Former Us Marine
AI: Summary ©
The man who became a preacher discusses his experiences with his father's church and their importance of acceptance in society, including learning about religion and culture. He emphasizes the importance of praying for Islam and staying true to Islam, as it is a natural fear of death. He uses the example of Theants where a woman takes on a new job and a new relationship, and emphasizes the importance of trusting our fears and assumptions to avoid negative consequences.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salam alikoum. That's the greeting of peace. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the D show. And it's always exciting to hear people's stories, how they came to Islam, which simply means simple, it just so simple. It means to acquire peace, by submitting to the owner peace, the one God, the same God of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, they all submitted to God, they didn't submit to themselves. They didn't submit to a man or woman, but the creator man and woman, the one God, this is Islam doing God's will not your desires. And our next guest Shaykh Abu Toba, you probably might already know about him. He's an incredible individual, very, very
friendly person, nice person, knowledgeable share that I just had a chance to meet. And he came down to be on the D show. He used to be a Christian.
Spent 10 years in the Marines. I believe it was something like the Special Forces force recon. So he's got an incredible story. And we're privileged enough to have him here on the D show to share his story and his experiences with us. He's also memorize the Quran, which is the verbatim Word of God and studying Islam for a long time. We got so much to talk about, I don't wanna let the cat out the bag. We'll be right back with his story, here on the dean show, sit tight.
This is
listen.
Salam Alaikum, peace be unto you. I like to live. How are you? How are you?
Thank you for finding time to come down to be on the D show. Last my pleasure to come down here and sit with you. Eddie, we heard you got a really great story to tell. You know, it's amazing. To hear these stories, you you have a lot to talk about. I just introduced some of the things I was excited. And so I didn't get to mention, you know more two things that you know about you. But that's why you're here because we want to know about you how you came to Islam, and some of the things you were doing before Islam. And then when you came to Islam, what excited you to go ahead and continue to study to memorize the verbatim Word of God, and to sit with scholars. And now you teach and preach
in Islam helping non Muslims and Muslims learn the most beautiful way of life out there, the way of life all the messengers of God, Islam, that total complete adherence submission to the one God. And we want to hear your story. Where do we begin?
I mean, I don't know. I accepted Islam. When you like you said I was born and raised a Christian and my mother's from Georgia. So she's Southern Baptists, and my father's from New York. And religion wasn't a really big deal in our home, even though my grandfather was a preacher.
With education was your grandfather was a preacher, my grandfather, my mother's father was a preacher, Christian preacher. So my mother wanted us there came a time My father was in politics at the start there. And he used to be out of the city a lot used to go up to Albany, New York. And that's what state capitol was. Yeah. So he was out of town, maybe three times of the week. And me and my brothers we used to, you know, I guess drive my mother crazy. So she figured that the solution had to be that we had to get some religion in our lives. And so one time when my father came home, she said, These boys need some religion, everybody has to have some religion. So she
decided to send us to church. There was a Catholic Church around the corner. And she sent us initially over there, but we didn't like the the idols inside of gave us nightmares. And so we didn't we didn't like to go there. My parents didn't like the fact that it was causing us to have problems with our sleep, even past, you know, wet the bed.
So she decided to send us to a baptist church that was on the other side of Brooklyn.
Being the boys I don't have any sisters. My mother was the only girl in the house. So we didn't necessarily believe everything she said. We use the validity of it from asking my father
So this day My father is taking us to the church, which is on the other side of Brooklyn. And if you know anything about New York, at those times in the 70s, he was very sectioned off. Everybody had their own neighborhood. So while we're traveling across Brooklyn, we're looking at different people. We're asking him, does everybody have a religion? He says, Yes, everybody has religion. So we do the thing that children do we look out the window. What about those people, we see some Chinese people, and we say, what was their religion? He says, their religion is Kung Fu. So we start saying, Oh, you know, we started doing that thing. Well, I want to do Kung Fu, let that be our religion. There's no
no, you got to go to the church got to go to Concord. That was the name of the church. Then we pass through another neighborhood. And we saw Jewish people. And we were like saying, Hey, what about these people was their religion. Now mind you, we lived in a Jewish neighborhood, Jewish Italian neighborhood, but the Jews in our neighborhood look like the Jews and Crown Heights, Jews and Crown Heights were black and have the curls. So we were familiar with those guys. So we said, What's their religion? They said, they're Jews. And you know, they have their religion. So we're like, okay, we don't want to do that. And then we saw some Indian people in my father, we asked them my policy at
all, they, they worship the cab, and we started moving out the window. We were children, we didn't mean any harm. And then we got to the top of the hill in Crown Heights. And at the top of the hill, Eastern Parkway, there, there's a long light, still very long light, you know, 30, some years later. And this particular day, it had to be their aid. Okay.
There was a bunch of Muslims getting on and off of a, of a bus, you know, a real nice bus, I know now that they will go into that aid. But at that time, I didn't know what they were doing. And what struck my attention at this long light was the smell, they had good smell, you can smell the incense of the oils. And I looked at them, and they were different from all the other people because they were more than one type of person, you know, black or white or Latino, or Arabs, you know, so I asked them, What was their religion? And he said, oh, there are Muslims. You know, and we like, Where's that? You know, because other places he said, India, China, you know, we didn't know this is
your father tongue? Yes. Okay. And so we said, there are Muslims. You know, this is, ya know, so then I said, Well, I'm one of them. You said that, yeah, I just said, I'm, I'm one of those. No, why did you say that? You know, and you share a lot of guys who we want. Without any thing. I was inspired to say no, I'm one of those guys. I'm, I'm one of them. Did you like how they looked at diversity, or, you know, I like the smell. The only thing I remember I had a good smell. The one I remember is what drew my attention was that I smelled the good smell of the incense of oil. I don't know which one it was. And it made me look at them. And you know, they had dashi keys and the
colors, and the people. But I said, I'm one of those guys. And then what surprised me even more is my father said, of course, you know, you black from Africa, we will take it over here and slavery. So more than likely you were Muslim, so many people attributed, you know, Islam to, you know, Arabs or black people. Right. You know, it was initially My father was saying, Well, you know, Africa. Yeah. afrocentricity without Islam doesn't make any sense. Yeah, as 90% of Africa is Muslim, but that wasn't the reason why I did it. You know, I, I don't know why I did it. But I accepted Islam at that moment. And I went to the church, we kept on going to the church, but I had my religion now.
Okay. So when I got to the church, I said, I'm not I'm not going in. Yeah, I have my religion. He's a well, you can get home, you gotta get a weapon, because your mama said, you gotta go to church. And then an old man came out of the church. My father was really cool. He told the deacons, an old man came out and said, I heard you scared to go inside. He wasn't even looking at me. And I sit down, not scared and nothing. Yeah, you can just why don't you go inside. So what I have my religion I'm Muslim, you know. And I know about Muhammad Ali, you know, and I knew about Malcolm X. That was a little bit that I knew at that time. But he talked nice to me said, you know, look, we need a guy
like you brave boy like you to go downstairs and help the ladies. During the service. The ladies make the chicken dinner and the fish dinner and stuff like that. And it needs somebody to run back and forth to the store. Maybe you can do that. And I said I don't have to go upstairs. Because upstairs was the service. He said, Now, once a month, maybe you come upstairs. So I went downstairs. And that's why I stayed until I was I was 13 years old at that time. 12 or 13 years old. I stayed there till I was like 17. Every Sunday, I would go to church, I would help the ladies. I'd run to the store, make the tables, I cut the cake, you know, and that was what I did. go to church and then
once I'm going to first Sunday, I will go upstairs for the reading of the creed. That was I had to go through that. And that's what I that was my experience with churches still to this day. There was one thing they used to say that I still hold
As part of my creed today, and it was to be slow to take offense and always ready for reconciliation, say that, again to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation. Was it something out of the Bible? They had a every first Sunday, you would read the Christian creed. And there were a number of things, maybe about five or six things that you read. I don't remember any of them except for that. Yeah, because when I heard that, I said, I like that. I agree with that. And then when I did become more knowledgeable about Islam, I questioned if that was still valid to hold. And I found that Islam coincides with that. It'd be slow to take offense, but always
ready for reconciliation. And a lot tells us that if they inclined towards selam, if they inclined towards peace, then we inclined likewise towards peace. So we'll slowly take offense, but always ready for reconciliation. Let's take a break and we're going to continue with your story when Sharla will be right back here on the deen show. Let's see what everyone's talking about.
ashampoo Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah.
But the argument here is that God out of his love.
Because in all honesty, if you really wanted to do something, you're going to find a way where there's a will there's a way Absolutely.
There are a few problems here. Why were people of generations and generations and generations being told to worship one God asked that God for forgiveness, ask him for for salvation, seek His mercy, no one else's.
So he picked up the crown, which is the last and final Testament, the last and final revelation
16 years, eight years inactive reserves and eight years.
But the bottom line is that I'm an ophthalmologist. I'm a specialist in cataract and refractive surgery. I'm the medical director for major eyesight.
These are not God. God is the one who created everything in this universe. That's the one I'm going to worship and prostrate to how can you go wrong doing?
Don't believe you're out of Islam, and I'm in the top 10 reasons why Jesus cannot be God. Let's get right to it. Number 10. Number 10.
Back here on the deen show with Shaykh Abu Toba here, talking about your story. You saw some Muslims, and you like how they smell. So you're talking with your father and he's telling you Okay, this group, he said the car they're the kung fu religion. This was your father saying? Yeah. Well, he's sort of Chinese people. We were making fun of them. We were asking about the different people's Yeah. And this is in no way putting down I mean, because we have Chinese Muslim. No, no, we you know, so this is just your father, you and your father having this. It was me, my brother who wrote me my brothers and my father. So we were riding in a car going across Brooklyn. Yeah. And as we went
through each neighborhood, we noticed the different people is all based on the concept. My mother had told us that everybody has to have religion. Yeah. So we questioned that as children we want to know. And so when we saw different people, we wanted what their religion was. Yeah, the difference that I do remember about the Muslim group that they weren't one people? They were a mixture of people. Yeah, so that kind of threw me off. Yeah. Because all the other people all the Indian people were all Indian, all the Chinese people, all Chinese, or the Jewish people. They were all you know, Eastern or Western European. They white people. So, you know, we, we we recognize them as that. But
when we saw the Muslims, we didn't know what they were even my my older brother was like, where they from? Yeah, you know, when we looked at them, because we couldn't see what those people were. Yes. But when I got back home that though, you know, I said I was, I guess that was my Shahada. I got back home. My father gave me a quarter and he had a copy of the quarter. And how did how did he your father being? He was a Christian also. My father wasn't a Christian at that time. Yes. Okay. He took us to the church, but it wasn't that serious for him. It was really my mother. She was very, she was the most serious, most serious one about, you know, going to the church. And that was because her
father was a preacher. Yes. My father was really mellow. He didn't really care one way or the other. Yes. So how did he end up having a crown? I don't know. You had a crown in his house. You know, traditionally black people have had an affiliation or an inclination towards you know, Islam. Yes. But we usually for the afro centric reason and not for the towel heat or those other things. Yeah. So having a an is not was not seen as a strange thing. Okay. So he gave me this quote, and it was a translation. I remember I read it, okay. And it gave me a headache. I was a child that I couldn't remember anything about it. I didn't know about it. He told the Prophet Mohammed salaam, salaam,
anything like that. And that was it. And then on Friday, he took me down to messenger to taqwa. After school I went to messenger to taqwa and you know
That was it. You know, I I remember going there sometimes, whenever I could get a chance and pass by and I was scared. Is this the masjid of Imam? Suraj? Maharaj? Yes. Yeah. You know, see the Imam at that time or Well, during that time from yes that I did, they were new still the mess it was still new at that time was still a corner store thing like that. So I remember going in not knowing what to do. And a guy asked me, What do you want here? I said nothing. And I went back outside. Yeah. And then I got brave enough. And I walked in, I just walked in and walked past him. And they were praying. And there were a bunch of children lined up in the back. And I just stood with the
children, and did what they did. So you're how old now? 17? No, I was still about 1314 years old. You know, I was I was growing. And I didn't immediately go down to mess at a taco. But within a year, we found it a tough one. And so after that, I'm going there. After I started offering this law, one of the children after as soon as Salah was over, said, hey, let's go play ball. And so that became my Friday thing to go down to the masjid, and play basketball. And I did that. And I only prayed when I went there. I didn't know about Salah, and there was no dollar program to explain it to little children. Everybody assumed that if you were a child, you must have Muslim parents, which
wasn't the case. So I didn't know anything about Salah or tawheed, or Shahada, and no one approached me said, Hey, take Shahada or anything like that? That was my case until I turned 17 years old. So from 13 to 17, you were still involved in the church where you were hanging out with the Muslims. Right? I was in church every Sunday. Yeah. And on Fridays, when I could on Saturday, sometimes when I can hang out. I'll be with the Muslims playing basketball for the most part. Yes. You know, did you know anything about the Christian creed? You know, the father son, the Holy Ghost? I mean, I only heard about it, but I didn't really know anything about it like that. No, no. I mean, you hear
things as a Christian is different than what Islam Islam. Everybody is taught to study. And Christian dumb people just go along. So yes, I had heard about it. I had even read the whole Bible from cover to cover and I can read Hebrew. Okay, but I didn't know anything about or think about it. It wasn't a thought that Jesus actually was the son of God. I didn't. I didn't have that idea. And I didn't know anything about the theology, theological understanding of Christian. Yeah, I just knew that we were Christian, because as the law says, our parents were Christians. That was the real reason even asked my brother. I said, Why? Why are we Christians? He said, because mom was a
Christian. Yes, that we were just going with the flow. That's interesting. You mentioned Hebrew. How did you learn Hebrew? I live in a Jewish neighborhood.
And I wanted to learn, you know, every I'm from New York, everybody in New York speaks a different language except us. So I was always intrigued by other people's languages, I said, Look, you know, every time I go to my friend's house, they don't talk in English, they talk to their parents in another language. So I wanted to learn the language too. And so my neighbors were Jewish. And I started to go, and I started to try to learn how to ride it. And I learned how to ride it, you know, read the letters and stuff like that didn't get much further than that. But I for a period of time, I could read it, you know, pretty well, you know, but like I said, I didn't go much further. And I
went to learn since I knew I was black coming from Africa, I went to the mat to the mess. I went to the Brooklyn Public Library, Grand Army Plaza, humongous library. And I looked up the three languages that they had from Africa, which was hausa, Fuller, and Swahili, but all of them had Arabic script. So I said, it doesn't make sense for me to try to pick one of these three, when I see all three of them use Arabic as the, the the visa, so to speak, to learn a language, I need to learn Arabic, you know, so I wanted to learn Arabic at that time and actually learned Arabic, before I even left the United States. Now tell us you said you read the Bible all the way through what did
you get out of the Bible? When you read it? What was the message that you were getting? There was no i got i read the Bible. And it was stories. I love the stories in the Bible. I had a children's Bible, and the children's Bible had pictures in it. And it told the story of Moses, and it told the story of Elijah, and it told the story of Jesus and Solomon, they just had different stories in there. And you know, they were supported by TV, you know, you would see the TV, and you see that they had the story of Moses and stuff like that, so that I knew about prophecy. Yeah, that's what I got out of it. There was these prophets that came. Nothing in there said that there wasn't going to
be another prophet. Yeah. So I didn't have that mentality. It wasn't until I joined the Marine Corps at 17. I joined the Marine Corps that I started to learn more about Islam. And that may seem sounds strange. Yeah. But I joined the Marine Corps at 17 years old and the first thing I did because my mother said, as long as you live in his house, you're going to go to church. Okay, now, did you before we go there Did your mother that she explained to you about Jesus died for your sins, not Trinity. She didn't because you said she was really a practicing Christian. Well, it's funny.
A practicing Christian in this day and time music, they go to church, you know, the families get more religious as they get older. My mother was younger that time. So she would go to church every Sunday. But as more tradition, dress up, we had nice fancy hat, go there. And it's a social gathering. Everybody knows that. But that's it. You know, it's like your families in the community, you have a standing a status, so to speak, but we didn't discuss it at all. You know, we didn't discuss about Jesus or anything like that. Did you feel like this was something that okay, because of the grandparents, the forefathers now this is our thing. This is what our culture This is our
trip.
I'm really focusing on the creed or not even thinking of or even if it comes up, you know, the people aren't taking it seriously. Like, it's the thing that Christian dumb, especially Baptist is more evangelistic? Yeah, it's a feel good. You know, feel good. Yeah, we all good, we gonna be alright in the hereafter. Yeah, you know that that's the thing that going, everything's gonna be all right. And then you know, a lot of the songs that they sing come from slavery, and songs of people getting fat salvation after this hardship here or running away. And that was something that actually I liked about the church, because I used to read about Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. And some
of the songs they would sing would remind you of that struggle that they were going through to get out of slavery. But that didn't have anything to do with religion. It had to do with our struggle as you know, displaced peoples here in the United States. Yeah. So this kind of brought two people together. That's pretty much it. Yeah. Okay. Let's take a break. We'll continue more here with Shay Abu Toba here on the D show.
I am not afraid to say
I am not afraid.
I'm not afraid to say
you have to pray as if everything depends on a lot. And it does. But you must work.
Everything depends on you.
That's my point. You see, I'm saying and I don't like that. I don't like us sitting here. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for right now? What are you waiting for all these people to come to this? What are you waiting for? What are we waiting for right now, when they're gonna come? They're gonna come along and bring these people last. Put in our hands, the ability to do it now do your job.
Back here on the D show. We're talking to our brother. I will tell you what, for being a Christian. And we talked a little bit about the environment you grew up in and, and continuing on, we left off where it becomes just part of his kind of like habit. People going to church, and then you talk about the old slavery songs, right. You know, like interesting, you know,
in the 70s, you know, we think that slavery is so far away, we don't discuss it like that. But my mother was the first person in her family, not to pick cotton. Yeah. So not just when slavery was over the slaves and just disappear. They had to eat. Yeah, so then you had sharecropping, which was done, where you got a portion of the land in order for you to keep yourself fed. But you have to work the land just like a slave. Yeah. So my mother, she tells us she was the first one in her family, not to pick cotton. And her father was adamant about that. And she used to feel like, you know, she was missing out on something, not being able to go out to the fields and come back with
her hands blistered like her elder brothers and sisters. And they did that to get her an education. So education was a real high priority, and our family, and we recognized that slavery wasn't that far away. Yeah. So anyway, I, you know, this, this church was the environment that my mother grew up in, and she wanted us to be a part of that. So we remained a part of that. And separating from that seemed as though you were separating from your family, not the connection that you have a belief of Jesus or Christian dumb, but this is our traditional, familiar thing. But once I turned 17, I joined the Marine Corps. And the first thing I did when I joined the Marine Corps was I wrote myself down
as a Muslim, and you have a place in it, what's your religion? And I said, Islam. So that was the first thing I did, as an adult, was declared that I was a Muslim, and I went into the Marine Corps. I went in, clearly as a Muslim. I wouldn't go to church anymore. I told myself now two points. We're almost out of time. We're gonna have to continue this story, but let me just get a few more points.
Tell me
Did you because we know Islam, the way of life, all the prophets that total and complete submission to the one God and not to his creation is based on five pillars. The pure monotheism that all the messengers of God taught tawheed worshiping the Creator, not his creation, establishing the prayer five times a day, paying the poor due to the Zakat, the fasting during the month of Ramadan and the Hajj if you're physically in financial trouble. Did you know about these? No, you didn't know about this, but you put down that you're a Muslim. Right? Okay. So you didn't take your Shahada yet? Well, I know not. not officially, because that's obviously you know, for our viewers, that's how you
accept the official Shahada. No, I had never done that at that point. You know, at that point, I was.
I didn't know anything about that. But you you were just what was it about Islam? Or what was it just What had you just want to put on Muslim but you didn't? You didn't really know much of the tenants of it. Why didn't know, you know, I took the attitude that I had in Christian dome. Yeah, that okay. My mother told me, you know, children are pretty simple. Yeah. My mother told you told me everybody has to have a religion. Yeah, my father confirmed that everybody has to have religion. on that road to church. He pointed out that these different people, everybody has a religion. And I wanted my own religion. Also, when I saw those people a lot, put it in my heart that I'm Muslim,
that that's my religion. Yeah. And then it was confirmed by the fact that my parents who were Garvey is, you know, great historians of black history and everything. And when my father made me realize that we actually came from Africa, and that we were, you know, originally 90% of Africa is Muslim. I said, Well, hey, that's my religion in the first place. So I felt I was getting something back. You know, I felt that I was getting something back that I had lost and didn't have from growing up here in the United States. And that that was actually my true religion. And I didn't know anything about it. I knew I couldn't eat pork, and that I wasn't supposed to lie. And I wasn't supposed to take any
trash from anybody. That's pretty much it. But the main foundation that was built on that pure mono Thea that you only worship nine right now worshipping Jesus, or Mohammed, or just the one God, this you didn't know, and I didn't get that you worship Jesus from Christianity. You didn't get that? No, I didn't. I just the thing that I got from Christianity was that they were prophets that were inspired and taught and told to come to the people and teach them about God. This is what we believe. And and that's what I took from Christianity from the stories that I had. Yeah, you know, and I was actually the most religious one in my family. Yeah. You know, I was most inclined when to
go to church as a child. Yes. You know, because I like the songs. Mm hmm. You know, I'm saying, but I didn't participate in the service. I just like the songs. You know, what, we're almost we're actually out of time. But we want to continue do a continuation. Would you agree to continue? No problem going on? And can you tell the people like, get us excited? What more? What are we going to cover? In part two? We got the Marines. Yeah, we have to go through the Marine Corps. And in Marine Corps, I moved to Japan, Japan, so we'll talk about Japan. Yeah. And I learned Arabic there more. Okay. Well, and I learned about my religion in Japan. Now. You started to learn about Islam in
Japan, Japan. Yes. Beautiful. We're gonna continue on inshallah. Okay. Does that work for you? Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back with you. And we're out of time. But we're going to continue on with Abu Toba his story on how he came to Islam. So join us here again. So we can go on to part two here on the show, with Shaykh Abu Toba his story on how we came to Islam. We'll see you next time.
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salaam Alaikum. Peace be unto you. We're going to waste no time we're going to get going with the second part of our interview with Shaykh, Abu Toba, who went from being a Christian. And at a young age, his father helped them to pick out Islam but he wasn't even Muslims. It's a unique story. He went from going to the church, to hanging out playing ball with the Muslims and not knowing anything about Islam to go into the Marines and learning about Islam and then up in Japan. If that's exciting, we got more excitement to talk about with him. I will tell them we come back for part two of his story, sit tight, we'll be right back.
Outside everything looks good. You see the $100,000 cars you see a lot of diamonds you see a lot of females and they think that this is you know, this is a life this is this is my you know, paradise right here on Earth.
job to go into someone's heart and change their heart. Your job is to tell people what the truth is. And the reality of it is while we're sitting here while I'm sitting here, constantly paying for the disease.
Kill was free.
Salam Alaikum Peace be with us and we're back at part two part two. Are you ready? Okay, so now people can go to the deen show calm, where they can watch part one if they already haven't seen it, we kind of gave an introduction. How you went from being born into some semi Christian family your mother was practicing your father was in New York and and then, you know seeing the different people into different religions everyone had when he says everyone's got to have a religion. You as a young boy, somehow you just said I want to be a Muslim. And then you went from hanging out at the church, hanging out playing ball with the Muslims and then to finally joining the Marines force recon 10
years, Sergeant. Nine years actually who are
so now you sign on the paper I'm in Listen, but you don't know the tenets of Islam. Where do we go from here? Talk to us. Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen. Wa, it's like that, but it's not who we are.
That's I suppose.
Was that the army one? I don't know what the army does, you know, but rinko we do a little bit more crazy. Yeah, like that. That's like a war crime. Yeah. Like, they're all good job and stuff like that. But what happened is exactly like you said, I know. So you're a good old American boy. I'm a good old American boy who don't want to serve your country. Well, you know, Yeah, I guess so. In that regard, you know what happened? I came from my family's family of civil service Yeah, you know, my my father was working for the government as a as a politician and my mother is a school principal my older brother he's an attorney for you know, working with the government some of my just before
you go on I just want to I don't I don't want you to lose your plate. But someone I think now, you know, they see you in a Muslim. Let's say the the phob and the hat. And they think oh, man, he's like he flipped now. He hates Americans or something. What do you guys say about that? Well, I think I fought for my writer, choose my religion. Yes. When we say democracy, here's your choice. Do as you like, you know, I spill blood in the right mind. If you have the choice as a American to choose whatever religion I want to have is what the the pilgrims came over here. pilgrims came over here to make their choice. And I think it's wise for people to try to deny other people their right to
choose whatever they want to. Yeah, and I think it's pretty hypocritical. But you know, people do what they want to do. The thing that I try to tell Muslims to do is not worry about what anybody else thinks, you know, do you focus on what's going to benefit you? And don't look sideways? Does Islam teach you to hate people that are not Muslim like not to some people think that you know, Islam, you put it, the sword on their neck, say slap Islam, except Islam or die. And we're commanded to kill Jews and Christians, we think this is funny, we laugh at it. But many people think this, what do you got to say about that? What I say pretty much is that there has not been any historic
proof about that. Even just look, nowadays, we're the Muslims beating up on Christians here in America, but rather we see the opposite. You know, we see people having this Islamic phobic mentality jumping on people who ain't even Muslim, who just look funny. And they jump on him and beat him up in the name of changing and beating up on Muslims. So I mean, if we really look at the facts, as the Muslims who should be feared the Christians because we see these crazy, look what happened in New York just recently, okay, drivers of the hospital after being slash, please say by passenger who asked the driver, if he was Muslim, the guy says, Are you Muslim? The guy says, Yes,
he says Assalamualaikum. And he cuts his throat that's in the chat. He the non Muslim who was a Christian, he, again, he's a he's from a Christian group that went over to Afghanistan to christianize the poor, you know, ignorant Afghani people, so to speak. Yeah, you know, but he comes back and says, this is a stop check or something like that happens twice. Yeah, you know, so I mean, but if a Muslim were to lose his temper, and strike back then it's terrorism. Yeah. You know, I think that it's nonsense. And they did the same thing to the Japanese and locked them up all in these concentration camps. They had the same thing about Jews, no Jews, no dogs, no niggers, you
know, they do the same. Same thing with the blacks don't drink at the same water fountain and don't use the same urinal. And now they're doing it with the Muslims is this constant mentality. But you know, our thing is to recognize that we don't have anything to prove to them. Our thing is to prove what we can prove to Allah. That's what our focus should be and not look sideways. A lot of someone says some of them I think this is a moon God or some, Lala hamdulillah. There's different languages, if you say a deal, so you say, you know different languages that they say, God, the object of worship, Allah is an Arabic word, that means the one and only God is the same God, Jesus, Moses,
same God, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, you know, all these none of those profits came and said, anybody different gotcha. They just mentioned God, then and the expression of the the the theological expression, which we call Sharia, or legislation of law, which guides
Your way of life because our religion, our religion is not Islam. Our religion is the religion of Abraham. Yeah, you know, we all go back and say we follow the religion of Abraham, but our way of life, how we practice our day to day life. That is the dean the way of Islam. Yeah. So we practice the religion of Abraham, and our way of life is that of Islam Islamic way of life. Just one more point. I know, we're going off on a tangent here, we're gonna come back to the Marines. But tell us someone says, because you know, a lot of times people will listen, there's there's a mental block until you remove some of these misconceptions. Someone might say, No, those are the Muslims that
killed us like you had this bill o'reilly on the view.
And he said, those are the Muslims that killed us on 911. How would you respond? You You're a man of knowledge, people that come to you to learn about Islam? What would you say Muslims killed us on 911? Is this the truth? No, it's not. It's never been proven. Number one. It's never been proven. First of all, let me say this. My cousin, I'm a New Yorker. So I have family. My cousin was there. My cousin Camilla was there. And when that 911 she had to jump off on a barge and get out of the city. I was there. When I heard I was in Brooklyn. I went downtown, and I helped out in everything that was going on you help. That's right. I was down there with me. You were helping, you know, to
clearing debris pulling people out. I was there the day it happened. Okay, I was in New York City, I'd come in from out of the country with my daughter, Ramallah, she had malaria. And so I came to went there to help you didn't go like burning a flag or something. Yeah. So Rutan and stuff. No, no, no. Muslims. dionis. Yes, Muslims died. Also, you know, and so I went downtown, and I did my part as a human being to help out in the situation at hand. And I was just as, as scared. And I was just as emotionally full as everybody else there. And that's just the human factor. We're all humans at the end of the day. However, this thing about Osama bin Laden, and George Bush and all this other stuff,
this seems to be a problem they have and the rich people do anything. And we everybody else has to, quote unquote, suffer from behind it. Most of the guys that they told us didn't want even from Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the two places that they are the allies with America, we're not in Saudi Arabia, or Egypt fighting. We are fighting over now in Afghanistan and this type of thing like that. I think that the people in New York as a New Yorker, people in New York, don't blame the Muslims. I was there we saw when we saw the plane, it wasn't no, you know, civilian plane. I mean, everybody can go and do their own research and find out what actually happened. The main thing I want to know whoever
did it. This is a criminal act. But tell us does Islam rather be Muslim? Whoever does Islam have anything to do with this? No, Islam doesn't have anything to do with that. There's that period, that's a period point blank. So Islam is free of this kind of Islam is free of that. Okay. We don't have any other examples of where they say that Muslims are doing this type of thing that has been proven Muslims have ever done this thinking, in fact, what we have from history, anybody does their due diligence, they will find that the societies have been the safest when the Muslims came in. The societies have been the safest. When it started historically, and I beg to differ. I beg anybody to
come and bring something that differs from that, and a dissenting opinion with that. Whenever the Muslims were in charge, Christians were allowed to freely practice their religion, Jews were allowed to freely practice their religion. It wasn't until when other people took over that this things change. Look at the Spanish Inquisition. This was the Inquisition after they ran the Muslims out in order to change and make sure monotheism did not last even in the Christians that remained in Spain. But you don't find a Spanish Inquisition when the Muslims ruled when the Wars of the Muslims ruled Spain for over 800 years. There was Christians here practicing their religion, they were Jews,
they're practicing their religion. They don't leave and run away until they Spanish Christian Inquisition comes when he stopped killing the people, when the people were having the Crusaders came and started burning crosses on people's heads when they had headaches. You know, when the muscles landed into Sicily and build the first gardens, and the people said, we can't eat this garden. What do you do? And the mother said, you look at it, it's pretty, you know, it's still today that one of the most beautiful places and incessantly other gardens that they have there. So the Muslims didn't bring anything but culture and civilization. This is you know, these are amazing facts, not fiction.
I mean, we we talked about the the the European Renaissance. Remember, the Renaissance historically comes at the advent of the Muslims entering Europe. Prior to that they're wearing wolf skins and they dyed themselves blue trying to clean themselves. They're not washing when the ladies have their menstrual cycle out of fear, they're going to die and the Muslims come and build all these places of education.
Matter of fact, is a little known fact that Muslims are the original people who started hospitals. That's an A Muslim invention. And they brought it to these places. And now and most of the major churches that you find in southern Europe are used to be mass used to be Masjid that they converted into now, synagogues, or big cathedrals. back the largest Cathedral in Spain is the mosquito, which was a mosque, the Great Mosque in a time of the Muslim Empire. We're going to take a break, and we're going to come back with more your story. This is some great information. And I'm sure we're moving all the misconceptions out away. So the truth can penetration, the truth could be made clear.
Right back.
We have a question from a Christian who says, I was born a Christian, I was raised a Christian wants to take a look. It challenges the reader
to find one contradiction, it can't be from God.
But the rational idea, the rational explanation is you do your best to obey your Lord, you will fall short. Nobody's perfect. All of us make mistakes. You do your best, and then expect from God's mercy.
What's the purpose of my life? Why am I here? Is it just a play, have fun, go to the nightclubs, kick it on the weekends, earn some money, have a good time, and then I die. She's really not looking to get into relationship just to kind of you know, wham bam, Thank you, ma'am, and and walk away from it the way that men are, why do I have to convert to Islam? If God made me a Christian, if God made my family, a Christian, then why should I change that way? Because God is the one who created me in that way. And most atheists when they pray, they pray this way. They say, oh God, if you are there, you know, because they're not.
Mine and messengers who start with Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Sunni man, and Jesus and we say peace and blessings be upon all of them. I made a promise to my Creator. On that day, I promised that he would save the life of my child
and alone, running this universe, that he doesn't become born he doesn't die He doesn't eat and go to the bathroom. He's not a man that has an area code a zip code now you can fingerprint him take his picture and the girl say Oh, he's cute. A lot of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about.
So go
back here on the D show time is short. We just you know, we went off a little bit tangent but you know, you sit with a lot of people a lot of people are ignorant. Some people really are sincere, but you got to move the junk out of the trunk before they can see the real deal. And Islam is not a new religion. brought by Mohammed we say Islam has been there since since time immemorial. And all the prophets of God they practice Islam that complete submission, adherence to God's law Sharia right law, they all practice Islam, Jesus peace be upon him, Moses, and Abraham, all of them this what we're talking about. And this is your story. Today, here on a de show. Islam has nothing we just
before we left to do with 911 Islam condemns the killing of innocent men, women and children is the fact nonfiction This is fact not fiction. So now and you and you gave some beautiful examples that people can go and check the history of goats cows. Yeah, so but this is not our topic today. But we want to know now. And time is short. You went to the Marines, and now you started to become a good Muslim. What happened? No, it's not how it happened. I joined the Marine Corps Alhamdulillah in 1985. Yeah. And once I joined the Marine Corps, I had the good fortune of being put in a team called the second force recon. And second force recon companies like the smallest unit in the Marine Corps
Special Forces select the ninjas. It is like the ninjas we some people mistake us for the navy seals, but with the marine side of the house, you know, we say we're better than them. We always have a real high competition with those guys, because we work together. So I'm in this unit, and we're doing extremists hostage rescue, we're doing taking over platforms and I didn't want to fight against the Muslims. At that time. We were going towards the Gulf. So I said let me change my orders and go towards Japan. Yeah. And again, I'm not offering Salah I'm not offering Scylla because I don't know you're not doing a second pillar of Islam. The prayer. I'm not doing anything. I'm just
saying I'm just not eating pork. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Are you praying to God? No. I mean, I'm praying making but I'm not praying. I'm praying to Allah to Allah to Allah. My grandfather used to always pray to a lot yeah, okay, but he never offered salaah so I knew to pray in to the In the name of Allah and not to pray in the name of Jesus grandfathers, your father's father, my father's father, okay. Right. But he told us he would never join Islam because he was
We even like the Arabs. Yeah. And he wouldn't join Christianity because he didn't like the whites. That was your father. But he knew that my grandfather, so but he said he knew that Allah existed and that Allah was the reality. Okay, so I used to pray to Allah behind that understanding, but I had never gone to the masjid because I didn't think there was a Masjid on the base when you pray to God, when times got tough or whatever, you know, you know, it wasn't a scheduled thing. It was just something that whenever it crossed my mind, whenever something dangerous happened, I would make and ask a lot to make me get through this type of situation. So yeah, go ahead. So then what happened
one day, you know, I'd have much friends because you know, in force recon, they think you're crazy. So you know, jumping out of airplanes, and scuba diving, you know, sniper school, how many people want to get close to you know what people don't like the snipers. So one time this guy, he comes next to me while I'm eating my lunch. And he says to me, can I sit down? I say, Sure. He sits down with me. And he says, Hey, I was at the chapel. And I just accepted Islam, and your name is on the list. They're saying that you're the senior Muslim here on base. I didn't know ever to go to the chapel, because I didn't know that there would be anything there for me. But I do remember that I
signed up that I was a Muslim. So they had that on record at the chaplain. And so he came to me says, Look, I need to learn how to pray. He's talking about Salah. I didn't know what he was talking about. I said, you know, it says here on this paper they gave me at the chaplain, that, you know, he's supposed to pray five times a day, but I want a Muslim to show me how to do it. So I say, Okay, let me see the paper, he shows me the paper. And I really realized that I don't know what he's talking about here. So I said, Look, I gotta check this out. Because they might have gave you the wrong thing, you know, Jeff, and to try to get around the fact that I don't know this thing. And I
want to get more time to look at that. He says, Oh, sure. You know, you can have it and you explained it to me, when we were walking out after we finished eating. And I remembered that the next day I was going for Japan, I was leaving for Japan. So I say to him, Look, I'm going to Japan, I'm not going to be able to do this. Can I keep this paper so I can check it out. He says sure I can get another one from the chaplain. And I never saw that man again. And I feel that he was an angel. A lot knows best and may be pushing it. But I feel that this man was an angel that last sent to me to teach me about Salah because the flight to Japan from America is like 20 something hours. So very
long flight. And I'm reading this whole pamphlet while I'm there. And I finished it while I was on a flight and I dropped it on the floor and I said so panel loaded sexual panel but in mind, I said wow, you know, I wonder what it's going to be like to pray five times a day. Okay accepted that reality. And when I got to Japan, the first thing I did after I unpacked my bags is I prayed sola and I followed the little paper on swords giving you like the shamans and shapes what you say and transliteration. And I prayed the first line, I believe it was a Salah again, and because it was in the afternoon, and I prayed it and I kept on following the paper. Within a couple of days. I knew
how to pray How long did this struggle because many people they accept Islam, or some people in your situation. They they are Muslim, but they don't know the tenants are just, you know, getting by. But now what was it that really had you cross over because you memorize the whole verbatim Word of God the Quran, and you've you've you went overseas to study, you know, to learn the religion to sit with scholars, what really pushed you through to take these what, what happened to me was I realized that that whole period of time that I had wasted was because I hadn't gone to the masjid. Okay, I hadn't been tied to the masjid. So what I did after that I went to the masjid in Japan. And it was a lot of
Muslims in the masjid there at that time, because at that time, a lot of people weren't coming to United States from Africa or, or, and what not. So they went to Japan to go get their education when they went to Russia. And so there were a lot of Muslims in Japan, and I learned how to speak Arabic In Japan, I learned how to pray, learn and memorize the 40 Hadith. And when I came back, I wanted it was the 90s. And I wanted to know if I could fight jihad, you know, I went to go fight Jihad because I've been in the Marine Corps all this time. I wanted to do the same thing for the Muslims. But I couldn't tell what was a real Jihad and what wasn't a real jihad. So I said, Look, I don't want to
get tricked up and put into a situation that's not real. How will I know? And so my friends, the people has mastered, you have to study. When you study then you'll know what the reality is and what's not the reality and no one will be able to trick you. So instead of going and fighting jihad, I went overseas to study to learn my religion and know the difference between right and wrong. And that took me 10 years. Now this is a good point because some people would you say they get tricked. You hear like the Christmas bomber, someone putting a bomb in his underwear or the Time Square bomb you
You heard of this man, right? Do you feel like these were people that were tricked? And they if they would have sat with people of knowledge and and that's why it's important to be around people with knowledge, they wouldn't have got tricked and they wouldn't be right now locked up, you know, wait, their whole life is gone. Now what would you say about this? I say that there's a famous statement that the wolf gets the sheep, that's the furthest from the flock. So if you know yet Allah, Allah Gemma, the hand of Allah is with the Jamaat with the group. So stick to the masjid, if you go to the masjid and stick to what is orthodox, the Sunnah of Islam, practical Islam, you won't get in these
things, but they always get the people who are not really knowledgeable about what Islam is about these type of people who might have emotional problems. And so they trick them into doing their bidding. This is just the work. They do this with Christians, they do this with Muslims, it just that the media plays on the Muslims more, because that's the end thing nowadays. But this is not a slam. These are individuals who got tricked into doing some foolish things, you know, and they probably didn't know anything about the religion, you don't find scholars doing this thing. You don't find people that are praying five times a day doing these things, what you usually find is the
goddess of genocide, who's emotionally attached to something, or has some type of a mental problem getting mixed up in these types of affairs. So that's what I did, I went and I learned more about my religion. And I stuck to what was orthodox in Islam. And then I was able to come to the point when I came back to United States that I was beneficial to those around me to teach them what is true Islam and what is not. And now I try to do that for my people. And I try not to let them get tricked off. And by all these other things, and these people that come up with these strange ideas and say, No, we are responsible as Muslims, here's convert or revert Muslims to say, Hey, this is the reality of
our religion, not what these other people are saying. And we have an obligation to save our younger brothers are the ones who are newer to Islam, to express to them and those also the face of Islam has changed. We have a lot of Muslims who are born Muslim now that are American, and they're in the same situation as the revert Muslim. And so that makes it even more imperative for us to make it a peaceable and make it clear to the to the Muslims. What Islam really is. Yes. So Islam through Islam, we're gonna take a break, and we'll be right back with more here on the deen show. Islam prohibits killing of innocent human being
human life is precious.
To
me
and my sisters.
To him,
successes he brings Oh, here we shake October, and we're gonna bring you another self defense tip. What do you say? That's good. I like self defense tips. Let's do it. So this week, around
this weekend, okay, you see, he's grabbing me by my collar. Okay. And now from here, I've tried to defuse the situation is not working. Now I know defusing the situation. He put his hands on, I got to defend myself. Okay, so how am I going to do it and suffer the least amount of damage because again, I've tried to defuse is not working. Okay. So from here, I'm going to grab the wrist. All right, this is a bent arm escape. If the arm is stiff, this won't work. So it's a bent arm escape, I grabbed the wrist. Okay, and from here, I'm going to step through pop the elbow up,
duck under free hands gonna come over.
This is the sweet self defense tip with any
success is
much simpler from South London, they don't even know what it means is to go for them. To put it on a fit for a reason. They need to start thinking enough and they don't dismiss that that's a waste of time. I'm already submitting. I'm already on the straight line. I'm already one god wished him alone, do what he wants you to do. Put your desires this thing inside you that just wants this and wants that and you just can't get enough. You know what you never get enough until the dirts in your mouth. Don't let it come to that be sincere and honest as the one who created you to guide us the first step hotel chasing all the women in the good times and the parties and this and that there is
no one worthy of worship except Allah don't wait. You never know if this would come today for you.
Back here on the deen show, and we're talking to Shaykh Abu Toba and you said some key you know you you are gung ho you're like I want to do jihad, which simply means to struggle and strive is that whatever okay initially, you know, there's two meanings of jihad. You know, when you
here do you had you think about fighting going to war, I was worried I joined the Marine Corps I was 17 years old. So that's what I knew. So when I heard of jihad, I'm thinking of like, what the Christians think of the Crusades? Yeah. Okay. And that was very, you know, picturesque for me. I had a romanticized idea about that. So that's what I wanted to do. When I came back and hamdulillah that I was sticking to people of knowledge, they told me Hold on. Now, that's not the thing to do, you know, knowledge precedes words in deeds. So you have to seek knowledge before you do or speak about something. You don't know what jihad is, jihad is, first and foremost, the struggle that a person
goes within himself to establish Islam in his life, you know, and I used to hear that and say, ah, get out of here, you know, you're softening up, you're being a polemic. But no, but that's what the true jihad is, to struggle within yourself to purify your soul in the fight your negative ego, who tells you, you're bigger than what you actually are. And then there is a physical jihad, where the Muslims defend the lands of the Muslims, or they may do something else and fighting against non Islamic ideas, but this is done behind the a government. You know how and we don't have that not these days we don't have so there's not going to be a Jihad like that. Unless someone attacks the
Muslims. And then jihad is considered someone who tries to rob you. Then you're in Jihad protecting yourself you have a right now someone comes in your home, no matter it's a god given right to defend, you defend yourself. And this is even an American law. Yeah, you know, you fight a guy that's in your house, that's you have a legal right to do that. This is a type of jihad, also, you know, so this is the type of thing that people are finding in other countries, when you're attacked, and they fight. And they say they're having a jihad, they think that Okay, these people are wrong. No, it's okay to defend yourself. But that's not what I had in mind. Yeah, so I was squared away,
because I was told you go seek knowledge first about the what true jihad is. And that was the struggle within yourself. You can't even control yourself, how are you going to control Anybody else? Yeah. And so I started working on that, and I'm still in battle every day, to try to make this internal Jihad and straighten out my life and be an example for my children, and to help my students and be a good person and to put this a force as this is what our people need more than they need to go out and fight somebody someplace else, even though it's so crucial and important that not only do the not yet Muslims, the non Muslims that they hear this and they clear this misconceptions that we
just some renegades and we're just trying to you know, kill people and all that, but also for the for the for the Muslims, who have the name tag Muslim, but they don't have the proper knowledge, and this rent Renegade mentality and so you got like the Time Square bombing and the Christmas Day, but they need proper knowledge and this is good that we address this, so inshallah someone who might have some crazy ideas, this might even stop him or her whoever the advice I give to the Muslim who wants to get involved in jihad, quote, unquote, stick to the masjid The first thing if you want to be a good Muslim, you have to be a good Muslim. And what does that mean? pray five times a day
that's jihad, pays a cat save your money and paisa can't afford to save your money and go make Hajj fast every day of Ramadan with not just the food but from the mentality that you're supposed to have when you're fasting and understand what it means to say la ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasul Allah, that is jihad. Okay, that's the Jihad that you need to fight first and foremost and then that other thing you need to leave that alone because this is not the time for that you know, and then that's what people need to realize as far as the the Christian or the non Muslim what they think about that I'm not so concerned with that as I'm concerned with the Muslim understanding what his obligation is to
himself and to his Lord, you know, and this other thing is just does it make good sense for them to get themselves involved in things that they're not ready for? Okay, and it doesn't have a true standing in today's society. We're gonna have to I mean, we just scratched upon a stiff surface with your story we went off here and there and you got some more interesting things to share with us. We just gonna have to continue on. How do you feel I'm okay, you're all good. Yes, sir. Okay, so inshallah we're going to continue on to talk to you a little bit more about you know, how you came to Islam and where you're at today on the next episode, inshallah God Willing inshallah, Thank you
man. Made Lake wa Salaam to God. May God Almighty Allah reward you in abundance. I mean, thank you. Thank you, too. And that's all the time we have for this week's show. You got to learn a lot here. For our brothers in humanity who we want to be our brothers and fav you see that Islam
has nothing to do with such events as 911 Christmas bomber, New York Times Square bomber Islam is not trying to throw bombs.
This system is trying to have you establish peace with the one who created you, the owner peace, the one God. And that's how you can truly have peace with yourself. And you can have peace with those around you. And you as you heard the Shaykh say, focus on yourself do that jihadist struggle and striving to be the best human being that you can be focused on that. And we're gonna have to continue on
talking with our brother to learn more of how he established Islam way of life or the Messenger of God, how he firmly established it in his life. So we're going to have to do another show with Shaykh Abu Toba be looking out for that. You can go to Dean show calm to see part one, and inshallah there'll be another talk with him. Because we got more to discuss. Until next time, peace be unto you. A lot of you out there are in the exact same position. He said, I would never give up for spring guidance. I will never give up spreading this message and hope that you take the necessary steps you don't know if you're gonna live till tomorrow.
So you got to find that urgency to do the right thing right now.
Just clarified everything. That's what I did.
In
Mohammedan.
majority people you talk to Yeah, they know they got to change. They know they got to do good, but they don't do the good. Why is this year
the ranking of the 100 most influential men in the history of the world, laziness
is the reality of life. Usually that sink in until tragedy comes you know, this is when you find people. Yeah, okay. Tell me about it. Yeah.
You got a few bad people. The media grabs ahold of that and spends it the way they want to.
In it, he puts Mohammed is number one. He said no human being had more influence.
One of the amazing things about Islam that everyone should know is that we are the only other religion that is a tenant of faith that you must believe in Jesus Christ in everything that he did or you cannot be able to see if that is missing if you say that you do not believe in Jesus you have stepped outside of Islam you cannot be a Muslim ended at 10 in our faith to to believe in in love Jesus Christ.
Or not God God is the one who created everything in this universe. That's the one I'm going to worship and prostrate to how can you go wrong doing that?
Don't believe in him you're out of Islam. Top 10 reasons why Jesus cannot be God let's get right to it. Number 10 number 10.
So
while Hamblen
will
be glad you did