peace be unto you welcome to another
episode of the dean show which is a way
of life we try to put out there for
everyone to see helping you understand
Islam and Muslims and it's always
something pleasant when we see that
somebody has accepted the truth which is
surrender and to submit to the creator
of the heavens and the Earth alone
without any partners and we have one of
those Muslims today who used to be a
Christian and we're going to talk about
his story which probably all of you are
eager to hear why someone would accept
Islam
so get ready to meet Ronaldo here on the
dean
praise be to Allah in every condition he
said a bunch of Arabic which maybe if
you tuneing in for the first time you
said man do I need to take an Arabic
class so he said I wish peace upon him
he wished it back upon me and we he
thanked the creator of the heavens and
earth that's right see there you don't
take DIC class yet so you used to be a
Christian yes I did let's go into the
history right there tell us about your
past um actually I was a Christian um
and at some particular point in my life
my mother moved across the street from a
funeral parlor and I thought that you
know people just always death wasn't a
reality because when they died I thought
that you know you turn the channel and
you see the same guy who died and got
shot in the last movies in the next
movie so I didn't really realize that
death was a reality and one day when we
moved across the street from a funeral
parot I went in to investigate the
reality of death and I got the shocking
reality that death was real and that
people really died it was so shocking to
me that I went home you know to um tell
my mother and my mother was sleep and in
seeing my mother sleep it reminded me
about my mother in the day that she's
going to die I became so frantic I think
maybe for about 2 years I couldn't
really really food didn't taste the same
I couldn't sleep I was just worrying
when is death going to come and take my
mother when is it going to happen until
one day my mother said boy stop worrying
about me dying I'll probably outlive you
and then when my mother said that I
thought about me
dying and I tried everything that I
could I became more religious and I
started reading the Bible reading the
Bible more because I wanted to escape
death and there's a chapter in the Bible
that talks about the return of Jesus
that the people wouldn't need to die
because Jesus would be returning and
that's what I asked God to bless me with
the time well I my life still went
through turbulence you know my mother
took me to um um fortune tellers she
took me to a shrink and the shrink told
my mother that it was just a reality
check you know and that I was just
becoming more matured and that she
needed to spend more time with me and at
that particular time I saw a movement uh
Elijah Muhammad's movement and I thought
that the black nationalists were really
that they had something cuz he quote all
these actual facts about nature and this
and that and that and that until one day
um two Jewish lawyers came to my
mother's house they were doing pro bono
helping her get a divorce and they
looked on the walls and saw that I had
message to the black men and all of that
stuff and they said you don't you don't
really think we're the devil do you and
it was a reality check again for me I
said wow you know the devil just
wouldn't be so kind to help people these
guys didn't do anything but help my
mother and then a friend of mine told me
he said listen man if you really
interested in
Islam you know checking out Elijah
Muhammad he said you should really check
check out Orthodox Islam and it just
happened for me from that you know my
name used to be Ronaldo which is a
Spanish name and at some particular
point when I really really became
inquisitive about Islam I said wow I
need to probably drop that name too and
change it and I changed my name to
Shakur Shakur means one who is thankful
and grateful and I am eternally thankful
and grateful to Allah for allowing me
you know to accept Islam how did you go
from now thinking about death when
primarily people are thinking about at a
young age how am I going to hook up with
the next young lady how am I going to
get to the nightclub how am I going to
make the money how were you at a young
boy thinking about death death I mean
death just took over I thought more
about death than anything else nothing
else was important I mean I used to like
sugar Frosted Flakes I mean even the
sugar Frosted Flakes they weren't even
sweet because death was scaring me it
was scaring the life out of me you know
I mean I didn't I wasn't interested in
things
because none of that none of that stuff
none of those things could make me
escape death you know death was a
reality and I saw see some some people
get sh no I went into the funeral home
and that's how I stumbled on the reality
of death I saw a man in the coffin and
the people were just sitting around
crying and I walked over to the man you
know nudging him asking him what you
know what is everybody crying about and
the man was hard and cold and the re and
I looked at the man like wow death is
real you know and I thank Allah for that
experience because that's the same
thought about death today although I'm
I'm not afraid of it but it keeps me um
as the prophet said says sallallahu
alaihi wasallam that the Muslim lives in
between two realities the reality of
fear and the reality of hope that fear
is the death of dying and knowing that
you know death is a painful a painful
thing for the person who doesn't have
the pleasure of Allah and that's what
made me want to find a way out of
escaping it so how did you finally make
the transition to Islam actually um a
friend of mine he was a boxer and he was
intelligent guy and he told me you know
we went from childhood to Job Corp and
he told me he said listen man you know
Elijah Muhammad's movement is a cult
it's a nationalist cult you know and
really has nothing to do with nothing to
do with Islam he said and if you really
really are interested you know in Islam
you need to check check out Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
peace and blessings be upon him from
1,400 years ago he said that's the real
Islam and um I listened to him but I
didn't really really make that
transition you know um I used to when
Elijah Muhammad died in 75 then I wanted
to be a Muslim and I and um under the
Elijah Muhammad's cult and I even wrote
to try to get an ex and then my friend
still insisted you know he said listen
man that's not Islam so when um Elijah
Muhammad died and his son W became U the
leader the minister for the nation then
I started listening to him and I thought
that he was God at first who Wallace D
yeah and then my friend just came to me
again and say see don't you see how you
thinking and you're not really really
thinking and I went from evolving from
that you know to um coming to the Sunnah
by just investigation and I looked at
the the things that the prophet said
you know who he was and how he
single-handedly by Allah's Grace you
know conquered a peninsula and that you
know step by step um then I went to
Detroit I went to school there um to
Wayne County College and I met a
professor named Dr Shaker and from there
you know I took Arabic Islamic Studies
and I saw that Islam had a real body of
information
I didn't need to worship men anymore I
didn't need to associate you know my
blackness as being religious you know
that I could really really um implement
the principles according to the prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alhi wasallam and
become a real Muslim and that spawned me
to get started and I've been on that
quest to try as much as I can to be the
best Muslim that I can so brother what
do you think now has by accepting Islam
the way you lived before what was your
ideology Theology and what do you
actually how do you live now and what do
you actually believe now okay that's a
good question um I don't know if I told
you that I'm a policeman now um and now
coming to Islam you know I thank Allah
so much so because Islam has given me a
a goal you you know I mean prior to
Islam I could do what I wanted to do now
Islam is directing my life is steering
my life I mean I have things that I'm
trying to accomplish as a Muslim where
before there was no definitive source
that said okay yeah education you know
it's a it's a plateau it's a a you know
a step in going in the right direction
but it had no real connection to God you
know now I have a connection I mean I
spend my time now trying to learn more
Quran I try to um recite more Quran I'm
trying to memorize more Quran I'm trying
to practice you know more um Quran these
are the things of virtue that are giving
me a sense of direction and I think
without that direction I think I would
have fallen into many of the pitfalls
that people have fallen into in terms of
drugs
um fornication and adultery um robbing
people you know and just stealing and
just just to try to
amass the the vastness of wealth that I
could you know through doing that and
now you know I understand when the
prophet said sallallahu Al wasallam that
you'll only get in this life what Allah
wrote for you so there's no point in me
trying to steal now you know I have my
beautiful lovely wife um here with me
I'm Mar Mar you know and I'm really
striving for something that I hope as
the prophet said you living between hope
and fear that I'm hoping that Allah will
accept from me as an offer or as he says
in the Quran who will loan to Allah a
most beautiful loan that Allah will
repay you back handsomely for I mean
that's what my life is about it's about
sacrifice now it's about giving it's
about kindness It's about all of the
things that make Humanity wholesome you
know and it's not a facade is real
because I believe that if I'm going to
get to Paradise it's going to be by the
effort that I put in to trying to please
Allah and so that's what life is about
for me now you know you know your
purpose now you know who your creator is
you know how to worship him and you got
the blueprint in life tell us for our
viewers now non-muslims who have got a
distorted view of Islam from the media
from people with an agenda they possibly
think that you now have no connection
with Jesus that man this guy's got a uh
uh maybe some they hear the word youa
they hear all these
misconceptions and you know what what
you just said now they can relate to it
so they're kind of in between give some
advice to those people you know it's
unfortunate that uh you know the the the
thing that I hope that your viewers get
the reality of I mean I want you to go
to the movies and see any show that you
want to see you know um preferably an
actionpack show and there's something
that they call the religious experience
and I'm talking now from a psychological
perspective notice how there always has
to be a good guy and the good guy in the
movie always has to win well that's the
same thing when when it comes to the
media the media always wants to control
they always want to win so quite
naturally Islam is not the religion of
the state do you really think that the
people who are feeding you
psychologically is going to tell you the
truth no because now they lose control
they lose control the real pristine
purity of this message of Islam is not
from any ults it's not from these sick
people are going out there and killing
innocent people no The Message of Islam
is peace and any two time that you find
a lifestyle that doesn't Advocate peace
it it it Advocates destruction and
confusion and abuse that's not the
religion of God this is the thing that
I'm hoping that your viewers can realize
and come to grips with and check out
Islam I tell you something one of the
things that God can never be he can
never be a liar look at the message in
the Quran and see if the message is a
obtainable B see if it is the type of
message that will make Humanity have
Harmony if it does then listen you found
the right way and it is the message of
God if it doesn't believe me it is
another path to
destruction thank you very much brother
thank you
for and may Allah make you of the people
J Paradise amen amen amen and I like to
thank you again for coming to the source
to learn about Islam and Muslims every
week God willing we have a new show at
the Deen show.com if you missed us on
the TV and the local station in Chicago
you can catch all of our shows on the
web website theen show.com t h Deen
show.com and we'll see you again next
time assalam alaikum peace be unto
you for