What You Do When No One's Watching | Dr. Omar Suleiman & Sh. Ammar AlShukry

The Prophet ﷺ said that 2 hungry wolves let loose on a flock of sheep do less damage than a person's love of fame and wealth does to their deen. Social media now offers both at once, and Dr. Omar Suleiman says that combination is what we should be most worried about.
In his first appearance on the AlMaghrib Podcast, Dr. Omar Suleiman sits down with Sh. Ammar AlShukry to talk about worship and sincerity in a world where everything is online. It picks up where his AlMaghrib seminar Behind the Scenes left off.
They talk about:
• Training your soul: if a falcon and a bear can be trained against their nature, so can you.

• The letter to Allah he had students seal and receive in the mail 3 months later.

• Why the vulnerability we see online is often the wrong kind.

• How the algorithm shapes the culture, and why Imam Al-Shafi'i wished none of his knowledge would be credited to him.

• Ruining a good deed after it's done by wanting people to hear about it.

• Performing for an audience of One, and asking what's the worst that can happen.

• Why discipline beats motivation, and why it starts with conquering your sleep.

• Advice for content creators, and the danger of making money from the algorithm.

• A du'a of Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه for sincerity.

"Focus on building character over reputation."
Dr. Omar Suleiman's full seminar, Behind the Scenes: The Spiritual Practices of the Best of Generations, is on AlMaghrib Online. It covers the quality of your salah and dhikr, breaking habits like the pull of likes and follows, and purifying the soul.
👉 almaghrib.online/bts
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Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:41 Why Behind the Scenes was his first AlMaghrib seminar
4:53 If you can train a falcon, you can train your soul
8:47 The letter to Allah sealed for 3 months
10:19 The wrong kind of vulnerability
12:32 How the algorithm shapes our culture
16:03 Wanting your good deeds to be heard about
20:06 2 hungry wolves: the love of fame and wealth
25:26 Performing for an audience of One
27:42 What's the worst that can happen?
31:21 Motivation vs discipline
33:07 Discipline your time, starting with sleep
36:46 How much sleep is healthy?
38:50 Advice for content creators
41:01 Accountability and the Surah Al-Baqarah challenge
45:30 The danger of monetization
47:41 A du'a for sincerity
49:02 Masjid uncles and critics
52:46 A hint about next Ramadan's series
Book mentioned: Mukhtasar Minhaj al-Qasidin by Ibn Qudamah.
Guest: Dr. Omar Suleiman is the founder and president of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and an AlMaghrib instructor. His first AlMaghrib seminar, Behind the Scenes, focused on the spiritual practices of the Salaf.
Host: Sh. Ammar AlShukry is a Director and instructor at AlMaghrib and the imam at Clear Lake Islamic Center in Houston. He studied Quran, hadith, aqidah, fiqh, and tafsir with teachers across the United States. He is known for courses such as A Mindful Salah, His Majesty, The Names of Allah and the Dhikr series, and for his poetry, collected in his book What the Pen Wrote.
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