Khalids podcast

Khalid and Usama discuss how the five pillars of Islam impact the daily lives of youth at a mosque in West Seattle. They explain the five pillars: Shahada, Salah, Zakat, Hajj, and Ramadan. Usama describes his local mosque, Haifa Mosque, and how it brings the community together. They also discuss the importance of Salah, Zakat, and Hajj in their religious lives. Usama shares his experience of going to Hajj and the significance of the rituals performed there. Overall, they emphasize the unity, discipline, and spiritual growth that the five pillars of Islam bring to their lives. Hello, my name is Khalid and my topic today for my podcast is how the five pillars of Islam affect daily lives of the youth in West Seattle mosque. Today I am here with my friend, Usama. Usama, today I want to ask you a couple of questions and I want to see your take on this topic of mine today. My first question is, what are the five pillars of Islam? The five pillars of Islam is Shahada, Salah, Zakat, Summah, and Hajj. Okay, my second question for you is, explain how the five pillars of Islam have impacted your religious life. I am going to give you a quick brief on what the five pillars of Islam are. The first pillar is Shahada, where you surrender your will to God. And the other one is Salah, where we pray five daily prayers so we can discipline ourselves. And the third one is Zakat, is when we give back to the community, give back to the poor. And Hajj is the fourth one. And Hajj is basically where we go to Saudi, we go around the Kaaba, we praise the Lord. Explain to them what the Kaaba is. The Kaaba is like a holy spot for all the Muslims all around the world. There's like 2.5 million people that come there every single year to worship God. And the last and final five pillars of Islam is Summah, is Ramadan, where we fast 30 days, we give back to the poor, we discipline ourselves. Yeah. Okay, my next question for you, my brother, is how is your local mosque and do you attend your local mosque? Yes, I attend my local mosque. What is your local mosque called? My local mosque is called Haifun Mosque. It's in West Seattle. One thing that, the one thing I love about my community is Haifun Mosque, it brings the youth together, it brings the community together. We give back to the community together and they collaborate with the youth and they help me with my homework and they give me a lot of resources and it's a beautiful place for me and my community. So how long have you been going to the Haifun Mosque? I've been going to the Haifun Mosque since I was a little kid. I moved to Seattle 2009. I was born in Syria and ever since then they made me feel welcome, like they cared for me and it was like a little safe spot for me. Okay. If someone that didn't know you came to your local mosque, what are three aspects that you would tell them that would make them want to come to your mosque? Three things I would tell them is we do not judge. Everyone's going to make you feel welcome. Everyone will care about you and show you love. Second one is, Haifun Mosque is like mostly youth and elderly people and it's where like everyone comes together. And the third and final one is if you have any questions about Islam, everyone will be helping to welcome. If you have any financial problems, they will help you. It's like a place in the community where you look out for each other and help other people elevate in life. Another question that I have for you, Usama, is how does Ramadan strengthen your relationship with your local community and peers and with God? Ramadan is like a place where we come worship God together. It brings the community together and it teaches discipline. One article called National Generals, Why Ramadan is the Most Sacred Month in Islam It says, it talks about how Islam, it talks about how we come as a group of Muslims to worship God and how Ramadan is observed. During Ramadan, Muslims aim to grow spiritually and build stronger relationships with Allah. Allah means God and Allah means God. They do this by praying and reciting the Quran and making their actions intentionally and selfless and obtaining from gossiping, lying, fighting, and yeah. An interesting fact about Islam's diversity and culture, I found in this source that's reverting to Islam in Seattle. 35% of the American Muslim population is native-born. More specifically, 21% are native-born converts to Islam while 15% are born Muslim. Another pillar of Islam is Salah and I wanted to ask you, how does Salah impact your life? Hi, Salah impacts my life in many ways. And also, what are the benefits of Salah? One benefit of praying Salah is, me personally, what I feel, I feel in peace. I feel my connection to God and I feel like it helps me discipline my life. For example, one of the first prayers is early as the birds awake. It's 4am, 5am, so I have to get up and pray. When I go to the mosque and I go pray at 4 or 5am, I feel in peace, I start my day bright and nice and it helps me stay focused and disciplined. There's five prayers throughout the day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening, one in the close to the evening-ish, and one in the night. Those five prayers help me focus and stay disciplined. Excuse me, what are those prayers called? Can you name them from the earliest to the latest? Those prayers are Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha. Okay, and how many times do you go down for each prayer? You pray two for the first Fajr, for the second one you pray four, for the third prayer you pray four, for the fourth prayer you pray four, for the fifth prayer you pray four. Okay, and what are the benefits of praying Salat that God talks about? It helps you get to heaven and also it helps you find peace and your answers. Inner peace? Yeah, inner peace. Another pillar that you mentioned is Zakat. Can you explain to us what Zakat is? Zakat is where you give back to the community or where you give back to the poor. So it's basically like charity? Yeah, it's recommended for every Muslim all around the world. For poor, rich, to give back to the poor, give back to the people in need. Do you want to add on to that? Yeah, one more thing. One thing that I like about my Haifa mosque, like every Saturday and Sunday we go to downtown and we buy a couple of boxes of pizza, a couple of drinks, Costco, and then we gather around a couple of brothers, 20-15 of us, and then we just start giving it back to the homeless, start cleaning our neighborhood to represent our mosque. Next question I would like to talk to you and ask you about is, one of the other pillars that you mentioned was Hajj, correct? Hajj, yeah. You told me before that you went to Hajj, correct? Yes, I did. Can you explain to me your experience? What do you do there? What are you supposed to do there when you go there? Things like that. Hajj is a beautiful place. Every Muslim is required to go there at least once in their life. One thing I love about Hajj, one thing I learned about Hajj, it was a very beautiful place. I visited Mecca and the surrounding lands of Saudi Arabia and performed the rites of the Hajj pilgrim. It was my first time performing Hajj. It was a well, nice experience. And my preparation and anticipation still had not primed for me for what was literally the worst, wondrous experience of my life. I returned home and it changed my whole life. How did it change your life? What did you learn? I've seen so many Muslims in one spot. I learned that 2.5 million people go there every single year. I met different races, people from Africa, South America, America. So there was a lot of diversity? A lot of diversity in the community and it felt like peace. We're all wearing the same clothes. Everyone was equal. The rich was wearing the same clothes. Can you speak about the type of clothing you have to wear when you go to Hajj? For the girls, you wear all black. For the boys, you wear a scarf around your shoulders and one over your waist. And another thing you do when you go to Umrah, you can't take any scent with you. You can't wear any perfume. Nothing. Why is that? Is it not allowed? No, it's to make everyone feel equal. Oh, okay. So if you're poor or you're rich, we're all equal. We're all praying down, same position, same time. No one's above nobody. The Hajj program is one of the holiest rites in Islam. A series of complicated rituals performed during the last month of the Islamic calendar. What type of rituals? Explain to us how Hajj is performed. So basically, you go around the Kaaba seven times. After you go to the Kaaba seven times, you visit the Prophet's grave and the people that fought for the religion. They were all buried in Saudi Arabia. Oh, the people that fought in the wars? Yeah, to help us, to help preach about Islam. We go and we see their graves and we go up the mountains of where the rite of sanitation happened and where Islam started. It started in Saudi Arabia in the cave of Masjid al-Haram. Yeah, that's what the cave is called. There's two caves that we believe that was called. Okay, can you explain to us some of the places you visited while you were in Umrah? And can you tell us where Umrah takes place? Umrah takes place in Saudi Arabia. Where in Saudi Arabia? Jeddah, Medina, and Mecca. Okay. Specifically in Mecca, right? Oh, my fault. I forgot to say one more thing. There's two spots where you go to Umrah. First, you have to go to the Prophet's holy land. What is the difference between Umrah and Hajj? Hajj is like a ritual where you have to do certain practices, but Umrah is optional. But Hajj is recommended. It's a must for every Muslim to do if you can. So it's not a real pressure on you, but if you can, try your best to do it. And also, there's two holy spots in Saudi Arabia. One of it is Medina. That's where the Prophet died. That's where everything, the right station, everything happened in Islam. And when I went to the Prophet's land, I felt at peace. I've seen the Prophet's grave. I've seen Umm al-Baghdad. I've seen people that helped build this religion. And it hits you real hard when you see people's graves where you read their books, their stories, their lives. And it hits you real deep. And very motivational. I can't express how motivational it is. But Saudi Arabia, Mecca, this is where the Kaaba is. It's the most famous spot. One of the famous spots in the world, I'm pretty sure. And it's where the Kaaba is, where you go around the Kaaba seven times. And you pray, you ask God. I think last Ramadan, there was at least one, like 25 million people there. And it's a wonderful place. Okay, another pillar of Islam that we have not talked about is Ramadan and Salm, which is fasting. And I would like to ask you, since Ramadan just passed recently, how was your recent Ramadan experience? And how was fasting? And explain that process to us. Man, man, man. Ramadan was the most, Ramadan was the most love. I can't express how I felt, to be honest. Ramadan was just... Before you say that, can you explain to the people how the process of a day in Ramadan goes? So basically, like I said previously, you pray five times a day. And actually, before you pray your morning prayer, you eat before the sunset. Do you eat a lot, like normally, like a normal meal? Or are you supposed to eat light? Basically, I thought it was starting for the day, water, try to drink water, something that can keep you hydrated. Watermelon, fruits, you know. And then we fast the whole day till the sunrise, till sunset, I mean, my fault, till sunset. And then after sunset is where we eat. And then we go to a night prayer where we make du'a. What is the night prayer called? Taraweeh, it's called Taraweeh. Is there only one? No, for the first 20 days, it's Taraweeh. And for the last 10 days, it's Taraweeh and Tahajjud. Okay, what is the difference between Taraweeh and Tahajjud? Are they similar? No, Tahajjud is when a time when God comes close down to the earth, and you put your hands up and you ask God for forgiveness. Anything good in life, you just pray to God what you want, and you forgive everybody and everybody. And du'a is, for the people that don't know what du'a is, du'a is like where you raise your hands to God and you make a prayer. Like, for example, if you want a car, just be like, God, please give me a car, this, this, that. And one thing that it teaches in our religion, if you want your prayers to get accepted, do more good deeds. Like, give back to the poor, pray more, read the Quran more. The Quran is like the holy writing of God, where it got passed down to the Prophet. Wait, which Prophet did it get passed down to? It got passed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He was the last Prophet in Islam, that's who we believe. And his Sahabas, his companions, were the ones who wrote down everything. They wrote down the Quran, the Hadith, everything what God wrote down to the Prophet. To conclude, Usama, I really liked how you explained your story and answered the questions that I had for you. And I liked how you explained about each individual pillar of Islam with Shahada, Salat, Zakat, Salam, and Hajj. And I liked how you gave specific examples and sources that you used as evidence for your question and answers. And lastly, I would like to ask you one more question. What is your question? My question to you is, where is your local mosque located for people that are wondering? And, yeah, where is it located? My mosque is located in Jaipur, Seattle. If you guys want the direct address, it's 6558 35th Avenue, Seattle, Washington. It's a spot where if you feel comfortable, we're home, we're welcoming. If you come inside, woman, man, you can be whatever you want to be, we're going to be there for you. If you have any questions about Islam, we'll answer it for you. If you need help in any life, if you're struggling, we're going to be there for you. It's basically like a therapy spot sometimes for people, you know, where people can come. For people who are trying to get closer to God. Yeah, we're welcoming, we don't judge. You can have priesting, you can have tattoos, you can have dirty clothes, you can have ripped clothes. It doesn't matter, we're welcoming, we're caring and everything. Since you were asking me questions all day, I wanted to ask you one more question. What are some great things you learned? What's three things you liked, what's three highlights you liked about my story? One thing I liked about your story is how you explained that you doing these pillars of Islam, it will positively bring positive aspects to your life. It'll make you have more discipline, be more peaceful. If you follow these things, basically like you said, you have positive impacts on anything you need in life. I found that very motivational and impactful. It's something that I want to add to my life in the future. Another thing that I learned from what I asked you today is always have an open mind. Make sure you're able to be open to new ideas, new places. Be able to go to new places and experience new things. Have an open mind and be open to new experiences. Lastly, I like how you said they're diverse, like Muslim people are diverse. With these five pillars of Islam, they pray, they give charity, they're kind people, and they worship God in a peaceful way that doesn't distract others. I like how you explained your own experience and it motivated me in the future to want to go on my experience because yours is worth it, trust me. It's worth it. It sounded like a great adventure, a great new experience in life. Something that I would like to experience in the future, maybe with my family and my peers. I thank you for coming on today and letting me interview you. I thank you for your time. Thank you too, Khalid. I'm really happy to give me this opportunity to explain and express my feelings and my religion because it's one of my biggest passions in life. I've been like this since I was a young kid. My parents taught me this. Khalid, I'm really happy for inviting me today. I would love to be on your podcast. I think this is a very beneficial educational podcast. I learned a lot of things. You learned a lot about me. I learned a lot about you. We both benefit off each other, so thank you very much for your time. Wonderful questions, by the way. You have very wonderful answers. Thank you so much for your time, man. Thank you.