Rania Awaad – Healing Through My Journey With The Quran

Rania Awaad
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The speakers discuss the importance of seeking spiritual advice and avoiding negative emotions in the spiritual process of Islam. They stress the use of detoxing practices in the process and provide advice on ending with inshaGeneration, Doctora, and "has been Prays" to avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid "has been Prays" and avoid

AI: Summary ©

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			In this party, they were crowned with the
		
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			Qur'an.
		
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			Literally, they were given a crown, like a
		
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			tiara, mashallah.
		
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			And I had never heard in my life
		
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			a term called ijazah, I didn't know what
		
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			this word meant.
		
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			And I remember making this very private, quiet
		
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			du'a in my heart, oh Allah, I
		
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			want to do that.
		
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			I want to be like one of them,
		
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			subhanallah.
		
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			You know, how we keep growing on our
		
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			journey with the Qur'an, we keep learning
		
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			new poems, we keep learning new memorization, whether
		
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			you're still memorizing, and so on.
		
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			But this is, subhanallah, one concept, revision, subhanallah.
		
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			So you need to maintain your revision throughout
		
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			the whole journey.
		
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			Other than the practical tips from our Shaykh,
		
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			inshallah.
		
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			Never say to yourself, I can't, or this
		
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			isn't for me, or this is for some
		
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			scholarly people over there.
		
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			Your only job today is to make an
		
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			iyyah, is an intention.
		
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			Ya Allah, I am at Alif, Da, Ta,
		
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			how can we get to Jeem, Ha, Kha?
		
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			This is a very common question that you
		
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			probably got before, subhanallah, which is, how can
		
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			you kind of put everything into your plate?
		
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			And I remember my teacher saying to me,
		
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			look, this is not a race, and this
		
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			is not a comparison between you and other
		
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			people.
		
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			You are on your journey, they are on
		
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			their journey, and someone who works as hard
		
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			and fights as hard, and has as many
		
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			pressures for something that they fight very hard
		
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			for, it's going to mean that much more
		
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			to them in the end.
		
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			I'd like to thank you for it, subhanallah,
		
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			as something that opens up the plate, so
		
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			it can end up having more, because of
		
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			the Qur'an, subhanallah, and because of the
		
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			way it trains us, and allows us to
		
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			have that self-discipline, all of the things
		
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			that come with it, subhanallah.
		
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			Have you witnessed any barakah of the Qur
		
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			'an in your life?
		
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			There are many things that would come ahead
		
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			that wouldn't be easy, subhanallah, but it was
		
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			leaning back on the Qur'an, and knowing,
		
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			and knowing, and kind of feeling the barakah
		
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			of it coming through.
		
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			Ya Rabbi, I intend to take the next
		
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			step, so help me.
		
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			Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi ta'ala wabarakatuh.
		
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			Welcome to another exciting episode of the Life
		
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			as a Muslimah podcast.
		
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			This episode, subhanallah, is particularly special and dear
		
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			to my heart, firstly because, Allahumma barik, I've
		
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			got the Qur'an here with us, and
		
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			secondly because this is our first, our very
		
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			first Life podcast, alhamdulillah, proudly brought to you
		
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			by, in collaboration with Qur'an Halaqah, and
		
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			the Khalil Institute, and we extend our deepest
		
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			gratitude as well for the Maryam Center for
		
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			hosting this event.
		
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			I'm aware all of you, subhanallah, know who
		
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			Dr. Rania is.
		
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			Jazakallah khaira for being here.
		
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			Jazakallah khaira.
		
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			But I will give a very quick bio,
		
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			inshallah.
		
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			So Dr. Rania Awad is a renowned scholar
		
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			and a clinical psychiatrist.
		
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			She is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry
		
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			at Stanford University, where she directs the Muslim
		
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			Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab.
		
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			And Allahumma barik, she holds many ijazahs in
		
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			the Qur'an alongside the Islamic fiqh.
		
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			So we'll crack on with this, very excited,
		
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			bi-idhnillah.
		
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			The first question I'm going to ask you,
		
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			bi-idhnillah, Shaykha, is how did your journey
		
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			with the Qur'an start?
		
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			Inshallah.
		
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			Well, first, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
		
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			I hope you're all well.
		
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			Thank you for coming out this evening, inshallah.
		
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			And thank you for being part of a
		
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			program that talks directly about the Qur'an,
		
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			and I'm really humbled to share my journey
		
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			in this story.
		
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			It's just one of many journeys, subhanAllah, of
		
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			so many people that have experienced the miracle
		
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			of the Qur'an.
		
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			But if in any way we can, in
		
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			some way or form, inspire somebody to pick
		
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			up the Qur'an and to do more
		
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			with it, alhamdulillah, then it's worth sharing a
		
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			little bit of what's actually been a very
		
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			private journey, subhanAllah.
		
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			I don't normally speak about this very often,
		
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			but I'm happy to share if it's of
		
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			use to others, inshallah ta'ala.
		
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			Like many of you, I grew up in
		
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			a household in which there was Qur'an
		
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			being recited.
		
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			There was people who read the Qur'an
		
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			in my household, who we saw as little
		
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			children, you know, elders of ours reading the
		
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			Qur'an.
		
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			Myself, I grew up in the United States,
		
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			as many of you may know, and in
		
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			my upbringing, certainly went to the kind of
		
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			schools that, you know, there we call them
		
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			Sunday schools, in which we're learning the beginnings
		
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			of the Arabic alphabet and the readings of
		
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			Qur'an.
		
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			Eventually, my parents put me in an Islamic
		
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			school for some years of my schooling, and
		
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			I appreciated that quite a bit after the
		
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			fact, inshallah.
		
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			And there, there was a lot of emphasis
		
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			on learning how to read the Qur'an
		
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			and memorizing.
		
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			It wasn't until I moved from one state,
		
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			I was in the East Coast of America
		
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			into the Midwest of America, we moved roughly
		
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			right before my high school years.
		
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			And there, the summer that I moved, subhanAllah,
		
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			there was a group of women and girls
		
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			who, it was a predominantly Syrian community.
		
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			I'm not Syrian, but they were predominantly Syrian.
		
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			And in that summer, there was a summer
		
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			camp we were attending as girls, a girls'
		
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			summer camp.
		
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			Part of the camp had Qur'an in
		
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			it and Islamic studies and other things.
		
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			But at the end of the summer, they
		
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			had a celebration.
		
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			And in the celebration, they were welcoming back
		
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			a lot of the girls that had gone
		
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			to Syria for the summer to study Qur
		
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			'an.
		
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			And I had never heard in my life
		
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			a term called ijazah.
		
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			I didn't know what this word meant.
		
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			I didn't even know that you can receive
		
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			an ijazah as a girl.
		
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			Like, I didn't know anything about this, subhanAllah.
		
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			Still, for those that don't know, do you
		
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			mind explaining?
		
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			Yes, an ijazah is a license to teach.
		
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			So these girls who were my age, roughly,
		
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			teenagers, maybe a little bit older, a little
		
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			bit younger, but the point is they were
		
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			there in Syria to receive this ijazah or
		
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			the licensure to teach the Qur'an.
		
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			And when they came at the end of
		
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			the summer camp, there was a party, a
		
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			festivity, and it was so beautiful.
		
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			SubhanAllah.
		
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			And how old were they?
		
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			They were teenagers, mostly.
		
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			Some of them might have been in their
		
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			20s, but mostly they were in their adolescent
		
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			years.
		
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			And they were in this party, they were
		
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			crowned with the Qur'an.
		
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			Literally, they were given a crown, like a
		
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			tiara, subhanAllah, and a cape.
		
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			They were caped and crowned for their ijazah
		
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			celebration.
		
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			And I had never seen anything like this.
		
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			It was beautiful.
		
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			The gowns were this white satin color.
		
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			The tiaras were, you know, beautiful and had
		
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			flowers.
		
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			And as a girl at the time, I
		
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			was probably about 13 when this was happening.
		
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			And I remember standing there looking at all
		
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			of them, just like, you know, kind of
		
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			took your breath away, kind of just in
		
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			awe.
		
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			And I remember making this very private, quiet
		
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			du'a in my heart.
		
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			Oh Allah, I want to do that.
		
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			I want to be like one of them,
		
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			subhanAllah.
		
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			But as I mentioned, I'm not Syrian.
		
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			I don't know how to get to Syria.
		
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			And I'm not sure what the process exactly
		
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			entails.
		
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			But I kept it quiet.
		
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			I actually didn't say anything to my family
		
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			at the time.
		
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			I just sort of kept it to myself
		
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			and thought, oh, ya Rabbi, I would love
		
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			to do this thing.
		
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			And the reason I'm so glad that in
		
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			this audience that there are all ages, from
		
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			all ages, subhanAllah, is because you don't know
		
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			like that, a 13-year-old watching something
		
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			and right then making a du'a and
		
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			an intention, an ijazah, that eventually may, and
		
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			in this case, alhamdulillah, was fulfilled.
		
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			And we'll share a little bit of that
		
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			story.
		
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			But please make your intentions.
		
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			Even right now, as you're listening to this,
		
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			regardless of where you are in your journey
		
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			of the Qur'an, we all have more
		
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			to do with the Qur'an.
		
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			We all have more to do.
		
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			So make the intention, oh Allah, allow me
		
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			to do more.
		
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			SubhanAllah, jazakallahu khayran astaghfirullah, that was very beautiful.
		
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			And as you mentioned, subhanAllah, we have all
		
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			ages, all levels in terms of the Qur
		
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			'an.
		
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			Some of the sisters sitting here may be
		
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			just about to start their journeys.
		
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			And some, may Allah mubarak, have ijazahs and
		
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			different qiraat may Allah mubarak.
		
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			And one thing you mentioned is regardless of
		
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			age, subhanAllah, regardless of age, you can always
		
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			do the Qur'an and have something new
		
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			to learn about the Qur'an.
		
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			SubhanAllah, jazakallahu khayran.
		
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			And do you think, I'm guessing here, do
		
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			you think that this moment that you had
		
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			was the one that sparked your connection with
		
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			the Qur'an?
		
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			Or was there a moment later on that
		
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			you felt like I'm connected to the Qur
		
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			'an more, you know, as youngsters?
		
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			This was a first moment, for sure.
		
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			But there was another moment, and it comes,
		
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			actually, there's a bit of a roundabout story.
		
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			SubhanAllah, ghulam, alhamdulillah.
		
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			It's a beautiful story, it just takes a
		
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			little bit of time, so I'll condense it.
		
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			And just say that in the following year,
		
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			I was about 13 in that year, that
		
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			was the summer.
		
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			In the school year, we had a visitor
		
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			come to where I was living.
		
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			At the time, it was in Michigan, in
		
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			the state of Michigan, California, in California, in
		
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			the United States.
		
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			Sorry, I live in California now.
		
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			Michigan is not in California.
		
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			Just not to confuse you, because clearly I'm
		
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			confused.
		
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			Alhamdulillah.
		
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			Anyhow, we were in Michigan, and we had
		
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			a visit from a sheikhah, from a Syrian
		
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			sheikhah.
		
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			And again, I had never heard of a
		
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			sheikhah.
		
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			I never heard of a woman who was
		
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			a sheikh.
		
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			Like, this had never crossed my path before.
		
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			In fact, I didn't even know that women
		
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			could be sheikhahs.
		
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			And there was all this buzz and excitement,
		
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			because a sheikhah was visiting, you know, our
		
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			home state.
		
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			And all the women, including my mother and
		
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			all of her friends and everybody, were taking
		
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			classes with the sheikhah, because they were so
		
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			excited there was a sheikhah in town.
		
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			And we girls just, you know, heard about
		
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			this.
		
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			But then one day, the sheikhah said to
		
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			the woman, she said, I want to meet
		
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			the girls of the community.
		
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			Gather them all.
		
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			So we all piled into a house, somebody's
		
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			house, and we sat there, and she gave
		
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			us a class.
		
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			And this particular sheikhah would be the only
		
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			time I ever met her, subhanAllah.
		
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			The one and only time.
		
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			And I could tell you, I'm still 13,
		
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			yeah?
		
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			But I was crying.
		
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			I mean, tears, tears, sobbing, tears.
		
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			And, you know, she's speaking in Arabic.
		
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			I'm raised as American.
		
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			Like, my first language really is English, right?
		
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			And I can tell you some of what
		
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34
			she was probably talking about, but wallahi, it
		
00:10:34 --> 00:10:34
			wasn't her words.
		
00:10:35 --> 00:10:36
			It was her hal.
		
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38
			It was her, the vibes that she was,
		
00:10:39 --> 00:10:40
			the energy she was emanating, subhanAllah.
		
00:10:41 --> 00:10:42
			And I just, like, lost it.
		
00:10:42 --> 00:10:44
			I was like, I don't, and I went,
		
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47
			then I went home that night, and that's
		
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49
			when I finally said to my family, I
		
00:10:49 --> 00:10:50
			said to my parents, I said, wherever this
		
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53
			sheikhah is from, I want to go there.
		
00:10:53 --> 00:10:54
			Please send me there.
		
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57
			And they just looked at each other, and
		
00:10:57 --> 00:10:58
			they said, inshaAllah.
		
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02
			As parents often do when they don't want
		
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05
			to commit to something, they say, inshaAllah, you
		
00:11:05 --> 00:11:06
			know, subhanAllah.
		
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09
			And that's it, that's all, that was all
		
00:11:09 --> 00:11:10
			the conversation between my parents and I.
		
00:11:11 --> 00:11:12
			But I held on to this as something
		
00:11:12 --> 00:11:13
			I really wanted to do.
		
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16
			I didn't know, subhanAllah, in the background, that
		
00:11:16 --> 00:11:17
			the sheikhah was actually in Michigan at the
		
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19
			time, because she was there for treatment for
		
00:11:19 --> 00:11:20
			cancer.
		
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23
			And it would actually be just that summer,
		
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26
			she would pass away, wallahi humma.
		
00:11:26 --> 00:11:30
			Yet, subhanAllah, her visit opened many doors.
		
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32
			Amongst the doors that were open is that
		
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			she actually asked some of the, you know,
		
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36
			the women of our community who were the
		
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39
			teachers and leaders and such, to go to
		
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41
			my parents and ask them to send me
		
00:11:41 --> 00:11:42
			to Syria.
		
00:11:43 --> 00:11:43
			I didn't know this.
		
00:11:44 --> 00:11:45
			I mean, I didn't know this for years,
		
00:11:46 --> 00:11:47
			actually, that there was a back story.
		
00:11:47 --> 00:11:48
			All I know is in the summertime, my
		
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50
			parents came to me, right before the summer,
		
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52
			they came to me and said, you've been
		
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54
			saying you want to go to Syria to
		
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			study like the sheikhah did.
		
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57
			Do you want to go to Shem?
		
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00
			And I was like, yes, yes.
		
00:12:00 --> 00:12:01
			And I thought it was because I had
		
00:12:01 --> 00:12:01
			asked them.
		
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03
			It turns out there was this whole tussle
		
00:12:03 --> 00:12:07
			between them of, like, really, like, sleepless nights
		
00:12:07 --> 00:12:08
			because I'm not Syrian, I have no family
		
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			there.
		
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10
			How would they send their young 13, now
		
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			14-year-old daughter to a country alone
		
00:12:13 --> 00:12:14
			and to study?
		
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			But they figured the Qur'an is something
		
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			that is worth a sacrifice and even worth
		
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			criticism because they did receive criticism from members
		
00:12:24 --> 00:12:25
			of the community around them.
		
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27
			How do you send your young daughter alone
		
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29
			to study in a country that's foreign?
		
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			Even though I was in a school, I
		
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			was in a program for girls.
		
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35
			Nevertheless, they received some criticism.
		
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37
			But I appreciate that and I appreciate their
		
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			sacrifices because it does take sacrifice.
		
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42
			My mother told me that first summer when
		
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44
			I went to Shem at 14, she said
		
00:12:44 --> 00:12:45
			she didn't sleep a single night.
		
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49
			Just awake every night, just anxious, worried.
		
00:12:49 --> 00:12:50
			I mean, that's a mother, subhanAllah.
		
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54
			But later, alhamdulillah, she would say this all
		
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			paid off.
		
00:12:55 --> 00:12:55
			Do you see what I'm saying?
		
00:12:56 --> 00:12:58
			But they took a step that wasn't very
		
00:12:58 --> 00:12:59
			common.
		
00:12:59 --> 00:13:03
			And there's a reason why my father agreed,
		
00:13:03 --> 00:13:04
			which I could share with you as well.
		
00:13:05 --> 00:13:06
			And it's worth sharing because I think sometimes
		
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			we also need the buy-in from the
		
00:13:09 --> 00:13:10
			woman and from the men.
		
00:13:11 --> 00:13:15
			My father, Jozal Mokher, had an opportunity when
		
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17
			he was a young man to study the
		
00:13:17 --> 00:13:17
			Qur'an.
		
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20
			And he got to a certain point in
		
00:13:20 --> 00:13:24
			his memorization, his studies, and then subhanAllah, he
		
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26
			wasn't able to finish because of his medical
		
00:13:26 --> 00:13:27
			school.
		
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29
			He was studying to become a physician.
		
00:13:30 --> 00:13:35
			And he remembers going with his father, my
		
00:13:35 --> 00:13:38
			grandfather, asking him and saying, can you please
		
00:13:38 --> 00:13:40
			enroll me in al-Azhar, al-Azhar al
		
00:13:40 --> 00:13:40
			-Sharif?
		
00:13:41 --> 00:13:41
			Right?
		
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42
			And they did.
		
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45
			They actually went all the way to the
		
00:13:45 --> 00:13:46
			program.
		
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48
			And they tried to enroll my father into
		
00:13:48 --> 00:13:48
			the program.
		
00:13:49 --> 00:13:50
			And they said to him, well, since you
		
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53
			hadn't done the elementary earlier years with us,
		
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56
			you can't actually enroll for the college years,
		
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58
			enroll for the schooling years.
		
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00
			And he remembers that moment being kind of
		
00:14:00 --> 00:14:00
			crushed.
		
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04
			And then himself making a du'a inside
		
00:14:04 --> 00:14:07
			of his own self saying, if ever, subhanAllah,
		
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09
			my child were to come to me and
		
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11
			ask for an opportunity to study the deen
		
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13
			or the Qur'an, I would allow for
		
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15
			them to do so because he wasn't able,
		
00:14:16 --> 00:14:16
			subhanAllah.
		
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19
			And it would be years later, and I
		
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20
			don't think he realized it would be a
		
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23
			daughter that this would happen.
		
00:14:23 --> 00:14:24
			But he said that was the reason he
		
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26
			gave the yes to actually go and study.
		
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30
			And I share all these very personal family
		
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33
			stories just to inspire as much as we
		
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36
			can because sometimes doors may open, but they
		
00:14:36 --> 00:14:41
			very quickly close again unless you really take
		
00:14:41 --> 00:14:42
			the opportunity.
		
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45
			And sometimes there's a lot of hesitations because
		
00:14:45 --> 00:14:46
			it was not an easy journey for him.
		
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48
			My entire studies in Sham, all the years
		
00:14:48 --> 00:14:49
			I went back and forth and back and
		
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52
			forth to Syria was fraught with a lot
		
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55
			of tension because my parents allowed that first
		
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57
			trip, but then when they saw that I
		
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59
			was very attached to Syria in my studies,
		
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02
			they didn't, let me say it this way.
		
00:15:02 --> 00:15:07
			They thought Sharia studies were cute, you know,
		
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10
			but it wasn't what they exactly expected for
		
00:15:10 --> 00:15:11
			me in my life.
		
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14
			And so it was hard on them and
		
00:15:14 --> 00:15:15
			they were not very sure they wanted to
		
00:15:15 --> 00:15:16
			keep sending me back and forth.
		
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18
			So it was not an easy journey.
		
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21
			There was a lot of struggle and there
		
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23
			was a moment there where I had that
		
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25
			very first trip when I went at 14
		
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27
			and started my journey with the Quran formally
		
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31
			of not sure I'd be able to actually
		
00:15:31 --> 00:15:32
			get through it.
		
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34
			And the reason for that, it wasn't just
		
00:15:34 --> 00:15:35
			a matter of time, but it was also
		
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38
			a matter of there was pressures.
		
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39
			My parents wanted me to come back home
		
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41
			after a certain amount of time.
		
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43
			They also weren't sure that they said, you
		
00:15:43 --> 00:15:44
			know, you could do this in America.
		
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46
			And I'm thinking to myself, no, I really
		
00:15:46 --> 00:15:46
			can't.
		
00:15:46 --> 00:15:47
			I need my teachers.
		
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50
			And at the same time, there were other
		
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52
			pressures from within myself.
		
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54
			And that was comparing myself to the other
		
00:15:54 --> 00:15:55
			girls.
		
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57
			It's a very common thing that we do
		
00:15:57 --> 00:15:57
			on our journeys.
		
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00
			The other girls who traveled with me, SubhanAllah,
		
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02
			most of them were Syrian and they had
		
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05
			a journey with the Quran for years, like
		
00:16:05 --> 00:16:06
			since they're toddlers.
		
00:16:07 --> 00:16:08
			I didn't quite have the same journey.
		
00:16:09 --> 00:16:10
			And so I was very much, and I
		
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13
			share this openly, you know, that first trip
		
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15
			when I would read, it was literally like,
		
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17
			da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
		
00:16:17 --> 00:16:18
			It was very slow.
		
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21
			And it was very, I hadn't learned Tajweed.
		
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24
			Like this was a whole new foreign science
		
00:16:24 --> 00:16:25
			to me, the science of Tajweed.
		
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27
			It was like learning a foreign language, you
		
00:16:27 --> 00:16:27
			know?
		
00:16:28 --> 00:16:29
			And it was complicated.
		
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32
			And I remember shedding lots of tears.
		
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35
			And I remember my teacher saying to me,
		
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37
			look, this is not a race.
		
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40
			And this is not a comparison between you
		
00:16:40 --> 00:16:40
			and other people.
		
00:16:41 --> 00:16:42
			You are on your journey.
		
00:16:42 --> 00:16:43
			They are on their journey.
		
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46
			And someone who works as hard and fights
		
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49
			as hard and has as many pressures for
		
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52
			something that they fight very hard for, it's
		
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53
			gonna mean that much more to them at
		
00:16:53 --> 00:16:54
			the end.
		
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56
			It's prominent, it's so true, it's prominent.
		
00:16:56 --> 00:16:57
			So keep with it.
		
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59
			And that was that other moment that I
		
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01
			think really solidified because it was, I didn't
		
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03
			finish on that first trip.
		
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05
			And I couldn't actually, and many of my
		
00:17:05 --> 00:17:05
			friends did.
		
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08
			And they had their ijazah parties and we
		
00:17:08 --> 00:17:09
			crowned them and we keep, and I was
		
00:17:09 --> 00:17:10
			very happy for them.
		
00:17:11 --> 00:17:12
			But I was very sad too.
		
00:17:12 --> 00:17:14
			Because I wasn't able to accomplish what I
		
00:17:14 --> 00:17:15
			had set out to accomplish.
		
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18
			And I went back to America, not having
		
00:17:18 --> 00:17:19
			completed.
		
00:17:21 --> 00:17:23
			But those years in between until I was
		
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25
			finally able to get back to Sham, it
		
00:17:25 --> 00:17:26
			would take about three more years before I
		
00:17:26 --> 00:17:26
			could get back.
		
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29
			Those years became, the Quran became my buddy,
		
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31
			my friend.
		
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35
			It was very much, you know, it was
		
00:17:35 --> 00:17:36
			like this angst.
		
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38
			Like, I really want to do this Ya
		
00:17:38 --> 00:17:38
			Rabbi.
		
00:17:38 --> 00:17:39
			And it was almost like Allah was saying
		
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41
			to me, do you really want it?
		
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44
			And if you really want it, right, you're
		
00:17:44 --> 00:17:45
			gonna have to work harder for this.
		
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48
			It's a reminder for myself first, but throughout
		
00:17:48 --> 00:17:49
			this journey, you're gonna get tested.
		
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52
			You're gonna have ups and downs.
		
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55
			It's not gonna come like a straight brick.
		
00:17:55 --> 00:17:57
			You can't have that, subhanAllah.
		
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58
			With anything in life.
		
00:17:58 --> 00:17:59
			Imagine with the book of Allah subhanahu wa
		
00:17:59 --> 00:18:03
			ta'ala, which is, subhanAllah, the second best
		
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05
			lesson you can have after Islam, subhanAllah.
		
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08
			So it's a reminder for myself first again.
		
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11
			Throughout this journey, keep holding on to the
		
00:18:11 --> 00:18:12
			Quran.
		
00:18:12 --> 00:18:13
			Hold on to the Quran, inshaAllah.
		
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16
			Whether that's one verse daily.
		
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18
			That is better than taking a whole gap
		
00:18:18 --> 00:18:20
			of the Quran and then, subhanAllah.
		
00:18:20 --> 00:18:21
			May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make this
		
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23
			journey easy for us.
		
00:18:24 --> 00:18:25
			SubhanAllah, ameen.
		
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28
			From there, inshaAllah, take me all the way
		
00:18:28 --> 00:18:30
			to when you finished the first khatmah.
		
00:18:31 --> 00:18:32
			What were the feelings?
		
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36
			How did you, did you get a party
		
00:18:36 --> 00:18:37
			for that, inshaAllah?
		
00:18:37 --> 00:18:38
			How did you get a party?
		
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41
			There was, in fact, a party, yes, alhamdulillah.
		
00:18:43 --> 00:18:44
			So I'll walk you through.
		
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46
			The next few years, like I said, were
		
00:18:46 --> 00:18:50
			my high school years and my parents were
		
00:18:50 --> 00:18:51
			unsure about sending me back to Syria.
		
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54
			I really wanted to go specifically not just
		
00:18:54 --> 00:18:55
			to finish but also to receive the ijazah
		
00:18:55 --> 00:18:56
			formally.
		
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58
			And it's a big deal to receive the
		
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01
			ijazah from Syria because they're very, very strict
		
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03
			on their recitation, their rules.
		
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05
			In fact, many people from so many countries
		
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07
			will have finished in their own home countries
		
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09
			but come to Syria for the ijazah specifically.
		
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14
			And it's, inshaAllah, it's an amazing process but
		
00:19:14 --> 00:19:15
			a very rigorous process.
		
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19
			Anyhow, my parents said to me, just so
		
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21
			you understand the backdrop, they said to me,
		
00:19:21 --> 00:19:25
			well, if you graduate at the top of
		
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28
			your class, you have a 4.0, which
		
00:19:28 --> 00:19:31
			is for us the highest grade mark, you
		
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33
			receive scholarships to a college, university.
		
00:19:36 --> 00:19:37
			They listed all these things.
		
00:19:38 --> 00:19:39
			And then you can go back to Syria.
		
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41
			And I think they were saying that as
		
00:19:41 --> 00:19:45
			in to say like, focus on your studies.
		
00:19:45 --> 00:19:47
			They put all these barriers.
		
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50
			And I said, is that what I'll take?
		
00:19:50 --> 00:19:52
			Yeah, all right, let's do it.
		
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55
			And so actually, there's this joke that we've
		
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57
			had for many years, especially early on in
		
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59
			my medical studies, when people would say to
		
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01
			me, how did you get into medical school?
		
00:20:01 --> 00:20:02
			And I'd say, trying to get to Syria.
		
00:20:02 --> 00:20:03
			So I did that.
		
00:20:06 --> 00:20:07
			And alhamdulillah, but it pushed me.
		
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09
			It pushed me academically.
		
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11
			It pushed me in my studies, subhanAllah.
		
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13
			And when I finally got back, alhamdulillah, I
		
00:20:13 --> 00:20:17
			managed to finish early my high school studies
		
00:20:17 --> 00:20:18
			so that I could spend the remaining year
		
00:20:18 --> 00:20:21
			in what would have been my final senior
		
00:20:21 --> 00:20:22
			year of high school in Syria.
		
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25
			So it was in that year, alhamdulillah, that
		
00:20:25 --> 00:20:26
			I received my first ijazah.
		
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29
			And that was a process too, subhanAllah.
		
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32
			And it was just the most amazing thing
		
00:20:32 --> 00:20:33
			when you're sitting in front of the shaykh,
		
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36
			there's a curtain between you and the shaykh,
		
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39
			but in reciting, and everybody knows, it's not
		
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41
			just the fluency of your recitation.
		
00:20:41 --> 00:20:44
			It's not just the accuracy of being able
		
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46
			to answer the questions on tajweed or the
		
00:20:46 --> 00:20:47
			jazariyya or so on when asked.
		
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49
			But actually, it's more than that.
		
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52
			It's like, we believe that there is a
		
00:20:52 --> 00:20:55
			sense of, is a person truly ready to
		
00:20:55 --> 00:20:56
			carry this amanah?
		
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00
			Because once you receive an ijazah, it's a
		
00:21:00 --> 00:21:01
			licensure to teach.
		
00:21:01 --> 00:21:02
			And you can't just sort of sit on
		
00:21:02 --> 00:21:02
			it.
		
00:21:04 --> 00:21:05
			You need to actually work with it.
		
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07
			And so there's also a maturity aspect and
		
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10
			a, are you ready to carry this tradition
		
00:21:10 --> 00:21:10
			forward?
		
00:21:11 --> 00:21:12
			And so sometimes the shaykh will turn people
		
00:21:12 --> 00:21:16
			back, even though they have excellent recitation, because
		
00:21:16 --> 00:21:17
			they're not quite ready for this just yet,
		
00:21:18 --> 00:21:19
			subhanAllah, and so on.
		
00:21:20 --> 00:21:21
			So we're all like, it's such a nerve
		
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23
			-wracking day to go sit in front of
		
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25
			the, because then you go from your teacher
		
00:21:25 --> 00:21:27
			to your teacher's teacher, and eventually you get
		
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29
			all the way to the shaykh.
		
00:21:29 --> 00:21:30
			Like, it's multiple, and you have to be
		
00:21:30 --> 00:21:31
			checked at every process.
		
00:21:32 --> 00:21:32
			Alhamdulillah.
		
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34
			So yes, it was a phenomenal day, subhanAllah.
		
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37
			Nerve-wracking day, but it was also one
		
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39
			of those days where you're like, oh, Allah
		
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42
			Akbar, you know, sense of like, it's been
		
00:21:42 --> 00:21:43
			years in the making, and so it felt
		
00:21:43 --> 00:21:45
			just so amazing, alhamdulillah.
		
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47
			Some people might think the story ends there.
		
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50
			I get my ijazah, and I get my,
		
00:21:50 --> 00:21:51
			subhanAllah.
		
00:21:51 --> 00:21:52
			That's literally where the story starts.
		
00:21:53 --> 00:21:54
			Yes, subhanAllah.
		
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56
			So that's exactly, subhanAllah, where the story starts,
		
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58
			because the amanah holding onto the Book of
		
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01
			Allah, subhanAllah wa ta'ala, or the responsibility
		
00:22:01 --> 00:22:04
			that you have is far greater than being
		
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05
			on the journey with the Quran.
		
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07
			Once you've memorized that verse, even if you've
		
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10
			just memorized, I don't know, one juz, verse,
		
00:22:11 --> 00:22:15
			one juz, your responsibility of keeping that is
		
00:22:15 --> 00:22:16
			far more greater than you moving into the
		
00:22:16 --> 00:22:17
			next juz.
		
00:22:17 --> 00:22:18
			And that takes me to the next question,
		
00:22:18 --> 00:22:19
			subhanAllah.
		
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21
			You know, how we keep growing on our
		
00:22:21 --> 00:22:21
			journey with the Quran.
		
00:22:22 --> 00:22:23
			We keep learning new poems.
		
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25
			We keep learning new memorization, whether you're still
		
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27
			memorizing, and so on.
		
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29
			But this, subhanAllah, one constant, revision.
		
00:22:30 --> 00:22:30
			Sah?
		
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32
			So you need to maintain your revision throughout
		
00:22:32 --> 00:22:33
			the whole journey.
		
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36
			Are there any practical tips you have, Shaykh
		
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38
			Afuaz, inshaAllah, that helped you throughout your journey?
		
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40
			Maybe tips that you got from your teachers
		
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41
			as well.
		
00:22:41 --> 00:22:43
			You know, something I saw my teachers do,
		
00:22:43 --> 00:22:47
			which was so beautiful, is they insisted that
		
00:22:47 --> 00:22:50
			as soon as we can, meaning as soon
		
00:22:50 --> 00:22:53
			as we were given permission to teach, to
		
00:22:53 --> 00:22:53
			go ahead and do so.
		
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56
			And it didn't matter exactly who you're teaching,
		
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58
			as in to say, it could be children.
		
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01
			It could be your own family members.
		
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03
			It could be community members, right?
		
00:23:03 --> 00:23:05
			It could be a formal halaqah class, but
		
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06
			it could also be your cousins.
		
00:23:07 --> 00:23:07
			You know what I mean?
		
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10
			And they insisted that we immediately go.
		
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12
			And this is something, remember, I'm still a
		
00:23:12 --> 00:23:13
			teenager at this story, at this point of
		
00:23:13 --> 00:23:13
			the story.
		
00:23:14 --> 00:23:16
			But they said, you must pay it forward.
		
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18
			Allah, subhanAllah, would take something away from you
		
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20
			if you don't actually, you know, if he's
		
00:23:20 --> 00:23:22
			given you a blessing and you don't use
		
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24
			it, you're gonna be questioned and asked about
		
00:23:24 --> 00:23:24
			it.
		
00:23:24 --> 00:23:27
			So we were kind of thrown in to
		
00:23:27 --> 00:23:28
			teach immediately.
		
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31
			And that was phenomenal, because once you start
		
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34
			teaching, they say, teaching is learning it twice.
		
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37
			So once you start teaching, then it became
		
00:23:37 --> 00:23:39
			very, started teaching, it became very clear, I
		
00:23:39 --> 00:23:42
			myself needed to be on track, on top
		
00:23:42 --> 00:23:43
			of it, in order to be able to
		
00:23:43 --> 00:23:45
			convey the message to the next person over.
		
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47
			So that really solidified.
		
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49
			The other practical piece of advice, which I
		
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51
			would say all, which bring us to like
		
00:23:51 --> 00:23:52
			this point of my journey, all the way
		
00:23:52 --> 00:23:54
			over here, is having a sohbah.
		
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57
			Having a group of sisters, right?
		
00:23:58 --> 00:24:00
			A sohbah saliha, a righteous companionship.
		
00:24:00 --> 00:24:03
			In this case, a Quranic companionship.
		
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05
			And in the years in which I've had
		
00:24:05 --> 00:24:08
			that, it's been amazing to do revision, reading,
		
00:24:09 --> 00:24:10
			working on the next levels of things.
		
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13
			And I'll tell you, when I got to
		
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15
			university, so after this point of the story,
		
00:24:15 --> 00:24:16
			I enter university.
		
00:24:16 --> 00:24:19
			There was a friend of mine who, subhanAllah,
		
00:24:19 --> 00:24:20
			we didn't plan to be at the same
		
00:24:20 --> 00:24:21
			university, but we ended up being there.
		
00:24:21 --> 00:24:24
			She too had finished her khatm and received
		
00:24:24 --> 00:24:25
			her ijazah from Sham.
		
00:24:26 --> 00:24:28
			And we lived in the same building, but
		
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30
			on different floors for a university.
		
00:24:31 --> 00:24:32
			And so we said to each other, hey,
		
00:24:32 --> 00:24:33
			let's keep it up.
		
00:24:34 --> 00:24:35
			Let's keep this up.
		
00:24:36 --> 00:24:37
			And so, okay, so we had, I don't
		
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39
			share this often, but again, I'm only sharing
		
00:24:39 --> 00:24:41
			very private and personal things at this point
		
00:24:41 --> 00:24:45
			in my life in order to help people
		
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47
			be able to see what's possible, especially those
		
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49
			of you who might be university students now.
		
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52
			We said to each other, well, we're both
		
00:24:52 --> 00:24:52
			very busy.
		
00:24:53 --> 00:24:54
			University's lots of work.
		
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57
			Let's meet up for tahajjud.
		
00:24:58 --> 00:24:59
			And our teachers in Syria are very big
		
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00
			about tahajjud.
		
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02
			They insisted we get up.
		
00:25:02 --> 00:25:03
			If you're going to do any sort of
		
00:25:03 --> 00:25:05
			da'wah work or work for Islam, you
		
00:25:05 --> 00:25:07
			need to fill your cup and the time
		
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09
			to fill it is in pre-fajr, right?
		
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12
			And so we would get up every morning
		
00:25:12 --> 00:25:15
			for the four years of university, and she
		
00:25:15 --> 00:25:16
			would come down to my apartment.
		
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18
			She lived a little further up on the
		
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20
			tower, the building, and she would come to
		
00:25:20 --> 00:25:20
			my apartment.
		
00:25:22 --> 00:25:24
			And one day I would lead, one day
		
00:25:24 --> 00:25:24
			she would lead.
		
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26
			We would do our murajah that way.
		
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28
			This is how we kept up, right?
		
00:25:28 --> 00:25:29
			And luckily, I had a roommate, may Allah
		
00:25:29 --> 00:25:31
			bless her, who could sleep through anything.
		
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35
			So we didn't bother my roommate, may Allah
		
00:25:35 --> 00:25:35
			bless her.
		
00:25:36 --> 00:25:37
			But we were able to do this, and
		
00:25:37 --> 00:25:38
			then we would wake her up for fajr
		
00:25:38 --> 00:25:39
			with us to pray.
		
00:25:40 --> 00:25:43
			But the tahajjud period was amazing in that
		
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45
			it was so special, because I'll tell you
		
00:25:45 --> 00:25:46
			what happened over these years.
		
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48
			Some days, I was really energetic.
		
00:25:49 --> 00:25:50
			You know, but come on, let's do this.
		
00:25:50 --> 00:25:51
			And she's like, ah, you know, and like
		
00:25:51 --> 00:25:52
			pulling her along.
		
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54
			Some days, I was in a slump, and
		
00:25:54 --> 00:25:55
			she would pull me up.
		
00:25:55 --> 00:25:57
			And so that's how sisterhood is.
		
00:25:57 --> 00:25:58
			You help each other.
		
00:25:58 --> 00:26:00
			Ta'awinu ana al-birri wa taqwa, right?
		
00:26:00 --> 00:26:03
			Like, help each other to do righteous deeds.
		
00:26:03 --> 00:26:04
			And that's exactly what it was.
		
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06
			And until this very day, this is my
		
00:26:06 --> 00:26:11
			best friend, because there are friendship in the
		
00:26:11 --> 00:26:14
			Quran that cannot be explained or felt in
		
00:26:14 --> 00:26:14
			any other way.
		
00:26:14 --> 00:26:15
			SubhanAllah.
		
00:26:15 --> 00:26:16
			That is so true, that is so true.
		
00:26:16 --> 00:26:17
			And if you'll say, hey, with someone that
		
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19
			you know because of the Quran, thank Allah
		
00:26:19 --> 00:26:20
			subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22
			And subhanAllah, in this gathering, you might meet
		
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25
			the best of people just because we're gathered
		
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27
			here for one reason, which is the Quran.
		
00:26:28 --> 00:26:29
			So if you have a friend that you
		
00:26:29 --> 00:26:31
			met because of the Quran, hold on to
		
00:26:31 --> 00:26:32
			them for life, inshaAllah.
		
00:26:32 --> 00:26:34
			Jazakallahu khairan, subhanAllah.
		
00:26:34 --> 00:26:36
			You touched a little bit on, you know,
		
00:26:36 --> 00:26:38
			medical school and being in a university.
		
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41
			Of course, this is a very common question
		
00:26:41 --> 00:26:44
			that you probably got before, subhanAllah, which is,
		
00:26:44 --> 00:26:47
			how can you kind of put everything into
		
00:26:47 --> 00:26:48
			your plate?
		
00:26:48 --> 00:26:52
			Whether that's responsibilities that you have towards your
		
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54
			parents, your family, and then at the same
		
00:26:54 --> 00:26:56
			time, your university, and then you've got the
		
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58
			Quran, you've got all of these things.
		
00:26:59 --> 00:27:00
			So how are you able to put all
		
00:27:00 --> 00:27:01
			of this in one plate?
		
00:27:01 --> 00:27:03
			Only with the permission of Allah subhanahu wa
		
00:27:03 --> 00:27:03
			ta'ala.
		
00:27:04 --> 00:27:07
			I'll tell you something, though, because it's not
		
00:27:07 --> 00:27:08
			unique to me.
		
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10
			I don't consider my story to be unique,
		
00:27:10 --> 00:27:10
			actually.
		
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13
			If you knew my teachers and the people,
		
00:27:13 --> 00:27:14
			the woman that I sat with and took
		
00:27:14 --> 00:27:18
			from, you, we wouldn't need to ask this
		
00:27:18 --> 00:27:19
			question.
		
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21
			The reason is because when you see many
		
00:27:21 --> 00:27:23
			role models and examples, the proof is in
		
00:27:23 --> 00:27:24
			the pudding.
		
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27
			When you can see, and so many of
		
00:27:27 --> 00:27:29
			my own teachers in Syria, it was so
		
00:27:29 --> 00:27:30
			phenomenal.
		
00:27:30 --> 00:27:32
			I wish, I wish, you know, a grant,
		
00:27:33 --> 00:27:34
			safety and security back again.
		
00:27:35 --> 00:27:38
			You know, the war devastated everything for Tabarak
		
00:27:38 --> 00:27:38
			Allah.
		
00:27:40 --> 00:27:42
			You know, in the years that I was
		
00:27:42 --> 00:27:46
			there, Syria was so safe and so beautiful,
		
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49
			subhanAllah, and they had amazing, amazing teachers, men
		
00:27:49 --> 00:27:50
			and women both.
		
00:27:51 --> 00:27:52
			And of the women that I studied with,
		
00:27:52 --> 00:27:55
			what was so phenomenal about them is you
		
00:27:55 --> 00:27:57
			meet them, and like many of us in
		
00:27:57 --> 00:28:00
			this room, almost all of them were wives
		
00:28:00 --> 00:28:04
			and mothers, and homemaking was a priority.
		
00:28:05 --> 00:28:09
			In addition, almost all of them had university
		
00:28:09 --> 00:28:11
			degrees, and many of them had careers, jobs,
		
00:28:11 --> 00:28:14
			teachers, engineers, doctors, whatever they're doing.
		
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17
			And all of them were working in the
		
00:28:17 --> 00:28:19
			dawah, as in to say some taught Quran,
		
00:28:19 --> 00:28:21
			some had specialized work in fiqh and seerah,
		
00:28:21 --> 00:28:23
			tafsir, hadith, whatever it is that they were
		
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26
			specialized in, and deep scholarship.
		
00:28:27 --> 00:28:29
			But they had their foot in the dunya
		
00:28:29 --> 00:28:29
			too.
		
00:28:29 --> 00:28:30
			It's not like it was just a theoretical
		
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32
			thing, teaching the deen, and it wasn't like
		
00:28:32 --> 00:28:34
			they were all in the dunya either, do
		
00:28:34 --> 00:28:34
			you know what I mean?
		
00:28:34 --> 00:28:37
			But the balance between it all, and prioritizing
		
00:28:37 --> 00:28:38
			their kids and their family and their husbands
		
00:28:38 --> 00:28:42
			was powerful, because sometimes people hear, oh, sheikhat,
		
00:28:42 --> 00:28:44
			women teachers, they think they're men haters or
		
00:28:44 --> 00:28:44
			something.
		
00:28:45 --> 00:28:47
			No, no, these women honored their husbands, and
		
00:28:47 --> 00:28:50
			that was very important, and raised their children,
		
00:28:50 --> 00:28:51
			and that was a priority.
		
00:28:52 --> 00:28:53
			And Allah gave them the barakah and the
		
00:28:53 --> 00:28:55
			ability to then, once you, this is what
		
00:28:55 --> 00:28:58
			our teacher tells us, once your core priorities
		
00:28:58 --> 00:29:01
			are taken care of, Allah allows you then
		
00:29:01 --> 00:29:02
			to expand those circles.
		
00:29:03 --> 00:29:05
			But when you are out here saving the
		
00:29:05 --> 00:29:10
			dolphins, and your house is in shambles, that
		
00:29:10 --> 00:29:11
			work isn't mubarak.
		
00:29:12 --> 00:29:13
			It's not accepted.
		
00:29:13 --> 00:29:14
			Allah doesn't want that.
		
00:29:14 --> 00:29:17
			He wants the core priorities fixed first, and
		
00:29:17 --> 00:29:20
			then the barakah extends to the outer circles.
		
00:29:20 --> 00:29:21
			Wallahu alam.
		
00:29:21 --> 00:29:21
			But this is what I saw.
		
00:29:22 --> 00:29:23
			Very profound.
		
00:29:23 --> 00:29:24
			JazakAllah khair.
		
00:29:24 --> 00:29:25
			JazakAllah khair.
		
00:29:25 --> 00:29:28
			You reminded me of the two verses, subhanAllah.
		
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30
			Allah subhana wa ta'ala says in the
		
00:29:30 --> 00:29:32
			Quran, wa ma khalaqtul jinna wal-insa illa
		
00:29:32 --> 00:29:33
			niyabudun.
		
00:29:33 --> 00:29:34
			That's your ultimate purpose.
		
00:29:34 --> 00:29:36
			That's what you should be doing.
		
00:29:36 --> 00:29:38
			And subhanAllah, being a mother, being a wife,
		
00:29:38 --> 00:29:41
			being whoever you are, that is your priority,
		
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43
			and that is your form of worship.
		
00:29:44 --> 00:29:45
			Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us somewhere
		
00:29:45 --> 00:29:47
			else in the Quran, wa laa tansa naseebaka
		
00:29:47 --> 00:29:48
			min al dunya.
		
00:29:48 --> 00:29:50
			Do not forget your portions in this dunya.
		
00:29:51 --> 00:29:52
			It doesn't mean I'm gonna lock myself up
		
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54
			and memorize the Quran morning and night.
		
00:29:54 --> 00:29:54
			No.
		
00:29:55 --> 00:29:57
			You're gonna have your portion of the Quran.
		
00:29:57 --> 00:29:59
			You're gonna have your portion with your family.
		
00:29:59 --> 00:30:01
			You're gonna have your portion of having fun.
		
00:30:01 --> 00:30:04
			And all of this, subhanAllah, will be facilitated
		
00:30:05 --> 00:30:06
			because of the barakah of the Quran.
		
00:30:07 --> 00:30:09
			And that takes me very nicely to the
		
00:30:09 --> 00:30:10
			next question, inshaAllah.
		
00:30:10 --> 00:30:12
			We all talk about the barakah of the
		
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14
			Quran, and I'd like to thank you for
		
00:30:14 --> 00:30:16
			it, subhanAllah, as something that opens up the
		
00:30:16 --> 00:30:18
			plate so I can end up having more
		
00:30:18 --> 00:30:20
			because of the Quran, subhanAllah, and because of
		
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22
			the way it trains us and allows us
		
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24
			to have that self-discipline and all of
		
00:30:24 --> 00:30:26
			the things that come with it, subhanAllah.
		
00:30:26 --> 00:30:28
			Have you witnessed any barakah of the Quran
		
00:30:28 --> 00:30:29
			on your life?
		
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32
			Oh, what other barakah is there?
		
00:30:32 --> 00:30:33
			SubhanAllah.
		
00:30:33 --> 00:30:34
			No, absolutely.
		
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36
			The discipline is phenomenal.
		
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38
			The discipline of the Quran, the discipline of
		
00:30:38 --> 00:30:42
			prayer five times a day, fasting, all of
		
00:30:42 --> 00:30:43
			this is different forms of discipline.
		
00:30:44 --> 00:30:46
			And the barakah is definitely there, I'll tell
		
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47
			you.
		
00:30:48 --> 00:30:50
			In the years that I was in university
		
00:30:50 --> 00:30:52
			and I started teaching the dean kind of
		
00:30:52 --> 00:30:57
			alongside my college studies and such, there were
		
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59
			going to be dark days ahead.
		
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01
			There were gonna be difficult days ahead.
		
00:31:01 --> 00:31:03
			And I didn't know that, something one of
		
00:31:03 --> 00:31:05
			my teachers said which rang so true later.
		
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08
			The Quran is light, it's nur.
		
00:31:09 --> 00:31:13
			And when you fill your bucket, if you
		
00:31:13 --> 00:31:16
			will, with nur, you're able to then draw
		
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18
			from that nur all in any rainy day,
		
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20
			in any dark, difficult day.
		
00:31:21 --> 00:31:23
			And the more you do so, the more
		
00:31:23 --> 00:31:27
			you're able to pull from a reservoir on
		
00:31:27 --> 00:31:28
			days where you are depleted and you don't
		
00:31:28 --> 00:31:29
			have enough.
		
00:31:29 --> 00:31:32
			But if you're depleted on top of depletion,
		
00:31:32 --> 00:31:34
			on top of depletion, where are you to
		
00:31:34 --> 00:31:34
			go?
		
00:31:35 --> 00:31:37
			You see, the Quran is actually that nur,
		
00:31:37 --> 00:31:40
			that light that continues to nourish you even
		
00:31:40 --> 00:31:40
			in the dark days.
		
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43
			And I think that's something that I saw
		
00:31:43 --> 00:31:46
			very profoundly in my journey and in my
		
00:31:46 --> 00:31:46
			studies.
		
00:31:47 --> 00:31:49
			There are many things that would come ahead
		
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51
			that wouldn't be easy, subhanAllah.
		
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53
			But it was leaning back on the Quran
		
00:31:53 --> 00:31:56
			and knowing and kind of feeling the barakah
		
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58
			of it coming through, subhanAllah.
		
00:31:59 --> 00:32:00
			This is the same thing, by the way,
		
00:32:00 --> 00:32:01
			with Tahajjud.
		
00:32:01 --> 00:32:03
			It's the time of nur and light.
		
00:32:04 --> 00:32:05
			I didn't, I'll tell you something.
		
00:32:06 --> 00:32:07
			At one time, I told you about my
		
00:32:07 --> 00:32:10
			roommate, may Allah bless her, we met again
		
00:32:10 --> 00:32:11
			many years later.
		
00:32:11 --> 00:32:12
			And it was a gathering of women, we
		
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14
			were sitting together and they played, they wanted
		
00:32:14 --> 00:32:15
			to play like a, you know, get to
		
00:32:15 --> 00:32:17
			know each other game kind of thing.
		
00:32:18 --> 00:32:20
			And so she ended up having to introduce
		
00:32:20 --> 00:32:21
			me, right?
		
00:32:21 --> 00:32:22
			And so she said, this is my university,
		
00:32:23 --> 00:32:24
			you know, roommate, flatmate.
		
00:32:26 --> 00:32:29
			And she said, it was so interesting.
		
00:32:29 --> 00:32:30
			It rang true because I had never, I
		
00:32:30 --> 00:32:32
			never thought of it this way, but I
		
00:32:32 --> 00:32:33
			could see, you know, she could see something
		
00:32:33 --> 00:32:34
			I couldn't see.
		
00:32:34 --> 00:32:37
			And she said, and because I would, ya
		
00:32:37 --> 00:32:39
			haram, I laugh so hard, I think of
		
00:32:39 --> 00:32:39
			all these times.
		
00:32:40 --> 00:32:42
			Let me give you a backstory just to
		
00:32:42 --> 00:32:43
			explain what she's gonna say.
		
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45
			So in order for me to get up
		
00:32:45 --> 00:32:46
			that early in the morning, I need an
		
00:32:46 --> 00:32:47
			alarm clock.
		
00:32:49 --> 00:32:50
			I don't know, I don't know if you
		
00:32:50 --> 00:32:52
			all just wake up, naturally, I need an
		
00:32:52 --> 00:32:52
			alarm clock.
		
00:32:52 --> 00:32:53
			We all need an alarm clock.
		
00:32:54 --> 00:32:56
			The very first day we moved in together,
		
00:32:57 --> 00:32:59
			she said to me, I'm scared of loud
		
00:32:59 --> 00:32:59
			noises.
		
00:33:00 --> 00:33:03
			Do not turn on an alarm clock.
		
00:33:04 --> 00:33:05
			And I said to her, what do you
		
00:33:05 --> 00:33:06
			mean?
		
00:33:06 --> 00:33:07
			She said, I don't like beeping sounds.
		
00:33:08 --> 00:33:10
			And I said, what am I supposed to
		
00:33:10 --> 00:33:10
			do?
		
00:33:10 --> 00:33:11
			We share a room.
		
00:33:12 --> 00:33:14
			And so I went to the store and
		
00:33:14 --> 00:33:16
			I found an alarm clock that was nature
		
00:33:16 --> 00:33:17
			sounds.
		
00:33:19 --> 00:33:21
			It was like a babbling creek.
		
00:33:23 --> 00:33:26
			You know, these kind of sounds, right?
		
00:33:26 --> 00:33:27
			Mashallah.
		
00:33:27 --> 00:33:28
			And so I bought this, I was very
		
00:33:28 --> 00:33:28
			excited.
		
00:33:28 --> 00:33:29
			I said, look, look, I found this alarm
		
00:33:29 --> 00:33:30
			clock.
		
00:33:30 --> 00:33:31
			It's not gonna scare you.
		
00:33:31 --> 00:33:32
			Don't make you sleep, no?
		
00:33:34 --> 00:33:36
			What would happen though is I wouldn't be
		
00:33:36 --> 00:33:37
			able to hear it.
		
00:33:39 --> 00:33:40
			And so the thing is, it would get
		
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42
			louder and louder and louder.
		
00:33:42 --> 00:33:43
			So the really funny part of the story
		
00:33:43 --> 00:33:46
			is that after it would go, then you
		
00:33:46 --> 00:33:47
			hear a little duck squeak.
		
00:33:47 --> 00:33:50
			Quacking, quack, quack, shh, quack, quack.
		
00:33:50 --> 00:33:52
			And then it'd get louder and louder and
		
00:33:52 --> 00:33:52
			louder.
		
00:33:52 --> 00:33:54
			And it would wake her up and she'd
		
00:33:54 --> 00:33:57
			say, Rania, your ducks are quacking.
		
00:33:59 --> 00:34:02
			And I'm like, oh, sorry, sorry.
		
00:34:03 --> 00:34:04
			Alhamdulillah.
		
00:34:04 --> 00:34:05
			So she went through all of this with
		
00:34:05 --> 00:34:06
			me, subhanAllah.
		
00:34:06 --> 00:34:07
			So then she's introducing me years later to
		
00:34:07 --> 00:34:08
			this group of women.
		
00:34:08 --> 00:34:11
			And she says, you all are, as mothers
		
00:34:11 --> 00:34:13
			and wives and such, you're asking, how do
		
00:34:13 --> 00:34:14
			I fit in all these things in my
		
00:34:14 --> 00:34:14
			day?
		
00:34:14 --> 00:34:17
			She said, you know, it's that tahajjud that
		
00:34:17 --> 00:34:18
			Rania does.
		
00:34:19 --> 00:34:21
			And I was like, oh, interesting.
		
00:34:21 --> 00:34:21
			But it's true.
		
00:34:22 --> 00:34:26
			It's this reserve, literally, of nur that you
		
00:34:26 --> 00:34:27
			build.
		
00:34:27 --> 00:34:28
			Even if you can't quite feel it or
		
00:34:28 --> 00:34:30
			touch it, you can draw from it later.
		
00:34:30 --> 00:34:31
			It keeps you positive.
		
00:34:32 --> 00:34:32
			It keeps you going.
		
00:34:33 --> 00:34:35
			And other people start to notice it even
		
00:34:35 --> 00:34:36
			when you don't, subhanAllah.
		
00:34:36 --> 00:34:38
			The Quran is nur, literally.
		
00:34:39 --> 00:34:43
			And nur, light, will never stay in an
		
00:34:43 --> 00:34:44
			unclean vessel.
		
00:34:44 --> 00:34:45
			SubhanAllah.
		
00:34:45 --> 00:34:48
			It will escape and flee.
		
00:34:49 --> 00:34:50
			This is why sometimes, Allah will protect us,
		
00:34:50 --> 00:34:51
			Allah will protect us, Allah will protect us.
		
00:34:52 --> 00:34:53
			You have people who've memorized, and now they
		
00:34:53 --> 00:34:55
			can't remember a single verse that they memorized.
		
00:34:57 --> 00:34:59
			The Quran will not stay in a place
		
00:34:59 --> 00:34:59
			that's unclean.
		
00:35:00 --> 00:35:02
			So we have to continue to purify, subhanAllah.
		
00:35:03 --> 00:35:05
			It's an ongoing journey.
		
00:35:06 --> 00:35:07
			That was very beautiful, very profound.
		
00:35:07 --> 00:35:08
			JazakAllah khair.
		
00:35:08 --> 00:35:10
			I just wanted to ask, inshAllah, before we
		
00:35:10 --> 00:35:12
			move on to your work, Yani.
		
00:35:13 --> 00:35:15
			Yani, how do you interact with the Quran
		
00:35:15 --> 00:35:16
			in its different ways?
		
00:35:17 --> 00:35:19
			From our audiences, some people might have just
		
00:35:19 --> 00:35:20
			started memorizing.
		
00:35:21 --> 00:35:23
			Some think they're not capable of memorizing, they're
		
00:35:23 --> 00:35:25
			old, and we don't wanna memorize, and they
		
00:35:25 --> 00:35:28
			just wanna stick to, Yani, a portion of
		
00:35:28 --> 00:35:28
			reflection.
		
00:35:29 --> 00:35:31
			What would your advice be, inshAllah?
		
00:35:33 --> 00:35:34
			First, I give the advice to myself before
		
00:35:34 --> 00:35:35
			I give it to you.
		
00:35:36 --> 00:35:37
			And that is to know that the Quran
		
00:35:37 --> 00:35:38
			is a miracle.
		
00:35:39 --> 00:35:41
			It's actually not your qudra or your ability.
		
00:35:42 --> 00:35:45
			This is Allah's words, and this is Allah's
		
00:35:45 --> 00:35:46
			miracle.
		
00:35:47 --> 00:35:49
			And he can give his miracle to whomever
		
00:35:49 --> 00:35:49
			he chooses.
		
00:35:50 --> 00:35:52
			So don't ever write yourself out of this.
		
00:35:53 --> 00:35:56
			We have individuals that we know, subhanAllah, who
		
00:35:56 --> 00:35:59
			started memorizing much later in their life, like
		
00:35:59 --> 00:36:00
			one of my teachers.
		
00:36:00 --> 00:36:01
			May I share her story with you?
		
00:36:01 --> 00:36:02
			She's phenomenal.
		
00:36:02 --> 00:36:03
			I have to.
		
00:36:03 --> 00:36:06
			I think it's been recorded before, but this
		
00:36:06 --> 00:36:08
			story, every time I share it, I get
		
00:36:08 --> 00:36:08
			goosebumps.
		
00:36:10 --> 00:36:12
			My second ijazah that I worked on was
		
00:36:12 --> 00:36:13
			in the qudra and warish.
		
00:36:14 --> 00:36:15
			And the reason I went back to Sham
		
00:36:15 --> 00:36:18
			specifically for this ijazah is because I then
		
00:36:18 --> 00:36:20
			moved to a community in California where so
		
00:36:20 --> 00:36:23
			many people practiced the Maliki school law, and
		
00:36:23 --> 00:36:26
			it is mandub, or it is dast form,
		
00:36:26 --> 00:36:29
			for them to recite warish in their prayers.
		
00:36:29 --> 00:36:31
			And could you, Shaykh Hafeez, explain what qudra
		
00:36:31 --> 00:36:32
			is first of all?
		
00:36:32 --> 00:36:35
			Yes, the qudraat are the different types of
		
00:36:35 --> 00:36:35
			recitation.
		
00:36:35 --> 00:36:36
			There are 10 modalities.
		
00:36:36 --> 00:36:41
			There are 10 qudraat, modes of recitation.
		
00:36:42 --> 00:36:43
			And warish is one of the 10.
		
00:36:45 --> 00:36:47
			And I would have so many sisters come
		
00:36:47 --> 00:36:48
			up to me and say, oh, you have
		
00:36:48 --> 00:36:50
			ijazah in qudra, can you teach me?
		
00:36:50 --> 00:36:50
			And I'd say, okay.
		
00:36:51 --> 00:36:51
			They'd say, warish?
		
00:36:51 --> 00:36:52
			And I'd say, oh, I don't know warish.
		
00:36:53 --> 00:36:53
			MashaAllah.
		
00:36:53 --> 00:36:55
			So eventually I wrote to my teachers in
		
00:36:55 --> 00:36:56
			Syria, and I said, is it possible?
		
00:36:56 --> 00:36:59
			And they said, well, you know, you either
		
00:36:59 --> 00:37:00
			go, you do one, the hafiz, that's where
		
00:37:00 --> 00:37:01
			we start, and then you have to do
		
00:37:01 --> 00:37:02
			all 10.
		
00:37:03 --> 00:37:04
			I was like, I don't have time to
		
00:37:04 --> 00:37:05
			do all 10.
		
00:37:05 --> 00:37:07
			So they asked the sheikh for permission, the
		
00:37:07 --> 00:37:09
			sheikh who gives us ijazah, Sheikh Muhyiddin al
		
00:37:09 --> 00:37:10
			-Qurdi, rahimahullah.
		
00:37:11 --> 00:37:13
			And he granted special permission for me to
		
00:37:13 --> 00:37:14
			work on warish.
		
00:37:14 --> 00:37:16
			So I was there only for these few
		
00:37:16 --> 00:37:19
			months, and it was in my medical school
		
00:37:19 --> 00:37:19
			years.
		
00:37:19 --> 00:37:20
			So it was just right in the middle
		
00:37:20 --> 00:37:21
			there, and I had just a couple of
		
00:37:21 --> 00:37:21
			months.
		
00:37:22 --> 00:37:25
			And they assigned me to a teacher, whose
		
00:37:25 --> 00:37:29
			teacher, right, teacher's teacher, was this massive, like
		
00:37:29 --> 00:37:32
			huge, big deal sheikhah, like a really important
		
00:37:32 --> 00:37:32
			person, subhanAllah.
		
00:37:33 --> 00:37:35
			And I was like, oh, I have to
		
00:37:35 --> 00:37:37
			recite to her, subhanAllah, like she's such a
		
00:37:37 --> 00:37:39
			big deal, subhanAllah.
		
00:37:39 --> 00:37:41
			And so eventually, after I finished my khatm,
		
00:37:41 --> 00:37:43
			and I finished my teacher's, and now I'm
		
00:37:43 --> 00:37:43
			going to her teacher.
		
00:37:44 --> 00:37:46
			This is the doktora I'm talking about now.
		
00:37:46 --> 00:37:47
			Her name is doktora Da'ad, rahimahullah.
		
00:37:48 --> 00:37:51
			And I sat in front of her, and
		
00:37:51 --> 00:37:52
			I'm now gonna be tested by her, so
		
00:37:52 --> 00:37:53
			that she can now take me to the
		
00:37:53 --> 00:37:54
			sheikh.
		
00:37:55 --> 00:37:56
			Okay, you see, yeah.
		
00:37:56 --> 00:37:58
			So here I am, and I'm ready to
		
00:37:58 --> 00:37:59
			recite to her, and mind you, I've been
		
00:37:59 --> 00:38:00
			practicing for weeks.
		
00:38:00 --> 00:38:01
			I've been practicing.
		
00:38:03 --> 00:38:05
			But something, again, her khatm, right, or just
		
00:38:05 --> 00:38:07
			her haybah, her energy, yaAllah.
		
00:38:07 --> 00:38:08
			I sat in front of her, and I
		
00:38:08 --> 00:38:09
			couldn't remember a single thing.
		
00:38:10 --> 00:38:12
			It happens, it happens, yaAllah.
		
00:38:12 --> 00:38:14
			And she said, read, Rania.
		
00:38:14 --> 00:38:18
			And I said, read, and I tried.
		
00:38:18 --> 00:38:19
			And it was still coming out like, duh,
		
00:38:19 --> 00:38:19
			duh, duh.
		
00:38:19 --> 00:38:21
			And she said, okay, okay, hold on, hold
		
00:38:21 --> 00:38:21
			on, hold on.
		
00:38:22 --> 00:38:23
			She could see I was like beyond nervous,
		
00:38:24 --> 00:38:24
			yaAllah.
		
00:38:24 --> 00:38:26
			And so she said, can I tell you
		
00:38:26 --> 00:38:27
			a story?
		
00:38:30 --> 00:38:31
			Sure, yaAllah, inshaAllah.
		
00:38:31 --> 00:38:33
			And she said, do you know who I
		
00:38:33 --> 00:38:33
			am?
		
00:38:33 --> 00:38:35
			And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, I know
		
00:38:35 --> 00:38:35
			who you are.
		
00:38:36 --> 00:38:40
			InshaAllah, yaAllah, inshaAllah, yaAllah, inshaAllah.
		
00:38:40 --> 00:38:43
			And she said, no, no, no, no.
		
00:38:43 --> 00:38:44
			Do you know who I was before?
		
00:38:45 --> 00:38:48
			I was muqri'ah, jami'ah, like all
		
00:38:48 --> 00:38:49
			these huge titles.
		
00:38:50 --> 00:38:51
			I know, and she said, did you know
		
00:38:51 --> 00:38:54
			that I was a professor of mathematics?
		
00:38:55 --> 00:38:57
			I was a professor of mathematics, what on
		
00:38:57 --> 00:38:57
			earth?
		
00:38:57 --> 00:38:58
			I had no idea she had this whole
		
00:38:58 --> 00:39:00
			other life to, yaAllah.
		
00:39:00 --> 00:39:00
			InshaAllah.
		
00:39:01 --> 00:39:03
			And she said, yeah, at the University of
		
00:39:03 --> 00:39:05
			Damascus, I've been a professor of mathematics, the
		
00:39:05 --> 00:39:08
			first woman in the department of mathematics.
		
00:39:09 --> 00:39:11
			And she said, I wasn't always like this.
		
00:39:11 --> 00:39:12
			And I said, like this how, Yanni?
		
00:39:16 --> 00:39:16
			Like massive shayta.
		
00:39:16 --> 00:39:18
			And she said, I wasn't always a shayta.
		
00:39:19 --> 00:39:21
			She said, I came to this late in
		
00:39:21 --> 00:39:21
			my life.
		
00:39:24 --> 00:39:26
			And so I'm still kind of like, you
		
00:39:26 --> 00:39:28
			know, you're a little skeptical, like, Yanni, Yanni,
		
00:39:28 --> 00:39:30
			not 14, but you're 15.
		
00:39:30 --> 00:39:31
			And you're like, what is late, Yanni?
		
00:39:31 --> 00:39:34
			And so she said, actually, for so many
		
00:39:34 --> 00:39:38
			years of my life, I did not look
		
00:39:38 --> 00:39:38
			like this.
		
00:39:38 --> 00:39:39
			I did not dress like this.
		
00:39:39 --> 00:39:42
			This is not my persona on the campus.
		
00:39:43 --> 00:39:44
			She said, it was actually a group of
		
00:39:44 --> 00:39:44
			girls.
		
00:39:45 --> 00:39:47
			This was when the University of Damascus first
		
00:39:47 --> 00:39:48
			started taking women students.
		
00:39:49 --> 00:39:50
			And she said, a group of them approached
		
00:39:50 --> 00:39:52
			me as a professor and said to me,
		
00:39:52 --> 00:39:55
			will you be a mentor for a woman
		
00:39:55 --> 00:39:55
			student group?
		
00:39:56 --> 00:39:57
			And so she said, at that point in
		
00:39:57 --> 00:39:59
			my life, I was very much a feminist.
		
00:39:59 --> 00:40:01
			And I was like, yes, anything for a
		
00:40:01 --> 00:40:01
			woman, absolutely.
		
00:40:02 --> 00:40:03
			You want to complain about the men, come
		
00:40:03 --> 00:40:03
			on over.
		
00:40:05 --> 00:40:06
			Literally, literally.
		
00:40:06 --> 00:40:08
			And so she is the faculty mentor of
		
00:40:08 --> 00:40:10
			the student club that they put together.
		
00:40:11 --> 00:40:13
			And she sat with them the first day.
		
00:40:13 --> 00:40:16
			And they're all complaining about, oh, it's so
		
00:40:16 --> 00:40:17
			hard to be a woman on campus.
		
00:40:17 --> 00:40:18
			There's so few of us, this and that,
		
00:40:18 --> 00:40:19
			this and that.
		
00:40:19 --> 00:40:20
			And she's agreeing with them.
		
00:40:21 --> 00:40:22
			And she said, I don't know when the
		
00:40:22 --> 00:40:29
			conversation switched from a conversation around male bashing,
		
00:40:29 --> 00:40:34
			I don't know, to the Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu
		
00:40:34 --> 00:40:34
			alaihi wa sallam.
		
00:40:35 --> 00:40:36
			She said, if you had told me before
		
00:40:36 --> 00:40:37
			going into that room they were going to
		
00:40:37 --> 00:40:41
			talk about religion, Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, I
		
00:40:41 --> 00:40:42
			would not be there.
		
00:40:42 --> 00:40:44
			She said, I was completely closed off to
		
00:40:44 --> 00:40:46
			the idea of religion, completely closed off to
		
00:40:46 --> 00:40:48
			the idea of anything related to Islam.
		
00:40:48 --> 00:40:50
			She was raised in a secular family.
		
00:40:54 --> 00:40:56
			And she said, in that gathering, she's sitting
		
00:40:56 --> 00:40:57
			there, and they're in a circle.
		
00:40:57 --> 00:41:01
			And she said, suddenly, she felt this love
		
00:41:02 --> 00:41:04
			enter her heart for the Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu
		
00:41:04 --> 00:41:06
			alaihi wa sallam, out of nowhere, like out
		
00:41:06 --> 00:41:07
			of nowhere.
		
00:41:07 --> 00:41:09
			And it was what the girls were talking
		
00:41:09 --> 00:41:09
			about.
		
00:41:09 --> 00:41:11
			And she was so taken aback by it.
		
00:41:11 --> 00:41:12
			She was so shocked by it.
		
00:41:12 --> 00:41:14
			And then she started looking at the girls
		
00:41:14 --> 00:41:14
			in the room.
		
00:41:14 --> 00:41:16
			And she said, I didn't realize, I don't
		
00:41:16 --> 00:41:18
			know how I didn't realize that all of
		
00:41:18 --> 00:41:20
			them wore hijab, or most of them wore
		
00:41:20 --> 00:41:20
			hijab.
		
00:41:20 --> 00:41:21
			She didn't wear hijab.
		
00:41:22 --> 00:41:23
			Not only did she not wear hijab, but
		
00:41:23 --> 00:41:25
			that day, she said to me, and this
		
00:41:25 --> 00:41:26
			is where the story gets really funny, because
		
00:41:26 --> 00:41:27
			all of this is in Arabic.
		
00:41:28 --> 00:41:30
			And then she says to me, and do
		
00:41:30 --> 00:41:30
			you know what I was wearing?
		
00:41:31 --> 00:41:35
			I'm thinking, I don't know what you're wearing.
		
00:41:35 --> 00:41:36
			What could you possibly be wearing?
		
00:41:36 --> 00:41:38
			And then she says something, and I can't
		
00:41:38 --> 00:41:39
			pick it up.
		
00:41:39 --> 00:41:42
			And so I say, and so she says
		
00:41:42 --> 00:41:42
			it again.
		
00:41:42 --> 00:41:44
			I still can't understand it.
		
00:41:44 --> 00:41:45
			So then she says it in English.
		
00:41:46 --> 00:41:47
			I didn't know she could speak English.
		
00:41:49 --> 00:41:52
			And so in English, she goes, miniskirt.
		
00:41:57 --> 00:41:59
			I mean, literally, I think my jaw fell
		
00:41:59 --> 00:41:59
			to the ground.
		
00:42:00 --> 00:42:02
			You could probably see it on my face.
		
00:42:02 --> 00:42:03
			I was just shocked.
		
00:42:03 --> 00:42:07
			And she said, that's how you understand, that
		
00:42:07 --> 00:42:09
			if those girls that day had judged me
		
00:42:09 --> 00:42:12
			for how I looked, that I wasn't practicing,
		
00:42:13 --> 00:42:16
			I was wearing miniskirts, I was this professor
		
00:42:16 --> 00:42:18
			of mathematics, all feminist, and excited, and you
		
00:42:18 --> 00:42:21
			know, if you had judged me for how
		
00:42:21 --> 00:42:23
			I looked on my outward, I would never
		
00:42:23 --> 00:42:25
			have been invited into that room.
		
00:42:26 --> 00:42:27
			I would never have heard about the Prophet,
		
00:42:27 --> 00:42:29
			salallahu alayhi wa sallam, so beautifully as they
		
00:42:29 --> 00:42:29
			talked about him.
		
00:42:30 --> 00:42:32
			That love, when it entered her heart, she
		
00:42:32 --> 00:42:33
			said, she started to search.
		
00:42:34 --> 00:42:35
			She was on a searching journey.
		
00:42:36 --> 00:42:38
			And one halaqa led to another.
		
00:42:39 --> 00:42:40
			One teacher led to another.
		
00:42:40 --> 00:42:41
			One class led to another.
		
00:42:42 --> 00:42:46
			Eventually, she, you know, mathematics, yeah?
		
00:42:46 --> 00:42:47
			That's really incredible, yeah?
		
00:42:48 --> 00:42:49
			PhD in mathematics.
		
00:42:49 --> 00:42:51
			She put that into the study of the
		
00:42:51 --> 00:42:51
			Quran.
		
00:42:52 --> 00:42:54
			She became so excellent in her study of
		
00:42:54 --> 00:42:57
			the Quran, and in all of the qiraat,
		
00:42:57 --> 00:42:59
			that the sheikh that I'm telling you about
		
00:42:59 --> 00:43:01
			that gives us ijazah, and there's only five
		
00:43:01 --> 00:43:02
			of them in Syria, one of five, right?
		
00:43:03 --> 00:43:06
			He actually, when he would travel for hajj,
		
00:43:06 --> 00:43:08
			or he would travel and leave the country,
		
00:43:08 --> 00:43:09
			he needs to fill his post.
		
00:43:10 --> 00:43:13
			He would not put the millions, hundreds, probably,
		
00:43:13 --> 00:43:15
			of male students he has, including his own
		
00:43:15 --> 00:43:17
			son, who eventually took his post, subhanAllah, after
		
00:43:17 --> 00:43:18
			he passed.
		
00:43:18 --> 00:43:22
			He would put Dr. Adad to give ijazah
		
00:43:22 --> 00:43:25
			on his behalf, his khatm, because of how
		
00:43:25 --> 00:43:28
			excellent, how much it's on her recitation had
		
00:43:28 --> 00:43:29
			in it.
		
00:43:29 --> 00:43:31
			And her ear was so excellent in picking
		
00:43:31 --> 00:43:33
			up any mistakes, that that's who he put
		
00:43:33 --> 00:43:34
			in his post.
		
00:43:36 --> 00:43:39
			She became one of the first sheikhs to
		
00:43:39 --> 00:43:41
			actually give ijazah as a woman in the
		
00:43:41 --> 00:43:42
			Quran in Syria.
		
00:43:43 --> 00:43:44
			Do you see where her story was, and
		
00:43:44 --> 00:43:45
			where she is?
		
00:43:46 --> 00:43:48
			So please do not say to yourself, not
		
00:43:48 --> 00:43:51
			me, I'm not worthy, I can't, who am
		
00:43:51 --> 00:43:52
			I, where did I come from?
		
00:43:53 --> 00:43:56
			This is all the shaitan trying to pull
		
00:43:56 --> 00:43:58
			you away from something that's a miracle that
		
00:43:58 --> 00:44:01
			Allah can give to anybody, inshallah to Allah.
		
00:44:01 --> 00:44:03
			Very emotional, very emotional, subhanAllah.
		
00:44:03 --> 00:44:05
			Jazakallahu khayran for sharing that.
		
00:44:05 --> 00:44:06
			It's a powerful story.
		
00:44:07 --> 00:44:09
			That's an inspiration for everybody, to say in
		
00:44:09 --> 00:44:10
			this panel.
		
00:44:10 --> 00:44:13
			That's an inspiration, very beautiful story.
		
00:44:13 --> 00:44:14
			Jazakallahu khayran.
		
00:44:14 --> 00:44:15
			It just reminds me of the verse of
		
00:44:15 --> 00:44:17
			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, inna allaha yuhdi
		
00:44:17 --> 00:44:18
			min yasha.
		
00:44:18 --> 00:44:19
			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chooses you, and
		
00:44:19 --> 00:44:21
			guides you, and takes you from wherever you
		
00:44:21 --> 00:44:23
			are, and then gifts you with the Quran,
		
00:44:24 --> 00:44:28
			and then subhanAllah, instead of teaching, just mathematics
		
00:44:28 --> 00:44:30
			like you're saying, now you're teaching the word.
		
00:44:30 --> 00:44:31
			And she carried on.
		
00:44:31 --> 00:44:33
			She carried on her teaching, subhanAllah.
		
00:44:33 --> 00:44:35
			Right in the university, and also became this
		
00:44:35 --> 00:44:39
			hafidha, jami'a, nuqri'a, fatallahu khayran.
		
00:44:39 --> 00:44:41
			SubhanAllah, all the titles, subhanAllah.
		
00:44:41 --> 00:44:42
			May Allah reward you.
		
00:44:42 --> 00:44:43
			Jazakallahu khayran.
		
00:44:43 --> 00:44:44
			Astaghfirullah.
		
00:44:44 --> 00:44:44
			Astaghfirullah.
		
00:44:45 --> 00:44:46
			I just wanted to touch on this.
		
00:44:47 --> 00:44:49
			As a student myself, subhanAllah, when we go
		
00:44:49 --> 00:44:52
			into medical lectures, we'd hear things, and then
		
00:44:52 --> 00:44:54
			the dots start connecting, and you're like, subhanAllah,
		
00:44:54 --> 00:44:57
			I remember a verse, or a story, of
		
00:44:57 --> 00:44:59
			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaking about this,
		
00:44:59 --> 00:45:01
			or the qudra, or the wisdom of Allah
		
00:45:01 --> 00:45:02
			subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		
00:45:02 --> 00:45:05
			When did you feel like the dots started
		
00:45:05 --> 00:45:07
			connecting for you, and you thought, I need
		
00:45:07 --> 00:45:11
			to incorporate the Quran into my approach, to
		
00:45:11 --> 00:45:11
			mentor her?
		
00:45:11 --> 00:45:13
			Oh, subhanAllah, this is early.
		
00:45:13 --> 00:45:15
			I would say, I would say it was
		
00:45:15 --> 00:45:17
			probably the very first trip to Sham.
		
00:45:17 --> 00:45:17
			I'll tell you why.
		
00:45:18 --> 00:45:20
			One of my teachers, who's still an incredible
		
00:45:20 --> 00:45:22
			teacher to me, subhanAllah, today, I still go
		
00:45:22 --> 00:45:23
			to her for so many things, subhanAllah.
		
00:45:23 --> 00:45:25
			It's really important to continue to have mentors,
		
00:45:26 --> 00:45:28
			and guides on this path, and never break
		
00:45:28 --> 00:45:30
			free from your, having mentors, and guides, and
		
00:45:30 --> 00:45:33
			teachers, because the system of Islam is a
		
00:45:33 --> 00:45:34
			checks and balances.
		
00:45:34 --> 00:45:36
			You never get too important, or too big,
		
00:45:36 --> 00:45:39
			not to have a teacher, kind of call
		
00:45:39 --> 00:45:40
			you out for something.
		
00:45:41 --> 00:45:42
			SubhanAllah, we always need mentors and guides.
		
00:45:42 --> 00:45:43
			Anyhow, may Allah bless her.
		
00:45:44 --> 00:45:45
			I first met her when I was 14,
		
00:45:46 --> 00:45:49
			and we, because we were so young, we
		
00:45:49 --> 00:45:50
			would take the classes, and then they would
		
00:45:50 --> 00:45:51
			take us on some field trips, to show
		
00:45:51 --> 00:45:54
			us Damascus, and one of the field trips
		
00:45:54 --> 00:45:57
			she took us on, and subhanAllah, this, you
		
00:45:57 --> 00:45:58
			know, I had forgotten about this for many,
		
00:45:59 --> 00:46:00
			many years, but now as I think back,
		
00:46:01 --> 00:46:04
			I realize how much that particular trip made
		
00:46:04 --> 00:46:05
			such a difference.
		
00:46:05 --> 00:46:09
			She took us to Abi Maristan, a Dar
		
00:46:09 --> 00:46:10
			al-Shifa, and for those of you who
		
00:46:10 --> 00:46:12
			know my work with mental health, I write
		
00:46:12 --> 00:46:13
			about this concept, and I love this, and
		
00:46:13 --> 00:46:16
			my organization's actually called Maristan, because of this.
		
00:46:17 --> 00:46:19
			It was basically, she took us there, to
		
00:46:19 --> 00:46:23
			show us the Muslim hospitals, the Muslim healing
		
00:46:23 --> 00:46:24
			center, but they didn't call it hospital, they
		
00:46:24 --> 00:46:27
			called it Dar al-Shifa, yani, center of
		
00:46:27 --> 00:46:28
			healing.
		
00:46:28 --> 00:46:31
			The Muslims had centers of healing for their
		
00:46:31 --> 00:46:34
			illnesses, subhanAllah, including inside of it, mental health,
		
00:46:34 --> 00:46:36
			which is very powerful, and the topic of
		
00:46:36 --> 00:46:37
			my new book, alhamdulillah.
		
00:46:38 --> 00:46:41
			And how, anyhow, she, I remember standing there,
		
00:46:41 --> 00:46:43
			and she pointing out, because they had it,
		
00:46:43 --> 00:46:45
			basically now it's a museum, and they show
		
00:46:45 --> 00:46:47
			you the wax figures, what the different parts
		
00:46:47 --> 00:46:49
			of the hospital were doing, and what they
		
00:46:49 --> 00:46:51
			were, and it was so powerful, she said
		
00:46:51 --> 00:46:53
			to us, look at this, look at this
		
00:46:53 --> 00:46:56
			center, in which it's not just doctors working
		
00:46:56 --> 00:46:58
			here, it's not just doctors and nurses, like
		
00:46:58 --> 00:47:01
			you would expect, and pharmacists, they also had
		
00:47:01 --> 00:47:03
			people who were here, who were dieticians, because
		
00:47:03 --> 00:47:06
			food makes you healthy, or makes you sick.
		
00:47:07 --> 00:47:10
			They also had people who were doing wa
		
00:47:10 --> 00:47:14
			'b, yani, Islamic reminders, today you might call
		
00:47:14 --> 00:47:18
			them a chaplain, subhanAllah, in the, with the
		
00:47:18 --> 00:47:21
			doctors, rotating on the patients with them, right?
		
00:47:21 --> 00:47:23
			They also had people who were helping them
		
00:47:23 --> 00:47:27
			in the types of modalities of treatment, were
		
00:47:27 --> 00:47:29
			very spiritual, yani, they were working on their
		
00:47:29 --> 00:47:31
			mind, body, and their soul.
		
00:47:32 --> 00:47:35
			And I remember her saying, look, you see
		
00:47:35 --> 00:47:38
			this intermeshed, interlocking understanding of the human psyche,
		
00:47:39 --> 00:47:41
			where you think you're gonna heal just physically,
		
00:47:41 --> 00:47:42
			by taking some medicine?
		
00:47:43 --> 00:47:43
			No.
		
00:47:44 --> 00:47:46
			Allah's the reason behind the cure in the
		
00:47:46 --> 00:47:46
			first place.
		
00:47:46 --> 00:47:48
			You think you're only going to heal by
		
00:47:48 --> 00:47:48
			some talking?
		
00:47:49 --> 00:47:50
			This is not going to, Allah's the reason
		
00:47:50 --> 00:47:51
			behind this.
		
00:47:51 --> 00:47:53
			You think you're going to heal without connecting
		
00:47:53 --> 00:47:55
			yourself back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
		
00:47:56 --> 00:47:58
			You can't heal without connecting yourself back to
		
00:47:58 --> 00:47:59
			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		
00:48:00 --> 00:48:01
			That was 14.
		
00:48:02 --> 00:48:04
			And I remember standing there and going, oh,
		
00:48:05 --> 00:48:07
			holistic, like that term, that concept of holistic
		
00:48:07 --> 00:48:10
			healing is so part of our tradition.
		
00:48:10 --> 00:48:14
			And the Quran was used in the healing
		
00:48:14 --> 00:48:16
			process of the patients, just like they gave
		
00:48:16 --> 00:48:18
			them medications, and they did give them pills,
		
00:48:18 --> 00:48:18
			yes.
		
00:48:19 --> 00:48:21
			And just like they gave them talk therapies,
		
00:48:21 --> 00:48:23
			and yes, the Muslims actually came up with
		
00:48:23 --> 00:48:23
			talk therapy.
		
00:48:24 --> 00:48:25
			It's not a white thing, folks.
		
00:48:27 --> 00:48:28
			Inshallah, I can go on a whole lesson
		
00:48:28 --> 00:48:29
			just on that.
		
00:48:29 --> 00:48:30
			Inshallah.
		
00:48:30 --> 00:48:33
			And just like they also gave them Quranic
		
00:48:33 --> 00:48:35
			advice, and they read to them Quran, and
		
00:48:35 --> 00:48:36
			they hit the sound of the Adhan, they
		
00:48:36 --> 00:48:38
			made sure they can hear acoustic.
		
00:48:38 --> 00:48:39
			There were no microphones back then.
		
00:48:39 --> 00:48:40
			But if you were in your patient room
		
00:48:40 --> 00:48:42
			from any part of the building, you can
		
00:48:42 --> 00:48:44
			hear the Adhan because of the itqan or
		
00:48:44 --> 00:48:47
			the ihsan of the Muslim architects who are
		
00:48:47 --> 00:48:50
			building structures for the purpose of worshiping Allah
		
00:48:50 --> 00:48:51
			subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		
00:48:52 --> 00:48:54
			The fountains, the greenery, the colors, the sounds,
		
00:48:55 --> 00:48:58
			even using the maqamat, the tones, to help
		
00:48:58 --> 00:49:00
			in the healing process, all of this was
		
00:49:00 --> 00:49:01
			part of the treatments.
		
00:49:01 --> 00:49:04
			It's actually phenomenal, atabaraka Allah.
		
00:49:04 --> 00:49:05
			I think that's really when it kind of
		
00:49:05 --> 00:49:08
			hit me that, yeah, you can practice Qibla,
		
00:49:08 --> 00:49:12
			you can do medicine from a holistic perspective,
		
00:49:12 --> 00:49:13
			and that's what's in line with the deen.
		
00:49:14 --> 00:49:14
			SubhanAllah.
		
00:49:14 --> 00:49:15
			What a beautiful thing, subhanAllah.
		
00:49:16 --> 00:49:17
			JazakAllah khayran, ustada.
		
00:49:18 --> 00:49:21
			Yani, when you spoke about this, it reminds
		
00:49:21 --> 00:49:23
			me of, yani, there's so many things that
		
00:49:23 --> 00:49:25
			we hear about forms of neglect of the
		
00:49:25 --> 00:49:26
			Quran, sahih?
		
00:49:26 --> 00:49:29
			So people will say to you, how do
		
00:49:29 --> 00:49:29
			you neglect the Quran?
		
00:49:30 --> 00:49:32
			And the most reasonable answer, what do you
		
00:49:32 --> 00:49:33
			guys think?
		
00:49:34 --> 00:49:35
			How do I neglect the Quran?
		
00:49:35 --> 00:49:36
			If I don't read the Quran, sahih?
		
00:49:36 --> 00:49:38
			If I don't read the Quran, if I
		
00:49:38 --> 00:49:40
			don't have a connection with the Quran, subhanAllah,
		
00:49:41 --> 00:49:43
			one of the forms of neglect of the
		
00:49:43 --> 00:49:45
			Quran is to not use it as cure.
		
00:49:46 --> 00:49:47
			Yeah, subhanAllah.
		
00:49:47 --> 00:49:49
			Sometimes we just go to the doctors with
		
00:49:49 --> 00:49:50
			the intention of he's just gonna give me
		
00:49:50 --> 00:49:51
			a pill or he's just gonna give me
		
00:49:51 --> 00:49:52
			what I need and go.
		
00:49:52 --> 00:49:54
			But subhanAllah, it's not the doctor.
		
00:49:54 --> 00:49:55
			It's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		
00:49:56 --> 00:49:57
			And it's the book of Allah subhanahu wa
		
00:49:57 --> 00:49:58
			ta'ala, shifa.
		
00:49:58 --> 00:49:59
			That's how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes
		
00:49:59 --> 00:50:00
			his book.
		
00:50:00 --> 00:50:03
			And another verse that comes to mind, subhanAllah,
		
00:50:03 --> 00:50:04
			so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
		
00:50:04 --> 00:50:10
			surah As-Saud, kitabun anzalnahu ilayka mubarakun liyaddabbaru
		
00:50:10 --> 00:50:10
			ayatih.
		
00:50:11 --> 00:50:13
			And then there's the theme of the talk
		
00:50:13 --> 00:50:14
			today, reflection of the Quran.
		
00:50:15 --> 00:50:17
			How did you incorporate that into your life,
		
00:50:18 --> 00:50:18
			sheikh?
		
00:50:19 --> 00:50:20
			The concept of reflection.
		
00:50:20 --> 00:50:21
			The concept of reflection.
		
00:50:21 --> 00:50:25
			How did that affect who you are as
		
00:50:25 --> 00:50:25
			an individual?
		
00:50:26 --> 00:50:31
			Another teaching from my dear teacher, subhanAllah, is
		
00:50:31 --> 00:50:33
			specifically this concept of, and it's actually now
		
00:50:33 --> 00:50:35
			the topic of the newest book, alhamdulillah, I'm
		
00:50:35 --> 00:50:38
			just taking all these things into, inshAllah, what
		
00:50:38 --> 00:50:40
			I hope will be useful material for everybody
		
00:50:40 --> 00:50:42
			to use because I've benefited from it so
		
00:50:42 --> 00:50:42
			much.
		
00:50:43 --> 00:50:44
			One of the things that our teachers really
		
00:50:44 --> 00:50:48
			emphasize for us as women, not just as
		
00:50:48 --> 00:50:52
			men, as women, was the idea of taking
		
00:50:52 --> 00:50:56
			pause in order to do tadabbur, or pondering
		
00:50:56 --> 00:51:00
			of the Quran, to do tafakkur, contemplation of
		
00:51:00 --> 00:51:02
			what you're reading and understanding.
		
00:51:02 --> 00:51:04
			It's not just a matter of memorizing words,
		
00:51:05 --> 00:51:07
			and it's not just a matter of perfecting
		
00:51:07 --> 00:51:08
			tajweed, right?
		
00:51:08 --> 00:51:11
			It's also really understanding what you're reading and
		
00:51:11 --> 00:51:15
			then imbibing it, or being able to benefit
		
00:51:15 --> 00:51:16
			from its meanings.
		
00:51:16 --> 00:51:18
			But you can't do that without tadabbur and
		
00:51:18 --> 00:51:21
			tafakkur, and tadakkur, which is basically dhikr of
		
00:51:21 --> 00:51:22
			Allah, subhanAllah ta'ala.
		
00:51:23 --> 00:51:24
			But how do you do that?
		
00:51:24 --> 00:51:25
			Like, how do you do that practically speaking?
		
00:51:26 --> 00:51:30
			Well, the Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam,
		
00:51:30 --> 00:51:32
			had a way of doing this even before
		
00:51:32 --> 00:51:34
			nabuwah, even before prophecy.
		
00:51:35 --> 00:51:36
			What would he do?
		
00:51:38 --> 00:51:40
			He would meditate where, how, when?
		
00:51:41 --> 00:51:43
			In the cave of Hira, exactly.
		
00:51:43 --> 00:51:45
			This is even before he was a prophet.
		
00:51:46 --> 00:51:48
			And it's like, subhanAllah, if you look at
		
00:51:48 --> 00:51:50
			the books of Sira, when they're talking about
		
00:51:50 --> 00:51:53
			the Prophet's life and the biographers are kind
		
00:51:53 --> 00:51:55
			of collecting this content, they see that the
		
00:51:55 --> 00:51:57
			Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, he keeps going
		
00:51:57 --> 00:51:59
			to the cave of Hira every so often
		
00:51:59 --> 00:51:59
			to do what?
		
00:51:59 --> 00:52:04
			To ponder, to reflect, to think about everything
		
00:52:04 --> 00:52:05
			that's going on.
		
00:52:06 --> 00:52:08
			And then they say, he didn't know that
		
00:52:08 --> 00:52:10
			nabuwah was coming at the age of 40,
		
00:52:10 --> 00:52:10
			he didn't know.
		
00:52:10 --> 00:52:13
			But he could feel, I guess, subhanAllah, that
		
00:52:13 --> 00:52:15
			something heavy was about to come because it
		
00:52:15 --> 00:52:17
			says in the weeks and months right before
		
00:52:17 --> 00:52:20
			prophecy came, right before revelation came, he would
		
00:52:20 --> 00:52:22
			increase and increase longer and longer spans of
		
00:52:22 --> 00:52:23
			time in the cave of Hira.
		
00:52:25 --> 00:52:28
			Now, after revelation, he keeps this up.
		
00:52:29 --> 00:52:30
			He keeps this up.
		
00:52:31 --> 00:52:34
			In fact, there is actually a confirmed sunnah
		
00:52:34 --> 00:52:36
			of the Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, sunnah
		
00:52:36 --> 00:52:39
			mu'akkadah, on the Prophet that is, allows
		
00:52:39 --> 00:52:42
			you to continue with your contemplation and pondering,
		
00:52:42 --> 00:52:43
			which is called?
		
00:52:45 --> 00:52:46
			Which is called?
		
00:52:48 --> 00:52:50
			To do tadabbur in it.
		
00:52:50 --> 00:52:52
			What is the state that you're meant to
		
00:52:52 --> 00:52:52
			be in?
		
00:52:54 --> 00:52:56
			Where do you go to do seclusion?
		
00:52:57 --> 00:52:57
			What is this called?
		
00:53:00 --> 00:53:00
			I'tikaf, i'tikaf.
		
00:53:01 --> 00:53:02
			Okay, I have to ask the room.
		
00:53:02 --> 00:53:03
			I have to ask the room.
		
00:53:03 --> 00:53:05
			How many of the women here do i'tikaf?
		
00:53:07 --> 00:53:10
			Oh, oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
		
00:53:11 --> 00:53:12
			I don't think I've ever been in a
		
00:53:12 --> 00:53:13
			room where there's not a single hand raised.
		
00:53:14 --> 00:53:14
			I think they shy.
		
00:53:15 --> 00:53:16
			Let's try again.
		
00:53:16 --> 00:53:17
			No, no, one more time, one more time.
		
00:53:17 --> 00:53:19
			Who does i'tikaf regularly?
		
00:53:20 --> 00:53:21
			He doesn't know what i'tikaf means.
		
00:53:21 --> 00:53:23
			i'tikaf means a spiritual seclusion.
		
00:53:24 --> 00:53:26
			Usually done here in Ramadan, the last 10
		
00:53:26 --> 00:53:27
			days.
		
00:53:27 --> 00:53:28
			All you can do in here.
		
00:53:28 --> 00:53:30
			Oh, we are about to bring an i'tikaf
		
00:53:30 --> 00:53:31
			revolution.
		
00:53:31 --> 00:53:32
			Let's do that.
		
00:53:32 --> 00:53:34
			Allahu akbar, inshallah.
		
00:53:34 --> 00:53:36
			I'm really, really big on this concept.
		
00:53:36 --> 00:53:38
			I mean, this is really a core, core
		
00:53:38 --> 00:53:38
			concept for me.
		
00:53:39 --> 00:53:40
			Let me tell you practically, is it okay?
		
00:53:40 --> 00:53:42
			We might divert just a little bit, but
		
00:53:42 --> 00:53:44
			we need to bring it, inshallah, because it's
		
00:53:44 --> 00:53:45
			a confirmed sunnah of the Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi
		
00:53:45 --> 00:53:46
			wa sallam.
		
00:53:46 --> 00:53:49
			In fact, after the Prophet dies, the Sahaba
		
00:53:49 --> 00:53:52
			say to each other, how dare we neglect
		
00:53:52 --> 00:53:54
			a sunnah that the Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu alayhi
		
00:53:54 --> 00:53:57
			wa sallam, never himself neglected in his lifetime.
		
00:53:58 --> 00:54:00
			And that is the sunnah of i'tikaf.
		
00:54:01 --> 00:54:03
			If furthermore, you know that the difference between
		
00:54:03 --> 00:54:05
			sunnah, I'm gonna go into lecture mode, forgive
		
00:54:05 --> 00:54:05
			me here.
		
00:54:06 --> 00:54:07
			I don't mean to, I just wanna make
		
00:54:07 --> 00:54:08
			sure we get the message across.
		
00:54:08 --> 00:54:10
			The difference between a sunnah and a fard,
		
00:54:10 --> 00:54:11
			what makes the difference?
		
00:54:11 --> 00:54:12
			How do you know one was a fard
		
00:54:12 --> 00:54:13
			and one was a sunnah?
		
00:54:14 --> 00:54:18
			The sunnah, sometimes the Prophet acted upon it,
		
00:54:18 --> 00:54:19
			and sometimes he left it.
		
00:54:19 --> 00:54:20
			But a fard was always said.
		
00:54:21 --> 00:54:23
			Yet i'tikaf is one of the only sunnahs
		
00:54:23 --> 00:54:27
			that was always, he did always, and didn't
		
00:54:27 --> 00:54:27
			neglect.
		
00:54:28 --> 00:54:28
			So strong.
		
00:54:29 --> 00:54:32
			And so for the men, we know i'tikaf
		
00:54:32 --> 00:54:33
			is in the masjid, and it has to
		
00:54:33 --> 00:54:34
			be in the masjid.
		
00:54:35 --> 00:54:37
			For the women, there's a difference of opinion.
		
00:54:37 --> 00:54:38
			We're not gonna go into all the fiqh
		
00:54:38 --> 00:54:39
			today, other than to say some say in
		
00:54:39 --> 00:54:41
			the masjid is fine, and some say in
		
00:54:41 --> 00:54:44
			a woman's house, which is an exception, that
		
00:54:44 --> 00:54:45
			the woman can do i'tikaf in her own
		
00:54:45 --> 00:54:46
			home.
		
00:54:46 --> 00:54:48
			The reason I say this to all of
		
00:54:48 --> 00:54:51
			you, as women in this room, is I
		
00:54:51 --> 00:54:53
			don't think I would be able to keep
		
00:54:53 --> 00:54:55
			up my sanity in a year like this,
		
00:54:56 --> 00:54:59
			this year that we're experiencing a genocide, and
		
00:54:59 --> 00:55:02
			atrocities in front of our eyes unfolding every
		
00:55:02 --> 00:55:04
			single day, y'all see.
		
00:55:05 --> 00:55:07
			If I didn't have a practice of i'tikaf,
		
00:55:09 --> 00:55:11
			it's, one of my teachers would say, in
		
00:55:11 --> 00:55:14
			the modern world, for the modern Muslim, an
		
00:55:14 --> 00:55:17
			i'tikaf darura, it's literally a necessity.
		
00:55:18 --> 00:55:20
			And the reason she would say that is
		
00:55:20 --> 00:55:22
			because she says, and let me ask all
		
00:55:22 --> 00:55:24
			of you here, many of you are cooks,
		
00:55:25 --> 00:55:26
			do you cook with a pressure cooker?
		
00:55:28 --> 00:55:28
			I do.
		
00:55:29 --> 00:55:31
			Is it your modern day pressure cooker?
		
00:55:32 --> 00:55:34
			Or was it like the old-timey, your
		
00:55:34 --> 00:55:36
			grandma's pressure cooker, the modern time?
		
00:55:36 --> 00:55:36
			No.
		
00:55:37 --> 00:55:39
			My grandmother once had a pressure cooker that
		
00:55:39 --> 00:55:40
			exploded.
		
00:55:41 --> 00:55:43
			And what I would enter, until today, you
		
00:55:43 --> 00:55:44
			can enter into her kitchen, you can still
		
00:55:44 --> 00:55:48
			see the, and it terrified her that she
		
00:55:48 --> 00:55:49
			never used a pressure cooker again in her
		
00:55:49 --> 00:55:50
			life.
		
00:55:50 --> 00:55:52
			And the reason pressure cookers explode is why,
		
00:55:52 --> 00:55:53
			the old ones, why?
		
00:55:55 --> 00:55:55
			The air isn't coming out.
		
00:55:55 --> 00:55:58
			You didn't let the release valve to allow
		
00:55:58 --> 00:55:59
			the steam to exit.
		
00:55:59 --> 00:56:02
			Well, our spiritual teachers would say, the i'tikaf
		
00:56:02 --> 00:56:06
			is the valve that allows the pressure to
		
00:56:06 --> 00:56:09
			be released from the intensity of modern life.
		
00:56:10 --> 00:56:13
			And if you don't have pause to allow
		
00:56:13 --> 00:56:16
			the steam to exit, you yourself will explode
		
00:56:16 --> 00:56:18
			or implode, one or the other.
		
00:56:19 --> 00:56:21
			And so this was their practice.
		
00:56:21 --> 00:56:23
			And they taught us to do i'tikaf regularly.
		
00:56:23 --> 00:56:25
			And because for a woman who does i'tikaf
		
00:56:25 --> 00:56:27
			in her own home, you just designate one
		
00:56:27 --> 00:56:29
			part of your home, a section, a part
		
00:56:29 --> 00:56:31
			of a room, in my personal bedroom, it's
		
00:56:31 --> 00:56:34
			really the space of my prayer rug, that's
		
00:56:34 --> 00:56:34
			all it is.
		
00:56:35 --> 00:56:37
			And there, all you do is you say
		
00:56:37 --> 00:56:39
			a simple intention, no way to i'tikaf, or
		
00:56:39 --> 00:56:41
			in English, I intend i'tikaf.
		
00:56:41 --> 00:56:43
			You enter into that space, now you're in
		
00:56:43 --> 00:56:44
			a state of i'tikaf.
		
00:56:44 --> 00:56:45
			You do your prayers, you do your dhikr,
		
00:56:45 --> 00:56:47
			you do your Quran reading, you do your
		
00:56:47 --> 00:56:50
			tadabbur, your tafakkur, your contemplating, your pondering of
		
00:56:50 --> 00:56:53
			the Quran, your relationship with Allah, your relationship
		
00:56:53 --> 00:56:54
			with other human beings around you.
		
00:56:54 --> 00:56:56
			You spend a little bit of time.
		
00:56:56 --> 00:56:59
			And because for a woman doing i'tikaf at
		
00:56:59 --> 00:57:02
			home, there is no maximum or minimum amount
		
00:57:02 --> 00:57:02
			of time.
		
00:57:02 --> 00:57:05
			It could be just a few minutes, or
		
00:57:05 --> 00:57:06
			it could be a half hour, an hour,
		
00:57:06 --> 00:57:07
			several hours.
		
00:57:07 --> 00:57:10
			The reason that's beautiful is, you could literally
		
00:57:10 --> 00:57:12
			do this with each one of your five
		
00:57:12 --> 00:57:12
			daily prayers.
		
00:57:13 --> 00:57:16
			Every single time you go pray, on your
		
00:57:16 --> 00:57:18
			prayer rug, no way to i'tikaf, have a
		
00:57:18 --> 00:57:22
			masjid, this prayer rug becomes your masjid, literally,
		
00:57:22 --> 00:57:24
			or this room or this section of the
		
00:57:24 --> 00:57:26
			room becomes your masjid, and now you're in
		
00:57:26 --> 00:57:27
			a state of i'tikaf.
		
00:57:27 --> 00:57:29
			Every time I do this, after I pray
		
00:57:29 --> 00:57:31
			my prayers, if I have time and I'm
		
00:57:31 --> 00:57:33
			not getting like, mama, I need my socks,
		
00:57:33 --> 00:57:35
			you know, I pray, inshallah.
		
00:57:35 --> 00:57:37
			There's some other thing that I'm being pulled
		
00:57:37 --> 00:57:39
			for, inshallah, if I have a few minutes,
		
00:57:40 --> 00:57:41
			it encourages me to stay there a little
		
00:57:41 --> 00:57:43
			bit longer and do some dhikr.
		
00:57:43 --> 00:57:45
			A little bit longer, I do some contemplating.
		
00:57:46 --> 00:57:47
			A little bit longer, I'm reading my Quran
		
00:57:47 --> 00:57:48
			or doing revision.
		
00:57:49 --> 00:57:51
			And suddenly you find yourself, because there's five
		
00:57:51 --> 00:57:54
			daily prayers, you have five minutes here, but
		
00:57:54 --> 00:57:55
			this one had 10 minutes.
		
00:57:55 --> 00:57:57
			And over here, I found myself with 20
		
00:57:57 --> 00:57:59
			minutes, alhamdulillah, but then only two minutes on
		
00:57:59 --> 00:57:59
			the next one, right?
		
00:57:59 --> 00:58:01
			By the time you collect them all up,
		
00:58:01 --> 00:58:04
			I probably have about an hour's worth of
		
00:58:04 --> 00:58:05
			i'tikaf every day.
		
00:58:06 --> 00:58:07
			It's powerful.
		
00:58:07 --> 00:58:10
			Suddenly you're a person who does the confirmation
		
00:58:10 --> 00:58:12
			of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam daily,
		
00:58:12 --> 00:58:13
			at least weekly.
		
00:58:14 --> 00:58:18
			And you're able to really calm yourself, pause,
		
00:58:19 --> 00:58:21
			and then contemplate on the meanings of the
		
00:58:21 --> 00:58:23
			Quran and your relationship with Allah, sallallahu alayhi
		
00:58:23 --> 00:58:24
			wa sallam.
		
00:58:24 --> 00:58:26
			It's one of the most powerful things I've
		
00:58:26 --> 00:58:28
			experienced, but yet we as women don't know
		
00:58:28 --> 00:58:30
			our fiqh as well as we need to,
		
00:58:30 --> 00:58:31
			to know that you can even do i'tikaf
		
00:58:31 --> 00:58:33
			at home, according to the Hanafi school.
		
00:58:34 --> 00:58:34
			Does that help?
		
00:58:35 --> 00:58:37
			It takes us back to the point you
		
00:58:37 --> 00:58:38
			mentioned earlier, priorities.
		
00:58:38 --> 00:58:41
			If that's there, and your priority is there,
		
00:58:41 --> 00:58:43
			your connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
		
00:58:43 --> 00:58:46
			and yourself, you can then give more to
		
00:58:46 --> 00:58:48
			the community, to the people around you.
		
00:58:48 --> 00:58:49
			And do your best.
		
00:58:49 --> 00:58:49
			Subhanallah.
		
00:58:50 --> 00:58:50
			Jazakallahu khayran.
		
00:58:51 --> 00:58:52
			Barakallahu fikih.
		
00:58:52 --> 00:58:53
			What a profound thing.
		
00:58:54 --> 00:58:56
			And fortunately, due to time, I would have
		
00:58:56 --> 00:58:58
			loved to have this conversation until midnight.
		
00:58:58 --> 00:58:59
			We'll just keep going.
		
00:58:59 --> 00:59:00
			We need a qiyam.
		
00:59:00 --> 00:59:01
			We need a i'tikaf qiyam.
		
00:59:01 --> 00:59:02
			We should.
		
00:59:03 --> 00:59:03
			Next time.
		
00:59:04 --> 00:59:06
			But to conclude, inshallah, usually what we do
		
00:59:06 --> 00:59:09
			is we ask three questions in relation to
		
00:59:09 --> 00:59:11
			the topic, inshallah, or in relation to the
		
00:59:11 --> 00:59:12
			theme of the podcast.
		
00:59:12 --> 00:59:14
			The first question I'm gonna ask you, bi
		
00:59:14 --> 00:59:17
			-idhnillah, is can you share with us your
		
00:59:17 --> 00:59:20
			favorite verse, or surah, up to you, inshallah.
		
00:59:20 --> 00:59:23
			You can pick, and why it holds special
		
00:59:23 --> 00:59:24
			significance for you.
		
00:59:24 --> 00:59:24
			Yeah.
		
00:59:25 --> 00:59:26
			There was a verse when you were talking
		
00:59:26 --> 00:59:31
			earlier about shifa, and maybe it's my profession,
		
00:59:31 --> 00:59:34
			the fact that I'm a physician, and as
		
00:59:34 --> 00:59:36
			a psychiatrist, I'm specifically working in mental health,
		
00:59:36 --> 00:59:38
			which is not the easiest field.
		
00:59:40 --> 00:59:43
			And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teaches us,
		
00:59:43 --> 00:59:46
			says in the Qur'an, it's actually part
		
00:59:46 --> 00:59:48
			of a longer piece, but basically, wa-iba
		
00:59:48 --> 00:59:50
			martu, fahuwa yashfeen.
		
00:59:51 --> 00:59:52
			That if I fall ill, or if I
		
00:59:52 --> 00:59:54
			fall sick, Allah's the one who's actually granting
		
00:59:54 --> 00:59:54
			shifa.
		
00:59:56 --> 00:59:57
			To me, that's powerful.
		
00:59:57 --> 00:59:59
			I think many physicians in the room might
		
00:59:59 --> 01:00:02
			feel the same about this particular verse, that
		
01:00:02 --> 01:00:04
			we are just the vehicles that Allah has
		
01:00:04 --> 01:00:09
			allowed shifa, or treatment, to go through us
		
01:00:09 --> 01:00:10
			to a person.
		
01:00:10 --> 01:00:12
			And it's a very humbling place to be.
		
01:00:13 --> 01:00:14
			And so for me, I connect to that
		
01:00:14 --> 01:00:15
			deeply.
		
01:00:16 --> 01:00:18
			And subhanAllah, I just pray that Allah subhanahu
		
01:00:18 --> 01:00:19
			wa ta'ala allows us to be people
		
01:00:19 --> 01:00:21
			of shifa, and not the opposite.
		
01:00:22 --> 01:00:23
			Ameen, ameen, ameen.
		
01:00:24 --> 01:00:24
			Next question.
		
01:00:25 --> 01:00:27
			You can think about this, bi-idhnillah.
		
01:00:27 --> 01:00:30
			It's, in one word, how would you describe
		
01:00:30 --> 01:00:32
			the Qur'an's impact on your life?
		
01:00:34 --> 01:00:35
			In one word.
		
01:00:36 --> 01:00:37
			I know it's a tough one.
		
01:00:38 --> 01:00:38
			Barakah.
		
01:00:39 --> 01:00:40
			SubhanAllah.
		
01:00:40 --> 01:00:41
			The barakah of the Qur'an.
		
01:00:41 --> 01:00:42
			SubhanAllah.
		
01:00:43 --> 01:00:46
			And the last one, subhanAllah, and that could
		
01:00:46 --> 01:00:48
			be, bi-idhnillah, get us thinking about our
		
01:00:48 --> 01:00:51
			role models in life, is, if you had
		
01:00:51 --> 01:00:53
			a chance to have a conversation with one
		
01:00:53 --> 01:00:56
			sahabiyah, who would it be and why?
		
01:00:57 --> 01:00:59
			And for those that don't know what sahabiyah
		
01:00:59 --> 01:01:00
			means, can explain that, bi-idhnillah.
		
01:01:00 --> 01:01:03
			A sahabiyah is a female companion of the
		
01:01:03 --> 01:01:05
			Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
		
01:01:05 --> 01:01:07
			Wow, what a cool question.
		
01:01:07 --> 01:01:07
			Nice.
		
01:01:07 --> 01:01:08
			I like that.
		
01:01:08 --> 01:01:09
			I've never asked that question before.
		
01:01:09 --> 01:01:10
			That's kind of cool.
		
01:01:11 --> 01:01:11
			Mashallah.
		
01:01:11 --> 01:01:13
			My goodness, there's so many sahabiyah.
		
01:01:13 --> 01:01:14
			Wouldn't you want to talk to all of
		
01:01:14 --> 01:01:14
			them?
		
01:01:14 --> 01:01:16
			Would you talk to every single one of
		
01:01:16 --> 01:01:16
			them?
		
01:01:16 --> 01:01:16
			That's so true.
		
01:01:16 --> 01:01:18
			You always think about the male ones.
		
01:01:18 --> 01:01:19
			I would have an answer if you asked
		
01:01:19 --> 01:01:21
			me, what is the sahabiyah that you want
		
01:01:21 --> 01:01:23
			to speak to?
		
01:01:23 --> 01:01:24
			But the moment you say sahabiyah, I'm like,
		
01:01:25 --> 01:01:25
			which one?
		
01:01:26 --> 01:01:27
			Yes, yes.
		
01:01:27 --> 01:01:28
			It looks like a question is about to
		
01:01:28 --> 01:01:29
			come in.
		
01:01:29 --> 01:01:31
			Simply, I would say khawla.
		
01:01:31 --> 01:01:33
			Would be probably the one I would be
		
01:01:33 --> 01:01:34
			very interested to have this conversation.
		
01:01:35 --> 01:01:40
			Because, she directly, directly, has revelation revealed for
		
01:01:40 --> 01:01:42
			her, and for her question, as a woman.
		
01:01:43 --> 01:01:46
			And this, and then she goes to the,
		
01:01:46 --> 01:01:48
			if you don't feel familiar, actually do you
		
01:01:48 --> 01:01:50
			know what surah, I'm referring to?
		
01:01:50 --> 01:01:52
			Al-Mujadala, fathagharakallah.
		
01:01:52 --> 01:01:55
			And she specifically has this question, and the
		
01:01:55 --> 01:01:57
			Prophet cannot speak, ma yamtaqoo AAan al-hawa.
		
01:01:57 --> 01:01:58
			He doesn't speak of his own accord.
		
01:01:59 --> 01:02:00
			He has to wait for revelation.
		
01:02:00 --> 01:02:01
			And he does wait for the revelation, and
		
01:02:01 --> 01:02:03
			the revelation with the answer, comes to her.
		
01:02:04 --> 01:02:06
			It's actually a long discussion, but needless to
		
01:02:06 --> 01:02:08
			say, her and her husband, had an issue,
		
01:02:08 --> 01:02:10
			subhanallah, and she needed to be, needed to
		
01:02:10 --> 01:02:10
			be sorted.
		
01:02:11 --> 01:02:15
			And, Allah azza wa jal reveals, literally, the
		
01:02:15 --> 01:02:18
			first few ayahs of, surah al-Mujadala, in
		
01:02:18 --> 01:02:21
			order to respond to this answer.
		
01:02:21 --> 01:02:23
			She then outlives the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam,
		
01:02:24 --> 01:02:26
			and Sayyidina Abu Bakr, and Sayyidina Umar, and
		
01:02:26 --> 01:02:28
			in the khalafah of Sayyidina Umar, where he
		
01:02:28 --> 01:02:31
			is now the khalifa, she sees him, and
		
01:02:31 --> 01:02:32
			she's an elderly woman at this point.
		
01:02:33 --> 01:02:35
			So she stops him, and she says to
		
01:02:35 --> 01:02:37
			him, and then she launches into all this
		
01:02:37 --> 01:02:39
			advice, and she says to him, I used
		
01:02:39 --> 01:02:40
			to know you, when you were just a
		
01:02:40 --> 01:02:41
			old maid, or a little Umar.
		
01:02:43 --> 01:02:44
			Talking to Sayyidina Umar, okay?
		
01:02:44 --> 01:02:45
			I used to know you, when you were
		
01:02:45 --> 01:02:46
			just a little boy.
		
01:02:47 --> 01:02:50
			Fear Allah, and be good to the people.
		
01:02:50 --> 01:02:51
			She gives him this whole lecture.
		
01:02:51 --> 01:02:53
			So the men, the people with Sayyidina Umar,
		
01:02:53 --> 01:02:54
			come to her, and they're like, what are
		
01:02:54 --> 01:02:54
			you doing?
		
01:02:54 --> 01:02:54
			What are you doing?
		
01:02:55 --> 01:02:57
			Sayyidina Umar, Amir al-Mumineen, how do you
		
01:02:57 --> 01:02:59
			let this old woman speak to you like
		
01:02:59 --> 01:03:00
			this?
		
01:03:00 --> 01:03:01
			And he says to them, do you not
		
01:03:01 --> 01:03:02
			know who this is?
		
01:03:03 --> 01:03:06
			I, Umar, am not going to listen to
		
01:03:06 --> 01:03:09
			a woman, who Allah listened to in the
		
01:03:09 --> 01:03:13
			seven heavens, and revealed revelation, this is Khawla.
		
01:03:13 --> 01:03:15
			So of course, I would love to sit
		
01:03:15 --> 01:03:19
			with Khawla, and really understand, what was it
		
01:03:19 --> 01:03:21
			like, to be this woman, subhanAllah, that Allah
		
01:03:21 --> 01:03:25
			gave revelation for, subhanAllah, in the time of
		
01:03:25 --> 01:03:26
			the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and thereafter.
		
01:03:27 --> 01:03:27
			SubhanAllah.
		
01:03:28 --> 01:03:30
			SubhanAllah, she gave you a beautiful end.
		
01:03:31 --> 01:03:32
			May Allah reward you, Jazakallah khairah.
		
01:03:32 --> 01:03:34
			As I said, subhanAllah, I would have gone,
		
01:03:35 --> 01:03:37
			till midnight, or even more, subhanAllah.
		
01:03:37 --> 01:03:39
			Next time, next time, as a joint act
		
01:03:39 --> 01:03:40
			of Qiyam, yeah?
		
01:03:40 --> 01:03:42
			A joint act of Qiyam, here at the
		
01:03:42 --> 01:03:43
			Maryam Salah.
		
01:03:43 --> 01:03:46
			So to end with inshaAllah, Doctora, if you
		
01:03:46 --> 01:03:49
			can give us, a final parting advice, any
		
01:03:49 --> 01:03:51
			key takeaways, that you would like, our audiences
		
01:03:51 --> 01:03:53
			to hold on to, bearing in mind, that
		
01:03:53 --> 01:03:57
			subhanAllah, we have all levels, all ages, Allahumma
		
01:03:57 --> 01:03:57
			bad.
		
01:03:57 --> 01:04:00
			Please my dear sisters, please know that the
		
01:04:00 --> 01:04:02
			Quran is a miracle, and it's a miracle
		
01:04:02 --> 01:04:02
			of Allah.
		
01:04:03 --> 01:04:05
			He gives it to whom he wishes, and
		
01:04:05 --> 01:04:06
			he holds it back, from whom he wishes.
		
01:04:08 --> 01:04:11
			Your only job today, is to make an
		
01:04:11 --> 01:04:12
			Niyah, is an intention.
		
01:04:13 --> 01:04:15
			Ya Allah, I am Alif Ba Ta, help
		
01:04:15 --> 01:04:18
			me get to, Jeem Haqqa.
		
01:04:19 --> 01:04:22
			Ya Rabbi, I am reading the alphabet, help
		
01:04:22 --> 01:04:23
			me join the letters together.
		
01:04:23 --> 01:04:24
			Ya Rabbi, I am now doing the letters
		
01:04:24 --> 01:04:26
			together, help me learn, fluency.
		
01:04:27 --> 01:04:28
			Ya Rabbi, help me learn, Tijweed.
		
01:04:29 --> 01:04:30
			You do that, Ya Rabbi, help me with
		
01:04:30 --> 01:04:31
			my memorization.
		
01:04:31 --> 01:04:32
			Ya Rabbi, one juz'at, two juz'at,
		
01:04:32 --> 01:04:34
			three juz'at, on and on and on,
		
01:04:34 --> 01:04:35
			and on this goes.
		
01:04:35 --> 01:04:38
			Never say to yourself, I can't, or this
		
01:04:38 --> 01:04:40
			isn't for me, or this is for some
		
01:04:40 --> 01:04:41
			scholarly people over there.
		
01:04:42 --> 01:04:42
			Right?
		
01:04:42 --> 01:04:43
			I told you the story of one of
		
01:04:43 --> 01:04:46
			my own sheikhs, yes, Dr. Adad.
		
01:04:46 --> 01:04:48
			If I hope that story inspires you, as
		
01:04:48 --> 01:04:50
			it inspires me, please share it, because by
		
01:04:50 --> 01:04:51
			the way, she said to me, share the
		
01:04:51 --> 01:04:51
			story.
		
01:04:52 --> 01:04:53
			So I've been sharing the stories.
		
01:04:53 --> 01:04:54
			Allah bless her.
		
01:04:54 --> 01:04:56
			And I'll end with this last thing, and
		
01:04:56 --> 01:04:59
			I shared it just recently, openly, just the
		
01:04:59 --> 01:05:00
			other time.
		
01:05:00 --> 01:05:02
			I shared with you earlier about my father.
		
01:05:02 --> 01:05:05
			He wanted to finish his Azhar degree, and
		
01:05:05 --> 01:05:06
			it didn't quite happen for him.
		
01:05:07 --> 01:05:09
			My father today is in his 70s.
		
01:05:09 --> 01:05:10
			May Allah bless him.
		
01:05:11 --> 01:05:15
			And for the last few years, once he
		
01:05:15 --> 01:05:18
			retired, he dedicated himself to the Quran.
		
01:05:19 --> 01:05:21
			He spent mornings, evenings, we just, every time
		
01:05:21 --> 01:05:24
			I visit them, he's in his chair, the
		
01:05:24 --> 01:05:26
			specific chair that he's in, and he's memorizing,
		
01:05:26 --> 01:05:26
			memorizing.
		
01:05:26 --> 01:05:28
			And he would say to me, memorizing in
		
01:05:28 --> 01:05:30
			old age is not the same as it,
		
01:05:30 --> 01:05:30
			right?
		
01:05:30 --> 01:05:34
			You know, basically learning in young age is
		
01:05:34 --> 01:05:35
			a beautiful line of Arabic poetry.
		
01:05:35 --> 01:05:36
			When you learn in a young age, it's
		
01:05:36 --> 01:05:40
			like you're literally etching in stone.
		
01:05:41 --> 01:05:41
			And I'm not going to tell you what
		
01:05:41 --> 01:05:42
			the rest of it says.
		
01:05:43 --> 01:05:45
			Because he says, it's so hard in old
		
01:05:45 --> 01:05:47
			age, finish memorizing when you're young.
		
01:05:47 --> 01:05:50
			But look, here he is in his 70s.
		
01:05:50 --> 01:05:52
			This past Ramadan, just this last few months
		
01:05:52 --> 01:05:55
			ago, last Ramadan, he came to us and
		
01:05:55 --> 01:05:56
			he said, I'm done.
		
01:05:59 --> 01:06:00
			I'm so proud of him.
		
01:06:01 --> 01:06:05
			He completed this entire khatm in his 70s.
		
01:06:05 --> 01:06:07
			So my sisters, it doesn't matter what age
		
01:06:07 --> 01:06:08
			you are sitting here.
		
01:06:08 --> 01:06:09
			It doesn't matter what your background is.
		
01:06:10 --> 01:06:11
			It doesn't matter if it's Alif, Bata, or
		
01:06:11 --> 01:06:13
			you say I'm not a native Arabic speaker.
		
01:06:13 --> 01:06:15
			In fact, some of the best and most
		
01:06:15 --> 01:06:17
			important of our teachers of the Tashreed and
		
01:06:17 --> 01:06:20
			the Qiraat were actually, to say they were
		
01:06:20 --> 01:06:21
			non-Arabic speakers.
		
01:06:21 --> 01:06:23
			This was not their first language.
		
01:06:23 --> 01:06:25
			This is why they did so well, quantifying
		
01:06:25 --> 01:06:27
			the Tashreed and the rules of Qiraat because
		
01:06:27 --> 01:06:28
			they were not Arabs.
		
01:06:28 --> 01:06:29
			They actually put it together properly in grammar
		
01:06:29 --> 01:06:30
			for that matter.
		
01:06:31 --> 01:06:33
			Please, know it's a miracle of the Quran
		
01:06:33 --> 01:06:35
			and all you need to do today, if
		
01:06:35 --> 01:06:36
			we can take a moment, can we do
		
01:06:36 --> 01:06:37
			this together right now?
		
01:06:37 --> 01:06:39
			And you have this beautiful envelope that they
		
01:06:39 --> 01:06:41
			gave you with beautiful exercise inside of it.
		
01:06:42 --> 01:06:43
			But can we at least do something together
		
01:06:43 --> 01:06:44
			before we part?
		
01:06:44 --> 01:06:46
			Can each of us make an intention, an
		
01:06:46 --> 01:06:49
			niya, because inna al-amalu bin niyaat.
		
01:06:49 --> 01:06:49
			Right?
		
01:06:50 --> 01:06:52
			Intentions, actions are by their intentions.
		
01:06:53 --> 01:06:55
			So your intention, and each person will be
		
01:06:55 --> 01:06:57
			different, find whatever place you're in.
		
01:06:57 --> 01:07:00
			Alif, Bata, Tashreed, Hifad, Qiraat, where are you
		
01:07:00 --> 01:07:01
			in the spectrum?
		
01:07:01 --> 01:07:04
			And say Ya Rabbi, I intend to take
		
01:07:04 --> 01:07:05
			the next step.
		
01:07:06 --> 01:07:07
			So help me.
		
01:07:08 --> 01:07:11
			You take a step, Allah takes many towards
		
01:07:11 --> 01:07:11
			you.
		
01:07:11 --> 01:07:14
			You go walking, he comes at speed.
		
01:07:15 --> 01:07:18
			This is something he's given and said and
		
01:07:18 --> 01:07:19
			verified.
		
01:07:20 --> 01:07:22
			He will absolutely come to your aid and
		
01:07:22 --> 01:07:23
			just open doors.
		
01:07:23 --> 01:07:25
			And if you're thinking today, where are these
		
01:07:25 --> 01:07:25
			doors?
		
01:07:25 --> 01:07:26
			Where are these doors?
		
01:07:26 --> 01:07:28
			Sometimes when I teach kids and I tell
		
01:07:28 --> 01:07:29
			them, Allah will open doors, they're like, like,
		
01:07:29 --> 01:07:30
			yo, just open a door.
		
01:07:31 --> 01:07:34
			Yes, just open a door before you even
		
01:07:34 --> 01:07:35
			know it, subhanAllah.
		
01:07:35 --> 01:07:36
			And the door could be a teacher.
		
01:07:37 --> 01:07:38
			It could be a friend.
		
01:07:38 --> 01:07:40
			It could be somebody who reminds you or
		
01:07:40 --> 01:07:41
			somebody who teaches you.
		
01:07:41 --> 01:07:43
			Or it could even be somebody you teach.
		
01:07:45 --> 01:07:47
			So Alif, Bata, and with that Baraka, Allah
		
01:07:47 --> 01:07:48
			opens more doors for you.
		
01:07:49 --> 01:07:50
			So may Allah subhanAllah bless me and you
		
01:07:51 --> 01:07:54
			to be carriers of this noble Quran, carriers
		
01:07:54 --> 01:07:57
			of light, literally, we are literally carriers of
		
01:07:57 --> 01:07:59
			Noor, carriers of light, and allow that light
		
01:07:59 --> 01:08:02
			to fully emanate, enter into our hearts, and
		
01:08:02 --> 01:08:03
			from the inside spill out.
		
01:08:04 --> 01:08:06
			And may we hold on to it.
		
01:08:06 --> 01:08:08
			And on the day of judgment, may we
		
01:08:08 --> 01:08:11
			gather together under the Ummah of Muhammad, sallAllahu
		
01:08:11 --> 01:08:16
			alayhi wa sallam, recognized by the Noor, from
		
01:08:16 --> 01:08:18
			our faces and our limbs, from the Wudu,
		
01:08:19 --> 01:08:21
			the prayers, and the Quran that we've recited
		
01:08:21 --> 01:08:22
			and read together.
		
01:08:22 --> 01:08:24
			Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin, wa sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam,
		
01:08:28 --> 01:08:30
			To a profound, emotional ending.
		
01:08:30 --> 01:08:32
			There's no need for me to end at
		
01:08:32 --> 01:08:32
			this point.
		
01:08:32 --> 01:08:34
			I'm just gonna say the du'a, bismillah.
		
01:08:34 --> 01:08:37
			Subhanaka, Allahumma bihamdik, nashahadu an la ilaha ila
		
01:08:37 --> 01:08:41
			ant, nastaghfiruka wa natubu ilayk, jazakunAllahu khaira for
		
01:08:41 --> 01:08:41
			listening.
		
01:08:41 --> 01:08:42
			May Allah reward each one of you.
		
01:08:43 --> 01:08:44
			May Allah reward you, Shaykh.
		
01:08:44 --> 01:08:46
			It was a very beautiful conversation.
		
01:08:46 --> 01:08:46
			Allah bless you.
		
01:08:46 --> 01:08:47
			Allah bless you.
		
01:08:47 --> 01:08:50
			You made it very, very nice, very flowy.
		
01:08:50 --> 01:08:51
			There's no pressure on my end.
		
01:08:51 --> 01:08:53
			I'm sure the audiences enjoyed it as well.
		
01:08:54 --> 01:08:55
			May Allah reward you.
		
01:08:55 --> 01:08:56
			JazakunAllahu khaira.
		
01:08:56 --> 01:08:57
			As-salamu alaykum.