Amir Junaid Muhadith – THE DAY I TOOK MY SHAHADA
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
And
My dear brothers in Islam,
alhamdulillahi
rabbilalami.
Before I start,
I wanna give thanks to the brothers,
the Islamic Information Center in Dubai,
for giving me this opportunity
to speak to you about my journey.
I go by the name of Amir Junaid
Mohadid,
formerly known to some of y'all as Moon
from Bad Boy Records.
Many of you may know
I have just been recently
released
from federal prison,
which I spent 2 months short of 9
years
incarcerated
for a very minuscule role
in a conspiracy,
which is why I was charged
and sentenced to 14 years.
By the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
I was released
due to
compassionate release due to COVID 19th.
It's been 3 months since I've been home.
The law has given me the zeal
and the desire
and the passion
to wanna do that which is pleasing to
him and him alone.
And by doing so, I choose to call
to Allah's deen.
One, to remind the Muslims of the beauty
of Islam
and our obligation to return to that which
is sound and that which is better for
us and for our embedded
And to also call the disbelievers
to believe
so that they may die upon that which
is true.
Prior to Islam,
I was born and raised in Harlem, New
York City.
I spent the majority of my life
struggling with a lot of things
that's common in the ghettos of America.
Many of us who are victims
of the crack era
with drugs
or drug infestation,
poverty,
racial disparity,
violence,
you name it.
Many African Americans in America, we endured this.
And this became something that
stuff for the law being became normal.
So
in 2,008,
while traveling abroad,
I experienced some things
that only Allah, subhanahu, with the Allah, can
instill in the hearts of men.
No one ever talked to me about Islam.
No one ever invited me to any darts
or any, you know, conferences
where Islam was being speak of or talked
about.
I didn't have real relationships
with Muslims
other than the Muslims who worked in my
community.
So I say this to say it's safe
to say
that I was pretty much oblivious
to Islam and its people.
So the first journey
that removed the layer
of darkness from my heart
is when I visited Senegal.
I visited a place
called Gorilla,
which is one of the first slave houses
ever built.
And long story short, I took the tour
of these safe houses,
and the individual
was explaining to me what took place,
the horrific acts that took place
in Goree Island,
it did something to me.
It removed the layer of nationalism
from my heart.
Because as the story goes, he told me
that 60,000,000 slaves had passed through.
60,000,000
slaves.
He said, but 6,000,000 never left the soil.
They fought and they died.
So me being ignorant,
I didn't know how to take that.
So I asked him that,
it must have been some some real dudes,
like, some real gangsters.
He said, no. They were Muslim.
So I was like, what do you mean?
He said, they would not submit to no
one other than Allah, and they fought and
they died.
And the ones who were weaker weaker, any
man,
and those who were oppressed, they were the
ones who were sold into slavery.
So from that very moment, what I experienced
in my heart,
like I said, it removed me
from the plight of nationalism
Because African Americans in America,
we have a tendency to hold on to
all the things that give us dignity, all
the things that give us pride,
all the things that enable us to forge
a certain sense of unity
based on the color of our skin.
But when he told me that these men
died for something greater than that,
something was removed.
Then there was an emptiness in the space
that used to reside
black pride or black nationalism.
Next part of my journey,
I went to Kazakhstan,
which we know is in Middle East and
Asia
and Russia.
And I remember visiting there with the president.
I spent 9 days with the president in
Kazakhstan,
and he hosted me in a phenomenal way.
I remember on the very last day,
I was in, like, my dressing room
smoking,
still entrenched in the lifestyle that came with
the music business.
And I asked him a simple question.
I said, yo, when you see somebody, how
you say what's up?
And he told me, that's
what the Muslims say. He said, no. We're
Muslims.
I was blown away
because the only diversity I knew at the
time
was the Muslims that frequent in my community
in Harlem, which is mostly comprised
of Yemeni,
you know, Senegalese or West African,
you know, and Pakistan.
I never knew
that in this region of the world,
because my idea of Russia was always like,
you know,
men of Caucasian descent.
I never knew that these people who were
descendants of Mongolians or Asian,
you know, oriental features, you know, Russian genetics
or whatever the case may be. I was
going away, without ignorant to this.
I guess I was expecting a whole different
greeting.
But he said to me, assalamu alaikum.
I knew at that moment this was the
greeting of the Muslims.
The last,
I visited the UAE.
When I was in Dubai,
I saw everything that came with the lifestyle
that I was previously lived.
The
party, the clubs,
drinking, the women.
So there was nothing that really distinguished this
place as being something of unique.
So when I left my show in Dubai,
I headed to the Emirates Palace
in Abu Dhabi,
and I remember entering my room.
It was right at the crack of dawn.
When I saw the sun rising
over the Arabian Sea,
something in my heart just clicked.
Everything that I experienced
prior to this moment
for some strange
and phenomenal
or miraculous way, it all made sense.
And at that very moment, I knew
in my heart
that I wanted to be a Muslim. So
I immediately ran downstairs,
the first Muslim I found
walking around the lobby in the hotel.
I approached him and I told him, how
do I become Muslim?
He was
startled because
I didn't approach him and greet him with
the.
I didn't approach him and say, hey. How
are you doing?
What's going on? Or where's the next event?
Anything of that nature. I asked this man,
how do I become a Muslim? He looked
at me like, what do you mean? How
do you become a Muslim? I said, how
do I become a Muslim?
He said, you mean, the Muslims are so
this is like, you know, I was getting
agitated because I felt like I had something
in my heart that was about to leave
if I didn't address it.
So he said,
you
know, you know, raise your finger and then
repeat after me.
He said,
Then he translated it to me,
and I repeated it in Arabic and in
English, and he told me, fuck. You're Muslim.
What do you mean a Muslim? He said
you're Muslim. How many
Muslim. That's simple. A Muslim said, yeah.
So at that moment,
I had never experienced anything that simple.
From the time
of growing up with my mom's I mean,
growing up being raised by my grandmother,
my grandfather,
by him, allah.
And,
you know, struggling with my mother's addiction,
father was never there.
Having to play, you know, a role in
cultivating my sisters,
even though I was only 6 years they've
seen me, I was their brother.
All of these responsibilities,
all of these burdens, all of these trials
and tribulations,
and what you have me on my shoulders
up until that very day.
I felt like
the weight of the world was lifted off
my shoulders from that simple statement.
That simple statement.
Sincerely,
coming from the heart
with the purest of intentions,
lifted the weight of the world off my
shoulders.
And from that day,
I've never denied
the favor of Allah
and I've never been able
to decipher
what's more pleasing,
that I was guided to Islam
or whether I was guided to the sunnah
of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
There's there's a bounty and virtue in both
of these.
So I say this to say,
there's a lot of reverts like myself that
have compelling stories.
How long I've guided them in Islam.
Whether it be from someone teaching them about
Islam,
whether it's just from the school or the
characteristics of the Muslims
that brought them to Islam.
Maybe it's just some transaction and business dealing
and how a person has dealt with brought
them to Islam.
These stories vary,
but we should look at these stories as
reminders.
Remind us of this blessed dean of Allah.
Remind us of the infinite wisdom and mercy
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that he continues
to guide the hearts. That he continues to
guide the Muslims
to that which is correct
and that which is pleasing to Allah.
And that which if we die upon,
we will enter the paradise that Allah has
created for the believers.
So for those of you
who are not chosen God to this blessed
being,
do not forget the favors of your Lord.
And for those of you
who are not favored
by bringing you into this world from the
womb of a believer, meaning you were born
a Muslim.
Never should you ever
deny the favor of your
law.