unto you
and we're continuing this week on the
deen
show with abdullah keem quick
his story on how he came to islam former
christian
who investigated all the different world
religions and he
came to know that this way of life was
indeed
not a system organized by man but
organized
by the one god the god of jesus abraham
moses and the last and final messenger
sent to mankind the prophet muhammad
peace be upon him
and he's here again to share his
experiences and his story
here on the dean show don't go nowhere
[Music]
this is
[Music]
isn't this a greeting of all the
messengers that's right all the
messengers
they didn't just greet each other like
hey what's up how you doing they did
this greeting that us muslims are doing
isn't this
that's right yeah they still they
started their affairs in peace
in peace we're people of peace that's
right war
but it seems like there's a lot of
misconceptions we're gonna we're gonna
maybe pick your brain on that too but
can you please people can go to the
deanshow.com for those that missed
last week's show they can go there to
view it now can you kind of bring people
up to speed
and kind of summarize where we left off
and to where we
are starting today raheem
i was raised in the united states in
boston
and you know to a very religious family
hard-working family
and so i had good values from the
beginning and i was fortunate to be
in the company of students from major
universities
although we lived in a housing project
we were in between two major
universities
so i had access to information so i was
learning street life and how to be tough
and rough
but at the same time i was learning
information about the world
so that really was an opening for me and
um
that that enabled me to question uh some
of the
the wrong practices within you know that
i found within the church
to leave the church and to begin to look
at world religions
i went to university in pennsylvania and
oregon
i was upset you know with the system it
was the 60s
and we were questioning everything
around us so i left the university and i
was drafted
and in order to avoid this confusion i
became a war resistor
and i migrated to canada and it was in
toronto canada
all praises due to allah that i accepted
islam
at the hands of a great scholar dr ahmed
sakha
so with that you know my answer was
what was was was completed now i found a
way of life
that gave me a world view it gave me a
lifestyle
how to raise my family how to deal with
my children
it gave me a dietary plan it connected
me with people of other races
other nationalities and so there i was
now
in canada you know looking at the world
all set
and waiting for an opening and you know
by the mercy of allah subhanahu the
creator of the heavens and the earth the
saudi arabian government
offered two scholarships to canada to
the canadian muslim canada
community in 1973. so i was one of the
two
uh who was given the scholarship and i
went to medina
yes so as a young man with my wife who i
had married
she was a muslim too and we went to
medina in 1973
now this was when medina was in the old
form didn't have no tar roads
we lived in a simple house with no
running water
my wife was originally from jamaica but
raised in canada so she knew how to live
a rough life so we lived with the
bedouins
and we learned classical arabic and it
was medina was beautiful and
you know it was the old medina before
the hustle and bustle now that you find
you know what the skyscrapers yes and uh
so in that atmosphere
we took in you know the knowledge of
islam alhamdulillah
it was a great struggle but i was the
first american
to graduate from any university in saudi
arabia
first american the first american
martial and i'm the first american to
graduate
from that prestigious university here on
the dean's show yeah masha'allah
so so that was a great achievement um
you know for me
and from there you know i became very
close to a very famous sheikha
abdul aziz bimbas rahimahullah and he
was a very kind person he had memorized
the whole of bukhari
hadith's sayings of the prophet peace be
upon him he was very kind and
he wanted to know about islam in america
so when i graduated he said i want to
meet this person
you know i want to talk to him so i sat
with him
and you know he befriended me and so he
said i want you to research america so
he gave me an open ticket to
to research muslims in the americas
it was a ticket like this size and so i
traveled literally
throughout the caribbean i traveled to
belize honduras
costa rica panama aruba guyana
trinidad jamaica bermuda
you know bahamas all throughout the
region investigating muslim communities
to give an idea a report about what is
the state of islam
in the in this region and from there i
went to california and taught for a year
and then i returned back to toronto
and then i went into the caribbean and i
lived in jamaica for four years
so i taught in jamaica and moved around
the islands
and spent some beautiful years you know
in the caribbean region
i returned to toronto and where i was
the imam of
the big mosque uh the jami mosque from
1985 to 1990.
and it was there my research
blossomed because not only was i the
imam of the mosque
i enrolled in the university at the same
time and i got a master's
from the university of toronto and
history department and then i got a phd
from the university of toronto and that
was based on the research i did in
northern nigeria
so now i'm traveling the muslims in
nigeria invite me to a big conference
islam in africa because they wanted to
know about the roots of
muslims in the americas and they heard
about my research and
writing so they invited me there and um
so from there
i met the scholars of west africa and
you know i brought back documents of a
famous czech
with mandanfodio a great scholar in the
19th century
there and i i had 37 original documents
in arabic language
so i translated these documents
commented on them got a phd
and then i began to travel around the
world
and so i was i i was invited to china
malaysia to um europe
to south america to brazil
to many parts of the world to deliver
lectures about
islam in america and you know
youth type of lectures and because the
globalization was happening
so people in in the third world the
muslim world they want to know
how do we deal with our youth uh in this
new
american um onslaught this globalization
you know mcdonald's is everywhere
kentucky fried chicken is everywhere
how do we handle this so now you know
just by the will of allah i happen to be
in the right place
at the right time you know i'm an
american
and i'm you know qualified in islamic
studies
i'm working with the youth you know so i
can provide
answers to them on the ground how to
deal with some of your problems your
family problems
your youth problems and so people
invited me and so this is
what uh enabled me to travel you know so
so far because it's not easy to travel
uh in the world you know with the prices
of plane tickets and whatnot
so alhamdulillah i was able to visit 58
countries
you know interacting with muslims
you know at the same time researching in
any country i go into i research
i find the roots of the people you know
i ask them their questions i record this
information
right i document the information you
know and then i i put it in categories
and then i
i get my world view expands
you know so so this enabled me you know
to to reach new heights
in terms of understanding islam not only
in america but islam
in the world we're going to take a break
and we'll be right back
with more god willing on the show
go down take the books put the books in
front of you and read them
read the quran don't be afraid the
question is about whether muslims are or
not good citizens
the constitution defines what a good
citizen is and the preamble says
we the people of the united states in
order to form a more perfect union
to establish justice ensure domestic
tranquility
to me muslims i can say that as a good
muslim and most muslims can say that
most muslims will embrace that most
muslims are good americans
we're back with dr abdullah quick
thank you again for being with us very
exciting now tell us before we go on
just a side note for the not yet muslims
out there
they're hearing islam how do you connect
all of this the
prophets and then you got what is with
in their very nature we say worship the
one god and this is what from the
beginning of your story
you didn't want to worship the creation
you didn't want to worship a man
you want to worship the creator of all
that exists but then they hear this
word islam yeah they agree with that say
yeah i want to worship god
just god that's it not his creation but
how did islam they hear this arabic term
they think well this is an arab thing
how do you respond to this well what is
important for us to understand is that
when we talk about islam
we are talking about the root religion
of all of the prophets
and the quran itself tells us in the
chapter of the be
that prophets and messengers have been
sent to all nations and all tribes
that they should worship one god and
stay away from false deities
so prophets came to china to india to
europe to the americas
every nation had a person who taught
them believe in one god
and do not worship the sun or idols or
worship yourself
but go beyond that and connect to the
universe and so that really you know is
what islam is and when i
researched in the arabic language you
know into the the sayings of the
scholars i found out
that that it is a majority position
amongst the scholars that if a person
has never heard anything about islam or
christianity or judaism
no moses jesus muhammad nobody and that
person
believes in one god and lives a good
life
then that person is under the mercy of
allah he can be punished
or he can be forgiven and basically that
person is muslim
because every human being is is born in
the natural
state of worshiping the creator so there
are certain tribes now in the amazon
valley of amazon river they have met
nobody they don't know
any prophets they don't know any
organized form of religion
and these people as far as we are
concerned are muslims
until they are proven the opposite
because they worship
the great spirit and this is found
within their languages
i found the same thing on the african
continent every african language um
has a concept of god i went into the
british isles
i went high up into scotland and and i
found out that
after the time of jesus peace be upon
him that there was
a person who came in the area who taught
the the people the belief in one god
the pure monotheism pure monotheism how
about holy
uh holy spirit father son holy ghost
this is before that that was the
organized roman church
yeah this had nothing to do with the
teachings of the prophet so if you look
around in europe itself
you will find uh pure monotheistic
teachings
just one god unitarians in the original
sense nothing to do with any
mixing god into you know these are three
in one none of these
no these are the original unitarians in
europe itself it was the organized
roman church the trinitarians
you know who who forced you know this
what we would consider to be a pagan
belief of the many gods from greece and
rome
basis you know they force that on you
know the
the native people in europe itself as
well as other parts of the world
and so it's interesting for me in
chinese the chinese say
shangti and shangti is the one god
one god that's the creator of the
heavenly stop there you don't add
anything up just one
right so that's that's the the cosmic
spirit can you see him
you're going to church and you see a
black guy that jesus is black with blue
eyes over here
he's jesus you know brown over
no image to god no no area code zip code
no dna
that's right none of that and the same
thing in africa i found there's a nation
called
the bantus and the bantu is from the
word n2
and n2 is the cosmic spirit that's the
creator
so the bantu are the children of god
the children of the cosmic spirit you
know of the creator of the heavens and
the earth
and so you'll find in every african
language a way to express
one god you'll find even in the ancient
vedas
of of india the original sanskrit
writings
you were not supposed to worship idols
you will look at buddha himself
he left the idols he is looking for the
one god so if you go behind
the great religions of the world what
was his name his name was buddha
buddha yeah okay and he was going out
looking for the
he was a prince hindu prince and he
didn't want to worship idols anymore he
was tired of
living this life so he left his riches
he left idol worship in search of the
great spirit yeah
unfortunately now he's his image is the
biggest idol in the world people are
like worshipping
him giving him divine rights yeah but
that's people that's not buddha himself
same thing with can you connect it with
jesus
did he save him never call people to
worship himself never
and it is recorded that jesus peace be
upon him was a very humble person
you know who walked most of the time
without shoes on very simple and
very loving and he followed the law of
moses
completely and and that has nothing to
do with
any trinity concept or other gods but it
is a it is a pure belief
in yahweh in the creator of the heavens
and the earth and that was his belief
and so you'll find this in the root
religions
uh in the in the indigenous people of
all nations
including europe you will find this
tohid
and that is the unity and so this is
what i have found
over the years traveling to different
parts of the world studying history
studying history studying culture
studying people
that really behind the the so-called
differences within people
you know there is a human spirit there
is a soul there is a connection with the
creator
which is common amongst all people now
tell us
someone might fall out their seat right
now and
this is something that might come as a
shock but
is this what i'm saying the truth a
we love jesus peace be upon him and
jesus
was a muslim is this true that's right
because i mean what i found
from after i left the church is that
when i entered into islam
it really gave me the true story of
jesus
the true story of mary and so my love
for jesus
increased my love for mary increased
peace be upon them but i now was was
connected
to the actual story in the way it
happened
because jesus never wanted people to
worship him
he always pointed to the father meaning
the creator of the heavens and the earth
and so we understand what the word
father means in semitic languages
it's not your physical father we're all
children of god
so it is the creator of the heavens and
the earth this is like metaphorical then
exactly so this is really what he was
pointing to now
you know you know speaking arabic which
is the sister language of
of hebrew you say shalom alecham and we
say assalamu alaikum
so it's their sister languages now i was
in touch with revelation
yeah and so i could go straight to the
book
i could listen you know to the words of
the prophet muhammad
in the original language itself i lived
in the city so now
i realize this is not a ritualistic
religion this is not
arabs and non-arabs this is the religion
of all people this is all racist so he
was by definition
a muslim because what is a muslim other
than what you're describing one who is
just
connecting with the one guy exactly so
this is the root definition now
that one who submits to do the will of
allah or god
this is a muslim so that's what moses
did
abraham noah jesus christ peace be upon
him all they
did that so they were muslim that's
right amazing and we also found
out that there are people like in
ancient egypt
whose wife was nefertiti many people
know nefertiti
that ah you know challenged to the gods
of egypt
and in some reports he was not
worshiping the sun god
he wanted to worship the power behind
the sun and he challenged egypt just
before the time of moses
and so you will find that there are this
this you know these teachings
amongst the cherokee nation sequoyah
there's a famous
teacher in amongst the cherokee he was
the first person
amongst the cherokee nation in america
to to institute an alphabet he created
the alphabet of the cherokee
if you look at a picture of sequoia he's
got a turbine on like mayan
and he's got a phobe and you read the
cherokee writings and you will find
a strong belief in one god that they are
looking to the east
you know and that they are believers the
seminole nation
uh in florida you will find seminoles
was a mixture of of many people who fled
from
the spanish uh you know settlers you
know and the
the natives they ran together and they
formed this nation if you look at
pictures of the seminoles
they have turbines on like mayan and
they have doves and some of them have
even names with arabic in it
so so really islam was here in america
as well
not only from the root religion of the
first nation indigenous people
but muslims who had come across as well
here in america
here in america and that's a that's a
research that i did in my book called
deeper roots you know where we we we
found presidents
is the book you wrote on this right
deeper routes to show presence of
muslims in america
before columbus before columbus that's
right you got proof for this
proof of it and then how they actually
mixed with the
the the native people uh in the americas
long before the 13 colonies were
developed
muslims in america islam in america way
before
christopher columbus that's right and
you're hearing it here on the dean's
show
we'll be right back
emphasizing and ascertaining the oneness
of god
recognizing that there is a creator
don't take anything for granted don't
just follow anything blindly
anything you believe research it and
really understand what it is you're
believing and
questioning things and question them and
search peacefully and honestly
back here with dr abdullah hakeem quick
here on the dean show
talking about how he came to islam and
his wonderful experiences
from going to being a christian a young
man who was aspiring to learn the truth
and then coming to the truth
and that now inspiring to great heights
you're an islamic scholar
a historian one who's really embedded
engrossed in seeking knowledge
tell us now someone comes and says you
know what okay yeah i believe in god
god and you god and me god's everywhere
it's all good we're all gods
how would you just decide no how would
you tackle this question and have you
come across this
yes i mean one time i was you know
having an interaction with people
you know about islam and a tough guy
come to me and he said i'm god
and he went right up in my face okay now
i have a background from the streets
right so i mean you know i'm a nice
muslim preacher so he come up to me and
he said i'm god i said okay god
put your hand in front of your face
uh-huh so he put his hand in front of
his face you can do this at home right
now right put your hand
and i put my fingers in back of his hand
yeah and i said count how many fingers i
have
of course he couldn't see it just like i
said okay you're god man and you can't
see right there
what kind of god are you yeah so he just
put his head down and walked away
because what what i was trying to show
him is that when you say god you are
talking about one
who is divine in all qualities
you're talking about the one who sees
all things and knows all things and
hears all things and you know above
seven heavens it's not me and you
we're earthly people we have problems
man and obviously you can't you're not
seeing all things
you can't see that's right you can't
even see in front of his face so what
kind of a god is he right
you know so i mean that's how you have
to deal with some people silly stuff
you know and and people have to you know
realize that that revelation that
prophecy
you know that god this is a very serious
thing because we're connected to the
hereafter
yeah we're not only in this world we're
on a journey
and shortly we'll be leaving this world
so what will be the condition of our
soul
where will we go so we we need to really
you know uh
search this and really you know you know
come to grips with with our frail
existence
and prepare ourselves for the next life
definitely definitely and this is what
all the messengers of god taught didn't
they
that's right so tell us now a few more
points we want to get them in
another person is loving what you have
to say but you're like you know what i'm
just
i believe in god but i'll do my own
thing i don't want to really follow an
organized religion i do believe in the
one god but
i just i'm comfortable doing my own
thing well you know
it's the same as a person who's a pretty
good mechanic
you know and then we bring him a new
lamborghini and this lamborghini needs
to be put together
so he's a mechanic he has a pretty good
idea of cars so he'll try to put it
together and he'll stay and well this is
a new vehicle
but now i can bring you the instruction
manual for the lamborghini
you know made by the company who
developed the car
okay so similarly with the human being
revelation
you know it's not saying we don't have
intelligence
but this is the creator of the human
being who knows better
why we are created how we are created so
he's giving us a lifestyle
in order like a manual in order that we
can you know run our machine in the
proper way
so in the same way that that mechanical
uses
you know the the the manual for the
lamborghini he will be successful
he will have his car running with the
other guy you know
he might do okay but he'll never reach
the speed
he'll never make the ultimate success of
the one who follows the manual
so we say the final testament and the
final manual
that is the quran and we should be
reading this quran every human being
you should know what it is you should
read it and you should
investigate the prophet muhammad peace
be upon him his lifestyle his teachings
because this is the way that we will be
led
from this confusion of the world we are
living in
into the openness and purity of the
hereafter
tell us sheikh just a couple more points
tell us now
so many wonderful things when people are
sincere
humblehearted open-minded they look and
they see you know islam is a way of life
of peace
peace with the creator peace with
yourself and then peace with the rest of
society but now
okay they want to go with what's in
their very nature to worship the one god
and do all the good things as he's told
us to do
but they always hear from the media
islam being associated with terrorism
things blowing up and now they're a
little timid they're a little nervous
they're sincere but they're like
i don't i don't want to be called a
terrorist what do you guys say
what is important to understand is that
um we need to look beyond terminologies
because if you look at the the the
american colonies if you look at america
when it was first founded
the people who who declared independence
when the constitution was first
developed they were called
terrorists and and the british were
intent
upon destroying you know the leadership
of america
and ruining this in this country but
even though they were called terrorists
they continued on
because of the principles that they were
founding so similarly you know with
muslims yes we do have extremists in the
muslim world
like any other nation there are
extremists amongst christians
jews communists atheists every
grouping has extremists but but the
faith itself
you you look at the principles you know
and that's really
you know where we stand on and you know
my experience was not
originally it's not a political one it
first benefits me
as a person so look at islam for
yourself
your connection with the creator your
family
your diet the way that you function in
this world
your into your world view and then you
can start to expand
you know to the other areas and when we
get into the
you know the realm of the world we will
see that it's not
politics in the world it's poly tricks
that really there's a lot of tricking
going on and confusion in the world
and and sometimes we have to sort of get
away from that and go back to basics
yes you know to the basis basics of
ourselves as human beings
you know and our in our connection with
god because
we are shortly leaving this world and
and that really is what islam you know
can give
you know to the individual and we can
only pray that the world
will find some way to to develop peace
that all nations can live together
and people can find a way of using the
technology not to destroy
but to save the planet one more on this
one more this is important point we've
done programs on this and we've
condemned we've got
other scholars who have condemned this
but it seems like people keep throwing
this back
and they keep revisiting this and they
keep throwing those are the guys
911 islam and muslims and
now creating the sensationalism what do
we have to say about this
if they come up to you and they throw
this in your face how do we respond
well you know we have to look at events
in the world
um for what is happening on the ground
i've been living in south africa
for the past 10 years and the former
president nelson mandela
at one point he was called the terrorist
because he was terrorizing the apartheid
government
and um but once people realized what was
happening
and and he was able to have the patience
you know and the resistance
you know to to to come out of the prison
you know and then take over the country
he moved from being a terrorist to a
world leader to a nobel peace prize
winner
okay so so these names are thrown you
know back
and forth and you know there's a lot of
things going on in the world
but the reality is that we need to look
at affairs from all points of view
you cannot judge an issue from one side
that's the reason why i study the roots
of history
you know not as we called it we used to
say history was his story
yeah so we look at it from not his story
but
our story the story of humanity so if a
person really wants to know about islam
then and muslims they should go to
muslims you know and
and read about islam yeah instead of
just reading you know another source
in the newspapers they should go you
know take it from the horse's mouth as
we say
go right to the source so islam has
nothing to do with killing innocent
women children nothing whatsoever
exactly it's very clear in the teachings
of the prophet muhammad peace be upon
him
that even when he sent his soldiers out
in defense of the nation
he told them do not kill innocents do
not kill non-combatants
he said he even said do not destroy
churches and synagogues
do not kill monks and and rabbis
you know do not destroy infrastructure
meaning don't poison the water
don't destroy trees keep everything
intact
because we are not there to destroy
we're only defending ourselves
we're only establishing justice and if
the enemy asks for peace
give it to them immediately that is what
is because islam is based on peace
so it's a total distortion uh about what
muslims are we don't say
assalamu alaikum means peace be upon you
it doesn't mean
bomb be upon you is peace be upon you
and this is what we're saying all the
time and people have to realize this
when they're dealing with muslims last
closing comments and suggestions for the
truth seekers those now because there
were also those who were
vengeant against islam vilifying islam
even at the time of the last and final
mental prophet
peace be upon him but somehow they ended
up coming to islam so even those people
and the sincere people talk to them all
give them some good advice
to soften their heart and maybe god
willing even to have them
come to the truth live on the truth and
die in the truth well
they need to remember that the times we
are living in now it's turbulent times
and with the change going on in the
environment the world that we know
will never be the same the floods that
are hitting the world
the earthquakes the famines
diseases they are now being described as
the worst
calamities in living memory
the oil spill you know on the east coast
of the united states and we all need to
pray
you know for some solution to this this
will be
the worst disaster in our memory
and this is the age that we are going
into now so we need to drop these
you know false uh you know superficial
titles and names
and come together as a human family and
try to find ways that we connect
with each other as opposed to finding
divisions
uh between each other come together as a
human family
deal with the environment deal with
nature the animals are crying out
the the birds are dying the fish are
dying
insects are being destroyed this world
we're all
interconnected this is what they call
biodiverse
we're part of a grand plan and we need
to take our role
you know as the representatives of god
on this earth
and come together as a human family and
you will see
when you really touch muslims you will
find that muslims have a great role to
play
in this world and in the future of this
planet
thank you thank you sheikh for being
with us may god almighty the creator of
the heavens on earth allah reward you
thank you and let us come to a common
terms between us and you
that we worship none but the one god the
creator of all that exists
the creator of moses abraham jesus the
creator of the sun and the moon
the creator of everything that is in
existence that one god and that's
something that's in your very nature you
just got to let it out don't suppress it
and you see and you've heard it here on
the dean's show we're a people of peace
first we have peace with the owner of
peace the creator of the heavens and
earth he gives us peace
and then we wish you peace assalamu
alaikum and we'll see you next time
here on the dean show until then again
peace be unto you