Ismail Kamdar – Life and Books
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AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu
alaikum and welcome to perspective. On the show
this morning, we have Sheikh Ismail Kamdar to
talk to us about
his
journey into
the learnings and the teachings of the Islamic
world. Alhamdulillah.
He's going to talk about the books he's
written, 25 or more books on Islam that
he has written.
His time at the Open University,
the International Open University,
and he'll also talk to us about his
research work at the Yaqeen
Institute
and a book that he has co written
with
the renowned,
Omar
Suleiman.
So so much to uncover on the show
this morning, but we will start off by
talking
about
women's month. It is the 1st August,
and,
I think internationally
very especially here in South Africa,
we celebrate women and we celebrate amazing women.
And of course, 9th August is women's day.
And alhamdulillah, we are aware of the fact
that this beautiful religion of ours, Islam,
does see women as equals,
and we celebrate women
from an Islamic perspective as well. So let's
hear what sheikh has to say about women,
their rights and their place and space
in society.
Sheikh Ismail Kamdar, salaamu alaikum to you. Welcome
to the program and what a pleasure to
have you on the show this morning.
Alaykum Salamu Arhamatullahi
Wa Barakatu.
Jazakul okay for having me on.
And of course, I, in my intro, had
suggested that you touch a little bit on
the
issues around
women in Islam,
our freedom, our place,
our equality,
and just that, despite the western world casting
aspersions
on Muslim women in hijab and niqab
and perhaps suggesting that we are subservient,
the reality is totally different, is it not?
Islam
really reveres women and women's rights as well.
Alhamdulillah,
Allah
created
us to worship him, and
he has given men and women different roles
to play in the household, but this does
not mean that one is
superior to the other. Right?
It's
the
the key difference to understanding
Islam's approach to the western approach is that
Islam's approach to any topic is grounded in
the idea that Allah created us.
Allah knows what's best for us, and we
need to live a life that is pleasing
to Allah
This is the,
Islamic worldview.
Right? Everything is about Allah
And
when you study Islam and when you study
the history of Islam,
it becomes very clear that Allah
wants good for everybody.
And Allah
has given us laws to follow
that are in our best interests.
So sometimes these laws may seem
oppressive to someone from the outside
because they haven't lived within the Islamic worldview.
They haven't lived within this understanding
of of living a life that's pleasing to
God.
But when you accept the Islamic
worldview and the Islamic way of looking at
things, then
you realize that the few differences that are
there for men and women in Islam,
it's because Allah understands our natures, and he
wants what's best for us. So
in Islam, men and women have equal access
to paradise, equal access to God's revelation.
Whatever good deeds we do, there's equal reward.
Whatever sins we do, there's equal sin.
But there are a few slight differences in
the laws that we have to follow, and
these slight differences are based on our nature.
Our creator knows our biology.
He created us. And based on that, he
has given us slight differences to follow. And
anyone who lived an Islamic lifestyle, though, there's
absolutely
nothing oppressive about it. If anything,
it is freeing to live a life that
is pleasing to God instead of always trying
to please society.
Beautifully expressed. Alhamdulillah.
I'm going to, tie that in
with keys to a happy life from Quran
in Sunnah because that's what we are going
to talk about. And of course, women have
an equal and a very special place in
Islamic society.
But let me just, for the purposes of
our audience this morning,
talk a little bit about you and we
talk about you being
alhamdulillah, a graduate of a traditional Aileen program,
and you also hold
a BA in Islamic Studies from the Open
University, International
Open University.
But furthermore, we understand that you started,
your Islamic,
education at the tender age of 13,
and you began preaching at the age of
16.
And, also, you've written more than 25 books,
but the first book that you penned
was at the age of 23.
Those are amazing
achievements.
You truly started embracing Islam at a very,
very early age. What was the motivating factor
for you? And I'm imagining you must have
had you must have
amazing parents
to have supported you through all of this.
So firstly,
my mother is a very righteous woman who
raised us upon the deen.
And
my father was murdered when I was 8
years old. So
I'm the eldest of 4 kids, grew up
without my father, and,
I had to mature at a very young
age because of the test of life. Right?
Being the eldest male in the house at
the age of 8,
it led to
me having to grow up very quickly. Well,
I have very strong support structure within the
extended family.
My father's father is still my father figure
right till today. He's still alive, and we're
still very close.
And
I grew up in a family where
there was always this emphasis on loving Islam,
practicing Islam,
worshiping Allah.
And
at a young age, my mother encouraged me
to seek Islamic studies full time.
She wanted me to
become a specialist in the area of Islamic
studies. And so to honor her request at
the age of 13, I started the Alimiya
program,
and I graduated from it at the age
of 20. And then I did my bachelor's
degree in Islamic studies as well.
And,
yeah, it's definitely my mother's influence that played
a strong
role in in me going down this path.
But, of course, it has to come from
the inside as well. And and from a
very young age,
I love to read. I love history.
And
once I actually started
studying the laws of Islam, the,
the actual Islamic,
Lord and
Sharia,
I fell in love with the religion, and
I wanted to study deeper and deeper. And
today, I continue,
to study,
Islam. I started at the age of 13.
I'm in my late thirties now. I still
continue to study every day.
This has been a lifelong journey, and, I'm
grateful to Allah
for everything he has blessed me with.
Subhanallah, and that leads me to the opening
verse in the holy Quran where Allah subhanallah
tells us,
Iqra, read from the,
from the cradle to the grave. And that
is
and should be our purpose to not stop
learning
and, of course, to impart all of our
learnings
to the people around us, so that we
become a very strong family, a very strong
community, and a strong society at large. And
I can't help but say this, Sheikh,
that behind every successful man is a woman.
I'm going to go on about women because
it is women's month, and you you have
just confirmed it. Your mother was the driving
force behind all of your successes.
Yes.
That is true. And,
you know, we're living in a age where
the importance of motherhood is kind of demoted.
You know, a lot of
People feel like, you know, becoming a mother
is not important or raising children is not
important, and it's just pure success that's important.
So I'd just like to remind everyone that
in Islam, the mother actually has a higher
status than the father,
for the sole reason that she does play
a bigger role in influencing her children. Right?
Allah has given woman this loving, nurturing nature
that most men don't have. And so a
loving heart of of a mother,
this goes a very long way in shaping
the next generation.
Motherhood in Islam is not just important. It's
sacred. It is the the backbone of society
that if if if homes have strong, loving,
righteous mothers,
then this has a ripple effect in how
the society functions. So in Islam, we don't
just honor our mothers, but we consider that
to be the most important
position in the in the household, that of
motherhood.
Thus, we have that Islamic saying that,
Jannah
lies at the feet of your mother. Would
you like to expand on that very quickly
before we go to our first ad break?
Yes. So in Islam,
because mothers make so much sacrifices
for their children,
the children are expected to honor their mothers
for life and to take care of them
in their old age and to never do
anything to hurt their feelings
or to make them upset. And so in
Islam, the the the the bond between a
child and a mother is lifelong.
I know of of Muslim men in their
sixties seventies who still look after their mothers,
who still have that close bond with their
mothers because this this is what Islam teaches
you. That if you want to get to
paradise,
one of the quickest routes to get there
is to take care of your parents in
old age, especially your mother. And so,
this is the the high status of a
mother in Islam
that she is the pathway to Jannah. Loving
her, respecting her, obeying her, honoring her, taking
care of her in old age, all of
this is part of the ways to Jannah,
and this is just part of the high
status that Allah
has given to women in our society.
Alhamdulillah and that once again,
underscores the importance and the equality
and the high status that we as women
and mothers hold in Islamic society. Let's go
for our first break. We'll continue this fascinating
discussion with Sheikh Ismail Kamdar.
Miss Mila Rahm Al Rahim, welcome back to
the program. This is a perspective with me,
Julie Ali, and my guest
is Sheikh Ismail Kamdar.
We've just paid tribute to women. It is
women's month, and very especially, we have accoladed
mothers,
mothers in society,
in families,
in communities and how they keep families together.
Bless all the mothers all around the world.
Back to you Ismail Kamdar, Sheikh Ismail Kamdar,
and let's now talk about the first book
you wrote. At the age, the tender age
of 23,
what was the book all about and how
did the community and family
respond to your first book?
So
the first book I wrote is called having
fun the Halal Way, entertainment in Islam.
And the book was about
what types of fun and entertainment are halal,
and how do you enjoy halal recreation. And
the reason I wrote this is,
this is, like, 20 years ago almost.
There was this very staunch understanding
of Islam that, you know, you're only supposed
to be doing Ibadat all day long and,
you know, people will kind of be shamed
for having hobbies or having pastimes or trying
to relax. And as I studied the tradition,
I realized that this isn't what Islam teaches.
So even Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
advised the Sahaba that it's fine for them
to relax with their families. It's fine for
them to do things for fun. They don't
have to be 247,
you know, trying to only do good deeds.
So this book was written
as a response to the mindset that was
common at the time,
that Muslims shouldn't have fun and that life
should just be about strictness all the time.
And as for how it was received, it
wasn't published in South Africa. It was actually
published in Saudi Arabia,
and distributed internationally.
And internationally, it was received very well.
Right to today, people message me to say
that they read the book and it made
a difference in their life, and it cleared
up a lot of misconceptions
that they had about this topic.
Locally,
I don't think it really
was that popular locally.
This kind of, a thing with my books,
they're more popular around the world than they
are in South Africa. That's just God Allah,
Allah's Destiny.
But that book specifically, because it was published
in Saudi Arabia,
I don't think it really reached that much
bookshops in South Africa.
So I don't really know what the local
reaction to it was like.
What's your sense regarding
these different receptions to your book? You've just
indicated
that,
and we know it's on record that you've
written more than 25 books on Islam, and
they're very many different topics. And inshallah,
we will unpack that a little later on
in the show.
But what is your sense of why
Islamic books in general and your books
haven't been well received in South Africa?
Well,
that gets a bit controversial.
I think
that, generally, in South Africa, we have a
bit more of a sectarian
mindset. Right? People tend to be
divided into little groups, and they don't read
outside of their group, and they view anyone
outside of their group as a deviant
or someone that they shouldn't take knowledge from.
And one of the things that was very
important to me in my journey of Islam
is that I
wanted to study broadly across many schools of
thought. So even after completing the ALIM program
locally,
I did the bachelor's degree in Islamic studies
so I could study from a different perspective.
It was essentially the same subjects, but with
a different group of teachers with different opinions.
And,
this opened me up to the,
idea that there are many different
interpretations of Islam within mainstream Sunni Islam, and
we need to be a bit more tolerant
and open minded about these differences of opinion.
But because of that, some of the opinions
that I now hold,
which may be mainstream in other countries, they
they can be a bit controversial for our
community.
And that's why I don't think,
I I think people who have more of
a sectarian mindset,
they are wary of anything written by someone
who doesn't fit their box of what a
perfect Muslim should be.
Yeah. Sadly, that does seem to be prevalent,
not,
only locally, but in other parts of the
world as well. But,
I'm more than certain that, you know, your
niyat
is important.
You're doing you've written these books, and you
go out and touch lives in a positive
way because you are wanting to make a
meaningful difference.
I accept all of your efforts, inshallah,
and really very pleased to hear that your
books are doing well internationally.
Inshallah there will come a time in South
Africa where people will be clamoring to get
your different books and I'm I have no
doubt in my mind they are available in
local bookstores. It's a matter of people going
out and purchasing them.
Let's talk about your time,
at the International Open University. I do understand
that you served as a faculty manager.
How did that come about, and what was
your role there? And in terms of Islam,
did you manage
to,
you know, do Dawah
through your role at the International Open University?
So the International Open University
is an Islamic university.
Right? So the the students are Muslims and
they are studying is,
they're either studying Islam or they're studying other
degrees from an Islam perspective. So it has,
degrees in psychology and economics and variety of
other subjects, but it's all taught from an
Islamic perspective.
I joined them initially as a volunteer,
and
I then did my degree with them. I
got my bachelor's, with them, and then I
became
a a a tutor there. And from a
tutor, I became the head tutor, and eventually,
I became the faculty manager. So altogether, I
was with that university for a decade,
from 2010
all the way to 2,000 and,
20.
Right? I was with them for
a long time.
And
it was during that period that I think
my works reach the
most people
around the world,
because,
through the International Open University, I was teaching
on average
about a 1000 people from all over the
world through their online classes.
And my role there was on one hand,
I was a university teacher teaching history
and Islamic law,
and,
interpretations of the Quran.
But I also was the manager of the
faculty, which means I had to ensure that
we hired the right teachers and everybody did
their job.
And, yeah, I served in that role for
a decade.
Eventually, I got the offer from Yaqeen Institute,
and that's when I decided it was time
to try something new.
SubhanAllah,
you also have introduced,
something called self help self help in the
year 2014.
Is it still running,
and what is it all about?
Yeah. So
in 2014,
I I used to read a lot of
self help books at the time.
And
I had gained a reputation for my time
management and self confidence and productivity.
A lot of people were asking me for
advice in this area. They were asking me,
to write something on this topic from an
Islamic perspective.
And so I started a blog, a website
called islamic self help dot com.
I launched it with 2 ebooks,
one on time management, one on self confidence.
And now a decade later, the the blog
is still going strong.
The ebooks have been downloaded thousands of times.
The online courses there
have on average 100 to 200 students. One
course actually has almost 2,000 students at the
moment.
The the the purpose
of the website
is to help Muslims
achieve their maximum potential
while remaining grounded in the tradition.
Meaning, I want Muslims to
excel in whatever field they are in, to
be the best in the world at what
they do while remaining
strongly religious Muslims. Right? There was this idea
a few decades back that you have, like,
Muslims who are experts in in science and
medicine
and
law and and all the modern fields, but
they would be secular.
And then the religious Muslims would not be
succeeding in in this world. And that's not
what our religion teaches. Our religion teaches we
can succeed in both. We can be successful
in in in this in worldly sciences and
worldly affairs while being religious
and righteous and connected to our creator. And
that's really what the books and the courses
and the blogs at this at this website
are all about.
They are about connecting with Allah,
having the right mindset, having the right beliefs,
but also about pursuing excellence in everything we
do, whether it's our families, whether it's our
careers, whether it's serving our communities to be
the best at what we do so that
we can do this for the sake of
Allah, and we can make this world a
better place.
When we come back, we do need to
go for our next ad break. I want
to talk about, obviously, keys to a happy
life from Quran and Sunnah. And then I
also want your views on,
this whole trend, this rising,
trend of Islamophobia
all around the world. What is it that
we as Muslims
should be doing
for western people and other people to understand
that Islam is a pure and a perfect
religion,
and the
that non Muslims shouldn't view Muslim people and
Islam
as a threat to them. So all of
that and more coming up with Sheikh Ismail
Kamdar
right after this ad break.
Welcome back. My esteemed guest is Sheikh Ismail
Kamdar.
He has authored over 25 books. He also
runs
a self help website
and a blog.
And he co authored a book
with none other than world renowned,
Omar
Suleyman.
So we will talk about that in a
little while, but let's talk about the all
important
matter, and that is the rise of Islamophobia
all around the world,
and what we as responsible
Muslims should be doing
to try and change that perception,
amongst non Muslim audiences. Welcome back, Sheikh. Your
thoughts on Islamophobia?
So
I have a slightly different perspective
on Islamophobia.
Right?
And this is the perspective
that, Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad speaks about in
his book, traveling home.
And
that perspective
is that
to some extent,
it's natural and it's going to happen.
And what I mean by this is that
when you read the stories of the Quran
and the stories of the prophets,
there were always people in every era
who hated Islam,
who feared Islam, who saw Islam as a
threat to their lifestyle and their worldview.
This kind of person exists in every time
and place. It's just in our times, we've
given it a label, Islamophobia.
So to some extent,
I understand the existence of Islamophobia
because
Islam does threaten the worldview of many people.
People who want who want us to live
a godless lifestyle
will be threatened by the idea of people
who still believe in God and fear God
and try to please God. It threatens their
lifestyle. People who want to promote immodesty and
immorality
are threatened by people who still cling to
the modesty and morality of of divine revelation.
So there is a a clash here that's
inevitable.
Right? But it doesn't have to be everybody.
It they they needs to be from our
end a way a
a way of reaching out to people
and explaining to them why Islam
solves many of the problems of humanity today.
You see, people have been sold a
a false picture over the past 100 years.
They've been pushed this idea of of progress,
of liberalism, of of modernism.
This idea that the world's a better place
today than it was in the past. This
idea that we are more evolved, we are
more civilized than the people of the past.
And I believe that this is a false
narrative.
I believe that the world was a better
place, during the time of Roshullah, Salay Samet,
and the Sahaba.
The world is a better place under the
Ottoman Empire.
It was a better place under the Abbasid
Empire. It's just that people are ignorant of
what life was like at that time,
and they assume that it's better today. We've
actually done a lot of damage to the
world in the past 100 years. Morally,
even in terms of
pollution, even in terms of destroying the environment,
in terms of wars, in terms of creating
weapons of mass destruction,
modernity has created
a lot of problems.
So a lot of people are blinded from
this. They assume that modernity is all good
and religion
is is the enemy.
I think what we need to do is
we need to
switch our marketing up. We have to start
showing people that, listen,
what we've been what humans have been doing
for the past 100 years
has created a lot of problems.
Islam, which is the natural way of life
in tune with both human nature and divine
revelation,
solves these problems.
Whatever these problems may be, whether it's moral
problems, whether it's the family problems, whether it's
dealing with with with the natural environment.
In all of these areas, Islam solves the
problems of humanity.
So we need to start
selling Islam as a solution
to the problems that the world has today.
And in this way, inshallah, we'll win more
people over. However, I don't believe it's possible
to win everybody over because it is it
is Allah's father. It is the destiny of
the of this world that there will always
be forces working against Islam, and this has
been there in every era from the beginning
of time.
And there's no doubt that we face very
many challenges as a Muslim society
in this day and age, and everything you've
touched on is absolutely spot on.
There's so much of evil
and misdirection in the world that our youth
are very, very,
easily succumb
to all of those
evils of modern society.
But be that as it may, this leads
me into my next question. It's a very,
I think natural
lead up to talk about
keys to a happy life
through Quran and Sunnah.
What can you tell us about how we
can achieve this?
So this is my latest book, 25 Keys
to a Happy Life. We actually have the
book launch this week.
And
I wrote it about a year ago in
Ramadan, so that's last year's Ramadan.
I was at a point in my life
where I was a bit
sad and depressed about many of the trials
of life, And I wrote I wrote this
to myself. A lot of my best books
with, notes that I wrote to myself,
to increase my own spirituality or to reconnect
me with Allah
or to cheer myself up.
And
this book essentially,
the the premise of the book is that
the modern world is built around the pursuit
of happiness.
Right? This is what the modern world's all
about, the pursuit of happiness.
Why are people chasing money? Why are people
chasing pain? Why are people committing?
Why are people chasing alternative lifestyles?
It's all the pursuit of happiness.
But I argue
that
this modern lifestyle has created more unhappiness.
We have more depressed people in the world
today than at any other point in history.
We have more suicidal people in the world
today than at any other point in history.
We have more lonely people in the world
today than at any other point in history.
So I argue that the parts that people
have chosen
to seek happiness are the wrong parts.
And the right way to seek happiness is
to go back to what is natural.
What made humans happy for the bulk of
human history?
And I summarized it in the book into
25 points. Initially, it was going to be
50, but I felt that would be a
bit overwhelming.
So I summarized it into 25 points, but
those 25 points can be further summarized into
5 points.
Right? Five things
that we need to be happy.
Number 1 is a connection with our creator.
That we have a life that revolves around
worshiping the creator, loving the creator, trying to
please the creator. This is the key to
happiness. This is the ultimate key to happiness.
The Quran says it is only in the
remembrance of God that hearts find true happiness,
true inner peace. Right? So number 1 is
the creator.
Number 2 is family.
Family is crucial.
And we are living in the age of
hyperindividualism
where people don't want to get married. They
don't want to have children. Life's just become
about me, me, me. It's all about myself.
It's all about my wants, my desires.
And
people didn't wonder why am I lonely.
Because God didn't create you to be alone.
He created you to be a mother or
a father, to be a husband or a
wife, to have family.
Family is crucial to happiness.
It's very important that we strive
to have families and and to have loving
families because that's really where a lot of
our happiness comes from. The Quran
mentions family as a source of sakinah,
a source of inner peace, a source of
happiness.
The third thing I mentioned is community. And,
again, it goes back to individualism.
Because people are so self obsessed,
we are losing our sense of community.
People's lives have just become about themselves. They
don't want to volunteer anymore. They don't want
to,
serve the community. They don't want to help
their neighbors. Everyone has come to themselves. It's
become all about what do I get out
of it. This is the mindset people have
today. And I say we need to let
go of that mindset. We should be
serving our community, helping our community, being part
of our community for the sake of Allah
for the sake of uplifting others. And in
that, you will find true and genuine happiness.
And it's interesting that even modern psych psychiatrist,
in diagnosing depression,
one of the,
solutions that they propose is to do community
service.
Right? Because they they said that serving people
makes you happy.
But I think it's selfish to do it
just to make yourself happy. You should be
serving people because you love your community and
you want to be a part of it.
The 4th thing that that I mentioned that
makes up a bulk of this book is
your character,
your. Just being a good person.
If you want to be happy, be a
good person. Be honest, be truthful, be brave,
be selfless,
be caring, be loving,
be a good person, And you will attract
goodness into your life. You will,
have better relationships. You will have a better
standing in your community.
You will be happier if you are a
good person
to if you are betraying people, if you
are lying to people, if you are mistreating
people,
then that will come back to haunt haunt
you. That will come back to hurt you.
And the 5th and final thing that makes
up a large portion of this book
is the importance of living a purposeful life.
That we don't just live for ourselves.
We don't
just, look for entertainment. We don't just, you
know, we have this modern lifestyle of you
go to school, you go to university,
you work, you retire, you die.
It's not purposeful life. It's a very shallow
life.
I invite people to live a more purposeful
life. A life that is pleasing to God,
but a life that leaves an impact on
others. A life that that
will continue to be a source of reward
for you after you pass away because you
brought so much goodness to this world. And
so, really, this is what the book is
is teaching people that we are searching for
happiness in the wrong place. Happiness doesn't come
from pursuing our desires, pursuing fame, pursuing wealth.
Happiness comes from godliness.
It comes from family. It comes from community.
It comes from good character, and it comes
from living a purposeful life, and I expand
upon this in these 25 chapters in this
book.
SubhanAllah, you've hit the nail on the head
because, yes,
we have reached that point in our lives
where we all are so
private and want to
guard our individuality.
We don't want to intermingle with family and
relatives.
Just go to a wedding these days. They're
small. They're very contained.
But, of course, they want to keep up
with the Joneses, so they have an absolutely
high class wedding, and invite only people in
their own inner circle who probably
have the similar lifestyle to them.
And it's also about, I think,
greed, power,
instant gratification.
And here comes in the famous African proverb,
it takes a village to raise a child.
We've lost that.
And in and in that,
losing that very important element in our everyday
lives, we're losing a lot of our youth
as well. We're losing our connections and we're
losing our identity.
But we've got to go for our next,
ad break. When we come back, we'll expand
a little more on that with our guest,
Sheikh Ismail Kamdar.
My guest is Sheikh,
Ismail Kamdar. He's authored over 25 books,
and one of his books has been coauthored,
with Sheikh Omar Suleiman.
But before we get to that and wish
of all of the books that he's written
is closest to his heart, let's,
get him to comment on,
my statement just before the ad break. Welcome
back, Sheikh.
The comment or summarize it for me?
The instant age, how we are driven by
greed, by power,
by
importance,
and being someone in society,
by running and chasing after money, and forgetting
the finer
and the little things in life that does
make a difference,
and the fact
that we've lost the concept of the village
raising a child. It's not your business. Keep
out of my business. You have no right
to judge me or my family.
I will raise my family as I see
fit, and that's where we've lost the concept
of it takes a village to raise a
child.
I completely agree with you on this. This
is something I actually speak about quite often.
You know, a lot of,
young ladies today, they complain that motherhood is
difficult.
And I say that we've made motherhood difficult
because in the past,
it's not just the mother that's raising the
child. It's the grandparents,
the aunt, all the siblings, the neighbors. Everybody's
involved.
That's how motherhood was for the bulk of
history. But today, because we become so isolated,
because we become,
so cut off
and we cut people off,
we begin to feel overwhelmed.
And if you just let people in, if
we if we just start working together again,
if we just form,
the the village again,
it takes a lot of pressure off the
mother because she doesn't have to do everything.
Right? There's a lot of people involved in
raising peep and shaping people's personalities. You know?
I look at how I was raised. You
know, I always mention that even though my
father,
was taken, at a very young age, I
grew up with many father figures. I grew
up with my grandfathers. I grew up with
my uncles. And I grew up with many
mother figures. Besides my mother, they were my
aunts as well. And they all played a
role in raising us. And I try to
ensure that my children have the same, that
they have access to their grandmothers, they have
access to their uncles and aunts, that we
work together,
in raising the next generation.
The sad reality of the modern world
is in what you mentioned, instant gratification and
individualism.
I believe individualism
is at the root of most modern problems.
Historically,
people saw themselves as part of a collective.
They saw themselves as part of the Ummah,
as part of their community, as part of
their village, as part of their tribe.
And this is where their personality and their
responsibilities
and their matureness came from.
In modern society,
people see themselves only as individuals.
My dreams, my goals, my life, my rights,
whatever I want. And as a result,
they lose their connection to the family. They
lose their connection to the society. They lose
their connection to the.
So we really need to fight against this
mindset of individualism.
We need to go back to,
being villages, to being communities, to being extended
families.
That is where happiness lies. That is where
success lies. And, really, if you want to
raise children well, you have to get everybody
involved. That is the natural way. And as
you speak, a thought that just crossed my
mind is that
individualism
to me
now equals
selfishness
and self centeredness.
That's what we become as a community.
That's true. And the way I differentiated is
that about 30 years ago, we had individualism.
Now we have hyper individualism.
Mhmm. So hyper individualism is like an it's
it's a it it's individualism taken to an
extreme. So 30 years ago, it may have
been like, oh, I wanna pursue my own
career path. I don't wanna have the same
career as my father. Right? Okay. That's that's
not that bad. That that's that's understandable.
Now it's become like people tell their own
parents, you have no right to have any
role in how I raise my children.
Well, they, the grandparents, they do have a
right. They do have a say. They are
involved. You can't cut them out like that.
But hyperindividualism
has fragmented families to this level where people
don't want anyone involved in their life at
all, and it's just become all about the
self. As you said, it becomes selfishness.
And arrogance. Let's not forget about that.
It drives us to become greedy, arrogant, and
very, very selfish.
Allah, guide and protect us, and we now
come to, a part that I'm really interested
in hearing,
what you have to say.
Getting the barakah and the Quran 30 for
30 series,
which you coauthored with Sheikh
Omar Suleiman.
How did you connect up with, Omar Soleiman?
And I know that
that relationship is still going very, very strong
because you are involved
with the Yakin Institute. Talk to us about
this collaboration
with sheikh Omar Soleiman.
Hamdela.
So one of my skills is networking.
Hamdela, I'm able to
establish a strong network of,
and,
important people all over the world.
And, honestly, the way I do it is
I just walk up to people and and
introduce myself. So
it was about 8 years ago, I was
speaking at a conference in Malaysia, in Kuala
Lumpur,
and Omar Suleiman was speaking at a different
conference in in Kuala Lumpur. So after my
my lecture, I went over to the conference
where he was speaking,
and I walked up to him and I
introduced myself.
Right? And that was it. I just walked
up to him and introduced myself, and we
stayed in contact since then. And a few
years later in 2020,
I was looking for some change. I was
looking to do something different with the next
phase of my life. So I messaged him,
and I actually DM'd him on Twitter.
It's very strange because he doesn't ever reply
to DMs on Twitter, but it was called
the rollout he did that day. I DM
ed him on Twitter asking him if he
has any work for me.
And he gave me a call on WhatsApp,
and we spoke for about an hour, and
I explained to him what I'm good at,
what of what,
what benefit I can bring to Yakeen Institute
and,
why I think we'd be a good fit
to work together. And a month later, he
made me an offer. And
I have been with Yakeen Institute since then,
since 2020.
I head the department.
As the head of the books department, I
have overseen the production of about
10 or 12 books,
4 or 5 of which I am the
co author.
4 of them co authored with Sheikh Omar
Suleiman himself.
And, the way those books came about is
that
Sheikh Omar Suleiman has the Quran
video series every Ramadan.
And I had the idea of summarizing
those video series into books.
And so so we ended up every year
with a new book just like we had
every year, a new, video series. And, humbly,
now now 5 years in, we have 4
books in that series.
Most of them are published as ebooks, but
the latest one,
is coming out soon as a paperback as
well.
Perhaps by next Ramadan, it will be available
in the market.
So,
after or whilst you're still in this collaboration
with the Yakeem Institute,
I kind of was thinking to myself, where
to from here for you, Sheikh,
Kamdar? I mean, you've truly reached,
to me, it seems, like the ceiling in
your career.
What are your thoughts on that? And I
should imagine there are still quite a number
of books in the pipeline as well.
So it's important for us to remember that
in Islam, success is not achieved in any
worldly
measure. Right? Success is the pleasure of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala entering into Jannah.
And really,
fame
and money and worldly success can be a
test. It can be a distraction from,
from the real goal. So it's important that
we remain focused on what matters.
I try
to live my life in a way that
I'm continuously
continuously
producing
sources of continuous reward.
Meaning that if I pass away,
these books, these online courses, these lectures, they
will continue to be a source
of benefit for me in the afterlife.
And so one of my goals in life
is to write a 100 books before I
die.
Inshallah. So I'm only caught away there. So
inshallah, I think I have plenty to do
inshallah over however long Allah chooses to keep
me on this earth.
We all need to remember
that at the end of the day, we
will leave this world one day.
And when we leave this world, we will
have to account to Allah for how we
spend our time. And so I try to
spend my time
benefiting
the through the skills that Allah has given
me. One of those skills being writing. A
lot of people say that writing books is
difficult,
it comes easy to me. And so I've
really dedicated my life to writing books that
are beneficial to the Ummah and teaching online
courses that are beneficial to the Ummah, hoping
that,
this will benefit me in the afterlife.
That's really what matters that in the afterlife,
we serve as a source of reward and
entrance into Jannah. That's that's a real success.
Until then, we we've been tested and even
fame is a test and even money is
a test and we should never lose sight
of that.
And believe it or not, that's where we're
going to have to leave it. It's been
wonderful talking with you this morning.
What I do need to also ask is
I think I heard that there's some sort
of a conference coming on,
and you are going to be, giving a
talk or 2 at this conference
in South Africa. Can you tell us a
little bit about that, but very quickly because
we have come to the end of the
show?
Yeah. So the Muslim Today conference will take
place in 2 weeks' time in Durban, South
Africa. You can visit the ILMSA,
website or Instagram page for more details.
They have a variety of speakers, and the
purpose of the conference is to give Muslim
woman,
guidance on how to live a,
an Islamic
and productive lifestyle in the modern world.
And I will be speaking at the conference
about my book, 25 Keys to a Happy
Life. So I will be expanding upon these
concepts and how to live a happy life
inshallah at the conference. So it's for women
only,
and, it, will be inshallah in Durban in
2 weeks' time. I highly recommend that the
ladies in Durban attend the conference as they
are some excellent speakers and very important and
relevant topics to our time.
Sheikh Ismail Kamdar. It's been an absolute pleasure
talking with you.
I accept all of your efforts. Keep us
in your duas.
Until the next time, as always, Assalamu Alaikum.
And that's where we leave it on this
episode of perspective. I do hope you'll join
me again next week at the same time
for perspective.