Isnad Academy Podcast

Irshaad Sedick
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Authentic knowledge from authentic sources. In an age when anyone can record a video and call themselves a scholar, Islam has never been carried that way. It moves from teacher to student, across generations, back to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace). That chain has a name: isnad. Hosted by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick in Cape Town, this podcast is built on that principle. ROOTED, the flagship interview series, sits with the scholars of South Africa who went to the source and came home, and asks what it cost them to get there. Alongside it, Studio Chats brings single conversations on whatever the moment asks of us, from Qurbani to Gaza to the state of Islamic education. The Ramadan series, Unlocking Hearts, I Am Near, Tafakkur and Understanding Juz Amma, are kept complete so they can be followed from the first day. More than 175 episodes since 2021. Every episode, with chapter markers and full notes: isnadacademy.com/podcast

  1. 4d ago

    "Mommy, Please, I Don't Want to Stop" | Dr Hajir Bawa | ROOTED Ep. 14

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

    "Mommy, Please, I Don't Want to Stop" | Dr Hajir Bawa | ROOTED Ep. 14

  2. Oct 20

    "The Mats Are Honest" | Ustadh Nisar Shaikh | BRANCHES Ep. 1

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

    "The Mats Are Honest" | Ustadh Nisar Shaikh | BRANCHES Ep. 1

  3. Oct 16

    "A Few Steps Back" | Shaykh Nazeer Majiet | ROOTED Ep. 13

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

  4. Oct 10

    "From Mouth to Heart" | Mawlana Saalim Peck | ROOTED Ep. 12

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

    "From Mouth to Heart" | Mawlana Saalim Peck | ROOTED Ep. 12

  5. Oct 7

    "The Weapon Was a Baby" | Prof. Farid Esack on Palestine and South Africa (Part 3)

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

    "The Weapon Was a Baby" | Prof. Farid Esack on Palestine and South Africa (Part 3)

  6. Oct 7

    "Nobody Sees That" | Mawlana Ibrahim Gaffoor | ROOTED Ep. 11

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

    "Nobody Sees That" | Mawlana Ibrahim Gaffoor | ROOTED Ep. 11

  7. Sep 25

    "If You Pay Me A Million A Month, I Won't Stay" | Mawlana Khalil Hendricks | ROOTED Ep. 10

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

    "If You Pay Me A Million A Month, I Won't Stay" | Mawlana Khalil Hendricks | ROOTED Ep. 10

  8. Sep 21

    "We Resisted When It Wasn't Fashionable" | Prof. Farid Esack on the Struggle Years (Part 2)

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

    "We Resisted When It Wasn't Fashionable" | Prof. Farid Esack on the Struggle Years (Part 2)
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Authentic knowledge from authentic sources. In an age when anyone can record a video and call themselves a scholar, Islam has never been carried that way. It moves from teacher to student, across generations, back to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace). That chain has a name: isnad. Hosted by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick in Cape Town, this podcast is built on that principle. ROOTED, the flagship interview series, sits with the scholars of South Africa who went to the source and came home, and asks what it cost them to get there. Alongside it, Studio Chats brings single conversations on whatever the moment asks of us, from Qurbani to Gaza to the state of Islamic education. The Ramadan series, Unlocking Hearts, I Am Near, Tafakkur and Understanding Juz Amma, are kept complete so they can be followed from the first day. More than 175 episodes since 2021. Every episode, with chapter markers and full notes: isnadacademy.com/podcast

Information

  • Creator
    Irshaad Sedick
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    189
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Isnad Academy Podcast