Three generations after his great-grandfather arrived in the Cape as a color-sergeant in a British punitive expedition, Shaykh Riyad Walls walked into a home in Cape Town and took his shahada. In this episode of ROOTED, he tells the story of how he came to Islam, the Rastafarian who handed him a book on the life of the Prophet ﷺ, the warmth of the Muslims of Heideveld, the men in white on the steps at Llandudno, and the single sentence that sums up his guidance: “It's not what I did, it’s what I didn't do.”
Along the way: growing up "a confused Christian" in apartheid Cape Town, the shield of taqwa in a pie shop in Steenberg, the koesister as a portrait of the Cape Muslim community, the closure of the Tana Baru, and the tests that came the moment he said I believe.
ROOTED is a podcast series from Isnad Academy following the pursuit of sacred knowledge through the unbroken chain of transmission — the isnād that connects us, teacher to student, back to the Prophet ﷺ.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. In Part 2, Shaykh Riyad shares his journey into sacred knowledge.
🔔 Subscribe for Part 2 and the rest of the ROOTED series.
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00:00 "It's not what I did, it's what I didn't do"
00:30 Welcome to ROOTED & the one-sentence question
01:49 Allah opened the door — I didn't hesitate
03:33 Farouk Musqat, the Rastafarian who gave him the book
04:35 The Steenberg screen-printing factory
06:14 First encounter with Muslims
07:24 What apartheid kept apart
09:37 "Were you devout?" — a confused Christian
13:24 Sunday school & the stories of the Prophets
16:22 The pie shop: the shield of taqwa
19:00 The warmth of Heideveld
19:50 In defence of the koesister
22:09 A polyglot lineage: his wife's family
24:57 Salah in the factory
28:51 Tartib: why the Cape scholars held the line
29:36 Surviving the Dutch: the Van Diemen plakkaat
33:44 His great-grandfather & the 91st Highlanders
35:48 The Tana Baru uprising, 1886
38:01 "Allah took from his back" — never lose hope
39:33 The road to the Shahada
40:55 "I was spiritually blind for 18 years"
43:09 The night he asked: who is Allah, who is Muhammad?
45:00 Words with a frequency: salam, mashaAllah
48:14 Tawheed: finding the channel
51:14 The men in white on the Llandudno steps
57:00 George Bernard Shaw & the Orientalists
59:38 "I didn't want to be like them"
01:00:16 Choosing Islam — and tartib again
01:03:34 Don't delay the Shahada
01:04:14 Choosing the name Riyad
01:05:59 The Shahada, at last
01:06:45 "You were not yet Shaykh Riyad Walls"
01:08:28 "Islam is perfect, the Muslims are not"
01:10:43 Embracing Islam during the Gulf War
01:12:19 Fired for wearing the kufi
01:13:37 Junaid Senekal & "good luck"
01:15:01 "If you say 'I believe,' you will be tested"
01:15:40 His mother: "Tony, if you're happy, I'm happy"
01:17:31 The cliffhanger: the quest for knowledge
