Amir Junaid Muhadith – Loon A Wake Up Call From Rap Sensation To Islam Formerly of Bad Boy Records
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AI: Transcript ©
My brothers and sisters in Islam,
1st and foremost,
I wanna thank the brothers that invited me
here
because when we don't thank the people, we
don't thank Allah.
And inshallah to Allah, I wanna thank all
the brothers and sisters who made it today,
you know, by the color of Allah.
We are here together as brothers and sisters
in Islam.
And inshallah to Allah, when walk out of
here, hopefully, we could be a benefit to
each other.
The reason why specifically I chose the topic,
the wake up call,
is because
many of you can identify
with Transcend in my life,
being born and raised a Christian,
born and raised in a Christian household,
and living out my life
thinking that, you know, very, very minimal about
the hereafter.
The lifestyle that I used to live being
born and raised in New York City, I
was surrounded by drugs. I was surrounded by
violence. I was surrounded by crime.
This was a lifestyle
that I endured by default.
It wasn't my choice.
By default.
And today, some of the brothers and sisters
today
try to incorporate
this lifestyle
into an understanding that is so pure.
And that purity
and simplicity is Islam.
And like I said, I spent a huge
percentage of my life in darkness
doing for many years what I thought was
right.
But to become a Muslim and find out
that I was spending 24 hours of my
day
consistently,
every day,
involving myself and indulging in all the major
sins that are prohibited for the movement.
24 hours a day.
And living in this lifestyle,
you know, living in New York City,
I was always familiar
with the Muslim,
You know?
I come from a community. I come from
a city that is very diverse.
Like, if you never had a passport and
you lived in New York, I'm pretty sure
you will meet every ethnicity around the world
without ever having to leave the country.
So I was very familiar with the diversity
of the human being.
And living in my community, I looked at
all the Muslims as my brothers in the
struggle
because living in the inner city environment, we
all endured
a very common, you know, understanding
and that was surviving.
So the Yemeni brothers who owned most of
the local grocery stores, I was very familiar
with them.
The Pakistani brothers, they own most of the
pharmacies.
You know, the West African brothers, they
had all the taxi and delivery services.
So this is the way we perceive it.
You had the Asian brother. They had the
Chinese restaurants and the laundromats.
So this was my jahill way of thinking
that everyone played just a significant role in
the community. Didn't matter where they came from,
what was their ethnicity, what was their background,
what was their culture.
I know in Harlem we all had a
significant role to play in our communities.
And being that I was always exposed to
the Muslim,
it meant our guide men and these brothers
because they never exposed none of us to
Islam.
We spent most of our hours standing on
the very corners
in front of some of these grocery stores
where the Muslim exists.
We spent a lot of our time riding
in the taxis that were driven by Muslims.
We spent a lot of time getting sick
and going to the pharmacy asking for medicine
and never was called to Islam.
And it took for me to leave America
by way of the success that came from
the music business and traveling the world to
see the diversity
of people
and to see for the first time in
my life
the many places that the Muslim realm.
SubhanAllah.
You can walk down one street in America
and see 17 churches within a mile radius.
When I left America, I've seen the same
number of masjids
or masjids.
I've seen things I've never seen before.
I've seen buses pull over on highways in
some countries, and everyone get off the bus
that makes a lot.
I've seen people post straight to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala in places that I probably would
have never even put my hands, let alone
my head.
And for the first time when I heard
the event, it made me melt
because I never heard anything that demanded a
person's attention
like the event.
And, Wallahi, I spent hours and hours in
the studio trying to conjure up methods to
make people dance and make fools of themselves.
But when I heard the event
and the power and the and the attention
that it demanded,
I've never heard anything like it in my
life.
And basically traveling the world
with no doubt. No one spoke to me
about Islam. No one called me to Islam.
No one introduced me to Islam.
I was around Muslims, but I never was
able to see that sound right there. I'm
not even mad at you for your phone
call.
Oh, sure. Yeah.
And every time I reflect on these things,
it just reminds me. You know? It wakes
me up. It's a reminder to myself.
When I think about the bounties of Allah,
when I think about the mercy of Allah,
and the gratitude that increases
every
day, every day I prostrate before a lost
sakanahuwatha Island, I'm constantly reminded
of what I was saved from.
Constantly reminded of
what could have actually happened to me if
I would have died in that state.
Believe me, I thought that death would be
easy if I was high. If I was
intoxicated,
death would be easy.
I used to get intoxicated before I got
on every plane thinking if the plane go
down, I I'll be straight. You know? I
probably won't even feel it.
Stuff of Allah being.
In this Jahil way of thinking, I was
saved.
I was spared only by Allah's mercy.
And sometimes I look at other individuals in
my family who may not have accepted Islam
yet, inshallah to Allah, guide them in Islam.
But I look at certain individuals in my
family that I always identify with to be
good people.
And I used to question, why Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala didn't choose them? And why did
he choose me?
Why was I so fortunate?
I wasn't looking for the Muslim. I wasn't
looking for Islam.
I didn't have too many Muslim friends.
And if I did, they never acknowledged they
were Muslim.
And now that I became a Muslim, I
understand why.
And that's why I chose chose this topic
as the wake up call.
Because what's happening now that I've been able
to benefit and learn the basic fundamentals of
my religion
and the pride that comes with being a
servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I look at my brothers and sisters in
Islam today,
and I question why.
Better yet, how?
How could you compromise your Islam?
How could you compromise your Islam?
Is it to make those who may not
understand Islam feel comfortable?
Is it because, you know, you struggle with
your iman
because of living in western civilization?
These questions go through my mind every day.
And I know myself, I'm proud to be
a Muslim, subhanAllah. I go to the airport,
I wear Kamis, I wear I wear a
jalapir,
and I'm proud.
You know? I might just get to the
airport a little bit earlier.
You know. I know the routine,
you know. But I'm not ready to compromise
myself. I'm a Muslim.
I'm a Muslim.
And the good mannerisms and characteristics
of the Muslim is what intrigued me about
Islam. I was able to see a different
aspect of the Muslim. I was able to
see different behavior patterns and and customs of
the Muslim that drew me closer to Islam.
Unlike the examples I grew up around,
Allahu Mustaan,
may Allah guide these brothers,
but the reality of it is that was
the dawah.
That was the dawah.
So while many young brothers and sisters was
watching me on TV parading around glorifying this
lifestyle,
I was watching you.
While you was watching me,
believe it or not,
I was watching you.
And what I saw only by
the father of Allah, only by the decree
of Allah, what I saw
was good.
It's almost like Allah put a veil over
all the shortcomings and deficiencies of the Muslim
and just showed me the good.
And once I was able to develop an
understanding of the religion, Allah removed that veil.
And what I see now
is that we need to wake up.
We need to wake up.
We need to embrace our religion.
We need to embrace the fact that Allah
chose
us only by his mercy
and gave us an opportunity to worship him
and him alone and not associate any partners
with him.
Only for the hope that one day, when
that day come, we may enter his gender
and endure pleasure upon pleasure.
I like to say the party that don't
stop.
You know? I've been to a lot of
parties. Trust me. It was times me and
Puffy, we get off a plane, I mean,
twice in one day in 2 different countries
partying,
but I will always wake up the next
day with a hangover and regret.
But knowing that a lost apparently with Allah,
his promise is true.
His promise is true. Who are we to
doubt Allah's promise?
And if we worship him and him alone,
that we fulfill our obligations
and the rights that Allah have over us,
then we will enter this.
Just like Allah's promise was true when he
said, you know,
when you sacrifice for the sake of Allah,
Allah will return and we're better.
I believe that.
And, well, I walked away from everything.
And it was the fairest trade.
Because everything in life, everything in this dunya
has a expiration date.
Everything.
You could take a bite out of apple
right now, sit it on the table, go
make what do and come back, that apple
would be brown.
It won't be crunchy white anymore.
Everything has a expiration date.
So the reality of it is, we're trying
to get to a place where nothing expires.
And how do we get there? How are
we preparing ourselves to get there?
Because compromising our religion is not gonna get
us there.
Removing ourselves from the the circles of individuals
who fear Allah is not gonna get us
there.
This brotherhood that Allah has established, he's made
y'all my brothers and sisters in Islam.
I said,
And just like that, I have 1,500,000,000
brothers and sisters.
And every time I give a talk, people
ask me about the friends I left behind.
It's upon Allah. I can count my friends,
but I can't count as many brothers and
sisters in Islam I have.
If you ask me of the fair trade,
what's a couple of friends A 1,500,000,000
brothers and sisters.
It's a part of them.
You have to start doing the math.
I think sometimes we're negligent today,
especially with y'all being students.
Math should be nothing to you. Do the
math.
This is big. This is grown.
We have no marketing, no promotional vehicle.
People come to Islam only by Allah's guidance.
And
most of y'all by show of hands, how
many here are born and raised Muslim?
Let me shout. Born and raised Muslim.
I ain't saying born under the natural
inclination of monideas, and I'm talking about born
and raised Muslim. I'm gonna lie one more
time by showing hands.
There we go.
Not even like a roller coaster ride. That's
what's up.
How many brothers and sisters here such as
myself are reversed?
Reverted to this,
religion Islam.
Now how many here are my brothers and
sisters from Adam?
Meaning my non Muslim brothers and sisters. Y'all
my brothers and sisters from
Adam. Inshallah, one day you'll be my brother
and my sisters from Islam.
But the reality of it is
is that
Islam is a protection.
Islam is a protection.
And I spent many years of my life
running around naked when I thought I had
protection.
Whether it was a bodyguard, a gun, a
knife, whatever I thought I had was gonna
protect me. I was actually naked the whole
time.
But for the movement,
some of you who just raised your hands,
born and raised Muslim, only by Allah's mercy,
you came from the womb of a Muslim.
So you've been protected before you even knew
how to speak.
Allah placed you in a safe place
before you knew anything. You came from the
womb of a Muslim.
It's upon Allah.
Your parents probably came from the womb of
a Muslim
and so on and so on.
But when you think about the brothers and
sisters like myself
who was in darkness,
completely lost,
no idea, no clue of Islam,
and Allah guides us into the fold of
Islam
and the appreciation
that we we we we
establish,
appreciation that we endure
for being saved from that darkness.
And I look at my brothers and sisters
in Islam who were born and raised Muslim,
and I say to myself sometimes,
how?
How? Because you compromise the safety that's been
bestowed upon you since birth
to put yourself in a position
where we just left.
Put yourself in the position
that I just left.
Every night I did a show, I put
myself at danger.
Y'all read some of these things.
Fights break out in the club. Someone gets
stabbed.
16 year old girl don't even belong here.
Fake ID.
Someone slips her a * drug and
she gets molested or raped.
This was something that I was exposed to
after every show.
And you know what? I never wanted to
be responsible for it because I felt like
my songs was commercial. I wasn't out here
talking, you know, about killing everybody on a
song.
I never made derogatory
songs or derogatory statements towards women.
I thought that I took the most commercial
approach
to dealing with the music business, but it
never allowed me to escape from the hills
that came with the game.
You can't have one without the other. You
can sit there and and smooth it out
as much as you want, but I still
had to watch people get dragged out of
clubs from being stabbed. I still watch people
in parking lots get shot.
I still watch young girls
making up their face to be older than
they are and finding themselves in situations where
they may have never ever encountered any type
of physical relationship with no man. And the
first time it happened, next time they find
out they're HIV positive.
This is what Islam has protected you from.
This is what Islam has protected you from.
So who are you to remove this shield
from yourself,
To place yourself
in harm's way?
To dive in the arms of the.
It's upon Allah.
And to understand the simplicity that comes with
this blessing
is another thing that intrigued me because I
lived a very spontaneous life. I didn't know
if I was going. I was coming. The
phone call decided my day.
The phone call decided what I was gonna
do for the day.
Sometimes I would go to Chinese restaurants and
stuff and open up a fortune cookie
and really blindly base my faith on whatever
was in that fortune cookie.
Fortune cookie would say, you know, you're gonna
have a great day.
And I used to have a great day,
like, so far,
Cookie was right.
Now every week I'm eating Chinese food.
You know, you sit down, anybody wants something
to drink. No. Just bring the cookies out.
I need to find out what's going on
in my life first. I don't wanna drink
nothing.
Superstitious too. If I drink something, it might
mess up my fortune. Let me just get
the cookie first.
Sometimes I couldn't perform unless I had, you
know, like, my favorite chain or my favorite
watch.
Panicking in the dressing room. Where's my watch?
So you gotta get on stage. I ain't
getting nowhere without my watch.
All of this shit up.
I had no idea.
I grew up in a house where we
would fight for the Sunday paper. My grandfather,
he wanted the news section. I wanted the
horoscope.
I needed to see my horoscope set,
not even knowing that the same newspaper is
printed all over New York City. So whoever
else is born on my day got the
same horoscope as me.
So it wasn't nothing exclusive.
It wasn't nothing significant to what was going
on in my life, but that just shows
you how a part of me was searching
for something.
I didn't know what it was though,
but I was searching for something.
And Allah guided me to Islam.
But dig this. You was born this way.
You was born in a household. Well, you
probably was playing at 7 years old.
You know, I'd be smacking in the back
of the head.
But after a while, you start doing it
on your own. Right?
That was like training wheels to me. I
I knew about training wheels. Take the training
wheels off. You ride the bike by yourself.
You know?
You learn how to write and recite Quran.
You pray like your dad. You recite like
your dad.
You know, looking around the room, some of
y'all might even look like your dad.
And this is the beautiful thing
being born
upon the truth.
Now me, you know,
growing up, you know, as a Christian,
I had certain suspicions when I was young.
Because I used to spend 6 days a
week in the church. My My grandmother, she
sung for the United * College for choir.
She used to have these real late rehearsals.
I'll be sitting here, sliding down the church,
man. She's tired, and I'll sit here and
watch these people sing all day.
You know?
And I remember
I used to go to bible studies.
And I remember just repetitively keep hearing about
Jesus' plans. I remember asking my pastor, I
say, you know,
pastor, I didn't ask you a question. He
was like, it was problem, son. I said,
well, you know, I'm not gonna ask you
a question. Like, it was problem, son. I
said, well, you know,
if Jesus is God and he's praying, who
he's praying to?
And he just shut me down. Oh, you
don't believe in Jesus Christ, your lord and
savior? I said, oh, oh, come now. Like,
you're just about to just
beat me down. I'm a little kid. I'm
only, like, 8, 9 years old, but it
was a legitimate question. And you got me
in bible study, so eventually, I'm gonna come
across this. Anybody that's there for the right
reasons, you know, not just there because grandma's
singing or just could there because I have
to be there.
I was
learning things myself,
and I started to see certain things that
just didn't make sense.
He just kind of shut me down from
that point.
Well, I I never went to church again.
I said to myself, I'm just gonna believe
in God because whoever Jesus is praying to,
that's the man.
That's the man. Because I tried to pray
to Jesus, and I can't say the response
time was always on time. But I know
when I used to scream, oh my God,
you know,
it seemed like something was working.
And I knew there was only one creator,
and Islam made all of this clear to
me.
But once again, you already knew this.
You already knew this.
I mean, when I was 10 years old,
if I had a night, me out of
running around the house in my underwear screaming,
top of my lungs, wake everybody up.
You 10 years old, what you do? I'll
do that. You ain't any shit talking about
you.
You knew how to protect yourself.
A nightmare was a nightmare for everybody in
my house. Y'all all gonna feel this.
You know?
But you knew how to protect yourself.
You're gonna have to wake the house up.
You just ask the Lord to you seek
refuge in Allah from the Akkur Shaitan, a
holy living life, and they shaitan.
Wow. Can you understand? I'm looking like, how
could you neglect that?
How?
That's a protection.
Everything is a wisdom behind Islam. Marriage is
a protection.
It protects you from fornication.
Yeah. I'm a be a lie. I understand
sometimes young brothers are seeing the faces of
a hablane, but I only have $50,000
now. I've been trying to get married.
Dad wants me to buy his daughter a
plane.
I can't afford no plane.
I understand.
I'm full of you.
You know, but, you know, it's a protection.
It's a protection.
Sisters as well,
when Allah commanded you
to guard your modesty,
this is a protection.
You don't have to worry about a guy
intoxicated running up, hugging you, like, yeah.
I guarantee you, we're next to nothing, a
man can't control himself. It ain't his 40
looking like. You know? It starts from a
genuine hug and a squeeze and he might
try to swing his hands past real quick
or something crazy.
Work.
This is a protection.
It's wisdom behind this religion.
And we don't need to be trying to,
you know,
figure it out no other way.
Allah gave you the test and the answers.
You have the Quran, you have the sunnah.
That's it. If Islam was an airline,
all you need, what, 2 carry on bags.
Quran sunnah.
I've been in that airport and I've seen
some very miskeying families. So panel,
18 boxes, the house lamp, they got a
bird cage, you know, where you going with
all this stuff?
And you wonder why you're sitting in the
airport for 3 days.
But this flight is going to gender. Only
thing required,
2 carry on bags.
That's it. The birdcage and the mother boxes
waiting for you in your destination.
Bigger boxes,
bigger cats. You can walk around with lion.
You don't need kittens. This is gender.
And then, like, this has to soften your
heart every day to know that first and
foremost the lost of Panama Wata Island has
promised is true. His promise is true.
You may have good intentions, Mark. No. I
tell you, you may have great intentions.
But you're deficient.
I say meet me at 6, you get
there at 7. Was I wrong for believing
in you?
No. All your intentions were sincere. But was
there any guarantee?
That.
But if a loss of plan went to
Ireland,
say, be somewhere at 6,
I know a lot is already there.
This promise is true.
And this is where we have to wake
up.
We have to look at ourselves
because your companions are a reflection of your
religion.
Your companions, the company you keep, is a
reflection of your religion.
And we mustn't compromise
with distinguishes us
from other people.
Like I said earlier, I'm proud to be
Muslim. I come to the airport. I know.
They say be there an hour, Muslims be
there an hour and a half. It's all
good.
Not a problem.
Cold red, cold orange, cold red, don't matter.
I just get there early.
I don't have much to search.
I don't have the Khamis. Okay? Hey. What's
the search?
Don't have a belt. I don't need to
put that in a
tray.
You don't understand?
I'm not gonna tie my beard in a
ponytail and tie it to my neck or
something. Throw on some skinny jeans just to
make it through the metal detector.
But once again, I'm paying for the flight.
Right?
So if I'm a pay $1,000
to fly, I'm a fly the way I
wanna fly.
You understand?
I have that right.
You have that right.
And I say this not to say that
you have to, you know,
implement these things. You do it to the
best of your ability.
Do it to the best of your ability.
But what's wrong with being able to distinguish
from my brother in Islam? I give you
a scenario. If I was on a highway
doing 70 miles per hour, which I call
it kilometers,
120 would be, like, right for American speed.
Right? Well, you know, 60, 70 miles per
hour. I see a brother.
He's following along on the side of the
highway having car trouble.
But he got on an Adidas suit.
No beard, nothing. I just can't see it
60 miles per hour. What's in his heart?
Right? I can't.
I'm not judging him. I'm not critiquing him.
But at 60 miles per hour, I keep
I cannot see what's in that man's heart.
So naturally and instinctively,
I'll probably just keep driving.
But if I saw a brother that was
on the side of the road, and I'm
doing 60 miles per hour, and there's some
type of clear indication that he is a
believer,
it would be instinctive for me as a
believer to pull over and stop and aid
my brother in Islam.
Not saying that I would never aid and
I'm Muslim. Don't get me wrong. This is
just to clarify the distinction between
knowing a book you know, a Muslim when
you see a Muslim.
But it would be instinctive for me to
pull over and aid a brother Islam. My
brother look like I got car trouble. Let
me pull over and help him. Same thing
with his sister.
You already know. I mean, Muslim brother, we're
shy. So we see a woman on the
side of the road. She doesn't have she's
not guarding her chastity right now. Cars are
going by. Air is flying all in the
air. This is not I count on how
I can do this.
But if I see my sister in Islam
over there,
hijab, or, or,
something that indicates that this is the sister
in Islam, she's in trouble.
It's instinctive for me to pull over and
aid her.
Same thing with one of you brothers. I'm
walking down the street. You're getting beat up.
All I see are your shoes in the
air. You're screaming, get off me. Get off
me.
Then I see you at Juneau, looking like
a raccoon, both your eyes black.
That's a problem. What happened to you here?
I was on such and such a street.
That was you? Yo. I keep why ain't
you saying I don't like more or something?
You know? I woulda came and helped you.
You
know? I'm in shape. I woulda got beat
up with you.
You know?
You'd have both been in Jumal looking like
raccoons.
You know?
These are just analogies to just, you know,
to remind you that, Aki, this is important.
This is important. You know what I'm saying?
Look at the mirror the miracles of a
lost kind of a dollar. You could look
in the sky and see a star, right,
billion light years away.
Clear.
But you can't see a 100 feet in
front of you.
That's a miracle.
In the same way I should be able
to identify with a star, I should be
able to identify
where was
what's wrong with that?
What's wrong with that?
So when I say, you know, we need
to wake up, there's just so many aspects.
I could be here all day talking about
how many ways we need to make up.
Wake up.
But the reality of it is, this is
the icebreaker. This is the first talk. I
don't wanna come through just, like,
sounding like I'm passing judgment or anything on
my brothers and sisters in Islam. But I
love all of y'all for the sake of
Allah. And it's just a reminder for myself
first and foremost and a reminder to you
just to know that, listen,
I've done that stuff for you. Trust me.
I've epitomized all of those things
whether you wanna believe it or not.
You know, my oldest daughter's on her 2nd
year of college. I've been a father since
I was 16. I left my house at
15. Last grade, I completed with the 8th.
You understand?
I have
a criminal history that I don't only get
reminded of when I'm coming through customs.
I'm so amir now. I forgot about them.
It takes me coming through some type of,
like, border patrol or something. Then it's like,
what happened in 2004? What happened in 1990?
I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm
like, wow. I forgot about that guy.
I just been on Amir right now. I
even know that guy still exists.
But the thing is, I've been a product
of that environment.
I've been a product of that environment. I
spent 24 hours a day of my life
for years living that way,
and I wasn't at peace.
I wasn't at peace.
Doesn't matter how many 100 of 1,000 of
dollars I spent on cars and jewelry and
things of this nature, it never made me
happy inside.
I used to have to live vicariously
through people who didn't have.
You understand?
To me, it was a chain.
It took somebody and say, oh, what kind
of dollars are those? Now I feel like,
oh, yeah. Or these right here is canary.
These ones right here. Now I feel like
I have something on my neck. And I
and we're lying. Many rich people are like
this.
Many of them
worth $50,000,000,
$100,000,000.
You go to their house, they got a
boat sitting there with seaweed, all kinds of
stuff on the side of it. Boat ain't
moved to 3 years.
But soon as one of us come in,
a layman, they ain't getting no money, we
see it and be, like, oh, you got
a boat.
You never seen a boat? Oh, so, Paul,
I'm like, yo, listen, you gotta get your
friends. We're gonna go out there. We're going
to take the boat out. We go fishing.
We'll go skate there. Now he wants to
live all over again, but the boat was
just sitting there for 3 years. He was
unhappy.
Boat's sitting there looking just as unhappy as
him.
Pool looking unhappy, leaves all he's just unhappy.
This is a gloomy place. And so someone
comes in and then he wants to extract
the benefit from it. Now he wants to
call the pool cleaner. Now he wants to
get someone to scrub the boat. Now he
wants to invite all your friends and all
y'all can dive off the side of the
boat. I don't care if you ever come
back up for air or whatever. I just
wanna
live vicariously through you. This is what rich
people do.
This is their lives.
But when you see the glorification of it
on TV, you say to yourself, I want
a piece of that.
I need that.
I gotta try that.
That car looks fast.
There's too many stop signs in Brisbane. You
ain't gonna be able to really open up
no Ferrari.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You lucky you get the 2nd gear, so
follow-up.
But you want these things.
But like I said, everything has a expiration
date.
Some of y'all been on roller coasters. You
know how it is.
1st time, you're holding on tight, griping your
teeth on. 2nd time, you might loosen up
a little bit. 3rd time, you put your
hands in the air.
4th, 5th time, you're on the phone. Like,
yeah. I'm a little closer.
I ain't not going down. Hold on. Here
come the loop.
Yeah. You know?
I'll probably ride this joint one more time
and I'm out of there. Oh, it's
nothing.
There's nothing.
But the first time, what? You stood on
the line for 2 hours in the grueling
heat waiting to get on the roller coaster.
Straight up. You have to leave the 8.
Your stomach growling, probably didn't miss this a
lot. Waiting to get on the roller coaster.
But after a while, you realize it wasn't
worth missing a lot.
Wasn't worth putting off a meal. Wasn't worth
those things. You understand what I'm getting?
And that's how it affected me.
That's how it started affecting me. I started
to realize, listen,
this is just a call.
Probably the guy in the Fiat, he's gonna
get to his destination before me.
You know?
The chain
people are only talking to the chain. They
don't even talk to me. I had people
used to run up on me like, yo.
I heard. They just grab your arm. Yo.
I heard you.
You didn't even ask me how I'm doing.
And I was sick last week. You know
that. Right?
It's not a concern than yours.
You're more interested in how I'm upgrading in
this so called
value of, you know,
but you don't even care about me.
And that's when I started to have my
detachment with people,
And that's why I told you it was
a fair trade to let that go to
have brothers,
to have sisters.
It's better for me.
My brothers and sisters in Islam, they want
good for me. I want good for them.
You understand?
I see my brother in Islam doing something
wrong. I'm gonna advise them. I wanna pull
them to the side. I wanna advise them.
I'm not gonna make a spectacle out of
them.
I'm gonna pull them to the side. I
wanna advise them, man. I can't you could
be nullifying your good deeds. What you're doing
right now, you're destroying your good deeds.
You don't wanna do that.
We don't wanna stand before our father,
all of our good deeds being destroyed even
though our intentions are sincere.
No. I don't wanna do that. Now you're
right, brother. I mean, they're not. And I
will hope my brother do the same for
me.
Aid me. You know, it's a statement by
Abu Bakr.
Will end. The best of creation after the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi was telling me, said,
I am no better than any of you.
If I was to do that which is
correct, then aid me.
And if I was to do that which
is an error,
rectify me.
It's the humbleness.
It's the humbleness of the Sahaba.
And that's why it's incumbent upon all of
us to follow their way. Follow the Prophetesside
seller. Follow the Sahaba. These are many virtue.
These are my heroes.
These are the people that I look up
to.
I could care less about what Jay z
doing. People keep asking me, like, Jay z
and them, like,
Masonic,
and they like, you know,
Are they like, you
know, Masons?
Who cares?
When Allah promised you victory,
why are you worrying about what they putting
together?
Put yourself together. Get prepared what Allah got
for you inshallah.
I'm not into all the propaganda. I'm not
into that stuff. I don't watch the media.
I don't watch the news. I don't listen
to the radio. I abstain from these things,
and I try every day to detach myself
from the dunya.
And you know what Sahaba I'm following?
Musaib ibn Umayyad.
For those of you who are not familiar
with him, he was the pride of Mecca.
I used to call him the flower of
Mecca. For lack of better words, some of
y'all from the street, he was the flyest
kid in Mecca. Flyest kid in Mecca. So,
pardon, Allah, he had it all. And he
gave everything up, even his life, for the
sake of a love to Allah. And when
it came time to bury this brother, all
they found was a cloth.
And when they tried to wrap him from
his head to his feet, his feet will
stick out.
When they tried to wrap him from his
feet to his head, his head will stick
out.
So when people try to praise me about
what I sacrifice
for last time in the hour, this is
what keeps me grounded. First thing click in
my mouth, I'm a sovereign man. You know
what? I ain't give up nothing.
I ain't did nothing.
So find your Sahaba rookie card. Who's your
Sahaba?
Keep your Sahaba rookie card for you.
Okay. These were the best of the people.
These were the people that abstained from the
life of the dunya,
for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
sacrificed.
And that's what we need to do.
And in order to truly wake up,
and like they say, smell the coffee,
we need to sacrifice.
We need to be more grateful.
Gratitude goes a long way.
We show our appreciation for things that have
no value.
We show our appreciation for things that need
nothing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We spend our time,
which we will be questioned about, or no
more,
not in the numerals of Allah.
I know many of you. You don't have
to expose your sins.
Spend hours on Facebook.
Hours in front of the computer. Probably in
3 years, you'll be wearing glasses.
The side of the whiskey bar was just
thick glasses just sitting here to damage your
eyes.
But when it come time, it's a lot.
You wait till almost the next a lot
is in.
And you go pasturing,
pecking like a chicken real quick. I gotta
hurry up and get up on me and
you try to have some dinner.
That's upon a lot. That might be a
last a lot.
You know?
So I'll be like, you know,
I want to be able to benefit from
y'all.
Because today, to me, this was just
a way of breaking the ice.
Hopefully, inshallah to Allah, you're saying brothers and
sisters will attend
the other talks that I will be having
while I'm staying here,
But this is an opportunity for us
to unite our brothers and sisters in Islam
and aid one another
in waking
up and holding on tight
to the rope of Allah
and following the sunnah
of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
and his companions.
Okay.
While we're waiting for brother Ismael to bring
up something,
one of the things that I benefited
more than I mean, other things in this
talk was about having your Sahabi, your companion
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who's your
inspiration.
As, the brother mentioned as Luin mentioned,
brother Amir mentioned in his there was a
Sahabi in Medina called Musaabi
and what an inspiration he would have been
Because as you know, Musa'ib Umayr
he was very wealthy. He had a lot
of the pleasures of the dunya and then
came the wake up call and then he
became a Muslim. Although he may have left
the dunya and many things of the dunya,
but he had so much happiness that he
found in Islam. And we hope insha'Allah and
pray that is what Allah's giving to brother
Amir in this life and eternally in the
hereafter as well. Now insha'Allah, we'll have the
question and answer time.
As we just heard before,
before we for question and answers,
it would be good,
brother Amir, we'd prefer if you could write
the questions down,
especially the sisters, if you could write the
questions down and ask them. Brothers can ask.
The brothers can ask. So just I would
rather the sisters. So the sisters could write
the questions and pass them down, and the
brothers, you can,
put your hand up. Or if you didn't
want to, you could write whatever you like.
These are some of the other talks that
are coming up.
This is the this is the talk that's
there today. As you can see the wake
up call tomorrow night at the Greek club
in South Brisbane.
It's a
very nice venue.
And, over there will be the second talk
which is
pursuit of happiness.
That will be tomorrow night. And, again, in
Gold Coast on Wednesday, the same talk will
be repeated on Wednesday.
So if you do have any questions, actually,
please do write them. One of the questions
you might wanna ask is how many records
that were sold until now of Louvre. Now
you would be amazed, really. Not 10, not
15,
not 100, not 1,000. Really, do ask him
how many records were sold, and inshallah, lot
more reward in paradise inshallah. Not because of
the records. Right?
So inshallah, if you've got any questions, please
write the questions down, and pass them forward.
The sisters
and the brothers,
you could put the hands up as Lund
requested.
And for, just for the record,
Muslim brothers and sisters,
if, you know, any questions you wanna ask
in private, if you don't wanna ask them,
you know, in front of everybody, I truly
understand.
You know,
I have developed an acute,
you know,
case of shyness myself since I've been a
Muslim. But, if you wanna ask any questions,
feel free whether you do it in this
forum or in private. I'll take the time
or the initiative to talk to you as
my brothers in Islam and my sisters and,
I mean, from Adam
and stuff from Bob. Alright. So,
If you don't check your packet question, then
I'll just read it out, and then you
can answer. That'll be good. Okay.
Okay. The first of the questions that we've
got is,
how do you first how did you first
know about Islam?
Are you planning to attract more more US
rappers to Islam? So how did you first
know about Islam and are you planning to
attract other rap singers to Islam?
Like I mentioned earlier,
I,
I I I discovered Islam
by the guidance of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Like I said, I wasn't looking for Islam.
I wasn't looking for the Muslim.
I wasn't hanging with the Muslim.
I had no clue or idea
about anything that had anything to do with
Islam. I was jai hill at the time,
stuff for the law. I used to think
that
a a a Muslim was like a Arab
dude on a camel with a hook knife
and a gold tooth, like, smoking a cigarette
or something.
So I was completely removed from any understanding
of what you know, I used to watch
Woody Woodpecker
and stuff like that. I remember that, I
mean, cartoons
just show, like, some weird
images of the Muslims. So I was jahil.
I didn't know anything about the Muslim. But
when I discovered Islam,
you know,
it's this it's the changing of the heart
that I believe
most reverse can't explain.
We can tell you which where we were
standing, which way the wind was blowing,
you know, which way the sun was facing.
We can give you all the details surrounding
what takes place, but to actually explain the
changing of the heart,
there's really no words that can explain it.
Because sometimes if you wanna, you know,
take this analogy to try to fathom in
your mind the understanding, it's like when you
have something on the tip of your tongue
or you have something that you just know
is burning inside of you and you need
to suffice it.
That's the closest I can get to explaining
the understanding. Because what took place with me
is I was in Abu Dhabi
after I went from Senegal
to Morocco.
I mean, I I've been to Kazakhstan,
China. I've been to many countries, and I
was just shocked that they were all Muslims.
I hung out with the president of Kazakhstan.
They they looked Chinese and he was tall
and I asked him how do you say
how long are your language? He said, assalamu
alaikum. So I'm looking at him like,
nah. You're kidding, man. That's the dude's
in New York. They sell a bean pie.
They'd be saying salaam alaikum to each other.
I thought that was me. He's like, no.
Salaam alaikum.
So I started to see the diversity of
Islam just by traveling. So when I got
to Abu Dhabi,
something took place in my hotel room with
my heart changed. And I ran to the
lobby of the hotel and the first Muslim
I found, I just said, you know, I
told him straight up, I wanna be a
Muslim.
And the brother looked at me like I
was crazy. What do you mean you wanna
be a Muslim? I wanna be a Muslim,
man. So I like
you know?
Like, normally, we see
you know, we try to advise people about
Islam or we try to call people Islam.
I'm running up on this guy extorting him
for my Islam, like, I need Islam, you
know. So
he said, you you serious? I said, I'm
serious, man. Because I had something that I
knew only the Muslim can explain because these
things didn't start to happen to me and
start until I started to be exposed
to certain
characteristics
and mannerisms of the Muslim and things that
go in accordance with Islam. So he told
me
simply.
So
I'm standing there
looking at him and I thought I'm repeating
and I'm like, that's it?
You know, not kalaz. I said, nah. I'll
go shopping now. Right? I get one of
the outfits. I do it's more than that.
You know? Arabian Sea right there. You know,
if you dip me in the water, like,
it's something else.
And he was looking at me like, no.
No. No kalaz. You're Muslim. So I said,
subhanallah,
I've never seen that kind of simplicity. Just
that alone,
you know, just that alone just took me
for a ride. I said, I've never seen
anything that simple.
Money never came that that simple. Business deal
nothing nothing really just came that simple,
you know.
So that's just a brief, you know,
example of what took place when the hearts
change. Even some of your brothers that made
umrah and Hajj, you can't explain it.
You know? You've been aiming your body towards
the Kaaba for years.
You finally get there.
Standing in front of the very place
that you've been directing us a lot.
If you can't explain that, then I'll probably
be questionable to me. I'll be like, you
can actually explain that in detail, so I
don't know. I couldn't.
It took for me to be shaving my
head, and I just started bawling.
Because I was just in a state of
suspense the whole time I made umrah till
that clipper went across my head and shaved
my hair and watching my hair roll down.
And
I'm like, I really did
it. You know? So that's how a balanced,
I'm sha Allah. Yes. This one next. Okay.
No problem.
The Muslims now instead of just golden teeth,
we all wear braces just like everybody else.
Still metal.
Okay. What's your secret to firmly walking away
from all the dunya you've had?
There's really no secret. It's called obedience.
You know, I spent most of my life
not wanting to listen to nobody. I hated
police. I hated listening to I was hard
headed. I don't wanna listen to nobody.
And that's why I found myself
incarcerated,
found myself
hurt, hurting people, things of that nature because
I never wanted to listen.
So to know that I have
opportunity at this age to now be obedient
and receive the reward for being obedient, this
is how, you know,
I stay firm. And, plus, I keep myself
around people that feel loved.
Keep myself around people that love Allah.
Because y'all all do this around test time,
all of y'all in university. Y'all go get
the square kid and hang out with him
when it's time to do test. You don't
say nothing to him through the whole school
year. Sisters, you too. You don't say nothing
to her through the whole school year. As
soon as this test time, she get to
come to your house and have tea and
meet your family and a brother too. Come
to my house. You know? Hey, father. Have
a shot. Oh, here's my dad. It's a
So, yo, you were studying science. Right? Like,
you didn't even know you try to
game them for
you cheating too.
And he and he what? What great he
is? You already know. So fine. But,
yeah, this is, you know, this is how
you stay firm.
Like I said, you know, it's incumbent upon
us to aid one another,
and your company and your companions is a
reflection of your deed.
So when you're around people who are firm,
you're not gonna speak certain ways.
When you're around people that shy, you're not
gonna do certain things
because you know they're gonna salam you and
they're gonna skate off on you because they
shy. They go,
salami. I just can't do this type of
stuff we're doing. You know what I'm saying?
And 2 things won't even happen. It's either
gonna rub off for you or you're not
gonna hang with them anymore.
So just try to surround yourself by people
who have taqo, people who feel love,
people that love Allah, people that know Allah
is listening and watching. Some of us really
think that, you know, it's like some blind
spots out there that you could just stand
in, like, the camera don't see you or
something.
You know? There's no blind spots.
Allah sees everything. Allah hears everything. So any
individual that you hang with that's that knows
that,
this will be a suitable companion for you.
And Allah knows the best.
Okay. Yes.
The next question says, do you ever miss
your old lifestyle?
To be honest with you,
only because I know what comes with it,
no.
You know? If I didn't accomplish
as much as I did in that lifestyle,
I think that, you know, the human aspect
of myself would struggle with it. But being
that I know what comes with it, I
don't miss it because you can't have,
like they say, a cake and eat it
too.
You can't have a piece of it without
taking the whole thing.
So by me knowing into in totality,
you know, what this entails, what this lifestyle
entails, this is not for me. This is
not for me. You know what I'm saying?
And and once you find a cure,
you know, you don't return to the place
that made you sick.
It's just not logical. It just doesn't make
any sense. You were sitting there coughing your
lungs out.
You know? Every time you cough, there's blood
in your hand.
You go see a doctor, and he gives
you something that's very limited. There's not a
lot of this going around.
But you take this medicine and you cure
yourself.
Do you go out there and take the
risk of getting sick again and knowing that
this medicine may not be available the next
time? No. Doesn't make
may not be available the next time? No.
Doesn't make any sense. So, no, I don't
miss the lifestyle because I know where it
comes with it. But the only thing I
do, you know, to reflect on those
those things is I make du'a for these
brothers because I know what they're going through.
They smile when the camera on, but when
that camera's off, these people
are are dying inside.
You understand? They're dying inside
because it's
like, once again, that roller coaster. Once you
buckle up and that joint is going up
that long steep hill, you can't get off.
You have to ride it out.
And that's the mentality of these individuals. They
know they have to ride it out.
I can't jump off right now.
You know?
But by Allah's mercy, I was able to
get off.
Soon as they loosen up the buckles,
and I'll never by Allah's permission, inshallah, to
Allah, may Allah keep us all firm.
I'll never return to that inshallah.
And this question says, what's the ultimate thing
that made you accept Islam? What's the ultimate
thing? What's the real the the main thing
that made you accept Islam?
And Yeah. And and what can you say
to non Muslims to invite them to Islam?
The ultimate thing is,
once again, simplicity.
As children, like the brother here, his son,
handsome brother,
you
know, if something happens to you as a
child, you fall, bump your head, your head
is bleeding,
you'll run past 7 people that can help
you just to get to your mom.
Remember those days?
Head bleeding. 1 guy got gauze, the other
guy got barracide. You run straight past them
because all you want is homey. I don't
want my homey. Anything I can help you,
chug. Get off me. I just want my
homey.
But as adults,
we need that one source that we could
run to.
We need the one source that we could
run to,
and this is Elijah Woodep.
And monotheism
is the foundation
of this religion.
Monotheism
was a religion of Moses. Monotheism
was a religion of Jesus.
Was a religion of Jesus. Was a religion
of Noah. They worship 1 God and 1
God alone.
And this is the wisdom behind
Allah's religion is because he's perfect in it.
This would never change due to a man.
This would never change,
you know, no due to anything.
Only a law's decree. And if he decree
us to worship him and him alone, this
does not change because of anyone,
any individual.
You understand? So I guess my advice
to the non Muslims is to search.
Because even in Christianity, I'll give you some
pointers. You know, monotheism is established.
It's established in the bible.
This is what made me rejected when I
told you when I was in my bible
studies.
First commandment, thou shall not place no other
god before me.
1st pillar of Islam,
lay in the * and walk.
That's.
There's also a verse in Isaiah that sounds
very similar to Surah e class.
In Isaiah, which is before Jesus came, is
in the Torah. He says, you may know
me and know that I am he.
Before me, no God was formed nor shall
there be any after me.
For I am the Lord and besides me,
there is no savior.
So that he class say he is Allah.
He is the one. Right? He's the self
sufficient. He wasn't begotten
nor
did, you know, he nor did he begotten
any.
You know, and there's nothing
co compare no. Nothing comparable.
There's nothing comparable to him.
So
Tawhi is established
in all religions.
In all religions,
Allah created
his religion to be monotheist.
And the Quran is only an affirmation of
this. The Quran speaks about the Torah that
came with
Moses, Musa, alayhis salaam. But Islam is the
only religion that is accepted by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala because this nation today,
we were sent a warner.
We were sent a messenger.
During the time of Isa,
he was the warner for that nation.
During the time of Musa, he
was the warner for that nation.
So we've been sent the warner for this
nation today.
It's the prophet Muhammad
ibn Abdullah Sallallahu
Laihi Wasallam.
So
what's more ultimate than that?
You like a lot? The next question says,
what do you feel when you watch your
old videos?
Can you still move like that?
That stuff's a lot.
He threw some he threw some grease on
that.
Now, alhamdulillah, I mean, when I look at
these videos, like I said, it increases me
in gratitude.
You know?
It reminds me of
how lost I was,
and it reminds me of how merciful Allah
is. When I look at this stuff, well,
I hear tickles me now. You know? It
really tickles me because it's like,
man,
you almost went out like that, man.
You almost went out like that. Could you
imagine
could you imagine the shut up when they
would've took place upon a while?
If if Moon would've died like that,
he probably would have buried me with a
jumpsuit on and a cross on my neck
and had a bunch of people, you know,
stuff a lot of names. I keep
watching, shroud me, man. You know? Come on.
It's kinda lot. But when I look at
this stuff, like I said,
it only makes me reflect on the mercy
that's been bestowed upon me. And anytime any
of us come, you know, into into the
grips with any reminder that reminds you of
the bounty that Allah subhanahu,
do not ignore it.
Reflect on it. Ponder on it. And remind
yourself of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Because when I look at this stuff,
that's all it does for me.
Like, that guy was gone.
He was out of here.
SubhanAllah, when I look at some of this
stuff, I actually know that I might have
been intoxicated at the time.
Why?
You know?
So hopefully,
I'd benefit you, inshallah.
Okay. The next question says young young Muslims
who acknowledge their identity as Muslims,
in light of the negative image
of Islam at the moment in the media,
how can young Muslims stand up and be
proud of their identity?
The identity of the Muslim is the identity
of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The identity of the Muslim the Muslim is
the identity of the mother of believers.
This is your identity.
All you have to do is implement
what they came with.
That's how you stand up.
There's no physical rebellious act that needs to
take place.
You understand?
For us, as Muslims,
to dominate so much of the world's population,
and when you start breaking the ratio down
from 1,500,000,000
to how many practice, maybe a 100,000,000 to
how many on the sunnah, how many you
break it down, you'll see
what the problem is. It's self inflicted.
As the prophet
said, the Muslim will continue to be humiliated
until we return to our religion.
So that's how you stand up.
Return to your religion.
Some of y'all y'all seen the movie Rocky?
When he got a big fight, what he
do? He go back to punching meat in
the freezer, chasing chickens. He don't get in
an old high-tech gym.
You know what I'm saying? It counts your
cardio and all that and counts your, you
know, heart rate and all this, like, plugs
up stuff. Like, he goes back to the
basics.
So,
even if, you know,
Italian boxer knows to go back to the
basics, who are we, you know, to neglect
the fact that we have to go back
to the source? We have to go back
to the Quran and Sunnah. We have to
go back to the example of the Sahaba.
And there's nothing wrong
with it at all.
There's nothing wrong,
you know. And as far as the media,
it's upon a lot. Turn the TV off.
Straight up. Just turn the TV off.
Leave it alone.
Because as the African American in America, I
totally understand what media propaganda and all that
entails.
You understand?
I understand exactly what it entails,
and it's only a fear tactic.
It only makes you fear being what you
are.
You're a Muslim.
Now, woman was saying,
as long as Muslims been here,
we the topic of bad media, bad slander
because 2 or 3 idiots chose to go
out there and do something stupid, now all
of us are bad.
Come on.
This is not hard to put together in
your minds.
You know yourself.
You know your obligation to Allah. You know
you haven't contributed to anything
that brings brings forth this kind of slander.
So stick to, you know, hold on to
the blah blah blah.
Stay firm upon your religion.
Practice your religion.
Read the Kitab of Allah.
Study your sunnah the prophet, salallahu alayhi salam.
Use your time because you're gonna be questioned
about it.
And this kid this is a repetitive thing.
We're gonna always end up going back here.
Sad to say, I'm a try to give
you the best answers from experiences, but eventually,
the conclusion of the answer is always gonna
go back to what?
Call and send them.
You got the test and you got the
answers. How could you fail?
It's fine.
Okay.
The minute I I heard that Lou is
coming down to Australia,
this was a question I was afraid
of all along. It says, are you married?
If so, if so, do you have any
children? And something related to family,
who of your family members became Muslim
and was your daughter part of those who
embrace Islam?
See,
normally,
this is the paper that ends up on
the side of the panel.
This is the one that I act like
I didn't see.
No. I've been married for 15 years.
You know?
Ambrila, you know,
me and my wife been together for 15
years. She's been through every struggle with me
from noon, the guy on the street.
Because I was Loon since I was 13.
That name ain't come with the record. Like,
I was Loon. I was Loonie. Majnu for
some of y'all, you know.
I wasn't rap writer. I didn't have an
intimidating voice or intimidating presence, so I had
to go the extra mile to get people's
attention, if you know what I mean.
But she stuck through a lot of things
with me. And when I accepted Islam, she
accepted Islam maybe 2 months after me.
And, yes, I do have children. You know?
I've had
2 children prior to my relationship with my
wife. 1 is be 19.
Next month, she's in her 2nd year college.
I have another daughter that'd be 17 at
the top of the year. She's in high
school.
And my son, he's 14.
I have a 7 year old daughter, and
I just had a newborn daughter. My first
born Muslim, her name is Nasihah.
And
Excuse me?
Now as far as family members, yes. My
grandfather, he's 88 years old. He accepted Islam.
You know, my son, he accepted Islam.
My wife accepted Islam. I have many friends
who are not televised
who accepted Islam.
And by Allah's decree, many of these talks
that I've given, many, you know,
non Muslims have approached me with curiosity
about Islam and, you know,
by, you know, Allah's permission,
they've accepted Islam.
So me to be honest with you, I
never give these talks
with the intention of,
you know,
getting shahadas.
You understand?
Because as Muslims, we know this, and I'm
gonna share this with the non Muslims as
well. We don't make Muslims.
You understand? Allah makes Muslims.
We're not evangelists.
You understand?
We're not people we're not missionaries.
We don't do these type of things.
All we do to avoid it being a
against us or Yom Kiyama is we're standing
in the presence of a non Muslim. It
is obligatory for us to call you to
Islam.
It's obligatory for us
to introduce you to Islam. But like I
told you before, my neighborhood with all the
Muslims that was there and that name one
of them,
you know, called us to Islam. There's been
times, you know, you'd be short on Pamper
money. You go to the, you know, the
Yemeni store. You would think right there, I'm
vulnerable.
I need to, you know, I need to,
you know, let me go for at least
a dollar or 2 on these Pampers. This
would be a moment for you right now.
But, you know, no one ever sees these
moments. No one ever called us to Islam.
And may Allah forgive those brothers.
But,
you know, every time someone accepts Islam,
I tell you no lie. I have to
go sometimes and just go gather myself because
it's just a reminder to me
that whatever's taking place in that person's heart,
I know what it feel like.
I know what it feel like
when a person
gets over,
you know, the curiosity and the suspicions,
or the whispers from the shaytan.
But sometimes when you're standing there watching this
person debate and you're hearing, you know, you're
seeing Allah guiding them, you're seeing the shaytan,
it's almost like a bidding war going on
right in their minds, and their heart is
changing right in front of you.
And only by Allah's permission that war is
won,
and that person turns around and accepts Islam.
And all you can do at that point
is know that this is the best person
in the room right now.
But the person that accept Islam,
Allah forgives you for all of your past
deeds
and turn all of those bad deeds into
good deeds. So can you imagine my grandfather,
80 years old,
I ain't gonna get into this stuff.
So, he's a good man. You know, he
served the army for 30 years. He was
the 1st black captain, and he did a
lot of things. You know? He's a war
hero.
But
none of it was for the sake of
a long.
So at 88, you understand the type of
slate that the largest queen for this man?
I had to I had to walk out
the room and get myself together to come
back to continue, like, you know, giving them
dawg. So, you know, this is a beautiful
thing when anybody accepts Islam.
I don't really target the pub daddies and
the 50¢ and all these people. You know,
inshallah, I make du'a for them because the
Muslim had more rights over me than them.
So I'd be more concerned about y'all.
You know? What's going on in your head?
What's going on in your life, man? Can
I eat my brother? Are you okay? You
need anything?
And I will hope that you will do
the same for me.
So this is the beauty of our religion,
inshallah. And, you know, our guide,
all of our loved ones, for the reverts
out there, the stop Muslim, may they guide
guide all of our family into the fold
of Islam, Shah.
This question says, have the actions of Muslims,
example terrorism in the media, have they made
you question your religion?
Not at all. Because terrorism is not from
Islam.
Terrorism is not permissible.
Terrorism is not practiced in Islam.
Terrorism comes from weak individuals
who have no patience.
For the lord commands us to be patient.
If you think about the time of the
prophet
and his companions
before they were commanded the war,
how patient they were.
Times that the prophet
would be in sujood.
And people, you know, people from the would
throw, you know,
camel, you know,
with those feces and stuff on his head
while he's posturing to Allah's command to Allah.
When you think of these things, many of
us would just jump up throwing punches.
Some of us would just run to the
car, pop the trunk. We we would go
crazy. You throw doodle on me while I'm
praying to my lord?
But the patience, the virtue of the prophesied
son of companions just reminds you of how
we need to be the same way. We
need to be patient.
We need to practice our religion.
Because I haven't been to a secular country
or a non Muslim country yet that says
you can't pray.
I've never been to a country yet that
says this is one of the laws. They're
constitutional
laws that you can't pray here.
No one says that in Australia. There's no
law. There's nothing legislators say. You can't pray.
You can't be a Muslim here.
So if no one is, you know, being
oppressed,
if no one is stopping you from worshiping
Allah,
then why are we busy ourselves
worrying about, you know,
acting out of emotion and not acting out
of, you know, looking for the pleasure of
Allah?
Many of you know the hadith Ali, Radiullah,
when he was on the battlefield.
And the man, you know, he struck a
man and he fell, and Ali was standing
over him ready to butcher him alive. And
the man spit in his face.
And what did Ali do?
He spared his life. Why? Because at that
very moment, he wasn't gonna kill him for
the sake of Allah.
By him spitting it in his face, it
changed his whole intention.
He was gonna do it out of anger.
He was gonna do it out of frustration.
But he stopped himself because at that time,
when that war was a commandment
for the Sahaba to carry out,
He couldn't carry out that particular moment because
it wasn't for the sake of the law.
So we have to be patient, 1st and
foremost, with ourselves.
Then we have to be patient with others.
And we may and we definitely don't need
to busy ourselves
with these individuals
who cannot
control their selves
and allow their emotions to steal the car.
You understand?
So may Allah free us from this and
make us know, you know,
who he is pleased with. Sure.
This one is about social life. It says,
how do you balance social life keeping in
mind the teachings of Islam? So maybe they're
talking about,
I guess, the social life that other people
are used to. How would you manage your
social life keeping the teachings in Islam?
Okay.
This question is really based on how you
determine social life
because
I don't know if you look at social
life as in comparison
to how the non Muslim socialize.
And this is where we kinda go astray.
This is where I kinda see things, you
know, where we removing ourselves from the teachings
of Islam.
You may see individuals have a certain type
of social gathering or
social platform for socializing.
So, now, we need to have a Islamic
one.
You know what? They have UFC.
Why don't we have MFC?
Muslim Federation Incorporate. You don't understand? What I'm
trying to say is, like, this is where
the discord comes from the obedience
of the Muslim and stands steadfast upon our
deen is when we start to try to
duplicate
the social lives of those
who are not Muslims.
And may Allah guide them
because these social things, if you ever looked
at these MTV shows,
busted.
You know, you look at these MTV shows.
Right? Real world and all this type of
stuff. They put 5 strangers in the room.
Five strangers in the room
and it's balanced out between, you know, men
and women.
You have the 1 girl, she's so high
so diddy. I don't do all that. I
don't do all that. I don't do all
that. By the end of the show,
everyone didn't have physical relations each other is
just ridiculous. This is what social environments do.
They breathe fitna. They breathe sin.
What is a social environment for the Muslim?
Sitting in a circle
together with your brothers and sisters reading the
Quran.
Sitting in a circle, reflecting
on, you know what I'm saying?
The time that the prophet started selling them
their companions.
This is a healthy social environment.
Who says we can't do it over a
hot plate of food? There's nothing wrong with
that.
Who say that we can't be in the
parks and we are somewhere where, you know,
we have open space to just let our
hair down, for lack of better words?
This is healthy for us.
A stuff of the lading when it catches
that I mean, I live in Egypt.
And, you know, after a certain hour, I
mean, they everybody, I mean, gets crazy. You
can go eat in a day.
And, you know, most of the practicing Muslim
is out.
Restaurants that have TV, they'll play soccer and
certain things.
It's upon Allah. After my grandmother, who are
you kidding? They have just the Arab singing
girl up there. She's like the Arabian Beyonce
that's breaking out, you know, the shisha pots
and these cats is just looking like
Jamaicans. I'm like, what's wrong with them? Aziz,
everybody's smoking. They just puffing. I'm like, no.
What is that?
You understand? This is not a healthy social
environment.
And it saddens me sometimes when I see
the modest sister sitting amongst these people and
it's like, man, give it a week, man.
Next thing will come out of the hair,
next thing will be pulled back and will
be like a hoodie, and next thing you
know is just gonna be off. And she's
just gonna be sitting there with them too.
Same thing with the brothers. You could tell
he's shy. He's trying to wave and cough
and eat at the same time. Next thing
you know, it's like,
you hit that. So, you know,
just stay firm upon, you know, what's correct
and stay out there buying this. There's affinity.
You know what I'm saying? The Lord knows
best.
Okay. We'll just take 2 more questions inshallah.
There's this question there's a very beautiful question.
I'll leave it for the last one.
And this question says, what advice can you
give to the brothers who are new to
Islam? And we have had some people very
recently becoming Muslims. Yes. Tell me.
My advice to the brothers is new in
Islam. And, homiely, I wanna thank all y'all
for being patient because I don't have nowhere
to go. So I can run my mouth
till they kick me out. I have no
place else to go. It ain't like I
could just leave. They got me.
But my advice to the new brothers or
sisters as well who accepted Islam is to
learn the religion the way it was established.
Learn the religion the way it was established.
Tawhid
was the call of all the prophets to
single out Allah or ask to worship. Learn
Tawhid. Because in order to truly learn or
love Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is to understand
Tawhid. So learn the religion the way it
was conveyed.
Before revelations and everything came down, before the
Quran was compiled, the prophet
called the people to
He did this for many years, many, many
years.
The prophet Noah,
he did this for 900 and 50 years.
So understanding
the oneness of Allah
is
the perfect foundation to understanding your religion.
But I know sometimes, you know, you go
to all the hard softening books, but you
miss the real juices. The real juices is
understanding Tawhid.
These two books should never ever collect dust
in your house. Is the Quran?
Nikky Tab and Tawhid. This is something you
can always reflect
And to that,
the 3 fundamental principles of Islam.
Understanding the seven conditions of.
It's deeper than just
and you send a brother on your way.
Understand the seven conditions of.
You know?
And this will build your foundation because you
understand when you build the house, you don't
build it from the roof, you build it
from the ground.
So build your deen from the beginning.
Build your deen from the floor.
And insha'allah, Allah increases us,
especially when you do this sincerely.
So my advice to the new brothers and
sisters in Islam, learn the deen the way
it was conveyed. Learn to heed first,
then study the book of Allah.
You'll understand
upon a lot of difference when you read
the Quran
and understand Tawhid.
Even when you know Tawhid, you can identify
with shirk from, like, a 1000 miles away.
You understand? So my advice to you,
learn a religion and may as conveyed.
You can go deep into the books and
miss the juice. That's really important not to
forget the tuhid of Allah,
our real relationship with Allah.
There's a last question, a beautiful question.
There are a lot of other questions here,
many other questions here, and some of them
are very, very important question. Actually, they all
are, but some of them are related to
the talk tonight tomorrow night, which is pursuit
of happiness.
So I'll leave them we'll keep these questions
and go through them tomorrow after the talk
tomorrow night, which you can see up on
the screen. Now just for the last question,
how is and this a lot of people
speak about it that it was such a
special moment for them. It says, how was
your first sujul? How was your first time
you prostrated to Allah and and your first
fast? How did it feel?
Wow. Wow. That is a good question.
Wow. May Allah reward whoever
asks these questions.
Somebody is gonna be a doctor by this
handwriting right here.
Now, alhamdulillah,
I remember the first time
I
prayed and it's funny because
I was very shy about getting it wrong.
So when I was advised that
whatever I knew was sufficient,
so I remember the first time, all I
knew was Bismillah, Rahman, Rahim, Alhamdulillah, Bilalah, Bilalah,
Bilalah, Bilalah, Bilalah, Bilalah, Bilalah.
That was it.
So when I finished the prayer,
I remember walking
from the room I used to pray in
my house and walk into my my bedroom,
and I remember grabbing the remote control,
It turned the TV on.
And I just started crying, refused to sleep.
I couldn't I didn't even, like, I it
was one of those I didn't even see
it coming. I didn't feel no tears coming.
I didn't even feel it was just, like,
something just overwhelming.
And that's when I knew at that moment
that, you know,
I had actually,
you know,
spoke to Allah.
I actually
prayed,
like, for real,
you know.
Not to, oh my god, help me when
you're shot, you know. Not to, oh my
god, you know, I'll never drink again if
you just get me through this one. I
did these
things. This was a real salah. This was
a real plan, and I felt the connection
with Allah even when I couldn't identify with
it right away,
but I cried.
And ever since then, I took this a
lot extremely
serious.
So I guess leaving on this note, I
wanna leave this as a message to all
my brothers and sisters in Islam.
This a lot
is
serious.
It is serious.
This is purification,
and there's no rush.
Take your
time
and pray.
You understand?
Take your time and pray.
When I see people rushing through this a
lot, upon a lot, it bothers me
because it's like, what if this is your
last a lot?
What if it is the last one?
Sometimes people go into rapport and it's like,
did you even recite Sada Fam to you?
Like, what did this what did you just
say?
Take your time and pray. Make sure in
every,
you know, position
that you allow your body to rest in
that position
before you go into the next position.
From the top there.
Take your time. Say that the while before
you start the play,
and you go into your court,
straighten out your back.
Take your time.
When you come out of your court,
back into the top.
Take your time.
And you know when you when you answer
Jew, this is the closest you get to
Allah
is when we postulate our heads to the
floor. We're at the closest point. You're closer
to Allah.
Take your
time. So, you know,
pray your prayers,
and pray them like they're your last.
And a good way to keep your cool
shoes, think about death.
Think about death when you're crying.
That would definitely keep you and and and
and, you know, keep your strong when you
know that death is right around the corner.
Think about death. This could be my last
prayer,
my
last salah.
And y'all have seen some of the YouTubes.
I know y'all have. Y'all seen a man
in Medina
who died as a Jew.
Wow.
His last
salah
took place in the prophet, saw his son
on his mansion, and he died as a
Jew.
There's another one on YouTube where man is
praying alone. Y'all seen that one too?
Brothers is walking in and out of the
match and they didn't even check the brother.
He was in
Sidhu.
Return to Allah.
So
on this note, as far as waking up,
please take the salah serious.
Please wake up for Fajr. Pray your Fajr
on time.
Pray all your salah on time.
Because if you don't have a legitimate excuse
for prolonging your salah,
this is not acceptable.
They have the saying, pray before you pray
lord.
Many of us, we might think standing in
front of 30,000 people to 50,000 people and
them loving you, that might be the ultimate
happiness, having a fanfare and everything. But then
from there to Islam, the pursuit of happiness,
the life as a rap star and now
life as a Muslim. That pursuit of happiness,
that's the topic of that talk tomorrow night,
and we hope you will join us tomorrow,
and we'll
do the rest of the questions tomorrow as
well.