Only faith in God and submission to a higher purpose kept Khabib grounded through success and helped him survive the loss of his father.

174:27Can you explain what role God plays in your life? - Well, first of all, I was born, raised, and brought up in a Muslim family, in a Muslim community. Since childhood, religion's always been the most important thing for me. And when I say religion, the first thing I mean is Salah, Namaz. And my entire life in general, my daily routine, the way I lived, trained, studied, and everything

174:59else has always been built around Salah. The rest was scheduled around it. Even today, when I was choosing time for this podcast, I knew we'd be talking for a couple of hours, so I deliberately picked a time right after the midday prayer. I pray, come here, finish up here with you, and then go pray again. That's how my life's been, and still is, and that's how it will continue to

175:25be, I hope. I've always tried to organize my life around worship, because first and foremost, my purpose in this life is to worship the one God. Everything that happens after that is, it's secondary, so to speak. And faith in God and learning more and just striving to get closer to God, that continues throughout our entire lives. So in that regard, I'm very grateful to the Almighty for opening this door

176:05of understanding and reflection for me, for helping me realize that we are all servants of God and that our purpose in life is to serve one God. - And as you were explaining that helped you in your career in the sense that, you know, psychologically, by keeping you from letting success go to your head? - That helped me with everything. I've always placed my only hope in the Almighty.

176:35Whatever situation I might face, I've always believed that only the Almighty can truly make it easier for me. And when it comes to not letting success go to your head, not becoming proud, not becoming full of yourself, religion and my faith in Allah have helped me with that too. I truly believe that only faith can help a person get through life's hardest trials. And sometimes I think about people who suffer the loss of a loved one,

177:10someone very close to them. For example, when I lost my father, I remember thinking to myself, "If I didn't believe in the Almighty, if I didn't have faith in God and understand that it was predestined, that we all come into this world and then leave it, that no one stays here forever, that no one belongs to anyone, and we all belong to the Almighty, and that we will all return to Him, I don't know how I would have coped with

177:38it." I'm a very emotional person. I think it would have been extremely difficult for me to go through all of that without faith. In that sense, I feel fortunate to have this understanding. - So faith really helped you when you lost your father? - This was the only thing that helped. Nothing else worked. I know a couple of people who have lost someone very close to them,

178:07and they struggle to accept it. They would ask, "Why? Why? Why?" So many questions. I told them, to answer that question, you need to go deeper into religion and try to understand why were you even born in the first place, and why do these thoughts even come into your head? And what if you didn't have any thoughts at all? What if you couldn't think, couldn't understand anything? These