Hangout 06 – Wisam Sharieff – Quran

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de la salatu salam ala rasulillah salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu. This is brother Bono Mohammed with another episode of hangout where we hang out. Well, we have with us today a great guest. Shake with Sam Sharif wadding song. How's everything? Very good, good. No hoonah gotta say both rewires

is one, that's Daddy, for one that's more. They're both authentic.

So we're here with us at the summit. And we've been I've had a chance to sit in on your teaching sessions. For those of you who don't know, you're one of the I would say the, you know, premier to dream teachers, for North American students. Specifically, I think there's a lot of your technique that really appeals to us in the West.

And I want to talk a little bit about your journey through Koran, and also through Islam. But I think you have a bit of an interesting journey. But first question for you kind of random, Who taught you how to pray lockbar First time I learned to pray with Sunday school, it would be regular good old brothers from Sherif Ali, who taught me how to pray. My parents, I guess the biggest thing was, parents didn't force prayer. But they used to do this thing. If we were watching TV, my dad would hand us the remote and say it's time to pray and he would walk away then my mom would hand to my sister and it would kind of go down till you were stuck there alone and saying, either I'm going

to be the Grammys kid in the world and sit here. So Salah was you have to you should and then eventually it came on. So I would say I learned the first time to pray when I was eight or nine in Sunday school. And then I had to learn to pray again. After some health issues. I was in a wheelchair for about two years. And I was never supposed to walk again. And I had then had to learn relearn prayer. Okay, you know what, let's talk about that. So you were in you had a health issue that prevented you from praying, prevented from walking, and was in a wheelchair permanently to be to be in the wheelchair forever, never to walk again.

This was a This was the first of the doctors gave you Yes. Oh, and I told them, Do you really mean it? They're like, yeah, you can't walk after this. There's a surgery, maybe you'll be able to do you know, like the walker or something like that. I was there for a while. Now Allah, Allah writes his own right.

So what what did that entail? I mean, how would you then sit around like talk to us? I've never been in a wheelchair. I mean, what does that look like? Hanalei changes your entire perspective, the concept of looking at something that you want, and not being able to go to it, because unless you live in a mansion, you can't just wheel around the house. So it's great to get a wheelchair outside, but inside the home, because I had not been born into a wheelchair, and I was 19. I was about 21. At the time, I had to ask a dad for help to carry me to the bathroom or to the first time you have to you, you have to call out for someone and no one's there and you have to crawl on the floor. Then

you realize all those things people have said is the color of a law that God gave you gifts and you'll never know them until they're gone. So the wheelchair God good my shoulders got big Alhamdulillah

I got buff but my legs completely, almost the they lost all muscle, right? Because they atrophy it just kind of shrinks in on itself. And because it died what I have to lahoma are doing mate. Allah says from the dead earth he brings life. I knew that Allah subhanaw taala. I said, it's this bad that Allah subhanaw taala will bring it back. Wow. So the first step was to gain control of my breath. Because you can't support your body weight. You can't do anything unless you breathe appropriately. So the first step after being in the chair was can you breathe? And my physical therapist asked me Do you know how to breathe? And I laughed? Well, I was very, you get depressed in

the chair after a little while. And I said, Yes, of course I know how to breathe. And I did something like

and he said, That's not breathing. And there the journey began of integrating my Salaam, my coat on and my ability to breathe correctly. So in the chair, I could still read I guess that was the one thing I had was, I could hold them was half and I could say Alhamdulillah here or below the mean. But when you're sitting constantly, you press down in your stomach, you're flattening your diaphragm. And after a while I did this I slept for a really long for about seven months I slouch. Because you don't want your boys to see you right when your voice You know, like, and they try to smile past the chair. You can't it's just Yes, I know. I'm in the chair. I know the most of the moms

praying for my health. It gets to you, everyone's positiveness of you'll get better makes you feel like you're sick. So that first step was was breathing. So explain to me now I know you talked a lot about it in your in your 10th week class, this concept of breathing you know, people think like okay, I really wow, right, like I think I know what I'm doing. But there's a lot more to breathing and there's a lot of even prophetic you

No kind of mentioned of breathing I guess you were talking about in your class as well. Yes. Let's rewind the clock before we called him nebby. Before we called him Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was still on his so that was saddam, Mohammed. And at the time of being Mohammed Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, pre Angel visiting him. He used to visit the cave. Now we have to think there's no Quran there's no Vicar, there's no necessarily Subhana Allah, He will be hungry. He either the Hulk no digger. What are you doing the cave for 10 years, some narrations at least 12. So say he's took the first two years to sit there and kind of find himself. What do you do

for 10 years? That's the first. That's the first place that someone who's saying, and many people have said breathing is a bit out brother. Yeah, that's the exact thing. They told me. I was like, okay, don't have a breathe. I was like, I don't know if I can. He said, How can you prove to me You're a pseudo breathed? And I was very that's a good one though. Yeah, I certainly think yeah.

I can't prove to you that he breathed but he was alive. So let's take the next step. Okay, say he himself but he never told us to meditate or to breathe. But then a huge lineup. 50 ahaadeeth after Salatu fudger Bismillah he left the law your dorm room is me he shaken fill out the one of his summer while he was semi on him. 100 times Saudis. So either you're supposed to be a really like fidgety person, say, between la la de la Yo, or you're bringing stillness to the body and preparing yourself to bring the air in. So we go to the next step. So there's 10 years of meditation, there are 50 ahaadeeth, that give me something to say repetitively. Now, for lack of better terms, and

it's a chill session isn't that chanting is not a chant isn't that a isn't that you gaining mastery over your breath. But then the last component comes into the fact that my Nabhi has over 25,000 statements that are codified, we would say if we take some of the weaker narrations out, I'm dealing with 17,000 sentences that I spoke. Now let's do the anthropology lens. If I was a gaudy, heavy, thick chested,

heavy breathing person, you wouldn't be able to remember I'd say a solid tone without a solid, right, all of a sudden, the heartbeat doesn't carry. But a man who took a breath in through his nose, and his abdomen was firm as all of the mothers all of our mothers narrate with his stomach was flat. That means there's an internal pushing of the air out the diaphragm and breathing with recall. So think about this way, a man who spoke a similar to miftah, hold Jana, and then repeated that phrase three times till the Bedouin who herded, camel said,

a sweater to miftah agenda. Why did the Sahaba say when we came around or sort of lost a lot of them? We felt at all how we felt relaxed, or comfort. So if you're looking for a Hadith, then you're going to be lost. But I don't think the prophet SAW some spoke 17,000 statements for one Hadees it's the full picture, right? You see a man and then let's go to the last level, I think we hit this pretty hard. His chest and his stomach were exactly the same. Someone who's Some of us are struggling in that department. Most recently, but yes, some of us are padding, the padding right? Is that definitely leads us to one conclusion. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam took part in

what we know today as diaphragmatic breathing in through the nose, which is not, it doesn't have anything to do with your nose, your nose is the gateway to bring air in your chest depress it doesn't move at all. It's your stomach that extends Yes, and then comes back inside. And if you ever find yourself in a state of anger, what it reprivatise Some say. So

if you're standing, sitting when you move, and this is where I think I'll tip the scales, they weren't in the luxury of wearing shoes and sitting in a seat. These were men who had to walk, breathe every step with 118 degrees, whether you do things very calculated them, the prophets, a lot of them brought the air into his stomach. There was a pause, acknowledgement of Allah gave me air and then he extended the air out through his nose. Now this is not just the Prophet sallahu some I want to extend this beyond just one person, every person who brings a slow, calm meditative state, they don't breathe out of their mouth. So if you want to say this much, if you want to make a

connection in the prayer, then at least do this. When Imam Abu hanifa said subhana wa biella alim three times for a minimum. You tell me 700 years ago Do you think he meant 700 without Liam Spanner without the use of honorable Nazim or Subhan Allah be Allah Allah

Subhana Allah be allow them It changes the entire ambience of the of where you are. So my

Little kicker is take one breath per position. I think that makes that makes the that makes the best sense, then we can crack a whole conversation on the positions. But if we could just get and this is this is recorded, anyone could go online right now and look at the benefits of deep breathing. And a professor in Australia if I'm correct, prove that deep breathing actually exhales the fat cells. And that's probably not scientifically correct what I said, but he said they found patients were losing weight because the the constant deep breathing brought an equilibrium in the body and it exhaled any excess waste.

You can quote me on the article, but what you can do then is make the transition. Right? If it was five minutes a day five times a day, why would Allah Allah have you banged your patella, your knees into the ground five times a day, as opposed to deep breathing and and heading into a position? And my last little kicker, I got to get this anyone who, who like hits us on the comments haraam beta. It's because we pray some Hunter ovilla zims vulnerable azeem spawn or dazeem and we come up might not be was in ruku for 12 to 15 minutes on average earlier on the log with the airline said, I opened the scroll and I read 140 verses. My nobody was in one posture of prayer. So now help me are

you. If you're not into the breathing, then at least recognize that he did. So that that's my little take on it. hamdulillah Okay, so now I want you to teach me how to breathe, okay. Okay, I think that I have a pretty bad posture. I sit kind of awkwardly and I drive a lot. And you know what I mean? Like, I don't think I really know how to breathe till Okay. What would this experience include? Okay, so the key thing is, put every part of the body that can reach the earth, try to do it. So when you say put your feet flat, I would try to remove the shoes, get your heel and the ball of your foot. And I will go out on a limb here. Do you think people who walked in the desert 400 miles

walked like we do in the shoes? Impossible. The heel toed the heel toe, okay, the first human beings in the in the world walked about 10,000 miles to get out of this, the northern part of the world. So, flat heels, okay, the balls of your foot. Now we're in couches, I don't recommend in a couch. But if you can, by any chance, sit on your tush. We never sit on our toes. We're always hanging out. We're always chilling. Yes, we're always hanging out. So when you're done hanging out and just say you're hanging out with your boys, you're haloing you're off instead of fudger Halo fudger comes in. Before you go to pray, try to sit as erect as possible. You're,

the hip bones will be wide. And all you need to do at this point is just line up your jaw and make sure that your neck is not. We do this a lot, even when we read grammar down here. So up square, and this is where we'll stop talking. So on the tape, you all should be able to see this at home. just slowly inhale pull the air and don't suck it Don't go. I asked normal. I said you take a deep breath. He goes

not a deep breath. Let's do this. Pull it in like you got a straw in your nose. A balloon in your stomach slowly come with me. Okay.

Hold. Let your body desire to let go of the air and out through the nose.

The chest doesn't move at all the stomach expands. So if you want a quick exercise, you got one hand on the chest, one hand on the belly deep breath into the nose slow.

You got it. You saw that hand drop. And this stays here. And after this point, take three breaths. And if we can do it, it almost feels like time stops but you go into the nose.

Hold on. Wait, wait till your body says wait. I really need air to breathe. It humbles you so much and then out through the nose as if you're squeezing the neck as if you're correct. Yeah. Can you hear that? Can you all hear that? Because I can't talk while I do it. But he got it perfect. One more time. If you go in.

You hear it. Now he holds there's a yearning to breathe.

And notice how much longer his breath is. I don't know where we are. But look, your breath is so much longer. It does it is a party killer. Don't do this in the middle. I'm telling you so my friends are like please don't breathe for the next hour. We do not want to hear you breathing because it really does settle it settles you do people get tripped out though like I mean people might think it has like

a weird like yoga ish connotation like First off, I get I got stopped after a prayer once they said it's better to breathe in the prayer. This was a real thing. Brooklyn shout out. I was like it's better to breathe. Yes. Let's take one thing into consideration. Yoga existed 10,000 years before Islam. It's like Jama the hematoma Croesus right you can't say cupping is necessarily

from Islam, it existed 107,000 years ago, that process of removing so yes, I run into a lot and let's be real A lot of us are a little scared of mysticism or spirituality, right we're a little afraid. I think we need to embrace the same oma that is supposed to be kind, gentle, able to have garbage thrown on them and still smile. What is the hot lava when Jackie Luna kalu Salama? You mean to tell me I'm going to be called a pseudo LA and pop someone in the head and be like, I'm mad Pa? Like I mean, for myself, I think when I first encountered this technique, I was a little bit, you know, not confused, but I was just intrigued to say like, okay, we know, where's he going with this?

How does this? You know, how do we encompass this in our everyday life? But I think, you know, the evidence is you brought forth in the, the general framework for how to, and I know that breathing definitely holds a huge, it's a big deal when it comes to you know, even the way in which we, as a performer, I'd perform poetry, right, I understand the process of breathing and how important is to, you know, select your breaths and stuff like that. But I think the context of Salah like so, when you're breathing in Salah, you know, and just the, the physical connection, I want to get to the physical part of Salah, you know, what's the connection between the physical acts of breathing and

making sure that you're, you know, even the process that was his back was in a certain position, right? And I think we were talking about, you know, even the positions that he would be in, there's a lot of significance to them in terms of spiritual connection, right. So let's look at it this way. If the question is, how can I better connect this breathing to the physical postures of Ceylon? Think about it when you're working out? If I'm putting 275 up, I'm giving myself

I'm putting up four plates. And I'm sitting there, I'm never gonna be like, Alright, this is good. I'm gonna align my breath behind it and push it up. Say for example, and this is not for my one minute wonders a lot of people okay, people who pray like a microwave, keep doing your thing. But people who want to go the next step and say, why would I let tell you to go to hell forever. If you don't do these five prayers, it doesn't help a lot. There's got to be some benefit to my body. So say for example, you connected the breath in the first posture. And you said, look at the first gesture. What do you say to dunya heck with you? The first gesture is Allahu Akbar. I'm watching TV

and someone says called karma to Salah heck with it, man, throw the dunya but if I was talking to you, and I said, Does that mean I'm throwing the dunya behind me? I'm like, Allah is greater. Allah is not the greatest. He's great. her greatest of course. So the first gesture throws the world behind me. Now if I just put my hands here, where am I gonna go? Take the take the breath in. And when you do that, it's like doing a first Rep.

You push out. Now when I place my hands, Allah subhanho wa Taala. Let's bind physical with spiritual Hadees of Sahih Muslim Hadees Pudsey scholars who lie sallallahu alayhi wa sallam call a lot. What is that Bala I'm cutting to the middle of Hadith. May Allah have mercy on all of us? What is our father loved one my slave says Alhamdulillah he Robben Island mean? As a matter of fact, when my slave says Alhamdulillah here on Bella, let me call Allah. Allah responds to that creature by saying hamadani Humpty my sleeve praised me. If I say alum, blah, blah demeanor, monitor him. When is Allah talking? When am I allowing a lot of talk to me. And there in the moment when I say I mean

unless I bring stillness and quietness in my body, and I will say a word. They can misunderstand it, you'll never hear Allah, you'll never experience Allah subhanho wa Taala has emotion and connection to what you're doing. So there's the first part, but we were talking about this. Remember when the Prophet sallahu wa Salaam went into ruku it went into ruku. And everyone knows the narration, his back was flat, they put a jug of water. That's great, but there are another 26 vertebrae, vertical columns, the vertebrae that need to be accounted for if this is flat, what about his lower spine? So there was no roof imaginable, until one day it rained heavily put up a roof, my nobody's in ruku,

Adi Salatu, salam, and a little water drips from the ceiling. And the Sahaba narrate or the Allah dawned on him that a few drops of water gathered in his lower back. That's l one through l five. helped me out here. If I'm not breathing in my diaphragm, my stomach's not pushed out. How am I holding this posture? And how am I making the dip? So let's put it this way. If your posture and lifting weights is bad, everyone knows what happens to your body you throw you're hurt yourself. You'll you'll get really weirdly shaped muscles you and I don't have to worry about that. It's not a problem I've had to deal with for ripped all the time. I carry band aids around because I'm cut.

recommend that we start looking at this as a posture because and I'll throw this last little curveball. If

I can see your hips on an X ray, you come to me and say My back hurts. I'll take your X ray, if I can see the rotation of your hip. What is Alessi when you pray? And I think that's if we can click on that, what is Allah see when you're in, when you're in the sitting between the such those, and your knees are all messed up and you're bending your, you're destroying your toes by incorrectly bending them.

Then what do you have to say when you go to Les Paul? And tada? Don't you want to go to a lunch? It looks a lot made me more beautiful, a lot. So the physical and spiritual part are there, you need to get over yourself, fam. You need to get over yourself, you got problem with breathing, because you need to be able to make a connection that Allah wouldn't give you something that wouldn't make you beautiful. So your argument is that there is a physical connection to the salon. Yes. 100%.

And I wish we could, let's throw some curveballs prophets alladia salaam is telling a group of Sahaba we're about to go to rescue or be a battalion Are you going to go into such that the way we do and fall forward, smashed into your knees, you can call him unbelievably loud and smashed his knees into a rock and got up and say, let's go. Let's go fight somebody limping away, could never happen. second piece. If I come up to your life Sonic abroad, and I don't even acknowledge you, I don't even know you. Then you're not going to respect me. These two beautiful creatures. I see them every day. But I say Salaam like this. I never used to tilt his chin and acknowledge it would look

so that I'm not equal to law. If I don't care about my breathing, and I'm like Sonic, I'm Sonic. I'm yo Where's my phone? That's that's what we all do. The last thing that I would even say, you know what planking is? Right when you plank right?

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam such them had in several occasions, a baby goat fitting underneath his belly in such that we play like a pimple. How did the prophet SAW some hold as such that for 45 minutes weeping a gasping to his Lord, if his posture was such that he was curled up like a ball. So I think it's time to make the jump to say Islam is going to make me more beautiful. My hedaya is going to make me more wealthy. My connection to Allah is going to make my life better. And I think that's, that's where we are and and anyone who says But Why didn't anyone talk about this? We've only been in the states for 50 years, Islam in the West has only really picked up we

were busy trying to get halau Chinese food, right? We're trying to get some is beatboxing GIS or ledger is what you know. Now we're past it. Now we see people who do yoga and do who do Pilates and they're happier than we are. I thought we were going to gentlemen. So let's let's make that connection. Okay. So I mean, I think like for instance, the act of breathing and so obviously there's a lot of you know, you mentioned a lot of the examples of breathing saliva, what about interbreed in recitation of the Quran?

You see a lot of the Quran somebody made this comment, you know, a lot of the Quran sometimes they're very big. Yeah, big, big bonded people, right? bones. Yeah, well, there's something there. I don't know exactly what you would call it. But is there a connection between, you know, big chested, or like big lung people and being able to recite, or is it coming down more to breathing per se, it comes down to breathing. Realistically, I don't have very large, I'm not very large nor to have very large lungs.

Let's take one word, and in between, there's a rule called humps, or a characteristic humps are those letters that when you say them, when you whisper, you can hear them. So when I say

seen when I say seen and whispered I can hear it, because

it's air coming out. So if you study Tajweed at the core, if you go back to not even your mom, Jessie's POM, shake Mr. Mujahid the first Imam to ever codifier right down to dream. He describes the manipulation of the air as the science of the treat. So let's put it this way. If you were to take a deep breath in and begin reciting, and not say let's take a vicar because I'm sure someone could work on this at home.

La ilaha illa Allah who the who la sharika lah, la who wanna who Hamed up where you meet, what were your mood, wha hoo Allah cliche in podio. If I take these sounds, and I remove all of the vowels, and it just takes sound,

it gives so many clear sounds that I'm manipulating air. So if you really want to see your current and ramp up, I'll even blow up my own spot. Watch an old deadbeat video from 2010. I resigned like this, because that means in my face, and then I shake him, he goes, why don't you breathe? And I thought breathing meant 54 seconds of Abdelbaset. He goes no, give me 10 seconds of strong air. 10 seconds of I don't care. If I die at the end of this. I'm giving every ounce of air in my body. It changes your recitation. So if we could start looking at that, as a science of how to

Hi, can I get my face and I need Botox? Or right because I see some videos I'm like, God, that guy's in so much pain. I mean, you could go and watch a video now. And it's because I was trying to be so technical, you know, but the prophet SAW some never stopped and said, well the mahadesh is here and here and here. He gave he recited to them up the lobby of the lava diamond was the boss of the dream, everyone came they he would catch people on the dude. Like he would say, I didn't hear the prophet SAW some stretch that long. Like no joke, we were like, Okay, good. So the breathing connecting to the Salah is undoubtable but you can't make that yet. Just start with Surah Fatiha

just start with so can you give us an example just to wrap up this is like the last part of this program. I just want to get an example of your of what you're referring to say I listened to your mom's face every day saw the zombies sanctuary, I'm gonna do an imitation and I'm gonna say Alhamdulillah he loves

me mean and you'll get a good job. But no one hears him on today's breath before he starts. So two things take a deep breath in.

Hold acknowledge you're going to read now commit to every sound like a pitch on a page.

Do Nila he'll be like

me. Now. Did I sing? Did I recite no I let every sound pause every sound touch. If I was hottie and up tested in my breathing, I would be worried about running out of air. I believe firmly especially with Surah Fatiha sub Amina Masonic Al Quran Allah, Allah called it the seven treasures of God on deep breath at the beginning. And like we talked with the deadbeat students lm summit was awesome By the way, we land the plane along Mila mean that can happen.

And if you give it the last little the last little do Hickey, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said in body and Muslim or su la he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam at home if you're not saying and here's a breathing tip slan Allahu alayhi wa sallam, the SWAT the scene, if I'm not focused on my breathing, I'm going to sell a lavalier wasallam then you should burn forget about the guy who made the cartoon you should burn me down.

Let's leave that I the private audience. So that was Salam said, he asked us whether they were sitting in a circle who's the best amongst you in action. And nobody else could be as good as this person unless they do the same thing I was waiting for like something. The person who prays five times a day and after the farhud meditation, you can call it a prayer. After the third, five minutes. I'm not allowed to talk. Some schools of thought say if you scratch with one hand three times or two hands, then your Salah is like it's an it's an extreme, but the Salah is invalid. So this is stillness. The Prophet peace be upon him said after the Salah, whoever says Subhana Allah

Alhamdulillah and Allahu Akbar 33 times is not loud. So if this, he is the best in action, and no one can be equal to him until they do the same exact thing. If my number is not telling you to sit in silence and and just practice your breathing, I don't know what else he's telling you. He's telling I Shara de la Donna used to take a pause she would say Subhanallah and she said she would think of something that's worth Subhanallah Alhamdulillah

Oh my dad Alhamdulillah my husband and you can do that any other way. So for all the haters out there, please keep sipping these caps.

Save it and those who benefit just attributed to Allah. Don't be amazed by Salah it's from Allah Of course it's gonna be amazing. Don't be amazed by the Salah be amazed by Allah subhanho wa Taala as gift stars

Sam for joining us made last content award you and inshallah we'll see you all next time on a great episode of Hangout. I'm your host brother Buddha Mohammed Salah for watching buckler fique Watson Imani compartments lucky

confetti, then