Peace be upon you. Welcome to the Safi Bros podcast. We are available on all podcast platforms and YouTube every second Friday at 3 PM. We are pleased to present another episode from Turkey with the amazing Dr. Tarek Al-Suwaidan. Many people could not bear the shock and became part of this corrupt society. I decided to isolate myself from that. He is a well-known Islamic author, speaker, and businessman. He has been ranked among the top 500 most influential Muslims for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024. We are excited to share Dr. Tarek's early life journey from Kuwait to the United States, his education, and his blessed achievements. You do not want to miss this incredible story.

With lessons that will inspire you, God willing, and motivate you to do more. I am pleased to be with you and your audience around the world. There is a lesson there. Thank you for honoring me with your presence. Anytime. I would love to start and see your childhood and how you ended up in the United States. I was born and raised in Kuwait. Were you born in Kuwait? Yes, I am Kuwaiti myself. Can you take us through that journey? How were you born in Kuwait and then moved to Western countries like America? What motivated you to do that? And where? Let me tell you that I just finished writing my life story, Martial Law, and it ended up with 60 chapters and more will come in about 500 pages. So, did you return then?

How many minutes? As much as we can. And I think that’s amazing. In the podcast, I look for the highlights and the difficult times I went through. This is how we met, Abdulaziz; it’s motivation through witnessing the suffering of others, as I experienced it. What are the ideas you have in your life that kept you going and not giving up? Well, the vision you have is a lot of things that we really want to highlight. I was born in Kuwait, and at that time, Kuwait had no oil? No, there was no oil. It was a very, very poor country. We didn’t have electricity. Wow, I grew up in a house. There was no electricity, and we didn’t have water. Wow, water would be brought by ships from all over Los Angeles.

We had a well under our care. And then they also had one. That well contained water that was not suitable for drinking. It was used for cleaning. Wow. But for drinking, we had to wait for the water that came from Iraq. At that time, there were only two schools in Kuwait. Two elementary schools, and there was no high school. So, do you want to know about the struggle that involves nothing and how the whole family lives? The entire family gets about 60 dollars a month. Okay. So, they are not a wealthy family. They are not an educated family. My parents are illiterate. They do not know how to read or write. They are not a scientific family. They are not scholars, nor are they a religious family.

Wow. Okay. So how many civilians are there, huh? How many siblings? I have... Yes. I have five siblings. Five. I have two sisters who are older than me, and then my three brothers, three of them. I was the oldest male. And I, I, I, I am an orphan. So I have been responsible for the family home since I was very young. That's how I grew up. Were you raised to be that way too? Yes, yes, I was. At what age did you feel that way always? Oh, it was like that. I have always been independent. No, never. There was someone who took care of me or my cleanliness or my studies or my homework. Never. Where did that come from? No, no, no, no. No, I don't know. I really don't know.

But I believe it is so. It is definitely part of it. I mean, all of this is for the model as well. But certainly, part of that is the circumstances that were not like this favoritism. I mean, if you live in such a situation, where the family has nothing and you are the oldest, you have to compete. You have to prove yourself. Yes. So, I was good in my studies, and in high school, I was number two in the whole country. Amazing! So they gave me a scholarship to America to study whatever I wanted. Whatever I wanted. My choice. And this happens sometimes. Yes. Now, as the circumstances push us to be in a certain position.

He who gives, he who opens doors, and he who opens opportunities. This, of course, opened a huge door. Anyway, it's a long story, but I went to America when I was 17 years old and stayed in America for 17 years. Alone. Yes. Did you have to leave your family? I had to leave. And how was that? What kind of being were you? I mean, how did that make you see? I had a very strong mother, even though she was illiterate, so I was hesitant to leave. Yes. And honestly, I decided not to leave. Oh, wow. Yes. Even though I got this opportunity and this scholarship, I didn't want to leave. My mother pushed me to go. She said, You have to leave.

It's a natural choice, nothing more. Right? Yes, exactly. So, this is what happened. Therefore, I had to listen to my mother, and I went to the United States. The program they sent me to was very special because, although I had finished high school, the program was for me to take my last year of high school again. Wow, but in America. Did you know English in America at that time? Very little. Really. Which state? I went to Florida. Florida? Yes. So, I went to a small town called Lake, and there was a high school by the lake. The reason they did it this way now is that they changed.

Currently, some people are attending English institutes. However, at that time, the way we were taught English was by being pushed to go to high school. The educational system is very different from our country. They have a semester system. I had never seen a semester system in my life, and you can choose your courses. I had never heard of this before, etc. Naturally, we were not accustomed to American life. I mean, how was the culture? It was a huge shock. Of course, many people could not bear the shock and became part of this corrupt society. I decided to isolate myself, and with that help, I would go to high school.

I will not mix with them at all. So, I won't do that. I won't go to parties. I haven't even gone to the graduation party in a long time. When I have free time, I go to my room, read, get dressed, study, or watch something. Was this what loneliness felt like for you? No, no, no. Well, it did. I know I will never feel lonely, but I have never felt lonely in my life. Okay, why is that? Because, you know, this last point. This is what I want to emphasize here. Now, many people feel lonely, and they call themselves... Look, I have something if you want to know me. Each of us has feelings and a logical brain. We usually have these two influences controlling our lives.

I don't do that. Wow. Logic controls my emotions. So, I'm never emotional. Wow. Never. Huh? Yes. I feel sadness, but I'm not emotional. How do you do that? By controlling my feelings and logic. Well, that's something you've been working on since then. It's something I was born with, a laser that gives me the ability to analyze and think, and so on. Then I studied logic. After that, I studied philosophy, I studied, I studied computational logic. What is that? It's the foundation of all sciences. All sciences are mathematics. What is the basis of mathematics? It's logic. Wow, what is the fundamental rule of logic? It's arithmetic, logic, and love first. That's the deepest you can reach. Yes.

So, if you are studying calculus, logic, and mathematics, then some complexity will arise. Yes, I have a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering, and we studied the highest level of mathematics. So, we are talking about three-dimensional modeling and differential equations, and so on. That single equation could be three pages long, one layer less than one. This is what they studied, yes. Therefore, you need to put your specific engineering mind into it. It has a significant impact on my life. If you study engineering correctly, then you don't just learn engineering. What you learn are systems. But again, if you study engineering correctly, what are you studying? You are studying systems.

If you do that correctly, what you get is systematic thinking. And if you have systematic thinking, it opens up everything you can study. I mean, that's what I want, yes, and it will go into the background anyway. So, I finished high school, and similar to that, I also settled in high school in America. I was accepted into Pennsylvania State University. Did you connect with the Islamic community a bit? There was no Muslim community? Nothing. There were only four Muslims in the whole city. Yes. At that time, there were only seven mosques in all of America. Now, there are thousands. I've seen this growth as well. Yes, let me tell you about a study.

We were in a very small town called Lakewood, and there were only four Muslims, all of them Kuwaitis. Yes, they all came with me. So we gathered together, and when I had the time, we would go out together; we would be friends. Right. So we didn't come and mix with that corrupt community because at that time there was a sexual revolution. Oh yes, yes, yes. You and your time have seen nothing, Hanilor. Nothing compared to what we saw back then. You can't imagine what was happening sexually inside the high school. Yes, I can't say. I can say that. And that's who we are. So I couldn't see, I couldn't be a part of that; I had to stay informed.

Anyway, there were no Muslims. We wanted to celebrate. So, I called a friend of mine who knows them as Jews. What is the closest mosque to us? We want to eat. Eat? No, not to pray; I'm eating it. You gave it to me. The closest mosque is two hours away by train, twelve by train. Yes. You are very cheerful. Yes, so we went. It wasn't anything. Do you remember? That was in 1978. So, there was nothing. We went to help at the mosque in Tampa, Florida, which is located north of a small, smelly mosque. Anyway, we played with them and they told us that we had a picnic. I said, Okay, we will go with you to the picnic. So we went to the mosque picnic.

It was organized by the Muslim Students' Organization, and everyone was accompanied by their friends. Wow. They said, Beer. Hello, newspaper. Their prayer came, but no one prayed. Wow. So, you will now know the grace of God. Many people complained. We are persecuted, we are what? Everything I saw was nothing. This is what we lived through completely alone. And this only strengthens you to be more determined. I am the least powerful, of course. And then no, I shouldn't do that. Honestly, I knew, as you know, we were granted scholarships for 50 people for the entire country. So we went together. Four of them, three of them, and I went to follow them. The rest were distributed everywhere. After one year, none of them prayed except for three.

Law. And this is the amount of pressure that was on him. So not everyone was able to resist. Okay, yes. Then I went to Pennsylvania State University, and you know, I made sure that the mosque was there, but I didn't find anything there. So, I started clicking. But that was your first time. Yes, yes. In '88. So I was able to get up and study some of it. But, but I had to give because no one else could count absolutely, and I couldn't either. But at least I was a little more knowledgeable about the embarrassment. So, on the first day when we were asked to take four engineering courses, we could take one or two elective courses. What are the elective courses?

I have never had elective courses in my life. I mean, someone has chosen me for the first time for the Jews. So I honestly didn't know anything. I was completely confused. I was working at, oh, Pennsylvania State University. It was a huge university, massive at that time with 60,000 students. So it was large, and we had to live in the dorms. This was mandatory, and the dorms could accommodate 20,000 students. So we are talking about a massive city. While I was walking, I saw a four-story building with a sign on it that said, College of Public Speaking. I thought, what can I expect? A public speaking course in college. Yes, the Department of Public Speaking.

So, the entire public speaking college. Then I discovered that this was the center for public speaking in all of America at that time. Even politicians, since we were only four hours away from Washington, D.C., would come and train at that college. Wow. To amaze you further, I took the course. Of course. And then, naturally, this is how it is elected. This is the election law, and then I took another course. I took two elective courses in public speaking; I was trained to speak in front of an audience for eight continuous months. So, before this lesson, I had to read from the paper, and I was shaking. I didn’t know how.

In order to learn it, this is a message. This is a very, very important message. Therefore, it is one of the most important skills, and it is a leadership skill, by the way. It is one of the skills of leaders. Anyway, the amazing thing is that when I went to college, I attended a public speaking course. Sometimes I would see an elderly lady who was 84 years old. Well, yes, in the class next to ours, she was taking on public speaking at 84, 84. The most surprising thing is that I saw parents bringing their six-year-old children to this public speaking college. Wow, there is no age too early; it should never be too early. I witnessed this with my own eyes. That is one thing.

Yes. We don't do that either; it's amazing, yes. So, my life in Pennsylvania was a story in itself. During that time, I founded the Arab Islamic Association in the United States. It happened a lot and grew over time. We started holding conferences that attracted all Arabs. I created it because the Arabs were lost. There were some interactions among our brothers from Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, among the Arabs, there was nothing, no representation, nothing. The only thing that existed among the Arabs was Arab nationalism, which was against Islam. And it still is to this day, dear aunts. Wow, what made you do that?

What made you have this insightful vision? I last saw my friends, but I felt a commitment. I have to do something like this. Yes. So I started establishing the Arab Muslims Association, and we call it the Arab Muslims. We are not just Arabs; we are the Association of Arab Muslims. Did you face any resistance? Did you encounter anything? Well, not really; there was a reaction from Arab nationalism. They hated this, you know, guys. Yes. By the way, there was some resistance from the embassies. Wow. Yes. They don't want any Islamic work among the students. How was the fighting? Was it just ongoing, is that right?

Don't look back. Don't let the resistance stop. Just keep going. I mean, I learned this later from my sisters, my daughter, so much love. One day, there was a book written against him, a whole book written against each other. One of his students told him about it. There is a book written against you, and you did not respond to it. He did respond. The truth is, what did you write? The answer was, I wrote a new book. This is my response to the ongoing attack, so I will keep going. Thank God we started this organization with five students, and it has grown. We started in the camps during Christmas because sometimes we do not return to Kuwait during Christmas, and we have nothing to do, and then they invest. It’s empty.

Therefore, we decided to gather and create it. The first camp had 54 students from all Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and all other nations, but most of them were Muslims at the beginning, mostly Kuwaitis. So, Kuwait was like family, and Kuwait has been and still is the most active in the Arab world because we are number one in freedom. Kuwait is Kuwait. Freedom in Kuwait is greater than in Tunisia. It is more than in Lebanon. Yes, it is number one. Many people do not know this. It is not widely known that Kuwait has the highest level of freedom in the entire Arab world. We have a free press. There is no censorship of the press. There is no censorship of the media. You can say what you want and write what you want, even if you write something against the homeland or against Islam.

Or what do you do? And if anyone has a problem with that, they take you to court, not to the government. Wow. Amazing. You can attack the government, and the government can do nothing but bring you to trial. So this does something amazing. Yes. Anyway, we were active because we are free, and this is our agreement, and many people do not know this. The first parliament in Kuwait was in 1938, 1930 and 38. That was when oil was discovered. No, that was before oil. And this is Kuwait. Many people do not know this. Kuwait is different. Really different. The reason is that the ruling family is actually part of the society, not above it. And the reason for this is the way Kuwait was established.

Some tribes migrated to Kuwait and settled there. After that, as they began to grow, they decided that they needed a government. So they decided to choose a government among themselves. They chose the Al-Sabah tribe and set conditions for them. Your base. However, there are two things you cannot control. You cannot control trade; it is not in your hands, and you cannot control decisions. You must consult with us. Certainly. Wow, consultation; that has been in place for 400 years. God is great, and I will continue to do that now. Therefore, people love them, and they love their people. We have no problems with our governments. If it were not so, you would never go to school. No, of course. Then, of course, of course.

In the future, they sent scholarships before oil. Before they found oil, because they knew that the path to progress begins with education. The road to education is not limited to gradually building education, but to leap forward and teach your students; they are the highest level of education you can obtain in the world, not just in your country. And that’s what they did. I believe it was very effective. Yes, how did this happen? We can see an improvement in the lives of Arab names. Thank God, we recently surpassed 20,000 audio downloads and 20,000 followers on Instagram, and we are about to reach 20,000 on TikTok. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for your support. We would like to ask you if you are listening on Spotify.

Or any audio platforms, please, please follow us and leave a rating. If you are enjoying this episode on YouTube, please subscribe, as it helps our content reach a larger audience. It allows you to get every episode as soon as it is released, which expands our reach. Two more internationally renowned speakers. We have already seen an amazing response from our audience with our five most-watched episodes, which have totaled over 150,000 views on YouTube. It has been our pleasure to host incredible international guests such as Sarkodie, Son of Man, and Sean King. We love to share more success stories from our wonderful brothers and sisters with you, our beloved audience.

And now we return to the episode. Anyway, our organization started with five people, and then there was the first time with Omar, who was 34 and five years old. We had a conference for 7,000 people. Did you ever think you would become this big? No, no. I didn't have any vision at that time. No, I never had that big vision. I am happy that you were active. You are a lucky generation and very organized because you have people like us to teach you strategic planning, vision, and how to create an organization. We had nothing in the global vision we established. I only heard about it twenty years later. This was the global vision of the words creativity and leadership.

We have never heard, and I have not heard more than that. So that your audience knows how lucky they are. This too. You don't know what was happening and what was going on, how far we have come? Well, who will lie? When I was in 1919, I remember this in 1969. This was a year before I went to America. I remember entering a mosque in Kuwait to pray while everyone looked on in amazement. And here is the young man entering the mosque. The mosque was only for those with white hair. Yes, yes, from the door. Yes, now enter. Now you enter the mosque. They are mostly young people. I was alone. And now, what can you do with your mother? Was it like that? No, no. I had a feeling that it might take a long time.

I say I lost my heart as mentioned in the Quran. Let it be in the media store on your way forward. And what does that mean? If you want to return, God is always there to accept you, but He always says in that verse as well, that sometimes He chooses you. He chooses someone to pull them out. There is no need to go; He pulls you out. So God took me out of it. Therefore, there was no reason for me. I started praying when I was seven years old. No one pushed me to do that. I began fasting at seven. Wow, my mother refused. That means you are very young. And that's what happened. Anyway, our organization has grown this way. A lot of long studies.

Then I continued my studies later. Oklahoma is an oil state, and it is a very sacred book, the condition of the belt, what they call its values. Don't go; I knew when I graduated from Pennsylvania. Why Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania has the first oil well in history. The first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania. That’s why they have a very good college. But Pennsylvania has oil spills. So it is no longer an oil state. Finally, oil was not discovered in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. These states became the main oil states to this day. So Oklahoma had one of the best oil colleges in the whole world. So they accepted me. Why did I do that?

At that time, they discovered oil and coal. Not all the oil was found. Yes. And this is what you specialize in. Do you want to specialize? Yes, yes, yes. After that, I went to Oklahoma to study petroleum engineering. So in Oklahoma, they established a mosque there, and then this is a beautiful story. I went to Oklahoma. They had this small house, not that it was a mosque; I rented a house, and two houses, so three houses with a bedroom that served as the entire mosque. People would gather beautifully in the street, and Oklahoma's winter is very cold, so they would pray on the snow. There was nothing. So, I felt a commitment that I had to do something.

So, I decided to expand the mosque. Anyway, they said, yes, as you can see, your audience will know that you are doing everything you can, and you are being honest with God as well, and then you leave it. Tell us, does this money get the money? So, I say that we don't have the money. We need to get the money. So, anyway, I took the money to then, then, okay. And this is what lies in the pencil. With a pencil, I started drawing how to expand the mosque. So at that time, I didn't know how to build the house, how much oil was in the foundations? I know what is underground, not above ground. So, I contacted the brother who knows how to build houses. They gave me an estimate of the cost.

So I said, if I do this and that, it will be about 80 thousand dollars. I thought, well, then I started to believe that this allows the project because you are expanding something wrong. Don't expand something wrong; start something new and don't fix something broken. Anyway, I said no, forget this matter. Find me. I'm landing, and that's all there is to it, that wisdom in knowledge because many of our brothers and sisters are sitting there trying to rebuild something broken. Starting anew is better, much better. Anyway, all of this is within a short distance from the university because this university was a center for us and our activity. Anyway, I found that I found suitable land.

What is this land worth $200,000 with the building and everything? It will cost around $250,000. Okay then, fine, I will take it into my own hands. I wrote a letter and made copies of it, then I went to Kuwait and started passing this letter to my friends whom I know come from wealthy families. So, we want to start this project, and this is not well thought out; it is not feasible. There is no going back, no engineering plan, nothing. So, I started passing this to my friends asking for donations. I received the first donation of $50,000 in damage. They are selling a lot for less than its value. After that, my friend who came to me is from a very famous family, a very wealthy family.

They said that they have a family member who wants to donate but has two conditions. I said yes. So, the first condition is that no one should know who he is. Okay, fine. What is the second condition? The second condition is that he wants the entire project to benefit many people. I told them that I already have 50 dollars; they can use it for anything they want. Use it for the family. So, let's help you build everything for you. So, they had the internal path. It’s a study. The study is not finished yet; it’s much more than this. We were very happy. We will get the money. We put the plan in place, right? So, we put the plan together and presented it to the municipality because you need to get approval from my neighbors.

Oh, it is indeed. On that day, all the neighbors in Los Angeles were against us. Everyone, everyone. We do not want the mosque here. And remember, this is Oklahoma, and Trump is still popular to this day. Even my lawyer was very weak. So, I asked to speak. The five judges allowed it and said: You cannot stop us from building the mosque. I was very strong on this matter. You are violating our constitutional rights, and I will take it to the Supreme Court. Well, when we saw that, when they heard this and saw it, it was serious. The judge said, Yes, this is unconstitutional to stop them. Does anyone have any reason to stop them so far? One of them was the only one among them.

Where there is not enough parking, it will create problems with parking and so on, and that was true. I mean, we need 35 parking spaces. We had 27, so we were short by eight. So there are actually about eight missing, and the area is already crowded, and so on. The judge said, Yes, you are right. So I raised my head as it is, approving the mosque on the condition of eight more parking spaces. If we don't provide them, we won't be in compliance. They agreed all along, but I don't know how to proceed with that. Well, I no longer have any other parking options. You go ahead. But I just wanted to get the approval. You get the approval, and then you start working.

You are working on it. You got the approval. Okay, layer. So you know the doll Buttercup Fabulous. I was still inside the courtroom, just outside the room, inside the courtroom. Then two men approached me. Can we have a quick meeting with you? I said yes, inside the courtroom. So we sat down. We are on the church on the other side of this land, and we want to sell it. Wow. I asked, how much is it? 250,000. Exactly what you have. I said no, 200, so I bought it for 200. 500, already with a religious place. After that, I bought the land we were going to build on for 40 thousand and turned it into a parking lot. Oh, and the study goes on more than that. So we are in this mosque that used to be a church.

It was a Protestant church. Therefore, there were no idols, and there were no church structures. It was ready, but it had to be done. This was immediately sufficient for about a thousand people instead of 80. In any case, something else happened, and I will conclude this study. After all this, we began to play Praise be to God in this mosque, the university. They decided to expand, so they started buying all the houses surrounding this area. They bought all the houses around the mosque. Thus, the mosque became part of the university's love. They began negotiating with us. They wanted to buy it. We said no, as this is prime land, land within the university, which obstructs their expansion plans. We refused. We entered into massive negotiations, and then they made us an offer.

We cannot refuse it. They gave us a school built for 400 students, with an auditorium and four football fields, on a prime piece of land in the city. So, the value is estimated at 2 million dollars. Well, we took it, of course, and then we built a huge mosque. So, if you open the Mosque of Peace in Tulsa, Oklahoma, let's see that, the pictures of it. So, this is what should be included in the podcast, and this is the story that started with a pencil. So, do anything, even with a pencil, and see what happens if you listen. I will let it follow a very precise line we have around this section here. This is now episode number one. Well, now we are very fortunate to have it, and that’s all we will do.

He said number two. We will definitely stay here for five more days. We will do it, and we will follow this story. Do we find some time? Thank you for hosting me. But I love you; I said I love these men. Make sure to like and subscribe. Do you have any questions for the chefs throughout the name, please, my brothers and sisters? It is very important to share common things as they grow into a platform to reach all the Muslims around the world. We have reached global status, God willing. We are breaking new horizons. Without your help, we can do it. I would love that.

Dr Tareq Al-Suwaidan - Is The American Dream Worth The Cost?

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