ROOTED | Ep. 1 — "He Went to the Source" | Shaykh Zaid Fataar Al-Azhari

Qurbani: Everything They Don't Teach You | with Mawlana Anees Kara

A practical, no-fiqh conversation about Qurbani with Mawlana Anees Kara of Maraisburg, Johannesburg. After nearly four decades in this work, Mawlana Anees brings the kind of practitioner knowledge that does not appear in any classical text or fatwa site: how to pick a healthy animal off the kraal, why some Qurbani meat tastes different and how to prevent it, the real difference between farm and home Qurbani, and the proper way to distribute meat with dignity. This is a standalone episode for the Eid al-Adha season. For fiqh questions about Qurbani, please refer to my other content on SeekersGuidance and on the Isnad Academy. Chapter markers below. About Mawlana Anees Kara Mawlana Anees graduated from Darul Uloom Zakariyya in 2009 and serves as the masjid's Khatib in Maraisburg. He runs K.A.Z Livestock and Game Meat Traders - a family project that has operated for over 36 years. #Qurbani #EidAlAdha #IsnadAcademy Chapter markers 00:00 Introduction 01:08 Meet Mawlana Anees Kahrah 02:25 Where to actually buy your animal 05:23 What an experienced eye looks for 07:59 Honesty in weight and pricing 10:54 Why lamb costs more than mutton 12:54 The two reasons Qurbani meat gets a bad name 15:25 Merino, Dorper, and the breeds question 19:31 Bringing your animal home and treating it right 27:35 Pros and cons of home versus farm Qurbani 30:54 Tasting wild, tasting bloody: the real reason 33:31 The post-slaughter process that fixes everything 36:55 Giving your meat away with dignity 38:47 The slaughter itself: knife, angle, technique 42:42 Aspiring to slaughter for the first time 46:38 Where to find Mawlana Anees 48:11 Closing dua

ROOTED | Ep. 2 — "He Came Home Different" | Sh Muhammad West

In a generation pulled in every direction, ROOTED is a series about the ones who stayed grounded. The scholars who sat at the feet of their teachers and carried the tradition home. Sh Muhammad West is one of the few in his generation who carries two worlds at once. A graduate of the Islamic University of Madina and a chartered accountant. The imam of one of the oldest masajid in the country, Boorhanol Islam in the Bo-Kaap, and the treasurer of the Muslim Judicial Council. He is the Madina graduate who refused to come home and cut himself off from the community he disagrees with on secondary matters. He chose the harder road, the road of staying in the room. In this conversation, we sit with the formation of a scholar in Jeddah and Madina, the texture of his return, the Athari and Shafi'i fault lines, the cost of refusing tribalism, the romantic but halal proposal, the autistic son who is the happiest person he knows, the burnout he is only now learning to name, and the institution he is now responsible for the finances of. We talk about the MJC honestly. What it is, what it is not, why our forefathers thought it was non-negotiable, and what the path forward looks like for an organisation eighty years old that is finally being asked to explain itself. A conversation between two scholars and a long-time colleague about formation, friction, and the institutional servant’s reckoning. This is your deen. You deserve to understand it. 00:00 Cold open: just die as a Muslim 00:22 Opening monologue 02:25 Quick-fire opener 07:43 Jeddah as a child 10:50 Madina University from the inside 13:18 Coming home in 2011 17:45 The parents' search across Malaysia, Egypt, Jeddah 22:30 The mother's record 27:40 The maternal grandfather and the Silo gym call 33:30 The Madina student years 39:20 Teaching the Sirah from a minority lens 49:20 The Woolworths meeting 52:00 Athari, Salafi, and the time and place for debate 57:00 Sami Hamdi and the politics of Quran and Sunnah 01:00:40 Palestine and the heart right now 01:11:30 Just talk to Allah 01:17:25 The Romantic Proposal 01:21:00 The life of an alim's wife 01:31:30 Burnout and sharpening the saw 01:33:50 The MJC: what it actually is 01:46:35 Baytul Ulama in the absence of a Khalifa 01:55:50 Living with politics 01:57:55 Final advice for the seeker 02:00:00 The point of all of this #ROOTED #IsnadAcademy #IslamicScholarship

ROOTED | Ep. 1 — "He Went to the Source" | Shaykh Zaid Fataar Al-Azhari

We live in a time when anyone can upload an Islamic video and call themselves a scholar. But Islam has never been carried that way. It has always moved from teacher to student, across generations, all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. That chain has a name: isnād. ROOTED is Isnad Academy's flagship interview series — conversations with South Africa's qualified Islamic scholars. The people who went to the source and came home. Rooted in tradition. Routed through the chain. Our first guest embodies both. Shaykh Zaid ibn Riad Fataar Al-Azhari left Cape Town at the age of six for Cairo, where he would spend the better part of his life inside one of the oldest universities on earth. At Al-Azhar he memorised the Qur'an, completed his Diploma in Islamic Sciences, and earned his BA in Islamic Theology — specialising in Aqīdah and Philosophy. He studied privately with Egyptian scholars, receiving ijāzāt in Hadith and Aqīdah. He returned to Cape Town, completed his Masters at the Madina Institute with a thesis on Al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd — Revelation versus Reason — and has been serving the community ever since as imam, teacher, and founder of Dar At-Tawhid Institute. He currently serves as Head of Department for Islamic Studies at the Oracle Academy. He is, in the truest sense, a scholar who went to the source — and came back to us. In this conversation we cover: — What it means to grow up as a Cape Town child inside the Azhar world — The moment knowledge stopped being something forced and became something wanted — What isnād actually is and why it matters in an age when any fatwa is a Google search away — The three levels of ijāzah — and what each one actually authorises you to do — Why sitting with a scholar gives you something no YouTube video, PDF, or AI can replicate — The nūr of prophethood — and why it only travels heart to heart — How the ādāb of the scholars changed Shaykh Zaid more than their knowledge did — A real talāq case that showed exactly why wisdom cannot come from a book alone — The difference between being religious and performing religiosity — What our generation of scholars carries differently — and what that demands of us — What to say to a young Muslim who wants knowledge but doesn't know where to start or who to trust This is not a wellness podcast. This is not a highlight reel. This is a conversation about what it actually means to carry knowledge — and what Cape Town has quietly been producing for generations. ROOTED. Every episode, one scholar. One chain. One city at the bottom of Africa with more to offer the world than most people know. Isnad Academy is based in Cape Town, South Africa. Our mission is to connect the global Muslim community to authenticated Islamic scholarship — through live teaching, recorded courses, and platforms like ROOTED that make our scholars visible to the world. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss the next conversation. #IsnadAcademy #ROOTED #IslamicScholarship #SouthAfrica #CapeTown #Azhar #Isnad #IslamicKnowledge #MuslimPodcast #Ulama 00:00 — A Family Almost Broke Up (Cold Open) 00:12 — Welcome to ROOTED | Series Introduction 05:00 — Quick Fire: Coffee, Cairo & Astronomy 09:45 — Cairo at Six: Growing Up as a Foreigner 18:00 — The Quran is Everywhere in Egypt 22:00 — When Knowledge Became a Choice 31:00 — The Fish in the Tank: Entering the University 38:00 — The Turning Point: The Ādāb of the Scholars 44:00 — What is Isnād and Why Should You Care? 51:00 — The Soul Operation 57:00 — What is an Ijāzah? Three Levels Explained 01:02:00 — What a Teacher Gives You That a PDF Cannot 01:09:00 — The Nūr of Prophethood: Heart to Heart 01:12:00 — Egypt's Politics and the Colonisers' Legacy 01:23:00 — The FBI Story: Freedom We Take for Granted 01:29:00 — Do We Carry the Tradition Differently? 01:35:00 — The Worrying Trend: Religion as Fashion 01:52:00 — The Exciting Trend: Scholars in the University 02:03:00 — Final Advice to Young Seekers of Knowledge 02:08:00 — What's Coming from Isnad Academy

The Disease Has a Name | The Strong Believer S2E1

The Muslim world is not confused. It is paralysed. And there is a difference. In this opening episode of Season 2, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick begins with a question asked outside a masjid after Isha: what am I supposed to do now? It is the question every Muslim is carrying. And the answer begins with a prophetic diagnosis that is 1,400 years old and more relevant today than it has ever been. We live in a time when the nations of the world have gathered. The feast the Prophet ﷺ described is not a metaphor anymore. It is the news. In the hadith of Thawban, narrated in Abu Dawud, the Prophet ﷺ foretold a time when the Ummah would be numerous but weak, like the foam on the ocean. Moved by every wave, unable to move anything else. He named the cause: wahn. And when the companions asked what wahn was, he said: hubb al-dunya wa karahiyyat al-mawt. Love of this world and hatred of death. That is the diagnosis. It has been sitting in our books for fourteen centuries. The question this season asks is: are we finally brave enough to face the cure? The cure is strength. Not strength as a motivational concept. Strength as a prophetic prescription. The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, even though there is goodness in both. Season 2 of The Strong Believer focuses on intellectual strength: how we build the kind of mind that can read this world clearly, think with the Quran as its foundation, and navigate what is coming without being broken by it. This episode covers: * The question every Muslim is carrying right now and what it really means * The hadith of Thawban and the prophetic diagnosis of the Ummah * Wahn in its contemporary forms: managed numbness, the guilt cycle, the waiting * The strong believer hadith as the direct prescription * The Quran as an intellectual foundation: one scholar's journey from a train to Darul Naeem * What hubb al-dunya actually looks like in an ordinary Muslim life in 2026 * What karahiyyat al-mawt looks like when nobody is asking you to die * Hadiths referenced: Hadith of Thawban on wahn — Abu Dawud Al-Mu'min al-Qawiyy — Muslim Al-Kayyis man dana nafsahu — Tirmidhi

After Ramadan: Istiqamah, Acceptance, and the Fight to Keep Going

In this post Ramadan reminder, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick reflects on one of the most important questions facing every believer after Eid: what happens after Ramadan? Drawing on the verses of Surah Fussilat, the glad tidings given to those who say “Our Lord is Allah” and then remain steadfast, this talk explores the meaning of istiqamah, not as perfection, but as constantly getting back up and returning to Allah. Ramadan is not the finish line. It is the training ground. The real event is life itself. This episode reflects on acceptance, the six days of Shawwal, the danger of going back to old habits, the priority of salah and staying away from haram, and the wisdom of setting small, sustainable acts of worship that can remain with us until the next Ramadan. A timely reminder for anyone asking how to preserve the gifts of Ramadan and continue the journey with sincerity, humility, and hope. CHAPTER MARKERS 00:00 Opening praise, verses, and hadith 02:03 Reflecting after Ramadan and asking Allah for acceptance 02:57 The practice of the salaf after Ramadan 04:21 What happens after the honeymoon of Ramadan? 04:46 We do not worship Ramadan, we worship Allah 06:24 Salah is not piety, it is the bare minimum 07:00 Shaytan is back, and the real fight begins 07:18 Ramadan as training, not the competition 08:25 The race analogy: training for the real event 09:44 The boxing analogy: get back up again 12:16 The meaning of istiqamah 13:19 Istiqamah is not perfection 15:03 We are not angels, we are human beings who keep trying 16:27 Surah Fussilat and the angels at the time of death 17:42 Do not fear and do not grieve 19:27 Glad tidings of Jannah before leaving this world 20:42 We were your allies in this world and the next 21:02 In Jannah you will have whatever your souls desire 22:42 Allah alone is our Rabb 23:21 They slipped, but they kept getting back up 24:12 Ask Allah for a good death 25:01 Now we are in the ring 25:36 The six days of Shawwal 26:56 Warming down after Ramadan 27:44 Can the six fasts be separate or must they be consecutive? 28:44 Combining qada with the six days of Shawwal 31:42 You cannot maintain Ramadan exactly outside Ramadan 33:17 Do not drop everything because you cannot keep everything 34:03 Focus on the bare minimum first 34:49 Stay away from haram and guard your salah 35:25 Set a ridiculously easy quota 37:24 Small consistency grows into something great 38:31 Use your five daily salahs as your ladder of growth 40:06 Why we fail: we set the bar too high 40:37 Build slowly and keep improving 41:18 Final dua and closing