alhamdulillah Alum peace be with you
thank you for tuning in to the dean show
we have our next guest who's going to
come out we interviewed him some time
ago he was with the US military he
accepted Islam several decades ago a
long time ago and we're going to talk to
him some of the struggles that he's had
and has overcome we're going to be
talking about a lot of the culture honor
killings that have been associated with
Islam range marriages and many weird
superstitions all of these things that
I'm sure many of the people who come to
Islam and even our living in Islam is
Muslims they see that they're practicing
them where does it conflict does it have
anything to do with Islam we're going to
learn all this and more with our next
guest when we come back here on the dean
show this is the dean the dean
this is
the this is
the this is the this is
the this is
the how are you my brother alhamdulillah
I said you accept accepted a Psalm
decades ago a long de I don't know it
was decades ago but it was a while ago
it was a while ago how how have you been
since then alhamdulillah people can go
to the Deans show.com to see your story
I mentioned that you were formerly in
the military US military yes uh since
then now you're actually a PhD candidate
yes inshallah I'm working on uh I
finished the masters of education now
I'm working on a Doctorate in Education
inshallah give us uh for those people
who haven't seen your story just kind of
a a summary of your story from what you
talked about with us I was in the US
Navy uh for 4 years and U I came to
Islam from basically disobedient Muslims
and so uh I used to hang out in the
nightclubs and uh where they used to
drink a lot of alcohol and I came into
contact with disobedient Muslims then
this is how I came into contact with
Islam uh ended up marrying a woman that
was leaving the path of Islam and doing
a lot of the disobedient stuff and um
she came to me one day and asked me if I
would marry her I I I said no problem
she said there's one thing you have to
become a Muslim I said great what is
that cuz I never knew what a Muslim was
before so she said all I have to do is
go down and repeat after the Imam and
Wham Bam Shazam I'm a Muslim uh the only
thing is is that things something
changed um I got in contact with a the
last and final Testament of almighty God
the Quran and when I opened up that book
and I started to read it I realized
there were certain things in my life
that I was doing that I needed to change
and so this led me on my path to Islam
and needless to say me and uh the woman
that I came into Islam with uh we ended
up parting ways she went one way and I
went a different way I went down The
Path of Knowledge and so I started to
learn more about myself and the Creator
and what it meant to be one who submits
their will to the creator of the heavens
and the earth now what was this that you
had to say Proclaim when you went down
to the mosque in front of the Imam so
this is the testimony of faith that all
Muslims have to take in order to be a
Muslim and it's basically they call it
the
which means two parts of the testimony
of Faith so the first part
is which means there is no God but God
and the second part is uh Muhammed which
means Muhammad Abdullah is his slave and
final messenger so he came just like
Jesus just like Moses just like uh Jesus
with the same message to worship the one
true God and to follow their way because
they're going to show us how to do it
now if I remember correctly from the
interview you actually started getting
serious with of Islam and the actual the
Muslim who you married she wasn't
correct there was more culture involved
wasn't it right so she she was adapted
to a lot of the cultural things which
had no basis inside of Islamic teachings
uh so the Quran and the Hadith which we
pull our Traditions from the prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him and the Quran
which we pull the Traditions from
almighty God there are many things in
there that almighty God said about the
certain cultures even of the Arabs and
it says that these practices are very
very uh not good for society so go ahead
and abandon those practices and follow
what the messenger teaches you and so
when you look at that that's the whole
picture of what we have and so I
submitted to following the text of the
Quran and of the Hadith which that ended
up getting rid of all of those cultural
differences yeah we see I mean that's
why the show is based on some of these
cultural confusions so you went through
some of those with the person in the
beginning can you name some of those
things that you went through well like
for example um you know in in their
culture when they come came to the
United States and that it was okay that
a woman did not uh dress herself in a
proper way in a modest way um it was
okay if uh for example during the rest
of the year if the men would go ahead
and drink alcohol go out and hang out at
clubs and that but during the month of
Ramadan they were in the front roads of
the mosque Subhan Allah uh glory be to
God free is he from any imp imperfection
but these were cultural practices that
they saw that were okay to go ahead and
do that they adapted from other cultures
also uh back in their home country and
that this was not something that would
be allowed even and so it was just
something that they picked up from other
cultures and and this was a problem and
so uh when I started reading the
teachings inside of the Quran and inside
of the Hadith I saw that there were many
of these things that were not allowed
one of the biggest things was drinking
um me being a non Muslim before that I
used to drink a lot of alcohol I used to
go out to the clubs used to party used
to do all of these things and so I
thought this was normal but when I start
seeing the teachings inside of the book
that it says to go ahead and get rid of
these things and it went into stages
okay it didn't just say abandon it it
says in these there are some Goods but
in these there are some evils and so
when I started to look at this I was
able to go ahead and see hey what I'm
doing right now is not the correct thing
so I need to go ahead and remove this
part of the culture and even some of the
cultural baggages which I brought from
the culture that I learned in the
American culture I had to go ahead and
remove all of those because they
conflicted with Islamic teachings and
values which were to go ahead and polish
to train you to teach you how to be a
better person now tell us you know that
Islam makes sense that's why you
accepted it and it's the fastest growing
way of life in the world Islam
submission to the Creator not the
creation you know living a good
righteous wholesome life and when you
hear a lot of these absurdities on the
media like the honor killings Force
marriages what do you got to say about
this right and even when the Quran was
revealed over a period of 23 years to
the Arabs at the time and particularly
to the ques tribe uh which was the tribe
from which the prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him he came from this tribe um
there were many cultural practices that
they were doing that were based off of
ignorance that were based off of what
they call in the Arabic language jahia
which means ignorance
and so one of the things is they used to
have a lot of superstition and they used
to say that uh if they had a female
daughter that was born they would go
ahead and bury her alive now there is no
legislation from this at all they just
followed these superstitious acts and
they acted upon them and so I started to
see this not only in the American
culture but also in around the world
even in Islamic cultures there were
small little things that actually
violated certain concepts of Ted which
means the Oneness of almighty God and so
these superstitions these things in
cultures sometimes go against the
teachings of Islam which is pure and uh
untarnished whereas culture in that can
have a lot of problems and I tell a lot
of my Muslim brothers and sisters in
that it's okay to have culture it's okay
to have that identity but culture needs
to be sitting in the back seat not in
the front seat okay Islam needs to be
sitting in the front seat that should be
the driving force and then culture
should be something that should go ahead
and enhance your Islamic morals and
values and teachings so honor killings
so honor killings now this is a very
simple one okay Allah subhana wa tal the
creator of the heavens and the Earth
glory be to him he states in the Quran
that to take the life of one innocent
human being okay it's like you killed
all of humanity and to go ahead and save
one life is like you saved all of
humanity okay now we cannot carry the
burden of another person okay if one
person does a sin okay I can't go ahead
and take that burden from them and take
it okay just like some of the Christians
believe that Jesus died for their sins
and they took the burden of the sin as
human beings we can't do that we can't
bear anybody else's burden so to sit
there and say that I want to go ahead
and they're bringing shame upon my
family and I want to take their life
this is totally forbidden in the
teachings of Islam but to put this into
context even in the United States okay
this was a practice that was common
among us citizens and so if you go back
into the late 1800s and the 1900s you
would see this practice of honor
killings if somebody actually did
something that brought shame to the
family and that they would go ahead and
take the matter into their own hand and
since this was a patriarchal society
back in the 1800s to 1900s uh they
didn't get touched by the law and so
this is just something that has changed
and it's a phenomena that gets exploited
in the media a lot especially in today's
society all right so we cleared couple
things up there's there's no uh
part-time Muslims kicking it at the club
and then coming and Ramadan you know
you're in it you're actually in it to
win it the whole year round so we clear
that up and then honor killings
absolutely not not at all not allowed
okay beautiful we're going to go ahead
and take a break and we'll be right back
with more with our special guest Jamal
here on the dean show is life just about
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alone I am not afraid to stand alone if
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I am not afraid to stand alone if Li I
am not afraid to
stand back here on the dean show and we
are discussing a very important topic we
have Islam which is simple clear to
understand it's perfect Muslims can be
unperfect because they're human beings
so now a lot of the Muslims have brought
in many of these back home cultures some
are good actually some uh give us some
examples of some some good things
because obviously we don't eradicate
everything from the culture but some
things that would that You' saw saw in
your studying that now someone is
probably doing and they've mixed it in
and they attribute this to Islam we saw
honor cleanings have nothing to do with
it give us another example so you want a
good example please okay so a good
example that the Muslims actually taught
me that was something that used to be a
part of American values at one time was
the sense of family and community and
togetherness this is something that as
Americans and that that they can go
ahead and learn a lot from Muslims about
they're all about going ahead and living
together as a family eating together
taking time together taking care of the
whole entire family in fact this is an
act of worship an act of God and so this
is something that each and every Muslim
takes a lot of pride in and takes a lot
of work in doing so um also when they
elderly when they get El older the the
children they go ahead and take care of
them there's no throwing them into a a
uh old folks home there's no putting
them in a nursing home um I I remember
one time me and my wife there she had a
a older lady that she used to call
Grandma an American and uh she was on
her deathbed and she uh became a Muslim
it was the most amazing thing that I
ever saw but her children came and we
loved this woman very much so and her
children came and her son was even a
Catholic preacher and
my wife was very upset because of her
Muslim morals and values and how well we
care about the elderly they said listen
it's been 12 days okay I need to get
back to my life I need to get back to my
job can you please just cut off the food
cut off the water here is a woman in the
last days of her life and that and they
want to go ahead and put her through
torture okay let her die on her own
terms but they wanted to speed it up
because of their attachment to the world
and so she had a very hard time with
this and I did all also I mean cuz I
cried for this lady that she had to go
through this but we are not her children
and so there was nothing that we could
do and so there are a lot of good morals
and values that come from the culture
that are actually based in the roots of
Islam and there are also some things
that come from the culture and that that
have no business being an Islamic thing
that sometimes get confused by
Americans let's move to another common
one forced marriage can you force
someone to marry someone in Islam
actually in Islam
uh this actually there are some ayats in
the Quran that actually got rid of this
whole forced marriage thing and in fact
in Surah n it says that you cannot make
a woman marry against her own will and
also you couldn't inherit women against
their own will which was a common
practice among the Arabs before Islam uh
when a husband would die they would go
ahead and inherit the whole entire
household so they would inherit the the
the the wife they would inherit the
daughters they would inherit all of that
as property and so Islam came to go
ahead and give the rights to the woman
that they have a choice and to say what
they want now in the Middle East for
example and that they have a difference
of culture also to where men and women
they don't mix so it's not like a
freestanding dating Society where you
have men and women that are mixing and
so usually what would happen is the
parents would go ahead and find them a
spouse so if they had a son they would
find them a good woman uh they would go
talk to other families and that and then
arrange these marriages mares now
doesn't mean that they have to do this
but what it's saying is that the parents
are trying to provide them a platform
that they make something lawful so they
don't commit unlawful acts we we know
that I Islam I mean as I said earlier
it's easy to understand and usually
you'll see that some cultures now we
gave a few examples of the good things
yes some good foods right some
hospitality and then we have let's say
the dress you know Islam there's a
modest way of dressing but some people
have Incorporated before we go to break
the now the th for instance that now
someone accepts Islam they have to wear
this thob what do you have to say about
that one of the reasons why I'm wearing
this dress I I prefer to actually wear
the thob okay but if you actually look
at the Sunnah which is the way of the
Prophet peace be upon him he did not
wear the th he wore what was called an
isar which is more like a waste cloth
that goes down here and a longer shirt
so he more in line with what was Po in
modern day Yemen there's a lot of people
in Yemen or maybe even some of the older
people in Somalia they wear this sort of
dress that was more towards what he wore
the thob actually if you look in
American culture and that they used to
wear it in the 1800s and the 1900s here
in America and they used to wear it as
pajamas so you can find pictures of this
of Americans wearing this out in the old
west and stuff like that and then also
in the Middle East and that they used to
start off as a pair of pajamas and then
what ended up happening is that
designers started to design it in
different ways and they started to wear
it not just at nighttime they wor it in
the daytime so this became a cultural
thing now does this piece of cloth make
them a Muslim no it's a design it's a
fashion it's a cultural choice to go
ahead and wear something like that and
there's nothing in Islam that says that
you have to dress a certain way and
that's the beauty about Islam we have
many different people from many
different diversities uh many different
ethnicities many different skin colors
many different races many different
languages and they all come together and
they worship one God the god that
created all of us we're going to take a
break and then right back with more here
on the dean
show God says in the
Quran no one is held accountable for
what someone else is
doing so just because your parents were
going through what they were going
through
it doesn't mean that you're held
accountable for what they did nor will
they be nor will they be held
accountable for what you do so you can't
blame what you're doing on your parents
once you know better you need to
J don't forget to like us on Facebook
and follow us on Twitter please
subscribe to our YouTube channel and
tell all your friends and family about
the dean
show back here on the dean show with
IM you also are are you an IM at a mid
you teach Islamic Studies at are you an
Imam Imam all Imam means in the Arabic
language is a leader so in that aspect
yes I uh I do a lot of different
teachings with about 900 students on the
weekend we go through the teachings of
the Arabic language looking at the
linguistic cognitive roots and so they
can help understand what the Arabic
means that they're memorizing and then
we also look at Islamic history on the
whole and our Islamic Studies are
Foundation of why we believe what we
believe uh it's not like in many of the
other Fai and that that they're this
by by uh birth like they were born into
the religion of Christianity or they
were born into the religion of Judaism
in Islam we are required to actually
seek knowledge and understand why we
believe what we believe we're supposed
to be working every single day on our
relationship with the creator of the
heavens and the Earth and so a good
Muslim will always reflect on all of
this and keep on polishing and keep on
learning more as they go along on their
journey in life and so I I do a lot of
work with that but I also do a lot of uh
work with non-muslims uh I spend a lot
of my time going to uh Church
organizations police fire department all
of these different organizations to go
ahead and teach them about what Islam is
and what Islam isn't unfortunately we
got a lot of bad publicity out there and
so it takes a lot of understanding and a
lot of teaching to get them through
these different things uh to help them
understand many of them they're very
good people and they want to understand
who Muslims are what are they for what
do they want okay are they like us and
so they're looking for a thing most of
them they have good intentions and so we
try to help them out in that aspect yeah
but what what was the um the most
important thing that you felt that
helped you to be able to decipher
culture so you can see it clear okay
this is Islam
this is what Islam teaches and this is
culture so people out there who are
stuck in this trap they're kind of
confused they see some weird things
being attributed to Islam and that's
usually the first thing if it's weird
doesn't make sense it's way out there
it's probably not about Islam because
Islam is the natural way it makes sense
and there's nothing that the Creator
told us to do that's something beyond
our capacity and something that just
doesn't go with with um you know our
human nature so tell us what what what
do this think I think the creator of the
heavens and the Earth he gave us the
best answer to this question inside of
the Quran he says that when anybody
brings you any sort of piece of
information to go ahead and verify it
and he gave us a formula on how to
verify it he said refer it back to the
Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet
peace be upon him so if you find it
inside of the Quran okay then go ahead
and partake in it if you don't find it
in the Quran then you're going to have
to hold off for a second then you need
to go ahead and take the next step and
look into the traditions of the Prophet
peace be upon him and look for the
answers there now if you still do not
find what you're looking for there it is
not covered in that aspect then you
refer it to the scholars that have given
their understanding it's called the Jad
their understanding of what the religion
is and they have to look for the burden
of proof in there if they still don't
find it then you need to stay a far away
from that as possible because then it it
is going to take you into unlawful means
and so it's a very simple formula uh one
of the greatest things about Islam is
that the scholarship the way that it's
done for example if I want the word of
God okay I go to the Quran if I want the
word of the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him I go to the Hadith if I want
the word of the sahaba I go to another
book if I want the word of a scholar I
go to another book a historian another
book everything is separated out so it's
easy if I'm a a beduan in the middle of
the desert with no formal education or
I'm an astrophysicist I can study on the
same level and know where the weight
lies but the people of the book their
books you have the word of God in there
you have the word of the prophet in
there you have the word of other people
in there you have the word of historians
and it's all put in together into one
book and they say at the end of the day
that this is the word of God they're not
being honest with themselves because you
have the word of other thing so you
can't tell what is true and what is
false and so we have something that goes
ahead and helps in this scholarship
and it's amazing the scholarship of
Islam and that's why so many people can
study Islam for their whole entire life
and they barely scratch the surface of
where the real knowledge is now if
someone says look if I want to follow
the Sunnah the way of the last and final
messenger the same way obviously if you
were living during the time of Jesus
Moses Abraham you'd have to follow their
Sunnah their way and the Revelation that
was given to them by the Creator for
guidance for mankind so if someone says
look if I'm going to follow this then I
might as might as well be riding a
you know how do we get hit with the
times then okay very good so the Quran
was not something that was designed to
be static that was stuck back in 7th
Century Arabia okay the Quran was
designed for all of humanity and in fact
the creator of the heavens and the Earth
he says today I have perfected your
religion for you he didn't say today I
perfected your religion Muhammad he
didn't say today I perfected your
religion Arabs he said all of mankind
today this is the final part to it I
perfected it for you not something that
is supposed to sit there trapped in time
but something that evolves as humanity
is evolving along with it okay so when
you refer everything back to the Quran
and to the Sunnah of the Prophet peace
be upon them you will find things in
there that actually relate into today's
society so for example uh if I take the
scientific miracles of the Quran that
talk about the three stages of Darkness
that human embryology goes through or I
can talk about about the water on how
the Barac or the barrier that goes in
between and the salt and the fresh water
don't go together or how hail is formed
now this wasn't something that Muhammad
peace be upon him and his companions
were all sitting around and looking up
at the sky and saying let's talk about
science today this is something that we
as modern human beings have derived the
meaning out of the text of the Quran and
it's the only book that I've ever come
across that it evolves with you as you
grow with it so the more that human
beings interact with it the more
knowledge that they pull outside of the
book and that is one of the signs of the
creator that he created that
book so this is pretty simple I mean
there's the it's not static so no matter
what time if we're in 2014 what about
2020 even if you're in The Year 3,000
30,000 whatever the time frame is it's
going to adapt it'll adapt because it
was created by the one who has knowledge
of everything and so he created it in a
way that it would go ahead and work with
Humanity as it went along until that day
which we call the day of judgment when
there will be nothing else so we'd be
able to deduce that's what we call Fi
from the Quran and Sunnah whatever needs
to adapt to any culture or Society so
anything you'll have the tools to sit
there and go ahead and live in any
environment live in any place on the
earth and be able to survive and to
thrive based on the Quran and the Sunnah
now this is really amazing because
obviously you came from a background
your parents weren't Muslim correct
correct and now you were former
Christian correct correct and you
accepted Islam submission to the Creator
not the creation living a good wholesome
life so obviously you can get to
Paradise at end you know the same place
where we hope to meet Jesus Moses
Abraham and all the other Messengers who
were calling people to a righteous good
organic lifestyle and obviously
knowledge was so important to get to
where you're at to be able to
distinguish between culture and is um
culture and Islam so what advice do you
have before we conclude for those who
are coming to Islam now and they're
facing these many challenges and they
are introduced to the culture mixed with
the religion some some advice to our
viewers out there um my biggest set of
advice actually I have two sets of
advice one to those who are new to Islam
and one to those that are already Muslim
the first one to those that are just new
to Islam is to take it easy take it
slowly and learn knowledge from one who
has more knowledge than you always refer
everything back to the Quran and the
teachings of the Prophet Muhammad peace
be upon him do not just accept things at
face value do not follow them
blindly and the last part to that is
that take the good parts from your
culture which you have with you and get
rid of the bad parts and this is
something that is not not going to
happen overnight something that took me
many many years to do and it's going to
take them many years to wash out all of
that stuff that you learned that was of
no use the second piece of advice is for
the Muslims is to realize that new
people to Islam they need a lot of help
and they need a lot of guidance and just
because your cultural beliefs say that
you should dress a certain way doesn't
mean that they need to dress that way
they can be Muslim and have their
culture in that give them what they need
teach them from the Quran and the Sunnah
and teach them the beneficial parts and
you may even learn something about your
culture and stuff that may not be that
beneficial also that you may think that
maybe there is no basis for this inside
of the Quran and the Sunnah of the
Prophet peace be upon him and so that's
the two piece of advice I'd give to the
new Muslim and then also the Muslims
that have been Muslim for a while it's
beautiful to have you back with us on
the dean show thank you for helping us
with your
experiences and we hope to in the next
segment we're going to inshallah God
willn't open it up so the audience can
answer some questions for those that are
viewing us on the TV inshallah God
willing next week you can join us for
the open Q&A and until then peace be
with you asalam alikum