Abu Hafsa – A Journey Like No Other
AI: Summary ©
The conversation covers the history of Canada and the lack of diversity in media, as well as the cold weather and lack of privacy. The speaker talks about their past experiences with their grandmother's tough childhood and how they lost their wrestling career. They also discuss their past experiences with Hulk Hogan and their desire to be a black man in their own community. The segment also touches on the importance of Islam and the need for people to stay true to it.
AI: Summary ©
I
have a lot of Vladimir salatu salam wa notice when he came, he imagined six and a half hours away for this guy to get up on stage.
All the way from Canada. The flight here was six hours just so you know, so I didn't set six hours to get here. So I'm gonna take him to LA
Mashallah sisters, and brothers and their few sisters here too. Don't worry, sisters I know. And a way out here for all of you for coming out. This is a quality crowd, right? You guys are the VIPs man, you could have been at home, unwrapping presents and enter a wrong religion.
You could have been doing anything else. But she decided to come out here and design Kamala Harris, really appreciate that. for you guys to come out. For those of you who don't know, well, my name is Abu hafsah. And I took my Shahada back in 1996. And I wasn't always a Muslim.
And just in case you're going, I saw him on YouTube already. You didn't.
You might have seen a version of this story on YouTube, but I never ever, ever give the same lecture twice. So you didn't see this on YouTube, you're gonna make them people wish they were here when you leave here tonight inshallah, because we want to really motivate you and make you excited, because you have the best gift that has ever been given to anyone and that is your Islam. And I'm going to tell you how I was allowed to be a part of all that I was born in Canada,
the eastern part of Canada, in the province of Newfoundland, do you know that province? Nope. Really? Mashallah. This is no everything, right?
It's the eastern part of Canada. It's the furthest eastern province that is in the country. And it's very cold there most of the year, can get to be like minus 35 degrees there
on a regular basis, right, minus 40 degrees. I was born in a snowstorm in June.
So that will tell you a little bit about that place. I was born completely without my eyesight. hamdulillah blood I mean,
I'll get into a little bit of that later. But that was the the condition of when I was when I was born. And when I was five years old, my mom relocated the whole family and she moved to Nova Scotia, another province in Canada, similar to the one I was born in, but this one was the only place that had a school that was for completely blind people. People like me, people who couldn't see him. So she sold everything that she had. And she moved us all to that province.
To my school, where I was going at the time, it was a boarding school. I stayed there from Sunday nights until Thursday night. And then she would come on Friday, and I would go home with her on the weekend.
Now,
I come from an Irish background, so I do so. Hey, I just caught the people who aren't paying attention. All of a sudden he's Irish.
So every every time my mom would come and get me she would do the grocery shopping for the house. And we're not, you know, we're not like our Indian brothers is alchemilla heroin. We don't eat briyani, right.
Irish people, we don't eat that we eat potatoes every day, every day. And I don't mean just like, every other day, I mean, every single day.
Boiled baked fried scallops barbecued in their jackets out of their jackets, no jackets whatsoever, every day.
So on the weekends, my mom would come and she would buy the 20 kilo bag of potatoes. And guess who would have to carry that bag?
That little kid. It's about as tall as this thing here. I'd have to walk through the streets like this with my
with my bag of potatoes on my shoulders and my mom one day, one day I stopped my mom and I said listen, Mom, you should pay me for this.
Can you imagine right?
And my mom,
when she had time, she would tell me things. And when she didn't have time, she would just go
that would be that so that day she had time and she stopped in the middle of the stream. You said okay, son.
I'm gonna pay you starting today.
I'm gonna let you stay in my house.
I'm gonna let you eat from these potatoes that I worked all week to buy. I'm going to clean your clothing. I'm going to take you back and forth to school. And I just I was after that I didn't bother my mom anymore.
I still am very shy to ask my mom for help from for money at least financially. I'm very shy because I really, she's done. She's, you're no one will ever love you the way your mom will ever no one I don't care you can marry the most beautiful woman on the planet brother.
The most handsomest man on the planet sister, and they're not going to love you the way your mom does. Sharla
so one day with my mom, I came home from school and I was you know, I was I had a bad day. So I came into my mom's house. It's never ever going to be my house. Right? I was gonna be her house.
said mom today I'm quitting school. Quitting. I've had enough. I know everything I need to know. I'm seven.
I don't need to know any more than I know today. I'm quitting. That's it. It's over through completed. I didn't say it that way. wasn't as flashy then as as I am now.
So she asked me She said, Are you sure? I said yes. She said good. And went like this.
I don't like getting hit right? She said, No, I'm not gonna hit you. Go into the we call it the washroom back home here. You call it the toilet.
Go into the
go into the toilet and clean the bowl with this cloth I'm going to give you
so I went in and I cleaned it. And I came out. She sent me back in five times. She didn't like what I did. So she kept making me return back there. And I came out and I was done. And she asked me she said How did you like that?
I didn't like that at all.
I'm not supposed to be doing that work. That's not for men to do that work. I didn't know about marriage yet. Right?
That's how you say I'm sorry, right? You clean the washroom. That's how you do that. If you really messed up, you try to cook.
Which means you have to say sorry, again, usually for most of us.
So she said to me, she said, Well, if you didn't like that, if you quit school, that is what you're going to be doing for someone else for the rest of your life.
So tomorrow's your first day, where are you going to be you're going to be you're going to be what are you going to be doing? I mean, all your friends are going to be in school, where are you going to be tomorrow, I'm going to I'm going to go to school, I'll be in school.
And that's where I stayed for the entire rest of my schooling. I graduated sitting in the front row, because I wasn't cleaning toilets for anybody ever again in my life. And again, I didn't know about marriage it.
So that was my my mom, my mom was dynamic. She still is. She's an incredible person law guide her. But in the summer,
I go visit my grandmother.
And my grandmother is fascinating. She's a lecture by herself. Born and raised in Canada with an Irish accent.
To this day, I don't know how that happened.
And I could almost hear in my head, right? Oh, so you're going up on stage in England? Do you think you're impressing those people? Just remember, you only sat in the airplane, you didn't fly it.
If you want to impress me and walk home, so you and my grandmother would never let you get bigger than your own position according to her. And she was always rough with me, for some reason, always stuck with me. threatened my life on a daily basis. Mashallah. And I used to ask her why. So why are you like that with me? Why are you so difficult with me?
She said, because everything that you do will have to be better than everybody else. You are born without eyes. Haven't you forgotten? Have you forgotten the fact that you're born without your eyesight? So everything that you do will have to be better.
And that's how I was raised. I was always raised to be like that. And she said to me, if I'm difficult to you, if I'm tough with you, and the world is easy, you'll be grateful.
And if I'm difficult with you and the world is difficult, then you'll be ready.
And that's I really think that a lot of the Muslim boys need that.
Boys girls already get treated like that right? Boys? How can you be 40 ft. And you haven't washed your clothes yet?
Oh, no DVD sales tonight brother.
That'll be bad. But no, I'm serious. We have to we have to train our boys to be a little bit more.
What's the word?
Come on, sister. What's the word?
That wasn't a sister.
Mashallah brothers listen well to
masculine
masculine brother.
You have to be raised with my grandmother, my grandmother would have taken qaddafi in three days.
I would have been that mama
get out of it, those people hate you
get lost. Right?
And he would have went to that would have been the funny thing he would have actually left.
So that was my grandmother extremely tough, Mashallah. And there's more about her later on in, in his story.
But that's us. I mean, I was always but I never felt
abused in my house. I mean, I was always running from my uncles and my grandmother would threaten me on a daily basis. I was but I never felt abused though. I always felt like these people are doing this because they loved me. I really did. I really felt that way. And I still do I don't I don't have any negative things to say about my family at all. A lot. guide them on the show.
But it should be no surprise to anyone at the age of eight. I know right? 15 minutes and he's only eight. Goodness gracious. We sat here for six hours.
It should be no surprise to anyone at the age of eight that I wanted to be a wrestler I wanted to wrestle.
I came into coach's office. I was about as tall as this year.
And I was skinny. Like, where am I East African people that were you
know, East Africans in the building at all. You hear zaga hair sister.
My Somali brothers is slim. Right?
I was in slim. I was skinny. Like there's Somali slim, and there's Irish Potato Famine skinny.
And that was me. My grandmother used to say, for God's sake, don't wrestle with your shirt off. Every dog in the neighborhood will come random.
So I went into my coach's office and I said, coach, I want to be a wrestler like that.
Get out.
Get out, get out.
Come back in a year if you want. But for now, just get out of my office. So I went out and I ate potatoes every day.
I came back I gained about half a kilo and I said coach,
I want to be a wrestler. I was nine that time. So he looked at me again and he said
get out.
I said no. I'm not getting out. I'm here to stay. I'm becoming a wrestler now. Right now. Today,
sir. All right. So your funeral
he picked one of the bigger boys
said you're gonna fight him.
And I couldn't see so I didn't care. I said yeah, I'll file
so it rang the bell. And now a little boy beat me up. Big Boy beat me up. Be the he beat me up. But say that.
And I went home you know you'd beat up when you're a kid. You pretend like you're not hurt. So you walk like this.
At least Irish kids do that. So I walked in my mom's house and I wanted the day see mom, right? You know the Indian mom there.
Why are you What happened? Are you Why are you wrestling? Better? I love you don't wrestle again. Okay. I could be 30 and she's still talking to me like that, right? Don't ever again or the Arab mom. I wanted her to Habibi nor lyonie don't wrestle will protest.
I'll call my friends will pretend now we'll make signs will protest. The wrestling will be banned in the school.
Or my Somali mom.
Whoa, yo.
Yo, may they Whoa, maybe
I got beat up one. kujala Hey, yo, yo, don't wrestler? Yeah.
I wanted her right. She would have made she wouldn't make um, Bula for me right with sugar or mellow.
Mashallah, but I have an Irish mom.
And Irish moms Don't talk like that to their Irish sons. So I went in and
my mom looked at me I was a little bit hurt.
She goes to me with all this Irish love in her heart. You know, she goes, your problem.
Why are you walking like that? What's wrong with you? Set um, I wrestled and I lost. I got beat up.
said well, it's wrestling after all. It's not ballet. What did you think they were gonna do to you? Do you think they were gonna just let you walk out of there like that? Did I tell you to wrestle? No. Did coach tell you to wrestle? No. I know. He didn't tell you because he called me earlier today. And he told me he was gonna let you wrestle and I said he should
Actually, I told him which boy to fight you.
And I'm going to call him because at least he won today. Unlike someone else I know.
Like, wow, I love you too. Mom, you're the best. Thank you. Whoa.
So the next day I was while I was wrestling again, obviously,
I got beat up for two years. Every day for two Can you imagine? Can you imagine getting beat up every day for two years? And it's legal. It's not like you can go and actually tell the teacher because the teachers the ref.
They're beating you up every single day. And in wrestling is Israel funny, right? Because I fought this one. And I'm gonna not dwell on this part too long because it's a very sad part of my life.
I started to look better, but I fought 1111 young guy. And I remember he hit me so hard. Did you ever try to not fall?
Like when you slip if you have ice, I don't think you have ice in UK.
Like we fall like in Canada, you try to break your fall like that. You're trying to do all this? Well, he hit me so hard. I just went like this.
That's exactly how hard he hit me. I just fell flat.
I used to get beat up every day. I started to learn though.
So even though I would lose, I would look good. Kind of like Chelsea
brothers are weak now.
Hey, six hours went like that, didn't it?
Oh, yes. Mashallah.
So interesting thing happened, I ended up getting changed, transferred to a different school when I was about 12, and I wrestled again, and I ended up actually winning.
It's a big deal for me when I was a little kid. And I won quite a bit. Until one brilliant person in the in the crowd suggested that I fight the coach. Why don't you receive the call? And I'm Irish, of course. I would have wrestled the lion. back then. But I can't just say, Okay, I have to make a production of it. Right? Okay, I'll fight that. Where is he? I'll fight him and his whole family. Where's that coach? culture is like, this far away from me, but five feet away from me and I couldn't see him.
So I'm talking about him and his his lineage and his family. And it's basically saying all this stuff about him. And he's right there listening to me.
So he ended up wrestling and ended up winning.
But a very funny thing happened to me when I when
I stood in the middle of the the ring like this. And all the kids It was about 100 people in the building at the time. And they all started to yell
because they hated the coach. Obviously, they hated him. And I was there and I felt like a little
1987 Justin Bieber, I just, I was so attracted by that noise when I was a kid. I had never heard anything like that before. And in that day, I wanted to, I decided that I wanted to be a wrestler for the rest of my life. Now, why am I focusing on wrestling so much? Because that was my religion before Islam.
My journey is not a religious one. I didn't investigate religion. I didn't go through the Bible and I could have cared less about the Bible. Christmas to me was another reason to get presents and eat a lot. I really didn't care that it was the birth of anyone I, I believed in God, though. But I used to think religious people were crazy.
I didn't know the difference between righteous and self righteous, the self righteous, they have to tell you about their deeds all the time where the righteous their deeds speak for themselves. I didn't really know a whole lot about that. I used to just think religious people were nuts. They used to knock my door at six o'clock in the morning on Sunday.
Or you went out Have you witnessed the coming of Jehovah
now, but you're gonna witness something if you're here at nightfall.
slam the door. I would see them all the time. I thought religious people were out of their mind. So my religion was wrestling before Islam. That's why I focus so much on it.
And it was my pastime from the time I was nine, up until 2004. So I think 20 years 1984 2004.
So time goes by and I start to win a little bit.
And I start to get a little bit arrogant, right? Just a little, actually quite a bit.
As I was listening to the wrestlers of those days, the Ric Flair is and I didn't like Hulk Hogan I hated him. I thought it was an idiot.
Alright, Ric Flair had the nice cars and the pretty ladies and Hulk Hogan just had a belt
So I really didn't care about him. But at the time, I would walk into my school and I would, I would kind of command the attention of all the students to the point where teachers would say, I'll let him let him make you laugh if you do your work.
So I became like, part of the, you know, part of the day, if the, if the students were good, the teacher would get up and let me talk a little bit.
As time goes by, and I'm in the middle school, and I'm wrestling and I'm starting to think though, because, you know, when you're in high school, and you win, and you're an athlete, you get invited to a lot of parties. Is that right?
All right, brother.
No brother athletes.
Because I don't know why I never won anything. Mashallah, that's how it was, you would win and you get invited to all the cool parties, and I would go home and I would think to myself, is this really it?
Is this really all there is like, seriously,
every day, is that gonna be my job in life to just beat people up? And, you know, chat to the next pretty girl and go to the next party? Is that really all?
said, You know what?
I believe in a, I believed in a creator. I never believed in a trinity. I just believed in one creator. So I said, and this is how I prayed back then, you know, said, You know what?
If you're real, my biology teacher says you're not real, but I believe you are. So if you're real, I need to know what this is about. Because this is really like silly. If I'm only here to wrestle, then I'm wasting time here. And I really don't have a purpose. So if you're real.
If you're real, I need you to show me something. why I'm here. Okay, man, thank you very much. That's what I prayed. That's how I prayed. I didn't know all the law home. Do you know, do you know? Do you know? I didn't know all that stuff. I just knew how to ask.
I found a book that was given to me in my library, was written by a man named Alex Haley was called routes. You guys ever read that?
But you know, you didn't? Do you read that?
I heard of it. Does that count? Ah,
anyone can do that man. Read the book.
As your homework from this event, you sat here for six hours, you can read a book inshallah.
So read that book. That's the story of an African that was stolen away from Africa, kidnapped to America and made a slave. From the time he was a little young boy. And it traces his family all the way down to the 1970s. I read that book. And that was the first real
semi connection that I had with the salon when I read that book. But I like that these people worship one God.
I like that. But I didn't have any more information until I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Malcolm was meant to lie a lot, give him the highest gender, and place him amongst the prophets and their companions. He was an amazing personality.
And if you want to know really, who started this whole dollar thing in the West really properly, I don't know of anyone who's doing it when Malcolm was doing it. And I don't mean the nation. I mean, after the nation.
He was he was doing this before, all the conferences and all the nice little flash screens and all the YouTubes and all the Googles and all the other houses and all the tours. He was doing it long before that, and Malcolm captivated me.
From the first time I heard him come out and go, so normally come at captivated me because you stop a whole audience with one word.
And that's how he used to say, he wasn't like yelling and screaming like me, he would just come out and go, or so don't worry come.
Brothers and sisters, respected guests, friends and enemies. I thought, wow, Malcolm addressed everyone.
No one is left out right.
I was fascinated by Malcolm X. And Malcolm X talked about a way of life and that way of life, according to him, at least at the time was called Islam.
And the people that practice that way of life for Muslims, according to him,
and those people believed in one God, and not one God wasn't a man. I mean, the nation had their own little messed up views on things I'm talking about after the nation.
That one God wasn't like any other, being LASIK, committed cliche. There's nothing like him. He is one and unique and is oneness. And according to Malcolm at least at the time, and that was my only source by the way. According to Malcolm, his name is a lot
and when I heard
About the life of Malcolm and how his life completely changed because of Islam. I completely was enthralled by him and I wanted to be just like Malcolm X. So I would read everything. And I had a lot of friends Afro Canadian friends of black friends, and they used to ask me about the history they were gay farrakhan
I'm like, Paragon I'm a little bit late for Paragon. I know I can't see nothing, but I know I don't look like him.
Hey,
when did Malcolm die? I tell him when he died. When was he born? Tell him when he was born? What How did Elijah Muhammad come? You tell him how? I just I knew a lot and I would read everything. But there was one missing ingredient to my story.
Couldn't find the Muslims
didn't know where the Muslims were.
Malcolm. Again, my only source right now at the time.
told me that while I didn't tell me I read that Muslims speak Arabic. So I thought okay, Arabs. So I went to every kebab house in my neighborhood.
Looking for some Arabs.
Hey, are you Muslim? Get out.
If you're not buying gold, or
you're not buying Yani.
Get out. I went, alright, fair enough. No Arabs. He mentioned Indians and subcontinent. So I didn't and I get I'm not being racist. I just don't know. I didn't know anything else about the people. They didn't tell me anything else to know.
So I knew that my South Asian brothers they drive cabs right. They drive taxis.
I would call taxis. Are you Muslim? Where do you want to go?
I want to be Muslim man. Are you Muslim? Just anyone? driveways?
Wow. I guess not.
I didn't know they were Hindus and Sikhs and Arab Christians. I didn't know nothing about that. I just thought they were all Muslims.
So I'm like, Alright, if I'm supposed to be Muslim, then eventually I'll be one. That was in 94 years went by till 1996.
And 1996 was a real cool year.
I went 29 straight victories that year.
I didn't lose the years undefeated that year. Remember how many I won the first year?
That zero didn't win anything. The first year got beat up and lost every single day. 1996 29 straight wins and no losses. I also got accepted to go to work in a city called Toronto. You guys know Toronto? Everybody knows Toronto, right.
So I applied and I got the job and I get on the airplane like they were gonna pay me plus my ticket plus my accommodations. They were gonna take good care of me in Toronto. So I was very happy with my first job.
I get off the airplane like this.
Spinning through the airport high fiving everyone, right? Especially the flight attendants or
what's going on? I'm in Toronto, you guys need to be ready.
So I get to the I was a very shy kid.
So I get to the
to the orientation thing where you meet all your co workers and stuff. And it was all the you know, typical little Canadian names and those one lady there. And I said you got a funny name. I never heard a name like that before in my life.
So what kind of name is that? Is that your real name? I serious? So why would your mom name you that man? That was so shy?
She goes it's an Arabic name.
Wow, Arabic name. And a light went on him? Well, literally. You know what I mean? You start to remember,
Arabic Malcolm X. Malcolm X talked about Arabs. Oh, are you Muslim? She's like, yes, I'm Muslim.
I want to be Muslim.
She goes What do you know about it? And I like she was in front of me like that and I just went
I want to be Muslim. Like that. Don't ever do that.
Don't ever do that bro. Like honestly if you do that to the sisters they'll kill you man Don't ever do that.
Or the dads will kill you pay them my hair and Mashallah don't do that though. Don't jump out to make them
so I said I want to be Muslim too. She goes How much do you know about Islam?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing. I just know they believe in one God and I believe in one God and Malcolm X i want to be just like Malcolm X. I want to be Muslim too. She was okay calm down.
Story of my life if I ever wanted to set my life up in two words be calm down.
I don't even need Redbull I got wings already. Mashallah.
Sir, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna get a book. It's a no no, no, no, no, no
No, you're not going anywhere. I want to become Muslim right now today immediately.
Make it happen.
If there's some magical Muslim dust sprinkled on your head you become because no, listen, I gotta go home and get this book. Because I need to know that you know something you can't. I don't want you to just rush into anything and become Muslim. And wait, relax, take it easy. Calm down.
Sir, listen, go get your book. Don't forget it. If you forget that book don't come tomorrow.
I was in no position to tell her not to come. But I thought you know what, I found a Muslim. I'm not letting I'm not letting go. That's it. I found a Muslim I don't care.
We get we get blamed a lot for forcefully converting people is
what happens when you're forcing your conversion onto someone else. Like I was trying to force my way in
there like Muslims. Tell me relax. When Muslims tell you relax. There's something wrong really seriously.
Because that was the easiest shot in Canadian history. I think.
So the next day, she comes back with this book. I really could care less honestly, like, she could have said, but I forget half the conversation. Honestly. We're sitting in public place and she's going through the Pillars of Islam, right? She's going and the Muslims first pillar of Islam is the oneness of Allah.
The Muslims believe that there's nothing worthy of worship besides a law. And
that's how it was. I didn't really see her after that I was on.
She was okay. Do you understand that? Yeah. Next.
And the second pillar of Islam is Islam. The Muslims, they should face Mecca five times.
And she's going on and on and on and on and on.
Do you understand that? Yeah.
Yeah. Next.
And the third pillar is a sucker with the Muslims pay the charity.
Do you understand that? Yeah, give the poor all your money. I get it. I get it. No worries.
And she went through the whole book like that. And she goes, so do you have any questions? So yeah, I got one.
Can I be Muslim now?
The easiest Shahada in Canadian history. Mashallah. So on July 3 1996, Chateau La ilaha illAllah. Muhammad Rasul Allah, we bear witness that there's absolutely nothing at all ever worthy of worship besides Allah. And we further bear witness that Muhammad Hassan Salam is the last and final messenger of a lot.
Now, I told you that story, so I can tell you this one.
Now the three hours right? You want me to stop here?
Because they told me 40 minutes I think I don't want over 40 minutes. Yummy. Yummy to keep going or you want me to wrap it up? Keep going. Since they keep going. I'm listening to a sister Shawn. Cuz you know you brothers don't control much sister said keep going. I'm gonna keep going.
Keep going. zaga love her.
See, I told you, man, listen, the sisters have my back. No one's gonna no one's gonna touch me at all. hamdulillah.
So, I took my Shahada. Now I have to go back home, right?
And remember, I didn't know where the Muslims were, I didn't know. So I'm sitting on the airplane. And I start to think because it's a three hour flight from Toronto to my, you know, home province of Nova Scotia.
I start to think what is going to happen? Because I really thought that I'm gonna be the only Muslim in the whole place in the whole province.
And I thought these people are gonna, these white people are gonna kill me.
Because I left their religion. They're gonna I'm gonna have to like kidnap someone to get married because I know Muslim people around here. I'll have to go. Because I seen the movies or I don't know how we do we just grab up someone.
I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
So remember how I got off the airplane in Toronto?
That's right. Wow.
I got off the airplane in Nova Scotia like this.
Like a little cat, you know, like a little quiet. Little miskeen harmless. I'm not a total dose, you know, guy.
And I walked up to the baggage place where you take your luggage, and my mom is right there. So she comes to me and she goes, Hey, how was your trip? Did they pay you like,
how was it like, How was your trip? How did they take care of you? And I said, Mom,
guess what I did.
Guess what I do?
He goes, Oh, when's your court date? You know?
How much was your bail? And how much am I gonna have to spend for a lawyer? said nothing like that. No.
This is worse than that. What's your name? Who is she then? Because she thought, you know, I'd got married are something that was yet to come.
I said no, no, it's nothing like that she was what would you do then?
I became a Muslim. Just like that. And you have to like, just vision it. Just put that picture in your head. You got me standing with all these people running for their their suitcases and their luggage? Because they're going behind me. They're going behind my mom that I became a Muslim.
Can you imagine? She goes, listen, calm down.
Can we talk about this when we get home? Please? Is that possible? No, no, I'd like to talk about it right now.
And it was there was a wisdom there was a Heckman that I thought
if she kills me, there's gonna be witnesses.
And at least someone would have seen something. So I'm going to talk about being a Muslim right now. I believe in Allah
says, Listen, I get it. Let's go home. Calm down.
Again, story my life, right? We went home and hamdulillah and we talked it over and I became, you know, she was okay with me becoming Muslim. And there was no worries about that. And it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Because honestly, like, I, she knew that once I've made a decision with my life, there's no one that's gonna stop me from making that decision, unless I find out that that decision is wrong.
So her only questions to me was, are you happy? Are you safe? And is this a decision you made by yourself?
said yeah, I'm happy. Yes, I'm safe. And yes, it's a decision that I made all by myself. I didn't marry that sister. I didn't want to.
She's just a person who took my Shahada. And she actually got married. Many people asked me that. Did you marry that sister?
No, I did not.
That's one question. That's not going to be in the q&a after if there is one.
But I still had some contact with her. So she sent me a phone number of a Masjid in my city. Wow. There's a mosque in my city. So I come out.
And there's a whole bunch of people by 2000 people that play hide and seek.
I had to look for four years to find them people. Those people are
the Muslims.
I roll up on the Wow, I come up to the masjid and I got my Arab brothers right. Oh Salam aleikum. wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
You speak Arabic?
I just became Muslim man. You speak I don't speak Arabic. You want to teach me Arabic? You didn't even teach me Islam?
Oh, brother hamdulillah. Brother, brother, you kidnapped the kebab house last year you wouldn't let me in.
I didn't want to buy nothing you threw me up.
Course my DC brothers are slonaker
Iraqi Allah.
Allah you, you wouldn't let me ride the cab, ask you about Islam, and he kicked me out. All of a sudden, I'm your brother. Okay, fair enough. No worries. And I love those people again. They just didn't know how to do this. Or they were doing it on a very small level.
I'm not gonna say that they didn't do it because I want to give them the benefit of the doubt inshallah. But they just weren't doing it on a level
and allow us other means to allow me to enter Islam use Malcolm X, who died 10 years before I was born. And he used his sister, a lady took my Shahada, she gets a reward for every single thing I do now. Without having to do anything.
Just has to stay with her husband and hang out and just touching right? Every tour, every DVD, every YouTube video with Bona Mohamed, right? One of my one of my best friends Mashallah. She gets the ledger everything and I mean everything, every letter of the Quran that I read,
every fasting minute, every hedge every whatever. And then my kids came, they're here have something to say, but they're here, since she helped me enter Islam, she gets it for them too. So every time they pray, every time they fast every time they make * Sharla they will. wife took Shahada from me. So the same sister gets a ledger for her. Her daughter took Shahada from her so the same sister gets Shahada for that. This sisters just wow Mashallah.
You know what's even nicer? She doesn't get anything for the mistakes I do.
What a deal, right? You only take the good stuff, you don't get even the bad stuff. So if I goof up, she doesn't get any problems. She only gets for the for the good.
And she has no idea that I do this.
Can you imagine the surprising Sharla that she'll get on Yamaha piano?
She's the one who helped start all of this back in those days.
So she sends me a cassette tape of the Oregon
cassette tape, right? Remember those as pre iPod
back in the early part of the 90s, middle 1996 97 and so on, and it's an Arabic English Koran.
And it's a martial law. It's a cassette tape copy translation with the English and I put the first cassette tape in my player. First thing I heard
Amina Shea upon your
smilla
Alhamdulillah.
Allah
Maliki homie, he cannot. He cannot.
Wow.
I never heard a book recited before.
I heard many books read before, but never recited.
I just thought to myself, do they read the whole book like that?
And then of course it went on right.
I love LA.
I love you.
kilometer.
And it went on and on and on and on. And I thought, how could something like this be hidden from us?
How is that fair?
And I had a little bit of a resentment for the people a little bit. I love them. But I had a resentment for them because they really abused us.
You see us every day. Every 25th of December. You see us
believing in crap. Santa Claus. Can you imagine? spend two grand for toys for your kids and give the credit to somebody else?
reindeer that fly. White men that come down chimneys and you have your corner shops on new build to fall.
Ninja sir mushrik club. Oh, I know.
And we walk in and you go How are you? Merry Christmas.
Smiling, right? How are you? Have a wonderful holiday? He leaves
tough zania
seriously, and you go home and what do you read on law?
It was Shahada.
He knows this what's unseen and what's seen so he knows when you go Merry Christmas. And you call him Kaffirs. When they leave he knows that.
What an impression that they've done to us by not giving us this?
Who cares if you don't want it? Maybe we do.
That's what I thought
Cuz I thought how do you keep this from people? How is it that you just hide this from everybody?
This is a book where there is no doubt low labor fee there's no doubt in it. What are you afraid of? EDL
I wish they were here.
What?
Get off man. are you bothered my head? Why would
you wish?
That was the best part. What do you sleep at? He
did love that right is disrupt people manual come disrupt me. Are you kidding?
That's it. We'll never invite him back again.
All right. How do you keep this from people? There's so many verses I could go on and on. But the one that really captivated me the most.
When I was a kid, I told you what I didn't tell you. I was born blind. Did I? I said I was born. What?
What did I say?
Without my eyesight?
Because that's how I was taught. My mom taught me like that. You're not blind just can't see.
Either. Alright, fair enough. No worries. So I start reading,
come across a verse
in
a TV studio.
It's not the eyes that are blinded. But it's the hearts that are blinded.
So my mom was right.
She didn't even know it. She was right.
Allah, for some reason, decided to take this little kid from Eastern Canada that gets overlooked. I almost got kicked off the wrestling team because I was too small. I almost didn't make it last for two years, got beat up, started to win started to do very well. And a lot decided for some reason. I don't know why. To look at this little kid, because of his heart not because of his eyesight and allow him to enter a song.
And now I get the best job in the world because I get to be in front of you guys.
The best job in the world and I don't care if there's 50 of you here or 50,000 people, you guys, my family and Jazakallah here for coming out.
I got one more story.
Get the 10 minute guy out of him and he coming up again. He comes up he's getting this stunner straight, simple.
10 minutes Why? It's not gonna happen, bro.
My sister told me to continue about 30 minutes ago.
But I didn't mean this anyway.
My grandmother is coming to visit us. Oh my goodness gracious. Now I'm scared. I wouldn't scare to no one else. My grandmother scares me still. She's not even alive. And she still scares me a little bit.
So the day she came, I avoided her for the whole day. I had other things to do. I didn't really but I just pretended I did. But I realized I'm going to have to come home because she's staying overnight. So unless I'm going to sleep in the park, I need to come back home. So I did. She came into my my room. And she said to me, I heard you change your religion like did you
said yeah, sort of.
pseudo class of a heathen Are you know,
said I'm a Muslim, Muslim, Muslim. That's me. I'm a Muslim. Yes, I am. All of the all the nice talk is all the tough talk is done now. Right grandmother's in front of me.
said what do you believe in now?
said well, the book says I don't want to hear the book. I don't if I want to hear the book. I'll open it for myself and I read it. What do you believe in? Just very important. Honestly, the non Muslims don't want you to read off a script. They want to know what you believe for real.
So I said, I believe that there is only one God worthy of worship.
This God created everything but himself is not created and he has no sons, no daughters, no fathers. He's one and unique in his oneness. And I believe that his right name is Allah
says well believes that also
said really your priest doesn't believe that I don't care.
I never believed in three Gods I only believe in one said okay. So what else do you believe then?
I believe that Allah sent us prophets and messengers, to teach us how to worship Him and to show us how to behave towards each other away
to our day.
Adam and Abraham and no one Isaac and Jacob and Solomon and David and Jesus peace be upon them also. I believe that as well. Good
said and I also believe that there was a last and final messenger and his name was Mohammed
salatu salam, and peace be upon him and peace be upon all the others that came before him. said Well, I don't know much about Mohammed, but I believe everything else you say.
But I have three questions for you though.
She said Am I still your grandmother?
Now that you changed your religion Have you changed your family as well? said no, you're going to be my grandmother. You're always going to be my grandmother and no one is going to take that away because Allah is the one who made it that way
said well
are you still Irish
right up there with world hunger that's very important question for her at least. said I am I am I said yes, I am grandma I'm still Irish. My ethnicity doesn't change. I love soccer but I'm still Irish
right masala hamdulillah and yo Kiswahili kiddo go to but I'm still Irish.
Mashallah. Third question and this is still the question that is my probably the most interesting question I've ever been asked in my life I'm almost done. Don't send them up here please.
Are your teeth gonna be as white as those Pakistani people teeth and white?
said What?
Did they come by my house to repair things every now and then and their teeth are * gorgeous or they are
and the funny thing with my grandmother is anyone who's not like ethnically Canadian, is Pakistani by default. You could be from Ghana.
He's a little darker than the other Pakistanis but Pakistani is right enough. Right.
So that was her thing. So she was okay. She was she really was she was Mashallah. She was okay with my becoming Muslim. And after that, I didn't really care what anyone else had to say. My mom was okay, my grandmother was okay. And hamdulillah.
Again, time goes by and I ended up lecturing and I'm here I'm the law I don't know how I ended up managing to ever be on this level. But again, a lot chose me to be Muslim. So everything else is kind of gravy after that, right? I have the best job in the world and hamdulillah My mom told me the other day, she said this Islam of yours made you the best dad on the planet. So how my daughter's here sisters can say Salaam to them. And that's my time you guys are gonna love her for coming out. And again, this is this is the best you are where I get my energy from. I really really mean that and I love you guys for the sake of Allah. Allah. Allah Allah holy hada was stopped for a lovely
welcome Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh