0:01

As-salamu alaykum wa

0:04

rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

0:07

It is your sister and friend, Adar,

0:09

and you're listening to the Digital

0:11

Sisterhood Podcast. Welcome

0:14

to the Wrap Up Series Part 2. Part

0:18

2, and this time it's going to be with

0:20

a different subset of the team. And to be

0:22

honest, it's funny because the

0:25

directors from the Answit or Aah, you've heard

0:27

a few of them, but there still were

0:29

people you guys had never heard of or

0:31

have never been formally introduced. Maybe

0:33

you've seen them in the credits, the

0:35

podcast credits. If you look at it and you pay attention, you'll

0:37

see some names that you're like, oh, I've never heard this person

0:39

before, or on the mic,

0:41

on the podcast yet. And well, I have

0:44

a few of them here, some known, some

0:46

unknown, so I'm really, really excited to introduce

0:48

you guys too because you know, SubhanAllah, everybody

0:50

has their family, their friends, but

0:53

today I get to showcase people that feel

0:55

like my family. You know what I'm

0:57

saying? Because they really are my family. Like what I tell

1:00

you this year, last year, SubhanAllah,

1:02

2023, I cannot believe that was just

1:04

one year because personally me, it feels

1:06

like seven years because I

1:08

feel like I've known these women for seven,

1:10

not even seven years apart. I feel like

1:12

I've known them my entire life, which

1:15

I feel like maybe you guys feel like it's

1:17

mutual. Is it mutual, guys? For sure. For

1:19

sure. Can

1:21

you believe that? Like,

1:24

you know, all the things that happened

1:26

in 2023, it's just only happened in

1:28

one year, SubhanAllah. And I feel like

1:30

that was the, I like to say it's a catalyst year. I

1:33

think it was a year that kind of

1:35

really tested our dedication, our

1:37

dedication to not only the TDS, but

1:39

to each other, to each other. If

1:42

I could make that into an echo and make it

1:44

dramatic, I would. To each other, to each other. You

1:47

know what I mean? So SubhanAllah, it's been, I would

1:49

say, a rewarding year. But I'm really excited to take

1:51

it back with you guys. Let's go around and I

1:53

guess do a little bit of introduction. Let's

1:56

start with what I call

1:58

the marketing extraordinaire. Round

2:00

of applause You

2:08

know me as a marketing extraordinaire and

2:10

I guess that's what I am You

2:15

are indeed you are where you joining us

2:17

from where I am healing and

2:19

calling in from Abu Dhabi

2:21

United Arab Emirates land of

2:23

the Gold you

2:25

know come to have come to you have maybe

2:28

have you become to Dubai Well

2:36

I we've been to a Bodeau a few

2:38

times yeah this year and each time so

2:40

so without fail says come to her come

2:42

to Dubai I come to come to the

2:44

UAE and I'm like sister if I can

2:46

afford to live there If

2:48

I could well, I'm not gonna have to sell

2:50

half of my liver. Just stay there for even

2:52

two seconds I will say

2:54

it is a land up well

2:57

Yeah, this is a life of soft life. It

2:59

is the life soft life life

3:01

does that make sense? It really is but

3:03

yes, so soon is healing always from the

3:05

UAE Who do we have

3:07

next we got? My

3:14

name is Nora, I'm one of the newer

3:16

team members, but it does feel

3:19

like I've been here seven years I'm not gonna lie And

3:22

what do I do it? I

3:25

think the best way to describe it is

3:27

like all things people's strategy like general support

3:29

across the board Yeah,

3:32

that's me and obviously from the accent you

3:35

can hear them from the UK. Um, I'm

3:37

basically London

3:39

10, you know North London. They

3:41

think me come on you gooners Gooders

3:48

You guys know like good no

3:50

like if you support You

4:00

know soccer is not really a big king

4:02

in Canada. You have college soccer. Hey, man.

4:06

It's football. It's football. Oh,

4:09

yeah, yeah, yeah. This is what happens when your friends

4:11

with people from all the way from where they're from.

4:14

I see as hockey. You see football. I

4:16

see football. Something else. What do you want me to do, man?

4:20

I probably, everybody in North America understands

4:22

football differently. How

4:24

is North America sponsoring the next World

4:26

Cup if y'all can't even say football?

4:28

Soccer. Oh, my God. I'm

4:30

not going to speak for Canada and our whole

4:32

thing is not going to be cancelled. I'm just going to keep it much.

4:36

And say whatever you say, Tam. Whatever you

4:38

say. But

4:40

last but not least, we got our,

4:42

I guess, what

4:46

do we call the guy from Suits, David Spector.

4:49

What is his name? Harvey Spector.

4:52

Harvey Spector of TDS. Can I

4:55

be your... What's his name? Meghan

4:58

Markle. I

5:00

personally think you're too bad to be Meghan Markle.

5:04

I feel like you are literally Harvey Spector. You

5:06

are the big boss. You

5:08

are the main character. My name is

5:10

Aisha. I joined TDS

5:12

two years ago now. I think it's

5:14

literally today. Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be

5:16

two years. So I

5:19

do some legal work for TDS. And

5:22

follow others around when I

5:24

can. Also. And

5:27

I'm calling from Paris. So

5:29

again, welcome to the digital server podcast. Let's break

5:31

the ice with Vibe Check. You guys already know,

5:33

for those who don't know what Vibe Check is,

5:35

it's a marriage card game that TDS came up

5:37

with to help make the

5:39

courting phase easier. For all my shy

5:41

girls and shy guys, Vibe Check

5:44

will break the ice. And by the end of that, that

5:46

sit down. You'll basically have an idea whether

5:49

you want to consider the person or go to

5:51

phase two at the very least. So if

5:53

you're in this phase where you're thinking, 2024, I want

5:55

to get married, or at least I

5:57

want to make the intention. I think the best way

5:59

to cement that is... Vibe check why not you have the

6:01

card game if a good fella good guy a good

6:03

gal comes your way you think okay Let me

6:05

set my intentions the right way. They're playing

6:08

live check now some testimonials There have

6:10

been people that played vibes I can

6:12

got married. Yes Yes

6:19

Yeah, definitely about it's your wedding we got no

6:21

invitation so that was really hard but

6:26

But I'm happy to know that a

6:28

few guys have benefited tremendously by the

6:30

card game and humdulillah It's all from

6:32

Allah subhana And yeah, so yeah

6:35

if you're interested in buying go ahead check our

6:37

website if we still some in stock get you

6:39

some Moving on

6:41

so I'm gonna play some vibe check with you

6:43

guys even though you guys are not people I'm getting to know

6:45

for marriage I just low-key still want to know whether you guys

6:47

pass the vibe check so my first question

6:49

to you guys is What

6:51

is 3 a.m.. And you can't sleep? What

6:54

are you thinking about? Trying

6:57

to go back to sleep man. Why am I

6:59

up at 3? Oh my god counting sheep. Oh

7:01

my god Counting sheep really

7:03

you guys don't think about anything at 3 a.m..

7:06

You wake up You don't think first of all

7:08

humdulillah. I think really well. I usually am definitely

7:10

sleeping at 3 a.m. If

7:13

I'm not if you're up at 3m. It could be one or

7:15

two things you could be stressed. Yeah Having

7:18

a social crisis, and if you are what are

7:20

you actually thinking about for me for example? What

7:22

I would be thinking about often is like It's

7:26

two things. I it's so weird someone sounds

7:28

really morbid which is death Oh, I

7:30

think about all the time especially in the middle that

7:32

could you think about you're in a dark room You

7:35

start to think about like you know Just

7:38

yeah, you just start thinking about death. I don't know just

7:40

for me It's just an easy. I guess follow to think

7:42

about and I think the next thing I often think about

7:44

is What I think

7:46

about what am I doing my life like there was

7:48

a what are you doing like it's a boy I

7:50

mean the narrator that you had saying what are you

7:52

doing? At

7:55

3 a.m.. You know I feel like 3

7:59

a.m.. Is when oil More intrusive thoughts come

8:01

out to say. So either like you're

8:03

thinking about your a successful crisis that

8:05

your hobby or like whether or not

8:07

if. Drinking too much cranberry juice

8:09

will make your p read. It's one of

8:11

the to. Find

8:13

Fundamental. I think I think Kayak

8:15

ah the you know he that

8:18

olam made me wait Cobb, I

8:20

should probably go pray and then

8:22

it's like a guilt trip between

8:24

like a logo and I should

8:26

pray Buffalo Korea I should pray

8:28

and. I

8:31

manage of com you're right, you're in

8:33

by the way. Like that's where my

8:35

thinking of gone Lily if you wish you know that I

8:37

did it just fills the along with you on that. It

8:39

is is dusty though. it. Sits. In the

8:41

middle, deny your own. Oh, there's something I

8:43

need to be asking of God or repenting

8:45

from clearly. Because.

8:48

How often do with a wide ethical will think

8:50

of an. Opportunity

8:52

Opportunities: Padilla,

8:55

Yeah. It's a it's up Dead

8:57

is the last and the night to had

9:00

our dna near the As and guy selling.

9:02

I think how many of us get invited

9:04

I think I just think of all flake.

9:07

Son. As deep as the guys adding a

9:09

lot like for example a good times and

9:11

I had like super embarrassing things happening sound

9:13

like oh my god why they do that

9:15

for all I gotta I did I say

9:18

that unlike I have those thoughts so often

9:20

of like things that I did like came

9:22

yesterday I'm like oh my god Asia while

9:24

you that you know and say i have

9:26

heard about that backing the other night. The.

9:29

Hundred Idol did as after that used to back of the

9:31

day but. Not. As I'm an

9:33

ios eight I try to get to the game

9:35

is what it is is super quick foot of

9:37

the have the love alive and I will say

9:40

that like what you think about three am. I

9:43

think. Is. Like with you what

9:45

your subconscious wants to think about that

9:47

I'm excited. It's a layer of use

9:49

that maybe. You. Don't that out in your

9:51

daily life Memory of and quite I think of

9:53

Clay implies quite interesting when you hear someone say

9:55

oh this is what because first of all people

9:57

I play with a sticky by now so much

9:59

as. Or what he did. What we have the tell you the

10:01

last. Their. Last time they were thinking and

10:03

oftentimes you do the most one of one as

10:06

as nice as panel on. Their. The reason

10:08

is a heckler about like evening and

10:10

to had it in my being the

10:12

most vulnerable time of of of the

10:14

of the day of the night it's

10:16

it's something about that bought something about

10:18

vulnerability that happens. They. Use of all you

10:20

could be is real. And I could

10:22

be Israel allied with yourself even if is it

10:24

is of I can be is completely real because

10:27

everyone sleeping. No. One

10:29

is the with observing you there is an

10:31

audience that or playing it up assist

10:33

you in. A. La Fontana. So it's

10:35

like. Yeah. So that

10:37

that were that question cause or less I really

10:40

love this question because with somebody says. When

10:43

they think about what they're thinking about,

10:45

it really speaks to I guess that

10:47

Mirabelle side already invited Milan. Ah,

10:50

How did you hundred twenty? the Us. First.

10:52

And foremost. Have. You can get here.

10:54

Who did a story? Ah you.

10:57

Because. I me, I know, And.

10:59

It's fun because funny Because I think most of us

11:01

all of us met last year. Man, but

11:04

some of us have been working each other a

11:06

year before. That wouldn't even crazier than double the

11:08

be greeted for listed as the good I like

11:10

your we were working on with each other for

11:12

your on the internet. And they meet

11:14

other the following year in our which

11:16

I don't know if that everyone's experience.

11:18

Of in in building something with

11:20

others. But. That was our story

11:23

in the tub we had you guys joined

11:25

how did you join? Limits are actually with those

11:27

and because I I I know some services

11:29

There really is is kind of one of

11:31

my favorite part about how did you we find

11:33

out of how do we find each other

11:35

each other. And

11:38

have a lie either. it's getting to the plant

11:40

other where I've said the story seventy times like

11:42

I have her. I have a condensed elevator Feds

11:44

M kid A. Good

11:47

you have to she said on tour as

11:50

you said a I read yeah. We

11:52

had recorded once how the Pocket episode

11:54

but he's an area of a so

11:57

we'll assume if he was still hits

11:59

because ah. I just love it.

12:01

And there's everyone's first time. Yeah. Okay.

12:04

So I think SubhanAllah, and I'm

12:06

so grateful that I discovered the

12:08

TDS. Maybe because,

12:11

you know, both in Canada follow, you

12:13

know, pretty much everybody on my Twitter

12:15

feed is Canadian. And

12:17

I started seeing, you know, this Twitter account

12:20

come up with this really unique logo saying,

12:23

you know, podcast dropping, you know.

12:26

And I love podcasts. These

12:29

podcasts are myself, I'm like, okay, I'm going to keep

12:31

an eye out. And

12:34

Shallah 2021 Ramadan, you

12:36

know, first episode drops, second episode

12:38

drops. And there's nothing like that.

12:40

Second episodes, Hanallah. When

12:42

the crescent moon becomes full is forever.

12:46

One of my favorite TDS

12:48

podcast episodes. And

12:51

I'm so glad that I got to meet, got

12:53

to meet Hilaal. And may it, you know, all

12:55

the rewards of the work that her story, you

12:57

know, come back to her in 10 folds in

12:59

Shallah, as well as TDS. So

13:01

listen to the story. Send love,

13:03

send love with you guys. And

13:06

I think 2021 was, so I am a freelancer and

13:08

a consultant. So

13:12

I started my own consultancy in 2020. I

13:15

left my corporate job in 2019, 2018 slash

13:17

beginning of 2019. And

13:23

I've been doing this freelance gig for quite some time.

13:26

And 2020 is when I leaned into it and

13:28

I said, you know what, forget this kind of

13:30

project in project out approach. Let's

13:32

kind of create our, my own

13:34

sort of database and clients, et

13:36

cetera. So 2021 was

13:39

both a year in which I had

13:41

the, you know, like the most paying

13:43

clients, but also a year where

13:46

it wasn't consistent. So it was like one big

13:49

project and then it was kind of dead

13:52

for quite some time. So

13:55

End of 2021, I finished up a project, started

13:57

a new project with an. The

14:00

podcasting company the I only lasted for

14:02

a couple of months and then I

14:04

realized when I dabbled in to an

14:06

actual job or one thing for the

14:08

stood out for me. and that is

14:10

like what am I doing in life

14:12

right? So yes, I started my own

14:15

saints. Yes, some freelancing. I'm no longer

14:17

having a jobs bill. What am I

14:19

doing with my life that impacts matters.

14:21

And he that was the key because

14:24

work you know that they feed you

14:26

this, likes waste a nuclear family and

14:28

know we lean on each other blah

14:30

blah blah blah us as like okay.

14:33

You. Can earn income, but there has to

14:35

be something beyond that, right? There has to

14:37

be this kind of Northern Star. And

14:40

I started having those feelings and I

14:42

think at the time that I started

14:44

listening to that Tds. I.

14:47

Ah did the back of my mind it

14:49

was the sick. It was the actual wrap

14:51

up episodes, the way that you guys and

14:53

not wrap up episodes and how like for

14:55

instance you guys slid in each other the

14:57

and let's be honest he said and was

14:59

seen as the absence of when and footage

15:02

and still is. It's like fighting and each

15:04

other the i'm like yo. What's. What's

15:09

stopping Not the same. What's stopping you

15:12

from reaching out to you guys I'm

15:14

asking hades you that needs support and

15:16

I read and I remember at those

15:18

times like towards the end you guys

15:20

were struggling putting our ups as and

15:22

five as I q why when I

15:25

like I bought these podcasting skill that

15:27

can help at it like for sick

15:29

of a law so that people don't

15:31

ask was the next episode just reach

15:33

out and say like hey ah to.

15:36

Meet have ah and then are funny

15:38

story I'd gone under re I disappear,

15:40

I go and I'm not all. right?

15:43

After that it was and of Twenty Twenty One.

15:45

Beginning of Twenty Twenty Two. And

15:48

in that on Raw I really

15:50

we leaned into a.of your loss.

15:52

Allow me to do work that

15:54

is. Rooted in yeah, That. Was my

15:56

entire i'm going to.arms Pamela

15:58

and right. Mer I believe

16:01

alliance heard my dogs ah I'm he

16:03

I met a sister her name is

16:05

Mario we got a chance to the

16:07

her G M W ah I'm and

16:10

Maria I'm was like hey sis Tommy

16:12

about you I told her what's going

16:14

on I'm like hey I just came

16:16

up for chef projects that on how

16:19

many works she put me in touch

16:21

with an organization and Muslim organizations as

16:23

of Hanalei felt like alleges answered my.right

16:25

then and there you know that and

16:28

you know and muscles is beautiful sight

16:30

come back I have two interviews lined

16:32

up one with you guys I know

16:34

we reach out to back to me

16:37

after your whole sort of North America

16:39

a high of Minnesota tour on and

16:41

then I also have this Muslim organization

16:43

interview. I. Do Both. Ah,

16:46

first I do them and you know,

16:49

immediate red flags. And I think the

16:51

red flag for me were more along

16:53

the lines of there wasn't just. You.

16:55

Know or honey and nice virtuality

16:57

sort of coming out during our

17:00

interview with Mostly Lights Are you

17:02

available or Milan. it's our busiest

17:04

time. Did it die? You know?

17:06

Really Need. You. To exile

17:08

that like there wasn't like we're

17:10

doing this for of higher purpose.

17:12

You know you analyzing is now

17:14

like you know what? Know.

17:18

I'm okay. Even. Though the

17:20

paid gig on one. They

17:24

say no to say that's a nice

17:26

I was. And. That's crazy cover.

17:28

and you why crazy? Because. We.

17:31

Didn't have much to offer so thin I know

17:33

that I know that a game types how to

17:35

love or even know what to expect the an

17:37

autoimmune like there was no exact issue whatsoever s

17:39

but I think what made me feel. Feel.

17:42

Good and I remember and you you

17:44

guys interviewed me both you and money

17:46

that that's where my Cv went through

17:48

a see the humanitarian any a like

17:50

okay I'm you're asking me all these

17:52

questions but more importantly I flew from

17:54

to team and I'm like. Okay,

17:57

Ah and I do not expect so did

17:59

create boundaries of. Okay, I'm I'm only going

18:01

to be able to limit twenty hours a

18:03

week morning and be able to do this

18:05

money into be able to do that. but

18:07

could. I didn't know what to expect cry,

18:09

But immediately after that first Town Hall meeting,

18:11

everybody's energies. What? You guys were

18:14

doing on. I just. You.

18:17

Know some a lot. But. Also guess

18:19

what happened? right? After you

18:21

know, I was interviewing officers looking for

18:23

work. From. Literally.

18:26

I think it was. September.

18:28

Know. This. December

18:31

Of Twenty Twenty Yeah, December

18:33

Twenty Twenty One. Up

18:35

until April I had no or. So.

18:38

Not only had no choice but to do.

18:41

With of my and two Tds I

18:44

literally had no work coming and so

18:46

on. My. You. Know clients dried

18:48

up. All my connections were like

18:50

saying hey, there's nothing available right

18:52

now and it was almost as

18:55

if allow saying. So

18:57

send you said you wanted to do thing for the

18:59

sake of the will have a loss Do you really

19:01

mean it. I really about

19:03

it in. London.

19:05

In Vienna. So it's

19:07

like December, January, February,

19:10

March, April. And mind

19:12

you, I was like

19:14

literally. The. Breadwinner of

19:16

the house. I was paying rent

19:18

and says hello lotta times my

19:20

mom got a job. He

19:23

announced she was looking for is like she

19:25

was following up on this lead for a

19:27

year in half and of how on like

19:29

seen. As soon as I stopped having work.

19:32

And it like the relief of alleys the

19:34

rent to being paid was taking care of.

19:36

You know that we're. And for

19:39

four to five months of my life,

19:41

I felt like yes, I don't have

19:43

an income coming in, but. I.

19:45

Felt that there was but occur in

19:47

my time, whatever my siblings would kind

19:49

of give me to support me or

19:51

I felt like there was burqa in

19:53

the time and I fell just very.

19:56

Motivated. And. I remember

19:58

you guys at that time saying. like, Hey,

20:01

why don't you lean into sales? Like, why

20:03

don't you, you know, figure

20:05

out like the whole sales opportunity within

20:07

TDS and at that point we weren't

20:09

doing any sponsorship deals. And it's

20:12

funny because it wasn't something I wanted to do. You

20:14

guys are pushing me like, just figure it out. I'm

20:18

like, fine. I'm like, just do your own

20:20

sales agency. I'm like, that's not what I do.

20:24

I do marketing. It's not the same, you

20:26

know. No, no, no,

20:28

no. No, no, no. Because

20:31

you have to remember, you have to remember we

20:33

weren't making any income at that time. We were

20:35

literally and so how long, you know, I don't

20:37

think like it was important for us

20:39

at the time to make money because our whole thing

20:41

was we created this this platform

20:43

to tell stories and we saw that it

20:46

was really doing it was doing great work.

20:48

It was supporting people. It was allowing people

20:50

to kind of replenish their either Iman. It

20:52

was encouraging to read the Quran and encourage

20:54

them to see their life and their struggles

20:56

differently. So I was like, yo, like

20:58

there's so much bark in this. Like, that's all we

21:00

can think about. There's good at this. Like there's so

21:02

much hate in this. And our new

21:04

our return was greater. It was with a lost on

21:07

Tyler. Even though I will say there was times where

21:09

and I talked about this in the first wrap up

21:11

in season one was that

21:14

it was a struggle

21:16

figure out how we were going to

21:18

do things ethically. You can't

21:20

tell people to to to be a part of

21:23

the game. I was

21:25

like, everybody has their limit.

21:27

And so there was a time where I was like,

21:30

oh my God, like we have to this has to

21:32

make sense. Like we want people to produce their best

21:34

work and support this project. But we also have to

21:36

support their life. You know, I

21:38

think in their well-being and like can

21:40

you do it? Can it not? So when we went to you and

21:42

we're like so said, well, like if

21:44

you can advertise this to some degree

21:47

and allow us to pay, you know,

21:49

like our people in the best

21:51

manner, you'll do us a great deal. And even

21:54

though you were thinking, I don't know how this

21:56

is going to work. I don't

21:58

know our first call. I remember

22:00

after we were more decimated, like,

22:03

um, yeah, why were

22:05

your prices changed all of a

22:07

sudden? Because we finally discovered what sponsorship

22:09

deal packages look like, you know? But

22:11

it's hilarious because like, subhanAllah, I didn't

22:13

know anything about this, Abhair, like, yes,

22:15

I know podcasting, but monetizing podcasting was

22:17

something very, very new to me. And

22:21

then all of a sudden you're like, please

22:23

go ahead. And I'm like,

22:25

okay, fine. But imagine that

22:27

actual first, um, you know,

22:29

uh, Ramadan season that I

22:31

joined and, and was the first time

22:34

that I was able to get us

22:36

our first sponsorship deal, right? Uh, with

22:38

HHRD. And that was the

22:40

first income I saw of 2022. Yeah.

22:44

That was the first income I saw because, uh, obviously

22:46

our guys were like, we'll give you a cut. I'm

22:48

like, kind of what, what am I bringing in? I

22:50

have no idea. And

22:53

so how long I'll give us our

22:55

first and I got up and that

22:57

was my first. And then right

23:00

after that, it was a kid,

23:02

you know, client after client after

23:04

client. I am not joking. I'm a line

23:06

after that. It was like one,

23:08

I went from doing nothing to like, all of

23:10

a sudden I can't handle, I can't handle it.

23:13

It's like, yeah, I was like, I'm

23:15

like, I'm over, I'm overwhelmed. And I'm like,

23:17

so this is when I was like, complaining

23:21

either way, complaining either way. You're complaining when

23:23

you have so much, you're

23:26

complaining either way. You're complaining. Yeah. So how

23:28

to love, how to love us, how we

23:30

were created as human beings, but you know,

23:32

just kind of, um, wrapping it up and passing

23:35

on to the others. I think

23:37

what's beautiful about the job that I

23:39

made is we didn't see each

23:41

other for a whole year. We kind of

23:43

like worked together all of 2022 behind the

23:45

scenes. And then 2023, I really enjoyed the

23:51

experience of doing, you know, the end

23:54

of the year, sort of starting the

23:56

beginning of the year in sort of

23:58

with, so repeated it into End of

24:00

2022, it was your, I'm going to obviously

24:02

did the whole had I known up. So do

24:04

you explain the story of how you did that?

24:07

And I didn't know this was going on behind the

24:09

scenes. You didn't share any of that, but anyways,

24:12

uh, we met, um,

24:14

in, you know, for the first time

24:16

and I really think it was the,

24:18

the emphasis of my dad. It was

24:20

almost like, you know, second, third fold,

24:23

you know, kind of repeating it. Because

24:25

it's crazy. Because you, you started with

24:27

wanting to do and then

24:29

we worked together and then we

24:31

Allah allowed to meet at the

24:34

same place. Yeah. You know, where

24:36

it started. I was ever thinking,

24:38

I can't believe that outside

24:41

the prophet's message. What

24:45

better, what a better union,

24:48

reunions, reunions. Because we met in the, and

24:50

the atom of the souls. Yeah, we were,

24:52

we met in the world. Yeah, this is

24:54

real. We met in the world. We met

24:56

in the world. The souls. I feel like our souls already knew each

24:58

other and I just kept thinking, you know, I kept thinking

25:00

so they could find this so cordy. I was like, one day

25:02

I'm going to tell, I'm going to tell our kids that I

25:04

met their mom, I physically met your mom. I

25:08

said, that's the custom of your mother. Her mother is

25:10

always, you know, in the best

25:12

of places. That's just who she is. You know what I'm

25:14

saying? And so I remember thinking that I'm like, Oh, I

25:16

love that. I love that. Me too. Our

25:18

meet you was honestly the best. Um,

25:21

I really think it's iconic. No, I'm just a

25:23

TDS is an incorporated company and it's his own

25:25

business. But while law is a family

25:27

business, it is a

25:29

family business. I'm telling you, it is

25:32

the most family business you'll ever see. You'll see it in

25:34

the way that we interact with each other. You see it

25:36

in the way that we fight. You see

25:38

it the way that we reconcile. You see it in the

25:40

way that we speak to you. But Aisha,

25:42

how did we, how did you join?

25:44

Because that's how much like, so soon.

25:46

And you had the same time period.

25:48

Yeah. I think there's like a

25:50

month or something or a couple of weeks. I

25:53

was, I was being vicious. It was like 6

25:55

PM. Being vicious. The

25:57

start of a dish. Um, and.

26:00

Yeah, who is extremely good. So I've

26:02

been actually a producer on TDS. She

26:06

ran a listen readers podcast and she was like, Oh,

26:09

let's, I share this interest. I'm like,

26:11

okay. So I'll just listen to it. I've never

26:13

listened to a podcast in my life. Like this

26:15

was like the first time on the podcast and

26:18

I was listening it while doing dishes and

26:20

the whole night I was just listening to

26:23

every single episode that was out at that

26:25

time because I absolutely love this and

26:28

they got me thinking and I remember talking with the way and

26:30

I was like, you know, we need, we

26:33

need that French version of TDS. It's

26:35

definitely something that we're missing in

26:37

France is, you know, a sisterhood

26:41

of Muslim women. We need a podcast like

26:43

that. It was so like, you know,

26:46

out there. I need to contact

26:48

TDS. So I just

26:50

randomly contacted you guys. You know, I

26:52

was like super formal. I was sure

26:55

that TDS was a corporation that was

26:57

like, I was going to go through

26:59

age, you know, like in the whole

27:01

HR system. So I like, you know,

27:03

you know, my whole message is me

27:06

giving my little CV of who I am, what

27:08

I do, what schools I went to, I didn't put

27:10

my school on. Uh, you know,

27:12

and I'm kind of saying that I wanted to create

27:15

a French TDS. Uh,

27:17

I w I remember telling Quaya that I did

27:20

this and she was like, like, what you just

27:22

contacted them? Like, why would you do that? And

27:26

you guys answered like during the night, cause

27:28

it was obviously, you know, uh,

27:30

during the night and you guys were like, okay,

27:32

well, how about we have a meeting tomorrow tomorrow?

27:35

And I remember telling Quaya, are we down to a

27:38

meeting? And she's like, yeah, of course I'm down. Like

27:40

we had no idea what to expect. And

27:42

you guys were super open about, um,

27:44

you know, having a French TDS. And

27:47

you also saying like, oh, you know, we

27:50

need someone in legal. And so I,

27:52

I studied law and, um, I was like, okay, yeah,

27:54

I thought it was going to be kind of like,

27:57

you know, annex, like I'm going to do the French

27:59

TDS and then. and do some legal work.

28:04

But then the French

28:07

project didn't really work out for

28:09

a number of reasons. And

28:12

you wanted to really like, you

28:15

know, set up the company. You

28:17

had the company already set up, but it was

28:19

like, you know, your own company. And

28:22

it was in Canada. And so we're like,

28:24

I thought we're gonna set up the company in the

28:27

US and do all these

28:29

like, you know, the actual legal framework of

28:31

the company. And so that's

28:33

kind of how I started working

28:35

for TDS. And

28:39

so I'm doing legal, and

28:41

you know, it's now doing production

28:43

work, which absolutely loves. And

28:47

yes, I have my best friend in

28:49

the team, and I met all of

28:51

you guys, which feels like family, which

28:53

are basically family. And so yeah,

28:56

and then one year later, exactly

28:58

one year later, I met you guys in

29:01

Dubai. And since then, I did five

29:04

different places with Adara in 2000th

29:06

century, which is crazy. I've

29:08

never traveled as much with anybody except

29:10

my parents, ever. And

29:13

I did that the first time meeting you.

29:16

We have stories. We have

29:18

stories, SubhanAllah. Nora,

29:20

I know

29:22

you're a new TDS member, you know, saying you joined

29:24

us in 2023, but you've

29:26

always been a long-term friend of TDS.

29:29

Like how, first of all, how did you join? Why did

29:31

you join? And what did you do for

29:33

TDS? Behind the scenes. Yeah,

29:35

you're right in saying, obviously, I

29:38

will always and forever be a fan

29:40

girl of TDS, whether I'm a part

29:42

of it now or not, right? And

29:44

for me, like the story started back

29:46

on Clubhouse, which is really awkward to

29:49

say out loud. You

29:51

know, it's really awkward to say out loud, because that

29:54

era, I like such a fever

29:56

dream, right? But that's where I was introduced to

29:58

you. That's where we met. online.

30:01

And I was just so taken

30:03

aback by like your passion and

30:05

determination. And just like, just

30:08

joy talking about TDS. And I was

30:10

like, damn, this girl, she go she

30:12

go make it right. And we just

30:16

kind of like formed a bond and

30:18

a friendship on nine distance,

30:20

you know, all that good stuff and kind

30:23

of just maintained our relationship in that

30:25

way where we would catch up

30:27

with each other, we would kind of like update

30:30

each other on our lives, things that

30:32

are happening with TDS, like more so,

30:34

I guess, like a supportive ear, if

30:37

anything, and never really thought

30:39

about me ever joining

30:41

TDS. But I think

30:43

the last two years for me have been

30:45

such like a transitional

30:48

period. Career

30:51

wise, because there

30:53

are ups and the downs and you guys

30:55

know about that, right? I'm not going to

30:57

get too much into detail. But I think,

30:59

for me, I realized the thing that

31:01

was absolutely missing was like doing something

31:04

for the sake of a lot like

31:06

being in these corporate spaces and doing

31:08

work for other people and building stuff

31:10

from scratch literally just for them to

31:12

make millions of money, millions

31:15

of pounds dollars cash monies. I'm

31:18

not like a

31:20

receiving that return for myself. And

31:23

then also be like it not

31:25

being fulfilling in any capacity, like

31:28

the way people would gloat

31:31

about, Oh my gosh, we landed this account and

31:33

we did this and we did that and I

31:36

just be like cool. You know,

31:38

like that's, that's great. I'm

31:41

working with like really great brands

31:43

and like stakeholders across different industries.

31:45

That was cool. But I also

31:48

just felt like this is

31:50

not feeding my soul. Like, I'm

31:52

really missing the heart work,

31:54

if I'm going to be honest. And I

31:57

think I've always been somebody who is tried

32:00

to do hard work alongside

32:02

like the professional corporate galley

32:05

career and I've

32:07

worked on a lot of things behind the scenes, I'd

32:09

have time to do that. It

32:12

was just like, it

32:14

got to a point where like you

32:17

know you do things with your disability learning,

32:19

you do things for yourself as well right

32:21

but I was just really wanting

32:23

it to be consistent and then like

32:27

we were talking about TDS last

32:29

year and like you know just

32:32

the the the restructure I guess or whatever

32:34

which way you want to describe it and

32:36

what TDS is gonna look like in the

32:39

future and I guess you knew

32:41

that I had that experience kind of

32:43

like building things and strategy,

32:45

having more of a like corporate

32:48

mentality when it comes to things which

32:51

I really got a bit of a

32:53

G-check when I came into TDS because

32:55

I was like, and it was like,

32:58

yeah you were gonna not do it

33:00

that way. It's all been a learning

33:05

and yeah like I think it's the

33:07

main thing for me is kind of that

33:10

culture element like how do

33:12

we build a foundation where

33:14

TDS operates with the

33:16

best culture in mind with Islamic

33:18

principle but still having a little

33:21

bit of that structure in place

33:24

and it can be really challenging

33:26

sometimes to kind of go

33:29

from old to new ways of working

33:31

right I think that's just part of

33:34

like people management that's just part of

33:36

people engagement that's just part of like

33:38

learning and doing at the same time

33:40

we're literally learning and doing at the

33:44

same time the gag is we are a

33:47

well-oiled machine but in

33:49

true TDS fashion right

33:54

our way and al-hamdulilah they work and

33:56

so what we're trying to do is

33:59

just build build on that. So

34:02

I think that's part of growth. It's

34:04

part of the story of growth,

34:06

right? The story of growth. It's

34:08

a story of growth. I was

34:10

going to say when Nora was

34:12

talking, like I'm reminded of

34:15

this particular ayah. So I feel like

34:17

all of us at TDS embody this

34:19

ayah from Surah Al-Insan, where

34:22

they're talking about people who give

34:24

for the sake of Allah. And

34:26

when they're asked, they say we

34:28

don't need thanks because we do

34:30

this for you know, we don't

34:32

want thanks from you guys or

34:35

anything. We are afraid of Allah and

34:37

we are afraid of a day of

34:39

judgment, right? And that's exactly what we

34:41

embody because what we do is

34:43

not because we want people to pat us

34:45

on the back. We don't do this because

34:47

we want people to say, oh, we're the

34:49

best. We're really doing this because A, we

34:51

fear Allah and the day of judgment.

34:53

And we do really want something to when we stand

34:56

in front of Allah and say like, why did you

34:58

do this? And it's to say, yeah, Allah I did

35:00

it for you. My energy,

35:02

my time, my effort, those tears, those

35:04

fights, whatever it is, those

35:06

wins and those tears. It's

35:09

because we did it for the sake of Allah. May Allah

35:11

accept I

35:16

feel like you know, the thing that I love the most

35:18

about the directors is that

35:20

yes, we offer so professionally together,

35:23

but we're also good friends. And I

35:25

know people always say, oh, that's not

35:27

a good business structure to have. You

35:29

should have this like only like business.

35:31

I'm like, not when you're doing hard

35:33

work, that's impossible. When you're doing hard

35:35

work and you're doing work for the sake of Allah in

35:37

the work that you do, you have to be companions. You

35:39

know, you have to be people

35:42

who are seeking truth

35:44

and seeking goodness and seeking Allah and seeking, you

35:46

know, that their brotherhood, that's the third. First of

35:48

all, it doesn't even make sense on

35:51

a value level that we don't also

35:53

have to live within each other yet.

35:55

We're the digital sisterhood that doesn't make

35:57

any sense. Like ethically and like

35:59

more. like what does that even mean? And so

36:02

I know for all of us it's so important that

36:05

that what we say Out

36:07

loud out loud into our audience and to

36:09

our listeners It's exactly what we're also penetrating

36:12

and enacting and closed doors behind the scenes

36:14

It's so important for us and I'll be

36:16

honest with you. I've you know

36:18

last year. I've gotten to know a lot of

36:20

Muslim businesses and Had

36:23

a lot and I say it's really out

36:25

of love and also a lesson for me

36:27

that everyone Is

36:29

acting the values they present on time and so

36:31

for me was like as a you know as

36:33

a as a person who works in The team

36:35

I was like no no culturally this needs to

36:37

feel like exactly what we say On

36:40

from the podcast team to the directors

36:42

to the volunteers to you know the

36:44

communities that were inspiring It

36:46

needs to be on all level there and so

36:48

I'm really proud because I would say 2023 was

36:51

the year of Like

36:54

that relationship like like I would

36:56

say last year like we build

36:58

bridges With each other in terms

37:00

of our part like I I feel like I know about

37:02

all of you guys I feel like I met your parents.

37:04

I feel like I know your house I feel like I'm

37:06

investing guys in a different way like personally me. I don't

37:09

worry but personally me I'm like

37:11

invested in everyone's personal life up

37:13

until and maybe I'm a bit annoyed because I'd be

37:15

in everyone's business But

37:18

you know because it's like I want to take care

37:20

of you. I want everybody to be happy I want

37:22

everyone to feel like what it should

37:24

feel like your contributions What

37:27

you do at TDS even if you were to

37:29

leave it would live here forever Your

37:32

work you would like if I could make it a

37:34

plaque like if we were if I could imagine TDS

37:36

headquarters Well like the wall line this is what I

37:38

would do I would have a wall of

37:40

every person I worked at TDS ingrained on the

37:43

wall Engrained even if

37:45

they're five minutes I don't give a damn five

37:47

minutes if we were there and when people ask

37:49

me what is this wall all these names? I would say these

37:51

are all the people who came to work for sake of Allah

37:53

SWT and their impact is there I'm

37:56

not trying to say that I've tried to account, but this is

37:58

how Allah SWT accounts Everything

38:00

no name is forgotten right

38:02

and so we shouldn't forget either all

38:04

the people who participated It's

38:07

a very like there's people who left and came to

38:09

tedious left came to you I have

38:11

all their names in their heads. I'm waiting for

38:13

the headquarters literally writing everyone's name, but

38:15

the day we get a headquarters I Think

38:18

I actually just I don't know I just I dream about

38:20

it often, but can I tell you guys something? I'm

38:23

gonna before I go back to Aisha There

38:25

was one dream that happened last year there

38:27

was multiple dreams that I dreamt

38:29

of 2022

38:32

that happened in 2023 and I know we all Every

38:36

single one of us. I don't have a single one of us

38:38

so I'm gonna start with myself, okay? I Remember

38:41

it's also cuz I'm doing that

38:43

everything at tedious We have records

38:45

like other written records We're raw

38:47

audio records of these drives

38:49

or hopes and then we always

38:51

go back and we're like it actually happened Exactly

38:53

as we imagined and even better so one of

38:55

them was I always dreamed of a

38:57

good board that happened in 2023 The

39:01

billboard I'm gonna be real to you I

39:03

didn't think the billboard was gonna happen as

39:05

fast as it was so it was so

39:07

crazy time to billboard It was like something

39:09

was like hey look what's up?

39:12

Look what's the what's bill would I say? I

39:15

should explain how it happened. I explained how it

39:18

happened because we kept everybody was like a surprise

39:21

Other sends us a message and she's like

39:23

everybody super important You guys have to connect

39:25

at this time and put your cameras on

39:28

Like why I was going I put your cameras on be

39:30

there Subilates blah

39:32

blah blah and so

39:34

everybody's just waiting and I think it's like kind of

39:36

like just you're doing like small talk

39:39

But you're also stressed. We don't know what's

39:41

going on and we see the

39:43

Misa walking I think you see like at least

39:45

this Cameron She's just walking into the half her

39:47

just like see her feet and you know, whatever and we're

39:50

like what? And

39:52

then I was kind of chaotic it

39:55

went kind of everywhere and then let me

39:57

say showing but she actually see very well

39:59

and A new the

40:01

patience is used as like we. Are

40:07

hot are. No benefits are you

40:09

guys he of the river you remember their like

40:11

twenty people have a close to a southern. Lie

40:13

but he was her family ties on the anybody.

40:16

Let. Me tell you something Matthew Iris badge

40:18

respond to scare. Waiting. For

40:20

the billboards, To. Collect just a

40:22

ticket success and are thinking oh my

40:25

goodness this is a he got no

40:27

yeah because I can only imagine what

40:29

it was cooking every other. It's hindsight

40:31

says everyone way so we're letting the.

40:33

Luckily I got a photo of the

40:36

Prove side in half. Wait for poor

40:38

money so was there for like a

40:40

good hour drive away for the right

40:42

time for all of us. Yeah to

40:44

reimburses I vow. And what's happening is

40:46

the so you I am. It was

40:49

a tough time we were going through

40:51

when that. Happens everybody thought the worth it

40:53

they didn't think it was gonna be good

40:55

news is our with something terrible in i'm

40:57

in awe and then we the the other

40:59

isn't like omega we have a surprisingly as

41:02

did it is i put a camera in

41:04

blue their heads they have their face on

41:06

and I remember a lot other people joined

41:08

that didn't think it like they were ready

41:10

for a. Of the Road beauty. Is.

41:14

In the mood for a video of like

41:16

the you know, like as the bill and

41:18

were like. oh we're on

41:20

a boat at it was and thus

41:22

far whether with I ate a was

41:24

on and so we just we just

41:26

a little milan. And. I'm sure

41:29

like all of us with mickey job our

41:31

personal lives or begin to offer you are

41:33

families tds and then you just come out

41:35

of the month of Ramadan on read and

41:38

you see. A. Said city of

41:40

on What? How many billboards across. Europe

41:43

like will with I line and thought lead

41:45

the way are a lot of them Lol

41:47

is where Wales. London. His

41:49

name and or my god it was just the

41:52

most I caught and it was around the same

41:54

time like Odyssey that odd the you get the

41:56

wrong with online. Rights. So it

41:58

was as everybody was, Celia. vibes were

42:00

vibing. Real like scene, the vibes were

42:02

vibing. And firstly, the vibes were vibing

42:04

and London. And it was just iconic

42:07

that we got to participate in those

42:09

vibes by everybody knowing this is a

42:11

platform that talks about sisters stories on

42:13

a really deep and honest

42:15

level and in hopes to inspire people to

42:17

draw close to all of that talent. And here it is

42:19

on a big billboard.

42:22

And I was just sitting there, and I remember the first

42:24

thing I said to her was, Timba, that's your art. Like

42:27

on a mass, I was looking at her like,

42:29

do you, are you like people that this, that's

42:31

your art? Like that's your

42:34

art on a screen like

42:36

this in a country,

42:39

in countries that, you know,

42:41

maybe Islamophobia is quite high. You know

42:43

what I'm saying? Like, you know, the experience

42:45

of Muslims was it's not the best thing. And

42:47

here it is that we're like, taking

42:50

our claim. So it was just such a powerful

42:52

moment. I could not even shake the feeling. Like if

42:54

Allah Subh'alaikum was just gonna give us that, that whole

42:56

year, I was, that was sufficient for me to be

42:58

honest, because he allowed us to reach new heights that

43:00

just I could not fathom. I'm not gonna be real

43:02

after her name is Hannah. I thought, okay, we hit

43:04

a really high peak. Maybe we're not gonna see another

43:06

crazy peak for a minute. But that

43:08

from there, it's like six months later,

43:10

we're under in fact, before that nomination.

43:13

And they're right after the winning. Like, let's

43:15

be honest, that was a crazy time. Yeah.

43:18

And I have to emphasize like really for us, it

43:20

was in the matter of three years, because on one

43:22

hand, we were winning after late, but

43:26

I also know that it was a

43:28

time that of growing pains for us.

43:30

You know what I mean? I think

43:32

outwardly, everything looked beautiful. Everything looked like,

43:34

you know, remember, we

43:36

were apparently millionaires. Oh yeah, that's

43:39

so funny. That's, I mean.

43:43

Wait, by the way, people still think, people still

43:45

think we're millionaires. People think we're harboring wealth, by

43:47

the way. Two things that people think, we're

43:49

harboring wealth. Have a trust. Did

43:53

you stress them? You

43:56

know, some highlight, you know, can I tell you something? So

43:58

I'm upset because my mom was hearing those. rumors too.

44:00

She's like, people think like Hawaii,

44:02

she's like Hawaii, Hawaii's like how do we still live in

44:05

the, how do we still live in the hood and everyone

44:07

outside the hood thinks you're a billionaire? And

44:09

then my dad said to me, he goes, they should know

44:11

if we were millionaires, what did we be out the

44:14

hood? Okay? And so, um, my, you know, my mom

44:16

said to me, mom's like, but this is a good

44:18

thing. I said, why is it a good thing? Is

44:20

that people see the value in the

44:22

work that you're doing and they see the immediate

44:24

success. And so for them, it's just Dunia, they're

44:26

quantifying it with wealth. And

44:29

then my mom says that, imagine in the sight

44:31

of Allah, what that success means to him or

44:33

what you've contributed, what you've done, you know, means

44:35

in the sight of Allah. So I was like,

44:37

I was like, if the people on the, on

44:39

the thing you're thinking this, you know, and

44:41

they're thinking like, oh, you know, they, they attained a

44:43

success in the mass, all this wealth. In reality, you

44:45

guys are literally still in, what is the fee call

44:47

it? She said, we're still in our first couple of

44:49

years of, uh, when you're

44:51

from Salah was calling the

44:53

grind years, like the years where he

44:55

was being prosecuted, he was being beaten.

44:58

He would be, we're

45:00

still in that era. And I'm not saying we're,

45:03

I'm not, I'm not, the hardship of doing something

45:05

for the sake of Allah. So I thought the

45:07

hardness of it. Um, we're not quite

45:09

at glory. We're not quite at ease. We're still

45:11

very much bootstrapping. We're still very much doing our

45:13

own. And the thing is we're going to be

45:15

in this position because we're independent.

45:18

We're not taking anything easy. We're

45:20

not going to do anything. How

45:22

long can we just click for

45:24

that? We are independent, like beholden.

45:26

We are in any organization,

45:29

company, stakeholders, like we're actually

45:31

running in a way where

45:33

we can take our time.

45:36

And I, yeah, exactly. People

45:38

think like injections of capital

45:40

are coming in and it's

45:42

like, no, we're actually getting

45:44

all of this revenue

45:47

ourselves. Alhamdulillah. And, you

45:49

know, through Allah. First,

45:52

first, first Allah's panel, we

45:54

have that. Well, why are

45:56

you like, I have to know, but then like,

45:58

let me like. re-emphasize this

46:00

guys because this is not

46:03

me or who managed

46:05

to like everybody's like, oh, as a

46:07

marketing person, he's done a lot for

46:09

SPDF. I like, Allah facilitated everything. You

46:11

know what I mean? I just happened to email

46:13

Spotify, get on a call with them and then

46:15

this Allah facilitated that. We, you

46:18

know, it's like, it's like that, you

46:20

know, 10% perspiration and

46:22

then we, you know, and then call us the

46:24

rest is taken care of by Allah. We put

46:26

an application taken care of

46:28

by Allah and we won a

46:30

nomination. Like I don't think people

46:32

understand that this is not us.

46:34

Yes, there is Tawakkul, there is

46:36

Istiha but it's from

46:39

Allah. You know what I mean? So I

46:41

don't want us to like think that this

46:43

is from us. Well, why it's from Allah?

46:45

Let me pause you right here and tell

46:47

you a story. The story about Asada, a

46:49

Muslim woman like you and me who

46:52

has been racing, I mean racing to

46:54

reach Ramadan and she

46:56

feels physically exhausted from her hectic routine

46:59

of raising kids, taking care of family

47:02

and too busy with career responsibilities.

47:05

But she often questions herself on why

47:07

her du'a's aren't being answered. Maybe

47:10

it's her past sins that are the reasons

47:12

that she feel Allah's blessings are being blocked.

47:16

Maybe it's that maybe

47:18

your heart's soulless and she misses

47:20

that spirituality in her life and

47:23

her heart fundamentally aches for the love

47:25

and attention of Allah and

47:28

she's really losing the belief that Allah is

47:30

already there for her. Don't

47:32

we all know someone like Asada in our

47:34

lives? It could even be

47:36

ourselves. Wait, let

47:39

me introduce you to Visionaire,

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47:47

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49:14

Sisterhood DS10, you

49:16

have to have to have to sign

49:18

up. If the episode had I known,

49:20

raise your du'as, inspired you, okay? Then

49:22

this is the time to take advantage

49:25

of those ideals. You remember

49:27

the story I had shared. I

49:29

had no idea how I was going to

49:31

get my parents for Amr. I literally had

49:33

to give $5 with no other understanding

49:35

of how I was going to pay the rest of that

49:37

money. But you know how my story turned out. I

49:40

raised my du'as. I learnt how to do it. I

49:43

had to be delusional, right? But

49:46

it's also I had to have hustle done

49:48

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49:50

of Allah. If you're struggling with this, you

49:52

want to figure out how to do those things, sign

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up to the Visionaire Ramadan program. You

49:57

will not, I mean you

49:59

will not. Regret it. Yes,

50:01

it is. Indeed it is. And it's something

50:03

that we often say and also you know

50:05

if work, if something that we're doing is

50:07

from Allah Subhana, then that means that we

50:09

need to also sacrifice a lot. And that

50:11

also means capital, right? Not taking money on

50:13

the table when we know that this is

50:16

not good for the, for our nation. Does

50:18

that make sense? Like, guys, money, oh my

50:20

God, I promise you, if

50:22

we wanted to, we wouldn't be struggling the

50:25

way we are. If we wanted to, we

50:27

could do things like quite easily. No,

50:31

no. Do

50:33

we want to do things that are harming? No.

50:35

Does that mean that we're probably going to be

50:37

in a girdle for a minute? Yes. Are we

50:39

willing to do that? Absolutely. Absolutely.

50:42

Absolutely. Absolutely. And

50:47

then guess what? You know what I

50:49

say? I say alhamdulillah, Allah Subhana guided

50:51

us to make those right

50:53

calls, to be the right people because guys,

50:55

I'm just so grateful in general that the

50:57

directors have a strong, like, stance.

51:01

Like none of us, none of

51:03

us are willing to do what is wrong. And

51:05

that's what I'm like so grateful for. Even when

51:07

I step back and I'm just watching everyone make

51:09

decisions about really big things or things that come

51:11

to our table. No, nobody's wavering. It was like

51:13

not hot off. We don't even blink bat and

51:15

eye. I remember, I'll give you an example. We

51:17

had a programmatic ad. I knew that was coming.

51:20

I wanted to bring this up because I

51:22

want to give the audience a tangible example.

51:24

So Solacek, can you, I guess, describe like

51:27

what programmatic ads are? So

51:30

programmatic ads are just ads

51:32

that run through the podcast

51:34

network. Essentially, if you're watching

51:37

YouTube, it would be the ads while you're

51:39

watching a video, it would come like those

51:41

unskippable ads. So it's the same

51:43

thing, but for the podcast. And

51:45

essentially, because it takes one tenth

51:47

of a second to, for

51:50

any ad to then, you know, insert

51:53

itself in our podcast. So we basically

51:55

allocate spots in our entire episode to

51:57

give us residual income, right? And

52:00

so any ad could basically run

52:02

as long as we check

52:05

on the back end and ensure that we're not running

52:08

ads to do with alcohol, we're not running ads

52:10

to do with certain categories, but we really don't

52:12

have control of the kind of ads that we're

52:14

running on our show.

52:18

And so you basically got a

52:20

message, right? Where someone told

52:22

you, Hey, I've noticed that you guys

52:24

are running ads and the ads are

52:28

playing music, right? And they're, they're

52:30

really loud

52:32

and it's really, really uncomfortable and

52:35

I don't feel comfortable listening to

52:37

music. And so that

52:39

created a whole conversation that

52:41

I remember. Obviously I was tasked to go

52:44

and find out if there's a solution to

52:46

not picking programmatic ads or

52:48

having a choice of picking ads that don't

52:51

have music. But sadly, because it takes one

52:53

10th of a second to choose

52:55

that ad, we decided to forego not

52:57

having that income, even if it meant

53:00

a couple of hundred dollars up to

53:02

a thousand dollars a month, we

53:04

decided not to, to get that, um,

53:07

because, um, it just was

53:09

against our principle. And it was, and it, it wasn't

53:11

a hard decision. It wasn't, it wasn't, it was just more

53:13

technical. If you couldn't find, if you could have allow

53:15

us to pick the programmatic ads could not allow us

53:17

pick the kind of ads that show up. Then it was,

53:20

it was obvious that we weren't going to do it.

53:22

And the thing is the crazy part is I really want

53:24

everyone to understand is that it gave us great

53:27

residual income. Let me tell

53:29

you, let me tell

53:31

you it brought money, like great money,

53:33

but I'm sorry, in the face of,

53:35

of a Los Antalya, what do we

53:37

have to say if we're, you know, doing things and you

53:39

know how we feel about music at TDS, we do not

53:41

use music. It's literally our code of

53:43

ethics. Music is not negotiable

53:46

in content that we're creating, especially

53:48

about Los Antalya. Why? Why

53:51

would we do that? We don't need to do that. It's

53:53

not necessary. So for ads to have music, that was kind

53:55

of a slap in the face. We're like, what? That's just

53:57

not what we're about. Um, which makes things.

54:00

makes us a bit complicated. It makes

54:02

our work complicated. It makes collaboration with

54:04

us complicated because essentially

54:06

what we're we're daring to do is

54:08

to be outliers, you know, in

54:10

the podcasting world. Here we are at the top

54:12

of our game, yet we're saying no, no here,

54:15

no there, while somebody else in our position would

54:17

say yes, yes, yes, yes. But

54:19

you know this reminds me also of another thing

54:23

that happened this year was we got to be got invited to Spotify.

54:26

Spotify! Oh my

54:28

God! Can I

54:30

tell you guys I felt like rags

54:32

to riches. How dare we show up

54:34

at Spotify, okay? In my nukkop, in

54:36

our hijab, in our just

54:39

full-on you know Canadian,

54:41

British, UAE, like

54:44

we just came in there and I just

54:46

remember thinking the day before I was like

54:48

oh my god, has there

54:50

ever been like I kept thinking about has there

54:52

ever been like visible Muslim women in Spotify like

54:54

this you know and and and I just just

54:57

kept thinking this is so I don't

54:59

know I just kept thinking this is so

55:03

strange this is so strange because obviously

55:05

Spotify is like it's also a platform

55:07

to music so obviously there are

55:09

people in there who are musicians,

55:12

drama albums, and you

55:14

can't see a hobby. Do you know

55:16

what it's like interesting it's like as

55:18

soon as you walked into the building

55:21

I could

55:23

sense the eyes on

55:26

us but specifically you being

55:28

like what is this person

55:31

doing in this place and

55:33

you are being met right by

55:35

very senior people within Spotify in

55:37

the UK team. Yeah. And so

55:40

you could just see kind of

55:42

people going about their daily business,

55:44

their tasks, whether it was running

55:46

to the cafe or running to

55:48

the next meeting or whatever it

55:50

may be, kind of taking

55:53

a bit of a second to be like you

55:56

know that glance, that blue still look to

55:58

be like what they doing here? Why are

56:01

they with so and so? Who are they? You know,

56:03

I just was like, this

56:05

is what sets us apart. earlier you

56:07

talked about, you know, being

56:09

in proximity to other

56:12

Muslim organizations, businesses, founders,

56:14

right. And I think

56:16

the differentiation between us

56:19

and those people, and they're doing

56:21

great work is that we stand on

56:23

Islamic principles, right? There's a difference between

56:25

being a Muslim who does something, right?

56:27

I can be a Muslim artist for

56:30

all, for, you know, who sings and

56:32

plays, you know, instruments and all this

56:35

kind of stuff. Or I can be

56:37

somebody who is Muslim, who is trying

56:39

to strive upon Islamic principle and doesn't

56:41

deviate away from that.

56:44

And there's no negotiation really for

56:46

us in that way. And so

56:49

for us and for you, other to be able to

56:51

turn up a place

56:53

of business where people associate it with

56:55

a particular thing, and

56:57

you kind of change that narrative, essentially,

56:59

by just walking in the way

57:01

that you have because of the

57:03

work that you've done and the work that

57:06

the team has done. It's really, it's really

57:08

groundbreaking. I don't think people should take it for

57:11

granted in any way or form. Well,

57:14

I love the most after after having

57:16

traveled a bit with Adr

57:18

this year, or last

57:20

year now. Adr

57:23

has given me such a

57:26

huge lesson when it comes to

57:29

confidence. And I'll tell

57:32

you why. And I don't know if it's like,

57:34

I think it's, you know, some

57:36

people it's like fake it till you make

57:38

it just fake confidence in places that you

57:40

don't feel comfortable. And I don't think

57:43

Adr does that so much. I

57:45

myself and I just I wear her

57:47

job and I sometimes will not go

57:50

to certain places because I am afraid

57:52

of feeling uncomfortable. Adr

57:54

is a nakkabi that has been in

57:57

places where people have never seen an

57:59

akata. The ever in their

58:01

life. And you have such

58:03

an elegant way. Of

58:05

not caring. New. In

58:07

the in, it's not even like in a

58:09

condescending. I think it's a half should be

58:11

enough. in a setting. where are you so

58:13

people I don't kill or be over cover?

58:15

I'm gonna be kind of condescending and the

58:17

way I'm doing is kind of like, you

58:19

know, How care them again. I'm

58:22

a high suede good as it a

58:24

super smiley. I really don't care. Let

58:26

me live my life. I'm

58:28

still gonna enjoy this even though you're not

58:30

happy. And. It

58:32

has like is such a lesson does now

58:34

I feel like I'm trying You know about

58:37

it I'm like oh. And be

58:39

more like either arabian why I got on

58:41

enough as my it's ugly it it was.

58:43

Spot. On Fire else who has like

58:45

in Spain and it has always like. You

58:48

know, like overly smiling to show people so much

58:50

or just literally living on. I knew just like

58:52

your the way I would be staring at me.

58:54

Okay, that's it. You're. Not going to be

58:56

as bothered have a Super Super Bowl. Yeah.

59:00

I mean you have to. I mean I'd be

59:02

all zoom the beginning of my garbage journey. I

59:04

was kind of perplexed by the eyes that it

59:06

did confuse me in a did me feel comfortable

59:08

the deny an assist. He is. I

59:11

learned that great list of like you give people

59:13

power You either give you will power you don't.

59:16

And he just can't give you power. And

59:18

I thought about an odd but even in

59:20

the job in general we all feel uncomfortable.

59:22

We can be made uncomfortable with on our

59:24

race who have email comfortable based on or

59:26

her job or even sometimes we made our

59:28

country. We're not way to drop its basis,

59:31

you know it. emotions. This is right and

59:33

so we're always going to be made to

59:35

feel like we shouldn't be there. But I

59:37

think we decide. Ultimately, If we

59:39

should be some are not with others other forth but

59:41

yes modified crazy because when the first thing I thought

59:44

about I walked in with oh my god have the

59:46

last. They're going to be as a

59:48

A A A a girl and with a girl

59:50

after us who's not going to have to do

59:52

with what feel that we're paving that. I guess

59:54

them. That. like that lawn forward

59:56

to seal the africa to give i

59:59

say your Today the next girl

1:00:01

that walks in here might have a little

1:00:03

bit less eyes might have a little

1:00:05

less pushback And might

1:00:07

be inspired to not compromise because

1:00:10

they saw us do it or maybe they didn't see

1:00:12

us do it But they feel our remnants like they're

1:00:14

coming to be like maybe let me

1:00:16

a representative and like yeah You know, we've had her

1:00:18

jabbies here before we've actually had the digital sturd. I

1:00:20

don't know if you guys know about them But yeah,

1:00:22

like these are these were their terms and then it

1:00:24

might make you think it's a well They didn't back

1:00:26

down on these terms and why should I back down

1:00:28

on those terms? You know I'm saying

1:00:30

I just I I I dream of those moments

1:00:33

not for myself before others You

1:00:35

know, I'm just we're just in the ghetto all of us

1:00:37

are just fighting for our life We're really in the thick

1:00:39

of the war. I really think a lot of times testing

1:00:41

us He's like I'm gonna give you all these

1:00:43

successes, but I want to see if you guys are gonna set 10 toes

1:00:45

down Like I'm gonna I'm

1:00:48

gonna throw everything at you people agencies

1:00:51

opportunities Billboards, but

1:00:54

I want to know like success

1:00:56

can make people change Right

1:00:59

success is what makes people change Like

1:01:02

you know when you're being tested or hardship

1:01:04

so say let's be rough You

1:01:07

know, it's easy to be obese a lot when you're struggling Right

1:01:10

because you're already on your knees

1:01:12

and the only way up is looking up but

1:01:15

when you're up Do

1:01:17

you look up and recognize

1:01:19

someone's above you subhanAllah? It's success that

1:01:21

people forget Well, I

1:01:24

it's it's a success is one of I personally

1:01:26

think one of the most difficult kind of tests

1:01:29

Because it is so easy to forget Allah and success

1:01:32

Life, so it's so easy when you're doing when you're struggling to

1:01:34

say Allah help me You

1:01:37

know, but it's not as easy to be a lot.

1:01:39

I'm just like I'm grateful to you like I I'm

1:01:42

you know, like I'm deeply

1:01:44

grateful You know and I want

1:01:46

to be obedient even in times of success to

1:01:48

you even when I'm faced with hey This

1:01:50

will make my life easier. This one makes me more bigger. This

1:01:53

will give me this then we give me that but it's like

1:01:55

Allah, I don't want success. It isn't rooted in you and that's

1:01:58

different and Hello Carla Will

1:02:00

Law, He's them all. A lie is

1:02:03

not easy. It is so hard. It

1:02:06

is a her is so hard

1:02:08

it is. So so those are

1:02:10

it. But. I like.

1:02:12

To believe it's going to be the most rewarding

1:02:14

right? Because York City wants except for another. My.

1:02:18

A loss As an awkward and his adult film I

1:02:20

do for a small price. Don't. Exchange

1:02:22

by religion. For. A smart man.

1:02:25

And. That's what I think about anything. but he didn't think about the

1:02:27

I. You. Know we're always and at well

1:02:29

as far as of the position of the scenes. And

1:02:31

where I was wondering ah this is exchange.

1:02:35

You. Know a good exchange. This.

1:02:38

Not know. If

1:02:40

it is than sooner. But. I

1:02:42

found the this year we just kept holding

1:02:44

back Lhasa, London and of giving it as.

1:02:47

A veteran and bigger opportunity but hundred

1:02:50

level like a point where we were

1:02:52

among ally. it was the most chaotic

1:02:54

gear yes hey Phil Tiny, tiny three,

1:02:56

but I joined after the pinnacle of

1:02:59

the chaos that you guys experience right

1:03:01

from the outside. Looking.

1:03:03

In Just On In A the

1:03:05

way you guys carried yourself and

1:03:08

say some major the continuation of

1:03:10

and the podcast and even just

1:03:12

their. Presence. You

1:03:15

will have for. That. Anything

1:03:18

where. I was happening behind the

1:03:20

scenes. Of I

1:03:22

and that just speak See.

1:03:25

The level of care that you

1:03:28

have. For the

1:03:30

why that is being done that.

1:03:33

Is really inspiring because.

1:03:36

We. Could easily in any any

1:03:38

of us be put in situations

1:03:41

like that? Thrive without. Backing

1:03:43

for a different companies or

1:03:46

different people let's say and

1:03:48

bring them back to the

1:03:50

internet for people to some

1:03:52

hand in an hour. Monday

1:03:54

Localize Vocalize. Problems.

1:03:57

Now on the walls and and.

1:04:00

I think one of the

1:04:02

things that I really respect

1:04:04

about everyone is just how how

1:04:08

much they care for each other and how well

1:04:11

they think of each other even

1:04:13

when things are going a bit

1:04:15

wobbly. It's such a beautiful reminder

1:04:18

that like you can do things

1:04:20

with a son regardless of what

1:04:23

the situation is and

1:04:25

it's a reminder as well for and

1:04:29

we say this quite a lot now like

1:04:31

if you can do the small things best

1:04:33

and you can do the big things better

1:04:35

or as best as they can be

1:04:37

and you guys just showcase how

1:04:39

like that has been consistent

1:04:42

like you guys do the small things

1:04:44

really good so that when the big

1:04:46

things arise you still carry that level

1:04:48

of um consistency.

1:04:51

Yeah I just want to you know say

1:04:53

my thanks to Allah for inviting the people

1:04:56

who need to invite in order to do this work

1:04:58

because if any of us was a side

1:05:01

two to the right and two to the left it

1:05:03

would have just fell apart but somehow it's

1:05:06

kind of like we balance each other out. No it

1:05:08

reminds me of the way that the hadith

1:05:10

about conscriptive soldiers. Correction.

1:05:14

Conscriptive soldiers how like our souls

1:05:16

met in the previous plane you

1:05:18

know when all of our souls

1:05:20

were presented to Adiram alayhi salaam

1:05:23

and like this is your these are

1:05:25

your children essentially and like in that

1:05:27

realm there are souls that

1:05:29

we got along with and souls that

1:05:32

we didn't and I think in this

1:05:34

lifetime we just call it vibes. Oh

1:05:36

I don't like the vibe of that

1:05:38

person you know and SubhanAllah like Allah's

1:05:40

just brought together conscriptive souls

1:05:42

that recognize each other in the previous

1:05:44

lifetime he gave each other the nod

1:05:46

you know like the nod of hey

1:05:49

perhaps I

1:05:52

do feel like sometimes I feel like we would have

1:05:54

been I feel like we were neighbors I feel like

1:05:56

I don't feel like you guys were far from the

1:05:58

block like I don't think yeah I think we all

1:06:00

lived in the same block. I don't know which

1:06:02

block area, who visited who, but it definitely feels

1:06:04

like we all have the area code. That contains

1:06:06

the same area code. We

1:06:10

were on each area code, same area code,

1:06:13

same postal code, definitely. But

1:06:15

I haven't done that for that. And only a lot

1:06:17

of stuff I could do that. So I haven't

1:06:20

done that for this year. I

1:06:22

guess my, I have two more

1:06:24

questions for you guys. My first question to

1:06:26

you guys is, obviously this

1:06:28

is our sunnah, which is basically we share

1:06:30

things that we hope for. And then inshallah,

1:06:32

they come true, they come true. But is

1:06:35

there anything in 2024 that you hope to

1:06:37

accomplish this year, or

1:06:39

you're working towards? Or you would like TDS get

1:06:41

to. Like let's say, when would you like, I

1:06:43

won't even talk about your role in Pacific, specific,

1:06:46

but what would you like to see TDS get

1:06:48

to? Last year for me was the

1:06:51

billboards, Spotify. And the third was actually,

1:06:53

and I didn't even mention this, but

1:06:56

when we went to Tawakatre, we went to Umrah together. Even

1:06:59

though the whole TDS group didn't go, but

1:07:01

I remember making the act out, I said, oh,

1:07:03

a lot of the TDS group, like team to

1:07:05

go to Umrah together. And even though it was

1:07:07

only three of us, three or four of us

1:07:09

that went, it still was like

1:07:11

an extended answer. And I remember

1:07:13

doing Tawak, I'm like, I can't believe I'm

1:07:16

doing Tawak, with so sit in Dura. And

1:07:18

we just came from a business conference. Like

1:07:20

we're in Rook mode. And what

1:07:23

we're doing is we're working for the sake

1:07:25

of Allah Sata'a, we're striving, and

1:07:27

then we're going to Allah Sata'a to resolve our affairs

1:07:29

and we're doing Umrah together. I literally cried. I find

1:07:31

it so beautiful how he got found. I just, I

1:07:33

just have to say that. Since

1:07:36

that trip, I know for sure,

1:07:40

one or two to ask, or

1:07:42

answered expeditiously. Really?

1:07:45

You know, you know, right? Past

1:07:48

the last day. Oh yes I do, I do, I do,

1:07:50

I do. And I just found that to be so wild.

1:07:54

Because that was my first Umrah. And

1:07:57

it's the one thing that I'll look back. on

1:08:00

in years to come. And

1:08:03

I can tell my children, there's no

1:08:06

lie, that I did my first genre

1:08:08

with TBS, with Adder and Wilson. And

1:08:11

I had the best experience. And

1:08:13

even though I played like eldest

1:08:15

daughter role for like my entire

1:08:17

life, I felt like little

1:08:20

sense. I felt taken care of,

1:08:22

I felt nurtured, I felt

1:08:24

safe and secure. And

1:08:26

what's so crazy is we talk about answers to

1:08:29

ours. I had been making Dora

1:08:31

to go to Umrah, I

1:08:33

think since before Spain, right?

1:08:37

Um, up until that

1:08:39

point, for some reason, I just always thought

1:08:41

I wouldn't be invited. I

1:08:43

don't know why, I just was like, a lot doesn't love

1:08:45

me. Like all this mega belief

1:08:47

I've talked, right? And

1:08:49

then I remember we were in Spain, and I

1:08:51

remember one particular moment when we were in Spain

1:08:54

in the mountains, like we had done, I think

1:08:56

it was like our second hike. And

1:08:58

like the girls were taking pictures,

1:09:00

and I had like gotten out my dora

1:09:03

list, and like the dora

1:09:05

that I kept going back to was like, yeah,

1:09:07

I'll invite me, yeah, I'll invite me, yeah, I'll

1:09:09

invite me, okay. Now fast forward a

1:09:11

couple months. Not even a couple of months. During that time. Not

1:09:14

even a couple months, actually a month. It

1:09:16

was a month, it was just one month. We were

1:09:19

just talking about that, I mean, dora. Me

1:09:21

in time. You

1:09:23

know, me in time, we're not the best of friends. So

1:09:26

then fast forward a month, and in that

1:09:28

time, mom is now making dora for me. And

1:09:32

like all my friends are making dora for me. And

1:09:34

even sisters that I met on that trip, like

1:09:37

wrote me letters that I was like reading

1:09:39

for the first time after settling in. And

1:09:41

it was like, yeah, a lot of grant

1:09:43

noise, you're going to Amura. And I remember

1:09:45

weeping in my hallway being like, yeah, a

1:09:47

lot, like, it's not just my dora. You've

1:09:50

got to answer the dora's of everyone

1:09:52

else, right? So now fast forward, as

1:09:55

it's breaking the news, we have this great

1:09:58

opportunity to go to Doha. business

1:10:00

conference, big deal, all this good stuff.

1:10:03

And I'm like, I'm ready

1:10:05

to get on the pitch deck, all this kind of

1:10:07

stuff. And then the conversation tends to, by

1:10:10

the way, you might get to own that. And

1:10:13

I'm like, huh? I

1:10:16

don't understand what's happening right now. I

1:10:19

don't understand what's happening right now. It felt like

1:10:21

everything was happening in today's mission. She

1:10:23

goes, yeah, you know, we're in the area. Two

1:10:26

day trip, you know, Friday land, boom, boom,

1:10:29

boom. She was talking through the things and

1:10:31

I'm hearing everything in slow

1:10:33

motion. This is the first

1:10:35

time I think other has seen me

1:10:38

speechless because I literally just break down

1:10:40

and cry. Like, literally crying. I was

1:10:42

like, are you serious? No, no, I

1:10:45

can't. Like I want to go with

1:10:47

mama. Like my dad's also included mama.

1:10:49

Like I feel so bad to

1:10:52

go by myself, all this other stuff. Anyways,

1:10:56

we do the trip and now we go to

1:10:58

Omra. And I remember just

1:11:00

like being on the plane as

1:11:03

we were going into Jeddah. Being

1:11:06

like, oh my God. I'm

1:11:08

about to do my first Omra. Literally

1:11:11

like freaking out in my own head

1:11:13

and the entire experience as soon as we

1:11:16

landed at the airport and

1:11:18

then we were driving to the Haram. Like imagine we're

1:11:20

like with our fast food in the back of the

1:11:22

car, eating. I'm

1:11:24

just looking at the mountains. I'm thinking,

1:11:26

oh my gosh, I can see the

1:11:29

outlines of the mountains. This is where

1:11:31

the Rasul and his companions look through.

1:11:34

This is crazy. This

1:11:37

is mental. And then we

1:11:39

get there, we get to our hotel. Sosa did

1:11:41

her thing with the hotel guys. Haram,

1:11:43

Ali. Okay, what? Can we talk about

1:11:45

that? Oh my God. Can we talk about that? There's videos,

1:11:48

I have video recordings, okay? I'm just gonna, I'm gonna start

1:11:50

my video here before Sosa gets on the microphone because I

1:11:52

have to say something. Sosa,

1:11:54

I'm told. What are you gonna say? Don't embarrass me

1:11:56

on this. So basically, so you have to, just

1:11:59

a side note. There's multiple storylines happening here.

1:12:01

There's Nora who's going to Ummur for the

1:12:03

first time and there's me who told everyone

1:12:05

that whole year I wasn't an Alhambra. Yeah,

1:12:07

because I went to Ummur that early that

1:12:09

year and if you guys remember the

1:12:12

episode had I known I took my parents, I was there for even too much. Yeah,

1:12:14

you're a different person. I

1:12:18

believed I had filled my cup, right? But

1:12:20

I remember the last day that I left

1:12:22

the Ka'aba I sobbed because I don't

1:12:25

know I have this particular like Obsession

1:12:27

with the Ka'aba like I love Mecca. I

1:12:29

love the Ka'aba I love sending it and

1:12:31

so my last day I sobbed like I've

1:12:33

never cried in my life because I was

1:12:35

like Allah I thought you would keep me

1:12:37

here. Oh, yeah. Why would you

1:12:39

make me like why are you letting me leave? You

1:12:41

know, like why I'm the best I've ever okay. Why

1:12:43

am I getting emotional? I'm the best I've ever been

1:12:46

Why are you making me leave? You thought you didn't

1:12:48

stay for the while. You said nothing. Yeah, he's like

1:12:50

look at me. And all of a sudden I'm staying.

1:12:52

Yeah. Yeah, and you know,

1:12:54

I was making plans Like some

1:12:56

part of the man who was telling me what I was like, should I take

1:12:58

his job? Should I sell my socks

1:13:00

outside the Ka'aba? Just to stay, just to stay

1:13:03

and I was so sad that like

1:13:05

when it came to my flight there was no way

1:13:07

for me to stay and When

1:13:09

I was saying goodbye to the Ka'aba, I was so Genuinely

1:13:12

disappointed. I was like Allah I like I

1:13:14

prayed about this for two months that you

1:13:16

wouldn't let me leave and I'm still leaving

1:13:18

Okay, and and and I remember

1:13:20

like before I turned my back I said

1:13:22

Allah like invite me again Like

1:13:25

if I can't stay make me a frequent

1:13:27

guest, you know Don't make me a passive one

1:13:29

or one that comes ten year every ten years But

1:13:32

somehow make me a frequent guest. And

1:13:34

so the whole the whole like because

1:13:36

everybody knew my story Everyone

1:13:42

can hear everybody knew that I wanted to stay like

1:13:44

everybody knew I want to stay and so when I was leaving I

1:13:46

was like, okay you left Are

1:13:48

you gonna go back this year? I said, I

1:13:50

don't know like my schedule is kind of crazy

1:13:52

Like I have all these responsibilities. I don't know

1:13:54

if I'm gonna be able to go So it is what it is

1:13:57

and I was okay with that and so

1:13:59

you can imagine a social college me randomly after we're

1:14:01

making plans to do you know go to Doha

1:14:03

we're booking everyone's tickets we're preparing our decks we're

1:14:05

preparing just the work that we need to do

1:14:07

because we had a big presentation there. So

1:14:10

she just has to be randomly on a call I remember she calls

1:14:12

me on Bodham because that's why I talked to Sosa on Bodham and

1:14:15

she says to me hey I

1:14:17

was thinking I said I

1:14:19

think it was I'm like we're stressing the

1:14:22

decks this stuff like that she goes no

1:14:24

beyond that but I think after Doha

1:14:26

why do we all go to Umrah and

1:14:29

I looked at her and said we need to go to Umrah she

1:14:31

goes yeah let's go to Umrah it's literally it's right there where I

1:14:34

said our flight we might as well and

1:14:36

I said huh? Like this gentleman

1:14:38

like wait you think we could

1:14:40

do that? She goes why the heck not? In

1:14:42

our flight we leave Doha Friday, do Umrah

1:14:45

Friday, Saturday we leave Monday you go

1:14:47

home Monday you're already on that side of

1:14:49

the world why wouldn't you visit Oloh's house? And

1:14:52

I'm just sitting there I just it's crazy

1:14:54

because I just never thought about it I didn't

1:14:56

give myself permission and I literally started screaming I

1:14:58

get off the phone and I'm looking I literally

1:15:00

guys I think I've been a movie I'm actually

1:15:02

such a weirdo why did I look up and

1:15:04

I said don't tell me you're inviting me again

1:15:09

This is how a lot of times I'm like

1:15:11

I literally started looking at her Was

1:15:14

there a camera? She brings a full school She

1:15:16

brings a full school guy You know I was

1:15:18

everywhere? A lot a lot a lot of the

1:15:21

boy with seven throw like he's up on the

1:15:23

seven head and he's on top of his throat

1:15:25

I'm just like get up okay and I literally

1:15:27

was like Doha Doha are you inviting me again?

1:15:29

Like genuinely shocked like this is how I'm coming

1:15:32

back and I remember thinking that's insane and so

1:15:34

obviously I got excited I I like

1:15:37

I was like didn't my mom's in the other room

1:15:39

I'm like shook a little bit and I thought oh

1:15:41

my god oh my god Nora

1:15:43

this is Nora's first time so

1:15:46

I was like oh let me go break her in the news right

1:15:49

because I was like I have to break her in the news I'm excited to tell

1:15:51

her um that Nora we're

1:15:53

gonna go I'm gonna and I remember thinking oh my god I've

1:15:55

always wanted to you know uh to be

1:15:57

someone's like chaperone for the first time I don't know I

1:15:59

always want that because I love that bringing new

1:16:01

people to the haram and like seeing their face

1:16:03

it's just I find that so fun and so for

1:16:05

me when I called you I was like we're

1:16:08

doing this at a third but hey by the

1:16:10

way mark on your calendars we're

1:16:12

going to Umrah and like you

1:16:14

said I never seen

1:16:17

you so speechless it

1:16:19

took you a minute to start talking and then you start crying I'm like

1:16:21

Nora what the hell are you like I know it's

1:16:24

amazing she goes no you don't understand Azan I

1:16:26

said I was making dua day before

1:16:28

this two nights ago yeah like

1:16:31

the day before two nights yes I'm like using the night before

1:16:33

you know I was let's keep

1:16:35

it a buck and a 50 I

1:16:37

was I was on my men's ease

1:16:39

right I couldn't pray but I thought

1:16:41

to myself let me wake up during

1:16:43

the two hundred hours and make dua

1:16:45

as I would normally almost every night

1:16:49

and though we see there's other elements

1:16:51

to the story Aisha I love you that

1:16:54

just made everything possible

1:16:57

right yeah literally

1:16:59

when you I think that's why I was so

1:17:01

emotional because I was like I'll ask

1:17:03

for this literally 24 hours ago 24 hours

1:17:07

ago I asked for this yabla yeah yeah

1:17:10

mad mad guys how easy

1:17:12

was it to do everything

1:17:14

like I like literally everything

1:17:17

was booked everything was taken care of you

1:17:20

got you guys just had to come literally

1:17:23

literally literally and I know what

1:17:26

so sense said to the hotel

1:17:28

manager oh wait a minute so

1:17:30

we didn't get to that point so listen wait

1:17:33

wait I didn't get that part so so saying fun this is the

1:17:35

face or guys listen to this part this is the part that makes

1:17:37

me laugh okay so sin was given

1:17:39

the responsibility of finding the hotel because obviously

1:17:42

so this bit to the she's been to

1:17:44

the hadam ten million times everything she might

1:17:46

be one of the authorities of the house

1:17:49

because she's always there well

1:17:51

I heard her mother literally

1:17:53

no I can have you know like they they've been

1:17:55

there ten minutes I think so also like oh give

1:17:57

it to me I'll re Ahri

1:18:01

arranged the car, Ahri arranged the booking, that's

1:18:03

it. But she never told us where we're

1:18:05

sleeping, she said don't worry I'll have that

1:18:07

covered. So obviously when we landed in Jeddah,

1:18:09

you know, I'm with Nora, we're on the

1:18:12

plane and we're

1:18:16

flying and I look at, you know, now

1:18:18

we're passing the Mi'rat. So I'm like, okay,

1:18:20

Nora, prepare. Because you know, like, we've

1:18:23

been, so this is Nora's first time, so we're like telling her

1:18:25

things. It's like, I knew it's

1:18:27

so crazy. I think Alasatah was preparing us for

1:18:29

something much larger. But anyway, I look at Nora,

1:18:31

say, Nora, welcome to the best

1:18:33

land on earth. You are officially passing the Mi'rat, you're

1:18:36

going to be a state of Ihram, this is what

1:18:38

you say. And this is where

1:18:40

we get into the state of Ibadah,

1:18:42

you know, and this is, you can't be like how you

1:18:44

are before. You can't be talking to a records team, you

1:18:46

can't be watching things. You got to, you know, you know,

1:18:49

everything, the rules. I

1:18:51

took it so seriously of telling her the rules. I said, no

1:18:53

one told me. I said, no one told me. I said, no

1:18:56

one told me. No

1:18:58

one, no one talked to me. No one talked to

1:19:00

us. And we did this one and then we started

1:19:02

doing, la baikalah, huma la baik, out loud.

1:19:04

And Nora sang with me, cool. We

1:19:07

landed Jiddu, we're at the airport. Sosu's

1:19:10

like, the car is here. We go in the,

1:19:12

first of all, now let's think about it. Sosu,

1:19:14

yeah, Sosu, we get in the car and it's this nice

1:19:16

guy, it's really well organized. We get in the car, he's

1:19:18

taking us all the way to the haram. We landed in

1:19:20

the middle of the night. I think it was around 10

1:19:22

p.m. We landed, we

1:19:24

get in the car, now we're driving to the

1:19:26

haram. The haram from Jiddu to Mecca is about

1:19:28

an hour, 20 minutes. And

1:19:32

we see the green book, the book

1:19:34

that tells you, okay, you're officially in Mecca. I'm

1:19:37

getting teary eyed because I'm like, I can't believe I'm here

1:19:39

again. Allah Sata is so kind. Even though

1:19:41

I told people the whole year I wasn't going, Allah

1:19:44

was like, yeah, you are, you're going on November 18th.

1:19:47

I feel like it was always on my

1:19:49

calendar, I just didn't know about it. Obviously, the first place we

1:19:51

go to before the haram is our hotel room because we're going

1:19:53

to drop off our stuff. So we don't know where we're staying.

1:19:56

I'm thinking, you guys, I'm not going to lie to you,

1:19:58

I roughed it in Mecca. I've been. some dodgy

1:20:00

places in Mecca, just to be in

1:20:02

Mecca. So for me, I thought, like,

1:20:05

you know, it didn't cost much. So I thought

1:20:07

it's gonna be some regularly, you know, hotel maybe

1:20:09

that has a little bit of smoke. Maybe

1:20:12

it's not that clean. You know, it's okay because we're

1:20:14

here for Ibadah. That's my mentality. We're for Ibadah, who

1:20:16

cares, why are you taking a hotel? This

1:20:19

driver takes us into the street

1:20:21

that's private. Okay, I

1:20:23

didn't even know there was a private street in

1:20:25

the haram, didn't even know they existed. It's

1:20:28

this private street behind a hotel. And

1:20:31

you have to like, the driver has to say, oh, I got, I

1:20:33

got like, people were saying the hotel, we go into the private street.

1:20:35

I'm looking at a social center, and Nora and

1:20:37

I are looking at each other, and we're like, what kind of

1:20:39

hotel? And then these people start coming out of the hotel room,

1:20:42

opening the doors, taking our bags. They're like

1:20:44

telling us, don't hold anything. And then there's

1:20:47

these stairs that are red. And

1:20:49

I'm looking up, I'm like, what kind of

1:20:51

hotel is this? We go up the stairs,

1:20:53

wallahi, Allah's my witness. When the

1:20:55

doors open, the bell may open the door. The

1:21:00

first thing that's up to me was, Hizbi Allahu waneh

1:21:02

ruki. Did I come here for a

1:21:04

bad day, or did I come here for a vacation? What

1:21:08

is happening? I

1:21:10

have never seen a hotel so

1:21:12

decorated. I was staying in the hotel where the

1:21:14

sultans were staying. Because why did

1:21:16

we walk in? And

1:21:19

it was, the ceilings never ended. There

1:21:22

were so many seating areas. The

1:21:25

men were wearing Rolex watches. There

1:21:27

were bellmen everywhere that looked like security. Have you ever seen

1:21:30

a bellman standing like a security? He's

1:21:32

not moving from his spot. He's not allowed to move from

1:21:34

his spot. Okay? And

1:21:36

this is incredible scent that whoops to

1:21:38

the face. And then, so I'm recording,

1:21:41

and I'm literally recording, so

1:21:43

who could afford this hotel? What the heck? How

1:21:45

is this even? So it's like, don't worry about

1:21:47

it, it's my favorite hotel. I'm gonna have it

1:21:49

in. It's one of my favorite hotels. I come

1:21:51

here once every time. I told you

1:21:53

everything you need to know. That's not the everything you need to

1:21:55

know about stuff, okay? This is my favorite hotel. I'm gonna

1:21:57

have it in. He's so booby. And I did a lot. I

1:22:00

love the bad I like the boozy Masha

1:22:02

Allah The

1:22:06

thing that she kept saying to me was Wait

1:22:09

until you see breakfast You think this is amazing?

1:22:12

She kept talking about breakfast I was like what are

1:22:14

you talking about breakfast? I think that

1:22:16

was my favourite part about

1:22:18

the thing The

1:22:21

breakfast Salsan

1:22:23

was not playing around She said oh Salsan around here

1:22:25

they didn't have the breakfast This time we made sure

1:22:28

you guys got the breakfast I said stay next I'm

1:22:30

waking up now I remember it

1:22:32

was Al-Straafa The

1:22:35

way was one of the smoothest

1:22:37

ummra I've ever done One of

1:22:39

the smoothest Very easy Masha Allah

1:22:42

I like to say I always eat you

1:22:45

guys' lucky charm I'm

1:22:48

just good at that I think you can

1:22:50

definitely agree to that But

1:22:52

can I say though In the breakfast place

1:22:54

Nora Basically it was so grand

1:22:57

There was different sections It looked like a grocery

1:22:59

store Why was it a section for everybody? Humdulilah

1:23:02

It was truly And

1:23:06

by the way I literally looked at Nora This is

1:23:08

the part I remember so fondly I looked at Nora

1:23:10

and said don't get used to this This is not

1:23:12

normal That's what I said this is not normal people's

1:23:14

experience You're getting some premium experience

1:23:16

So don't feel sad when you come back again It's not

1:23:18

like this I'll tell you right now This

1:23:20

I've been a couple of times I have

1:23:22

a nice experience Salsan whether it's a biggest

1:23:25

trip or not It's funny It's

1:23:28

funny Well I know I've been And not very

1:23:30

much It's funny But guess what

1:23:32

The hardest amras are obviously the ones of Ramadan

1:23:35

Where you're literally sleeping on the floor And if you

1:23:37

even find an apple after Iftar will lie he'll hand

1:23:39

it Okay? Every

1:23:43

amras is the same man But it's crazy It's

1:23:47

crazy for me Most of it I don't know

1:23:50

To me I was like This is like bougie,

1:23:52

bougie, bougie I've never seen this kind of level

1:23:55

But it was truly a beautiful

1:23:57

experience And I just want to kind of find it I'll

1:24:00

end with this um, because it was

1:24:02

a dream like for me to go

1:24:04

with TDS members And the year the

1:24:06

year yeah, it was it was one written by a lot

1:24:08

of time But I will say I think my

1:24:11

favorite moment I have to say With

1:24:13

I'm gonna was with me and Nora on our last day

1:24:15

cuz those and left a few

1:24:18

hours before but on

1:24:20

our last day when so You

1:24:25

guys one of my dreams is to

1:24:27

see the Kaaba Or

1:24:29

to doing tow off while it's raining. I've

1:24:32

seen all over tiktok I've seen all over

1:24:34

the internet obviously like we know how like

1:24:36

what rain means to us and when making

1:24:38

dry it's like Iconic imagine

1:24:40

experiencing rain In

1:24:43

the haram and so like every

1:24:45

time I've been there. I have never seen that I was there for

1:24:47

two months I'm gonna do By

1:24:50

the way, it was just something like oh, let's do final

1:24:52

to us, right? And

1:24:59

then because the driver was coming Yeah,

1:25:02

and so then so we're walking and I have

1:25:04

a video of it like I have a full

1:25:06

video edit I never posted it but me and

1:25:08

Nora just walking in and my view like we

1:25:10

just we just We

1:25:13

just booked we just left our hotel so we don't have a

1:25:15

hotel room Like we have to be

1:25:17

chilling like we left our bags in our hotel,

1:25:19

but we're checked out. We're checked out There's no

1:25:22

going back. There's no changing clothes. So

1:25:24

when we go in well, it's gonna do our farewell

1:25:27

To us and and just you know spend whatever little time

1:25:29

we have and then inshaAllah when it's time to leave We're

1:25:31

gonna leave so we're walking we go in

1:25:34

Wallahi sumo allahi all

1:25:37

I see is this cloud. I

1:25:39

feel it came out of nowhere Started

1:25:41

to look like it was about to rain and

1:25:43

Nora looks at me looking at your mic north

1:25:45

about to rain No, like no way I think

1:25:47

nor it's gonna wait I'm

1:25:50

like walking faster as I'm yelling And

1:25:54

we're like, okay, I don't know we are going to be

1:25:56

here for it Well, I I thought we were gonna have

1:25:58

to maybe to off a few times the race

1:26:00

when I tell you I think we only did

1:26:03

one to off before I started to pour that's

1:26:05

so nice it was as if it was waiting

1:26:07

for us like it felt like it

1:26:09

was waiting like it was waiting for us to

1:26:11

enter and so we come in there and

1:26:14

we started doing to off and it starts

1:26:16

raining it starts lightly sprinkling and then I'm

1:26:18

just smiling grinning ear to ear okay grilling

1:26:21

and then we're like this is cute but

1:26:23

if it starts to pour we can't be

1:26:25

here I said no listen to me let's

1:26:27

be very careful listen to me we are

1:26:30

in the haram while it's raining we are

1:26:32

going to experience the fullness of this rain

1:26:34

in the kabob she's like but we're gonna

1:26:37

get wet I said don't worry this

1:26:39

is like I kept telling her this is a

1:26:41

gift from Allah she's like okay and she doesn't

1:26:43

let her rock okay she doesn't let me rock

1:26:45

we're wearing socks okay we're walking we're doing to

1:26:47

off whatever it starts to rain you guys voila

1:26:49

it got to a point where it rained so

1:26:51

much I thought the kabob was gonna float away

1:26:53

because the water started to rise okay

1:26:56

the water started to rise it was giving like it was

1:26:58

getting to the top of your ankle and I'm sitting there

1:27:00

I'm like oh my god and we're just where I'm like

1:27:03

we're having our own moment we're just having our own

1:27:05

moment I'm holding my own moment we're looking at people

1:27:07

people are smiling kids are like people

1:27:09

are praying SubhanAllah you see people leave the

1:27:11

tawwah just to pray in the rain SubhanAllah

1:27:14

you see it and we're just sitting

1:27:16

there making you hear people giggling you

1:27:18

hear people laughing you hear people rejoicing

1:27:21

you see people like that it was

1:27:23

just such an iconic moment and as

1:27:25

it raining it

1:27:28

was just so unreal I remember it got so

1:27:30

bad like at that point I couldn't breathe because

1:27:32

my noob started to stick to my face that's

1:27:34

how stoked I was right and

1:27:37

I was like oh my god I actually

1:27:39

can't breathe you know and so we were

1:27:41

exiting when we were leaving one

1:27:43

of the sisters who's obviously a custodian of the haram

1:27:45

she looks at me in the north she goes Allah

1:27:47

here and dick like she's just

1:27:49

she's just smiling at us because she's

1:27:51

like you guys are so like it's

1:27:54

not even regular salt you guys are

1:27:56

drenched SubhanAllah right and

1:27:58

then nothing came right straight to the When

1:28:01

I say drenched, I

1:28:03

mean drenched. I'm there

1:28:05

shivering and I'm thinking I

1:28:07

hope I don't get sick and then someone's

1:28:09

like you're not gonna get sick like this

1:28:11

is rain from Elosopan or Tana. We're in

1:28:13

Mecca. It's not gonna make you sick. And

1:28:17

obviously I'm hearing about you know Mecca flu

1:28:19

and I'm like big. I

1:28:21

am uh you know my immune system is not

1:28:23

the okay I've had COVID four times yeah I

1:28:25

know you're like please please. Yeah

1:28:29

and so yeah when it was fine

1:28:31

we were outside because the humidity and

1:28:33

the number of bodies that were there

1:28:35

like it felt like warm rain but

1:28:38

then as soon as we stepped back

1:28:40

into the haram and you know experiencing

1:28:42

the air con that's when I lost

1:28:46

it. That's when I lost it. Because we were shaking

1:28:48

because we were praying because we were praying makkadib Aisha

1:28:50

it's also shaking because

1:28:52

the AC was behind us and then north of Kameeshu goes

1:28:54

I'm gonna get sick I said I promise you if this

1:28:58

is if I know this to be a gift from Elos you're

1:29:00

not gonna get sick. That's so nice. I know it and I

1:29:02

said you're gonna see you're not gonna get sick and you go

1:29:04

back to Elonah you're not gonna get sick and you're gonna know

1:29:06

confirmation that rain had Barakah in it and that rain wasn't going

1:29:08

to that. That rain wasn't gonna harm you you

1:29:11

know because that rain was a gift and I said

1:29:13

because to me it was an answer to for me

1:29:15

it was like it is a gift because he's literally

1:29:17

answered my suffocation. But I

1:29:19

remember when we were

1:29:21

dry enough we found a musala that was locked

1:29:23

that was closed in

1:29:25

the same hotel room they were staying in and

1:29:28

the bellman let us in and there was nobody in

1:29:30

the musala and he just

1:29:32

we just locked ourselves in there. We spent

1:29:34

like five hours in there sleeping praying

1:29:37

well like me and Or were just

1:29:39

sleeping praying making dua listening

1:29:41

to lectures having a nap like literally

1:29:43

we just trained it was it was

1:29:45

so wild because obviously like they held

1:29:47

on to everything for us but that

1:29:49

wasn't the problem it was more so

1:29:51

having a place a respite just to

1:29:54

okay we didn't have your room but

1:29:56

you had that yeah it was

1:29:58

really it was really beautiful I'm never gonna

1:30:00

think of that. We really were. You're never ever gonna think of

1:30:02

that. I know. I know. But I guess just

1:30:04

to wrap it up a little bit here. And

1:30:08

I asked this question in part one to the

1:30:10

podcast team, and I wanna ask you guys this

1:30:12

question as well as directors, as

1:30:15

founders, is what advice

1:30:18

would you give people who want to do more hard work in 2024

1:30:21

or who are currently doing hard work in 2024? Like

1:30:24

what advice would you give them? I have two

1:30:26

pieces. I have two pieces, like five.

1:30:30

One is just to do it. I

1:30:33

know it sounds really cliche, but

1:30:35

who are you doing it for outside of a loss of

1:30:38

hard work? I feel like hard

1:30:40

work is when you're called to do it. So

1:30:44

start it scared, start it unsure,

1:30:47

start it in doubt because

1:30:50

the reward isn't from whether

1:30:52

or not other people validate the work that you're

1:30:54

doing, the reward is between you and a loss

1:30:56

of hard work. And

1:30:59

on the Day of Judgment, when you see

1:31:01

all of your deeds accumulated because of the

1:31:03

hard work that you're doing in

1:31:05

his name, it will be

1:31:08

worth it. It will be worth it. The

1:31:11

second advice that I have

1:31:13

is to anyone who... I

1:31:19

guess how I see it is there are a

1:31:21

lot of people out there who

1:31:23

are Muslims who want to do really great

1:31:25

work, who have the resources, who have the

1:31:27

time, but don't necessarily

1:31:29

support their fellow brothers and sisters

1:31:32

in actually doing the hard work.

1:31:36

I'm speaking directly to them. People

1:31:39

love to throw out this word

1:31:42

community and connection and

1:31:45

they don't really practice what they preach.

1:31:47

Well, be

1:31:50

that person who extends a supportive hand,

1:31:52

be that person who extends a supportive

1:31:54

word, be that person who taps in

1:31:56

with people and lets them know that

1:31:58

what they're doing is... is

1:32:03

correct, you know, in the sense of

1:32:05

like, on the Dean, it's about benefiting

1:32:07

other people, because sometimes you never

1:32:10

truly see yourself doing that

1:32:13

piece of work. And that's

1:32:15

somebody who gives

1:32:18

you a lot, sometimes it can feel

1:32:20

very isolating and lonely, right? Because I

1:32:22

guess it's just to encourage anyone to

1:32:25

be a supportive friend. Yeah,

1:32:28

I think

1:32:31

it's true. I

1:32:33

also have two. And

1:32:35

one is kind of the

1:32:37

same as NUDA,

1:32:39

which is I think

1:32:43

that if you really, really

1:32:45

want to do hard work for Allah, for the sake

1:32:48

of Allah, you're going to don't create

1:32:52

something that just exists. Because in

1:32:54

reality, you want, you know, for

1:32:57

people to say, well, look what you created,

1:33:00

for example, a lot of people are like,

1:33:02

I want to create my own nonprofit that

1:33:04

I don't know, helps homeless people, you

1:33:07

can do more good by volunteering

1:33:10

in a nonprofit that exists already, that's, you

1:33:12

know, doing the same thing as you want

1:33:14

to do. And it will

1:33:16

be more beneficial than you starting. And I

1:33:19

think that if you are starting, and you're

1:33:22

not like willing to just volunteer to a

1:33:24

nonprofit that already exists, it might not be

1:33:26

for you, you know, for the right reasons.

1:33:30

And another thing is definitely

1:33:33

definitely surround yourself with

1:33:35

people that will bring you closer to

1:33:37

Allah. And that, you know,

1:33:40

understand what you want to do. And

1:33:43

even if it's not to help you, but at least

1:33:45

have that support. And for

1:33:47

you to be able to bounce back

1:33:49

ideas with people that also see, you

1:33:52

know, things the same way you

1:33:55

do, and will help you have

1:33:57

that support have that, you know, system.

1:34:00

And so you'll be able to do it with more

1:34:02

confidence. So yeah, those are

1:34:04

my two advice. Amazing. Susan?

1:34:08

I was hoping you would tell us. For

1:34:13

me, number one would be

1:34:15

if you're going to take the path of

1:34:17

doing work for the sake of Allah, then

1:34:20

make sure you also take a similar

1:34:23

path of learning more

1:34:25

about your dean and

1:34:27

getting to perfect your dean in the

1:34:29

best way possible, because you can't really

1:34:31

be doing work for the

1:34:34

sake of Allah if you yourself are

1:34:36

not following in the path of Allah.

1:34:38

Alhamdulillah, one almost, you know, it's kind

1:34:40

of like a cycle, right? If you're

1:34:42

doing shayr, it only brings more barakah

1:34:44

for you and helps you do more

1:34:46

khair. But it needs

1:34:48

to be hand in hand. And I think that's something

1:34:50

that we as a team

1:34:52

member, as much as we're putting out,

1:34:54

we're also going inwards and

1:34:57

kind of checking ourself, checking our

1:34:59

nafs, you know, checking how

1:35:02

is our relationship with Allah

1:35:05

first and foremost, because whatever you're

1:35:07

doing is then reflected in the work that you do.

1:35:10

And then you guys said it, all

1:35:12

of us said it, right? So make

1:35:14

sure that you not only do

1:35:18

it for the sake of Allah, but renew

1:35:20

your intention. Your intention last year is not

1:35:22

going to be the same as your intention

1:35:24

this year. We have to consistently renew our

1:35:27

intention as Muslims. We always have to, you

1:35:29

know, consistently say, A'shahdulillah, and remind ourselves that

1:35:31

Allah is the same thing with doing a

1:35:34

shayr, right? You have to renew

1:35:37

that intention and keep saying,

1:35:39

Yeah, Allah, I want to

1:35:41

renew my intention that I'm doing this for you. And

1:35:44

yeah, Allah, allow me to, you know,

1:35:48

head my nafs, which is I kind of clarify

1:35:51

my nafs and make it, you know, clear

1:35:54

that what I'm doing is for your sake

1:35:56

and not for anything else, right? Because some

1:35:58

how Allah as human being. We can

1:36:00

easily be swayed and then how much in

1:36:02

hand were we put on? you

1:36:05

know, especially the last year where we

1:36:08

Didn't know any a lot of things, you know We were

1:36:10

tested with a lot of things panel law and

1:36:13

if we kept renewing our intention saying

1:36:15

yeah Allah, this is for your sake and

1:36:18

Allah. Hundla rectified our affairs. So I think

1:36:21

it's it's a Pick

1:36:23

your relationship with Allah and be keep renewing

1:36:25

your intention. I kind of want to rephrase

1:36:28

what I said I

1:36:30

want to lean into source of mention

1:36:34

About intention because I think that's

1:36:36

where the crux of what I was trying to say

1:36:39

came from like it's

1:36:41

really easy for us to

1:36:45

Get swayed or

1:36:48

have inflated Ego's

1:36:51

because we think we're doing something

1:36:54

for the sake of Allah, right? The algebra

1:36:56

right of your good deeds thinking that

1:37:00

What you were doing is so righteous

1:37:02

that you need to start shouting and

1:37:04

screaming about it and giving yourself Right

1:37:08

and that actually that part away from

1:37:10

like the purity of

1:37:12

your intentions, right? It's like if

1:37:14

this truly is for the sake

1:37:16

of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala But

1:37:18

you're not need no you to

1:37:20

exactly there is no need for

1:37:22

you to Proclaim it

1:37:25

right that part proclamation should be between

1:37:27

you and Allah like you're a

1:37:29

lot I'm doing this for

1:37:31

your sake because I want to you

1:37:33

know and benefit myself But

1:37:36

also seek your rewards when it

1:37:39

counts, right? And then

1:37:41

again, the other thing that I would say

1:37:43

is Challenge

1:37:47

those People who

1:37:50

you see are able to

1:37:52

be that supportive hand and

1:37:54

friend Even if it feels like

1:37:56

you're standing by yourself, even if

1:37:58

it feels like you're standing by yourself right

1:38:01

because the loudest person in the

1:38:03

room isn't always the right person right the

1:38:06

smallest person in the room isn't always the

1:38:08

right person the person who has like

1:38:11

the most resources isn't always the

1:38:13

right person. Don't

1:38:16

be afraid to challenge where you

1:38:18

see it necessary

1:38:20

in order to keep steadfast

1:38:23

upon the work

1:38:25

that you're doing and the hard work right going

1:38:27

back to that intention it just feels a little

1:38:29

bit of a leap in that way. And

1:38:33

yeah just to add on to what you're saying

1:38:36

coming back coming from a corporate background how how

1:38:39

different is it like we're saying

1:38:41

you know the opposite we're saying

1:38:44

challenge your enough and challenge people around

1:38:46

you who are saying they do all

1:38:48

these things but what we're told in

1:38:50

the other way is like no always

1:38:53

talk about your wins and speak

1:38:55

loudly about you know all the

1:38:58

things that you've accomplished but subhanAllah

1:39:00

if you're doing it for the sake of Allah why do you need anyone

1:39:02

to see it you know

1:39:05

it's between you and Allah ultimately right isn't it in

1:39:07

a hadith that when you're given sadaqah your right hand

1:39:10

your left you know your left hand should know what

1:39:12

your right hand is giving and it's the same with

1:39:14

the with the work that you're doing why do you

1:39:16

need to tell people what you're doing not

1:39:22

always needing an applause yeah 100% right and I

1:39:25

think I think it's really important

1:39:28

especially when you're at a at a particular

1:39:30

place where you just like everyone's always applauding

1:39:32

you forget that maybe maybe your arm sometimes

1:39:34

seeking that applause but I think

1:39:36

it's important to take it back a

1:39:38

second and renew that attention that's

1:39:41

why renewing attention is so important subhanAllah because everything is

1:39:43

just by attention amel is so

1:39:45

important intent is so important everything is so

1:39:47

important I ask Allah to keep us steadfast

1:39:49

and allow us to just to remind us

1:39:52

always to I mean the renew our intentions

1:39:54

always always always always always always

1:39:57

but just talk about how do you guys honestly

1:40:00

I just love you guys. No,

1:40:02

I don't have... Well, advice should be

1:40:04

given. Yeah, what are you giving? Honestly,

1:40:06

you guys wrapped it up perfectly. There

1:40:09

is nothing more to add. When

1:40:11

somebody has said the nasiha, who said it

1:40:13

perfectly, there's nothing to add to it, Haruah.

1:40:15

So, you guys have said perfectly exactly what

1:40:18

I would have said. It's not more. So,

1:40:20

hamdulina. And I just want to tell you guys, I love

1:40:22

you for the sake of Allah. Love you too. You

1:40:24

guys are one of my greatest accomplishments. And

1:40:29

people, I can't believe that I know you

1:40:31

guys. I can't believe that we work together.

1:40:33

It is truly a dream job. And

1:40:36