The Deen Show – A Near DEATH Experience in Hollywood TURNS INTO THIS – AMERICANS LOVING HALAL FOOD
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In Hollywood, in Hollywood, yes, of leaving alcohol, I am pretty
much done with heavy drinking. We're saying that this is the
fastest growing industry, the Halal industry. It is more and
more Americans eat halal food daily. Americans are now knowing
what halal meat is, and they're choosing halal meat over regular
me, expect Halal sales to hit $20 billion this year. That's a third
more than in 2010 and supermarket giant Whole Foods rates Halal
among its fastest growing sellers. We happen to be in the Hollywood
area. Near Death Experience comes about. Felt like it was for a very
long time. We're describing like you were, almost like in between
worlds, the data point to the fact that no alcohol is better for your
immediate and long term health. Halal food, halal food, no
alcohol, no alcohol.
And his final messengers, Muhammad, peace be upon him. This
is our religion, Islam, Islam. This is the
how much respect I have for the faith of Islam. Assalamu, Alaikum,
greetings
of peace. And
I want you guys just to imagine so you're on the Hollywood strip,
you're there for some kind of business deal. You're a Muslim,
and you're looking for a halal restaurant. You finally find one,
and now you're sitting there getting some food, some halal
food. Your business partner there, or a potential business partner
that you can do some business with is in front of you, and you start
eating, and life takes a turn. You start choking on the food. Life is
almost over. You're like, what happens next? Well, my next guest
is going to go ahead and share this story, and also I'm going to
give you this is the halal version of Trump here next to me. Zafar
Rasheed, assalamu, Alaikum. How are you? Alhamdulillah. So I
mentioned Halal version of Trump because he's a mogul in the
industry, real estate industry. You're also been doing real estate
for what, 30 plus years. Yes, you were sharing with me an incredible
story. You're in Hollywood, and I just kind of gave an introduction
to it. So people are like wondering, before we get into some
other questions take us along the way. What happens next? So how did
you end up in Hollywood? Well, I was in Hollywood for some
meetings, business meetings, and meeting with some investors, and
there was a personal friend of mine, who also was, was with me,
and there was a meeting that
we had scheduled as a lunch meeting. And we were, you know,
looking for a halal restaurant. And we happened to be in the
Hollywood area, not too far off of Hollywood Boulevard, and we found
a place, shawarma, place that had some lamb and, you know, chicken,
shawarma and etc. So in Hollywood, in Hollywood, yes, you actually
from a halal restaurant? Yep, just, just not too far from
Hollywood Boulevard, yeah,
you know, obviously a mainstream place. You know, there's lots of
there's lots of people, a very busy area, and it was a very busy
restaurant. Actually, there must be more Muslims around there. In
this area, there's going to area, there must be or they're catering
to the tourists, right? As as, obviously that that area attracts
a lot of tourists. Okay, so now you're sitting down, you find a
restaurant. And I'm like, okay, a near death experience comes about
from, from the lamb, exactly. Yeah. So we order. So we order
food. And the way it, what I remember from the restaurant is,
you know, you get up, you order. It's sort of almost like a place
where you order yourself. You go up to a counter, food comes. And
we sit there, and food, food comes to our table.
Looks amazing, and
and suddenly, you know, you take your, I think I only took, like,
maybe one bite of a lamp piece and, and
honestly, don't remember what happened afterwards for for quite
some time, really, don't even know what really happened. You were
describing like you were almost like in between worlds, like it
was like a dream or something, absolutely, that's what that's
what it felt like, and it felt like a really long dream. So
apparently, what happened is I choked on on the piece of lamb and
and the only thing I remember is choking, you know, gasping from
air, taking glass of water. You didn't make it better with the
water, because I the ice. Yes, ice got stuck in there all.
Life is transitory. It's short. And you, as you are, you're a
successful businessman. I made that kind of opening the halal
Trump, but obviously you're a man of your own. You somebody who's
been in the the real estate industry now for 30 plus years,
and there's so many people out there who are chasing money,
chasing a position, even in you're in Hollywood now, trying to be a
star, right? And I recently, I interviewed a young man who was
somebody who was in the Hollywood scene, Hollywood Hills. He was
with the working for like Kanye West, working for many different a
star celebrities and the magic Johnsons and whatnot. And then he
also he life led him down a different direction. He got out of
that. And so for the people out there, the young and the old, you
know, this is one important lesson to really ponder and think, what's
the purpose of life? Why am I here? Why have I been created? Did
it have you shift now from in that position when you were in did your
life start to take a different turn? Did you start thinking
differently. Oh, absolutely. I mean, first off, you know, I
really
came to the realization that, listen, there's a reason why I was
saved that day. Like it wasn't, it wasn't that far. Man, yeah, he
happened to be there and he was somewhere, but Allah subhanaw
taala saved me that day. And there's, there's definitely a
purpose in mind for me,
that because it could have easily been, that's it, if there wasn't a
real reason for why I survived that day, then, then, and I have
to go searching for that reason.
You know, obviously I believe, you know, in business, I have my
talents. I have my you know, I believe gifts that Allah has given
me and a way of doing things. But ultimately, till that happened, it
wasn't really clear to me that, you know, I have to go find out
what, what the real purpose is.
Because, you know, you come to realization that money, all this
stuff, doesn't mean anything, you know, and and so since that day,
yes,
you know, you truly don't know what your purpose is today, but
ultimately, the mindset is that I have to kind of keep my mind open
as to what I can do to obviously make a difference here. Do you
think also that has to play with because now you're, you're, you're
embarking on a new endeavor. Now you are putting aside a lot of
your projects, and it was something that's not too far from
here. I took a trip out and you showed me this venture that you're
venturing upon. And I was like, this is actually something. It's
the first of its kind, actually Halal
resort lifestyle. What do we when we say halal, this is, this is
something that's, obviously, it's, it's something beautiful, it's
something that's good for your body, your mind, your soul, halal
food, halal resort. Can you go ahead and explain, like, did this
event kind of a catalyst to this help? Do you think if this didn't
happen, you wouldn't be now embarking on one of the first
Halal resorts in America. So I'll make you guys, how you doing?
You think I'm here in the desert, but I'm here with the CEO Rashid,
and
he's showing me this beautiful project coming up. Misq is a
conservative lifestyle hotel, first one in North America, with a
luxury standard brand that is world renowned offer amenities
which cater to women. So we have a women's spa, men spa, women only,
women's only spa, yes. Halal food. Halal food, no alcohol, no
alcohol. This is the site of where we will have a boardwalk, multiple
hotels, a medical center, retail restaurant, a promenade. We will
also have water taxis that will actually be able to take you from
one area of the development to another area through this pond
here the MISC we are having residences as well branded
residences, where people will be able to purchase condominiums as
well as rent them out for revenue. Guess what, guys center
here, you guys stay and come see me. We're
our way coming
up. Stay tuned.
And why are we saying it's halal? How would you break it down for
someone who's, you know, they're like, What do you mean it's halal?
Like, you saying, like, why do we classify that? Because there'll be
no alcohol. All right, we've got some unfortunate news for those of
you who like to drink alcohol on an everyday basis, according to a
new study, no amount of alcohol is good for your health, and they
found that the more you drink, the more years you can lose off your
life. There will be women's only area, men's only area,
conservative lifestyle, a.
How would you define it? Yeah, yeah, exactly to touch on those,
on those points. I mean, halal really is food. We're gonna offer
halal food of kosher food at the same time, and we are offering
kosher as well. Yeah. The purpose for this resort is not to sort of
make it a only, a destination for Muslims only. It is meant as a
conservative lifestyle, hotel, conservative lifestyle with health
and wellness and wine. I think when we say halal, definitely the
halal food is a big factor. But ultimately, there are hotels in
the world that offer alcohol free environment. We certainly are
going to offer that we're not going to have any alcohol being
served on the property, we are going to have women's and men's
spas. But really, that goes along and in line with sort of a
conservative lifestyle. And it's not just Muslims that appreciate
that, but there's been a lot of other Muslim or other religious
denominations that find value in that. I can see a lot of different
conservative voices. I don't know if you've heard of Candace Owens.
No, no, this is one that comes to mind and others who have expressed
their journey of leaving alcohol. I am pretty much done with heavy
drinking. I had a friend recently that got off the rails drunk, and
it was so sad to watch. He was so debilitated that I was like, I
think I might be done. It was, it was awful. You see just real when
you're sober and you see someone just shit faced, obliterated,
can't, can't form sentences, terrible for you. Alcohol disrupts
the architecture, the quality of your sleep. The data point to the
fact that no alcohol is better for your immediate and long term
health than any alcohol. And people say, well, red wine is
good. And in these blue zones, where people live to be 110
these are Christians, yeah, and they're the conservative voices of
America, and now they would actually probably want to stay in
a place like this, because you don't have to worry about someone
drinking and now possibly getting in a brawl, A fight, and all the
other negative consequences that come up when people are drunk,
exactly. And the funny thing is, you know, we've had a bunch of
press releases before the narrative was sort of, the press
was just picking up on the fact that, hey, this is a halal hotel.
But, you know, eventually, over time, I've had interviews with
with Orlando Sentinel and the Orlando Business Journal and once
I've explained to them, sort of what we have in mind, and sort of,
really the key metrics of it that look it's this is not like much
different than any other hotel, except these are the amenities,
and this is what we're offering. We got so much of a positive
response from non Muslims, Catholics, people. I mean, I've
had people approach me and say, this is a great idea. We love it.
You know, we don't have to worry about drunks at the pool. We can
leave our daughters and, you know, we go with our kids. It is a very
family friendly environment. That's the other aspect of it, is
that the development itself has this sort of family friendly hotel
in the luxury setting, but it brings value to so many people,
I've had Latin, Latin women say, You know what? We're sick of going
to the hotels, and we want to keep this is a special place for us.
They feel like it's a special place for us, where it's just
women, and we can hang out. We don't have to worry about who's
looking at us. We can work out. I mean, we know that the success
that some of these women's only gyms have had, right? Huge, yeah,
right. Like there's, there's women's only. Those aren't focused
on Muslims. Those are focused on the market. The market has
certainly determined that this is a niche and
and certainly we've seen a lot of the
alcohol producers produce no non alcoholic beverages, whether it's
the Heinekens, yeah, if you seen the new James Bond movie ads, I
mean, he wasn't drinking anymore. He was drinking a non alcoholic,
0% alcohol drink. So you know, whether you name Budweiser,
whether you name all the big brands, why are they gravitating
to that? Because, as you mentioned, there is a segment of
the population, large, a growing segment of population, that feels
that alcohol is not healthy, and if they're wanting to fulfill a
healthy lifestyle, that this is something so we've, we've hit so
many different sort of aspects and and I believe this is, this is a
this creates value for a lot of people.
You know, people appreciate the fact that this is a health and
wellness hotel, they appreciate that this is going to be a place
where you could be modest and have modesty in mind, and you could
have a place where there's women, if they want to have a privacy,
they have their own women's spa pools and all that stuff. Yes, we
have other standard just like any other hotel, but it certainly
gives you that option. Yeah, VIP sisters, VIP women's area, just
for the women. And, like I said, and women are actually happy about
that we can go and not have, you know, people giving us some men
who trying to pick us up this day. And the other my daughter, I can
leave her, you know, in this area here, and be feel safe in a safe
environment. Do.
Generally in the evenings. I mean people. I mean 111, story comes to
mind is, I was speaking to these people, and they were Catholics
and and they were like, you know, we go to these resorts, and at
nighttime, we feel like we can't leave the kids alone. And the kids
want to go out by themselves. They just want to hang out, you know,
girls want to just hang out. And they're like, We don't, we don't
really feel comfortable leaving them when everybody by nighttime,
everyone was drinking, and they're all the poolside parties are going
on. Parties are going on. And said, we would rather pick a place
like this, and they happen to be, you know, obviously visiting other
resorts, but we rather pick a place like this. So it just, it's
nice to hear, and that is really the purpose of this hotel, is to
have a sort of
a social impact, but also bring everybody together that have sort
of the same values. And I can see that. I can see where you have,
here in Florida, a lot of different it's a conservative
state, and people, I mean anyone who wants to come and enjoy some
of these amenities, these benefits, but to help break down
some of the many misconceptions, you know, the hate industry is a
big industry, and that's what one of the purpose of the Dean show is
trying to try to break through that and have people to come, sit,
talk, eat with the Muslim. This is a great opportunity now for people
who share these same values to come and connect. Absolutely, I
think today's sort of media world really is focused on differences,
yeah,
but it's quite the opposite. There's more similarities. I
believe, and I believe in this, and it's interesting also, you're
here now at the Dean center. That's a noise, if you can. People
are hearing good work done. So it's nice that people fly in town,
right there in Orlando. They can do whatever they're doing there.
They can take a shuttle, come here, visit us at the Dean show we
have the connection is said, is under, under an hour you got here,
absolutely, only, only an hour away, yeah, from our from our
resort, yeah. What do you what do you think? Oh, this is, this is
amazing. It's an amazing initiative. And congratulations to
you and on obviously successful acquisition, but also the
redevelopment that you're doing. And I think this is going to
attract many people from all over the world, Inshallah, God willing.
So what? What else can you tell us you've been committed now
to this project, and there's a lot of stress levels and well, from
talking to you, what I like is that when people want to ease some
of the pain that comes from a lot of the stress, they'll go drink,
they'll go and and maybe do drugs, they'll do all sorts of things.
But you were talking about your connection to Salah, your prayer.
Can you talk about that with us? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I find
value in prayer and ultimately having faith in in Allah all the
way. I think, I think people don't realize the power that it has.
Even I didn't realize it for for quite a long time, but, but I
certainly find value in that and peace and prayer and find
solutions, believe it or not, because your mind is at peace.
You're, if you're if you're making decisions while you're under
stress or facing challenges and you're under pressure, usually
you're not making the right decisions, and Salah sort of calms
your brain down. Really brings clarity. And that's what I find
that's the value. I find is that it finds, I find that it's, it's,
it really is. I mean, we talk about people meditating today,
right? You know, meditating and people finding value in
meditation. To me, it's, it's, it's that. I mean, ultimately,
you're connecting with Allah, but it's, it's almost in a meditative
state where you're feeling that connection, and it brings you
peace, and it brings you the answers, right? And so I've
certainly found a lot of value in that you're originally from. You
were born in Canada, born in Canada. Your family's from. My
family's back home is. My parents moved from Pakistan. My dad first
came to Canada in late 1960s
my mother came in early 1970s and I was born in Montreal, Canada,
which is on the eastern part French province, and now you're
here in Florida, and we're talking about
no alcohol. I get excited just saying. I've been talking to a lot
of people about this, no alcohol. We're trying to take our family to
places, and it's like, okay, there's so many challenges and
whatnot, but sometimes you got to fly to Turkey, or you got to fly
to, you know, Jeddah, or here, there and but right here in
America, so the first, this D First, there's nothing like that.
No alcohol, halal food, and a VIP special area for the sisters, for
the women, and for the men. Also, absolutely, look, you know, I
mean, I,
you know, Orlando is obviously a very big destination for tourism,
and I think
we've been tracking the numbers. And one of the, one of the reasons
why I feel, I felt like Orlando would be a.
Success is that Muslims in general, and of course, the
conservative base that already exists in the area,
there's a large
sort of traffic component to it. I mean, we have in Orlando, almost
80 million people coming a year. But even over the last five, six
years, you know, I've had the pleasure and the opportunity to
speak to multiple owners,
people that are involved in the tourism industry, whether they be
part of Disney, whether they're involved in other hotels, and
certainly just asking them questions about, hey, you know,
you know what? What are you seeing in terms of the Muslim market, and
what are you seeing in terms of Muslim traveler and and certainly,
we're seeing a lot of Halal restaurants popping up now all
over Orlando. And you were saying that this is the fastest growing
industry, the Halal industry. It is more and more Americans eat
halal food daily. Americans are now knowing what halal meat is and
they're choosing halal meat over regular meat. And they know that
it's healthier. They know what the Islamic guidelines are for halal
meat, so that's why they're choosing halal meat over regular
meat. The halal food industry is booming across America. We're
seeing a lot of a lot more of non Muslims wanting to be active in
the Halal products and services industries. Halal industry and
halal companies the United States have been growing exponentially.
This has a really, really great flavor that I love. Expect Halal
sales to hit $20 billion this year. That's a third more than in
2010
Madani Halal estimates that the majority of its customers are non
Muslim, and supermarket giant Whole Foods rates Halal among its
fastest growing sellers. The Halal economy is gaining visibility.
There are more and more products on supermarket shelves and in
restaurants. Halal, a religious commandment that's changing
society and the economy.
The opposite is haram, or what's forbidden.
For example, alcohol, lying and products made from pigs. Not
only is Islam the fastest growing way of life religion now you have
this is also right side by side. This is growing, fastest growing
segment of the travel industry, as published by a report by
MasterCard that does an annual report. And and it's not just the
travel industry, but also whether you're related to other industries
and cosmetics and everything else, there is a strong push and desire
for people to travel consistent with the lifestyle that they've
chosen, you know, and they feel that, you know, they don't want to
abandon those, those those things when they travel, and they still
want experience and and certainly, yes, there's opportunities people
do travel to Turkey, they experience in Morocco and and
Spain and all these other places. But the domestically, there's not
much, I mean, people, the amount of people that come to Florida,
people, the amount of people that come multiple times a year to
Disney,
you know, it wasn't, it wasn't just, you know, a purpose of, hey,
we're going to build a Muslim resort. There's been a lot of
thought that's gone into it, from a business perspective, to make
sure that we're going to be successful. I've had the same
people that do feasibilities on the other hotels, and we are
building a Nickelodeon as well, but other hotel fees, the same
people that do the feasibility thinking, this is an amazing idea,
and when you have these people that are non Muslims, people that
are in the business of doing feasibility reports giving you
such a strong support to say that, look, this is actually going to do
probably better than Most other hotels, because there's nobody
serving that market. And there's such a huge market, but no one's
serving it. And so, you know, for me, that's gratification, because
a if it makes business sense and it's accomplishing, sort of a
sense of, hey, you're you're having a social impact and
bringing people together,
there's nothing better like it. To me. It's just, you know, just an
amazing feeling. Have you seen that? Usually, I'll point people
to this video. It's amazing because people like, you know,
they confuse. What is people understand kosher food, which and
then halal food, right? Do you have a lot of people now asking
you, like, what does that mean? Halal food and whatnot. There was
a mercy slaughter video. I don't even seen that, where the
person he has the sheep down, and he's saying Bismillah in the name
of God, and the sheep is just still peace. It's peaceful, right?
Instead of shooting it.
It. You know, torturing it. You know, you have so many different
atrocities are done to the animals. It's a humane way to go
ahead, and also a healthy way. Goes back to the healthy
lifestyle, right? When people study it, you know, getting all
the toxins, getting all of the blood out of the body where it's
not stuck in the body, and then the animal doesn't feel any pain,
because the pain receptors are cut and cut off and it's, it's
amazing, when people look into it, going to reduce the stress and
make sure the animal, you know, the last moments of its life are,
you know, and conditions that are, you know, one sanitary and two, as
you know, as less stressful as possible. I agree. I think, I
think what I encourage people to do is, look, you know, I'm not a
I'm not a religious scholar by any means or but from my knowledge, it
is, as you mentioned, a humane way, very human. Yes. The the
animal is not in a panic situation that, oh my god, I'm dying. It's
in a very peaceful Man. The the blood is drained a certain way,
like you mentioned, the toxins are all out. So it's a very healthier,
very healthier, healthier food and healthier meat. And I think when
people realize it, because there's always obviously
misinformation out there, and some people just think like it's
related to but really, when people realize that it's really no
different, and it's actually a healthier way, it's no different
and a much better alternative than people, they don't really care,
right at all, right? And that's that shift we're seeing people,
many people who want to live that healthy lifestyle. They're going
away from much of the things that alcohol, for instance, one of them
that people are shifting, you know, because they want to protect
themselves, their minds, their bodies, eating healthier. So this
is, this is very unique to see, and it's, it's something that
Islam, being a complete way of life, endorses, absolutely. I
mean, that's our, that's, that's sort of our main positioning of of
this concept is that, look, it is, it is a healthier lifestyle Hotel.
So thank you for sharing your your unique experience. So from there,
we can show that someone can be someone who's a mogul, and
somebody who can be dedicated to their dean, to establishing their
prayers and connected to their Creator and reflecting. You know,
this is amazing for other people to hear this story in the
beginning, how we started off with that you just don't know. You know
you got to get with it, because you don't know when living truly a
balanced life, where you're having your share of this life, but then
you're preparing to leave a legacy, to lead, do something good
for the next life. Because this life just like you, you're going
there Hollywood, eating some lamb. You're like, I'm about to enjoy.
And then it's, you know, the ice and the meat get down your throat,
it's stuck. And you're just like, hold on. You're almost like, gone,
right? So it's a great reminder to all of us to really reflect and to
be thankful what we have, and to be prepared that we can leave this
life at any time. So do good before you leave this life
absolutely. I mean, look, it's ultimately, the realization is
that, you know, this is a very short life. It could end anytime.
The idea is that, yes, you know, I want to sort of be a role model. I
want to sort of mentor people. I want the next generation to also
realize that, hey, you can do a lot of things that, and you can do
it still in a in a manner that is halal. But also, I think it's very
important, and I want to it's to contribute back to the community,
whether it's also the Muslim community, but also the non Muslim
community. I think you mentioned that you know, you know you offer,
you know, whether it's free medical and things like that, and
you do these things. I think it's very, very important for us to
integrate ourselves as part of the community in general, not isolate
ourselves. And I think that's what a lot of the push is, sometimes is
trying to do. But I think it's very important to integrate
ourselves with the community, provide benefit to community,
whatever community we're in. And that's sort of the other
objective, and leave a legacy, and then leave the next generation to
also continue the same. Absolutely, we're here to stay,
and we want to make the world that we stay in a better place for all
absolutely. Thank you, brother. Thank you very much, Brother
salami, brothers and sisters, we've all had loved ones that
passed away, a mother, a father, a brother, sister, a close family
member, but one of the mercies of our dean is that with the right
intention, we can go ahead and continue to do good deeds on our
loved one's behalf, and what greater of a continuous good deed,
sadaqa jadiya, than investing on their behalf in the deed center, a
masjid and nagadaw center that will benefit generations to come.
Inshallah. So click the link below. Donate right now. May God
Almighty, Allah, reward all of you.