Kamal El-Mekki – So You Wanna Be A Thug The Deen Show With

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah Salaam Alaikum. Peace be with you. I'm your host. You're watching the deen
show. And today we're gonna be bringing out chick Kamala McKee, and he's gonna help us sing this
song. So you want to be a gangster smoking all that dope, disrespecting people and all the folk.
That's what you think is about man. You think that is what makes you successful being a punk a thug?
Well, the sheer and utter my milkshake, he's got something else to tell you. So if your parents
brought you down, to watch the deen show, sit tight, because we'll have some fun, but we're gonna be
serious. Don't go nowhere. We'll be right back.
		

			alaikum Salaam I know where you got that song from boo. You know what, it covers our topic nicely. I
think you know what way back. I used to be in Java, Leon. And I learned so much. And I think the
Creator of the heavens, that he guided me. And I used to listen to the hip hop. Right. And you know
what? You're singing in the thing about all sorts of stuff, disrespect to the parents. disrespect to
yourself. disrespect to you teachers disrespected the woman. And now the youth as I was I thought it
was cool to disrespect people. Because then people and this is what happens in the high school and
the colleges and whatnot. The more disrespectful you are, the more you're, you know, the cool guy.
		

			People be dissing each other. We dissing each other, right? You know, most people say that you're
black, you know that, right? Most people, what's the danger? They say?
		

			Well, you know what? They see that, you know, what were we talking about?
		

			But here's the thing, here's the thing, you know, we try to keep it real, we try to to connect with
the youth, because we are in the real world. And I was living that life. And I see that's the wrong
direction to go. So now, I feel is requires discipline, to hold back when you're angry. To not throw
a punch, you have to stay calm, be patient is what Islam teaches. It's easy to to let out profanity.
It's easy to be a thug. So that's what we want to talk to. Why do you think more people are inclined
to that? It's easy, but this takes some discipline. And they kind of go towards the easier right?
Let's discuss this very important. Fantastic. Let me begin by saying Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa
		

			salatu salam, O Allah, for those who don't know, that means In the name of Allah, and All praise is
due to Allah? And may He extol and send blessings of peace upon his final messenger Muhammad, and
obviously upon all the profits that he's sent before. Now, take a note just just just I'm sorry to
cut you off. You said a lot. And again, there's a lot of not yet Muslim, they tune in, they hear a
lot they think noon god they think a black box and desert, we gotta say about that. It's just how
you say God in Arabic, you know, you go to, if you go to an Arab country, right Arab country, and
you go into a church, the Bible says or learn Arabic, if you go to a synagogue, for example,
		

			Morocco, Yemen, there are many Jews or Arabs who speak Arabic. And their Bible says Allah as well.
So it's proof. It's the same God not a different God. That's all we're saying. Okay, good. I'm
sorry. Please continue. Now, what I loved about how you began is that you actually said Howdy,
because the prophets of Allah what it says and said, Lisa, she needed the surah he said that the
strong person isn't the one who wrestles people. Because, or lose your temper or use profanity.
That's easy. Anybody can do that. The strong person is the one who contains his anger. No, who keeps
his cool, keeps his temper down. That's a strong person. Because you agree that's, that's harder to
		

			contain yourself than it is to erupt. Anybody can interrupt use bad words. You know, use sign
language, anybody can do. French right? speak French. Yeah. So people, you know, they, they
communicate these ways, and they think there and then they come and boast about these things. They
boast about how they went off on this guy. And then I said this to him, but that's easy. How do you
boast about something that's easy. You boast about something that's difficult. So if someone really
got up in your face, as they say, and you know, was rude and disrespectful and you could contain
yourself, that's something that you can boast about. Not that you just cursed them back. Anybody can
		

			do that. But what is going on now with people even even you find sometimes practicing Muslims if I
can use that term, and they still have that thug thing going on, you know that mentality, they don't
want to smile and shake your hand. They just give you the cold salams What's going on?
		

			Oh, hard and stuff. What's with this hard thing? You know, it's it's pushed too much.
		

			I mean, obviously, and you've interviewed rappers before. And they all said that it's an image,
right? It's not hard all the time. And you don't wake up hard. Yeah, it's an image thing. But there
are these young people, they see it on television, and then they believe it. That's how you have to
be. One group did this kind of a study, if you want to call it, and they just started to interview
kids at high schools, and they would ask them, What is the math and everything that youth would say
back into the camera was violent, or aggressive. And they felt that them and they would use words
like a man is powerful, who is aggressive? You know, he's a good fighter. He takes you know, matters
		

			to his own hands. He does. Everything they were mentioning was aggressive, because that is the media
definition that you get from the mainstream media of what a man is. You're the man is violent, and
the man takes care of issues not not by diplomacy and speaking that's for weaklings. nerds will
finish will solve their disputes that way, you know, the man, he jumps out of his car, takes off his
coat, glasses off.
		

			fisticuffs punches people out, knock people out. Where'd they get this from? So this violence thing
is going overboard, but it's all from, you know, the movies that glorifies the you know, the
fighting the the aggressive behavior, and from,
		

			like, you know, the stuff that you're quoting earlier that the rap music and talking about violence
and how tough they are, how many times you have to listen to a song about how tough a guy is, and in
reality is not tough. He's got a pool boy, he's got a mansion. And, you know, he's living the easy
life. But he talks about how tough he is in the studio all the time. And then people fall for that.
Yeah.
		

			One interesting thing. I really love this in the Quran, when Lockman was was righteous, wise man in
the past, and he was advising his son. So one of the he was giving you a lot of advice, with manners
with life with staying away from worshipping things besides Allah with being good to the parents.
And then one of the things he tells him when he's starting to gives him starts to give him advice on
being humble, and having humility. So he tells him what to say,
		

			in us, and do not air your cheek to people do not turn your cheek to people. Sour is a disease that
afflicts camels, and when it afflicts them, their neck turns, and their face turns to the side.
Isn't it weird, Eddie, that arrogant people in the thugs, they don't walk straight, they always walk
to the side like this. You see a guy walking like this.
		

			Just like the Quran describes the alternative space. So he was advising essentially, don't turn your
face to the people meaning don't become arrogant. Be humble, in how you carry yourself, be humble in
how you deal with people. TLG Have you heard of that? No. What is that? TLG. And I feel that people
just today I just followers, tan,
		

			laundry and gym? Have you heard that? No, never. I guess I'm not a hip like that. So you watch these
reality shows. And these people who are out there glorifying this lifestyle, just more about the
body more about, you know, physical appearances. And they forget, they forget about purifying the
soul. They forget about the reality of death, they forget about returning to their Creator. So these
things, it seems like, you know, we focus more on the physical, our appearances. And then at the
same time, you know, we don't watch our behavior. And again, it just seems again from early on, from
the high schools, public schools, it just seems like the whole culture is making it easy. So how
		

			does someone who has been programmed for so many years? How did they get out of this?
		

			And of course, as usual, any improvement that you can make any self improvement, if it wasn't
possible, Allah wouldn't ask you to do it. So if you couldn't change yourself to become more humble,
and have more humility than Allah wouldn't ask you or require that of you. So the truth is, and the
good news is that you can improve and you can change from you know, being arrogant to being in a
state of humility. You know, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said in the Hadith, Mantovani, la de la
shorthanded deepened meaning whoever humbles himself for the sake of Allah, Allah will raise him and
rank. You imagine it's the opposite. You know, you act all arrogant, and then you get better status
		

			with people, but it's actually the opposite. you humble yourself for the sake of Allah. And Allah
subhanaw taala will raise you in rank. And by the way, you know, a lot of people think, you know, if
you're being humble, that means, again, you're weak, you're letting people step on you. And it has
nothing to do with that. Humility is just the opposite of arrogance, you know, and it's interesting
how arrogance itself, the arrogant people, unless there's not an inner Levine a stack of your own
and by that he said aluna Johanna Mata Hari, those who were too arrogant to worship me a blessing in
the Koran. Those who were too arrogant to worship me they get a punishment that the opposite. They
		

			were enter the Hellfire in the state of humility.
		

			Also the person described that the people were like really arrogant, got their nose in the air. And
they think they're all that, as they say, these people out of out of embarrassment and punishment
alone will raise them on the Day of Resurrection, the size of little ants, and people will not see
them. And there'll be fun not to let people step over them. we humble ourselves. Absolutely. Let's
take a break, we'll be right back. And it's simple to understand, I wouldn't know what the sky look
like what the trees look like, I would have never seen the faces of my beautiful children. If I
didn't have the ability to see how blessed we are By Allah, and obedience was born out of gratitude.
		

			So thank him, call upon him, establish a relationship with him, forget about the past, take it out
of being a ritual and make it a spiritual experience. Islam is not something dubious, unclear, hazy.
It's really straightforward. He said it changed his life.
		

			He said he saw every single episode that we had ever recorded.
		

			Back here on today's show with shake him out with Mickey, we're talking about series business. We're
talking about things that are very important. It's not just about getting 10, doing the laundry, the
clothes getting ready for the nightclub on the weekend, hitting the bench press, that's all you
focused on, you're not thinking about anything else, because you got to go get your honey, you got
to go fulfill your lesson desires, and the woman she demands on the hunt, and the woman is just
acquiring as many phone numbers as she can. So she can have her phone blowing up ringing and it
becomes a whole game, we get caught up into this whole system. And we forget about our purpose in
		

			life, why we've been created. And we start doing things that are displeasing to the one who created
us.
		

			Why is this? Again, I keep asking the million dollar question. Why are people more inclined to this?
nowadays? Right. And obviously, you know, if I were to take the easier route, I'll just say, you
know, it's it's lack of Eman, a lack of, you know, belief, or the belief is weakened people's
hearts, a lack of knowledge. When the dunya becomes the new meaning this material world becomes
great in people's hearts, you know, and because the dunya is great, and people's hearts, people envy
them each other, hate each other because of things of the material world, like, you know, even a
good person will see someone with a nice vehicle and they'll envy that and they'll be jealous of
		

			him. You're only jealous because a couple of things. One, this material world is great in your
heart, otherwise, it's just a piece of metal, it wouldn't have mattered to you that the material
world has become great in people's hearts. The other thing, also you find people you know, their
work code, meaning their trust and their reliance and allows weak. You know, Allah owns everything
in the heavens and the earth. If a guy has a Ferrari, Allah gave it to him, he could give it to you.
So don't worry about it. Or maybe he's not giving it to you for a good reason. So don't worry about
it. But because material things have become so great in our hearts, that that we want to express who
		

			we are through our material possessions. Yeah. And so you'll find even some you find some very
hollow people who will they won't even have a car, but they'll have a Mercedes Benz kitchen or
they'll just twirl it around like this as they talk to girls and stuff. Yeah, but you got to see the
the bending symbol, you know, the three point star right? Yeah, trying to show that I got a Benz and
the guy is taking the city bus, you know? Yeah. So because the world has become so great in people's
minds and hearts, that they always try to express who they are through their belongings and through
their possessions. Some cities, I'm not gonna say which cities but in certain cities where most
		

			people don't drive, I think I gave it away. People try to express who they are through what they're
wearing. So they try to wear the flashiest outfits. Other states, for example, where you know, it's
not really about what you wear. It's about the car that you drive. So people will put everything
into that car. Yeah, I remember one time I dropped off. Some people at a homeless shelter, they were
staying there. And there was a guy with a brand new Lexus living at the homeless shelter. So for the
moments when he's out of the homeless shelter driving the Lexus, everybody would look up to him
like, Oh, he's got money, but he doesn't even have a house. The guy's homeless, and he's broken, is
		

			unemployed. But he put everything into this car. So he can live that fake image, you know, and also
it brings to mind the Hadith of the Prophet Allah mentioning. And he said, some people in the worst
position or the worst of people, one of them is good, like someone who is poor, yet he's arrogant.
Would it being arrogant about the guy's poor, he's got no money, but he's still being arrogant. So
you'll find the guy who's homeless. He puts everything that he has into a car, then he will drive it
looking all arrogant, like he's, he's living the life. So this is this the easy way this is easy to
be a thug, to act out of line to go and lift some weights. He there's nothing wrong with lifting
		

			weights. There's nothing wrong with being clean doing your laundry and all this stuff. But now, it
takes some discipline to control yourself. To stay away from evil. This requires some effort and
work but isn't the outcome better than just
		

			living according to your lesson desires, absolutely. I mean, the prophet Selim even promised us
that, you know, those who were humbled and don't have that attitude and all of that and, and think
too highly of themselves, the process lm said mantova de la Hakata. So the Selim said, whoever
humbles himself to a lot like this, then he turns his hand downwards, and he lowers it all the way
down near to the ground, the narrative says, then he's then he turns it he says, a whole lot or a
low raise him if Allah hakodesh, then he turns his hand is a low raising like this. And he starts
raising his hand up up higher, not until he went as high as he could go. So you humble yourself a
		

			low res you whether it means as what people think of you in the community, your position, your
actual rank, your status, or your rank with Allah subhanaw taala as well, to Allah would raise you
from acting humble, not from being like a thug. Now, someone might be watching the show now. And
they'll argue, well, we see all these people who act arrogant and act like thugs, and people look up
to them. Yes, it's not the opposite of what you're saying. Well, in the end, people look up to them,
what kinds of people look up to them? Yeah, most of the you, you will see that they're worthless
people who look up to them, because Allah describes this in the Quran describing for own Pharaoh. He
		

			said, First, the huffer como for Otto was the Hakama photo Yanni. It means he belittled his people.
So they respected him. He they respected him when he treated them like dirt, which means they have
no self worth, they don't have self respect. Because no one would self respect. If you treat them
like dirt. They say, look, I want to deal with this person anymore. But the person will respect you
if you if you treat them like dirt, themselves, low lowly individual. So if we're if you're telling
me these rappers that act like arrogant and they act like thugs, and they get respect from people,
they're getting respect from people who have no self respect, that's number one. And the second
		

			thing they respect is limited to what they have and to their status, you know, any of these
		

			for any of these rappers or what have you, they become less popular, nobody remembers them anymore.
You know, if one rapper steps out of the limelight, and next day, the next guy is, is popular, and
nobody remembers him anymore. Yeah, I don't think we need to mention any names. Right? So tell us
why do you think many of the youth they join gangs?
		

			a number of things sense of belonging, you know, also to feel important. Human beings, psychologists
say they're social beings. So they want to belong, right. And people also need to want to feel
important. Everybody loves loves themselves, you know, if anyone tells you they don't love
themselves, hit him on the face and see what they can defend themselves. Because they love
themselves. Yeah, of course, don't do that. But the idea is people love themselves, right. And they
tell you, like, you know, everybody loves their name, even the letter of your name, if you see it,
		

			you know, under studies, they'll see that your brain will light up more when they see the letter of
your name, you know, so if you see an E, your brain will light up more than a B, if I see a K, my
brain would light up more. So everybody loves themselves. When you look at the class photo, the
first thing you look, you look for yourself, you're like, what, where's Jimmy, you look for
yourself, right? So people love themselves, they want to feel important, and they want to feel
needed as well. And they want to feel part of a group. And so a lot of youth, then instead of going
to the right group, instead of going to their mosque, their message to the community, you know, to
		

			the shift to the righteous people in the might get lost a little bit and then look for a sense of
belonging with that kind of group. And it's amazing the kinds of things people will do to become
accepted by a certain group of individuals. Like they'll go to the point, you know, you've heard
about hazing. Of course, hazing actually has a lot of psychology in it. When when someone does
something ridiculous related to hazing, like they'll make someone you know, dress in his underwear
in the winter and run across, you know, in front of people. They actually because they're doing
something so ridiculous, they convince themselves that I really want to be part of this group.
		

			That's why I'm willing to go as far as doing something so ridiculous, and humiliate myself, because
I want to be part of this group, human beings have that need to belong. And gangs offer that
unfortunately offer that Yeah, so we're going to continue more asking some more questions here, in
addition, and we'll know where it's like, when did you think that you had no purpose?
		

			Are you worthless?
		

			The value comes from purpose.
		

			Your purpose in life is to worship the Creator, not worship your desires himself, not worship,
social pressure, the celebrity culture of worship, the thing that's much higher and transcendent,
above and beyond by worshiping God and seeking His pleasure, you get pleased. So you have double
pleasure.
		

			We're here on the D show. Thank you for joining us, and we're talking about it's easy to be a thug.
It's easy to follow your lesson desires, but it takes a little more effort on doing the good things
that the creator's told us to do.
		

			And I think that's the cool thing. People feel that that's not cool. But how can we again, bring it
home? where that is not the cool thing, being disrespectful to your parents, being disrespectful to
your teachers, being disrespectful to your classmates, being disrespectful to your peers, that's not
cool. What's cool is being respectful, being dignified, showing humility, bring it home, ship
oxygen, you know, I love blaming the media. What's wrong with that album? And I studied, I studied
media production, I studied communication. So we studied the theory behind television, the theory
behind radio, all kinds of things related to that. And one of the things is that, you know, this is,
		

			you know, the media, they claim that it doesn't affect people's behavior, but it will affect what's
in the forefront of your mind. Right? So if a young person sees that the proper way is the
respectful guy, as you're saying, the humble guy is always presented as the square the nerd you
know, you always see the proper guy who uses proper language and has a shirt tucked in Where's his
glasses is always like socially inept. It's always the nerd and the clown. Even in sitcoms, even in
children's sitcoms, you know, this Disney Channel, they have these early sitcoms for kids. They
always show the cool guy is kind of disrespectful and kind of, you know, carefree and what have you.
		

			And then the proper guy is always uncool. So then they get this image, you know, being proper and
right and good in language and respect and manage your uncool. You know, you're socially inept,
you're a nerd, and it was dressed them up with bow ties and stuff like that. Yeah. But then the guy
who is got Batman, it's got a little bit of attitude. He cracks, the funny jokes and everything in
front of him in class. He's the cool guy. So then it remains and then they want to act out the
certain scenes in the classroom, fun. A lot of kids now disrespecting the teacher trying to be funny
trying to disrespect, disrupt the class, because they learned that's what it is to be cool. But of
		

			course, who will is uncool on the Day of Judgment, right? Whatever is cool here. I mean, if whatever
is wrong, and that people make is cool, it's uncool on the Day of Judgment, that's my next that
leads me to my next question, the day of judgment, and before that, to help people realize the
seriousness of this matter, that def is approaching. And can you just explain emphasize what will
happen in the grave when you die? And that Angel medical mode, angel comes to take you so?
		

			Well, you know,
		

			everyone thinks they have time to repent, or it's not going to happen to me. And they told you also,
this is one of the things that happens in the minds of youth, they always think the accident will
happen to the other guy, but not to me. So we always think that death will come to me in my
deathbed, when I have my family around me, but I'm not I'm not the guy who's going to be killed in
the street suddenly going to work going to school. But the truth is, it will happen. And it does
happen to people, young and old. And so when you die, you have to be prepared for it. When the Angel
of Death comes to you, you can't repent anymore. And when you're put in your grave, you're going to
		

			be asked three questions. Now, even if you studied these questions in school, you can't answer it
unless you're a believer, who's your Lord? And only believer can answer that someone who read a book
about Islam didn't become Muslim can answer this question believer who's a believer, one who
worships the One God alone without any partners, not his creation, and the lives in his messenger in
his messenger. That would include all the preceding messengers, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, all of them.
Absolutely. And all the books and all the angels, you have that belief, you're a Muslim, and then
doing all the good that God Almighty is called to do is staying away from the evil because it's not
		

			enough. It's not good enough to just know that there is a God because you need to do it. Even worse,
absolutely. So you can't answer these questions in the grave. Who's your Lord, who's your prophet?
What is your religion? So that's why you have to become Muslim. You have to repent, you have to
abide by the rules and forget what's in the media, okay? And a Muslim is simply one who submits this
creed. That's what it means not till men so a monkey was created. That's it, and you get rewards for
just tell us briefly now you get rewards that if you want to be a thug, you want to act out of
control, but you contain yourself, do you get rewards for leaving off the evil and doing good to
		

			motivate them to do more good than rather than evil acts on the creator? Absolutely. Anybody who
lives thuggery gets the reward for living Matt and Sharla. And you get the good deeds. Absolutely.
You get the good deeds and some, some scholars say even whatever bad deeds you have, when you repent
can be converted into good deeds, and nothing's better than not great. This is great. Thank you
again for being my pleasure.
		

			Thank you, and you got to get some good advice. Don't be a thug. be someone who is doing good, being
good and calling others to good because you got one shot you got one life to live. So you can go
ahead and keep following your lesson desires and die in a bad state, or you can worship the one God,
not his creation, followed the last and final message that was sent to mankind.
		

			Mohammed peace be upon them. And then you can be in a constant state of self development striving to
be the best human being that you can be and then at the end result is paradise. And that's what
we're striving for. We'll see you next time. God willing peace to you.