Shadee Elmasry – Fitness of Body & Soul with Ahmad Fahmy – NBF 370
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome everybody
to the safina Saudi nothing but facts livestream
on
a warm and beautiful
what is today? A Wednesday
in which we begin starting next week. We
will be streaming at 1:30
on the dot.
And the reason for that is I'm covering
at the local Muslim high school
teaching
Akida until that teacher returns.
K?
So that teacher returns. And right away, we
and that teacher, you know, all who know
who it is. Right?
Who teaches Akida at the local Islamic school?
The one and only.
Sheikh Murad Dothman.
The Circassian Mamluk.
But he's not Mamluk. He's her.
Chapter number 5, section number 5 in Imam
and Nawawi's
Taqrib.
Where are the Sahih hadith found and what
is the most Sahih of all hadiths?
He says,
The highest level of hadith
by which the Ulema say,
we do make jazm and katta.
We hold that for sure.
This hadith is what the prophet
That's it.
K?
We make jazim by that.
Oh, this is wrinkled. I'm not wearing something
wrinkled.
It's a bit cold by the AC. Give
me this black. Yes. Why don't I have
this one? What are you wearing?
What color is that? Gray? This one? Yeah.
It's green. Right? Yeah. Charcoal.
I don't see the yummy threads.
Yummy threads.
Supplying these you know, the air condition in
order for it to reach Omar, it's gotta
be on blast.
You can turn it up. I'm good. You're
good? I'm good. Okay. Good. So
then what
only narrates?
Muslim. Then what Muslim only narrates?
Then what encompasses both
of their conditions?
Because they each have conditions.
Number 5, that hadith that is on the
meets the criterion of Bukhari.
Muslim. That which is on the criterion of
imam Muslim.
And then after that, it's what other reputable
deemed to be Sahih. Ibn al Salah, who
wrote the main book
on hadith terminology that is
that is utilized, and he says that the
days of
rectifying
and decreasing and and and,
making
are over.
He says there's no more
for anybody to come and relook at a
hadith. They've been looked at.
Says that. Some commentators disagreed with him on
that. And, the middle ground for that is
where they in generally agree and only for
some
narrations,
the latter
scholars may disagree.
The phrase, muttafakun
alay,
it has been agreed upon, is from the
shaykhain, means Bukharimus, who is
who are the shaykhain
amongst the Sahaba
Abu Bakr and Omar? Who are the shaykhain
in hadith? Of course, it's Bukhari and Muslim.
So Takiyah Deen says
what both of them
narrate.
You can actually have
absolute certainty that the prophet uttered those words
just as they wrote it down.
However, many disagreed with that too. They said
no.
And they said, you feel
to
They said, you're correct
if it's.
But if it is ahad, meaning less than
1 or 2, now,
chains there or or transmitters, then
okay. It is,
It only gives us speculative
knowledge.
Right? So we may have a type of
certainty there, but
it's well, I should say a type of
confidence in it, but it does have some
speculation
because it is not.
And only the
in the world of transmitted knowledge,
you feed will and meaning it supplies you
with absolute certainty.
Alright. The motto at it transmission, meaning what
to utter, by the way, is not most
of field. Most of field means something was
not
then became
that to us is does not establish
a fact.
So for example,
in the world today, it's
that the moon landing happened. It's really Mustafil,
not
Because who actually saw it? A
small group of people. Right? Not here,
supporting each side, but it's a very interesting
epistemological
question.
Who actually saw it, and is there even
a possibility
that that was a recording?
And even what came on the monitors of
the people at NASA was a recording.
Yeah. It's possible. You may say it's you
can say it's point 1%, but it is
possible. Right? Immediately, then it's not gonna be.
Right?
Because it's definitely not
that people's that that they were seen there.
Even when they were there on the moon,
let's say, hypothetically, it went on, you're transmitting
a feed.
Right? It's not a direct,
you're transmitting a feed. Could that feed have
been swapped out for a recording? Who knows?
Right? But I'm just saying I'm just using
that as a good example as something of
that's not in
the event, but became
and is treated as if it's a fact
afterwards for many years.
Right? For many decades after that.
So you see here that
that's the meaning of Mustafil.
Let me give you another example.
One of our friends goes and takes a
picture in front of a Uzbek
looking mosque,
sends us back the pic or let's say
a desert.
Let's put it this way. One of our
friends sends us a picture of him
standing with a whole bunch of sand around
him
and says, guys,
I'm I'm in Mauritania.
Right? I believe him. You believe him, but
there's a lot of different deserts out there
that all look the same.
Right? So we can't ever say
that this is the picture supplies.
Right?
Because the immediately, you're not gonna judge it
by his best friends.
Omar goes sends us a picture from a
desert and says, guys, I'm in Tareem.
I believe him. You believe him. Right? But
let's go to the skeptic. The skeptic will
say, it could be any desert,
the stranger even. I don't know, Omar. Why
would I believe him? Could be he could
be in in Arizona.
You could probably find a a a plot
here of land that looks like a desert
here in New Jersey.
Right? Not I'm not talking about sandy desert
like this. Just a rocky desert.
Just
beige a beige ground. So the picture
does not
offer and supply certainty. We have to understand
that. This subject matter is called the epistemology
of transmission,
and it was taught to me and it
was it's being done now by sheikh Aid,
Sheikh Idu. Right? Remember him when he came?
Yeah. I ended up taking lessons with him
online. That's fine. Yeah. And Ibn Hajar's works
on hadith.
Right?
Yeah. Yeah. It's actually funny that you mentioned
this because I actually witnessed this Mhmm. Exact
thing they're talking about, like, 3 weeks ago
Yeah. When you went to the Turkish mosque,
the end of center. Mhmm. So Samir, our
brother from the community Yeah. He goes next
to the the mosque and he takes a
picture or like a video. He's like, guys,
I'm in Turkey and he sends it to
the guys and they're like, yo, you went
to Turkey and everything and he comes back
laughing. Right? Because I'm with him. Yeah. I'm
like, look at this. Yeah. Because the idea
of is, like, it goes back to Musa
Hadda.
That's like
it traces back to a witness event. Mhmm.
Within a picture, that doesn't fall under Yeah.
Let's take 911 for example. The big difference
between
the moon landing and 911
is that there were
probably
tens of 1,000, if not 100 of 1,000
of direct eyewitnesses
of the planes.
1,000 people probably witnessed the planes. 100 of
1,000 witnessed the smoke
and witnessed
the collapse. Remember,
across the Hudson,
all the people in Jersey saw it.
Right?
So that's where we we differentiate between
the solitary narration that became fully accepted. And
we have a lot of Mustafil.
Lots.
Mustafil, again, means it didn't start as
transmission, but it became so.
When a whole generation upholds those first three
narrators
in Hadith, very actions are by intentions, that
hadith,
it's from 3 narrators. Right? Then it goes
out.
But every one of each generation upholds those
3, so we take it in our that
it's a fact.
Right? That that hadith is,
a fact.
So here we have the concept of
where they say here,
It's the hadith is evidence for us in
our religion, but we do not make jesim
exactly the prophet said this. There could be
a sliver
a sliver
of error.
Okay. In there. A sliver. But it's not
enough for us to reject it. It's enough
for us to make evidence if the narrators
are sound and trustworthy
and deemed trustworthy by,
their peers at that time.
So when it comes to fiqh
and aqeedah, this ahad has implications.
When it comes to aqeedah,
we do not make takfir of the one
who rejects an hadith. Rather, we may make
depending on which branch of it isn't.
For example, if it's a story
that is not necessary to be believed in,
that person we may say in this matter,
he's erroneous.
If it's something from
the or so of Aqidah, then we say,
no. You are a moktedah if you reject
this hadith.
But we would not say that he is
a kafir.
When it comes to fiqh, the and the
Hanabila elevate the hadith irrespective of whether it
is ahad or not.
And follows this, and he has even chapters
on the acceptability
of ahad narrations.
We have, though, in the Hanafi school and
the school also accept the hadith as evidence
on a condition that it does not
seemingly or apparently or actually contradict
a stronger evidence, which would be
or provide an exception. The Quran,
informatic,
Amal Al
Medina.
Now let's take an example of that. Did
not the prophet say
when Eid falls on a Friday that you
have the option to pray
or not?
So the Hanaf and the Malikiya
say
no to this. The say no to this.
They say they don't say that the hadith
is false or we're not doing it. No.
The peep people should have common sense to
think, do you think that these scholars spent
their whole life in this,
serving the ummah? They're gonna say, nah.
The prophet said so? Nah. Let's just not
do it. I don't wanna do it. No.
That's not the reason. They they came with
that ruling. It's like a silly
imagination
in the minds of some youth that, oh
my gosh, the Hanafi school, the school
are going against the Hadith of the prophet,
peace be upon him. Wow. They're really just
bad people. They're terrible human beings. Right? They're
they're innovators and misguided, and that's why the
Ottomans are this, that, and the
No. What they found is they had other
evidences
that they deemed to be stronger.
Therefore, they either said, a, this hadith is
maybe.
It's abrogated. Maybe there that was the application
in the beginning, and later on, it was
abrogated by this stronger evidence. Or they say,
this is a narration for sure.
However, we don't have enough information around it
to make a ruling by it.
And is that permitted to say, well, Omar
Ibn Khattab himself said it. He said that
he wished the that the prophet had
lived longer so that he could tell us
more about the arriba
in bartering.
So
here are the,
and these are the of the religion. So
if someone says the today, I've completed for
you religion. Yes. The foundations and the fundamentals
are are completed, and the acts of worship
and the,
the the essentials are there, but there are
that,
are left for the to answer. So here,
what is his ruling on that hadith? His
ruling is
well, what are the
do? What did the Sahaba do? What did
the do?
They offered Jummah
on Friday
when Eid was on Friday.
Therefore, that hadith must be some exception which
we're not aware of.
K?
You see that? They say that
there must be some other. That's the third
thing, though. So they say it's abrogated. They'll
say that we don't have enough information to
apply it. They say it must be an
exception of some sort
because, clearly, the prophet and all prophets have
the highest level of
intellect. Therefore, they're not gonna contradict it themselves.
And the the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's
teaching is.
It is.
It's just not recited in salah. That's the
only difference. And and, of course, the Quran
is the blessed word of Allah.
There's that. But in terms of guidance, there's
no difference. If a prophet comes to
you and teaches you something, that is 100%
guidance from God.
Affirmed by the Quran and by our advancing
student of knowledge every day he's advancing because
he got off that stupid social media.
Don't go back on, Omar, because you're advancing
in.
It's poison out there. It's poison. It's waste
of time.
K.
Alright.
Okay. Here's the next point that he wants
to make.
This next 6 point that imam and Nawawi
makes here,
k, is that
you cannot read a hadith, and he's talking
about the people of his time.
And I'm Ibin Salah said this before him.
If you read this hadith,
do not say it's Sahih just because it
says so in a book.
Rather,
make sure that someone of knowledge
has ensured that this book
is in fact a reliable transcription.
Meaning
hey. Hey, brothers. I found this. Hey. Hadith
here in x y z book. Oh, looks
like it's got a hardcover. It's got some
nice Arabic on it. Okay, brother. Who is
the the the the the the publisher?
Publishers make mistakes. Are all publishers the same?
The narrators of our day today
of religion
are the book publishers,
and today, the website publishers. Who is the
publisher of this website? Who is the publisher
of this book?
That's the question you have to ask.
It was,
I think, Ibn Salah who said
multiple
you need multiple authentications.
Authentifications.
You need multiple. And there's it's different in
Arabic. There's a difference of opinion upon whether
that could mean 2 or 3.
What's the minimum of Gemma? In Arabic, there's
a debate.
Okay.
There's a debate.
What about
if Noe Noe says one is enough.
1 is enough.
1 sound knowledgeable person or
a a it's well known that a copy,
a certain publication or a copy or a,
that a scribe wrote is authentic authenticated,
then you can say, yes. This is the
hadith of the prophet, and we act upon
it. Right? Like, it's if it's a dua
or something.
You ever heard this before, Omar?
This book is
okay.
So in Noah, we essentially took from Ibn
Salah, and he expands it. But if you
put Noah even Salah,
Noah, we alfiet,
celti alfietiliraki.
Essentially, the the structure is the same. The
the content is the same and it's just
the length.
Even salah gives us the fundamentals.
Now we expands a little bit.
And then
is the poem of it
and the commentary on it. And then you
have
commentary on this.
Right?
Is a bigger expansion. So imagine, like, three
lines
versus a paragraph.
Let's go to and
that is,
more like 2 pages. He'll go into other
things.
And that's when he talk about Musalah Adi.
Do you wanna go even backwards?
Just like
a very, very, very small amount
written and missing a lot not even mentioning
a lot of this is,
the the
will you even say it's anything other than
a list of terms.
But this chapterization
is where,
the
or the,
the
would be,
is this.
The is the transmission, and then the is
the understanding. So that's this will be.
That's where
the has,
the structure by. And everyone took from that.
Says,
talking about the sound, the Hasan hadith now.
We open the next section,
and that
its origin is known,
it's the men are known,
and many olema have accepted it, and many
jurists of fiqh have ruled by it.
So you may see, for example, that it's
not in Bukhari and Muslim,
but it has these conditions are met.
It has these conditions and they're met.
He said it's to,
who are this man. One part of it,
Someone there is no one unknown in the
chain, and there's no one that makes many
mistakes
or has any reason for us to reject
his,
testimony.
The methan of the Hadith should be
maroof
we it should not be a new piece
of information it should be a piece of
some information some knowledge that's found elsewhere
k?
The narrator should be known for trust
trustfulness and truthfulness.
It's gone.
He does not has not reached the level
of Sahih.
Okay? It doesn't reach the level of Sahih
in their
memorization.
So this is what's hasn't. So he's he's
they're known.
There's
no blemishes in their,
in their, narration, but they're not at the
level of the Sahih, the men of the
Sahih.
And the senate or sorry. The methan, the
text does not give us something totally new.
It's it's maybe adding, maybe different wording, but
it's not something totally foreign.
Right. None of them none of the narrators
can be accused of anything, neither in their
character
as as transmitters and witnesses, nor in their
it's gone, their their their
con, competence
in transmission.
Well, Hassan,
now let's talk about so that's the nature
of the hadith. Let's talk about the Hassan
as an evidence.
As a piece of evidence, the
Hasan is equivalent to the Sahih, as a
piece of evidence.
Yes. It's less in its
strength and air tightness,
but it is equal as an evidence.
And for this reason,
many
just deemed the Hassan
as just a subbranch of of the Sahih.
Is that clear to everyone? Hey. Let me
know when, our guest comes on.
Okay.
Now why is it that some may say
it's Hadith sahi or Hassan?
Because the person telling you about it, he
may deem it
that it could be discussed whether or not
it's at the level the senate is at
is Sahih or Hassan.
As for
when he says Hassan on Sahih,
he means by that
it's been narrated by 2 chains. 1 is
Hassan, and 1 is Sahih.
So he says here, as for Bagawi,
in his Musbah,
Mishkat al Masabir.
When he says hadith that are Hasan and
hadith that are Sahir,
he does not mean by that the hadith
of Bukhari and Muslim versus the hadith of
the Sunan. Why? Because the Sunan
Sunan at Tidmiddi, Sunan in Nisai, Sunan Abi
Dawood, Sunan. There
are other Sunan.
The those books have in them all kinds
of Hadith Sahih,
Hassan, and Naif,
and Munkar.
Even. The Maja, they say that he has
some 4 Hadith that no one's ever seen
before,
which Munkar, unknown where he got this, or
that,
someone in the chain,
his narration is completely rejected.
Yep. So let's stop here.
We're on page 30, and we need 2
minutes.
So,
there's our man. We have a guest,
a very physically fit guest, by the way,
who's our our trainer and our sheikh in
physical fitness.
Alright. We had any questions before we take,
on Ahmed? Questions on this hadith?
I'll take some maybe take some question and
then Let's take a question. And then I'm
setting up for a guest.
What do we have here?
I mean, someone's asking about Arcview, not about
Hadid, but when is Arcview reopening?
Arcview?
Very soon.
When you go into Arcview, you're gonna get
7 tracks there. You're gonna see you can
sign up for 7 different tracks.
Essentials is all are all my classes
and
a team of that will teach you
aqeeda
from scratch,
and one of the madhebs from scratch,
and children and hifs, youth
and have the Quran.
K.
Then there's Arabic taught by Mahdi Lalaq.
Then there's Aqeeda taught by Sheikh Murabit Benavides.
You have to pass the prerequisites.
Essentials offers the prerequisites. Let's say, oh, I'm
gung ho. I wanna study Hanafiq. Alright. You're
gonna take the prerequisites with essential. Once you're
done, you cancel essential. You go to Hanafiq.
You keep essentials if you wanna take my
Tassow of classes.
You understand?
And then
same thing. Al Qaeda, you gotta take the
prerequisite. You don't have to take the prerequisite
with us. You could have taken it elsewhere.
So you apply to these other tracks.
Arabic, of course, no application. Essentials, no application.
But the other
five tracks, there are applications.
You gotta apply. You gotta make all you
gotta do is just tell us you did
the prerequisite or not.
At least it it been Asher or Akhbari
and
at least something. So we have a clue
that you know your fundamentals.
And then you plug in. You plug in
wherever the sheikh is. Either you plug in
today, whether you plug in tomorrow, whether you
plug in next year, wherever the sheikh, he's
your shepherd.
The Sheikh has been charged to take you
up the mountain of knowledge in that field,
and that's it.
That's his job. That's his role. That's he's
your shepherd.
And that'll that website will go up soon.
We have a guest. Hey, Ahmed. Do you
have a light in front of you? Because
your face is shadowed a little bit.
Is there a lamp?
You know what? You put your your phone
Ahmed, can you hear me?
Ahmed.
Yeah.
Omar, can you hear me?
Ahmed, can you hear me?
You can't hear me?
You can't hear.
Your mic's on. Your best in mic?
Ahmed, your mic.
Hello?
Let me call him.
Our mic's on. It's going through the Zoom,
so I think maybe his end maybe. Let
me call him.
Pick up the phone.
You can hear me now because we're talking
on the phone, but can you hear me
from the mic? No. I can't. No. I
can't hear you from the mic. Okay. So
maybe that's on your side.
There's our it says where it is going.
Yeah. Just yeah. Play around with your the
audio stuff.
Okay. Thanks.
Just
Still give us a minute,
guys.
But our our our audio is going through
for sure. Alright. What else do we have?
Our audio is going through. What other questions
do we have on this? Yeah. We hear
him. We hear him. Okay. Ahmed is here.
How are you my man? Oh, I was
gonna tell you, can you put a light
somewhere up because your head is causing a
a shadow on your wish?
I can do this.
There you go. Okay. Even more athletic now.
Alright. Talk to me, man. What's happening in
Istanbul? You got behind you there, it looks
like a collection of
Turkish and Mauritanian stuff. Where'd you get that
Mauritanian luh?
This is,
this is not from Mauritanian, actually. Mali?
Exactly.
It is,
Where'd you get that?
Can you show the audience
that? Because they can't see the
your
yeah. Bring yeah. Look at that. It says
what?
What does it say? Where'd you get that?
So there was an exhibition here in Istanbul.
Yeah.
And donate their art and all the money
would go to to Gaza.
Oh, okay. Okay. So somebody brought a basically.
That's how kids used to study, and they
used to hang the on that little hook
at the top or hold it like that
while they're reciting,
and they'd memorize Quran like that. And so
this is meant to go on your knee.
So you you Oh, on your knee.
Yeah. That's so every every part of that
has something amazing.
You put it on your knee like this,
and every day, they they write, and then
they,
erase it for that day.
That is amazing stuff. Yeah. That's beautiful. Stuff.
This is a Turkmenistani
address.
Mhmm.
You know, like the one Khabib words? Khabib
words?
Oh, you got that.
Yeah.
Nice. Very impressive. And then mine just got
married in Turkmenistan
and and brought me one. And what is
that? It's supposed to be sheep wool?
It smells like animal.
It definitely smells like
like animal. Yeah.
Alright. Tell me, what is the latest in
the world of fitness? Your latest discoveries on
fitness habits.
Because this episode today is about
fitness of heart and body and soul. So
what is your latest,
thing that you've been on these days for
regular people to get
physically in shape?
The the the thing I've been doing lately
is,
what, I've stolen this from the Internet, but
what's called the workout snacks?
Uh-huh.
I have a a series of workouts that
can take a minute or less I do
throughout the day. Mhmm.
It's a nobody has an excuse not to
be able to do those those things. Four
minute workout?
No. A minute. Even a minute. What does
it look like?
Like, I'll give you I'll give you one
that you can find on the web that's
if you can do 2 minutes, I'd be
impressed. Okay. Let's hear it. Called bring Sally
up.
And it's just a YouTube
the you it's a video called you bring
Sally up, or the challenge is called bring
Sally up.
Bring Sally up. Bring Sally up. What does
that mean?
Let's and he's he's pulling it up right
now. Is that, like,
marine push up? Let's hear it. I mean,
a military push up, navy seal push up?
Well, I I I discovered it by following
some,
some, jujitsu folks.
And I'll tell you, man, if if you
can get past a minute and a 30,
I'd be impressed.
Oh, really? But, like, can can you give
us a a video of this, Omar? I
wanna see what it what does bring Sally
up?
It's not appropriate. Why? Like, some of the
videos are not, like, not appropriate. How is
not appropriate? It's like women. No. No. No.
That's a that's a dude doing a push
up without a shirt. Who cares? No. No.
There there's a version where everyone's closed, and
it's all men that's closed. It's it's,
bring bring bring us one. Just bring us
one. If someone has shahua for guys without
shirt, don't look.
Okay. How can I tell these guys?
Okay. Bring Sally up.
Okay. So far, it looks like it's a
a a
just a a push up. So far. You
just have
to follow the rhythm.
K.
We're getting it right now.
Okay. One second.
Alright.
Yep.
Okay. A push up.
So far, he looks left.
He looks right.
He goes up again.
He looks left.
He stays left for a while. Okay.
So they're looking
so they're basically staying
down
for about
10 seconds. 10 seconds? Do the push ups.
And then at one point, you have to
stay down while maintaining tension. And then you
go up. It's a type of plank.
Right?
Yeah. Harder than a plank. Much harder.
And, basically,
it
it it most people when they can do
it the first time, they they can do
it by a minute or less, and then
they work their way up to,
a a minute and 10 seconds. And very
rarely can people do 3 minutes.
Okay. I think I can do that. 1
guy tapped out. I I 1 guy tapped
out. I can do this.
I can do this. That's the spirit. That's
the spirit. Okay. Tell us more. So everyone,
you see that that bring Sally up push
up challenge?
Try that with your friends, see who wins.
Alright. What else you got for us? Oh,
it's it's it's interjecting things throughout the throughout
the day as I'm working. You know? Yeah.
And the other thing that I've been doing
quite a lot is,
lots of zone 2 stuff. It was actually
like book walking, where I just take a
book bag and put, like, £40 of stuff
in it. And here here in Istanbul, I'm
lucky because I can just walk up to
Buyuk Chambaljejami.
And it's,
it's
so
you know I do a lots of running,
but intermixing,
I do now weighted walks, basically.
And what you find is that your heart
rate is almost the same as a run
with less impact.
And so that's,
that's probably 2 new things I'm doing. So
did did you say an uphill walk?
Yeah. I mean, I I I take this.
It's in my book bag.
Yeah.
We, steal a a couple of bags of
rice and beans and cans of food because
I'm Anything, a whole bunch of stuff.
You put it on yourself.
If you're Egyptian, you must carry cans of
food for it to work. I agree with
that.
And and then I, I I walk from
here to Buick Charnelja.
Oh, just walking with the book bike? Walking.
No running. Just walking. It doesn't even have
to be uphill.
It doesn't have to be uphill. I I
I like the uphills, but Yeah.
What I find is that,
you know, you have to kinda secure your
core
where to keep your back straight, so you're
working I love this.
Yeah. Yeah. And and you can do easily
an hour and a half, and
and you can get anyone to do it.
I mean, whereas, like, if I tell someone
you can't you can do an hour let's
go do, you know, an hour and a
half run, that's a nonstarter. But if I
tell people, hey. Let's go walk up to
Biuk Chunglaja,
anyone can do that. And then That is
awesome.
That's great.
Those are the 2 fitness things that new
fitness things I'm doing, and then there's, of
course, nutrition and sleep and all the other
things. How much, walking do you how much
time or distance?
I because I have a we don't have
any, you know, there's no car. I I
I'm about
20 to 30,000
steps a day.
And and that's not because I from life
or from exercise too?
I'm gonna like,
I I would say 15,000 of those steps
are just life. We all get 15,000 steps
in, and then the other 15,000 steps are
running. Every day you run or walk?
Every day I run. Yeah. Every day I
run. And that's,
I mean, that that's also not I mean,
that's just a
a mental thing for me too. I I
need to run to clear my
Yeah.
10000,
steps.
A 10,000 step walk, how how men how
many minutes is that?
A 10,000 step walk is about
an hour
and 15, 20 minutes, I guess. An hour
and 15, 20 minutes. So a run would
be
40 minutes, 30 minutes.
Like that. But don't forget, it's it's life
that's life here. I mean, you wanna go
to the supermarket.
Everything's walking. Yeah. Everything is 5,000 steps away.
It's not whereas in America, everything is a
15, 20 minute drive away. Okay. Ahmed lives
in Istanbul for your information.
By the way, this is Sheikh Yasir Fahmi's
brother.
For many people who are asking if it's
the same Fahmi, yes. It is the same
Fahmi.
This is Ahmed Fahmi, Ahmed Fahmi, the older
brother of Sheikh Yasir Fahmi. Yeah. But, technically,
he's my brother.
Yeah. Yeah. Technically, he's your brother, not the
other way around.
And
you're you're running an organization.
Tell us about your org and tell us
about the latest races that you're gonna be
conducting.
So the the idea
behind 114,
it's
o n e 14.
This is the the logo and and the
name. 114,
pointing to the number of Suras in the
Quran?
Exactly. And and one for
Allah. And and the idea behind the logo
is it's mountains, because that's where we run
or we like to run-in the Quran in
green, which,
first came down in the mountain.
And the the idea was born, like, what
what would I got this idea because at
one point, I was really into doing Ironman
triathlons. And it like, what what would an
Islamic Ironman be? You know? What would what
would that look like if we were particularly
in Islamic Ironman? And the the thing that
stops most people
from doing Ironman is the fear of an
open water swim, like going into a lake
and swimming for 2.4 miles.
And so I get down thinking, like, well,
what what is
powerfully everyone doesn't wanna do? What's the equivalent
of a swim? And that's memorization of Quran
for an adult.
And I know that because that's how I
felt about it. Mhmm.
That's what you do when you're go to
Islamic school or Sunday school
or after school if you're a desi. You
know, it's, it's not something you do when
you're an adult. It's something that
is just
there's so much negative self thought and self
talk around the idea of memorizing Quran as
an adult. Although all the Sahaba for the
most part memorized Quran as an adult, not
as a child. That's true. And that's very
true. Yeah.
And so that that's how the idea was
born. Like, what would an Islamic Ironman look
like? And I kept on thinking, and and
then I was like, no. The memorization of
Quran coupled with running.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
And that resulted in the idea of conquer
your nefs being the shahad of 114 because
if you're gonna memorize consistently and run consistently,
you have to conquer all kinds of aspects
of your nefs.
That's totally true. Very true.
Your and and by the way, physical fitness,
it's we have to do it artificially in
the past. They were all just by default
of of where you lived or how you
lived or even living itself, you were physically
fit. Very few people were not physically fit,
in the old days. I'll tell you who
wasn't physically fit, the scribes.
And the scholars probably
in in the cities,
the scribes were known to be, a, they
would go blind earlier than everyone else, b,
they would get hunchbacks,
because of the the way they sit and
write, and the scribes would get gnarly fingers.
So they probably artificially had to remedy those
things. All of us today are artificially healthy.
If you wanna be healthy, you have to
try to do something. The default of life
doesn't make you healthy. Farmers,
maybe. If there are farmers today,
maybe. But definitely the farmers of the past
were the most healthy.
I understand. Yeah. The the the day doesn't
just not make you healthy. It makes you
sick. Right? Whether it's Yeah. Food or
or, you know,
hooked onto, you know, screens or or
down all day. The the the standard is
making you sick and not making you healthy.
That's a great point. The default makes you
sick and not healthy. Yeah. Standard American diet,
which is such an interesting acronym. It's such
a sad but ironic but perfectly true acronym
Yeah.
Applies to everything more than not just diets,
you know.
And so
you have to really work hard to manufacture
a situation where,
you know, you can be fit and eat
healthy foods. And
that's the struggle of our time is that
although everything is so easy, everyone's so miserable.
That's so true. That's so true. I mean,
you have to fight a lot of different
things just to reach a modicum of health
and Yeah. A modicum of happiness.
And, unfortunately, the happiness part,
there is a structural element to it.
Right? Hey. When you get a minute, could
you put his, screen on, his image?
Yeah. When you get a minute, it doesn't
mean no. But,
there are structures in the world, and there
are philosophies that have taken over that have
rendered people to be,
not so happy. I mean, just the way
that
marriages are are are done or not done
and have become difficult. And everyone's life, by
the time the person is
25,
if they're competent
and they're 22, 23, their life is so
complicated.
Right? Like this one, I don't know where
I'm going in the next 6 months because
I have to match somewhere. Right? So what
are you gonna do in the next 6
months? Then when you match, that window's
closed. No one marries when you're in that,
level of busyness.
So
physically now is what we're talking about here.
And, physically,
I think,
our phone addictions are pretty bad in keeping
us awake at night. A lot of people
can't fall asleep at night.
Yeah. And, you know, like, I I I
heard one
one,
psychologist
or the psychiatrist, one of those 2, say
that 80% of depression anxiety can be solved
by a good night sleep.
Mhmm.
Mhmm.
And when people
compound
day after day, night after night after night
for months on end,
never getting a good night sleep,
what happens to such a person?
Well, I mean, it's it's if you if
you think about it, what ends up happening,
you know, such a such a interesting question,
because not not many people think about the
long term impact, because we're so used to
the short term, like, local quick fix.
When you
when you don't get sleep, when you, when
you don't wake up rested, and what, what
is the definition of good sleep is you
wake up rested. You wake up up,
feel good, which is nobody every once, like,
I wake up, I feel terrible. And so
what do they immediately do? They
drink something caffeinated,
which actually doesn't work right away, by the
way. You know, like, you actually shouldn't drink
coffee right away. You should you should actually
drink some, you know, some
water with maybe a bit of salt or
something like that, and drink the caffeine half
an hour later. But what the what what
the caffeine does is, obviously,
just like anything else in life, you you
build a tolerance, and you build a tolerance,
and
you you need more caffeine just to feel
good. Just to get this baseline of, like
we said before, just to get this baseline
of feeling,
excuse my language, but like not like crap,
takes a lot of caffeine, and maybe sugar,
and all these kinds of things,
and that in and of itself, because you're
drinking caffeine throughout the day, impacts the sleep.
And then you drink caffeine, you're getting dehydrated,
which impacts your
the more dehydrated you are, you will become
foggy, mentally foggy. Yep.
Then you drink more caffeine, which makes you
more dehydrated, which impacts you.
Over a very long period of time, what
ends up happening is people get sick. Yeah.
Your body
crashes and says, you know what? I'm going
to rest. And and Yeah.
System goes down.
And look, I'm not a doctor, but I
I I think this,
you know, this
protruded period of not sleeping well
does result in people getting
anxious and
and
then depressed and Yeah. And that and when
you combine compound it for the individual, but
you also
multiply throughout the world.
Yeah.
I wonder if,
the type of global anxiety that has now
gripped a lot of cultures,
if not the whole world,
would change
if the whole world went back and shut
off all the lights at 9 PM
and took out all the electricity at 9
PM, right, except hospitals.
I I did a thing once. I did
a race. I think I don't know if
I ever told you about it. It goes
in the Sahara Desert,
and it's it's 9 days in the Sahara
Desert.
And you you go to the the,
the Western Sahara.
Not the Egyptian side, the Moroccan side,
and military vehicles take you really deep into
the Sahara. There's no cell towers. There's no
nothing, and and it's so
little there's no light pollution that people would
literally go and watch the moon rise. It's
about Like, that that that was the exciting
thing is to watch the moon rise, you
know? Yeah.
And then there was nothing to do other
than to sleep. Like, there's nothing to do.
There's no scroll.
There's there's no cell towers. You know, the
the close cell towers are hours away. And
so you just go to sleep. And naturally,
everyone would wake up before fetch. SubhanAllah.
Well, I mean,
they're waking up for the Hajjood. You know,
naturally, they enter this deep sleep. Yep.
Physically, we were running all day. Mhmm.
We watched the moon rise, you go into
the tent, and you go to sleep. And
you're sleeping on the floor. No creature comforts.
No, you know Yes. For bed.
And, man, people were so happy. And and
I know people that were so happy that
they paid tens of 1,000 of dollars to
go back to this race every year just
to feel
Just to get that. How long did you
spend in that race?
It's,
all in with the acclamation period. It's about
9 days. It's, like, 2 days after the
race, and 7 days the the actual race,
and then
one day then you leave. Oh, and if
you don't sleep right, you can't exercise in
the day either. Right? You're just too tired
to exercise in the day. I mean You
don't have the energy. Whether you sleep or
not, you're going to you're going to run
because you have no choice. Like, it's Yeah.
And and so what ends up happening is,
like, even the people out of nerves who
don't sleep the 1st night,
the the first stage is going to be,
like, 50 kilometers, then 70 kilometers, and not
like you know, you have no choice. But
so what ends up happening is you're so
exhausted
that you enter this really deep sleep. Yeah.
And and, you know, and I said this
before, like, Islam really makes
sense in that context. You know? You you
sleep
early. You wake up before the sun rises.
Yep. You You sleep less than 8 hours,
but the sleep is so deep
that,
that that you know that that you just
wake up naturally.
Let me ask you,
regarding that.
People today,
they they don't sleep right. They can't exercise.
I've I I came upon a guy who
said, you wanna sleep early. It's gonna cost
you
one day of misery.
Right?
So you see, you can't begin the cycle
by sleeping early. You have to wait being
in the cycle by waking up early. That's
how you guarantee the cycle.
And so he said that wake up early,
whatever caffeine you have to have to get
through the day, but stop having caffeine at
5.
Yeah. And then you will naturally crash by
9.
Right? So that's the that's how you break
the cycle. 100%. And I would add to
that, do something difficult throughout the day.
You know?
We we're just way too and I know
I I am sounding some cool like David
Goggins, but Yeah.
Too much sitting. You know?
It's just too much sitting, not enough physical
activities, not enough walking.
So absolutely, like, if you if you wake
up, if you've the key is not sleeping
early because most people can't sleep early right
away. The key is waking up early,
doing some physical activities so that when you
get
to 9, 10 PM at 9, you start
yawning. 10, you just walk to sleep.
Yeah. You you're you'll be knocked out. Let
me ask you this. What do you think
about
someone who exercises at night? Does that keep
you awake, or does that make you tired?
Yeah. I I think everyone's different just like
night people versus morning people. But
for me, if I if I
exercise late at night, the adrenaline stays with
me.
You know? And and Even a even a
brisk walk with that book bag on?
No. Walking is something I do most nights,
and that that's fine. I don't know where
I'm, like, elevating my heart rate. Yeah.
I I think
especially, like, you know, you know, I don't
know if you know this, but there's this,
like, this epidemic of insulin resistance. Like, everyone's
now, like, pre diabetic. I I don't know
if you're you're following Too much sugar, you
mean?
Yeah. Everyone's pre diabetic now, apparently. And
and one thing
I used to monitor my blood glucose with,
with a a monitor.
One thing that really
helped me
is a walk after every meal.
Mhmm. So
if I have a night meal,
I,
I'll go for a long walk. Yeah.
That that really helps me.
How many calories is that,
10,000 step run or walk burn?
So people know what they've what they just
burned off. A a bag of chips, small
bag of chips?
No. I mean, depending on how much it's
it's that's the crazy. Not a lot. Like
Not a lot. Yeah. I forgot a a
slice of pizza and a half. It's not
a lot. Like, what you know? And and
that that's the thing. The relationship with food
is such a complex one because it's
it's for a Muslim,
it is our
easiest source of dopamine.
Yeah. It's it's you know? And so,
like, I had a I had a somebody
here in Istanbul asked me, hey, I hear
you're the local guy. Although I'm not I'm
like, I actually have a real job, but
like, they're like, can you help? Like, hey,
like, what's your relationship with food?
And he said, wow. He said, okay. You
know, when I'm happy, I eat. Mhmm. When
I'm
when I have a fight with my wife,
we I eat only like
Oh my god. When kids out, we eat.
When I wanna celebrate, we eat. Aid is
about eating. He's like, basically for every trigger,
the the solution's food. And so
that you know, the relationship with food
is is a really difficult one. You know,
it's it's such a deep
especially for Muslims. Like, we we don't we
don't have the other sources of dopamine.
Like, it it is our one of our
only halal sources of dopamine. Mhmm. And so
it's it's a very
like like, to me, I have a very
I've developed a very strange relationship with food
where
I've kind of,
you know, I I I try not to
treat myself that often.
I think that, people will be surprised how
little food humans need.
A 100%.
And even people who are
they they get low blood sugar and they
get dizzy,
usually they tell you that it's solve it's
salvaged quickly.
Like, a very small
nutritious snack
does the trick.
So humans actually don't need
to eat every day, believe it or not.
The fact of the matter is you actually
don't need to eat every day, and your
body will just start shredding that fat. It's
not gonna be by this walking that you're
gonna shred fat. You're not gonna. Unless you
quit your job
and
and work out
from 6 AM to 9 AM and then
again from 1
you're from from 2 to 4 and then
again at night. Right? You're not gonna unless
you stop doing everything else,
exercising will not burn your fat. Right? What's
gonna burn fat? Stop eating.
Right? That's it.
And and the thing is and to stop
eating, you have to think why am I
eating? It it is I mean, the the
relationship with food and the nefs is so
intertwined.
Yep. And
it's so easy to say stop eating, but
then the question is why why are you
eating?
Like, what what that you need this dopamine.
Yep. And and why is that the sort
your source of happiness? And if it's a
really complicated
and that's where the whole one like concrete
your NEFS became the thing of 114, because
your NEFS does not NEFS wants you to
be a loser. Like, and when people ask
me, like, what is a NEFS? I'm like,
I I translate the NEFS as you're inner
loser, and it wants you to be. You
know,
in every every regard.
And
that's why like, just the two things of
forcing yourself to consistently run, and forcing yourself
to consistently memorize.
Mhmm.
And becoming the becoming a person who has
a regular relationship with the Quran
means you have to conquer enough in other
ways. Like you cannot
look at something and then memorize your word,
or, you know, just something
that
You can't You have to to actually be
somebody and so I've discovered,
to to be somebody who regularly memorizes, which
does not come naturally to you. But I
am not Sheikh Yasir, by the way. You
know? Mhmm. Someone who like naturally is memorizing
Quran is a huge undertaking for me. And
so and it's like, it really is like,
if you were to tell me, hey,
would you prefer to run 50 miles right
now or memorize 2 pages of Quran? I'd
take 50 miles any day. It's easier.
Oh, for me, it's much easier. Yeah.
Like, for me to run 10
hours, 50 miles, or memorize 2 pages, it's
easier than 10 hours. And but, like, to
transform
and to what I've discovered is to transform
into the person that memorizes regularly, you must
transform many aspects of your life.
Like like Mhmm.
Mental clarity. You cannot wake up feeling like
crap and then memorize. Yeah. Yeah. No. Wait.
You cannot look at certain things and then
memorize. Mhmm. You know?
You cannot
eat certain way wait and memorize. Like, to
memorize and to retain
is just such It's like, you know,
how can I describe You build a muscle
in your bicep in the morning Yeah? And
if you do at night, it goes away.
Like, you just you're thinking, you know, you
go the whole page goes away just like
a fleeting,
and so that What what is your method
of,
of memorizing?
The most important method I have is I
have a teacher.
That's like the that's the most important thing.
I I'll tell you my method. Ajib. So
you have a teacher out there in Turkey.
He keeps you on point. I have a
teacher for everything. I have a teacher for
I have a I'm a in every way.
I have a for Quran, a for running,
a for ultra running, for swimming, for fitness,
for,
you know And how do you keep yourself
disciplined as an adult who can walk away
from your teacher at any time?
I I I pay them money.
You know, I Oh, shoot. That really changes
things. Yeah. You pay them money. Like, you
know, like right now, like, if you tell
me,
you know, Ahmed, like, we go back, train
me.
Okay?
I said, of course, Sheikh Shetty. I'll train
you, so it'll be my honor. Here's the
plan. You go, I'm not gonna do this
week.
But but Yeah.
If you're saying, Ahmed, I'm gonna pay you
$1,000 a month. Yep.
You're You're gonna do everything I say. 100%.
100%.
And so,
I get
that's one aspect. I I pay them for
their time,
and I I get,
you know, I get,
teachers that I respect, and there's an element
of fear. They're not all my they're not
we're not boys. It's like I I just
read a book about this CEO that invited
David Goggins to live with him for a
month.
And David Goggins would refuse to
talk to him about life. He did not
want to be boys. He wanted to maintain
the table between him and and the guy.
And
same thing for Tussalvo, same thing for everything.
So my first technique in
memorization is to get a great,
sheikh.
And and and that's not to say that,
of course, you have to pay your for
that that that I mean, this is my
Quran teacher. He's not my sheikh tureikh or
anything like that.
And
the the the next thing is we have
a
a standard time that we meet,
and
and I I make sure it's a time
of day when before my mind becomes
filled with work. And so it's for me
it's for me after my morning run
and before
my work starts and before I eat.
So I don't eat before because when I
eat, I I become lethargic.
And, and then he has a we we
have we we have a half a day
a half a page a day cadence
where we memorize half a page,
and then he has a he main he
maintains a spreadsheet of, like, what are we
doing? What's the near memorization? What's the far?
Yeah. I don't wanna think about any of
that stuff.
So he he he maintains that Google spreadsheet
of what I need to review, and,
and then the actual memorization technique is the
is the standard, not the Mauritanian one, but
the, you know,
listen a lot to pre marinate,
and then,
read the whole page with tajweed. He corrects
all my I cannot
memorize until he I read it to him,
and he believes I'm reading it without hesitation.
So when he senses hesitation
in in in how I'm reading it, he's
like, I'm not ready to memorize.
Only then, so there's the premarination of listening
a lot, which I'll do in in Iran,
for example. There's the reading to him to
ensure that Tajweed is correct,
and then read it over and over until
he feels like I'm not hesitating on the,
on how I'm reading. And then
I read, like, he makes me study the
architecture of the page.
Like, what the content?
The the no. Just how physically, like, the
page looks. Like, is there a long yeah.
He wants me
what's the architect? And then for me to
memorize, I need to understand
what I'm reading, because I'm old. Right? And
so I need to
understand what I'm reading,
and then,
and so
then I'll I'll repeat the I'll read the
Eya 3 times, depending on the length of
the Eya. I'll repeat it to him 3
times.
Oh, and by the way, I don't memorize
by myself.
He he actually is there while I'm memorizing,
or I won't do it. So I've carved
out time,
and I won't I'm not memorizing separately. I
send Mike to him. I pay for him
to be there while I send while I
memorize.
Because if I don't do it in the
hour period, I'm not gonna memorize throughout the
day. My my life will take over. How
many times do you go?
Five times a week.
K. So
let me ask you this. What happens when
one of your coaches
puts a demand on you that you can't
fulfill?
I'll tell them I can't do that. And
then
then the the
their response
depends on them as a coach.
And so some coaches will say,
you know, I don't care what you this
is what you need to do. Yeah. My
Quran teacher is so sweet.
The disposition
that he will say, okay, Halas, let's just
push it back.
You have a Turkish Quran teacher or an
Egyptian?
Syrian.
Syrian.
A beautiful
he has such a beautiful soul,
and but he he will he will I'll
tell him, hey, my family,
I, you know, have this commitment. He'll say,
okay. Today, halal, so let's just pull back.
Other other ones of my coaches,
like, my fitness coaches don't care about that,
and and that's
part of my own doing. Like, I I've
picked him as a Quran teacher because that's
the relation I am not in it. Right?
I'm not
like, I I I didn't if I if
I if I told myself I'm gonna memorize
the Quran in a year, I'd have a
mean Egyptian Amu with a zebib. Yeah.
Doesn't what way I I I don't wanna
push. He he pushes me, and so it's
it's like a complicated answer to your question.
Today's,
interview is on Fitness of Body and Soul.
If you're on Instagram, you can't see except
part of the screen. Hop over to our
YouTube channel,
Safina Saiedi's YouTube channel to see the full
picture. And we're with Ahmed Fahmi who's of
114
that runs races
that involve Hivduk Quran
and a race, and the next one is
in October,
October 6th. I'll be participating in that in
North Jersey,
and it's gonna be,
I think that you do it online too.
Right?
We have we have, 3 races coming up.
One of them is in Maryland. One of
them is global. Anyone can do it, like,
virtually.
You download an app. And then the October
1 in in, in New Jersey. So it's
just Go to one 14.com.
That's o
o n e.
O n e, the number 14, dot o
n e.
O n
e, one four digits, one four dot o
n e. Dot o n e. Now let's
get back to your mentorship and your coaching.
If you have multiple coaches, tell us about
your fitness coach.
What what does he do with you? What's
the schedule like, etcetera?
So I have one that does strength.
So I have one Turkish coach. He's amazing
amazing guy.
And he he focuses on,
strength and core and flexibility.
Because, you know, I'm 45. And so,
you know,
as I say, like, you know, you you're
30 you're 32, 33, and then you start
to dip.
Right? And and then you you're gonna dip
as
they say. Right? So your your dip is
either thing and be like this, or your
dip is going to be a slow, gradual
dip. And that's dip in strength, testosterone, all
of those kinds of things. So
what he's focused on with me is,
like, you know, maintaining muscle mass, building strength,
my core,
flexibility, all of those not getting injured.
And so that's 3 times a week.
And so that's full body, 3 times a
week.
And
so that
that's that's just that. Just that's just strength
and and conditioning and flexibility.
I don't usually stretch. I'm I'm very bad
at stretching, but I'll I'll I'll stretch within
those sessions.
And then there is
the running coach,
and just like the Quran coach, they're keeping
track of my mileage,
making sure I don't run too much or
too little.
I don't wait I don't do what's called
garbage miles.
Which is what?
That's just when you're
you can think of garbage miles like you
go to the gym, and you're just kinda
like doing some you're not really doing anything.
You're just like, you're giving you're it's theater.
You're giving the appearance of doing something. You
can do the same thing with Quran. You
can do the same thing with everything in
the theater of of it all. And,
he he makes sure that
every workout has a purpose, whether it's a
hill, pipe workout,
or,
you know, a long run or short intervals.
So you meet your hips teacher 5 times
a week, your fitness teacher 3 times a
week.
And do you have a food coach?
Don't eat this. Stop eating.
I I I'm I'm
I used to like, I've I've become really
knowledgeable about that, so I don't really need
that. You know? I I
Okay. What what do you think of the
the idea of somebody
going really long periods of time
without eating because that's what's easy for them?
I I you know what? I I think
the idea of,
you know, intermittent fasting, and you can it
will go for 40 days. You know, I
I think the body is an amazing thing.
I just
I just worry about,
you know, the people who do, like, the
5 day,
10 day thing, you know,
your your body basically goes into ketosis, and
your metabolism slows down because, basically, it's it's
trying to stay alive and, you know, burning
fat for energy and all those kinds of
things. And
my concern with that is, you know, I
think, like, there's a minimum effective dose.
I think every in a while doing a
2 day fast is is great.
When you get into the 5 day, 10
day, 20 day,
I'm not a big believer in that, and
there's a top
yeah. Go ahead. I was just saying that
that point,
your metabolism goes so low, so you're just
evened out, and you're just they're just sitting
on a couch doing nothing anyway.
Well, you know, that's really use up fat.
The body's actually amazing. No. They are work
they're
out and about, and and and walking and
talking, and some some even exercise.
But
the body truly is an amazing thing. You
know, it will cope, and it will adjust,
but
what happens is the bounce back period, you
know, after like they start eating, and all
of a sudden your body is like your
body so
becomes so
accustomed to burning fat for energy, all of
a sudden you're flooding it with calories.
Even if you have a refeed period and
all these things.
You know, I have a Sheikh here in
Turkey that says anything good don't take into
extremes, it becomes bad.
Whether it's running, fasting,
water fasting.
Yeah.
I believe in that. I I believe that
that, like like a a once a month
doing a 2 day water fast, yeah, that's
fine. Because
it's it's good in many levels, and it's
it's great to fast from caffeine for given
intervals, but, like, doing it for, like, longest
in a period of time, I I don't
believe.
What what do you believe is better, if
throughout the day having just, like, 3 hours
in which you eat or having multiple snacks
throughout the day?
I I I believe in the
the window.
Just like between
5 and 7 today, I'm gonna have dinner
or 47, and that's it? Yeah. That that's
what works for me personally because I I
I snack on healthy foods. And so I
what that means is I I can take
in a lot of calories without noticing.
You know, I can sit there and say,
oh, I'm just gonna eat some almonds.
And it's 9 o'clock at night, and I'm
gonna watch, you know, Sheikh Shetty on YouTube
or whatever. And I'm just sitting there eating
almonds, and then before I knew it, I've
eaten 1400 calories.
Right. And in my mind, I'm just saying
almonds. You know? What's the big deal? Cashews.
And and so
and so for me, that feeding window
stops all of that snacking.
Yeah.
Yeah. Because you're exactly. Yeah.
And so, yeah. I I like I can
easily mindlessly snack and eat a lot
of healthy snacks.
When I look at people's lives, everyone's good
at something in life. Right? Yeah. Some people
are really good at taking care of their
family.
Some people are really good at making money
and their job.
Some people are but most people are not
good
at weight
and exercise. And when you look at it,
you wake up in the morning, you have
a to do list.
That's always the case for what you're good
at. You have to have every moment. This
today, we got alright. So and so's got
a doctor's appointment. So and so's and, like,
moms, oftentimes, they have exactly what their kids
need. So and so, he doesn't have shoes.
So and so doesn't have containers for his
lunch. So and so doesn't have I have
to see who he's hanging out with because,
he's going out this weekend. I right? The
mom's got the list.
A dad may say, alright. This website's gotta
go up. This person's gotta get we gotta
talk to this person. He's not doing his
job. This person needs to be paid. This
vendor needs to be paid. But very few
people ever wake up and say, alright. Today,
I'm gonna eat
from this hour to this hour. Mhmm. Today,
I'm actually not gonna abstain from food from
this hour to this hour. Like, because nobody's
no people don't do that. That's why there's
a mass epidemic of out of fitness because
it's also
nobody's of the habit to put a to
do list
of when
and what am I gonna get. For forget
the what. There's too many different foods, but
at least the when.
Right? Like, eating is gonna happen from this
out of this. Rather, because we don't have
no system
and no to do list, you left it
open ended. Right? And you're just eating,
grazing.
No. It's the grazing is a problem, but
also,
like, you know, the the question of and
and this, you know,
my wife figured out years ago. The the
the
the source of, like, most problems in relationships
is, like, what are we having for dinner
tonight? Right?
And it's like,
you know, we solved it long time ago.
We just have the same things, you know.
Monday is salmon,
You know, salmon
and rice, and Tuesday is is x and
Wednesday. And we just rinse and repeat, and
it's all meals that are healthy. So we've
also taken out the
what are we going to eat thing. Yep.
That debate. Yeah.
And that debate or or that stress, because
what happens is and especially now, whether it's
in Turkey, US, or London, the the ability
to order is just so easy. It's too
easy. Yep.
It's like
it it's
expensive.
It's never
highly very nutritious, and so
even the system of, like, okay. Monday is
going to be,
salmon and salad and whatever, and and each
member of the family cooks something. That's how
our family is structured. It's not like my
wife cooks every day for everyone.
It's, you know, usually the proteins like the
is me or my son, Yusuf.
The salad is my daughter.
Come to think of it, she's trained us
all to cook except her.
You've been scammed.
Yeah, thank you. You know, and so,
just having that system of food
and and just removing
the the removing you know, you heard the
whole decision fatigue thing. You know? As the
day progresses, you're just too fatigued to make
decisions. Like, I'm sure you make 50 decisions
a day as your job as a Sheikh,
and people, hey, Sheikh, what should I do?
Sheikh, what should I do? And at night,
like, what should we have for dinner? You'd
be like, whatever you want. You know, just
order whatever. You know? You just
and so systematizing
all these things is really important.
I remember
Yeah. Go ahead. No. Please go ahead. I
would say just to in line with what
you said, I remember a guy, said why
do people make bad trades?
Like, they buy a bad car, buy a
bad,
product or something. And it oftentimes happened that
you went in open ended.
And the experience became tiring,
so you, in fact, made the purchase to
end the experience,
not because it's any good for you. Right?
And so be if if you go into,
a trade
or a purchase, you have to go in
knowing exactly what you don't want and what
you do want and at what point and
how you walk away from the whole process.
Now if you don't have those, you you'll
you make yourself open
to a swindler or or just a good
salesman or a persistent salesman that is gonna
take you in circles, make you exhausted,
then you're gonna make the purchase just to
end it because you have no plan of
when or how. Like, what words am I
gonna say to get out of this deal
or to this this sale? You have no
plan.
Same sounds like same thing when people eating.
They made no plan for eating.
Hence, it's left at the end of the
day. And, hence, the easiest thing is let's
just give up on this. Everyone take the
app and pick what you want, and all
of a sudden, you spent $70,
and everyone just ate a bunch of fat.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's exactly
and, like, we calculated yesterday. Like, there's a
meal that we make, which is basically an
entire filet filet filet mignon. Right?
And like these, like, really delicious roasted potatoes
and salad, and it was like a delicious
meal, and we calculated that that meal of
fillet,
potatoes, and this like really crazy salad is
cheaper than everyone getting cheeseburgers, like ordering cheeseburgers.
SubhanAllah. That's amazing.
And,
and so because look, I know I'm gonna
lose you soon. So before I lose you,
what race are you gonna do in October?
Is it Yasina in the 10 k or
El Kef and the 21 k?
21 k is how many miles? And can
I walk any of it? You can walk
all of it or you can run, but
I'm but you're sheikh Shadi that you can't
walk.
Firstly, I need new running shoes. That's the
first. I can't show up with the running
shoes that I have. I will. That's the
first thing I need. I will get you,
do you have a what? You have a
normal arch or do you have flat feet?
No. I have a normal arch.
No. No arch. I will I will pick
your shoes. I will send you shoes. Please
do. I I will take on the shoes.
Bring me any pair of shoes you take
you bring, I'm gonna accept it. Size 8.5
in the size of Nike.
Anything that you bring me, I'll wear it,
and I'm gonna meet you in Jersey. You're
gonna be there. Right? I'm gonna send it
to you. I'm gonna send you the shoes,
like, this week so that you'll start trading.
Good. How
do I Yeah. Go ahead. You too.
I'll do the 9 miles.
No. Tell us it's well, the the the
levels are it's in Molcan 3 miles. That's
the kingdom. That's
and then there is 6 miles and,
Yacine, the heart. Let's call the heart.
There's 13 miles and a calf.
There's 13 miles. Yeah. 26 miles and aaraf
and then there's 50 miles on the. That
that's one's called the cow.
I do have a wedding that day.
Okay. As long I will run the whole
day until the day that that the moment
that I have to go
change somewhere, shower somewhere,
I'll go to ICPC. Do they have a,
shower for people who do?
Yes. Yes. Of course. I'm committed to this
thing. I'm gonna shower there, put my wedding,
clothes on, and go to the wedding. The
13 miles on a cab?
Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna send you
I'm gonna be your chef.
I'm fine with this. Yeah. You the training
plan that combines some walking and running for
the 13 miles.
I'm committed to this. My problem is
I love the treadmill
and it's the only time I allow myself
to have a little treat to watch TV.
Yeah. Treadmill is no problem. I just ran
the treadmill right now. Okay. Good. On the
treadmill, I I will but I'll tell you
if Shaykh Khattanani beats you, that's gonna be
bad. Oh, that's gonna be a problem.
Now what is the schedule? Saturday is the
tesmia.
Saturday is tesmia. Sunday is the run. Sunday
is the run. And then the score so
the way it works is that there's a
score and a run score, and it gets
combined into a 114 score. So what ends
up happening every year is that
the the better Hafaz win.
So you have these, like, elite athletes that
come and run crazy times. Yeah. You have
a normal civilian
that runs okay, but their head is perfect.
They always win. There's a ranking win. There's
a ranking at the end. Yep.
What's emerging now is this group of people
that are learning about 114 from around the
world, like North Africa and Algeria
that are, like, elite level runners, but also
Afal.
Mhmm.
We're now being exposed to some,
like, there's a guy right now. He's North
African.
He's running across Indonesia.
All of it. What?
Yeah. He's running across all of Indonesia. Wow.
And and he's like
a amazing,
you know,
athlete as well. And so but that that's
but right now what's happening with in New
Jersey and Maryland is that the better Hafad
are winning.
Well, that makes sense because,
I mean, if everyone finishes the race, you
get the same amount of points? Or
Well, no. No. I mean, let let's say
so what what happens is, let's say you
and I are gonna do the half marathon
together. Yeah. And in 2 hours, I do
it in an hour and a half. Yeah.
So now I'm half an hour faster than
you.
But So you get more points. Yeah. More
points. But let's say your hev of Surat
Kahf is perfect,
and mine is I've only memorized half, for
example.
Then you're gonna, yeah, knock off.
Yeah. And so what we try to do
is create a system
that makes the weight of the Quran the
same as the running.
Yeah. And so
what we want ideally is
that people improve both, you know, get get
faster less mistakes and faster in the run.
It's hard to measure because there are no
mistakes in running. There's mistakes in HIFs.
But there's you run faster
Speed versus accuracy.
Yeah. And
so go ahead. I wanna go back to
the eating part because a lot of families
do get in a role
that there are 5, 6, 7 go to
foods that they will cook and eat. Yeah.
And that's actually very good for the body,
the the predictability. However,
there is one problem with that. If there
is a nutrient missing
from your 5, 6 meals,
and, hence, you have to include some super
foods. You're not a new we're not nutritionists.
We don't know what's missing.
So there are superfoods that contain all the
nutrients.
You gotta suck some of stick some of
those in your meals to make sure you
don't have an imbalance in any single nutrient.
A 100%.
Like I one thing I this is gonna
sound like the liver king, but I I
eat liver once a week.
Okay. Because
and and I'm very lucky that there's a
place down the street from my house in
Istanbul that makes amazing liver. I I don't
like liver, by the way, at all. But
they make a
liver is called, like, nature's multivitamin.
It has
so many amazing,
you know,
you know, so so many amazing vitamins and
minerals in liver. And so
absolutely. Like, you you need to know, and
and I you need to know
what's missing from your diet. And you I
like to try to get all of that
from the whole foods. Like,
the again, very lucky you're in Istanbul for
lunch.
There's a place that sells, like the the
main fish that's sold in our area is
called kamsi, which is basically sardines, and you
eat the whole fish, you know, the fish
whole. It's still it's delicious.
Mhmm. That gives you all the omega omega
3 fatty acids and all of the all
of that kind of stuff.
Plus you're eating the bones. You're eating the
collagen,
and and so
but for those who who can get those
naturally,
there's also a bunch of, you know,
vitamins and stuff I take to
but my my preference is to get it
through whole foods.
I I'm sure everybody can go get,
the list of super foods from from online,
but you listed so far liver and sardines.
What are some other whole super foods that
people could just throw into their
diet to ensure that they're covering up?
No. I I'm gonna say what I do,
but I'm really not a, obviously, nutritionist.
Mhmm. But
what what I do is, again, it sounds
so cliche, but I
I just have a routine. On my way
to the gym, I'll make a a smoothie.
And in the smoothie, it has,
frozen berries, which are just I get it
from the
supermarket.
I use,
I put in spirulina and moringa powder,
creatine,
and,
and then in that Wait. What powder did
you say? Sorry.
Creatine.
Creatine. Okay.
And
I have a local juice maker make me
a large juice of lemon
and,
just lemon and ginger. Just like a lot
of ginger and a lot of lemon.
And I'll I'll I'll drink that,
you know, I'll I'll drink that on my
way to the gym.
And then the other things I have is,
I try to have a lot of leafy
vegetables. I actually like salad, so that's not
a problem. But I'll have generally a cabbage
salad with some spinach and that kind of
thing, and inside of it, apple cider vinegar.
And so, yeah, that's
pretty much
I I try to have protein maximum once
a day, like actual meat once a day.
I think we eat too much meat. And
then the thing about eating meat
is
that I I just feel
I feel lethargic after. Yeah.
So,
yeah, that's that's,
you know,
pretty much it. And again,
I am not a highly disciplined person, so
I have to put these systems up. You
know? Yeah. I just wanna sit down, eat
crap, and watch
YouTube videos. Like, that's my
date. But what happens when you eat healthy
consistently,
you feel very good. Mhmm.
And then when you eat
like a double cheeseburger,
like, I never and I'll have my my
son eats like, he's disgusting. You know, like,
he's like sometimes he's like, well, we wanna
eat a double cheeseburger? I love double cheeseburgers.
And I'll actually oh, yeah. I'll eat it
with him and then I'll just feel terrible
afterwards.
Yeah.
So And the kids these days, they they
really just wanna eat sauce, and the food
is an excuse. If you notice how much
saw I don't know how it is in
Turkey, but kids here, it's just so much
sauce
on the burgers and stuff, and the food
is just an excuse to to have it.
Right?
I I I
I when I go to the gym in
the US, I'm, like, looking at I was,
like, looking at these young kids. They must
be 13, 14 in the gym
drinking these like massive energy drinks. Right? Mhmm.
And so I looked up one of them.
It's like 2 to 300 milligrams of caffeine.
And Oh my God. Oh, it's And they're
like downing it, you know, these like little
tiny people downing it. Hang on.
Yeah. I don't I don't know what what
we do. Here here's a fair question for
you, and I wanna take Bilal of Timbuktu's
question. Timbuktu.
I go to my house. I'm gonna take
some ground meat, put some olive oil on
the pan, ground the meat, put some cheese
on it, put some bread next to it.
Tell me how is that any different? Why
does that feel so much better
than a cheeseburger?
Like, what what is going on in the
restaurant that makes the cheeseburger feel so much
more miserable to eat than I go to
my own house? Is it the oil? What
is it exactly? The grease?
The
you know, by the way, I I love
making like, I
I am a burger expert. Right? Like, our
house is, like the the the culinary sense
in our house is very high in terms
of, like, what the it's cooked, and
and you're absolutely right. Like, you can make
an amazing smash burger in your house, and
you don't feel like a truck ran over
you. And I I think it's a combination
of a lot of the things. I think
it's the oil
that they use, the amount of salt that
they use,
the, like, the the the amount of butter
that they'll put on the bread before they
put on the
and then beyond that, just a general low
quality of ingredients. Like, you're not gonna go
to the supermarket and say,
what is the crappiest cut of meat I
can get and feed my friends?
Like, I I need
the margins are not quite there, you know?
Yeah. Or like like, people think like that
in the board of like, McDonald's is a
publicly traded company, which means that they, by
definition, have to lower their, you know, increase
their margins, lower their cost, and, you know,
charge more. Mhmm. And so you're not gonna
go to to ShopRite. I don't know which
one you go to and say, you know,
I need to save 25%
on on Yeah.
So Mhmm. So I think just by virtue
of the fact that you're using meat that's
not garbage Yeah.
Bread that's not like, that won't survive a
nuclear, you know, Brazil.
The fact that just
the bread that you're going to use rots,
you know, just I think by virtue of
all those facts alone,
you know, it's gonna be healthier.
Whereas, like, for example, the burger I make
myself like, I make myself a burger once
a week because I love burgers. Like, I'll
get
very high quality low fat meat. You know?
I'll I'll smash it with onions and worcestershire
sauce. I'll skip the cheese,
and and the burger sauce is like
yogurt,
ketchup. Like, I'll I'll I'll split switch out
the mayo for yogurt
and chopped and I'll make a I'll I'll
make a burger sauce that tastes, of course,
not as good, but but very good. And
when you combine the whole thing, it's
it's amazing. And then an hour later, I
don't feel like Exactly. You feel much you
feel normal. Like, you ate a regular meal.
I'm wondering why is it that at the
restaurant, it feels miserable,
and here, it feels great, like normal meal.
We're not we're not eating food in restaurants
in the US. We're eating, you know,
we're eating something that was concocted in the
boardroom,
and and it's to drive the cost.
It's like my European colleagues always say, like,
when I go to America, it's twice the
size, half the quality.
Yep. That's how it is. Yep. Quite the
size, half the quality. Even homes, twice the
size, half the quality of of the what
what they are in Europe. And Mhmm.
So I I think that's like, you know,
if if you go to an expensive restaurant
in New York City, you don't walk out
an hour there and feel terrible because they're
using all the ingredients.
And,
I I think what we feed
you know, when you just order a pizza
from Papa John's
versus make it at home making it at
home, like, you don't know where that what
that cheese is and Who knows, man? Oh.
That was nasty stuff.
Who knows? Like, what it it tastes amazing.
It's full of MSG. Like, don't get me
wrong. It tastes great. You know? And and,
but, yeah, it's it's not food. Something else.
It's not I I know that I noticed
that even the bread can't this can't be
normal.
There's no way
that they're making a profit
at the cost. Right? There's no way if
this is normal bread and cheese. It's not
it's not it's not ice cream. Yeah.
It's not
chili ice cream. When you get that delicious
thing that my kids love for 99¢
Mhmm. It's not
it's it's something else. It's some mutant thing.
Yeah. I'm so it's my x men by
now.
If you're on Instagram, hop over and check
out 1 o n e
one four digits. So the right written, o
n e one four dot one
to see about these races, to see about
this initiative, to get everyone healthy. And Safina
Sadi is all behind this. I'm one of
them.
And now I wanna shift to another problem
that happens to a lot of East Coasters.
Okay.
Summertime,
springtime, we
are sizzling. We're fit. We're conscious of this.
Something happens at the winter.
Yeah. Yeah. You just wanna hibernate. I don't
wanna move.
Don't call me. Don't text me. I don't
wanna talk to anybody. I just wanna eat
and be warm, and I do not wanna
move.
This year, we're solving this problem. Yeah. This
year, this problem is gonna be slaughtered,
but give us tips how to solve this
problem.
Yeah. I I go through the same thing.
I I always, like, say that
I think it's because I'm I'm Egyptian, and
we're solar power. Yep. Right? Something happens in
the in in in the where I just
I, myself,
don't wanna work out, and I work out.
I I solve these things through and I
and I think this is the missing component
when we talked about, you know,
you know,
I have
friends like, I have a weekly meet up
here in Turkey where we run we memorize
together on Sunday, and we run together.
I have
friends that I work out with, friends I
run with.
You know, I I think this notion of
doing things alone,
and,
Imam Sami Zohana actually had a like, we
were talking about this recently,
that, you know, there's this notion of, like,
this Goggins esque type thing where we we
need to, like, you know,
go out alone, run every day, you you
know, kill your inner whatever, and all this
kind of stuff. I I I don't think
that's our tradition. I I think our tradition
is one of doing things together,
and and strengthening and building community, and and
not being alone. We're exactly the opposite. Like,
if if anyone that was going to be
alone and succeed was in the same time.
And,
and so
in in the winter months is where I
really lean on
my friends, my
the the Sahaba and my coaches, and and
and they're the ones who kind of,
they're the ones who kind of
don't let me
Mhmm.
I I always degrade a little bit. Like,
this is, like, the healthiest I'll be in
the year, like, August into September,
and then I'll do my final races, whatever
they are, and then I kinda take my
foot off the pedal. The thing
do is
they'll take their foot completely off the pedal.
Like, I might remove 5%. People will just
take their foot off and then just eat,
get out of shape. Their back will start
hurting.
You know? And there's a reason people's back
start hurting in
in,
you know, in November, December, January.
Is that because their stomach is heavier now?
They're not doing anything. They're just like, they're
literally sitting down. You know? They're sitting down,
they're doing anything,
whereas in the summer months, you're just more
active. You're moving around.
So what happens when you sit down all
day is your your hip flexors.
They
they we're not meant to sit down all
day. We're meant to walk all day, and
so your hip flexors,
they tighten, and they tighten.
And your your body,
you know, the inside of your body, you're
surrounded by the thing that keeps us from
falling apart is this thing called fascia. It's
like this
bag that surrounds our muscles and our organs
and things like that, and it tightens up.
And sometimes you see people actually
like, it's so tight. The the body is
almost like the fascia is shrinking.
But when you're walking here and
you're keeping it all loose and So imagine
you're like, you're just sitting down, you're eating,
your belly's getting bigger, you're gaining weight,
and then
So it's very easy to hurt your back,
your lower back,
all these things. So
my solution is,
and I also
like, we we created a race in in,
that's right after Ramadan,
just so that we don't like, you keep
your so
you do you you do the Inshallah, you'll
do the the half marathon in September.
But if I tell you, Sheikh Shadi, immediately
register for the marathon
that's gonna be post Ramadan.
Mhmm. What we'll find is, oh,
can we do it? I would no. You
have to do it in post Ramadan.
There's the
thing that next thing that keeps me motivated.
Mhmm.
Sohaba, I always have, like,
and
and Ramadan for me is also the my
most fit time of the year. Mhmm. So,
like, I I,
you know, I
I I try not to
if if I'm really physically fit in Ramadan,
I'm mentally at my best in Ramadan. Yeah.
3 things I wanna ask you.
With hip flexors,
I remember I had this problem, and I
didn't know what it was.
But
it was solved by a certain exercise, a
stretch that if you do it once a
day, you'll never have this problem again. You
lay on your back, you pull your knee
up to yourself,
and then you turn your knee.
So almost
right knee to left shoulder on your back.
You and you pull it, and you keep
pulling it, and you'll feel
all that side stretching out, and you will
have no more of it. None no more
of those back pains. That's number 1. Number
2, is the fascia
is that a scientifically discovered thing, or is
that a theory?
No. It's,
so
ask Chad GPT. It's it's,
it's, Omar, can you look it up?
You know, it's, yeah. You know, it's it's
the fascia is actually amazing, you know. It's
it's something we only think about. We think
about muscles and tendons and things like that.
We don't think about the the back.
You know when you get meat and you
just peel this thing off of the
the meat that you cannot eat? That that's
the fascia.
Or like an egg?
Yeah. A hard boiled egg. The thing that's
that's keeping everything together in our bodies is,
like, the thing that keeps everything from falling
out is the fascia.
And so And in the winter, maybe that
tightens. Maybe warm,
air like hot drinks
would open it up.
One thing I recommend, Shirkhad, is,
is also
a sauna.
You know, it's one of Sauna. Sauna. You're
the second person who told me to get
a sauna in my basement. Get a sauna.
Get a get a cheap infrared one, and
there's ones that like, there's a company in
America that if you get the ones that
are chipped, like, not perfect, they're, like,
half off.
And, you know, infrared sauna,
my my brother has one. They're amazing.
You know, here in Turkey,
you just walk down the street and go
to Haman, and the sauna's there. So it's
easy to go to the sauna 3, 4
times a week here. It's very
cheap.
Do you, in Turkey, you're you're you're pretty
low in comparison to Jersey. You're south of
Jersey,
the East Coast. Is it like you Or
are you even okay. So a lot of
people get really down in the winter. They
get seasonally
season what is it called? Seasonal associated
depression or whatever. SAD, it's called. It's literally
called SAD. Seasonal
associated depression or whatever.
But it's literally called SAD.
Do you did you ever try the light
the lamp? Because some people a lot of
people swear by the lamp.
There's a lamp that cures you. You just
sit in front of it for 25 minutes
a day or something like that. Have you
ever tried that? No. No. No. Because
I run even in the winter.
And so,
you know, I'm
even if it's cold, I'm out in the
sun.
And you you get that effect even if
it's cloudy. You know? It's,
and so I as long as I I'm
running, even if it's really cold, I I
don't experience that. It it stay inside.
And and I think, you know, like, the
the Bedouins in Morocco say the the homes
are the graves of the living.
Yeah.
And
I
if I stay home in the winter months
for long periods of times, I actually get
down, you know? Exactly. And so for me,
just by virtue of leaving the house
Yeah.
And going for a run and, you know,
and even running in the cold in New
Jersey,
it only
is terrible for the first 10 minutes.
Mhmm.
So Well, you need to have a face
mask because the cold air is gonna kill
you.
You don't actually even need, like
Mhmm.
Have you ever looked into Wim Hof?
Yeah. The the breathing expert. Is he one
of your coaches?
No. No. No. Wim Hof is amazing, actually.
This guy has done feats just by the
way he maneuvers the oxygen in his body.
I haven't done any more than with him
than the 15 minute
exercise that he has. Yeah. I just you
know, I I read his book and the
course, and I actually wanted to talk to
you about it maybe offline one day around
what his knowledge tradition around Vik. Like we
must have access to all of these things
in our tradition that William Hart,
you know,
how he manipulates his breath, because I've read
about
people, you know,
who've want, you know, Muslims who've went to
mountains in in in the ice cold, and
and, like,
you know, sweat was,
you know, coming off their body. Like, I
I believe what we have in our tradition,
all of these things that went off,
But what what I was gonna say is
that even in the winter,
if you manipulate your breath and do certain
things and don't allow yourself to
you know? Yeah. You can actually go for
a run,
and and without even needing a face mask.
Okay.
With the Wim Hof method, one thing I
do know for sure is that one of
the reasons people feel tired
in the day is because they don't breathe
well at night.
Yeah.
If you don't breathe well at night, there's
usually 1 or 2 reasons.
Well, it's either the air is not circulating
or your nose
your septum is deviated or something.
I mean, breath breath is such a fascinating
subject. If you just read about
the fact that most of us do not,
everyone's shallow breathing all day.
People are not breathing, they're not using the
majority of the lung capacity. Yeah.
And even in running,
like breathing and running is so important, like,
because, you know, you, you, you burn fat
on the exhalation, on the on the And
so if, if you
manipulate your breathing when you're running, you can
go you can actually you can lower your
heart rate and go longer. Mhmm. Amazing. If
you breathe right. If you breathe right, most
people, when they start running, they go they
just instinctually, before they even need it, they
go
you know, you you to do that.
And so, you know, breathing from your nose,
diaphragmic breathing,
really good role in work. Can you tell
us summarize for us what Wim Hof's theory
is?
Oh, I mean, it's such a big it's
a big theory, and and
what what I can summarize is a is
a is a
a technique.
Mhmm. Maybe.
But basically okay. Let me try to summarize
his actual theory and answer the original question.
He he believes
through manipulation of breath,
you can control what most
people believe is uncontrollable.
So for example,
he had himself
in a controlled environment.
He was injected with a,
it was a poison of some sort, and
and this poison, if you give it to
a normal person, they go into anaphylactic shock,
and the body will start basically going like,
you lose control, because
you don't you don't control the aspect of
your autonomic nervous system. And so poison goes
in, your body just,
you know, has
a a reaction that you cannot control. So
his theory was through breath, he can control
that reaction. He can basically
hey. Relax, buddy. It's okay. Don't don't.
And so he did. And so he through
controlling his breath, he basically signaled his body,
his parasympathetic
nervous system, everything is fine.
And and that that's what he that's how
he's able to run a marathon in Everest,
because the body wants to go into shock,
and he's saying, hey. Everything's okay. Through breath,
it'll work. Don't don't don't go into shock.
Don't, you know, no need to go into
hypothermia.
Just relax. Mhmm.
And so then people thought, okay, he must
have been he must be a unicorn. Then
he taught people how to do this thing.
Yeah. He brought a bunch of people to
Kilimanjaro
wearing basically
boxers,
and then he had a bunch of people
injected.
So by through the manipulation
of breath, you can tell your body, hey.
It's gonna be okay. You know, that
that that's the theory of the Wim Hof
method. And is it hard to, to to
do these breathing techniques? No. I mean, it's
it's and that's
that's actually the brilliance of Wim Hof.
Because like I'll give you an example, like
you can tell somebody, hey, you should start
praying
or read some Quran. Yep.
When they read the Quran, they're not gonna
get pleasure out of it in the beginning.
They're going to like, hey, what is or
if they're praying, they're not gonna get,
you know,
instantaneous pleasure out of praying unless you're lucky.
But the when you do the 10 minute
Wim Hof Wim Hof technique, you'll feel good
after.
The dopamine responses, there's, like, this positive feedback
cycle.
Yeah. Yeah. So when you go to YouTube
and you say Wim Hof, 10 minutes, and
you do it, and you lie down and
do it, you're gonna feel better. You're gonna
feel more relaxed. Your fingers will feel tingly.
Yeah. And that's how he looks, people.
Mhmm.
10 minute,
YouTube
video or
15 like, if we only had that that,
like, was a lot. Like, if there was,
like, a dhikr that you could do that
in 10 minutes, you're like, wow. I feel
amazing. Yeah.
We need to you need to you need
to create that. I I remember,
listening or reading about something about tennis players.
Yeah. And how in tennis, you may have
seen this too.
In tennis,
they try to separate what is it that
makes winners
keep winning
and people hit a wall
at the tough moments.
And everyone says stuff that it's it's all
in in their head. Right? And tennis players,
they're getting their head more than anyone else
because he's the only one on the court.
Whereas a team,
you can maybe just transfer some of the
stress to another player.
It's a team sport. So tennis is different
in that regard. And it's also a moment.
Unlike boxing, you're in the moment. Right? But
in tennis, there's a pause,
and people get iced in that pause. And
that's where they separate winners from losers is
in the pause.
So
and they came upon ultimately the the the
the symptom
of the stress,
of the how they handle the stress
is how they breathe.
Okay. So they detected all of a sudden
in the stressful moment,
the loser
is somebody who who just he says stop
breathing.
He got tight. Stop breathing. When you do
that,
your body gets tired and your mind can't
think.
But the guys who made it through those
were the guys who,
who kept breathing normally.
And they said, like, what did you do
at that point? Well, I I started to
think of hold on. We can turn this
around. So he had a positive thought, but
the positive thought impacted
the breathing.
So now they took these losers, and they
said, alright. Forget trying to control thoughts. That's
hard. Why don't we just tell them to
control breathing?
Right?
So they went to the symptom,
and they found a lot of players. All
of a sudden,
they're more successful in these
pressure moments
because they treated the symptoms. So the the
root and the symptom may actually have an
interaction.
It's not just thoughts
that produce
tight breathing or good breathing. It could be
the opposite too.
I mean, it's it's amazing. I got there
was a there was a Sheikh here in
Istanbul
that's constantly it's like you listen to him.
He's always saying, you know, yellow
t's yellow t's.
And,
and in that vikra, he's
exhaling a lot of oxygen. You know? And
it makes me think a lot that
is there a way I don't even know
if this is right or wrong, to integrate
certain breathing patterns into salah
Mhmm.
That,
you know,
makes you more present, makes you more
aware? Well, I think for that, you need
to look at the Naksha Bandhis.
Okay.
They're into this.
I don't know much of it,
but I do know that they have
the 7,
what are they called?
Lata.
Lata if
we don't have this in the Arab world,
but
Yeah. Afghanistan,
Herat,
those areas behind the river. As we've always
said, no one knows what's happening behind the
river. Right? The Oxus River, there's a saying
in Islamic,
scholarship,
and it's the Oxus River that's way like
pass Afghanistan.
It's like that it's another world, and they
had major
amazing scholarship
in rational sciences and in and
in.
And that air is called.
But when you read their stuff, when you
come upon their even their to so there's
stuff that the Arabs had never seen before.
For 100 of years, they've never seen. So
look up the, if,
may have something to do with that. I
don't know if it's breathing as much as
it is.
They have the 6 lata if a lata
if a sita. Read it to me.
I mean, I don't trust this source from
this. Yeah. It's not a trusted source, but
they have the and the and
the
and
the. Same lies in different properties. Yep. And
it it has something to do with there
it is. There's
6 parts that you need to think about.
What, they think about while they're doing I
don't wanna butcher this, but this is what
they do. That's how it is. And Yeah.
I once said, brothers, are these chakras that
got translated? No. No. No. Nothing to do
with chakras. And I'm telling you some of
the most
conservative,
strict
Quran and sunnah only, they
also recognize the value of this by.
It's by experience. They trial and error.
So maybe we should get a Mujaddidiyyan
to talk about the lataifasita.
In Istanbul.
Yeah. Yeah. We'll get some some of the
Mujadda, the the Nakshabandhis
to talk about the lataifasita. It's not exactly
breathing, but it's a meditation.
Well, you know, it's it's basically like, you
know, like Wim Hof is a practice. Even
running is a practice. You know? Just
improve my running and get into this, you
know, runner's high in the zone and breathing
and all this kind of stuff, and I
don't take that mentality to a lot. Like,
how like, a lot to me is not
a practice. It's not
practice that I'm trying to improve, and it's
not it's just something like, in New Jersey,
I grew up and we both grew up
in New Jersey. It's something and I went
to Islamic school. I went to Jose. It's
something you do so you don't go to
*. You know? Yeah. You know? You know,
and and a lot of that stuff continues
into adulthood.
And so I always do it.
I if if
if I treat Salah the same way I
treat, like, women, and study it in the
same way I started breathing,
you know, can that open I'm sure it
can open
infinitely
more interesting and important doors than Wim Hof
can. It's just not something I Mhmm.
And and also, I I wanna think about
how
dhikr without trying has to regulate breathing. That's
why I think there there has to be
a physical as well as a spiritual and
a, like, a mental and a physical element.
The mental is the meaning of what you're
saying.
The spiritual is what Allah has put in
the blessing of saying these words. Simple as
that. Just a he put a blessing. If
you say this, I send you blessings. That's
it.
Thirdly, there is must be physical because if
I repeat
without realizing within 5 minutes, I'm gonna be
less than that. Within 30 seconds, my breathing
is regulated.
Once your breathing is regulated, all of a
sudden, the the nervousness goes down. Yeah. Right?
So there has to be a link.
And I and it doesn't and you don't
need to to do controlled breathing. You just
say the right words.
Yeah.
So,
someone here that,
can you get us Sheikh Ahmed,
Adebak?
Could you get him for us? I mean,
I've met him twice. He's come to Jersey
twice, but I don't I lost contact. Can
you get him? Tadeh Brazeeb is a brother.
He came to Jersey, and he's always on
the stream. So can you get us, Sheikh
Ahmed DeBach, to come on to the livestream
to talk about this?
Okay. So we covered today. We talked about
sleep.
We talked about
the fascia. We talked about food. We talked
about physical fitness. We talked about mentorship and
coaching as a key part of any success.
If you wanna be in business, get a
mentor. If you wanna have a good marriage,
get a mentor. If you wanna raise kids,
get a mentor. Mentor doesn't mean you always
have to have some schedule. Just that's the
guy I go to all the time when
I need help.
One more thing.
Mhmm. Water.
So important. So critical. How many problems can
good
hydration solve?
A lot. Mhmm. And what does good hydration
look like? I mean, for me,
I think good hydration starts with not, you
know, not drinking too many diuretics like coffee,
tea, and I love coffee and tea. Yeah.
I love and so you you have to
recognize these are diuretics, and and a lot
of times people, you know, try to drink,
like, you know, a a bunch of these,
and they'll just urinate them out. Yep. And
it's not just about the quantity of water.
It's can you retain it? And so Yep.
Like, one one little hack you can put
in
is, like, there's a,
forgot the name of it, but there's, like,
this electrolyte powder that you can put in
the water that just has the right amount
of salt, no sugar,
and that helps you retain the water. It
that's what it does. Helps retain the water.
Okay. I was wondering what is the point
of these electrolytes? You feel better.
Yeah. And you have
I mean, you you think a lot of
water, but if you just flush it out
of your system, you're not you didn't gain
anything. And so
one little hack you can do, and I
don't know if it's pseudoscience, is if you
get, like, Celtic sea salt, like, it's like
the one that's kinda gray.
Mhmm.
You just put some Celtic sea salt
with your water. It'll help you retain it
and not flush it out. Are you saying
that salt helps retain the water in your
body? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A 100%. I never
knew that. Look, the lights is big, salt
and some sugar.
Okay. I've I see. I I Well, all
good. It's like food coloring, some salt, and
some sugar.
Okay. So I was wondered why is it
they tell people who fast a lot
to
and I'm talking about water fast, not fast.
To drink water with electrolytes so they can
avoid dehydration. I'm like, why would they dehydrate
when he's on a water fast? All he
does is drink water. Yeah. Because you you
you'll
you'll it'll flush through your system.
I see. You'll just drink it, and it'll
just and whereas the
the salt helps you retain the water. What
about regular salt and some lemon?
That's fine. Does the trick too. If you
don't have electrolytes, you just can't put regular
salt, you get feel weird. A little bit
of lemon alters the taste a little bit.
Yep. You know, the fancy stuff, you know,
just on Amazon,
you know, Celtic salt, some Himalayan
because it also has some minerals and some
other stuff. Yeah.
And and so yeah. But wake up in
the morning and and drink up a nice
amount of water. Yeah.
I think most people do is the first
thing that they consume is an espresso
Terrible. Which actually hydrate the water.
You know? And so
drink,
you know, a large thing with some electrolytes
or or
and then half an hour, you'll drink your
your coffee. Yep.
And here's the thing. We talked about another
thing that I wanna close-up with is that
an amazing thing we talked about is scheduling
things.
So
people who are successful look at what you're
successful at, guaranteed.
Every day you have a to do list
for that thing. It's impossible not to.
But when when to look what you're bad
at, guaranteed, you don't measure and you don't
have a schedule of a to do list.
If you have a to do list of
eating, you won't overeat.
You won't eat junk. You won't succumb to
junk food.
A schedule a to do list meaning doesn't
have to be what I'm gonna eat, but
this is what I'm eating and I'm not
eating before or after. Just like fasting Ramadan.
Right?
I wanna tell you another thing too.
This usage
can be regulated.
Why we are addicted is because we don't
regulate it. There's no things that alright. I'm
gonna be on social media from this hour
to this hour.
Yeah.
And at 7 PM, I'm gonna put it
actually in the trunk of my car, like,
as if I buried it, like a mafia
buries a body. Right?
And and, it's not coming out.
Yeah. Yeah. Your life is gonna be different.
Like,
how much Twitter is enough?
How much WhatsApp is enough? Like, do I
have to be do my colleagues at work
have to be able to call me at
any time?
Right? No. The answer is no. Right?
How what when does this thing begin is
the other thing. I'll tell you what's the
worst thing that would start your day off
on the wrong track
is to wake up, and the first thing
is you reach for your phone. That's why
I don't even sleep with it in the
room. I consider it like
a rat, a mouse. Right? I don't wanna
sleep with it in the room a cockroach.
Don't sleep within the room. I got my
flip phone for emergencies.
My flip is for emergencies.
Anyone wanna reach me after hours on on
the flip?
This thing, this devil
is a devil of taking away my attention.
It's it ruins up my schedule. Alright. With
schedule, wake up. Alright. You're gonna I wanna
work out
30 minutes.
Just light work.
Then
I'm gonna
re then there's fetch.
Pray fetch.
Then I'll have a nice cup of coffee
and sit with the computer and start working.
Yeah.
That's the first two hours of your day
or whatever.
6 to 8 or something like that.
This thing will throw that off so quick,
you won't even know what happened. It'll be
8 p 8 AM. You did 0.
Yeah.
And you feel accomplished because you answered some
WhatsApp and you made some tweets and you
got up to date on what who's doing
what. This is such a waste. So this
thing has to be buried into your trunk,
Right? And use your flip phone for emergencies.
But it's all about
saying this is where it starts and this
is where it ends, and that's staying ahead
of the, of the curve rather than being
dictated
and succumbing
to something.
100%. Like, you know, I'm sure some people
listening to this are like,
you know, oh, man. This guy just he
just probably exercises all day. And there's all
these thoughts like, you know,
oh, must be nice. He lives in
Turkey. He seems to exercise all day and
all this kind of stuff, and
and
I I understand where that comes from. You
know? I understand where those
thoughts come from and and that kind of
stuff, but
I can't tell you how many hours
people waste, and and like, what what like
I run a company, you know, I have
a company that does other like I said,
I'm not I'm not a professional athlete or
professional coach or do 114 for a living.
This is just my side stuff. Like I
have real like I have my job, my
work, my company, my other things. I have
4 kids, I have a wife,
But people waste so much time
scrolling
hours
and hours. And and it sound like a
no. What I know is that no one's
stronger than the algorithm.
Say again? No one is stronger than the
algorithm.
Yep. Like, you can't because what people don't
understand, like, why the phones are so addictive
is that,
like, if you read the book Hooked,
like,
you know,
they've learned how to hack the dopamine response
systems. Like, they know how to hack dopamine,
how to make you feel good very quickly.
You you said nobody's stronger than who? The
algorithm. The algorithm. I see. I see. I
see. I'm more than no. The algorithm is
legit. They they the the algorithm is almost
like a nefs in that it knows you
better than you know yourself. Like, you know,
it has the tactical advantage. It knows the
algorithm knows you better than you know yourself
in the same way as the nefs knows
you better than you know yourself. Well, you
know, Shaykh, your kareen knows you better than
you know yourself. Your kareen has been observing
your habits and that guy's been alive for
how many 1000 years, that jinn? And he's
You're like assignment number 5,000 for him.
Exactly. Right?
That's the algorithm. The algorithm is your kareen.
Like,
it's infinitely smarter than you. It knows a
lot more than it's probably listening to us,
you know, and
and so,
like, what you said was is exactly right.
Like, no one's stronger. Like, that's why you
physically have to put it away. Like, even
even when I'm I'm doing a training class,
like, in my professional
capacity, I have to tell the people to
put the phones away from their eyesight because
I am fighting something that's just
on You can't you can't win. Yeah. You
cannot win. And most people have this in
their families. When their families, there are certain
times that it's time to be together.
The phone can't be in sight. Like, I'll
you just cannot stop except for reaching for
it. And if I'm not reaching for it,
I'm thinking about not reaching for it.
I'm telling you, it's I it's again, I
don't know what we're doing to our kids
between the phone, energy drinks, the food that
we're feeding them. Well, that's why they're all
screwed up. They have so many issues.
Their teeth are crooked. Their eyesight's crooked. They
their their hair is frayed.
They don't sleep right. Their skin doesn't look
good. We're producing a whole generation of screwed
up kids.
Yeah. I see. Fault in this in a
100%, but there's a lot that we could
do. Like, I'm really worried about microplastics,
but what are you gonna do about it?
Right? But this stuff, we can do something
about. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, it's it
there is stuff, but but the problem is
even as parents, our attention is so fixated
on these things. We're not paying attention to
these kids. Mhmm. Like even our like, well,
it takes a lot of attention of us
as parents to go and monitor what they're
doing. And then if I like, you you
know, like, I I gave my son his
first smartphone when he was 17. You know
how hard that is? That's like going to
war. Yep. You know? Yep. Because it's been
a sight when he was 12. Now my
I'm dealing with my daughter who's 16,
and it's just so much easier to say
fine. Just, you know
And so and and let me tell you
something else too is that,
when it comes to these devices, besides all
the print, there are controls on Apple. Apple's
trying to
win over parents,
and they have a lot of ways to
control it.
But,
the other thing is that, again, it's gotta
be handed in at some point. Like, I
I put mine away on a good day.
When it's a good day, I put mine
away.
Yeah. And I control it. If if I
don't control it, it's a bad day. Right?
It's literally a bad day. The whole day
is spun out of control, so I missed
the workout, missed this.
Now I'm just like and then you can
get yourself embroiled if you're undisciplined
talking to people online.
You get yourself in you step on some
minds and
stuff. Right? Because
and think about what you said. You had
a bad day Yeah. And so you wanna
feel
good. You want dopamine. Yeah.
The easiest way to feel good and because
humans wanna avoid feeling bad. Mhmm. Like, we're
we're optimized to that that's why the the
makers of these phones and apps know. They
know. We don't wanna feel bad.
Even we don't want to feel uncomfortable of
being bored in the bathroom, so they know
that. Take these things into we can't even
handle the discomfort of the boredom of going
to the bathroom. Crazy. Crazy, man. It's crazy.
Crazy. We can't go to the bathroom without
these things anymore.
And so, you know, imagine
and we are we didn't grow up that
way. Like, we grew up, you and I,
without these things. There was such a thing
as boredom.
It was and it was not yeah. Such
a thing as boredom. Like Yep.
And so, yeah, there is no such like,
the the this is the end of boredom.
Yep. There there the the bore the end
of boredom is a very weird feeling because
I distinctly remember
Sunday evenings,
there's nothing going.
Right? And you are just bored out of
your mind all of Sunday afternoon,
and you're, in a sense, a bit depressed
by it,
and that's a part of life.
But then
the next thing what what you did is
that you reset
because now you can enjoy the next thing.
And the next thing can be a big
deal again. Right? Why did why can't it
be a big deal? Because you went down
a hill.
Now you can go up a hill. Now
the next
hill that appears has meaning to you
if you can feel something.
Now we have a situation where no one
is ever bored, so the hill just has
to keep going up. There's nothing excites anyone
anymore because you're always up. Never go down.
There was, if you understand happiness,
in this world,
when something great happens to you and you're
at a height of happiness,
don't try to, like, keep it going. You
just you have to accept yourself
to now have a phase of hard work
and no results
and boredom and nothing great is happening.
That's what I call resetting. You have to
reset.
And if you just wanna be happy, happy,
happy, happy, that's like sugar, sugar, sugar. You're
gonna get diabetes.
And spiritual diabetes is you cannot no longer
see right from wrong. All you wanna do
is gouge upon happiness.
That's
Which is the which is the surefire way
to misery. And Mhmm. And, you know,
and I and I know this is the
whole conversation thing I left to her, and
I don't think
anyone of Gaza
is
thinking about committing suicide.
You know, like,
you know,
whereas people
who have everything
are and I I remember I'll never forget,
when I when I was,
someone from from Palestine came to visit us,
and we're we're comfortable. Like like we we
we have trouble scrolling through the massacres on
Instagram. SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. And
then I remember
one of the questions was to this Palestinian
who came from from Palestine, and I was
a young kid, and he said,
they said, how do you do it?
How do you do it? Like, we we
live great. Right? Yep. You know? You know,
we live the sad life. Right? Yeah. He
said, I look at you, and I think
to myself. I look at you in America,
and I think.
And so,
like, all of this, like, no boredom, all
this stuff, like, no issues, like, no
it's just a a perfect path to misery.
It is a total path to misery. Yeah.
And you
you know who, one way did in terms
of disciplining these things,
the
the discipline,
it is best and easiest when you don't
have to be disciplined.
That's why, like, when you said I have
a coach. He keeps me on track. My
friends keep me on track.
Put the phone in the trunk of the
car or the glove compartment of the car.
I don't have to be disciplined. Some many,
many people say, no. No. No. You gotta
learn to control yourself.
That's a lot of energy
just to not do something. Right? Why would
I waste that energy? Right? And why would
I put a kid? Many people have this
philosophy. I want him to learn how to
discipline himself.
Right? So we owe all the *'s
there. Right? I don't wanna learn. So
who does that? Right? Like, who as, my
colleague at the message says, is any parent
say,
take a bunch of old playboys from the
seventies eighties where the articles were really good.
I said, read the literature. Don't look at
the next page.
Impossible.
So the most disciplined people
are the people who have to exert the
least energy in being disciplined.
Right?
Right. Equation. Like like my my son, I
remember him telling me in one of our
arguments,
don't trust me? I was like,
of course I don't trust I don't trust
me. Exactly. Yeah. But who you like, you
know? Yeah. And of course, I would, why
would I put you in a position? Because
you have an F's. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Right.
And so, like, success is about building the
structures of,
you know,
where it's not a war every single day.
Like, if I was to tell you like,
let's just say I I lived on the
same street up here. Yeah. And say, you
know, Shoshady,
I'll pray I'll pick you up for fej.
We'll pray.
No. No. Actually, you're the one who pick
me up for Fedsh. I I wouldn't wanna
do that, and afterwards, we'll go for a
run. Mhmm.
You I might be like, oh, I don't
wanna go in Fedsh in the Masjid. You
might not want to go for the run
afterwards, but together, like, okay, I guess, you
know, he's gonna pick me up, and then
we're gonna go for
a run. And then afterwards, we may have
a Dunkin' Donuts together. Yeah. That's not the
point I was telling him. And so yeah.
But but it's creating those structures where that
bundle. It's a bundle. That every day is
not a and and that's what we try
to do. Like, it was 114 and, like,
the whole building, the community, and the WhatsApp
group, and and Mhmm. The content and the
community is that no one should feel alone.
Like, no one should
leave a goggings. There's not so it's trying
to model us. Yeah. That's why I bundled
together the treadmill in front of the TV
because the only time I can ever watch
anything I never watch like, who's gonna sit
and watch TV on the couch, like,
in the daytime? Like, who's gonna do that?
It's a waste of time. But
being on the treadmill, that's my little treat.
So that's my motivation to be on the
to be on the and who's gonna go
on a treadmill and look at the wall?
Right? I was gonna do that. And and
so the bundling is what you're talking about
here is really critical. We're with Ahmed Family.
We're wrapping up on fitness of body and
soul. If you're on Instagram, hop over. Omar
will pin the website, 114.
And and I wanna ask you about
any branches. Where are there branches that have
a 1 14 rep
that physically
have you ever thought about this starting to
have branches that do what you're saying
and come together
running and going to pray in the even
something as simple as a a masj sala
on the Faj Faj in the Masjid and
a 10 to 20 minute run. Something that
simple.
We we we call that hubs, and
we have one in Istanbul, one in North
Jersey,
one in Maryland,
one starting in Dallas, one starting in Qatar.
But what what it With a leader.
Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what I was gonna
say. What it takes is it needs to
have a leader that's there every week that's
you know? And and
what we do in, for example, in Istanbul
is we come together,
and we we memorize together. Mhmm.
And we have a a a wonderful
sheikh named Nael,
beautiful brother, and he teaches the people together
how to memorize.
Because most people don't even know how to
memorize. Like
so it'll be half an hour. It will
we'll get together.
And so over the summer, as as a
collective, we memorize.
Or some some people will rememorize. Other people
will memorize for the first time. That's for
half an hour, and then we'll,
it'll be an hour running where some where
a lot of we have tons who walk.
We have people who run,
10 k, and people who just do 2
miles. And then afterwards,
we have tea and coffee on the Bosphorus.
Same thing in the in North Jersey.
What what it takes and if any of
your anyone from your community is interested, just
reach out to me.
Someone's interested in consistently
creating
like being there every Sunday or Saturday. Yep.
Like, for example,
what makes your
platform so unique and special is you're consistent.
Mhmm. You know, you're like, you know,
you know, just the podcast is gonna be
it's it's gonna be this week, you know,
this day, every week, it's gonna happen to
rain or shine. And I remember I arranged
something with you, and you're like, wait. No.
That's the day I I I recorded. I
can't do that. Mhmm.
So what you need to have local hubs
is someone who's willing to be consistent, rain
or shine.
That's the key. That's the key. And they've
they've gotta have
some kind of
attain some kind of physical fitness goal. Right?
Yeah. Like, they have to be someone who
physically we aspire to be like, physically.
Yeah. Or or or the hard part. It's
the hard part. Like and they need to
be
like, there's a brother in North Jersey. His
his name is, Ramzi. It's amazing. You know,
he's an amazing athlete.
He's passionate about the Quran, and people aspire
to be like him. Mhmm.
He'll be there when you're there, by the
way. He's just an an amazing ambassador for
all of us. Good. Now you know what?
In,
when you when you're with a friend, it
removes the choice. The concept of discipline is
removing the the need to be disciplined, but
also removing choice.
I'm gonna get your question in a sec,
but the,
one technique there was a kid who's not
cleaning,
his room.
Yeah. And so
the the the mom was distraught
and said, I've talked to him about the
importance of cleaning. I've asked him nicely. Blah
blah blah. Right?
Then the dad comes in and says, you
clean in that room
within
10 minutes,
or else I'm gonna pinch you.
So the mom says, oh, that's harshness. That's
no. It's not. It's actually what it is
is he's not gonna pinch him. It's
removing choice. Right?
It's not giving he's too too young to
have that choice. Remove the choice.
Right? And once you keep removing the choice,
it becomes a habit. So the idea of
removing choice can be by bad or good.
How many of us Muslims, let's be say
the truth,
want to sleep
until 6
AM and not wanna get up at 4:30
in the summer, 5 o'clock in the winter,
to get wet, and then maybe try to
get in another 20 minutes of sleep
before having to get up again.
How many of us does that FEDR break
up this artificial schedule that we've created for
ourselves?
But why don't you? Because I have no
choice.
There's there's ekab. There's punishment.
Hellfire is not just that what is it
removes
the fight of the choice, and
choice is a problem.
Once it's removed, my life is simplified.
Right?
I mean, think about our our childhood,
you know. At this time, there's the A
Team or Knight Rider. It was like nothing
else, you know. Yeah. That was it. Now
it's like Netflix. Man, there's nothing on. There's
like literally 5,000 options and like, and and
you're so absolutely right.
Giving the kids the option, which which is
so natural to do. Hey, what are you
in the mood to eat today? Yeah. Because
every option like there's Netflix for food now,
which is like every option Yep. And then,
I don't know what I'm in the mood
for. And then they start fighting. 1 wants
pizza, 1 wants burgers. Like, what what do
you wanna watch? I don't wanna watch that.
And giving them I I remember asking my
wife, why are we asking them? Yeah. Yeah.
You know, like, why are we only just
tell them this is what you're eating, Savannah.
Mhmm. That's it. That's what's on the table.
On the table. Okay. Don't need to go
to sleep. You know?
And that's,
You know, Omar and and the guys, we
are seasoned
experts in eating out together.
Like,
we our our crew eats out minimum, minimum
4 times a month every.
We go to a restaurant, we eat. Right?
But we are now the experts
at eating out with a group of I'm
talking 10, 20 to 30 guys sometimes. Right?
The rule is this is the rule.
You go to the restaurant and you tell
the restaurant owner or the manager
or one of us tells them, put food
on the table.
Wow. That's it. Right? Whatever your cook up,
you cook up. If he says, I insist
on taking an order, like, because there's no
such thing. Like,
I gotta take your order.
Then we send 1 guy
to make the order, and he'll just divide
it up. Ten burgers,
10 chicken burgers,
and 10 wings.
Right? And that's it. And when the food
comes, don't say, no. No. I want this.
I want that.
Whatever gets put in front of you, that's
what you eat.
At the end of it, everyone puts their
card in the middle of a hat.
A lot of times, one guy will cover
the whole payment or something. Right? But that's
the rule. So that is the method of
eating out. Now can you imagine if the
waiter had to go around?
What would you like? What would you like?
And I got this order. No. This order's
mine. No. This one's mine. It's a headache
for everybody. For us, it's a headache.
For him, it's a headache. And now when
we pay,
it's a headache.
So you gotta simplify everything.
Right?
And same thing when it comes to kids
and eat. It's not you're not controlling.
You're eliminating
needless choice
so that they could think about other things.
A 100%. Right? Yeah.
And this is what you're eating, and if
you don't if you don't want it, you
don't have to eat. Right?
Exactly. So I don't have to eat. Right?
That's your choice, right, to eat or not
to eat. But what's put in front of
you is that I went to a restaurant.
I will close with this in the Dominican
Republic.
Turns out the restaurant is the guy's house.
Right?
And he has his his table,
and he has a couch and some chairs
around it.
You sit there. His wife is literally sitting
at a pot with a with a kerosene
fire,
cooking chapatis, and talking to the guests. Right?
And then he has some other,
workers cooking in the back.
It's an amazing restaurant. You go there. You
sit. You will get served. You won't make
any orders.
What she's cooking, that's what's the on the
menu.
You will get served, and you're gonna put
the money at the end of the thing.
Tea, if she's making tea. If she's making
coffee, you're getting coffee.
Whatever bread she's making, roadie, chapati, who knows
what else,
that's what you're getting.
Chicken, fish, beef,
dal,
that's what you're getting. Right? And life is
so simple.
So we talked about a lot of beneficial
things today, honestly, and I thank you so
much for it. And it's refreshing
to talk to Ahmed because he physical fitness
is so refreshing.
And getting out there, getting in nature, getting
in the sun, breathing well, sleeping right, eating
right, throwing your cell phone in the in
the glove compartment at the end of every
day, it's so refreshing and it makes life
so much better. I'm telling you. It makes
life so much better. On top of that,
we have a. We know where why we
exist.
We know where we came from, where we're
going, and how to live in life. We
don't have to have a debate about abortion.
I don't need to debate my kids about
tattoos. I don't need to debate my son
about having an earring. I don't need to
debate my daughter about what to cover in
her body. It's all set. I say, it's
not me. And here's why Allah has had
mercy on us. I could tell
my kids this is what you need to
do. Say, why? Don't ask me. It's not
my religion. I didn't make it up. Right?
Don't ask me. I'm just doing what my
job so I and say, okay. Well, why
don't you just give us a choice? Allah
didn't give me the choice to give you
the choice. Right?
If I'm a day youth, I get burnt.
So I don't wanna get burnt. This is
about me. It's not about you. Right? You
know what a day youth is? A day
youth is someone who lets the women of
his family go out
in tight or naked nakedness or whatever,
and she's being looked at by the people.
That's what a de youth is.
I don't I don't you're not gonna be
you're not going out like that because I
don't wanna get burnt. So Allah's taken the
choice out of me. Right?
So so many good topics. Any final closing
words?
No. Just I I would love for as
many of your community to register
and join either global race or or the
the folks in New Jersey. You know? Come
run half marathon with.
Come on October
5th 6th weekends, and that is also night
at NBIC.
So come to Jersey for night.
Spend do with us. Saturday morning, we're gonna
go recite
at ICPC in Paterson.
Probably after that, we'll go what are we
gonna do after reciting? Let's go for coffee
at that time. Let's go for coffee. With
your family?
Yeah. You know what we should do? Let's
go to a restaurant and tell them, cook
us anything. Exactly. Yes. Put food on the
table. Put it by
Vasha. Vasha. Family coming or no? No. Just
my daughter because she's she's doing the marathon.
Rest of your family's in Turkey? My family's
in Turkey. Okay. Fine. So we'll do this.
We'll go out afterwards, then we have the
run the next day.
So we'll carb up. You know? We'll tell
them cook us any high carb delicious meal,
and you get to eat with shashadi.
And Next day, you get to
It's a deal. And then we're we're running
the next day,
and it's gonna be a a a very
good weekend. So everyone will try, try to
come to And you go to a wedding.
Yeah. I'm gonna bring my whole family to
the race, by the way. Oh, that'd be
awesome. I wanna bring the whole they would
walk whatever they wanna walk. They'll have a
good time, chitchat with people, and stuff like
that.
Awesome. Alright. Thank you so much. Again, everyone,
it's 114
dot 1, and one is spelled out, o
n e 14 dot 1. Use the code
sofa, you get 20% off. Use the code
sofa, you get 20% off, and that's October
6 5th. We talked a lot today. Did
we just talk for 2 hours straight?
Really? That's crazy.
Man, they say Egyptians are talkative, so we
can get 2 of them.
Right?
You know what? Just I I this is
so nice to talk. I'm not.
I
and then we'll do this every 6 months
so I can talk to you for 2
hours. Sohba spelled with an o or a
u? U. U. S u
h b a. You get 20% off. K.
You're gonna have a great time when you
go to this thing.
Thank you so much for coming on.
And we'll come on again as our fitness
correspondent. Doesn't have to be for 2 hours,
even for 15.
When everyone will join. Sounds good. Thanks a
lot.
Alright. Wednesday Dua and then we close-up.
Remember, Wednesday is an eve a day of
Dua is answered, so you gotta make Dua
on Wednesday. And if you do some people
say, oh, I don't have anything to pray
for. Are you so selfish? People are getting
butchered in Gaza, so pray for them. So
I don't understand.
I don't understand the logic there.
Right? Isn't that some wait a second. We
your blessings, do you think that they're here
permanently or is Allah sustaining them? At least
pray for him to sustain them.
Your blessings because you have them. Do you
think you're gonna enjoy them? How many people
finally got the money they try to make
and now they don't enjoy it? Finally married
the woman that they've been chasing their whole
life, and now she makes him miserable. Or
or the husband trying to got the husband
that you want. Right? Triple 6. You know
about that? 6 foot, 6 figures,
6 pack.
Right? You know about this? And now he
he he he he turns out to be
a bum.
Right? You got the guy of your so
just because you have a blessing does not
mean you'll enjoy it. You know that? Yep.
Said, no.
Said the worst person who's who's fooled himself
and ruined himself is the one who has
a blessing but can't enjoy it.
Finally got the blessing of your life, then
get sick. Can't enjoy it. So ask at
least pray that Allah sustains your blessings and
lets you enjoy them and increases you in
them. And it's not all about you. How
about people in Gaza
and Rohingyans
and France and all these other things?
Kashmir.
Who else? Sudan,
civil war. Bangladesh,
flooding.
India.
Who is that? Sheikh Ahmed Salim.
Sheikh Ahmed Salim is here. Allah, Akbar.
Allah. Sheikh Ahmed Salim,
study with him in Atlanta, folks. Study with
him in Atlanta. So pray for your parents,
please.
Common sense. Make dua for your parents who
raised you, and you cannot make you make
dua for your teachers who educated
you.
So we'll close out with a few minutes
of silent dua.
Final reminder to everybody that starting next week,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, because I'm gonna be teaching
now at,
I'm gonna be teaching
a subbing, really, as a teacher,
at the local Muslim high school.
Yeah. I'm teaching there.
So for the next few months. So the
stream will be at 1:30 because I get
out at 12:20. It takes about 30 minutes
to get here from there,
from that moment. So we'll start at 1:30
starting next Tuesday. Tomorrow who's on tomorrow's stream,
Yamar?
No. The guest? Oh, no. No guest, so
we can do an extended q and a.
We will read a little bit of Hadith.
We'll do some other neat things, and
we'll see you then. Assalamu alaikum.