Students hate being told what to do – how did you get around this problem when you did your “Reminder” series?

BA: I believe the best way to give medicine is to make it sweet. Look at the way the Prophet delivered dawah to the people. It is one of the things this ummah really needs to start focusing on; give the mes-sage of Islam in a sweet way, so people come to you.

Do you ever get any flak?

BA: I get lots of fl ak for doing these series from people who are more cultural than Islamic

Are you Baba Ali full time or part time? Do you ever get Baba Ali on your kids?

BA: I’m Baba Ali part time but I’m Baba fulltime. I actually never need to step out of char-acter or anything because Baba Ali is my character; what you see is what you get! The name came about because I wanted something easy, and since my kids call me ‘baba’ and my wife calls me ‘Ali’, I decided on Baba Ali. Ardekani (my surname) is too hard to pronounce for some people.

Do your work colleagues/neighbours watch your videos? If so, what do they make of it? Do they get the humour?

BA: Yes, work colleagues and neighbours watch my videos. They have my picture on their cubicles. They always ask me, “Why are you still working here?!”