Sincerely, Yours
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Sincerely, Jihad Saafir
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Wa'alaikum salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Thank you for joining us again for another episode of Sincerely Yours. This is your co-host Ibrahim Hindi along with Sheikh Abdullah Oduroo. We're so happy to have all of you. Those of you who are joining us live on YouTube, and I think pretty sure we're on Facebook as well, or those who listen to us later on Yaqeen Podcast. We're happy to have all of you with us. This is your interactive session, your ability to connect with the guests that we bring on Sheikh Abdullah. People sometimes complain they don't get time to sit with, you know, different masha'ikh and scholars and speakers. And this is their opportunity to sit live with them and ask questions, right Sheikh? Definitely. Yeah, alhamdulillah, it's good. So we highly implore you all to tune in live inshallah to get the live answer in real time. Absolutely. So as always during the sessions, we want to hear from you. Let us know where you're coming to us from. Give us your salam. I love seeing the same people often who are sending us salam. Sister Fatima from North Carolina gives us salam. Another sister Fatima gave us salam. And sister Bushra from New York, upstate New York, says salam alaykum. We love hearing from everybody across the world who are watching and tuning in and giving us salam and letting us know that they're listening. And as always use the chat. Let us know what questions you have. We have a portion of time towards the end of the session where we will ask the guest a handful or a select few questions that are put forward to us in the chat. I see sister Zahra from the UK and sister Alia from London, alhamdulillah, all the way across the pond as they say. And brother Siraj from India. Lots of people joining in alhamdulillah. Brother Hamza from Arizona. We have a great guest today Sheikh. And I think a lot of our watchers and audience are gonna love the conversation today. We have Dr. Jihad Safir who has a
bachelor's degree in Arabic studies and a master's degree in Islamic leadership as well as a PhD in practical theology from the Claremont School of Theology. He is the founder and executive director of Islah LA and Islah Academy, and we're really happy to have him join us today. Assalamu alaykum doctor. Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Alhamdulillah, it's a pleasure to be you know with some good company and you know alhamdulillah I look forward to the conversation. Alhamdulillah, I'm really happy to have you and like we were remarking backstage you got an amazing camera and I'm like feeling inadequate right now. I got to fix up my camera inshallah. MashaAllah you and Sheikh Abdullah taking it to the next level. We love having you here with us Sheikh. JazakAllah khair for your time. I know you're really busy and you know, I think all of us are really happy to have you with us. Alhamdulillah, now it's a pleasure to be before you all. I think you know so much beautiful work being done by Yaqeen and you know and the staff, you know, I'm always amazed at the teamwork, you know, how many arms you know and legs and you know the work that's being put and the amount of minds that go into this. So alhamdulillah, you know, I really appreciate you all's efforts. Alhamdulillah, jazakAllah khair. Yeah, subhanAllah when we work together we're able to achieve so much more than we can on our own. And that's the blessing of Muslims coming together, working together. Sheikh, you do some incredible work on the ground. Sometimes Yaqeen, we're doing all these resources, but we don't necessarily see it on the ground. Even though we know that alhamdulillah people make use of it, people tell us all the time that they love our resources. But I think you know you're one of the people who's on the ground working with communities. We mentioned you're the founder and executive director of Islah LA and I was looking it up
and on the website says this is an inner city community center founded by Muslim Americans to serve South Los Angeles. I would love it inshallah if you can, you know, let us know about the organization, how it came to be and some of the work that you guys do. Well, we don't have too much time. I'm going to summarize it, but you know I can't move forward without mentioning the people who came before us. I mean we were inspired to do this work from the pioneers and front runners. You know my father and a group of you know very faithful believers, they founded Masjid-e-Badila in 1986. You all should never forget that name Masjid-e-Badila. I mean that's where it all went down. You're talking about you know very practical teachings, you know a beautiful community. This is where I grew up at. You know it was two storefronts and the middle wall was broken down. On one side you have the sister side and the other side you have the side for the you know for the brothers. So you're talking about a university. My father giving practical advice in his khutbahs every Friday. You might run into, I met Mike Tyson there, Muhammad Ali was there frequently. You know we've had you know individuals, Tribe Called Quest, you know you might, so you might see a celebrity right there praying next to you. And what that did to our iman to come to the masjid and you see people who are also Muslim but they're also in mainstream media. And on top of that you have you know very practical teachings. I mean you can be a you know a school teacher and relate to what my father is saying.
You know you can be you know a city worker relating to what my father is saying. Alhamdulillah I mean that was the fountain we were drinking from was the wisdom of Imam Sadiq Zafir. So my father, I was privileged to grow up. You know my father would hand me a stack of notes right and he would tell me type these notes to prepare for my next class. And I would be upset. I had no idea what was taking place. I had no idea that this work would later inspire me to you know to be a iman myself. You know but alhamdulillah just watching my father and the people around him. They would they would pray salatul jumuah, have class on Sunday and all Saturday serve the homeless. You know next to me in the prayer line was perhaps a brother who was you know or a brother or two who were former drug kingpins in the neighborhood, gang leaders. But they left all of that to bow down and worship with the brothers and sisters in the Muslim community alhamdulillah. So there's a difference from hearing from the imam or the sheikh in regards to how beautiful Islam is for a person. Then the person who has lived life you know doing the things that are glorified in the mainstream media. Telling you that there's nothing like this deen. I have had millions of you know from illegal money. I've lived had a certain status in the streets. I would rather be here than in a gang. I would rather be here than having you know street fame.
You know so to see them in the inner city leaving those type of lifestyles and to see them at Masjid-e-Badlaw was important for our Muslim identity growing up. So I'm very grateful to be a part of that community. Just to fast forward it eventually transitioned into Isla'ul-A'lay. Before that so remember I'm being prepared for a position I have no idea what's taking place. You know Allah knows best and Allah is the you know best of planners. So I'm watching my father you know I would type his notes and that was the you know for all the youngsters. That was during the time of the cassette tape you know so the imams know how big this cassette tape was after Salatul Jum'ah. So you hear the khutbah then you stand in line and you purchase your cassette tape of the khutbah. You know so my father alhamdulillah everybody loved this khutbah. So I'm right there after Salatul Jum'ah I have my tape machine. I started my business Safir Productions. You know I take a percentage give it to my father a lot of it goes back into the business. And you're talking about man I'm purchasing I go I sell my tapes. You know this is crazy because I got homeboys they you know they sell they mix tapes on the streets. And then but I'm selling the khutbah tape right. And then I go to the mall purchase some Adidas or some Nikes and everything else. I'm fresh at the school all off of these tapes that my father of his classes. Some of the titles you know my father was relevant man. And he really spoke to that crowd in the inner city. You know he was never one to blindly import from you know philosophies that were perhaps successful in other environments.
My father gave a class called Psychological Effects of Slavery. So he's speaking to you know the African-American Muslims making Islam relevant you know for them. My father was teaching when I look at some of his older pamphlets. He's teaching usulul fiqh but placing it in a language that the people in the inner city can understand and so on and so forth. So these are the notes and lessons that I was typing up. And these are the tapes that I was selling. I had no idea what was taking place. Eventually I would come to know like hey this is what produced me. I want to capitalize on one thing. I mean if you could just touch on briefly. I mean you did but like when you say inner city there's probably people here from other parts of the world. I mean I'm almost sure some of them didn't know what a tribe called Quest was but we're gonna touch on that. So you know the electronic relaxation you know what I'm saying. Yeah but I mean like what were some of the things like you walk out of your door in that area. And plus if you could please mention geographically where it is in LA and why the words inner city. When someone hears that the next time they hear it they have an idea of what that means. Can you please just respond upon that and expand upon your personal experience as a youth with the imam Muslim father in that whole system. Yeah most definitely. So when we think about the inner city these were the areas where you had a large concentration of you know in particular in South Los Angeles African-Americans.
So we've heard of this redlining that took place which confined many people who were of a lower social strata to a certain neighborhood. So you have the you know this deliberate construction of your inner cities you know project housing so on and so forth. So you have you know a large infestation of a gang activity and this was produced these type of individuals were produced from the conditions in the community. So this was the Masjid-e-Badalaw was right there on Jefferson Boulevard which we would call the hood. This is the inner city to give you know one story that kind of illustrates what was taking place in that neighborhood. I remember I was using a phone booth or I was at a phone booth you know for all the youngsters there was a such thing as phone booths back in the day right. So I'm about 11 or 12 years old so a young man came up a young boy came up to me around my same age and asked me the question where are you from. And that doesn't mean country of origin that that means which neighborhood are you a part you know which neighborhood do you belong to in that you're from a gang in that neighborhood right. I didn't know what to say he flashed a gun you know he had a gun in his waist and the police became visible right. They were in that neighborhood and you know I said alhamdulillah thank Allah for the po-pos on that particular day you know. So they hit the corner they left me alone and I remember going to my mother and I told her what happened and my mother said next time you tell them that you're Muslim you know. And I said this is not going to work but we're going to try you know.
Well my mother she knew that the Muslims had put in work and they had a certain reputation in the community and the people you know had much respect for the Muslims. So I ran into this this young guy again and he asked me the same question and this time I said I'm Muslim and he left me alone. I was surprised to see that it worked but that just speaks to the work that my father, uncles, aunties they put in to solidify that reputation in the inner city. To where that Islam became very effective in those neighborhoods. What are some I have to break it down Sheikh you know because I think it's very very important that you define I don't think people realize the I don't even know the word is I'm just I'm I think it's so important that they understand when you say put in work like what that means on a daily basis for a Muslim trying to spread Islam because they give a bleep about the people. They care about the people in that area. So what was something that they would have to do that the average Muslim probably doesn't even know or realize but we see it in the seat of the prophet. Yeah you know you know the beauty about being in that atmosphere is that I grew up with all of the stories and the narratives. So I heard about the the brothers shutting down you know crack houses or houses that were deliberate vacated locations in which drugs were being sold and used in those locations. The Muslims were shutting those down. I got an opportunity to hear about brothers who one day they were alcoholics.
They were in positions as pimps, panders, and hustlers and then a short time after being upright citizens in corporate suits you know being given jobs. So I got an opportunity to hear when the Muslims in Los Angeles in South Los Angeles had their own banks. They had their own restaurants and gas stations. You know the Muslims were absolutely flourishing. You know my father he was a part of what they called the fish crew. They had a fish contract with Peru and they sold so much fish that they changed the prices in your local grocery stores. So all of this was you know you're talking about programs of reform, restoring individuals who had lost their dignity and bringing them up. This is what the Muslims were known for in the inner city. When we when we first came to the neighborhood that we're in now like we're on we're in the infamous area or the famous area. No Crenshaw and Slauson. People in LA and South LA especially know about Crenshaw and Slauson. When we first came to that neighborhood one of our neighbors we told her that we're Muslims. She said we thank God that the Muslims are here. We're grateful that the Muslims are here. So it's because of that reputation that were that was really solidified by our elders who came before us. SubhanAllah and I have to touch on it because a lot of people probably saw it heard of it. We have probably some youth here that don't realize you know. Crenshaw and Slauson if you've ever heard of like I'm just taking back a little like the area NWA, Dr. Dre, Nipsey Hussle all from this area ladies and gentlemen. All from this area and he's talking about these fish this fish stores you know and these endeavors that the that our pious predecessors Mashallah.
It was for Muslims and non-Muslims right and that was the key that they reached out to them and they served them and they served humanity. And when once they feel that love it's only natural you know. So JazakAllah khair. Yeah and Alhamdulillah. You know the one of our missions you know because you know I have to say I have to talk about the good the bad and the ugly. You know we you know we started Isla Academy and you know Isla Aleve because we saw the storefront masjid in the inner city. We saw it lose its effectiveness you know and you know what happens is the facility impacts a person's mentality. You know one thing working in the prison I saw how the prison cell the facility impacted the mentality of the individuals who had to frequent that facility. So when you see this the storefront apathy begins to grow you see other people flourishing. Your neighbors flourishing but the storefront masjid isn't growing. So this would this is what motivated us to say hey the storefront masjid is no longer effective in the inner city in a way where we can see the growth of the entire family. You know so we began we started having you know we had a campaign throughout the city and of course we had to leave the hood go to the suburbs and talk to our Muslim brothers and sisters and they responded. We were able to purchase you know a building which was a school building and there was another building alongside it right there on Slosson and Alhamdulillah we started the school.
We had before that lost about three generations to the culture in the inner city. So imagine young Abdullah now also has a gang title. Imagine young Mustafa in prison for life. Imagine having to hear the same brothers you grew up in the masjid with being killed by gang violence. Okay and so this is the thing that we had to live through that motivated us to start and really move forward on Islah Alley and Islah Academy. You know to begin to deal with the major issues that we could not deal with from just the storefront. You know Sheikh we I'm based in Toronto and we're actually having the same issues happen here. I talked to some of the masjids here that do funerals, janezzas, and they say so many of it that they see is young Abdullah. Kids who are victims of gang violence, gunshots, and things along those lines. Just recently SubhanAllah there was a janezza for one brother who was killed due to gang violence and another brother SubhanAllah he was in prison. They gave him permission only to go to the janezza. While he was there someone called him on the phone and they said to him you need to leave right now because people are coming to you. So he called an Uber and he's leaving the janezza getting into the Uber and three people showed up and shot him, injured the Uber driver, and left. And this is all happening within our community. Like I don't doubt that the people who shot and the person who got shot all of them are Muslims and different ethnicities in our community are getting swept up into drugs and gangs and things like that and we have no idea what to do. Like our community has done nothing unfortunately over the past probably 15-20 years that this has been growing and growing and now it's gotten so big to the point that non-Muslims now they almost assume that somebody
involved in gangs is probably Muslim. That's the situation in our city. I would love your insight what you would advise the Muslim community of Toronto and other communities that are suffering this. You know what are the steps that they should take? Obviously you can't snap your fingers and solve this but you know what are the steps we should be taking to try to try to deal with these issues? Yeah you know so the masjid has to change forms you know and I believe that you know sometimes we look at the masjid just as a place of just prayer and you allow Iman just to chill out in between these four walls. Iman has to get outside in the neighborhood but we have to make sure that we're very deliberate in how we move in the neighborhood and that's where it comes to you know receiving consultation from people who have been through this type of struggle and just you know really buckling down becoming very serious on you know our strategies if we're going to be in this neighborhood. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala there's been plenty of times that I wanted to leave raise my family somewhere else you know I was more I was more recently in in Dallas, Texas home of Yatim. I didn't want to leave I said man why go back to South LA you know from here you know I see the Muslims doing so well but you know Allah chose us to be in these you know these communities you know so we have to make sure that we hold our posts and you know we don't we don't become you know fugitives on the run you know from the responsibility Allah gave us but there's plenty of strategies now that you know we have to employ. You know one of the things that we have to look at is prevention so this is where the school's
coming we have to make sure so shaitan and the many attacks that are being placed upon our children they're starting early you know I mean that our young people they're with these cell phones you know a lot of the youngsters they're sleepy nowadays because while the parents are asleep they're on their phones at night you know and we don't we have no idea with their how they're being socialized from the social media and so on and so forth so you know we have to make sure that we look at what's taking place to our children in regards to the technology and so on and so forth we have to be strategic. Mental illness is prevalent nowadays that this should be attached to the Muslim mission that how can you have you know just prayer and that person who was who was praying they're suffering from anxiety and they're suffering from depression do we have programming like that attached to the masjid you know so the the mission and the intention of the masjid I think you know has to reflect the issues that we're having in our community. No I mean you masha'allah I mean you you know mentioning the mission and and the work in the masjid there's also some other work and I think we talked about earlier it's kind of a good segue into islah which seems like a response to you know the societal ills locally and then even we can even say with the general idea of islah is something that needs to be implemented all around the world you know particularly in the west you know Canada included you know I'm saying so I mean if you can expound upon like the the history of islah I think we kind of kind of got the general motivation behind it but if you can just give us the history of it and and like this description and goals inshallah that'd be great. Yeah you know so uh grounding it in you know my father uh his philosophy of really relationship
building you know so I so I watched my father build relationships with people who um you know and it really motivated these individuals to change their their lives so you know the idea of islah being a nest you know reconciling the relationships between people I think that's that's huge um one thing that we know is is that uh the transformation of someone is not going to necessarily just come through the information that you give them you know a lot of it is the environment that you build for them you know so um I was recently after the uh the the murder of Nipsey Hussle who by the way you know we got an opportunity to work with he was prominent in the community in uh you know Crenshaw and Slauson he was known uh we admired his work that he did you know we we got an opportunity to uh to do an event together alhamdulillah when he was killed there was a a truce that was uh that took place and it brought together the gangs from all around California and there was hundreds if not thousands of young African-American males and and in a lot Muslims too you know Muslims who had a gang identity and also Muslim identity one thing that I noticed why aren't these young brothers in the masjid and I had to come to terms with is that the gangs have something that the masjid has not been able to provide um and you know just just going deeper into it you see a lot of the components are really uh psychosocial components of just a sense of belonging giving a sense of belonging uh some competence like um I'm not I don't want to be and I'm not motivated to be at a masjid where everything is haram where people are constantly harping on my weaknesses you know I'm saying I need more of a social I need a
connection with my brothers and sisters in the masjid you know um the identity it it it also it involves triggers do we check on each other during the day daytime because the gang members are checking on each other okay that young abdul-raheem his gang is calling him a few times a day but he only sees the Muslims on Friday or uh for a youth program or whatever so I think that it's important that we provide plenty of triggers you know um and get our our social group very strong the love and compassion that we have for one another and that's going to be more of an attraction than the classes that imam jihad provides uh once a week you know is does imam jihad can he connect with me you know uh rather than just constantly um you know teaching me and if it's not if it's not myself or if it's not the imam there has to be people who have who know how to connect to others you know um because people what they want probably the most is a sense of belonging recognition they want to relate and connect to uh to people and that's what the gangs have a lot of times that uh our masajid don't have so so so i think okay so you mentioned environment and the environment has to provide triggers that will allow them to uh you know uh as you mentioned definitely which is so true i mean uh provide a culture an inclusive culture that lets the different demographics within this the islamic spaces or muslim spaces feel that there's a sense of belonging and i think you know i'm almost sure that everyone can relate because you know a lot of times there's that cultural gap right there's the you know i'm a first generation american my parents came from ghana you know and i used to not like to wear the dashiki
when i go to school you know my mother's you know and they speak in a different language i don't want her to drop me off i don't want her to see them seeing that was when i was much younger they used to call selling my daughter a couple hours ago you know they used to call me buckwheat in school man you know what i'm saying so yeah yeah man so the cultural the hama times you see within the masajid that it's just one monolithic monolithic approach to islam and understanding islam you know if there's a first generation american you know they're not relating to the masjid predominantly one way of thinking even though if it's if it's within their culture so what's one thing that you've seen that you would advise these these masajid that have predominantly one culture uh and there's since there seems to be a level of i don't want to use the word but i'll say it like indirect sometimes unintentional uh colonization within the the curricula of the masjid and within the way that they deal with the people what's the what's the word of advice that you would give to them because like for instance you know sheikh ibrahim mentioned like in canada you know that's probably one of the instances where that you feels man i'm i'm done with this and then they go and join a gang so what's one word of advice you would give to those masajid that predominantly have one understanding or one you know way of thinking yeah you know you know one thing that i know is that you know is uh we can't blindly import one thing that works in in one community um um into another community but i think toronto has its own version of offering um a connection for the for the young people um but i will mention some of the things that islah alay have has done we had a program will you know um where we had people they were constantly into conflicts uh so we implemented one-to-ones with people and i got beautiful reviews um and
it was to the point where you have you know a sister she has so much apprehension and reluctance like i really don't want to sit with the sister for a half an hour i've had bad history with her they set for that half an hour to an hour man and they became close you know so those one-to-ones we said everyone find someone that uh you have not you know had that intimate time with them you know the sisters with the sisters of course and brothers with the brothers and sit with them get their story so you'd be surprised at how many of us do not know each other's story within the the masjid so yeah there has to be a relationship building component that people are very deliberate on how they're going to structure this component and you know i always go back to the you know i'm one of my uh my areas that i um that i've done a lot of studying this conflict resolution okay um in peace building you know if you don't have a conflict resolution program in your or uh system in your community then one conflict would disrupt the entire community and its impact will uh go into effect for years you know i'm saying after it takes place you know so there should be a conflict resolution plan um and where everyone is um is trained to be a contributor to this plan um we have it in our school and we have it amongst our adults because you know we in my community we were having um 10 kids in our school um 10 20 year old beefs with one another to where the beef is inherited the issue is inherited by the children and the children's children and you know how can you build a community
without a conflict resolution plan you know so that's also beautiful as soon as you said that inherited beefs i immediately thought of the the qabat during the time of the prophet that's it happens now like even in egypt and some of like the rural areas where there's tribes one person will like shoot another person and they'll be like why well his great great grandfather had an issue with his great great grandfather and it's not and that's why it's so beautiful because it's you know a lot of times we try to divorce you know what's happening nowadays from islam but it's just it's the same exact thing you know like for instance converts to islam i always tell people the first generation of muslims were converts to islam so it's not a new phenomenon so when you hear these things like wow this no this is something that has been going on but just in a different color in different ways and shades you know what i'm saying and cultures uh during the time of the prophet so why am i saying that because we take the same means and solutions into doing that from the sunnah of the prophet yeah now i say i mean al ausa well uh i mean you have people they they be for years hundreds of years and us uh you know saying that we follow the sunnah that a part the sunnah that we have to make sure that we uplift is um resolving conflicts with one another you know we have to make sure that we uplift that that particular portion of the sunnah you know but i do want to say some of the things so we have alhamdulillah right now four houses so four houses uh two dedicated to women who are formerly incarcerated and um threatened with homelessness so you know i just got a phone call today that there was a sister when i was in the prison i worked in a woman's prison as a
chaplain that's another interview within itself right so i worked as a chaplain in the woman's prison and there was a sister who was she was she was she got a life sentence so i'm elated i'm happy that she is going to be a part of the program in south los angeles that we have the isla housing you know so you know i think next month inshallah she's coming down and we didn't think she'll ever get out um but alhamdulillah she's out and then she's coming in to join uh isla housing and we have two other houses for for men uh formerly incarcerated you know i'm against um you know uh you know prisons uh you know how they're presently presented um because i've seen the impact and i've seen the injury from mass incarceration uh being in the inner city um there's one thing it's beautiful seeing yeah you know we could say islam is the uh you know fastest growing religion within the uh confines of the prison prison but um you know the harm that that type of uh you know isolation um that type the facility the way it's structured the harm that it does psychologically psychologically can render our young uh males ineffective you know um you know coming coming out of those institutions so um you know there's a lot of stuff we don't even have the resources to do what needs to be done you know for a person the damage that they in the injury that they have sustained going into those environments so but we have the four houses that's one one thing i want you to mention the house but i want you i want to touch i want you to touch on one thing because i think it's very important you know i lived with the brother as soon as he got out he lived with me for i think about a year or two then i went to medina came back graduated
he got locked up again he lived with me you know i'm saying that um if you could just talk more briefly yeah when someone gets out of jail okay they're incarcerated how important it is mastered to play a role in their re-entry because i've seen numerous times bro it's kind of that and it's embarrassing man person like they get no support firstly firstly looked at like the criminal and they just got you know what i'm saying the treatment is what if just to briefly like what's their situation how does it feel like what they're going through when they go to these particular centers and and that's why what you're doing is so profound and it's important but i think just shedding light on that is very very important for the muslim communities out there for muslims in general to understand what it's like you know uh when they get out yeah i mean that's it that's important i i would ask some of the uh the the people who are incarcerated they would you know they call it recidivism they would come back into the prison and we would ask what happened didn't you go to the masjid um i'll never forget one of uh you know the uh young ladies who were you know incarcerated she said i went to the masjid no one greeted me no one talked to me right and she said i left and went back to the streets you know and so so i'm telling you it goes to that you know that sense of uh that sense of belonging that people feel that relatedness and connectedness that people feel with uh you know uh coming into those environments and i and i think that's not offered you know when we go into the masjid we had this we had this correction without consideration like a brother don't know my name but he gonna tell me
how i'm making wudu wrong that i'm you know or he he comes and moves my hands in the salat you know i'm saying and he doesn't know my name you know um and i think that's highly problematic i i think that you know from our dean it's important um to be well acquainted with the prophet how he treated people you know they have of course just uh several descriptions one he's giving people his undivided attention you know um uh people are feeling in his presence that he's interested in them the most you know i was looking at a um a narration um i believe i believe it was uh uh amir ibn al-as uh he asked the prophet sallallahu sallam if i'm not wrong you know uh who's the most beloved to you and this is seeming like amir he wants to he he wants to hear a response that the prophet sallallahu sallam names him right and he's like who's next who's next but i think i'm what he felt that he is the most beloved on how the prophet sallallahu sallam treated him you know and i think that um that uh on how how to deal with people socially is something that i mean alhamdulillah we can be impressive in regards to our studies but everybody doesn't have the training on that and they're in they're not trained on that there has to be training there has to be at least one committee in the masjid who is given that type of training you know at least one one committee needs to be trained in hospitality on how to deal with people socially you know um you have to have a committee that's trained in conflict resolution you know if not it would impact the whole environment jazakallah khair sheikh no keke you said you mentioned that there's four houses you have four
houses four okay so we have four houses alhamdulillah we have also we offer 12 free sessions of uh therapy for our muslim brothers and sisters um you know we have it of course unlimited for the people in the in the housing um what we're doing right now alhamdulillah we have our islamic studies like you know it's beautiful to see our people being able to integrate um these approaches you know so we have islamic studies that someone may attend on uh you know a sunday we have our ilm sundays taking place but then um we have on thursday our um our therapy so some of the same people who are in islamic studies um are also in our um they receiving the therapy sessions you know we have our food pantry alhamdulillah um our food pantry um services the community over 150 families uh a week the community is absolutely dependent on this uh food pantry and we've been we've been consistent alhamdulillah we want to shout out the the staff for the uh for the food pantry we have this like academy when i was uh when i was working in the prison um i wanted to you know build a program that was uh prevented people from coming into the prison so now we we have our school i mean we have beautiful affirmations you know our mascot is called a luminary um you know and it's culturally relevant so our children they're learning about uh the prophet they're memorizing his ahadith they're learning about abu bakr as-siddiq but they're also uh they're aware of who marcus garvey is and web uh dubois you know and uh they're they're aware of uh some of the the people who have propelled uh the community socially um you know so it's it's relevant teachings and it's
a beautiful environment memorizing quran but also well acquainted with the uh you know the stem sciences and this was this was a dream that we set out to accomplish um and we're still accomplishing it you know knowing you know working in the inner city um the resources are always a issue but you know alhamdulillah i love my uh my brothers and sisters um the community i really gave us that feeling that man this is this is truly uh one umma on the support that we've received from the the muslim community nothing like the muslim community we have issues like every community but man the muslim community alhamdulillah man we i i have not i haven't seen any brothers and sisters who have uh you know so much they they they want to see the best for each other you know i'm saying so you know that's the quality of us is man is you know we want to see the best for each other it's so true i mean that's the one thing you travel the world and you just you see other muslims and you feel like an immediate love for them even if you can't even speak to them in different languages you know i wrote down so many notes i don't think i've written down so many uh benefits that you've given us i want to go back to quickly something you mentioned in the beginning like your father kept giving you um you know these notes to write down and and you're going through this uh training period without knowing it and it reminded me of myself my father also is the imam and he dragged me to the masjid and nobody else was there and i just wanted to kind of go off and do my own thing but i couldn't i need i didn't realize till later like how much knowledge seeped into my mind without even me paying attention to it uh so i i want to ask you like how do you how are you paying it forward to your your children like do you think
are you doing the same thing or is there something you're doing to to make sure that they're getting that knowledge too because that's the thing that i ask myself every once in a while yeah yeah you know i'm gonna tell you that was a different generation you know uh you know my father my father would people don't know a lot of people don't know this he would go at night he had a pest control business you know so he would go at night and you know when businesses were closed and service his clients right and then he was an imam in the daytime you know so these are the real superheroes um my father alhamdulillah i would travel with him you know he would do a workshop he would travel um and they weren't you know alhamdulillah now i mean we we are we have salaries we're getting these honorariums you know um and my father and you know they did it um i mean at one point i asked him he told me he was getting a hundred dollars a week from the masjid you know this is a storefront uh you know masjid um and alhamdulillah the things that he did uh i mean man to be up close to that alhamdulillah and then serve the people and really you know without social media you know um so may allah have mercy on that that generation man who did it without social media without the uh you know the salaries i mean i mean i mean but um yeah alhamdulillah i have you know i have uh you know my my children now alhamdulillah i you know it reminds me um to really you know one thing that we learned from the generations that came before too is that you know some of the imams they lost their children um because they put so much into the community you know so uh you know growing up in the household of an imam and you know i can see how
you can definitely put a lot into the community and lose your family within the household um so now it's really you know when we come in with that perspective um you know one thing i want to do is put a lot more in into my children um you know making sure that uh you know it was beautiful my ever ever real young son who is uh one years old and um alhamdulillah he was he was he wouldn't he wouldn't go to sleep so i took him to the salatul fajr with me the other day and uh he was right there running around the masjid you know while we were praying uh salatul fajr so it's those moments that remind me of of my father and i you know um when i used to you know sit there you know during those days especially in the african-american community the khutbah might have been over an hour you know so uh you know but one thing one thing i know is that i would probably sleep the first half and my father is lighting it up for the second half he is lighting it up for that second half so i'll never forget those moments man i'm like amazed at watching my father you know and uh and alhamdulillah my biggest support my father i i see him in the audience you know i get to see him in the audience and wow man that's beautiful brother so yeah so i'm i'm grateful i'm grateful yeah i mean i mean i mean so so we have we have to continue that i mean it's it's the children you know from if i can give advice to the imam you know the imams around the country people in you know roles serving their community is to you know don't allow that community to take you away
from uh you know uh your responsibility in the household because many of our our um imams and leaders have lost their children because they didn't have that connection you know i'm saying so that's one thing alhamdulillah my father would grab me and be like we're traveling again you know so i would travel with him you know and i want to do i want to definitely offer that to uh you know my my children uh we got a couple of questions uh i like this one how do we get fathers more involved with their children how do we get more uh how do we get the fathers more involved with their children you know yeah the you know the what's important is that you know there has to be um this deliberate type of education you know i'm saying that takes place um you know uh from the manhood training courses gendered courses you know on teaching people about their responsibility um people who you know we're in a community that you know we're so much for marriage right and it's a it's a status this thing builds our status to be a part of this huge elaborate fancy wedding right but at the wedding the husband is not prepared to be a husband no classes no training and the wife doesn't have any training under her belt and we wonder why it it uh you know a few months later we're embarrassed you know um so i think it's important in offering these deliberate trainings um that that spell out what it means the expectations of what it means to be a father um and the men have to hold the other men accountable and the same thing with our sisters um you know learning what it means to be a mother and everything else you know we have parents now
i mean they have absolutely no training under their belt and and i just i did a mediation session between a father and son and i had to tell this father you the same thing that you think is attracting your son those long khutbahs that you're giving your son call it rasulullah you know it's called allahu ta'ala all that stuff for you quoting you're doing nothing you're not listening to him you know you'll be more effective by just listening to what his needs are in all those ahadith and ayat of quran that you're uh that you're quoting and these are things i think our parents have to really sit down um and get some training in you know um uh one of the uh one of the fathers he says you know you know back in my day you know uh my parent you know my parents and the neighborhood my parents would beat me then the neighborhood come home you know the neighbor next door would beat me then the neighbor across the street would beat me and i said none of it worked and none of it worked you're stubborn you know uh you're violent none of it worked you know um it's really is everybody getting some training man you know really yeah he mentioned he mentioned like manhood training courses and i was thinking about that because i don't know if you've heard of this guy andrew tate yeah um you got it sounds familiar yeah yeah andrew tate yes he's gotten quite popular and uh i don't know i mean he he kind of pushes like masculinity kind of thing but then the masculinity he's pushing out is like like hollywood from the 80s like a man is has lots of cash and lots of women and guns and that's his idea of masculinity but because we're living in a
time where people don't know what it means to be a man and there's a lot of like you know narratives against masculinity and and so people are confused and they listen to a guy like that uh do you think that's contributing like to some of the problems in the community is that too many men just don't know what it means to be a man and yeah i mean you know we're learning you know we're learning our our and it's two different frameworks you know like uh we're learning our masculinity from yeah andrew tate uh jordan peterson you know um and uh this can be very destructive you know i believe and you know i think that you know what we have to realize i mean just telling the men you know there's a um a story and correct me if i'm wrong i think it's uh you know i was reading not too long ago because i i did uh we we were going over some ahadith um but it's in regard i think uh barira and uh mughi you know she has a husband and um she didn't want him anymore you know she didn't want him anymore you know and they they marveled because uh mughi you know he's chasing barira you know through the street he's he's the one crying you know usually it's the other way around the wife is crying but he's the husband that's crying and uh the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he's trying to reconcile that particular uh marriage and you know to you know get back with him you know um but i don't see any criticism on uh mughi being so in love you know i'm saying with uh you know with his wife you know um so what i get that that's an indication for me is that you know because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he's not saying you don't want him anyway because he just fall too in love you know so i get that i from that
story i get also that uh there's nothing wrong with um you know falling in love you know i'm saying um there's nothing wrong with any of that it's nothing wrong with being romantic aisha radia and her you know she's drinking from a uh you know vessel and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam located her lips and put his lips on the same location you know so um i think the masculinity that we have to uh put out there is that you know um peaceful you know we have some of the uh you know him you know these beautiful qualities of him and in riff you know making sure we have that kindness and everything else i think that's that's far more effective than um you know the with it what they are referring to a lot of times it's almost like the white hegemonic type of uh um you know uh identity or masculinity that has been destructive to the world that has been destructive to the world and if it's seeped in that if that's the uh that's the framework i don't want it you know i i would rather the the framework of the prophet framework of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam just a question how can we amplify your voice amplify my what we are on yakin this is the biggest platform ever in the muslim community i mean you know what you know so alhamdulilah i mean you know i'm i'm grateful for uh and everything has its place you know everything has its place i mean i i had to disappear for a while to finish my uh to uh to finish my dissertation and stuff you know so you know i let allah do this i'm not uh even i'm scared of the social media stuff a lot of times but uh
everything has its place but we're on yakin do you all see that we are on a huge platform alhamdulilah how's that shaykh umar i think he's doing umrah oh okay okay alhamdulilah yeah yeah just got a text from him alhamdulilah is there any place that they can reach you like i mean you on youtube you have like classes on youtube if somebody do you go out and do uh consultations workshops like in conflict resolutions for different messages is there a way people can be able to do these things or yeah yeah alhamdulilah so um so everyone hit up uh jihad um you see how that goes man i'm not even prepared to shout out my instagram you gotta get used to it yeah yeah i know jihad underscore safir that you know it's on on the ig right on the instagram so we we also um jihad.safir on our facebook um uh islah.org islahacademy.org right i s l a h and you know academy and la um.org um and then um alhamdulilah you know we we out here we doing work i'm also i'm a professor for uh bayan graduate school alhamdulilah making a lot of noise now you know yeah they're now affiliated with uh chicago theological seminary so alhamdulilah oh i have a course coming up um that is a beautiful platform we we we're able to offer some beautiful courses um i have a course coming up right now i'm really talking about uh conflict resolution and peace building so you see i'm in my mold right now i'm gathered you know i'm giving little shout outs to the uh conflict resolution and peace building but in preparation for that course you know i really learned a lot uh and you know there's a lot of training that the muslim community needs in regards to our relationships with uh one another so
alhamdulilah islah alay islah academy uh you know hit me up on instagram jihad underscore safir uh and uh facebook and uh we are here were you in that were you in that class man this class is phenomenal by uh dr sherman jackson islam between slavery and hip-hop and the black american something like that he did it he did it for banning yeah okay yeah no i'm not sure you know so um they have and they have my course on there they have his course on there um there's a um they can uh subscribe to um it's a monthly subscription and if they go to bay area they look at the monthly subscription they can get his course um also i do i think i have my course on there the course that i'm doing is adolescent muslim identity development yeah so they can get on there and uh yeah um you can get access to that course and there's many others there's many of our uh you know our professors alhamdulillah you know offering beautiful courses so go on there subscribe to that bay and claremont b-a-y-a-n claremont okay and they're based in california yeah it's not uh so it's not claremont anymore so it's uh bay and graduate you know okay yeah yeah you're being a graduate yeah and they have uh i think that one is bay and online yeah they and online yeah they and online yeah i'm not worried for the consistency man they've been there for a while mashallah yeah alhamdulillah shift last question we like to ask our guests uh if you can go back in time and give yourself advice what advice would you give your younger self oh man
oh man you know um one thing that i'm realizing right now and i think you know as my grades increase you know as my grades increase is that um all of your struggles and trials that take place um contribute to your success in the future you know um i didn't understand i would panic you know my 20s something happened that i didn't like um but all of them you know i'll give one example i had a barber shop on crenshaw you know what i'm saying like i'm i they call it the riff rap area that's where the you know you have barber shops barber shops and beauty shops are huge especially in you know inner city communities um i had a barber shop and i ended up uh losing it and i was upset right um only to find myself and my services being more needed in the work that i'm doing today so you know i'm grateful that um you know allah removed me from that um you know area expertise after that i ended up going back to school and i realized like wow at the barber shop all my customers i'm i'm a counselor i'm a therapist really you know i'm saying i'm giving them advice and it prepared me for my uh imam position you know and um when i when i lost the shop you know i uh i was upset but um now i understand it alhamdulillah that's amazing shaykh this was an awesome session uh i learned so much personally i took so many notes uh there's so many things that i think so many people who are watching can take to their own communities to make their masjid more open and and more um uh you know greeting people better and being able to have more consideration for the guests who come into the masjid and
i thank you so much for all of your wisdom and your insights and i hope inshallah you'll be able to join us sometime in the future again like you said there's like probably a whole other podcast on working with people in prisons and coming out of prisons oh yeah yeah people we we've looked into it we did our research alhamdulillah so you know all of these we we've been doing like little trainings and teacher trainings and you know um i think this information a lot of information needs to get out there and i'm just glad that i was able to uh um i think this information a lot of information needs to get out inshallah so so we here i appreciate you all listen you all alhamdulillah we need to put y'all on uh you know on one of these you know netflix or something man y'all the best interviewers ever man alhamdulillah you are you know but alhamdulillah man you are you are really uh for the most part um you know the the interview is only as strong as the interviewers you know so alhamdulillah strong interviewers alhamdulillah may allah bless you all i mean i'll take that compliment jazakallah may allah reward you and your family all of your work i mean and your community i mean inshallah
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