YouSaid · the spoken record

Omar Suleiman

lines on the record: 194
first: 2023-01-17
most recent: 2023-01-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“With Islam is one that is used to actually carry out acts of violence against Muslims worldwide. It justifies bad policy towards Muslims worldwide. And in the United States, and it's just factually so lazy. There was a study just about how the media gives more attention to acts of violence done by Muslims. And immediately stamps it with Islam up to 300% more than it will. with another act of violence carried out in the name of anything else. So you don't hear about the acts of violence that are carried out by others. You don't hear about the religion of the perpetrators. You don't associate terrorism with actions, frankly, of state terrorism. You know, when governments launch chemical attacks or drone weddings and do so while explicitly dehumanizing the people, just because they do so.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know, we're good for how many mass shootings a year. When's the last time you heard of a Muslim carrying out a mass shooting in America, right? How many of those mass shootings, if you were to scrub the social media, what, 400, 500 mass shootings a year, if you were to scrub the social media of some of those that carried out those shootings, you know, we're good for one or two idiots a year, right? It's unfortunate that you're going to have people that carry out despicable acts of violence. When we as Muslims hear someone in the media say, terrorism has been ruled out as a possibility, while the blood is still on the floor of that Walmart, we already know that the police chief just said that that wasn't a Muslim. Don't worry, you know, that wasn't Al Khari the guy or an Isis guy. It was one of our own, right? And so it's become frankly ridiculous because the association of violence”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That I've been engaged by the Bush administration, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, and continue into the Biden administration, international Islamophobia. And so the hatred of Muslims and the bigotry that is wielded against Muslims on the basis of this idea that we are a barbaric people that ascribe to a religion of hate and violence has had immediate consequences for us no matter where we are in terms of our age and in terms of our experience. We have dealt with that in different ways. The Association of Islam to Terrorism is a lazy association. It's one that ignores both the history of violence as well as its everyday occurrence.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Experienced 9 11 as high schoolers or as college students and remember distinctly what it was like to be a Muslim pre-9-11 and post 9-11, we can relate to that experience and we could identify that juncture very clearly and talk about it and speak to the change in the perceptions of Islam that happened here in the United States and around the world. But a lot of young people are born into that reality and are experiencing the aftermath of it. And unfortunately, I have to deal with the bigotry that has not just taken greater shape in media constructions of Islam, but also policies, right? A lot of the civil liberties of the Muslim community were taken away from us. You read about the Patriot Act, you read about the securitization of the Muslim community and some of the unfair practices.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's crazy Yeah, so when I'm talking to young Muslims and I'm talking about post 9 11, post 9 11, they're like, I was born in 2005. What are you talking about post-911? I'm like, well, you know, I remember being a teenager. I remember being in high school when this happened, right? So a lot of us.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Connection to God on a regular basis, and they found that to be very fulfilling both intellectually and spiritually. And so I was like, that's interesting. You know, if two people in two weeks that went through that journey, so I think Islam is very wholesome, comprehensive when people actually approach it with humility and appreciate what it has to offer.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I call, yeah, I called my Methodist friends. I have a lot of Methodist pastors in the city that I work with, and I said, what's going on here, man? Sending people onto this interesting journey of Buddhism and then Islam. But both of them had a very similar story, which is that they had sought in Buddhism, for example, some of the meditative practices that are found, that really Western religion, which has been dominated by capitalism and dominated by very material things. can be very unfulfilling. They found that in some of the Eastern philosophies and the meditative practices. And then they came to Islam and it combined their belief in sort of the Abrahamic way, it merged their belief in one God and the prophets like Abraham and Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them all with a deep tradition of meditative practices, of consciousness.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think that for a lot of people, they find that Islam has such a beautiful combination of the intellectual proofs as well as the spiritual experiences that often combine what people seek in the Western and the Eastern religion. So I had an interesting two weeks, two weeks in a row. This was August, two weeks in a row. I had someone who converted to Islam that went from that started off as a Methodist, went from being a Methodist to being a Buddhist to being a Muslim. So two weeks in a row I had a Methodist turn Buddhist turned Muslim.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are you looking at a religion that one fourth of the world adheres to? And if one fourth of us were bad, the world would not exist. So are you looking towards this religion that one-fourth of the world adheres to? Are you going to read about the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him? Are you going to read the Quran yourself? Are you going to investigate for yourself what it is that this faith has to offer and find in it a great sense of wisdom, a great sense of beauty, a great sense of truth?”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You need to actually investigate and try to suspend bias, right? Investigate the world's religions, investigate the claims to truth, investigate, use rational inquiry to the extent that the heart becomes satisfied and suspend bias. And you'll be surprised. And so for a lot of people, they come to me and they say, you know, this, this about Islam, I'm like, look, I'm. If you're just going to talk to me about what you've seen of Islam in the media, if you were serious about it, you know, if you're serious about it, then you're not simply going to be satisfied with the highly edited images and distorted facts that come towards you about this religion, right? Are you looking for right? Are you looking for a scapegoat? Islam poses a threat to many people. Are you looking for a scapegoat?”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For my purpose. The first thing I tell them is I say, listen. You need to do is if you're really looking for God and you believe in God, and there are often people that say, I believe in God, but I don't know where to go with this, right? I know that there's something greater. And in Islam, we call that the fitrah, a natural disposition towards the belief in the existence of God. But where do I go from here? You know, what do I do now? And I say, the first thing you need to do is. Need to sincerely say, O God, guide me to the truth. Call upon God sincerely, Sam calling upon you alone, and I'm asking you to guide me to the truth. Show me what it is, right? And that's the heart function.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They actually went and checked out copies of the Quran and started to read about the religion and in their sincere pursuit of truth ended up embracing a religion that they believed was the greatest source of destruction in the world. And now it's the greatest source of peace for them and their own existence and their own lives. And so you have to be willing to engage in a sincere pursuit of wanting to know and then be willing to engage in sincere commitment after you know. Otherwise, the heart rests. And so there's a process in the Quran talks about this, of making the heart like fertile soil towards truth. So you have a sincere pursuit, but then at some point if you come to know and then you ignore what you come to know, then the heart rusts and it becomes harder to recognize at the second time around and the third time around. And so when people come to me and they say, you know, I'm looking for something. I'm looking for God.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and not simply look for comfort and convenience. And when you engage in that journey of wanting to know, you have to engage it thoroughly and sincerely and try your best to remove any bias. I think that's what makes the religion of Islam such a phenomenon for people that with all the Islamophobia and the bigotry towards it, still the fastest growing religion in the United States and the fastest growing religion in the world. And no, that's not all birth rate. Yeah, we have a lot of kids, but many people, you know, you met someone just before we started this interview. Many people, in fact, in a post-9-11 world. Solve what they saw of Islam in the media”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More happiness in the worldly sense. You only approach of it what is therapeutic, so it becomes just as secular in its nature as any other practice of meditation or whatever it may be or some other product. And it kind of mentions, you know, how he took that from a person that is praying in a temple and a guy walks into the temple and bumps into him and then he curses the guy out. So he didn't see his behavior towards that person as part of his trajectory of worship. He just saw his being godly as the worship that he was engaged in. The truth has consequences. The truth has circumstances that are required of you, actions that are required of you that may be somewhat inconvenient. So you have to be willing to engage in a sincere pursuit of truth and look for truth for what it is.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the truth has consequences. So don't seek out the truth unless you're willing to abide by what you find. So a lot of people want to mold their journey in accordance with a predetermined pursuit that they already have. And so when they approach religion, they approach it like another product. You know, there was an article that was actually written by a rabbi. I've spoken about this in several sermons. It was called The Allure of Narcissistic Spirituality. The Allure of Narcissistic Spirituality, where he talks about how religion becomes just another product of your own self-adoration and worship to where you only approach religion to the extent that it gives you”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Find ways to turn things that are otherwise mundane into miraculous acts where we can choose God over ourselves and in the process choose a better fate for ourselves.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. Every single moment contains a set of choices. And that's where the intentionality comes in, right? So the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says that I saw a person strolling in paradise because he removed something harmful from the road. He tells us about a woman that lived a life in prostitution, but that repented to God when she was thirsty one day and she saw a dog that was also thirsty. And she said that I was thirsty and God gave me water, so I'm going to choose to give water to that thirsty dog, and God enters her into paradise as a result of that. Sometimes the small moments with a small sincere deed can have a huge impact on a person's trajectory. So every moment is a moment of choices. And when we choose belief righteousness, a pursuit of something greater, then we”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And a place to where they can fulfill what they want to, of themselves, without any limits, and everyone else becomes either a threat or an opportunity in that regard. So we can be devils, we can be angelic like, we can be animals. We're somewhere on that spectrum.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That can become satanic in their nature because they allow their desires to take such control over them that they not only worship them, but that every other existing being around them simply becomes a piece of their own puzzle and pursuit of their own lordship and their own satisfaction and they will kill. They will discard not because, you know, and I always say this, it's not that tyrants necessarily like killing people. It's that people's lives pose somewhat of an indifference to them. They're indifferent to people's existence. And so you become... Either an object for or against me, and so they're willing to discard children discard people, discard the rights of others, because they ultimately have chosen that the greatest pursuit of themselves is the maximum position of power”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They literally take theirselves as gods in that sense, and their cells have no limitation on appetite. So they just keep filling that appetite and filling that appetite and filling that appetite. Whereas a human being can also go to the extent of choosing something greater and disciplining their desires, disciplining theirselves because they're seeking a greater reward. You know, we know many people that achieve you great things in the worldly sense because they choose to study oversleep, for example. They choose to exert themselves towards their careers, towards their education, because they believe that ultimately the outcome of those pursuits are more rewarding than the immediate fulfillment of their desires. I said we can go as low as an animal or as low as a devil. And we have tyrants, past and present, and future as well.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or even worse to be a devil, you know, to an angel, not in the sense that we ever actually become angels or become animals, but that an animal for the most part seeks its desires over everything, doesn't really think about, you know, many of the things that we are supposed to calculate as human beings, doesn't think about which territory it's infringing upon or how much of its appetite it should fulfill. It simply exists to fulfill its appetite and that many human beings simply exist to fulfill their appetite. And they choose that over worship or reason or anything that is greater.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“who, unlike an angel who has no choice but to worship God, an angel has no sense of will, no sense of choice, an angel is created to worship and has no desires, a human being who has the choice of desire and worship, the choice of righteousness and wickedness, that there are human beings who will choose worship and righteousness, that will choose charity over cruelty, that will choose service, and choose dedication and devotion over death and destruction. that there are human beings that will in fact ascend the angels in rank because they will live lives where they choose that capacity that part of themselves and they lean into that and worship God lovingly and obey him you see in some of the sages in Islam scholars they describe this as saying that the human being has the capacity to be anywhere from an animal to an angel”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. In fact, in the Quran, it's very interesting. When God creates Adam, Angels say to God, Are you going to create? A race or a species that will spill blood and cause corruption, and God says to the angels in response to that question, I know that which you don't know. So even the angels have to humble themselves for a moment. The angels who adore God, who love God, who worship Him, who obey Him unconditionally, they are told by God, I know that which you don't know. And what we extract from that, what many of the early interpretations extract from that, is that God knows that there are human beings that will come out of this enterprise of humanity that make the entire existence of it worth it. And so just as yes, there will be criminals and corrupt ones, there will be prophets and beautiful people that come out of this and sages and saints that come out of this that show that a human”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Without recourse of cruelty, without recourse of suffering than were forced to try to make sense of it. And if you are someone who believes that this entire world came into existence through randomness, that we're just an existence of random atoms that collide with each other and that all of this comes together out of nothing, then how can you put your trust in anything that is greater? So you ask me as a child of a parent who suffered. I believe that every moment that my mother suffered, that she will be rewarded, that she will be elevated, that all of that made her or contributed to the beautiful person that she was and will contribute to the beautiful reward that she receives and the recourse is certain to me as a believer in that.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the day of judgment, a person who lived the most difficult of lives will be dipped into paradise one time and will be told have you ever seen any sadness, any hardship? Now, when you think about the most difficult life, some of the commentators in Islam, they said that this is perhaps referring to the prophet Job, Ayub, peace be upon him, because Job lived, obviously, a life of great difficulty, but that a person who lived a very hard life would be dipped into paradise one time, and just with a dip be asked, have you ever seen any hardship? Have you ever seen any misery? And that person would say, What is sadness? What is hardship? What is misery? Now, if you don't believe in hereafter, if you don't believe in anything beyond this life, then the recourse has to happen in this life. And because we see so many people pass through this life.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Allows for this world to be situated within the existence of something greater and not treated in isolation. So when you're trying to treat an incident of this world in isolation, you're going to fail. And when you try to treat existence in this world and of this world in isolation, you're also going to fail. And so the emphasis is, the belief in God. A God that is not limited like you are, and a belief in the hereafter that is not limited like this life. And so everything continues onwards, and there is divine recourse for everything, each and everything, you know, the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon it mentions that.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The immediate experience in front of me. But if I know God and if I learn about God, then I don't have to make sense of the plan, but I can tell you that I trust the planner. And I think that that's where peace is found. You know, a lot of times you look for the light at the end of the tunnel. What's the light at the end of the tunnel? In Islam, there's emphasis on God and the hereafter. Because to try to make sense of divine decree and why certain things happen in this world without the existence of a God or without the existence of a hereafter will always fail you. So the existence of a God that is all-knowing what we don't know. I know what you don't know that understands what we don't understand. The existence of a God who is not subject to our constrictions and the existence of a hereafter where all things find recourse, where there is divine recourse.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And to isolate these incidents with God and to say the wisdom, what's the wisdom, you're trying to make sense of a pixel when you can't see the bigger picture Your mind is not at a place where you can make sense of the bigger picture. You haven't seen the bigger picture. And so for him to even explain to us every incidence would completely defeat the purpose of putting your trust in him. So we believe in a God that is all encompassing in his knowledge and wisdom, that gives us, and Islam is very specific, by the way, that there is what God tells us to do and there is what God allows to happen. So what God tells us to do in terms of the roadmap towards good and then what God allows to happen in his divine wisdom, that no outcome can escape him, but at the same time we are accountable for our own actions and our own deeds. So when you come to someone and say, you know, why did God allow this to happen to this person? I can't rationalize that for you because I understanding is relegated to.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That doesn't understand the world that it's coming into and trying to explain to that baby that hasn't yet developed its own senses and its own perception of this world. What is happening to it, right? You know, I often think of the example of a child and having been at this point now through the experience of Parenthood. I'm still learning. I'm just going into having a teenager, but three kids and being a softie for my kids, you know, when you have to tell your child that they can't have something that they really, really want. And that child thinks you hate them at some point because why are you stopping me from putting this toy in my mouth and choking me myself? They don't get it, right? But at the same time, you prevent them out of love. They're not in a position to understand that you're preventing them out of love.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a saying that I wanted to ask God about why he allows hunger and war and poverty, but I was afraid he might ask me the same question. God has certainly given us enough food, there is enough food in the world for everyone to have a 3,200 calorie diet a day. God has certainly given us enough guidance for us to not inflict on each other the cruelty that we inflict. When we look to the world around us first and foremost, we have to have a sense of accountability. We are accountable for our own actions. We don't blame God for the evil of man. That's one. But at the same time, we understand that God and His wisdom allows for certain outcomes that we cannot encompass with our own. And that to isolate these incidents and to try to make sense of them is no different than a baby in the womb.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that we are souls with bodies, not bodies with souls. And there's a huge difference between those two things. This is the vehicle that contains us here. This is the material world that we encounter here. But we are not this. And this is not our entire existence. And so the soul continues. This is a life in which we seek to worship him and seek to live in accordance with the purpose that he has set out for us. And after we pass away, our soul continues. Onwards, either to reward or to punishment or to a mixture of both, but it's a realm of accountability. And hopefully it's a realm of reward should we exist in a way that he wants us to exist.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the Quran tells us that God brought us from the darkness of the womb into this life. You were nothing but a dirty drop of fluid, and you became this fully proportioned human being from the darkness of the womb you come into this life Experience it, and then you go to the darkness of the grave only to be resurrected once again.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And in that process, invest in something that's greater, invest in something that doesn't disappoint. And so I believe in God. I believe in the hereafter. And I believe that God will not let any trial or effort in this life go to waste without it being repaid in the hereafter, and so I work towards that. And so life and death, I understood existence to be transcendent early on. That if I believed that there was nothing to life except for life, I would be a very bitter person, but because I know that there is more to it than this. I'm able to exist in it without being depressed by it.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The process we always understood that there was more to life than what other children were seeing it as. And now I know that as an adult there's more to life than what other adults see it as. The material world disappointed early on so that we could see beyond it. And I often tell people that, you know, There are many that grow up in tragedy, orphan children. Refugees that grow up and do incredible things because they immediately see past the Facade, they see through all of the material promises of this world, the deception of it, and that you can choose to be bitter as a result of that, or you can choose to be. And I think that for me, I had to consciously make that decision that I was going to live a life of prayer. I was going to live a life of charity. I was going to live a life of commitment.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I feel like the facade of the material world. Was made evident to me at a very young age. You know, most children grow up. Their parents want to protect them from everything. And I felt that too. My mother wanted to downplay her own tragedy so that me and my brother could live. The hardship of her life so that we could live fulfilling lives. He'd often be the only father on a field trip, even though he was a distinguished professor. I mean, he was a busy man. He was a very busy man, but he tried to show up at a field trip and tried to make our lives as normal as possible.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's been my calling. And, you know, I believe I'll meet her again. I believe I'll be with her again. I believe that everything I do that is good will be of benefit to her, and I believe that it would make her proud. And so as much as I miss her, as much as I am. Fueled to do for her. And so I continued that. And that's kind of become part of my life. It's been my life story. As a child and as an adult, it's been sort of the centerpiece of my life Things that extend her. Ultimately, in the process, hopefully benefit me because I believe that she's a woman who, I pray, is destined for paradise and I want to do the things that would get me there too.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, said that when a person passes away, there are only three things that continue to benefit them, that continue to extend them. A continuous charity or a piece of knowledge that continues to benefit people, or a righteous child that prays for them I want to be that child that prays for her, but also does charity in her name extends her charity, extends what she taught me by being the person that she was. To everyone around me. And there are some times where I don't feel like getting out of bed, sometimes where I don't feel like doing for myself, but I actually feel like doing for her. So everything in my life that I try to do. I try to make it an extension of her.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And she was deeply empathetic. She would shed tears over people that she had no connection to. This is, again, before social media, before the heavy exposure that we have to people in conflict zones, she had to engage every single human being in her life in a deep and profound way because she had a profound connection to God. And she believed that that was her calling. And none of her challenges made her bitter. In fact, they only made her more connected to God, and they only made her a better person until the last breath that she took. Yeah. I mean, yes, absolutely. But I I feel like everything I do is an extension of her.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of my faith journey when I think of great people, when I think of people of faith. She's the first person that comes to my mind because. Despite her challenges, she was always the greatest person that you would meet, anyone that met her, and that knew her, would say I've never met anyone that kind. That was her reputation.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I couldn't engage in those conversations and that I wasn't sinful for hearing them. And what she would do is what people said at her funeral, which was really beautiful to me and was very comforting to me. And I took it as a life mission, that if you were new to a place or if you were kind of in the corner and not known to other people in the community and you felt left out, she was the one that literally would look around the room and she'd see who was standing in the corner and who was new to the community or new to whatever place and she'd go and try to include that person in the gathering. So even when she had impaired speech and impaired hearing with her smile and with her warmth, she was able to welcome people wherever that was. And so the amount of people that came to her funeral and the stories that I continue to hear till this day, fifteen years later, after her passing away, of people that said, you know, no one ever treated me the way your mother treated me. And she connected that to God. So that was actually part.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That she had several strokes, and each one of those strokes impaired one of her senses to some extent. So she was partially deaf because of one stroke. And she'd be sitting in a gathering and she'd be pretty quiet with a big smile on her face, very serene. And she would tell me, you know, Alhamdulillah, which means, thank God. All praise be to God that I can't hear because I can tell when people are gossiping, when people are saying negative things around me about other people, because she says even the look on people's faces changes. So it was really interesting because she was that spiritually rooted and deep that she said like you could see on the looks on people's faces when they started to speak ill about other people that their faces would change, that their demeanor would change. And she said, I would actually praise the Lord.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember my mom to be content. She was a woman of prayer and a woman of contentment. So I used to see her in her prayer clothes all the time. In fact, when I think back to her growing up, I think of her more in her prayer clothes than in her normal clothes because that's how often she was engaged in prayer. And I think of her making sure that everyone was included in a conversation. So she was very interesting.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, my parents were, while my father, thank God, is still alive. My mother was a pious woman, a beautiful woman, a righteous woman, a woman who was known for treating everyone with a great deal of love and respect. She was a poet. She used to write poetry about oppressed peoples around the world, from her homeland in Palestine to the genocide in Bosnia she followed every conflict before social media and poured her heart into it. She was a woman of great charity. So when I think back to my mom growing up, she was known for her smile. My mom was always smiling. And in fact, every picture of her she's smiling. And at her funeral, you know, people talked about her smile, that she would smile at everyone. And that was kind of her thing. So if you were left out of a gathering, she was smiling at you and she'd kind of welcome you in.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I seek the reward for my sleep just as I seek the reward for my prayer, because you sleep to refresh yourself so that you can once again do great things and the intentionality behind that allows even the sleep to be rewardable. You eat, to nourish yourself so that you can do great things. You seek to be in a position of independence, of being sustained so that you can sustain others. So the Prophet, peace be upon him, says, for example, that the upper hand is better than the lower hand. The upper hand is the giving hand, the lower hand is the receiving hand. So to seek a position where you can help other people, everything becomes intentional. And there's no such thing as, you know, something that is meaningless and without purpose. So every pursuit is ultimately a pursuit of God. And when you pursue God sincerely, then he rewards you not just with paradise in the afterlife, but he rewards you with a great sense of serenity and self-satisfaction here.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source