Yaqeen Podcast

Most people believe what the people around them believe, and Muslim children are no exception. 

A child who watches a parent jump up from the dinner table because a prayer is about to pass learns that Allah is real in that house. A child who watches prayer times come and go learns something too, and eventually concludes that their parents never really believed it either.

Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy talks about how the need to belong is human nature, and that a Muslim community should put it to work for the truth instead of fighting it. The home comes first, because children form their picture of Allah largely from how their parents treat them. The masjid comes next, as the extended family most of us no longer have. Beyond it are neighbours who know you well enough to defend you.

Your children are already deciding what you believe. They are deciding it at prayer time.

0:00 - Why faith, family and fraternity
4:31 - Why children of Muslim immigrants drift from Islam
7:03 - How parents pass faith to their children
9:47 - Where children get their image of God
11:54 - The masjid as the extended family we lost
14:46 - Finding a spouse when Muslims are 1% of the country
17:21 - Why Muslims shouldn’t isolate from their neighbors
18:52 - When the neighbors defend the masjid

Sudden death is a sign of the Hour, and nearly everyone says they would choose it: to go peacefully in their sleep. The pious predecessors wanted an illness first, with time to repent, make their will, and seek forgiveness. 

When Aisha (ra) asked the Prophet ﷺ about sudden death, his answer depended on who was dying. Find out what he said in the full episode.

Dr. Omar Suleiman’s answer to a world where death arrives without warning is urgency without panic: hurry to good deeds, visit the graves, and let children witness a janazah.

For over 1,400 years, one clan has guarded the most important key in history. And ironically, it reached them through a man who once rudely denied the Prophet ﷺ entry into the Ka’bah. 

But even as his own parents vehemently opposed the Prophet ﷺ, Uthman ibn Talha (ra) inched closer to Islam. His excellent character in escorting a Muslim woman (ra) to safety, and his joining two other great Companions as they finally headed to Medina to accept Islam, became turning points in his life. 

And on the day of the Conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ honored him and his descendants with a duty that remains theirs until today. 

0:00 - His name and title of Hajib al-Ka’bah (Custodian of the Ka’bah)
2:18 - A rude comment when the Prophet ﷺ tried to enter the Ka’bah 
5:00 - How he escorted Umm Salamah (ra) to safety 
10:15 - Losing his father, uncle, and 5 brothers at Uhud 
13:21 - His mother’s vow to drink wine from a Muslim’s skull 
14:43 - Embracing Islam along with Khalid (ra) and Amr (ra)
15:58 - Receiving the keys to the Ka’bah

You were still in your mother’s womb when all of this was already written for you by an angel: your rizq (provision), your lifespan, your deeds, and whether you will be among the blessed or wretched. 

So does it matter what you do with your life? Can you still change your destiny? What kind of plot twists might still happen at the end of an apparently good or evil life? And how deep are the risks of getting involved in bid’ah (innovations) in the religion? 

“Anchored: 40 Hadith for Today’s Muslim” is a new series by Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy which draws insights from Imam an-Nawawi (rh)’s collection of 40 hadith and applies them to some of the most pressing questions Muslims face today. 

Tune in every Saturday at 9 AM CST/3 PM GMT for a new episode of Anchored!

Episode 3 covers the 4th and 5th hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi’s collection. 

0:00 - Introduction
3:55 - The first half of Hadith 4: What’s written for you in the womb
5:42 - The first 40 days after conception: How the embryo forms
11:35 - Is there tension between Islamic teachings and modern science? 
13:03 - Ensoulment: When an embryo becomes a person 
16:24 - Can you change your destiny? 
22:59 - The second half of Hadith 4: Does destiny disregard your effort? 
26:12 - Some of your true colors surface at the moment of death 
33:31 - The 4 types of hearts 
37:09 - Hadith 5: The importance of avoiding bid’ah (innovation) 
41:48 - The definition of bid’ah (innovation)
45:01 - Reasons why bid’ah is dangerous

Hosting guests at home has become rare. Most of us have friends we’ve known for years and never had over. We meet at cafés and restaurants, keep up in the group chat, and save our homes for some day when the house is clean and there’s time to cook. That day rarely comes.

Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy argues in this khutbah that the feast is part of the problem. When hosting means a week of cooking and a table nobody can finish, the guest feels the weight of it, the host dreads doing it again, and the invitations stop. 

The Prophet ﷺ told his Companions not to go to great lengths for guests, and they served what they had. 

Your friends came for you. A cup of tea on the floor and one extra dish is enough to keep the door open, and an open door is how friendship, and the faith that grows inside it, reaches your children.

0:00 - The perfection in every word of the Qur’an
2:41 - The first person to host guests at home 
4:13 - How we meet each other today 
5:35 - Visiting each other is an act of worship 
7:30 - How the Prophet ﷺ and Companions hosted
9:19 - It’s your guest’s rizq and your reward 
10:12 - How we made hosting a burden 
11:33 - Does keeping it simple mean you’re not generous?
13:55 - Complicating visitations breaks us apart 
16:10 - Brilliance in how Ibrahim (as) hosted angels