Mufti Menk – He Reveals ALL on why he came BACK to Islam! #Unplugged with Sh. Wael and

			I have with me today one of my colleagues and one of my closest circle of friends.
		

			He is comes from Australia. His name is Sheikh while Ibrahim sitting on my left.
		

			He has, he's my slightly older brother. There is a gap of few weeks between me and him. So he's
slightly older brother but I've been a grandfather I have more experience in that in sha Allah. And
		

			he Allah has blessed him with something unique you know today we have the age of *, the
age of *, people are looking at dirty things their people are advertising in a dirty way
that you want to sell. You want to sell for example, a tire you know tire Dunlop or Bridgestone you
know Bridgestone
		

			in order to get the men to look at the quality of the Bridgestone. Do you need a naked lady sitting
next to the tire? Are you understanding how cheap they made the women they made a woman so cheap
that they said you must stand naked and you stand Bridgestone when he thinks Bridgestone is oh that
lady at that advert? I remember I remember you see, that's how the world has become. Am I right?
Yeah. So it's crazy how they are playing with the mind. We have sometimes addictions to some things,
we don't even realize we are addicted to this. You see, like for example, sometimes we are addicted
to Jollof. We don't even realize we need it without that callus My stomach is still empty. Why there
		

			was no Jollof you see. So Brother wine Ibrahim has specialized in something unique to help people
without prejudice. Without her to hate without belittlement anyone who is addicted and has
behavioral addictions, this is where you go. They have the AWARE Academy which is also professional,
it is run in a very good way people go there, they don't make you think you you are not a Muslim I
have a problem. For example, I need to say to someone who can help me Look brother, I have this
problem. If they are true leaders and through mentors, they will not judge you. They will help you
come out of it. Come when you are out of it you will be a great person. So people have all these
		

			addictions so I want him to speak to us only because not necessarily about addictions itself. But
just because Allah gives everyone an approach of addressing people when I talk to you me I have my
own style. You know it isn't it my own style. Some of the Muslims from here they have their own
style, isn't it? And some of them they will scream and shout at you when you are sitting there am I
Muslim or did I Is there something happening here? Am I right? Some of them they scream and shout
and some of them they are so every approach it affects and impacts the people. So the reason why I
want to ask him to speak is because inshallah he will be able to share some something with an
		

			Australian flavor with an Egyptian flavor with a Hong Kong flavor and with a Filipino flavor.
Because his wife is Filipino. She is an amazing sister. I know her personally. His children
Mashallah. They are amazing. And he He's originally from Egypt. He lived in the forest story. No, I
must tell you a story. You must tell something else. Shala so that is my brother. And what a
wonderful guy if you know him, you will love him. So here goes chef while the while Ibrahim, please
give us a few good words. May Allah bless you so I call him for life but I care to everyone because
I can look here. A lot of mortal human hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah I'm so glad I
		

			heard about brother Yeah, but I don't know who brother yeah huh yet.
		

			Who do you think is probably I think the person next to you but I mean, nobody introduced him
brother. Yeah.
		

			I don't know. I heard the name. Who is he? The one who is almost about to massage your feet
		

			just so I can laugh at him. May Allah bless the home the inhabitants of the homes and everyone and
now McSteamy put me on the spot as always mashallah barnacle Luffy it's a good spot. All right, the
thing that I want to mention which I believe it had a lot of impact on people is my own personal
story and how I became who I am today, from the dark side. To today to where I'm here you know where
I'm at the moment and that is how I started my life growing up loving music life, you know the life
of the nightclubs and weddings and and other vices. We don't want to any go into the details. But
that was me before. Allah subhanaw taala has guidance. And the reason why I always mentioned this
		

			story is that there are many people up until today are into these vices, where the music anyone into
gaming
		

			Anyone into gaming in the jno Allahu Akbar masala robotic Allah, how about movies? Don't worry move
to make gonna judge you
		

			when you judge anyone into movies, yeah, songs, TV series sitcom and whatnot. So all these things,
all these things usually. Yeah, I know, I know.
		

			All these things sometimes take us from reality and put us into that imaginary lifestyle that made
us depressed about who we are and what we are experiencing, and so on. So that was me back in the
days, I wanted to become famous. I wanted to become, you know, admired by people and so on until I
reached a point that I didn't have passionate about anything in my life other than music and
singing, start disobeying my parents and so on. story short, I went to Hong Kong city, I got married
to a Catholic lady because I didn't care about religion at the time. And in Hong Kong city, I became
even more adamant to become famous. And I ran after that singer named Leslie Chang and all of a
		

			sudden, in the middle of all these, you know, effort to become someone like him, he committed
suicide.
		

			And that took me into a phase of depression for about six months. I don't recall that, that period
in my life, until it started to awake again. My wife told me what happened. And slowly slowly I
wanted to pray I was on an antidepressant. There were so many medications so I just wanted to pray.
The only thing that came into my mind is I wanted to pray. So as I just put something to pray on, no
will do no direction, no cable and nothing. I just wanted to pray hospital Allah, Allah, I just say
I wanted to pray. So I say Allah, I remember how to pray. My parents taught us how to pray. And as I
was prostrating, I remember a man back in the days my father used to take us to the masjid. And he
		

			will literally throw us into the masjid and he will tell the man, teach them how to pray.
		

			So I remember this man, I don't know why while while I'm in prostration. Did you guys remember
sometimes while we're praying, remember worldly matters, like you know.
		

			So this too happened to me that moment, but I remember that guy who used to to teach us how to pray.
And he used to say when you pray, remember the Kaaba in front of you, Jana on your right Hellfire on
your left, and the angel of death waiting for you to finish so you can take up your soul. And as I
was saying, As salaam alaikum wa Rahmatullah my wife was standing behind me angel of death. I
thought, I thought so. And subhanAllah my wife was very intrigued by the sujood position. And she
started asking me question of the Quran, I was so ignorant about my own faith.
		

			But prayers had left an impact on my wife to a point that she couldn't sleep. And she asked me to
pray with her. Like she said, You teach me how the Muslim pray, but I don't want to become a Muslim.
That was her condition to show me how you guys praying? What do you say, but I don't want to become
a Muslim. I love Jesus. She used to say, Jesus, I will never betray Jesus, that was my wife. And
okay, so I stood in front, and she was at the back and I saw praying, and we really check into this
room. I heard my wife from behind crying,
		

			crying like a baby like with with voices and noises. And so when we finish there, why were you
praying she said, God is worthy to be worshipped like this. This is this is how God should be
worshipped. And a few days later, she took her shahada, she became a Muslim, and many weird things.
Many, many miraculous things happen. Actually, after that, my wife started calling her mom in the
Philippines, my wife's from the Philippines. And she invited her to slam she was telling her You
must become a Muslim. And I was like, looking at my wife as I should be doing what she's doing.
Because, you know, I'm, I'm an Egyptian Muslim, I should be doing this. And then, slowly, slowly, we
		

			traveled to the Philippines, her father became a Muslim, her brother became a Muslim sister in law
become a Muslim. Her mom became almost 16 years later, and she died as a Muslim and Hamdulillah. But
during those those period, Masjid was established in the Philippines, the whole neighborhood. So
your life changed while like everything slowly, slowly, everything has changed. And then the reason
why I got into studying Islam is the constant questions that my wife was, you know, asking every
single day asking me things about sound. I didn't know any anything. So I started looking into
studying why am I telling you this personal story? Because I really hate seeing people repeating the
		

			same vicious cycle, repeating the same mistakes. I became depressed because I was running after the
dunya. The guy who committed suicide that I was looking up to, he left a note a suicidal note in his
hotel room with one word, anyone can guess what was that word?
		

			Anyone did
		

			Question. So money, fame, all this. You know, he was titled The agent's biggest superstar. That was
his title. People will travel from all over Asia to attend his concerts and new movies and whatnot.
And nothing. None of that, you know, these thrilling channels offered him anything but depression.
So I don't want I hate looking at people telling them that Be careful. Life is too short. I have
seen many of my friends who were in my in my band who died actually in drug addiction or in drug
overdose in front of my very eyes. So I just thought perhaps my story can uplift somebody else and
may Allah subhanaw taala grant the sincerity and just like in law heightened for the invitation
		

			chakra Mufti. MashAllah introduction. Thank you