Isnad Academy Podcast
by Irshaad Sedick
Authentic Knowledge from Authentic Sources - Through our panel-discussions, the Isnad Academy seeks to bring the views of experts on important, current-affairs to the attention of our listeners. In the 'Information-Age', access to information has never been easier, but access to misinformation is equally easy. In Islam, the 'isnad' or chain of transmission is the mechanism by which authentic knowledge could be sifted from inauthentic material. This system is what allowed Islam to maintain a high level of preservation, even centuries later. The Isnad Academy seeks to bring the classical orthodox teachings of Islam to a contemporary audience and context.
Episodes
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"Put Your Trust in Allah and Go" | Shaykh Muhammad Faadil Latief | ROOTED Ep. 16
He finished school in 1972 not knowing what he wanted to become, served an apprenticeship in the metal trade, and taught maths in Kimberley and at Spes Bona. Then a man who had memorised short surahs for his tamat started taking the train from Strand to Salt River every Saturday morning to learn...
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Who Taught Your Teacher the Quran? | Mawlana Saleem Gaibie | ROOTED Ep. 15
Every hafiz in this country recited to a teacher who recited to a teacher, all the way back to Rasulullah ﷺ. Mawlana Qari Saleem Gaibie has given his life to guarding that chain and to mapping it. He memorised the Quran at Darul Uloom Zakariyya, then sat for years with Qari Ayyub Ishaq through…
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"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...
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"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...
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"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...
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"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…
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"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...
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"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...
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"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...
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"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...
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She Qualified in Damascus Through Dua | Shaykhah Ruqayyah Samsodien | Rooted Ep 9
Shaykhah Ruqayyah Samsodien flew to Damascus at eighteen and hung a sign around her neck in the dormitory that read, in bubble letters, "I don't speak English" — so that nobody would speak to her in it, and she would be forced into Arabic. She came home an alimah. In this episode of ROOTED…
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One of the Shortest Chains to Sahih al-Bukhari in the World | Mawlana Ashraf Lamara | Rooted Ep. 8
Mawlana Ashraf Lamara holds one of the shortest chains of transmission to Sahih al-Bukhari in the world — four links to Shah Waliullah al-Dihlawi — and until last year almost nobody outside a handful of scholars knew it. In this episode of Rooted, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits with one of Cape…
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“You Don’t Worship the Teacher” | Mawlana Zakariyah Philander | ROOTED Ep. 7
When I was eleven years old, I walked into an afternoon madrasa in Retreat, and the man at the front of that room was the first qualified Islamic scholar I ever had as a teacher. He is the reason I wanted to become an alim. He is the reason I found Darun Na’im. And when I wanted to leave school…
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A Child of the Jamaat | Prof. Farid Esack on Being a Muslim in South Africa (Part 1)
Long before he was a professor, before the struggle, before the academy — Farid Esack was a boy in Bontheuwel raised by a single mother, and a child of the Tablighi Jamaat. In this first sitting of a new series from Isnad Academy, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits with Professor Farid Esack — his own...
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He Knew Every Hafiz in Cape Town | Imam Fuad Samaai | Rooted Ep. 6
In the 1960s, thirty-four men in the whole of Cape Town carried the Quran in their hearts, and Imam Fuad Samaai knew every one of them by name. “The chain is made in the maktab, or it is not made at all.” In 1973 he was one of eight students in the first intake of South Africa’s first Darul…
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He Left a Maths Career for the Deen | Mawlana Zakariyya Harnekar | ROOTED Ep. 5
He had top marks, a UCT mathematics degree, and lucrative bursary offers on the table — a clear road to actuarial science and comfortable money. He walked away from all of it, into the Darul Uloom of Mufti Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), and says he would make that decision "every single…
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Be a Seeker, and Remain a Seeker — Shaykh Riyad Walls' Journey to Knowledge | ROOTED (Ep 4 Part 2)
When Tony embraced Islam, he lost his business, his friends, and, for a time, his family. In Part 2 of his conversation on ROOTED, Shaykh Riyad Walls tells the story of what came next: the journey into sacred knowledge. From his wife teaching him alif-bā, to selling his beloved hi-fi to pay the...
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It's Not What I Did — The Conversion of Shaykh Riyad Walls | ROOTED Ep. 4
Three generations after his great-grandfather arrived in the Cape as a color-sergeant in a British punitive expedition, Shaykh Riyad Walls walked into a home in Cape Town and took his shahada. In this episode of ROOTED, he tells the story of how he came to Islam, the Rastafarian who handed him a...
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SUMUD | They Survived Apartheid Prison. They Said Israel Was Worse.
Two men from the Cape who once stood against apartheid boarded a boat for Gaza. They were seized in international waters, held in an Israeli prison, and sent home. This is their witness. Former Ambassador Faizel Moosa and Mogamed Faeek Ariefdien sailed with the Global Sumud Flotilla on its Spring...
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Rooted - Episode 3 He Doesn't Go By Sheikh | Hafiz Raees Mohamad
In a time when anyone can upload an Islamic video and call themselves a scholar, Islam has always been carried differently — 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....
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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…
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The Ummah in Turbulent Times: Clarity on Iran, Israel, and the Region
In this episode, I sit with Mln. Ebrahim Moosa from the Palestine Information Network for a frank conversation on the current escalation in the region and what it means for the wider Ummah. This is the full, raw recording as it was captured. It is not edited for tone, platform sensitivities, or...
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Unbroken: Mawlana Ebrahim Moosa on Gaza, Resistance, and Responsibility
In this powerful and timely conversation, Shaykh Irshaad Sedick sits down with Mawlānā Ebrahim Moosa of the Palestine Information Network to reflect on the newly declared ceasefire after two years of genocide in Gaza. Together they unpack: What this “ceasefire” really means — and what it doesn’t....
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Umma in Motion - Sami Hamdi Unfiltered in South Africa
In this gripping and urgent conversation, M. Irshaad Sedick sits down with analyst and political commentator Sami Hamdi for an unflinching look at the Gaza genocide, global power games, and the silence of Muslim leaders. This isn’t about headlines, it’s about what’s happening behind closed doors,...
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A Life of Learning with Mln Taha Karaan's Oldest Graduate - Mln Sedick Bailey
In this heartfelt and inspiring episode, we sit down with Mawlana Sedick Bailey, a 78-year-old scholar and the oldest graduate of the late Mawlana Taha Karaan (may Allah have mercy on him). Mawlana Bailey shares his remarkable journey of seeking knowledge across decades, reflecting on what it…
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Tariq - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Nine of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Tariq - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025 Account Name: Isnad Academy Absa Cheque Account Number: 4100949184 Branch 632005 Ref: Donate
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Buruj - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Eight of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Buruj - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025 Account Name: Isnad Academy Absa Cheque Account Number: 4100949184 Branch 632005 Ref: Donate
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Inshiqaq - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Seven of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Inshiqaq - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025 Account Name: Isnad Academy Absa Cheque Account Number: 4100949184 Branch 632005 Ref: Donate
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Mutaffifin - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Six of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Mutaffifin - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025 Account Name: Isnad Academy Absa Cheque Account Number: 4100949184 Branch 632005 Ref: Donate
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Infitar - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Five of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Infitar - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura ‘Takwir - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Four of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura ‘Takwir - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura ‘Abasa - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Three of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura ‘Abasa - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Nazi'at - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part Two of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Nazi'at - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025
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Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Naba - M. Irshaad Sedick
Part One of Understanding Juz Amma - Sura Naba - M. Irshaad Sedick Ramadan 1446/2025 Gaza Iftar & Suhur Goodwill International Foundation FNB Cheque: 6283 2797 205 Reference: Gaza More Info Contact: 064 9000 570
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Lessons from the Night Journey - A Warning Against Riba
In this powerful episode of the Isnad Academy Podcast, host M. Irshaad Sedick sits down with M. Muhammad Carr to explore a profound lesson from the Night Journey (Isrā’ and Mi‘rāj)—the dire warning against riba (usury/interest). 🔹 How does riba impact our spirituality, economy, and society? 🔹…
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Al-Isra: Practical Lessons from the Night Journey
Al-Isra: Practical Lessons from the Night Journey 00:00 Start 00:47 Introduction - Blessing of Rajab 01:24 Quran Recitation 17:1 02:36 Brief Recap 04:15 Who does the ending of the Ayah refer to? 08:29 Two Views - Body & Soul, or Soul Only 12:34 Evidence that it was Body & Soul 26:00 Start of the...
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Isra - The Night Journey and Divine Connection
Al-Isra - The Night Journey and Divine Connection 00:00 Start 00:27 Introduction 02:34 What was the overarching purpose of the Isra and Miraj |D:1 06:06 Surat al-Isra 25:11 Deep Dive into Ayah 1 of Surat al-Isra 40:15 Historical Context of the Isra and M’raj 44:40 Even the surroundings are…
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Unexpected Blessings of Rajab: Syria, Gaza, and Beyond
Join Mln Muhammad Carr and Mln Irshaad Sedick in this insightful episode of the Isnad Academy Podcast as they explore the spiritual significance of Rajab, its connection to Isra and Mi'raj, and the importance of this blessed month in our lives today. The discussion sheds light on the liberation…
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Gaza: Ongoing Genocide, Increasing Hope
Gaza: Ongoing Genocide, Increasing Hope In this enlightening discussion, Mawlana Ebrahim Moosa, founder of the Palestine Information Network (PIN), sits down with Mln Muhammad Carr and Mln Irshaad Sedick (Isnad Academy) to explore critical issues surrounding the ongoing genocide in, and…
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Syria is Free - What Does this Mean for Gaza? - M. Ebrahim Moosa (PIN)
Syria is Free - What Does this Mean for Gaza? - M. Ebrahim Moosa (PIN) In this enlightening discussion, Mawlana Ebrahim Moosa, founder of the Palestine Information Network (PIN), sits down with Isnad Academy to explore critical issues surrounding the Palestinian cause, Masjid al-Aqsa, and the...
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Contemporary Islam and Differences of Opinion - Sh Ismail Ibrahim Patel
Contemporary Islam and Differences of Opinion - Sh Ismail Ibrahim Patel In this episode, we are joined by our guest, Ismail Ibrahim Patel from the UK, with whom we discuss various issues - based on suggestions from our local teachers. Topics range from contemporary Islam, Taqlid, intra-religious...
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Role of Islamic Scholars in the Modern Era with Shaykh Dr Haitham Al Haddad
Shaykh Dr. Haitham al-Haddad is a jurist and serves as a judge for the Islamic Council (UK). He has studied the Islamic sciences for over 20 years under the tutelage of renowned scholars such as the late Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and the retired Head of the Kingdom's Higher Judiciary Council.…
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Did Western Cape Muslims Betray Palestine for the DA?
In this podcast episode, M. Irshaad Sedick (host) speaks with M. Khalil Hendricks, Sh. Muhammad West and M. Zakariyya Harnekar about the 2024 South African Elections results, explicitly addressing the question, “Did Western Cape Muslims Betray Palestine for the DA?” Support Isnad Academy so we…
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South African National Elections & The Muslim Vote
Join Shaykh Muhammad West, Mln Khalil Hendricks, Mln Zakariyya Harnekar, and Mln Irshaad Sedick for this discussion on the 2024 South African National Elections & Guidance for The Muslim Vote. 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - Initial Thoughts - Ruling on Voting 11:55 - How central is the consideration of…
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Khuddam al-Islam - Isnad Academy Podcast
In this episode, we sit down with Khuddam al-Islam to discuss their story and the beautiful Ramadan Qiyam al-Layl programmes they have developed. Support Isnad Academy - Absa Cheque Account Number: 4100949184 - Branch 632005 Khuddāmul Islām Nasheed Group and Youth Development - Established in…
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Tafakkur - Sura Al-Nur 4-10 - Ramadan 1445
Join M. Irshaad Sedick, M. Saalim Peck, M. Zakariyya Harnekar, and H. Achmat Solomon for this reflection (Tafakkur) on the meanings of verses 4 -10 of Sura al-Nur (Quran, 24:4-10) Help us help others - Isnad Academy Absa Islamic Cheque Account: 4100949184 Branch 632005 00:00 Start 00:10…
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About this show
Authentic Knowledge from Authentic Sources - Through our panel-discussions, the Isnad Academy seeks to bring the views of experts on important, current-affairs to the attention of our listeners. In the 'Information-Age', access to information has never been easier, but access to misinformation is equally easy. In Islam, the 'isnad' or chain of transmission is the mechanism by which authentic knowledge could be sifted from inauthentic material. This system is what allowed Islam to maintain a high level of preservation, even centuries later. The Isnad Academy seeks to bring the classical orthodox teachings of Islam to a contemporary audience and context.
Hosted by
Irshaad Sedick
Categories