Maryam Amir – Female Scholarship, Female Recitation and Female Voices Faith Inspire Interview
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AI: Transcript ©
So we're going to be going live in a few seconds. We're
we'll make a song live on Facebook. Bismillah,
Alhamdulillah, salatul, assalamualai. We begin in the Name
of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We send our Peace
and blessings upon the final messenger, Muhammad, sallAllahu,
alaihi wasallam, upon his family, his companions and all those who
follow him. He still said, until the day of judgment, brothers and
sisters, salaam, Alaikum. Welcome to another episode of Ramadan
unlocked, and we are live here on Facebook with me. We have Chef
Shafir Rahman, our resident, Sheik salwanukum, Sheik walaikum, salam,
yeah, good. Alhamdulillah. How are you? Yeah, good. Alhamdulillah,
very good. Mashallah. Um Ramadan unlocked. We discuss Ramadan,
life, spirituality, Community Affairs. And one of the unique
things about this show is that every week, alongside our
resident, we have a very special guest that joins us, and this week
will be no exception. Alhamdulillah, we have with us
very soon, Sheikha Maryam Amir, who will be joining us. Inshallah,
she'll be joining us in the next few minutes,
three to five minutes, hopefully. Inshallah, she has another
commitment that she's just wrapping up, and then she'll be
joining us very, very soon. Inshallah, so stay with us, and
Sheikha, Mariam Amir will be joining us. So whilst we wait for
her, I think it might be a good idea for me to just briefly
introduce her, so that we save time and get the maximum benefit
from her time with us.
Alhamdulillah, we're very fortunate to have her with us, you
know, because we don't normally have many female scholars
available to contribute, there are many female scholars from the line
outside in our community, but today we have Sheik hamaria Amir
joining us. She has received her master's in education from UCLA.
She's joining us from the US California, I believe. She holds a
bachelor's in child and adolescent development from San Jose State
University, and a second bachelor's degree in Islamic
Studies from Al Asmaa University. Alhamdulillah, so She's a graduate
of Allah University. Sheikha Mariam has studied in Egypt,
memorized the Quran, and has researched a variety of religious
sciences, ranging from tasir, Islamic jurisprudence, prophetic
narrations, Hadith commentary, women's rights within Islamic law
and all of that for more than 15 years. Alhamdulillah Sheik Mariam
is an instructor with hikma Institute and an author with
virtual mosque and Al Juma online, a focus in the field of spiritual
generally focuses on the in the field of spiritual connections,
identity, actualization, social justice and Women's Studies, and
has lectured throughout the world, including the United States,
Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Sweden, London, Toronto and more. She
holds a second degree in black belt in Taekwondo as well,
Alhamdulillah, and speaks multiple languages. So as you can see from
this very brief bio of Sheikha Mariam Amir Alhamdulillah, she's a
very complex thing. She's joined experienced Sheikha, yes, I think
she has just joined us. So, perfect timing. Fact,
salmalikum, Sheikha Mariam Amir, welcome. Salaam waalikum. Salaam
Alaihi, what I can too. Thank you very much for joining us. How are
you? Thank you so much for having me. Baraka lopecom, we're really,
really honored, and you know, very, very grateful to you for
giving up your time. Thank you and we just went live just a few
minutes ago. And Alhamdulillah, we have just introduced you to our
our audience. And Alhamdulillah, a very impressive bio from the very
brief few things that we've shared. May Allah subhanahu, Tala,
bless you and your family.
So how has Ramadan been for you so far, subhanAllah, this has been, I
don't even know. I don't have the words to explain Ramadan this
year. I
I have no idea what to say. This has been. Subhanallah, the
craziest Ramadan I've ever experienced. Alhamdulillah. I just
in a very positive way. I'm sure I don't know it's been so you know,
I think that every.
Has its own blessings. And I think about how the battle of Badr was
actually in Ramadan and Subhanallah, sometimes we think,
like Ramadan should be this time, where, like, all we're doing is
worshiping in the sense of, you know, Quran all day and pm all
night, and that's all we want to do. But Why did Allah decree for
the Battle of Badr to be in Ramadan like Subhanallah, there is
a form of worship in the in the in facing the struggles that come in
this blessed month. So alhamdulillah for the the ramadans
were all we have time to do with, just worship in the sense of Quran
and PM, and the Alhamdulillah for the times that our worship is in,
in other ways. So hamdullah I've been, I've been experiencing the
other ways this Ramadan especially,
and what we want to be doing exploring today is in this show,
Ramadan unlock, we kind of discuss Ramadan life and spirituality
as well as community affairs, community issues. So we'll have a
combination of some of these questions. We have our audience as
well. So just to let the audience know, if you have any questions
for Sheikha, please feel free to write your questions in the
comment section, and we'll be able to, Inshallah, address as many of
those questions as possible.
So just just remind, sorry. Just remind audience that send in their
questions throughout the program is not a problem, because what
happens is, at the end, we kind of rush and try and close off and all
the questions come at the end. So just type them in. Now, if you
want your questions to be kind of picked up, then start posing those
now. Write those questions now and in your comments, and we shall try
and cover as many of those questions as possible. So chef
Mariam, first of all, I wanted to start off with a little bit about
yourself and in terms of your personal journey,
and your experience personal journey into Islam and and
scholarship, Islamic scholarship, essentially, how did you come to
study Islam and your Journey Into Islamic scholarship? Okay, so
I am very, very blessed, extremely fortunate to come from a family of
so many converts So alhamdulillah, I'm so grateful that I've I saw
Islam from a place that was that wasn't about culture in any way,
because we just didn't really have a culture of that was practiced in
my relatives. And that was a blessing. For me. There's so many
people who've chosen to be Muslim and who've embraced it, whether
maybe they were raised in a secular way and then embraced it
later, or they converted from a different religion, but for me,
personally, I didn't really connect to them until we were so
blessed to go for Amra when I was in high school, and going for Amra
changed my life. I came back and I wanted to read the Quran and try
to understand how to maintain that relationship that I felt like I
had with a lot at the Kaaba. And I remember trying to read Arabic.
And of course, My Arabic is like terrible, because I haven't read
anything in Arabic in like years. And also I'm not Arabic, so I
didn't have the background. And my mom walked past me in my room one
day had this like moment etched in my memory, because it changed my
entire life, where she just said, Why don't you read it in English
so that you understand? And subhanAllah, reading Quran in
English was so powerful for me, because I started to understand
what Allah was telling me, of course, not to the level of the
Arabic, but the basic messages that's to us. It's just like, you
just open the book and he's calling you Subhan Allah. The more
that I read it, the more that I decided I want to memor and I want
to become a scholar of Islam, which at the time, I was like, Oh,
I could never say something like that, but I just want to study.
And so at the time, we looked into schools that I could study in And
subhanAllah, there was one school in the United States that was
University of Islamic studies that, at the time, had just
closed. So then I went in to do my bachelor's. And the whole time I'm
doing my Bachelor's, I'm looking into Syria, I'm looking into all
these different countries where I could go, but something would keep
happening that would prevent me from going, like a huge global
issue would happen, and I wasn't able to go study. So Subhanallah,
I'm praying all of college, like, please, Oh Allah, open the way for
me to study. And then hamdullah, mean, Allah facilitated for me to
go to Egypt. The day after I graduated from college. Throughout
college, I was memorizing the Quran, and I was trying to study
Arabic. I was taking local classes. So hamdullah was so
blessed to be able to study with the type of mentorship. Imam sohib
Webb was the Imam of my masjid, may Allah, bless him, because I
was like a 16 year old. He could have said, Oh, you know, these are
young people. I don't have time for this. But he invested in me
and a group of other women who wanted to study may Allah, bless
him. He would meet with us after salatul Fajr and teach us in the
masjid. I mean, he, he, he invested in these young people who
he could have just written off. But alhamdulillah myself, and
these, these women who wanted to study all of us, continued on, and
either went on to study in Egypt or continued to be able to study
here and teach Quran now. So Alhamdulillah that I was blessed
to have, you know, that type of mentorship and that type of
studying in college, but then I moved to Egypt. Alhamdulillah, I
was able to continue.
Memorization of Quran there, but really I was just studying Arabic
and learning Arabic, and I was, you know, taking classes on other
issues here and there, but that was my main focus. And
subhanAllah, my plan was that I was going to study Arabic for one
year and then apply to alzar, and then I was going to inshaAllah. I
was praying go to Alzheimer for the rest of the time, but that's
at that time, that was about 11 years ago, where hamdullah, my
husband, approached our family. I came back to get married, and then
I was supposed to go back. But I also, this is a long story. I'm
not going to tell you 15 years of my life. The point of the story is
that I was supposed to go back to Egypt. I had a ticket. I was going
to go to take the alzhear exams. I've been studying for the exams
with the tutors there and Subhan Allah, the Egyptian revolution
happened. Also closed. Everything closed, and I was like
Subhanallah, this is my dream. And of course, in my own, you know,
privilege and my own selfishness, all I'm thinking is now I can't go
study when the whole country is going through so much. You know,
may Allah, bless the people there. Bless them. Bless them. Ya Allah,
bless them. So I tried to call Shaykh Al Azhar, and I tried to
have him, you know, keep the exams open, just so I could take them.
And subhanAllah got a hold of his advisor, who was like, you know,
you should do the online program. We just started it. And I was
like, Never, no, I have to go like, this is my dream. This is so
important. And subhanAllah, I'm so grateful now looking back the
Hamdulillah, I was able to complete my Oslo degree through
their program. It's mashaAllah. The university professors were the
heads of the departments, the heads of the tips here department,
the head of the self department. Alhamdulillah, we were small
classes. We had direct conversations and interactions
with the professors, live and then, of course, because it's an
online program, it's so important to have study in person with
scholars as well. So alhamdulillah, I'm very fortunate
to have a group of scholars who have consistently been so
welcoming to mentoring me and teaching me. So hamdu dela, for
Alhamdulillah, the past 11 years I've been so blessed with, in
addition to a formal completion of that. I've been blessed to have
this group of scholarship who has been teaching me on, you know,
fatawa and research and Hamdulillah, just continuing to be
able to do that type of research and looking at the types of
questions that we receive from the community. Being here has given me
the opportunity to continue to work with the community. So I've
seen the types of issues that the community struggles with, whether
it's a policy level or a very personal level. And so being able
to go into our classical texts, researching hundreds of those to
find one answer, and being able to delve into that with the
mentorship of scholars who have studied and who have been doing
this work for decades, has, hamdulillah been such a such a
such a blessing. It wasn't the path that I saw for myself, but I
know looking back that Allah has a plan, and that no matter what he
plans, it is the best for our personal lives, even if we don't
understand the wisdom at that time. So alhamdulillah, through
that process, Alhamdulillah was blessed with memorizing the Quran
with the sheik Sheik Mohib, who's the best Quran teacher in the
whole world, who I would love to talk about for like, at least 17
hours today, I've been I've been so fortunate to have these types
of
mentors in my life. I'm doing that fascinating. There's just so much
to unpack in what you've just said in the last few few minutes. Just
amazing. I can sense the passion and and the love that you have for
for knowledge. It's just the amazing and I think you know
right, going back to how the reading of the Quran opened this
whole journey for you, and then the determination that you had, it
just all falls in very much with the kind of discussion that we
also having today and over the last few shows around Quran and
the month of Ramadan being the month of Quran. And we want to
explore some of those things with you a little bit more. You
mentioned Imam so Hebrew, but you may or may not know we had Imam.
So Hebrew, a couple of weeks ago, exactly on this show, having
exactly the same conversation. It's really amazing to have you
here, someone who is so close and been inspired by Imam. So Hebrew,
like so many of us, have been Hamza, I wanted to kind of and
Shafi, please just feel free to come in as well. I think
allow Sheik, Sheik hamari, and allow her to to speak as much as
possible. Inshallah, because it's not, it's not, it's not. Very
often we get female scholarship, and access to female scholarship
is really important.
Yeah, I really appreciate that Sheik Shafi and he was there, may
Allah bless him when I was studying in Egypt as well. So it's
such a such an honor to have been in the same space. Alhamdulillah.
And to that point, you know, the more that I've been on this
journey, the more female scholars I've been so blessed to be aware
of and mentored by. And I think that you know what you're doing on
the program, having, I'm not a scholar, but having a woman on the
on your show, we have this huge network of female scholars, just
an uncountable number of names. And I think in our community, you
know, we're very fortunate to have our community care about our women
and care about, you know, spaces for women in different ways, in
different places.
Is, and unfortunately that's not the case in so many places. But I
think slowly, our community has recognized that in our fear of
fitna, in our fear of creating fitna, we have created a bigger
fitna, which is women feeling like they cannot access religion, and
women feel like they cannot access the Quran and that it's not for
them. And so, Alhamdulillah, I've seen more recently, more and more
organizations push to have women's voices included, because we do
have scholars. So many female scholars, we just don't know who
they are, and that falls upon us. So sometimes females don't want to
teach it publicly, and that's totally fine, but there are so
many who are actively teaching publicly, and it falls upon our
community to you know, one time I was invited to a conference, and
I'm giving like every time I can't make an event, I'm giving like 10
names of other women to connect with who are in so much more
knowledgeable than I am. And one of one feedback I got from an
organizer was, but nobody knows their names. And I thought, well,
no one is no one is going to know their names. If you don't invite
them, no one is going to know who they going to know who they are if
you don't create platforms for them. So I think part of that
process is simply creating platforms for female scholars
who've been doing so much more work than I have for so many more
years. And subhanAllah, we have such gold in our community. And
thank you for creating a platform for that conversation. Absolutely
no just to follow on from that Sheik Amari and what? What do you
advise organizations, groups or societies to do in terms of
creating that open, more open platform, giving more access to
women in general, not just for scholarship, but just to access
religious instruction, guidance, advice, activities, what? Do you
think needs to be done more often? Your experience? Sure, so that
that, I think is a very nuanced conversation based on location and
topic and resources and all those things. But I'll give you one
example. So this Ramadan, I've really been focusing on women in
Quran. Me citation, and I have never, ever grown up seeing women
Quran reciters. And I'm not talking by the way, there's a
question. There's a question on that topic specifically.
So we will give you that question as well, if you don't cover it
now, okay, I might as well put it in so that Sheikha can cover it,
which is that to ask whether reciting the Quran with Tajweed as
a woman publicly would count as beautifying the voice as what I
might consider a woman Beau beautifying her voice in front of
non Lam haram. What's your take on it? And I think that's the point
you were alluding to as well. Yes, yes. So this is, this is where
this conversation comes in, where I didn't grow up seeing one
reciting the Quran, yes, like I saw my mom reciting the Quran?
Alhamdulillah? I saw a few women at the masjid reciting the Quran,
but it was never on my radar, like I never from the child at the time
of, you know, being a young girl, ever saw a woman Quran reciter? I
never went to an event where there was a woman reciting the Quran
four other women. I never went to a pm where it was, you know, in
the masjid, in the women's section, woman leading other women
in Salah, hearing their recitation. And that could be
specific to my masjid, but I will say that I have also had this
conversation with literally hundreds of other women all over
the world, and so many of them have had that same feedback. Now
there are countries like Malaysia and so many other Muslim majority
countries, Morocco, where women's recitation is on television,
women's recitation is public, and that's part of their norm. But for
example, I toured the UK a few years ago, and I went from one
city to the other, and it was all women's women's events. And I was
so humbled and shocked to see that there were like 400 women that
would come to events. And I was reciting Quran, because they are
an all women events, in all women women's events with El guru which
and asabi Jinan was traveling with me. May Allah, bless El guruj,
their work is just so critical and just creating the space for women
to access other women. And so I cannot tell you how many women
would keep coming up to me crying. I mean, women who were in their
20s through their 50s saying that they've never heard a woman recite
the Quran before, and had they heard it before, they would have
actually thought the Quran was for them too, like we know the Quran
is for us. Of course, the Quran is for men and women. Of course, it's
for everyone. But when you see an example of what your voice could
be, when you see another woman reciting, it just completely
shifts the way that you feel about your relationship with the Quran
and so earlier, before Malang started, I invited other sisters,
four other sisters, to recite out loud and the conversation about
men hearing women's recitation. I actually made a video about this.
I'm working on an article which inshallah will publish all the
opinions and all the research and all the references for everyone to
have this conversation with a lot of inshallah classical sources.
But I made a brief video so Inshallah, the reader can look,
look at the video, to look, excuse me, the questioner, to look at
some of the details. I won't go into too much detail here, but
really, the details go back to, you know.
There's a difference of opinion on the ayah, which is used to say
that it's haram, and then there's really nothing in the Sunnah
except that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi was sent them himself.
Heard Suratul rashiya, that first ayah of sotal rashia as he was
passing home, and he heard a woman reciting, and the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasalam was so emotionally overcome by the
recitation of this woman's, of this woman Sura, of this woman
reciting the surah. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasam,
it's, it's an obligation on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam to say, Oh, It's haram for her to recite loudly to the point
that a man could hear as he's walking by. You know, the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has to clarify these rulings. And yeah,
what we see from him, sallallahu alayhi wa salam was emotionally
impacted by the verse And subhanAllah. You know, really,
this goes back to said and closing the doors of fitna. And I think,
as we just mentioned, I have received messages this year from
women who say that for the first time in their lives, 111, sister
said she's 40 years old for the first time ever this Ramadan,
because of this initiative, she's recited the Quran out loud, and
she cried hearing her own voice, and she sent a recording of her
recitation to her parents, and her mother cried, saying, This is the
best gift I've ever received. She's 40. Why did I have to take
until she's 40 to know that she can hear her own voice? And that's
not just one, one sister after another. And the reason why this
is so important is because it impacts generations. Have told me
that for the first Ramadan ever, they're in their 20s, in their
30s, they're reciting the Quran out loud, and their children are
hearing them, and now their children are reciting the Quran
out loud over a period of three weeks, for the first time in their
lives, for the first time in their children's lives beyond Sunday
school, beyond putting you in a Quran class. It's just the culture
of your home that there is Quran and SubhanAllah. I can't tell you
how many women I heard from who said that until they were a young
teen, they were studying the Quran. They have beautiful voices.
They were reciting beautifully. And then they were told it's hot
on for them to do this. They felt like Islam wasn't for them, and
they went a completely different direction. They chose not to pray,
not to read the Quran, to do things that we blame and shame
women in their dress and in their action for but they felt like
Islam wasn't for them because they were told that they don't have a
space in the one place. They felt like they were connected to with
Allah's words. And I'm so humbled to hear that this year they've
said that because of hearing all these other women's voices,
they've gone back to the Quran this year for the first time in a
decade, in two decades. Now, this is not a new initiative. There are
women all over the world who initiate reciting the Quran,
encouraging other women to recite the Quran. There are Quranic
Masters. I'm not a Quranic master at all. It's a long term process
for me to be able to perfect my own recitation. But why I'm
telling you all of this is because I'm not advocating right now today
that we start having all of our masajid, have all these women come
and recite the Quran for men and women, and have these events where
men and women are reciting that's not what I'm trying to advocate
right now. I'm simply saying, to answer your question, Chef, that
if we're not going to have these spaces where women can hear other
women at the very least, then what are we expecting? We say that
women should dress a certain way, we say that women should act a
certain way. We shame and blame women when they don't, but we
don't give them mentorship and alternatives and spaces for them
to really find what it means to have a voice within a spiritual
place. And so then we see the outcome, and we're like, oh, women
who do this, women who do that, what? What is the alternative?
What have we given them? Yes, like we should know better, but
prophets, are they? You must set them. They mentored their people.
They were there to guide their people. And that's the role of the
messengers. Of the messengers, are they gonna set up? So for us, if
we are, at the minimum, not going to be comfortable with women being
in public spaces, that's okay. We can take that opinion. But at the
very least, we need to have alternative Quran competitions for
women, Quran PMS, where women are just reciting a woman or hearing
other women recite in the masjid. We need to have women being able
to go on the mimbar, not on a Friday, Jamar, but for other women
in a masjid, which Subhanallah, the student of Ibn Taymiyyah,
Rahima Allah, Fatima, subhanAllah, she used to give lectures on the
Nimba of the masjid of Damascus. And it wasn't Jamar, not it wasn't
Jamal, just lectures and Subhanallah, she didn't want to
call men, and men were present learning from her, and that was a
student. So like, I'm not again. Every community is different. A
community in California and San Francisco is going to be different
from a community in the UK, from a community in South Africa. Every
community needs to look at their reality, but at the very least, we
can provide alternative programming where women see other
women, and they can say, from the time they're little girls, that's
who I want to be when I grow up. And until we provide that type of
modeling, the daughters that we have, that we fear for, that we
pray for, I don't know if we're doing enough, because when they go
into a masjid space and they see that men have chandeliers and
everything is clean and everything is so.
Beautiful. And then they go and pray in a closet, and then they
can't come into that beautiful space anymore, and they start to
cry, and they say, why can't I pray in there too? The message
that they hear is that Islam is not for them too. And of course,
that's not the message that any of us want to give about Islam. Of
course, it's not the message of Islam, but in the architectural
structure, as Doctor Tamara Gray, Chef Tamara Gray, talks about and
the policies that we've set in our masajid, as she ham Muslim, talks
about, that's what the messaging we hear. And our daughters here
and Inshallah, we want to have a a revolution. We want to have a
shift so that our daughters grow up. This next generation inshallah
grows up, and they know the Quran. The Quran is for them. Their
voices are critical for the Quran and the other women can be
inspired inshallah by their voices inshallah. And I think you know
having more of your individuals like yourself coming on and
inspiring both brothers and sisters to be connected with the
Quran is exactly what we need. And I think you know that for me was
very inspirational, and I'm sure it will be for many of our
listeners, female sisters, who are who are listening, Inshallah, to
to feel connected to Quran. Quran is for everyone. And I think that
is the the message, and the issue is something that we need to kind
of highlight, and have individuals like yourself who have studied the
Quran, who have memorized the Quran, to come in and share that
message, which, Alhamdulillah, this platform is providing. So
that's been inspirational for all. Thank you, and I love Sorry.
Sorry.
A quick point from you saying that that you know you as brothers who
create spaces like this that is so critical for our community, people
who've studied like you, who have create spaces like this, who
people see, who you trust. They trust you. And they say, Well, if
they're okay with that, then Inshallah, maybe that's okay. I
mean, every recitation that I am publishing for women right now is
being checked by almost everyone, by three different male Quran
teachers, mashallah, Sheik Mohammed in Egypt, Sheik, I said,
who was in Medina, may Allah bless him. And Sheik Iran, may Allah
bless all of them. They're all men. They're all listening to my
recitation to make sure that other women don't hear mistakes when
they listen to it. So men and women, Allah told us that we are
Olia. We are our allies, one to another. So in this message, I
think it's also so important to recognize that, yes, we've made
mistakes, both men and women as a community, but so many men and so
many women want to work to rectify that. This is this right. Here is
proof of that. And Inshallah, more and more of that type of work will
help create that change on a generational level. Inshallah, and
this is a month to reconnect to the Quran for both brothers and
sisters, we have a question here from Lily Chai, who's asking in
terms of your journey in memorizing the Quran, how old were
you? How old was the Sheikha, when she started, started to memorize
the Quran. And you know your journey in memorizing the Quran?
How was it? If you can share some of your experience there, I get
this question a lot, because I hear from people who are like, I'm
23 is it too late for me to remember 23 so 17 is when I
started learning tiju, and then it took years until now for my tijee.
I mean, tiju, perfection is a lifelong goal, is a lifelong
process. And then throughout college, I was working full time
and going to school full time, or working, excuse me, part time and
going to school part time, full time, and I was constantly looking
for a Quran teacher. I would find one Quran teacher. May Allah,
bless her so much. And then mashaAllah, she would have a baby.
And I know now, Alhamdulillah, now that I have children, I know when
you have kids, it's so hard to make commitments when they're so
little. So I understand why that would happen. But suddenly I don't
have a Quran teacher at all. And it takes me another six months to
find one. And then I find another Quran teacher. And then she wants
me to start from the very beginning of where that Quran
teacher where that Quran teacher started me. So then it's another
six months until we get to the right place, and then she needs to
stop, because she's moving so over and over and over, I just kept
having these disruptions on top of the fact that I'm working and
going to school. So Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, in Egypt, my full
time study at that time was really Arabic In Quran, so I had more
time to just devote to that. But then I came back again, looking
for his teacher. I moved to LA at that point, and I was doing my
Masters, and I was teaching, doing my Masters, and working, I'm doing
research, and I can't find a Quran teacher. Ham did it Allah, bless
me. Was Sheik Mohib food law, who lives in Anaheim. May Allah raise
his ranks. I cannot even say his name without my Imam feeling like
it increases. He never even looks at the must have. He has never
looked at the must have. When I'm reciting with him, with anyone, he
knows it so well, masha Allah, He doesn't need to. I mean, I could
be quietly reciting to myself in a room filled with students who are
moving tables, and he, himself is having a conversation with a
parent who just walked in, and I'm quietly
how he's like, Mariam, what did like, do the med? And I'm like,
How did you even hear me? But that's how much he knows the
Quran. He's so connected to the Quran. And so it's not just that
he has the perfection of recitation, and he has he does
that and all the clear acts. It's that also, anytime I would go to.
Him, he would tell me, the Quran brings barakah, the Quran brings
risk. I call him and say, Sheik, I have a really bad story, so I
can't recite. It's okay make the intention to listen. The Quran
brings shifa. Sheik. I have to submit my master's thesis. I won't
be able to come today because the sheik lived very far away. So for
me, in LA traffic, it was a very long journey to go to the Shih. So
Subhanallah, he'd say, read the Quran, and that would bring
barakah into success of your master. So he helped me not just
love the Quran, because I already was just so enamored with the fact
that the Quran is speaking to you, but also as a woman. He's the chef
who told me, you have to recite the Quran banquet. And I was like,
chefs, love for Allah. I'm a female. And then he was like, Do
you know how many female scholars we have? Do you know how many
women have recited the Quran? Do you know our legacy? He is so
angry at me, and he was like our entire history is females reciting
the Quran and teaching men in the Quran And subhanAllah. That
outlook helped me shift so much from a place where I really feared
women's issues once I started learning about Islam, before I
really got the opportunity to study from a place of scholarship,
I was so excited about Islam, and then all I heard was, women
shouldn't go out, women should stay home. And I'm not saying that
these are wrong necessarily. There's differences in all these
discussions, and that's okay. But when I was already, you know, I
was student body president, a black woman Taekwondo, all these
things that I've out, and now all of a sudden, my existence is
haram. And I hear this message all the time, this hadith, I don't
understand the ayah on in about,
well, duribu, Hun, I don't understand just over and over and
over from women and even men. I don't understand what this means
in terms of my place as a woman. And Subhan, Allah, the Quran is so
healing. Every single thing that I used to wonder about, what does
this mean that plagued my Imaan, I have not only found that it makes
sense, but it's empowering, and it's healing to know the
understanding of that narration, or to know the understanding of
that hadith, excuse me, of the ayah. And so Sheik Mohammed was
really, for me, an access point to knowing the Quran in a woman's
voice, for me, was very, very powerful. And the more that ham
today, I studied with him, the more I felt like I found not just
healing, but also the strength and being a woman with the Quran. But
that whole process was seven years. The whole process of
memorizing the Quran was seven years, seven years. So right now,
when people ask me, you know, am I too old? I'm 40. Am I too old? I'm
a grandmother. My chef has students who are in their 80s or
in their 70s, and they're memorizing the Quran. The only
time that you're going to regret it is when you're 50, right now,
and you want to memorize the Quran, and you think you're too
old, and then you're 60, and you think in 10 years, I could have
memorized the Quran, but I thought I was too old at 50, and so it's
been 10 years and I've done nothing. Okay, that's okay. Now
you're 60. Now do it. Inshallah, by the time you're 70, don't have
it. And you did all of that whilst you were doing your masters and
your black belt in taikondo. And
long it was a long time ago. Hamdullah, my family is actually
family of second degree, third degree, black belt. So hamdullah,
I'm very blessed with that background, in terms of my family,
but I was doing it while I was doing my master's in working, yes.
Well, the other question we had was around, you know, role models.
You know, one of the things that brothers have often is lots of
role models. And we, you touched on that earlier on. There's many
male scholars, prominent scholars, well known, famous, doing the
speakers, tours and things like that. So always inspiring people
to go and learn Arabic, to go abroad to and you know, right from
you know, scholars such as Shah Yusuf, you know, back in the days
to the more you know, current scholars who are very active in
the scene. You know, inspiring individuals to go and learn
Arabic, to memorize, to study Sharia. But you know, there aren't
many female scholars, as you said, who are prominent, who are who can
be seen as role models in the West. You know, who were your role
models when you that inspired you to go and who are the, maybe the
some of the female role models that would be,
you know, worth sharing and kind of letting our audience know
about. Off Paola, I cannot even begin to start the list. There's
Sheikha mosima permal. There's Sheikha Saira Lari. Sheikha, Amina
Darwish, Dr Aisha was was. Dr Tamara gray. Dr Aisha prime. Dr
Zainab. Sheikha Zana bansari,
yeah. I can literally just keep going. Dr Rania, there are so many
people I can't even begin to to start, start naming them.
Subhanallah, I didn't know any of them in my process until much
later. Sheikha Muslima was studying at the same time as I
was. She was above me. And I mean, like she started before me, so she
was really the first person who I saw go into this path. She has
Saira. She went a year before me, so she was a second woman who I
saw go into this path, and then Alhamdulillah, as I continued the
journey. Dr heifet Eunice, I was so blessed with starting to learn
about all these other women who have been doing this for.
Decades. And now mashallah, they have Jannah Institute, rabatha.org
There are so many female only institutes that were created by
these women. And now hamdullah, I can point to, like I tried a long
list of women's names, who I can say are Tabata Kala, you know,
Sheik, Mary and Bashar. There's so many female role models now,
Alhamdulillah, but I think again, I'm very privileged to have access
to that, and I know that that isn't the reality for the most of
our community, and certainly wasn't my reality going through
the process. It's only now that, Alhamdulillah, I've been blessed
to have that type of access. We have comment here by Lily Chai
saying, You gave me hope to memorize the Quran. Oh, may Allah,
may Allah make you a memorizer and and live it and love it, and every
single person that you love and all of us, you know, that's what
makes shows like this so worthwhile, individuals like you
coming in and just inspiring, even if it's that one person to
reconnect with the Quran that's exactly you know what this month
is about and what these discussions are all about. And we
need more of your voice and more individuals like yourself coming
and inspiring the Muslim community wanted to ask you what your
experiences has been as a Sheikha, as a female Muslim scholar in the
West, how have you been receiving, what has been your journey after
coming back from Egypt and after your studies?
Definitely at first, I'm not a scholar, but definitely it's been
such a process. I think seeing our community grow,
I remember.
Thank you. This was maybe like 10 years ago. I wrote an article
about how,
you know, let me tell you. And you might know people like this. There
are so many women who want to get married, and have been trying to
get married for 10 years, 15 years, maybe never married before,
maybe divorce, never being able to find marriage afterwards. You
might know people who want to have children, and they've never been
able to. And a lot of times the focus of our community, the
conversation is that they want to be these pious Muslim woman, but
really piety in our community looks like modesty, marriage and
motherhood, so if we don't have access to most of that because of
issues that are outside of our control, the message that I have
heard women talk about So much the pain that they feel is that they
just feel like they are not worthy Muslims. I've had a I had a woman
who read the article I wrote that she Subhanallah, she had a
disability, and she wrote to me and said, This is the first time
that I've ever had hope, because I've never thought that somebody
would want to marry me, which is so unfortunate and so sad, because
so many Muslims with disabilities mashallah are in thriving
relationships, happily married, and they're such important parts
of our community. But the point is, this messaging has led so many
women to feel like they can't be good enough Muslims. So the
article I wrote was saying that, you know, subhanAllah, it's out of
our control. There are certain things that are out of your
control. You do your best, you do your best to take the means. But
there are other paths to paradise. Studying is a path to paradise.
Taking care of orphans is a path to paradise. Serving your parents,
you know, working with the right intention, all of these are other
paths of paradise. If these, if these areas of your life that
you've been wanting for so long are not happening right now, look
into the other areas and work in those areas until and if they
happen into your life. And the feedback I received from that was
like, I had so many people contact me, like shayuf, that I trust,
like Subhanallah, like Sister, people are worried of the message
you're giving. And I'm like, I'm literally saying that you can have
hope in yourself, that if you can't control something, look for
something else and work to serve Allah in this other way, until and
if it happens, and Subhan Allah, it was so hard to see that
reaction from our community, because I was labeled and given
all these labels for what like. I still don't understand what the
what was. I don't understand what the problem was with what I said.
I I literally do not see religious issue with this. But since that
time, I feel like, Alhamdulillah, we have more of an understanding
in our community of some of the struggles that women go through in
general. More and more women, especially with social media, have
actively talked about the pain that they've experienced in these
areas. They've talked about how hard it is to go through this. Men
have talked about how hard it is to go through this. Men have
talked about how difficult it is to support their loved ones
through this, and I think that just the fact that we've been more
honest and open about these conversations has actually led to
female voices being more accepted in these positions. And so from
that time where a statement like that caused so much, so many
issues. Now, I think people hear that and they're like, Well, of
course, you know, of course, we know that women have, you know,
different tasks, and men have different tasks, and that's okay.
And our life paths are all about serving Allah and whatever ability
he has put in our life. And I think that just that general.
Conversation even on those two issues. Because look, if the two
biggest issues that we talk about with women are modesty and
marriage and we're not looking at other areas, then it limits the
conversation. I was only invited to speak on modesty and marriage
and motherhood. Now the conversations are on like self and
Quran and Ciro and Hadith. So when we as a community start shifting,
and we're no longer thinking about women only in these areas, we're
also able to create accessible spaces for women to hear from
other women, or men to hear from other women about issues that are
relevant to all of us. And so Alhamdulillah, I've seen that
shift in our community now. Alhamdulillah, I'm so grateful.
I'm so fortunate that growing up, I never saw, for example, Umrah
groups or Hajj groups where women could go and give lectures and
hamdullah. I'm so fortunate and so privileged. I've been invited to
do those hamdulillah to go to mashall Aqsa and lecture there.
I'm so grateful that Al guruj Subhanallah, may Allah bless them,
like I was last year. I'm so beyond humbled that I couldn't
believe I'm sitting in mesh and I'm translating for the Imam of
Mishal like I'm nobody. I don't I'm not Arab nothing, and I'm a
woman, and I'm sitting and translating, and I don't think I
could have envisioned that 10 years ago, but with people like
you, like alburu, like these, these people who are doing
programming where we're not looking at women in this box, and
we're looking at all these areas that we say women need to be
perfect at, we're not going to get there unless we're supporting
women in all these other areas too. And so that process, I think,
Alhamdulillah, of recognition and self self reflection as a
community, has led us to opening doors where now Alhamdulillah, I
feel like the invitations are not specific to an area. It's
Alhamdulillah open and it's for men and women, and we can all
benefit from one another. Inshallah, absolutely. And I
think, I think that's a really important point in terms of really
bringing female scholarship to make a full contribution in
community, not just on areas like motherhood and parenting. And, you
know, those so important, so important. These are so important.
But, you know, we have sisters and female scholars with specialist
specialism in all the areas, and we need to get the full
contribution. And I want to just bring in Chef sherfy there and see
say, you know, how do we do that as a community? How do we, how do
we provide that platform make that space for our female scholars to
come forward. They're 50% of this ummah and and and make that
contribution and inspire female you know,
of our community, because, you know, no matter how many male
scholars and others come, come on platforms and speak, that's only
going to kind of have an appeal to male brothers. Mainly, yes,
sisters will be benefiting from that, of course, or when someone
like Sheikha Mariam speaks directly, you know, individuals
like Lady Chai get inspired and relate to that in a much more
powerful way. So we, I think the male Muslim community has a big
responsibility there. Look, I'm just sitting here and absorbing
everything Sheik hamari I'm saying,
and it's been profoundly educational, even for me at this
age and experience and everything I'm still learning in terms of the
critical importance of giving a platform to female scholarship, to
women speakers, to women influencers.
I guess we need a paradigm shift in our communities. We need a
real, wholesale paradigm shift. This is incredible, incredibly
motivational, I'm sure for our audience, for me personally, of
course, we have to understand we've got a lot of baggage to deal
with, even myself, personally, every male scholar out there or
speaker or person in responsibility as a trustee of a
masjid or of an organization, we've got all our baggages, our
cultural backgrounds, our education. And you have to also
remember male scholars, men and women, but men particularly, they
not only have to jettison their kind of cultural baggage, and not
just cultural, but even mainstream society in terms of how it sees
with it. They've got to deal with that, and then they have to also
deal with their personal journey. We have to remember male scholars.
Give them, like 2025, years in scholarship, they will change
their views throughout that period. So there's a lot of work
we have to do. And I think, you know, just to give you an example,
one of my teachers and one of our teachers here, Chef Mohammed,
Akram nedawi, he said his viewpoint, you know, everyone
thinks he's like a progressive for women, and he wrote the 50 volumes
on female scholarship, and it is pushing the envelope, if you like.
He said, Look, my mind changed when I was confronted with two of
my students in my class and I was reading a hadith out. We were
explaining something in fear or Hadith in.
And they challenged me. They said, Look, how can this be? They
challenged it from a women's perspective. That got him
thinking, and he went and reevaluated his understanding on
what those Hadith meant, on the Status of Women, on how they're
treated. So I think you know that my point is the way things will
change, the way we'll open up, is to experience it. You know, I I'd
like to send this clip of Sheik Maryam to every masjid, to every
to every father, to every parent, to every brother. It's so
important to hear it from them, their their voices. It without
experience it. Experiencing it. You can read about it, but our
biases, our backgrounds, our historical, cultural kind of, you
know, baggage that we have, always covers over, always, kinds of
things. It's okay out there. We're doing enough, but we're not doing
enough. So I think it's about exposure, bringing people in like
Sheik hamariyam said that we need to give our sisters platforms,
accessibility, equality of the opportunity, and really experience
their voices, because unless we hear the voices of
marginalization, of discrimination, of how they're
suffering, we're not going to be able to change ourselves or even
change our thinking.
But there's a question directly for you, from Sarah Lopez, who's
asking my question for Chef Shafi, is there anything you are doing
locally to involve females, females into scholarship also, are
you currently mentoring any females who are in the path of
seeking knowledge. Very good question. Very good question. Put
me on the spot there. Now, haven't you? Well, first of all, I'd like
to think my contribution to faith Inspire
is something which really promotes women and sisters and gives them
the opportunity. So that's one thing, and brother Junaid can
expand on that what faith inspires doing for women, and they place
that real importance on promoting sisters, giving them that open
space where they don't have to feel everything has to be done
behind closed doors. So I think, you know, hopefully my
contribution there, that's one thing I'm doing. Secondly, there's
two institutes that I'm involved with, very quickly, gibral
Institute, as well as assalam Institute, which really open up
teaching and learning in the equal space where men and women are
sitting in the same classroom, they have equal opportunity to all
of the teachers there, whether they're male or female. So I think
through those institutes, through faith inspire at the local Masjid
local. I say it's an international Masjid East London Mosque. I'm a
trustee there. We try our best, you know, I, you know, I'm I'm
motivated even more. I'm inspired even more to do more. But we try
and do our best to kind of give those opportunities for females.
We've had female speakers online. We've had special sessions for
women. There's 400 women on Zoom learning. So we're trying, but I
think it's not enough. We need to do more, in terms of me,
especially mentoring any group of sisters. No, I'm not at the
moment. At the moment, I'm not, I'm open to it. I'm not at the
moment. Zach had a chef. Shafi, we have a question here from Yahya Al
Kasmir, who's asking to Sheik Maryam, how do we strike a balance
in seeking Islamic knowledge and being a professional employee? And
Alhamdulillah, you've got to, you know, you've got your masters, and
you've got your family, and at the same time, Islamic sciences and
memorization and teaching and writing. Alhamdulillah, you're
engaged in all of that. How do you how do you find the balance? And
do you have any such role models as amongst women who are not going
do you have any such role models as most women are not going to be
just seeking Islamic knowledge? So he's saying, basically, most women
won't be just seeking Islamic knowledge. They'll have other
responsibilities at the same time. So how do you what's your advice
in trying to balance that definitely so important? Um, I'll
tell you that. So I'll just give you my schedule right now, which
is that Hamza, I have a four year old and an almost two year old.
And if you have young children, you know that you have you have no
nothing. You have children. That's all you do. It's so hard to do
anything else when you're with them, because they just need so so
much. For me when they're so little, So alhamdulillah, that is
the way that I spend the majority of my day. You can use that for
your own circumstance, and say, you have a nine to five job, or
you have a nine to eight job, and that is your primary
responsibility. So use this example in your own way. Okay, so
you have that time. I have this time. I know that from these hours
my children are awake and it is my time with them. Then you have time
that is just for yourself, actually, let me backtrack. Then
you have time that you have responsibilities for other people.
You might live with other people. You may be taking care of your
parents, or maybe you're taking care of you know.
Your spouse, your other children, or whatever your circumstance, you
might have response other responsibilities beyond your work.
So then you have a time scheduled for that, but then you have a time
in your day where it's just for you. And I will tell you that on a
daily basis, at a maximum of time, I have 30 to 45 minutes for
myself. So this is the time that I have decided to decide, am I going
to take a nap, or am I going to do some work? And so it's very, very
slow. Hamdulena, I'm extremely, extremely fortunate. I know this
is an enormous privilege that I have come to that such an
extremely supportive husband, mashallah, he is very involved
with our children, and when he is not working, he actively spends
hours with our children. Alhamdulillah. So on the weekends,
I have this time right now where I can do something like this,
because my husband takes the kids up. Not everyone has it, and I
recognize that I know hamdullah, that's a privilege, and I pray for
everyone to be filled their time with barakah, no matter what their
circumstances are. But on a regular basis, I have 30 to 45
minutes, maybe, maybe, maybe one hour a day, and so that's the time
that I do my studies, my research. This is why I'm so behind
responding to everyone's messages. Most of the time, it's because I
have to decide, am I going to do my own Quran review right now? Or
am I going to do research for an article that's due? Or am I going
to respond to the 17 questions about menstruation? Or, you know,
like, I don't have, I don't I have to make a decision. So you have to
make decisions on what is important for you for that time
frame. Now, when you are working, you sometimes feel like, Oh, I
wish all I could do is just take time off and just study Islam, and
then I can do more and just but listen when you are working, every
time you work, the Prophet sallallahu, companions approached
him about a man who was like a strong a man, and he they, they
asked him, like, Wouldn't it be better if you want, for the sake
of Allah? And the Prophet sallallahu, sallam, taught, oh,
come up all that. You know, when he goes out and he provides for
his young children, that is for the sake of Allah, providing for
the elderly parents, that is for the sake of Allah providing for
himself. So he's not begging. That is for the sake of Allah, giving
charity that is for the sake of Allah. So what you are doing is
worship. It is a form of worship. It's a critical form of worship.
And if no claim. Rahima, holla, he talks about federally at all, what
so Allah puts in your life certain things. When he puts those things
in your life, and you're like, Oh, I wish I didn't have to do these
things. That is your own. Hawa, it's your own desire speaking.
Because if he if you didn't have these things that he placed in
your life to take care of your own family, to take care of yourself,
then of course, all of us would be living in Mecca and study all day
long, like who else who wouldn't want to do that, if that's what
you want to do. But that's not a reality. We can't be in Medina,
24/7, worshiping and studying. I mean, very small group of people
can't. Masha Allah, specifically, man may Allah bless them, and
mashallah, sometimes the women who are so blessed to be able to go
with them. But that's very, very that's a very small amount of
people. So the rest of us, we look at our life circumstances and we
say, Okay, what is my goal? Is your goal? To memorize the Quran,
to review the Quran, to read it, tafsir, to read the Sierra. What
is it? Figure out what your goal is. Find that time in your day,
where that's just your time for that 15 minutes a day over a
period of three months is going to make a very big difference. 15
minutes a day doesn't seem like a lot. It's certainly not hours upon
hours of studying. But after three years of doing that, after 10
years of doing that, you just don't want to get to the future
and say, I wish that I had all these years of study when that's
not what you needed. Allah placed you in your circumstances for a
reason. So use the time you have in your circumstances that 45
minutes a day, ask Allah to put Baraka in that time, do as much as
you can in that specific time, and also recognize that you're not
going to be able to do everything that you want right now, and
that's okay. That's a journey for me that has been such a journey
for me, every single week I have a new life motto. I'm like, my life
motto this week is, Inshallah, I'm going to just memorize all the
tira at and then the next week, I'm like, I realized that it's not
possible for me to do that in a week. And, like, it's just every
single week. And then I finally, like, got to this place where I'm
like, You know what? I have to start taking my own advice to
other people and just go a little bit slower than where my goals
are. Your aspirations inshallah might be high, but your life
circumstances that Allah placed in your life, this is your worship
right now, your work, your family, your responsibilities, that is
your worship right now. And you take the small amount of time that
you can, on a consistent basis to do your
studies inshallah. That's very practical and very
important advice, especially in the month of Ramadan, where we
want to do so much, but really making it practical. And it
reminds me of the Hadith of the Prophet saw that Allah, subhanaw
taala loves those things that are done regularly, even if it's
small. And I think sometimes we have this aspiration to achieve,
you know, by hearing like Sheik Maryam today, and we want to
memorize the Quran, and we think we want to memorize it by next
week. And that's not how it's going to happen. You know, you
have to kind of reflect it onto your, you know, practical life,
and find that time and do something regularly, and
Inshallah, things will build up. So jazakam, we're approaching.
Um, the last few days of Ramadan. And I wanted to kind of open up
the opportunity to hear from you and seek your advice for all, for
ourselves and our listeners in terms of what we can do in those
last few days of Ramadan in order to get the maximum benefits. I'm
going to tell you three things, Inshallah, that I think are so
critical. One is the intention of the IT calf and the masjid of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. The second one is dua, and the
third one is gratitude. So the first one Ibn Abbas radila, he was
in the masjid when a man came, and he was very down, and Ibn Abu Hanu
asked him, what was going on. Found out that this man had a debt
offered to help this man speak to the person he's indebted to. And
when the man reminded Ibn Abbas will belohan, who, as he realizes
that Ibn Abbas is going to leave his IC cap, he's like, you're an
IC cap. Ibn Abbas Radi Allahu Anhu taught us that leaving the masjid
of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, leaving the masjid to
help this brother, there's more reward in that 10 years worth,
more reward than I see Captain the masjid of the Prophet sallallahu,
alayhi wa sallam when you go to work so that you can make money to
provide for yourself or your family, when you Are Changing your
baby's diaper when you are calling or taking care of your parents,
all of these acts, which sometimes you feel like all I want to do is
sit down and read Quran, but I can't, because I have to cook it
for everyone, or because I have to take care of this thing for work,
or because I have to do all of these different things. You make
the intention. Oh, Allah, I wish that I could be an IT calf and a
masjid of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That would be my
biggest dream in these 10 nights. But I can't, because of the
responsibilities you have put in my life, Oh Allah, accept it from
me as if I was in it cap of the masjid of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, and let the reward that I received, even
though I might not taste the sweetness of a man in those acts
be greater, because if I left ecaf to do these things, the reward
would be greater. Your sweetness might not be there, but it's not
about how sweet you feel. This the emotional connection is very
special. But Allah didn't ask us to fast or to pray, and then every
single time we fast and pray, Our hearts are filled with so much
love that we weep enjoy. Of course, we all want to do that,
but he didn't require that from us, because he's so merciful. He
has given us control over the actions of our worship, not our
emotions, which we can't always control. So focusing on the
actions I have in my life, making the intention that all of this is
worship, and we pray the greatest, greater than the greatest form of
worship than we can think of. That's the first part for the last
10 because none of our responsibilities are going to go
away just because it's less. And the second part is
so these 10 nights Layla till Qatar, you are going to catch it
Inshallah, if you're worshiping every single night. Now, I
actually have already been asked. I feel like I've wasted the first
beginnings of the first 10. What if I've missed Layla till Qatar?
Have mercy. Have hope in Allah. He can answer your have hope in Him.
So make a dualist. Write every single thing you possibly want in
that dry list, and make sure you make that dry list every single
night. And if you don't,
if you're not, for some reason, able to make it at night, let's
say you missed your alarm, and you didn't wake up for support, and
you slept and you basically woke up for federal law. I missed the
opportunity to make all that dua I wanted make it throughout the day.
Just constantly make that dua. While you're like, walking from
one room to the next for your commute to work, like, whatever
you're doing, make that dua. You are, Inshallah, fasting. If you're
not, you're in the month of Ramadan. This is a time when your
jaw is answered, really, from the depths of your heart. Dua is, is,
is the essence of worship. You're every time you make dry, you are
affirming that you believe in Allah's ability to accept in his
knowledge, in the fact that he's listening and he's hearing he
loves your voice. Call out to him. Make dua to him. Make this time
one where you connect to him on a spiritual level. And the third
part is gratitude. So I get this question a lot, especially towards
the end of Ramadan, where people feel like they haven't felt an
emotional tie with Allah. And so the recommendation that I
constantly give is you sit down, you take some time, and you just
think about why you are grateful. You say, Alhamdulillah, for
everything you can think of that you're grateful for. And you will
never run out of things. It's impossible. You just physically
cannot thank Allah for everything that he's given you. Subhanallah,
there was a woman who got into a car accident and she lost her
ability to control some of the nerves in her eyes, like some of
the wiring behind her eyes. So to go to sleep at night, she had to
put a piece of tape on her.
Eyes to keep her eyes shut like Have we ever thanked Allah for
being able to close our eyes when we sleep, like those things that
pan Allah, He controls so much of our body, for us to allow us to do
so much else? And have we even been grateful for that so sitting
and just saying Alhamdulillah and thinking of a blessing in every
single thing that you're saying, Alhamdulillah for so that when you
call out to Him, you're coming from a place of gratitude. You're
coming from a place of knowing that, as he has responded to Musa
alayhi salam, when Musa alaihi salam is asking him to let his
brother come with him, to go to firam Kay Nusa bihaka kefir, so
that we can remember you. Subhan wa taala, can constantly praise
you. Allah Tala responds, we've already answered you. And remember
when we did this and this and this and this and this and this? And
think about your own life. How many times Allah Tala has already
answered you, answered you, answered you. Why wouldn't he
answer you again? Why wouldn't he continue to give you so just keep
asking and know that the answer might come in different ways, but
when it comes from a place of gratitude, you recognize that he
has given you so much, not because you're deserving of it, but
because he is simply al Kareem anyway. He is the generous anyway.
That's who he is. So whether or not you're deserving of it doesn't
matter, because he is Al Kareem. He is a Rahman regardless of
whether or not you deserve his mercy. He still is a Rahman. So
you have hope and the greatness of who he is, not in the smallness
and the weakness of who you are. And you spend that time saying,
Alhamdulillah, really thinking of what you're grateful for. And then
that was only going to cause you it feels like you're obligated
then to say, I still the federal law, because you can never thank
him enough. So bringing those two feelings, merging those two
together, and then bringing those into Jaya, and then bringing those
into reading the Quran and Inshallah, the emotional
connection you're looking for in these lesson nights, knock on that
door. It's always been open. It's just continuing to knock on it.
And Inshallah, to Allah, He will absolutely Answer. Answer.
Inshallah, it's amazing. Sister Mariam, apologies to chef. I'm
learning. I'm sitting here learning, and like I said, we have
to give the time and space to our sisters. Definitely,
it's been so educational.
Wonderful chef. It's such a blessing to be in this space with
you. After the web authors and after,
we have many people watching and will be circulating this,
including Suleiman, you father is watching.
There is
a great supporter of faith, inspire, and one of our, one of
our sheikhs that we kind of benefit from as well.
Imam Sohaib was mentioning Sheik Fadil in his presentation last
time when he was here, in terms of Sheik Fadil does a Quran session,
I think it's normally, it's in Arabic
that has kind of a wide, wide audience. And I think Imam Sahib
kind of sometimes tunes into that as well. So Jaq Mullah head on to
all our scholars and now Sheik Maryam as well, on board with us
to guide us and advise us and support us. Mashallah, it's been
absolutely inspiring. Before we conclude the show, I wanted to ask
Sheik Mariam a question that we normally ask towards the end with
most of our guests, is your favorite verse? Maybe just pick
one verse. I know the whole Quran, someone who's memorized the whole
Quran, you know the whole Quran is in your heart, Mashallah. But
maybe one verse that you can just kind of pick to reflect on and
share, you know, the inspiration that you get from that verse. So
I'm not going to tell you my favorite verse, But I will tell
you a verse that I, I think has just been a theme of my Ramadan.
This, this Ramadan, you do have a favorite verse that you're not
going to share now I'm not going to. I think I feel like, I feel
like all of us have different verses that become our favorite in
certain times of our lives. Maybe like a verse that speaks to speaks
to you right now, maybe another verse is going to speak to you in
10 years or in three months for your life circumstances. So until
I go through that phase, those favorite verses are a very
personal experience for me, and then I'm able to reflect on them,
on an outlife and an Out Loud process, but a verse that for me
is one of my favorites, and one that I think is a constant theme
is Subhan, Allah. I can't stop talking about this ayah because
they're so powerful. Sort of laughing. Allah says, Allah, who
you said behind yourself,
whatever you like, a and then the verses continue with these angels
who are around the ash of Allah. They're praising Him. They believe
in him. I love the explanations. Pamela, he says that the angels
are holding the ash of Allah. I cannot stop talking about this.
I'm like so.
Blown away by this. They're holding the ash of Allah, and they
are. They believe in him, like, why would you're seeing me right
now? I'm seeing you right now. I'm not going to say I believe I'm
seeing the scholars. I believe I'm seeing the people I see you. I'm
saying I'm seeing you right now, Allah. I mean, they're seeing
Allah, but she has a shot. Always says that they don't know that, so
they believe not in the lab, because they only know Allah
allows them to know. And this is so powerful, because they praise
Allah, and they ask for forgiveness of the believers.
They're asking for Allah's forgiveness for us, asking that
Allah protects us from the hellfire, and not just us, but the
people that we love, they pray for them to go us, to go with the
people that we love into paradise and be saved from the hellfire.
Why this is so incredible is because angels cannot do anything
except that Allah commands them to do it, which means that Allah has
commanded a group of angels to do nothing but ask for our
forgiveness and pray for the loved ones that we love to go into
Paradise, and they do nothing but praise Allah and make this prayer
for us. And subhanAllah in the tafsir of
we Estelle, isn't little meaning, isn't in the machine. It isn't for
the believers, for the machine. For the people who do the best are
the people who have believed in Allah, but their actions struggle
to reflect that belief. These are the people that Allah has
commanded angels to make dua for at every single moment. So what
about people who are struggling truly to worship Him in every
single second, who feel so terrible about their mistakes, who
can't forgive themselves for a sin they committed five years ago?
They worry about the way that that reflects about with them and
Allah. If this is Allah's mercy to people who believe in him but
struggle with the action, then how much more so for the people who
Allah is on their mind all the time, and they're trying so hard
to please him. I love the description in these verses,
because we have loved ones that we love so much, and we pray for, and
we want their happiness in this life and the next. And saraid ibn
Jube Radi Allahu anhu, he has this narration where a person comes
into paradise and they're looking around and they say, oh, Allah,
where is my my dad? Where's my my spouse, where's my grandpa,
where's my son? And they don't see any of these people. And it said
to this person, well, you worked, you worked, and they didn't do
that same level of work. And this person's response is that, I
worked for me, but I worked for them too. My work was for them
too, and because of Allah's love for this person and they, Allah
doesn't want any person in paradise to be sad. He joins those
people who didn't work to that level, but he brings them into
that level of paradise, just so that this person will feel like
their loved ones are with them. And for me, these verses just show
the extreme Mercy of Allah. Here we are like beating ourselves up
because we're not good enough. We don't have that emotional
connection. Emotional connection. We're we are our own insecurities
from our own life issues. We throw that and project that onto Allah,
he is so much greater than our own insecurities of our own selves.
The way he sees us is not the way that Allah that we see ourselves.
Allah so much greater than that. And so what I love about these
ayat is just that angels bring barakah and mercy and the your DUA
being accepted when they see I mean, your DUA is accepted. And
subhanAllah, he's commanded angels to do nothing but pray for you.
And if that doesn't show us how incredibly loving our Lord is, if
that doesn't show us who Allah dude is, then Subhan Allah,
knowing who he is is what helps us overcome the trials in our lives,
because we have a lord. We shouldn't look at what we're going
through in our life. We should look at who we have going through,
everything that we're going through in our life. And I feel
like those, those verses, example, that for for all of us, amazing.
That's so, so powerful. Thank you very much for sharing those
reflections and insight into that first before we conclude. Shafi,
would you like to say anything as concluding remark? No, just like
to thank Sheikha Maryam jazanakharan. It's been so
inspiring and motivational. It's been awesome for your time. And I
think, I hope people will realize that the importance of having
women and men, but on this show, especially women, going out to
seek knowledge, and coming back and teaching our communities, the
revival of this community, the coming back of this community, the
raising up, you know, coming back out of our slumber, out of our
weakness, out of our kind of fragmentation, out of our loss, is
going to be through the revival of knowledge, and I hope today's
episode has really proven that through the works of Sheikha
Maryam, she's been so inspirational, so relevant,
Alhamdulillah and so motivational.
Shafi.
Chef Mariam, you know, from the bottom of our hearts, JazakAllah
Helen for your time, and you know, leaving aside your
responsibilities to join us on this show. And hopefully, it's not
the last. It's first of many more. Inshallah, Faith Inspire is really
grateful for your contribution, and it's been such an inspiring,
motivational show for us as presenters, and hopefully for our
listeners as well. So may Allah subhanaw taala, reward you make
the rest of the days of Ramadan blessed days for you and your
family and increasing your goodness, increasing you the
ability to contribute and benefit the whole of the Muslim ummah.
Inshallah, thank
you so much for the honor, extreme honor of inviting me and thank
you, bodakal, for looking at creating this platform like Chef,
Chef, he said so many times like amplifying women's voices, you
know to to provide that platform is such a big service. Bottle of
ficum for all of your work, and it's been such an honor to you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Continue prayers. Inshallah. You
too, brothers and sisters. We'll end. The end the show here until
next time, keep us in your prayers. Stay safe and make the
best of you. Best Use of the final days of Ramadan May Allah give us
stuff. Salamani Kumar.