Praying At The Rave Party Helped Him Come Back To Islam

Salam aleikum.

Welcome back. It's great to be back. I've been, I've been pretty good

messenger.

Jesus was his messenger.

I had a kind of a spontaneous, fortuitous

meeting with young brother from Detroit. And I thought it would really be impactful that we discuss a few of the things that we had I had discussed with him. And this is a young brother kind of relates to my story coming up. And seeing the kind of

things in life that I was living that he's living now and getting out of it was having like an awakening.

He's experiencing the fruits of Eman when you start to see purpose. But the one thing in particular that he had mentioned is now he wanted to find a mustard to go to the one mustard that he, he went to he was asking question, he said they're very rigid in various regions. And he was asking about prayer. He's slowly getting depressed and praying five times a day. It's kind of off and on, right? And he said, Look, if you miss one prayer, you're damned for the hell. He said, they said, I'm really scared. And he said, I want to, I want to love God, I want to, you know, and he's scared of

sodomy. Then I want to go to a bar where we call the Bosnian mosque. And like I said, you don't have to pray five times a day. If you go to Juma from one Juma to the next, it wipes away your skin.

So this is the problem, we have this polarization, we have these two extremes going on. And what's really important for people to understand is everyone you know, Allah, how do we have to understand how does Allah deal with people? How is he going to judge people? And our example that we learned from? Is the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him? How did he deal with different people? He didn't all of a sudden, when you know, the first companions, when they accepted Islam, he didn't all of a sudden throw everything on them. And you know, what? are you engaging in interest, or you're still drinking, or you're doing this, or you got a girlfriend, or you did some prostitution, you got to

get out all of this stuff, otherwise, you're going straight to hell. This was not the way the Prophet peace be upon him dealt with people. He understood people's circumstances. He understood their backgrounds, he knew where they're coming from. And he used to speak to them in that manner. And what happens is, is that people they See things in black and white, someone enters into Islam, someone accepts Islam, or someone wants to come back to Islam after all these years of being in you know, darkness, being very far doing some, you know, really stuff that they're going to regret later on. We need to deal with them according to their capacity. So if someone is not praying at all, you

throw all five prayers on them and tell if you don't do it, you're going to go to hell, not everyone is motivated that way. Right? So the thing is, we need to go back to the Koran, we need to go back to the way the Prophet peace upon him did. And you got to give good news, and you got to give a little bit of a warning to and that's where the balance really lies. So you tell someone you know what, you're not praying five times a day, you're not praying at all, he start with one, you know, build it up from there, try to do one do to do do what you think you can, if you can do three, you can do four, okay, keep it consistent for a while, you know, the prophet peace be upon him, he

actually encouraged people, he said that the most beloved actions to a law are those which are done consistently, even if they be few in number. So consistency is the key. So the thing is, if this guy is not praying, or he just started praying once or twice, or something like that, let him get consistent in two, and then build up from there. Let him get consistent in for and then build up from there. But if you put too much pressure on somebody, and you tell them, You know what, you put all the rules on them, that's gonna mess them up. And unfortunately, what a lot of people do, a lot of people do is as soon as they take Shahada, they you know, they declare their Islam, c'est la

Ilaha ly believe that there's only one God, I'm a Muslim. Now they say, Okay, you know what, by the way, the next prayer is going to be done in two hours, you need to memorize sort of thought to how you need to memorize at the highest, you need to memorize everything in Arabic, you need to know all the prayers, by the time the next prayer is done. That's not true. That's not the way that Allah deals with people, a lot deals with people according to their capacity and their circumstances. Nobody is going to be able to memorize all the prayer stuff in a few hours, nobody's going to be able to adjust all of a sudden, it takes time. And we need to deal with people in that manner. So

this is the problem. The problem that people and people in different machines, what they do is they don't look at the individuals and speak to them on a direct level. They need to look at them and say, What is the circumstances of this person? Where are they coming from? What are they capable of and how can I support them? That's the key. We need to

support them and give them good advice with wisdom and advise them in that matter. So you've been in a unique situation where the person is bound to go to the club, they're bound to go, you're not changing their mind visit. So make at least pray before you go. Absolutely you don't have

that you're not that you're condoning them going and drinking, you know, holding on to Saturday, I'll tell you from just my own experience, you know, I wasn't always practicing. I used to go to raves. And I remember the one thing I used to do very weird. I used to actually pray at a rave, right? And that's the one thing I remember. And that when I look back on it, I see, you know what, that might have been the one thing that kind of helped me come back to Islam, that I used to remember a lot, like for a moment, I would stop and say, you know, what, am I doing this right thing, you know, let me at least remember a live and I'm in a bad place I shouldn't be here. Let me

at least just think about prayer a little bit. And I think that really did have an effect on me. So we should encourage people, you know, if you're going to go anyways, you're doing some harm, or at least do something good. In the meantime, instead of calling them hypocrites and all that, encourage them. And that just may be the catalyst that will actually change them bring them closer to a loss of panels. That's actually what saved me was that prayer, and even leaving, that's interesting. You mentioned the rave, I would leave the after party and go pray, it was like around that time, and I go pray for you in the car. Eventually, I left or you kind of because people get stuck between two

worlds, right? chasing that life. And then it takes time to transition into this way of life. And I remember, I would go back, and I would experience and I'm explaining to him, you know that that good feeling of, of connecting with your Creator of doing the by the worship and being around good people, then you kind of go back, you think you're missing something. And I remember going back and getting it's like God sent you a sign. And we get stuck in an elevator. And I'm like, oh, man, what am I here, I came back here and I'm stuck. It's like, oh, man, and I started thinking about the grave. When I'm stuck, six feet under, right? You don't get a second chance. But it was that prayer,

it was holding on to something that finally got me out. That's that's AC, we need to encourage people, you know, a lot of people, they'll discourage them, thinking that it's going to encourage them, you know, the vast majority of people, they're not going to be motivated by harsh criticism. So you know, someone's going and doing some clubbing, and then they're doing some prayer and tell them you know, do a little bit extra prayer, it might help you, it might help you get through all of this. But instead, a lot of people will go and say the opposite. They be like you know what kind of hypocrite already, what's the point of fraying if you're going to go there thinking that all of a

sudden, that statement is going to get them to wake up and stop going to the club and just start praying. But that isn't that's not the way people are motivated. Generally, very few people are motivated with really, really harsh criticism. So the way the Prophet peace upon him used to deal with people, he knew who he was speaking with, every individual was different. If he saw that there was someone who needs you need to be really tough on him, and he's going to change, he would do that. But there are many people out there you go really tough on them, and you're going to alienate them just going to go, Oh, well forget this, you know, if you if you think I'm useless, you're

saying I'm just worthless, okay, fine, I am useless, I am worthless, forget all of it. Our goal is to look at people and especially in today's society and our culture, people like you know, struggling with all these things. We need to you know, understand their struggles, and let them know that you know what, you're not alone, we're here, Allah is there, connect with him, and you take a few steps, and allows them to come even closer to you. That's the key, we're gonna go ahead and take a break. And we'll be right back with more.

Jesus was

back here on the D show, getting a real life example something someone that I had just connected with, and inshallah the brother sees this program and gets more encouraged. He knows who he is. And we're discussing someone who I had a great sit down with, he also had a female companion. And we were, you know, sometimes you, you you in your journey, you have others that are with you in that journey, and I got to talking with that person. Before I get to that, there. It reminds me of what you said about about gauging who you're talking with. And sometimes the tough approach sometimes, depending on the person is a little bit more like that reminded me of even taymiyah where he

he had a statement talking about sometimes when you have a rough stain on you, and you go a little bit rougher. It's not that you're trying to hurt yourself. Right? It just you need a little bit more, you know, a struggle to get that out. So can we equate that with? Absolutely, absolutely. Definitely applies. Yeah, yeah. So how would you now what kind of advice would you give to a person who's coming over but there are certain things we obviously know the prayer in the first thing is to establish that direction.

With your Creator. The other thing is that obviously, you know, there is the five daily prayers, right? And not doing them when you want gauging, how do you now? What do you usually tell people, then maybe a person has a girlfriend, maybe that person, you know? How do you motivate them? What do you words of encouragement Do you like, to kind of help to facilitate change, to help facilitate them moving towards, you know, the correct path, what I tell them, you know, it's they need to focus on the priorities, and they need to understand what their priorities are. So the first and most important priorities is having a clear understanding of that we have a purpose in this life,

understanding that the Quran is the word of God, understanding that God sent us revelation, and how we, you know, understand this message, how we get some of the doubts out how we get a clear understanding that we're not just here to just have fun, there's a purpose to our life. That's the first thing, right? Once that becomes clear, if someone's struggling with, you know, accepting all of that, they should start asking questions, they should start reading some things about some confusions they had or whatever it may be. Once they got that down their belief in a law firm, their belief in God is clear their belief in the Prophet Muhammad peace upon him is clear. Now they start

moving to Okay, how do I connect with my Creator, I'm going to start praying, okay, but I'm not just going to do formulate prayer, I want to connect with God. So tell him, you start understanding the meaning of prayer, start understanding the deeper dimensions, the inner dimensions of what prayer is going to do, because that's going to have an effect on you. If you just say the words only, you still took some time out of your life, shall you fulfill the obligation of prayer, but the amount of benefit that you get is not going to be at the same level, right? So what you want to do the priorities once you once you've got the faith down the basics of belief down, then you want to do

the most important actions. The most important actions are things like the five pillars of Islam, which prayer is one of them, prayer, fasting, giving yourself a car and going for a pilgrimage, you know, when you're able to go, and then staying away from things which are 100%, clear cut prohibited in Islam. And what you got to do is you got to focus on the things that you know, you can start doing now. So you got a girlfriend, okay? It's hard for you to let go of her. Okay, can you talk to her? Can you convince her you know, what, why don't you consider Islam, maybe this will be a great opportunity, or, you know, if you consider marrying her, talk to her family, talk to her parents,

and ask yourself, are you ready to get married? Are you ready to get married? Are you actually you have the potential to get married right now? Or you don't? And then you start analyzing the wisdom behind you know what? Well, why is this prohibited in the first place, there's got to be some wisdom behind it. So when you understand why Allah instituted marriage, and why he prohibited having relationships outside, the more you reflect upon it, the more you understand that a relationship was supposed to have a serious commitment. And that commitment is defined through the institution of marriage, I'm going to take this very seriously. Some kids are produced to this, I'm going to take

it seriously, my responsibility towards my spouse is going to be very serious, right? That's what marriage is about. So when you understand the wisdom behind that, now, you're like, you know what, it's not just like, I want to have a girlfriend and really liked this girl. And I know a lot of tells me not to, but I still want to do it. Now your mentality starts to change. And you say, you know what, I see the wisdom behind why Allah is telling us to do this. I'm struggling between following my desires, and doing what Allah is telling me to do, even though I know it's for my own good, now I understand it. Now, you can actually face that challenge a lot easier. It's like telling

someone you know what Brother, you know, your health is, you're in really bad shape. You need to start eating better, you need to start eating, you know, healthier food, you need to do some exercise, but they don't understand the health d'etre. You know, the health problems that can arise from it, once you explain to them you know, what that type two diabetes that you have, it can be reversed if you just change your diet, you know, all the all the problems and all the issues that you're having health wise, you know, whatever's going on. A lot of it has to do with your health, if you just make a change, it can potentially solve all these problems. Now that person is more

motivated. You know what, it's not just about, oh, well, we should take care of our bodies because Allah said, so now it's like, you know what, now I see the greater wisdom behind. So what one of the things I encourage people to do is the areas that they're struggling and once you identify what are the priorities in Islam, what to focus on first, right? And after you got that down, start to analyze the wisdom behind everything, because it's going to help you to that challenge, right? So if you're not praying at all right, start praying before you say I'm going to go to the machine for every single prayer. Yes, maybe a 30 minute drive to your local mosque will be 20 minutes, whatever

it is, start by going once or twice or something like that once a day, and start by getting in every single one of your prayers in the month of Ramadan. You can't fast all the days in Ramadan, start with a few and build up from there. Understand the benefits of fasting for your own self control your own self discipline, even your health benefits. And now you've become more inclined, you know what I can do this or I need to do this even if I don't feel like it. And that's really

What I advise people to do they need to focus on these things, what are the what are the some of the consequences of not taking this seriously, and neglecting these, your, your primary purpose in life. I mean, just the most important consequences are after worldly consequences. I mean, see that God, we have to go back to the basic principle, God created us for a purpose, there's a reason why we're here. And we are we have a responsibility, it's life is a test. It's just simply that's just the way it is. That's the way Allah set it up. And there's a wisdom in that, if you mess up on the test, because you were lazy, because you didn't want to study because you were distracted, you're not

going to be able to pass that test. And there's very serious consequences for that, right? So Allah is gonna hold us accountable for every single thing that we believed right or wrong. And every single thing that we did, good or bad, right, he's merciful, but he's also just, right. So we need to make sure that we're not, you know, we're not excusing ourselves, it's very easy to make excuses for ourselves, and not make excuses for other people. And it's supposed to be the opposite. You're supposed to make excuses for other people, because you're not going to be held accountable for what they're, you know, on the day of judgment for what they're doing. But you shouldn't make excuses for

yourself, you should you should always look and see it, are my intentions, correct? Am I really doing what I can to my maximum capacity? Now there are there are some Muslims who you know that some people accept Islam. And and I tell them, I'm like, you know, just take it slow, and be consistent and everything. And then I see them like five years later, 10 years later. And I'm like, how are things you know, how the prayer and everything, they haven't even learned how to pray? It's on the first group still still in kindergarten, right? They're still praying. It's all Yeah, I pray like, you know, once or twice a day, I'm like, when I gave you that advice, take it slow. I mean, this

slow, you know, like, you wouldn't take it slow with all the other things.

With it, yeah, you don't you don't walk into a college, a four year college to say, you know, what, 20 years is not a big deal. You know, you take it very seriously, because you value it, you realize the consequences of not living, you know, being up to par here, we got to realize the consequences of what's going to happen, you know, we got to be up to par, there's a schedule, some people take a month, some people take a few months, you know, here and there. It's always a struggle, everybody struggles, you know, but the struggle is never more than you can handle a lot of promises is in the Quran is that he will not test any soul or any person more than they can bear. So whatever struggle

we're going through, we can handle it, it's going to be a little bit of a challenge. When we can do it, you take it slow, but you be consistent. And you make sure that you're not over excusing yourself. And you know, just being lazy, you just you want to make sure you're doing it to the best of your ability. Beautiful. We'll take a break. We'll be right back.

There's only one

is His Messenger.

Jesus was his messenger back here on the D show, want to take a little turn now and talk about something that's been real dear to you. You've been talking lately, a lot about some of the Forgotten people who maybe made a mistake in life. We all make mistakes, some more than others. And we have one who's the Most Merciful, the most loving people change their ways. So

tell me about this

awareness that you're trying to create with the people who've made a mistake, and they're stuck in reaching out and some of the prisons. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, there's a lot of people who are in prison, and a lot of them are Muslim. What we need to realize is the Muslim population in prison is 15% of the entire prison population. I mean, that's more than double of what the American Muslim population is. So people know what Islam is in jail. We're looking at about 40,000 people every year accepting Islam in prisons across the United States of America 40,000 30,000 40,000. It's a very significant number. And that's probably a little bit of a lowball number as well, right? So a lot of

people are accepting Islam in prison. So they've done something, they made a mistake. Somehow they got into prison. They got caught, or some, you know, probably a lot of people commit crimes. Not everyone even gets caught. There's a lot of discrimination going on there as well. When they got in there. A lot of people, some people make mistakes of this way in life. Some people make mistakes, that way. They're stuck. And what happens is they're oftentimes forgotten. Our brothers and sisters are oftentimes stuck there. And you know, I get letters, handwritten letters, you know, most people don't get handwritten letters at all. Yeah, you know, we got emails being sent text messages being

sent, almost nobody really writes a letter by hand anymore. On a daily basis. I'm getting mail in our mosque with our link outside program, which is a prison outreach program. Every single day. I'm getting letters requesting basically saying, you know, Shaykh Mustafa, I heard about your prison outreach program. I want to tell you my story.

And they tell me the story about how they got into prison and how there's absolutely nobody to help them at all. They're requesting Can someone send me a copy of the Quran? Something basic like that, you know, saying, you know what Ramadan is coming, I can't even tell what time we're supposed to be starting our, our fasting, because I don't know we don't have a clock. We don't have any guidance. We don't have any scholars here to help us. There are some chaplains, you know, in some prisons and all of that, but not up to par. They have no access to knowledge, they have none of these things. And the thing is, these people have been forgotten. And when they send these letters to different

machines, unfortunately, unfortunately, the vast majority of the Islamic centers, they don't respond because they're just not good at responding to their voicemail or they don't have a secretary working there or something like that. So I get calls from all around the country. I get calls from different different cities non Muslims calling me and saying we got some, you know, some Muslim prisoners here, we heard you guys respond, can you do something? We said we got to do something. So we have this program where we say Okay, you know what, let's give him some literature. Let's get him some copies of the Quran. Let's get him some some books and these people Mashallah they they devour

Islamic books like anything, they they ask for a translation of Quran then they go, I'm done with that, send him a copy of Tafseer explanation of the Quran, we're given books on how do we give them books on Islamic law? They just keep reading everything and say, Can you send me more and more and more, so we just keep on sending them more and more literature. We started with our California Islamic University, a correspondence program, said, You know what, let them take some classes while they're while they're on the inside, it's being called being on the inside, right? Send them send them some classes. These are 11 week courses that we teach University style format, I send them a

course packet. They're done in one week, and they send it back and said, we're ready for the next course. You know, so I mean, these are people who are dead. I mean, they're serious that they made a mistake 30 years ago, yeah. Right. And now they're stuck. And there's nothing that they can do about it, or your or your company either going to, to graduate in prison at becoming a better criminal, a better bank robber, better,

swindler, whatever the case, and many people, they end up coming out far worse. But this is a great initiative. Because with Islam, if you want to decrease the crime rate, that's if you want people coming out with better character, being asset to society. Yep. Then like that, and that that's what statistics show that they should they show that there's a 75% rate of recidivism, which basically means people who get released from prison, they get back into prison within five years. 75% is the statistic. And they said, the people who generally don't fall in there, the other 25%, it's because of the strong education they received while they were in prison. So education makes it plays a big

role. And that's just they're talking about secular education. Imagine what Islamic education can do for them, you know, revolutionize their lives, and it revolutionizes the lives of people around them. That's why people are accepting Islam. You know, there's not a bunch of missionaries going into the prisons and saying, you know, here's some pamphlets to learn about Islam. It's the inmates themselves who are going and telling everyone, but you know what, look at this, Islam is gonna change your life. You need this, and people accept. So there's somebody out there that said, Nah, you're just making more terrorists. Now.

There's a troll. There's what there's a there's nothing there. This I try not to feed the trolls always, you know, but there are people saying that. If you look at the principles of Islam, and you look at the effects, ask any prison warden, ask anyone who's actually in the prison system, they'll say the best behaved people in prison are the Muslims, the most organized, the most spiritual, the people who do the best for the entire prison. They're the Muslims, you got gangs in there, you got people dealing drugs in there, you got all sorts of riots, all sorts of things going on the people who avoid that, because it's a very cliquish thing. It's like different groups in prison. You're a

part of the Muslim group. They're like, these are the best behaved people. These are the nicest people. These are the people who reformed themselves, right. And they have a reputation for that. You don't mess with the Muslim either. Because these are straight people. They don't want to play around, they're not going to do no drugs, they're not going to sell no alcohol, they're not going to, you know, cause problems or anything like that. They're here to worship. They're here to change their life. They're disciplined people. And that's why people they're attracted to Islam in prison, because they're like, you know, what, they realize I don't want to be like, I don't want to become

like an animal. You know, I don't want to be just living my life like this. I've I did that once. I did that twice. I got caught. Now I'm here. It's time to make a change. And they see Islam makes that change. So anyone who wants to challenge it, just look at the effects of Muslims in prison. That's what really changes people. That's what changed Malcolm X. That's what changed, you know, countless 1000s of other people. And that's what changes Muslims who come out now you can listen to their stories and see exactly what difference it made in their life. In the last 30 seconds. We have How can people get involved helping out we have we have a website called link outside.com. So they

can check out they can volunteer they can help right? We have pen pals.

correspondence, you know, we need donations to send them literature and all of that average inmate minimum wage is 14 cents an hour. So they can't even afford any books, right? Oftentimes they need all the reasons we need all the resources we can get. So check out our website, link outside.com. If you can volunteer if you can spread the word if you can donate if you can help in any capacity. It would be a great thing. Always a pleasure having in a program. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Messenger.

Jesus was his messenger.