Sh. Ismail Kamdar was born in South Africa. He lost his father at an early age. He also started his Islamic education at 13 initially to please his mom. Soon he found himself in the ocean of Islamic knowledge and he loved it so he became a life long student.
For many, this would be enough for a lifetime, but not for Sh. Ismail. He wants to follow Abu Hanifa in his footsteps to be financially independent so he can serve without compromising his integrity.
He started his transition five years ago by tapping into entrepreneurship. Alhamdulilah, he is half way there as of today.
It is a story of life long learning, endurance and patience.
I want to follow Abu Hanifa…be independent so I can serve Islam without compromising my integrity.
–Sh. Ismail Kamdar
Show Notes
Personal Website
www.islamicselfhelp.com
Course: Muslim Golden Ages
https://courses.islamicselfhelp.com/p/muslim-golden-ages
Interview transcript
Maruf: Hey, Assalamu Alaikum this is Maruf and I’m your host. Today I have a special guest and this brother, he is from South Africa. Without further due I will give the mic to him and present him. Assalamu alaikum, brother, how are you today?
Ismail: Walaikum assalam rahmatullahi wabarakatu. Alhamdulillah, I am quite well. How about you brother Maruf?
Maruf: Alhamdulillah this is our first time I guess, talking on the phone. We have chatted quite a bit on the chat but we never had this pleasure of talking to each other, I guess, Alhamdulillah. So, can you tell us a little bit about yourself who you are and what you do? Then we’ll go back Inshallah to your childhood.
Ismail: Inshallah, Alhamdulillah. So, I am a person who does many different things. So, I think primarily, I am known as a graduate in Islamic Studies. To put that in context, at the age of 13 I left School to pursue full time Islamic Studies and I completed my schooling from home at the same time. So, by the age of 20, I graduated from the traditional Alim program and about seven years later I completed a bachelor’s degree in Islamic studies as well. So, I have done both the traditional and modern forms of Islamic Studies. Beyond that Alhamdulillah, I think what I prefer to be known as in terms of the work I do is writing. So, I am a writer. Alhamdulillah, I have written over a dozen books of my own.
Maruf: Mashallah.
Ismail: Besides that I am also a freelance writer. So, I write other people’s books and content for them as well. I do a lot of other things. I homeschool my kids, I deliver public lectures, I teach in the community and online, I’m the faculty manager at the Islamic online university. So, I have my hands in many different things.
I’m the founder of Islamic self help where I focus on personal development helping Muslims live a life of (Ehsan) being the best version of ourselves through time management and self confidence courses and books. So, I am a person who likes to be busy. I love people telling me I need to focus on one thing and be known for one thing but that’s not who I am. I am a guy who likes to do many things and enjoy many different things. So, I have got my hands in all of them.
Maruf: Yeah I mean, as I was mentioning, I think your case is very very unique case you know, in terms of what you do. Because you come from the line of as you said, from an early age you mentioned, I think you said at the age of 13 you were focusing on Islamic studies. Mashallah, you have finished your bachelors degrees and all these degrees and now as I remember, we will come to it in a bit that you you are doing a transitioning into as you said, entrepreneurship.
Which is quite interesting. We will come to that. That is I am really looking forward to hearing but before that let’s pick up a little bit and tell us a little bit where you were born about your family about your upbringing. I mean not that many people to be honest that at the age of 13 decide, I want to go focus on Islamic studies, you know. So, tell us about it.
Ismail: Ok so, Alhamdulillah. I come from a really practicing Muslim family. Alhamdulillah, I have to make (shukar) for that. At the group of family gatherings looking around me most of the women I saw in hijab. People are praying People very practicing and had some level of Islamic knowledge or you know the relationship with the religion. So, Alhamdulillah, I come from a moderately practicing family not pious but moderate.
Also, I come from a very wealthy family, not wealthy but upper middle class. They are primarily entrepreneurs and businessmen. My family the generation before me, the generation before that are all businessmen. So, that is kind of like in my genes. There actually hasn’t been any Islamic studies graduate in my family before me. It’s just all been businessman. So, I kinda broke it like that.
Maruf: You are born in South Africa. Tell us what city you are from and tell us a little bit about you.
Ismail: Sure, so I was born in Durban, South Africa. And people wanna know of my ethnic origin. We are Indian family. So, basically Indians migrated to South Africa over a hundred years ago. So, my family was from that batch. We are here for so long we consider ourselves African. So, this is our culture, Alhamdulillah and our home. We have been here for six generations now. And so, I was born in Dublin South Africa into an upper world middle class family of businessmen.
My father unfortunately passed away when I was 8 years old. He was murdered by criminals. You know, South Africa has a high crime rate. So, he was murdered. So, I grew up without a father. My mum Alhamdulillah, is a very religious woman and at the age of 13 she wanted me to pursue full-time Islamic studies. So, I started off initially doing it for my mum. I have to be honest about that. Once I have got the love of Islamic studies in my heart, I would say right until today, it’s been 20 years I read Islamic books and listen to Islamic lectures. I never stopped learning. Once the love of it entered my heart, it’s been a full time thing for me. I absolutely love Islamic knowledge.
Maruf: May Allah increase your knowledge in that and benefit us.
Ismail: Amin.
Maruf: I see I see. Ok I mean, so, you also mention earlier you deserve what you started, right. We understand, you come from Islamic family, practicing Muslims and that’s why it united your initial interest in Islamic studies. So, you also mentioned you finished that you also went to as I remember, Islamic university, right? What are you studying at the next stage of Islamic studies? what you are studying as well? It’s huge, right? Was it interpretation of Quran? What is it?
Ismail: It was a general degree focusing on everything. So, basically you see what I have done is very similar but from a different perspective. So, I did first the traditional Alim course then I did bachelor Islamic Studies. Now, both of these cover the same subjects Arabic (fiq) theology history. All of these are the same subjects but from a different perspective. So the Alim program of studying the traditional scholar who may not be familiar with the modern culture or technology. We were studying very ancient books. We were studying the subjects from that perspective.
Maruf: It’s a physical school, right?
Ismail: Yeah it’s a physical school and I was there for 7 years. In the bachelor’s degree which I did was online, that is from a modern perspective. That’s like we are studying online, we are using modern technology, we look at modern culture and compare secular concepts, Islamic concepts looking at the recent history of modern Muslim world. So, it’s the same subject but from a different perspective. So, what I wanted, I wanted both. I wanted the traditional learning and the modern perspective. I wanted to kind of like merge the two in my own understanding of Islam where I want a traditional knowledge but I also want to be relatable to the modern world because sometimes when we study the traditional way, we end up being unrelatable to the new things like that. So, I basically restarted my studies from a different perspective.
Maruf: I see, I mean, tell me about this like what’s gonna be very interesting like, I think so, you were studying this and this is like one direction, right? You are into many different places. So, then you said about 5 years ago was that you kind of like started transitioning into entrepreneurship, like you said freelance writer. So, I mean what happened just there? Which is like quite, I mean usually you don’t see that, do you? I don’t see that at least though. If someone is studying, in your case, it was kind of a pivot then you went in a different direction. What caused that? Can you tell us more about that experience?
Ismail: Ok, there are actually many different factors that caused that. Basically I started when I saw Islamic online University promoted me to Faculty manager. And as an Islamic study graduate, I wasn’t so, I haven’t studied management. So I began to read books on the topic, so I began to read books on personal development, self help, business management, leadership and I began to develop a love for that just how I developed a love for islamic studies.
And I began to be really good at that as I was good at Islamic Studies. So, somewhere around 2014, I got the idea of emerging the two and that’s when my idea of Islamic selfhelp.com was born. And my books and time management, self confidence in Islamic perspective were born. And so, just like since the age of 13 I haven’t stopped studying Islamic Studies, I would say, since the age of 25 I haven’t stopped studying business and personal development and leadership then, all of these fields.
Maruf: Mashallah.
Ismail: So, it’s kind of happened was, in order to practically prepare for a job, I had to do. I started reading books in this field and I started falling in love with the field and there was also a religious element to it. When I was studying the biography of the early scholars, the one that stands out to me is Imam Abu Hanifa. So, Imam Abu Hanifa was a businessman because he had a business where he sew clothing, he didn’t have to rely on the government for money, he didn’t have to charge for his classes.
He could do all of his Islamic work for free while being able to support himself and his family and even his students through the earning of his business and I fell in love with that model. That model of dawa where, why can’t we be Islamic student of knowledge be independent businessmen and women? You know, be independent entrepreneurs so that we don’t have to rely on other people for money. People won’t force us to give this opinion that opinion because they are paying our salary. We can become independent like Abu Hanifa was. So, I wanted to model his lifestyle. I call it Abu Hanifa model of dawa. I want to be like Abu Hanifa have a business and the business is providing for my family. I can now do my Islamic work for free, I will not have to worry about money or compromise my integrity or anything like that. This is really what caused me to move into this direction.
Maruf: I see. Very interesting well, I mean, I haven’t known about this Abu Hanifa. That’s quite interesting. He is extremely kind of smart in decision making. Because you know, in Central Asia that we follow Abu Hanifa as (Mathab) So, with that we know about, I really need to study on this. That’s quite interesting and I did not know that. That’s quite new for me. Alhamdulillah, thank you for sharing that. So, I mean, here is the thing though you see, I think we see this a lot, you see among Muslims, we have this perception like you know, I mean, it’s with all humans.
We try to put people into boxes and anyone let’s say, (Ruke) and we are gonna put him in a special box, we look at them with a special lens. For example, imagine if (Ruke) is coming and driving a Ferrari, right? Just getting out of it, I mean, many people say, whoa! what is this! I mean even though (Ruke) could be as you said, Inshallah, may allah increase your wealth and benefit you maybe one day for example, imagine you have so much wealth, you can earn halal and you don’t have to do anything wrong, but imagine anything, the moment it goes to little bit kind of people begin to judge and do things. Do you follow me what I am trying to say? Did it ever happen to you?
Ismail: I mean, I experience this all the time. This is my life. Once a week, I get emails from people saying, astaghfirullah, you are doing Islamic thing and you are charging for your books and you’re charging for your online courses, you should be doing all of these for free. I am like, listen brother, if you can pay my bills and pay my rent and take care of my family, I will do all of these for free. I have a family to take care of.
People feel entitled and I understand but it’s not only now. This has been mentality throughout the age. I am thinking about the first generations of Muslims. Usman Razi Allahu anhu was the Khalifa, he was a millionaire for his business. Why did people turned against him, you know. The Muslim rebeled against him and killed him and one of the points raised against him is, he is so rich. He should be poor like Abu Bakar and Umar. The actual point made against Usman that caused the rebelion that caused the umma for the kill their own Muslim leader, because they couldn’t reconcile the idea that a pious leader could be wealthy. In reality, Usman Radi Allahu anhu was a millionaire and was the most pious man ever lived.
Maruf: There is this hadith as well, one time prophet sallallahu alaihis salam ask for the donation and Uthaman RA gives a donation. I remember that.. You also remember, right?
Ismail: Yeah, in fact the prophet Sallallahu alaihissalam told him that today you have purchased jannah. People have this strange mentality that if you are going to the religious, if you are going to be pious, if you are going to be doing Islamic work then you have to be poor. You have to be living the simple lifestyle. When people see me, Alhamdulillah, I live in a good neighbourhood, I have a nice beautiful home, I have a good car, I go to all the fancy restaurants, I live a good life. People see that and they find it hard to reconcile it with Islamic work. Allah has blessed me and I enjoy those blessings. Alhamdulillah.
Maruf: Yeah, I mean that’s the thing. What would you say, like how can we address this like, move forward like, should we talk more often about this or what should we do? I think to be honest, the reason why we do this stuff I guess, we have to understand that. I mean, in your case it’s very difficult because you are, what I am trying to do is, we have a couple of startups, we hear this everyday as well. I mean from your knowledge, what would your advice be? What have you learnt from your journey to these books and what can we do?
First of all, I think that, what I am trying to ask is that, is there a way we can change the attitude of the umma towards the money? I think of course the money, when we look at them we see money and wealth, we see evil, right? The reality is we know that the money and wealth itself is not evil or good. It’s about whose hands in it and how they use it, as long as it doesn’t come to our hearts, if you use it into good, it is good, isn’t it? If it’s something bad, it is bad. But somehow somewhere people keep seeing it this way. What’s your inside about this question, I guess?
Ismail: Sure, so, this is actually something I spent a long time pondering over and researching. And I come to a conclusion on this and every other issue regarding culture. My conclusion is that change of people’s ideas and culture has to come gradually and naturally. We can’t force it.
Maruf: No, of course not.
Ismail: So, I believe in leading by example, right? For example, let me give you a separate issue which I am trying to change the culture of without being confrontational. I live in a community where people think that religious Muslims must just like they are from India, if you have seen that in some cultures. They see like, religious Muslims like the scholars. They expect them to wear special types of clothes. So, literally I’m the only Islamic scholar in my community who walks around in jeans and t-shirt purposely.
I don’t tell people anything, I don’t fight with people about it. I just live my life. And my idea is that people will get used to it. Once people get used to it, it won’t be an issue anymore because the culture will change naturally and gradually. It’s the same thing with this. When we first started online businesses, when we first started the idea of charging for online courses. People were like, everything should be free. Everything should be given to us. But as the years go by, more and more people are buying. More people are paying. More people are expecting there to be a price. Within 10 years, this will be normal. So, we don’t need to fight about it. We don’t need to get angry about it. We just need to be ourselves, live our life with struggle. Inshallah, the next generation will have it easier because we will change the culture by just being good examples of it.
Maruf: I see, I do like your example. Lead by example and have sabar. Inshallah, it will be better.
Ismail: Definitely, what’s happening. So, all of this is new. The idea that you have ebooks, online courses or you know all these things you do online. It’s the whole world of online is new. That didn’t exist 20 years ago. So, we are still figuring it out and some people are coming into misconceptions, some people are coming in wrong ideas, some people are coming in wrong beliefs as if all of this going to clash. As the culture forms over the next 10 years, Inshallah, it will form in the direction that’s suitable to what we are doing because we are the ones leading the way.
We are showing people how to be successful online. I mean, we don’t have a generation before us who did successful online business. We are the first people doing this. Inshallah, if we are successful it will be normal and the next generation will not have to deal with this hate and angry comments. Inshallah.
Maruf: I see. So, Inshallah, yea. Inshallah, maybe Allah will make it happen. So, I mean you know so we are friends I guess on Facebook. So, recently I saw that you were saying saying, Alhamdulillah I am in my half mark to be self sufficient from this. It’s been 5 years, right? Is it correct like you are halfway mark where you really want to be, I guess. How much you would like to earn general from your efforts. is that correct?
Ismail: Yes, that’s correct. So, about five years ago, I said something which everybody thought was absolutely crazy and stupid. I said I wanted to be a full time writer and people literally laughed about it. You can’t make money from writing. That is silly, just stick to your day job. Nobody makes money of writing. And I walked out and I make certain amount of money every month writing to do it full time. And I first started publishing ebooks, publishing paperback books on Amazon.
Starting online courses based on my ebooks. And eventually I started doing freelance writing. The combined income from all of that put together is just over half a month of what I need in a monthly basis to do this full time. If it continues to grow, inshallah, within the next 5 years, I can become a full time writer. I make dua for this everyday and it’s something that I am working towards.
Maruf: May Allah make it happen. This way what I really respect about you, as I said you come from this you know, Islamic Studies and you are doing a transition and even you are doing that you actually looked at the long-term. Not like some entrepreneurs these days. They want a quick back and jump on a big big claims and all that stuff. Instead you took the hard work and said you know what, this is Inshallah what I am gonna do and it’s ok. It may take me one year. Cause the hard work takes time but eventually Inshallah, it does.
Ismail: It does and a lot of people don’t know this. You see, we live in a generation, they want instant gratification. We want everything today, we want everything now. And in reality, good things take time. So, you have to become dedicated to a long road if you want to make something important to you. Now, me as an individual, I love two things. I love writing and I love teaching. And I want to be able to do these things on my own terms without having to worry about money. To do that, I need to reach a certain level of income.
So, Allah knows my intention. He knows what I want to do with my life, he knows my plans and once I reach that level and I have confidence that Allah (SWT) is going to help me to get there if it’s good for me. So, I have committed to what I call it right now long term transition period. Right now, I am working a job plus, I am doing freelance writing plus, I am working on my book plus, I am working on my online courses and I am homeschooling my children and I’m doing my free dawa.
I am doing all of these at the same time with the hopes, Inshallah in the near future one of my books does well, one of my courses does well. Something does well to allow me to reach the next level where I can transition full time into being who I want to be and do with my life what I want to do, Inshallah. And so this is something, I make dua for everyday. I work on it everyday. and I don’t give up hope because I know it’s not just something beneficial for me but beneficial for the entire umma. If I can write full time, I can produce books Inshallah for the entire Umma long after I am dead. That’s not even my goal. my goal is Inshallah, you know I don’t think about in terms of money, I am thinking about benefiting the world.
Maruf: Legacy as well.
Ismail: You need money to do that. So, you just need to be realistic and have to think long term. It’s not easy. Especially writing, because we live in a generation where, let’s face it. In our generation all people don’t read. Those who do read, some of them want the books for free, some of them pirating your books, some of them don’t care about the author whether he is making money. So, the struggle, it’s very hard. I lose a lot of money to piracy. People really don’t care about the author and demanding free books, they are lying about things. And I just make sabr with that and shukr, I do realise one thing, whatever Allah has for you, you are going to get it. Even if someone pirates books that wasn’t meant for you.
May Allah forgive them, may Allah guide them to start doing the right thing but the struggle is real. Being an author in this age is not easy. That’s why people choose the easier way. The easier way to do is to be a YouTube Star and get rich overnight. If you want fame, you go for youtube. Now, I want fame, I don’t want to get rich overnight. I want to do something which I believe that going to benefit people in the long term. There are a lot more benefit in reading 300 pages in a topic than watching a 10 minute video. So, what I want to do, I believe is more beneficial, is writing the books. It’s harder, it’s much bigger chance I’m taking, it takes a lot more time but Inshallah it’s going to be a lot more beneficial for the umma and what I am trying to do with my life.
Maruf: Inshallah. I mean here is the thing you know I was looking at your site. One of the courses that really peaked my interest, I just want to pick your brain about this. So, it is I think, it’s the one where you studied the course about the golden age of Islam, right? You went back starting and all these khilafas, you know sultan’s and I think from the very beginning until Ottomans right, isn’t it? Can you tell us? I mean I’m personally curious about this. This has been one of the questions,like what happened there? There was this golden age and what happened then? I just would like to know. I mean, if you can you can of course
Ismail: Of course, of course. This is my favourite topic to speak about. So, as I said one of my courses, starting Islamic self help was to revive in the Umma and this idea I believe we can have another golden age if we have the same qualities Muslims in the past had. So, to understand this, we go back to the teaching of of (Ibn Khaldun). I don’t know if you are familiar with (Ibn Khaldun). (Ibn Khaldun) was a great historian. What he did, he came up with principles which not all historians agree with that principle which was that every community and empire goes to rise and fall. They go through the cycle.
So, if you look at the the (Ummaiyat), they had the growth period, the golden age and decline and the end. Same thing with the Abbasids, same thing with Ottomans. So, now we are in a transition period where somebody else is going to rise. And Inshallah, that somebody else is gonna experience a golden age. And then after that Inshallah, depending on how much sincere they were, how good work they were doing, the golden age can last a long time. So, this is called baraka. So, for example, if you look at some of the empires that were founded on wrong reasons, the entire cycle took place in 50 years or 90 years. But those Empires that were founded for the sake of Allah, like the Abbasids and Ottomans, they lasted for 600.
The golden ages were like 200 years. Why? because Allah put that Baraka for the right reasons. Now, I believe, a lot of people have this mentality that the world was gonna end, nothing we can do about it. The world’s ending in next 20 years. I don’t believe that. I believe, listen, the world’s gonna end, it’s gonna end. We don’t know. You can go another 500 years, you can go another thousand Years or another 10 years. We don’t know. So, without knowing, we should be preparing for the next golden age. How do we do that? Well, first of all let’s go into the previous golden ages.
I have put together a comprehensive course. This is really one of the most comprehensive courses I have ever put together because not only do I discuss the accomplishment and the history, I extract lessons from every single aspect of it. I extract lessons of everything from the discovery of coffee, the founding of madrassas, discovery of algebra. Everything I discuss from my perspective of what can we learn from it. At the very end of the course, I have section what can we do to maybe start a new golden age to cause the next rise. We brainstorm ideas because I have a very optimistic understanding of this world.
So, I believe that we should always have the best thoughts of Allah, the best thoughts about this Umma and believe we can move forward. If we look at the way history works, the declined happened, end of the empire happened, the dark ages are happening now, what comes next is a rise of empire. So, what are we doing to be a part of that. What are we doing to make sure that we have the same ideas and motivation that the early Muslims had. This is what I am trying to revive among people. For example, the concept of (Ehsan). (Ehsan) means to do everything to the best of your ability.
This is missing in the umma today. This is missing. If you revive this we will be the best doctors, the best lawyers, the best accountants, the best engineers, the best Architects, the best scholars, best of everything. When we are the best of everything we get another golden age. That’s where golden age comes from when we are the best in every field. So, I am hoping that through these courses, through these books, through these lectures, I can spark that in the minds of people. Maybe one of the people who have a spark in the mind of, Inshallah Allah will cause the next empire to rise from those people. Inshallah.
Maruf: Inshallah, sounds good. That’s very very interesting. So, (Ibn Khaldun) dynasty and these things. Yeah, I mean, these things will come and go, I agree agree. I really admire your very positive output to the world. And then, you know, the majority of people, as you said, I think in this topic, I recently read a book. It’s probably not yours. So, if you haven’t, I really suggest you to read as well. so it’s called (book’s name) by (the name of the writer) I guess. Have you heard about this called (the name of the book)?
Ismail: No, I don’t think. No.
Maruf: This guy is from Sweden, right? So he used to be a doctor but then he turns to be activist. So, I mean one of the things, he is like one of the things you do is that, he doesn’t look at the tree, he looks at the forest, right? How things are being improved. Because what we are seeing is that we are seeing everyday, here and then what we see on TV, what’s happening? Bad things, right? This is when someone drops someone, that’s broadcasted to everybody.
But humanity you know, Allah (SWT) said the world is run by compassion. The world is full of lots of good people. Good things are happening but instead somehow the the human mind is kind of focus on the bad things, right? It’s like a thing but in reality if we look at it, it’s just the way that way we exist right now right here, it’s a miracle and nothing else, right? There is so much imbalance in where we stand. If you look at the universe and especially, so many things happen to us. You and me speaking about all this stuff, human development all this stuff if we look at these proper way, the world kind of advances, you know.
In some ways I guess, in a bigger scale. And so, having said that, I think like can you, one of the things I said what I’d like to ask you is that, I for example, for me that the challenge for me, I was trying to find my own calling, the meaning of life or whatever it is. So, I believe that the listeners might be in the same situation. But in your situation, you are the person doing hard work for the last 5 years, day and night. Now, you have a halfway mark.
Alhamdulillah, may Allah increase your wealth and help you. So, what’s your advice for those people who are on the fence? Who really want to do but hasn’t really get out of their comfort zone and waiting? What do you say? What I’m saying is that not everybody is like that but those people, let’s say,they want to live their life with meaning, right? In another sense but in defence like you are in a transition. You are in the middle, maybe you are in the middle and not fully diverted. But out of your experience, what would you advise? What would you advise to those who are on the fence and trying to to think do it or not, can make it or not, what would you say from your experience?
Ismail: So, my advice should be, to do what I am doing. Which is start something on the side. Don’t jump all in at once. Also for example, if you don’t know how to swim, don’t jump into the ocean. Start tipping your toes, start letting out to swim. So, I will say firstly, find what you want to do. Many people still don’t know what they want to do. Find what it is. For me, I already know what I want to do and I have committed to doing it.
You need to figure it out. Not only a career goal, let’s say, what do you want to leave behind when you die. Something that’s going to benefit umma after you passed away. If you can figure out what that is, now you need to find a way to work that into your life. And it’s not going to be easy, it’s going to take years and years. To do it sometimes, you don’t even get that in your life. For example, I am writing a book right now. Inshallah, it will be launched in December. It’s called the productivity principle of Umar IBN Abdul Aziz. Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz was the ruler of the Muslim world around hundred years after the time of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihis Salam.
And he was only king for 2 years. Within two years, he set certain projects into place. One of those projects was the compilation of Hadith into books. So what he does, he called the Hadiths and told them we need to start writing this hadiths in books to keep them preserved until the end of time. He died a year later. Over a hundred years later Bukhari Muslim did it. So, the project he started it reached finishing over a hundred years later. And we get benefit from it today and Inshallah, he continues to get reward for it today. So, this is something he left behind for his ummah.
He started something even though he did not complete it in his life but because he started it with the right intention it was eventually completed and it continues to benefit us today. So, my advice for people number one, find something that’s not about money, it’s not about you it’s not about your fame it’s not about your ego, it’s about Allah it’s about making this world a better place it’s about leaving something behind that benefits people. And when you find that the newly excitement the motivation to do that drive you to take the first step and when you take one step towards Allah you know the Hadith what happens after that. Allah is the one who keeps bringing forward. Once you have that motivation, now start it slowly on the side. Make a plan ok, I am starting this, how much I need to be making from this to be able to transition full time?
How many years do I need to work on it to get to you there. Make your plan and obviously the plan will go up and down nothing is ever gonna go 100% according to plan right. My hope was to publish my first time management book in 2014 and I sell a hundred thousand copies and do this full time. It is 2019 and I am still moving toward that goal and Alhamdulillah, because I made that first step, at a point today where I am actually living a good life. Alhamdulillah, I am halfway there, halfway towards my goal 5 years later. Things are not gonna go always hundred percent.
Maruf: You learn things in your journey. That’s the key. You are halfway there.
Ismail: The key is to keep trying and learning from the mistakes, that’s the key to it. You know, I always thought you need to be a scientist. Continuously experimenting and don’t let the experiment go wrong stop you. You need to be like whats his name? Thomas Edison, the light bulb you know. He tried and tried and tried a thousand different combinations until something worked. That’s what you got to do. If you love it, something really you want to do with your life, if it’s a direction you really want to go with your life, you have just got a be like a mad scientist and keep trying until you find something that works.
Maruf: That is is actually, I don’t know maybe or you know, do you know the person who invented the scientific method? Have you read about this?
Ismail: yes (Haitam).
Maruf: Yeah that’s our scholar, right? the Muslim guy that invented this but we don’t take this credit right? As you said. it’s amazing, I mean, I learn so much, thank you for your time. Is there any question I should have asked maybe I haven’t asked? We are in the middle of as you can see in the process of launching Inshallah, this podcast and that’s quite new for me as well. I am learning a lot of things. You know, not that profit I know but I am gonna launch It anyway because I believe people will have benefits and that’s the key right. It’s not about being perfect, it’s your intention and
trying. So, it is possible that you know, maybe you’d like to convey and if there is so please go ahead and you know.
Ismail: How about the question I think I would have asked myself? There is something like, what’s the biggest mistakes I made in entrepreneurial journey. Lots of the biggest mistakes I made. I think that’s probably the most important thing to talk about. So, my biggest mistake when it comes to this journey number 1 was, I was hasty in the beginning. In 2014, I thought something I could accomplish in one year.
And it took me a while to realise its is a 10 years goal, not a 1 year goal. My first advice to people is, don’t be hasty. The prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Salam stated that hastiness is from Shaitaan. So, set long term goals. Nothing worth doing can be done overnight. Anything worth doing is gonna take a long time. The second big mistake which I made, it was not listening to the people who were already in the field. So, when I published my first book people told me, make online courses, do freelance writing, do YouTube videos and I didn’t listen.
I only started those things two, three or four years later. Alhamdulillah, all of those things have helped to accelerate my path towards my goal. If I had listened to them on day 1, I may be 75% toward my goal right now or maybe even further. But because I wasn’t listening to people in the beginning, I was just wanting to do things right and took a lot of actions straight away. So, my advice to others is, if you get into any field for the first time, find people who are successful in that field. Take one or two of them as mentor and actually listen to their advice because it’s good advice right? So, you saw this online course I put together on Islamic golden ages. If I hadn’t listened to people advice online courses that course would not exist. Alhamdulillah the course is benefiting over 100 people around the world. Also Alhamdulillah, if I didn’t listen to people I hadn’t made a course. So, that’s something you really need to listen.
Maruf: I mean that’s the key, right? Even though you haven’t listened, you didn’t listen in the beginning but you did end up listening eventually.
Ismail: Eventually, I did. I am like ok, hold down 5, 6, 7 people are telling me the same thing and all of them are successful in this field. Maybe there is something to it. Maybe I should give it a try. Which I would say the biggest mistake I made early on was that I underestimated myself. Because of that I delayed way too long. And I know many of us have this problem. We underestimate our own abilities and self confidence. If you met me when I was 23 or 24 told me to go into business, my exact word back then would be I hate business, I am not a businessman. I am never doing business. This exactly was my thought.
Maruf: That’s crazy. So, what did happen? What changed?
Ismail: What changed is my confidence. Honestly where this came from was low self confidence. I didn’t think I had it in me to do this. I didn’t think I had the capabilities to do this. I had very self confidence in my early twenties. And that’s why the first book I wrote and published is Islamic guide to self confidence. That was basically a set of notes I wrote to myself like a journal I wrote to myself to build my own confidence. So, it ended up being a 200 page book on self confidence on Islamic perspective. Writing it my confidence was actually like ok, I can do this, I can write books, I can make online courses. So, that book actually benefited me, Alhamdulillah, hundred people around the world were also benefited from this as well.
This is my favourite book that I have written because it actually changed my own life. Really I didn’t know it back then but I had a really low self confidence. So, many other people may have the same problem today, they are not starting because their confidence is low, they don’t trust themselves, they don’t trust the idea, they don’t think they have what it takes. So I will advise those people that they need to do something to build their confidence because once you build your confidence, Inshallah, everything else gets easier after that.
Maruf: Yes. So, confidence is built over time, isn’t it? You have to do small things, then a little bit bigger, then a little bit and you change everything, isn’t it? It just take action and time.
Ismail: That’s true. For example, I am currently writing a, I just finished writing a 350 page book. And the way I did it was I literally wrote 3 pages everyday. I just sat down everyday for 1 hour writing 3 pages and Alhamdulillah it’s 350 pages now in four months. Just four months to do it. You know, this really shows you that when you take a little bit of action everyday gets great results in the long term. Though people underestimate the value of a little bit of action but it goes a long long way.
Maruf I see, that’s very insightful brother, Ismail. Thank you very much for your time. I really enjoyed this talk. Please tell us, the listeners where they can find more about you if they want to follow up your works, online courses or website. That will be very helpful.
Ismail: Alhamdulillah, my website is Islamic selfhelp.com. And I am also active on social media channels. So, search for my name on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Alhamdulillah, I am active on all those channels. Mainly Islamicselfhelp.com. That’s my book, online courses, my blog post, latest videos, everything’s there, Inshallah.
Maruf: Let’s catch up sometime soon. Hopefully, what I really want is that may Allah make it happen, may your dream come true much much faster than 5 years. Let’s get you on the show again and we can, Inshallah, celebrate the moment, okay?
Ismail: I mean, Inshallah, Inshallah,It will happen soon, Amin.
Maruf: Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.
