purpose
is by mental discipline.
And then he said something very beautiful. He
said, if the human being
is to follow their desires blindly,
they're getting closer to the
animals.
And if the human beings are
and they're focusing more on their purpose, they're
actually getting closer to the
angels. And
and they might be in a higher status
than the angels because the angels don't have
that choice to make.
They just obey Allah Azza wa Jal. So
this is the essence of our worship, Sheikhness.
This concept of discipline. And even the opposite,
in whom kal an army?
Where they are like cattle rather they are
more misguided. SubhanAllah. Because animals don't have the
choice. They
don't have the choice. It's survival mode. It's
survival mode. All they do, eat, drink, and
mate.
And some of the human beings actually do
the same exact thing even though we have
the choice to fight these desires. And that's
why they're abal because they had the they
made the choice for the balala, for the
misguidance.
So, that's
such a beautiful thing because Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala mentions,
That we have made Bani Adam the most
noble, some understand it to be the most
noble of creation.
You know, and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
made us with the faculty
of intellect.
And intellect in Arabic is
And
the is comes from the black ring, you
know, they call the
which linguistically means to prohibit.
So your intellect is supposed to prohibit you
from doing things that are not befitting.
But when you have the guidance of Islam,
by knowing Allah,
knowing the manifestation of his names and attributes,
you will not do that which displeases Allah.
And that's the difference. When I hear a
lot of these, you know, people whether it's
self help books or you find them just
manage for movement, they talk about the most
important thing for the man is purpose.
We as Muslims say yes, but we our
purpose is transcendent.
Our purpose is not just to get a
great job, to get married, and no. Our
purpose is
Our purpose is to worship Allah, and worship
is just gratitude.
Right? But how do you show that gratitude?
By the system that he has given you.
And we call this at the end of
Islam, the Sharia. And that's what differentiates the
Muslim.
Is because everything that they do has the
potentiality
to please the one that created them.
And what gives it that potential? The nia.
If your intention is there, you will be
rewarded
for
eating. You will be rewarded for walking to
the master. You'll be rewarded for smiling
at your brother.
But the intention is a foundation. And that's
why when it comes to purpose, the Muslim's
purpose is transcendent. It is not something that
is of this existential, this this physical life.
SubhanAllah, Shaykhna. Over the past 10 years, there
were about, more than 30,000 books were sold
from Amazon about purpose. People want to know
their purpose.
And subhanAllah, Muslims never struggle to find the
purpose because the purpose is right there. Shame
on the zakkalaqir for all of your profound
insights. May Allah bless you. I wanna ask
you before we end this,
how is your beast,
program going? Yani, the beast is running the
beast program.
So how is it going Shaykhla? And what
are your, you know, your last projects that
you're working on? Give us more information, inshallah.
Right now, I mean, when we were talking
about young men, I'm very passionate about,
you know, masculine excellence, particularly from from the
Muslim perspective. I think it's important
that young men, and men in general,
understand that Islam has the answers for what
true masculinity is. And we say prophetic masculinity.
So, I started a little group, a community,
called Masterman
that speaks about masculine excellence. So, what we
do is, you know, I'm in the process
of writing a book that speaks about masculine
excellence. So there's courses and classes, and I'm
really creating a community
of that for brothers to come together, to
talk, to understand what it is, to network,
to speak about because I, you know, I
have a there's a book on the 20
hadith on masculinity that I have, and, inshallah,
there's gonna be 20 ayaats on masculinity.
For us to understand
how these hadith and these ayaat particularly
talk about,
masculine excellence from a perspective.
So my goal is really to help men
become the best men that they can be
to for the world to be a better
place. And I think it's my responsibility in
that regard because I love dealing with this
demographic. So You're actually doing this program here
in Dallas, Shifting, as well? Yes. So the
BEAST program he was talking about is an
acronym for building essential aesthetics for strong transformation.
Some of the young guys, I've got them
I get what I do is I get
them in the gym, and then I teach
them 5 primary workouts, but then I go
through the curriculum that I have for masculine
excellence. But I've paused on that to really
create an online community that you just finished
creating it. So alhamdulillah. Looking forward to reading
this, this book, mola. InshaAllah. Allah bless
you. May Allah
make us some of those who listen to
the speech so they follow the best of
it.
For blessing us with your visit and your
hikman and wisdom.