 My name is Majid Ali Khawkar and I am a dentist working in Wimbledon and South London and sometimes another practice. I am a general dentist but I specialize in cosmetics and orthodontics as well but the orthodontics is on a cosmetic level so just certain things. The difference being general dentistry is for if a patient walks in, you do a check up, some cleaning, maybe some fillings or a root treatment and a crown. With cosmetics you are looking at problems with their smile to make them look better. So a dark tooth or if they are unhappy with the arrangement of their teeth then you can do veneers and orthodontics is just straightening the teeth like the kids that have train tracks but I do more Invisalign which are invisible braces and other techniques. So as a child I was always a nature oriented kind of boy, I used to like watching wildlife programs with my father so I suppose science was something that natural came to me and I was good at science and maths and career choice I was thinking about maybe something medical but I wasn't sure so when I was 12 I had two teeth taken out under sedation with the gas and sleeping and I felt that the experience was very clean and ethical and I just it was a good experience so when I got home I remember talking to my parents and saying I think I know what I want to be, I think I want to be a dentist and they looked at each other and smiled and I've just stuck with it since then so when I look further into dentistry I could see there's a very competitive career choice you have to get top grades you know the GCSEs it has to start from GCSEs they have to be pretty much all A's and B's, A levels need to be all A's, A stars but it's not only that you need work experience so I used to do every Saturday or every other Saturday work experience for about two years and that was quite a lot but I used to enjoy it you know I'd chosen the professional I used to love it every time I went I'd see the patients with my mentor and I'd actually be more encouraged to follow that career because some people I've seen who've done work experience with myself they've been put off but it just enforced that I wanted to do that career so after that you hit your grades and you have an interview at a university and they also ask you odd questions like how are you good with your hands manual dexterity and ask you to bring certain things to show them so I did some woodwork I showed them that they want to know about extracurricular activities I've done the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and just you know sports that you play and other things like that to know that you're a well-rounded person not just a bookworm who's good at studying studying studying you have to have other extra curricular activities my parents they're both Pakistani but my mother likes to say she's Kenyan third-generation fathers from Lahore they met here so I'm second-generation Muslim British Pakistani and it's like any typical upbringing we had a very loving upbringing went to state school and some private school as well and grammar so had a mix of all educations and the upbringing in terms of religion was the backing of a good Muslim parents practicing and also madrasa which was very important but the main influence in my teenage years was my mom who my uncle used to live with us for about four years and he was the guy that I went to when I had any questions there was no sheikh Google at that time so I used to speak to him about it and I remember one day I used to look up to him and I said Mamu when I grow up I want to be just like you and you look back at me he said Majid aim higher than me because often where you aim you don't reach that status so we have the perfect examples in our alphabet so use them as your examples to aspire to be like them and so from that point I aspire to be like them but as a child growing up in UK environment obviously there's stereotype you're a Muslim the typical Ramadan and praying and they ask you questions but if you just stick to what you know is best which is stick to your principles and you know a Muslim I don't eat this meat honey halal meat and I pray five times a day a few times a day because this is what God's requested they're all aware of what you know what's going on so we had in Hounsler which is where I'm born and bred there's quite a few Muslims so people were aware of that but it's still difficult you know this you mix with different Muslims but in that time when I was growing up things were quite pleasant although there was some rivalry with other Asians and Sikhs and Muslims had problems but we all grew out of it so you just have to stick to your principles and the fundamentals the basics that you're taught and be good to you know your fellow Muslims and humanity as Imam Ali alaihi salam has said you know if he's not your brother in religion he's your equal in humanity and that's the principle you should stick with as we were growing up it was early stages of development of Shia Islam and so in West London we didn't really have a mosque initially there was there was Hammersmiths we used to go to but in Hounsler itself it used to be a house that we used to learn Quran from certain teachers some aunties were there as your traditional basic setup but that was still a very good foundation for us to blossom from in terms of religion and then we went to I used to travel to Pina to Khoja establishment as Madrasa so this environment was very healthy another big influence for me in my life was my grandfather and he was a very staunch Muslim and Shia he only regarded whatever Allah's will was he went for that he wasn't shy of anyone he didn't pander to the crowds I remember once we were in America in SeaWorld and it was in the last time and he said right we're gonna pray and I was like where are we gonna pray we're in the middle of people are going left right center there's a little green patch between everybody moving around and he said we're gonna pray here and I remember standing behind him being so embarrassed I was about eight or ten and standing behind him just thinking the whole world is looking at me but as I've grown up I've learned to appreciate that and now I'm similar to him in those ways I pray at work my nurses often ask me oh you know what are you doing what's the meaning of this at university all these places if you're not shy then people tend to come towards you and ask you about your faith because it's a natural act to pray to God and to split your day into certain points where you actually contemplating about God so I've now thank my granddad for those principles he set within me even though at the time I was quite embarrassed also when I was at university I was enrolled on a al-asr course with Molana Sabazwari and it was a trip to Iran and it was my first major trip you know without the parents and to a religious environment so it was Ziyara and I didn't really know what to expect I was quite a young 19 year old boy but much of that was an amazing experience you know we were taught lessons every morning we prayed fudger on time there was no laziness and when we visit the Haram it was just a beautiful experience because I visited other places before I did Umrah when I was 10 but you don't remember much so this was older and the experience was much more spiritual and learned put a fond memory about it's being humble in what you do and the Imam obviously when I visited him and his sister Muslim home Islam the same humbleness the piety the peacefulness it all followed through my university and that's how I took that lesson from that in experience so dentists who's like any other career once you get involved in it you can really get engrossed into it and you can forget about the important things in life so you worry about your bills and the tax man and this paycheck and patience and complaints and whatnot so you forget about the most important things in life which is you know your spiritual spirituality okay and the most the best way I found to be more spiritual was to go to Ziyarat and visit the the holy tombs and go to Hajj my experience in Hajj which really really awakened my soul I felt it so about six or seven years ago I had the pleasure of going to Iraq with my mother which I was excited to do one because I was taking my mother to Ziyarat and two because I was going to meet the Imam's and the holy Ahlulbayt and obviously you're apprehensive I'd never been there before but it's it's an odd sensation as soon as you land in Karbala you just get this it's like I was describing as a hug it's like somebody's holding you and just even I'm now I'm getting emotional it's just a warmth that you get immediately there's a sadness there as well which you feel also immediately for instance when we went to Najaf first you get the same warmth but there's no sadness the strength it's odd but in Karbala it was there was definitely a sadness there and that that that feeling didn't leave me until I remember clearly when I landed in in London my first Salah it was like it disappeared I still prayed but and I still had the fond memories but that warmth that hug was not there anymore and your soul it's I remember just reading about it and I was trying to find out why that happened and it's because your soul has tasted pure love and then suddenly you've come back and you get stuck in your ways again and you're far away so your soul needs that again and so when I used to go into Sajdah I used to remember the land of Karbala and it used to take me back to that land and that time with my mother visiting the holy imams and the holy lands and the graves and it was just a beautiful experience you know and seeing the whole the mass of people is in Arbaid and the masses of people that were there and when they actually make the the waters go red and there's sand everywhere and they have the horses and they reenact the whole experience that happened to Imam Hussein and his his companions it really makes you visualize it and you just feel it in your bones it's a really special experience that I recommend to anybody who hasn't been so as I said before you when you're working you get bogged down and you're worrying about all the other problems and sometimes you get a little jock when you're praying Salah or for mine it was when I was in a Juma Khutbah and Imam was talking about Hajj and he said a person who hasn't done Hajj and they die and they could have performed it they die at the death of a non-believer you're basically the same as a Jew or a Christian an ignorant person and then he explained it further he said that you know if you had bought a car for let's say 4,000 pounds and you didn't really need that car you could have put that towards Hajj any spare money buying a house everybody you know buys a car or a house even going on a course some people do courses any sort of investment that you have renovating your house if you could spare 2,000 3,000 pounds then really that's Haram you should have done Hajj with that and so you're living a life if you die at that point you really have no chance you're going to get questioned and you have no answers for that and I had everything I had a career car house wife and I had had my son my first son Issa Muhammad and I just had no excuse and I felt embarrassed while I was listening to this Khutbah and so embarrassed that I spoke to my cousin I said let's let's just do it he was actually telling me to do it as when I was trying to make excuses as you do no maybe next year my son is only six months old I can't do it you know he needs me and really it was a reality check when that Khutbah happened and I signed my name and Alhamdulillah I went to Hajj that year in 2014 and it was one of the best experiences of my life it really against highly spiritual experience when you see the Qaba for the first time it's just it's a phenomenal phenomenal experience because all your life you pray to this direction but you don't really see it and I don't know how many people visualize it you don't often visualize it but when you're there standing in front of this amazing spectacle and you're seeing all the people going round and round praying to this one true Lord and you know that in your back of your mind the the Malakut the angels are doing the same thing in the heavens it's a special experience you're actually there at that point where everybody it's a spiritual vortex it's just pure energy and you feel that the same as God above the same as all the other places the holy sites it's the spirituality that we our soul needs and we forget to feed our soul we feed our bodies we find our minds it's fine you don't feed your soul and you must feed your soul but this is a wajibat so you may do your ziyarat but don't forget your Hajj it's extremely extremely important it's it's one of the rocks of Islam it's a pillar of Islam that you must do and this was an experience that I will never forget as you're going through your career you often think about how you can help others being a good Muslim a big part of that is not just doing things for yourself or your family but the community and globally as well but if you start with your family and community then you can go globally after that so with with myself I had an opportunity to start teaching at Madrasa in Hussaini mission and I did that for maybe seven eight years I started with six seven-year-olds and then different ages and by the end of it I was teaching 10 11 12-year-olds and that is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life you know I it's very difficult it's I won't lie you have to plan and prepare it's a Sunday morning I like to sleep in sometimes it's difficult but when you see those kids and their faces and when they learn something or you see that light bulb and and you're not just using the maths or English which is also highly commendable but this is Islamic studies so it's fiqh, Akhlaq and history and Quran it's a different reward that you're getting so one you're helping your community but these people are going to then teach others if even if it's just their children but the sadgah jahri that you're going to get is phenomenal but you see these children their faces light up you try and make it exciting for them and that's your challenge one that is exciting because kids get bored very quickly to that they actually learn something from that excitement and that's the main thing and the feedback that I go and a lot of them still contact me we've got WhatsApp group and even recently they're questioning me about different things and I've always said my phone my doors are always open to you if you have any questions come back to me and they do and that also goes into the community so I've studied in East London and I used to have a flat in Battersea in Club of Junction so I was part of Haidery I've been to the Romford Centre in Wimbledon I go to Idara for Juma prayers I work in West London so I'm in Reading and also in Crawley I'm all over the place and Hussaini Mission obviously so I do meet members of all different communities and they tend to try and see me as a dentist because they see me at Friday prayers they see me at the Wilaadis and the Shahadis so a lot of people follow me around so Alhamdulillah I try and put back into the community that way and I give them slightly special treatment because obviously they're friends and family and community but also when they hear and they remember that I'm a dentist they send their children for work experience and which I really enjoy it's like teaching them and if I can just help them make that journey to become a dentist even a small part again it's just very very rewarding and that's how I try and help the community also charity work you know there's a charity called Who is Hussain which is run by some very energetic and spiritually motivated people and I've done a few sessions with them and they had a dental session where there were eight different dentists and we pitched up a tent in the middle of the Strand central London and we saw maybe 30 40 patients coming in homeless people and that was very very rewarding so rewarding to be helping people in the name of Imam Hussain which is what he died for and they also hand out leaflets and roses and it's just that awareness that they get and that's every Saturday that happens but also I've done trips abroad so I've been to a center in it's called Wipas in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam mainly and they are a charity and they have all the local Kenyan kids and the Tanzanian kids and they teach them the whole thing from school it's a basically a Muslim girl school and they teach them the like a man and everything from a young age to a higher age and there's maybe two 300 children there they have a well there they have a hospital there it's expanding very quickly and I did some charity work there and also I've been abroad so when the Syrian problem which is still ongoing a lot of refugees were coming to Greece and France and we had a group of dentists and medics and hygienists I took my sister as well we went to Calais and Dunkirk and we helped the the local refugees that were there helpless you know and it was a very humbling experience because one one guy he just kept watching me and he said can I please watch how you take teeth out can I watch you do this can I watch you do that and I said why do you want to watch me do this because because back home in Syria I'm a dentist and I had a normal life I had a car I had a flat I had a career and then suddenly in an instant I was sent back and I had to become a refugee and it's not something that I wanted but I just miss seeing that work and he just watched me all day and we exchanged numbers and that was just very humbling experience we helped children help older people it was just a mixed experience but to see them live in squalor it was just tense and there was mud and earth everywhere but they were all extremely happy and extremely grateful for the work that we did and this is ongoing there's so many charities there's another one HPF human organization that we help and I'm part of that and I'm in shadow planning a trip to Lesbos that they do which is a Greek island where all the refugees are as well so ensure that's another thing for the future my day starts with waking up for Fajr Salah I'll try and wake up a bit earlier to do what I can before but it's not easy I'm trying but Fajr Salah is where I start and then at the moment it's it's early so I'll go back to sleep and then when I wake up have my shower get ready I have some honey some water and then I'm off on my journey in the car there's no music I don't listen to music may sound a bit odd but I've known that for probably a decade more than that now and it's either Radio 4 which is informative I like to listen to the news to be up to date with the happenings of the world so I can talk to my patients and just better to be aware of the world environment and also Dua's in Quran and I love listening to beautiful recitations Omar bin Hashim or other reciters Misharia Lafisi and so I'll be driving to work or I take the train depending on where I work and I'll start the day have to come in my normal clothes and then change into my scrubs so these are my scrubs and they have to be clinically clean we have to wear gloves as you've seen in the videos before this is a visor that we wear to protect our eyes and then a mask that goes of the mouth so a normal day as you saw in the video is seeing the patients and what I've learned more and more over the years is that you often forget that there's a person behind the teeth so you have to talk to the patient get to know them and that makes a better dentist all right you must be personal with them okay ask them about the career ask them about their studies ask them about their wives their kids just their lives okay they're human beings just like you would treat somebody else with your family but after you've greeted and seated the patients you've asked them how they've been and any updates it goes through their medical history any updates in that and the social history and then you discuss any any concerns that they have and they'll tell you I've got this broken tooth or this pain here and you do an extensive examination check the outside so the lymph glands if there's any infection then the TMJ which is the joint here opening closing and then internally obviously you check in the soft tissues the lips the gums the tongue and then it's the heart tissues like the teeth obviously there's an oral cancer search as well you have to check that our heart tissues are the teeth if you have any decay or you're suspicious or they do you take x-rays and it's a low radiation x-ray that has to be done just to see what you may miss visually because obviously the eyes can't penetrate hard tooth and the x-rays go straight through after that you make a plan with the patient if they're in pain then the main things to get them out of pain excuse me and it may be drilling the tooth after giving them an injection and relieving the pain or just antibiotics if they have swelling or often it's just something that the small thing that you just flick off and smooth for them it just depends on the problem it's a whole variety of problems as I said previously when I went to Karbala I had a spiritual experience with Imam Hussein and that bond never goes you do get wrapped up in the daily rigmaroles of life and routine but every time you think back at that moment and it helps if you go there so if you haven't been to Karbala makes you go it's a very very important because you you can read books you can watch videos but the experience that your body and your soul feels when you're actually there is is you can't compare that to anything you cannot compare it so I do highly recommend that and you can always go back mentally to that point so when you are feeling down and tired of working or stressed or then you often think about the struggles that other people have had and the most important sacrifice in the whole of creation is Imam Hussein's so nothing compares to that so any problems that you're having in your life do not compare to that and so I can always fall back on that and that not only makes me feel that life isn't that difficult or this situation isn't that hard but it also makes me want to help others because people forget that the most important thing was not only his sacrifice on the battlefield but Salah people often forget that they worry about martyr and different things but the most important thing was Salah that prayers was the most important thing okay they actually requested for some respite to pray and it was so important that the arrows of a flying and his companions were users human shields to protect him and they were sacrifice and if that if prayers wasn't that important he wouldn't have done that so people often forget that and that's why that's helped me incorporate that into my life so at work I pray at work as I've said before it's an important part of my life I try and split my prayers so that I think about God five times a day so I'll pray Fajr at home and then Zohar at work and then when I get home Asr and Maghrib and Isha and at work it just helps me stop what I'm doing and think about my Lord my Creator and that's the reason why I'm here and that lesson is from Imam Hussein because that's exactly what he did he only thought about his Lord and his Creator and didn't worry about all the small people and the worries of life and that's how it helps you just get on with life that way