Canyon on Wealth, Faith, and Moving in Silence

Asalam alalaykum. Hello everybody and welcome to the Baraka Blueprint podcast. The podcast where we balance faith and focus to achieve truly lasting success. And this is yet another special podcast episode because we have a very special guest with us. A brother who has through a journey found peace in Islam and Allah is doing fantastic content. I am very honored to introduce our brother Canyon. Uh someone who found Islam at a very young age in none other than Pakistan. Uh a brother who is doing a lot of meaningful and beneficial content when it comes to uplifting and inspiring young and I would even say elder Muslims when it comes to achieving success be it financial uh be it focus related and to become the optimal version of themselves. But even more special than so, Canyon is our first ever guest for the Baraka Blueprint podcast. Canyon asalam alalayikum, bro. Welcome tell us how you doing, man. Alhamdulillah. Very good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm uh absolutely honored to be the the first official guest. Thank you so much, brother. Uh so before we get started, Canyon, tell us your story. Tell us about Canyon, but specifically Canyon before Islam. Canyon Before Islam. I grew up on a farm in North Idaho, the Pacific Northwest of America. Population of 7,000 people. Nothing but cows, ranches, and mountains. That's where I came from. So, my father and my mother, both farmers. I grew up watching my dad 12, 14 hours running a farm. about when I was eight years old. Both my parents had a career change. My dad got into becoming an architect. My mom became a nurse. We got one brother. And I was raised in what you'd call the last standing nuclear family of the West before the negative impact of the West. So I had a very good upbringing, very good parents, very good family dynamic. From a very young age watching my parents be farmers, I got into entrepreneurship. I'd be 10 years old. I'd be selling stickers in school, selling pencils, 13 years old, selling sneakers, like trying to buy them, sell them for a little bit more. So, I was always very interested in entrepreneurship. I was always very charismatic, probably to my detriment sometimes. You know, I talk to everybody, get a lot of experiences. As I moved into being about uh 14 15 years old, I got a severe brain injury. Second best thing that ever happened to me. Alhamdulillah. First one was becoming a Muslim. Okay. I believe any negative thing that happens to you, it's your choice to look at all the negatives or it's your choice to look at the positives. So, I had this brain injury wiped me out. I missed years of school. But what happened is I was at home. So, I spent all of my time with my brother and all of his friends who were three years older than me. And I watched all of them graduate, go to college, university, and it gave me perspective on if you're this type of person, you're going to get this type of results. All of them were stereotypical high schoolers, teenagers messing around, doing things they shouldn't do. And I got to see from a very young age, do this and you'll get this. And I saw 15 different people all go from 18, 19, 20, 21. And I saw where all of them ended up in life. So from a very young age, it gave me perspective of what's important and where I should put my energy. So starting 17 years old, I got heavily into entrepreneurship. I started my first company selling artwork that was designed by people in prison. We'd raised money for prison awareness. Started social media at that age as well. I spent my entire high school senior year focusing on becoming the best version of myself. Where everyone goes to in the United States, you know, you go to homecoming, haram, you go to all these things, all these venues. I never did any of that. It was work, try to develop myself, become the best version of myself. I graduated high school and like any responsible young man, I spent all my money and flew to a state, a foreign country and see if it would work out. Very responsible. So I flew to Warsaw, Poland. And I had one month where I was either going to go homeless or I'd figure it out. I got into sales. Alhamdulillah, I figured it out. And I started traveling because I started making money in sales. I met a business partner. He was a Muslim. Moved to Pakistan. took my shahada while I was in Pakistan and that is who I was before Islam. I have so so many questions. Uh let's let's take it step by step. So you mentioned the event that uh that led to an injury that you mentioned and you also said that this is the second best thing that happened to you and second to Islam. Now the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says amazing are the affairs of the believer for everything is good. If something beneficial or seemingly good happened to them they are grateful for that is better for them. And if something harmful or seemingly harmful happened to them they are patient and that is better for them. But I'm curious to ask you, what led you to think that this particular event that 99.99% of people would otherwise see as harmful that you saw it as something beneficial? Because what is the benefit of focusing on a negative? I had this belief before Islam. Now with Islam, alhamdulillah, that's amazing because how can you be upset with an outcome if Allah is the best of all planners? How can you be upset with where you are if that's exactly where you're supposed to be? How can you be nervous about the future if exactly what's supposed to happen is going to happen? Alhamdulillah. And I had that opinion/belief before Islam because I always just thought there's so many negative people in the world, right? Does it really matter if something bad happened? What is the benefit of focusing on anything that's negative? So, you're walking down the street and it's raining. You have two choices. Oh, I hate the rain. I'm going to get all wet. Or, you know what? I'm going to be so happy once I'm dry. Right. Both people are experiencing the same situation, living the exact same life. One chooses to let it affect them and they're happy. The other chooses to let it affect them and they're sad. And that's your choice to make. And alhamdulillah, from a young age, I just kind of always had that mindset. What age did you become Muslim? 19 years old. Okay. So, if 16-year-old Canyon would see you today, what would he say? If 16-year-old Canyon saw me today, he would be incredibly proud and incredibly surprised. When I was 16 years old, I planned on living in a van, traveling the world, and like walking in fields, proper hippie, right? And he would not have suspected that this is where I would have ended up, but he would be very proud. Allah, you know, at the very least, he should be proud of this amazing blazer. Hopefully, he should be proud of your style. Uh, and you know, pun heavily intended, by the way, uh, Islam was sort of an elevator pitch to you. Uh, at least when I I saw I saw your content with amazing brothers, like brother Hislop in his podcast. Uh, you mentioned the event that later sealed the deal, if that makes sense, and ultimately led to the shahada. Now, could you walk me through that elevator pitch? When I took my sh right after the elevator. Yes, sir. Yeah. So, now that I'm a Muslim, I view the religion very logically. Right. When I talk about it, I view it as a very logical like you can explain Islam logically. When I reverted, it wasn't a logical decision. It was an emotional decision because something felt right and I couldn't pinpoint it. I would be praying in the mosque. wasn't a Muslim, but I was just praying. And after fudger, I'd sit there and I want to take my shahada. Wh why? But something was drawing me to wanting to do it. But then I wouldn't do it. And every day I'd sit longer after fudger. I'd sit there for 10 minutes. I should do it. I should do it. I'd sit there for 15 minutes. I should do it. And every single day I wouldn't end up doing it. And another day, maybe seven, 10 days after being like, I want to take my shahada. I sat there and I'm going to do it. This is it. Like I said in my mind, I'm going to go up to the I want to tell him I want to take my shahada right now. And then I didn't do it again. Walked home. Took the elevator up to my floor. Power goes off at the top floor. Whole building shuts down. And the first thing that I think to do is make dwa. I don't think to check my phone. I don't think to try to open the door. The first thought that pops to my mind is, "Well, I'm here. I might as well pray." And I remember I sat there. God, I don't know who you are, what I'm praying to. I pray for guidance. I pray that you show me the right direction. I pray that you protect me. And I just kind of repeated things like that for 20 minutes. Then I stopped praying and I saw a crack in the door. And I noticed I could still open the door. And I and I thought about that for a second. My first thought was to pray, not to even try to open the door. And I've never believed in coincidences. My entire life, I've never believed in coincidences. And I sat there and I went, "That is not a coincidence." Walked inside, flipped over my laptop. How do you take your shahada YouTube? Did it myself and did it officially in the mosque the next day? Would you say that the moment that led you to do dua in your or make dua in your time of difficulty or seemingly difficult? Would you say that this was your fra your inner first principles speaking to you as a human being? I think so. I think it's that natural we all have that naturally calling in our heart. You know, when we're in certain environments, when we go to certain buildings, there's certain places that make us feel whole and we don't know how to describe it. Like being in Mecca, for example, it makes you feel whole. And that was the same thing I was feeling with Islam and I'd feel that when I pray. So, I would say so. Would you say that the times where you were contemplating between taking your shahada or not, would you say that this was sort of a a dragging game between yourself and the fra or how would you describe this back and forth that you had in your mind? I think I was hesitant to take my shahada because it would be the biggest thing that I would ever have done in my entire life and I knew that and I was aware of that. So I think from the first second that I wanted to take my shahada, I knew I would. But as when we're nervous to do things, when we're nervous to meet that person, when we're nervous to go to that place, we tend to want to procrastinate. what we know we're already going to do. And I think that was the same thing with me taking my shot. I already knew I was going to become a Muslim. I was just scared. So I was procrastinating it. The reason why on a deep down level, only Allah knows. Absolutely. uh and only Allah knows how many people are in that battle because not that I speak out of knowledge but out of pure speculation I can imagine since the dawa in the Islamic dwa is very strong and I would argue purely out of observation that due to the loud noise Islam makes both for and against one could argue that uh the Islamic dua or the Islamic calling is ultimately the loudest and it will either resonate with people or it will make people react in a certain way. So Allah only God knows how many people are going through that very struggle. Like I I personally know people and I speak to people as I have done dawa in Sweden since 2011 2012 both in a physical sense where we speak to people in the streets or uh digitally through the various platforms and it's very often that we meet people where we present them the logical and rational arguments but I can clearly see a tango dance where They contemplate like well this does make sense or but should I and of course it has everything to do with what you mentioned that they're taking the biggest step they ever taken and they don't know what is waiting for them in the other side. So I think the difference with you and this is me purely speculating and purely assuming. It seems to me that just like the other people your fra your inner first principles were calling out to you but you listened to that calling. Now what would you say to someone who is dancing this tango dance with their fra not knowing what to follow and what to hear not knowing what to believe or not to believe. If you are thinking Islam might be right for you the best thing that you can do is get around good Muslims. As much as Islam is a logical religion and it makes sense. I understand it's hard to change your entire viewpoints based on logic. We're emotional creatures. But when you surround yourself with truly practicing Muslims and see how they act, that is what will open your heart and then you'll have the logic of understanding the religion logically and you'll see the emotional side of how true Muslims act. That's why I say very commonly the best type of dawa that you can do is by being the best Muslim you possibly can be because you never know when you're going to meet a non-Muslim and they're the and you're the first Muslim they have ever met and all of the goodness that you have, they will associate that with Islam. And that's the exact same thing that happened with me. If I learned about Islam on Instagram reels as much as I'm the one who makes the reels, that might not convince me of the religion. But if I learned about Islam by getting in a community of true Muslims, you can see how they act. The way you hold yourself, you're clearly a practicing Muslim. There's a certain way they act. There's a certain kindness and energy and peace that they radiate that non-Muslims can feel. If you're a non-Muslim and you meet a real practicing Muslim, you'll have nothing negative to say about Islam. You'll never meet a non-Muslim who like lived in the UAE and spent time with people like you and they'd go, "Oh, Muslims are horrible." No, they're like, "They're so kind. Maybe they don't become a Muslim, but they have great views on Islam and that's because they were able to be around the emotional side of the people and at the end of the day we are emotional creatures. First impressions last. So 110% I agree with you. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in a in an authentic narration he says I was I was verily sent to complete and perfect the morals and etiquette of men. like like the hadith says and also the the Islamic dua that Allah subhana t gives us in the Quran and a blueprint as such he says so three steps step number one call to the path of Allah subhana wa ta'ala with wisdom and then the good word the good etiquette the good presentation and the third step is rational and logical argumentation. So I completely agree with you and having a great first impression with a Muslim is truly truly crucial. So very interesting that you mentioned community also because subh the next question I wanted to ask you is something o well someone can say it's opposite to community but it's not really opposite it's different I would say solitude How important is it for you? If you cannot sit with your own thoughts and be comfortable with yourself, how are you ever going to get to where you want to go? If you can't sit for hours with your own thoughts, how are you ever going to enjoy your life? You're constantly going to be trying to fill yourself with noise, fill yourself with surroundings so you don't have to think about all of the inadequacies in your life that you need to fix. I think all men need to be in solitude. I'm spacing right now when you go to the a mosque 10 days completely isolated. What's that called? You mean in the last 10 days? Yeah. It's in Islam. Yeah. Right. So, we tend to be so connected through social media today that men are always connected to something that they don't take the time to disconnect, sit down, evaluate themsel, evaluate where they are. And I have a strong belief that people don't know what they want. If you go up to the average man on the street, what do you want? He'll give you a couple regurgitated answers from some online guru he heard who told him that's what young men want. You must be able to s with yourself. You must be able to have solitude. Compared to the noise, what did you learn in the silence? Could be about yourself, could be about anything. You learn where your blind spots are. When you sit in solitude and you truly are honest with yourself, you learn where you lie to the entire world. We all try to put an image up. I I got a comment the other day on social media of someone saying, "Wow, you're such a good Muslim. You're, you know, you're better than me." And my response to that comment was, "You only see what I post on social media." M all these Muslims you see on social media who oh mah best Muslim ever they're not posting what they're doing wrong of course and when you're with yourself you can't hide that when you're sitting there in silence for hours you can't hide from from yourself where you're lying to absolutely everybody else yeah nobody posts about the skeletons in their closet right exactly so when do you know When it's time to leave the silence and re-enter society, when you're able to be honest with yourself and accept it, if you have something wrong, that's fine. You have to be willing to accept it. Once you stop trying to rationalize your flaws and going, you know what? This is true. I do need to do this better. I do need to fix this relationship. I do need to get on my diet. I do need to do this. Once you can accept and be fully aware and okay with that it's true, then you can leave a solitude. But if you can't if you can't accept your own flaws, all that's going to happen is you're going to go back into society and keep pretending to be someone that you're not and keep pretending to mask your flaws with qualities that you do not have. What would you say to someone who tries to balance that with the other side which is growing or trying to grow a personal brand, let's say, or trying to grow social media presence. Would you say they're opposites? And if not, how would you balance them? Humans are a lot smarter than we think. We think we can put on some facade and like people aren't going to see through it, right? We can we think we can pretend to be someone that we're not. Humans can tell when you are lying. And I believe with personal branding, the best way to build a personal brand is be so authentically yourself. I posted a video the other day of me like going on about the haters or something. I tend to do that. I see that. And somebody swiped up on my story and they said, "I don't think you should post this." And I I actually responded to the person. I said,"I don't think I live my life doing what others think I should do." Of course, because when you build a personal brand, everybody's going to have an opinion of you. Everybody's going to want you to be their ideal version of you. You need to be your ideal version of you. And people might disagree with parts of you, but they will respect you because you're you, right? When someone's like, "Oh, you know, you shouldn't post all these photos of your suits and all the stuff you do." It's like, that's that's me. If you don't like it, unfollow. My opinions, they're me. If you don't like it, don't follow me. And when you actually do that, you build an authentic relationship because your audience knows you're not lying to them. My audience knows if I tell them something, I'm telling the truth because I'll also say things that they don't want to hear or that they don't like or that they disagree with. But if I'm constantly trying to appease everybody and I'm constantly trying to put this image up of who I'm not, happens all the time with online gurus. I'll tell you, everybody you see online, they're not as successful as you think. Like, if Alhamdulillah, I'm I'm doing good for my age. I'm not like, by all means, there's people way more successful than me. But also, if you go to like the first seven posts of my Instagram page and you look at them, you'd go like, "This dude's balling, bro. I had like $5 in my bank account." It's really easy to look like you're balling on social media, right? Everybody's putting a facade up. And everybody who says they're not is lying, right? So I'm putting a facade up. Everybody amplifies their good part. I can try to be as authentic as I possibly want. But on an base human level, everybody's going to amplify their best qualities, right? Then we go down this whole rabbit hole to psychology because now I can break down everything I just said and go, well, I'm trying to amplify my humbleness by saying that I'm also this. Like, you just have to understand, do your best to be you. And if you mess up, that's fine, right? If you say something you weren't supposed to say on social media, post a video about it. I I remember I I posted something that I didn't have the right education on. I said something it was incorrect. And I'm like, "Yeah, I was wrong." Like, "Okay, I'm not going to try to I was wrong. I posted the wrong video. Cool. Let's move on. People make mistakes." Now that we're on social media, it's like you can't make a mistake. No, of course. I I I I do I do understand any when when you have a certain presence uh you get this uh anticipation of perfection or like people expect you to be perfect or expect to at least observe perfection and I do understand and I I I I felt I I I I felt what you said when it comes to putting a facade up to appear a certain way because definitely it it affects me as And like you said, it affects everybody. If you want to appear or if you want to appear more often or if you want to gain uh a certain view count or even grow in this particular platform or other similar platforms, they are made and the algorith algorithms are made for people to grow by showing up. Uh but there is a balance like you said uh if I understand correctly I definitely agree 110%. uh you balance the presentation because we pres every every time we present wherever we are we present we have a pitch we pitch our business we pitch to business partners clients you pitch to uh people if they want to I don't know uh acquire a product or if you are going to enter into a business negotiation with someone and the same thing we pitch to our viewers we pitch to our followers And the balance on the other side is honesty as we call it in in Arabic or in the the the Islamic tradition which is so humility or being humble is one translation but I would maybe say the right translation is honest humility. There's a hadith in Arabic where where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says or as he said whoever humbles themselves to God will elevate them and God will raise them in ranks. So I ask Allah that all of us are are among those people that we stay grounded and stay honest and that we are of those that God uplifts in this life and in the hereafter. Amen. But speaking of uh speaking of this and I want to enter a bit into the topic of what you are actually one of the things you are doing because I I your content appeared on my uh social media page uh it was actually reshared by many people in my network but one of the things that stood out was beside the finance content that you share both the long form and the short form content and side note I do wish you do long form content because I actually I actually like listening to you. Uh so I find myself repeating your short form content a bit too much. So inshallah I I I I'm excited to see where your journey is headed inshallah. Uh I also see those gips those clips where you you you mentioned this you mentioned that Islam is a very logical religion and I do see that with your content as well. I'm in 30 seconds I will prove to you logically rationally X or this but beside the religious part I want to touch on the finance part and financial literacy. Uh first of all what made you enter that topic specifically in content creation? One of the things that I noticed very quickly when I started getting involved in the Muslim community is they have a very negative connotation with wealth. Culture has affected Islam. In Islam, there's nothing that says having wealth is wrong. There's nothing. Agreed. There are many things that say having good wealth is better than no wealth. But yet, Muslims nowadays think it's bad. They think it's haram to be rich or to want to be rich. Oh, you're focusing on the dunya. You should be you should be working for the hereafter, but they don't realize that they're disregarding their own religion. Let's look at the companions of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, successful businessmen. How did Islam grow? Did Islam grow by everybody being poor? No. You needed wealth. You needed money. Look at Dubai for example. Yes, Dubai is not perfect and they have things that aren't Islamic. But Dubai in the last 10 years has helped Islam become more global very much because people view Muslims in a different light. Dubai couldn't have done this if there was no money. True. The Ummah needs money and it needs people who understand finances. Now the problem is Muslims are so uneducated on money, the basics, the fundamentals. Not becoming incredibly rich. Not everybody needs to be incredibly rich, but basic fundamentals of investing, what's haram, what's halal. And if every Muslim could learn what's permissible, where they can put their money, I think that have a net positive impact on every single Muslim that exists, and they will get more rewards for it. If you become rich and you spend your money in ways that please Allah, you will get more rewards than the poor man who did not. So beside the negative connotation that people seem to have about money or acquiring wealth, what piece of information or concept or assumption or idea would you say that Muslims will need to unlearn about finance or specifically towards financial literacy? They need to unlearn that striving for wealth, like actually striving for it is wrong. Okay? They need to unlearn that this life is a balance. We are allowed to want things in the dunya. Islam doesn't tell us sacrifice absolutely everything, live in the worst house possible, don't do anything and only pray. It doesn't tell us that. And they need to unlearn that. They need to unlearn that for some reason you're selfish. If you want something in the dunya, yes, you don't put it over the hereafter. You don't try to make money by screwing over a brother. You don't try to make money by doing something impermissible, but you make money by helping others. You make money by creating products that genuinely add value to the marketplace, by providing a service to people. So, you have to break that connotation that it's wrong. That's all it is, that it's wrong. And it just comes from un uneducation, which is unfortunate. Uh so one of the things you mentioned about the idea of attaining escatism or an eskeetic life in Arabic it's called uh that particular idea is also some of the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam called it pseudo escetism as in pretending that you're grounded and that you want to attain the simpler things in life but this is not truly honest or is made to put up a certain facade but like to the completely opposite direction. Some people do it for financial or like to appear more materialistic. Others can even do the opposite. There are two sides of the coin basically. Uh but and I think I think you'll agree with me on this one as well at least I want to explore that part. The balance is very important. The balance of aiming to grow in material influence and power and gain like the like the Quran says do not forget the part of that you can attain and do good as God did good for you. But at the same time it is also important to balance that with the ultimate journey or the ultimate compass which is towards hereafter gain or to attain that level. How would you say uh or as good as you possibly can explain that how how would you say one should balance the two extremes or the two opposites? If you get rid of the notion that wanting money is bad, the balance of the dunya and the hereafter becomes incredibly easy. Follow the story of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Tell me more. Because I heard something the other day and it's absolutely amazing. Prayers, five daily prayers takes 40 minutes of your day. Really max, right? Yes. 40 minutes. Allah only asked you for 40 minutes and he gave you the other 23 hours and 20 minutes. He only asked for 2.5% of your wealth and the rest is is yours to spend. Why? Why are we compromising our entire life on that? Islam was made easy. It wasn't made hard. It wasn't made challenging. Right? When you ask for forgiveness and genuinely ask for forgiveness, not only are you forgiven, but you are given good deeds in exchange. Subhan Allah. If you are on your five daily prayers, you're staying away from major sins. You're keeping Allah front of mind. You're giving your zaka. You're doing everything that's obligatory. Spend the rest of your time becoming the best version of yourself, becoming financially successful, building great relationships. Do all of that and you have an amazing hereafter and an amazing dy. Subhan Allah. You don't have to sacrifice either or. You can have both. So, in a way, don't view them as necessary opposites. They're not. Subhan Allah. They're one of the same. They're one of the same. Was yes or no. Was Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him a good businessman? Yes. Was he the best Muslim who's walked the earth? Yes. There's our answer. That's it. That's the blueprint. Alhamdulillah. In the baraka blueprint. Uh well, that that was actually made very simple. Uh, I want to move on to the to the top to to the topic of I mean beside the content that you do, I want to touch more on the success part or the the understood success. So, alhamdulillah and and to those of you who are not following Kenya, I highly highly highly recommend following his content both from the perspective of financial literacy and uh explaining Islam in a logical and rational step-by-step guide. Uh I believe somebody in their either either early stages or even as they are doing dawa to the non-Muslims, I think following brother like Canyon is extremely important. And when you do that, when you do enter our dear brother's social media platform, Allah, you've reached in Instagram, you're uh a bit over 100K if I'm not mistaken. Uh in Tik Tok, you've touched over or almost to the mid 300K. Uh my question to you is what does success like look? Sorry. What does success look like when no one is watching? Success looks like So what success looks like when no one is watching is are you proud, content, happy and fulfilled with exactly where you are right now. If you have yes, yes, yes, and yes, that is what success is. My definition of success is to have every pillar of life as maxed out as you possibly can to what you want. If you don't want to be a millionaire, being a millionaire doesn't make you successful. I heard this quote the other day. Don't know where it came from, but it's very, very good. The definition of success is how close you got to attaining what you said you wanted. Okay? Subhan Allah. So if I say success for me is $5 million, a Lambo, and a Rolex. Okay, that's what success is. And you said success for me is two amazing children, a beautiful wife, my five daily prayers, and an amazing community. Okay? And say I have three million, not the 5 mil. I have a a tutor, not a Rolex. And I have a Ferrari, not a Lamborghini. You're more successful than me because you are closer or have attained what you set out and said you wanted. I have met so many people who are incredibly financially successful by definition. 99.9% of them I wouldn't change lives with. Just the other day, I went to an event and there was a lot of people from a certain network, I won't name the network, who make their money in impermissible ways. Okay. I met an 18-year-old. His watch was $300,000. Is he more successful than me? No. Would I ever want to change spots with him? No. cuz that's not in alignment with what I set out as what I want to achieve in this life. Is a $300,000 watch important to me at all? No. Is beautiful children, amazing family, and great relationships? Yes. Is a healthy body? Yes. So, how far in alignment are you with what you want? So, you mentioned uh family, and I'm going to touch on that as well. Uh but before that a quick question regarding the definition of success or the definition of achievement of success because you you talked a lot about achievement of of success in this segment. Would you say that Islam has shifted that definition or altered that definition and if so how? Yes, Islam has changed how I view success. Before Islam, it was just the money and the status, right? Because young men, that's what you're told, right? That's what you're told. You need money and you need status. But when I found Islam, it gave me perspective because I met a lot of Muslims who did not have money and did not have status, yet I liked their life more than the successful people I've met. I'll reiterate the point because it's so important. I have probably met 300 millionaires who I wouldn't change lives with. People who are much more successful than me, successful, right? And when I met Muslims who were happier, who seemed to have better relationships, who had great great children, great relationships with their their spouse, it seemed like a better life to me. And I compare it with my father. My father has a life that I would more rather have than the people I know who have $30 million in the bank. And when you get perspective, you can find out what's important. So if you don't know what's important to you and what you want and how you can become successful, the first thing you need to do is look at a bunch of different people's lives, every aspect, and go, who's the closest to what I want? Do you know the saratoral shooter, Juel? Of course. Juel is an amazing person and he is one of the people who's the closest I can possibly say to someone who's public that lives a life that if I ended up where he is at his age, alhamdulillah, I'd be very happy. He's very financially successful. He has his dean, he has his family, he has his relationships, he has brothers. Now, I only found knowing he's a great role model through seeing 50 other role models go, "Okay, I like that part. I like that part. I don't like that part." Mhm. So if you're ingrained and you're living this very linear life, the thing that you think success is going to be is what you were told, right? So maybe you grow up in poverty in a third world Muslim country. Yes. You're told success is staying poor and praying your five daily prayers. Say you grow up in upstate New York and your dad's a a banker. You're told success is is an Ivy League school and banking. But when you get perspective on the world and that's what Islam gave me was I got to come from an entrepreneur background. I got to come from America and then I got to see Islam and then I got to compare the two different ideologies blend the two to find what I love and define that's my definition of success. What legacy do you want to leave behind you? The legacy that I want to leave behind me is past children, past names, and past money. None of that is what's important to me in terms of legacy. What's important to me in legacy is how you impacted other people and how long your good deeds cascade for. How long do your good deeds keep giving you rewards? That's how I define legacy. So, how many things can I do while I'm in this world that will keep giving me good deeds when I'm no longer here? And the more of that I can do and the longer it can keep going, that is what I define as legacy and what is actually important to me. I think this is the [Music] most at least improvised academic definition of that I have heard actually and I I actually couldn't agree more. That's when when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam talked about legacy which is what a person leaves behind after they die. He mentioned three things that stay a continuous charity and knowledge that benefits people after their passing and righteous offspring that call out to God for their dead parents. So uh I am very happy to have heard that definition and uh I wish I could hear it more. Also you also mentioned mashallah you mentioned your family your parents and it leads me to ask the obvious question what what what quality do and I'm sure there's a lot you can mention and we can sit until and talk about it and we wouldn't even be done but if if it if there is one quality you can take from your parents that you will pass down to your children what is it learn to Think for yourself. Everybody will want you to believe what they believe. Everybody's going to force their opinion onto you and want you to follow the life that they live. Everybody's going to tell you someone else is wrong. Mhm. In the reality, they're all wrong. You have to find what's good for you. Alhamdulillah, that's what my parents taught me, and I'm very grateful for that because I can challenge any opinion from anybody. And I'm not going to adopt an opinion unless I know that's what I believe. Too many people take authority figures and just take everything they say as fact. They don't care. They go, "This person's in authority. I'm just going to have that opinion, too." 95% of people don't have an opinion on anything. They have a regurgitated opinion from someone who they view as an authority and what their opinion is. And what I want my kids, I don't want my kids to be Muslim because I told them to. I want them to become Muslim and live a Muslim life because I taught them to think for themsel. They saw how I live my life. They see how other people live their life and they made the decision. And I think when you do that and you let people and you teach people how to make decisions by themsel and think freely, you raise very intelligent young men and women. I think you touched on that also. uh but uh a subsequent question that I would ask you is what is one small action change shift that we can implement both as individuals and as a community as Muslims that will leave behind the big ripple effect be it towards adopting the selfthinking self-critical mindset that God has actually ordered us to have But also when it comes to the net positive effect that will leave on society. What is one small shift that can leave a big ripple effect for that? Be kinder. Be nicer to people. You know what makes a great civilization is people who care for people. And what we're entering right now is a divided world where social media will divide us more. Opinions will separate us more within Islam. Not just Islam versus other people. Islam will continue to get separated the more and more people are disagreeing with each other but allow disagreeance to have them disrespect the other person or no longer value them as a human. It is okay for us to disagree. You and I can disagree on something. At the end of the day, you're another human. I have to respect you and I have to be kind to you. And if we lose that, we lose everything. Mhm. So for us to keep the ripple effect of good deeds is we need to keep that forefront that just because there's division doesn't mean someone else is less than you. It doesn't mean you should be less kind to them. We're selective with our kindness based on what someone looks like, based on how someone speaks. We choose to be kind to someone once they're kind to us. We withhold our kindness because we don't know. Be kind to everybody. Man, woman, dog, cat, bumblebee. be kind and if you do that, watch what comes back. Subhan Allah. Actually, yes. One thing we are being taught is one thing they tell us in Arabic and uh Canyon, I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, not only for being the first guest for the baraka blueprint, but uh for the very valuable information that you have shared. Before we wrap things up, uh, you have your camera right here. I want you to tell the viewers of the Baraka Blueprint podcast your final message to them, your final words of advice for them to be their best version of themselves in faith and in worldly gain. What would you tell them? My final piece of advice for you would be you can have it all. If Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is the man we're supposed to emulate. Was he lacking any major quality? No. Was he financially successful? Yes. Did he have great relationships? Yes. Did he have a great family? Yes. Was he the best Muslim who ever walked this planet? Yes. You can have it all. You can be fit. You can be healthy. You can be wealthy. You can be a practicing Muslim without sacrificing any of it and have faith in Allah. Canyon my heart. May Allah reward you and may Allah multiply your success. Thank you so much for joining us to the barak blueprint podcast and this has been more than a pleasure. Thank you for having me.