← Back to MadrasatunaView source post

Under the comment's section of the YouTube video, someone mentions that the Shaykh himself told him that he had only been given 25 minutes to speak. The prison

4 March 2026 • 1.4K views
When the 25 minutes ended, one of the guards signaled to the Shaykh that his time was up. The inmates, however, turned toward the guard with visible anger, clearly wanting the lecture to continue. Seeing their reaction, the guard allowed the Shaykh to go on. He ended up speaking for more than an hour. As the Shaykh was leaving, the guards asked him how he managed to continue for so long. They told him that no religious figure from any faith before him had ever been able to speak for more than 25 minutes. They even asked jokingly, “What kind of magic is this?” He replied, “It is not magic — it is Islam.” --------------------------- 15:06 Shaykh Falah has a strong understanding of the English language, so you will sometimes hear him correcting his translators. Here he explains that translating taqwa simply as “fear” is incomplete, because “fear” does not fully capture the meaning of the word. Some other common corrections he makes include: ʿAbdullāh (عبدالله) He says it should not be translated as “slave” or even “servant,” because those words can sound degrading in English. The term ʿAbdullāh actually refers to a noble and honoured status — being a devoted worshipper of Allah — which is something praiseworthy. Shahīd (شهيد) In one clip, he corrects Abdurrahman Hassan for translating it as “martyr,” which is the common English translation. The Shaykh explains that in English, a martyr can be anyone who dies for a cause, whether the cause is good or bad. But according to the Shariah, shahīd always refers to someone who dies for a righteous and praiseworthy cause. It seems that this precision in wording is something Shaykh Falah passed on to other scholars in Kuwait. I once translated for Shaykh Muhammad Hisham At-Tahiri, and he corrected me for translating mu’min (مؤمن) as “believer,” because that translation does not fully include the meaning of affirmation (iqrār). I later came to find the term “faithful” to be a more accurate translation.