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 twenty years on the mat, to ask what that strength is.
They talk about the ego and being pinned by someone half your size, the objectives of sport traced back to Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki and Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, why "do not get angry" only means something once you have been provoked, the mercy that only a strong man can choose, space for Muslim sisters to train, and the physical Sunna that so many of us admire from a distance.
Ustadh Nisar Shaikh is a 3rd degree black belt with Carlson Gracie Team London, founder of Osswa Jiu-jitsu, Male Sports Coach of the Year 2024 at the Muslim Sports Awards, and the author of Prophetic Grappling, which includes Imam Suyuti's treatise on wrestling.
BRANCHES: where the tradition meets your life. Topic conversations from Isnad Academy, the companion to ROOTED.
Prophetic Grappling (Beacon Books, 2022): https://www.meccabooks.com/products/prophetic-grappling-including-as-suyuti-s-al-muxar-ah-ila-al-musar-ah
Osswa Jiu-jitsu, London: https://osswa.co.uk
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gUpkiTgbdtQ
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