[Applause]
means 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 i' like to
thank you for coming to the source to
learn about the most misunderstood way
of life in the world today we're going
to be talking about Islam which simply
means surrender and submission to who to
a man to a monkey to an elephant to the
Sun to the Moon no to the creator of the
heavens and the Earth the one who took
care of you when you were in your
mother's womb the one who created
everything that's in existence that's
the Creator that you submit to and you
set up no partners with him that's what
Islam means it's very simple it's very
logical and we need you to do something
and that's turn on what your reasoning
your logic your brain and just listen
now we're going to be bringing on and
it's always a Pleasant thing when
somebody accepts Islam and we're going
to talk
about this man's journey and how he
ended up accepting Islam which is
practiced by over 1.5 billion people
worldwide you ready for my next guest
Greg huad how you doing Greg
alhamdulillah I'm doing good thank you
for uh joining us today on the dean
show so many people now we see that even
with all the misinformation with all the
negative propaganda
people associating Islam with things
blowing up terrorism all sorts of
misinformation people are still
accepting Islam Today we're going to be
talking about your story and how you
ended up coming to Islam tell us a
little bit about yourself and then we
want to hear how you ended up stumbling
to Islam uh well uh my name is Greg hou
stad um 23 years old uh been raised born
in Chicago come from uh
uh Catholic Family my mother is the the
oldest of nine so uh growing up she was
pretty liberal with me uh didn't have a
very I guess you could say Christian
upbringing uh I wasn't held in a very
tight leash so I experienced a lot of
things uh firsthand you know didn't have
a lot of
restrictions
um so that was that was really mostly so
at what age did you accept Islam uh when
when I was 19 I accepted Islam it was so
you came from a a predominantly your
your household was a a Christian uh
household in a sense I I would say
uh more of a hippie household you know
my mom was very liberal bringing me up
so there wasn't going to Sunday school
or going to church or anything so you
were just basically doing what every
youth does just what going to school
hanging out and yeah you know high
school you go to school during the week
and then the weekend you know you go and
cause trouble and try to get away with
it yeah okay so tell us now how did you
end up becoming a Muslim um it was
actually the summer I graduated from
high
school uh I was at a barbecue and I met
a Muslim guy at this
barbecue uh wasn't wearing a turban or
anything like that he was actually a
tall white blonde guy so he wasn't an
Arab no it wasn't an Arab he looked like
like a California surfer dude cuz many
people have this misconception when you
say Islam they think about turban big
beard or Arab somewhere in the desert no
that was he was a blond hair blueeye
yeah blond like he about to do some Sur
yeah so uh we just got to talking about
life and the universe uh you know which
at the time I was you know very
interested in you know just kind of
talking about you know existence you
know and purpose and this kind of thing
um and we ended up becoming friends and
I started doing a lot of research uh in
the meanwhile he ended up moving very
close to me um we hung out a lot so he
would talk to me a little bit and I go
out and and do some research uh you know
I'd try to uh rebuke some of the things
he said you know I try to see if I could
disprove you know find a weakness here
and there um but the more I researched
the more uh the more I learned and The
Wider my perspective became of myself
and and you know my knowledge and the
world and uh there's a couple aspects
that really attracted me to Islam uh
first historically uh it makes a lot of
sense and we can touch base on a little
bit later but also scientifically which
isn't something you normally see with
religion usually you see science and
religion oppose each other in this case
science actually uh backs up Islam which
I thought was really interesting MH so
how did you did you because at that age
19 nobody you know nowadays just to
bring up religion or talk about these
serious issues like you know what's my
purpose in life you know why have I been
created why am I here the majority of
people are consuming chasing a position
chasing the dollar something material
but you were how did you you know think
about and talk about and end up
exploring something a little more
serious um that's a funny question I
mean to know exactly exactly why it's
hard to say uh you know we look around
these days and we are very conditioned
to you know go to school get a job yada
y y uh this kind of thing um but I don't
know it was you know sometime during
that summer and right before that summer
that I just kind of had this this
thought in my life or this thought
process that you know like there's got
to be more to life than you know just
going to school you know going to a
party you know hanging out with people
this kind of stuff there there's there's
no it just doesn't make sense you know
we're so we have such high intellect and
the fact that we can sit here and have
this conversation and talk I think is a
proof for itself that we're we created
for something besides just following our
own
desires now tell us uh being from a
Christian background not really
following did you find yourself at this
point because a lot of times people even
though they don't know about their faith
they end up defending it just because
you know what they feel like this is
what I was brought into by my parents
did you feel any inclination to go back
to Christianity to explore further about
the teachings of Christianity any other
religion in your uh time when you were
investigating yeah uh in fact I I
covered I tried to cover the scope you
know I didn't specifically look into
Islam but I would look into I looked
back into Christianity uh you know I had
some some close uh co-workers who were
devout Christians and you know I had
asked them a lot of questions I had
grown up next to a Jew Jewish family so
I asked them a little bit about Judaism
um looked into Buddhism a little bit um
as well uh but you know I would just go
down the line as far as just different
aspects of the religion and with each
one something would you know one of the
religions would get washed away and the
only one that was left standing was give
us give us an example
um well for example there is the uh idea
of Blind Faith um you know in some
beliefs it's it's said that just believe
in it because it is you can't you can't
comprehend this you know there's no way
and I can accept the fact that I can't
truly comprehend God but it doesn't make
sense it doesn't it does not logical in
my head that God would make something
for us like if he created us with a
purpose why would he make it hard for us
to understand you know like he why
wouldn't he make it clear uh and I
actually heard a speech I heard a really
good uh analogy of this was that if you
were a person and you owned a factory
and you want people to work in your
factory would you just hire these people
and put them in your factory or would
you explain to them what their job is
and how to do it and how to do it
properly and when to do it um and with
Islam I found these great details on
every aspect of life you know how to you
know you know how to properly pray you
know how to your conduct with people
every single aspect from macro you know
big things social things to little tiny
things um this was all covered so uh in
that aspect it made a lot of sense
whereas a lot of other things like when
I I asked uh some of my Christian
friends to explain to me the Trinity I
never was able to get uh a very
clear-cut answer it was it always seemed
to be ambiguous and not not answer my
question exactly uh to the
point so that didn't fit that God what
so you believed in the Creator because a
lot of times with all the confusion
people just give up they become agnostic
or atheist and they say you know what
the heck with all religion I'm going to
just do my own thing so did you ever
come borderline this Avenue um that's
kind of what I was before you know in
high school like I said I wasn't I
wasn't raised as devout Christian so I
kind of just I guess you can say follow
my heart um and this was one of the
questions that I I actually asked the
person telling me about Islam and he
said well who's to say that your heart
knows what's best for you versus The
Creator who created your heart mhm um
and that kind of got me and also the
fact that you know our hearts are can be
corruptible and you know we can have
distorted jaded Visions or uh
perspectives of how things work so who
am I to say that I'm the best judge in
in what uh how to conduct my life when
the Creator uh is has it laid out in
front of us so you always did believe
that it was illogical it didn't make
sense that everything in this creation
just created itself that it just came
into being and there wasn't a crater
behind this yeah it it just I always
thought that there was something turning
the wheels and I used to tell people
when people asked me to explain this was
before Islam what I thought of of God or
you know of you know a higher power I
said you know just as we look in a
microscope you know we look at the
little microorganisms uh under the lens
they can't really perceive exactly what
we are they may they may have their
function of how to interact with us and
know how to do that but they're not
going to be able to comprehend you know
you know who is Greg you know like what
is he what is he like you know there's
just they're not made to do that just in
the same way like we're not made to we
can't fully comprehend God it's just not
within our our limits you know we can't
do that so if someone told you and said
you know what this whole prophethood
thing God sending Messengers to guide us
a Creator this is something
man-made and just to you know keep the
masses under check how would you respond
to this now have you come across
something like this if somebody yeah
I've I've come across people that that
have that Viewpoint and it's kind of
silly to say that because when you look
first at the the the timeline of of
prophets at least in the Islamic faith
uh we believe in all the prophets and
they all came with the same message you
know which is worship one God alone you
know and and believe in me as the
messenger you know from the time of
Abraham to ishma to Isaac to Noah and
actually interesting fact is if you look
you can see a Heritage tree of all the
prophets that they're all interl but you
know the same thing if you were to say
that oh this is man-made
then you could say the same thing that
George Washington wasn't real you know
how how you're just going to rebuke one
one aspect of history and then accept
another are you saying that all of
history is is falsified I mean what's
what are you saying you know history
isn't act isn't true like so it doesn't
make sense like how are you going to say
that this is is fake this is man-made
but this aspect of history is true yeah
tell us uh Greg now in your interaction
with this blond hair blue-eyed
Muslim you had mentioned before that he
had talked about logic and Faith
coinciding going to depth a little bit
in this
um logic and faith I mean before we
talked about blind following and how it
shouldn't shouldn't dictate your life uh
in Islam there's
aspects which you have to accept which
you can't perceive like un perceiving
God and perceiving angels we can't
perceive what exactly these are in
detail but there are other aspects which
are very strong and you can look into
you know logic uh and see from logical
standpoint that that it makes sense like
I said before about the timeline of the
prophets like is it coincidental that
all these people came throughout time
saying the same message over and over
again and having strong proofs despite
what some people might you know think as
a man-made thing these people did live
and they existed and they did things you
know uh there were Miracles that were
performed and and there are you know
recorded documents of these people uh um
you know and in regards to to more of a
a smaller aspect is you know in Islam
like I said everything is is DET
everything is covered every aspect of
your life and for instance how to eat
you know within Islam there is the Haram
which is what's forbidden and there's
the Halal which is what it's allowed um
and in Islam there is an allowed way to
eat and a not allowed way to eat you're
supposed to eat with your right hand
you're not supposed to eat with your
left hand and Muhammad uh peace be upon
him he used to eat with his right hand
and he used to eat with uh if I'm
correct these three
fingers
now from you know a Layman's perspective
you say oh well you know this is just
this is what Muhammad did you know so we
should do it but uh recent scientific
discoveries actually show that on the
tips of these two fingers you have
enzymes which aid in
digestion uh
so does that you know is that just a
coincidence
or you know is there some logic behind
that so this is a just a minute a small
detail but what are the bigger Scopes
now do you have a system of life that
you live by from A to Z you don't have
to guess like you know what my purpose
is here what I need to do where am I
going what happens when I die which is a
reality Rich poor fat old American
African we're all going to hit the grave
so do you know now do you have a system
does Islam provide you with a complete
way of life on how do you live from A to
Z yeah everything is covered um you know
how you you kind conduct yourself
amongst people how how you
dress uh you know the the appropriate
relationships the inappropriate
relationships you know every aspect that
you could think of is covered and you
know it can it can help very much you
know if somebody has this is is a I used
to say Islam is like the handbook the
instruction manual for people because we
didn't create ourselves and we don't
really know our full potential I mean
there's a lot of miraculous Feats out
there that human beings do and and we
haven't really been able to tap into
this because we don't really know
ourselves that much and here's a a
perfect instruction manual of how to
live your life uh the way that God wants
you to live your
life tell us now let's go back to uh the
encounter that you had and what actually
so you went back you started researching
you started looking into all the
different religions you didn't want to
just jump into something uh blindly you
wanted what were you looking for
evidence proof authenticity what were
you what was the criteria that you were
looking for to establish that this is
indeed not man-made because we don't
want to follow something that's man-made
we want to make sure that it's from the
Creator so what criteria did you have
and what had you jump over to accept
this way of life um you know I don't
think
like that wholeheartedly you know I was
on a mission like you know this Islam I
might do it I might not do it you know I
was just kind of looking into it you
know just you know I don't really know
much about this religion I did a packet
on Islam in high school I I until after
I became Muslim I realized that I had
done that packet I didn't even think
about it at the time it was just school
workor you know um so I actually devoted
time into it uh you know one of some of
the things that I looked into were the
authenticity of the Quran um because I
thought that was an aspect that was very
important you know the fact that the
Quran 1,400 years later remains
unchanged in the
Arabic
um and you know also like I said before
the Scientific and historical uh proofs
these things very they intrigued me a
lot you know historically the lineage of
prophets and their stories uh and the
Miracles they performed and the fact
that it all intertwines
together um you know and and
scientifically you know like I said
before with the with the fingers and
there's many many many many verses in
the Quran that that talk about things
that were unknown to human beings until
recently you know Muhammad peace be upon
him he talked about how mountains were
set in the ground as pegs you know how
does an illiterate man 1400 years ago in
the desert know about this I I don't
even think it was discovered but maybe a
hundred years ago I I'm not might not be
accurate on that but so the authenticity
of the Quran that was one point that it
was it is to this day unchanged it's the
same as it was recited then today you
don't have multiple versions this book
that book you were impressed by that the
different scientific facts you mentioned
uh something on the uh mountains which
we have the uh human development the
embryos in there you have so many
different things on the creation that
it's amazing that there's no way that a
man could have just concocted these
things yeah and it's also reaffirming
that which came before it Muhammad uh
the Revelation the Quran it doesn't talk
about this is being something new that
like that everything else is you know
rebuking anything actually in order to
become Muslim you have to believe in in
in Noah and you have to believe in Moses
and all the previous prophets Jesus and
Jesus um you know you have to believe in
Abraham and you have to believe you know
that these people were prophets and that
they did come with Revelation so you
know like I said like from a timeline
standpoint it just makes
sense I don't know most be sense so this
it made sense it fit and now what was
that Turning Point did someone give you
an invitation did someone say you know
look uh this is what you need to do
Muslim you got to jump in the back get
baptized what was was the procedure that
you went through what was that Turning
Point the situation that you accepted
submission and surrender which is Islam
to the creator of the heavens and earth
and not his creation and a Muslim is one
who does this action you stepping over
and doing this acknowledging that is
there's a Creator he alone is worthy of
worship and I'm going to do what he
wants me to do at what points did you
take that step it's kind of funny
actually I think that I had internally
become Muslim without even realizing it
uh because I did this research on and
off for a year and you know I had a lot
of uh you know also along with the
scientific and historical proofs just my
own personal experiences you know as I
was learning I was just seeing things
you know I was seeing things that I was
reading you know just manifest you know
and I can't there's no way I could
possibly explain it but you know
everybody knows in their own personal
experience through their own eyes when
something like that happens um that it
means something that I I don't believe
in coincidence you know everything
happens for a reason but I was actually
when I realized I was sitting in my
friend's house and we were talking and
just kind of going over the same blonde
blue blue-eyed blond haired friend and
uh you know we went over the just the
different things that I had been
researching and he asked me he said well
what do you think about all this stuff
you know I said oh you know it's it's
amazing you know all this stuff I I
think it's all true you know I don't I
can't refute any of it and you know if I
were to I'd only be lying to myself and
he said well you know man like you're
Muslim you know just about you know like
aside from the from the shahada from the
testification the verbal testification
he said like you're Muslim you know and
that's when it hit me you know I was
sitting there and it hit me like in my
heart it was weird my heart kind of
jumped it's like man like he right you
know um and at that point in time you
know I had some make a the decision
in whether or not I should continue
living my life the way I was living it
or I should start following all the
stuff that I believed in because I had
done all this research everything I
researched I found to be
true and now it was you know it was time
to choose you know Road a or Road B you
know and uh you know I'm glad that I I
chose you know to accept
Islam uh you know it's not necessarily
an easy ride you know the the Quran it
says that you know that God will test
you you know just because you're Muslim
doesn't mean like oh it's all good you
know like you're Muslim is free ride no
you get tested because God wants to see
if you truly believe um so I've been
been tested in many different ways about
it but you know I tend to look back and
think about how I used to live my life
before before and if I were here now in
that same state like how would I how
would I react to situations when
something bad Came Upon me or something
good uh and how would I deal with life
and what would I think you know how
would I be be conducting myself uh
because especially in this Society the
way that we're conditioned is just to
you know kind of you know do what you
want to do as long as you're not hurting
anybody else kind of thing you know and
a majority of people my age are a lot of
people people are out they're going and
they're drinking and they're partying
and they're doing these things uh and if
if you really stop and think about it
all you're doing is destroying your body
and wasting your time um you know it may
be fun at the time but you know down the
line you you'll realize you know that uh
that time could have be been spent doing
other things more beneficial things a
few more points before we come to an end
I'd like to thank everybody for sitting
tight through another episode of the
dean
show we want to know now talk to us
because there's a lot of stigma attached
to Islam people start to think that you
know what this is a religion of the
Arabs and whatnot tell us quickly have
you dealt with these situations where
people look at you negatively they give
you a hard time and what's your
relationship with Jesus now people think
now that you left Christianity that you
know what you have uh left the love of
Jesus or whatever the case talk about
these two points and we're almost coming
to an end just briefly touch upon this
um I personally haven't come across too
much uh negativity in regards to my
coming to Islam most people are are are
pretty accepting or at least I guess you
could say tolerant of it so I personally
haven't experienced that too much uh you
know I'm very fortunate I know other
people have uh in regards to with Jesus
you know before it was really hard for
me to accept uh in the Christian
doctrine this the role that Jesus played
like it didn't make sense in my head uh
and within Islam it makes much more
sense in in logic that Jesus was a
prophet just as the prophets before him
and just as Muhammad uh after him um so
I've had you know a lot of Christians
say that well you know you're not truly
saved and you know if
people people don't want to listen then
that's that's up to them you know I I
had a a discussion with a Christian
friend and I tried to tell him that
there's the only way you can learn is if
you come with an empty glass you know
meaning that you you have to come in and
try to learn so you know that's I have a
better relationship and understanding uh
in regards to that so you believe in him
as a mighty messenger but not God yeah I
believe in him as the Messiah that he
will come back I don't believe that he
shares Divinity with god um I believe
that he follows the line of succession
of the prophets uh and that he came you
know with the inil with the
gospel okay that's good so he continued
the same message the same message from
the beginning of time which was to
worship the Creator not his creation
anything in the creation had a beginning
the creator has no beginning it's very
simple these are his attributes the
Creator is self-sufficient he doesn't
eat drink go to the bathroom any that's
in the creation a man he's not
self-sufficient he eats he drinks and
then what goes to the bathroom is that
God is that the god you want to worship
no so I'd like to thank you for coming
and being with us on the dean show thank
you very much and I'd like to thank you
for sitting through another episode of
the dean show helping you understand
Islam and Muslims is very important that
you have your mind on and do something
very basic remember death because death
is the destroyer of all pleasure you can
be indulging in this and that and the
other thing but remember no matter what
age you are what nationality you can be
American African Brazilian Caucasian
black Indian yellow red pink doesn't
matter death will catch us all it's
caught many people Elvis Presley died at
the age of 42 Bruce Lee he was 32 his
son followed a few years later he died
at the age of 28 Jimmy Hendrick Dr Drake
you know him his son died at the age of
20 the list goes on he fleder you heard
of him Batman or the Joker he played
he's dead too there are many people that
have died and they were doing the same
thing that we doing chasing the material
world chasing a position but they were
forgetting about death this is not a
call to pessimism it's a call to
optimism to know that there's something
better that this whole universe and
everything in it didn't just come by
chance just like those in your pocket in
that car it didn't get put together by
chance that there is someone a designer
or orchestrator behind all this and he
has a purpose on how he wants you to
live so it's up to you to be sincere
with yourself you can cover the truth
it's inate in your very nature that you
believe in a God I'm not going to tell
you all these facts about Islam I leave
it up to you and we'll close with this
ask the Creator deep down in your heart
to guide you
there's all these religions ways of life
out there no one's going to claim that
he's on
falsehood everyone's going to claim that
they're on the truth so it's up to you
to be sincere with yourself remember
death seek the purpose of life ask these
important questions take a time out from
the material world and search do some
deep contemplating and think about these
things that I will die and I'm going to
have to answer for everything I did in
this life start with that very basic
step seek to know why I'm here and where
I'm going and come back every week to
the dean show where we talk about these
very important
issues thank you once again you can
visit us here every week t h Deen
show.com until next time assalamu
alaykum peace be unto
[Applause]
you e