this is the
the peace be with you thank you for
tuning in to the dean show every week
we're here with a new show helping you
understand the purpose of life fastest
growing way of life in the world
according to the Guinness Book of World
Records this is no joke but the most
misunderstood and we're here helping you
understand Muslims Islam and we have so
many people today coming over from all
walks of life we have our next guest
coming up what made this man who was a
born Christian and and he fooled around
in life and he got serious with life and
then he started Living the purpose of
life and today he's here on the dean
show to tell us his story we'll be right
back you don't want to go nowhere
the this is the this is the
de this is
the this is the show this is
[Music]
[Applause]
thean shadid Muhammad formerly known as
shadid Muhammad shadid
Muhammad so I opened the show you heard
me talk about you went from being a
Christian to fooling around in life to
get serious with life to living the
purpose of life we all go through stages
in our lives that we just we're we're
kind of lost in the jungle confused so
introduce yourself to our viewing
audience and tell us a little bit about
yourself where you started when you
started and how you got here
today alhamdulillah um my name is shadid
Muhammad um I got started when my
parents decided to you know do what
adults do uhhuh and I think that was the
probably the start of my life
okay and then um somewhere in the
process um I kind of got lost in the
system and and I mean that
literally um what city were you born in
I was born in Monclair New Jersey okay
yeah yeah mountains Side Hospital to be
exact
um I wasn't born a
Christian I was I was born to Christian
parents um who themselves weren't really
practicing
Christians um and I mean myself growing
up much like many children who grow up
without a religious Foundation I found
myself grappling with a lot of
um lessons there were lessons in life
but I didn't understand at that
particular moment that they were
lessons uh I think as non-muslims a lot
of us we tend
to um look at the things that confront
Us in life and we tend to blame god um I
was an angry baby you know just
considering my circumstances so my
attitude was always I didn't ask to be
here God put me here he owed me and the
world owes me that was my attitude all
the way up until probably the time that
I took shahada I took sh at 20 years old
so you can understand that for the past
20 years of my life has been walking
around with this chip on my shoulder um
that I didn't ask to be here I mean I
literally used to curse God I would look
up at the heavens and I would say I hate
you you you would literally do that yes
I would literally do that I hate you why
me questioning God you know I mean mind
you you're talking about a child that
didn't understand life didn't understand
God didn't didn't have a religious
Foundation nothing and there are tons of
non-muslims out there today that can
relate to what I'm talking about where
you begin to curse God and you know
because you're looking at all of the
things that confront you in your life
and you're saying you know why is my
life like this what did I do to deserve
this I didn't even ask to be born God
brought me here and then take me through
all of this stuff that I didn't ask to
be born to begin with and so your
attitude is that the world owes me God
owes me
and it's a very very you know
self-destructive attitude to have
because this is the type of person who
doesn't care about life and if a person
doesn't care about their own life you
can only imagine how they feel about
your life did you try to write a song
about it then no you know no but I tried
to let the world know about how I felt
through my self-destructive Behavior a
lot of what we see with a lot of the
teens and the youth that are out there
now you know with the pants sagging and
you know the tattoos on those are just
self-expressions of frustration the
prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam he
warned us about the children of Zena the
children of fornication and
adultery and this is what we're dealing
with today it's not just from a
spiritual or religious perspective but
even from a psychological perspective
you know Zena has so many ramifications
fornication fornication and adultery yes
it has ramifications that don't just
affect the two people that were involved
it affects the child as well and the
community and and the community and
Society at large absolutely so I was a
product of that I was a product of that
and I've never made I've never made any
excuses for that I didn't write my
script so it's nothing that I have to
make excuses for I'm just hoping to
share that with people so that many of
our youth who understand what I'm
talking about that what I'm saying
resonates with them that they can
understand that there is a way out of
that you don't have to continue living
your life like that you know um and it
was a few incidents that happened in my
life that kind of made me the light made
the light bulb go off in my head uh one
of them was the the death of many of my
friends but one in particular um and his
death kind of um woke me up and it kind
of made me think that you know is this
the way that I want my life to end uh
and then you know the light bulb goes
off and you start to contemplate you
start to reflect on life and all of the
lessons that you should have learned
along the way um and a lot of times in
the only time for many young
African-American youth the light bulb
tends to go off when you go to prison
light bulb doesn't go off for you out in
the streets because there's too many
distractions and even IM Ahmed very
beautiful he said that I made Dua I made
supplication to Allah that he allow me
to memorize the Quran he said but I
didn't memorize the Quran until I was in
prison he said so when you make Dua when
you supplicate for something ask Allah
to give it to you while you're in a good
State meaning be specific when you ask
for things and sometimes we ask for
things and we're really not prepared to
do what it takes to get what we asked
Allah subhana wa tala for you may ask
Allah for children but there may be some
other things that you may have have to
go through some medical procedures some
other things some patience some time
that you have to go through in order for
you to get what what you asked a la for
and so for me um once I lost this
particular friend um I went home one
night um and I and I cry and I asked God
I always believed in God I never
accepted the idea or the dogma of the
Trinity so you believed in God but you
were cursing God yeah I believed in God
do you see you had like this
relationship it was a relationship
absolutely good days bad days yes
absolutely all right absolutely I think
the the cursing of God just came through
frustration and not being able to
process you know when human beings are
confronted with traumatic situations
they do one of two things fight or
flight we tend to either stay in fight
or run and you know for a child for me
it was to run away from God which many
of our youth are experiencing that now
they're faced with very difficult the
complexities of life that normally
consume most people but we don't know
how to process it so the the thing that
we do is to turn we turn our
frustrations on God and begin to blame
him for it why me so your your lightbook
comes on and now you were mentioning
that you couldn't so what you go back to
what your parents were upon the they
weren't really practicing but they were
Christian and you were going to mention
something about about that what happened
then yeah I was I I never accepted the
Trinity I was about 11 years old and um
I told my mother or my foster mother at
the time uh that I didn't want to go to
church
anymore and she asked me why and I said
because I I just I don't
believe in I don't believe she said you
don't believe in God I said no I believe
in God I believe in God I just don't
believe in the Trinity that God Jesus
the holy spirit is all one and just no
interpretation no explanation
was enough for my heart to accept that
none and and I was 11 years old so I
went from 11 to 20 just believing in God
yeah which was what I already had I mean
I was in church physically but mentally
I was somewhere somewhere else because I
had and Allah subhana wa tala creates
the human being in such a way that we
only accept what is consistent with the
intrinsic nature that Allah created us
upon MH much like the body if you take a
foreign substance and try to place it in
the body if you take a foreign um piece
of the body and you try to place it in
the body the body will reject it if you
have to get a heart transplant or any
type of transplant in your body where an
organ has to be replaced when they put
that organ in your body they also give
you medication to trick your body into
believing that that organ is your normal
organ organ the moment your body
recognizes that that organ is not yours
it rejects
it Allah created the human being
spiritually in the same way that he
created us believing in one God
believing that he is the only one worthy
of worship he created us believing that
as Allah says in the
Quran this is the of Allah the natural
way that Allah created the human being
and never will you find any alteration
in the way that Allah created you so
Allah created us believing from the
beginning that there's only one God
Prophet Muhammad said
that that every human being was created
on the believing in one God and it is
his parents that make him a Jew a
Christian or fire worshipper and notice
he didn't say Muslim he didn't say the
parents make him a Muslim
because you're already Muslim he said
his parents make him a Jew a Christian
or an
idolator he didn't say make him a Muslim
why because he was already upon the
belief of a Muslim which is the belief
in one God cuz a Muslim is one who
submits to the will of God exactly so
you're born in a submission a state of
submission exactly now you started
speaking some Arabic you're not are you
an Arab um well technically if you learn
the Arabic language and you master that
you are an Arab an Arab is but I mean
like you weren't you're born you're an
African African-American absolutely but
you you you were reciting something in
Arabic because you went also to study
overseas out of your passion is that
right to to learn this way of life
absolutely so we have this original
language that's been
preserved and you've studied it so this
is what you're recording once I took
Shahar and I I came home from prison uh
in
2000 I was only home for for a year and
I got accepted into the Islamic
University in
2001 so consider I spent 5 years of my
life in prison and then only after being
home for a year not even a year I was
selected to go to the Islamic University
so I was a culture shock yeah and there
I learned the Arabic language I studied
in the Arabic language for two the the
Arabic language Center for 2 years and
then I went on to the university to
study in the College of Hadith which I
graduated with a bachelor's degree in
both Sciences Arabic as well as Islam so
the Trinity didn't fit
father son Holy Ghost you couldn't grasp
that that went against your saying your
nature okay because in Islam is just
worshiping God so now we love many
people don't know that we love Jesus you
can't be a Muslim unless you love Jesus
is this right that he was one of the
mighty messengers of God so how did you
go from now that state where it was
confusing didn't make sense and most
people they just slide into church
church on Sundays right they get with
the music and they have the band
everything like hell yeah Jesus but
people don't really think you were
thinking you're a young man right so now
you're thinking and we're never trying
to disparage on anybody we really want
you know to to help people to think most
people aren't thinking are they you know
people just you know just blindly
following what their grandparents or
their parents did you're a thinking man
thinking young man so now you're
thinking you're like okay I I just want
to call upon God you know this whole
thing is just confusing where do you
we're almost we're short I'm going to
get a lot of questions and see they they
got the timer right here they're timing
us so tell us now what happens next okay
you're just like I'm not going to church
what happens from there um I I didn't
start a journey and search for God
because I mean at 12 13 14 years old
you're really not looking for God I mean
you you know God exists you know there's
a higher power higher being whatever you
want to term whatever whatever term you
want to use you just go through life you
know F from the different experience
fast forward how do you get let's talk
about this how do you get like from
being distracted music is numbing to
mind your mind is just numb like a
zombie and you're just numb isn't it
true you listen to Jay-Z 50 cents and
they're like the icons you looking up to
them it's like they're the god doth thy
will isn't that JC's logo doth thy will
so it means like follow your desires
that's actually Alis cwy Al is that
alist Cy who they they're the one that's
like their grand she right Eminem and
all of them they got this book I know
what you're talking about so tell us
tell us now how do you get from
following your desires to really think
thinking about purpose because it's not
cool nowadays as soon as you start you
like ruin the party soon you talking
about God like get out of here what's
this guy doing man how did you get to
that state you fast forwarding now well
like I said there were certain events
that took place in my life that actually
woke me up to a reality that was always
there I just never took the time out to
tap into yeah in the back of your mind
while you're partying and you're
enjoying life in the back of your mind
there's a side of you that says I know I
need to change everybody has that that's
your conscious talking to you if you
still have one because the way things
are designed today they are designed to
eliminate a conscious from you
altogether through subliminal messages
through technology you know they have
the iPhone iPad I I I I you get where
they're going with that they have
smartphone smart water Smart Car smart
smart smart so everything does the
thinking for you so you no longer
critically think and analyze you know
life you no longer do that so there are
elements that are working to dumb you
down so that you don't tap into your
conscious I like that dum you they dumb
you down absolutely absolutely so fast
forward um someone died someone died
yeah I lost a friend was a famous rapper
you were talking about before um Gaddafi
was it Gaddafi more famous not Gaddafi
from the the country but the Gaddafi
rapper yes yes from The Outlaws yes yeah
Tupac's crew yes he dies good friend of
yours yes what happens next um well he
was shot in the face um in a project
hallway in Orange New Jersey uh at the
time that that happened I was in prison
at the time um very close friend of M
and um very close close to home I mean
when you lose friends in the streets you
tend to think that you know it's not a
big deal because these are just
Associates but when it happens to
someone that you grew up with you spent
the vast majority of your youth your
adolescence hanging around you start to
wonder am I the one that's next or you
start to wonder in my case why was it
him instead of me cuz I was worse than
he was that's how you think why him and
not me so when that light bul goes off
you start to say well you know if God
took him instead of me and I was worse
than he was maybe there's a greater
purpose for me so now that starts your
journey to start to contemplate about
all of the lessons that you've gone
through in your life all of the
opportunities that have passed you by
that you didn't take advantage of and
now you start to tap into that
Consciousness that's there and you start
to make amends between you and God so I
started with if this is what you want
from me you want me to be alive then
Guide Me Guide Me Christianity wasn't an
alternative for me so that was out
Judaism was out and the 5% nation the
Nation of Islam all of those things was
out and all of the arrows were pointing
towards Islam isn't it simple many
people now they they they use the
escapable all these religions everyone's
making the claim but if you just open
the books if you just a like you just
said you said Guide Me Guide Me just you
know you you make that sincere intention
and you ask upon the Creator you don't
put an image to him do you you put like
a statue in front you don't do that
right you don't have a mental picture
just the Creator the Creator and just do
your homework that's a cop out isn't it
just to say oh there's so many religions
it's easy to find out the truth if you
want the truth is that true absolutely
and you find that seek and you shall
find seek and you shall find so now what
happens you uh did you you did some okay
Christianity is not an option you're not
talking the Trinity uh you excluded some
of these others but at the face of them
most people at the face of them if you
open the world religion books you can
see that things just don't make sense
it's weird so did you do that did you
start investigate here there and I
didn't need to investigate I mean in the
African-American neighborhoods and our
environments Islam is is very prevalent
so you don't really need to look that
far you you can you can spot the truth
When You See It mhm and The Moment I Saw
Islam I knew it was the truth it was
just a matter of me coming to grips with
the fact that it was the truth and
something that I needed to embrace you
got to be courageous to accept Islam
don't you I mean because it takes takes
I mean uh what what do you think because
it takes a lot of effort now what are
your parents going to say did you have
that like what what are my friends going
to think did you have that peer pressure
some people have that you didn't have
that how about now uh it's a battle to
to do to leave off the desires right you
have to make that change like you got to
get give up people some people they
don't want to give up pork for instance
they love the pig right I think that
that's another cop cop out that's
another cop so what was you what was
what was it when when it came to you did
you just do it what was the main thing
that or what happened well after you've
been drag after the dun has literally
dragged you through the mud I mean you
don't really have those type of Hang-Ups
anymore you just want salvation you just
want to be saved you just want out of
that lifestyle so you you done it
already absolutely some people keep
think they they just got time I got time
right yeah and then there's some people
who have been beat up so bad that they
just want out they just want to submit
now you just want to submit you've given
up living your life the way that you
want to live it because you've seen
after failed experience after failed
experience that you can't do it by
yourself okay cuz you get what I'm
saying have you experienced people who
just okay they recognize this is the
truth but they got other things on their
mind the desire right they don't want to
give up those are people who haven't
really been beat down like that okay and
this is something that Muslims need to
understand and that is that people
Embrace Islam after having hit rock
bottom Rock Bottom in life and then they
become Muslim and then when they become
Muslim they have such bad experience
with some of the Islamic communities
that there is no more rock bottom for
them and that is something that we have
to be conscious of we have to be
cognizant of the fact that you don't
understand where people have come come
from people have come from the bottom
rock bottom they hit rock bottom in
their lives and they turn to the
religion of Islam as that last
alternative for salvation for prosperity
in their lives and then to become a
Muslim and to be bombarded with all of
the fighting and the arguing and
debating and you know the
harshness it it kind of makes you feel
like what what's left for me I've tried
being a Christian I've tried being a
stickup kid I've tried selling drugs
I've tried this I've tried this I've
tried this the only thing left for me is
Islam then once I try that and I have
such a bad experience with that what
else is left for me and these are things
that as Muslims we have to be cognizant
of because the person that you run into
on a day-to-day basis you don't know
where they came from you don't know what
experiences they've had in life that
drove them to take Shara and we have to
have a more we have to be more sensitive
when we look at people in the m it when
we look at religious people we have to
be more sensitive uh um you know to this
fact so fast forward I I ask God to
guide me and um when I got to prison
there was a friend of mine who had been
you know incarcerated for some time and
um he was a really bad guy on the
streets really bad guy and when he came
to me um he had a a chain around his
neck with Allah's name in Arabic now
mind you as I said that Islam was very
prevalent in the African-American
community so it wasn't something that
was foreign to me I knew what it meant I
knew what it represented but I just
couldn't put the two together him being
a Muslim no way no way and I asked him I
said you know I see the chain around
your neck I said are you Muslim you say
yeah I'm Muslim and you know that was
the start I just couldn't believe it and
so he gave me some books um two in
particular um mod dy's introduction to
Islam and the bi autobiography of
Malcolm X the autobiography of Malcolm X
is this thing I read it three
times three times I didn't complete the
fourth time I was so
intrigued how he was able to embrace
something that he believed was the truth
and to refine himself to such a degree I
was so intrigued by that that I said
that that is me I can do that I can do
that I can cuz a lot of his experiences
I was able to relate it resonated with
me
immediately and I mean mind you we've
seen the the the movie Malcolm X we've
seen you know the one with Denzel we've
seen that as children but it's nothing
like reading the biography at 20 years
old having so many different experiences
in your life it adds a whole another
Dynamic to it and at that moment I
realized that this is where I needed to
be and there was one thing about the
religion of Islam that interest me that
resonated with me so well and that was
that Muslims only believe in one God I
said that's exactly what I
believe I've been believing that since I
was a kid this has to be the
truth this has to be the truth I believe
in one God I've been believing that all
my
life and it was at that point that I
decided that I needed to be Muslim but I
didn't take shahada tell us we're almost
out of time
for for the person that needs he hears
all of this garbage this this false
propaganda you know and he's confused
because every time he turns on Fox News
CNN he sees something blowing up and
Islam radical and oppresses women and
jihadis and you know but he's listening
to you he's watched some D so he's like
you know what what he's saying's making
sense but over here what are these guys
lying to me what's going on how how do
they um you know get past these
stereotypes um well I think that there's
only a particular type of person that is
influenced by the media the vast
majority of Americans don't believe what
the media
says honestly seriously because no
matter what they see on the news we
can't validate that I I did a news
interview in Washington DC and a woman
asked me what is a wahhabi I said I
don't know what a wahhabi is she said if
you've never heard the term I said I
heard the term before she say so you
don't know what a wahhabi is I said I
don't know one Muslim who calls himself
a wahhabi not one I said so by me even
answering your question I'm validating
the term I'm not going to validate that
we're Muslims we're Muslims that's a
term that the media created and we give
Credence to it when we accept it I'm not
going to give Credence to it and I'm not
going to validated I don't I don't
believe that there is an American that
believes every single thing that the
media says about Islam because they have
neighbors that are Muslim and when they
see the media and then they look at
their next door neighbor who's been
living next door to them for 20 years
never had any problems with them never
seen any resemblance in their behavior
and what they see on the news they they
don't accept that they don't accept that
and evidence by the fact that people are
still coming into Islam Today it hasn't
stopped fastest going way of life and
and there's more women coming into Islam
than men is that true um that's a whole
another conversation alhamdulillah what
is the biggest proof for Islam someone
wants something tangible right Jesus
peace be upon him who we love we said no
muslim is a Muslim unless he believes in
Jesus we know all the messengers of God
they came with evidences and proofs
right Jesus he gave life to the dead by
God's permission heal the Sick by God's
permission what about the prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him and what
about you know what did he bring what
could somebody if they want to look into
Islam to really their thinking academic
they want science they want something
they can feel touch what can they do the
greatest miracle that has been given to
any Prophet was given to Prophet
Muhammad may peace and blessings be upon
him and that miracle was the Quran the
greatest Miracle Jesus by the permission
of Allah gave life to the physical dead
Prophet Muhammad gave life to the
spiritual dead Allah says in the
Quran can he who was dead spiritually to
whom we gave life and a light by which
he can walk amongst men be like he who
is steeped in the depths of Darkness
from which he can never come
out this verse right here was one of the
first verses that I acquainted myself
with when I opened the
Quran and until today I have never
forgotten this verse because that verse
any one of us who embraced this lamb it
resonates with you so well can he who
was dead to whom we gave life so Prophet
Muhammad gave life to the dead as well
but the spiritual dead physically a
person can die and you can bring him
back to life and he can be the same
sorry individual he was before he died
the first time you can bring a person
back to life spiritually and he'll
change the world so would you recommend
for every human being is that their
right that they they they pick up this
Quran that they read it that no book
ever killed a person did it so would you
recommend for every person to evaluate
test this book and if they're sincere
and if they study it scientifically
analytically they'll see like over 1.5
billion people have that this is indeed
from the creator of the heavens and
earth this Quran the English is
obviously the translation the Arabic is
the original but even if they read it in
in a good English translation that
they'll be able to see that this is from
the Creator absolutely absolutely
absolutely final closing comments and
advice for our viewers we got 30 seconds
I love you
we we go go ahead 10 10 seconds anything
else NOP if somebody wants to to hear
more about you do you have a website do
you have a they got your personal phone
number how about your address they
look
www.a R AWD ah.org
thank you very much may the creator of
the heavens and earth reward you for
being with us thank you and thank you
for tuning in to the dean show as our
guest so eloquently put it just he loves
you and we love you but the Creator
loves you more first and foremost but do
you love the Creator that's the that's
the question if you do you're going to
take the necessary steps to get to know
him so pick up this Quran is the only
book in the world that in this book
that's been memorized by millions the
living Miracle we have it in its
original preserve save tamper free
tamper proof hasn't been changed to suit
the times as it was revealed we have it
today and addresses you the human being
says don't they reflect Ponder and think
had this book been from other than the
Creator Allah you would find in it many
contradictions discrepancies find one
it's a challenge it's a challenge but
are you going to pick it up do you love
the Creator pick it up read it and put
it to the test we'll see you next time
and you know what you can get it for
free man I mean what kind of deal is
that call us at 1 1800 662 Islam and ask
that's the first you could do it right
now you know you're sad maybe taking
some Xanax you're about to hit a pinck
and a beer put that down and ask beseech
the Creator say Guide Me Guide Me My
maker the one who made me guide me and
then put this Quran to the test we'll
see you next time until then peace be
with
[Music]
youd subh alhamdulillah
[Music]
alhamdulillah Subhan
[Music]
allahul alhamdulillah
[Music]
subh
[Music]
alhamdulillah allahar