Learning Gets Real - A Personal Interview (Host: Dr Mehdi Sajid) | Mufti Abu Layth

One must proactively seek it. Especially when you understand its worth for you. And what you are missing on, I think. Absolutely. And And I started I I just bought an Arabic book called Dr. Surty's Quranic Arabic, and I started studying it every day in the morning like I do half an hour without fail. Like I would doesn't matter what, I have to do this and I'd make notes and And you know it's a bit sad to say, but I don't think I had much in in life at that stage.

And And this became something that I had all of a sudden, you know, like and so I I say at that stage, how old were you? I mean I was I was I was still just a late teen. I mean about 17 going to it, but I didn't like there wasn't You see, it's weird if you If it makes you feel better, nobody had anything at that stage.

I mean don't worry about it. Yeah, but I I think you see what I mean by that to qualify I don't mean like did I have a house or something cuz that you wouldn't have anyway, but I mean I didn't have I didn't have a vision of what it where I was going. I didn't have many interests in different things. I didn't have Like life was I was kind of just boxed off.

And And I started to become more and more religious. And I started to get really deeply religious, almost like very ascetically, you know live just like a hermit almost. And because this is what people told me, you know, if you if you want to be, you know, you know, like if you want to be a Muslim, you got to embrace the whole thing. So I was like, "Chill. Oh, yeah, all right, cool. Let's embrace it." And So I wasn't kind of I changed stopped hanging around with certain friends.

And this is what I meant I didn't have much going on. And so Arabic became something like an achievement. Like I was achieving like I could see I was actually learning and it became like a sense of wow, you know, like this is you know, now I'm understanding these brief verses and I'm understanding this and um It was And I remember thinking to myself, you know, if all I can do is just understand the Quran, it is enough.

Like I don't really in itself. Yeah, I I'm not asking for anything beyond that. That's all I I I just That's my goal. And how do you go from that to studying to or taking the training to become a Mufti? You see, it's it's like I said, it becomes an addiction and it becomes a because what happens is you You see with this thing all I want is just to learn just to understand the Quran.

I don't care about anything else. I don't want anything else. Until somebody said you know, "Why don't you go to a Madrasah?" And I was like, "Don't be stupid. How can I go to a Madrasah at this age now?" And you know, my family ain't into it and nobody's into the What am I just going to move away from home and live somewhere like like that could happen. And And then you start kind of thinking over the idea that, you know, like hmm And you know, I I do feel I mean it's going to sound kind of weird because I'm saying cuz I don't normally say stuff so much like this, but people uh

that I feel that, you know, sometimes this You know, this thing that like that this this that you're kind of heart it opens, expands, or warms to an idea. I feel that if that happens to an individual that maybe it's kind of like I don't know, but for me I felt in life that it's divine intuition that if you do embark on this thing, it will happen.

That, you know, when you get that because there's a point where you feel this is just totally Don't be stupid. Like I What You know, somebody says become an astronaut. You're like, "What the hell is that about?" That's what it was like in the beginning, but then you get this kind of hmm You know, you think you think I could actually do this? And And you start getting this little warming to the idea.

And And that to me whenever, you know, even after that in life, whenever I've had situations and I've got had this kind of this this warming to it, I felt, "You know what? If I I feel that I don't know like if I do embark on it, inshallah, it will happen." Like I So yeah, so I then set off uh Somebody planted the absurd idea, "Why don't you go to Damascus and start studying?" And I was like, "Damascus?

Where the hell is Damascus?" And so yeah, before I know it, you know, it had that in and I thought "Wow, you know what? Yeah, let's go to Damascus, man." Where did you study in Damascus? So I went to Damascus and I All right, I enrolled I enrolled in a in an institute called Ma'had al-Fath al-Islami.

And it was There was a summer school they were having. And you see, you know, this is what I'm saying that when you get that You know, when you set upon something Allah will bring about the means for it. And I I I've I You know, once again this this element of providence, this kind of divine and not just in a food sense, but as part of what is, you know, your this this road map which you can't see yet, but it's there for you.

I feel that it It does require that that first step. And I'll tell you what helped me at the time, you know, I I got to I got to reach out to the to this person to get him on Mind Trap actually. I I came across a book of by somebody a convert to Islam called Ahmed Thompson. I think he'd been you know, a Muslim for many years by that stage.

But he had this book on a journey to Hajj. And he So I had this book because I I got a job in an Islamic bookstore, so I had access to all these books, you see. So I would just take one and read one and put it back. So he he explains how him and a few brothers they decide to go on Hajj. You know, a few of his mates and they have like I think something like 50 pounds to their pocket.

And they just do this ridiculous road journey. Pure And it's like they go from I don't know, somewhere from the UK to somewhere in Europe and then something. And but along the way these miraculous things keep opening up for them. And I'm not joking that this gave me at the time so much It boosted my confidence in thinking that look, you know, the way this person he just set out on a journey and Allah just because he says I had no idea how I was going to pull it off, but it happened.

And I thought, you know, if he could do it I can do it. And And I And And I remember I You know, I'd be riding catching these buses here going to work and doing this and I'd be reading his book on the bus. And I'd be thinking, you know, what? Wow, like this I mean it was it was a bit too Sufic as well at the time for me. I wasn't kind of but I but this thing just hit me.

You just trusted that you will be okay. Yeah. And And sometimes I think thinking just about the about the now helps. You know, some people they they plan everything. And And I think that's great. I You know, in some ways I wish I was like that, but I think it's scary as well. You know, you plan everything and and then it's a bit off trajectory and you're worried like I think if you're just worried about the now and let the just worry about the now, the rest Allah will take care of.

Yes. Yeah. Talk to me about the curriculum of the school in Damascus that you studied at. Right. So in Damascus it was You see, we enrolled on this summer school which was about I think it ran from May to about August or something. It was quite lengthy. It ran for a good few months. Right. So that had a a foundational aspect of the different sciences.

So they had a bit of in there comparative, a bit of a bit of Hadith memorizing, you know, from the 40 Hadith of Imam Nawawi, Arabic Arabic grammar. I think it was, you know, to be honest, it was the immersive experience because I had You see, by that stage I knew Arabic at a foundational level. But I wasn't used to kind of speaking it or trying to speak it.

So I could read the Quran and understand several parts. But when I'm speaking, would I say you know, like do I say you know, in the Do I say Do I say You know, like I'm I was And being in Damascus, that gave me that kind of old speak and you know, and And it boosted that I I mean I needed that. So it took me to the next level in Arabic.

And But yeah, so the the summer school was good. But it was just It was like a coverage of fundamentals. Um, yeah, so and general Islamic stuff, sirah, bit of Quran. They had So, they had a bunch of the the different sciences, but just at a reasonably foundational level, just going over stuff like that. And then I after that moved to um a lot of private study.

So, at that time Damascus Remember, this is like something like '97, '98, something like that. So, many shuyukh were still in Damascus it was that and it was that era that there was a lot of this private, you know, people wanted to do durus khassa. They go to a particular shaykh shaykh, you know, can I you know, you can alayka al-kitab.