Quotations
In his words
Quotations from his essays, sermons and interviews, each linked to its source.
Still from Masjid Samiya's recording, 2023
The open door
“Although I never know who is going to walk through my door or in what role I am needed, my door is always open, literally and figuratively.”
“I love not knowing what each day will bring.”
“Chaplains are here to provide a calm, non-judgmental presence to help people work through any number of issues.”
“We sit with people, listen to them, and hold their stories. When appropriate, we share those stories.”
“Chaplaincy is not an Islamic term. There’s no Arabic word for chaplain.”
“All of the prophets of God were shepherds. When you’re a shepherd, you have a flock. The job of the shepherd is to keep the flock safe from danger, any predators, wandering off, getting lost, getting injured.”
“We’re not therapists or mental health professionals, but we work alongside them, and serve as a bridge connecting people to the care and services they need.”
Students
“You can be a practicing, committed Muslim and also be an excellent Yale student and have a wonderful Yale experience.”
“I get invited to student weddings and aqiqas now, right – kids that I saw as undergrads are getting married and having children now.”
“There’s a great moral and ethical awakening that is happening in front of our eyes.”
“Give them a sense of rootedness and belonging. Reacting to world events by just always “doing something” doesn’t necessarily solve the deeper issues.”
“In our space, women have full accessibility, graduate students come with families, there are kids in strollers. Why? Because the prophet’s mosque was what we’d now call welcoming and inclusive.”
“Your Muslim identity can be challenged in some pretty powerful ways.”
“We are trained to be good listeners, to ask reflective questions, to engage with people where they are.”
“There’s no one singular or monolithic Muslim experience.”
“The first reaction of most students was just utter shock of being spied on when you haven’t done anything wrong. And then came fundamental questions about why they are spying on us.”
Building bridges
“In an age of such blatant xenophobia, this is about building bridges and getting to know people.”
“Actual relationship-building is an underestimated virtue in today’s competitive, bottom-line, overscheduled social atmosphere.”
“Our communities need multiple entrances for guests to walk through as avenues of conversation and encounter.”
“I stand before you as a Muslim and as a leader of a Muslim community, to condemn in unequivocal terms the violence supposedly done in the name of Islam and the name of the prophet. This is the farthest thing from the teachings of the prophet.”
“I want to see myself as a bridge builder.”
“Like many other concerned Muslims, I navigated the aftermath of 9/11 by getting involved in interfaith work and educational outreach. I have discovered new friendships and forged lasting alliances through these interfaith experiences.”
Ramadan and prayer
“It’s my favorite time of the year.”
“We fast for over 15 hours a day. But after 15 minutes of eating, we’re satiated. We’re filled. It speaks to the fleeting nature of this world, the transience of life.”
“Fasting is a very personal, intimate, spiritual exercise, but the evenings are very communal, and it is hard to not be able to share in that together on campus.”
“This perspective shift requires us to embrace stillness, which may have been seemingly impossible in today’s frenetic and relentless hustle culture.”
“Allah is fully aware of our anxieties and so we pray and hope that He will reward us with extraordinary blessings for our struggles because He knows the pain of our hearts.”
“In this ritual space of talking to God, one wants to minimize distractions.”
Character and companionship
“Virtuous companionship (suhba) is essential for personal development and spiritual edification because hearts affect each other.”
“This life is a journey and an intelligent traveler seeks out a guide, as both companion and teacher, to elucidate the path, highlight the pitfalls, and show the fastest and easiest way to get to the destination.”
“No one accomplishes anything by themselves; surely, there are parents, friends, teachers and mentors who facilitated your work and impacted your trajectory.”
“Every time you feel self-impressed, say Alhamdulilah, thank Allah, and recall one of your shortcomings.”
“But remember that community is your lifeline.”
“I really believe in the power of storytelling and the power of narrative. I love reading the stories of the Prophet (peace be upon him). I love sharing them with my students because the more we talk about him, it deepens the love and admiration we have for him.”
Leadership
“You have to do interfaith [outreach], answer the media, do counseling, get the youth engaged.”
“What kind of community do we all want to build? This, I believe, is the essential question of our time, and perhaps throughout the ages.”
“Three essential E’s mark the way forward: education, engagement, and empowerment.”
“You have to be honest, right? This is the moment of speaking truth to power.”
“Some of the most powerful people are doing their work behind closed doors, pulling levers of power, and consequential conversations that are not going to be on the picket line.”
“We ask that Mayor Justin Elicker, Michael B. Smart, Andrea L. Downer, and the alders of the city of New Haven will all find the courage to stand for that which is just, the courage to speak the truth, the courage to support the oppressed, and the voice to express the voices of the marginalized.”
Grief and hope
“Imam Sohaib Sultan was a man whose life exemplified the Prophetic virtues of humility, joy, and service to others.”
“He had an extraordinary gift for turning pain into beauty, anger into understanding, and sadness into purpose.”
“We’re all people of God in the midst of tragedy and turmoil, and in the midst of chaos confusion and hatred, of naked unabashed aggression. We are the people of God to counteract that.”
“Even after this pandemic subsides, there is no going back to “normal” because that normal was not working for most of the world.”
“He was a mercy to the world. Everything he brought was mercy.”
“May we all become pathfinders – amen!”
Becoming a chaplain
“For many South Asian immigrant children there is the stereotype and expectation of medicine or engineering. I went open-minded to college and my first semester freshman year I took an intro to theory class, fell in love with literature and philosophy, took an intro to chemistry class and my spirits were crushed.”
“In my summers, two-plus months every summer, I was going to a traditional Islamic seminary in Buffalo, New York. I went to the teachers and the scholars there and said I literally just wanted exposure and I wanted to be there. We call it suhba, companionship or good company of traditional Islamic teachers.”
“Our phones started ringing off the hook. We’re in Ithaca. There’s no mosque, no local Muslim leadership. All these high schools and public libraries and radio stations and college campuses are calling for panels on Islam and understanding 9/11.”
“I had no idea what a college Muslim chaplain was, what they did, and that brings me to where I am now. So in '07 I started going to the seminary. And in '08 the job at Yale opened up.”
“It was beyond my dreams to imagine getting a job at an institution like Yale as a Muslim chaplain. I went to my spiritual teacher and said I don’t know if I belong here, and he said Allah opens doors, and he’s opened this door for you; if you walk through this door you then assume the responsibility that comes with that.”
“My academic advisor came up to me at one point and said, "Chaplaincy seems like a very natural fit for you." It was a mini-epiphany.”
“I can say definitively for you today that jihad does not mean holy war.”
From the pulpit
“Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place. Whatever station you find yourself at in life, whatever institution you’re a part of, be the soul of that place, be the heart of that place, the one that actually cares about the rest of society.”
“If you want a one-sentence definition of adab, it’s doing the right thing at the right time in the best way possible.”
“If serving is beneath you, then know well that leadership is beyond you.”
“You can live life by default, or you can live life by design.”
“Deal with people the way that you love the Lord of people to deal with you.”
“Imagine the community that you want to be a part of, and then help it become that.”
“You don’t build your character overnight. It takes work. Anything that’s worth doing in life, you need to put in the work, you need to put in the time.”
“You are a soul with a body; you are not a body with a soul.”
“Your habits over an extended period of time become who you are. That’s your character; that’s just how you are in the world. And not only is it how you are in the world, but it’s how others experience you in the world.”
“The way that you live your life is the way that you will leave this world.”
“Believe me, I want you all to excel. I want you all to do tremendous things, which I believe you’re capable of and you’re already doing, and I want you to go beyond that.”
“The ritual prayer that we are invited to perform five times a day in the midst of our very busy, very overcommitted, very over-scheduled lives: never, never think of it as a burden. Think of it as an invitation; think of it as a gift.”
“Human beings will disappoint you, human beings will let you down, but Allah will never let you down, will never disappoint you.”
“My job is to preach and teach for a living. It’s easy to talk about reliance and trust in Allah. It’s very difficult to get your heart in a space that you really have certainty.”
“Character and morals and ethics and manners are transmitted heart to heart. You have to be with people that have beautiful character, and you sit with them humbly, you learn, you observe, you internalize what you get from them.”
“What have I done, really, in any way in the world for people to treat me a certain way? This is the essence of humility.”
“We lead with listening. I don’t know what’s going to walk through my door, but I need to be prepared for whatever walks through my door.”
“We live in a world where everyone else is talking about everything at other people, and not enough people are listening to people.”
“Students are so hungry for community and connection.”
“Yale is a very academically, intellectually and socially intense kind of place, and so for anyone seeking some sort of respite in the midst of the turbulence, we offer this space, the musalla, as that port in the storm.”
“The secret ingredient to all of this is food.”
“Words create climates, and climates can be ripe for actions.”
“If you operate on the worldview that these are two communities locked in an eternal, epic, cosmic conflict, then you’re never going to escape that. You’ve locked yourself in your own conflict narrative.”
“One of the hallmarks of an honest person is that they’re the same on the outside as they are on the inside. That’s integrity: what you see is what you get.”
“You plant a seed, and then you have to let the seed germinate. It takes time. So the work is being done; we might have to wait a little while to see the results of it.”
“If nothing else you remember from today’s talk, just remember that the first step that we can take towards being better parents is just to be kind. Just to be kind to our young people.”
“You don’t learn adab from books. You can read about it, but that’s not how you learn it. You learn it from being with people.”
“We’re aspiring for presence in the Qur’an that you’re reciting and in the prayers that you’re performing, versus just hitting target metrics.”