you got a chance to hang out with dj
khaled
and djing at that time i think was
bringing in seventy thousand seventy
five thousand just just doing parties
here and there the dj khaled was to
leave
you know this lifestyle i saw myself
getting this i'm disappearing in this
lifestyle like my whatever little my
parents taught me was disappearing
[Music]
so to me it came down to
college job right that's what you do and
uh but you got a lot of free time now so
what did you feel your free time with
friends and my friends that then were
you know they go to the bar they'd go
and one of them one of my friends got
into djing like he bought turntables and
i remember one was baseball and there's
like oh my god what's that and i was the
kind of guy that you know i'm good at
something if i apply myself
so he showed me how he's doing the
techniques
and within 30 minutes i was doing it
better than he was doing it and he was
still new too but i was beating him and
as far as skill set goes
and i guess that light bulb when i was
like i think i like this you know you
kind of get attracted to it so we
invested uh i invested i think it was a
thousand dollars then don't ask i don't
remember how i got the money maybe it
was 700 and then we bought more
equipment and then make long story short
i started djing and you know one of
those guys just like with jiu jitsu if i
apply myself i'll do it
try to pull all into it so within a year
i became really good at it started
making mixtapes start making cds and
start doing uh enforce on the mixtape
you got to put your number
and little by little people are calling
you and
for parties so my point is i got
unbeknownst to me was became first a
hobby but the hobby became monetized and
then monetized into a world of uh haram
you know party party party party it
wasn't even like
when i started cleaning my act up that's
when i started doing weddings even that
was bad but before that was just a bunch
of parties um some of the parties were
just insane like uh so you said you you
started cleaning your act up it was the
next level it was a little bit cleaner
weddings yes yeah exactly so i thought
to myself let me let me get out of djing
in detroit and all these uh some of
these were gang parties but you know
drinking and gangs and fights and just a
crazy crazy lifestyle
and then i saw myself getting this i'm
disappearing in this lifestyle like my
whatever little my parents taught me was
disappearing like so you already had a
little bit of a little bit i did pray
i fasted in ramadan but it was just just
rituals just rituals it wasn't it felt
like you were sinking the more instant
yeah yes that's what i'm trying to say
so even then i remember time sometimes
uh
i hate to say this it's embarrassing
i had i remember one time vividly i had
a hangover um and my kidney was hurting
me i remember my side was hurting as i'm
doing my slaw that next day i'm holding
my side as i'm doing it because it was
hurting and i remember in the thoughts
that time was like what this is insanity
i'm actually performing just like i mean
i'm acting now like those muslims that
you hear those stories are before the
before alcohol was all outlawed muslims
will be drunk in salah and then the
prophet islam then allah alcohol
completely i guess my point is i hit me
then i was like this is what am i doing
this is not a life
so but it's but you're so deep into it
how do you get out of it so i said to
myself let me get out by cl stop doing
parties and i'll start doing weddings so
i called up a local uh guy who's doing
just weddings and now at least with the
weddings i thought i'm doing good
because i'm djing only muslim weddings
and
your own community a little better no it
wasn't better it was worse and that
maybe that's worse in the sense it was
the same level because
everyone's drinking in these weddings
and the fitna and the mixing was the
same only there was no gangs and that
was just our people so it made me
actually feel worse not better because
our own people now are acting like this
i'm sure much many people out there can
identify you know college music now
you're like the life of the party yes
hey dj play that song yes
yeah and uh especially it's almost like
one of those things not that you're a
celebrity but you have a one inch of
celebrity yeah and
of course god forbid male 1 forgive me
allah forgive me but a big fit that was
women yeah because uh
yeah oh my god you can get along yes it
was a big problem so i said you know
what this this is ridiculous the only
way to do this right is to really cut it
off completely so i remember calling my
friend up he was also a local dj in the
area and he wasn't that good like he was
aspiring to be dj so for me to call him
and say to him listen i'll give you
everything i need you i need you to come
over and take all my stuff like
everything is good to me i was like no
come get everything you're telling him
this yes and he didn't believe me at
first and within i go if you don't come
with the 20 minutes i'm going to call
the next guy on my list so he had three
brothers they all flew flew to my house
and they didn't even they didn't even
look at me they were like at that time
at that time like uh helped paint a
picture but you're you're spinning you
know the uh the records right it's not
like today no no those are antiques now
yes
that's what i'm saying like i didn't
give him like a few hundred dollars i
gave him thousands of dollars yeah these
things today are worth a lot of money
but i knew that's the only way i can i
have to like rip off a band-aid but
really get rid of it and they cleared
out everything i mean they wrecked my
room they did it like bad too how many
records did you actually have would you
say i would argue
the hundreds oh easy over a thousand
records over a thousand yeah i was i was
one of those guys that good like there's
a few stories they don't exist no more
but they should be in detroit uh if you
don't let me ask you what particular
type did you do hip hop
techno i did it all i liked the house i
liked hip-hop i liked rock i liked
everything i had records for everything
for everything yeah yeah my mixtapes at
that time were diverse like i try to do
as many as i can
the popular thing at that time was
freestyle music you would do that but i
enjoyed music so i would branch off to
all the other aspects as well so guys
this is this is the hip cool guy this is
the dj now pay attention
so
but that's what you got to do if you
want to do something how to do right
kind of back to the original idea if i'm
going to dj let me do it right
i said to myself if i'm going to start
studying islam i can't mess around this
half and half hour is not working it's
just drowning me more it's like a it
just wasn't working so anyway they took
everything
they left the next day i woke up i was
like okay this is serious now i gotta i
gotta know i have no nothing to do no
more money no more gigs no more you know
if now free time is back and that's the
shaitaan so i called had good for me i
had good relationships with friends that
at that time ignored me because i was in
that lifestyle but they didn't cut me
off like they knew i was a good guy my
soul i guess my core so when i called
them up one of them particularly his
name was hyphen i was like listen i need
you to i'm ready to hear you i know i've
ignored you for the last three four
years you've attempted to talk to me and
i've ignored you i'm admitting this so
high them now yes so this is the this
will qualify as a good friend yes yeah
good friend you're not a good friend
he's what's he telling you like that you
didn't want to you didn't want to listen
before or you were yeah but
him both got caught up in this lifestyle
we're talking now we're young 18.
um but he
was more mature for me than me and he
broke off much earlier and he was
practicing the dna yes yeah yeah and
during those few for four or five years
i created this is dutinos he tried to
reach out to me tried to get me to read
this talk this and you know you just
don't want to hear your
your brain somewhere else
um but now i'm ready to hear it right so
i called him this time of course he
obliged i went to his house and uh i got
lucky but he was smart he didn't he knew
that i didn't need
just uh another lecture i didn't need uh
um
you know he knew something he was like
this guy's this guy's not a dummy so
he's like you want to talk i'll give you
i'll make one condition he went in his
house came back he gave me a book
he knew that my my college my degree was
economics
so
he's like he gave me a book it was
titled the economic system of islam
i was expecting i don't know something
something else i didn't expect that it
didn't make sense to me he's like i'll
talk to you i'll give you the discussion
but you got to read this book first and
then we'll have that talk okay deal i'm
ready i went home knocked it on three
days and at the end of the three days
i didn't go to calm right away i took
another three days it took six days to
calm why because
three days to knock out the book and i
swear three days just to sit there under
my chair i had to chair where i said
think and really analyze you got a think
chair
yeah
i used to sit in that chair in the dj
days and think of like mixtapes and how
to make those songs better so now you're
thinking about something yes yes so now
my chair i've used the same skill set
for this
and uh i really thought about those
ideas i learned in that book well like
for instance i didn't know islam
usury i didn't understand uh i didn't i
didn't know for example islam
had anti-hoarding laws you know these
are things today where as economic major
in college i saw problems in the world
today and here's this book that was that
thin and has certain ideas that stem
from islam stem from the from fortuners
from our deen that can solve instantly
solve some of the world's problems i
wasn't blown away i really had to think
about that and that opened my mind up i
was like well if this if this can happen
from just a couple of rules in islam
that i didn't even know exist because at
this point islam to me was just pray
just fast
and maybe go to hajj and that's it
that's the extent of islam to me that i
was taught for my parents here's the for
the first time the book like smacked me
across the face because i realized at
this moment islam is a complete way of
life if there's rules for this and this
one rule for example can solve a lot of
the world's problems what else is there
now my brain's opened up now i'm ready
to learn and i see now why he put that
condition on me so i went back and it
took so long i had to think about this
give me a second so let's let's sit down
he's like now let's let's back up and
stop forgetting forget economics let's
go back to the basics and we start
studying the existence of allah we start
studying uh
what i would call today a book called
the dominant islam and it kind of just
breaks down the core of of thought the
core of uh
why why we believe in allah
et cetera et cetera and i think that
really opened my mind up and i was just
got lucky i got lucky to reconnect with
these guys and i started learning from
them
um
and
i know it's cliche to say but i'm
sitting with someone who i've also
studied it because you you've been in
this game a long time your videos go
back years now and
you know we had we live in a time where
we have resources we have youtube not
everything's good but there's a lot of
good stuff a lot of good guys like you
where you can go learn and just click
and just in and dive in and so so in the
gym for example when guys ask me about
my story i always tell them that's my
story but more importantly you live in a
special time now where you i don't need
another hyphen you technically could
just sit in your house just like you
guys already do for music just like you
already do for for sports whatever
you're into you can go and and think of
a topic and go click on it and learn
about it because islam has an answer for
everything you just got to kind of open
your mind up and go and maybe learning
about something other than prayer
even though prayer is important even
though fasting is important all these
rituals we do are insanely important but
for me with something else other than
our rituals that brought me to islam i
guess that's my point
if you go back and you look at the life
you were living obviously you know
you're fulfilling a lot of desires yes
right you're having fun yes compare that
to what you're doing now yes and leaving
that did you any regrets no i don't
think there was regrets because uh
you you fill your mind with knowledge
and this knowledge is not just uh like
like math like one plus one equals to it
like that kind of knowledge this is a
this is a certain type of knowledge
that's penetrating my my heart you know
right and i see why all spontaneous says
in many verses in quran that i can
you know he describes the the the alab
and but he's talking about as if it's
he's describing your heart but it's
really disgusting in your mind so this
connection between our mind and our
heart i see you all as building and
versus certain versus the quran it's
very interesting because that's exactly
how i feel with your question
so here's a here's i'm filling my mind
with knowledge
um
knowledge of a certain topic that i've
known before and then it's penetrating
my heart it's making me feel complete
and it's filling my soul in such a way
where i don't need that lifestyle oh
it's filling your soul yes
the lifestyle before it wasn't feeling
that's what i'm trying to say yes yeah
it was just my heart so this connection
between our mind and heart is very
important i need to learn use my mind to
fill it with knowledge so i can fill my
soul up they connect together that's
that's how i feel every time i learn and
i feel by the way this doesn't go away
like
i've been studying slam now for years
and it doesn't it's not going away it
doesn't go away but there's because
there's always something new to learn
like the other day i learned a new
lecture yeah what was the topic it blew
my way i forgot i forgot it's on my
phone but he was discussing something
that i haven't heard before and i was
like huh so there's a certain moment it
was a 20 20 like 20 minute lecture he
concluded the lecture and i thought
about it and thought about it well now
instantly my brain now has a new
increased information and it made my
heart feel better and i don't know if
that makes sense to you
yeah and that's i think the connection
between the heart and the mind is
important you got to fill this to get
this and that's that way i don't go back
to the haram and it's not i guess what
i'm trying to say is there are moments
in life where
yeah i see a beautiful woman a man i i
want to marry her
or you get those i want to go back to
that old slide for just for a split
second shaytan jumps in and says these
thoughts
but you remind yourself that
this is haram you know start really
understanding why certain things are
haram
and uh haram and becomes more not just a
rule but something that you live in your
heart
and instantly like the thought comes in
and within two seconds i thought was
gone like i defeated
uh so you become stronger knowledge
makes you
your heart stronger you're so stronger i
think that's what i'm trying to say
there's uh so much here that can be
gained beautiful story you don't want to
dabble in the sin you don't dabble yeah
you know and transgressing the limits of
god almighty the creator of law
and alhamdulillah you just cut it from
the root right that was it
what would you say to the people like
who are out there who because
you mentioned um the topic of djing i
don't know why in my head it came out dj
khaled
of course you got a chance to hang out
with dj khaled or someone who's trying
to aspire to be like dj khaled what
advice would you give for them to take
those gifts you know that allah had
given the person and utilize it in in a
more profound way that can get you
closer and other people closer to allah
man it's a good question
like for example if dj khaled was into
jiu-jitsu and he walked in my gym right
now
i would i would like to meet him why not
i mean he is good at what he does
but i think we need to go back to its
core dj khaled is might be a good i
don't know if he's a good dj i mean
let's assume i think he's more of a
producer with a cool name but but for a
second
his idea comes up with good production
and this production
um has uh
you know the idea has a choice the
minute it crosses into the public sphere
i'm now influencing thousands of people
and in this case it's millions of people
and that's a burden i don't want to put
on myself so that's what i would tell
somebody there's nothing in my opinion
there's nothing wrong with you might
have a skill set for example let's say a
woman
like i have two daughters one sixteen i
i say to myself the other day she's not
she's not that good but let's say she
was the other day where the kids were
watching some movie to sing or something
like that sing two and she start she
shot i wasn't in the room because they
wouldn't do this in front of me because
they're a little you know shy from the
dead but she shot off a no i was like
huh and i walked in i was like that was
it is that mia and she sounded like like
a professional singer for a second so
after a second i entertained my mind
what if she
is good enough what if she's like she
has an adele quality in her voice well
i have a choice
do i hint stop her from doing this or
stop her from doing it publicly to me
that's the important thing and allah
made us a very very clear distinction
between private and public so basically
i'm trying to say i'll let her explore
this skill go ahead sing all you want in
your house sing in front of your your
father and your mother and explore this
skill and even if you want to start
writing right let's write i don't know
if it's hilar to some music
maybe i don't know i'm not a scholar
maybe that's allowed it to i'm just
guessing but let's explore the skill but
the minute the skill crosses into
something that might be haram we have to
stop this is this is our limit because
in the day we're not here to make to
sing to some music or sing we're here to
obey allah yes after this is so
important we're not here you know to
sing a right song we're here for a
purpose because and allah told us what
he created us for you know uh so the
last thing was what i was thinking
better example is me my salah is done uh
my duties are done my due
responsibilities of business and
response all my things are done now i
have a technical free time i'll explore
this on my laptop just for myself i
think that's okay i think
if i'm mistaken i'll
correct me now and i'll i'll fix that as
well but i won't ever cross into the
public because now i don't want to go
back to those the old days yeah yeah you
know who i i spoke a lot about this with
like i don't know if you heard a loon
you know former rapper oh yeah yeah amir
uh junaid now he talks about this topic
is really good yes you know and then uh
he also the former rapper who's with uh
tupac you know um
the napoleon yes yeah they cover these
topics because they were people who were
in just like you but at a whole totally
different level you know
but now just to finish off back on dj
khalid
you know you think about someone like
him
who has everything yeah and now you know
you or someone
who had this lifestyle and we know when
someone
like leaves something for the sake of
allah allah replace it with something
better i agree so the same thing as dj
khaled was to leave
you know this lifestyle this obviously
you know yes it's not in the pleasure of
the creator that happens on earth and
you can actually be doing something
that's uh
raising your ranks you know with allah
yes allah definitely would place that
was so better did you see that when you
left this you know with the proper
intention you left this for your creator
right
uh did you see it replaced with
something better
a hundred percent yeah i'll answer the
two two two clear ways one because again
end of the day i think go back to money
i was i monetized this skill um
and djing at that time i think was
bringing in 70 000 75 000 just just
doing parties here and there and then
when i started doing weddings the money
actually increased not decreased um
and that's a lot of money for someone
that age i was and i you know i would
study in the daytime and then just dj
over the weekends so it was an easy
lifestyle too um but you're talking for
me to make that much money then
i wanted to replace it because now i'll
go from from this to zero
and
i'm not saying it happened overnight but
now that i have free time i i i dove
into a new skill so the minute i stopped
djing i was like okay i started studying
islam i still have free time i didn't
you know do this 24 hours a day so i
found this this i mean this art this
this this background you're looking now
is a reflection of that when i found the
jitsu i fell in love with it it not only
filled my time with something physical
and
mental um but also
like a love became um i really enjoyed
enjoyed it and this skill i'm talking
about it took me a few years to develop
just like you would i'm sure in your
case as well
i ended up monetizing it and all that
money i would made then came back
because it goes back to razer crystals
from allah and if we really understand
that
you know to me
it's profound thought because i'll go on
to the world and do everything i can do
to earn as long as it's halal
why because if it's meant to be it's
meant to be that's why when a customer
joins or doesn't join i don't get mad
as long as i did my best to present a
good product to the person
and if he joins great that means it was
meant to be if not no big deal that
means someone else can get that money
and i'm okay with that because
it's gonna come back and all the money i
made uh quote unquote lost dj by
stopping that lifestyle then i'll give
me this and a few other businesses i'm
doing but this in particular that love
was filled there so i filled my time
with this and i filled my my money with
this as well two things would same same
thing that dj gave me but now
i'm not indulging haram so i can at
least go home to face my children and
they're not uh
embarrassed by their dead you know my
dad for example is a great man today but
his when he uh
was earning in this country one of the
things he got into was a nightclub he
owned a nightclub on amok called
prestige club him and his brothers
and that club i'm sure made a lot of
money for him
enough money to pay for my college
enough money to buy the home we have and
they had um but when when i became older
and i started recognizing it i put
pressure on him i go wow i think we need
to get out of this i think we need to
get out of this um
and that's a funny story in itself too
maybe one day we could share that but
how i kind of really sometimes across
the line
you know being kind to my dad to being
mean because i want him to put pressure
well forgive me for that but it worked
eventually my dad said okay you're right
we need to get rid of this and he went
into the restaurant business because at
the end of the day a nightclub is still
a restaurant and he took the harampara
out and kept the halal part in and he
did good with that so there's another
example where let me abandon this this
disgusting life that's ruining my
relationship my wife ruining my my my
kids not olaf to recognize that my dad's
my dad's not a good guy he's making
money selling liquor and living a
terrible lifestyle let me get out of
this and now anur was replaced he had a
very successful restaurant
same brothers that left that they went
to open a restaurant they did great for
years
and then he cleaned his act up went to
hajj and he's a good man today so
there's another story but it can be done
so if you trust on allah and you you
follow the deen things allah opens the
other doors for you i'm convinced in
that i'm it's for sure and dj khaled if
he were to quit go back to his roots a
hundred percent although give him
another thing because he's still skilled
he has skills just take your skills
somewhere else
or anybody inspiring to be like that
this inshallah can be a benefit for
those who are on the border and they
also like you have that itch inside they
know what they're doing is wrong and now
getting out of something that's haram
into something that's halal and
inshallah this will be something that
can help to make a better decision thank
you so much for sharing that story with
us thank you and if you guys and if you
guys are in detroit they can come visit
you at detroit jiu jitsu here with our
brother detroit.com
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