As some of you may or may not know I’m a martial artist and I’ve been this for a number of years and I hope God willing I will continue on in this for many years to come.

It’s something I love and passionate about. It was an outlet for me in my younger years for my anger issues and difficulties I was dealing with in life. It was something productive when I could have gone a worse route.

There’s two weeks until the big UFC fight between Conor McGregor and Khabib. It’s a big bill, there’s lots of money involved but it’s more than that this time, it’s personal, it’s pride.

It’s the thriller in Manila of our generation and everyone is excited. 

Khabib is a devout Muslim with principle. He’s undefeated in UFC which is rare in this fast paced changing sport, a belt winner and at the top of his game.

I’ve mentioned a number of times in my blogs the West’s attacks on Islam, Muslims and Islamaphobia. There are a lot of verbal and physical attacks happening to people, then there is this man that has become a role model to Muslims. A physically strong man that is also strong in his convictions in the limelight and people are looking up to him.

He’s inspiring them to train, to be principled and proud of their religion in an open space which is giving people confidence. It’s remnant of Muhammad Ali, peace be upon him.

His recent press conference with Conor garnered people’s respect. He handled himself well, he didn’t say much and he didn’t let Conor anger him. Muslims on Twitter especially liked it when he called out a member of the press that gave him the Islamic greeting and then congratulated Conor on his alcohol business (alcohol is not permissible in Islam). Principle over political correctness.

He also spoke about Conor’s swearing at the press conference afterwards and said ‘too many young guys follow us and he doesn’t want to be a bad example for the younger generation and he wants to be a good role model’.

Being a Role Model

I remember watching a Will Smith interview when he was a teen in the hit show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The interviewer asked him who his role model is and he said his dad. I was surprised, I thought he was going to say a famous actor or singer/rapper. I thought it was wonderful and what beautiful relationship they must have for this young star to say that.

Us as parents have to be good role models to our children. We have to practise what we preach, we cannot say don’t swear then cuss, we cannot say don’t listen to music or watch this show or pray and don’t do it ourselves. We have to talk to our children and spend quality time with them teaching them and have unwavering pride in our faith and beliefs.

We have to teach them that the ultimate role model is the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the prophets, sahabah and the female pious predecessors in a world of Hijabi Turban Make-Up Vloggers.

The relationship between parent and child is one of the most beautiful one’s you can have.

A friend of mine father passed away recently and she talks about him beautifully. They had a great relationship and she is his legacy because she is a beautiful sister and everyone who knows her can attest. May he be granted jannah ameen.

Khabib has shown us mastering the art of being calm at his press conference when Conor tried every trick in the book to get to him. Conor was selling his alcohol, selling the fight, promoting his production company and acting a fool in the process and Khabib was just being himself.

May Khabib SMESH his face October 6th, say Ameen!

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