18 – Returning Back to Islam

Bali show, Episode 18 returned back to Islam. This podcast has been brought to you by half our Dean calm and Muslim marriage website designed for those who want to find that other half privately because the only people that should know you're looking to get married or people who are looking to get married. Try half our Deen today. There are many Muslims out there who are caught up with the temptations of dystonia. For some they're just born into the religion and Islam was never really explained correctly to them. So it's just a bunch of rituals mixed up with culture. But for others, they know Islam is the truth, but they're surrounded by the wrong crowd of people deep down. They

know that their lifestyle is wrong. They want to change but they have no idea how to return back to a slam. This episode is dedicated to them. Let's do this.

In a world where cultural Muslims have confused the masses, and speakers are forced to be politically correct.

Hey, man, why Oh, serious. This is just a podcast.

until the age of 20 years old, I had no idea what Islam was. A few friends and myself decided to go to an Islamic camp. And that's where we all discovered this beautiful religions. Some of us came back as Muslims then some of us did not one of my friends and I came back from the camp and quickly found ourselves in the path of studying this religion in detail. We were weekly classes, surround ourselves with people of knowledge and more importantly, start to transition out the friendships that were a bad influence. Of course, this process was much more difficult than making it sound. It was definitely a challenge. Some of the others in our group also learned that Islam was the truth,

but they kind of drifted away. One of those friends drift is so far away that I lost contact with them for nearly 13 years. We not only discovered each other after a long period of time, but we also discover we took two different paths in life. My guest today is that friend, and today his life is completely different. He not only returned to Islam, but he became a famous spoken word artist that has toured around the world. He take large audiences with his inspiring words, but he's not performing. He's volunteering his time serving the Muslim community. He's happily married has two children and his name is Jose bezahlt. Welcome to the Bob Marley show. I salaam aleikum, WA Alaykum

wa rahmatullah. How are you, bro? hamdulillah How are you doing? Brother? I'm delighted dude. I just had some Thai I am good to go.

So I would ask you, you know, a bunch of us went to that camp many years ago. And as I said in the intro, some of us came back and it was a transition process. You know, I was wondering what was going through your mind at that camp? What do you remember from it? You know what, it was beautiful about that camp. It was the first time you saw Islam in effect, you know, like, we always knew the concept that Islam is a religion of peace. It's a religion of brotherhood. There is you know, there's no pride, there's no arrogance. When we were there. That was the first time we saw people like brothers from all different cultures, races, nationalities, everyone's treating you like,

literally like your brother. Like, I'm like you and I actually what was like, why these people so nice to know me, you felt so much love, didn't you? Yeah, everyone's loving, everyone's unifying it came, it came time for so long, everybody would line up. What really got to me was that after all the fun activities, we actually sat down and listened to some of the lectures. And those were very motivating. But what really, really changed me was the discussions we had at the dinner table, the interactions with the different people at camp. Yeah, that was that was true. That was when we actually like you saw other people embrace it, talk to how much they loved Islam, and how they

embraced it, and what they went through to get there. And you're like, Wow, man, I should really be appreciative of what I have, you know, we, you and I were born in, you know, households where religion was never implemented on you know, me. So sad to actually hear about, you know, we watched I remember, we watched the movie, the message, and we watched Malcolm X, you know, these movies that came out like early 90s. And that showed Islam and a pro positive manner and you're like, Wow, this is awesome. But then when you actually went to these kind of camps, and you saw people actually embracing it, it's like that theory was put into practice. You saw the Brotherhood you saw the love

you saw the Unity you saw the community all that in front of you and you're like, Wow, this is awesome. And that's what I think made us both intrigued that we wanted more of it you know, trips me out of the kind of group we went to camp with.

It was me you another brother, who was kind of like really on the bad track. We had a girl with purple hair. We had a guy from Nation of Islam. We had one guy who thought we were going to go camping

I had no idea just like Islamic lectures at different him it was like the worst camp ever like Dude, all you guys do is pray. You guys wake up and you pray and then you nighttime you pray and then we eat lunch and then you pray and then we take a break and then you pray.

He had a completely different experience. But for us, we came back and we saw like the light and was like sapana This is such an amazing thing. I know for me and one of the brothers, we came back from the camp, and immediately we just want to learn everything in anything about Islam. And it just took me a completely different direction than I was how was your experience? You know, it's funny when I came back, and I told my parents and my family like, yeah, this is the camp and and went to and all that stuff, they immediately started freaking out, you know, what do you mean, you're praying? What, what do they teach you? And I'm like, what, but relax, I'm just, you know, I just learned about

Islam and how we should be praying five times, and you know, all these things, that things that unfortunately, unfortunately, they never instilled in us, you know, they just told us, you know, be a good person, you know, just get good grades, just get good grades. And that was like, the main thing, as long as you got good grades, hadn't done that everything was good, but you know, searching for all those years, then not having any implementation, any direction. I wish, like, right now have the lemon. Whenever eight comes around me and my my wife who makes such a big deal at home, and we do like balloons and you know, decorations throughout the house. I look back. I'm like, Man, I wish

I had this going up. You know, I mean, Bro, I had no idea what it was.

I didn't know what it even existed. So it was like what and then when I learned about Islam, it wasn't like, Oh, I kind of knew this stuff. Like for example, one of the things that really really shocked me was the relationships between men and women. I didn't know at guys and girls like there was like rules between men and women. Because as we were growing up, there was no rules everything and everything happens. You got boyfriend, girlfriend, all that stuff is just normal. We get into this camp and we're learning that Wait a second. Oh, guys and girls can't be like best friends and we can't be doing this and that together. There's no boyfriend, girlfriend relationship. What's

going on? These people are crazy. Yeah. And then we actually started thinking about it and realizing that what this stuff actually makes a lot of sense. Yeah, because I mean, end of the day, man, everything in Islam. Everything that we're taught is done for a reason. It isn't somebody made it up or something. meet Allah subhanaw taala knows us better than we are so people can sit there as much as they like and say no man, it's all good. Everything in moderation. No man, I know myself. I know myself. Allah knows you better than you know yourself. If he created you, he knows what's best for you. So we came back from the camp and I had a complete different experience. I went with one

direction with one of the brothers wind up in a weekly Holika studying Islam, studying Quran studying everything in anything about Islam, Islamic history, just name it and we kind of drifted apart. I don't remember very clearly what happened. Do we just lose each other's contact? Do we just like, surround ourselves with different friends? And eventually I don't know what happened. What do you what do you remember? You know, honestly, it wasn't like we were on bathrooms or anything. It just started shaken doesn't yell at you. He whispers right. So everything is like little here, little there, Mr. Silva here, Mr. Juma there shaytan will never come to you directly and say, just

give up your entire religion and just live you know, a hedonistic lifestyle. So what happened was I you and I think we're going to different schools at that time. And usually when we hang out more often, but you know, slowly, I started kicking it with this person started kicking with that person. And these people weren't necessarily the best influence to be around. I believe there's a hadith that said, you know, you are the religion of your closest companion. So always you have to choose wisely. If you have friends that are close, and we're trying to stay focused on the deen, then if anything, they're gonna catch you when you're slipping. Because none of us are perfect, right? Every

day. We have up and down days will be man some days were better some things were not. So if we have somebody catching us, like Hey, man, you know, I noticed I didn't see you gentlemen, what's going on you okay? That, uh, you know, somebody helping you to keep you in check without any, you know, someone forcing it down your throat. And at the same time, you know, it encourages you to strive to be better, because also a you feel like I'm not alone. I'm not the only person you know, it's like when I'm walking down the street, and I see a sister walking wearing hijab. I might not even say anything to her. But just the fact that I see her wearing the job, and I go about my way and she

goes about her way. It makes me feel good to know that hamdulillah there's someone else in this world that's striving to please Allah, you know that I'm trying the best. And then you feel like, Okay, I'm not the only one, you know, safaga you're so right on that. And you know, when I came back from the camp, I was slipping for a bit and one of the brothers who also accepted a sophomore camp, he pulled me back in and if he wasn't there, aloha island where I would have been hamdulillah. It's just like, I really, really learned that surrounding myself with the right people makes a night and day difference. As you said, you surround yourself with certain people and it took you down a

different path. I surround myself with different people. And even though I was about to go down the wrong path, he was there to catch me when I slip. So what about yourself what happened after the camp? So what happened was basically slowly but surely, I started losing contact with you and the other brothers and I just started hanging out with a whole different crowd. And you know, the whole time I still felt no man, you know, I still have a connection with Allah, I still have my connection with Allah, basically shaytaan brainwashes you to the point that thinking that whatever you're doing is fine. And you know, just live your life the way you feel is best. You don't need Islam. You don't

need any religion. You don't need anyone telling you but in actuality, if you look at this, if you were to do this and everyone would be creating their own religion, because everyone was following their own way of life.

Their own, you know, he didn't stick style and doing whatever they want to do. What happened was I little by little started chipping away. While I was so funny that I ironically, one day landed on this was the days of MySpace. So about 13 years had gone by since being you had seen each other. And I was going through somebody's MySpace back then. And I saw this like, you know, little square of a YouTube thing. And I'm like, What is it and I look and I'm like, this looks like alley. So I clicked on it. And I clicked on it. And I didn't know about it about this stuff, like new and I hadn't talked for, like 13 years. And I click and I'm like, oh, wow, it is alley, I saw the video and just

listen to you talk reminded me of what Islam was and what we both believe what we both knew was the truth. And, you know, just like, just like, when you hear a song on the radio, the minute you hear it, it reminds you of the era when you first were listening to it or whatever, and just listen to talk about Islam reminded me and like that was the only time in my life I had peace, because I had gone through like 13 years of just completely living the other life of practicing, you know, Islam. I had, you know, I was like, asked her, you know, getting girls getting money getting cars, and I would think that, you know, obtaining these materialistic things will make me a better person or

make me happier. You know, I mean, and you see that even people who are rich in society today, they end up committing suicide because you realize that materialism nothing on this earth will ever replace the love for Allah. If you're not a slave of Allah than your slave or something, you're slave to your desires your slave to women, you're saving money. At the end of the day, none of these things are going to give you true contentment unless you're devoting yourself to a look. It's funny because it's like it never ended. Societies will tell you you need to be in these kind of clubs, you need to be with these kind of girls, you need to be driving this kind of car, you need to be wearing

these kind of clothes. And the minute I get it, I'm like, okay, fine, this is it. I gotta get it, I would get this car and as soon as I get this car, another car would come out that you know, it's better than mine. Oh, I gotta get this one out. Or I would get with this girl and then before I know another girl will come and you know have to go after this girl. It never ended. It's like a it's like a hamster in in you know, those little wheels that are constantly spinning. And that's what society brainwashes people to believe that if you just go after materialism, you just focus on your yourself and don't worry about other people, you're gonna find contentment and happiness, but it's

nothing but a lot. It got to the point it I'm not kidding, where there was a time where I would look at myself in the mirror, and I wouldn't recognize who I was. And I mean, like, I knew who I am. And I and I knew Islam was the truth. But I felt that I had gone so far away from Islam that I was like, Who am I man? Like, I didn't even know who I was. I'm like, is this one is this what I'm gonna be? Is this where I'm going? You know? And I realized like, I need to make a change in my life. I realized like just watching your video about Islam made me intrigued to learn more about someone said, Man, you know what, like, I knew some of the truth I knew when I was young I was actually

having peace and contentment. Let me see there's other stuff on Islam that was in a positive manner because again, this was like seven years ago, and already the Islamophobic rhetoric was out there. So anytime like today, anytime Islam or Muslims are mentioned in the media, it's completely negative. It's completely, you know, derogatory, it's, it's done to try to tarnish the DEA, you know, and no matter how much people try to you know, tarnish something if it's true if it's you know, from a law it's gonna no matter what people say it's gonna you know, prevail in the end. So let me ask you, you came back from the camp and then you went this wrong direction but felt empty

you felt that piece that you got at that camp and you had with Islam wasn't there anymore, because you tried to replace it with materialistic things that just didn't fill the void. What made you want to return to Islam and the reason I'm asking this is because a lot of people who are listening are probably going through what you're going through their born Muslims, many of them know Islam is the truth and they're trying to transition back and deep down they want to do what they know it's wrong with their lifestyle they're living and what was going through your mind what made you want to come back you know what it was man, it came down to basically just remembering the only time in my life

The only time in my life I had true peace true contentment was when I was practicing Islam See, the thing is a lot of people were born Muslims if you say and you talk to them you say like you know, man, why don't you come to you know pray and or why don't you come to Juma What's going on? I don't see you anymore the mosque What's going on? They'll tell you you know, you know what, man I'm a good person but end of the day you don't realize you're corrupting your own heart. It's like living in this world is going to contaminate your your soul, regardless of what internal believes you're going to strive to have. Because belief is different. Just belief with action, right? We could say I

believe in a last one oh tala and I believe in hamato. Salaam, and therefore it's okay. I can just do all these horrible activities. When I get older, I'll go I'll be more religious or I'll go to Hajj and you know, everything will come together where this is straight, nothing but a lie because at first we know that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. So we could go at any moment. So there's no guarantee there are people lying in their graves right now wishing they had like just a second chance to come back and do one more slot. And we have that chance we don't take it. The belief alone is nothing right? Because if you think about it, shaytaan believes in Allah. She talks

believes that Mohammed Salah Salam is the Messenger of Allah che Tom believes in the Day of Judgment, say Tom believes in the angels say Tom believes in all these things. What's the difference between him and us? Right? He's guaranteed help, we have a chance to improve ourselves. And a lot of us just neglected and say it's okay, as long as I believe in

Allah. So again, it comes back to belief and action. And I got to the point where I'm like, I know Islam is the truth. I know what I should be doing. Nobody was putting a gun to my head saying I need to be, you know, quote, unquote, religious, but I felt like, you know, what, if there's any a time in my life that I had peace, it was when I was practicing some, and I'm gonna slowly walk back into it. And I'm not kidding you a loss shows you signs that you never imagined. Okay, I'll give you a perfect example. One time I was with a bunch of guys, right. And we're sitting in a car and they're smoking. And at this point, I stopped smoking. I wasn't into smoking anymore at that point, but I'm

like, you know what, I just want to kick it with them. Why? Because the same reason why people go to clubs, and they spend, you know, ridiculous amount of money, and they get in toxicated, and all this stuff, and they do all this stuff. There's only for like, one reason why so that a Monday morning when they go back to work or school and people say would you do this weekend, they have something to say, that's it. 99% of the people were in these clubs, or who had bars or had these, you know her on places, they're there only because they want to occupy the space to say they did something. But at the end of the day, everybody goes home, and everyone feels the same way. They're like, Oh, this is

just another night it was the same thing, the same type of people, the same crowd, and no one really walks away like humbler? You know, I've benefited, like, take that, for example. And somebody who goes, when you go to an awesome like, Muslim convention, you are like, man, I learned so much love, like I like I really benefited myself. When you when you get involved in certain things. They, they never truly benefit you. So it came to the point where I was with these guys. And they were, they were smoking and I was just sitting there and one of the guys just started coughing really loud.

Sorry, man. Sorry. The other guy was trying to be funny, and he's like coffer. Right? Now. He's trying to be funny and saying coffer as in one who coughs but in Islam, we know what costs are the means, right? I just read him said and I was like, I didn't say anything. None of the other guys in the car knew what that meant or anything. And I was like, whoa, oh, that man that's a sign from Allah that this is the wrong Click, click on hanging with, you know, I need to I need to change myself. The last one autolysis that, you know, if you take one step towards Allah, Allah will take, you know, 10 steps towards you. The same thing happened when I first took that initial step, that

first initial step to come back to Islam. Granted, all this stuff that I knew I did was hard. But I was like, You know what, I've always believed that Allah is merciful. Allah can forgive. And if I just turn back in sha Allah, he'll give me another chance. The fact that I was alive and the fact that I was breathing was proof that I had chance and people who have this mentality of Oh, man, you know what, I'm too dirty to come and pray and I've done so much haraam you know, like alone, forgive me, this is actually like, against the teachings of Islam, right? We're not allowed to lose faith in the mercy of Allah. Right. And so someone would say, like every son of Adam sins, but the best of

sinners are those who repent, that basically we have to realize, you know, people in their mind, they put the sahabas and all these people in such a high pedestal, they make them super human. You know, if we really study the deen and we study the history, you see that man, they were people just like us, and they weren't like, you know, 65 year old uncles that decided to become old religious, they were young, right? They were young, they weren't, they knew the corruption in the society. And they stepped back and said, No, you know what, I'm not going to be a part of this. You know, there were times where I would sit there on certain nights and I would just pull back and park my car on

top of like the hill and see the entire valley notes. You see all these lights, and it will remind me of like proverbs of Solomon, he used to like go up in the cave just escaped from society, because you see how much corruptness there was, there was no sense of true brotherhood. There was no sense of camaraderie of love or compassion. Anybody that would get to know you would get to know you for a specific reason. You know, anybody knows that? If somebody comes up to you and said, Hey, man, how you doing? Like, what does this guy want to try to sell me? What Why? Why is he being so nice? Right? But in Islam, come on, bro. It's like impossible to walk into a Masjid. And people will not

grant you know, come up to you. That's not what they can brother. How are you brother martial. That's unity, man. You can't buy that. You know, I mean, there's, there's no money in the world that can they can buy that. And when it came time for me to actually take that step. And I was like, You know what, I know as long as the truth I knew some back then I had contentment and choose to peace, I'm going to strive for it. And I asked the Lord to help me and guide me even when I was in my bad days, I might have not prayed of stuff that alone. I never prayed five times a day, but I tried to pray at least once a day because I still thought that keeping that connection with Allah is so

important. You know me, I know you accepted us obviously. But did you just say okay, I'm gonna implement all my changes overnight. What did you do? No, of course not. I mean, it doesn't happen overnight. It's a gradual thing. You know, I started listening to more lectures, I slowly started playing this a lot more I said, You know what, I'm going to try to do my five prayers a day and that makes such a big difference, man, it makes such a big difference you know when haha so someone said that, you know those who leave Salah have left Islam

You think like, oh, man, it takes so long or how am I going to do it? I have work. I have school. Oh, it takes five minutes, man, it takes five minutes, people take five minutes for a cigarette break. You know, I mean, you tell me we can't take five minutes to do today. Thank you to the Creator who made you who gave you that job? You know, I mean, exactly. One thing that really motivates me about your story is that each week I remember you gave up something bad. And each week you took on something good. So like, Okay, I'm not gonna drink anymore. And this week, I was trying to at least pray once a week and then next week, I'll be okay. I'm not gonna curse anymore. And that

was one of the harder ones I remember. Yeah.

But now we're trying to pray Okay, I'll pray five times a day but they're all gonna be at night I'll leave because I don't have time to pray. I remember that. I remember Yes, he does something. It doesn't happen overnight. And I knew that what I was supposed to be doing I said you know what, I'm not perfect. I'm but I'm striving to get better and closer to Allah. So I'm going to try my best and and that's the thing like with every you know, Islam says every struggle eventually comes ease. every little step that I did take a lot made it easier for the next step, and the next step, and then I was like, Wow, so panela like, I'd gone through a whole week of praying Salah five times a

day, and I felt so much better. I slept so much better than, you know, I would go to bed I wake up, even though you're waking up earlier to, to, you know, praise your Lord, the fact that you get up or the night you go to bed. And man, I get so much more peace, all the drama, all that nonsense in this society that we're fed, because you when you're with people who aren't looking out for your best interest, then they're only there to use you guy or girl, right? And you get to the point where I was meant I was with girls that guys's home, like why are you with this girl, man, she's only giving you drama. And I was so dependent on just feeling that quote unquote, love because I basically

replaced my love for Allah for the love of this dunya. And when you do that, that's the biggest trick to yourself. Because nothing will replace what Allah can give you. You know, I mean, you'll never ever find that kind of peace and contentment. But I took one step at a time, like you said, there was a time where I knew I should be praying five times a day, and you know, I might have not done it, you know, spread out, I was okay, I'm gonna do it all at once, at the end of the night. Now, remember, you know, that's not the right way to go about it, ultimately, but at the same time I was it was a step. And you know, exam teaches us that basically everything we do, even the smallest

deed, whether good or bad, we're gonna it's going to be presented to us in the Day of Judgment, and who do we know? How do we know that what we're doing today, even the smallest deed that you think, oh, man, it's not gonna make a difference? How do you know it's not going to make such a huge impact on you know, somebody else or someone else's, like that guy who posted your YouTube video on his MySpace, Bro, I don't even know that guy. I don't, I never even talked to that guy. But think of that the fact that he put that on his Facebook page, or sorry, his MySpace page back then, seven years later, I'm humbled. I'm practicing Islam, and every good deed that I've done since I came

back. He gets a piece of that, because why cuz you just posted something up on YouTube. We never know the ramifications of our actions. But all we can do is it you know what, you know, Allah gave me the chance, I'm going to try to just do it. Allah gave me this life, I'm going to use as much of it as I can to do good deeds, because the end of the day, that's what counts, man. You know, when you're when you're six feet deep in the grave. I remember people used to tell me, you know, I used to be so much into my cars and rims and bodykits and this and that and be like, Hey, man, nice car. I'm like, thanks, man. But then, but even that in my heart, I knew like, this car is gonna do

nothing for me when I'm six feet under the ground.

You know, and and that's the thing, you you do all these things. For the same reason a guy will blast his music stereo, from three blocks away is the same reason a girl would walk down the street wearing miniskirt. The only reason is they want attention then they want attention when you deprive yourself of the love of Allah. And it's not because Allah won't give you that love. It's because you stop going to him for love. When you deprive yourself of that, then you start looking for other avenues for love when you leave a lot and say Tom becomes your best friend and you manipulate you to the point to think that Oh, it's okay these people around me These are the people who really care

about me will be with me, they're only there with you because they don't want to be alone. For all the listeners who are listening my advice to you would be would really really changed us after we realized that Islam is the truth and we want to come back to it is we surround ourselves with the right people. And if you're surrounding yourself with the wrong people, and you're still in that is really really hard to get out. It's like being stuck in quicksand. But if you want to get out of that quicksand, as much difficult as it sounds, you have to let go of those people. Those people you call your friends that deep down you know are messing you up and are holding you back from returned

to Allah subhanaw taala you have to learn to let go and then you make dua to Allah subhanaw taala to replace those people with people that are better and anything you sacrifice for the sake of Allah a lower place with something better. So hamdulillah that's what happened to me and hamdulillah This was happened to you too, bro, because a lot of those people that used to hang out with basic push you the wrong way. They're no longer in your life. Right? Yeah. And you know, the thing is that that was the ultimate test that they're my true friends. They will be supportive regardless, right? Because I look back at my friends, man, they were this guy was my friend just because he wanted to

have a drinking buddy.

This guy was my friend because he wanted to do this kind of activity. These are only connection we have. It's like if your foundation is just haraam, then what do you have? You really don't have a true brotherhood and true bond Subhan Allah, Allah Subhan Allah, I'll tell you this as soon as I accepted, like, okay, Allah, you know, I'm gonna try to become a better Muslim as soon as I accepted that all the tests started coming Okay, bro. Okay, do you remember like even I was I was so into my car I was into like, rims and body kit and all this stuff. And as soon as I accepted you and I remember we drove from like one part of the valley all the way to the end, we got in a car accident.

Remember? Remember, the airbags went off? bags went off and right when I accepted Islam, right. And I was like, You know what, this is a sign from Allah. Normally, under any other circumstance, I would have lost my mind because like, my car was my world. But then I realized, you know what, this is a test from Allah. Allah is testing me to see how sincere I am going to be with him and what's important to me, my car him and I was just patient, you know, and I was patient hamdulillah made easier. And the same thing with my friends that the ones that I saw, I'm like, oh man, but these people like they're, they're my true friends. You know, we've been through so much if I you know,

start becoming religious quote, unquote, I might lose their friendship. And I was like, at the end of the day, man, you know what allows that everything for me. You know, no matter what this person is done for me, Everything I have is from Allah. So I rather focus on pleasing Allah then focus on pleasing Him and I believe this idea that says you know, a person who tries to please Allah, while people are displeased with them, Allah will make the people pleased with them as well. But if the person tries to please the people knowing that it's going to disclose a lot, and you know, they're still going to be displeased. So I think that it's like, if you're living your life for other

people, you're never going to find contentment because people will always want you to be a different way always want you to do something else. And it's a constant race, you'll never find true contentment. But when you're like, you know what I'm doing this for my Creator. And I'm doing this you walk away a lot. We'll put that in your heart. You walk away like humbler? You know, like when we break our fast Ramadan. Although it's like crazy 13 hours of fasting and you're starving, whatever when you break your fashion like that. You can't You can't buy that feeling, bro. Are you so right, and Ramadan is just around the corner. and So Paulo as you said, a lot of people that were

living last Ramadan are dead right now. And they can just wish they have another Ramadan. And for those who've gone the different path, this is opportunity to come back inshallah. And hopefully, inshallah this podcast has motivated them for some bizarre, I would like to ask you because you said in the intro, you are very, very talented brother. Because when you came back, you had written lots of poetry. But then your poetry changed, like much more Islamic, much more motivating and you became my shout out this amazing guy who started touring all around the United States, it was amazing, actually toward for those who are listening, we actually toured together quite a bit as well. And

he's amazing. And if you haven't got a chance to check out hoces work, I strongly advise you to go check out you're definitely missing out. Jose, can you give us a link on where people can listen to your spoken word poetry? Sure, you can go see all of it on spoken words, calm that spoken words with a Z at the end. And on there, you'll find the link to my YouTube, there's a link to my Facebook and Twitter and everything you can find me Follow me at hosting bizarre HLS SEINBHIZ ad, same thing for finding me in Facebook. But one thing I like just to wrap up really important. Of course, one thing that really brought me back man, and I remember hearing was that, you know, people do so many wrong

things. And they think, Oh man, I have no hope and so forth. I remember hearing one thing in a lecture and like this really, really motivated me and made me say, you know what, there's still a chance that I'm just paraphrasing, but it was something that if a person turns back to Allah, and they strive to go down the straight path, and Allah will not only reward them, but all the bad deeds they did, right? If their repentance was true, and they really strive to please Allah, all the bad things they did alone will turn those into good deeds. So you think like, oh, man, you know, the scales are going to be so against me on the Day of Judgment, because I know for those 13 years, I

did so much haraam and this and that, but it's like, if it's true, right? I mean, we don't know we put in the effort. And everything is from the law, Allah will decide but at the same time, we have to make that effort. But if it is legit in the sense that Allah will grant it and make it all good deeds, you have nothing to lose, you know, and everything to gain. So no matter what you've been through, no matter what you're done, you know, know how no matter how dirty you feel, because remember, this is shaytans trick shaytaan will try to make you think that you're too impure to go back to Allah. But that's only because he has no chance. We have the chance. Every day we're alive,

every breath that Allah gives you. That's another chance to turn back to Allah until the Angel of Death comes you still have a chance to go back. So if Allah has lost hope in you, why you lose hope in yourself, right? So that's what woke me up to the point I'm like, you know what Allah put me on this earth. Allah made me go through everything and I used to live even when I was in my haram days, it was wrong, right? But like once a year, especially during my birthday, right? I'm not I don't celebrate birthdays or anything like that now but back then every year on my birthday, I would try to go to the masjid by myself, just to thank Allah for giving me another

The day on this earth and I will pray to Allah and I would say y'all love Please guide me to my true friends, please guide me to my true you know, love, please guide me into what's right, the fact that I still tried to believe even if that point point, five 5% chance of human you have in your heart Even if you have that if you strive on to that and you try to have Allah help you Allah will help you man. And you know you knew me when I was when I was in those 13 years you touch base with me if you would have told me like three months prior to knowing again that Jose and you're going to start praying again, you're going to stay away from alcohol and girls and all this stuff I would have

lasting I would have probably cursed at you because I was you know I had a really bad mouth back then I said even that that's part of the reason I actually took into poetry for someone like Allah gave me this tongue. I used it for so much Haram. I said so many bad things. Now that I'm being Muslim, I'm gonna use it for good and maybe inshallah that'll benefit me on the danger of Allah. Allah. We don't know, man. We're all human beings. None of us are perfect. None of us have a guaranteed there's no free ticket the gentleman right, just like I said, just because you say like,

there's no guarantee in that. But the thing is, follow up that belief with action. Because belief by itself is nothing. It's worthless, and shaytans difference between us he has no hope. Whereas we have every day we have a chance, we have hope we have a chance. And that's why he hates it so much. You know, one thing, a really powerful, powerful message I heard from a hottie one time, he said that shaytan doesn't win when you sin Shi Tong wins when you believe that Allah won't forgive you for your sin, and we do so much wrong day in and day out. It's like we live in an infected dunya that it's you naturally going to get contaminated as soon as you step outside the door. But the

thing is, whatever you've gone through the fact that you still have that chance to come back there's more reason to strive and problem also Salam said that, you know, the best way to wipe out a bad deed is to do a good deed after it. So you might do something haram and then you feel so bad. Like, man, stop, follow what did I do and you feel so helpless and hopeless and then you're like, Okay, you know what, I'm just gonna go pray maybe you know, feel better or something. And as soon as you actually accomplish this, you like, oh, you're gonna go pray now. Oh, you're such a hypocrite. They're going to do it. But end of the day, these are all tricks man. He's just trying to do

everything he can to take you away from Allah. Whereas Allah door's always open if if it was really over for you, you would have been dead already. But Allah still letting you breathe. He's still giving you a chance. He's still letting you like okay, maybe you will come back. See, the thing was shaytaan man it's a constant battle one day you might win one day you might lose the point is not necessarily thinking that Oh, I'm gonna win every battle some battles you lose some battles you win. The point is don't give up the war. Don't lose the war. Right look at the bigger picture don't look at just one thing and say that's it I'm doomed. The fact that Allah gave you the chance keep going

keep keep making it better if you stack your sins to the sky We Allah's mercy is always be greater there's no sin in the world that allows mercy will not be greater than that. Don't ever lose hope shaytaan the biggest mistake he did is he had despair he gave up on a loss upon cause mercy on his forgiveness. We know Allah suppose most forgiving, Most Merciful but some people unfortunately have given up and I hope the listeners who are listening won't give up and we'll come back to and return back to Islam inshallah Shalom and you know, but may Allah make us better at the end of the day, Allah subhanho wa Taala judges all we can do is do our best you know mixing see repentance and ask a

lot of guidance for those who are motivated as much as I am who have been inspired by this episode definitely go check out his work you can check it at spoken words with a z.com and with that I want to thank all my listeners who've been listening to this episode and for this podcast you guys have been amazing and you guys have been listening and listening and been telling others to listen because these numbers have grown so upon a lot I now I just asked you guys to please go to my iTunes and leave a positive review in show so others can discover it just alcohol care for my guests Jose bears out for being part of this podcast because he is a listener as well and I think all my

listeners for listening to this episode thing all the way to the end. This podcast was a little bit longer, but it was also a little bit more special. This is Bobby Lee reminding you just in case you forgot, go to Bubba alley. show.com leave me a comment. I'll see you guys later. Assalamu aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.