Project Barakah Podcast | Re-routing in Your 30’s and 40’s & Mentorship

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alhamdulillah um welcome to project Baraka podcast this is an opportunity for brothers and sisters of the Quran Institute and its varying organizations Outreach work to kind of speak to you to share the work and to share feedback and we have very specific approach our approach uh might be a little bit strange to people it might be uh a bit unconventional uh it is to do the work to make the effort and then talk about it and so what is needed I think as a community is we reflect back as a mirror the aim of the podcast when we used we discussed this was to actually make the podcast a mirror back to the community so instead of being a means to telling the community um everything is great or everything is bad but actually show what is Good from the Grassroots what is needs work on from the Grassroots and the topic today is re-rooting at 30 in our 30s and 40s right and I find also that we don’t always have this uh see as a virtue now now to be in 30s and 40s and actually have um uh perspective that can be provided wisdom that can be provided you know and uh and I think this is something that we’ll explore inshallah with uh myself uh mu Abu Hamza my friend and colleague brother Kiser and brother wakas who also works with me and I think the best thing to do before I break out into all sorts of things I want to talk about is how do we know each other Kaiser how do we know each other Alum well we have known was going quite a way back right I was a university you were you know in college I assume yeah and um with we were brought up in families that where Focus was always ingrained within the work of Islam and dawa and I think it was those circles that brought us together and Allah blessed us to to be in you know in the circles that we were there and you remember the brothers that I you know you frequented I used to go to Flat meet so many brothers Brothers definitely from different backgrounds you know uh and it was it was very sort of a buzzing Islamic environment look you know and uh and that was that was something that I think we all you know uh very mindful of but my parents were always focused in terms of who my friends were um they never said yes or no or you know they wanted me to they gave me enough to be able to find my own way but they were always very keen even in my 40s right as I stand um my mother always wanted to check with who I’m you know spending my time with Allah yeah I mean and so this is something which you know I think was the first part that where we we we learned about each other and I think over time we started working together in youth club in Stepney yeah so that was you know another part but as of recently I think this is something which you know we all have our own Journeys and over time uh life takes us in different directions and I guess in terms of the Journey of learning for ourselves and for our families and the community so there was this late in life realization and it came to me to be honest personally I was working you know in in in sort of the say corporate world in you know as a civil servant working Westminister and uh one of the my colleagues I used to sit next to uh although he wasn’t part of my team directly um and you know he’s a non-muslim but he had a Muslim girlfriend and a lot of questions in he had about Islam and he used to come up and one of the things he always pointed out was you guys you know blindly read this this Quran that you don’t even know what it means you don’t know the Arabic and I mean there was an element of explaining to him that the you know we follow based on understanding yes we may not know the Arabic but we go based on Arab understanding the translation and we’re still following you know the tenants well before we get into the meet a bit yes right how we met is roughly 20 years ago in a student flat and lovely Brothers there learned a lot from every single person there and um I think where we really um kind of our paths crossed again is actually from the madrasa when we started out the madrasa that’s when we really re-engaged again well I i’ kind of defer on that uh because we re-engage when you’re doing the letters to light yeah I enrolled for those courses yeah again from kind of reflection of I need to understand what Allah is saying in the Quran you know reconnect with Arabic language itself right um as part of myal Journey and actually being as a father thinking of my daughter you know how much I can actually you know so that’s the re that was our next bit and then obviously the Quran Academy so that was like the journey I think yeah as colleagues that was the journey and I think as a student teacher relationship you’re right it was the letters to light program um you I’m forgetting all this stuff I swear to God it’s things have evolved in so many ways I can’t remember all the little parts that make up what what led to today how many years have you two known each other oh a long time over two decades over two decades yeah it’s yeah something like that you know so how did we you know before let’s break the ice how did we get to know know each other how how do we know each other um Facebook what went right what went wrong I ended up here and I’m joking alhamdulillah uh Facebook a lot of your engagement posts things you would say um I think we spoke about it previously I’ve gone through Facebook Messenger I’m like 2015 was the first time there’s like 60 like I I haven’t put a number on it I haven’t checked over running conversation with Brothers all across the world on different times have they contact me where they’ve felt a little bit lost and they wanted some advice or whatever I don’t know how many people there are like that there there’s there’s so many but what happens is is like I remember having a conversation and then we don’t speak for about a year and maybe you pick up on it again and then we don’t speak for 2 years so I still don’t know how we like do you see that’s crazy I think it I think there was that and also we have distance you live in woking I’m live I’m in London London is that there is that but the sporadic the thing you talk about where there gaps between our conversations I think where it kind of where it really started the relationship so there was obviously moments where I was like oh what’s the opinion on this muy what’s the opinion on that Muti and there’s a year or two between that but where I think it kind of really started the relationship was um two years ago two years ago and two months yeah family program and I remember I wasn’t even going to initially enroll um and that’s because like most people the weekends is for family children let’s be honest what happened is there were times that you were drawn to who’s this guy was he D let’s have a chat let’s get some advice I read a post it resonated and then other times you just pulled away and you carried on stac Disco and then sometimes so basically what you’re saying is we played out the whole Dances with Wolves pretty much pretty much it just I put something there he comes near it he doesn’t trust me you know and then he walks away and then he comes and that that happened over what period of time um I would say how long did this know you you did your campaign as well pre family program and that was with me on Instagram and Facebook and I was like this looks interesting cuz as I mentioned previously where um I always wanted to study lerine familiarize myself and we’ll talk about it properly later yeah but not alone I want my wife I want my kids with me and I need clearly I’m not knowledgeable enough to teach them those things so I need a teacher and that wasn’t necessarily a culture that I was exposed to throughout my life and I thought here’s something someone in in yourself um who is alhamdulillah qualified and learned enough certainly for me to sort of start from at least a foundational point of view for me and I thought family program family and just it was actually your campaign around family program see the more I’m talking about I’m thinking what what it was just family Pro cuz for me that was what resonated with me it was just family Centric development here’s a question though I’ll throw it out to both of you but maybe you can start this off you’re slightly older than me and you’re slightly younger than me right we have this is this is good well how important is it do you think to have and by the way I just want to point out I like clearing the air in these things right because we’re in uh we’re doing this podcast yeah people don’t even might not know some background and so on so it’s hard to now try and cover that all here sure but what I will say is is I don’t see myself as um someone who deserves to be people’s you know people and they should be mentored or whatever um I am yes I I run an organization I consider my you know internally I call myself The Reluctant Amir and um I don’t necessarily uh would if there was a queue of people place my in front of everyone and say yeah that’ll make a mentor that’ll make a teacher I don’t see myself like that either um I actually see myself as oh I’ve gone through a similar Journey as brothers and I work some stuff out that’s the difference assess some things some key kind of mindsets attitudes um and they weren’t brought out from you know some self-help book they were done through building successful businesses knowing uh certain um being a matter of fact about things knowing things uh Beyond The Blueprint being very practically minded and then those things kind of seeped into this re-engagement I had you know in my 30s right cuz remember I just turned 30 and I decided to sell up you know a shop and close down things and sell up and do a fire sale and just I just wanted out I wanted to go to Egypt I wanted to study and so on and I didn’t realize what I wanted so that time I can tell you that I wanted something but I don’t I couldn’t put my finger on what is I wanted and that’s a thing that happens when you’re in your 30s and 40s right there is this disorientation like you I know they cuss it and they call it pejoratively you know midlife crisis quarter life crisis but genuinely some point you realize that not everything you were zealous about when you were 16 makes sense at 25 30 you look at your children you look at the community and you just think what am I doing so I didn’t know but I can definitely tell you that I was looking for a teacher I didn’t know I was looking for a teacher I I thought I I thought I was looking for tutoring you know private teacher I I didn’t know I was looking for someone to mold me yeah I wasn’t really in the mood for that as well right because you got all this armor you developed isn’t it I ain’t that well I may not have achieved that but at least I achieved this I may not have done this but I add up to that yeah at least I did this because I’ve got that at least I didn’t do that so it doesn’t matter if I didn’t you know I don’t do it’s Haram or whatever these get sold that means I’m all right not you know wasting time at sinful uh levels so what happened is is I didn’t realize I needed a teacher but then I discovered when I went there that guess what um to connect me between my Rob and I don’t mean you know um like some or you know like you know giving your life away or anything like this just simply thinking that you know what all these years we haven’t been mentored and then we’re going out there and we’re telling people from what level of experience what level of maturity what level who where what chain of established people have we learned certain mindsets and behaviors or is it just people half the people who would have given me advice about how I should live my life and I’m going to say this bluntly don’t even know where they’re going so that’s scary so you’re 16 following someone who’s 26 you’re 26 following people who are 36 or whatever it is right 10 20 years older than you and these people above you are having midlife crisis they’re the ones having the midlife crisis they’re the ones who are panicking they’re thinking what what am I what am I meant to do so you think hold on a second you fellas have taken us on a whole journey right at the end up the Garden Path right it’s this Forest Gump moment right where you’re running he goes running for like ever and he’s got a beard at this big and he’s running running running like this and then he just says I think I’m might go home now and then he stops running and then he’s got this Legion of people who don’t know what to do it themselves because guess what um they didn’t know why we they’re following in the first place safety numbers safety numbers so you know the idea of having a mentor at teachers and more than a teacher right filling in the gaps that parents didn’t fill filling the gaps that siblings younger or older didn’t fill filling in the gaps that you know uncles and the community and the local IM didn’t fill yes it turns out that I went there and I realized that I’ve built a lot of armor to defend to protect myself that I don’t have a mentor well the other aspect is also the fear that what we have done so far yeah realization that actually what have I achieved for myself what is it that I’m going to stand for of Allah with so there’s that you don’t want to admit a certain part of I could have used my time better as a realization that actually look the end game of thinking about what we’re going to say look you’ve got a situation where you’ll have people um and this happens in all organizations and groups and and and and whatever yeah it happens it can happen in my own family my family is a group per se I could then use my get my son to do loads of things and then forget the fact that he actually needs to study to earn a living I could forget that he needs to actually learn the dean and be and spiritually grounded and I could just say you know you take care of the you know the mosque keeper son you know or the you know the caretaker’s son right so it it ends up being like that you know if if you’re the guy who who does burials you’re just been helping carrying the coffins with your dad right it it becomes like this so you even as this mini group I could end up sacrificing that future so you have to be very very careful that no you actually if you’re advising people you have to make sure that you’re supporting them as future parents as future husbands as future uh Community figures yeah and I found that that wasn’t there a lot of the time when people were giving advice right um maybe naivity maybe utter hypocrisy a bit of mouth maybe even that people who were telling 16 year olds and 18 year olds and 20 year olds what how to live their life what’s important in terms of learning and what’s not important if you ask them what their kids are doing he says he’s going to Alazar he’s going to uh uh he’s doing this and that and you think to yourself but you told 40 50 60 children yeah who you know young teens um that this stuff wasn’t important yeah so you need to be careful that you know every mosque every organization has targets to me and those targets could very easily burn the potential of the the the youth for the sake of reaching those targets any mosque any organization even my own family I could end up doing that so what’s really really important here is having a having a DA that you could not hypocritically tell other people who are 20 plus because we now would be people who advise 20-y olds that’s where we’re at now we’re at that point in life right yeah so if we’re going to advise 20- year olds then we better have the same advice for our own children lest we be Hypocrites and we burn a future of someone who isn’t my blood yeah yeah and then when someone who is uh uh my blood I say no you can you know that you tell this person the you know you tell your son the sky is the limit and then you tell your son the limit’s the sky you know you tell your son uh you know the you know the world is your oyster and then you you tell the other young lad the oyster is your world right what I’m trying to say is is um we’re trying to and we’ve tried to do this which is find a consistent message that you can give your son you can give your daughter and I can give my son but the question is is we have an age difference here we’re quite close in age and we’re quite close in age but you’re older than me and that still requires a certain level of uh respect and certain level of thingy that goes towards you yeah right how do and someone being similar in age right I’m not you know you know maybe I I work on it over Years inshah it’ll be like a big gray beard right but when that happens until that happens how do you currently cope with this idea that you have a mentor like what isn’t that strange to have someone Jun to no actually the reality is that we need to be authentic to ourselves and be honest and truthful yeah Allah gives all of us different aspects of abilities uh and the reality is if we’re being true to ourselves to Allah whether it comes for someone younger than you whether it comes from whatever the root is it when we do stand in front of Allah we need to be very truthful about it otherwise we’re deceiving ourselves the reality of it is if we do have the level of I mean so I would say for my personal there’s a level of arrogance if you can’t take constructive self-reflection from someone who is younger than you because you have either agism issue right there’s cultural aspects where you know we do look at the youth as someone you know as per should we say the norm age would assume more more experience but the reality of is as we know we’ve been you know I’ve been around a lot of different parts of the world sometimes actually you could have someone who a lot younger has had lot more experience right as and insight that Allah has given yeah because different people have different uh gifts that Allah has given right and some of these gifts have been utilized in a certain way way and some of some of us haven’t so yes I may have X Y and Z given to me but I may have not utilized a lot of it which I didn’t you know that was the realization I came through you know approaching you know coming onto you know the late’ 40s I did realize that actually you know what from a lot of advice I was given I didn’t and the resources Allah gave me in my life I didn’t utilize it so for me to have someone younger whether it’s my friend or someone that I have a personality Clash with I should be authentic to myself to be able to take that to to become closer to Allah to be authentic to Allah because at the end of the day I like using the word the end game the end game is what you are going to be standing for with isn’t it right whether it came from someone you don’t like or whether it came from some older or younger the reality of that just to tell you but then that thing of because there’s certain aspects I hav developed I need to go to someone who has developed it that is the truth look we do it at work right as as a professional you know we when we start I’ve worked in different Industries right as a manager as senior manager you know and the thing is we acknowledge that there are certain skill sets someone else has got has developed because they have been active within that era during that time and develop those skills and we then take it to develop our own skills right it doesn’t make us a human that’s less in value right it is just the exposure of how much experience we have right look at the strange phenomena though yeah you have a situation where most people who either hit the 30s I got 30s yeah feeling like the retired Muslims I’m going into retirement now you got 40-year-olds saying this is that’s it what can I possibly do yeah and there’s two problems with that first of all it’s really an insult to the of Revelation was being sent to him at 40 and you know and it starts at 40 okay so he’s 40 years old and he gets given to him and think about how early Allah could have sent this Jam to him in his 20s true right and where his prophetic Mission begins usually it’s the end of most people’s Journey he could have been a lettered Prophet for example exactly so this is suban Allah this is something where Allah sent to someone in the when they turn 40 right the Journey Begins the average you know South Asian Pakistani bangali whatever from I I’ve seen you right doesn’t matter they could be having degrees and master’s degree in LinkedIn yeah but then they are like kindergarten level in the Taj and and Essentials and now you get the other problem it’s hard it’s hard to do what you did it’s hard to accept that and say you know what you know I want to learn from someone younger or I want to learn from someone I know yeah it’s hard to show your wound to people you know because you know you’re scared what they’re going to do with it you’re scared that they’re going to cut in it’s usually with family isn’t it this is a lot of times we have a little bit of friction with family because they will always look at you as that little kid so there’s all of this but what happens is is because of that we we we have a few issues one is is we build defense mechanisms a lot of people are compensating for their ignorance meaning they car is compensating for their lack or the their expensive car is to compensate for for their spir spiritual poverty yeah the expensive house is to compensate for their spiritual poverty it’s all to kind of uh bury underneath something that when they’re un alone and when they’re praying they know I don’t even know what I’m saying and I’ve read F 70,000 times 80,000 times now think about it you know you read it like 27 times a day or something you know including with if you’re hanafi right and then you’ve got all of those prayers put together then you times that by you know every ra and you know sorry a day then you times that by 365 then you have to times that by the number 30 years of praying or whatever adds up to a lot and one thing I have to say is is a lot of the time um it takes someone to expect behaviors of other people if that person themselves have tried have gone through those things and so again I it’s no boast it’s p it’s Allah guided me to it I went to various young people I went with my wife and I went to a brother who who I love dearly a good brother um in Egypt and I went with I literally me and my wife and said and it’s like 10 years Junior to me you know this is where you know you use phrases like you know whipper snapper grasshopper yeah you know whatever but for me my brother definitely I said teach us teach us like this I and and that was not straight away that was after the armor of I’m an entrepreneur I’m a businessman I got a shop I’ve got multiple employees I’ve got multiple warehouses I’ve got this I got that and you know all of these things means you know you may not you may know you you’re Arabic mate but I know something else no I don’t know what I need to know for me like you said for my and I think perhaps uh yeah whoever doesn’t show honor other people respect others he won’t receive respect yeah and so I was happy to go under the tutelage of someone who’s very Junior to me right and there’s a pride that you get when your wife’s around and I was like no we need to learn help us we need your help we want to learn we want to accelerate our we need help you see the brother said even no have embarrassment of someone asking him such a thing because he had respect for me but I said don’t let that get in the way teach us and maybe that might at least qualify me somewhat Beyond paperwork and and and degrees and W that was scary right paperwork and all of these things that I actually was willing to do that not someone um a year or two years or four or five or six or seven I don’t know about 12 13 years you know probably even more happy to just say you know what you know something I don’t about my religion I will go through anything to go and get that do you see what about yourself how how’s it been um I think like yourself initially you know you want to just have a tutor you want to learn you want to study um you want to have Islam taught to you you don’t do the I mean not that I call mentorship a sign up or being a mentor as a sign up but in your head you don’t there’s not that initial thing where yeah I know what I’m signing up for there isn’t that right so you don’t realize until you’re almost already into it yeah and a lot of it came as a realization afterwards I’m like I don’t think you know this but you called me 11:00 at night after the second class of family program you understand I don’t pick up unless it’s my mom or dad or someone I don’t pick up the phone to like 11:00 is my bedtime yeah and I got mov morning I’m thinking looking at my phone thinking yeah I C on the bros man yeah I’m just thinking why is someone who I’ve just met twice why is my teacher phoning me and then I answered it we spoke for 4 hours so and that’s all she wrote right that’s all she wrote That’s All She Wrote here we are and then and I only see thing is that only resonates with me now because I’m able to look over my shoulder and think like oh wow so that was kind of what was going on now whether you did that intentionally whether you didn’t do that intentionally only you know but I do know that it all came from a place of trying to help people see their potential and that’s something I do acknowledge and I think there’s a bit of Uninvited mentorship I think that’s that’s you always do the thing when I’m thinking of something you’re like this is what you’re saying maybe because I’m on the clock I don’t know but actually genuinely that is what it was it was that I don’t go where I don’t belong but what happens is is that I can sense someone’s got a wound something in somewhere forom and I try and spend time look some people will just say okay they don’t want a relationship what they want is uh almost like a human vending machine I you teach me Arabic end of ipped out see you later I’m gone see you in the next class but what I do is is that you know I see students and I see that they’ve got life experience they’ve got good akl good behaviors and those behaviors are for me when I see good behavior and good adab in people that’s attractive that makes me think you know what man that’s the kind of brother I want around me you see so I you know I I we do I do this often I try to reach out to my students and and advise them and help them and you know it could be half an hour conversation it could be four hours right but the aim is is to get that person to realize how I feel about my own religion about how my journey has been and a lot of the time you’re a lot of the really to be honest with you 30s and 40s are some of the most stubborn ages brothers are so stubborn set in their ways definitely and unfortunately um the conversations uh in that quarter life midlife crisis that existential crisis is oh they want to get a second wife or they want to have move to Dubai yeah or they want to buy a car or do a second business or something else and you think to yourself all the Hadith about make use before five you know Health before your illness and your time before your thing all of this stuff you’re running out of time yes you know Allah tells us you know yeah you know uh Allah is saying I swear by time yes yeah I swear by time you know man man is in loss yeah and Subhan Allah it doesn’t click that actually don’t you think even at 40 or 50 and I’ll be honest I meet 40 50y olds and I think still haven’t learned mate you still don’t you still haven’t learned The Knack and the adab I don’t mind you know offline online saying this to anyone yeah you still haven’t learned you still banging the same drum or and it’s one big massive smoke screen it’s a massive smoke screen of why you haven’t studied the book of Allah how can you read every single self-help book every single book of you know philosophy and business books and management hle hle programming this that everything cyber security everything and then when you say you just open the book of Quran yeah you open the Quran and you open Allah’s book and you just don’t know anything yeah don’t have any relationship with this book of Allah no correct t no these things and it’s just one big smoke screen of you know and it’s very easy to that smokees screen to drag in Islamic reasons as well to to use the da excuse to to use that the world is corrupt can you imagine what a disrespect that is to the suffering in the world to drag in the suffering in the world as a smokees screen for your own lack of development to bring in the death of Muslims right to hide you know sending me pictures of babies and everything just because you don’t want to do your F of reading the Quran properly you mean dead babies D yeah dead babies in Gaza and everywhere you know it it breaks my heart to see these images and you have to think exactly what needs to be done it’s almost like scap Goat as well you think sharing you you found the right word for me you found the right word for me you know how can you scap goat um a cause for your own lack of development yeah I’m do right a massive what a massive smoke screen unbelievable yeah do you see right and the only time you you see what we don’t realize is is you could go through your whole life without someone absolutely smashing every single one of your your excuses are like Idols yeah and there’s very few people who will spend a 3 4our conversation smashing every single possible excuse not to want to get close to Allah through Allah’s book there can no very few people won’t do that very few people won’t give you the time for for that you could go through your whole life and you know what some of the oldest Brothers I’ve ever met their class the common phrases how come nobody told me even older sisters they will say in in my class they’ll say how come nobody told me do you know what the real answer is you owe it to yourself to have known that you shouldn’t have found the followed the tale of anybody you should have stud you should have known that doesn’t matter who you are if I don’t know the book of Allah you see something is the right approach right approach according to so you convinced right and they say yes I’m convinced good convinced because it’s most in line with the Quran yes do you know the book of Allah no so then what are you doing if what is your reference point what you’re saying is um and I love they’re connected to my family in many ways some of the most some Senior People connected to my family who have a a loving good relationship and I say caveat this because people try to this is not the shots fired uh we don’t have that we don’t care about clap we don’t care about shots fired we don’t care about reaction videos we put in hard work and then we talk about it yeah so I don’t mean this in it but if you study just you know you study this then what will happen is you have a cycle where you say according to this book we should do this so what’s right this book what do we do this work yeah why are you right according to this book is this book right yes and it goes round and around now actually when I went to Egypt I saw many brothers from many brothers doing the F Academy you know get earning the ranking up leveling up coming back you know really good really good really good uh you know and learning Arabic and and going back and contribute actually things have actually from your experience in the maybe 90s 80s whateverit lot different you know when you go there you meet people from all groups um in white thbs or in Juice in in Cairo you know in yeah and and and so you get that that’s alhamdulillah people have coton on to that yeah but my my point being is is that if you make that single book almost like your Quran then you have like what we call a confirmation bias isn’t it according to this it’s like you wrote the book on how to make the best cake then you made a cake then you said why is it the best cake because the book said how why is the book said because it said this and you go round and around Circle now ultimately collections all of these things or perspectives methodologies Tas these are all developed by men who understand the texts yeah right so you do need mentors you need do need teachers yeah but this idea of you must suspend I remember in I think some shl or something like this it said must suspend his mind for the S his intellect you know for the sake of the as a mid right knowing no one got time for that yeah but so 100% you need mentorship we’re not I’m not saying a conflicting message here what I’m saying is is that you need to be you need to be willing to put in the study so that a person helps you reroot yourself back to the Quran every single Muslim in his 30s and 40s should say I don’t whatever I’m doing carry on doing it yeah right car Carry On Doing rash Carry On Doing protest for right many young mlims these days University students going out and carry on protesting carry on doing your carry on praying in the Masid carry on but make it your life’s objective to learn the language of the Quran and study the Quran and then read theid and have an understanding of the themes and the the Corpus of ideas and themes that exist within Islam holistically because everybody’s got their ay if I want you to do one thing you just give the Ayah about if you want you to do da just show you the Ayah you know and I give you the a for that if I want you to do um you know I’ve got what it depends whatever you want people to do you can find an Ayah so what happens is is that you find that anyone’s interested in one thing the only part of the Quran they know is the bit that supports so even when they have a relationship with the Quran they’ve memorized the bits that supports what their other book is telling them to do see the the the reality is Right From my perspective and the way I I uh we will will follow what we’ve been guided with right so in terms of or been shown the path of what to take right from childhood it’s been our community our parents our teachers these are our role models in in their own aspects which has then informed us of what we want to strive for right so like you’re mentioning and this is a realization for myself as well like when you’re saying look who why didn’t anyone tell me of all this stuff of being able to even really understand the words of Allah and develop an understanding like we’ve learned math English science or whatever so the reality is it is should we say status quo of lack of Role Models telling us what to look for right the education system making us you know developing if you like the secular Sciences going to de Vel businesses but not developing our de this is an interesting perspective so so the reality is it took that realization to realize the need for the Grassroots work the need for our madrasas not to just teach how to recite the Quran and memorize with no understanding behind it right to have critical thinking all to have the so but that if you like that’s why we’ve come together I’ve put my time away why so the need to create the ecosystem the the organization ations the work to outreach work for the community to find the mentors do you see to be able to then the iteration of us in 40s learning the ABCs of the words of Allah we should be my daughter and our daughters and our nephews and nieces should be having that in their like five six or seven tens right right so that aspect is now what we talk Mentos is the work that you know we’re doing on the ground every day and I was talking to a father from the the father and son’s youth club we talking about you know generational increase so I think we’ve we’ve discussed this many times yeah so and I think there’s a point that you always say if you if you’re a bus driver generational growth financial yeah you’re a you’re a bus driver for example and then you have your son pulling up to you in the you know the next bus going hello Dad you that would be an issue right so then the question is seek as a community you as a community we know we seek generational wealth you want someone who’s uh Pro you know in the’ 70s people were squatting right then you went to council house renting exactly then after that you’re you know you’re your your B private renting and your private renting or whatever or your your ownership right you’re doing right to buy you’re buy so seems our parent generation they create the M the mothers and all that the question is SE which is a separ point which is why I’m going to reel you back in on this point sure which is generational wealth first and foremost has gone up but the generational wealth spiritual growth hasn’t necessarily yes some things have happened you’ll know the the overt things like for example T has been tightened up but guess what the children now are more liberal than they were and they’re more secular than they were from some in in some aspects then in any way you’ll find more to do with technology and the internet phon before we we fan out to you know uh other people let’s keep it here with us right the I I feel that the focus tends to be in our conversation now is more to do with why it is the case that without a me what is the psychology of someone who doesn’t want to take mentorship why is it the case that and look it’s lots of things it’s it’s it’s almost like siblings right a sibling you know he doesn’t want to do take advice for someone he’s been showing he did better than all these years so there’s like almost like a jealousy as well I think the term self soothing comes to mind s soothing you know I think when people often see that I’ll give you primary example so let’s say you hang around with a bunch of friends and you have done for the last Su then it’s called Collective and you’ve done XYZ for the last 10 years together you know you’ve gone to Holidays wherever you’ve gone to the cafes and had your coffees and whatever it may be and you gone for your burgers and your mixed grills and then let’s say let’s say a brother I knew I rang around and he’s Mas now he’s still one of the brothers but he’s ever so slowly not leaving the crew cuz he’s always said I’m here let me know when you’re free we’ll meet up and we can have a food whatever but he’s just less involved with the quote unquote chilling and you see he’s just slightly more involved with fixing his Quran his tajid learning his Arabic you know what’s a MFA MF you know these things are important You Know M MF m is is this a new Smash Burger that’s that’s why I heard so um you know and he’s getting more and more involved with he’s more and more involved with his real development because like you said where our parents grew financially is that really happening spiritually and I think as you get into your age into your 30s and 40s you you look around and you think that brother just looked around and said you know what I I can’t do this going into my 40s and 50s because the same way in which my I meant to be better than my father financially but then my children are equally meant to be better than me financially and spiritually but if I continue this trajectory this is not going to happen and that brother’s alarm Bells have gone off yes and all the other guys are just chilling and this brother’s actually what he’s doing is he’s taken going back to your mentorship point he’s acknowledged there’s a mentor that wants to help him he’s grabbed it with both hands and he’s like and it’s never too late but if it is late it’s better late than never absolutely the hold down but not out and all of this right this is what look this is the problem isn’t it yeah um it’s almost like restarting a career there’s a there’s a bit of a there’s a there’s there’s a type of mindset they call it the I think it’s called the I hope I haven’t made a mistake or live but I think it’s called the Dunning krugger syndrome or mindset and D they they St Donald Trump has it right but it’s this idea that um someone thinks they know and unfortunately the idea that you think you know um becomes stronger and stronger as you get older you think you’re wise to the world MH right and for one thing I I have done over the years and I don’t mind uh pointing this out as in I don’t actually relish it but when you have a basic conversation with someone in the 30s and the 40s who doesn’t learn the dean they throw all these defense kind of mechanisms on right and I tend to just Hammer them I I tend to just smash try to smash through these things and you know people don’t like it and the reason why that is is is really simple if you adopt as a generation that you don’t need to be close to the book of Allah tala the thing it’s like anything it’s like anything say you have a bad characteristic yeah say for example you swear right your son saw you he caught you you need to turn around and say why did was wrong unacceptable etc etc if I do it you do it because we’re both accountable to allaha right but no I want to still maintain the position without the substance so what you do is say look okay sometimes when I get angry yeah I just need to let release and and thingy this happens he says okay dad then what happens is he grows up and then he does it to his own sibling or someone else and then you look him in the eye and you tell him this lecture right there’s nothing wrong you will make mistakes as dads you just need to own up to it right you need to own it yeah need to own it but right so then the child’s going to look at you and go you know why what you know and he’s going to use the same excuse and this is happening as a community where all of the delusion of 40 plus year olds yes and I’m going to say it’s the strongest in 40 plus year old 40 plus yeah 50 the the delusion is um means that the next generation are just thinking well what you’re saying isn’t how you lived your life Y what you’re saying doesn’t you see and and it doesn’t make sense you see and then there’s a funny phrase funny to me it’s tomorrow’s churches are insulting today’s ches right that’s what it is with the realization realiz like for example we used to joke about how uncles would go to the mosque and they say it was a really moza laziz right it’s a really Laz La talk talk it’s very Mo MOA in Ramadan and everyone’s chasing recitation uh the not even recitation just chasing The Melodies Mel I’m going to this mosque for this melody I’m going to that mosque for this melody I’m going for that Mosk for that Melody that’s effectively what they say so sensory dopamine almost yeah so IM Malik he he was saying when people told him oh people have gathered around this young man who’s leading the prayer yeah he said oh they’re just going to him they’re going to him just to sing A’s just go so he can sing right so it becomes now that the melody is supposed to in the Quran supposed to match the emotion in the Quran the meaning I give you an example yeah if you were in English reading of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and in English you were describing the passing of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that he he’s dying that when he died you explain the whole Circumstance the whole situation yeah would you be saying in a jubilant voice like there’s a spring in your step like you’re having a like you’re having a party or you’re really happy you see and then guys you never guess right he you know oh my God you wouldn’t do that the reason why you wouldn’t do that because you think what disrespect yeah that more than the death of our own parents is the death of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam right but you say that in a jubilant voice when you’re reading reciting Quran or some some of these really a lot of them nearly all of them especially in the UK would this is happening basically is what I’m saying right they’re reading about you know menstrual cycle in the most excited voice in possible they’re talking about Janam in this uh you know but many many um qu actually have picked up on this and they realized that there are moments that that’s what we mean by Melody if you’re going to do that yeah if you’re going to do it that obviously your tonality matches with what is being said really simple because if I gave you the same Ayah in English you would have said it in a somber almost regretful nadam you know in a sful sad sad regretful voice yeah but if I give you an Arabic you recite it like you know the most happiest person alive about you know punishments in Janam doesn’t make sense it’s like we we know in the youth club when we’re talking about to the youth about the stories a lot of the Quran Allah talks to us about stories and the kids even acknowledge is for us to learn from right so Allah is using that and if we’re not going through that emotion or connecting with the meaning then obviously when the recitation comes there’s no connect with that there’s no connection with these story these stories in the Quran they they have so much wisdom embedded with them in terms of how you functionally succeed in your life every single day exactly right and like how was it a local mosque right and the IM was [Music] saying you know um excellent we all say aan isn’t it right you know Allah give is to the Muslims and destroy the enemies of Islam etc etc you know Allah support the people of Gaza Allah support the people of Kashmir everyone saying a me do you see he say he says they were saying he said yeah they said a me he’s not even making a Dua this is a statement that contains Dua he’s telling you a matter of fact indeed Allah has commanded towards piety you know Justice and and and Excellence it’s like me saying I went to my car and I go I mean mean I got up and I went to work it doesn’t make sense right now we still love the fact that that there’s that much love that even the things we don’t understand we know it originates from Islam and that respect okay they say I mean but my friend you’re at 30 40 entering your 50s and you’re saying a mean to things that aren’t doas right he has finished the Dua people understand the Dua has finished they put their hands down and then he says people are still going mean all the way to the end there is an element of actually uh a lot of the people are doing that they probably would have a quite a negative thing when they in this Society turn around and say well you’ve come to this country and you don’t have to speak English or you don’t know the ETI or the nuances in the language right but yet this is their lord speaking to them that’s right which more much more reason to be in forget being in this country and speaking their language you’re in Allah’s creation dominion and in his dominion and it needs also uh you know Lang spoken give any importance like realiz maybe we should do a podcast in Arabic andab journe but I think what are your thoughts on um the pros and cons or or how your personal experience is in relation to mentorship specifically just what I’m going to go okay look I’ll fast forward it so you you came to the family program yes you started studying yes right I’ll be honest with you I I I know I know I can tell from the expression of people’s faces that sometimes your fa your face was like um what’s this about man what is this and other times it was almost like a like almost dismissive right at the beginning I’m saying at the beginning if I’m wrong you can you know sometimes look frustrated I think you’re a little bit wrong yeah and and I hope you don’t mind me saying go ahead it’s not that what am I doing here or you’re wrong yeah a lot of the so in the family program you cover topics like family foundations and self Mastery and yeah you know throughout the family program um a lot of it was like I feel attacked Frankly Speaking yeah I don’t think I don’t think me and this guy are going to get along this m Maro he’s knowledgeable but um he’s a bit out there I don’t know if there’s going to be longevity in me studying under him and perhaps and it was never like um I don’t feel like you’re personally attacking me I just thought I don’t even know I was talking to you I was just teaching the class there’s been times where the class is finished and me and my wife have gone home in the car and she’s been like how does the St this is crazy I swear to God and I and I think what’s so important actually and I and I’ve realized that over there and I said to my wife that cuz she said it like two three times and of thing and I’m like especially into our mentorship where naturally there may be times where if I’m struggling with a with the aspect of being a husband I I’ll seek n her from yourself she’ be like did you say that to I like I didn’t say that to start and then there’s been moments where I’ve spoken to and you’ve actually highlighted the fact that what what you go through I promise you everyone who has neglected their growth in their teens in the 20s in the 30s they’re in the same boat as you so it’s nothing personal it’s not an attack on you it’s actually a product it’s a product of the cycle of neglect you see so in terms of the pros and cons to be more specific to your question is the cons are this but but there’s a pro in it too because the end product is an aspect of kind of heightening your humility the cons of this is that you have to come down to Humble town because there may be days where you’re not going to like what you hear and you have to be ready for that growth comes through discomfort I swear to God and when you were talking about work and how in the workplace you learn from people see to you so when I’ve been working in the city that we had mentorship programs right um and that and and at the time when they were and I was like I be H that time I was I don’t know what what is this mentorship nonsense right um I truly understand the whole point of having someone who is in a place where you should be at the bare minimum and having them telling you not to walk over those hot coals not to go down that dead end not to walk into uncoming driving to oncoming traffic that’s the beauty of mentorship and I think we’re slowly wrapping up so I’ll mention in this the beauty of mentorship is first and foremost to break the compartmentalizations that we’ve created because that’s what you get when you’re 30 and 40 you know we were talking the other day you said you know you meet someone he’s have Muslim name yeah you give him Salam and he doesn’t give he didn’t doesn’t return the Salam no he doesn’t right because in that environment in a what they call religiously neutral area there’s no such thing Allah created everything everything is under his command but they call it religiously neutral area secular space Muslims don’t even give Salam to each other in the workplace Muslims are this is the thing Muslims are growing up every day in the workforce as part of the work force past uni you know where there’s an old joke that people can have you know even in the west amongst non-muslims they can have like uh goth you know black clothes and black eyeliner and you know Mohan and and everything but as soon as they get a job in the city shaved everything decent You Know cover tattoos uh you know suit watch suitcase and they go to work like a good little you know doing their robot bit part of being in part of the workforce economic mule getting on with their life that they drop all of that you know self-expression and everything but here’s the funny thing as a Muslim in the workplace yeah there is a massive part of your identity Muhammad that you have to compartmentalize yeah then you compartmentalize in secondary school then You’ have compartmentalized it in college then you compartmentalized it in University and you continue to compartmentalize it in the workplace right literally I I went to some brothers I used to be um in Canary wolf for many banks right just outside the bank or just outside the door of the prayer room alayum brother like this yeah soon as we step past the door all of a sudden there’s this Mass mive warm you know response because of the but here’s the funny thing this is part of understanding how the umah at the moment civilization Islam and the Muslims are upon the H yes but civilization we’re on the down low on the on on the back foot and as a result of that we live inside other people’s civilizations which have the and the default point of view is the default point of view of that Civilization or they live in our head rent for so happens is they create that mindset you see I was speaking to a guy on the phone customer service I think it was gas electric bill or whatever he knew I was Muslim I knew he was Muslim because of names right and I’m trying to hint that we’re Muslim and so and saying inshallah Mah he’s not responding to but you know what yeah but I don’t have a doubt that he is actually a good brother okay because you can just tell by the way he’s behaving and he’s he’s not just following trying to get the maximum for his company and think he’s trying to seek the moral value the ethical value as well right trying to be a good person in the workplace you know and it’s so weird because if you think about it I’m on the phone to him he’s on the phone to me who’s watching yeah right Allah’s watching of course yeah but who is watching preventing two people but that’s what happens you know people get in trouble because if you working like next or Zar or whatever people tell me these things and they gave Salam so someone brings their trousers or whatever and you have to take the magnets off right and you and you take it the maget and sayam alayum why you could me why you saying Salam alayum why you you know it’s like you know you gender someone you Rel you you religiously you know pigeon hold me into religion and you make you embarrass me in front of all these English people in front of these non-muslims yeah how you know why you saying you said hello to her her and her said hi to her you said to me right you’re making me feel like you know so you don’t know who you’re talking to these days and there’s this Western gaze that has repl ta and there’s this civilizational uh uh framework that makes two people not give Salam when no one else is there mhm yeah they say the third person is Shan in this time in this case this whole civilization feels like it’s watching and you know someone could make a complaint if he treats you like a Muslim and sayam alaykum Etc that person can say look this person was talking to me about their religious beliefs when I was just talking about my gas and get that person in trouble so he’s also scared yeah but the thing is this this is the reality yeah reality is side I think what what what’s important here is to recognize that a mental can break those fake uh compartmentalizations that we’ve created by being part of the workforce and being part of the overall uh part of a civilization that isn’t ours and that I think is how to tackle the the most important thing is to break up the lies to break up the excuses you know they say the excus is uglier than the lie and what you find is that there are hundreds of excuses not to return to Allah’s book and you know I think we’re in agreement to end somewhere where we agree that we ain’t going anywhere if we leave the Quran behind right no definitely and for that reason you know that mentorship not only does it break up the compartmentalization side of things but it builds the necessary humility to be able to learn yeah definitely because every teacher will have flaws some of them will have have an accent I heard people insulting sh because oh his accent like this so right or you know or you know where he comes from or it doesn’t matter you’re going to these what he wears or or he might even have different sha what we call sha opinions rare opinions on things that we don’t agree with that for them they don’t consider it sha they consider it as an opinion I’ve can’t escape from because of as a real as a as a result of my learning yes for us it’s maybe strange and Sh and we don’t have to follow it leave it alone but we don’t go to Islamic teachers to find fault in people the fault finding culture is what people end up achieving in 30 40 yeah is it almost like that thei culture would you say it’s like that but it all comes from ultimately a more underlying thing which is excuse making and concealing and hiding one’s own inadequacies right and that shouldn’t happen what you should do is find teachers from uh diversify your teach teachers learn from people take mentorship from everyone everywhere you can have more than one Mentor right don’t submit everything to one person and and and do this I think the f after a period of time when I was teaching you guys I hooked you guys up with other teachers anyway I with my teachers and my sh and that’s something I actually learned that actually something you encourage to your mentorship is that you know you should have a fi teacher you should have an Arabic teacher you know you should have an Islamic s should have these teachers it’s not just about having one teacher because you’re only going to learn one kind of way multi-disciplined you learn nothing in Comfort zones it’s all about being outside your comfort zone you really kind of break through that self- soothing excusing environment that you’ve created in your own head so what would be your final words about advice you give to people working in the city probably work their way up last decade or whatever thinking that H there’s you know what sort of run out of time so I might as well just write out uh what gives me it’s very it can be it can Pride you know I’m going to write out uh the people because when you’re old you automatically have various things you’re established in yeah right so you don’t want to take 10 steps back you see to take two steps forward not only that there is also uh coming from a subcontinental background there’s also this element of you know for my age I have a level of respect that everyone needs to give me irrelevant of whether I have the skill the skill set or the yeah or even the understanding to say the right thing right so there is that but this is where the conversation I’m having with one of the dads like don’t we’re not out for the count the reality is even at our sort of’ 40s we need to be true to be humility to have the humility to kind of go back to the drawing board whether it is you know or even it could be our own son you know as a 15-year-old who has better to weed we should be able to say okay look this is like you say own up we did not invest the time right we won this for you and we can you know do that I remember when I was studying with one you know with our right my daughter in the background was correcting my tajid right and myad he’s obv lot younger very painful he was no but he was actually you know he he found that in a nice way yeah not in a bad way again it’s how you take it he is still your stad even if he is like 20 years younger than you and he is finding that in a nice way like that relationship building that relationship with him and apparently he also I couldn’t hear because he was on mute but when he had to go away his daughter was correcting his daughter who five she was doing it in primary that you know and she was correcting the reality is we as parents or you know whatever age we are we need to be able to understand that they are and this is again when it comes to professional life it is a reality that that we Face maybe there’s a certain part of the work that we never did we have someone showing us the ropes it’s part of life in the corporate world or anywhere when we were it’s the same thing so when we’re learning when we at school learning English Math and Science the reason why we connected with one of those subjects was because we had a good teacher that we resonated with he understood the point is this is our Dean our understanding of what Allah wants us to do in life right we are not even primary level that we have to realize where we are be honest to ourselves right and then if it is a case of learning ABCs it is a case of learning ABCs it is never too late because we’re still not in the grave yet so we’re not out for the count the point is we we need to invest the time and more importantly for our children we are the best Role Models quite frankly right we are people celebrate someone who became a millionaire 60 years old and his whole life was worth it beat me to it I was going to make that but it’s so what you know what but that’s only for the what we have to think about whatever it is whatever it is you know then he finally made it but not for so we have to I think probably what I’m going to take what I take from what you have said or more than what you’ve even said also what you’ve exemplified in this podcast is that we have to be willing to learn and and and humble ourselves and actually learn from people and not go in there and start having think about how the people came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they came in and they sat next to people who were former slaves they came next to people like Sal people who are not were considered foreign yeah yeah they sat next to people they used to have command them what to do they used to even fight them yeah and those are the same people they now sit with yeah that humility we saw in the S we don’t see it like translate today the reason is because uh uh there is a stubbornness right you know people have this adage of stubborn old man yes there is a stubbornness in 30y olds and 40y olds definitely where excuse me that they’ve feel like you know I get all this respect around me what are people going to say can you imagine that this is exactly exactly what the qur the mush of quray were doing the Elders of quray were saying yeah what am I going to do if I give into this they’re going to say oh the former servant you’re with you’re learning with your former servant you’re learning Quran from a former servant what are people going to say and now that mindset that was in muss yes from the qur now we have that in our age today right where people are just they try to think um and I’m not saying everyone you know if someone wants to straw man it’s always easy to say oh yeah say everyone should be an Alim we never said that in this podcast no we’re saying your basic a grounded understanding Quran learning some Arabic these things are not hard yeah these things are not hard you came to this country not even knowing English your parents came to this country not even knowing the language and they adopted a whole language and all of its idioms and all of its terms and references to so us to earn a living right to for sustenance in this world yeah nothing wrong with that that’s Islamic but what about the language for that can gain the sustenance in this world and the definitely yeah whoever turns away from my remembrance he will have a narrow depressing life yeah and that’s how can we do of Allah adequately if we’re not going to Humble ourselves and actually learn that’s why one thing you find is like almost like an exorcism of of of arrogance when you get people who are not willing to you can see uh 30 footy olds wrestling not wanting to thingy cussing the teacher not this not that you know and and and resting on their dun Laurels that’s exactly what the leaders of the qur that they were doing beforehand they were thinking they were resting on their laurs thinking well you know what I may not have that look where I am I can buy whatever I want I can do whatever I want I can command whatever I want I command this respect yeah and I’m not talking about comparing this as mush I’m comparing this the effect of Pride yes Pride means that you’re not willing to take five steps back to go 20 steps forward you would rather you would rather stay two steps forward for the rest of your life instead of taking five steps back so you can be 20 but there is the element of the defe mentality like you know when it comes to for example you go back home and you know I found that there are lots of people that are in their 40s or whatever and they’ve never learned to read and write right and if you try and encourage okay let’s teach you you know they’d be like no it’s too late for me right so just like that in the context like you know for in the you know workspace we talk about it understanding how to use emails all this sort of stuff with a few colleagues that are more sort of from the previous sort of thing they do struggle with it stuff so the reality for us and this is the point I’m reflecting on is we are in that situation when it comes to our understanding of Allah’s words so can we own up to that and say no actually I’m learning by alif again yeah I’m going back to my primary education and relearning and understanding the basics right and I should be able to you know so that’s that’s that’s well is coming uh very quickly so we’re going to probably draw this to a close do you have some parting words for people of your Generation Um we’re from the same from the same generation Our Generation Our Generation from our generation I feel old but our generation sure our generation um what to do I mean it sounds alien at the beginning right what a language oh we got to study Quran why what would you say now to people who um have already just thought you know what I’m just going to ride this one out um and just just I’d rather be on plus two in front of the whole world than to be looking like I’m minus5 in front of the whole world how brutal can right um for in exchange of being on like plus 20 20 steps for forward because you accepted going back many many steps what would you advise people you know on that Journey so I’m going to speak out how I speak to myself yes I think so this isn’t anyone this isn’t anyone this is me being authentic yeah I’m at that stage in my life now where I tell myself that side hustles made money businesses made some loss [Music] um and I often find myself kind of telling myself off that throughout my 30s and late 20s I’ve given prioritization to every business idea I could think of every D Comfort I could find um every form of anything that in this life could give me just more com like we said there’s no harm in earning no harm in but I’ve realized something in the last six months of my life that I’ve sadly that’s come out a cost it’s like building a for kns around the muah but it’s permissible but it’s allowed but it’s a permissible and it’s allow I’m not doing anything Haram no one said I was doing anything Haram but guess what I did do is I neglected a good 15 years of my life where I could have been in a better position where if I die today on my way home that I’d probably fa be facing a lot less serious consequences and that’s not a joke it’s true that’s my advice to everyone is just sit alone if you have to no one says you have to submit yourself to a mentor overnight and get not that you smack me around and get you know reality checks just sit alone room and be honest do you know what smacking I’m going to every Break scene for a moment yeah sming around right no cuz I think we we’ll agree if you know all that is it’s being shown the collective you know reflection that’s all it is it’s people are not these days people get triggered by reflection the mere fact that like you know like for example if you amongst some non non-muslim colleagues I used to sometimes I’m not like some morbid you know Gravedigger um mortician or something yeah I’m not like talk about death all the time but sometimes as part of a cycle of conversations I would say I would talk about death because it’s normal for Muslims to think about death very normal yeah so I’d say to non-muslim work colleagues right ah you know what happens when you die and you know living a life you know you know and you’re getting older and um you have to think about how you know what what is it all for and all of these things and I’m talking about like because I’m giving them da right right and I remember even in secondary school when I did that some of my they got very uptight very like and the reason is and it felt like a slapping but actually it was just well it’s not a taboo subject we are going to die you’re going to die I’m going to die yeah yeah we’re all going to die every single of us will taste yeah and is you right so it’s that every every na is feminine because the word na is feminine right everyone is a constantly tasting death you are constantly tasting your mortality when you get ill when you get older when your first gray hair protrudes Through Your Skin right everything that you do is a reminder that every moment every stage in life you get married or you have children every one of these are indicator that you’re actually going towards the latter part of life towards its end yeah so that reflection becomes insult and now we forget that as Muslims we’re so used to the Muslim label we forget that you’re a human Muslim yeah or a Muslim human being meaning you’re a human being like a non-muslim right you have mortality you have all these things and then you then you have a a framework on how those things understood but if you take away that point you have Muslims just go yeah course of course yeah of course we’re all going to die one day it becomes like a b no have we really thought about it more than a mantra is it actually thinking about that we are going to die one day yeah yeah the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to remember a lot yeah he said remember a lot the destroyer of Pleasures destroyer of what the ey can take pleasure in watching TV or amusement or boxing or whatever these people do or the tongue in talking and chatting with brothers and having a chill out and and so on or what you hear what all of these things will be shut down yeah remember the thing that will be the destroyer of pleasures and unfortunately mere reflection makes everyone else in the room feel uncomfortable Y and all I want is to as any Muslim wants is on the day of judgment we need to Avail ourselves okay from any blame and earn Allah’s acceptance because even with our Good Deeds it’s arrogance to think I think I’ve done enough Good Deeds because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said I won’t be allowed they said even you you won’t be allowed because of your good deeds he said no it’s because of theah of Allah doesn’t mean you don’t accumulate Good Deeds but what you shouldn’t do is say you know what I’m on the correct group or or I’m on the correct thing I just know this one thing I don’t have to do anything or that’s just enough and that’s going to be fine yeah right doesn’t exist it doesn’t it does it’s not as simple as that there’s so much work that needs to be done yeah and I think we’ll draw the conclusion there inshah brother I think we should do more of this in there’s there’s a lot there’s a lot I think we’ve been a little bit rigid to be honest with you yeah I think we’ve been a like we there’s a lot more that we can get out but we’ll get used to this right we’ll draw this to a close for brothers and sisters for taking part and spending your time in this conversation I presume people more similar to our age you know uh will be watching this people in dadland right those sorts of people will watch and contemplate with us and be on this journey um so for watching the pro project Baraka podcast and we’ll be do more of these quite regularly on my page and if there’s brothers who have any disagreement or push back or discussion I’ll try my best to make that the subject of the podcast as we go along that I mean the whole aim was that we’re not the we’re not the you know shots fired uh Cloud chasing reputation video uh that’s not our focus our focus is to do the hard graft and develop ourselves take mentorship and do the Grassroots work on the ground yeah that’s Rev diving the umah by cultivating uh by developing the community by cultivating the Muslim family that’s basically what the Quran istitute what we’re about but we want to do that and also provide some feedback to the Muslim Community we want to tell you what we think we want to know what you think as well so I presume e e e e e e