is there a heaven is there a hell and go
back
you don't say go back to where you came
from don't ask such blasphemous
questions what islam did for me was made
me understand the purpose of life itself
you know smoking he's
drinking he's you know womanizing and my
daughter is you know going to these
promiscuous parties and you know saying
promiscuity is taking over my household
you know when these tough problems are
there then they like to call out to
allah but when allah brings them out of
the problem or allah
rescues them to the shore
they go back to their old ways
[Music]
of peace welcome to the dean show we got
an exciting show with imam sultan salam
how are you doing alhamdulillah how are
you brother
the hard things in here where are we at
in florida
yes south florida south florida the more
south you go the hotter it gets huh you
adjust it with the heat i love it i love
it you're not talking about going back
to
from canada huh yes
yes i do not want to go back let's talk
about yourself now you're an imam here
in
florida yes how did you get to that
point you're very you're very uh very
young
how did you decide at what point in your
life did you decide that you wanted to
be a imam all right so it all started
when i was younger um
when i was about like five six years old
and i had a few surahs memorized i would
always wonder
is there a heaven is there a hell i mean
i'm really i would sometimes i would
think about hellfire and i'm like hey if
i did something wrong if i told a lie or
something
i mean am i really gonna burn for this
and then these thoughts really made me
somewhat disengaged intellectually from
my faith
and
i really only rediscovered when i was a
little bit older when i was nine when i
was uh you know sent to an islamic
school
by choice wasn't forced
and i started memorizing the quran
i started reading first and then i
started memorizing at the age of 10
and by 11 i had committed it to a memory
but i wanted to know what it meant
you know
i could have gone down the route of hey
i'm a half of now go down back to your
secular education
but
i was like hey i have 114 chapters of
arabic committed to memory
of which i have no clue what any of them
mean
and
that curiosity led me to joining the
island program that was part of the
school
it was a choice that you could do the
island education along with your secular
studies
so i joined it at a very young age
usually the
people who joined that course are post
high school you know graduates of high
school
but i joined it when i was in in the in
the sixth grade
after i joined
my intention was
just learn the arabic do the first three
or four years do the arabic and you know
go about your
life uh you know moving on with
something secular in nature
but after
having done five years of that course
i was like hey i'm so deeply involved in
religious education
and i'm young
i want to travel overseas it's an eight
year course i want to travel overseas to
actually complete it
in a traditional seminary so then i went
to south africa
finished off the island program the
eight year island program
uh and by the time i was finished i was
like 18
and uh
the thought occurred to me that if i
stop studying and start a job
i may never get to study again
so then i enrolled in the ifta studies
the mufti course and i completed that
and by 19 i was graduated
you know as someone who completed the
island program and the mufti program and
now i was looking for a job and i was
like there's nothing more appropriate
than being an imam with this you know
skill set or this educational program
having committed in my
uh in my arsenal religious arsenal if
you if you will
so once that was completed i mean
i i had nothing else to do so i'm like
you know what let me start serving the
community a lot of my doubts and
questions and you know you know thoughts
that i had pertaining to the validity of
religion and the existence of heaven and
existence of hell
all of these were answered
because i gave
religion the adequate
uh chance to explain itself to me
by going to individuals who really were
open-minded and you know not so very
intimidating right your standard is you
go to an imam and you ask them hey
i don't really believe heaven exists
right or hell exists or that you know is
there even a god
the standard answer you'd get from any
mom for
you know for
a person
that young in age is man go back
you don't say go back to where you came
from don't ask such blasphemous
questions
but alhamdulillah the people around me
weren't so
uh you know rigid they were a lot more
open they were a lot more welcoming and
they really explained it to me in a way
that made sense to me i was around
people who were you know just a little
bit older than i was
who were giving the jamaa khutbas and
on another day they were playing
basketball
and i was like hey religious people can
be cool
right that's really what kind of drew me
in and led me down the path that i went
and i felt like after graduation the
only thing right is to also inspire
other young people like myself who also
might have questions about their faith
who need real answers
you know to continue down this path
would really give me the opportunity to
share that with people of my age i want
to highlight for
the not yet muslim audience guests who
might be tuning in when you said that
you memorize
the entire quran all 114 chapters i want
really people to think about it because
this is one of the miracles of the quran
can you elaborate on that real quickly
because people you know there's if you
compare to many other different uh
religions there's or any just complex
book that are out there you don't have
people memorizing their religious texts
and preserving it over time these texts
have been changed they've been corrupted
but now when we talk about you memorize
you're you're you're a
walking living example of a living
miracle of the quran can you just
highlight what what does that what does
that mean
it's
again the biggest miracle of our
religion is the quran
and its preservation is
not limited to
uh you know
physical tangible scriptures
that we have or books or manuscripts
allah says in the quran
we have sent down this reminder and we
shall preserve it
right that
special clause of preservation
was not really uh assured or guaranteed
for the scriptures of the past
henceforth their alteration adulteration
changes
whereas for the quran because it was
revealed to our prophet muhammad
sallallahu alaihi the final prophet
allah says i will take care of the
responsibility of preserving it so if
you were to take every single manuscript
of the quran and burn it we'd still have
it because millions of people committed
to memory right and i really felt you
know subhanallah very honored and
special that allah blessed me with the
opportunity it was when i started i
could barely memorize two lines right
because memorizing something word for
word without getting a single
destination inflection or diacritical
mark
accent
wrong
is not something that people aspire to
do when you memorize something you
memorize the gist of it you memorize the
essence of it
thereafter you quote it with your own
verbage whereas with the quran
you're not allowed to do that you have
to read every like if i were to
incorrectly state or recite something in
the prayer that we just prayed in
single person behind me at least for the
first chapter would correct it
right because it's so
uh intricate or so precise
and that precision is really something
that subhanallah it's tough to do when
you start off i couldn't memorize two
lines going back to that
but over time i i really committed
myself and i really said i really want
to do this and by the end of it a person
who could not memorize two lines was
capable of memorizing an entire 27 pages
in one day that was my last lesson that
i memorized i memorized 27 pages in one
day
and that's to me that's not me
i don't think i'm capable of doing that
i'm not that special i really understand
that this is allah and this is his
miracle and this is when he decides that
somebody is
a treasure chest for his book he
facilitates and he makes easy according
to his will
tell me now for people
looking at you as an imam and they might
they associate with their clergy someone
who's devoted to god now
he's someone who doesn't get married
right and lives a life of abstinence is
that the same with uh imam as a muslim
no um
the prophet muhammed
states very profoundly and
sunnati marriage is from my sunnah for
my tradition for my ways
and allah states himself in the quran
verily o messenger of allah before you
we have sent many messengers and many
prophets we believe in all of them jesus
moses abraham everybody
and we've made for all of them spouses
and progeny
so
it's
as a muslim we believe that marriage is
is something that completes you as a
person it is half of your religion and
abstinence again it is something that is
permissible
but not something that is recommended
you don't get sin from abstaining from
marriage
but you do get plenty of reward for
engaging in it what if someone says look
uh as a christian we know that jesus
they say that he didn't get married
so you say all the prophets got married
what about jesus
because jesus we as muslims believe
has not completed his life yet we
believe he will come back and he will
get married
right and
that statement of the quran there's no
inconsistency in the quran allah says we
have ordained for all of the prophets
and messengers wives and children so the
wife that has been ordained for the
prophet jesus
has not yet been
tied with him in marriage
but that doesn't mean it's not going to
happen because we don't believe he
passed away we believe allah raised him
and allah will send him back
you know to restore you know
order injustice in the world when it
becomes as you know subhanallah as
corrupted as it could ever have been did
islam
answer all the questions that you had on
your mind you mentioned hellfire
paradise purpose of life why you're here
you know all of these things did it give
you the solace that you needed uh didn't
did it convince you and tell
intellectually that it was indeed
the truth
based on proof and evidence
absolutely
now what i mean by that is every
question that i had
as a young child
was answered adequately but as you grow
older
regardless of
what era what environment what culture
you live in
more questions develop
right the questions that develop
at times they may have answers that 100
percent satisfy you and clear you of any
doubt whatsoever
but at times
you know there are some questions that
you don't understand regardless of what
answer is granted to you
but what islam did for me is
made me understand how limited humans
are
and how limitless god is
how limitless allah azzawajal is
and
if
allah azzawajal
explained everything in vivid detail
then there wouldn't be a point of
calling this life a test
so what islam did for me was made me
understand the purpose of life itself
the purpose of life itself allah says
the purpose of life is to test you which
which one of you is best in deeds and if
everything was clearly explained then
there wouldn't be a point of calling it
a test so
i understood it like this
early on
my father tells me don't eat
too much candy
all right
as a young child
i mean i still am
kind of a fat boy i love candy
if i think that my dad is preventing me
from candy
because he's a bad guy
uh
really like would that make sense
no
but as a child i don't understand that
and my father sometimes he will explain
certain things to me he will say you'll
get a cavity you know but i'll say i
want it anyways
my father will say well it's not good
for you cavities are not good for you
they don't
there and and he'll try explaining to a
certain extent maybe add on diabetes
yeah potential diabetes and heart
disease potential diseases all of these
things cancer
if you want to go deeper yeah if you go
deeper right but would the dad go as
deep as he he understands no he'll just
give me a simple explanation and if i
accept it good for me if i don't accept
it well i know better because i'm your
father
right
and
one thing he may add on is
when you get older and you have your own
child you understand
right and perhaps i will understand and
now alhamdulillah allah has blessed me
with the son i do understand of caring
for someone who doesn't know how to care
for them the baby really wants to go
there but he's going to hit his head
i pull him back he starts crying you
know i'm saying thinking that daddy's a
tyrant
right but really the daddy's not the
tyrant he's pulling you back from
something that you're incapable of
understanding is gonna harm you right so
i understood it like that that
eventually when i grow up i'll
understand the wisdom of my dad for
preventing me
for preventing me from eating that candy
but
if that understanding gap if that
comprehension gap is so
vivid and so
distant
when the common denominator denominator
is limitation
of mortality
that the father and the child both
mortals
just the only gap is
he's a little bit older
but still this child will never
understand what he knows
now imagine comparing some human some
mortal who thinks they have it all
figured out
with their limitations
to the unlimited allah
will we ever understand fully understand
the wisdom of allah the knowledge of
allah it's unlimited it's comparing
something finite to something infinite
it's not even apples and oranges it's
comparing like fruit to a wall right so
really when i understood that and i i
said that this is really what allah
wants to test me to see if i'm only
going to submit to his will when i fully
understand something
or am i going to submit what i
understand and when i don't understand
right and the story of ibrahim alaihi
islam is something that always motivated
me whenever i found myself in this
conundrum the story of abraham of
ibrahim of abraham alaihis salaam peace
be upon him where ibrahim i mean it took
him a while to figure out god
it's not like he just woke up one day
and believed in god he actually
expended intellect right to
come up with the idea that god is
something that we don't we can't fully
comprehend allah states in the quran
the night dawn upon abraham
then he saw a star and he said how
that'll be this my
lord when the star faded when the star
went away it was daytime
i don't like things that fade away
and then the next night he looked at the
moon he's like wow this is beautiful
have that be this is my lord for
when the moon went away
oh allah please show me show me what is
the right god
and then the next day he's he's staring
at the sun he said
this is bigger than the star and the
moon
this must be
my god when the sun set he said anybody
um
i free myself from any partner that they
associate with one god allah
i turned my direction to that lord who
incepted all of this who created all of
this
and i don't like again i completely
disassociate myself with anything or any
concept that makes it seem like god is
fully comprehendible
right and that story really motivated me
to stay on the right track of okay you
if you understand this sultan except if
you don't understand the sultan accept
it even harder because that's what
muslim means someone who submits
this is the way of life of all the
prophets and messengers and now you're
living it and you're getting all this
experience being an imam tell us in the
last few minutes that we have what are
some of the major challenges that you're
seeing
being a leader in the community
with the youth with even the adults
the challenge is
i'd like i wouldn't do it justice in in
a sentence so i'd rather choose a
prophetic statement to give it some some
flesh and then i'll add you know
theory to it
the prophet sallallahu alaihi says
that this world is lush and green
and allah will
place you in it as representatives as by
his gerunds film
refrain to the best of your ability from
this world
so
this hadith really
captures the struggle that majority of
us not just here in south florida but
the majority of us imams faced and face
in the west
the people come here from all walks of
life from all different you know
ethnicities from all different countries
in pursuit of a better life
and in their mind a better life
translates to more material
and more material means more happiness
in their mind
before they figure out that that's the
wrong idea of a better life
usually it's
i wouldn't say it's beyond repair but
it's it's at a very difficult point
uh
that repairing it is it becomes the
challenge that contemporarily imams in
the society face
so whether it's you know
you know staying away from religion
keeping it at a minimal
in order to
appease the folks around us
you know and you know make it seem like
hey i will assimilate to this culture
this western culture better
if i'm more materialistic
if i involve myself in the things of
this world a lot more
and keep religion to a jummah
keep religion to uh ramadan tarawi you
know a few rakats and
you know what you know you're a good
muslim you know pray every now and then
whenever you need god you know holla at
him and you know i'm saying he'll and
then he'll respond basically like a
genie in a bottle yes yes allah says
allah even complains about that in the
quran that you know what's what's wrong
with people why do they only call out to
me when they need me
you know some people worship allah on
edge
good things come
like oh god's good
if they ever find themselves in a
challenge in tribulation
they turn away from him or they say that
when they
are in a turbulent circumstance allah is
using the example of you know waves in
an ocean that are about to you know
swallow you up allah says when you're in
these turbulent it represents all of
life when you're in these turbulent
waves
and they call out to allah and say oh
allah i'm in a problem oh allah you know
my son is you know off of you know the
right path he's you know smoking he's
drinking he's you know womanizing my
daughter is you know going to these
promiscuous parties and you know saying
promiscuity is taking over my household
you know when these tough problems are
there then they like to call out to
allah but when allah brings them out of
the problem or allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
rescues them to the shore
they go back to their old ways so really
religion has just become like you said a
genie in a bottle you know if we need it
if we need something from god oh allah
something is wrong in my life my
business is not going good oh allah i'm
going to come to your house i'm going to
pray
allah fixes up the business going back
to never remembering allah and having
him as something in the background as a
screen saver in your mind right and
subhanallah that is the challenge that
really if you want to sum it up without
going into all the derivatives and the
details of the problems the different
precise problems that people struggle
it's really lack of uh
wanting to affiliate with religion
thinking of it as extreme thinking of it
is
as as
anti-secular you know thinking of it as
anti-progressive
you know i'm saying hence all these
other you know issues that
contemporarily we face that generations
before us right before us have not faced
it's really just thinking that religion
is a barricade is a blockage against
being progressive whereas we know both
you and i brother eddie know that islam
has been progressive islam has always
been something that you know taught
humans to be better even in this life
right taught humans to be more
accomplished even in this life the
prophet sallallahu alaihi salaam never
prohibited us from advancing in this
life
but muslims today forget at what cost so
it's not the progressive in the terms of
now i'm progressive so i don't have to
uh pray i don't know i don't have to go
to gym i don't have to wear hijab i
don't have to do this that the other and
i start modifying the demon you become
like a what a modified muslim
no such thing but you know yeah
progressive muslim they like to call it
yeah you know saying progressive muslim
a progressive muslim does not
you know again this is generalizing yeah
right yeah there's exceptions to every
rule but a progressive muslim and common
portrayal
is somebody who has nothing
of
the external imagery of islam
you know it's really a a misuse of the
hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
where he says
[Music]
that allah doesn't look at your apparent
he doesn't look at your face you don't
look at your bodies he looks at your
hearts
right it's a very beautiful hadith but
misquoted misunderstood misrepresented
my heart you know i'm saying allah knows
my heart so i don't have to have
anything on the external
my question to them would be hey um then
why did allah reveal those commandments
if he deemed them so
you know baseless or so unimportant then
why did he legislate them
right so again
that is the struggle summed up
so uh
you are a
living testimony that now at a young age
some takeaways here is that someone at
that young age like yourself
you
got to know your dean islam you started
living it
answered all the questions to why you're
here what's the purpose of life based on
proof and evidence
your testimony to that took it to
another level now you're serving the
community you got to know your dean was
there
ever any i've interviewed a lot of
different people from all walks of life
and they come from different backgrounds
some from a christian background this
background that background and the more
they went academically into the religion
the more they started to see the
contradictions and they went away from
it
but the more you went towards islam did
it increase your iman
absolutely and do you believe now this
is the solution where the more people
will go and embrace islam that this
would be the solutions for all their
problems
their lives would that because obviously
we can't escape the the drama we're in
life is a test but does the islam give
you the tools to manage and to get
through these tests of life absolutely
absolutely because
again someone who
if i had gone down the rabbit hole of
okay well if
i can't see god i i won't believe in him
i'll refuse to believe in him
then what a sad life that would be
that
all the death that i encountered of my
friends family
i will never see them again because
they're just
material they're just particles they're
just chemicals they're just rocks you
know
same argument that the the the prophets
listened and faced that when we died
we're just gonna become dust and and
bones
you really think we're gonna be raised
if i don't i didn't believe that we were
going to be raised and there's going to
be justice
then really
again like what hope is there in living
yeah such a depressing life like all the
the
the trauma the struggles all of it means
nothing if someone gets you know
bombed or killed in their house in a
war-torn country or an oppressive regime
or something
then they're just that you know i'm
saying they just become buffet for the
worms of the ground
right so really i feel that islam
is a very conclusive and consistent
answer
or
a better term would be
a layer of solace
to the intellectually curious
uh about the reality of life
thank you so much imam sultan spend some
time with us
for coming to our masjid
uh please come back man south florida
will really be appreciative of you thank
you
thank you
for watching
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you assalamu alaikum