Earlier this week, I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the Islamic School of Rhode Island’s 8th grade graduation.
During this special occasion, I recounted a pivotal encounter from my own youth—a bus ride that occurred when I was just a few months older than them—that profoundly redirected my path by introducing me to Islam.
Finally, I gave five specific tips for students on how they can safeguard their iman as they venture outside the of them Islamic school bubble. I explained how fully embracing their Islamic identity will make them magnetically attractive both to their classmates and to colleges.
Please enjoy the speech and let me know your thoughts in the comments or by hitting the like button.
Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim
Assalam alaykum,
It is an enormous privilege and pleasure to speak at the Islamic School of Rhode Island’s 8th grade graduation. I want to thank ISRI for inviting me and for the incredible work they do in nurturing the hearts and minds of our future leaders.
Br. Mohamed Abdelrhman (Allah yarhamhu), one of the founders of ISRI, was a dear mentor of mine. He had a vision of inspiring unity among the Islamic schools of New England, and it is therefore appropriate that I, as a long-term teacher and administrator at Al-Noor Academy in Mansfield, was chosen to deliver today’s remarks.
Standing here today brings back memories of my own 8th grade graduation, a time when I had no idea how dramatically my life was about to change. Little did I know a single bus ride just three months later would change the trajectory of my life forever.
But more on that story in a moment.
To be honest, I don’t remember my 8th grade graduation all that well. I was probably busy daydreaming about epic sleepovers and beating my top score in Donkey Kong.
A few months later, I would begin at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, a boarding school that my father, grandfather, and an assorted array of cousins had attended before me.
Who could have expected that within 18 months of arriving at this Christian school that I would embrace Islam and change the trajectory of my life forever?
How did this happen?
How did a boy whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower end up accepting a new faith at the age of 15?
I'll tell you in one word: Dawa.
An Unlikely Friendship
When I arrived at St. Mark’s, there was only a single Muslim in my class. His name was Nabil, and he was different than anyone I had ever met.
I first got to know Nabil on a bus ride on one of the first days of school back in my freshman year in 1992. He looked different than the rest of us. He was Indian, weighed about 220 lbs, and had the awkward beginnings of a beard with wispy hairs across his face.
There was a lot about him that stuck out.
At night, when we would be brushing our teeth with traditional toothbrushes, Nabil would be using a stick that he explained was a miswak, a sunnah of the Prophet (SAWS).
He would carry a lota with him everywhere he went, eventually making us question how we could have ever thought toilet paper was sufficient.
He completed a strange ritual every night before bed: running water up and down his forearms, performing an aggressive farmer’s blow, and then putting his feet in the sink! Our initial inclination was to make fun of him, but he was so charismatic that insults bounced off him like teflon.
Nabil would then return to his room, leave his door slightly open, and call the athan. He had heard a hadith that even if you're a shepherd alone on a mountain pass, you should still call the athan out loud, as everyone and everything will bear witness on the Day of Judgement.
As you can imagine, all these strange rituals made us curious, and we began to ask Nabil what they were all about.
He explained that he was Muslim, that he believed in the same God mentioned in the Torah and the Bible. He said that each of the Prophet’s from Adam to Moses to Abraham and Jesus were bringing the same message: that there was only One God. Truth is a continuum, he said, and Islam was the updated “operating system” brought for all of humanity by Muhammad (SAWS), the final prophet of Allah.
A Single Sentence That Changed Everything
I'll never forget when my heart really changed, and I became convinced that Islam was the truth.
We were in my friend Matthew’s dorm room, and out of the blue Nabil asked us, “Boys, do you want to hear the most valuable sentence in the world, that is weightier than the heavens and the earth?”
We’d never heard a question like this before, so naturally, we were extremely curious.
He then said: La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad ar-Rasul Allah. There is no god but God and Muhammad (SAWS) is His messenger.
When he said the kalima, an electric current coursed through my body. My hairs stood on end, and tears welled up in my eyes.
I didn’t embrace Islam at that moment, but the seed had been planted.
Within about 9 months, 3 of us, including Matthew, had become Muslim. His name is Noor ud-Deen, and he remains one of my closest friends to this day.
So what is the purpose of relating this story to you today?
Nabil was 14 years old when I first met him. That bus ride happened in September, just 3 months after my 8th grade graduation.
You are exactly the same age as Nabil, and you have the opportunity to make just as profound a difference on the world if you make the same intention.
Just like Nabil, many of you are about to leave the Muslim bubble and the cocoon of ISRI and join a high school where you may be one of the only Muslims on campus.
From what Sr. Nafisa told me, your class is one of the most impressive in the history of ISRI. She told me that you are an incredibly positive and supportive group who love one another for the sake of Allah. She even mentioned that you get together to discuss hadith in your free time.
MashAllah, that’s incredible! I get the sense that there are many Nabils on this stage who are ready to go out and spread khayr and barakah in the world.
It wouldn’t be a graduation speech if I didn’t share a few pieces of advice.
For today, I want to give you five nuggets of hard-earned wisdom that might have kept me awake at my 8th grade graduation.
Each focuses on how you can protect your iman and get the most out of your high school experience.
So here goes.
1) Your I Can is More Important than Your IQ.
Some of you may be good students, some great, and some may struggle in school.
In the long run, none of that really matters. The most successful of you is not going to be the one with the highest GPA but rather the one who believes in themselves the most.
Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” (x2)
And the great Yoda said: “Do or do not, there is no try.” (x2)
IQ is a silly measure of “intelligence” and has nothing to do with success in this world or the next. Your “I can” attitude, on the other hand, is the key to achieving great things.
Set audacious, big goals that scare you, and then have the absolute conviction and yaqeen that you can achieve them. Set a 12-month goal and then figure out how to accomplish it THIS SUMMER.
Why?
Because you have something even more important than “I can.” You have iman.
The reality is that we cannot do anything, but Allah can do everything. And He can do it through us if we set the right intention.
As I always teach my students: “Believe in Allah, believe in yourself, and you can move mountains.”
2) You are the Average of the Five People You Spend the Most Time With.
Having the right suhba or friend group is one of the most important ingredients to success in dunya and akhirah. You have been blessed to have each other and the amazingly supportive community of ISRI for many years.
You must preserve these relationships and forge new ones.
Do not restrict yourself to Muslim friends only. If Nabil had done that, where would I be today?
Find a group of friends that pushes you to be the best version of yourself, and cut out those people who are constantly negative and push you away from Allah and your dreams.
In addition to the suhba of friends, fall in love with the suhba of books and podcasts. These days you are one trip to the library or one click of the mouse from interacting with the very best ideas of some of humanity’s greatest minds.
The vast majority of high school students never pick up a book (or listen to one on audible) unless they have to.
Dare to be different.
3) Success is the Result of Happiness, Not its Cause
Society has things backwards.
We are taught from a young age that the point of working hard in high school is to get into a good college. Doing well in college leads to a good job. A good job leads to a big house with a white picket fence, a beautiful spouse, and 2.5 perfect children. If and when you finally achieve this American dream of success, then, and only then, will you be happy.
Nonsense.
In his book the Happiness Advantage, Harvard Business School Professor Shawn Achor explains that it’s the exact opposite. Happiness is the cause of success, not the result.
When you do something you love, it doesn’t feel like work. You happily put in the thousands of hours necessary to achieve mastery of your profession and become an expert.
Take me for example. I LOVE what I do. I run a business called Five Before College that helps Muslim teenagers like you get into their dream colleges. I help them clarify their mission in life when they are still in high school, so that they become extraordinary human beings infused with the noor of Islam who unlock big scholarships and gain admission into the country’s top colleges.
I love what I do, and I think I’m pretty good at it, and society therefore rewards me. I have built a six-figure business in less than a year, and I have ambitions to grow it into a seven-figure business over the next couple of years inshAllah.
You need to set similarly ambitious goals and then work on them starting TODAY.
4) Stop Chasing after College and Have Them Come Chasing After You
Many students and families put top colleges on pedestals and bend over backwards to please them. The single most frequent question I get is, “Will this activity look good for college?”
That is the exact wrong question to ask. Instead, ask “Does this activity look good for me? Does it light me up and make me feel alive? Do I lose track of time when I’m involved in it?”
If the answer is yes, then by all means go for it! Great college activities can literally be anything: playing with Legos, drone photography, urban gardening, 3D printing, an AI-powered Islam app, robotics, cooking.
Anything.
But the best way to have colleges come chasing after you is to practice pure, authentic Islam. Bring as many sunnas into your life as possible—they have a magnetic attraction.
Use a miswak, proudly wear your hijab, throw on a thobe or abaya from time to time, don’t be afraid to put your foot in the sink or to pray in public.
When you fully come on to the deen and adopt the character of our beloved Nabi (SAWS), you will be an extraordinary human being that colleges will bend over backwards to get on their campuses.
5) The Best Defense for Your Iman is a Strong Offense
The reason I am standing before you today is that Nabil arrived in a foreign environment of a Christian boarding school infused with the fikr of dawa.
He knew that Islam was the truth, and he did not want to selfishly keep it for himself.
The summer after his 8th grade year—which begins for you after this ceremony—he spent 40 days fee sabeel Allah with the Tablighi jamaat. For 40 nights he slept on masjid floors and called out to Allah in the last third of the night; for 40 days he spoke to the people about the greatness of Allah.
This is why he arrived at St. Mark’s fully alive and bursting with iman.
The only way to avoid all the fitna and fasad of a high school campus—the drugs, the alcohol, the temptation of the opposite gender—is to adopt the niyya of dawa.
Fully embrace your Islamic identity and, through your actions, not your words, show people the beauty of Islam.
If you do this, instead of being shaped by your environment, you will start shaping it.
Just like Nabil changed my life with his unwavering faith and charisma, you have the power to be the Nabil in someone else's story.
As you step out of the ISRI cocoon and into the world, remember:
* your 'I can' is more powerful than any obstacle, so…
* your friends will shape your destiny, so choose wisely and gather a tribe of mentors that lifts you higher
* your happiness will drive your success, so follow your passions and embrace a positive mindset
* and your faith will light your path, so protect it by vowing to never miss a single salah and adopting as many sunnas as you can.
Embrace these truths and watch as the dunya bends to your will. Go out, inspire, and let your light shine brightly.
Jazakallah Khayr for this opportunity and may Allah allow these few words to help guide me and the rest of the umma towards embracing our Islamic identity and spreading khayr to the east and west.
Ameen.
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