Omar Challenges Islam

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah I greet you with the greeting of all the messengers of God, including one of
the mightiest messengers that was ever sent of the five, Jesus peace be upon him. He greeted his
followers with this greeting, the greeting of the angels, the greeting of the prophets. And that's
the greeting we're greeting you with here today, peace be unto you. And if that's too much for you,
Hey, what's up? How you doing? Thank you for tuning into the deen show. And we get to interview
people who have accepted this wonderful way of life the call to acquire piece by submitting to the
owner piece, the one guy, the Creator of the heavens and earth. So people from all walks of life are
		

			racing to Islam,
		

			the rich, the poor, the famous
		

			Bible scholars, Christian scholars that are going up higher up, I have had a chance to interview
people who have finished with master's degrees, finishing seminary schools, they're coming to Islam,
what's going on is a phenomena. They're seeing that all the evidence is pointing to Islam being the
truth. And it provides all the proof that it's not a man made religion. But indeed, it is organized
by the One God who created this whole universe, and everything in it, who's not a man or a woman,
but he's a creator of man and woman. Now, when we come back, there are also some people who are born
with the title Muslim. But it's not because default now you're born with parents who are Muslim,
		

			that you now are chosen by God and you just got to enter Paradise, you have to come to a conscious
decision, at one point in your life. Just like the person who's born in a Christian family, this
person is born in a Jewish family, Hindu family, whatever kind of family you have to come to a
conscious decision that you know what i want to submit, not to my desires, but to the one who
created me. And my next guest. When we come back, brother Omar is going to talk about how he made
that decision coming from a family of Muslims who were practicing, and him being a young man who
decided to practice
		

			this beautiful way of life, Islam. We come back here in the deen show, stay tuned.
		

			There's only one, Mohammed is His Messenger.
		

			Jesus was his messenger.
		

			Omar, how you doing? I'm going to greet you with those same greeting I greeted everybody with a
minute ago, Salaam Alaikum.
		

			Peace be with you, my brother, peace be with you as well. Now this is a unique show now, because we
get a lot of converts, people who are of other faiths. They were followers of the Christian faith of
the Hindu faith of the Jewish faith, whatever faith and then they come to a conscious decision, say
you know what things are making sense here. There's some contradictions here. You know what the
proofs not adding up. And then they look into Islam. And they say, you know what, this is where it's
at. There's a book has been unchanged on tamper with the verbatim Word of God, the Qur'an, some come
to it with all would have analytical approach scientific approach, and they see all these beautiful
		

			and wonderful miracles in the Quran. And then they submit. So those are the stories of those people.
But now you you have a father who's Muslim, is that right? That's right, and a mother who's Muslim,
right? But you weren't always practicing. It seems like just a year ago. So we want to get a little
bit of your history. How did you come to where you're at today? Tell us a little bit about yourself,
where you're from and what you're doing who you are? Well, my name is Omar, first of all. Now, I
grew up in Chicago. So you know, I have a very similar history to anyone who's living in Chicago,
you know, I'm not into a super rich family, not a super poor family, middle class, just just another
		

			guy. Yeah, middle class, you know, middle class. And with parents and family who doesn't really
practice Islam. It's, you know, it's always been, I always knew I was Muslim, but I never really
knew why. You know, we have a lot of people who are born into faiths, but they only because they
call themselves this because their parents are that, you know, they're a Christian because their
parents are Christian. They're Hindu, because their father is a Hindu. And in Islam, we have the
same problem. We have people who are Muslim, because they their fathers are Muslim, you know, and
that is a problem because you get people who then represent the true Muslims who don't really know
		

			much, you know, they don't really know what their religion preaches, or the basic theology of their
religion. And so, the way I really for me, you know, a lot of people when they come to a faith, they
kind of have, maybe it's in a tragedy, they lose a family member or some big thing and then they
have only God right. They had
		

			Nothing else turned to with me it was actually quite the opposite. Because I, in fact, was very
happy with the life I had, I had no reason to. I didn't need God, you know, I had everything. I had
my own apartment, I had a car, I had women, I had everything, you know, so at what age is this? This
is when I first got into college. So I'm 18 years old. Now college, some people just go for the
experience. Now, this is where, you know, some people just go for the experience, people get away
from the family, and now they just let loose. Yes. And that's what was about to happen to me.
Because, you know, I had roommates, and roommates influence you, you know, in a lot of things. And
		

			one thing they wanted me to do, you know, let's go to the club, let's go to the bars. Let's go meet
these women, right, bringing women into my apartment all the time. And I was always kind of saying
no. But it got to the point where I'm like, Well, wait a minute, why? Why am I saying no? Because
I'm a Muslim? Why am I a Muslim? You know, you're starting to question Right, right. Why? Why should
I keep following these rules when I could be doing this? You know? And so but did some some? Did
your family instill some of the good Islamic? Yeah, yes. Because those renew, because we my family
doesn't drink, they don't smoke. They don't eat pork, things like this, you know, basic. I mean, I
		

			don't come from a bad family. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. But they nothing was ever pushed. You know,
I wasn't really given. I was never given a reason not to do things I was just told this is we don't
do it. So don't do it. You know, and I kind of went along with the flow. But when you get to be you,
when you get to be 18, to go to college, things change. And you kind of I mean, for any person, I
think you kind of question.
		

			Your question, why am I living the way my parents told me to live? Why? Why am I not drinking? Why?
Why am I not chasing girls? right? Exactly. And and these things were all readily available to me,
you know, I don't have to go and find them. And so I thought, well, let me just look into Islam
here. But I didn't look into it, trying to find a reason to believe I looked into it, trying to find
a reason for it to all be nonsense. So then you can go ahead. Right, right. Right. You're right, the
front of the club. Exactly. So I'm trying to find a reason why I can say Look there, it's all fake.
Now I can go with my friends. Right? Yeah. And, but I think I mean, I'm also I like to think of
		

			myself as being a sincere person, you know, an honest person. And when, when I read about, I'm a man
of science. First of all, I don't believe in anything superstitious. I don't do. I don't cross my
fingers to be lucky. You know, I don't do any of this kind of stuff. If I don't if I can't see it.
I'm not gonna believe it. This is not how I work. Yes. And so I thought, if there's going to be a
real religion, you know, if there's going to be a God, the proof of this God has to be extremely
obvious, right? I mean, he's, what kind of I mean, the very nature of God is he's merciful. He's
loving, what kind of God is merciful and loving, but then says, Well, maybe I exist, maybe I don't,
		

			you know, doesn't give any clear evidence. This is kind of a contradiction in and of itself. So I,
I'm not going to believe something that's not obvious. I'm not gonna if it's not clear, and if it
doesn't hit me over the head with just sheer obviousness, I'm not going to believe it, you know, I'm
a man of science. So when I first was looking into the Quran, you know, this holy book that we
Muslims seem to be following. I'm asking people, you know, what makes this book so amazing? Why Why
is this book different than the Bible, you know, or the Torah or anything else? And a lot of what I
was hearing was the linguistic miracle, right? The way it's written, why don't speak Arabic. So
		

			that's, I didn't look into that very much. The other thing I kept hearing was the scientific facts
in the Quran, that no one could have known at the time of the Prophet. And so I thought, you know,
okay, what, what are these facts? You know, what, you know, what? How, what can be in this book that
was not known at the time? Yes. And I'm telling you, Eddie, when you when you look at what's really
written in the Quran, I mean, you put all the other miracles miracles aside the prophecy that's come
true, the way it's written, that I've now come to understand you just look at the scientific facts,
when it describes in clear detail, the formation of the embryo
		

			could not have known these facts about human development in the seventh century, because most of
them were not discovered until the 20th century, when it says the earth is the shape of an ostrich
egg. You know, I mean, I read that and I thought, you know, why did why does how the earth is
shaped, you know, it's not just circle
		

			shaped to the earth that matches an ostrich. Right, right. And, you know, this is something at the
time of the Prophet you know, peace be upon him. We have to run
		

			Remember, everyone is thinking the earth is flat. Yeah. All of a sudden now this guy says no, no is
actually not flat. Not only does he say it's not flat, he says it's shaped like an ostrich egg, you
know, out of all the eggs to choose, he could have picked a chicken egg, you know, he could have
picked a fish egg. Why does he pick an ostrich egg? You know, so this is that shape how it's
designed the look, if you would compare it right to a tennis ball, or to a football or to an ostrich
egg. This is how it would resemble more. So and this is what you're seeing. And this is what this is
what is in the Quran, you know, 1400 years ago? I mean, this and this is just one of the you know,
		

			who, who could have known that? First of all, who could have known that some say, okay, the prophet,
he, maybe he is really smart. Maybe he was an astronomer, and he maybe he figured it out? Or maybe
he was just lucky, right? Yeah. Okay, fine. That's just one thing. What about the hundreds of
others? You know, what about the the formation of the embryo? What about the watercycle? You know,
all these things that are written? And not, you know, not just,
		

			they don't, they're not just talked about in broad, you know, sense. I mean, detailed. I mean, these
are, these are things that most modern scientists who when they see it, they have no choice but to
believe as well. Maurice Buckeye, he is the I know, he was one of the one of the most famous
scientists in biology. And he he converted to Islam because of all this, he was that French
scientist. He's the French scientist. Yeah. And he converted to Islam. He's written a book, The
Quran, the Bible on science. And, I mean, these are, these are facts that are bringing, not just,
you know, like you say, in your show, sometimes car mechanics, they don't just bring those kind of
		

			people to Islam, but real intellectual people who are sincere are now coming toward Islam, because
they realize there's not really a way this could have been written by I mean, no matter how smart
this man was, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, there's no way he could have known that. There's
no way he could have known that you're figuring this out. You're using your mind, you're taking a
scientific analytical approach. And we're going to come back to hear more with our brother Omar,
we'll be right back. He is.
		

			Coming to the truth requires two things. It requires deep thinking that you've already done but it
requires another step. And that's courage. If you have the truth, but you don't have courage, you
won't stand up for the truth. And that's as good as standing up for falsehood.
		

			I would say this thing that you just told me, it's not in the Scripture, and they would say a
marginal note added by scribe. Yeah, okay. We know that. And I'd be thinking, if you know, this is
not the Bible. Why are you preaching it as if it's gospel truth?
		

			I am not afraid.
		

			I am not afraid to stand alone.
		

			I'm not afraid
		

			to stand alone.
		

			afraid.
		

			I am not afraid.
		

			I'm not afraid to stand.
		

			Back here on the D show with a brother Omar, who is coming up in a Muslim family, not practicing,
but you have some of the moral teachings, some of the things the basics, don't drink, don't for
indicate you got to get married. Don't smoke, basic things. But now you're telling you so why am I
going to follow these rules? Let me try to look into Islam just because I can find some
contradictions. There's a 62nd find some inaccuracy, I can prove and put it in the same basket as
all the other man made religions. So then I can let loose and my conscious won't be eating away at
me. Right. But you're fine aside. Now. It's different. Exactly. So you left off now that you are
		

			intellectually and politically coming at this, and you're finding out that this is not the case, it
is coming more so to fruition that this is something that could possibly be from the crater. Are you
there yet? That it's 100%? Where are you at now? I'm there yet? I mean, yes, I'm there. But I'm
challenging it still, you know, because I'm trying to think there has to be an explanation, right.
And I'm trying to challenge it. And one of the things that
		

			brought me into the religion even more is that this challenge that I was posing to people, you know,
all sorts of people of knowledge people, just the common folk, anyone this challenging, always was
actually welcomed, and it was encouraged a lot of other faiths. You know, I don't mean to pick on
anyone in particular, but I know a lot of other faiths say, well, don't challenge it. Just believe
it blindly follow it, you know, and don't question it because if you question it
		

			Then you're stupid, you know, just believe it. And I think, well, if there really is a religion from
God, you have to be able to question it. And it has to be undefeatable. Right. So I'm continuing on
I'm questioning these things. I'm trying to find explanations for how these, you know, facts could
have been put in this book. I'm trying to find maybe this these, these verses the scientific facts,
they meant something else. I'm just trying to disprove it, you know, but every single time I tried
to disprove one of these facts, I actually get bombarded with more evidence. And it's, it's the
truth, you know. And so, but you mentioned something earlier that you hoped and thought that you
		

			were sincere that you were, you know, you were trying to do this, but at the same time, were you
being sincere about it? You weren't like, even if it was a truth, you weren't trying to cover it up?
No, no, I know, absolutely not. I was never trying to cover everything up. Or, you know, I never
just put the book away and said, I'm sure it's a fluke, you know, this never happened. I'm just
trying to, and even to this day, I still do that. You're challenging. But are you sincere at the
same time? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm, you know, our religion teaches us to if we find something
better, we go to it. So if I find that the Quran was actually written, you know, 20 years ago, then
		

			I go away from Islam, you know, that isn't the case. And so even to this day, so you're not finding
anything better? No, I cannot find anything better. No. And I and I look into, I mean, I've looked
into scientific facts of the Bible, I've looked into how the Bible plays into, you know, modern day,
I work into how I mean, I lived in Japan for three years, I've studied Buddhism, intensively, and
Buddhism, it's nice and all that, but there's no, there's no evidence, and that's the kind of person
I am I need evidence, I need proof to to believe in something, you know, you go and buy a car,
right? You don't buy it, because the salesman tells you to buy it, you buy it because you've done
		

			the research, and you have the evidence that this is the best car for you. Why should religion be
any different? So you look, you looked into Buddhism, you looked into some of the other religions
also, yeah, Christianity, and I have a lot of Christian friends, you know, I looked into Judaism, I
looked into, I mean, religions that you probably would never even heard of, you know, in, in Japan,
because I was there for three years, and I'm just trying to find, and a lot of religions preach
good. You know, I'm not saying that Islam is the only religion that's, you know, good. I mean,
Christianity is good, you know, do one to your neighbor, where you want to under yourself, you know,
		

			it's, these are all good. But, you know, you don't have to have a religion to be good. And so if I'm
going to follow a religion, I don't want to be a Muslim, just because Islam is good, because every
religion is good. You know, what, what makes Islam different from everything else? That's my
question. And that's why I research everything. Did you find that when you look at these other
religions, because they can teach some good, but if the foundation that is built on, it's not from
the creek tour, that hold on, it can be teaching you to do some, some good, but if you look at some
of these other religions, for instance, they may call to be good to your neighbor, they might call
		

			to give and charity, but if the Ultimate Evil is to set up another god, besides God, make God into a
manner his creation, then ultimately, this can't be from God, because no, their message has always
been the same worship the One God not as creation. So if these other religions, for instance, are
calling you to worship Buddha, or a man or a woman or an idol or a saint, then that's contradicting
the way of life of God. Did you? How did you that's one thing I noticed too. I mean, almost every
religion seems to be based off a I mean, a lot of Muslims, we know this, and a lot of times we say
this, I'm just gonna say it again. A lot of most religions seem to be based on a a person or place,
		

			you know, I mean, Christianity, Christ, right. Buddhism, Buddha, Hinduism, the Hindus valleys, you
know, yes. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to think, you know, but Islam isn't. I mean, what does Islam
mean? It means sincere submission to the one who created you sincere submissions.
		

			And these are all by definition, this is how we can say that Islam has been here since the very
beginning of time, just a very big very big before that, even before I'll even say before that even
because everything This cup is insincere submission to the one who created it, because it's
following the rules of gravity is following the rules of physics. As you can see, everything is and
rule the sun, the sun, everything. You know, I met a guy who worship the sun the other day. Yes, we
can understand the different story. But I just thought that was kind of funny because you're gonna
worship the sun. The sun is gonna die one day, then how's it gonna save you? Yeah. Okay, so now tell
		

			us because we don't have too much time. We want to get all the great highlights of of your life,
that now you're coming to this realization that this is from the Creator. So what happens not you're
young, and no, and a lot of people who maybe they might know this, but they don't follow it up with
action and just start, how did you go from here? Well, change doesn't happen overnight. You know, I
mean, even though I was now starting to realize that there is just not a way I could understand how
this book
		

			can be from man has to be from God. I said, Fine. But you know, I still want to do this other stuff.
So I'll be religious when I come home. But then when I go out, you know, I'll do the other stuff
too. So now I live in the best of both worlds. And for a while, that's that's how that's how it, you
know, was but then I think what really started to change was the establishing of the prayer. Because
this is when you are in direct communication with God, no, no, no intermediaries, you know, no, not
going through a man to God, no detours just right? I'm talking to God directly, you start to
implement the right money. And and it's not again, this is not an overnight thing. I mean, first, it
		

			was just one prayer day, right? And it wasn't, you know, only in my apartment, I'm not going to pray
outside of, you know, my apartment, the safety and the comfort. And that's fine for a beginner. And
I don't have any regrets about that, because that's how you ease into you know, your real
		

			calling, but so it was just once you know, once a day, and then during Ramadan, okay, now it's time
to be really religious, maybe I'll do it two times a day, maybe three, if I'm, you know, in the
mood. And eventually, you just keep doing this, and you keep doing this and you memorize what you
have to say, and you memorize the movements. And it just becomes so easy it becomes so and it feels
so natural. You know, it's not, it's not embarrassing, someone looks at you, when you're praying.
It's easy to see this man is praying, you know, we don't have any kind of, we don't shake our arms
all around and don't do some kind of weird, nothing weird, prostrating putting your head on the
		

			ground, right? The same way that Jesus did when he fell on his face and prayed to God, Moses,
Abraham, we, as far as we know, the prophet prayed like this. So and So you started to implement the
prayer and you started slowly, little by little, and then you worked up to what, five times a day.
And five times? Well, number the first day, I prayed five times a day, it was a big deal, you know,
cuz now I felt Okay, now I'm a real Muslim, you know. And so I pray five times a day for three days
in a row. And I'm like, Okay, now I need a break now operate three times today. And he just kind of,
you know, you make these schedules for yourself, and everyone will ease into it at their own pace.
		

			But eventually, the more I began to pray, the more I was willing to pray outside of the comfort of
my own apartment, you know, and now I'm praying out on the street, but I'm praying, you know, in my
place of employment, I'm praying at school, and people started to see you, and you become more
conscious of it, you know, and the more conscious of your Muslim self you become, the more you want
to learn about it, you know, the more you want to understand yourself, because you know, people are
judging you whether maybe it's good, maybe it's bad, you know, whatever. And so, this is where I
became more and more interested in this study of my own faith. And I'm telling you, just the more I
		

			studied it, the more I just became committed. You know, sometimes people they study their religion,
and they learn more and more about it, but as far as making less and less sense, and so they say,
Well, I'm this religion, but I don't really believe it. You know, with me, it's everything was in
sync, the more I understood, the more I understood about my body, about the world about everything.
You know, everything just made sense. The more you learn, the more you got committed, the more you
started to implement the second pillar of Islam, the salado prayer, the more that that helps you to
keep away from a lot of the bad things of us that are out there. Yes. Okay. And that's what you
		

			know, when I meet some friends, or even my, my family, when sometimes people they just see Islam as
nothing but a simple set of rules. You know, you can't do this can't do that. And then when you look
at it this way, you're really starting to lose touch of what Islam really is, you know, so before I
tell anyone, I mean, new Muslims, I don't give them any rules. I just say establish the prayer.
Yeah, the rest is going to come with time, because you're going to want to do it yourself. Yeah, no.
So that's, that is my first advice to everyone, including myself. I remind myself every day just
pray. Just establish the prayer because everything else falls into place. Once you build the
		

			foundation, everything else comes into place. Let's Let's take another break and we'll be right back
with our brother Omar here on the deen show.
		

			To say to me, why are you becoming Muslim? No, I give a very frivolous on should I say I want to be
on the side of the angels.
		

			of God. He's the number one rap artists in the world. He sold over 16 million records worldwide, the
millions the military. He was a young guy where basically everything that somebody you would think
that life is all about he had everything you can imagine.
		

			You're watching the deen show. We're here with our brother Omar, Omar's, you were talking when we
left off about establishing the prayer. This is a direct connection with the Creator of the heavens
and earth. Before that you got the correct knowledge. You started to see that you know what this
cannot be from a minute
		

			This cannot be written by a group of men. This, the verbatim Word of God is from the Creator. And
you started to implement what he told you to do the connection not because he needs the prayer, he
don't need it. But no, as he says in the Quran that established a prayer for my remembrance, because
indeed the prayer keeps one away from evil deeds shamelessness, things that you know what will just
lead a person to corruption. So now, you don't want to go to the club no more. You don't want to do
some of these things that you know what no desire for that? No, I mean, some people may say that not
be sincere about it, but I'm too busy, you know, basking in the love of a lot to really care about
		

			that. So shall I, you said a law now someone might think that's so long God or something when you
when you say Allah, who's Allah, the God, the God, you know, in Arabic, Allah means God. And then
our means the. So scholars, most scholars speculate that the word of law came from, you put out with
a law, a law, and it means the god this easy, this is the most we don't know for sure. But this is
where we are most certain this word came from Allah. So it just means the God doesn't mean, you
know, the Arab God doesn't mean the God of the Muhammad, you know, it just means the God know,
nothing, nothing, you know, strange about that word, and Jews and Christians who are Arabic
		

			speaking, they only they also use the word Allah to all my Christian friends who speak Arabic, I say
a lot. And they know what I'm talking about. Okay, so let's say, Hey, I'm not Muslim. Now. They say,
Oh, yeah, thank you. Okay, so so the person that you know what he's never heard this term, we're
talking about the creator of the Sun of the creator of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, the creator of all
that exists. Now, continue on, we got to just a few more minutes, what's going on with your life
now. So you can probably like many people write a book, but it's we just crunched on time, you just
want people to really be able to benefit from these short stories of people. So they can get a
		

			little more motivated to do the good that Islam calls are being to do, what happened was going on
now, which Well, one of the biggest things you know, when you accept this way of life is you're
going to be tested. And some tests are much harder than others. And so, right now, I'm being tested.
You know, just like everyone, there's many challenges in my life, and there are many glories in my
life, too. But everything is everything is a test, you know, and so when I'm praying at work, or you
know, in the mall or whatever, a lot of times, it becomes very hard to gain that motivation to let
people know no Muslim, you know, and I think everyone has that kind of problem. But when I one thing
		

			that really helps me get through, letting people know I'm a Muslim, is remembering the life of the
Prophet, peace be upon him, because you know, that the Prophet, I mean, he was threatened with his
wife, his followers oftentimes died to protect the messenger of Islam all just by practicing, you
know, this is I mean, the Arabs at the time of the Prophet, many of them hated them, hated him,
because he was trying to change everything. And so I just remember that, if the Prophet can do this,
and people like the Prophet can do this, with their lives being threatened, I think I can do it with
people giving me a look, you know, so. So any closing comments and suggestions for those out there
		

			who hold the prayer established? You'd like that?
		

			I think that lead that is everything you know, that leads to everything else comes from the prayer,
well established the prayer. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much as Oklahoma God
Almighty, Allah reward you for being with us as well. He was, well, 10 years strong continue
forward. And that was our brother Omar, who came to a point of his life. And he started to question
any question the Quran, he was sincere, and you wanted to see, you know, what can this be from a
human being? If it is, I'm going to do my own thing, then I'll make up my own way of life. But he
saw that you know what, no, no, no, this car and the verbatim Word of God is from God is from the
		

			Creator. So I've got to do God's thing. I've got to do what the creator wants me to do. So he did
the most important thing after testifying, swearing to that there's no God, but God, there's no
deity worthy of worship except Allah. And Muhammad is His Messenger, that includes all the messages
that preceded him, including Jesus Christ.
		

			Moses, Abraham, Noah, they were all messages of God, they were calling people to worship one God and
not his creation. And then he established the prayer. And this is where many people are lacking. So
we got to get motivated, put your face to the ground, repent to the Creator, ask him to make it
easy. And continue to strive towards goodness, good character, develop yourself to be the best human
being that you can be. And you're only going to do that
		

			with the creator's help. So ask him, beseech him to help you to help us so we can be the best. And
then we can get paradise because life is short. It can end at any time. And with that said, continue
to come back here to the deen show. We also have the new radio show. It's all at the deen, show
calm, continue to watch the same time, same channel. Until next time, peace be unto you.