Omar Suleiman – Sincerely
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The transcript is a list of numbers and letters, but these are not conversations or utterances. The transcript is a series of random and unrelated sentences that are not related to a specific topic.
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Buddy come on out here for joining us. This is your brother Ibrahim Hindi with my co host Sheikh Abdullah duro Sheikh Abdullah, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm dilla. Like I said, I want to catch you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for tuning in. Absolutely. Thank you for tuning in. As always, you know, let us know that you're here. Give us your Sadam in the chat. Let us know where you're coming to us from. We'd love to hear where everybody's from and making sure that everybody
you know is excited inshallah. Shaykh Abdullah, we got a big guest today. I don't know if you heard
Oh, really? Oh, is that the cue to give the drumroll now, the US me.
Introducing someone in the comments says fashionably late. Yeah, we have to make a big deal. We got a big guest right? Call guess.
Where's everyone coming to us from give us let us know in sha Allah where you're from? Let us know if you have any questions. Today we're gonna have a bit of a tighter engagement because our guest does have to leave at some.
So you know, it's busy man. He's got very little time. So unlike the other guests we went on almost an hour and a half we have to cut it short at about an hour in Sharla today so
that just means more JAM PACKED inshallah with excitement. So let us know in sha Allah where you're coming up at us from I see brother Dlo salamati come from New York City. Stir Arzoo Somali come from Canada. I see brother from Sri Lanka
a sister Sarah from Turkey Michelle law sister HIPAA from London Canada not to be confused with London of the UK I don't know if you know we have a London here to really show lots of article where
he said more he said do you say more jam packed or more Jim packed was a boat. You told me
Canada Canada I don't know if it's you know, I'll take Jim packed masala I'm the GM not gy M but
I'm okay with that. Inshallah, let's introduce our guests for today. We have Chef almost a man Dr. Almost a man is the founder and president of the clean Institute for Islamic research. And he is the adjunct professor of Islamic Studies in the graduate Liberal Studies program at SMU. He's also the resident scholar at the Valley Ranch Islamic center. There's a lot more I can say. But everyone joining us here I'm sure knows our guests very well. San Juanico Shia Muslim Rahmatullah cattle you stole my co host, man, this is
so wrong. This is what it's like to be the third the third guy that's right.
What happened man you did you just America and went to Canada. It's called Bordeaux shake is called boredom. You got bored with me? That's what it is. Yeah, it can be understood like that. But I didn't say
my expiation to you know to do good to you inshallah. You're gonna have to you're gonna have to seek my forgiveness and Siobhan though for that comment.
Her for a while.
Just to be clear, I was on time they just put me backstage.
That's all that is true. And the only reason why we're doing an hour is because we got to pretty much that's what
a lot of slot but it's good to be with you guys. 100.
Zack gonna hate on Shane Brahim. And Chef Abdullah. You guys have been doing a great job Michelle. I've been I've enjoyed thoroughly every session thus far. I'm that I'm not trying to take over host duties here and
I look forward to being your guests tonight. And shall Matana
do I get it? I get like a certificate or something like that. How do y'all treat your guests?
County rely only on an asset for you couldn't leave her home. You can live your life. I didn't know I'm gonna leave this time.
Yeah, I'm not a host here. I'm gonna go expect expect like edible arrangements. A bouquet of flowers and chocolate. A personal chef Abdullah to apologize.
Now it can't be an insult to the earlier guest because they didn't receive it either. So you know.
I think you know check out the left taken for a gym session that would be G
Yeah, G G. Why am I challenged him on Instagram? Because he knows there's a football field right by value.
He doesn't want it
for Instagram you check. Yes, yes. And yes.
All of you Let's go ball football field basketball court. I got you um, but I'm not touching weights with you. Nothing. My son told me about you in the basketball court. But we'll leave that for another another alma mater. Oh no. Say it says this manda Yama. He said you got game he said you know you got a nice shot. And then he stopped
All right, that's what that's what that's where he stopped
let's see, I'm not touching weights with you, chef. I'll play basketball with you. I'll play football with you. I'll play baseball with you. Maybe you know I've done that for a while. Do some baseball. But I'm not. I'm not weightlifting with you. Calisthenics pull ups, push ups. I don't know what those are.
I have no idea what you're talking about.
But yeah, treadmills, maybe. I'll reach you. I'll see if I can beat you in two minutes.
Okay, yeah, sell a five yard run.
We'll do like yeah, we'll do a triathlon or something like that. We'll do we'll do so. Yeah. That's got to be filmed though. We need a live stream. I'm not
sure though. Bring it on. Yes. Okay. We'll see we'll see. The whole world knows no, so follow my Instagram cuz I put it on there and Chawla I challenge these guys all the time.
We will see Sharla will pick up before on 3430 and sola sola and then the real the real co host will take a seat back so if Ibrahim
is how many Americans do I give him just you know just kind of that's how we go back yeah, we're not very nice if and Canada I would have apologized to you already 10 times
I would have said sorry. And we're texting now we both mean Sure. Abdullah both been corrupted by Texas
Are you my life are getting upset now? Why starting to go out? I need to stop now. All right.
Hey, Chef when we were trying to put together the thumbnail for this session and they said you know the tall mm. But which is true in a spatula? I don't know you don't know this actually, we actually met once a while ago at the reviving STEM experience conference. I was helping my wife out at a booth she was selling she has many businesses masala sauce helping her out. And you came by and we said to them actually but like we did. You didn't know me at that time. But I did notice how very tall your
towering over us. But the other thing we wanted to put on the thumbnail was instead of the tallest man, maybe the multitasking. Because mashallah, why didn't you do that? Why didn't you go that route? Why did you have to do the tall? The whole tall thing?
Because it's actually on the thumbnail, so we have to actually
ready to go.
Why don't you call me the slowly ma'am. But what like if you push on the lawn there would you have called? I'm just saying, you know, if we should have done I would have been the jack the man, you know, I've moved up to 30 pound dumbbells recently, you know?
Alright, enough, enough of that. Yeah. Slow clap. Oh, in each hand on a
Swedish railroad and
so, you know, Sheffield, like, the lot of things in your, in your bio that you didn't, we didn't even put in there. Like, for instance, I know, you were part of, you know, the founders of Watson, which is a group that helps serve Muslims with disabilities and, you know, much as myself working with, with you and working with you. And I see, like, subhanAllah you have a lot on your plate. And I think a lot of people would love to know, like, how do you multitask?
Like how do you get involved in so many different things and what do you do to kind of keep yourself able to not just do 10 things but none of them come out well, but instead multitasking and still having you know, high degree of success with the things that you're trying to do.
Longer that can happen. So look, first of all, it's purely the fault of Allah subhanaw taala that anything that we achieved, right, whether it's through capacity of the FBI or otherwise and him that enough for everything that Allah subhanaw taala has given us the opportunity to serving this deen or serving Allah subhana wa through this deal is the greatest honor that a person can have long stem and Noah tested did not write the data we make all our users don't replace us.
And there are various ways to do that. Right. So you mentioned Marsan
there are three like essential components of myself and you know anyone that knows me knows that you know, I
I tried my best to to honor what I feel like my parents imparted on me that's a big part of my life. Right? And so
I learned a lot through them and I'm the not I mean, and
that that's it's a lot of it is part of you know, my mom's legacy allied haha. There are three essential components that I set out to achieve in my life. One of them
had to do with special needs. And it was about meeting the right person. And the right people to actualize that vision and tomato cola and Merson was founded Muslims understanding and helping with special education needs.
Because my mother was partially deaf, and so I saw the struggles there.
So
that was,
you know, so markson was was was a lot was very near and dear to my heart because I realize when it comes special needs a lot of people, the only people that I've seen that are passionate about special needs or people or I don't want to use absolute most of the people that are passionate about special needs or passionate about special needs, because they have a child with special needs, or someone that is really, really close to them with special needs, which I think we need to change.
So the idea of bringing about my son, I didn't, I don't, I didn't have to do very much sister Julie Todd, who's our executive director, and when she's formed a team out there, and now it's spread throughout the country throughout throughout North America in many, in many ways has touched the world, right and changing perceptions and concepts. Your team is, is actually my only full time commitment. Everything else I do is not as a as a
as a staff member. So everything else I do as a volunteer team is my full time it's something that I'm so proud of all of the brothers and sisters that are involved with actualizing the vision of VFP and the happiness vision is not uniquely mine nor is the work uniquely mine haven't been thought of but I mean it's a shared
it's something that's shared between all of us that we love and we care about so much and it's certainly what takes up the vast majority of my time studying and teaching this deen and disseminating that content in a way that inspires confidence in the faith inshallah Tada and contribution through it, which is, which is an iteration of that confidence. And then there's honestly, the refugee experience, which inshallah Tada, more coming through there.
You know, with the refugee experience and refugee work, that was something that I grew up very close to. So those are causes, right?
When it comes to how I try to divide my my time
and how I tend to multitask.
I think that one thing is that you have to be very passionate about what you do. You can't replace passion. Like you have to you have to love what you do. You have to love what you do, right. So one thing is passion. Because if you love what you do, if you're passionate about what you do, then it will it will pull you through some of those those hard times and difficult times when you're trying to take whatever you're doing to the next level. So you can't replace passion. Nothing can replace passion just like in our in a spiritual sense. Nothing can replace Nia you can't replace intention, right. So nothing can replace Passion, passion, his purpose and purpose is perseverance. And so that
is something that I think is very important. It's an ingredient that you can't,
you can't necessarily calculate for. It's not time based. It's not. It's just something that you have to feel deep inside of you. And that's why the emphasis 19 And what renewing the intention, you've got to renew your intention constantly. If you don't renew your intention, you'll lose your purpose and your work will fall apart as well, by the way, because the effort will start to Slack, the lack of ExxonMobil start to show the lack of excellence in what you do. And eventually that manifests itself in something in the efforts, I think passion is very important. And then guard your time, guard your time. Your time is very, very, very important. There are some really passionate
people out there
that have a lot of potential, but they have very, very, very poor time management. And it really boils down to that.
And time management for us does not just include you know how you set your alarms, and how often you sleep time management for us. Embedded in that is sulla embedded in that is your widget, your remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala your recitation embedded in that are your sleep habits, but you can't have sleep habits in Islam without knowing what your prayer habits are going to be as well. Embedded in all of that are the things that you do to personally enrich yourself
embedded in that even being mindful of your leisure. You know, subhanAllah like, like, you know, Chef Abdullah, I know I know chef Abdullah works out a lot, which is a great thing and 100 love I mean, you got to have that like you've you've got to have that's actually one of the things that
that I'm really grateful for the last two years haven't been able to travel as much as I used to. Just getting getting into leisure, you know, playing flag football, playing basketball, working out, not as much as Shahidullah but having those things is really intentional.
really, really a special. And
I think that's really important. Guard your time, be very intentional about your time.
Because even if you have passion and purpose, you can be all over the place. And one of the things and I'll stop with this because I realized this is a very, very long winded answer here, and maybe you can, if you heard something that you want me to elaborate further on.
You know, a lot of times very talented people get away with that time management, but not for long.
Right like that, like, if you're really good at something, just naturally a lot gifted you at something.
Whether that's writing or being an orchestrator, or being a leader, being an organizer, being a volunteer, being an even an athlete, right? Something Allah gifted you with some natural with something as a gift from him, because all of these are gifts from a loss pounce on any blessing that we have as a gift from a loss of pounds on, they get away with it for a bit, right like you get it you can you can get away with with
limited success. But then eventually, like your poor habits will catch up with you. So the poor time management catches up with you, the inability to focus the inability to,
you know, to compartmentalize properly, and to set your goals properly. We just finished Dr. Tasneem series of hamdulillah on habits that's a really important really, really important series. Like it's, it's it's not, it's not empty, it has a lot of substance to it. And there's small short episodes, but if we really act on those things, then that'll do something for us inshallah.
Absolutely.
Yes, panel, I think I was actually going to mention that video series habits to win by Dr. Tasneem, which is, you know, been a great series martial law and incredible feedback coming from it. You know, maybe can you elaborate a little bit on the, you know, the concept of not really the concept, but what if somebody says, Okay, um, I just don't feel passionate. Yeah. Right. They feel like there's nothing in life they feel passionate about. How do they get that purpose? How do they get that passion
StudyBlue Lila, who the Rosalita the our company my E comm. Quran gives you life.
Reflection to W interfaculty gives you life that could give you life. woman out of that and victory Fenella homemade and Wonka
turn away from Allah's remembrance, it gets really constricting the opposite of constriction, his capacity, and wasat right to be able to do a lot and to be able to take on and that's that's not just to quantify everything, right? A lot of and that's that does distinguish us quite a bit from a lot of the you know, the the tools for success and productivity, things that measure everything purely based on quantity and awards and things now, for us that's there's a lot of quality as well, there's being a part of something in the background there. Like we revel in a lot of the stuff that others would consider to be not praiseworthy. So, how do you continue to
how do you continue to, to renew purpose, you go back to what inspired it in the first place? The Quran is to be frequently read, like imagine if the Sahaba only read the Quran once? Do you really think they would have been able to accomplish what they accomplished? Imagine if it was just a constitution that you revisit every once in a while as a book of law.
It wouldn't it you wouldn't be able to keep going. And so the law created us as beings that need to always eat to survive, you can't eat once a week, no matter how much you eat. If you chose one day a week and you ate. You know, for the week, you took the same proportion of food that you're going to eat throughout the week and you just ate it on one day.
You would die. Right? Spiritually speaking, it's very similar how we nourish the soul. It's not like you can just do drama on your good. You know, like No, Allah created us to need to constantly go back to our water, our food, and in the bodily sense and with this with a sense of the soul as well. That's what the width is. The word witted by the way, which refers to your regular recitation, your regular it literally is your regimen of remembrance witted actually, refers to going to the water and drinking from it. What are the who? So what are the who is to take the Arabs that's when you take the camel to the water and you let the you let the camel drink from the water to continue for
the journey. Look how Allah created us we we you know 100 Allah, Allah Subhana Allah did not say to us for example.
Look, you have five prayers a day but if you want just knock them all out.
You know you have a month to do it, right? Like that wouldn't have been good for
For us, that would not have been good for us the five Salawat to pull us away. They nourish us. If we do them properly, they give us the right perspective, to renew that purpose. So Islam has this constant.
This constant emphasis on renewal, and I look at the prophets I send them look, the prophets lie Selim is the best at everything. He really is. Right? He's perfection. It is. Salatu was Salam, as a worshiper, as a leader as a family man, as a brother as a friend, he's he perfects it, right it his a lot was set up. And
when I shoveled the a lot of Tata Anna asked him why he preached so much at night. And he said, I felt that I couldn't have done trecora So not be grateful servants. So he was praying out of gratitude, right? What is the last podcast say about those who increase in gratitude?
What to ensure capital
e.com If you are grateful, I will increase you and the increase is not limited to one realm. It's a lot did not say what he increases you and increases you and everything. It's kind of a lot of faith in perspective, capacity. So it's renewal, it really is renewal, touch deed, renewing the heart, renewing the intention, renewing purpose through prayer,
renewing your attachment to Allah subhana wa Tada renewing your detachment from the dunya, through sada through charity and acts of volunteers and rites, constant renewal, renewal, renewal renewal, so that you don't slack off and don't lose your sense of purpose in the process.
Some kind of I mean, how was this show? You know, just talking about here for this insight
from from the aspect of time management? When did it really hit you? I mean, when you were younger, and till now, you know that you really said, you know, what, you started through the follow up, and you know, seeking knowledge and then their request to do things here, you get an email there, you get a call there. Have you ever had the time where you double booked and you miss something? And some people will I look, I'm so sorry. You know, when did that really start for you? At what age? At what time? Where were you? Cuz you're originally from New Orleans? Correct? Yeah, yeah. No, I know. So that's what my Twitter handle is a lot people don't get it. Why do you have 504? Is that where
there were 503 ombersley monzi just have to be
very code.
So, when did it start?
You know,
last night, I was talking about public unsought. If you go to the first lecture last night, it's the love of the unsought. And I came across this, this narration from it shall be low on where she was saying, the day of bond, which was the war in which most of the unsought that, you know, their parents perished, it was a lot of turmoil and Medina was young Ademma hola that Allah subhanaw taala presented, they also did a slice on them, because it presented an opportunity because the people were in turmoil. And because they were in turmoil, they were thirsty. They were humbled, and they were thirsty. And so Islam was was so beautiful to them, they were ready to take it on.
They'd already seen the false promises of dunya. And people that attach themselves to false ideals into pride and position and power and things of that sort, right?
I had a really hard childhood, really hard childhood. And I'm not saying that to complain, I'm saying that actually from place of hand and handed it off for that.
Really 100 In love, because
those difficulties caused me to think about what the reality of life was, and purpose was very, very, very early on. And so my mom was sick a lot growing up, I've talked about this in other places, and I say it because it's like, you know, I could have taken that and said to myself, you know, like, and I did at times, I mean, I was weak at times when I was a kid, you know, how come I can't be like the other kids. Right? Why can I Why can I have a normal child? How come there, they get picked up by the parents, I get picked up by my dad and I'm going in hospital because mom's in a coma. Mom had another stroke, you know, like, how come right? Why is this happening? Why is that
happening? And they had those weak moments.
But then that sort of personal difficulty in that living with the uncertainty of my mom's health, which showed me the reality of dunya very, very early on, as well as
what my parents intentionally exposed me to have the the not so pretty side of things of the world, with the racial and justices predominant, very predominant in Louisiana, by the way, like, you know, I saw I saw Klan rallies Ku Klux Klan, I saw I saw those rallies, right. I saw racism very pronounced.
I encountered I mean, I've talked about this in other places, me and my my best friend, my brother Yousef, like we got beat up by the club. We didn't know why we're getting beat up we were trying to walk to in Dixie and pick up Chips and salsa.
I got beat up by these people because we weren't white.
And it was bad. So being exposed to that being exposed to the Palestinian cause, knowing my parents history coming, coming into
coming into contact with that, right, and what they encountered, and then the Bosnian I just came back from Bosnia was one of the most meaningful trips of my life Subhanallah, like Bosnia was happening in the 90s right now. And that was like really close to us and our parents, you know, parents really made it a point to expose us to that. So it was Bosnia, it was Somalia, it was so much that was happening Kashmir, right, which is still these are still ongoing. So getting exposed to all that just it exposed the reality of dunya. And so I'm just connecting it to last night's lecture, because I'm like that I realized that turmoil in my childhood, both what I was exposed to
as a matter of circumstance, and as a matter of parents exposing me to it, all of it part of the decree of Allah subhana wa, tada.
You know, was was something that Allah has gifted me with, like, I really grew up to understand, like, these were gifts, these were gifts to me, I'm glad. That doesn't mean you have to think Allah subhanaw taala. Or, well, you have to think a lot for everything. That doesn't mean you have to say like, I enjoyed hardship, but overall, I understand what exposure to hardship meant to me.
But it happens a lot. I wasn't in poverty, and things of that sort. All of that though, did mean a lot of a lot of questioning a lot of questioning, like why, and I want you know, I want purpose. And then, you know, at that point,
so, so it was, so I was like a really weird
12 year old, a really, really weird. Um, so I'm like, going back to there, right? I was six, two when I was 12. I love playing ball. Lovely. 162 when I was 12 years old. So I was five, four when I was 11. And I was six, two, and I was 12.
Wow.
Like, I love playing basketball, but I look like a grown man. By the time I was 13. Like I like like when people saw me, I remember I still remember this moment, like being in middle school. And like, I remember
one of the workers at the school saw me and he shouted out like a curse word like like his and he's like, How many times did you fail? And I'm like no, I'm actually
not I was like an 18 year old still in middle school or something like that right?
My best friend use it was Joshua at the time and had converted to Islam and use my you know, use use of his buddy man. Yes. So use of big iOS was like my height as well. I played basketball. He played football. We just looked like these two overgrown children. And middle school just didn't belong there. Like we were either teacher's assistants or failed like multiple times. And then on top of that, to make matters worse, I was like, I was like a deep kid man, like so I was trying to have like really deep profound philosophical conversations. With with, with I'm realizing now that I'm jumping the gun so use of my best friend Joshua. And I best friend since first grade. We decided
we're like brothers. We decided to explore religion together. Alright, I'm asking all these questions, deep philosophical questions. I'm like, I don't know if I believe in a religion. I believe in God. And I'm like, reading the Bible front to back and like 13 years old man. I'm like so we're like, we're like let's let's let's do religion and stuff together. Are you so you were Muslim and use of was not use? It was not he was Joshua at the time, Joshua. Okay. And y'all just what made you just decide to want to study religion at 12
I looked, I looked weird. And I started like, I was I was that kid, right? But 13 is when I actually got really deep into it. That's because I'm like, I had questions. I had a lot of questions. And I was like, man, like, the stuff that's happened to me is not like, you know, I want to understand what's going on. I want to understand God and I want to understand why the world is the way that it is. So me and him were really studying together. He was playing football he was playing basketball. And
subhanAllah we both fell in love with Islam together. So he became use of Joshua became use of and then we became like a downward crew.
Like it was it was interesting. Went to McKinley where Imam Jamil Amin went to school. Obviously many many years prior anthers Black Panthers that's the name of the team mascot after a trap round before using mom Jamil
and that was McKinley High, so much still Middle School, all of us to say that
Like I had already read the Bible, Chef Abdullah, you being a convert, like I'm telling you, man, I already read the Bible front to back, but it's almost 13. And I had a highlighter, and I still have it, it was the newly international version. And when I would go and I'd like, mess with like pastors over and I was trying to be like an inquisitive, 13 year old, of course, they thought I was 18 when I'm walking into a church,
with the Bible in us.
And like, I had the newly international version, I'm like, highlighting things on like, asking questions and stuff like that. And they were just like, stumped. Like, what is wrong with you? Like, why are you asking these questions? Man? Are you trying to get off of drugs? What's your why? Why are you interested in religion? Early? Right? Are you? What's your what's your deal? Right? So both me and him 100 It took religion really seriously.
Look, fast forward, I'd say, you know, that's when my journey started really, really, really early on. And I credit my parents, I credit my parents for multiple things. And, you know, like his realization later on in life for one thing, my, my,
like, my father and mother exposed me to serious questions and serious things happening in life at an early age, they didn't try to shelter me from it. So I know you're responsible. You have to do stuff, hey, all this stuff happening in the world you have, you have a purpose, we're connected to this, we have an amount of No, you're not just going to go play around and not have any meaning in life until you figure it out. In college, I hung out with largely older people, when I was younger, I was forced into, you know, thinking about things at a young age, my parents encouraged that and didn't treat me like a child. And so I really like I appreciate that now, like, you know, and I
realized that having, you know, I got I got my own kids now, right? So like, when you talk to your kid, like an adult,
not not in an monitoring fashion,
but in by way of like, hey, like, I'm proud of you, you're mature, like you're going to do something big something. And here's what you should be, you know, how do we think about this? Ask them questions about you know, asking deep questions when you talk to your kids. And I see you do it with your kids to Chicagoland. I love the relationship you have with your love the relationship we have with the kids. By the way, on Monday night, I was doing our daughter's halacha May was sitting next to Ottawa, my daughter was sitting next to your daughter, by the way. I thought that was really cool.
It was funny. My wife told me today that Abdullah was sitting next to Abraham.
In your lecture, you talked about a biller, and then my wife said that he returned so double an ability and see when they started laughing. You were talking about a billion. Yeah, that's true.
So, like, talk to your kids, like, if you have kids, like talk to him early on, like, not like don't don't like crush them don't like cast doubts, but like, talk to him like adults having like how to engage them in your adult conversations, like bring him into when you're talking to your friends. Okay? Like, imagine if another Rahim Allah, his son, Abdullah
mentions right that that he used to bring them in, he used to sit him down, and he would just observe the manners. He wanted in my mind with wanting him to observe the manners of Shafi and Rahim Allah and other great Imams. And of course, that became the thing with Imam atma that 5000 People would attend his dentist only 4500 of them, I'm sorry, only 500 of them, were taking notes, the other 4500 were just observing his manners, like expose them to
two adults like let him be a part of helicopters let him be a part of your conversation. Even like little children that are only capable of playing games and don't have anything to think about right now in life, then they're gonna act like that. Right? So I think building their character that and I believe that Jacob Rahim has a great parenting series here. So maybe you can find in here to say for Blaney.
Cast Yes, panela don't it's entirely true. I was just thinking myself as you were talking about, you know, Dr. Abdullah Idris, I'm sure you know him very well.
But he was my he was my principal in Islamic school.
And I was vivid memory, I remember my teacher told me to go get something from the kitchen, in the schools, I went down to get something. And he was in the kitchen with a group of like men, middle aged men, they're having breakfast. And you know, some of them were friends of my father and so on. But he saw me and he's like, Brian, come eat with us. And I'm like, Well, my teacher wants me to get something. But I was like, okay, so I literally pulled up and I sat with them and ate and they're talking about like politics and stuff that grownups talk about. And I sat with them that whole hour, and then I went back to my classroom. Thankfully, my teacher forgot. She asked me to get but you
know, I just thought kind of like it was like a moment of tibia where he wants to treat me as an adult. Right? And then I feel respected because I'm included amongst the adults. And then when you feel respected, then you want to act in a way
You respect others and you feel mature and you feel because you're being treated like that. And that's exactly how the Prophet sallallahu ceviches to treat the youth at the time, just like you mentioned, you know, the famous story where
the water is being passed around in the profits of ice and then he asks the young child, would you permit me to give it to someone else before you and the young child says, No, I want to drink after you because you wanted to that proximity to the profit. So love either synonyms. We're just asking the child permission like most people would just say, forget about you. I'm just gonna give this to the adult and pass over you but he treats the child with respect and so that's a way of raising your children to feel respect and maturity and maturity at an early age. And you know what some holly brought up shuffle deliveries was truly just the Morumbi and everything that he does for those of
you that don't know him, amazing human being mashallah like belongs to that legion of Legends. Dr. Jamal Badawi Shaykh Abdullah
you know, Dr. Ahmed cyclop Rahim Allah passed away like when should have done to meet you as a kid right? He gives you a firm handshake he still talks to you like You're like I see it now even as an adult right when he meets like younger younger children and stuff like that. So it's really thing that's really a big part of this and tell the prophets I sound like so our daughters and I our daughters are in a bind to know we class right now 40 Hadith hang on No, we are older daughters. And
so I was I was asked to talk about the hadith of Ibn Abbas on the Allahumma on the prophets I some turns around and talk some says you have with them in your alien vocabulary matter or
until the end of the Hadith, right? Where the prophesy sums writing with them and he turns around and gives them like serious advice. And Ambus was like 10 1011 years old, and the prophets why some turns around him like the prophesy sums got attend to a whole community, right? He's got a ton to he's big things. But he has the time it is thought to have some to turn around and talk to alumni boss to put his hands on his shoulders and to give him like very deep meaningful advice that we memorize and recite today to adults and children alike in this OMA think about that did to the psyche. Abdulla, like, wow, the prophesy sums. He's talking to me like that, like, I'm, I'm a young
man, I need to take this seriously. Like, let me let me let me let me sit up and let me make sure I memorize what he's saying. You know, like, that's, that's how you that's how you raise people. And I think it's very instructive for us.
Yes, apologize before you mentioned that, you know, because the number that hadith it's an answer to a question from a young from a young man, or it's the process of just, you know, the loving armor, even in Irvine confit dunya Kanika. Haribo are very savvy, you know, he grabbed them by his shoulders, and he looked at him said, be in this world as though you're a stranger or Wayfair. He was young. You know, a lot of these Hadith that we see from the Companions process on the speaking to them, he starting the conversation, he's initiating it. It's experiential, And subhanAllah, I think it's important how you mentioned how your parents exposed you to a lot of these things, which
help inculcate passion for, you know, to be exposed to things. So you know, what, this is what I want to, you know, collectively halogen, I think this is what Allah put me here to do, you have the opportunity to make those decisions. And I think what the parents, you know, a lot of times of wanting to quote unquote, as we say, shelter with lowercase letters to shelter their children, we maybe need to revisit that in regards to you know, like, how you how you mentioned, how everyone, when we first came to Dallas, you know, there was, you know, when Trump was being elected, and we were in the, in the airport, and my daughter when she came to the airport, she loved it. She's like,
Baba, what is this? And I explained it to her. And then she was like, you know, this is what America looks like, you know, she was going back and forth. And she was like, when she saw that I didn't, that's another thing with parents don't lose the opportunity to learn your children not learn about just learn them in these different occasions. And it's priceless. It's priceless was so just out here for mentioning that way.
It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing.
So chef, you know, we're talking about, you know, multitasking and all of that as well. Um, I kind of want to ask you,
how do you know how do you just how do you decide and you know, what you want to get involved in?
Like, is there a method of like, there's so many different opportunities and things and
you know, how do you how do you gauge on When what to get involved in
locker locker? That's a great question. I think.
Look, not everything that is good is everything that you need to be doing. Okay. So you ask how do I fill a void? What's missing? So what's missing and what am I uniquely equipped to do? What's missing? And what am I uniquely equipped to do? Not because of myself, Allah azza wa jal does not look
with arrogance is when you start to attribute anything to yourself. It's all from a loss factor. So what can what's the void and what am I uniquely equipped to fill, to be fully present in what you do is very important.
You can lend your support to multiple things. But to be fully present is very important. Otherwise, you're just going to be all over the place scattered, and you're not going to actually be able to make any progress in anything. If you're just doing a bunch of things. And you don't have any intention. You don't have any any sort of roadmap for that particular thing. Then you're you're going to, you're going to get kind of lost and doing a bunch of stuff and not really doing anything, right.
So, personally
I think that because, so look for me, learning and teaching is always going to be me, right? That's in sha Allah Tada. There's nothing like this is refuge for me. I love studying this Deen. I love teaching this Deen. I love the seat of the Prophet slice. I love the history of the Sahaba I love I love this deen and I love studying it. I love teaching it right. So like, for me, that's always got to be like, my, I wouldn't be true to myself if that's not the majority of what I do, right?
But when it comes to other things, you know, obviously I've been involved in a lot of multifaith work, working with other communities and things of that sort. I feel like that's a way to bring Islam to the realm of ideas.
You know, especially at the dialogue level.
And I think that Islam naturally shines when it's brought to the conversation, the realm of ideas, right. And so I love talking about this Deen. And a lot of that is a reflection, by the way have again, when I was kind of asking questions and studying like I learned a lot about Christianity. I learned a lot about Bible. I learned a lot about the book and the Scriptures. And that was something that was very profound, you know, and early on, getting exposed to that stuff like I just I really loved. I really love studying that. You know, by the way, funny, funny story checks out from the Dothraki Mala. The famous story with like Jimmy Swaggart, the debate with Jimmy Swaggart, that was
at LSU my father and my father in law at the time were involved in like, that whole thing.
Hosting Chicago with the dots like LSU
you know, I grew up playing basketball and Jimmy Swaggart course, Jimmy Swaggart told me I was going to * once that's that's another story.
Right? Like getting getting involved in like, like, like, wow, like there's such a confidence and pride in this faith and what it is right so I love talking about the deen I love talking about it with people that don't know anything about it. So whether that's in the in the capacity of like dialogue and things of that sort, but then I also love I love the Islam, that Muslims can can be present in the work of anti poverty, anti war, anti oppression,
like Islam, taking a front a front seat, there are Muslims being in the in the front there and not just in the front for the cameras, but actually leading the way. So I take a lot of pride in our community, when when we had the homeless shelters pop up
this past weekend, because of the freeze in Dallas, it was the Muslims and Hamdulillah that provided every meal. That just I love that right. And so I believe that that's that's extremely important to be a part of that. And so multifaith work, dialogue about the faith.
You know, getting involved in a few things, when it comes to,
you know, anti war work, anti oppression work I do. I'll kind of end with this and then hand it back to you. And by the way, we can go to 710 my time in small town.
But I do
think it's very important for us
to
to speak for those who don't often get spoken for political prisoners. Big one, big one, right? Whether it's the mom Jamil or Dr after others, very important for us to take that on the Holy Land Foundation. We can't abandon people
domestically, we can't abandon people globally.
Sometimes you know, Palestine Philistine has become very, it's become a burden
for people seeking mobility because if you if you champion Palestine, that means your university is going to get calls if you work at a university, your job is going to be threatened. You're you mean, you become you become a pariah very quickly. If you if you really speak on Palestine and then obviously it's not just Palestine right. But the point is that Muslims have to Muslims have to take up things
that,
that allow for especially your voiceless brothers and sisters, to be heard when there's so much that's against them and so much trying to suffocate them. And you can't talk about the oppression of the Muslim world without talking about the oppression of black people in America as a whole, right? Of course, those things are not mutually exclusive black and Muslim, because a lot of Muslims are black, and a lot of black people are Muslim, right. But I'm talking about the overall, the way that that works. The way that policing operates in America is very similar to the way that militarism operates in the Muslim world, right? It's the same machine, same dynamic, same narrative, same
tactic. So you have to challenge the whole the whole beast, if you will, you really have to challenge the whole beast. So that's a long answer to a short question took in a lot of directions, feel free to ask me inshallah. Tada, where you when I want to choose one direction shift, I mean, you
the whole concept of the, you know, the interfaith, and we're in Black History Month, right? So the whole connection between African American people. I mean, let's start with New Orleans, and then even Dallas, what did you see? Was there a disconnect between the Muslim community and African American community? You know, I remember there was one individual not mentioned name, he's, he's one on African American speaker. And he was talking about when there was the ban, during the ban of the Muslims, he was saying, you know, you know, God helped the Muslims. But where were they? When we were struggling? Where were they, when we were doing our cause? We were there in the area, they had
their stores, but they weren't doing anything to help us. Right. So it was like, okay, there was no mutual respect, there was no mutual camaraderie, because when they're in certain communities, they weren't even doing anything to help change or if finding me to community rather, it was contributing to something that could be detrimental to the community. So what did you see? or what have you seen that that pushed you? Number one? And number two, what would you advise the existing Muslim communities, the 16 college students and youth in regards to making an effort to get involved with interfaith and the fruits from that?
Zaca first of all, like, I think those are to sort of come up the racial dynamics in the community and then the interfaith interfaith work as far as the racial dynamics in the community, man, like we have to listen to each other, we got to listen to that pain.
So
we have to listen to people talk about what they felt in terms of racism, sometimes it's anti black racism, sometimes it's just anti converts in general suspicion of converts black, white,
Hispanic, sometimes it's, you know, we talk about this a lot, right? You've got to talk about the way that people feel in the masjid and the way that people don't feel your presence as a Muslim community outside the masjid or even worse, if they feel it in a negative way.
So there's a lot to unpack there. And it takes like real conversation with the Quran and the Sunnah guiding us as, as our as our ideological frameworks as our theological boundaries as our,
as our heart and soul.
Because we got to rule, we got to stamp that stuff out, like racism as a disease, it has to be stamped out of our communities, and then has to be stamped out of our societies period, it's got to be stamped out of the masjid and stamped out of our societies and if Muslims are contributing to it,
whether it's through active participation in economic,
you know, ways are political ways, like Muslims have to challenge themselves and be challenged to do better. So we've just got to do better. We have to
we've got to talk about it. And we can't just like I remember Subhanallah like, so right now. It's Black History Month, if the only time you talk about black histories in Black History Month, you're reinforcing a problem right? If the only time you talk about racism is in Black History Month, you're reinforcing a problem. If the only time Black Muslims speak in our communities is Black History Month and it's only on topics about racism, then you're reinforcing the problem, right? Like there's there's a lot here. I haven't got any calls, by the way, so I'm just going
Yeah, so
you know, so that's, that's really important for us to do that inshallah. And to, to really dig deep in our in our deen in our tradition, and to and our current dynamics, you know, what man, like?
The Sunnah promotes like, really high emotional intelligence to I feel like a lot of Muslims is really lack like sensitivity and emotional intelligence sometimes like, and of course, social media and the way that people throw comments at each other and the way people talk to each other doesn't help.
So, like, we got to have like real conversations in Charlottetown about how we collect
We do better always guided by the Quran this in the in the nighttime.
Now the interface part of this, there's good interface and then there's bad interface. All right, even the word the word interface, like I try to use the term multifaith more intentionally.
Not that, you know, just because I think it's clear that interfaith would be muddying the waters between your theologies right and sort of putting forth a universal Universalist or parentless type of vision that just mixes all the cotton's right, like all the Creed's and says we're all the same and creed and there's no real difference between theology and religion good interfaith are good multifaith is when people is when we talk about those differences in the civil fashion. And again, I think Islam just it's so beautiful that that when people hear it, the ideas of it the substance of it, you know, noise noise,
stops people from hearing what should be heard, right. So we don't need to be noisy about our ideas. We just need to state them with confidence and with with in a civil way, in a certain way. And the idea speak for themselves.
There isn't a single week, hum did it? Well, I shouldn't say us, let's just say most weeks, most weeks in Valley Ranch Islamic center, someone will come to the masjid and say that I watched this video Islam, Judaism, Christianity, a conversation
where we were talking about our religions, in a way weren't being aggressive with each other. In fact, we were being friendly with each other. But there was clear, you know, we weren't shying away from talking about the differences and things of that sort either. And that sparked someone's interest. So the ideas speak for themselves. You don't have to become aggressive. You don't have to become
not to say there isn't room for debate, not to say that some people that are aggressive don't need to be dealt with, like manners sometimes right there. I'm not saying that this is the only way. I'm saying that this is the majority of hikma with no religion has enough wisdom and beautiful preaching. So that's good dialogue, right? Then on the political front.
You know, multifaith work, look, if we can work with other communities, to serve the homeless, you can work with other communities to challenge oppression. We can work with other communities to do good and society if we can work with other communities that have a shared stake with with us because religion is under under threat by
by prescriptive secularism that can become very oppressive look at the 21st century, right, when secularism becomes aggressive, it's more aggressive than any religious ideology. You see that?
May Allah bless you, brother, Abdullah, I see that that's how long I'll give you some thoughts and give you on I mean,
you know, you see what's happening in France right now, you see what's happening in India right now. So the point is, is that it's important for us to work together with other faith communities without muddying the waters, right with our theology, nor nor suggesting that we don't have differences, but for things that we can agree upon, and that makes a more holistic society. There's bad multifaith work to
the Abrahamic courts, a lot of what I'm being I'm just calling out, right, like, coming from the same place like normal normalizing ties with Israel throughout the Muslim world is being done in the name of what in the name of promoting a better coexistence. That's not better coexistence, that's legitimizing apartheid and making better arms deals for the Muslim countries that are normalizing with Israel right now. Right. Like that's, that's not Ibrahim it. That's not Abrahamic at all, I'm actually writing an article about about that right now, by the way, so make draft for me. See if someone houses it, right. So a lot. So it's interesting, because a lot of the faith leaders that
I'll work with,
they'll be like, oh, you know, what do you think of the Abraham accords? What do you think of this peace initiative out of the UAE? And I'm like, I think it's garbage. Like what? And I'm like, No, that if we're going to work together, it's to fight oppression, not to
validate oppression with faith. That's not how it works. And so sometimes, it's really interesting because I get invited to interfaith panels all the time. I get invited to multifaith panels all the time, and I'm just like, you know, what?
This person, you know, works with this, this thing, like, Okay, I'm not gonna shy away from how I feel about those initiatives. So there's bad interface, and there's good interface. There's bad multifaith, and there's good multifaith. Ultimately, what guides us in that sense is the sun. Teach us is good. And what they teach us is bad as bad. The last thing I'll say is, look, we have to have real
empathy, not false sympathy, symbolic sympathy, but real empathy and real solidarity.
When faith communities come under attack for their faith, no matter what faith they are,
because that could be any one of us that's not some sort of a place of self preservation. It's because we can actually relate you know, when the AMA church was shot up one of the closest you know, relationships that I built was you know, Reverend Michael waters very well and the pastor
here in Dallas came after that like the the shooting of the AMA church in
Charleston, sorry.
You know, we're worshipers were killed in cold blood.
synagogue. We just had a synagogue situation here. hostage situation here, which was insane. Insane. I mean, it was it was so it had nothing to do with Dr. Office. The DP had nothing to do with Palestine. Nothing knows nothing noble about holding innocent Jewish people in a synagogue, hostage like that.
When Christ Church happens, Quebec, check the Brahim does aka Lochhead. Man, your work in Canada is beautiful. It is profound actually, that's how I first learned about you is the work you're doing with the Muslim community in Canada. That's actually how I first got exposed to your word, standing up for people and people and you forge those relationships where you know what, like, people stand up for you to when we went to the airport after the Muslim ban show from though you were there? Like people from other faith communities came out for us, right? So it's not it's not about being opportunistic, you know, actually relating feeling empathy, like people in their places of worship
should feel safe to worship. It's disgusting when they don't that that represents the full decay of the society. Fold the cable society.
places of worship, come under attack.
May Allah guide us May Allah guide us May Allah guide
to do what's right. And protect us from what is wrong.
I mean, yeah, I think panela like that's,
it's one of those areas where people get kind of confused because they don't know. Like, some people just want to swear off all multifaith engagement completely, and then some people just want to accept it unconditionally. And I think it was great like for you to outline that that you know, when that hostage situation happened, you went right away to help because because systemic Lee you felt that that drive and then at the same time, we can see there are people weaponize interfaith are multifaith to, you know, change the copy that change our beliefs, or they weaponize it to, you know, for their dunya purposes, to line their pockets to oppress the Palestinians or other people around
the world. And so, I think that differentiation is important for people to understand, like,
you know, that there's, there's good data and there's bad data, just like He's
a chef Ibrahim. And I'll say this, by the way, the very, like, when the prophets I saw them said, as the janazah was passing by is not a human soul.
The janazah of a Jewish man and the prophesy some stood up and he said, there's not a human so
like, at when I got there to Colleyville, and I saw the wife of the rabbi, all I saw was a wife and a daughter of you know, and I was just, it was really, really moving. It was really, really, really moving. I'm not thinking at that point about any of the noise on the outs, I'm not like, like, Man, this, this wife and daughter Don't know if their husbands gonna come back out. You know, there's, there's, there's a guy with a gun, and he left the guy, it's sad, he left the guy in,
because he thought the guy was homeless. And he made him a cup of tea and sat him down. And like, that's just terrible. That's terrible, that that was exploited and taken advantage of, right? Like, it just becomes like a very, that's a fitly response. That's Fidra. Like, like, that's, that's how Allah created us, the Rama that Allah put inside of us, like, I see a wife and a daughter. And I'm like, This is so messed up. And I want to make sure that they get their husband back. And so that that has, that's the fifth response that has to drive us
when when we see the oppression of the Palestinians or the oppression of anyone else, right, when we see that oppression, that's the fifth three response. And then our work should be guided in accordance with the fifth law. And the fifth law is what is highlighted and define for us in this theme. So that's that's really what it is at that point.
Chef, I know you have very little time left. So you want to do rapid fire questions or respond to some of the questions in the chat. You could maybe we can do like questions from the audience and then we can do you choose the best question Shawn, can you give me some rapid fire? Alright, ready free round? Not afraid. I've made this is my kid made this thing so this is like, I gotta fight back Sheikh Abdullah if he comes out
Rapid Fire question. Is it not a question but more of a comment that this made them Miskell and 3430 and can't wait for this year?
leads us on 30 for 30 this year? This one let's go. Alright, go confirm your first
So here's the question How do we cleanse our hearts to prepare for Ramadan? How can we nourish our hearts to get ready for Ramadan? Since the Quran 30 for 30 crews here good opportunity
along the Lipner llama la la mama llama la Milan don't take it for granted y'all we
Pamela we lost some some really good people I'll actually share that brother new law I talked about him in the in the first yesterday really quickly Good Good Brother mashallah very loves the appealing part of it.
He and his sons just just always involved and he went to Russia, went home and fully healthy had a massive heart attack to Salas laters being carried into the same Masjid. I mean, it's just what? It almost doesn't make sense when you see it. Like it's hard to even like, you know, like, Wait, he and that's the thing like he was just here. But now he's in a box like what like few hours later, you know, coming to pray walking over to pray and then being walked over to be prayed on it. Do not take Ramadan for granted. Don't take your life for granted. Don't take the next day for granted. Don't take it online for granted. Another
young young girl in New Orleans, Louisiana, did not wake up. My old community from tema family may lost pounds have mercy on her.
She just did not. Did not wake up.
You know on her 24th birthday.
Yeah, her name is Alina, or haematologica. Lena was a 24 year old girl. And she just went she just didn't wake up. So see. It was her birthday. And
so she had her phone actually on her and you know all these happy birthday messages and stuff like that and they were coming, you know, they're expecting a day of celebrating their daughter. They buried her that day,
at night and after SWOT analysis, so don't take it for granted. Like don't do not take it for granted. Don't wait for it on the lawn to repent. Don't wait for Ramadan to start reading your core and don't wait for Ramadan to start getting back into tahajjud. Don't wait for Ramadan to get things right. Of course the priority is to quit since I know that a lot of people wait for Ramadan to make their resolutions to quit certain sins you might not have that time like we should not take for granted.
The moments that we have right now we've got to take advantage of it and Tubal in Allah, Toba 10 loss to turn back to Allah Subhana Allah with sincere repentance if you are turning back to Allah with sincere repentance from now, if the goals that you had to start,
you know, doing fulfilling a certain obligation or
you know,
taking on a new good deed or a new approach whatever it is do it from now. That way if you get to them alone, it's only going to get better in Charlottetown and if you don't get to Ramadan, you would have already repented and been in a state of Inaba to Allah subhanaw taala state of being turned towards Allah subhana wa Tada and Allah subhanaw taala will enter you in accordance with the nighttime with your intention and with your your your your you're turning back to him so we ask a lot to send us Ramadan but we ask ALLAH SubhanA Mobtown also to and to accept Ramadan we ask Allah subhanaw taala and not to make us people who delay in their repentance we ask Eliza to accept our
repentance to make us connected to the Quran from now connected to our Prophet slicin From now connected to our priori derives from now and to allow death to find us when we are in the best in the best moments of closest to him in our lives to make the best of our deeds the last of them the best of our days the last of our days here and the best day the data we meet him with those deeds
alright shall let's get to the rapid fire questions inshallah. First
inshallah get to know you a little bit better. So, we'll make it easy. Chocolate or vanilla.
Vanilla. Really? All right.
Whatever, just in general I really like so I'm really like my ice cream is really simple. I like vanilla ice cream
it's simple, you know the blue belt? And I know now we got to like say Ben and Jerry's right for those like blue belts and ice cream homemade. No.
No, I mean, I just I love that ice cream with the way spoon
spring or fall. Spring. Okay, Shay, your coffee.
Coffee. Unfortunately become a coffee addict.
mountains or oceans
I love both I really really love both depends on
so here's the thing with oceans I love to jump in and when I can jump in I get upset like if it's too cold or something like that like but with mountains you know I really I've really started to love hiking because when you hike Subhanallah if you get far enough like you it's just the sound the peace of it, there's there's such peace there. But I also love the ocean. I love water.
So it depends on where I'm at. I don't know it depends. But I'll say if I have to choose one if I have to choose one I probably say oceans just because there's a
you know, there's there's there's a greatness of the oceans that of course from the greatness of Allah subhanaw taala just inspires like something in us and the flow of it the beauty of it. I love it.
So I'll I'll just you know, because I'm Canadian. I have to pick up Canada constantly. I'm just gonna
put out there you should go to Vancouver then. Got to get over I've been to Vancouver Vancouver. Whistler Allah drive the drive from Vancouver to Yes I got into a few accidents just because I getting like just stunned by the the scenery between Vancouver and Whistler, diabolical law like like it is stunning, stunning, stunning beauty. Chef Abdullah, you got to go there man. Was Whistler something else go to Vancouver. Explain. We'll set you up with some out there. Drive drive to Whistler with your family. Unbelievable. You get the mountains in the ocean. It's just yeah, that's mountains and ocean. Oh my god. That's like how alone you get mountains and ocean. That's the best.
The greatest connection.
Alright, sunset or sunrise.
Sunrise sunrise.
You want your steak? Well done or rare? If you have to choose between those two extremes to extreme so I gotta say
I'm liking steak. So I'm actually eating so I grew up not liking steak because like my dad would always make it well done. Yeah, I'm like later on like my first taste of steak not well done. I was like wow, this is actually really good. So I'm a medium steak guy. But if I had to guess if I had to choose I choose I'd have to go rare or I do well done and I just put a lot of steak sauce on it
and make it work out anyway
alright
so I asked this question last time and you know you kit so I have to make an amendment to it you can't choose Mecca Medina but what's your favorite city to travel to
you know I'm only going to say this part because I want people to make I've never never been allowed to enter Palestine I really want to go to the puts I'm just gonna say that put it out there so make Jonathan Eliza
gives us
TC that Eliza facilitates it. Favorite city to visit.
But I've already been to like I like going there frequently. Yeah, I think so.
Alright, so So my favorite city to visit in the United States.
I'd have to say San Diego. Okay, I love it. I love San Diego. It's it's nice place to visit.
But worldwide I love I love Malaysia I love me. I love going to Kuala Lumpur. I love Langkawi and I'm just going all over the place now. Where do I want to go? I really really really, I want to go to Nigeria. Joe mocassin
checkup though you're gonna hook that up from Shaula Tanana.
Would you want to go to gun it's all good. I'm gonna name this fella
and I know them but
you got to we got to go to Ghana and Nigeria inshallah Tada and the Gambia.
Go check out the record just for reference because I know we're gonna get the Jollof rice from Ghana the best.
So you got some pro Ghana anti Nigerian also via here? Oh, yeah, you gotta get it. I did. They gotta send some messages. Now. I'm calling it out. They get dilla fries from Ghana is the best. Alright, what about Senegal versus Senegal versus the Gambia.
The rice? Yeah.
Foods.
advisee. Senegal. Senegal. Okay. Yeah. So Buchert somebody
who's justice minister of the Gambia, who prosecuted the former leader of Myanmar, for her for crimes against humanity. He and I had met and talking about going like I was supposed to go to The Gambia.
Yeah, like right before COVID So I've been wanting to go to The Gambia but honestly like I want to go to Africa again been African hamdulillah but I really really want to go to Africa like as a continent dispense some time there. So the historical part of it and then you know, just the the I want to go to Rwanda I know it sounds crazy to people but I really want to go to Rwanda inshallah soon have the NIA to go there. Then if I start naming countries and I don't name someone country, or obviously Somalia, man, obviously Somalia, my favorite, my favorite. I've said this I've actually written in the four favorite students have always been from Somalia. I want to go to Somalia. I want
to go to Nigeria. I want to go to The Gambia. I want to go to Ghana. Let me go to Senegal. I want to go to Kenya. I want to go to Mali. I want to go everywhere.
You go to the restaurant here the West African way. I think it's called West African with a West African restaurant. Would you believe I just ate it. Really?
That's right.
plantains. I just had him. Really? Yes. Brother, brother. That's literally masala he brought he brought it to the office today. So if you missed out, really I had it the first time they brought him in. We had the retreat. Yeah. So they brought it again today. Check multiple breaks and they brought it today. It was awesome, man. So we I got my ginger. My ginger juice there.
It was incredible. Michelle. Yeah, I'm about to see them actually. Now they have a Dutch. Macau has a Dutch and I imagine 30 minutes so they'll come through Mashallah. Nice nice. Yes, so someone's asking I've ever been to the Caribbean. I love the food in Trinidad. Oh my god. The doubles. Oh man.
Like being from New Orleans New Orleans is a lot of that connection. We spicier food in New Orleans than,
than that like when DC say we're, we're gonna turn down the biani for you. We're gonna turn down the heat level I get very like
like, I like to eat my food really, really, really spicy. So first time went to Trinidad and Tobago. Oh man the doubles the royalties. The spice level was
you go to the restaurants in New Orleans? Yeah, I did. I did. My family loved it. Which was with the shrimp sandwiches which was called what was called How dare you call po boy sandwich let's
Oh boy.
Long man, long line man. Oh, I love it. It was well worth it.
I forgot the name of the place. Auckland Parkway. Parkway. Yeah, I parked this African department sorry
and you got
a hold on you go I'm gonna have to Google it now because I'm pretty sure it says Park is it? No, it's Parkway right so I was like confusing West African like Parkway poboys New Orleans places amazing yeah my childhood like two or three places there and then I think Mama's kitchen or something like that. That was called it was good No, I shall
New Orleans everything
on that topic so next question, what's the favorite food your family makes?
Ooh
Golden City then inshallah
my wife is on point mashallah good.
Yeah, I believe that maneuver seems to be like a big discussion for you in our private clean channel
on stuff everything is good. Everything here you go. There Yes.
I love everything. Yeah, who's great
okay
can you fall asleep on getting good at this man? Yes, you are you're
Alright, last question. I got to run them all right.
I got to pick a good one.
Fine, what language did you wish you knew?
Oh, man. I just do so what to do maybe just because I can understand half the voicemails I get people that think I speak go to do
but I could get away with like, you know, I try to tk say like I can know something be shot on beat a lot like I can get like I get the insults. I get the command and go come.
You know what Spanish? I know. It's so dumb that I know Arabic in English. It would have to be between Persian because it's just the richness of what's there and Spanish because obviously I'm in Texas, and I would love to be able to, like Converse fluently in Spanish. That was
What's your conveyancer to? Interesting? Oh, Spanish is a top getter on this question. Yeah. All right. All right. Yes, I know, we held you past where you want it to be exact Lochhead for all your time that you gave with us and all the wisdom that you shared with us. I know we all appreciate it. Hopefully we'll have you back for part two, and we can ask more of these questions. Inshallah. I'm alone, but it comes as I come off camera. Just before we conclude just one thing I know it's a bit, you know, maybe selfish for me to put it out, but a friend of mine, their babies panel is gonna have open heart surgery tomorrow. My name is Hamza. So if you can keep him in your door, and if everyone
watching inshallah can make the hot for this young baby just
and his parents may last PandaDoc grinton full shift. I mean, I mean, not a lot of lost parents are granted Shiva and all of those that are ailing. The ones that are close to us, I realized is when we have we have the ability to say the names it's a lot of people out there have family members that are struggling or maybe struggling and grant them all. She thought she fell in love. I mean,
just like look,
I'll see you soon. Santa Monica.