Abdur-Raheem McCarthy – Journey To Islam And Seeking Knowledge

			So Kareem said, you know, whenever you know Mohammed was early, he was so happy here Jemaine
		

			as the brother stated, there are so many brothers who have the privilege to sit with the shoe and
talk to them, but not everybody have that access to them.
		

			Now in this very unique encounter, we will be asking the chef, some
		

			not too personal questions, but some questions inshallah, we will not embarrass our chef, or put it
in a tight position. As far as I know, the chef is Allah, Who Naga Hema craft abderrahman has been
away from the west since he was 18 years old, or 19 years old. And of course, it's very, very long
time experience outside Western society. And this is one of the things inshallah we won't like to
know about him. But my first question, which is a thing as everybody's mind is, how did you accept
Islam? And what was your first encounter with Islam? And who introduced you told you about Islam
		

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah, while al E, wasabi woman, whatever bad
		

			when I first learned about Islam, my first encounter with Islam, and let me go back just for a few
few minutes to say, you know that
		

			before Islam I had started
		

			in a life, I guess any
		

			complaint on basketball because I love basketball and playing basketball, it took me to the good
basketball courts, which were mostly in African American communities. So when I started to hang out
in these places a lot and I was affected by them and their culture, their way of life. And so
actually became like, one of them. And during this time,
		

			I got into a lot of bad things.
		

			You know, the everyday life of the ship, I don't know how open I should be, you know, sitting in the
masjid, you know, we were sitting in the office might be a little different, but, and there were
some things you feel embarrassed about now that we used to do before Islam in jail. Yeah.
		

			different crimes, what have you. And this life, I went really deep into it. And I think maybe the
only one here who knows how deep is probably a man, I go very deep into that. And maybe in another
episode, if we find the fight, we'll do it. But any. Now I'll just keep it brief.
		

			We know I got into that lifestyle, and I was going down the wrong path. But one of the people who I
was if within the the life of crime, his father happened to be Muslim.
		

			So I
		

			were in DC one day, and you know, I saw him listening to tapes of the Quran and following in his his
English Koran. So I started asking about Islam. And one of the first questions I had, you know, as a
white guy, can I be Muslim, you know, hear about the Nation of Islam, and the white man is the devil
and these things, you know, so I didn't really know if I could be Muslim as a as a white person, you
know. So I asked him, he explained to me what Islam and and as I was going back to where I live in
Virginia, from DC, I read a little bit about the belief of the Muslims and Jesus Christ that is to
them. And that was affected by this, any of the, you know, the different, obviously, completely
		

			different than any
		

			of the different differences in belief. But, you know, I left the books on the shelf, I didn't read
it for some time. And then I was in a car accident. So also rather long story. And, you know, one
day I was sitting in the house, and I remember these books, and this is the the rewired moto sorrow.
There's a lot involved here. But you know, you have your lecture coming up. So I'm giving it very,
very brief. And I was in the house and I remembered the books that I had about Islam. So there's one
book even though a lot of brothers feel it's not a good book for non Muslims. But it was good for
me, Islam origin of truth. And I read through it, you know, the most thing that affected me
		

			obviously was the thing of tawheed the difference between Islam and Christianity and the oneness of
Allah and Islam in Russia, Muslim between him and a lot more and he's straightforward without you
know, having to go to any middleman or you know, like you have a Christianity this affected me
greatly, obviously. But one thing that really affected me, which I can say probably now, but it was
because then he mentioned something of the sun and Pluto I know that a Muslim does to be a part of a
salad. And one of the things he mentioned was that if a Muslim uses the the restroom will say the
Canadian
		

			They
		

			learned the Canadian styles out. There, he said that if you go to the restroom that you
		

			did a Muslim, you know, who actually you know, have to close the door and not doing in front of
other people. And he would sit down. So so but all my life, I prefer to do this. But as you know, to
be a, you know, they're non Muslim men in the West, to not use the bathroom in front of other men or
to sit down, it's like a woman. And you know, I but that's what I like to do. But I couldn't tell
anybody that obviously, you know, but after the Muslims did this, and effective is fun and a great
way. And this is what Muslims don't realize, when I talked before my last lecture about implementing
Islam, how it affects the non Muslims, they don't realize this. And I'll tell you interesting story
		

			that he brother is from Saudi Arabia, he went to study in a university and
		

			in the UK,
		

			so they had a place in the university as a small university where they would send their laundry, the
woman she would an older lady, she would clean the laundry, she would wash and then iron and send it
back to the to the students. So she says she found this one guy, he was the only one who had clean
		

			underwear. And this is something she's been doing for 25 years. And none of the coupon of the non
Muslims have clean underwear is something we all know, because they don't have this ninja as we have
this ninja.
		

			They weren't taught as our beloved professors and taught us. So she was surprised, you know, she was
curious. Because every time this guy never had any of this, she starts to look for him, you know,
it's always clean. She was really, you know, shocked. So she asked him, you know, what is this and
he explained to her, that I'm a Muslim, and our prophets have listened, and he ordered us. If we
want to pray, we have to make a stingy. So we can all be in the purest state, and we have no filter
on our clothes, or what have you. And she was affected by soon became Muslim right away. So that
most of us don't think about this, this is yes, this has become adults become accustom our culture
		

			to the Muslims, but this everything and affects the non Muslim. So this is affecting me greatly. And
I was 18 at the time. You know, a lot of people when you're talking about snap a lot of Westerners,
MSA Islamism students, you know, he believes it. But you know, the change is difficult for him. But
I didn't have anything to do. I was just, you know, I wasn't going in a good direction anyways, you
know,
		

			I didn't have anything to lose, I didn't have a wife who is gonna divorce me and take half of what I
own or anything like that. So I have dinner The next day, the next day after the book goes on a
Thursday night, I went to Washington, DC. And I went to this Islamic Center after mobile, and I
prayed this is this visit we had here pray with us today. I didn't know what I was doing, honestly.
But I prayed with the Muslims. And I did my Shahada after Southern mobile. And that was in January,
the end of January 1994. And here we are today.
		

			Now and ask you a question in another area.
		

			Who was your first?
		

			My first teacher, my wife, mother, a man she was my first teacher. And the like she was, you know,
when I got married, and my wife she is your English is better than what she thinks. But she doesn't.
She was she's afraid to speak it. But so when I first got married to my wife,
		

			she wouldn't really speak English to me. And I didn't know an Arabic. So one of us had a break, you
know, and I left my country what to learn Arabic, so it was a good opportunity for me. And zone
located on she didn't teach me the Sudanese slang. And then she used to teach me the classic Arabic
And then she was affected. She would even speak it sometimes to her family, they would laugh, you
know, what are you talking about? So she was to be very classic Arabic to me. And that's when I
first started learning Arabic was from her. But actually before her, I can say she was the, I guess
the main of it. But I also had the famous party in, in Virginia Sheikh Mohammed, all right.
		

			I studied with him a little bit in Virginia, you know, the basic alphabet, and the small soldiers at
the end. And in fact, they have what have you. I started there and Virginia, but then my wife, she
was the main one when I went to Sudan. And then after that, obviously, any
		

			maybe 100 or more came after her.
		

			And, of course, he went to the University of Medina, somebody
		

			from the university who is the shift that we had.
		

			First of all, you know, when I went to the University, I didn't really realize you know, the
importance of having this Shahada certificate what it was and I didn't really care about it. I don't
really care if I graduated, I didn't realize that I came to the to look for jobs after I graduate,
how important it was and how good a university it was, you know, now when I go online, oh, and I get
good job offers all the time. I didn't realize that it wasn't really my goal. But what my goal was
was to study outside of the university with dilemma and the classic manner of studying and then
universe has said at least have JJ didn't be average in case you know, you need the shadow in the
		

			future, you know, you never know. So I said I just didn't focus enough. My main focus, it was
outside of the university. And I guess I could say the ones who affected me mostly, I was affected
by them. was basically for mushir.
		

			from them. My main sugar stir is dealt with how many meds have I studied with him, sell them on
stock. Now you know the famous one that shipping what they mean to the expiration of 15 volumes.
		

			I studied with him the mutton navigability from the beginning to the end. And the chef is Muhammad
Yunus sort of so hey Benny, and he's a teacher in the Prophet's mosque, his chairs in the middle, if
any of you have ever been there, he has a, a long, it's not as long as mine but he doesn't have hair
on the side too much, which is rather long in the middle white beard wears glasses always wears the
white coat is right in the middle of the home, as well as chairs underneath the umbrellas with
opening is so he was my main shift. He was my neighbor. So what I did, I got a private lesson with
that. And I studied a little bit in the room with him, but most of my time was in the masjid next to
		

			the house. And all the other people saw this and I tried to do what he wouldn't give him the private
lesson. So it was me and a brother from Bahrain, which was very good student I was the Barbarian
brotherhood also from the student of shipping with a mean Rahim Allah. And we studied with him and
he was He's my main chair. Also from my machine I benefited greatly from was Sheikh Mohammed bin
Mata Rosario Rahim Allah. And this was a very unique man and it's upon Allah honey, when it comes to
the knowledge of God. And this guy memorizes dates, and days from the time we live in another time,
anybody who died what year he died when he was born, it was just he was just so incredible in that
		

			in that field, even though he was so strong and Hadeeth heroes those The important thing is what the
implementations are when you see the Shabaab memorizes it and he said that's nice, but we want
something greater than that as the implementation and what the students to act on what they've
learned from that ID. And we study with him not from how do we stay with him Brewster but we're in a
different dudes who study a book and dow history books and tarbiyah books, education, and salute
characters here are purifier souls is only focused on with him. So I've benefited him greatly. And I
didn't know the importance of this man until he died for him a lot of the year before I left,
		

			because when I graduated, do I come back to the west? Do I go to Sudan? I had a job in Saudi Arabia,
where did I go. And he was the one I always turned to was like the father figure in my life, you
know, so I missed him so much smarter. My mother that last year, I didn't get the chance to another
one was a chef
		

			who was the maid of the
		

			army before one of the deans. And
		

			also I learned from him the importance of the serial number, we're not just reading it, but you
know, taking the doodles and everyone should benefit from it. And specialization, also the issues of
test skier and the sheer creeps to give us a chart
		

			that we would have to do if we wanted to and you'd have your pen you have your paper. Did you get
the texture of a ROM not just the selector Gemma, did you make it that day or not?
		

			Did you pray one out of tm a little nuts? Did you read one juice or not? Did you make incur of muker
one time in the day or not? Just everything you check it off and you add up the percentage at the
end. So it's kind of fun. And he was really getting good and educating us we've benefited a lot from
him. And the last one I really benefited from is Shakeology, zaccaria, the former copy of the
		

			the the mustard kooba for nine years until he was stopped obviously by the government then at that
time, during the fit that that happened. And he was also if you go back to the must have the old
print of the Medina must have. You'll see he is there. He is the president of the legislative
committee that reviewed the entire myself. He's originally from Bukhara, and even though he's my
chef, and I differ with him a lot of opinions. I learned one great thing from him.
		

			Is that how to respect the opinion of others, you know, because he would come he would come with
some weird opinions that we thought it wasn't you know, because a lot of our machines you know,
they're from Nigeria from the from this, you know, so his opinion sometimes they'd be a little
strange for us. But I learned how to respect the the other scholars who we differ with respect the
opinion of others, and how to have an elf when you differ with other Muslims. We learned a lot from
him. And the books that we learn with him and he would mostly see the books of shepherds, Nam Tamia.
We had a dose every Sunday at his house. He was my neighbor in the neighborhood as well. They ran it
		

			was a neighbor of the mushiya de la that was a blessing from Allah right next to the university. So
we study with him and
		

			his
		

			Sharia and we studied with him also with us a lotta Mr. P. for the books of scheffel Islam we
benefited greatly I had a whole bunch of privacy with him as well too. And we benefited from them.
And also all of these machines if any, especially if my mother and Sophia here they always taught us
the importance of going back to the books of the cellophane Elpida and not just you know focus on
some of the modern books and even going back to the books like elleebana and Chanel a guy and these
books that are you know, you take the with the net of the Arpita you take it from the self directly
to have the proper IP either so I'm using my main my main machine can be benefited from obviously
		

			there's other more and then university I can I can mention too. That really affected me and in my
study in university one was Sheikh Abdullah Georgia board who taught us RP that he was amazing
enough either. And also
		

			the name is Jakob disease is looming. This guy he taught Sera, you know you on the battlefield. When
he thought this guy could. He was like a drill sergeant. He would look like a drill
		

			Sorry, you know, and he taught you you know, if you missed the class you would cry, or you cry and
you weren't in the class that you need to be like yes and the guy can teach the theater you know,
you really felt you know because they know you're on the battlefield you got your sword you ready to
go explain it so as a man I love lesson that he was a very he's not that famous now famous guy but
the guy can teach he can teach Mashallah. So these really affected me the these teachers.
		

			In this mess in other massages, I see a lot of young people going to the Imams of the massage
		

			and asking them for letter of recommendation for the University of Medina or mancora. Imagine even
other places.
		

			I learned that you got your test here from chef Abdulaziz embezzle Rahim Allah,
		

			how did you do it? How did you get your test here?
		

			And
		

			I want to add some more, but I just want to leave it as a shout out to be the last question
inshallah. But definitely, shall we do this a shout out tomorrow to learn more about the show.
Please tell us how did you get up there as it's been best. It was actually a very interesting story
that I went to the share. And I had actually two recommendations from Sudan.
		

			One was from sugar mountain hubbub. And he is from the student of Chevron best as well for me a
very, very strong recommendation and the one that I feel I probably don't even deserve, you know,
very strong recommendation. And another one was from chef Hussain Ashish, who was the famous karate
from Syria, but he lives in Sudan. His second wife is from Sudan, and he has now Sudanese
nationality. So he but he told me if you see a person who looks like this, be careful he is this and
this and the government's don't give him my desk. If I hurt you, I won't help you. But it's just the
chicken. The chicken loves me. But especially about the man above any all of them love them. So I
		

			went with that this guy just I saw what he said. So I put the other one in my pocket.
		

			And I went with the disk he have shared with me.
		

			And I saw the Shere Khan. He was amazing. Amazing. You know, the first time I had seen him in
person, it was in his house in Mecca. And actually, the funny thing was that I had traveled to
		

			the Emirates Emirates, I was in Emirates, and we heard the chicken bass was in was in Mecca, and
it's my opportunity to give him that this gear, and hopefully you get accepted in the university and
in Medina or in Saudi Arabia, and another university. So I went to Mecca, I bought a ticket and I
got the visa and I went to Mecca for ombre, I went to the chef's house.
		

			So as I walked in, it was just it was jam packed. Everybody was complaining, I need to get have an
operation, I need money. And other guys, I need to bring my wife from my country. The other one his
kid is sick. And this person wants that once this. And the chef is on the phone from France with a
sister answering her quick question. And then the guy next to him is reading a pile of letters to
him. The pile of letters no joke, it was this big, you know, just so huge. Ask him always my time
and I'll see here for two weeks. I never get to my letter.
		

			I say okay, you're here, just go ahead and give it to him. You came on this one. So I gave the
letter to the
		

			to the guy reading and he put it underneath
		

			as I just said that, you know, the shear got to the point he said now. So the guy pulls the test
given the band puts in a tap he said from a Sudan from a show called mile hubco Bismillah R Rahman m
redditors gear. They share his face lit up they smile ear to ear he said I know what Where is he? So
I came up and I kissed the shake on his head and I said to me I'm here and we started to talk and he
was all smiles but her mo la he's like give us how'd you become Muslim this What about your family
and this and that and he starts already immediately that this good news? Yep. Do they if he gives
you something come back in two weeks and this he starts reading immediately. And he was in the shift
		

			I mentioned for daughter had eaten Mecca. And I told him no, I said I want to go to Medina. So he
said okay, so he wrote the chef's Allah Buddha was the woody of the gem at that time, and he wrote
the test to him also a very strong recommendation and he told me if it doesn't work out come to
reality and study with me and we'll find some I hope you in Arabic and you can study in my lessons
other mature and as I got, you know, I went advanced and I wish I took that advice and took it right
there. And when study with the chef had not gone to Medina but hamdulillah I said, you know, Allah,
also during this time it took you know, anybody who's ever applied to Medina from you know, it
		

			doesn't come out the answer very quickly it comes down, you know, six, seven months later. So, I was
waiting, I got another follow up recommendation from the sheriff and went to him to do to make sure
and I want this person to get accepted. There were two of them for me I have both of them now. So I
got accepted him they learned from from that this year.
		

			Malika follow up minutiae. This is from the natural laws of Hannah Montana. Fortunately we were
asked to stop this time. So inshallah we will continue this talk this unit
		

			council delegation
		

			for shelter next time but in the last panel Tato maybe perhaps tomorrow the evening is
		

			certainly my favorite ceremony.