Transform Your Ramadan – Discover – Spreading the Light – With Eddie Redzovic
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Channel: Haleh Banani
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speaker discusses the transformation of Ahmed Zucker's behavior, including his journey to Islam and finding his own path. They also talk about his struggles with alcoholism and working in the entertainment industry, but eventually became a martial arts practitioner and a Jedi Jedi. The importance of learning to see one's true values and establishing one's own Islam is emphasized, as well as the need for transparency and transparency in the world. The conversation also touches on the loss of mercy and the importance of good deeds in helping to overcome tragedy, as well as the need for apologizing and educating people on the horrors of recent shootings.AI Generated Transcript ©
Brother Wudud.
Sister Halley, how are you doing today? Alhamdulillah.
Really good. The guest that we're having today,
brother Eddie from the Dean show, all of
you must already know him.
His life
is like a Hollywood movie.
Yeah. Unbelievable
story about how he came from this place
of being on the street, nightclubs,
and prison cell to
reflecting about what is really the true purpose
of my life. Yes. Yes. So I'm sure
everyone is gonna be inspired
just seeing the transformation because this Ramadan series
is all about transformation.
And when we have
the examples,
examples of giving up a habit, a bad
habit and we all struggle with that, whether
whether it's overeating, whether it's smoking, whether it's
what you look at, all of those things
are very challenging, but when we look at
the example of a person who
completely
changes their life around for the sake of
Allah
is it's really inspiring. So I know that
it's gonna be a great interview Insha'Allah.
Really looking forward to it.
Me too. So,
and welcome to a mindful Ramadan
transformed by the light,
inspiring
stories about converts.
Assalamu alaikum, brother Eddie. Welcome to the program.
Thank you for having me. Oh, it's a
pleasure. We've done several shows together.
I came to Chicago,
and you hosted
Clinton's town. The former president. Yeah. What was
the town? I remember it by that town.
Bill Clinton.
Bill Clinton.
Little Rock. Was that was that it? Yeah.
Little Rock.
Little Rock. Yes. Arkansas. Yeah. Arkansas. Oh, so
it was Arkansas.
Okay.
There we go. So,
you went from the streets of Chicago
to the hosting your own talk show, and
really your life is straight out of a
Hollywood film,
So we wanna find out about your journey,
and we have brother Wadhud here as well.
Everybody.
It's in, it's exciting to meet brother Eddie
and do this interview together, Michelle, about our
mindful Ramadan.
So tell us, you know, how did it
all start off? I mean, your childhood
led a very different lifestyle. You were into
gangs. You were living it up. You were
quite successful
as a non Muslim. And then what happened?
What was what was the transformation?
It's, like, I gotta go back in the
in the memory bank and go back and
think about those times. It was, and and
I'm just thankful every time I think about
it is I'm thankful for the Hidayah. I'm
thankful to
the creator of the heavens and earth for
the guidance because that life, you cannot pay
me enough money to go back to that
if you choose guidance
and misguidance. Right? So it's a life of
just misguidance, worshiping your desires pretty much. It
was just about fulfilling the desires, and this
is what it's it's unfortunate. This is what
the most people
are doing. And,
Allah
guided me, and,
it's such a such a blessing.
Was there a pivotal moment
that just kinda ignited your journey to Islam?
Well, you know, my parents are from the
former Yugoslavia,
so they're Bosnian. And when that broke up,
you have Croatia. This is more
Catholic. Serbians are Orthodox Christian, and Bosians are
supposed
are traditionally,
Muslim.
Mhmm. But they weren't practicing,
And I really didn't have that in my
upbringing except for my grandparents. And then what
happened was
I ended up going through life and
having the things that
money can buy and all of the other
nice pleasures and whatnot that come with that.
And then I just start to ask the
supposed to be at, the nightclubs, you go
get your burrito at 3, 4 in the
morning. Mhmm. And then you're just like, hey.
Was it's like we've done this so many
times. It's like, is this really what we're
gonna keep doing? Is it is there and
and people know, like, we'll have these deep
conversations, but then some go towards the path
of seeking sincerely guidance and then others don't.
So what what triggered it was, me earnestly
wanting
and seeking, and then signs would come. I
remember one Ramadan came, and I was like,
okay. I'm gonna stop. I'm not gonna drink
this Ramadan. And that's, like, kind of a
a a thing in the Bosnian community a
lot of times is maybe they'll give up.
I don't know my other communities, but in
Bosnian community, this is for my community where
I was from is, this was a big
thing now. Okay. I'm gonna give up something,
but then Ramadan ends, and then you're back
drinking. Right? So I I remember gay gave
up, alcohol for that month, and I was
just contemplating thinking. And then story, I I
would hear stories. I
I was starting to read,
more about Islam.
I read a book by doctor Ahmed Zakkar
called Life, Death, and the Grave.
I remember him. He's such a You remember
him? Kind man yesterday from Lebanon. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Very nice. I read that. I, actually,
I I went back to my uncle. My
uncle is a chiropractor, and, he used to
patch me up, when I used to get
in fights and whatnot and give me something
to see how and whatnot. But a lot
of times, it was in one ear or
the other because you're fixated, like, on certain
things that you gotta accomplish and get. And
I was accomplishing those things, but then finally,
it started to blossom and grow, And I
went back to him. He was the first
one I back went back to when I
heard this story about someone being punished in
the grave, and they dug up the grave
and the body just looked really, like, tore
up. And then I was like, how does
it what is this like? And I was
like, okay, we're going to go into the
grave one day.
And then I went to tell the story
to my uncle. He gave me this book,
life, death and the hereafter.
And I read this book, and I was
just fascinated. So that kicked it off. And
then from there, I started to listen to,
I wanted to make sure, okay, my parents,
I come from a background Muslim, but I
want to make sure what the question was
like, how do I not know? What about
all these other religions? Like, what about Christianity?
What about Buddhism? What about all these religions?
So I started to take a deep dive
into all the different world religions. And,
I watched some Ahmed Dida. He had these
debates going on that really was like, wow.
That blew blew me away.
And then the journey began.
Masha'Allah. So first was that lack of just
lack of fulfillment, thinking what is my purpose.
Then it was about
questioning what's gonna happen when I die, and
that verse, like,
Right? That is the one thing that wakes
everybody up, and then you started just seeking,
and that's what creates the the transformation when
you're actually looking for it. Brother Wadhud, would
you like to reflect on that? Yeah. I
was just thinking about Ahmed Zucker that you
said you mentioned him. I remember growing up
in the nineties and him coming to Dallas
for all these fundraising, and then he used
to say, you know, don't deposit your money
to BOA, Bank of America. Deposit your money
in BOA, Bank of Akera. You know, he
used to say that that's in his nice.
I remember I remember him, and it's it
was a blessing that we got to see
him, you know, before he started deteriorating.
Like, bless him. May Allah fill his grave
with more. Mommy. And, it's beautiful that, you
know, he's someone, one of the pioneers in
this country that wrote books and have so
many books, and he was just always out
trying to support the communities and Muslims.
And it's just reminding me of that.
And that book, you can see, like and
he probably doesn't he doesn't know what's happening,
but his book
affected me.
Yes. His book affected
me to think deeper. To really I read
that book quick. I think it was, like,
200 pages. I read that book faster than
I think I read any other book,
and that really just turned things on for
me. And everything that you're doing is now
on his scale. And Yes. So
what happened? What was that transformation
like? You had to make so many changes,
and our Ramadan program is all about transformation,
changing your behavior,
becoming a better version of ourselves, and that
was really hard because you had to give
up so many habits, so many behaviors.
What helped you through that transformation?
I mean, the the thing okay. Deaf. Deaf
was something that scared me. It just scared
me straight. I really was scared
of and I started reading more books on
death, and I was like, wow. This is
really, like, serious. I can die tomorrow. You
just we're just living in la la land
thinking, like, we got time. Shaitan is fooling
us and whatnot, and you're procrastinating.
I didn't wanna procrastinate. So okay. So what
does my creator what does he want from
me? First thing is salah. Okay? I would
and I wasn't one of those. It took
me time, years to establish. No. That was,
like, right dead on. I remember Kat Stevens,
Use of Islam, his book that he had.
He had a audio also. I started swallowing
up. Back then, it was VHS,
and I started ordering all of the things
that's out there. You know? It's like it
said Islam. I was like, just give it
to me. I didn't really know, like, hey.
This is a good attempt, whatever.
I was just like, Allah, guide me, please.
You know? And I ended up listening to,
his. I read some of his stuff on
the prayer. He had some really good things,
and I remember not knowing. I was just
like, okay. Learning how to pray. So I'd
have the book, and I'd be listening with
the earphones. I remember that, and I'd just
be going through the the motions learning the
prayers. I established the prayer. And that prayer
even
the prayer, I remember because that was the
thing that took some time transitioning because I
I used to be really involved into the
entertainment,
nightclub industry, and whatnot. So Mhmm. Now I
still I want my livelihood and everything was
there, so it took some time to get
out of there. But I I gave up
alcohol, but then it was like being in
an environment without alcohol. It was like being
around a bunch of zombies. It was like
it was a nightmare.
And I remember I would leave
at certain I would leave the place apart,
and I'd go Faja was coming in to
leave the car. So I can take a
lesson from that that indeed I mean, the
prayer is so
connecting with Allah, and then slowly the change.
It took time. It took time, and then
other things you start leaving off step by
step by step.
That's powerful. That you had the discipline. I
believe you're a is it a boxer? You're
you're doing martial arts. Is it jiu jitsu?
Yep. Gracie jiu jitsu. Yes. Brazilian jiu jitsu.
Okay. Brazilian jiu jitsu. So you had the
discipline. I think that you tapped into that
discipline.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Yes.
I wasn't whatever I do, I try to
do it to the best of my with.
I wasn't playing. Yeah.
Was that was that something that you were
trained at before you kind of came back
to Islam
and started finding Islam, the Brazilian jiu jitsu,
that that discipline, or is that after?
Islam gave me more gave me more structure
in my life, gave me more discipline, but
I, obviously, I had some of those qualities.
And Islam just, enhanced them to a whole
another level. Yep. Yeah.
And you just recently
had an amazing conversion.
Could you tell us about that? The jujitsu
practitioner,
Royce Gracie,
just embraced Islam. I think it was last
week. I saw your post on it.
Yes.
So what happened in the background to that
was that we had my cousin. He had
booked
a seminar with him, and he was somebody
that I had also started with training with.
He was part of the main academy, the
Gracie Academy.
And I remember him reffing for my fights
in my early years
at a tournament, and then he's the one
who gave me my first belt, the blue
belt. Oh, wow. I used I used to
travel out to Torrance, California. That's where Horian
Gracie Horian Gracie was the founder of the
Ultimate Fighting
Championship, his older brother. He's the one who
started the UFC. Many people now know Dana
White and they I know Khabib.
But before
Khabib, Dana White,
and they were involved, you had Gracie's, Horian
Gracie, and then Royce Gracie who's the one
he's like the Michael Jordan
of jujitsu of the martial arts world. Oh,
wow. When you say Michael Jordan, some people
still might not know who hoist Gracie is,
but he's like the Michael Jordan of the
martial arts.
And what happened was that he had posted
something.
So the seminar was set up in Bosnia,
and then he had posted something out there
supporting
the
what's happening in Gaza. The genocide was happening.
He posted something in favor of, Israel.
Wow. And that just set things off. So
then I spoke to my cousin, and I
said, look.
Why don't you I think he's there's a
lot of conditioning, a lot of programming. We
need to educate the people. Let's let's take
this as a learning opportunity
because most people just don't know. You know,
the mainstream media is very it's like almost
magic on the people like Sid. Right? Mhmm.
And,
so then I said, let's invite him on.
I've had him on the program before. I
said, so invite him on. Let's see if
he'd like to hear the other side
of what's going on, what's really going on.
And then he said, yeah. I I'd like
that. So I think that was a really
positive step that somebody's willing to talk, willing
to discuss, and willing to listen to us.
So then he came down. He drove down.
I happened to be at the Dean Center.
He came down there. He took the initiative.
He came down, and I had also.
Even Farooq was there. We're planning to do
the the next day, the opening
for the soft opening for the Masjid, and
he's giving What's the the foodbah. So, Alhamdulillah,
we made it that far. And then so
he came and we had
back and forth. He's asking questions, this, that,
and the other. And he's asking, like, so
how do I go to Mecca? And before
that so before that, when he walked into
the Masjid, his son asked, what what is
that over there? And I have a bunch
of dawah materials. And Uh-huh. He said, what's
that over there? And he's pointing to the
translation of the Quran. So I walked over
there. I said, oh, this is the, the
Quran. Let me give you guys a gift.
And his son said his son said, I've
been meaning to read this. Oh, so And
we we started having Ramadans coming around and
then we start before before we start the
program. His son is already asking questions and
his father has his input. And I remember
catching him. I asked him something around, Jesus
because they're from Brazil, and Brazil is probably
really Catholic.
And now,
I asked them about Jesus. Do you believe
he's he's son of god, god? He said,
no. I believe he's a I asked, do
you believe he's a messenger? He said, yes.
I believe he's a messenger. That makes it
a lot easier when they don't see it's
a okay. That was good. You got that
cleared. Yes. So and then he was talking
about he doesn't, eat pork, he doesn't drink,
stuff like that, but I can never fast.
He's like, I could never fast. I don't
know how you guys do it. This is
off camera. Then we get on camera. The
subject comes up again somehow.
So we start educating him on what's going
on in Gaza. We start educating him about
the apartheid, the oppressive state, about, you know,
making, examples of, if somebody came into your
home, put you in the basement, and, really,
what's going on over there? Then we shift
over to the other topic. He asked if
we can go how can you go to
Mecca? So then I say, this is the
easiest visa. All you have
to say is I define what that is.
I like that. I'm gonna use that. Easiest
visa. Alright. Yeah. I define what that is.
The sheikh talks about the he just break
The sheikh is breaking things down. He's agree.
Yes. I agree. Yes. That's I agree with
that. Then we shift back, educating him. He's
asking questions about Philistine, Gaza, dada, and then
at the end, he, he pretty much, ended
up taking the Shahada. Yeah. Allahu Akbar.
And what a figure to take the Shahada.
That's going to cause,
an earthquake, I think, and it already has.
Right?
May Allah,
help him to really
take, Islam serious and to really establish it
in his life. And it's our job to
go ahead and convey and do our Yes.
Art. And then now
but to see that shift, to see somebody
who came and sat with us, talked with
us, and and then to see him agree
with everything that we believe in with Islam
and Incredible.
Brother Wadhud, any reflections on that? Yeah. It's
a beautiful story. I was just fascinated. I
felt like I lost all my train of
thought, and I was really into that story.
I saw you were really immersed.
That story. But, brother Eddie, something that we
are trying to ask this Ramadan,
all our guests,
in terms of how does that begin? Like,
the transformation you talked about earlier, you made
it seem very easy. Of course, it was
not easy. I'm sure you're you're coming from
very difficult environment surrounding,
but in, like, less than 2 minutes, you
said step by step by step,
I was able to come out of that.
Mhmm. So Muslims that are trying to go
into this Ramadan thinking that I am going
to give up my bad habits
or new Muslims, converts that are coming into
this Ramadan and thinking that I want to
get closer to God, the reason that I
I came into the faith. How do we
take that first step? How do we find
ourselves and not get distracted? What are some
tools here? Me and, sister Halabanani, we've discussed
this before at length, and there's no magic
formula.
And I take it from my experiences
there in that transition, there was certain things
that I had to do. One was what
was helping me was the fueling of knowledge.
Just constantly taking in the knowledge.
Knowledge makes sense. It's not something I have
to, like, force myself to believe, like a
trinity, God being a man, a human being,
things that just don't make sense, something strange.
I remember sitting around one time and I
was I had this kind of mystical music,
and I was
just sitting there just waiting for something overtake
me because I was really, like I remember
sitting up late at night hearing Tony Robbins,
just ordering all of his stuff, you know,
the the infomercials.
Right. And the
awaken the power within. Yeah. He's got a
lot of good stuff on there. No problem.
I was searching, and then I remember even
doing that, sitting around, and I'm just waiting
like some like the Christians. They they have
this concept. The Holy Ghost takes over them.
It's not like that in Islam. It's something
that the truth comes, the guidance comes,
and you you submit to it, and then
you start implementing the things. And then your
iman starts to go up. Your face to
increase, and that's what was happening. Another key
point was the friends there. I mean, I
really wanted good for them, and I was
out you know, right away, I was like,
man, if I just show this to him,
I remember going to Brazil, and
I would take Dawah materials. I say, man,
if I just get them to read this,
they'll be enjoying this with me. And that's
the beginning, those sweet stages of Mhmm. Of
iman. Like, I mean, the the Sweetness of
iman. When you start tasting the benefit It
it's, like, you know, amazing. I was just
at on a cloud night. You know? Love
it. So you were getting, like, the true
high. Right? Like, it wasn't Exactly.
Oh, much so I I remember going to
the my instructors and even the head, Carlos
Gracie junior. He's,
Hoists' I believe cousin or and then his
father developed the art. And I remember going
there. It's a main academy, and I was
like, man, how I had this courage. And
I'm sat and sitting there, he
I gave him a gift. I gave him
For us. Gave him the, I gave him
a copy of the Quran. I gave
him a brief illustrator guy to understanding Islam.
Mhmm. And he's we started going off, and
he started talking about jinn and the magic
healers there in their country that they have,
and they they got these, beliefs now of
religion that they're weird. And
so everything that they've seen around them, so
they've gone away from from religion. So it
was a very interesting conversation, but I just
look back and I,
it was just the the hunger, the zeal.
And then going back to the point I
wanted to make was friends. I had to
make
my friends people that now I disattach with
because they're either taking you up or down.
And the friends, they weren't, like, really
even the love I had for them, but
it wasn't their time, and they really weren't
accepting. So either I was gonna stay and
they're gonna take me back down, or I
had to distance myself. And that's that's something
that is very is crucial is the companionship
that you have.
This keeps coming up again and again with
other hosts, and, really, a friend can be
like an anchor, an anchor not in a
positive way. It's something that just takes you
down.
Right? And so it it is important sometimes
to detach yourself from the the negative influence.
Very good. And so you were getting this
high. You're benefiting. You're trying to help your
friends. They're not only coming on board.
And is that what fueled you to start
the talk show? 1st, tell us about the
talk show because you were, like, the first
Muslim
to have this talk show,
and then tell us about, like, the Dawah
Center.
That's a good question. Thank you.
So what happened was that was one example,
going to Brazil
and sharing there. I just naturally, no one
told me that, Daul was something that was
essential part of Islam that we had to
get out there and share.
And I just started doing it because I
believed in it was something that was, it
made sense, worship the creator, one God alone.
And the purpose of life was clear. Everything
was clear. So I just started to, you
know, with my friends, my family,
and some would accept, some would reject. At
some good times, some very sad times also.
But then what happened was, I was planning
my first Hajj. I said, okay. Earlier I
said, okay. What does my creator? What does
Allah want from me? We got salah now
that was established.
There's a cat fasting, so to implement these
things. And then now the Hajj.
So it was,
2,006.
And I was like, okay. Hajj has a
lot of different steps.
Let's record this,
and we'll see.
We had the * come out
and we had a little panel discussion. I
recorded it and I was like, he liked
it. And I said, wow. This can be
a good way that I can reach a
lot of people. I was like, okay. I'm
going individually
talking to people, but this this is a
great way. YouTube, I just started at at
that
time. So then I invited the shade back
out. Which year was this?
2006.
Okay. Wow.
Yeah. But it took it took time to
build up to 2,006,
but that's when we initially started the program.
And from there, we just kicked it off.
We had
more filmings with the with this one shake,
and then we just started to post our
stuff on the,
YouTube. Then we got connected
to the CAN TV Chicago access on the
cable station, took some classes there, and,
just continued to grow.
That motivation to spread
this spread Islam. You just wanted to take
that passion and share it. My my main
thing was also that what was being attributed
to Islam was something opposite to what it
was. I'll give you example.
When I was taking some brothers, my son
and this other brother to get some, some
food to eat in the morning, I was
driving the rental car. And as I was
driving, I heard this noise. The car starts
pulling to the right, and then it starts
getting louder. And then we stop at the
stops, light, and I asked the brother, did
you hear that? He said, yes. He jumps
out when I stop the car. He said,
you got a flat tire.
Okay. So we push on, and we get
to the, Panera Bread.
And there's a juice place I wanted to
take them there. So we get there. It's
a few minutes away. Anyways, long story short,
I had to change the tire. I said,
okay. Good opportunity. Let me show him show
my take the good from it. Show my
son how to change the tires. It's a
it's a life skill. So as I'm changing
the tire,
a gentleman comes up because the car fell.
I took off the tire. Now I'm gonna
put the dummy tire. I took the tire
and put it under the car for safety.
But the way I put the jack as
I start to lift up more to put
actually, whatnot jack, but this way,
the car actually fell. So the guy saw
it,
and he came. He said, what what what's
going on, guys? You need some help, and
that's happened to me before. You gotta put
the jack like this.
He gets on there under there, and he
starts helping out, and I'll never forget this.
So
when we finish, we we have a good
conversation with him. And I remember asking him
this question after we we got into, obviously,
So I was like and this is a
common reoccurrence. I asked
this many times. So what does he know?
He knows nothing, but he he is worse.
That's it. Just Islam and the propaganda. The
propaganda. So he's not even in a neutral.
He's in the negative. Yeah. Yeah. So that
was something even back then, it was probably
much worse. It's, again, reignited again. So this
is the state of Americans. Over 300,000,000 of
them
here that they know nothing about Islam, and
what they do know is something negative.
So that was what motivated me to get
the correct information
and the guidance at the end of the
day. It took me a while to finally
understand that the guidance is in the hands
of Allah, but you get rewarded for even
trying just to do your best to go
ahead and convey the message and to clear
up some of these, myths and misconceptions.
Amazing. Sister Halley, I'm gonna share just a
quick reflection
that I was thinking about. I mean, there's
a lot that brother Eddie is sharing, and
I'm just taking it in. Mela bless you,
and Mela make it a source of inspiration
for all of us that, he talked about
just taking in the knowledge.
And, you know, there's a reason that
the meditation, contemplation, reflection, you know, it was
a backdrop before we started seeking knowledge. It's
very prophetic. Like, if you think about
Abraham or Ibrahim alaihis salam or the prophet,
there was a sense of reflection of, like,
who is God? You know, where is God?
And Ibrahim alaihis salam goes through this cycle
of reflection, meditation, contemplation.
Same thing with the prophet withdrawing himself from
the distraction, getting into a sense you know,
a sacred space of meditation. Brother Eddie is
reflecting on death, reflecting on the hereafter, reflecting
on where is my life? Where am I
heading? That's that reflection, you know, the that's
deep, like, reflection of,
the meditation,
contemplation
that Islam talks about.
It helps you unlock what is already within
yourself that we have witnessed. Our souls have
witnessed God.
We know deep down, but to unlock it,
we have to, like, meditate, contemplate, sometimes disconnect
from all the distraction,
and that was a backdrop. You know, it's
very prophetic if you think about this this
journey. The second thing is after that meditation,
reflection, contemplation, now the angel appears from Allah
and says,
read.
And now the knowledge.
And he started seeking knowledge.
He's getting into the knowledge, and he's getting
everything he can get his hands on on
knowledge and the prophecy. And a lot of
times people ask me, like, okay, brother Lula,
I understand this mindfulness meditation. All that is
really good. Where do I start? And I
say, you know that reading is a form
of meditation.
Writing is a form of it. You can't
you can't be distracted and read at the
same time. You can be distracted and write
at the same time. You know? So read
and write, reading, and a and a few
hours later,
Allah teaches you by the pen. So reflecting,
meditating
with reading,
in this Ramadan, if there is one way
that you wanna get closer to God, pick
up 1 or 2 books that you would
like to read that'll take you closer to
understanding who God is, names of Allah, for
example, what hereafter is like, what your purpose
of life is like. You know, just picking
up a few books, surrounding yourself with reading
is such a beautiful way to kinda, like,
go deeper.
The third thing that I really took away
from this reflection from brother Eddie was the
heart, his heart. No one told him about
Dawa.
No one told him to do this. You
know, for many of us, we we know
about Dawa, and we think, like, a 100
times, how do I even do this? No
one had to even tell him anything. It
just came from his
heart. And that just you know, that gave
me that principle of Islam. Like, what's up,
Allah? If you're mindful of God, if you
have that connection with God, you
Allah will teach you.
God gave him that inspiration, and he was
not he was just real. Right? He's not
seeking anyone's validation.
Right. He's not seeking anything from anyone, but
it's just, like, what makes sense in my
heart, that's what's gonna flow. Much so. What
is some beautiful reflection, therefore,
you know, from his journey that I feel
can become, like, our tools
of transformation. If we want transformation,
contemplate, meditate,
read, and connect your heart to God.
Alright. That was a very profound reflection,
brother, while I do it. I loved it.
Thank you so much.
And something that you said, brother Eddie, is
about the 300,000,000
Americans that are either misinformed
or don't know Islam. And I remember when
you were doing your advertisements for the Dean
Center, and we would love to hear more
about that. That was something you kept emphasizing,
that there are 300,000,000
people, and they don't know about Islam, and
it's our responsibility.
So what gives you the drive, and what
how did you come up with that the
concept of the Dean Center?
I've always wanted to now
just take things to a level where we
can reach more people, that we can go
ahead and
have a better production,
and, alhamdulillah, Allah opened up the way. So
that's what the Deen
Centre is about. So we first phase,
the masjid.
We're able to purchase the property. Now the
masjid, we just had the opening,
and we established the jummas, the prayers there.
It's in Florida. Correct? Ma'am, yes. Yes. In
Florida. Made you do it in Florida? You
live in Chicago.
So I'm going, back and forth now Wow.
Once a month, 2 weeks at a time,
usually k. Out of the month. I like
Florida better than Chicago.
Okay. And and and to get something like
this in Chicago
Mhmm. Most people who've come out from even
other cities like Philly
or, California,
they're like, to get something this size
and make sure you guys stop by when
you're in the in the area. To. Yes.
It's it's literally almost one city block as
far as I built. I'm a So this
would be probably in the over $10,000,000
to get a property like this.
That's, one main reason also
is what you're able to purchase, the purchase
price, and then the growing community there is
also
something that triggered that. It's a it's a
really
growing community in the area, and it's well
needed. And I and I had seen many
different properties. Right. And what's interesting about this
also is that I was doing a lot
of we were doing window shopping, looking, looking,
looking. There was really not nothing that just
kind of fit to what we wanted to
do. You have to change some of the
the the the zoning. It it wasn't set
up the way you have to go through
a lot of paperwork for just to get
it. And then the construction, you have to
build it out the way you want it.
But then finally,
this came up. It was like the day
of.
The realtor said, hey. This just popped up.
You wanna go see it? So it wasn't
even on the list of properties.
So that was something like, wow.
And then I said, okay. Let's go see
it. And that was we had a list
of properties, and we went to see that
one. I said, this fits. You know, when
something like you don't have to force it,
the other one was like,
yeah. But and it was getting to the
point we had already exhausted
so many different properties.
So I was like, okay. You gotta just
choose 1. Okay? Then it's like, okay. Do
I almost like selling yourself short. You gotta
make it somehow fit, but this just fit
in every which my because you have to
the the first building
now
is a dawah center, the mega dawah center.
So people have an exhibition. They come in
there. The learning stations, live filming. We have
Inshallah. We have,
our recording studio.
And then for the second building, you have
the
the masjid. Then the 3rd 4th, we haven't
even started on. Then you have the 5th,
the facility, and then not even talk about
the outside 4 acres
that you can go ahead and put the
basketball courts and do all the youth activities.
This is such a such a vision, such
a vision that you had. And when I
reflect back to you have talked about your
childhood
before in some of the previous interviews,
and you had immigrant parents, and they were
they were quite busy, and you started hanging
out with people
maybe of not the best influence and maybe
subconsciously,
you are creating this to create a safe
haven for people.
Because imagine
if you had a Dean Center back then.
Right? So instead of hanging out in the
street, you have this beautiful
positive environment
where you're able to enjoy yourself and yet
be in the company of of Muslims and
this can be Inshallah,
replicated
in in many of the states, and we
need to have a Deen center
in in every state, Inshallah.
Inshallah. That'll be the that's the vision Inshallah.
Inshallah. If Allah opens up the doors, then
that's
that'd be something that Inshallah I love to
do. Inshallah.
Unbelievable. So, Tara, can I ask a quick
final question? Of course. Of course. The question
to brother Eddie is
a lot of times people are in this
doubt, self doubt. Like, who am I to
do anything? How am I gonna make any
difference? Do I really have any bandwidth to
do anything?
And they don't find themselves or their value
or their meaning or their purpose, and how
can they make an impact.
And it seemed like as soon as you
found the truth, you just didn't wait. You
just went for it. So what guidance do
you have? Anything that you wanna leave behind
for the audience in terms of finding their
potential to make an impact? I mean, go
back to, what we just started on. This
life is very and it's not just cliche.
We just say it. I mean, honestly, I
could just reflect back in when we first
met and just when we started and and
how time had just flown by. You have
a limited amount of time. What are you
you gonna do with it? What are you
gonna leave behind? Everything's gonna stay behind, but
the things now that will carry on over
and this is very important. Just do your
part. Everyone has something that they can contribute.
Not everybody has to be in front of
the camera. Not every somebody can be helping
behind the scenes. Something that you dedicate
some kind of time
towards something that will not just benefit you
in this benefit people and help create a
legacy in this life, but in the next
life. And then I think this is very
important because we get caught up with the
dunya, and that's it. It takes over, and
we forget that we will die. And then
what's
going to be helping us to rack up
those good deeds on the scale that's gonna
help us to get a lost mercy. Because,
obviously, it's not just because of the deeds.
It's the lost mercy, but it's a manifestation
of your faith and belief are the good
deeds. Right?
So and this is this is something that
all the prophets and messengers, this is their
main mission to get out there and to
share this beautiful message.
Beautiful. Beautiful.
And I wanna honor your time, but do
we have time for one last question? Yes.
Yes?
Okay. Yes. So, you know, we have witnessed
the past 5 months just so much destruction,
so much death, so much horrific acts that
the Palestinians
have gone through.
And I just wonder when you look at
this and you reflect, what have you learned
from their
resilience or from how they are
handling
such tragedy? Sometimes young children
are teaching adults and world leaders
life lessons. What have you learned from this
experience?
Well, I can package a lot. That's, really
deep there. I've done a lot of programs
on this,
and a lot of masks have come off.
That's the the one thing. We see a
lot of people who
you would think had human have humanity,
but now we're we're seeing
never again seem like it was just a
cliche. And we're seeing right now in 4
k a
genocide and Netflix cleansing happening. Mhmm. And the
world is just sitting there and the world's
leaders
of the, genocide Joe and these kind of
people are just sitting there. I mean, there's
I could just go on and on. There's
just so many things. But to see the
resilience of people, I did a program where
you had
not an non Muslims, not yet Muslims out
there, and they're seeing they're seeing the Palestinians,
which by the way, you have Christians also
are Palestinians. Mhmm. But in this case, we're
talking about the Muslims saying, Alhamdulillah.
They're praising Allah, the most high.
They're not seeing their
so and so. They're not cursing and whatnot.
And they're these these non Muslims are like,
I wanna read the Quran. I I'm like,
what's with these Muslims?
And you had a lot of them. I
remembered doing this, and the ladies now who's
our sister. She's without the hijab. She wants
late she's wearing the hijab. She actually took
the shawarma because we sister is this? I
don't know her name, but I didn't interview
her, but she had a clip. These were
TikTok videos.
Oh, we got one of those. We got
one of the most famous ones on this
program, Megan Rice.
And she was the one who's like, how
do they have a clad iron
belief and faith? And someone is like someone
told her in the comment section,
girl, that's Islam. Look it up. And that
made her look up the Quran, and she
started a book club with 16 16,000 people,
non Muslims, reading the Quran with her, which
and she she embraced Islam and put on
the jobless. She's probably she's probably one of
them. Yeah. That we so we see that,
And then we see a lot of the
projection I've seen. I've I've interviewed people like
Max Blumenthal and, investigative journalists. I've had, rabbis,
orthodox
rabbis, to show that this is not something
that is because the picture that the they're
trying to paint, and this is a Muslim
Jew thing. And this is such hogwash. This
is such nonsense
because we don't have a history of persecuting
Jews.
No. No. No. Not at all. The Palestinians
welcome them. When they were being persecuted in
Europe, they opened up their
homes, and this is the this is the
tragedy. This is the tragedy that most people
don't know. Exactly. So we go ahead and
clarify this. We bring this to light, and
it's a very sad state. The mass are
coming off, and we pray for our brothers
and sisters there. Oh, yeah. Palestine,
Mela Free Palestine. And, I mean, the people
of humanity step up. You do also on
the flip side. You have a lot of
people's perception changing. Now they're they're getting to
see through the lies and through the programming.
Right. They're getting to see this place, the
state,
really more than what it's been painted out
to be, and it's not just coming from
me. I have I have rabbis on the
show coming out and calling them for this
apartheid,
racist state. This is a state that now
Jews who who went there thinking that this
was some Disneyland, they got to see it.
One story that fascinated me was I could
just share this with you. So is it
rabbi David? I got him on a show,
and he's telling me, like, look. I went
there,
and then I saw this kid. He was
injured. A little kid. He had a cut
or something on his hand. I took him
to the proper authorities,
and they said he spoke some Hebrew, and
they said,
get what are you doing? Get this Arab
out of here. Right?
And he was, like, stuck. He was, like,
he was, like,
he was in a state of cognitive dissonance,
he said, for almost 30 years until he's
he snapped out of it. Now he's on
the front line speaking
on behalf of, the truth.
Bless you all. And we would be also
I wanna make this point. As Muslims, I'm
sure you would agree. If this was happening
to Jewish people because it's all human life
is precious, we as Muslims would be sitting
there
against
killing of any innocent. Absolutely.
Am I correct?
Absolutely.
No doubt about it. And history shows that
even I remember being in Spain,
and the tour guide said when Muslims
were in control, when they were in
power,
we lived in peace and harmony for, like,
7 or 800 years,
and they take pride in that and they
talk about it, And so this is it's
such an important point you bring up. Let
me if you guys know who held the
keys also for our Christian
brothers and sisters out there. Right? Yeah. And
it's a shame that you have 80% of
Zionists
are and this is the differentiation. There's a
differentiations as the Jewish rabbis would tell us.
Zionism has hijacked Judaism. Yes. For our Christians
out there
that the Muslims held the keys for the
the oldest churches in Palestine for 800 years.
There's another thing, like, you know, it's very
important. Jews, Christians, Muslims lived in a relative
peace. I don't know if you know his
history. This is very important if you've heard
of, dispensationalism.
When I asked
a senior,
Christian pastor, I said, why Christians
who talk about Jesus, the prince of peace,
blessed are the peacemakers,
love, love, love, love, why would they be
supporting and sending their money? So, Eddie, look.
This is what happened. I'll give you guys
a really condensed version. You can watch this
on a program. He said that, Eddie, it
starts with a man. 1800 years of Christianity.
There was none of this rapture and Mhmm.
This these fake prophecies that are now linked
to Israel
and these two comings of Jesus. So they
had a man by the name of Cyrus
Scofield.
This is the Cyrus Scofield Bibles. Have you
guys heard of this?
He had got he had got many of
these teachings of the rapture and these stuff
that this is why the Christians support this,
and they feel this is a part of
their their faith. And John Nelson Darby has
started to take fringe teachings as it and
I, as the pastor was telling me from
Christianity.
So then a man who had went to
prison, he was a con artist, Cyrus Scofield.
He got out of jail. He all conveniently
got his DD,
and he started what's called the Scofield Bible.
He ends up getting funded
by the American
Oxford Press. They push out 1,000,000 copies free.
This is
free. So you say, what does the Skyra
Scofield Bible have to do with what's going
on? In this Cyrus Scofield Bible, you have
it's the exegesis of verses. Wow. So, this
is like one verse that's bread and butter.
It says, whoever blesses thee is blessed. Whoever
curses thee is cursed. So they're connect this
in the footnotes
to the modern state of Israel.
So now
Christians have been hoodwinked
many series. The late great planet Earth produced
40,000,000
copies and whatnot. So they've been tricked to
believe that this is part of their religion,
their Akita, to support
something like this when it has nothing to
do with Christianity. You're killing your own pal
your own Palestinian Christians who've been there for
how long,
and now you're sending your money. What is
it? Like, 3, 4,000,000,000
a year
instead of putting the money here. Look how
many problems we have at home. You're going
there to support a genocide. So these are
just un unbelievable things, but this is a
lot of part of the programming that's happening.
Wow. We have to educate people.
For shedding light on that. It's,
a lot of a lot of these misconceptions
need to be cleared.
Brother Wajud, any I know. Beautiful beautiful educational
piece there that I think would be really
beneficial for our audience, Inshallah. Absolutely. And and,
and do not give up hope. Keep making
dua this Ramadan. Keep showing up with whatever
you can, Inshallah.
Yes.
Brother Eddie for
on sharing
your inspirational story
and and
just sharing everything that you're doing. It really
guides us and inspires us. So may Allah
put more barakat in all that you're doing.
Thank you so much. It does. It's it's
all heart. It's all heart. I I just
I just could feel the heart the entire
time.
Alright. We'll see you in person in the
Alright.
Alright.