Omar Suleiman – The Imam of America- From the Nation to Islam – After Hours with Imam Siraj Wahhaj
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the expansion of African Americans in New York City and their community's support for their activism. They also talk about their love for masjids and their desire to give them the reward and happiness they deserve. They emphasize the importance of being patient with others, being a black person in Islam, and avoiding touching people in public. The speakers also emphasize the importance of representing yourself in the dairless community and bringing others to the point of being a blessing for everyone. Finally, they encourage people to use their Autograph to express gratitude and share experiences, and emphasize the importance of helping others, particularly those affected by the spread of Islam.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
Everybody, welcome to our first session of After
Hours.
Your regular host here, Shaykh Ammar Shukri.
I don't know what I'm doing.
Dr. Omar Suleiman.
And we have amongst us, we're starting.
We are starting with the best, inshallah ta
'ala.
We're starting with Brooklyn's finest, the living legend.
Allahu Akbar.
Imam Siraj Wahaj.
And it wouldn't have been appropriate to start
with anybody else, Imam Siraj.
We were going to put this podcast off
for like three months until Imam Siraj.
Why are you brothers trying to embarrass me?
Honestly, man.
You are embarrassing me.
I'm just a little guy, man.
Honestly, for real.
How many people have you embarrassed on the
court, Imam Siraj?
We're going to talk about that.
You've broken some ankles over decades, inshallah.
I did.
I probably broke your ankles a couple of
times, too.
Imam Siraj, of course, needs no introduction, but
he's been the imam at Masjid al-Taqwa
for over, Shaykh, is it almost 40 years
now?
Yeah, 41, 42 years.
Absolutely.
41, 42 years, alhamdulillah, in Brooklyn, New York.
It is a staple community in New York
City.
And you know what?
I wouldn't trade this masjid for no masjid
in the world.
They were advertising for two masjids in California,
right?
Paying the imam $250,000.
I said, what?
You're serious, right?
And you know what?
I'm very grateful for what my community gives
me, alhamdulillah.
I mean, and I don't complain.
I love this community.
Allah bless us.
Now, you know, we first started, we were
like 25 members, 100% African Americans.
Now, on average, Juma, you're talking about like
1300 people.
And we have now like 30, about 39
different nationalities.
So now the African Americans in my community,
maybe 20%, maybe 25%.
So it's been expanding.
And people, they just come.
The more we expand, the more people come,
alhamdulillah.
And we're appreciative.
You know, the average salat, we have hundreds
of people, average salat.
And it's like, I love every, I mean,
we love each other.
You know, we come and we actually love
each other.
Every day, we come to the masjid.
And it's an absolute pleasure to be in
this masjid, alhamdulillah.
MashaAllah.
I have a couple of questions just from
Nadia Ramsaraj.
The first is, I've seen a couple of
times masjid be built with the purpose of
serving a particular demographic.
I've seen masjid that are built just for
converts, like this is, this is.
Or, you know, a particular ethnic group or
what have you.
And then it almost seems like it's just
inevitable that it becomes not a monolith, but
rather something that's representative of how pluralistic our
society is ethnically.
Is that something that you see as being
positive?
Is that something that you, do you wish
that there were more masjids, for example, that
specifically served particular communities?
See, to me, all of the above.
I support any kind of masjid anywhere.
I've gone to masjids, helped to build masjids
for one ethnicity, for instance.
It's okay.
There's some localities where certain people live in
a certain, you know, area.
And so we're called upon to help them.
So I think whether you're building it for,
you know, a community, a grown community like
my community that have some senior citizens or
whether you're doing it for the youth or
whatever you're doing it for, I think all
of it is good.
And I love to do it.
I love to participate.
I love to help.
And anywhere.
One of my favorite organizations is MASS.
We have a fundraiser this weekend for MASS
in New York, and can't wait.
Can't wait to participate.
I'm one of the speakers.
And whether it's ICNA, MASS, MANA, all of
these different organizations that seek our support, I'm
happy to do it, inshallah.
So Imam Siraj, I'm going to give a
little bit of a personal journey before I
do the question, inshallah.
So, alhamdulillah, like I've known you far, far
longer than you knew me, alhamdulillah.
I kind of grew up, grew up in
your shadow, Sheikh.
So my father, father-in-law, I mentioned
this actually, were part of the organizing team
of the Ahmadiyat Jimmy Swagger debate at LSU.
Wow, is that right?
Yes.
And you were the beautiful moderator, still beautiful,
mashallah.
By the way, I just came back from
South Africa.
Oh, mashallah.
Came back from South Africa.
Yeah, in the commemoration of Ahmadiyat and the
great work that he did.
Subhanallah, subhanallah.
So you have that history, Sheikh.
You got your own history there in New
York.
I mean, I've heard it many times and
I could hear it over and over again.
Obviously, many of us grew up in the
dawah, listening to your cassette tapes.
We didn't live in New York, but, you
know, grew up on your cassette tapes, alhamdulillah,
from Azza Taqwa.
I've still got them, by the way, alhamdulillah.
I'm going to try to sell them for
a million dollars in, you know, 20 years
or something.
We're still around.
And then, you know, I remember coming on
to the dawah scene and, you know, I
used to attend your lectures at conventions and
stuff like that.
And I remember the first time having to
speak on stage with you at ICNA Atlanta,
probably 2008 or 2009.
And having to be on stage with you
and being really humbled by that.
And then, you know, subhanallah, even Hurricane Katrina.
You talked about this love that you've had
for everybody.
When Hurricane Katrina hit, I remember you driving
to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where we had our
shelter there.
Absolutely.
I remember that.
And receiving you there in Louisiana, 2005.
And there wasn't a time that I called
upon you personally.
I can testify to this for anything with
the masjid, except that you came down and
that you honored that request.
And I just want to ask you, I
think off the bat, you know, mashallah, you
mentioned this love, alhamdulillah, that you've had.
You know, as someone who has responded to
the calls of organizations and masjids and, you
know, built so many institutions across the country.
Does it ever get tiring, Sheikh?
Have we taken advantage of you?
You know, I want to hear directly from
you, because this is after hours.
You know, we're just talking a lot.
No one else is watching.
It's just you, me, and Ammar.
Are you tired of us, Sheikh?
Have we exhausted you at this point?
Not at all.
You know, when I was born, I don't
know if you ever heard this.
My mother told me that my uncle saw
me on the day I was born.
He said, he's going to be a preacher.
Right.
And so when I was in the church,
I taught Sunday school.
In 1968, 69, I joined the Nation of
Islam.
I became a minister in the Nation of
Islam.
In 1975, alhamdulillah, when Allah blessed us to
follow the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, peace
and blessings be upon him, I became an
imam.
So I can't help myself.
Like, it's in my blood.
Now, I knew that.
People told me that, you know, when I
was young, what my uncle said.
But my mother told me recently that my
aunt said the same thing when I was
born.
He's going to be a preacher.
And all I can say is that this
is the great love that I have.
I remember that when I was seven years
old, I was living in Marcy Projects.
It was a Sunday.
And I was getting ready to go to
church.
And I was getting dressed.
And I said to my mother, and I
want you to look at the body language.
Why have you got to go to church
anyway?
So my mother took out a belt.
She hit me twice.
She said, now you understand why you got
to go to church?
I said, yes, ma'am.
But Alhamdulillah, I was blessed three or four
months ago to give my 89-year-old
mother's shahada from my hands.
So the same one made me go to
the church.
And now, Alhamdulillah, I was a Muslim.
And made me the happiest man in the
world.
Alhamdulillah.
Shaykh, I knew that you were trying to
give your mom da'wah.
I never knew she took shahada.
SubhanAllah.
Mashallah.
May Allah give you the reward and give
her sabbat and firmness on this faith.
And allow you.
You know what?
Let me tell you something.
You know something?
I don't get tired of this, man.
I don't.
I love it.
You know, I just love people.
Even in my own community.
I'm telling you.
Every salat.
It's crazy.
I got to shake everybody's hand.
I can't shake everybody's hand.
Every salat.
But we love each other, Alhamdulillah.
And I am so grateful to be a
Muslim.
Have you ever heard of Lou Gehrig?
Yeah, Lou Gehrig.
Lou Gehrig was a great baseball player for
the New York Yankees.
You know, he was diagnosed with a disease.
They named the disease after him.
Lou Gehrig's disease.
And he gave a very famous speech.
And he said that I consider myself the
luckiest person on the face of the earth.
And I really believe and feel myself the
luckiest person on the face of the earth.
And I don't say it to be corny.
I say it to be truthful.
I am so every day grateful for the
fact that Allah guided me to Islam.
And I'm just happy.
I'm just happy.
Imam Siraj, we can't transition from this, man.
Huh?
We can't transition from this.
I'm stunned.
I'm sitting here stunned right now.
At the amazing way of your mother accepting
Islam.
We can't go from there.
We cannot go from here, Sheikh.
I need to hear every detail.
MashaAllah.
I'm so happy.
Let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something about my mother,
right?
One of the beautiful things.
I was in New York University when I
joined the Nation of Islam.
And my mother was always supportive of me.
Always.
You know.
And to be honest with you.
Actually, she took shahada years ago.
Let me tell you what happened.
My mother and my stepfather, Loy Sage.
We loved him.
Me and my brother loved our stepfather as
much as we loved our dad.
But anyway, my mother invited us for dinner.
And my son, Mohammed, at that time was
five years old.
So my mother said, bless the table.
And my son said to my mother, he
called her Granny.
He said, Granny, when are you and Papa
going to become Muslim anyway?
Right?
So my mother said, and my stepfather, Loy
Sage.
They called them Papa.
We said, we might as well do it
right now.
So technically, they took shahada then.
MashaAllah.
Those years ago.
But they didn't grow up that way.
So this time, alhamdulillah, a few months ago,
my mother took that firm shahada.
Alhamdulillah.
I have a lot of friends, Sheikh, who
obviously they converted to Islam.
And it weighs heavy on them.
You know, their parents.
And so I'm sure it weighed heavy on
you for a long time.
And so my question is, you know, how
did you resolve it?
What was your patience like?
What was your endurance like?
What was your dua like?
What was your, you know, expectation if she
passed away without having come to this moment?
You know what, you know.
You can't guide people whom you love, but
Allah guides to the straight path, whomever He
pleases.
So we never stopped.
Because my mother was so accepting.
She accepted everything.
She never gave me difficulty.
I've always believed that she would eventually take
shahada.
But, you know, it's something that I wish
all members of my family become Muslim.
So, you know, you make effort as much
as you can.
And my mother is an incredible, incredible lady.
She was a nurse for many years.
And then she became a guidance counselor in
the school.
Smart, articulate, you know, and loving.
So she was always a very good person.
You know, I always thanked Allah for her.
And just all I can do is say
be patient with anybody.
Anybody, our friends, our family members.
Just be patient.
And try to be the very best example
you could.
And she loves her son.
Can I tell you my nickname for my
mother?
Should I say it publicly?
Please.
She calls me Marshmallow.
Oh, my marshmallow came to visit me.
So I'm Marshmallow.
MashaAllah.
MashaAllah.
You know, on a personal level, subhanAllah, my
entire da'wah, all I think about is
my mom.
You know, that's literally all I think about
is inshaAllah that Allah accepts this on her
behalf.
I can't tell you how happy I am.
Because, you know, I pray that Allah will
accept all that you do now.
And she'll have a share of that as
well as her own taking shahada towards the
end of her.
Well, may Allah give her a long life.
But in this old age, subhanAllah, that is
stunning.
And I'm grateful to Allah.
Alhamdulillah.
You know, when the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa
sallam came back to Mecca, the story of
Abu Bakr's father, Abu Quhafa, taking shahada at
that point.
Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu crying.
Because he said, I knew how much the
Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam wanted that for
Abu Talib.
I knew how much he wanted that.
And it is sometimes really devastating to the
heart.
And of course, more so the person that's
in that situation.
You know, some of the best people, some
of the people that dedicate their lives to
da'wah and they don't get to see
that moment with their parents.
May Allah subhanAllah make it as such for
all of those noble brothers and sisters that
are in the da'wah that they see
that special shahada of their parents as well.
They see their parents embrace Islam as well.
Well, I'm working on my brother now.
He's one year older than me and he
knows all about me.
Yeah, Imam Suraj Wahaj.
So you never know, you know, so we
talk.
Very, very, very smart man.
Very educated man.
May Allah give him hidayah on your hands.
Everyone who's watching say ameen.
May Allah subhanAllah give him hidayah on your
hands.
Imam, I have to ask you, you know,
as well, subhanAllah, and this is, it's hard
to move on from that.
Like Sheikh Ammar said, we can just stay
on that the whole time, you know, just
the parents.
But when you became Muslim, when you first
came to the realization of the truth of
Islam, that this is it, and it entered
into your heart.
I remember you talking about how you wanted
to give da'wah to everybody.
Like you wanted to write letters to everybody.
You wanted to just give da'wah to
everybody.
If you're sitting, you know, however many decades
ago, in your room, and you're thinking, you
know, 30 years from now, I want to
look back.
40 years from now, I want to look
back.
And this is what I want to see
as in regards to the fruit of my
da'wah.
What would that be?
What would Imam Siraj 40 years ago be
thinking about when he's sort of mapping out,
you know, da'wah in my family, da
'wah in my community, da'wah in New
York, da'wah beyond.
What was going through your mind?
You know, it seems to me that as
much as I have done, I can do
so much more.
You know, I think back to the days
of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, you
know, Muhammad Ali, and all of that.
I remember what I did in the Nation
of Islam.
I knocked on thousands of doors, trying to
invite my people, African Americans, to Islam as
I understood it.
One day, I was the minister over the
temple in New York and Brooklyn.
And I told, there's a Captain Richard Aidex,
I said, and he used to drive a
school bus for the children.
I said, can you get the bus?
He said, why?
I said, I want to go drive around
the neighborhood.
And he got the bus and we drove
around and came to a park.
And I said, this is what I want.
I saw a group of people.
And I went in the midst of them,
black people.
I said, Islam is the religion for black
people.
Get in the bus.
And about 13 of them got in the
bus and we took them to the temple.
I'm saying that Allah blessed us to come
into the fullness of Islam, alhamdulillah.
Why don't we do stuff like that?
How could I leave my job to sell
a 25-cent newspaper every day and to
go knock on thousands of doors?
I want to have that same kind of
spirit so that we can have a better
impact on the people.
I think that Muslims can do much better.
So we have to organize better.
You know, the audience is bigger.
The audience is not just black people.
It's including black people, but it's also our
neighbors.
It's everyone else in the country.
And I think more than ever, the world
needs Islam.
America needs Islam.
I watch the news every day and I'm
saying, gee, we just got to do better.
And whether the people accept it or not
isn't the issue.
The issue is, are we at least striving
to do that?
So if I can look back and say,
what could we have done?
I say we could have done more in
the field of da'wah.
My love is da'wah.
So I want to see us do more.
And I intend to do that.
People in my community know that we have
some plans to go back, to go into
the society and try to have a better
impact.
You know, what's his name?
Albert Einstein.
He said the world would not be destroyed
by people who do evil, but by those
who watch them and do nothing about it.
And so it's happening right now all over
the world.
You see it happening in this country.
And so, yeah, there are people who do
evil.
But what are we going to do about
it?
And so, Imam Seraj, you know, you hearken
back a lot to the da'wah or
what you learned through the Nation of Islam.
And it seems like they took you through
a particular developmental process.
Like, did you do you feel like much
of that was taught to you or was
it that you were, you know, a lot
of it is part of your innate personality?
Because how do we replicate it and how
do we scale it ourselves as the Muslim
community?
Let me tell you the number one thing
I got from the Nation of Islam.
And when I told you I was at
the Doubletree Hotel years ago, I never forgot
that every room had a card that says
when you care, it shows.
And really, when you look at the Nation
of Islam, say what you want to say
about the Aqeedah.
Say, well, you know, they're not fully practicing
Islam or whatever.
They don't know the Quran.
But one thing they had, they had love
and care for their people.
That was the process in the Nation of
Islam.
If anything else, we learned to love ourselves
because you got to remember black people used
to hate themselves.
But one of the great things about the
Nation of Islam, they taught black people to
love themselves.
You know, when I was a student at
New York University and I had a big
Afro, my Afro was so big you can
land a plane on it.
So I was into the black, you know,
had me a goatee and had wore dashiki.
So that was the time that we started,
you know, to love black people.
I remember the very day I joined the
Nation of Islam.
I know the very suit that I wore.
And my point is the number one thing
we learned is to love black people.
That was the process to learn to love
yourself.
And I think in a way we went.
And then from there, learning to love black
people, then learning to love people.
And, you know, when I became a Muslim
in 1975, I have a love for people.
Like I'm telling you, 36, 39 nationalities in
my masjid, we have every kind of complexion
and I love them all.
So now all of this expanded.
You know, just a testimony to what you
said.
I know of a sheikh in New York
who, you know, New York was probably the
hardest community other than maybe D.C. that
was hit after 9-11.
Just under the radar and under.
And he got caught up in a case
after 9-11.
And nobody wanted to go to his court
hearings.
Nobody.
He's an Egyptian sheikh.
And so he said, one person that I
remember seeing in the courtroom was Imam Silaj.
Is that right?
Yes.
And he said, and he was like, he
said to me, he said he was like
a lion in the courtroom.
Just going like this to me, like, keep
your head up.
So he said, I never forgot that.
And so one thing that I do want
you to mention is how important is it?
Like you probably don't even remember this, but
how important are these little interactions as an
imam, as a da'ia, to be there
for people in their moments?
We have to do it.
You know, become second nature now.
In this, you know, the prophet peace and
blessing be upon him said, لا تدخلوا جن
Øتى تؤمنوا ولا تؤمنوا Øتى تØبوا You never
go to jinn until you believe and you
never believe until you love one another.
So we have this genuine love, you know.
So Allah put it in our hearts.
He knows how much I love my community.
We have a brother in my community from
Bangladesh.
Right.
Fajr.
He always comes to Fajr with his son.
And I noticed lately I hadn't seen his
son.
I said, where's your son?
He said, bad news.
I said, no.
You tell him Imam Suraj want to see
him.
And so a couple of days later he
came.
He came for a couple of days.
So they're having, they're having struggles.
But I'm saying to you, I love the
brothers in the masjid, the sisters in the
masjid, the African-Americans in the masjid, those
from different ethnicities.
We love them.
Allah put this love in our heart.
So wherever the Muslim is, you know, everywhere,
you know, whatever struggle they have, then we're
going to be with them.
And inshallah.
And also, I still have the love for
the people.
I want to go and do better.
I'm not satisfied with what we have done
in terms of the people we need.
We need to get on it.
Muslims everywhere need to get on it and
show that we really care for the masses
of the people.
Imam Suraj, I think, you know, when you're
talking about the love that you had for
black people and then being your own people
and then the love that you had for
all people.
I think there's also something else with the
nation of Islam.
And I think you would agree there was
also a courage, right?
The boldness of that, right?
That it wasn't just the love, it was
the courage to go out there and to
express that.
And what I want to ask you is,
you know, you saw Muslim pre 9-11
and you saw Muslims after 9-11.
Omar, you think about this.
Omar, think about this.
Think about it.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, we can hear you.
The thing is, I have to admit, nation
of Islam, courage.
You said it.
Just think about this for a moment, right?
Me selling by myself a 25-cent newspaper,
going into the projects, going to the roughest
areas.
And you know what?
They never bothered me.
They never bothered me because there was a
certain respect that the black people had for
the nation of Islam.
They felt that the nation of Islam, two
things, that number one, they love their people.
Number two, they don't take no mess.
We trained, all of us.
We studied.
We studied martial arts, all of us.
We studied, you know, and we're not one
afraid of nobody.
And there's instances, I've spoken about it publicly,
where I go, I went into a building,
I saw two guys there, and I knew
they were going to try to rob me.
I knew it.
And I still went in and took out
a newspaper and put it under the arms
of each one of them and I said,
give me 25 cents.
And one guy to my right took out
a gun and said, you know what, you
just can't rob a Muslim, put his gun
back in his paper and give me 25
cents for the newspaper.
So there's a certain kind of courage that
we had in the nation of Islam and
a certain kind of respect.
Imam Talib told me once in Harlem, there
was an African American woman.
She was walking down the street in the
evening and some two men looked like they
were following her.
So she picked up her pace and they
picked up their pace and she started to
run.
They started to run.
And just when they're about to grab her,
she had a hoodie on, the hoodie fell
off, revealing a kimar.
And they stopped and said, oh, sister, we're
so sorry.
Oh, please, please forgive us.
We're sorry.
So the nation of Islam had a certain
kind of respect in the community because what
they showed and their love for the people.
So I think that's part of it.
So, Sheikh, I think the connection that you're
hitting on, you know, not just love and
courage, but self-respect versus, you know, or
how that's tied to the respect that others
have for you.
And, you know, a lot of why we
launched this podcast and it's kind of a
perfect conversation is you've seen the dawah pre
9-11 and the way that the dawah
has changed after 9-11.
And maybe the tenor of the dawah and
the community sort of going into self-preservation
mode and a fear overtaking the community that
definitely affected the tone of the dawah.
But it might not all be bad.
You know, maybe we shifted in some good
ways.
Maybe we shifted in some bad ways.
I know you're an optimist, mashallah, so you
always got good things to say.
But what have you seen over the last...
Can't help myself.
Alhamdulillah.
What have you seen, Sheikh, the shift?
How did 9-11 affect particularly the dawah
as you see it and the way that
the community views itself and views, you know,
our brothers and sisters who aren't Muslim and
humanity, right?
You know, there's a saying that African-Americans
have, right?
These are white folks, right?
So, it's like, we, you know, we have
a saying, like, we don't eat rabbit meat.
We ain't afraid, right?
And I know that what happened, 9-11,
people were scared.
Muslims were scared.
They were nervous.
You know, they wouldn't go out.
And we did just the opposite.
We felt that it was necessary for us
to represent ourselves.
So, I think people coming out more now.
I just came back from Detroit.
In Dearborn, some of the Muslims are fighting,
arguing about * books and stuff that they're
putting into the schools.
So, they're coming out now.
And all over America, you see Muslims standing
up as they should in every part of
the country.
So, I think that Allah has given us
some courage.
And may Allah support us to continue.
But the courage isn't to say that we
bad guys.
Yo, man, we tough.
No, the courage is that this is Islam.
And we're here to benefit.
What's his name?
Toynbee.
Arnold Toynbee said that Islam is the only
answer.
For all of the, for America, for America
to become better, for the world to become
better, Islam is the answer.
We believe that.
So, we're not trying to, you know, get
something from, you know, we're trying to give
something.
And what we're trying to give is this
message that will be beneficial for everybody.
Imam Siraj, with the love that you have
for the Muslim community, have you ever been
disappointed in the Muslim community?
And number two, have you ever been disappointed
in the Muslim community?
And number two, how do you deal with
disappointment?
I can't, you know, I can't be disappointed.
It is what it is, Sheikh.
You know, when you study history, you find
out people are who they are.
But you keep on going and you keep
on, you know, you keep on preaching.
Let me tell you something about a man
that you heard about named Muhammad Ali.
I hung out with Muhammad Ali.
And, you know, he was a great brother.
Most people don't realize there was a brother
in Chicago named Amir Ali.
He used to make these Dawah pamphlets.
What is Islam?
Who is Muhammad?
And people don't know that Muhammad Ali would
buy cases of that.
And whenever people asked for his autograph, it
was always, I'm walking down the street in
Manhattan.
Cops are stopping, can we get your autograph?
So Muhammad Ali gets one of these pamphlets
about what is Islam.
He signs it and he gives it to
them.
So the thing is that people are how
they are, you know, people.
And so we have to be who we
are.
And the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon
him, didn't have it easier than we have.
These people fought him.
They tried to kill him.
They killed some Muslims.
And yet the Prophet, peace and blessing be
upon him, he kept on and he kept
on.
And we have to keep on, you know,
keep on.
And I'm an optimist, you know, and I
believe that it'll make a difference.
It'll make a difference.
Constant dripping of water on a stone will
drill a hole in the stone.
You know, not a tornado, earthquake, you know,
hurricane, but it's consistency.
And keep on letting people know who we
are.
You'll see, you'll change some hearts.
I know you've got to, I know you've
got to run.
I just wanted to, this is sort of
a comment and a question sort of in
closing.
But a lot of times we don't tell
people how much we appreciate them.
And we don't tell them how much we
appreciate them in public.
Imam Siraj, we love you for the sake
of Allah.
We credit to you the work that we
do.
Yaqeen is on your scale, Sheikh.
I told you that when you came and
visited us here.
Alhamdulillah.
Al-Maghrib is on your scales.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sharif, Rahimahullah, always talked about
you and how much he loved you.
I remember when we spoke about you together.
I actually can remember the vivid conversation of
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sharif and I speaking about
how we need to do more for Imam
Siraj, more for your community, more to honor
you and the legacy that you have.
So a lot of times we don't tell
people how much we appreciate them.
Imam, I just want you to know, all
of us are children on the dawah scene.
And we've learned from you and we've benefited
from you and we continue to benefit from
you.
And we ask Allah to reward you for
it.
And we ask Allah to bless you for
it.
And we ask Allah to forgive any shortcomings
on your behalf and any shortcomings that we
have in carrying the torch forward that you've
handed to us with strength.
Alhamdulillah.
May Allah forgive us for that.
Thank you.
Advice, Imam Siraj, what's your last naseeh?
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
But how much have I gotten from you
and the rest of the Muslims?
You know, I appreciate it that the Muslims
welcomed us, you know, and with all our
comments, you know, they welcomed us.
And may Allah bless us.
I remember years ago, I used to go
to Isha, but I would go to my
notebooks, you know, and I learned so much.
And I think I remember one day someone
said to the head of president of ISNA,
you know, this guy, Siraj Wahaj, you know,
he can give a talk.
And I remember my first talk at ISNA,
they put me on.
So they said, OK, put this, you know,
put him with Yusuf Islam, right?
First talk I gave to ISNA, I'll never
forget.
When I finished my talk, about 13 people
came up to me and said, can we
get your contact?
So that's that's when it began.
So it's a it's a mutual love, man,
really.
And you too, Omar, all the years and
all the, you know, the wonderful things that
you have done, you continue to do.
May Allah continue to bless you.
Yaqeen, all the good work that you do,
man, give you an abundance of good.
I'm just a little guy, man, trying to
make a little contribution.
You know, Sheikh Omar, I don't know if
if you were aware, even when speaking about
Al Maghrib Al Sheikh Mohammed Al Sharif, when
we did Umfest in New York way back
in the day, we had a conference and
we had Imam Siraj Wahaj as the surprise
guest.
And Sheikh Mohammed, he made this beautiful video.
I think it's still available online of a
testimony to Sheikh Mohammed.
And he told him that when he went
to the University of Medina and the Sheikh
was interviewing him, asked him and he said,
who do you want to be like?
And he said, I want to be like
Imam Siraj.
And Al Maghrib and Yaqeen, inshallah, much more
than that are on your scales.
May Allah protect you and preserve you and
accept from you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, man.
I appreciate it.
I love you guys, man.
Keep up the great work that you're doing.
We love you, too, Imam, and we appreciate
your time and we don't want to take
advantage of it.
We're just going to tell everyone to please,
Imam Siraj, how can people support Masjid Taqwa
and how can people find your work online?
Where can people find your work?
We're going to send some, we're going to
send, we'll send out shortly, maybe the next
day or two, some of the ways you
can help.
You can always, you can always send some
money, that'll help.
But we're going to send the plans and
exactly what we intend to do.
And then you'll get the information, inshallah.
JazakAllah khair.
We love you, Imam.
JazakAllah khair.
JazakAllah khair.
Thank you.
Me, too.