Johari Abdul-Malik – Millionaire Manners in Islam Part 1. Interview Hosted
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses a groundbreaking book that focuses on the importance of morality and provides guidance for all life. The book was inspired by the holy Quran and is a guide for all life. The book is not a book for men, but rather for young men who are coming of age and are coming from a young man's standpoint. The book is a book for men to come forward and make girls successful, and there is a crisis on society where men take issue with what is said in society. The book is not a book for men, but rather for young men who are coming of age and are coming from a young man's standpoint.
AI: Summary ©
I'm
so happy
to have my dear brother almost like really
like a nephew to me. I can't say
son. Like nephew to me,
here talking about your book, really continuing a
legacy,
that was begun by your parents who I
went to college with at Howard University,
and who often I was mistaken for your
father, Hamal Malik, Hodari Ali,
but he was always doing something good.
So whenever people saw me, they thought I
was him, Johari Hodari.
Yeah. You know, it it always brought some
benefit,
to me, and I pray that, maybe
mistaken identity with me brought him some benefits.
Oh, yeah. But today, we're talking about your
book that's gonna bring benefit, I believe, to
many, many people, especially young people, Millionaire Manners,
the men's and boys guide
to social grace in the new age. What
motivated you to write this book? Alhamdulillah. First
off, jazakAllah for having me. I'm I'm really,
really happy to be here, and I appreciate
always the, the kind words and sentiment,
and
for my for my late father, Rahimullah.
But the the the motivation was, was was
pretty simple on a couple of fronts. You
know, I have a background in corporate America,
before before I launched my training organization, which
we'll get into and before I wrote the
book. I always found myself mentoring young people
and giving them tips
and advice on how to get through life
and navigate different situations. So, you know, Masha'Allah
decided to incorporate all of that advice into
one book
and hopefully, it will it will serve some
benefit to those.
You know, I read this
this book. I was I was captivated. I
don't really know. But
but not only captivated, but what I found
really great is
that when I saw the title and I
saw the name Sadiq Ali,
the first person that I thought about and
you you you mentioned your father,
and your grandmother, I think, in this,
but I thought about the prophet Muhammad
shalayhi wasalam.
And I think a lot of people don't
think of the prophet Muhammad as having
millionaire manners.
But when I read through the book,
even though
it doesn't really mention that it talks about
the creator and it talks about,
good deeds.
Why did why did you choose to
to write it in this way?
I don't believe that. Because I because
Islam is all over the book. Absolutely.
But but for those who know Mhmm. But
why did you write
it kind of it's a stuff of it's
a stuff of a kind of written book.
Well, you I number 1, I wanted, you
know, everyone to be able to benefit, you
know, from the material that's in that book.
I didn't want anyone to think that, oh,
this is a strictly Islamic sort of erudite
written text.
It is none of those things. I'm by
far not a scholar.
I'm a regular husband, father, inshallah, all around
good guy. But, I I didn't, you know,
I I specifically stayed away from certain verbiage,
etcetera, but
absolutely the book was inspired by our dean.
Absolutely anyone from any faith can still benefit
from it because we know our book,
the last message of Allah,
I mean, the holy Quran is very clearly
written as a guide for mankind.
So in the realm of Not just Muslim
kind. Not just Muslim kind. Absolutely not.
So in in the context of writing a
book like Millionaire Manners, I wanted it to
be able to appeal to as many folks
as possible.
And, and the other key point is the
fact that
the beauty of what we know as Muslims
is the fact that, throughout all the all
the faiths that the world has and has
ever known, especially our our Abrahamic,
triumvirate
of of religions and spirituality.
They all have a basis
in morality.
Before the religious and our and the rituals
come into play, there has always been a
strong basis in morality. Scholar.
Right? Did they talk about the prophet Muhammad,
alayhi, alayhi, said that before he was a
prophet, people called him Ahmed. SubhanAllah. That he
was known to have the best manners. In
fact, how could someone believe that he's a
prophet
if he has bad manners? He comes and
says, I'm a prophet. And people say, man,
yesterday, you you you were behaving like this.
That the inheritors of the prophets
are those who follow their examples. Absolutely. And
so you have really but you also said
something. You said the the,
that this is, the Quran is a guidance
for all mankind.
What you meant humankind, but in this book,
you really are talking about men. Why why
are you talking about men in this book,
Sadik? I think that's also a simple a
pretty simple answer in a sense that
men primarily are the leaders
of society.
Men are primarily the leaders of their households.
Men are the imans of their households.
And
especially from a young man's standpoint, which is
why I wanted to make sure that I
included
information in the book for young men, who
are coming of age and in the process
of becoming readers inshallah.
I wanna start it for me because,
you know, we have a problem now in
society where people would take issue with what
you just said. Mhmm. Then all the leaders
and the and then okay. Statistically I said
foremost,
primarily.
Primarily.
But there there is a tremendous
movement now,
as a result of of couple of decades
of title 9,
to really promote girls. Lean in. Girls have
to get together, and we're gonna move girls
forward because the society and its discrimination against
women has left them so far behind.
But your book,
you're trying to put
men to come forward. Can you talk a
little bit about
is is there some
crisis that you're responding to?
Oh, I just last evening,
I had the, had the pleasure of doing
a radio interview on Morgan's radio station, WEAA
88.9.
And just last evening, the host of that
radio show, Anthony McCarthy, he asked me a
question. He says
he asked me basically, I want to paraphrase,
why now? You know, why why is this
book needed now? Mhmm. And really it's a
twofold answer. So I'll answer your question by
telling you what I how I answered, Anthony
McCarthy's question.
I think there's 2 issues.
I think number 1, there's the issue of
gentlemen
and manhood.
And then there's the issue of good manners,
good adapt in general, which are supposed to
be embraced by men and women alike.
So, you know, the issue of Title 9,
etcetera, there's really no issue.
Let women do additional things, as they should,
as they're able within the confines of our
of our book, our example of Rasool Allah
SWAMI, that that's there's no issue with that.
On the front of gentlemen and manhood, I
think there is a crisis
on our hands, or at least that we
have the beginnings of a crisis.
And I don't think that is anyone's particular
fault. What I told Anthony last night is
the fact that I I believe that,
and which is why partly I titled the
book, Social Grace and the New Age. The
New Age refers to the fact that because
of technology, just because of, the bombardment that
we have of information of all different types,
there is we are more distracted now than
ever before.
So it is not that we necessarily value
good manners and some of these principles any
less than we might have in the past.
Mhmm. It is a fact that we've gone
away from teaching them and emphasizing them as
a way to not only be successful,
as we know in this life, but also
successful in the next.
You know, I'm
we're gonna close.
I highly, recommend this book. I've been been
fascinated
by by reading it,
and I'm going to use
my pulpit
while you use your social media network
to get people
on point with improving,
what what we call in the Islamic terminology.
Mhmm. The best character, the best behavior.
And we know that the prophet
he was the best example.
In every way, he had good manners.
It opened doors.
It opened kingdoms. It opened hearts.
And so
I would invite you to get people from
your pulpit.
You have a Twitter,
or We do. We do. We're actually in
all the social media. Alhamdulillah.
So on Twitter, our Twitter account,
I'm I'm guessing it'll flash in the bottom
here, Insha Allah. But our Twitter
account is mllnremanners.
So short for millionaire manners.
That's at mllnremanners.
On Twitter, on Instagram, it's at millionaire manners.
And on Facebook as well it is, Millionaire
Manners Academy,
which is our training organization where we teach
these, these skills that are in the book
to, non profit organizations, alternative schools,
and also reentry programs. So when we have
folks coming back home from being incarcerated,
they have we're teaching them skills to be
productive in society. And we're gonna we're gonna
we're gonna talk about,
your program later.
We ask Allah
to continue to bless you and your work
and that you'll help all of us
in this life
and to get to the best place in
the next by having millionaire manners.