American Submitter: Recent Episodes
I. A. Malik Studio LLC
American Submitter is a podcast about Muslims in the West and the spiritual teachings of Islam hosted by Imran Ali Malik.
Through a combination of long form conversation, audio documentary, and reflective narration the listener gets the personal story of a religious life. American Submitter attempts to translate what it means to be a conscious Muslim in America by measuring the spiritual teachings of Islam with the reality of Muslims finding their way while living at the western edge of civilization.
A special episode with Sacred Footsteps, a muslim travel website dedicated to spiritual seekers.
THE PRESENT is a series of reflections, stories, and moments captured during the global pandemic of Coronavirus. Hip hop artist Haider Syed (Dialectic) noticed that "for the first time in forever time is finally slowing down."
A conversation with Bassam Tariq, a Pakistani-American filmmaker about his latest film Mogul Mowgli, starring Riz Ahmed. We discuss the traces of religion, tradition, and history bleed together and form a voice for the South Asian diaspora.
Things don't always go as planned. Some thoughts on the global moment and what we are planning to do in response for this season.
Season 2 of American Submitter is coming March 20th. Stories of community past, present, and future in Muslim America.
For American Muslims, Malcolm X is a saint and martyr and February is the month where I and other muslims often find ourselves reflecting on Malcolm’s last days. As we prepare to launch Season 2, we try to bring the spirit of Malcolm with us.
It’s easy to get lost in the names, numbers, and contexts that inform who we are. In this podcast, we hear how Mustafa Briggs conceives identity as something that both illuminates and conceals. Piecing together aspects of identity and experience, Mustafa and other like-minded U.K. based Muslim millenials are creating a niche cultural conversation using Instagram and YouTube as tools to connect. We hear about ‘Beyond Bilal,’ a talk that Briggs designed to foreground black history in Islam, and how this project has taken him to forty different colleges and venues in a single year. As these identities enrich our understanding of who we are and where we come from, Mustafa reminds us that there is no one way to embody them. These identities are only the beginning of our journey. How we use them to manifest the truest version of ourselves is the work that must not be left undone.
Free-styling prayer, intentionality in craft, and creativity in devotion to God—these are a few pearls you'll find in this conversation with my mentor and dear friend, Brother Haroon Sellars. Though not a native to the Bay area, you could say his journey to the Bay has changed the course of both institutions and every heart he has encountered. On this blessed Friday, I hope you are rejuvenated by the intensity of Brother Haroon’s radiant spirit and that you too take the time to find your God-given gifts and bring to life, your creative righteousness.
This is a conversation with Azhar Usman, a.k.a. the most serious man in comedy. Azhar asked me to watch Ramy Youssef’s show ‘Ramy’ on Hulu. I begrudgingly did, and I was floored. This happened again with Aziz Ansari’s comedy special ‘Aziz Ansari Right Now’ on Netflix. As we began to unpack the significance of these two shows, we found ourselves wrestling with modern dichotomies: Good Muslim/Bad Muslim; Artists/Awliya’; God’s Estate/Our States.
Unless we are parents ourselves, we rarely hear the voices of children, let alone spend the day with them. This is a look inside the challenge of being a working mother and the beauty that can emerge when people from the community respond with their hearts and limbs.
This week we meet Adam, and we learn what it means to be a spiritual brother to someone, and listen to the journey of two friends on the path. Later they meet up with a teacher of theirs, Shaykh Adeyinke Mendes, before Imran has to rush to the airport to fly back to California.
AMERICAN SUBMITTER returns after a three year hiatus with a conversation with Ubaydallah Evans, an old friend and recent commencement speaker. We talk about the things that have animated our friendship from the beginning, discussing what beauty is for, how wisdom encompasses all things, and what it’s been like for both of us as seekers of knowledge.
To understand the world, it helps to have a key to decode its messages. Here's the story of a man from Menlo Park, and his unlikely journey towards finding that key in Islam.
Credits: Producer: Imran Ali Malik Executive Producer: Asma Saud A special thank you to Scott and his family.