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Why Me? | Iman Cave
Yaqeen’s Ramadan series Why Me? portrayed the life of a person from birth to death. While the challenges the character faced may have been situational, the lessons are universal, particularly in the context of reflecting on faith-rooted masculinity.
Join Sh. Oduro in the Iman Cave with Why Me? actors Nouman Farooq and Mohammad Ayachi as they reflect on their roles in the series and themes of father-son relationships, aggression, leaving a legacy, and submitting to Allah.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. You know, sometimes, let's be honest, I mean, sometimes I tell a lot of guys that convert to Islam, you know, reach out to your dad. Your dad was not around, but Allah chose him to be your father. You know, I just, I sat him down. I was like, dad, I, and I, I kept stuttering because I couldn't utter the words. I mean, I kept saying, I, I, I, like I was about to say it, but I couldn't, right? He says, it's okay. Boom. He said, it's okay. Man, I love that. You're not a good person if you're facing something more magnificent and powerful, and you kind of humble yourself. That's just your self-interest. The real understanding of where you're at is ultimately when you're over in front of something that you don't necessarily have to control yourself around, but you still do. That's real restraint. That's real masculinity. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. How's everyone doing? I'm Abdullah Oduro, and welcome to the Iman Cave, where we talk about issues of male excellence while being grounded in faith. It was meant to be. It was meant to be. This is what we say at times when something has passed us, something has happened, whether we like it or not, it was meant to be. In Islam, this concept is called Qadr. It's called predestination. Meaning that God has allowed something to happen, whether we like it or we don't like it. Allah has allowed it to happen. In regards to the man and his masculinity, what takes place in his life, he has to accept it, go through it, put his head down and walk through that dungeon at times, and sometimes it may be that garden. Talking about predestination in the life of the human being, here at Yaqeen Institute, Alhamdulillah, we had a series that just passed us called, Why Me? Let's be honest, each and every single one of us has asked that question. Why me? Why did it happen to me? That's the name of the series, Why Me?
Don't forget to tune into this series because it talks about issues in life that go through a certain individual's life, speaking about predestination directly and indirectly. And here today, Alhamdulillah, we have two of our illustrious actors in this beautiful, beautiful series called Why Me? that you've probably seen before. Alhamdulillah, we have to my right, brother, the infamous Muhammad Al-Ayyashi, the farmer or the rancher. Mashallah, I didn't bring it up earlier. Mashallah, Muhammad Al-Ayyashi is a beautiful brother here in the community. And Alhamdulillah, he's the first one that took me and my sons out on the Eid al-Adha last year. We were able to sacrifice the animal from the sacrificing to, mashallah, putting in packages. And mashallah, very, very beautiful brother. And anytime you come to Dallas and you want to go and learn how to do sacrifice, look the brother up, mashallah, Muhammad Al-Ayyashi. I'm almost sure you are familiar with his face. You are familiar with his attitude in some of the scenes. Alhamdulillah, we're going to expound upon. And to the right of him, to the left of me is the one and only Nu'man Farooq, who played Hassan, who played Hassan. And we know Hassan can mean the one that is beautiful, right? That is a beautiful thing. So these two actors, Alhamdulillah, what we're going to do today is we're going to take a journey through three scenes that took place in this series, Why Me? And we're going to expound upon it, looking at it from the male lens of where we could fall short in embodying masculinity and where we can be victorious, productive, conducive to our families and society in regards to masculinity. But first, brother Muhammad, if you could give us a brief background of yourself. Firstly, tell us where you were born, where you were raised and how you got this role. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, Sheikh.
I appreciate the wonderful introduction. Alhamdulillah, I was actually born and raised here in Dallas. I'm a native. I'm originally from Tunisia, Tunisia, North Africa. I love the shirt, for sure. Alhamdulillah, as far as like getting this role, I actually know Fawzi, the director. And so he put a post asking for people who could be involved and they were looking for continuity. You know, they want to have different characters that kind of follow their process through life. So he asked if I knew anybody who could be a mini-me and then also if I could come myself. And so I was able to, Alhamdulillah, find somebody and I told him, like, yeah, I got you. So I texted him back, you know, we scheduled a date. Next thing you know, we're on set. Wow, wow. Fawzi, we call him the wizard. Oh, magic is haram, but this guy, Mashallah, he has it. Yeah, sometimes you gotta watch and be like, Alhamdulillah, Mashallah. Mashallah, Alhamdulillah, you know, Mashallah. He's definitely in his element when he has that camera, you know what I'm saying? Amazing. He's in his element. May Allah bless him. He has a vision unlike anything else, yeah. Painting that picture, it's kind of hard to explain at times, but he just does his thing, Mashallah. So, Alhamdulillah. Brother Norman, firstly, where are you born and raised and how were you picked for this role? So, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, Shaykh. Wa alaikum assalam. Jazakallah khair for having me here. No, Jazakallah khair for coming. I'm so happy to be here, Alhamdulillah. I'm going to get y'all's autograph later. Don't worry about that, Inshallah. Inshallah. I need to trade off. If I find my autograph on eBay, I'll be really sad about that. You'll be really sad about it, yeah, yeah, Inshallah. So I was born in Illinois, Chicago, Illinois. I actually was born in a suburb, McHenry, Illinois, just like half an hour outside of Chicago. We spent only four years there, moved down to Louisville, Texas in 1999 when there was nothing here. And then in 2003, we moved up to where I live right now, which is just like North Dallas area. And if you think Louisville was like nothing, like where I lived at that time, where I lived, it was not just...
I mean, there was one road going into the town, one road going out. Like that's what it was, you know, it was a town. And so how I got the roles, believe it or not, I was out, I was in a coffee shop, Sohbah, which is a coffee shop out of Qalam, sort of a branch out of Qalam Institute. And I was there with my wife one day. We were just doing work, like that's why we go there, right? And in walks Fozy, and he's looking for people to act for Yaqeen, right? I had no idea what it was. I did acting in the past. And he goes, my wife first asked if she wants to be in it. And she was like, you know, I don't, you know, my husband likes to act. So, you know, you can ask him. And, you know, Fozy comes to me, he asks me, you know, we have like a 10 minute conversation. I told him, like, I did acting in high school, post high school. I did acting classes in college. And that was it, right? About a month later, and this is October 23. This is all when that happened, October 23, 2023. Then November comes, there were auditions for the characters, right? And I actually couldn't make auditions that day because I was helping my wife get ready for her bridal shower. I actually had went to a friend's house, him and I had to make something for the bridal shower. And so I couldn't make auditions. And I was, I was actually totally gutted because I was like, man, I'm not going to, I can't be in this series. I'm not going to get cast, right? And subhanAllah, when I later find out from Janice, there were actually people who auditioned for Hassan, the character that I ended up playing. And it was just a matter of like the, like the dynamics between the actors just wasn't working out. A month later, in December 2023, I get the email that I was still casted as Hassan. But you didn't rehearse. But I didn't rehearse. And I think it was just a matter of like, they just, you know, they said, well, we'll just go with him. I think it was because of like, he has the experience, he's done acting before. And it just sort of ties into the overall picture of like father, right? Because it's like, I didn't audition, but they still chose me as Hassan.
And so December comes around and we start filming. And that was a lot of pressure, wasn't it? Because did you know when they sent the email that there were previous people that auditioned and it didn't work out? No, I actually found out from Janice a month ago, actually. A month ago from today? A month ago from today, yeah. Which is well after the series. This is way after the series. We're in Shawal right now. So this is, whoa, it's a lot of love. That's a lot of love. It's really funny that you mentioned that because I, you know, whenever they were like doing the casting and all that, I was initially, you know, I was talking to Phyllis about like the roles that they want to fill in. And I asked him, okay, like, what positions do you have? And he was like, let me connect you, you know, with Janice to figure out all that. And I'm like, all right, cool. Sounds good. So I'm talking to her and she was like, yeah, you know, like, you don't mind like what role? I'm like, look, I'm just going to volunteer, help out, you know, like, I don't, you know, obviously we don't get paid for this. We're just helping out. And she's like, so you don't mind? And I'm like, you know, she's like, okay, so like, can you be a homeless man? And I was like, hell yeah, dude, like, that's fine. So yeah, I'll be a homeless man. She's like, okay, you can be a homeless man number one. I'm like, I'll be homeless man number one. Number one. I was like, all right, hola. I was like, we're chilling, you know, and I was excited. And I told my mom and she was like, homeless man? Like, that's what you could present? But the studio was like a little far. So at that point, I'm like, it's okay. I was like, I can't really like, you know, if you need five minutes, you know, homeless man shot, whatever. I'll have like a friend kind of come in and cover like, it's all good. But then that's whenever they're asking about like the main role for Hassan. And I was like, okay, like, you know, like, that sounds more interesting. You know, like going back and forth to film for a while makes sense. And I was like, okay, yeah. But then they're like, are you married? And I'm like, no, I'm not married. And they're like, okay. And you can just hear like the disappointment with Fozy. And I was like, why? They're like, well, you know, we want to make sure like Hassan is married to his wife in real life, that he's gonna be in the show. Yeah. I was like, okay, sounds good. And like, what else do you have? And that's when they start telling me about like the mini me. So I actually brought one of the, you know, I work with refugee kids. And one of them looks kind of like me, you know, so he ended up being cast. Omar got cast as, you know, the younger version of myself.
And then when they told me who my dad was going to be in this show, my adopted father, turned out to be Omar, who I've known for like years before. Tell me, SubhanAllah, man, that's crazy. And so you play what character? So I play Yusuf, who is Hassan's adopted son. Okay, okay. The main character. So he's my adopted father in the show. And Hassan is the main character of the whole YME series. Just for those that didn't tune in, which we hope you tune in to this series. I just want to take time out, SubhanAllah. I remember when we were coming here to do this show of Iman Cave, you know, we have to walk through the studio. Just shout out to all of you, really. Really, the epitome of teamwork and expertise, Ihsan. You know, it was, I saw that every day I walked through the studio. I mean, Mashallah, from Brother Ahmed, the cinematographer, him and Fawzi's collaboration, just stuff, I want to say magic. It was amazing. You know, just seeing how they collaborated, and then seeing the organization from Hafsa, Sarah, you know, everyone that was there, and just the professionalism of getting the work done. I mean, I was like, take two. And they had a little, I was like, okay, this is real, you know. But really, really, I just love the teamwork. And may Allah bless all of you all for your work and professionalism and being, taking this very, very seriously. And you can see the quality of the work, Mashallah to Brother Khalaf. So what we're going to do is we're going to take a small journey through some of the scenes. And then we're just going to build off of those scenes. But looking at it from the lens of the young man or the older man, and inshallah, if you see yourself in some of these scenes, please, in the comments, relate it. If you, you know, feel that level of vulnerability, and you want to reach out and say, you know what, I faced this, or I love this part of the scene, because it reminds me of so and so, please relate that to us, because inshallah, we'll be able to share that. And we can all benefit from it, inshallah to Allah. All right, so the first scene that we're going to talk about is the scene where I think you're asking for forgiveness from your dad. Yes. Okay, okay.
Your being on the lookout for the vices hidden within you is far better than your being on the lookout for the invisible realities that have been veiled from you. Self-accountability breeds healthy regret over the way we may have treated people in our past, and humility with how we treat people in the future. Humility keeps you from oppressing others and yourself, and raises your rank in the sight of Allah. Okay, so for the record, I mean, if you see the brother and sister hugging, just know that they're married. Yes. Okay, we just want to get that out of the way, that this brother-sister hugging and touching, that they're married, alhamdulillah, in real life, alhamdulillah. So explain to us this scene. What took place? So what took place in this scene in particular? So Hassan, so what happens in the scene, what we just watched, Hassan seeks forgiveness from his father, and you know, indirectly his mother as well, because his mother and father are sitting on a couch. Hassan comes down, kind of kneels in front of his father, you know, he just breaks down, takes his father's hand, kisses it, and kind of just puts it to his head, and you know, his father just like takes him in, right, without hesitation. What led up to that scene is basically Hassan just realizing like all the mistakes he's made, and like it finally just clicking in his head. And this is also the same time where he is, you know, aligning himself to the dean, like he's getting on the dean again, right, or rather getting on to the dean. And so everything just lines up perfectly, sort of just coalesces together, and he has that eureka moment where he's like, man, I've just, you know, I've messed up so much, especially with my parents, mistreated them, whatever, and you know, I need to seek forgiveness from my father. It's interesting how you said it just clicked, you know, eureka moment. How old were you in that scene? So Hassan in this scene, he's like mid-20s. Mid-20s. Yeah. And his parents were old. Yeah, 50s, 60s, yeah. 50s, 60s. Yeah.
You know, having those moments and recollecting, and I think it's important in this particular situation as a young man that may be aggressive, and he's probably coming out of that aggressive years of the teenage years. It's time, usually around that age where you start to study yourself and find yourself. I remember for me, it was my early 20s. I was like, man, what is life really about? And at that time, I was really searching. I was searching. I was learning myself, and then I was searching for the purpose of all of this. Like, why does all this matter? Sure. Right? And we're going through that process. That's why, subhanAllah, you know, I was talking to a brother earlier, the whole concept of i'tikaf, of staying in the masjid the last 10 days in Ramadan. I would advise you young guys to do it if you can, preferably in a masjid where no one knows you and you're not hanging out with your friends. You hang out with your friends. It's fine, but preferably by yourself to really, really, and I'm going to use this term because sometimes it's used negatively, to be bored. Studies show that boredom is very, very beneficial for the human being to recalibrate, and they did some studies showing that people are very altruistic, charitable when they're just sitting there bored. Let me get up and go donate some blood. Let me get up and go do something. It's very, very important for the man to go in his, oh, this is not a plug, but to go in his cave. He has to detach, man. How did the Prophet, peace be upon him, receive revelation? He used to meditate, and Allah chose to come to him at a time when he was fully detached and he was enriched with introspection. Just sitting there, pondering over life, man. It is so important for the man to do that because when he has those levels of responsibilities or things that stress him out, like I'm almost sure, Hassan, you did some of those things because you were stressed out. As we're going to see in future scenes, even though you asked for forgiveness, you still made mistakes after that, and that's okay. You know what I'm saying?
You're going to go through those trials of life from mistakes that you made, those choices, but what I loved about this scene is that you acknowledged it. I want to hear what y'all have to say because sometimes the relationship between the father and the son can be a real rocky one, man. You know what I mean? It's a very interesting one, especially in 21st century Western countries. It's a very interesting relationship. It's like a lion's den, man, because the dad sees himself in his son and he's not going to budge. He's not going to budge. Too similar. Too similar. And the son sometimes can have an authoritative presence like the dad, and he's going to challenge him. So for the dad to take him, what I liked about this scene is the dad took him in. The dad took him in. A lot of times if someone's not going to take someone in, it's going to be the dad says, get out of my house. The mother will come at the door and be like, I'll talk to him. With that scene, Mohamed, what did you see particularly with that scene? Well, I mean, that's kind of something that, you know, a lot of people, I don't know if they really captured, but what you just touched up on, right? It's not even a matter of him coming back to the dean and coming back to his father. It's how quick his father was to, first he picked him up. I love that, right? He kind of picked him up and he's like, I elevate you and you're forgiven and all that. And you kind of just stand up a lot lighter. See, I think the most difficult thing, and I've seen this consistently, people love to talk right now in today's modern day and age. You know, there's a lot of bashing of your parents, right? It's like, oh, they're abusive. Everything is abuse, subhanAllah. Even when they're just looking out for your wellbeing, it's abuse. Exactly. So whenever he came through here, like apologized to his dad and his dad kind of picked him up. And right there, like that moment, you could see that, you know, this is when you have everything you need in the world. You have a roof, you have food, you have your family, right? You literally don't need anything else.
And I, you know, I was kind of thinking about it. Like, that's why Islam emphasizes the importance of family, right? And like, you know, even like if he didn't do that, what would happen to him, right? What rabbit hole would he fall down through? He'd just start to spiral. The Quran even says, like, وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُمْ عَيْشَةٍ ضَنكَةٍ وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَىٰ Whoever goes away from remembering Allah, you know, his life is basically darkness and we're gonna raise him on the day of judgment blind. SubhanAllah. Right? And he says, قَالَ رَبِّي لِمَا حَشَرْتَنِي أَعْمَىٰ وَقَدْ كُنْتُ بَصِيرًۭا Allah, why'd you raise me, you know, blind when I used to be able to see? I mean, subhanAllah, small things like that, that we experience throughout our lives, it kind of helps really humanize and legitimize the Quran. Because when we hear the stories of the Prophet, when we hear the Quran, sometimes we kind of just narrow it to like, ah, it's true, yeah, but like, we don't really believe in it. It feels distant. It feels distant, right? It's kind of something from a fantasy. But whenever he kind of comes in and pictures it, he comes back to his family, his dad right away kind of picks him up, right? And you could see the relief in his eyes, you know, and the comfort, and he's just losing it, like he's, you know, tearing up and emotional. That vulnerability in front of his father is the true dynamic that you normally should see between a father and a son, where you can kind of come to them for guidance. But here we're kind of hot-wired and trained, like, no, no, no, it's not, don't go to your dad. Like, they kind of have like a, oh, he's like an authoritative figure, so therefore he's automatically bad. We're trained everything authority-wise is bad, right? To the point where people are even turning against, you know, with ayat of Allah, like, you know, Islam and Allah, because they refuse to accept authority. They call Islam oppressive. They'll call their fathers oppressive. Everything is oppressive. It doesn't make any sense. So when he kind of comes and he asks for forgiveness, it's because he kind of understood the number one most important essence of any Muslim is to submit. And at that point, he submitted. Alhamdulillah, that opened up all the doors. Yeah, and it's beautiful because, you know, it reminds me of so many verses, but you know, when Allah says, Allah says,
and to worship Allah, do not associate any partners with him. And to your two parents, be good to them. Excellence. Excellence is not perfection. It's do your best to be your best for the sake of Allah to them, right? Because that scene, you know, Shaykh Omar was mentioning humility. Allah mentions the two parents. And lower the wings of humility to your parents. You know, sometimes, to be honest, I mean, sometimes, you know, I tell a lot of guys that convert to Islam, you know, reach out to your dad. Your dad was not around. He was not around. But Allah chose him to be your father, man. Your father made the wrong choices. But you making that choice of being a man and overlook can be a loaded word, to forgive, but not forget, right? To write a letter, not an email, but a letter and send it to him. Write it in pen. Let him see the erase marks. Write it and send it to him. Express your feelings, but be respectful to the best of your ability, but let him know how you feel. And I acknowledge you as my dad. I remember a brother said, I don't know if I can do that yet. You know what I told him? I said, I appreciate your honesty. He was in the hospital. And he never met his dad. He was like, I don't know if I'm ready for that. The fact that he's honest, I appreciate that. But I told him just like, look, if he leaves this earth, most likely you won't be able to live with yourself. You'll always want to know what was that just one conversation with him. What does he have to say? Does he apologize? Is he not? So this scene is really, really powerful for me because I have boys myself, young teenage boys. And you hope that they'll live your legacy. You hope that they know what you expect out of them. And you just did a good job as a dad. So when I particularly see this scene, it's also to sons,
like, look, your dad's going to make mistakes. And you're going to make mistakes. But it's really important for you to spend time alone by yourself. As a teenager, you don't have to always be online. You don't have to be around your friends all the time. To spend time alone and to hold yourself accountable, that's one of the strongest signs for a man is that he holds himself accountable. And when he does that, he's willing to transcend those barriers that hold him from being the best version of himself as a man. And going back to your parents and being humble, crying in front of your dad, you never know. Your dad may start crying because you've opened a door for him. That reminds me one time, Spaulding, I'll turn over to you and I'm going to say it. One son, Spaulding, one son became humble and opened up to his dad and apologized. Dad started crying. And the mother and dad, they just started hugging each other. And the dad opened up. The son was a means for that. And that, it was all from Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, allowed that to happen. It kind of opens up some doors that you never expect to have open, right? People think their dads are supermen, but they're still humans at the end of the day. And I think that's very important. You know, wasayna al-insana bi-walidehi ahsana. The Quran keeps repeating, be good to them. It's not, like if they were superhuman, right? Then you wouldn't need to be good to them. They'd be fine regardless. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, doesn't need our worship. He doesn't need our praise. That's all for our own benefit. Same thing about our parents, they need our kindness and compassion. You know, so when I watched this scene, what I immediately thought of was, was when I was preparing to go to Hajj, right? This is 2019, I'm 23 years old. And it's part of the readiness of Hajj is that you sort of like reach out to people who you've wronged, right?
Like your parents, like maybe siblings, like friends, right? I would say the hardest was my father. You know, I remember I, you know, I just, I sat him down and, you know, I was like, dad, I wanted to, you know, just talk with you. You know, I'm going for Hajj and I, so it's funny, I kept stuttering because I couldn't utter the words. I was just like, so hard for me. I kept saying, I, I, I, like I was about to say it, but I couldn't, right? And subhanAllah, this is where my father displayed his like, his sort of like masculine essence, if you will, right? He says, he says, it's okay. Boom! I love it. Man, I love that. You know, and when he said that, when he said that, I was like, I just felt like such relief, man. Relief, look at that. That's beautiful. Let me ask you, what were you saying to yourself that was holding you back? Or what was, dare we say shaitan if we could, that was holding you back and made you stutter? Was it, he doesn't deserve this? Or, you know, he won't accept, was it, he won't accept my apology or he won't accept my acknowledgement of my mistake? Do you know what it was? You know what it was? It was the, it was the fact that, you know, like I just wasn't close to my father growing up. You know, I was just much closer with my mother, like a lot of us. We just certainly should be much closer to our mother. And so for me, it was like, it was weird to do this because like, I'm not really close with my dad. But I'm about to get very emotional with him. I'm about to get very emotional with him. I'm very vulnerable too, you know. Vulnerable, yep. And like, again, that was a relief. And actually, I would attribute that moment to the day my relationship with my father changed. Allah, you know. And you know, I wanna make this, I wanna make this point. Young guys, you know, we've all made mistakes. Alhamdulillah, we're here to be vulnerable enough to mention some of them. It doesn't mean that you have to kneel on the ground and kiss your father's hand, okay?
But do it in a way that your dad knows you're trying. Like, his dad knew he was trying there. Your parents know if you're trying, guarantee you, because you're a part of them. And they see themselves in you, right? There's been times I see my son, I'm like, oh, that's his mother right there. He's acting like that's definitely his mom. And then I see some things that he does, and I'm like, oh man, that's me. So, how would I deal with me? I don't know how I would deal with me, right? So, that's- The hardest person to deal with. Yeah, I'm a hard person to deal with. Right, or I never realized that I was that difficult in this behavior. So, that's beautiful. You know, what's most important is that, and Hajj was that mechanism. And that is what is so beautiful about the Sharia, man, about the Deen of Islam, the framework. It gives you so many opportunities to enrich your experience as a human being, relationships with other human beings, and in this particular situation, the relationship between the father and the son, and in masculinity. Because again, that emotional intelligence to another man. Sometimes the father figure isn't really somebody that you can approach. Sometimes there truly is elements of deep-rooted issues. And I think one thing that we really gotta understand, and I guess I'll address the audience directly, if you do even have problems with your father, if you can't feel like you can kinda come talk to him, open up to him, and have an emotional growth moment, that doesn't mean you should just completely cancel them out. The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, emphasized, even with people that we don't know, that if they're problematic people, you'd still at least be having a good working relationship with them. And the same thing applies to the father. You should always at least try to maintain having a relationship with them. If you have to take a healthy boundary of space, there's no harm. If they're truly abusive, not like, oh, he didn't say yes to whatever you wanted, so therefore, no, no. If he's truly abusive, and you need to take some space, yeah, there's no harm in that.
But maintain a relationship, because you never know when they'll be the ones who will actually be coming and seeking forgiveness. You never wanna close that door. And you might not feel like you have a good emotional relationship with your dad, and that's something common, especially with the Arab households, and the Muslim households all across the board, right? You kinda have that, you know, I'm a man, like, no emotions, whatever, right? But then look at Gaza. Look at the dads in Gaza, you know? They're probably the same way with their kids, where they're not gonna come and be all emotional and whatever, but they're walking miles, putting their lives at risk just to get the basic sustenance, or doing what they can, putting their lives on the line. That's masculinity, that's the fathers, and I'm very confident that the fathers that some people, you know, that some of us might feel a certain type of way towards, would do the same exact thing. And as the sons, we sometimes, we may have to take that first step, you know? Because, again, we can't expect our fathers to be Mr. Perfect, Mr. Superhero, and have 100% on his emotional intelligence. Again, for a lot of us, our fathers came from war-torn countries, or they came from a completely different country. They didn't have time to learn what emotional intelligence is in this country. They've been working since they were like 25 years old, right, and so. You know how their fathers treat them, too. You never take that into consideration. Exactly. Their examples are like these rigid, you know, no emotions. The fact, if you reach out to your dad, and you're vulnerable with him, and he responds in a way that you didn't expect, he's not, he didn't respond in a conducive fashion, but boy, get up, or you know, just like, you know, because that vulnerability, or that emotional intelligence, was probably a characteristic of your mother, and he's responding in the same way. He's probably not accepting, you know, your vulnerability, and he may respond in a, you know, he may see it as masculine way. Don't let that discourage you, man. It's gonna hurt, it's gonna hurt, but know that it's the humility that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la loves, and Allah is mukallim al-qulub. You could break that generational, you know,
trait that is negative of the toxic masculine traits that has been going on for generations in our culture. You know, the lack of acceptance of someone forgiving you, or seeking forgiveness from you, from that. So, you know, don't let shaitan hold you back and say, he's not gonna accept it. No, do that action for the sake of Allah, and you know, inshallah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will flip the hearts. Not at that time, but maybe on his deathbed, which I've heard numerous times, subhanAllah. The father reaches out and says, look, I love you. I know I wasn't the best kind of person, you know, and leaving that legacy. Because when you grow up as a young man, and father rejected you for instance, you will be able to tell your son. And that goes to the next scene, alhamdulillah, about legacy, what kind of legacy do you wanna leave. Yes. Inshallah. And right before your body is buried, as your janazah has been performed, I want you to imagine the masjid, and then the graveyard filled with all of the people in your life. Some people you may have forgotten, some of them friends, a lot of them family, and maybe even some of those you didn't get along with, but they attended your funeral out of respect. All of them praying for your forgiveness before you go to your final resting place. Do you fear their witness, or do you look forward to it? SubhanAllah, subhanAllah. Do you fear their witness, or do you look forward to it? So, if you don't mind, what led up to this scene? So what led up to this scene is that, Hassan, who got into the habit of smoking when he was in his college years, and then reverted back to his habit of smoking in his like mid-30s, that caught up to him when he was elderly. He began having these like coughing hits where he would cough out blood, and it got to the point where he was like, and it got to the point where it was so bad, he was on a bench with his wife. He coughs up blood, he sort of just passes out, falls over on the ground, and then he's hospitalized, and then essentially his life is deteriorating from there.
As he's reminiscing like his younger days, and wants to leave the earth on a good note, Hassan ends up passing away, and then the janazah is held with, you know, his adopted son is there, and then some friends are there as well. When did he adopt his son? He adopted his son. When did you adopt him? Yes, so I adopted him. So Hassan adopted his son Yusuf in his like 30s, mid-30s, that's when that happens, and yeah, Yusuf, the character, grows up, and he's at the janazah. Were you in your path of seeking forgiveness from Allah, and you wanted to do a good thing? So what happens is the reason Hassan wants to adopt, him and his wife want to adopt, is because the wife has a miscarriage, and so that takes a huge toll on Hassan and his wife. Hassan has a friend who worked for this organization, and it was like an adoption center, right? Hassan goes to talk to him, and Hassan gets a flyer for this adoption center, this brochure, and Hassan takes it home with him. He's on his phone scrolling, and he sees the brochure on the table, puts the phone down, picks up the brochure, and this is where you see Hassan making that connection of, well, we may not have gotten our child the way we wanted to, but there's still another opportunity, right? So this is where they adopt their son, Yusuf. What comes to mind when you actually looked at this scene, when you acted in this scene? Well, not you, I mean, you left this. I was the boombox. You're the boombox, yeah. So Mohammed, what were you thinking when you went through this scene? I mean, honestly, at first, it was kind of different, because like I said, having my man act as my dad, he's my older friend, right? So there was some elements of just like, oh, you gotta force yourself to be a little serious,
but then you look at him, you try not to laugh, right? But as the series progressed, it kind of starts to like, you kind of get past that, right? And so when we were filming this scene, even though he was like 10 feet away holding the boom, he's there, it was still, I didn't even feel like I noticed him, right? Because that scene was probably like the craziest scene for me. And the reason why was because of like, during COVID, there was a community member that we were all pretty close to, he passed away. And so we went to his janazah, and while we were there, I remember like I was standing there, and just next to Sheikh Omar, just like in the episode, and then his actuals, like the men who passed away, his sons were actually there too. You know, Sheikh Omar was kind of giving a talk to kind of like, you know, comfort them, and he was kind of like, you know, comforting them to make them feel a little better and explain how, you know, death works and whatnot. And that was like one of my first, you know, experiences with Sheikh Omar. I've known him since he moved to Dallas, you know, kind of like a long time ago. But like, after that, he was kind of walking around, I just walked up to him, and I was asking him questions about death. So while we were filming that scene, I wasn't looking at like, you know, I just kept looking at Sheikh Omar, and then looking at the grave, because I just felt like I was back in that original, you know, conversation that happened. And I was like, subhanAllah, like, it was kind of surreal. And then I was thinking about like, what would I, like, you know, when you're acting, you want to kind of, you know, embody what you're doing, right? So I was thinking to myself, like, okay, well, let's say I'm standing here, and my actual dad's in the ground. You know, Sheikh Omar is giving a lecture about it and whatnot, you know, he's giving like a quick talk. And that bothered me a lot, you know, because to me, like, my dad is like my guidance. That's why whenever, you know, we were talking about like that previous scene, I mentioned that, I was like, you know, they come back blind, because I feel like I'd be blind in this world without my dad, right? That's who I look to for answers. They're heroes, man, subhanAllah. It was truly, that specific scene, like there was a, you know, it was really, it was a heavy scene, I think, for the whole cast, right? Everybody was kind of feeling it. And I don't think anybody's really pretending to be sad. We were all thinking about it, like it was real life,
and then we were actually all in our fields. It was something. Nah, man. I miss you. Yeah, yeah. Now you think about it, man, that's when it's over. I remember when I saw my dad's coffin, you know, it was 67 years. You know, the time span of life is a blink of an eye. You know, it's so quick. And you think about what you've left, what have you left? You know, it's not what you left for them, but it's what you left in them, right? What qualities, what values have you left for them? You know, subhanAllah, when looking at, you know, being a man and being a leader and being a father and being a companion, being a good friend. And I wanna touch on this as well. Even when we talked about the previous mistakes that Hassan made with his dad and asked for forgiveness, you know, that vulnerability sometimes, it's really, really important, as I've seen countless times, to have young men's groups. Like you youth leaders, you know, these young men's, these young Muslim groups are so important to communities to make it a place where it's safe for them to talk. A lot of men now, you know, they're divorced. They can't, there's no one to talk to. They can't, there's people they can't trust because sometimes the divorces are pretty ugly, you know? Not about whose fault it was, but the man doesn't have nowhere to go. He has nowhere to go. There's no groups, there's no retreats, right? And I think this is really, really important to really bring this to life, to where men have places, not a plug again, but men have a cave. And this is really important. It's come to a point to where men need to find a place where they can sit together and talk. There's one situation that happened. What I do is I'll go to communities and I'll do this program, it's called Dad Son. I call it Dad Son, but I get the dads with their sons and I ask them three questions, you know, three major questions. And Alhamdulillah, this idea really came about,
Mashallah, shout out to Omar Malik, because we kind of had this in our masjid in Coppel and we kind of put this together to where you ask, the dad asks the son a question and the son asked the dad the same question. One of them was, what was a hard situation you faced in your life and how did you solve it? Never fails when I do this, the son finds something out about the father that he never knew. One time a father stood up and he was vulnerable. I mean, this is his whole community. He's around his community, right? I won't say the city, but he stood up and if you watch this, he knows who he is. He says, Subhanallah, he said, you know, I graduated from college and there was a time where I couldn't find a job. This is a normal challenge, problem, right? Graduated from college, couldn't find a job. I have kids, six months I can't find a job. My wife looked at me one day and she said, I think you're depressed. Couldn't find out I was depressed. He said, so I got into jiu-jitsu and I realized that that is really, really what helped me. And then his son, he brought his son into jiu-jitsu. I remember when I met his son, his son gave me a heart injection. I was like, mashallah. You know what I'm saying? It's like, this is a Ruje, a young man, meaning of the words, right? And then he turned around and he said, brothers, I highly advise you guys to get into some physical training because it helped me release a lot of stress and I didn't know how deep I was into depression. You can just hear a pin drop, boom. Somehow. That provoked another brother. As I'm walking around, I'm listening to them answer their questions to each other. One man, he says, can you just come here? I just want to tell you, yeah, I faced this situation. Wife got sick and so on and so forth. And as he started to talk about the fact that he had to prepare dinner and stuff every day because the wife was sick, his son started crying. I don't know.
Wow. And then he was like, bubba, why are you crying? And he's like, just mama, just mama was so sick and dad, you stood up and you stepped up and, and he was, you could tell in his face, he was surprised that his son was like, don't worry about it, it's okay. Last situation from this gathering. It was another time, another masjid. The father stood up and he said, you know, I wanted to share that there was a problem I faced when I was, you know, wanting to marry this sister. You know, he said, I was of a different orientation and she was of a different, we were both Muslims, but different methodologies. Sure. In other words, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And the mother and father were like over our dead bodies. But Alhamdulillah, Allah allowed it to happen when we ended up getting married and that's his mother. And his son was looking at him like. He's like, really? Like you faced a situation to where you were, you know, there was a relationship and y'all ended up getting married and your mother, my grandmother and grandfather didn't want it to happen, right? This stuff most likely can only happen in men's groups where men are together and they share these stories. Right? Vulnerable men see vulnerable men. Vulnerable men, exactly, man. Especially for men amongst each other because we don't want to let our secrets out, let's be honest. Especially if it's a problem with the wife or a problem with. Finances. Finances, exactly. That's what kind of led you to smoke earlier. Yes. To smoke. Yes. Because you could do it alone. Nobody knows about it. You know, you do it alone. Nobody knows about it. And then you're smiling in everybody's face, but you're dying inside. You don't want to be dying inside all the way till your death. You know what I'm saying? And that's why that scene is very, very, very powerful because, you know, just remember, even as a man, you may have a problem with someone that has passed away, but it's more to look beyond that, the bad blood that you had, and to go and, you know, make dua for him,
to go visit his family, to go have a good word, say a good word to the family members. I always tell people after the funeral, you know, after you make dua for the deceased, is to tell the family members, especially the children, try your best to live the legacy that he would have wanted you to live. Like, what do you know that he wanted from you as a son, as a daughter? You know, and just put that upon yourself to the best of your ability to embody that. You know what I mean? I think, yeah, yeah, especially like, you know, on the topic of vulnerability within men and whatnot. You know, I think that there are times where we've got to understand we can't take on the world by ourselves. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was far stronger in, you know, spirituality and deen than we will ever be. Even he still, you know, right away, he went to his wife, you know, and he was kind of talking to her. And even outside of that, because sometimes you can't go to your wife about some issues. He went to his, he had this hobby, right? So he'd go talk to them. You're like, listen, Leani, here's what's going on. Here's what I'm thinking, or how he felt. They knew how he felt. That's how we have all these ahadith. If he internalized everything, we wouldn't have the ahadith. But the fact that he shared them outwards and he kind of did it in a constructive way. It's not complaining if you're seeking an actual solution, right? It's not just, oh, my God, this just sucks. It's like, oh, how about that? No, like he outwardly found solutions. That's kind of something that's really important because you will not always have the answer yourself. The next person can. And so when we kind of open up to people, we still got to understand that, Leani, this is the qadr of Allah. And we're in these situations. But you still might need help navigating these things. Because we will all be tried and tested. To be of the people who are patient, it doesn't mean internalize everything and be stoic. As a man, there are circumstances where you need to do so. Whenever in this scene, Hassan is buried and Yusuf is there. He's kind of holding himself down. But I mean, think about being in that situation. It's a lot harder, for example, on Yusuf's mom or his adopted mother. What she's going through and the hardship of that.
So you got to internalize it a little bit to be functional and kind of expand and experience what's happening and also still be productive about it. You can't just let yourself go. But it's not a crime to go seek out comfort and support from other people. It's actually what we're taught by the Prophet. Right, right. The sohbah. They're called sahaba for a reason. Right? Sohbah from sahab means to take with you. So they're the companions of the Prophet. Yes, that's beautiful. So I think this scene is where Hassan is with his mom. I'm just going to say that. Hassan is with his mom and something happens which we'll talk about. Inshallah. Bismillah. And if this test leads you to anger and to hurt the people you love, how then can you begin to appreciate that it may be that Allah was calling you back to his love? Inshallah. Remember, comment when you see that. Comment and let us know how you felt when you saw that. So, Norman, what led up to that? What was going on? So in the series, at that point, Hassan's father passes away. And then Hassan naturally takes over for that father figure role, right? He's trying to take care of the finances, cover for the finances. And he's stressed, obviously, right? And so Hassan gets into smoking. He's smoking at this point. And smoking is a way for him to sort of relieve that stress, you know? And so for him, he just wants to go outside for a smoke. He's also fighting with his wife as well. And he just needs a break from everything. So he goes outside. He goes for a smoke.
And then his mom comes in and interrupts his sort of zen moment, if you will, right? She takes the cigarette. She breaks it in half. He's yelling at her. She's like, why are you smoking, right? And it's just a clash between mother and son, right? Classic example. Son gets angry. Hassan gets angry. He just walks off. That's interesting. I like how you said classic example. Why do you say classic example? It's a classic example because, I mean, subhanallah. It's nothing we want to ever be proud of. But we have all gone through that at some point or another in our life, you know? Clashing with our mother like that. Yelling at our mother like that. Even though we know we're not supposed to do that, right? We know better than that. You know, yelling at our mother, right? And so it's something that virtually every young man, every man can relate to that scene in the series. How old were you in that scene? So Hassan, at that point, he's like mid-30s to early, early to mid-30s. Early to mid-30s, right? Yeah. Okay. And father passes away. So you have to deal with the stress of fulfilling the father role and the husband role as well, right? And I like how you said classic because, you know, it reminds me of the hadith of the Prophet. He was asked, Who has the most right of my companionship? And all of us know this hadith. He responded, Your mother. And then he asked, Then who? He said, Your mother. And then he asked, Then who? And then he said, Your mother. And then he said, Then who? Your father. Just as we as young men and sometimes as older men with our mothers, we may be the most vulnerable with them. Literally, when you were born, your vulnerability was the only way that you know how to express yourself. You would cry to communicate, right? And your mother was the one that was there to nurture you. And that nurturing is an amazing characteristic of the female as well. I mean, men nurture, but women nurture in a way that is subhanAllah, from Allah, subhanAllah, with their fitrah, with their natural characteristics.
But seeing how when we grow up, we're vulnerable mostly, mostly with our mothers. That vulnerability and that emotional expression can also be the opposite. Emotional expression of anger will be with our mothers as well. And that's where it's tricky. And when you said classic example, you know, sometimes we may say something and mother may respond. Mom, you don't understand. You don't get it. Just whatever, Mom. We may roll our eyes. We may turn around, shut the door. And then subhanAllah, the mom feels helpless. Mom feels helpless. And then we sit there, you know, subhanAllah, thinking about ourselves and not thinking about how we, you know, harmed our mother's feelings, quote, unquote. I don't know if any of y'all have seen that with friends or, you know, with that scene. That's what it reminds me of. You know, even with me, subhanAllah, just sharing when I, the night that I never forget, I came home. And I've shared this story many times. You know, when I came home, real late, San Diego Chargers jersey, big gold chain on, gold teeth. And it's like three in the morning. And then my mom is like, why are you coming home late? I said, Mom, just, you know, I walked past her. And she said, no, you're going to talk to me. I walked past her, shut the door. And then something just, boom, just hit me, man. Something just hit me. I was like, bro, this is not right. This is not. And I got on my knees and I just started praying, bro. And I was like, God, just guide me. Just guide me, guide me, guide me. Two weeks later, again, Muslim. SubhanAllah. When we filmed this whole series, we didn't really have the full breakdown as to what's going on. A lot of it was just like, okay, go stand over there and look sad. All right, sounds good. There wasn't a script. There wasn't a script, which I think was cool because that allowed us to kind of come watch it later on. So I think for us, I don't know, maybe you can relate.
The series was even more mind boggling when you could see what we put out there versus what they were able to make it into. There's a part where you're just looking sad and we're trying not to laugh at each other, some parts and whatnot. But then they make this gut-wrenching, you really feel every element of it. And that specific part of the episode, I was watching it and I'm just like, subhanAllah. I wasn't even thinking about making fun of him or anything like that. I was just like, dang, how am I to my mother? And it kind of captures what you were talking about. And it starts off like, obviously when we're kids, we're very heavily reliant on our mothers. We cry and lose our minds when they're dropping us off at daycare or kindergarten or whatever. We're so attached to them. But then you grow up and automatically you want to be a big boy. I'm a big boy, I'm older, I'm this. You want to show you're tough even though you're five, six years old. It doesn't really matter. And mom knows you. She knows you in and out. But at that point, you're fooling nobody. And that's kind of the thing that I found to be really interesting in this specific episode. Because after watching that, it really made me stop and just reflect on my mom. Because at that point in time, my mom's a busy time. It was in and out. I was like, I missed like three, four days in a row of iftar at the house. And my mom was like, how come you're not coming home? Well, I got so much going on. I'm sorry. I'll try to make it or whatever. And in a way, I was like, yeah, I'll figure something out. But I just got to get through all these meetings and these iftars and meet these people and network and whatever. And I saw this episode and I'm just like, man, even though it's not as dramatic as smoking, the smallest things that we think don't matter and how we interact with our moms, it's going to be very, very different, especially because she's not going to always be there. And it's the biggest thing, I think, by far that we take for granted is our mothers. By far. Allah forgive us, man. And that's a strong sign of masculinity is how you deal with the closest female in your life, which can set a precedent of how you deal with other females in your life.
Right. The female that you respect the most, mostly, most like most likely would be your mom. Right. So if you deal with her in a way, in that way, it can somewhat transfer over to other females, somewhat transfer over to because the relationship is going to be different between wife and mother. But it's a lot. You know, when you take that for granted and you don't sit back and hold yourself accountable with the one. Rabbi, I was the last one I mentioned to parents. They raised me when I was was young. You were vulnerable, you were helpless and she took care of you, you know, subhanAllah. And so it's so important to reflect on that. It's interesting how you said you acting the scene and then you watch it and it can possibly trigger some recall, some moments or something that you've seen before. Watching that scene, it's like you think of yourself when you were a teenager. I think that's when you're just the most immature. You're just the loudest. You're the rowdiest. You're the most rebellious. And so it reminded me of, you know, just how I treated my mother when I was a teenager. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and it's rough to think about. It's rough to think about, bro. You know, and I like how you said rowdy, rebellious. I want to make the distinction that that is how Allah has created us at that time when the testosterone is just in surges. It's literally just like it's really just coming out because that puberty is hitting. And that's where it can be tricky because some people will think that that is toxic, that it's wrong for the young man to, you know, he's not focusing in class. It's 45 minute class. And, you know, after after 30 minutes, he's he's checked out. Right. And this is where I have my own issue with like being in class for 45, 55 minutes. And there's no physical exertion. There's no way for them to let out their aggression. I mean, countless times I talk to parents and, you know, they're talking about their child is aggressive at home. And I ask them, is there any physical aggression or, you know, place that they can exert their physicality and release?
Right. Because that natural aggression is there. It's the raw material for them to eventually be a protector. So when looking at this scene, subhanAllah, again, just, you know, for men, what would you tell these young men in regards to that scene? You know, when you see these young men, it's like, OK, when you look at your when you look at your mother, he's dealing with his mother. You know, he was smoking a cigarette to cope with the problem. There are many different ways that young men cope with problems. And that's why when it comes to a Muslim, adding on to that mechanism of like, OK, what I'm doing, God is watching. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That ihsan, knowing that he's watching you, though I can't see him, as the Prophet said, to worship Allah as though you see him. Though you can't see him, know for a fact that he sees you. So when you're on your laptop, he sees you. When you're on your phone, he sees you. When you're screaming at your mom because she's calling you from downstairs and you're on your laptop, you're like, I'm coming. God, you know, he sees you and hears you, man. Like, what's really more? You've got to weigh your options. And that is where the that is where masculinity will really, really be important because you have to make those right choices. That's why even in the sound of the Prophet's mention, if your mother was to call, your parent was to call you while you're praying, you break your prayer. Of course, scholars mentioned it was the obligatory prayer, maybe slightly different. But when you're in your general generic prayer, you break your prayer to answer the call to your parents. Well, I mean, I'll say this. I mean, you know, my mom's going to have a field day with this episode for sure. You know, she's like, remember when you said this? Now go ahead. I'll take it, honestly. But I think one very important element about like what we were just discussing, I mean, first and foremost, regarding like aggression and the development of a man.
We are obviously naturally filled with testosterone and especially like like at certain age points. But I think it's also worth noting that we need to be able to become self-aware at that point in time. Where are we releasing that anger? I mean, for example, for me, I work, you know, like I work with horses. I break horses. I train horses. And it's easy for you to be humble in front of like, you know, an 800 pound beef. Right. And the thing is, some people think like, oh, you've got to be tough on it. You'll never win. It's way bigger than you. They're way so powerful. Right. I mean, you go up in front of a horse and I'll see like the biggest man cower. It's like I got to go all the way up there like to get on its back. And even whenever like you're controlling the horse, you have to have like a healthy relationship with it. Right. Where you kind of got to guide it and hopefully, you know, like have a symbiotic relationship. It can't just like aggressively tearing its face. No, it's not going to work. But at that point in time, you know, like I was thinking about comparing, you know, obviously like the elements of one facing something bigger than you and greater than you versus like, you know, facing something that's smaller and weaker, so to speak. Because at this point in time, I mean, we're all, you know, bigger and stronger than our mothers. Right. As they get older and whatnot. And then we get older, we get stronger. And I think that's, you know, it's very important to kind of make note of that because you're not a good person if you're facing something more magnificent and powerful and you kind of humble yourself. That's just like your self-interest. You're just preserving yourself. The real, you know, understanding of where you're at, you know, for your akhlaq and whatnot, is ultimately when you're over in front of something that you don't necessarily have to, you know, control yourself around, but you still do. That's real restraint and that's real masculinity. That's real strength. It reminds me of what Abu Bakr said, you know, Like the strong one amongst you is weak to me. He's talking about the weak ones that are taken advantage of. Those are the ones that I'm going to return their rights, give them their rights, you know,
because if they were taken advantage of by the strong ones, well, that strong man, he's weak to me. I mean, look at that strength of Abu Bakr and that authority, man. No, but it's so true. I mean, when you're in a position of authority, you're in a position of power, you're in a position of leadership and you don't, you're not tyrannical with it, right? You're not oppressive with it. Rather, you give it its due right. And that's where, inshallah, you know, in the next scene where, I mean, when the scene talking about a father and leaving a legacy, you know, I think we have the other scenes coming up talking about fatherhood. They were talking about legacy. It was so important. So, for me, I want to, like, the advice I want to give is almost to, like, the young Muslim guy who, like, who was in my shoes, like, not really involved with the Muslim community, doesn't have masculine guidance, right? So, like, the advice I would give him, you know, for those, you know, watching or listening, understand that your mother, it's part of her nature, her fitrah to nag you a million times. It's just how she was created, man. You know, it's going to happen. There's going to be cases where you walk in and she, like, rushes to you at the door and asks you, like, how was your day? Where have you been? It's just part of her nature, man. Her nature, her fitrah is, like, she wants to protect her cubs, man. And as a young man, you have to understand that she's not doing this because she wants to annoy you, because she wants to cause you headaches and stress. She does this because she loves you unconditionally, and there is probably no one in this world who will do that other than your mother. Yeah, man. I mean, when you think about it, like you said, she doesn't want to annoy you. Like, think about it. Would a mother say, oh, my son's walking in. I want to annoy him. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, really, you think about it. That reminds me. I remember when my mother, I used to work at Kroger as a soccer. I was 13. I used to walk to work back in, you know, it was a long walk,
but my mother told me that I have to start paying the water bill. I was so mad. Like, that's the only money I get to go out and hang out with the crew and get to chill. She's like, no, you're going to pay the water bill. And I was mad, but I'm not going to lie. It's not like they needed the money, but I'm so thankful for that, because it's teaching me responsibility. Right. You know what I'm saying? And like you're saying, you know, when you walk in the door, mom's asking you a hundred, a thousand questions. You got to know that she's asking because she wants you to be a better version of yourself in her eyes. I think the safest route I always tell young guys is, like, mom loves me. She wants what's best for me. That's what she's doing. And just put your head down and just answer her call. Yep. That's the best route. It may not be something you want to do, but life is not about what you want to do. And that's another important thing for a man to know. It's not about always what you want. It's about what needs to get done. Right. So. Alhamdulillah. May Allah bless you, brothers. MashaAllah. Brother Mohammed. Brother Norman. MashaAllah. May Allah bless you all for taking your time. How long did it take to do this series, by the way? So they filmed all of December and January. So they did two months of shooting. It was crunch time. I mean, Norman was telling me he was there for, like, hours, one hour each day. Yeah. So I'd come to set, like, after work. I'd get here, like, 536. And I'd be here sometimes till, like, 11, midnight, 1 a.m. MashaAllah. Alhamdulillah. May Allah put it in your Meezan, your scale of good deeds, inshaAllah. Ameen. May Allah use you as a means to get a really good message across. Again, tune into this series. It's called Why Me? Speaking about primarily predestination. And it's beautiful because it's packed with so many gems that Dr. Omar Suleiman has put in there. I mean, with ayats and a hadith and athar. I mean, the verses and statements of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And statements from our pious predecessors and teachers.
It's very, very important because it gives you what they call tafsir al-ilmi. It gives you foundational knowledge in this very, very, very important chapter of the human being's life. Not only the Muslim, but the human being's life. Understanding the knowledge of God and what that means in our life. May Allah swt bless you all. Thank you for tuning in to the Iman Cave where we discuss issues of male excellence while being grounded in faith. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. May Allah bless you.
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