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Mother's Strength, Father's Prayers: Success through Struggle | Iman Cave
Adversity not only tests our limits but also has the power to fuel our ambition. How can we, as Muslim men, turn trials into triumphs? Join Sheikh Abdullah Oduro and Co-Host Ustadh Morad Awad as they unveil the journey of Mohammad Elashi and Osama Elashi, who transformed hardship into ambition, inspired by their father—one of the Holy Land 5, wrongfully incarcerated—and the unwavering strength of their mother.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. I wish he could hear this. He would call every day from the moment he was put in prison, I think until 20, so keep in mind I'm 11 years old when he's put in prison, until the age of minimum 20, 21, 22, every day that he could possibly call, he would call for fajr and ensure that I'm awake. So I told my mom and listened to her response. She said, Muhammad, wallah al-azim, I remember like it was yesterday. She said, Muhammad, no, don't retire me. Are you kidding? I can do a couple more. I have a couple more years in me. I have a couple more years in me. Just save up, keep going, keep going. Save up and then when it's at a certain point, then retire me. Even at that point, she didn't feel entitled. She would have never believed in a million years that me and Osama would be able to retire her. I want to tell you one thing, Shaykh. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, da'wah al-mazloom, mustajabah. Da'wah al-ab li-ibnihi, mustajabah. And, you know, their father has both and he's making a lot of dua for them. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. How's everyone doing? I'm Abdullah Oduro and welcome to the Iman Cave where we discuss issues of male excellence while being grounded in faith. You know, I remember when I was 16 years old and my mother would walk in the room, knock on the door, and she would ask, when are you going to get a job? When are you going to do this? Do you have plans? She saw that there was no real goal that I had in my life. I think this is common for many of us young men. Many of us that are older now we can recall that time when we were younger and we had no ambition. One of the things
that are important, I know for me, as if a man is going to walk into my home and he wants to marry my daughter, I want to know if he has some ambition, if he has a goal, if he's striving to get somewhere. You know, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he mentioned that if you are going to ask Allah for Jannah, then ask Him for Jannah al-Firdos, the highest level of Firdos, the highest level of Jannah. Himmatun alia, to have a lofty goal. You cannot get there without ambition. So what we're going to talk today about is that particular characteristic that is needed in our young men and in men in general, to have ambition. Alhamdulillah, we have our, mashaAllah, co-host, brother Murad Awad. MashaAllah, may Allah protect him and his MMA skills and everything that he does in life, inshaAllah. May Allah bless him. And we have two illustrious guests with us today, mashaAllah, tibariqa Allah. We have to my left, brother Usama and Muhammad al-Ashigi. Alhamdulillah, they have an amazing story and they are the epitome, mashaAllah, of examples of brothers that have ambition. But I want to start out, alhamdulillah, with both of you, where you were raised. It's probably best to keep it connected with our father and our mother, of course. Our favorite person is our mother, then our mother and then our mother, alhamdulillah. And then, our dad's alright. Alhamdulillah, amazing. It was a very, very normal upbringing and happy. MashaAllah, so when you were at the age of 11 and 10, something happened in your life. What was it that took place in your life that
served as a catalyst for further, you know, what we're going to speak about in regards to being someone that had to make some severe choices that required ambition? I'll add to Usama on the last question too. We were very fortunate to have a lot of family around us. So, both of us grew up with so much support that we didn't ever realize what was going on. It was always fun, it was always games, we played outside all the time. But yeah, something did happen when we were 11, 12 years old. My father was incarcerated and you know, sentenced to life basically. He was a political prisoner. He was being prosecuted for essentially supporting children overseas, in Gaza specifically. Imagine you donate funds to a charity organization or imagine you would like to send funds to Palestine for children, widows, people in need. You can't just send it to, you know, a person in Palestine. You have to send it to a charity organization which then has their own procedures and they distribute the funds. Of course, HLF, the Holy Land Foundation at the time, was the nation's largest Muslim charity organization. The charity organization that was in Palestine was the same charity organization that the United States government funneled their charity money towards to distribute funds and aid to Palestine. And that was presented in the court, right? The second trial, the evidence that was put forward was just the
facts. It was so obvious at that point that this is bigger than what we had initially thought. I think my father also at one point thought that they were just going to get by this, right? And it wasn't going to be anything serious. But at the second trial, once all of this evidence, hey, we're giving to the same charity organizations, to the same channels that the United States government and a ton of other charity organizations are giving to. Why are we not accusing all of these other organizations? Another piece of evidence that they used, they pulled in an expert in terror who was unnamed. They would not provide his name. They would not provide his occupation. They just said, he's a terrorist expert. What's that supposed to mean? It was the first time in history that that was done and the judge allowed it. I think there was a common theme in that trial that the judge was very clearly biased and took sides with the government and against Islam and Muslims and had a clear agenda. It's probably important to note that the first trial, they won. Our father and the four other men actually won. It was a jury trial. One of the jury members, I think... Caused a mistrial. Yeah, caused a mistrial. This is against the United States government. We won, alhamdulillah, the first time. I think that was observed and noted. It was achieved in the height of fear of the Muslim community. Around what year is this, by the way? Between 2003 to 2008, essentially, was when all this was happening. This is all from the crackdown of 9-11, like the crackdown. That post, yeah. Trying to find out. War on terror, yeah. America
was essentially honing down and really scrutinizing every single Muslim community and trying to essentially take every establishment down that was influential in every Muslim community. And my dad was one of them, one of five, along with the other four great men. And yeah, so he was eventually sentenced to prison for material support to terrorism and other counts as well. So there's a very good documentary that has two parts on Al Jazeera. It's on YouTube, you can find it. I think it breaks down what we believe to be the truth very well. The Holy Land Five. Holy Land Five Al Jazeera. And a website called freedomtogive.com. And Shukri Abu Bakr is also... Shukri Abu Bakr and Mufid, two other men that are also... That were in this community. That were in this community, that are also in prison. Different prisons, but with my father. Two other men, Odeh Abdur Rahman Odeh and Ms. Zain have been released, alhamdulillah. Odeh is here. I only mention all of this because it's not only about our father, right? It's four other great men, alhamdulillah. Shukri has the same sentence as my father. So this fight, we're fighting this fight for him just as much as we are for our father. And then inshallah, Abu Mufid will be out very soon, inshallah. So there will be two left. And inshallah, Allah unites you with your father as well. Justice will inevitably, inshallah, prevail. So you grew up, a lot of times it's the father that teaches, especially in Palestinian families. I'm Palestinian so I can speak. Usually the father hands off the business.
He sets them up and the son is like sitting in this business, whatever it is. Whether it's a gas station, a supermarket, a restaurant, whatever it may be. But he teaches them the ins and outs. I think you guys had to like kind of hold your own and figure things out. How was that process? I will say that highly due to our mother, alhamdulillah. Of course we were very young. I remember very vividly, I'll share this story. It's one of the only stories I remember of the case. I was so young that, which obviously it's a huge ni'mah that we were that young. Again, you're not able to absorb a lot of the, I guess, feelings that you would be able to absorb if you were the age of, for example, my sister, who was older than us. So she was able to kind of visualize and again absorb all of it at a very mature age. Al muhim, we kept going to the same courthouse every day, like mama when are we leaving? Bored. Just thinking this is like normal procedure, right? Yeah. 10 years old, 11 years old, when are we going to go home? Come on, come on. That's like getting a license. Yeah, something like that. I'm just like, ah. Can I take my skateboard with me and skate outside in downtown Dallas, like while this is all going on? That was my mind set at that time. I remember very vividly taking my skateboard, telling mama if I could go skate while this is all going on. It's that trauma here. That's what's so sad. But you know, I feel like it was good because we were very, they kept us very ignorant to the entire thing. My mom and our family and everyone made it feel like everything was okay, everything was normal. Barely ever felt that. And I think the only thing truly
that we struggled with and that we saw our mom struggle with, and again, had nothing to do with, there was no emotional distress because of no father or anything. It was all, we saw our mom struggle work, you know, until 9, 10 p.m., doing documentation, you know, for her school, cooking dinner like a superhero. Like imagine you have six kids by yourself, left with debt, you know, with all this attorney stuff going on. And so you're, that's what we witnessed. We witnessed financial struggle, you know. And I think growing up, we all knew we were going to be in a better spot no matter what. We were not going to live our whole lives like this. We saw our mom struggle. She tried her hardest. She tried her hardest to make us not feel it, but we can see it wearing down on her, you know. That's what we experienced. It wasn't the emotional distress. It wasn't the, we were too young for that. When did it hit you? Like where, because you said when you saw, you know, where you said, when did it hit you to where you both said to each other, we got to step up? Like around high school, that as I got a little older, I could, I would, like Mohammed said, I was able to absorb, again, keep using the same word, a lot of what my mother was going through. And so when you get older, you get more and more sad for the trials that she's going through. And then, and you see her working so hard. We lived at the school, basically. I went to the same school that she taught at. So I would go with her in the morning and she would stay there all the way till seven, eight o'clock sometimes. Crazy. Come back, cook a 30 minute meal for six kids. Easy. Amazing.
Hot dogs, Alfredo, just some easy things that are incredible. Incredible. So I always made du'a, always made this du'a. And Allah, I think, answered all my du'a. It's crazy. Always made du'a that I want to be a part of. I'm not saying I'm the one that, but Allah, like allow us be a part of our mother's retirement. Allow us to be a part of her ability to be mirtaha, to be relaxed, to rest. Right. And now that we're a little bit older, because of how independent and strong she was, it took her a moment to, I always ask her, I say, why don't you ask for things from an authoritative standpoint when it comes to us? Like demand. I'm your mother, I deserve this. Yeah, like, I want this. In the beginning, you know, she was very hesitant, even though we're her kids. But now, alhamdulillah, she's very authoritative. Rightfully so. It's wonderful. Like she's, she's, she feels entitled, is what I'm looking for. Masha'Allah. Authoritative is the wrong word. But even, even that, to be honest, her, his, his meaning or definition of entitled, my mom is still always so hesitant to ask. Always. Her own sons. And she was always like that as we grew up. And I think that, you know, subconsciously affected us well as like, we don't ask, we do, you know, she, she got many, she was offered many handouts from the community donations, you know, groups that were giving money to different families that were affected by this. She rejected all of it. And she did. And I know that for a fact. And she always told me growing up, don't take handouts, you know, we're gonna, we're doing
this together. Don't worry, all this stuff. And she would remember her credit card very, you know, clearly. And I remember how she would like, just get over and get to the other side and the next month and the next month. What Sama like was really emphasizing is that she doesn't, she never, even the entitlement aspect she feels today is so, so small. She barely, and I think that's truly subconsciously what made us do what we, what we did over the last few years. How could you not? How could you not be ambitious in that, like concept? You see a mom working that much, you know, leading by the example, because she'll effectively, the mom probably felt like she had to teach the girls how to be a woman and teach the boys how to be men as well. Like she had to, she had to do everything. Right. And that's probably why she was, like, you know, making sure she's on top of everything like that. SubhanAllah. And look, the product, you know, it made you ambitious. You said, she set the standard high for you guys. Very high. Right? Like the amount of work and whatnot. A lot of times, Sheikh, nowadays, boys don't have that, like, that ambition. No, no, not at all, man. I mean, SubhanAllah. And you know, I think with the coupling of mom and dad, you still, do you all still communicate with that at all? Of course. So, I mean, just those words from, from, from dad and then mom being there together, it's made you the man that you are today. You know, after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has tawfeeq. When you mentioned how, you know, your mother, you know, was one of the, you've seen her struggle, you've seen what she's going through. And I'm almost sure many, many young men go through that, man. I mean, there's some that, you know, there's probably, dad's not there, but he's there, but he's not there. Right? So
sometimes you will feel, you know, that the son may have, where's, where's my dad that he's, you know, he's in the house, but he's not there. And he sees mom struggling. That has been a means of ambition for some men as well. So when seeing in your case, mashallah, dad is, it's amazing. Dad is there. He's there. Exactly. You communicate with him, his words are words of gold. He was an entrepreneur as well. And he was there. Absolutely was. I hate to cut you off. I wish he could hear this. He would call every day from the moment he was put in prison till, I think until 20. So keep in mind, I'm, I'm 11 years old when he's put in prison around that age, until the age of minimum 20, 21, 22, every day that he could possibly call, he would call for Fajr and ensure that I'm awake. So the, the fatherhood, the fatherhood did not stop. Amazing. Yeah, it's, I like to say that, that my mother is definitely my favorite person in the world. But bro, for the longest time, I, I, I just felt like he was beyond, like human. Like he, I always just thought of him as a, a, Like Superman. A Superman. Until I'm, bro, that's what a kid thinks. I'm saying until I'm like in my 20s, this is the guy. Until I achieve that status. Yeah. Yeah. So when it hits you all, right? Okay, dad's not here. We have to step up. How did you all get into your entrepreneurial endeavor and then stay in that? Like, where was the manifestation of ambition for you all? You know, you realize, okay, dad's probably
not going to come home soon. Mom, the situation that she's in right now, we have to step up and, and, and contribute and step up and take care of our sisters and mom as well. Watching our mother in the situation that she was in. But then also, alhamdulillah, beyond that, our childhood was great. Again, our mother enabled us to just be very happy, right? And, and instilled a lot of good, good characteristics in us, which meant work in whatever you do, work hard, right? Alhamdulillah. It wasn't necessarily geared towards on like being an entrepreneur or doing your own thing or starting your own business. It was just whatever you do, put your all in it. 100%. And then in terms of how that converted to business, I'll allow the, the big dog, the big dog, yeah, absolutely. I would love to romanticize it to make it seem like, you know, for the viewers and for the show, but you know, it's, it would be fake if we said, our main driving point was, you know, we need to get out of this struggle and we need to, you know, take care of our family. And although that may be a subconscious thing that's in our minds and in our hearts, I think what Samah said was spot on. I think it was that do everything with, with, with tenacity, with just make sure you do it at 100%, don't give up on it. And if you give up on it, look at me, like, look what I look, look, look at your mom, like, look what she's been doing. Of course, you have your dad calling you and being your business advisor and pushing you from, from a prison. And he was moved all over the place. I think at this time he was in Atlanta or something, pushing you saying, it's in your genes. Do it, do it. Why aren't you doing it? Why aren't you doing it? Do it, do it, do it.
You know, and this guy that you like, you know, that you look up to in praise is telling you, you know, if maybe your role model came in and he was saying, do it, you'd be like energized, you'd be ready to go. So he, you know, he pushed me. And I think my mom set the stage as for both of us, for all of us in our family, really all of us in our family, not just me and Samah, but my sisters, we all have that same ambitious. We're going to do it no matter what, no questions asked, just, just get it done. Essentially in college, you know, some things happened and I decided, you know, that's it. Something just weird happened, clicked in my body, was like, I had an idea and let's, I didn't think about business growing up. It just, that idea clicked a year before I thought of, I want to get in business. I just, I was, I was playing soccer. I wanted to become a physical therapist or whatever. And all of a sudden I was just like, wait a second, I want to do business. You know, yeah, it was weird, very weird. And when I talked to my dad, he was like, yeah, it's in your genes. That's why, you know, it just, it woke up, it woke up, you know. It was hibernating for a few years and, and, and yeah, we, we did it. And SubhanAllah, I was thinking, and my mom, you know, hopefully she hears this because we, we, we joke about it every now and then. I remember saying, mama, if you could just, you know, invest in me by giving me your credit card so I can pay for gas every week, you know, that's all I need, just gas money to get from here to school, to the office. Because I was going to school when we started the company. She was like, Mohammed, you can't, like, I barely have anything at the end of the month. I barely, like, you know, where am I, how am I supposed to budget in an extra $100, you know, a month for you? That doesn't make any sense. And I was like, mama, just trust me. I promise you, I'll pay it back, pay it back. And, and SubhanAllah, like literally like a year and a half, two years later, I'm in mama's house.
Before choosing to get married before, I'm not trying to like, you know, brag because I truly did it out of like, I wanted it. Like it was love. Like, believe me, if it wasn't, I would have not, you know, cared to do that. Selfish tendencies will definitely come out. You would buy yourself a car or, you know, a home, a Rolex, get married, all this other material stuff. You see all these people doing that before they take care of their own family, which is mind blowing. And before, like, I remember sitting in her room with you and we were like, I was like, mama, I made it. I'm making more than you now. I'm making more than you. I'm in college. I'm making more than you. And we were, we were all like laughing. And I was like, mama, OK, I'm ready to retire you. Do you remember that? I was like, I'm ready to retire you. How old were you? I was like 22, 23 years, 22. I was, no, no, no. Yeah, I was 22 years old. I had just started my master's. I just finished my undergraduate going into my master's. OK, so you were studying and you started a business while you were studying. Yeah, in my undergraduate, my junior year of my undergraduate year. Yeah. OK. We started a pediatric clinic, speech occupational therapy. And at the time we had to I had hired my second therapist. And because of that second therapist, you know, now I was going beyond a break even point. And I was, you know, at this point of profiting and we profited. I was I was making at that point maybe like about five thousand dollars a month. And, you know, as a 22 year, 21 year old in college, you know, who has no business experience, no nothing, making more than your mom. That was like I was on a ultimate high threshold. Yeah. And it was consistent. It was consistent. It's health care. It's very consistent. I mean, from that today we have 100 people working there. But at the time, two people was like I was like, you know, that's it. I made it. I didn't even think, you know. So I told my mom and listen to her response. She said, Mohammed, I remember like it was yesterday.
She said, Mohammed, no, don't retire me. Are you kidding me? I can do a couple more. I have a couple more years in me. I have a couple more years in me. Just save up. Keep going. Keep going. Like save up. And then when it's, you know, when it's at a certain point, then then retire me. Even at that point, she didn't feel entitled. Like, wow, she would have never believed in a million years that Meen Osama would be able to retire her. And until we're maybe 30 or something like that, you know, a year later. Yeah, we, Meen Osama started another business in solar. And just so the market was open. I mean, what a long story about Osama. Osama worked. Osama and my cousin worked. Yusuf worked at a a solar company that was just doing installation. They were essentially on the roof, putting the panels down, summer jobs. And I had a good year. And I thought I was Elon Musk. And I approached Osama and I was like, Osama, Yusuf, what do you guys think? Let's do this together. And we all agreed. And a lot like blew up over there. We have one hundred seventy five people. Wow. You see the show. What I take away from the story? Yeah. The ambition side of it is, is you could almost define it as not making excuses to stop or to fail or whatnot. You know, like you had growing up, you're like, oh, you know, I grew up without my father most of my, oh, you know, I came from a low income family, kind of struggling. So I, you know, I could barely pay for my gas. Like there was many moments where you just could have like had that excuse. But ambition is where like you you take out all excuses. Like, no, I want to do this and I don't care what it takes. You know, that's that's ambition. Right. I think before this, you mentioned something that and I think it ties into what I want to say. You define confidence as a combination of two things. It was courage and humility. Like ambition is great. Courage is great. Yeah. Right.
And it's necessary to to find out whether or not you're going to fall into the best Qadar that Allah has kind of were one of the paths that Allah has destined for you. Right. It's like you're doing your part. You're the best that you could do to find out if you're going to get the maximum of what was already written for you. I cannot explain how many scenarios, how many situations that the business should have just collapsed. Really? Malt just and and then and then something happens. Right. Like what are the odds, right? Out of the out of the world. You didn't expect it. You know, you never, never expected. It falls. It falls on our lap. I want to tell you one thing, Shaykh. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said Da'wah al-Mazloom mustajabah. Yeah. Da'wah al-Ab li-Ibnihi mustajabah. Yes. And, you know, their father has both. And he's making a lot of da'wah for them. It ties perfectly to exactly what I wanted to conclude with and exactly why I think or one of the main reasons as to why we wanted to share this message for the sake of our parents. Our mother and our father to spread the message of our father and the men that are in there with him. That absolutely. Like if you look at our current state and you look at it's a perfect pick. It's a perfect storybook. It's like the father goes to prison and the children, alhamdulillah, are given rizq. We of course, we worked hard. We were people work harder than us, man. Wallahi, it's a perfect balance. It's like you said, it's the confidence is understanding that you need to work hard,
but not convincing yourself that the work got you there. Just always reminding yourself that there's someone smarter than me. But alhamdulillah that I've been placed on this path that is that is a path of rizq. And I better be doing, you know, we all have our shortcomings and we all have our ups and downs. But we try our best to to do the best that we can with the rizq that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provides. But I just wanted to make that clear that I definitely agree that there's a direct correlation between our father's situation and this. You know what they remind me of, Sheikh? What's that? You know, in Surat al-Kahf, when when Musa alayhi salam asked Khadr, why did we build this wall for nothing in the middle of nowhere? What did Allah say? He said, وَكَانَ أَبُوهُمَا الصَّادِحَةَ He said they had a father that was righteous. So Allah sent us to take care of them. Exactly. It's like it's like that that preservation. Yes. Almost, you know, a hundred percent. No, and I think that's that's important, you know, because I mean, we have to remember that shaitan is real. Satan will come to you and he'll be like you said, why are you doing this? You don't you don't know anything about this industry. You know, there's there's people out there that are much better than you. You know, people are looking at you. Are you sure you want to? So that can kind of play a role in weakening of that ambition or that fire that was there. But I think what's really beautiful about you brothers is the perseverance, you know, and that's a characteristic of someone that's ambitious, that they persevere throughout all of the trials and the tribulations or the tests. And like when you realize what was really going on, you know, while you're in school, establishing, going through with an idea because, you know, a lot of people have ideas.
But then when you actualize that idea, it's a whole other level. And like you mentioned right now, how, you know, you face so many. There were so many roadblocks and pushing through. Wallahi, that is so important for a man. Wallahi, that is so important. It's not now that you're going to have a family and children. Those roadblocks, you know, you know, there's probably going to be brothers out there that's lost their job, you know, and the children are looking at them. And Mashallah, how you mentioned, you know, your mother, you know, when you're in court, when they're in court, you're not really understanding what's going on. You know, you as a father, you have to look back and, you know, subhanallah, you know, they're going to you won't be able to tell me I lost my job. All this is going on or sales plummeted or we lost, you know, this many employees. But you have to keep moving on and persevering. And you put on that that like as a father, you know, you come home and you never tell your kids you make you always make them feel like they're comfortable no matter what your situation is. They're OK, no matter what your situation is, you know. But also, on the other hand, being that this is the qadr of Allah, let's talk about the goodness that has come out from this situation for my father. Before he went, was he a hafidh al-Qur'an? No, sir. Is he a hafidh al-Qur'an now? Yes, sir. Before he went. Don't just breeze by that. He memorized the Qur'an. Yes, alhamdulillah. I'm still convinced he's not human, but. Masallah. Well, that's that's that's. I love that, man. Well, I love his daily routine is vigorous exercise, reading, staying up to date on politics and our industries, sometimes more than us. So he'll send us letters of newspapers and magazines of content and and kind of news headlines that we don't know about.
He's always asking for, you know, financial updates on our businesses. He's kind of advanced his career right now into, I think, Fath al-Bari. I think he just likes to find a ton of books as a series and is like, let's start. Let's start. Let's start with volume one to volume. Yeah, so it is. It has been on on one end, of course, you know, it's a test. But on the other end, it's like there's so much good that good that came out of it. And because of this, I promise you, Wallahi, I promise you, there was never a day that I felt embarrassed, never a day that we felt sad or angry, I would say, or more upset or shameful or something like this. Always proud, always proud. And I think that's a ni'mah for us, for us, for Allah to instill in us the rida, I guess, the content. Yeah, you know, a father's only worry in that moment, you know, leaving a family behind like that is what's going to happen to his wife, his kids, you know, is everything they could. I didn't even teach my son how to, you know, shave his beard, how to trim his, you know, mustache, how to, you know, how to do anything. And so, of course, his worry is I can't imagine. I mean, you as a father, me, a new father, I can't imagine, you know, going for life and leaving my little child. You know, it's like an insane thought. So although some people, you know, feel sad and feel I feel like he is on a mountain right now, he feels higher than ever. Like Osama said, he's a hafiz, he's memorized the Qur'an, he's converted countless people. You know, he's looked at there as a light in the prison. Everyone looks at him as a wise man when he walks into the visitation room.
When we go visit him, he's he's shining white, white beard, white skin, completely white, like as if like he's like a light walking into there and everyone's looking at him and like this, you know, like like that, you know, and he's looking and he's walking and feels like he's shrinking because he's getting older. He's 70 years old, but he just walks in there and he's it's a wise, wise man. Like like you said, like a like a non non-human figure. He's walking in, you know, kind of one. And anyways, he's he's on a mountain. He's like, my my sons are good. My daughter is amazing. My wife is taking care of my, you know, my my little down syndrome son that I left, you know, with my wife and six kids. He's, you know, the chief snacks officer in our office, you know, putting snacks away, playing games like he feels truly. I'm so content with where my father is right now in his life because he feels like he's he's on top of the world. He feels everything is done. And the only thing that would make me happier is coming out and being with spending the rest of my life with my wife. And that's it. You know, somewhere in Turkey, that's it. Everything is taken care of. Everything is taken care of. Wow. You know, and that makes me content. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And everyone should be like that, too. We are working, by the way, just want to say we are working on a campaign right now behind the scenes that will be released. I say we are primarily 100 percent. My sister, Noor, is leading this effort. But I think when when when the right time comes, when everything is prepared, I think we would love to at one point share this information as well. So, you know, one thing that I'm really observing from this is, you know, we talked about another series, about another show, about how Khadija, was the source of inspiration for the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he received the revelation.
You know, he went to her and he said, Inni khashito ala nafsi, when he received, Iqra bismi rabbika ladhi khalaq, you know, the first revelation. He went to Khadija, the source of inspiration. Right. And subhanAllah, you know, just countless times I'm hearing, you know, Noor, my mother, Noor, sister Noor, my mother. And then you mentioned earlier, you know, your cousins, your uncles, that they are also incarcerated because there was a connection with your father. The strong family unit. I mean, the main reason we're doing this, this show on masculinity is the establishment and preservation of families. Yeah. That's the best. That's the ultimate goal behind this show. That's the ultimate goal behind, you know, me wanting to talk about this for young men, because if young men grow up and not wanting to have families, not wanting to get married, they're caught into the isms and schisms and pill, red pill, whatever pill it may be. You know, they don't want to establish any kind of family. You know, subhanAllah, it's going to be very difficult to see individuals like yourself. So when we're seeing, you know, the strong, I mean, there's nothing. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said ummah three times for a reason. And then after that, your father, for a reason, you know, that is the glue, mashaAllah, to barakAllah, you know, there's nothing like a strong mother, you know, and then there's nothing like the young son looking at the strong mother and not knowing anything else except that strength, right? But all of it together, and that's what makes Islam so beautiful. And that's what makes, you know, Allah being Al Khaliq, just a beautiful process in thinking and pondering over it, how he creates the male and the female and their natural characteristics coming together. It's like when I'm almost sure when your father talks to you, he's telling you something in a different way than mom would tell you. Yes. And all of it together is what made you who you are today and still is. I mean, we're still growing up.
Yes. You know, and then with your sisters, I mean, all I'm hearing is strength as well. I mean, like in persistence and ambition. I mean, it's not like when we talk about these characteristics, ambition, integrity, that is not present in females. No, it's present in females, but in the way Allah has created them. And that's what's beautiful, subhanAllah. We're seeing the manifestation of family, and we use the term extended family, but family all together and establishing and raising each other. And that's beautiful. Sheikh, you know, we got to say this, because it's necessary, you know, we got to call out all the moms out there, you know, because, you know, this, you are the source of ambition for your sons. You want them to be men. You are the one that that makes them into men. Right. Because even when you when you reflect on the Prophet and his wives, like, you know, he was married to Khadija and Khadija was the source of strength for him. Right. But he also had other wives. Each one had her personality, right? Like Khadija wasn't like Sauda or like Umm Salama or like Aisha. Each one had their own kind of personality. But Khadija was the one that that was needed for that period of time. The beginning of the Risalah, you know, so the moms need need to be like those Khadijas. Right. Right. That empower. I remember my mom when I was growing up, SubhanAllah. Similar, my mom didn't work. She was a housewife. My father worked hard. He worked long hours. But my mom was always like, you got to grow up and own a business. You got to do this. And then she would tell my dad, why don't you buy him this business? Let the kids run it. He already knows this. And she's always like, my mom had the entrepreneur mindset. Right.
So I had my first business when I was like 12 years old. I had my first business when I was like 21. I was still in college. I had a mechanic shop. And I used to go to like a dealership, a little dealership, buy and sell cars and fix them and stuff like that. So and I was making money. I remember like my mom, when I came home, I would sell cars. And I was like 21. I'm like, Baba, you know, I made more money than you this month. And then he's like, yeah, Baba, but look how dirty your hands are. My dad didn't like that. He's like, that's why I'm paying for you to be an engineer. I'm like, why? So I could wear a tie and sit in the office all day. You know, I didn't like that. I was always like a little hustler. You're right. I didn't like to move stuff. But my, subhanAllah, it was the mom that always pushed. It was the mom that always pushed. The dad, the dad kind of gives you guidance. But the mom, the mom pushes. That's how I felt. The dad kind of steers a little, but the mom is the one that like gives you that confidence and that ambition. So shout out like to the moms out there listening. Inshallah, definitely you are the main contributor towards ambition. I think that's what we learned from today's experience. Yeah, and as we started the show, I mean, shout outs to my mother as well. Mashallah may Allah, you know, guide her inshallah to Islam. But definitely the natural characteristic of, you know, I'm thankful for her calling on me at 16, 17, asking what I'm going to do, you know, in my life and how I'm going to, you know, live out that legacy, you know, of the family. And subhanAllah, may Allah subhanAllah bless all of you for coming. And may Allah subhanAllah bless our mothers particularly, because those are the ones that help in making us men. It's not only just the fathers, though. The father has his role in his position. Uncles have the role in their position. The mom, without a doubt, has a primary, primary role and position in making us ambitious men. JazakAllah khair for tuning in. May Allah subhanAllah bless you brothers. Mashallah, Osama Muhammad and brother Murad.
BarakAllahu feekum, Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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