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Her daughter was seven and ten juz into her hifz when Dr Hajir Bawa asked her to pause. Radia broke down: "Mommy, please, I don't want to stop. I want to be like our Nabi." Dr Hajir Bawa was born in District Six, married at sixteen, and worked as a textile designer before the Quran took over her life. She co-founded the Jameyyatul Qurra Girls Hifth School at IPSA with the late Shaykh Yusuf Booley, studied at Darun Na'im, and after decades of teaching returned to the student's chair to earn a PhD in education. Today she teaches at Zahraa Institute and researches the wellbeing of the teachers who carry the Quran. A note on sound: the host microphone failed to record. We have restored the room audio as best we can. 00:00 Cold open 00:23 Welcome 02:28 The deen at home, District Six 04:48 Married at sixteen 06:59 Falling in love with the Quran 08:20 Shaykh Yusuf Booley 12:10 Darun-Na'im 15:00 From reciting to understanding 16:14 Jameyyatul Qurra Girls Hifth School 18:07 Teaching women and children in the early years 19:03 Shamiela, and the Tuesday class 21:56 Take the fruit, plant a seed 22:31 Back in the student's chair 26:56 The PhD 29:37 The gaps in our madrasas 30:33 A second study: the hafiz teachers 35:41 Sitting at the feet of a teacher 37:48 Radia and Zahraa Institute 38:55 The hardest season 40:59 To the woman who thinks it is too late 44:03 Every teacher was first a student 44:23 Dua Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jUFzUkc-GaI ROOTED, the full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c Read FRUITS and join the mailing list: https://isnadacademy.com/fruits Sponsor an episode: https://isnadacademy.com/sponsor Join our school community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about

The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, said that the strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, and in both there is good. In the first episode of BRANCHES, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits with Ustadh Nisar Shaikh, a grappling coach from London with more than twenty years on the mat, to ask what that strength is. They talk about the ego and being pinned by someone half your size, the objectives of sport traced back to Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki and Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, why "do not get angry" only means something once you have been provoked, the mercy that only a strong man can choose, space for Muslim sisters to train, and the physical Sunna that so many of us admire from a distance. Ustadh Nisar Shaikh is a 3rd degree black belt with Carlson Gracie Team London, founder of Osswa Jiu-jitsu, Male Sports Coach of the Year 2024 at the Muslim Sports Awards, and the author of Prophetic Grappling, which includes Imam Suyuti's treatise on wrestling. BRANCHES: where the tradition meets your life. Topic conversations from Isnad Academy, the companion to ROOTED. Prophetic Grappling (Beacon Books, 2022): https://www.meccabooks.com/products/prophetic-grappling-including-as-suyuti-s-al-muxar-ah-ila-al-musar-ah Osswa Jiu-jitsu, London: https://osswa.co.uk Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gUpkiTgbdtQ Support the work of Isnad Academy: https://isnadacademy.com/sponsor/ Join the Isnad Academy community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659 Website: https://isnadacademy.com

Shaykh Nazeer Majiet only began his hifz after matric, on his father's one condition. From Shaykh Yusuf Agherdien's hifz school in Chiappini Street he went on to Darun Na'im, al-Tanzil and the Darul Uloom in Strand, then to Cairo, where he graduated from al-Azhar and sat with the mashayikh of the madyafas, among them Dr Ahmad al-Tijani. Today he heads the Arabic and Tafsir departments at the Imam Kurani Institute. This sitting is about taking a few steps back: starting nahw and sarf again six years into his studies, the gold of Egypt that lies outside the university walls, and why a chain to the Prophet ﷺ needs a transmitted understanding as well as transmitted words. 00:00 Cold open: the isnad of understanding 00:40 Welcome to Rooted 01:35 What was I like as a teacher? 02:13 Hifz after matric: the father's condition 05:24 The oldest boy in the hifz class 06:59 Shaykh Yusuf, Chiappini Street 13:06 Pressures, parents and provision 15:01 Tajwid and the first Arabic 17:37 Darun Na'im: the year that changed everything 19:35 Arabic institute, al-Tanzil and Mawlana Saalim 24:20 The push to Strand 28:13 What Strand gives 34:45 Egypt twice, and a Madinah acceptance 46:25 Inside al-Azhar 52:06 Placement exams 59:58 Beyond the university walls 1:05:53 The madyafa and Shaykh Ahmad 1:14:46 Teaching at home 1:19:53 Favourite tafasir 1:20:35 What isnad means 1:23:17 Advice to three people 1:31:59 Closing Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/W8b2G7ewxdk ROOTED, the full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c Read FRUITS and join the mailing list: https://isnadacademy.com/fruits Sponsor an episode: https://isnadacademy.com/sponsor Join our school community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about

Mawlana Hafiz Qari Saalim Peck learnt to recite the Quran from his father, completed his hifz before the late Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf Booley, read the Quran to teachers in Egypt and Syria, and graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand under Mawlana Taha Karaan. He was the first at the Cape to read the entire Quran in all seven qira'at through the Shatibiyyah. Today he is an imam of Al-Jamia Masjid on Stegman Road in Claremont, teaches the Quran to adults, and directs the Quwwa Strength Academy. This sitting follows the Quran from his father's voice to his own heart: the teachers who heard him, Cairo and Damascus, Strand and Mawlana Taha, what the qira'at are and how al-Fatiha sounds in the readings, and what isnad means in the age of AI. Then the two of us take the first Quwwa Strength Challenge on camera, because the body that carries the Quran has a right over us. The Quwwa Strength Challenge: Friday 30 October from Asr at Al-Jamia Masjid, Stegman Road, Claremont. Five events, a team beep test, stalls and food. Everyone is welcome. 00:00 Cold open 01:07 Introducing Mawlana Saalim 02:21 First meeting 03:17 A father's voice 06:55 Parents and hifz 13:18 Sitting before Shaykh Booley 20:31 Egypt 23:01 Syria 28:02 Strand and Mawlana Taha 36:19 What are the qira'at 43:04 Al-Fatiha in the readings 47:17 Teaching adults 53:17 Isnad in the age of AI 58:55 Kettlebells and the Quran 1:05:53 Supporting Isnad Academy 1:06:28 Why train the body 1:08:35 Challenge day: 30 October 1:10:06 Closing Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NLmXeHoWCdk ROOTED, the full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c Website: https://isnadacademy.com Join our school community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about Support our work: https://payf.st/sfr4x

"They charged her with assault of a soldier, and the weapon was a baby." In the closing sitting of this series, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick and Professor Farid Esack turn to Palestine, the struggle that South African Muslims have long carried as their own. We begin with the open letter to the people of Palestine that Prof. Esack wrote, painted along the separation wall near Ramallah. Then: why every comparison with apartheid now makes him squirm; his first visit after the first intifada, and the stone he picked up from the rubble; what South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice achieves; the campaign that ended UJ's ties with Ben-Gurion University; why some ulama stay silent; the weak hadith of the "greater jihad"; and the lessons he wants the next generation to carry. Freedom isn't free: every generation has to win it again. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:01 Introduction 1:56 The letter on the wall 5:29 Why the word apartheid makes him squirm 9:45 How Palestine found him 16:20 At what cost? Cancelled in Hamburg 19:36 Why South Africa took Israel to the ICJ 26:40 Is the ICJ case worth it? 32:09 Tutu, and the apartheid comparison 38:18 Campaigns: BDS and UJ's break with Ben-Gurion 47:27 Why are some ulama silent on Palestine? 57:54 The weak hadith of the greater jihad 1:01:55 Humanitarian or religious? 1:05:22 Lessons for the struggle ahead 1:14:27 Free to be Muslim in South Africa 1:17:57 Freedom isn't free 1:19:15 Close THE SERIES Part 1, A Child of the Jamaat: https://youtu.be/yUwcDETGtqA Part 2, The Janaza That Shook Cape Town: https://youtu.be/GXqgARV-xTU Watch Part 3 on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ruh2BcWjR0g SOURCES ON SCREEN Letter footage: Sallie Shawl, November 2010. Desmond Tutu, "Apartheid in the Holy Land", April 2002. Hadith of the greater jihad: al-Bayhaqi, al-Zuhd al-Kabir no. 373, with a weak chain; al-Iraqi, al-Mughni 2:709. Ibn al-Qayyim, Madarij al-Salikin 3:226. Qur'an text: quran.com. ABOUT THE GUEST Professor Farid Esack is a South African scholar of Islam and a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle. He served on the leadership of the Muslim Judicial Council and the Call of Islam, taught at leading universities including Harvard, headed Religion Studies at the University of Johannesburg, and in 2018 received the Order of Luthuli in Silver. ABOUT THE HOST Shaykh Irshaad Sedick is a Cape Town based Islamic scholar in the Shafi'i school, a hadith specialist, and the founder of Isnad Academy. He teaches full time with SeekersGuidance. Website: https://isnadacademy.com Join our school community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about Support our work: https://payf.st/sfr4x

Mawlana Ibrahim Gaffoor has been the imam of Masjid al-Ikhlas in Hanover Park for thirty years and taught at Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand for twenty-two, across the staff room from Mawlana Taha Karaan. His students called him Mawlana Gaff. He taught this episode's host, and he was the one who took him by the hand and showed him how to wash the dead. This sitting is his own chain: Ante Haya and Imam Jassiem in Hanover Park, Boeta Qasim Ali's after-school madrasah, Sheikh Musa Titus, Imam Abu Bakr Simon, Sheikh Hanif Moos, Dar al-Ulum Zakariyya and Newcastle, Mawlana Qasim Sema's counsels, and what it costs to be a community's imam when nobody sees the one o'clock house calls. 00:00 Nobody sees that 00:26 Welcome: the teacher we called Mawlana Gaff 04:11 Where it began: Ante Haya, Imam Jassiem, Boeta Qasim Ali 09:45 Arabic with Imam Abu Bakr Simon; building the masjid 15:01 An engraving on a rock 18:13 Sheikh Hanif Moos, Bulugh al-Maram, Zakariyya 19:49 The urge to study: the Darul Ulum route 23:54 Mawlana Faruq Patel, the walking Quran 27:54 A piece of paper doesn't make you an alim 28:37 Mawlana Sema: this is only the key to ilm 30:45 What kind of student: Imam al-Shafi'i's six 34:05 Jalalayn, from Strand to the Haram 36:12 How he came to teach at Strand 42:42 Mawlana Taha in the staff room 48:08 Imamat: a slave of the community 52:08 Match, patch, hatch 54:55 Why underpaying scholars is dangerous 57:32 One night at one o'clock: nobody sees that 59:50 Imamat then and now; the Afrikaans-Arabic kitab 1:04:35 Mawlana Sema's three counsels; Rumi and the well 1:09:33 The Darul Ulum washes dirty clothes 1:11:02 Advice to young ulama 1:12:09 Don't wait for the eulogies; du'a for your teachers 1:16:25 Stop arguing: have your akhirah in mind 1:17:52 The close, and a kaffarah for the rain Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/p_gSHgF7io0 ROOTED, the full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c Website: https://isnadacademy.com Join our school community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about Support our work: https://payf.st/sfr4x

Mawlana Khalil Hendricks left a corporate career in Johannesburg for Syria on the strength of an ayah that would not leave him alone: people who meet the angels having wronged themselves, and whose excuse is that they were made weak in the place where they were. He came back and built, with Mu'allimah Radia Bawa Hendricks, a set of institutions that now runs from a Sunday class for adults who cannot read the Qur'an to a school of 240 students. This sitting is about what it costs to stay, and what isnad means once you stop being the student. 00:00 If you pay me a million a month 00:42 Mawlana Khalil Hendricks 02:43 A world I did not know 06:05 The first trip lands 09:01 One day I will read the Ihya in Arabic 10:03 The verse that haunted him 12:38 Syria before the war 14:47 What was lost, and what it cost 19:19 Coming back, and what had changed 21:20 Some people are so poor, the only thing they have is money 24:07 Marriage, and a new era of study 29:29 Encountering Mawlana Taha Karaan's manhaj 31:42 The scholar is the prisoner of the evidence 33:12 The counsel he kept giving 36:49 The bridging is the difficult part 40:27 Mizan, and the Qur'an without a filter 46:45 Itikaf, and the third space 52:23 InLight, and asking what they needed 1:01:56 GoodTree began at home 1:09:47 An environment steeped in kufr 1:13:46 Like an ice block in the sun 1:16:59 Sitting inside the transmission 1:18:07 Isnad is the grounding of who you are 1:21:10 Money, assets, and standing on your own 1:24:09 Let us turn every house of Allah into a school 1:25:05 AI, universities, and the value of school 1:30:11 Isnad is also what you build 1:32:55 Recognition is from Allah HIS WORK Mizan Institute https://mizan.co.za GoodTree Quranic School https://goodtree.co.za Zahraa Institute https://zahraa.co.za InLight Foundation https://inlight.org.za ROOTED Every episode https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c Website https://isnadacademy.com Join our school community https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about Support our work https://payf.st/sfr4x Podcast https://redcircle.com/shows/isnad-academy

"We resisted at a time when it was not fashionable." Everybody claims the struggle afterwards; very few were in it. In the second sitting of this series, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick takes up the story where Part 1 left off: Farid Esack comes home from eight years in the madrasas of Karachi to a country about to catch fire. He joins the Muslim Judicial Council and drafts its constitution. He helps found the Call of Islam. He throws in his lot with the UDF — and answers the scholars of the time who said Muslims have no business in politics, and the movement men who said an alliance with non-Muslims dilutes the din. At the centre of the episode is a story he tells here in full for the first time: the Salt River janaza of Ebrahim Carelse, a bystander shot by police in 1985. Ten thousand people marched under State of Emergency regulations, a crowd turned on a policeman, and a young mawlana threw himself over the man's body — and then had to decide whether to get up. Then 1994, the Commission for Gender Equality, and in 2018 the Order of Luthuli — and what a boy from Bontheuwel says to himself when a president hangs a medal around his neck. This episode contains testimony about police violence, torture and mob violence during apartheid. It is told plainly and without graphic detail, but some listeners may find it distressing. Shaykh Irshaad and Professor Esack come from different worlds of learning and do not agree on everything. You do not have to agree with a man on everything to sit with him and honour what he has carried. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 0:55 Introduction 2:11 Coming home to a country about to catch fire 9:52 Inside the MJC, and drafting its constitution 17:28 Shaykh Nazim, and how we remember people 21:23 Were the ulama divided about politics? 33:34 "Muslims don't get involved in politics" 37:40 Was there a moment you crossed over? 41:30 Why found the Call of Islam 45:42 What did the struggle actually cost? 51:32 The Salt River janaza of Ebrahim Carelse 1:17:23 1994: Commissioner for Gender Equality 1:20:13 The Order of Luthuli, 2018 1:26:15 "I do believe that I am a miracle" 1:31:15 Why he finds it hard to make du'a 1:34:07 Closing, and what comes in Part 3 ABOUT THE GUEST Professor Farid Esack is a South African scholar of Islam, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, and one of the most widely read Muslim academic voices from this country. He served the Muslim Judicial Council, co-founded the Call of Islam, was Commissioner for Gender Equality in the democratic South Africa, and in 2018 received the Order of Luthuli in Silver. ABOUT THE HOST Shaykh Irshaad Sedick is a Cape Town–based Islamic scholar in the Shafi'i school, a hadith student, and the founder of Isnad Academy. He teaches full-time with SeekersGuidance. Isnad Academy connects the global Muslim community to authenticated Islamic scholarship — live teaching, recorded courses, and conversations like this one. #FaridEsack #IslamInSouthAfrica #IsnadAcademy #CapeTown #Apartheid #CallOfIslam #UDF #MuslimJudicialCouncil

Shaykhah Ruqayyah Samsodien flew to Damascus at eighteen and hung a sign around her neck in the dormitory that read, in bubble letters, "I don't speak English" — so that nobody would speak to her in it, and she would be forced into Arabic. She came home an alimah. In this episode of ROOTED, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits with one of the very few fully qualified female scholars in South Africa: a hafizah at thirteen, the only girl in a full-time class at a time when that was not done; a graduate of Abu al-Nur and of al-Fath University in Damascus, where she sat before Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti (Allah have mercy on him) and Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi; a student of Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Muhy al-Din al-Kurdi, from whom she took her ijazah in the Quran directly; and today the director of Baseerah Institute in Cape Town. We trace the whole road: her mother's dua in 1984 for a child who would carry the Quran; the afternoon in 1996 when Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf Booley called her parents in; fifteen juz in the first year; Damascus, the dormitory, the matrons, and a wish made as a child at the grave of Abu al-Darda (Allah be pleased with him) that was answered on a cobblestone road; being called in to the Muslim Judicial Council before coming home and told not to try to change Cape Town in one go; and the Mauritanian mahdarah that now sits with her students in Arabic. Her chain, from Al-Tanzil's Database of Sanad Holders, is drawn on screen: from Ibrahim al-Ubaydi down through the Hulwanis and Shaykhah Anisah Mayyas to her. And the line the episode closes on, to every girl who never thought this was open to her: "But now the road is open. We have paved the way. It's now only for you to take it, in sha Allah." ROOTED is Isnad Academy's interview series on how authentic Islamic knowledge is transmitted — teacher to student, in an unbroken chain back to the Prophet ﷺ — and why that matters in an age of unvetted online content. ▶ Join our school community: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about ▶ Support our work: https://payf.st/sfr4x ▶ Podcast: https://redcircle.com/shows/isnad-academy ▶ ROOTED, the full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c ▶ Website: https://isnadacademy.com CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open — "I don't speak English" 0:26 Salam, and who she is 3:18 Shaykhah or Muallimah? The title question 5:18 Her mother's dua, 1984 5:54 The afternoon Shaykh Booley called her parents in 8:32 The only girl in a full-time class 12:25 Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf Booley 17:30 Fifteen juz, and the simplicity of that time 21:12 Damascus at eighteen — and the sign around her neck 22:52 Fusha, ammiyyah, and learning to speak 24:32 al-Fath University, and Shaykh al-Buti 31:56 Abu al-Darda and the cobblestone road 34:16 Damascus now, and what the people need 43:16 The dorm, the matrons, the discipline 45:27 "You're the only one who knows who they are" 47:30 Called in to the MJC before coming home 49:20 The ijazah, from Shaykh Muhy al-Din al-Kurdi 50:30 Jamiyyat al-Qurra and Dar al-Naim 51:20 Shaykh al-Mishri and the Mauritanian mahdarah 53:00 Baseerah Institute 56:50 What the women are studying now 59:10 Islamia, the imtihan, and the overseas option 1:02:30 What is being lost 1:07:30 Her ijazat and her shuyukh 1:09:10 The Damascus teachers 1:10:30 Sayyid Ahmad al-Kaf and the Yemeni line 1:11:30 Shaykh Hasan al-Khadim 1:14:26 Taking directly from the scholars 1:16:12 The noor that comes with it 1:20:15 To the girl who never thought she could 1:21:20 Imam Shafi'i: "he narrated to us" 1:22:30 "Now the road is open" Terms explained on screen: hifz, huffaz, juz, ijazah, isnad, sanad, qurra, tajwid, fusha, ammiyyah, nahw, sarf, muallimah, shaykhah, alimah, mahdarah, talaqqi, takhrij, amanah ilmiyyah, and more. Sources shown on screen: Al-Tanzil Institute, Database of Sanad Holders: Cape Town (10th print, 2021), p.62 and p.216; Imam Shafi'i's verse as given by Ibn Kathir in al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya. #Rooted #IsnadAcademy #Isnad #CapeTown #Damascus #Ulama #FemaleScholars #IslamicScholarship #Hifz #Ijazah #BaseerahInstitute #Syria #Mauritania

Mawlana Ashraf Lamara holds one of the shortest chains of transmission to Sahih al-Bukhari in the world — four links to Shah Waliullah al-Dihlawi — and until last year almost nobody outside a handful of scholars knew it. In this episode of Rooted, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits with one of Cape Town's senior ulama: a founding teacher of Qaasimul Uloom, who has taught there since its first day in 1998; former imam of Lost City (Tafelsig) and Montrose Park in Mitchells Plain; founder of the Darul Furqan hifz programme; and a student of the legendary Mawlana Qasim Sema of Darul Uloom Newcastle. We trace the whole journey: a Tabligh household in Hanover Park, memorising Qur'an at Mia's Farm at thirteen, Darul Uloom Newcastle in 1987, the teachers who shaped him, the Dawrah year, and how Mawlana Sema's Bukhari teacher at Dabhel — a scholar already in his nineties — handed down a chain that runs through Fadl al-Rahman Ganj Muradabadi, the last living student of Shah Abdul Aziz. Both of Mawlana Sema's sanads appear on screen, read from his own handwriting and from Mawlana Lamara's ijazah. And the reason it matters now, in his words: "Today it's not about what is being said. Today you have to focus on who said it. Seeing is no more believing — and hearing has always been deceiving." Rooted is Isnad Academy's interview series on how authentic Islamic knowledge is transmitted — teacher to student, in an unbroken chain back to the Prophet ﷺ — and why that matters in an age of unvetted online content. ▶ Join our school community: [https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about] Support our work: [https://payf.st/sfr4x] Podcast: https://redcircle.com/shows/isnad-academy https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf_aPJtuAk9c Key terms explained on screen in this episode: sanad, isnad, samāʿ, ijāzah, ʿuluww al-isnād (the "high" chain), Dawrat al-Hadith, Dars-e-Nizami, takrār and mutālaʿah, and more. Sources shown on screen: Mawlana Qasim Sema's handwritten sanad (Darul Uloom Newcastle); the Qaasimul Uloom ijazah for the narration of Sahih al-Bukhari (2024); Sahih al-Bukhari 71; al-Baqarah 2:132. #Rooted #IsnadAcademy #Isnad #Hadith #SahihBukhari #CapeTown #Ulama #IslamicScholarship #QaasimulUloom #DarulUloomNewcastle 0:00 Seeing is no more believing 0:26 Welcome — one of our senior ulama 1:27 The seed: a Tabligh home in Hanover Park 5:24 Mia's Farm at thirteen 8:03 Arriving at Darul Uloom Newcastle 9:51 A naughty boy, a serious student 13:24 Mawlana Sema and the teachers who shaped him 15:58 The Dawrah year: reading the Six Books 21:11 The shortest sanad to Sahih al-Bukhari 28:00 Passing the sanad on: England, Karabogha, Peshawar 30:53 A year in Jamaat, then home 34:18 Founding Qaasimul Uloom 37:10 What to expect when you walk in 40:29 What is isnad — and why it matters in the age of AI 43:26 Students, phones and lost istiʿdād 46:48 What gives him hope 49:05 Advice to young ulama: find a mentor 51:35 Darul Furqan: sixteen years without a hafiz 55:02 A final word to the Ummah 58:35 Closing du'a

When I was eleven years old, I walked into an afternoon madrasa in Retreat, and the man at the front of that room was the first qualified Islamic scholar I ever had as a teacher. He is the reason I wanted to become an alim. He is the reason I found Darun Na’im. And when I wanted to leave school in Grade 10 to study full-time, he and my father sat down together and decided I would finish school first. In this episode of ROOTED, I sit across from my own teacher, Mawlana Zakariyah Philander, and ask him for the whole journey. He tells it plainly: walking to the masjid in a kufi as a teenager while his friends went to school, and the neighbours asking what he thought he was doing. Every application to Medina, Makkah and Malaysia coming back closed. Resigning his job, fixing the radiator on his Honda, driving 1,500 kilometres alone to Darul Uloom Newcastle — and being turned away at the door, twice, before they let him in. Six years later, he took his sanad of Bukhari from the same man who turned him away. Then, the part that matters most to this series. What a teacher carries that a page cannot. Why the tradition insists you sit at someone’s feet. What the student who understood none of it still walks away with. And why, in his words, you must never make an idol of the man who taught you. ROOTED is the Isnad Academy series where we sit with the scholars of South Africa and trace how knowledge actually travelled — from a teacher, to a student, to you. — CHAPTERS — 0:00 The athar of the exchange 0:28 Welcome: a link in my own chain 4:03 Retreat: a madrasa before there was a masjid 7:16 His father, and his first teacher 8:15 Was there a moment you decided? 10:38 Walking to the masjid in a kufi 14:25 The gems who told us there was more 17:42 His teachers, one by one 21:47 Medina, Makkah, Malaysia: every door closed 23:03 Leaving the job, driving to Newcastle 24:40 And he dismissed the letter 27:24 Deoband: humility before knowledge 30:04 The dawra, and what it does to a person 32:20 Teachers who disagreed with each other 34:29 How he came to Darun Naim 40:44 You have to be able to teach children 43:34 Darun Naim when it was a novel idea 52:39 Where the contextual reading came from 57:46 Guardrails for a young scholar 1:04:14 What the communities taught him 1:12:59 Two kinds of scholar 1:14:32 Learning from a screen: what is lost 1:18:20 A transference of light 1:24:44 Never make an idol of a teacher 1:30:34 The tradition and the academy 1:38:59 What does a grounded scholar have to fear? 1:44:45 To an eleven-year-old walking in 1:46:31 Consumer, or architect 1:51:04 Where to find him — MAWLANA ZAKARIYAH PHILANDER — Author of The Story of the Qur’an: Recounting the First 13 Years of Revelation. Khatib, Masjid, corner Victoria Road and 7th Avenue, Grassy Park. Equilibrium Elementary — equilibriumelementary.com — ISNAD ACADEMY — Join our school community: [https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about] Support our work: [https://payf.st/sfr4x] Podcast: https://redcircle.com/shows/isnad-academy Hosted by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick. #ROOTED #IsnadAcademy #IslamicScholarship #CapeTown #Isnad

Long before he was a professor, before the struggle, before the academy — Farid Esack was a boy in Bontheuwel raised by a single mother, and a child of the Tablighi Jamaat. In this first sitting of a new series from Isnad Academy, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits with Professor Farid Esack — his own Master's supervisor — to trace a life: the Group Areas Act and a move from Wynberg, a mother who stood at the window until her last son came home, the Jamaat that saw value in people the world had written off, the years in the madrasa in Karachi, and what a classically trained student carries into the modern academy. This is not a debate. It is a sitting about life and what it means to be a Muslim in South Africa. We speak plainly in this conversation about the tension between the traditional madrasa and the Western academy — including Professor Esack's own striking words about it. Shaykh Irshaad and Professor Esack come from different worlds of learning and do not agree on everything. You do not have to agree with a man on everything to sit with him, to learn from his life, and to honour what he has carried. ⚠️ PART 2 is coming: the return to South Africa, his years in the Muslim Judicial Council, the Call of Islam and the UDF struggle years, and the open letter to the Palestinian people that today stands painted across the separation wall. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 0:29 Introduction 2:13 South African Muslim, or Muslim in South Africa? 7:59 Bontheuwel — and "that must be Upper Bontheuwel" 8:41 Weinberg, the Group Areas Act, and the move to Bontheuwel 13:16 A mother, six boys, and the window 15:48 The debt to women you can never repay 20:03 A child of the Tablighi Jamaat 25:59 "Join the Tabligh, see the Republic" 28:39 The adab of the Jamaat: a grain of rice, and shura 33:18 Returning to the markas where nobody knows him 36:14 How the Jamaat sent him to Pakistan 42:07 Entering the Darul Uloom in Karachi 47:34 The dandruff story, and how we judge people 52:34 What the madrasa years left him 57:02 Knowledge is sacred: paper, marginalia, and awe 1:00:31 "Are you schizophrenic, or a munafiq?" 1:01:30 The academy and the tradition: what each gets wrong 1:07:24 The problem with the maqasid turn 1:08:58 Senior scholars in Istanbul say the same 1:09:31 Closing, and what comes in Part 2 ABOUT THE GUEST Professor Farid Esack is a South African scholar of Islam, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, and one of the most widely read Muslim academic voices from this country. Formed in the Tablighi Jamaat and trained in the dars-i-nizami in Karachi before completing his doctoral work abroad, he served the Muslim Judicial Council and later held national office in the democratic South Africa. ABOUT THE HOST Shaykh Irshaad Sedick is a Cape Town–based Islamic scholar in the Shafi'i school, a hadith specialist, and the founder of Isnad Academy. He teaches full-time with SeekersGuidance. JOIN OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY → [https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about] SUPPORT OUR WORK → [https://payf.st/sfr4x] Isnad Academy connects the global Muslim community to authenticated Islamic scholarship — live teaching, recorded courses, and conversations like this one. #FaridEsack #IslamInSouthAfrica #IsnadAcademy #CapeTown #TablighiJamaat #IslamicScholarship

In the 1960s, thirty-four men in the whole of Cape Town carried the Quran in their hearts, and Imam Fuad Samaai knew every one of them by name. “The chain is made in the maktab, or it is not made at all.” In 1973 he was one of eight students in the first intake of South Africa’s first Darul Uloom, in Newcastle. There, Mawlana Qasim Sema (Allah have mercy on him) gave him the instruction that set the course of his life: the chain of transmission (isnad) begins in the maktab, the children’s Quran school, so give your life to that. Fifty years later, two thousand children and dozens of teachers sit in his care. In this episode of Rooted, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick asks him the question few have asked: Did it work? And does a chain of transmission still mean anything in a world where anyone with a phone can claim to know? What follows is living memory, the huffaz of District Six and the respect they showed one another, Imaam Naeim Moerat (Allah have mercy on him) still teaching children at his bedside at ninety-four, the majlis of Shaykh Abdul Fattah Abu Ghudda (Allah have mercy on him), and the friendship of Mufti Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), whose students he addresses directly at the close. If this conversation benefits you, share it with someone who needs it. Join our school community: [https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about] Support our work: [https://payf.st/sfr4x] Chapters: 0:00 The Attitude We Teach Our Children 0:38 Thirty-Four Huffaz — Meet Imam Fuad Samaai 2:47 Does the Chain Still Mean Anything? 3:14 Newcastle, and Mawlana Qasim Sema's Instruction 7:24 "Like a Washing Machine" — What a Darul Uloom Is For 11:27 The Huffaz of 1960s Cape Town 14:22 Hifz Then and Now — the Missing Link 21:09 When a Hafiz Walked into a Room 23:58 Imaam Naeim Moerat — Seventy Years of Teaching 31:07 Newcastle 1973 — the Treasure Lesson 35:02 The Mufti's Method — Fatwas and Memory 44:39 Four to Six Hours of Reading, Every Day 45:47 The Barakah of a Physical Kitab 49:56 The Maktab Mission, Fifty Years On 55:49 One Syllabus for Twelve Towns 59:23 Do We Value Islamic Education? 1:02:17 The Finance Trap and the Teacher's Sacrifice 1:11:51 The Names History Must Remember 1:24:45 In the Majlis of the Great Ulama 1:31:03 Mufti Taha Karaan and Advice to His Students 1:41:33 Become a Uniting Force — At Least Teach Rooted is the interview series of Isnad Academy. Its premise is simple: authentic Islamic knowledge is carried by an unbroken chain, from teacher to student, back to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace). #Rooted #IsnadAcademy #CapeTown Learn authentic islam from qualified scholars: https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about Rooted podcast, Isnad Academy, Imam Fuad Samaai, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick, Cape Town huffaz, maktab education, madrasah, Darul Uloom Newcastle, Mawlana Qasim Sema, Mufti Taha Karaan, isnad, hifz, Quran memorisation, Islamic scholarship South Africa, Cape Town ulama

He had top marks, a UCT mathematics degree, and lucrative bursary offers on the table — a clear road to actuarial science and comfortable money. He walked away from all of it, into the Darul Uloom of Mufti Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), and says he would make that decision "every single day of my life again." In this episode of ROOTED, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits down with his former student, travel companion, and close friend Mawlana Zakariyya Harnekar — graduate of Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah, MJC executive and fatwa department researcher, and teacher at the Qurani Institute and Mizan Institute — for a conversation inside the chain: what it costs to choose ilm over income, who Mufti Taha Karaan was when the cameras were off, and what it takes to carry a teacher's legacy. ROOTED traces the chains that connect our community to the Prophet ﷺ — because knowledge without isnad is information; knowledge through isnad is inheritance. 🎓 JOIN THE ISNAD ACADEMY COMMUNITY (FREE): [https://www.skool.com/isnad-academy-7659/about] Membership is free and includes our free Umrah course. You will also be able to purchase the Blissful Bonds premarital course. 🤲 Support this work: [https://payf.st/sfr4x] Subscribe, and share this episode with one person who needs it. Make dua for us. Institutions mentioned: Darun Naim - darun-naim.co.za Mizan Institute — mizan.co.za Kurani Institute — kurani.org.za Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah (DUAI) — duai.org.za SeekersGuidance — seekersguidance.org 00:00 "I would make that decision every single day" 00:15 Welcome to ROOTED: a conversation inside the chain 03:09 The road not taken: a maths degree or the deen 08:34 What the Darun Na'im years do to a person 10:49 His mother's advice: university first 14:34 His father's advice: shoulder the responsibility 16:40 Choosing maths & stats — and the MSA years 18:20 Arriving in Strand: meeting Mufti Taha Karaan 21:51 The Pelican Park walk: "You only start learning when you start teaching" 24:59 "I don't feel like I gave up anything" 28:27 Join the Isnad Academy community 28:58 Does the maths ever leave you? Logic and usul al-fiqh 32:20 What really happens inside an Islamic seminary 35:22 Mufti Taha Karaan: the man behind the mind 44:50 The Goudini dictation story 49:32 Weeping over the names of Badr 51:32 Carrying the legacy after his passing 58:30 Teaching Qur'an to dentists and grandmothers 59:51 Inside the MJC 01:05:05 Women, youth, and identity 01:07:08 His primary concerns for the Ummah 01:12:12 Advice to a matric student: deen or degree? 01:14:25 Where to start studying in Cape Town 01:17:39 Closing duas

When Tony embraced Islam, he lost his business, his friends, and, for a time, his family. In Part 2 of his conversation on ROOTED, Shaykh Riyad Walls tells the story of what came next: the journey into sacred knowledge. From his wife teaching him alif-bā, to selling his beloved hi-fi to pay the rent, to walking a Long Street that was once lined with bookshops, to the hadith that lit the fire in him, "whoever walks the path of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Jannah." Along the way: his father’s reconciliation in a hospital bed, the two kinds of divine guidance, the travelator as a picture of staying on the path, the teachers of Dar al-Arqam who carried him, and the dream of studying in the city of Fes that sets up Part 3. A story for every seeker, convert or raised-Muslim, that being guided is a choice you keep making. ROOTED is a series from Isnad Academy following the pursuit of sacred knowledge through the unbroken chain of transmission, the isnād that connects us, teacher to student, back to the Prophet ﷺ. This is Part 2 of three. In Part 3: the travels, the trials on the path of knowledge, and the road to the mimbar. 🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss Part 3. #ROOTED #IsnadAcademy #CapeTown #Islam #ConvertStory #SeekingKnowledge 00:00 "Allah took it all away — so I could focus on the one thing He gave me" 00:45 Welcome back to ROOTED 02:14 The convert's different path to knowledge 02:56 "I embraced Islam and got the girl as a bonus" 04:41 Losing the business, the friends, the family 10:27 When my father found out 14:32 The hospital: "he was proud of what I'd become" 17:10 "Good luck" — the tests every believer faces 18:15 The gateway to the path of knowledge 20:48 Married, and the move to Cravenby 22:58 Selling the hi-fi: give something up for Allah 25:46 Long Street, when it was a street of bookshops 32:22 The two kinds of guidance 34:45 "This religion speaks about everything" — and istinja 44:55 "I love you for the sake of Allah" 47:26 The travelator: staying on the path 51:36 The book that lit the fire: Ihyā Ulūm al-Dīn 52:32 "Whoever walks the path of knowledge…" 55:15 Muhammad Karim and the sponsorship to study 57:08 ICOSA, Dar al-Arqam, and choosing a path 58:14 My teachers 01:00:52 Voice of the Cape and the door to Medina 01:03:24 "My first achievement" — first in class 01:06:28 Bursting to travel: the city of Fes 01:08:28 Al-Qarawiyyin, Fatima al-Fihri and the old way of learning 01:11:54 "Be a seeker, and remain a seeker" 01:13:29 The four types of people in knowledge 01:15:02 "Above every knower is the All-Knowing" 01:16:00 The cliffhanger: setting out for Morocco Correction: Mawlay Idris I was a descendant of Sayyiduna Hasan ibn Ali (Ahl al-Bayt), not of the Umayyads.