Saad Tasleem – Getting to Know Me – Q&A

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah salam aleikum, wa rahmatullah. So today, I'm
doing the video that I promised everyone the Getting to Know Me video. And what I'm going to do, in
short, was able to answer the most liked questions that I got. And I'm going to throw in a couple of
questions here and there that are just some fun questions and you know, some more serious stuff. And
I think I may actually have shot myself in the foot here, because the second most liked question is,
what shampoo do you use? Now? I wish I had a cooler answer for you. But actually just use regular
old Pantene pro v shampoo and conditioner in one seems to do the job for me. Now, if you would have
		

			asked me what styling products I use, you probably would have gotten a longer and cooler answer. Now
moving on to something a little bit more serious. The second or the first most like question was how
did you go from graphic design to Medina university? And when did you decide that you want to go
there to study? Actually, when I started, were studying graphic design, I wasn't practicing Islam.
And that was the career path that I had chosen, apart from being a music band and all that. But
that's why I studied graphic design. And then somewhere in the middle, while I was in college, while
I was studying graphic design, I started practice, I started practicing Islam. And there came a
		

			point in my life where I started practicing Islam. And I told myself that look, if you are going to
do something, do it all the way. So if you're going to submit yourself to a law, if you're going to
become a practicing Muslim, then do it to the best of your ability. And part of that is learning and
knowing Islam, to the best of your ability. And when I asked people when I talked to people, they
said, If you really want to know about Islam, you should study Islam. And I figured that one of the
better places to go is Medina University. Now how I still remember till this day that I was
deciding, you know, what I want to do in my life where I want to go what I want to do, and I decided
		

			that you know, I want to go to Medina University, and I called my brother up, he's, you know, what,
a practicing people that I knew. And I told him, I said, Listen, I've decided to go to Medina
University, and he started laughing. And I was like, what's the deal? Why are you laughing? And he
said, Listen, you know, it's cool that you you decided to go, but it doesn't work like that. It's
not like you decide to go and you go basically have to apply. And then there's a very small chance
that you'll get accepted. But I had the law I got accepted and the law xojo gave me the chance to
go. So that's kind of why you see that I started off with graphic design, and then eventually ended
		

			up in Medina University. Now the next question is, can you give some advice regarding memorizing the
Quran in terms of advice, I would have three main pieces of advice. Number one is sincerity.
Constantly renew your intention, understand why memorizing the Quran, it's the purpose of memorizing
the Quran is not to be known as a halfhill. And that's the wrong intention. The intention of I want
to leave salah and lead thought, Oh yeah, and all that. And that's why I want to memorize on that's
the wrong intention to be known as half a little on, like I said, is the wrong intention. The right
intention is I want to memorize the Quran, to gain a less pleasure and to make it to paradise. So
		

			that's why correcting Our intention is very, very important. Number two is being consistent.
Consistency is very, very important. If you're going to get anywhere with memorizing the Quran, you
have to be consistent, and I'll share my personal personal story with you. I actually for those of
you who know me, I like working out, I like lifting weights, but I hate doing cardio. Now, I
realized one day that the reason why I hate doing cardio is I used to believe that I have to do 45
minutes of cardio a day. And when I would think about doing 45 minutes, I wouldn't do it because I
would remember how painful that experience is. So what I did is I cut that down to 20 or 25 minutes
		

			a day. And when I started doing 25 or 20 minutes a day, I realized that I was able to do it every
day. Because when I thought about cardio, it wasn't a painful experience that I thought of. So I was
able to be consistent. The point is that memorize as much as you can be consistent with. So if it's
a page a day, memorize a page a day, if you know that you can only be consistent in memorizing half
a page a day, then do half page a day and if it's only one idea, then memorize one eye a day. Like I
said the most important thing is to be consistent in memorizing the Quran. The last piece of advice
I would give in terms of memorizing the Quran is acting upon that wish you memorize. And Pamela
		

			you'll you'll see that not all the companions, for example, not all of them were heartfelt, but they
all acted upon that which they learned. And this is what made them special. Meaning it wasn't about
being known as a halfhill or was it wasn't about just trying to memorize as much as you can. It was
about learning the pot on an emulator.
		

			The Koran in their lives. And the worst thing that we can do is show up on the day of judgment and
have the Koran be a hedge against us approve against us, instead of approved for us. Okay, the next
question. Let's see here. What advice do you have for the students of knowledge living in the West?
		

			The advice that I have is number one, as we memorize, sincerity is everything. Learning the deen
studying Islam seeking knowledge for the sake of Allah azza wa jal, and not for the sake of simply
being known as a student of knowledge, or simply being able to get hooked buzz and all that. That's
the wrong intention. So firstly, like I said, Remember eyes, no pun, is
		

			having the correct intention, having the correct intention, secondly, I would say is taking things
one at a time. And that's very, very important, I think, for students in the West, especially
because we have access to information at our fingertips. So we have like Google and Wikipedia and
stuff like that. And we're used to just getting knowledge as soon as we want it. So we have a we
have an issue with Google, it will get the knowledge immediately. And that is not the best way to
study Islam. The best way to study Islam is to first study the basics, and then build upon that, and
then further build upon that, and that is the correct methodology of studying Islam. And I think a
		

			lot of times in the West, we just want to learn, learn, learn, and we lose out on actually
benefiting from the knowledge that we have learned. The other thing I would say about seeking
knowledge in the West is that it's important to actually have goals beyond studying Islam and
English. And I know this is a little bit controversial, and some people say Listen, you can study
Islam in English. I personally don't believe that. I believe that. Yeah, you can get the basics of
your religion. You can get the basics of your deen in English. And actually, you can learn a lot in
English, but to really really study the deen in depth. I think it's integral for a student living in
		

			the west to learn the language of the Koran and the sunlight. That's the only way that a person is
truly truly going to have access to the knowledge. Well, the next question, what's your favorite
color? Check Kemal likes pink. My favorite colors actually two colors. It's red and black, but not
just red and just black. I like when red and black are placed next to each other. What is your
nickname? Don't have a nickname. I do have a Konya though my Konya is a wooden eighth.
		

			Okay, this is interesting. Somebody asked the seafood err food or Somali food. And it's interesting
because it says the seafood, Arab food and then in capital letters, it says Somali food. So I assume
this person is actually somebody I would say my answer is
		

			none of the above my answer is American food. And before you get upset, I will say Listen, I like
the seafood they see food's good. Air food's good, too. I haven't had too much Somali food. But
nothing will compare to a nice, juicy well done cheeseburger, and fries and a shake. So for that
reason, I would have to say American food.
		

			Okay, the next question that got a lot of likes was what class would you choose to teach? If a
mother let you choose?
		

			I cannot share that with you right now in sha Allah, you will find out soon enough what class I will
be teaching. Okay, next question.
		

			There's a lot of questions, but not a lot. Not all the questions got a lot of likes.
		

			What is the best way to become a seeker of knowledge, the best way to become a seeker of knowledge
is to say, I'm a seeker of knowledge, you can decide right now that you want to start seeking
knowledge. There's no official way to start seeking knowledge. You basically make the intention that
you want to seek seek knowledge for the sake of allies origin, and you become a student and you
start seeking knowledge. If the question is,
		

			how do you go about doing it? That's actually that would be I could do a video on that one's own. So
I'm just gonna put that aside for now. Tell us a joke. Make it a good one. I will share with you a
joke that I just read today, actually. And it's good because I can't tell if you're gonna laugh or
not. So that'll be good. The joke is, what do you call a boomerang? That doesn't work? And the
answer is a stick. Anyway, moving on. Could you share with us the five most inspiring
characteristics of your favorite teachers disciple aka
		

			the five most inspiring characteristics, I would say number one, and these are all things that I
have actually witnessed and seen from my teachers. So the first one I would have to say is humility
and
		

			I've seen this from a lot of my teachers is to be humble. And you know, a lot of my teachers,
they're, they're real chefs, and they've been studying Islam their whole life. And they're very,
very knowledgeable. And even with that, they are very, very humble, and how they come across. So
that's number one. Number two, I would say, is the level of a Banda and Vica the level of worship
and remembering Eliza Jen, you would think that with their schedules, and, you know, with all the
responsibilities that they have, that they, you know, maybe a bother they do, they're a bother, but
you know, you don't get time to just go all out. And you're a bad though. And that's actually very
		

			far from the truth. I still remember one of my teachers that was teaching me inheritance law, he
walked into class one day, and he walked in a couple minutes early class hadn't started yet. But he
came a little bit early. And he walked in, and he walked to the corner of the classroom. And he
started praying, and I realized he's praying to God. And so I realized that a lot that these shifts
these machines, they, they do their job by them whenever they get the chance, whenever they can,
whatever opportunity to get, they get there about that. And, and even I remember riding in the car
with one of my teachers. And instead of wasting time talking about random stuff, he started making
		

			vaco things, Pinilla would handle La La, La ilaha illAllah. So the level of a Bandha. Also, another
characteristic is treating everyone with kindness, and smiling and being nice to everyone. And this
is something that I've seen from my teachers is that especially one teacher, in particular, I still
remember to this day that he would always be nice and kind and always smile at everyone, when there
was a little kid or somebody old, whether it was somebody who was less knowledgeable than him, or
more knowledgeable, it didn't matter, always being kind and always smiling, always treating someone
nicely. And I think that goes back to the issue of humility. But that's panelized is a very,
		

			very inspiring characteristic. The other thing I would say, the last, I think, because I almost got
to five is hard work. And I noticed that my teachers that have really reached a high level in
knowledge, they're all hard working people. And they spend a lot of time studying Islam. And you
think once somebody becomes a big share, or once they're getting fed to one and all that, that
house, they you know, they're not they're not going to study much Islam. But I noticed that some of
my teachers, they would sit and they would take out hours from their day, and they would simply just
sit and read for hours and hours and hours. So that's the last characteristic, I would say. And
		

			there's many more, there's many more, but those are the, I guess, my top five, when it comes to
inspiring characteristics of my teachers. Okay, this is a good question. What is your advice for
teens who are trying to stop listening to music, I would say that if you're trying to stop listening
to music, one of the things that really helps is
		

			using your time for the worship of Eliza Jen and always keeping your tongue wet with the remembrance
of Eliza Jen. And the thing about remembering Allah and reciting the Quran and worshiping Allah is
that you're you can fill your time with listening to music, and watching movies and doing all that
kind of stuff and do it all that or you can fill your time with worshiping Allah and remembering
Eliza with Jen. And you'll see that the more you worship Allah, the less desire you'll have for
music and all that kind of stuff, the more they could have you make, for example, the less desire,
you have four music, that's number one. Number two, it's important to distance yourself from people
		

			who listen to music. And I know that may be hard, but that's something that actually really helps.
If you're constantly around people that are listening to music, it will become hard to quit music.
So I would say decrease your exposure to music. So get away from people that listen to music, Lakota
Ireland, set our income Fest in Toronto, you mentioned that you were not a practicing Muslim before.
For many people who are not practicing Muslims using they go through some hardship in life, that
makes them realize that this world is temporary, and that in times of hardship, there's no one that
can help us but a lot, and therefore they turn to him and start to follow Islam. So I would like to
		

			ask, what was the turning point for you? Actually, unlike a lot of people, for me, the turning point
wasn't a hardship. It wasn't a calamity that struck me, for me. And I kind of mentioned this in my
talk and emphasis for me the camp point in my life where I sat down and I said to myself, what is
this all for? Is the purpose of my life to simply have fun because I realized that I started at a
certain point, my goal in life was just to have fun, or to, you know, make as much money as I can,
for example, and all that kind of stuff. And I really sat down and I considered what life is about
and I started thinking about life. And it really made me realize that there has
		

			To be more to life than simply just trying to have fun or simply just partying and this and that.
Life has to mean more than that. So when you're on your deathbed, you look back. And what do you
what do you want to see? Do you want to see that you just spent your whole life chasing after this
dunya. And that, for me was a powerful thought. Because I realized I don't want to be on my
deathbed, looking back and thinking, you know what, I just spent my whole life trying to have fun.
So it's at that point that I really started to look for the purpose of life and the meaning of life.
And it's at that point that, you know, I eventually came to Islam. Okay, this is an interesting
		

			question, what's your native language? That's a hard question to answer because my parents speak or
they're in Punjabi. But I have always spoken to my parents in English. So I've been speaking English
since pretty much since I was born since I started talking. But my parents, their native language is
Punjabi and Urdu. So I guess it would either be English or Punjabi, or it's only later on my life
that I learned Arabic. Okay, so I'm just going to take one last question that's got quite a bit of
likes. And that question is, what is the most generous thing to you in Medina, besides the Prophet's
mosque? It's a lot, you know, it's actually hard to answer this question because there's so many
		

			things about Medina that are dear to me, just to mention a couple of other things besides the
prophecy Center's mission is number one, the access to knowledge, the access to scholars, the access
to people who are incredibly knowledgeable. And like I said, the access to real deal scholars, not
just, you know, someone like me, that is something that that I really miss and is very dear to me.
Apart from that the people that I met in Medina, the other students and the other people seeking
knowledge that's very dear to me. Other than that, I would say that just being in a place where I
can devote my whole life to seeking knowledge, and putting all my attention towards seeking
		

			knowledge, that's something that I missed quite a bit. And that was something that was very dear to
me. And there's a bunch of stuff. There's a lot of things about Medina that are dear to me, and that
I miss very much, but I'm going to leave it at that and I think this videos long enough as it is. So
inshallah I'm gonna call today, and thanks for sending in the questions in Sharla. And I hope you
got a better idea better picture of who I am. And I know a couple people asked, Who are you? They
said, who is not the same? And the answer to that is, that's why I'm doing this video so you get to
know me a little bit better. All right, until next time, said I'm on a from what I can delay or what
		

			I can do.