Confident Muslim
10 / 20
#ConfidentMuslim Ryan Harris on Cherishing Your Muslim Identity
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. I wanted to introduce to you all a very near and dear friend of mine, and he truly is a brother. And I don't just say that, he really is a brother to me. We are extremely close and it's been such a privilege to know him and to be with him as he was guarding Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl, starting left tackle for Peyton. And he's been through this journey in the NFL. My dear brother and friend, Ryan Harris, has been an inspiration to Muslims, mashallah, for holding proudly to his Islam, but also being just such an amazing person in those contexts. So, Ryan's probably the only person who's my size in this convention. So if you walk around together, you'll probably think he's my bodyguard. So if you see me walking behind him, using him for his offensive lineman skills, let's do that. But why I think it's so significant to have Ryan here is because Ryan shows us, like so many others that have succeeded, that Islam can be a source of inspiration and you don't have to compromise on your deen to be great in all of these different contexts. I'm going to welcome Ryan Harris up, mashallah, to share a few words with us. Thank you. Round of applause for Sheikh Omar. Unbelievable man, isn't he? He's such an inspiration. I told him I'd give him five dollars if he introduced me like that. So he did. Salam alaikum. How y'all doing? I'm going to treat y'all like football players for a second. Is that all right? All right. We do something called stand up, shake it out. When I say stand up, shake it out, stand up, move your shoulders and elbows. Ready? Stand up, shake it out. Get up a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Get some of that breakfast. Anybody get the pancakes too this morning like me? Subhanallah pancakes. Sit on down.
Ever since Ramadan, I can't get enough pancakes and waffles. I'm so happy to be here with you. Thank you, Sheikh Omar, for introducing me. Thank you to ISNA for having me. I'll be here again later this evening. And thank you all for coming. Thank you all for coming. Give yourselves a round of applause. Coming near and coming far. I'm going to be real brief with you guys, but I do want to share some things that help me be confident as a Muslim in case possibly some of you face times and obstacles in your life where you're not as confident as you can be in your Islam or even in your job and the things you want to do. Does that sound all right to you all? All right. The first thing I want to talk to you guys about, we all believe in Allah. Right? Subhanallah to Allah. Believe in yourself as well. Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. Right? There will be times in life where you will have to believe in yourself before anybody else does. And anybody heard of Muhammad Ali, world champion? Yeah. He has some amazing quotes, doesn't he? One of my favorite quotes besides Rumble, young man, Rumble. Right. My favorite quote of Muhammad Ali is he said, I called myself the greatest before I knew I was. Think about that. I called myself the greatest before I knew I was. Even the greatest champion in athletics that we recognize had doubts about his ability. Even the greatest champion in the world that we recognize had doubts as to whether he could accomplish his goals. But even if you don't believe in yourself as that, you're being the best Muslim that you can be, that you're being the best doctor or student or parent or child that you can be. Tell yourself you are. Tell yourself you are. We all go through a journey in Islam.
You're not you're not born and automatically the best Muslim you can be. And if you are, subhanallah, you are the only one. Right. What's DJ Khaled say? The one, the only one. Right. But one of the phrase, a few of the phrases that helped me at these times were the following phrases. And I want you to say with me, I am. I can. I will. And we add inshallah. I am Ryan Harris. I can overcome three back surgeries to help my team win a world championship. I will. Inshallah. Right. But who are you? What is that for you? And we had a student yesterday is going into high school. He's very nervous about being Muslim in high school. If you're that kid, you say, I am a freshman in high school. I can be Muslim and be a good student. I will. Inshallah. I encourage you to use this in your life when you face obstacles, both in the dean and the dunya. Right. Use positive self-talk to get you through the journey that we all are on. Believe in yourself. Part of another tool to believe in yourself is meditation. Right. Subhanallah. We all know Mohammed, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, was meditating when he received the word. How many of us meditate? Right. Not enough. Not enough hands. It's sooner. Right. Find some calmness in your life. Find some calmness each and every day that you can to find your priorities, to recommit to your priorities, right, to recognize distractions in your life. Believe in yourself. Use I am I can I will. And find some time to meditate. Find a meditation practice that works for you. We're from all over the world. We have all different types of cultures, but each and every one of us has meditation in that culture.
So find it for you. The next thing I want to talk to you about is celebrating your difference. I got introduced by the amazing, the knowledgeable Sheikh Omar Suleiman. Right. Him and I are very different, though, and I would not be successful if I tried to be as knowledgeable as him. And he I've seen him play football now. No offense. I'm not talking bad about your brother, but he would be unsuccessful if he tried to be a football player. Right. So we shouldn't spend time trying to be something we're not. If you're built to be a Sheikh, Masha'Allah. Congratulations. Right. If you're built to be a football player, congratulations. If you're made to be a doctor or a lawyer. OK. Celebrate that. Do not let your dean lessen because of the fact that you're not someone who has knowledge or ability in another area that you are. I have the privilege of playing next to Peyton Manning. I couldn't be Peyton Manning. I could say Omaha like him. Right. But I can't be Peyton Manning. We wouldn't want we wouldn't have won a Super Bowl if I tried to be anyone other than myself. Right. And the way you celebrate your differences is in how you prepare, in how you do things differently. Right. Celebrate that. Don't be ashamed that your preparation or your will do or your lot is different or at a different time. Do not try and measure yourself against the very same people who love you because you're creating a difference that you don't need and that can set you back. And the last thing I want to talk to you all about is celebrate every win. Right. Say with me celebrate every win. Yes. Celebrate every win. Are there any adults here in the crowd? Yeah. Young man, you are not an adult. Whatever you say. Quit playing. Don't be lying to Isna now.
Right. Every adult knows there's not enough wins in life. Right. There are not enough wins in life. So you must celebrate the wins that you do have. Right. Especially with your dean. If you have made a small improvement, celebrate that yourself. You get up for fudger. Shukra Allah. Say whatever you need to do. Woo. You know, get excited about it. Right. For me, it sounds different. Right. Sounds like woo. Rock and roll, man. All right. Right. We talk about celebrating differences. We all sound different when we celebrate. Here's one way to describe my morning. As-salamu alaykum. I woke up this morning. May Salat. I was able to join you all here and get some get some food in the concessions. All right. That's one way to live. Right. Here's another one. Woo. SubhanAllah. I woke up this morning. Masha Allah. I'll tell you what, may Salat. Felt good, man. Felt good. How many of you, did you know they got halal rice crispy treats in there? Man, I can't buy enough of those, man. You might see some of my teeth right now. And then I got the chance to be introduced by the one, the only, the Sheikh Omar. SubhanAllah, man. I got to talk to you all. Is that a different way to live life? Live life differently. Celebrate every win. Right. Thank you. For full clarification, I could dominate him in basketball. Jazakallah khair. That was incredible. And let's all give one more round of applause for Ryan. Mashallah. It is such an honor to have people like Ryan that are representing us in these spaces and that are wearing their Islam proudly and that are being great with their Islam. And I want to thank all of our participants and all of you for being here today. Mashallah. The energy was was incredible. I know usually these early morning sessions,
people are still kind of waking up and they're not really able to clap. The claps are really slow and the takbeers are very low. But I appreciate all of you being here. Please do visit our website, inshallah, yaqeeninstitute.org. You can also go to confidentmuslim.com and find the other presenters. At the end of the year, inshallah, we're going to be giving a Muhammad Ali award to the best presenter, inshallah. So look out for the voting for that and continue to support us. Barakallahu feekum. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items