Seven years a teacher in the Prophet's mosque. Four years a filmmaker.

He memorised the Qurʾān as a boy — a Hāfiẓ-e-Qurʾān, in the title that travels with him for life — and grew up between Pakistan and the Kingdom, his mother tongue Urdu, his second language the Arabic of his neighbours.

For most of his adulthood, he taught. Fifteen years in the classrooms of Madinah; seven of those years inside Masjid al-Nabawi itself, sitting cross-legged with students in the green-carpeted halls of the Prophet's mosque. From 2008 onward he was also accompanying pilgrims through the rites of Hajj and Umrah, learning the city not just as a resident but as a guide.

The day job, for nine of those years, was warehouses and supply chains in fast-moving consumer goods. He had filmed small things on the side since 2011, but the channel was a footnote. Then, in 2021, he closed the office door and opened the camera.

The premise was straightforward and slightly stubborn: go to the place. Walk the Hijrah route. Stand in the wells of Badr. Read the verses in the cave the Companions slept in. Five years later the films are watched, on a quiet month, by more people than live in a mid-sized country.