#80 Joshua Dickens: Converting to Islam, Relationship with Family & More

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to go up to him and eventually I started practicing and you know I'll see him in Moscow law I have actually spoke to him we became really good friends out in Cardiff we haven't met in almost four years and what you guys are about to witness is our meeting for the first time in four years we catch up we discussed Joshua's Reaver story how he became Muslim at the age of 18 how he deals with having a non-muslim family we speak a tiny bit about marriage we speak about his job working for the NHS very very very interesting very very inspiring to see a bra for who you know to kiss your heart are very early in his life and he was you know a very balanced life of his Deen and you know how he balances you know being a Muslim but also having a non-muslim family and I've been in non-muslim environment a lot at a time you know and how he maintains a good relationship with the people around him very very interesting discussion with him a lovely lovely Bravo please do make him feel welcome by listening to him because he's very shy as well but he has a lot of benefit to give and I've shared a lot of good times with his problem man we used to study to give our uni and then you know we kind of split up the last time I saw him I wasn't even married so Hannah so much I wasn't I wasn't even working at Apple I so much has happened in the last four years and we met and he basically said yo listen bro I'm coming down to London would love to me I was like we cannot have this happen without you ask me and each hour and then last meeting I was at yo we have so much catch up on your story is amazing how about we catch up on Mike on the podcast and he was like originally he was I don't know about that and I managed to convince him and so I bring to you freshly going to episode 80 with Joshua Dickens a very very interesting episode and yeah we speak game and a bunch of stuff but without any further ado we'll get into it this is episode 80 or freshly grounded with Josh Dickens I said welcome to freshly grounded off the brand new podcast and off of it but best friend's face was sad hey Josh bro so let me just adjust the audio as I nothing but love from this guy and the first thing he says he takes the MEK on me oh you know what mad love for you man bro so we haven't we haven't met since for about almost four years so I think was 2018 now I think he would have when did you finish uni in Carter I think it's fuzzums wolf no no trans 15 I mean 2015 started so yeah it would be about what well 3 to 4 years now yeah because I remember probably the last time we like proper chilled if you if you if you can remember this it was me you Shaheed laughs and Zac as well and we're all going to the SU because we're always doing like LaBrie yeah that's all we're doing yeah yeah yeah opposed Hana so I don't know how to begin man no it's too much of a Baxter how did we meet so I think from what I can remember obviously I was living in kitase at the time when I was in my student place and I remember that I used to go pray on in Dar es I wasn't it and I remember I used to see you in there sometimes like you said for Jummah prayer and I used to be there for Juma prayer yeah that 2 years you do yeah yeah so I used to see you in there like every once in a while yeah and I think one time I remember seeing you there in the morning for Federer I think it was that was probably around the shift yeah well I remember when I saw you in there I was thinking like whoa like this guy's like prop on it you could be doing so so what happened I'm just trying to adjust audio at the same time so that's cool you do can reach me my waist anymore the audio honey but all right I think we're good okay can you test when you Josh yeah yeah dude okay fine no what happened is I saw as like everyone here who knows my story knows is that when I started so I lived three years at uni and I lived like pretty much exactly Harford and me to one and a half years like not practicing yeah and in a hundred ah I started practicing in University I said like the second hot one and a half years I started practicing and forming a bigot even though I wasn't practicing I was still going to do my every Friday because it was just like there's more the cultural thing like you just know to go to Jumeirah for interesting cuz you know what despite the fact that mean you've got history of know each other for quite a while I've never actually spoken to you about that transitional way because if you remember I just used to see you in the mosque a bit more and I remember saying to you like yo we should like link up outside of the mosque and that's when we started catching up if you remember yeah yeah yeah so and then obviously we started chatting because we will go to the mosque and then we go to the Student Union and do work together and stuff so that was like how me and you kind of came about isn't it yeah yeah I mean so I never actually got your like transitions or anything yeah you're fair the deep like version of reality or fair but I give you somebody today but but yeah generally man like a star person and the first thing it's so interesting that you say that you started seeing that fudge it in a Masjid because I remember the the day I decided I'm gonna start practicing I remember I was actually evening hour sat in bed and I thought Rock can't live like this no more like I feel very unhappy I've tried to find happiness everywhere and so what I'm gonna do I'm not gonna do anything crazy I'm not gonna start like like Alice myself I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do anything that's like what a practicing person would do at stuff right yeah so do you feel that there was like a a moment okay interesting and what happened is I decide I search myself you know what I'm gonna do from this day onwards don't do anything else I'm gonna pray for it every morning that's it okay and so what I started doing is outside I woke up that next morning and I woke up and it was crazy hour I worried to the barmaid will do and I'm a tight budget in my bedroom on University bedroom and a university house I was living that time was about a one minute walk my thinks I met you it wasn't because if you remember when you if you actually remember this when you were moving battlin than I can tell your house and we're unpacking some stuff yeah man yeah I remember because it was one of those places that was not far from the Tesco uncle taste Terrace one see this is the thing couple years outside of Wales Nick I remember anything no no you're thinking about my other you're thinking about my third year house oh okay so my second year house was a one minute walk from Doris Darla saw yeah okay yeah so so I started putting fudging the mornings at home and then I just the next step was you know what I'm gonna start going to the message for fudge it's only one minute walking it and I kind of like waking up this early yeah so I started going to the master of a fragile time and that's when you started see me and that was right at a beginning of what now you I've even seen me days into practicing but I used to see you for about a good two years before then in the Masjid on Fridays yeah and I always used to subliminally look at you I spent why it's the white guy who is this white guy I should think it says white guy in a mosque and I think I wasn't usually because I didn't used to hit mosques that regularly over see you know because I wasn't practicing so what I did here mosques it'll be that Pakistani mosques yeah I mean that very cultural it is so weird to see a white person works for me at that time so how do I see you in a mosque laughing Wow like it's you I kind of want to be like this guy you just seem quiet cooler oh good because I always had a perception of people who are practicing on people who spend a lot of time in mosques as people who were boring like like rough-looking not course I've Alan and I would see that you would like have your gym bag with you and you'd be wearing your football jersey and you'd you'd kind of go to the master didn't you'd run off to the gym and I started talking about stars I think an easy car is so small you see people would at once yeah I think you've all right this guy's a normal guy like he goes to the gym he studies at uni and well he just I'm just always seeing even more in a masculine so I think that when I when I build some confidence with the Dean I must have contouring and once I my stuff I spoke to you yeah yeah and yeah man we kicked off and we started going liable to have on staff and yeah I was like wow this guy is so cool yeah I remember the transition because I remember seeing you just every once in a while to see a new quite frequently because at the time obviously I was living so close right to Darras or that I was going there pretty much 2 to 3 times a day just because it was always so close and I remember just routinely seeing you on a Friday then occasionally was like seeing you at perhaps one of the two prayers in a day as well and I remember when I saw you that time with Federer I was like oh something's happening oh no I was like you know this guy I was like this guy must be like by pre serious but it's interesting you say because I must have been like what you said was the transition you know yeah so I wasn't serious but I found loving that Masjid because do you know them a man that who used to lead frigid in that mosque man I'm not gonna lie 5m in the model I'm not clinically alive it was dark and he was the Pakistani uncle be white beard and like very tall yeah yeah so he's actually he's done showing me love for like like huge got treat me nice and I remember one time he was that he's and I my perception of Imams was just like straight people who hit people when they would cry and this uncle obviously was a murmur but I always just show him as an encore example and he come up to me one time he was like after fajar he was like what'd you do now I wanna come have breakfast at my house obviously that sounds weird but you've got bear in mind that like I had been praying for so he got to know me I got to know him a bit and he basically viable to come have breakfast with his family at South I was I Wow like why is he so nice for no reason and he always he must a crock Wallace this kid because I think at the time I must have had some outward sins on me as well at like perhaps he clocked so he might have thought that this could obviously come across at all or yeah and so let me like be nice to him and I I declined it because I was just like oh that's really nice you're probably using X I'm not used in are you sorry put these on so it if I could win it because no one eats before five years but yeah boy so that's how you met master because such people praised to me and we obviously started studying together on stuff yeah yeah yeah so obviously typically I think it went from just catching up and the mosque wasn't initially and then I think I remember actually saying to like yo we should catch her outside of them was because I've seen you so often and I comment what the first thing is we did but I'm fairly soon we just both obviously realized that we had like so much problem so much in common and assignments and doing stuff I remember going to that because I had the I saw cast in Cardiff if you remember as well I had got the Cardiff I strong boys as well I don't know I never vote nice that's what I mean because I used to think you with that crowd see I used to think you rip that's hard and then I think that's what that's what for me when when I got to know you a bit more and I realized that because that's what I mean is when I was seeing you in the mosque and I was seeing you like go to quite a few of the prayers and I've seen you in the morning praying Federer and stuff father that's why I thought like I was like ah he's probably one of those guys cuz obviously they're they're pretty honor and I thought that was you as well you already know Isaac will you no no I wasn't no no no no to be honest you man as you know and probably everyone will find out like I I'm pretty shy something like the idea of doing anything like big I got I can't believe you got me on this to be honest drag me I came to London for the day and I just ended up being dragged in today had no idea I'm not gonna even lie oh yes all right so less there's so many things I want to talk to you about yeah talk about your studies and what you do now for work cause I think it's so interesting and I think that you could give a lot of benefit to people listening okay because the stuff that you do is long-term life-saving really especially if a person was to implement their knowledge that you have in their daily routine with regards to die and suffer that but before we go into what you do now and what you studied I think it'll be amazing to talk about your rebirth story yeah I need the read new this is going well because you leave us don't you kind of direct the effects of what you do now I guess yeah okay quite true well then yeah yeah kinda and and also your story is very interesting just because it's so dramatic you know in ways in because it's to do with your health right well partially I guess in a way so so let's get into it okay so don't really know where to start to Paris it's quite difficult I think especially a lot of people not so much anymore I think because obviously being in Cardiff pretty much for the past few years however and I think being a regular face and some of the moss that I normally go to I don't tend to get anybody that sees me anymore that's like oh like I want to know your back and I want a new story cuz well people already know me now but I think when I first became Muslim and I think I repeated that story like a million times because every time someone would see me they'd be like oh this guy is like a new face we don't know who he is he looks fairly fair-skinned so he doesn't look like he's Arab or Asian or and you know that's a typical Cardiff way typical you do like pig [ __ ] right all I need is a pair of vans yeah I'm sure you have some no I think so for me so it started out about the age of 18 okay sort of thing so I'm 25 now I look a bit older than I am but yeah so start when I was by 18 and I I think so my best friend was Libyan still is my best friend he's Libyan and obviously he's Muslim and that was kind of my first exposure to Islam war or religion in general to be honest with you because I wasn't brought up in a religious family my family APRI chose there relaxed like you know you'd do all you wanna not really too fussed and I think for me like at the time I was kind of the only exposure that I had to Islam was my brother at Suriname my brother my best mate and like obviously as you can remember group this guy was my best mate for years by the way so I've known him since since pretty much day one right so when you think of all the things you see in the media about Muslims how Muslims are portrayed you see what these attacks are so far this I think I was always quite perplexed by the idea that you know this is how people view Muslims and it's what people are saying Muslims are like but then I've also got my best mate I knew his family as well and I was thinking well you know he's Muslim and he's not like this so I always had that open-mindedness in terms of the fact that like what perhaps I was exposed to I didn't accept his like that's what a typical Muslim his life do you see what I mean like I think um I think for me that exposure was always there so I always knew a little bit of by Aslam right but to be truthfully honest back in the day you know Subhan Allah I feel bad for it but like looking back on when we were in high school so I I became most right before starting University so I literally right before going to uni is when I became Muslim right but when I was in college and when I was you know sixth form and all that sort of stuff like I just remember when he used to come into school in like it must come at what time of year would have been but he was obviously fasting Ramadan right and I remember literally just like him being like nah bro I'm not eating I'm like yo you know you want somebody spaghettini like you know you want some of this food and I used to taunt him as a joke obviously I guess as banter and stuff but I never had a true understanding of perhaps why he was doing here no sort of things now the thing for me Rhys I had that like a perception of you know I think I was a typical eighteen year old kids I didn't have insight as to kind of what I was doing where I was going I don't think was that much of a priority for me because you know how you like it 18 years old you invincible on you do you know I mean you don't think that there's a finite time you're here you don't think about the future too much obvious you have a rough idea of where you're going but so many people take things for granted you so I mean like in terms of the fact that you know when I when I'm thirty I want to have two kids and a wife and I want to have a car and this tiny other and you have these ideas but who says you're gonna make it to that age anyway do you see what I mean and I think like you're saying with mentioning with the the health issue like it wasn't actually that much of a significant health issue looking back on it it was just one of those things that I think the symptoms were quite worrying and I think it was purely because I was your typical eighteen year old boy I googled my symptoms and as you know as you google your symptoms like your your what like on your last legs when you go via symptoms like you're you're pretty much like gonna die isn't it you know I mean so you google - Google headache can you've got a brain tumor do you know I mean like obviously I got I got seen while doctors and everything and they all said everything was okay but the hamdullah but the time was quite stressful because obviously like you know they did refer me to like a specialist at the time because like the GP was a bit confused as to why these symptoms were happening but like I think obviously was especially so I mean he said like they did they did scans and everything and they said everything's all good I think you know HMDA lie was good but it was a bit of a wake-up call for me because I think that's when I started to realize like I'm no invincible and you know I mean it sounds a bit dramatic looking back on it because obviously like the health scare wasn't anything major like it's not like I had a major health kit triggered your thought of death yeah and the fact that you know what realistically if I have never experienced something where my health is you know being a bit so far and therefore now that I am experiencing it it's just well I think we're again all denied you know now we've got bad back leg a headache sort of where my reading glasses I got a headache I mean so so yes he basically triggered the thought of death in your head basically essentially like it sounds a bit deep but like I just think it played on my mind a bit and I think I was a bit more conscious of perhaps why I was doing where I was going and what my priorities were and I think what happened from then on is obviously like I said I had that exposure about Islam through my through my best mate and like I said I wasn't from a religious family I wasn't a religious person I did go to like what they call it a church in Wales high school so it's like a Christian school but like it wasn't like a particularly that much of a religious school and not not many people the when they were particularly religious either seeing him no no it's just a thing it wasn't like that it wasn't like that at all it was just under church in Wales so um so obviously I had some exposure to religion in some aspect or another but my exposure to like Islam other than what I was getting through my best mate was just your typical re lessons you know when they show you that picture of like the Moon the crescent moon yeah and then they say like Muslims have like the five pillars and they give you that information but that's like about that's about all your exposure is right so I found obviously after having nice you I start to think a bit more about perhaps what I was doing and I I think subconsciously I always had an faith in God's I was always like I always had like this idea that you know I believed in God but I guess you could say I felt more under like the perhaps a christianity concept of God at that point but I wasn't religious in any way shape or form so I wasn't a practicing Christian or anything like that but I did believe in God do you see what I mean and I think because I had that faith that that's what made me start to think a bit more perhaps when I saw my best mate who was Muslim as well and like you know when we were chilling with the boys seeing him being when he was like I need to go pray or like you know when when his Ramadan who's fasting I just started asking questions I was like ah but why like why are you doing this why are you doing that and what you get an understanding it's like typical curiosity do you know I mean like I wasn't for anything in particular and I just found the every time he was giving me answers I was kind of like okay you know like I can see ya and I think to be honest with you as well I can only speak from my perspective but I think a lot of people will have like perhaps a certain perception of what would be Islamic do you see what I mean like I would say despite being very good friends with a Muslim at the time and obviously growing up in Cardiff I grew up in quite a multicultural area so I was exposed to all Muslims and I knew al are Muslims as well but like there were still so many things that I thought were Islamic that weren't like as an example like um forced marriages okay like I remember it's quite funny when I became Muslim the first thing I said to one of the sheiks was like does this mean like I have to marry someone that you suggest for me and he was like yeah what do you wanna be like he was like or do avails like I don't know man I don't have much of an like figure I mean so the perceptions was always yeah he probably won't even remember if I told him again but he laughs at the time so um yeah it's just one of those things I think you you have certain concepts of perhaps wise normal language and but I think when you get a bit of a better understanding of religion you start to understand that perhaps certain elements of culture do you get mixed in and that is very true especially when it comes to Islam I feel that you know the more I'm exposed than the more I learned the more I realized actually there's quite a lot of culture especially you know different types of communities of you have their different influences but I think there's definitely like certain practices that I thought were Islamic but then after getting more knowledge as I as I progressed I started to realize actually this is more of a cultural thing and it's not Islamic reducir I mean and I found that was typical of perhaps a lot of the things I thought were problematic with Islam to me like for example like I said with the forced marriages trying to think of other examples but like they were just certain things that perhaps I wasn't that keen on but I thought were part of the religion but then turned that they weren't you see what I mean and then I think obviously for me at that point I started to just get a bit of a better understanding of perhaps what the religion was and I remember actually at the time started speaking to perhaps some people of knowledge some people who knew certain things and I think the answers they were giving me I started to just get a bit of a better kind of understanding of perhaps what they were saying and I also agreed what they were saying as well and I think that was perhaps the biggest thing for me is like when people are you know giving you this information and you're you're agreeing with it you start to think well hang on a second if you're telling me this and I'm like I'm understanding it then you know do I need to look into this a bit more do you see what I mean when you started questioning about Islam like so or just to kind of clarify it after that after the issue with your health that made you think more about where why you're here and then you started questioning Islam well you were you Muslim at that point no okay so you started questioning people about Islam you said in your own research yeah yeah exactly and so what led from from that you take your Shahada and what was the times what was the kind of time difference so the time difference is relatively quite short I would say it's probably probably a couple of months I think so I mean I became Muslim it's quite funny actually I became Muslim like two weeks before Ramadan oh really yeah yeah yeah it's like two weeks before without I had no idea yeah I did yeah it's to be honest you the one thing that I'll say about me as a person it's not necessarily a good quality but very very stubborn like if I'm gonna do something I'm gonna do it like no one can tell me otherwise and I think like obviously when I became Muslim people like all you don't necessarily need to fastest your first year and I was like now if I'm gonna do it like I'm of course I'm gonna do it I mean so I think yeah so the transition period really was just I started to ask more information my best mate his dad he was giving me a lot of information as well and he was sitting down and talking to me and I just like I said I found the I started to make a bit more sense and I start I noticed that I started to get this kind of inclination to start doing things perhaps like so for example I cut out pork at that point okay but I wasn't Muslim right I wasn't Muslim so I started cutting out pork just because I felt bad for you I don't know why I felt bad for him Porter I mean started only go into halal places like I remember legit like when I was in my when I was in college and we were going for food with a couple of the boys and I remember like it wasn't a halal place and I ordered fish the money no offense to the Bengali brothers out there but I hate fish man I hate fish I can't unknow so so you cloaked yourself doing these things you're thinking holding a second do you like why am i ordering fish but I have no reason to not either me yeah exactly but like I I felt this inclination to not to not do because I felt like I shouldn't do you know at that time it was because you were more interesting his laughs and this is the thing that I so I remember I went to the mosque and it was oh so actually this is the most interesting part the story so when obvious like I said I had this interest there was so in the gym that I was going to at the time there was this Algerian guy right a really really lovely guy but I knew his Muslim man the guy had like sick beard mashallah I sick beard and like you just I just knew you as a Muslim and I was speaking to him sometimes and I remembered there was this mutual guy that we spoke to right that was in the gym and obviously I'm not gonna say his name with I don't want exposed the guys the guy for the stuff that he's doing hopefully you know shall I he's a bit more practising now but I remember him speaking about going to Jamar right to this Algerian brother okay but I actually remember him before speaking to the Algerian brother because he came over to join our conversation he was talking about going to town last weekend okay and getting a bit a bit smushed that wasn't the rest yeah exactly exactly and I remember just thinking hang on a second I'm not exactly a chef right but I know this make sense yeah it doesn't make sense to me so when he walked off obviously I didn't say to the Algerian guy there was him specifically but I was like yo I have a question I was like so I'll cause haram right and he was like yo like you know the words here's like haram how did you know that and he was like so do you like do you know a bit about a slanty I was like well you know I'm interested in exhausting I had that exposure to my best mate I was getting to know a bit more about Islam just to like my own reading and stuff and I said too much I'm quite interested like you know just for your curiosity point of view remember at this point in time I had no like I didn't have an intent to convert or anything you were only 18 which is so young yeah yeah I just had interest in it because I was always one of the things hamdulillah my mum was really good for when she raised me was being very very open minded like my mum is very very relaxed on all fronts and I think that that transcended into me being very relaxed as well so I'm not like you know I'm quite a relaxed person I mean you know me man so so I'm always child away I said OMA before you got here I said when you meet Josh like you're gonna find it weird because we're in London and you just not that a lot of people are horrible but you but it is a massive difference in like the people in Cardiff and all people outside London people inside London just as we discussed earlier you were saying that you know you open the door for someone and they were kind of did you like really weird victim with this blank look like why you open the doors in Cardiff like you're just speaking to stranger that normally as if you knew him on a random chat with an old guy on the bus stop was like a standard Monday morning thing on the way to work right but here everyone's got the headphones in yeah so I said I'm this in London by the way to Omar said when Josh comes in here you'll like you might be stalled by how friendly he is that live will freely us are there's something about the world Charlie's man there's something by the wash action mess it's friendly as well I think would you say I've got a Welsh accent you got Cardiff accent yeah yeah I I don't know because it's funny but definitely not from the valleys but but this is the thing though right so so the place that I work is in the valley sorry were quite a bit off-topic I'll come back down now it's a pod cos square the place that the place that I work in the valleys riders like proper well she right so everyone's like oh yeah but I wasn't going right so this is like you know proper valleys so when I go to when I go to work like everyone there he was like really Welsh they're always like yo you sound like you're English but that's just because like my marks and it's so diluted like I don't have a proper Welsh accent but then what I caught the border and I come to England everyone's like yo you're not from around here yeah hey do you know what I mean so it's quite strange that like that people can tell that difference but anyway sorry just to come back to the earlier story so like I said I spoke to him and I said to my bar like you know my the guy drinking alcohol however obviously I didn't say the brother specifically but I just asked him the question about like is it Haram or whatever and he said to me like ah and he said you should come to the mosque sometime right and I was caught it to be truthfully honest I'm not gonna lie I was a bit like whoa like now like that's a bit too much for me because like I said my concept of the mosque was he and loads of scary-looking elders with huge beards walking in to the mosque by my house and they all look really unfriendly no offense but like you know what I mean it was like no I'm not really that keen on I thought I'd be uncomfortable but I saw him in the gym a couple of times after that and I remember one day he said to me like are you sure you don't want to come I just thought I got no plans tonight I'll just go like I'll go and see what it's about and subhanAllah right so I went in after the gym yeah well so I went home I showered cuz he was I go home and shower first and I'll come pick you up because he lived not far from me so I went home shout what I didn't know at the time that his wife was a white river as well yeah yeah so so he said go home shower I'll come pick you up so um he he came to my house a bit later obviously I didn't know at the time but it was like around Isha time right so he he picked me up drove me to the mosque and he just grabbed the seat for me at the back sat me down and then obviously they were doing the call to prayer I at this point I'm sure I had no idea what was going on I was like yo what is this guy singing in Arabic man I'd like I had no idea right so yeah I just remember there every person that came in came in took their shoes off looked at me and said I am a and then shook my hand and then went to pray and I remember just thinking like actually everyone's really friendly like I don't know what I was expecting but I was quite shocked I was like why everyone's really friendly this is quite nice and then I remember the imam afterwards was just like - obviously the guy introduced me to the imam and he was like why don't you just sit down have a chat and like to be honest here in my head i was kind of like yeah i'll sit down but like you know don't expect me to like convert anything like I'm just here for like curiosity I want to get some more information like I'm not I'm not here to like become Muslim or anything either and I remember sitting down with him for ages and this is where a lot of the myths got dispelled for me so where I was like you know what about this or like I don't agree with this what about this and like I don't agree with this thing I don't agree with this thing like a lot some of the controversial things they usually come up when you google Islam you know what I mean like you know where it's like are killing non-muslims all this stuff I was like what what is all this like I was like you know I don't agree with any of this and I've done a bit of googling man what I said I did a bit of googling a guy just laughed straight up you just laugh to me is like oh god here we go it's kind of similar to how we're talking about anyone you google your symptoms like all this information comes up there sure you need to know how to filter in them yeah I just got like although the mist with the spout for me and like he basically said to me name every problem you have and I will counteract that problem and tell you what we actually believe so I was in there for about two hours bro yeah I told him everything yeah I taught him everything where I said like I'm not happy with this I'm not happy with this and he just kind of contracted it and to be fair masha'allah the brother was really liberal he was really nice he was really relaxed and obviously as you know I'm quite liberal myself so I responded to that I don't think I think he perhaps if he's a bit more Conservancy was like this is this this I perhaps wouldn't have responded and yeah he gave me all this information and it was quite funny at the ncos like listen I've answered all your problems you're happy with my answers why you know Muslim and I was just sat there I looked at him blankly and I was like you know no no no no no I can't be that's a fantastic audience because I was just like you know like because I didn't have a full understanding of Islam I didn't really know much and obviously I appreciate the guy for his time and he had given me all this information and obviously I agreed to go the information he's telling me but I was still a bit like like no no I'm not ready for this so I just kind of said like look I really really appreciate your time but I'm not quite ready for this yet and he was like that's fine here's like just you know go home take your time and just come back whenever so I remember going home and there was this like we it's hard to describe but there was this like really like strong feeling of like I knew I needed to take sure harder to be Muslim I knew that at the time and I was like what if I died now like this exact second like I wouldn't be Muslim and if I believed in Islam then I would believe you know you need to be Muslim in each section how to etc etc and I was so like so perplexed by the house so so like like I had this such a strong inclination and I remember literally the next day the next day I went to the mosque and I said to the guys like look I think I think I'm not gonna be saying but I think I'm interested and I think that it could be something for me but I just kind of want to have this discussion with you I'm within 45 minutes I took Shahada and I was just sucked and I remember right I took Shahada there was broad the adrenaline I was shaking literally right and he we took Shahada Saturday and I'm ever just sat there like everyone left the room last Saturday and I was like what just happened so how many people did you take your heart in front all so obviously the Imam was there but there was like two or three guys that were there because it was wrong the her time right so there was two or three guys who were there and like I think when they saw me in there they were just interested to see kind of like what I was there for and how they could help however and actually I'm really sorry I common with the guys name but he actually when I became Muslim stayed back for like an hour and a half and just told me about like prayers and hard to do them and I remember just given this book of like Arabic words and I was just like I don't even know what I'm doing with this this is gonna be difficult it didn't take that long to learn actually I think because you know I think when you're reciting in five times a day consistently you pick it up quite quickly but yeah it was just it was weird the whole transition was was quite quite quick like I said obviously from the moment of starting to ask my best mate a bit more about religion to then eventually being in the mosque and and taking a Shahada was quite a quiet we're talking a period of perhaps two to three months it wasn't that long but obviously bearing in mind during a two to three month period I was doing a lot of reading a lot of I was watching a lot of YouTube videos and you know people like Abdul Rahman Murphy Sohaib Webb was another one as well Newman Alikhan was another one so I was watching these guys and I just think I really I'm one of those people I'm very very very relaxed as you know I'm very very liberal very very short so I think I really responded because I think when I first started googling and I think obviously it's nothing against my best mate my best mates dad but when he was giving me videos he was giving me videos of like really odd videos from Islam channel you know I've liked these 6570 yeah yeah it was hard to relate to and I think I was like you know I appreciate it and I'm not necessarily disliking the content I'm listening to you but I find it hard to relate because let's be real men like a lot of the times when you're your first interested in Islam you see it as a religion that's typically followed by you know you see a lot of Asians Arabs and you don't tend to see that many white guys that's why you're kind of like what but I think that's why people like Abraham Murphy or like Sohaib well that's why there was such a good gateway for me because I was like yeah this guy's quite quite similar to me you see what I mean like I was looking at this white this one guy I know obviously I'm Drive man if he's not a river or whatever but like you're seeing these guys and they're relatable yeah that's what I found so interesting because I remember so so youth it's crazy because there's another thing I wanna talk about which is the concept of the fact that you've actually been a Muslim now for seven years yeah seven and I've actually only been practicing for four well five to five now so you can be Muslim for longer than I've like been serious like a serious Muslim right and so I remember when I started practicing you actually kind of took me under your wing and I remember you know you you bought me you you told me about Murphy yeah and I started watching his videos and just like you for me it wasn't it was an amazing gateway because I came across this guy who was so chilled and will talk about Islam but who talk about love and love the eyeshadow yellow and her had for the Prophet Solomon and and vice versa and he would act out and he'd like him like I think there was that one video I linked it was really funny I come here he was talking about I think what the one thing I was surprised about is ie to me add up when he was already quite surprising that someone was a white practicing Muslim right but what really took me by surprise was the fact that he was born Muslim and then we actually his parents who reverted and I was like wow that's amazing I think I'm not mistaken I think his mom's Egyptian if we're talking about the harmonic okay right I think his dad I believe either said the other parents or his pet one his parents easily I believe so definitely at least one of his parents is Areva and it gets me thinking about now because we're now living in a time where when you see a white Muslim it still more from there not when you see them you're like ah so like it's weird because I think obviously being a Y Muslim now I think obviously Cardiff is quite a small place and I think obviously there doesn't tend to be I mean there's quite a few white Muslims I can definitely think of a few from the top of my head that I've met and not of them quite young as well which is really interesting but it's quite funny because when you go to London like when I speak to some of my friends were from London they're like yo why reverts like a standard just go to a mosque there's loads of them and I've been raising for you to meet Sam here because obviously well not just because well I think he's like I've watched quite a lot of your podcast and Instagram posted stuff so I see a lot of these guys and I've always thought like it'd be really should have we should have arranged that yeah I did I did just drop him a line like really quickly to say like hey I'm in London because it's by the way it's been three years since we've seen each other and like and I like let's applaud cause yo yo you need to you need to say the story about perhaps why like what kind of initially started it because Mia go into that yeah yeah yes just official Felice discussion yeah and because I have so many questions about your heart as well but what was gonna see is that we're now going into a kind of age where yeah you'll see in white Muslims and it's no longer that they will reverse but I happen to like like is they just born Muslim and so that even even you yourself right when you have children so I think one of the most like one of the most beautiful things I think especially when you look at places at the UK is that because we have such ethnic diversity is like man I love it when you meet someone you're like so where are you from they're like on my mum's Egyptian my dad's like my dad's Pakistani my grandmother's like Somalia something like yo your mix is so cool like I love that man I think even the other way around like for example Sam you know who presents his podcast as well he's his two boys I'm sure they like you know the mom's British the desperation and and you can see these two baby boys the why English British papers who have all of their British culture you know the Sam loves and you know his British culture and stuff but they bought their my son Britain also think yeah they bridge through and through this one when people are like like oh man so do you do you go out for like biryani and stuff I'm like nah man hotdogs and burgers all day bro Domino's Nando's the Forex man you can't you can't get any more like a cool man because that's that's how it should be my cuz Islam Islam is like a way of life but it's not saying oh you have to eat Bologna okay cool secure this to brother so we were discussing we were going off on a tangent about yes apologies I think we've gone off on massive tangents let's go away through this so when you take your heart oh yeah how long did it take for you to take your harder and then for you to actually be praying five times a day and to learn a solo because even your Arabic tongue now people probably notice that it sounds like or normal like you you know the people who probably speak good Arabic are probably probably thinking I think for me your Arabic tongue is great good I think it's because so for me I I think perhaps one of the things I find quite I guess is quite um not sad but like one of the things that becomes quite challenging I think a lot of people perhaps young reverts as well as they get older they'll probably experience the same thing but I think you know perhaps when you're 18 19 years student you have a lot more spare time I think I was a lot more proactive perhaps when I was 18 19 20 and learning Arabic and dad reads and all the things that come in between I think one of the things as perhaps now that I'm working for time and you know you get a bit tired and I think if anything it's more of a reflective thing for myself in terms of the fact that I do need to start picking up a bit more and get a bit better from that point of view because I think you know Tom DeLonge my Arabic is okay but I could I could improve you know like you always think to yourself I think one of the things I find perhaps most significant especially when you work in like for example if you work in the health service and you see people on a day-to-day basis and you see people perhaps you and world or people who who are going through tough times and you start to realize like at the moment hamdulillah like you know I've got a stable job pretty comfortable my health is good like why am I not taking advantage reminds me of that hadith is now I'm not gonna I'm not gonna quote it just in case I miss quote by like we talked about take advantage of you know your your youth before all day Jai Alai yeah but it's like you know it's really important to to take advantage of the time that you have isn't it because because you know obviously hamdullah young I'm fit I'm healthy there's there's no issues and this is the time where I should be most proactive and that's that's a reflective thing for me I think and hopefully other people and perhaps if you're listening to this you feel the same way as well as there you know there's no better time that the present I think actually recently I remember I was going through my drawers to clean up and in my bedroom and I found the jury we've got that book whereas like a hadith a day a comment by the author it's like it's like a it's like a little green book and it's got the it's got Arabic writing on the front and it's like daily so you have like day one to day 365 right each day is like a new ADIZ to read and I got that book out and I was like man I remember the days where I used to pick this up and read it from start to finish in one go so now what I've done is I've actually put it on my desk in my room and I'm just like every morning I wake up I turn over I read it and I just tried to take some some kind of learning from that but it's always about just consistently like remembering isn't it like obviously I think every single person in a walk and always do a bit better than what they're doing there's always room for improvement so I think just as long as you acknowledge that room for improvement you're being proactive then I think you're it's a positive isn't of course of course do you know I mean so guys just before we carry on going into the podcast but love to let you guys know about our sponsors away I know that sometimes you know it can be frustrating it's into sponsorships and listen sponsors and adverts on the podcast but in order for us to cut you know keep fresh you guarded go in and maintain it and to keep pushing out great content for free and we do have to be able to oh no the cameras gone off during the advert okay back as I was saying we do have to keep freshly ground running without any further ado this podcast is Butchie boy warhead invest guys what it allows you as you guys know to invest your money it's a Hallel companies and they do compliance screenings they do financial screenings and you can in you can invest as little as 100 pound I just had a very fresh new ganji.com for such weight invest your money they make sure that your money goes into companies that are that have rock bond through their Islamic compliance screenings which means that they're not companies that do alcohol tabacco adult film films or anything like that you're going to clean Hallel companies and you watch your money grow it's a long-term investment plan and yeah you can essentially just put a bit of money in every mark for whenever you want and you can just forget about it so and you could check back one day when you're retired and you can see that you have a whole bunch of assets and mother that you can take out so do check out a special guard up con force that's what ahead let's get back into the episode so I guess it makes sense for us not to Paul you just mentioned earlier which was about how the story or basically how this whole thing started oh oh yeah yeah I guess when we obviously met oh wait no you were met with the whole time we knew each other I was never on YouTube I didn't have a pod no no no so so I remember obviously me me and Faiz you know at that time we got quite close to me because we were chilling probably like three four times a week and we were staying into the in the Student Union to like what 1:00 2:00 a.m. every night if you remember we'd go grab some food like proper late me and the boys and we would chill because we were always doing deadlines last-minute because you know how is my uni students were so organized and yeah I just remember that you know obviously we got quite close over a short period of time because it was weird because despite the fact that you knew we'd only kind of started chillin like two three months before that point like we chilled quite a lot in a short space of time and I think it was that mutual like like we were so similar isn't it you know I mean I think we got along really well Jenny were like you just meet someone and you have like an instant affinity to them you're just like like I like this person and I want them to be around me a bit more because you know when you've got good people around you you know I mean like sometimes like not in a rude day but sometimes you meet somebody and you just think I don't know if this person would be a good influence on me you just get a viable people sometimes I personally yeah it's not to be disrespectful towards anyone particular but like sometimes you just know certain people are good to have around you and certain people perhaps not so much and I think with you I instantly felt like you're a good person to have around me but anyway watch on there off on the tangent talking about the initial story so before we started this podcast actually I was speaking to files about like the story I don't think you fully remember daddy I did I still in my head so so essentially it was one really really really late nights in the SU we were walking back through Kitase that's how good story start yeah one really late night so we're walking back through Kitase and I remember we stopped outside that we will play so the noodle bar obviously was shut because it was like once a in the morning crazy like that and I remember you cuz you'd mentioned a couple of times like I've been quite interested in doing a bit more things on social media right and I remember saying to you like you should go for it like just just go for it because you're quite creative for sure man I think you can see that with obviously like the clothing and the hats and everything obviously with the podcast and the YouTube as well and I said to you you should you should do it like you should go for and I member you're like you're a bit like yeah I'm really keen and then you tried to get me on board as well I remember you being like we should both do it man I was saying like let's do one together yeah yeah like a white guy a brown guy both Muslim like it would be so sick I'm like I just remember like for obviously a lot of people watching this is probably the first time that you've had exposure to me but I'm quite a shy person very true I mean Faisal knows getting me on here right now speaking on a podcast in front of camera is a miracle and I'm not gonna lie might have caressed me slightly heavy I might have no even known I was doing this alleged yeah I know how much benefit you can be granted a figure out oh you're gonna argue against that by I think already the people can listen and realize that this appreciates I think yeah and I think you know I I said to you and he tried to get me to do as well so any first when you made your first youtube video you were saying it was when you moved back to London wasn't you actually agree to it I did you did because imagine I'm not gonna lie I was a bit flaky really we we decided we were not Leicester YouTube channel to give our yeah and then you said oh well we came across the problem that oh well you're going in a couple months you're going back to London yeah because I was like you're going to London I'm in Cardiff I was like how are you gonna do a YouTube channel together it's gonna be quite difficult and we were discussing potentially I'm making a bulk of videos every couple weeks yeah yeah yeah cuz I was like maybe we could do two videos but I think for me ultimately I think obviously quite quite shy and I didn't I don't know if I was that comfortable being that out there so I think I was quite nervous about that I think obviously you know the one thing I'll say about you is you never pressured me into doing a bureau is quite you you were like aw it would be really good if we could do this together but I understand if you don't want to do it and I think obviously when you move back to London unfortunately man like life takes over when you're working for time remember you because you with Apple then as well we knew yes yes oh I remember you started working Apple because if you remember I think we spoke on the phone like after one of your first shifts because I was saying to you like because me at me and fires have been consistently saying I'm gonna come Cardiff and see you and I was like now I'll come to London we were always yeah and like it never happened he never happened there and I remember we spoke on the phone is probably when the last time you had like proper proper contact by men be saying somehow this probably shows you how long ago it was but fires was like man I think like you know there's a potential for marriage and you know my life is moving forward and I'm I'm starting YouTube now I've bought like things to do vlogging and I think you put up if I remember correctly one of your first videos he was like something to do with like em something to do with you Nana I think it was yeah yeah yeah yeah I remember you posted that video and you you messaged me and was like yo like I just posted on my video like go wash it man like give me some support and I watched and I remember messaging you back and being like you know the video is really funny man I really liked it and I I mean these are the times when he was on like 125 views but I remember when we were - no I mean in Cardiff before I decided you to blame the government but obviously snapchat was back then okay I'm snap chat man but back then I was that really heavy on snapchat and I Mumbai used to get 60 views 6-0 and I used to black oh my gosh your snapchats gone mad quite enough I still got my snapchat oh say no more my friendlist royally and I usually I was getting 60 views and I was like I'm kidding 60 views up yeah big like there's people watching me that don't know buzz when I got 23 likes on Instagram I'm not gonna lie to me I remember I used to like I because before on Instagram when you got 11 likes it will turn into a number I yeah I remember eleven right away yes I love likes I remember those days bro literally a hundred percent and I remember once before I this is quite sad actually please don't judge me but I remember when I first died Instagram because I was quite into my body burning wasn't I was into my so clearly our disaster train yes or train but so I was most consistent to my staff recover bro the problem is staying naturally you got a limit but especially with my genetics as well you know I mean so I think you know i I've always had that kind of like consistency when it comes to the gym is tougher than I think that's to be honest you that applied into general life has always been a good thing because I think when you take those principles if you're quite you know quite um you know you're dedicated I think that and you know you're willing to put yourself out to to achieve something or do something like for example you know there's nothing worse than finishing a 13 14 hour shift in work and then driving home it's pitch-black it's dark and you're just thinking Jim really do I really want to do this I'm up again in like eight hours I really don't want to go but man I think that that's that's something I think you can apply to your general life and even your Dean as well is there like you just got a even in times where you're not motivated or because let's face it man especially when you come into your Dean as well like a man it's like a roller coaster ride sometimes you're you're really motivated you're Dean is sky high and then perhaps sometimes you're not so motivating your Dean is a little bit low and that happens to everybody I think and that fluctuation I think even outside of teen that happens to people and in just their general everyday life doesn't it and I think sometimes when you've got that ability to push through and work hard and and realize that you know you might be at a dip at the moment but but that'll change I think that consistency is a good thing to apply to sir every elements of your life do you know I mean definitely and I think it is similar to what you were saying like you know when you were first doing snapchat 60 views you know I mean 11 X 11 locks on years to come i now look man I mean what you have like thirty thirty thousand followers on your Instagram masha'Allah I remember just this is the thing is that I just think you you blow up all of us because I remember you you saying to me like watch this video and give me a like and a support and you go bigger when I stop message to you that's exactly what it was like you're only Josh anymore no his head swelled up man he went a bit crazy like he did some mad stuff the ego kicked now joke is some part of us the one thing I'll say about you man is the ego is ego is nothing for you man mashallah especially during the entire transition you still the same person that's the thing man like three years of not seeing you and like as soon as I saw you in the entrance cuz he it's a massive hug he paid for me to get uber from the place that I'm staying to come here by the way like typical Cardiff boy right so like I know we have uber in Cardiff but I'm just like yo what is this technology oh really because you like you're gonna and you like okay but listen what's your address just in case just in case like I get the wrong goober all right bro dope is gonna make you up and I'll bring you here yeah but just in case cuz there's no surprises it does I would technology bro don't worry just get the thing is like so so I think obviously Cardiff big say a small city mentality so I think let's say into fires like when you're in Cardiff you can walk in like yeah you can walk everywhere and like even if worst case scenario even if you need to get a bus or a train like it's not that complex you got I mean I must say London on Plex but to someone who's not got that or not spent that much time in London like when you see the tube maps and you see all these like lines intertwining and stuff I'm like well I don't know what I'll do if I don't know what I get lost I would never I've never taken public transport car if not I think one bus because I could literally walk from my house and there was a Saudis I would walk from my house to my lecture yeah and from my lecture go to maybe the gym and from a gym I'd go shopping in like st. Davids and then from there I would go maybe like I have to do some like get some stuff from Lidl or Tesco and I will go and all of that that try day I've just walked and even though even even that I've just talked about one big circle Gavi like from Tesco to my arms and kitties thank you dancing card it's like you're you have a pretty like central area like Katie's in Cardiff is pre free peak for students isn't it like lures students are there and I think like like you have what little Tesco Sainsbury's you have pretty much card if you need like right on your doorstep as well so as a result like you never really have to venture away from that do you no I mean like you have your little bubble and that's funny yeah yeah actually took me a long time to like adjust back to London because I also used to Cardiff and I'm the one I first got my lease it's my wife like how do you feel about moving to Cardiff much a lot on the marriage by the way it's exactly okay yeah he trotted kept that one quiet laugh for me for me actually I think I because I think a lot people were surprised but to be fair so so to give a background on that I just remember that when father was working for Apple I think you you rang me and you said cuz I remember when when me and you were in uni like I think obviously being young like your life bro bro hundred percent marriage talks is like bro I need to get married like now I need to get married and to be honest you Subhan Allah is probably for the wrong reason some would like to you know I haven't bought I can't say it on my console I don't know what you want me to you know save I somebody say it now were you gonna drop I'm a bit nervous now I'm over the lights I was about say that I remember we talked about magic so I was like okay so like you know we made like like I do I think I'm I started all do you want to get money to like a white Riva yeah okay say no more I know you go but yeah so it was nice to know that you were my authority culture yeah alright so but before we cuz I do also definitely wanna go into your job in your field because I think it's a benefit now but one thing I know about you and I suppose anyone who knows you personally knows is that you're very very close your family and you love you and your family loves you proper mama's boy even ashamed are you very close Jordan sister yeah yeah for sure it's not so little anymore Maddie she's 18 Wow I know so how was it telling them that you become Muslim did they know did they know during the build-up that you interested in here and and what surely should be not with them since because it seems from the outside like it's always been great has been great and inshallah will continue to be wait may I bless you and your family yeah I think what's been thinking I think so for me like I said my mom is very very liberal like I said earlier and there was never it's quite sad when I speak to some other people you know they've had perhaps difficulties like you know whether it be from misconceptions of family members or anything like that it's quite sad to hear but I think I've been very lucky because my mum was always so relaxed so understanding and she she she knew because obviously when I came home from the gym that night I was like I'm going to the mosque and she was like why go to the mosque for and I was like oh you know I've been looking into it a bit more and she was like okay you know that's fine you do your thing um like I said because my family is so liberal and they were just kind of like my mum brother and sister and everyone they've they've got that mentality of like if it makes you happy do it but was there not a period of time when they were worried about you not really no I think it's because my mum knows that I'm very level-headed person I'm not somebody to to jump into things I'm very very cautious like as a person I'm quite anxious so I don't ever do anything without thinking of all the possible scenarios do you see what I mean like when I do anything when I go anywhere I think what could go wrong what could happen like that's just how I am as a person and I think she knows that I would never make a rash decision so she knows that you know there was a gradual transition I was always open whether I said like you know I've been quite interested in looking more into religion and stuff either so she knew the entire time there was something I was interested in my brother was living out of the time and I think he's similar thing like my brothers like you know if it makes you happy just do what you want I don't think he fully understands why I'm Muslim because he does you know he's your stereotypical you know why British no you know not as anything wrong with that but like I think he's very very much you know he's quite a theist so he doesn't really understand how's your relationship with him changed not all and he's respectful with feather you 100% amazing there's the occasional jokes where he's lying on a beer after a long hard day at work but he's obviously it's not like to be expected someone right yeah guys join a pork sandwich yeah but like it's ordered oh she will she cook her own meat in the house yeah really yeah well how did it go how did you explain to her look mama want to eat look when you buy a food for me can you make sure it's hello so I think for me actually I'm quite lucky because we live opposite and as they're in Cardiff and it's Halloween he's got a halal butcher yeah so so my mum was just she was just kind of like look if you want her on me just just go buy it that's fine fine oh you know like obviously the only exception reading that makes it a bit difficult is pork isn't it yeah but like my apart from my mum who has the occasional bacon sandwich like no one in my family really ate so anyway so my sister's a strict veggie no one really drinked my brother has the occasional if he's had a really long day at work but we never really have any in the house to be honest oh I think he's got like a thing of Jack Daniels in his room that he hasn't touched for about six years okay and he uses now because he put the Jack Daniels that I'm probably lighting it looks pretty cool I'm not gonna lie yeah yeah yeah so so I think I mean obviously there's the occasional thing where like you'll go to so for example one of family members got married and it was during Ramadan and they they made food obviously at like 6 o'clock but couldn't break fast and tell about like half a woman was like come on it's a special occasion like you can and graduation as well when I when I graduated from uni it was in the middle of Ramadan and my mom was just like on you not fast today and have like a family like you know family meal for your graduation I just think it's education like I was just like now you know obviously fasting is really important my mum was like that's fine I think he's amazing because but she was like she literally said though she was like that's fine but like all the family are coming down so we're all gonna go out for food you could just come with us our I ok fair no but you know what's amazing it was amazing is that you are clearly giving off a great perspective a great image of Islam because you're not gonna lie so you're we all have we're not saying how dare you insinuate that I shouldn't force now do you know that is far to force the Roma but you what you're saying you're why you're mono is people it makes a huge difference how two people accept but bro but that's what people who have to understand like for you to turn around and black you know what no like mom I really appreciate you saying abides just really important I mean all I did was say I'm really sorry ma'am but I obviously like fasting is is something that we do and I don't want to not fast for that reason and she was like that's fine like she's she's so nice and it's really cool that you still went to the family you know oh yeah so we're to the dinner and i sat there while everyone is pretty much wanted to cry okay because the chicken there is halal as well I think so yeah so I was pretty much that they're like my guys got fairly new stuff do they like we just go to hell our places yeah well my sister's a vegetarian so like if we go anywhere we usually look for good veggie options so worst-case scenario I just have a vegetarian meal do you know I mean I do find it sometimes a bit if qualms not gonna like McDonald's man cuz you're like used to having bro Big Macs manner for someone like me cuz cuz I never had like a Big Mac on my dude was before other than in like Dubai or something yeah something I've never traveled to an Arab country as well so like I feel we have to go to buy to give up bro I said let's not make this like a typical London meetup where it takes four years for it to happen about let's do it man now I'm definitely quite long I'd love to know I'm keen for that hundred percent not quite sure we've Tim humble okay what about stuff like girlfriends and stuff like do they wonder like why you don't have a girlfriend so yeah so I think I can I rent five I'm sure it's not I'm sure it's normal to be in a relationship yeah I thought well the thing is I think my mum my mum my brother and my sister so my close family and even like my good friends and stuff right they all know the score like I said growing up in Cardiff like a lot of my friends are perhaps like you know although my friends are Muslim I have loads of non-muslim friends as well but because they're exposed to Islam they understand the concept like a love and obviously like I said I went to a church in well school though it wasn't there wasn't that many overly religious people I do a grew up with quite a few straight Christian people Christian friends as well so like everyone knows like you know what the rulings are and what's what's kind of what's acceptable was no acceptable etc etc so I think like my family that my family knew that anyway and like you know my mum my mum says like you know you're 25 I think it's weird because like a lot of times when I speak to my friends who were perhaps 25 and not married like everyone like everyone says I call I especially like my Bengali Pakistani friends or my Arab friends like they're like you know my mum is playing so much pressure on me to get married like she's like he needs care my dad wears like if I go to my mum now and I'm like I want to get my she's like you're 25 yeah like relax you need to enjoy your life it's like guarantee that after this episode or don't drop those now don't drop survive because every time we have a guest on freshly grounded Pro that is not very Pro we get in and I in and they it with email saying look this is this public from Mary no don't drop I don't and I I don't ever know how to deal with those inquiries and so nine times out of ten if it's something that looks like a serious email often will say to the brother look I've got this email but I don't want to just start having like conversation with freshly ground it becomes and Mary replied no in a rude way but know this yeah unless unless the bother I said you're weird I think the thing is as well as that that you know I'm just saying that that's gonna we're gonna get those emails off the sides out in my dad especially is that no I just think for me man I like try not to rush it you know I'm 25 I'm still relatively quite young but you yeah and I think as well like unfortunately when you're when you're a river you do if we're being honest you do face roadblocks when it comes to gang married as well you know you do have some families the perhaps you know you know I'm saying from personal experience and also from other people's experience as well perhaps whether ethnicity becomes an issue or you do get that age old like ah he's a river he might leave the religion is like subhanAllah do you think the born Muslim can't leave the religion I do you seriously think that that's not a possibility as well and and like I said kind of before of my kiss it's also the fact that it's not like you are Muslim when you've been a Muslim for six months you got seven years down and now bro seven years ten years yeah that's a big deal for like you you know you you don't look at I would have look at you Georgia blah that's just like the river it's just you're just you're Muslim no I mean yeah so yeah man I I do find interesting let's let's discuss slightly your your work well I mean so what did you study at uni in Cardiff so I studied Dietetic daily Dietetics yeah geez yeah so at the moment I'm working as a pediatric dietician in the NHS okay so I mean the role varies significant depending on obviously what specialty you work him but you just work along the medical team and you just you help from that point of view I think the NHS has always been something I always wanted to work in because when I was when I was younger I always knew our wider career that was gonna help people just because I always thought so I always thought about like public sectors whether it was like police officer or fire service or or anything along those types of lines that's always where I wanted to go so I think it was a natural transition for me in terms of the fact that like I knew that I wanted to go into something that the that was going to be health care based you know you're always very conscious since I've known you of your health and your diet anyway obviously that really comes pop boss we're going to the gym and being yeah oh the interesting thing I think is that like diet now is such a big thing for a lot of people isn't it because obviously everyone knows about the impact diet has on your long-term health as well and I think a lot of people perhaps are becoming a bit more aware of that now you know if you're especially when you know we're happy we've got an aging population so I think that your lifestyle choices in your youth impact your health when you're older isn't it so so I think that now people are start to clock on to that it's becoming a bigger topic for a lot of people you know I mean like a lot of people are more aware of it now definitely like increasing in yeah health awareness so enough about me man like I need to be updated by you because I see this is freshly grounded leave Joshua Dickens well you've got what you've got to remember is their eyes they're you know this is the first time that yes like three years - so update me about you I want to hear about you man it's enough about me we've been talking for like God knows how long about me give me some updates on you four with me there's really nothing new look how shiny yesterday isn't is there a really because you you probably I mean you know of the things that are new handed I'm married now we lost our wait time I was even a married man this what I mean so this is how long it's been is there he wasn't even married when I saw you law it was so close back then it it's nice to know that it's what that we that we have been able to have that kind of relationship where as soon as we meet again it's like we've not only met yesterday yes is that we only sweet each other again as in like it doesn't feel like a big expensive gap all right yeah but with that being said we I think that I need to make some more effort with like DVD contact as well that's very true but yeah look at the camera fly you can horde into that because it's terrible man for sure yeah but to be honest both honestly there's no much money man like my day in day I'm here at a studio and it's trying to push forward man do not mean not the clothing brand as well man yeah but would you know what I slowed down a lot on that and I've been like you know I still got these are her top of him because I started design you needed no yeah oh so you got that one yeah yeah you gave me you gave me a t-shirt and a hat yeah this little my house Wow yeah man you gave me a t-shirt huh I think this must have been like one of the first t-shirts you ever printed yeah yeah for sure because I remember you saying like you're Pro like I'm starting a new clothing company like it's an interest of mine like would you be interested and I was like yeah yeah yeah as I can't buy a top off you my nose like 100 percent just just literally send them my way yeah and I remember he's gonna turn the camera yeah yeah yeah cuz um I think you gave me like this this see it was a t-shirt man and then you gave me a hat as well similar to the Hat stood over there I've got a black one that's got their their logo on it as well and I remember just thinking like wow like you know it was my stuff man like to be fair it's quite impressed I was quite impressed because I was like obviously it's the first thing he'd ever done like the first thing I'm a friend the logo is cool like the look was cool yeah and I was like well that's pretty impressive now appreciate that man yeah there's been like it's off because obviously we've won in a clothing company you can imagine that like unfortunately buying and selling has become a very old-school way of making money nowadays yeah as you can imagine you're buying product you were marking the price up in Selenia and your packaging is very labor intensive and we're living in an age now where technology is ruling the world and we're to make for example even a hundred pounds forget talking in the thousands to make 100 pounds selling hats you know what goes into making 100 pound is first of all ordering hats paying them up front getting them in paying the tax on that once they're here trying to market them and sell them and then let's say you're sending the hats for 20 pound and they cost you for example ten pound then you have you have to sell ten hats to make 100 pound profit and to sell ten hats you might sell em in ships and drabs yeah and then you have to package each one you have to do the packaging it's work isn't it it's all of that it's just very labor intense right whereas in the tech industry you're not even talking in the hundreds of pounds you're talking you're the discussions even start the discussions talks in the thousands anyway and it's an E and it's and it's it's a lot less labor-intensive because people are paying for services it's a service-based industry yeah well let's say for martial arts or the Amazon influencer though means influence which was me I saw her eyes I think I saw you did you I think you posted about it I think recently isn't it yeah yeah they verified me that two days ago yeah yeah so I saw it and I was like wow my boy is making muna man do you know what's funny right is like I'm the I'm the really shy one and as soon as you said like let's do a podcast and let's film it I confess I was so nervous and like I was like ah no I don't want to do it and as soon as I talked about his success is you get so shy do you know what it is so the other day I was in in this shop and I was buying some vegetables for Omar because he got my sister's house and he said look bro can you pick me off few things I wanted to want to cook because he's really into cooking and so I was all right of course I went to the shop in this area or that I'm not normally in and this guy I'm not slitting the vegetable translate some vegetables for his market and his guy comes up to me he's like you know Islam when I come bro I don't even cook there was Muslim and he comes up to me he's like some welcome bro just won't say like I love fresh Ugandan he's I'm listening to it right now he had one in his is well that's crazy I'm brought the feeling that gave me it made me so happy because and it felt so different because the the very few times and he didn't happen from the very few times that maybe I was in the Masjid or something in the past and someone would stop me and say ah watch your YouTube videos I love them I will just feel his horrible feeling that I didn't enjoy it like it was like I don't be embarrassed in front of our Lord I like like that this person's telling me that watch my videos because it feels like your egos going to be which is nice but with freshly ground even someone's at your boat listen listen freshmen I love it I genuinely feel so happy and I don't feel that guilt and I honestly believe it's because I feel like not because of me but because of the guests that I have warned that people would say benefit professional garden and I also feel like freshly granted feels like a finger I'm sincerely doing for the sake of a loss to bring people closer to a loss region in in whatever way they can if it means that they stopped listen to music because they listen to the podcast and said if it means that they start reflecting on just like for example you're here now and you know discussing your story I'm a little discussing how it should be hard to be soft with your family and maybe that makes them finger on it to be more soft my family and that kind of makes me so happy because it's not based on Faizal Charlie it's based on me interviewing the guests and that feels a lot more pure and so that's what I'd have to in freshly grind I guess I'm going often to be an attorney because you said no no I wanted yeah man so we did kill Cole we did lose the tangent slightly on your job and I do really want to know because your job really focuses on tire I'm intrigued to know like what what is I could a general day at a hospital for you so if you haven't got an office job not a so you work on the water you just do our patient clinic so it depends on what what is scheduled for you on that day so it depends if you get Ward referral you go to the would if you do an outpatient clinic so if the schedule clinics and you'd be doing the clinic so it just varies from from that's about obviously you give diet advice not necessarily know it's it's more to do with like I guess well I it's hard to describe because you deal with so many different types of patients and stuff so so yeah it varies from day to day and I think the types of patients you see vary from day to day and that's why it's quite interesting I think and I think you know just I think part of me when I was thinking about what job I wanted to do because you know I think I went through the same crisis that every you know 17 18 year old kid does when you're picking your a-levels and they always tell you like all your choices don't make that much of a difference but then like when you go to apply for unis like all you can't do this you didn't do maths a-level or you can't do this so because you didn't do that and then you start to think like well actually now it does make quite a big difference so I did physics biology and chemistry don't ask me why well and yeah so I always knew I want to do something sciences something something that was gonna be quite interesting something that was gonna change on a day to day basis and I think that's what worked for me but then obviously thinking about you specifically like if I remember correctly and correct me if I'm wrong really wrong we both just online with ology right we both just kind of like throw the conversation on to the other one now the way you know the thing is because we've got remember is that so the last time Nene proper quarter yeah was years ago yeah you did criminology I study criminology oh yeah yeah so so last time I spoke to you you were like I don't know where I want to do yeah I'm the one who said say where I want to do whenever imagine a law would lie bring me into like marketing so I mean so so like it's a big transition that's why I'm always trying to get the conversation on to you because I think if anything I'm I'm kind of like intrigued as well because I'm in a while and I dare say is well like you said is that you you do when you have podcasts you do speak a lot about perhaps the guests and what they're doing but also man it's a good opportunity for you to for you get people who listen to you we can we got to get a bit more of an understanding of your story as well which i think is good now of course I appreciate them and I appreciate that and and yet like you said studying criminology I had no idea what I was doing and I would I went I went to university we've not with the intention of carrying water study and so you the reason I found universities so great was because of the experiences I had out there and stuff like me meeting buffers like yourself stuff like finding a law and that kind of stuff and and I was just telling you off cameras all that one of the most amazing things is that when I was out in in Cardiff that's obviously where I started becoming closer to the Dean and and and I got really close to shake a club as yeah Doradus raw and I remember I used to I did my first no I did my second it's a curve in the road is raw I remember you doing that Jim you with Perry wasn't you think no no that was in Oman ah I'm thinking of somebody else you did it indeed I remember coming for tearaway pretty much every night and I bought you some food and yeah yeah if you were like because I remember you said brought no disrespect like to the cook but but I've had enough of what it was what it was lamb and rice every day bro always lamb and rice well I remember so I've been so obviously since being Muslim and me and quite a lot of people of different ethnicities like I've I've only actually still only been to three weddings no way yeah I've only been to three word inside fight this match your wedding you to experience an Afghan I'm not gonna lie I'm only gonna come for the food well you know what Afghan weddings are really nice man we call I've been to 2f comedies recently and the food is great and the energy and the people is very nice man obviously been to countless Pakistani weddings and see I've only been to one that was quite interesting I've heard that Egyptian wedding so i've been to an algerian wedding a school yeah but in i've heard a Gyptian weddings are really cool i think someone told me that maybe my wife or something but yeah it's really interesting how different cultures do weddings uh you you have enough you being the push yourself that you are you have an event with the NHS very soon very soon yes yeah I know yesterday soon so why don't we around a podcast now and we have a discussion of first off for sure yeah yeah we'll show you I will you'll get back to the to the event so Bo juice up low hair for coming down that's okay honestly thank you man let's see off so many is let's please same content let's me that trip to Dubai happen to be fair right so if you post this so if you put up on any social media I want people to put so much pressure on you to make sure that you do I got the right oh no no no the Dubai trip like I need you to post up trip to Cardiff in like a month time so when it goes on the social media people hear the podcasts and people are like year they talked about going to Cardiff I want I want people to hold you accountable oh I would come to Cardiff I want people to let you know I put cost and you didn't know if it was gonna be good for you to the podcast I want if you guys are sincere this episode and you found benefit in it do let Josh know let us know as well and I know it's because I think for me like I'm quite a private persons where people are like personal questions I'm like like even like even so when I'm close to someone obviously I tell them but like when it comes to like just just people perhaps you know loosely or so far that I've not read that much of an open person I'm quite private so I think like going on a podcast and talking about like my experience about becoming Muslim my work cetera et cetera like obviously I'm quite shy so I'm a bit like so as you can see probably ducking a few questions here and there yeah I've been quiet let's talk about you yeah nah yeah it's probably just yeah yeah but I do be sure you come down honestly you know and thank you so much for having me here man it's been a pleasure you're always more than welcome as a message always water welcome in the studio you was more than welcome well I still need to meet some of the other brothers as well because like just miss Nate Nate Nate too much harder January you would be an amazing feat to meet him yeah there's so many people do you have on your podcast I'm like because when I when I watch it over fire if I am listen to your podcast or whether like Anna and like I get to know some of the people and I'm like it'd be so interesting to meet this person to be honest with you it's a bit of a shame because obviously we it was quite short notice I think I message you like walk three four days ago to black I'm gonna be in London are you around so I think it was quite like short notice wasn't it so nice at the first time we caught up and so long that we caught up like together first rather than like me being oh hey come here would these be like because you'd really get on leave so yeah man awesome cool thank you so much for shopping abroad class or guys for having me this was fresh ground in episode 80 I believe cruelty of episode he was Joshua Dickens yeah yep always faced with Chaudry and we're out

Channel: Freshly Grounded

Views: 41,210

Rating: 4.9499106 out of 5

Keywords: Freshly Grounded, Sam, Faisal, Sam Palmer, Faisal Choudhry, Podcast, Muslims, Muslim Podcast

Id: MV7TxRGtL_E

Length: 83min 37sec (5017 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 29 2018