OnePath Podcast

There is a difference between a religion that is alive and a religion that is merely practiced. Dr. Samir Mahmoud has spent decades thinking about what separates the two. In this episode, he lays out one of the most rigorous and far-reaching frameworks for Islamic revival the channel has hosted.

Dr. Samir Mahmoud is Academic Director of Usul Academy and Lecturer on the Diploma in Islamic Psychology at the Cambridge Muslim College. He was formerly Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University. He holds a BA in Anthropology and Politics and an MA in Architectural History, Theory and Urban Design from the University of New South Wales, an MPhil in Theology and Religious Studies, and a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Cambridge, completed under the supervision of Dr. Timothy Winter (Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad).
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Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan is one of South Africa's most prominent Islamic scholars, serving as imam and Director of Dar al-Turāth al-Islāmi (DTI) and co-founder of the Maḥabbah Foundation. A hafidh and Mufti on the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa, he trained under some of the most respected names in the Islamic tradition, including Habib Umar bin Hafiz and Shaykh Muhammad Taha Karan. His scholarship bridges the deep roots of South African Islam — a community shaped by centuries of history and forged through the trials of apartheid — with the classical learning of Yemen's scholarly tradition. Today he is a leading voice on dawah, Islamic jurisprudence, and preparing the next generation of Muslims to navigate a rapidly changing world.

Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan traces Cape Town's Muslim community from its origins with exiled scholars like Shehu Yusuf, who led resistance against the Dutch East India Company before being brought to the Cape in chains, through three centuries of colonial rule and apartheid, to today. He describes how weekly dhikr gatherings functioned as a community-wide parenting system that held families and faith together under persecution, and reflects on the largely untold role Muslims played resisting apartheid alongside Mandela.

He shares his own story growing up in South Africa as the son of a well-known rugby player, and how his path led him to Yemen to study under Habib Umar bin Hafiz and Shaykh Muhammad Taha Karan — including what that experience taught him about staying high-spirited through hardship. Returning home, he speaks to the real challenges of applying what he learned abroad in a South African context, what makes a dawah project actually succeed, and the difference between preaching Islam and living it so that character alone becomes the invitation.
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What does it actually take to find the right person, and are most Muslims approaching it completely backwards? In this OnePath Podcast, relationship coach Hannah El-Gashingi joins us for an honest, Sharia-grounded conversation on love, marriage readiness, and what nobody teaches Muslim singles before they start looking.

We cover the red and green flag mentality and why it misses the point entirely, what Islamic personal development actually looks like before you enter the marriage process, the five topics every Muslim should discuss when getting to know a potential spouse, how to handle the social pressure of still being single in your 30s, and the real difference between planning a wedding and building a marriage.

Hannah also shares her own deeply personal journey, including losing her mother before finding her husband, the grey jumper she bought for a man she had never met, and how shifting from dua made in despair to dua made with hope changed everything for her.

Hannah El-Gashingi is a certified relationship coach and co-founder of The Muslim Love Coaches, an Instagram platform she runs alongside her husband offering Islamic-grounded relationship coaching for Muslim singles and married couples. Her work focuses on pre-marriage readiness, values alignment, emotional intelligence, and building marriages that last.
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When Brother Dean Mousad received a Level 4 skin cancer diagnosis, he made a choice most people would not understand. He kept working, kept mentoring young people, flew to Indonesia, Bosnia, and performed Umrah, all with cancer in his body and uncertainty in his mind.

In this OnePath Podcast, Dean shares the full story of his diagnosis, his mental and spiritual survival toolkit, and what it taught him about tawakkul, community, death, and the purpose of a life well lived. What does a counsellor do when he becomes the one who needs counsel? How do you stay present when a diagnosis wants to pull you into the future? And what does a cup of Zam Zam at the Kaaba mean when your body is fighting for its life?

Dean Mousad is the Co-Founder and Business Growth and Development Lead at 5 Before 5 Solutions, a counselling and mentoring service dedicated to vulnerable individuals in the community. He also serves as Managing Director of Brothers in Need, a not-for-profit organisation that has spent over a decade supporting the most at-risk members of Australian Muslim society. With a background in senior counselling and professional development, Dean brings both clinical insight and lived experience to one of the most confronting conversations a person can have.

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In this reminder, Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy addresses one of the most urgent crises facing Muslim families today: why parenting has become so hard, and what the Prophet's model offers as a way through.

Why did raising children feel natural across every civilisation in history, and why does it feel almost impossible now? Sheikh Elshinawy traces the collapse back to the Industrial Revolution, the dismantling of village life, and the rise of peer orientation, showing how forces largely outside the family's control have quietly severed the bond between parents and children. And he explains why no technique, workshop, or parenting book can substitute for what was lost.

At the heart of this talk is a prophetic framework built on three pillars: expressed compassion, reasonable expectations, and early empowerment. Drawing on the story of Yusuf, the hadith of Abu Omar and the pet bird, and a striking confrontation between the Prophet and a Bedouin father who had never kissed his ten sons, Sheikh Elshinawy shows that what keeps children oriented to their parents is not discipline, but warmth.

Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy graduated in English Literature from Brooklyn College and in Islamic Studies from Mishkah University. He serves as the Religious Director of Jesus Son of Mary Mosque in Pennsylvania, Research Fellow at Yaqeen Institute, and Instructor at Mishkah University. His work spans Islamic theology, contemporary Muslim family life, and applied prophetic ethics.
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