how MMA accidentally led me to Islam. He
followed Kabib around his village in the
mountains of Dagistan. Seeing that
lifestyle really hit me was learning
about all the numerical miracles in the
Quran. Things like that has made me
realize how precise and preserved this
book was. There's something very
spiritual about that sport. You have to
be very in tune to yourself. You go
through a lot of suffering. Looked like
they had so much peace on their face.
Resets me. Resets me. Resets me. The
salat fixes everything and salah gave me
structure in my life. Virgin Mary, they
how they talk about her has a whole
surah dedicated to her. My beginning was
that I was inspired by Kabib. So be
someone that people can look up to
>> and people don't really think about it.
You know, dogs have puppies, cats have
kittens, cows have calves. What do you
actually mean that God has a literal
son? And then Ramadan, oh, how you going
to make it without food and water, but
you're over here with a smile on your
face.
>> Like to say, thank you for being a role
model. And one of my favorite quotes by
him is, people won't look into the
religion, they won't read the Quran,
they won't read the Hadith, they read
you. So being an ambassador of Islam,
>> this is the
>> Assalamikum. So my next guest, amazing
story to share. Get this. He
accidentally
came to Islam, found Islam through MMA.
Check this out.
>> How MMA accidentally led me to Islam.
For most of my life, I was pretty much
agnostic. I was never an atheist because
deep down, I always believed there had
to be something bigger than us. And
before I converted, I always had the
feeling that out of all the monotheistic
religions, Islam might be the one that
could get it right. I knew that Islam
had a lot of structure. It wasn't a pick
and choose religion, there are clear
rules, things that are halal and things
that are haram. And Muslims don't mess
around. So, when I started MMA, I also
started watching a lot of UFC. And
obviously, there's been a huge wave of
dominant Muslim fighters in the sport.
See them talk about their faith, the
discipline they had and the way they
carry themselves made me curious. Around
2022, my curiosity got the best of me
and I started looking much deeper into
Islam. One of the biggest influences was
a YouTube series called Dagistani
Chronicles by Will Harris. He followed
Kabib around his village in the
mountains of Dagistan. Seeing that
lifestyle really hit me. They were
living in the mountains, praying,
training, wrestling all day, surrounded
by their community and faith. It looked
like the way humans were meant to live.
Every single Muslim in those videos had
this calmness in their eyes and this
light on their face. and I knew it was
because of the faith they had. During
2022, it was months of listening to
podcasts, reading the Quran, and trying
to understand Islam more deeply. One
thing that really made me step back and
think was learning about all the
numerical miracles in the Quran. Things
like that has made me realize how
precise and preserved this book was and
that it had to come from God. I also
love the simplicity of the belief, true
monotheism, no middleman between you and
God. I have a direct relationship with
the creator. So, after about a year of
learning and reflecting, I finally made
the decision in 2023 to become a Muslim.
Funny how the sport of violence ended up
leading me to peace.
>> Ferris, welcome to the Dean Show. How
are you?
>> I'm doing fine. Thank you for having me.
>> So, that was uh amazing listening to
that and you were somebody who in the
beginning you talk about it was an
accident like you just through MMA you
stumbled upon Islam and here we are here
on the Dean Show. Tell us uh a little
bit unpackage that for us.
>> Yeah, 100%. Um, well, I started MMA when
I turned 20. I'm currently 24, so it's
been about a four-year journey. Um, and
like I stated in the video, I was I
would have never considered myself an
atheist. I was always very spiritually
in tuned. I always noticed things. I
always noticed the miracles of life and
I was always fascinated by the world
around me. But I never really had a
structure about it. It's just things
I've learned throughout my life. When I
joined MMA, um there's something very
spiritual about that sport. You have to
be very in tune to yourself. You go
through a lot of suffering. You go
through a lot of learning curves and
it's a pretty brutal experience. And uh
you know, one of my favorite quotes is
uh a man meets himself through
adversity. So I started questioning
myself a lot when I started doing MMA,
especially since I knew I had the
aspirations of competing. Um once I
started wanting to compete, you know,
like I said, it's a very it's a sport
that makes you look inside and inwards,
I started getting really into
spirituality. And I think spirituality
does end up leading to religion. And I I
the only religions I really knew about
were Islam and Christianity. And my mom
is a Catholic and as she's an amazing
woman and she does everything right. she
has such high morals, but I always never
really I just the the religion never
really resonated with me even though I
grew up in a Catholic household and
everything. But um something that did
resonate with me after seeing the
success like I said because of MMA, the
success of uh the Dagistani fighters and
everyone that's coming up there, I was
very curious. They looked so I said in
the video they looked like they had so
much peace on their face. I love the way
they talk. I love the way they carry
themselves. And it's everything every
time they do something great, they
credit Allah. And I just I was just so
curious about the religion. So I started
looking a lot more deeper into it and
you know like I said it just listening
to podcasts and studying it. It's a lot
to take in. So that's why it took me
about a year to make the decision to
become a Muslim. But once I started
looking into Islam, a lot of things
started clicking with me. A lot of
things started resonating for me from
things I learned on my own. And then
they just filled in the gaps. a lot of
the the prayers, the everything, the
lessons, what's haram, what's law,
everything just resonated with me
heavily. And then around 2023, I made a
uh I made the decision to become a
Muslim. I was fighting. I was an active
fighter during the time. And just this
recent year, I started my Instagram
account where I posted a lot about
fitness and MMA. And then during the
month of Ramadan, I wanted to uh I
wanted to teach Muslim athletes how to
keep doing their sports while uh
fasting, how we go about it, how we're
going to sleep, all this stuff, how to
balance it. And I remember just saying,
you know what, let me just talk about
how I even became a Muslim in the first
place. And then that video popped off
and now I'm here on the on the Dean
Show. So, yeah, it's been it's been fun.
How did you navigate through all the
misinformation that's out there about
Islam? There's a structured campaign and
there's people out there who will spend,
you know, almost 100% of their time
almost just systematically trying to
disprove Islam. How did did you come
across some of these people and how did
you navigate through all that
misinformation, lies, distortions?
you know, um,
I was luckily introduced with all the
positives of Islam when I first started
looking into it. Like I said, the the
Dagistanis have put a great light on the
religion. That was my introduction. I
know there's been pretty bad things. I
mean, all I knew about Muslims kind of
when I was growing up was unfortunately
about 9/11. That's kind of what
everything's associated to. But to get
more into it, just to share a little bit
of my political beliefs, it's not like
the West is, even though it's a
Christian country, we there's a lot of
degeneracy going on here. And I don't
associate Christianity with all the
degeneracy that's going on here. So, I'm
not going to associate terrorism with
Islam. I wouldn't do that to a religion.
I just know that every religion has
people that do bad things and say
they're doing it for their faith. And
that's not the true
that's not what really represents.
There's great Christians and there's
great Jewish people and there's great
Muslim people and I just cuz there's
some bad people that associated with
religion. I always had a way of just not
assuming the best out of everything. So
um which is also an aspect of Islam
always assuming the best which is kind
of funny that I learned later on. But
when I was looking to Islam, I was just
asking all the general questions. And
honestly,
it's so it's such a the religion is so
simple. Honestly, it's
it's you and God. There's no middleman.
It's so direct. The only thing that
could be considered a little off or
foreign is simply that's an Arabic
language. But something about that
really resonated with me because it
meant I'm speaking the same language.
I'm I had to say my prayers in the same
language that the prophet said it in.
I'm reading the same book that the
prophet revealed. Like I I know the
religion is preserved. So I never was
really too turned off about all that
stuff that uh I remember like seeing
like people were like, "Oh no, you have
to speak Arabic and blah blah blah and
this and that." And it's just like, "Oh,
I never really looked at that too much
hard into it. I just understood that it
just meant that they're trying to keep
the preservation of the religion." And
um yeah, I I never really got too much
into the bad stuff, but I used to love
watching the debates between Christians
and Islam uh and Muslims. And I used to
watch it, watch it, watch it. And you
know, sometimes I keep going back and
forth, back and forth. And it's just
just baby steps at a time. I It took me
a year to make the decision to become a
Muslim. I didn't just It took me a year
just constantly thoughts in my head, you
know, let me listen to this podcast, let
me read this book, let me listen to
this, let me watch this video. and it
took a while to make that decision, but
I did navigate to Islam towards then.
>> I like that. That's the most powerful
point there is that direct connection
with the creator. And that's what
fascinated me. It's when you look at all
of the different man-made religions out
there, you'll see in one way, shape, or
form, if anyone wants to really dwell
deep into it, you'll see that it's
calling you to worship creation. But
Islam is pure monotheism, only
worshiping the creator. And that just
that resonates, that makes sense. pure
absolute monotheism like you were just
alluding to this is uh really powerful
just one God that's it just connect with
that creator the one who created you so
just a little bit from your your
beginning journey you said your your
parents were both Christian
>> uh my dad my dad was uh he's Lebanese so
he is Arab and my mom is uh Catholic
she's from Peru so I have a little
mixture going on my dad uh he he was
Muslim but he wasn't wasn't practicing.
He never I I don't want to say too much
without putting him,
>> but he just I grew up I never saw
prayer. It wasn't around my family. And
I my mom took care of me most of the
time. I'll just say that. And uh yeah,
she she was Catholic. I celebrated
Christmas. I did all those things. And
yeah, I I still to this day I only have
one Muslim friend, you know. I I'm
rarely around it, but I try to go to the
mosque and stuff, but I'm I'm rarely
around uh Islam.
>> Did you ever go to uh with your mother
to church? Did did you try to make that
fit the the Trinity, God being uh Jesus,
Holy Ghost, the Father, did that him?
>> 100%. My My grandparents are extremely
religious. My mom prays for me all the
time. She has she really she believes
her religion deeply and she respects
mine a lot as well. But I did grow up
under that assumption that like Jesus
Christ was God. Um but it never really
made too much sense to me. I never
understood what was like the trinity
just never made sense. And even
sometimes when I used to ask her, she
would she would just be like, "Oh, it's
just how it is." You know, it just it
was a very general abstract concept. It
was like, "Oh, just he is the son of
God." And I used to ask questions about
the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit and
how why is there three and who's bigger
the father son. They're like they're all
equal but they're all the same. And I
used to get very confused about this
kind of stuff and I kind of strayed away
from it and it wasn't really too
enforced on me.
>> Mhm. And then you talk about structure.
Let's talk about that. You really like
the structure.
>> Yeah. Um what I love is the prayers. I
think like for example
the the salat alone the timing how you
have to wake up with the sun like now
there's all this scientific evidence
talking about circadian rhythm like you
got to rise with the sun and then go
fall asleep and if you were a Muslim and
you were doing your five prayers you
would be completely aligned with
circadian rhythm if by the if you prayed
fa you'd be tired by isha when isha came
around you'd be tired because you woke
up so early you're going to go to sleep
and also prevents bad things from
happening if I go to sleep by Isisha.
I'm not, you know what they say, nothing
good happens after 10 p.m. And I see a
lot of my friends getting caught up in
these kind of stuffs because there's no
structure in life in their life. And
salat was the very I I never prayed
before. I never prayed. I would hope I
would just be, oh man, I hope this
happens. And I wasn't really saying to
Allah or to anything. I was just talking
to myself like, "Oh, I hope this
happens." But when I started doing
salat,
man, my life just got in order. I would
wake up early. I would go to bed early.
I'll take a little reset in the middle
of the day for like, you know, and the
human mind, we're so easy to forget. And
those five prayers keep resetting me,
resetting me. I'm a Muslim. God is
watching me. Let me say gratitude.
Resets me, resets me, resets me. It that
salat fixes everything. And salat gave
me structure in my life.
>> That's powerful. Yeah. From from salat
to salat, from prayer to prayer
constantly. You're always being reminded
of your purpose in life, your creator,
and rectifying your affairs before you
leave this life. It's really powerful,
and I like how you
>> that was I, like I said, I never prayed
before. I mean, for someone that never
had it in their life, when I started
doing, I was 22, 21 when I started
praying. I was so confused. I had a
little piece of paper and I'm trying to
read it in Arabic and I'm like uh
you know I'm trying to learn it but then
I start connecting the words and then
once I started remembering the fata and
then some suras and then what you say in
between I started connecting more harder
to the words and then the most powerful
position is when I'm when I'm fully on
the ground when I'm prostrated that's
when I'm like man I close my eyes and I
just subhan raal I'm saying it I'm
saying it sometimes I never ever felt
that connection before just I'm
submitting to the most high and I'm in
the lowest pos position. I'm on the
ground and I'm telling him all praise be
to the most high. All praise be to the
most high. And uh I've never really done
that before in my life. Never really
submitted. But once I did and I only
submit to God,
I I I found peace. I did
>> only submit to God. That's it. And it's
uh the same God that Jesus worshiped.
Same thing. Same way
>> praying the same way Jesus prayed.
>> Same way like Yeah. Same way as as Jesus
prayed. and and it's there in the book
of Matthew 26:39. And he went a little
further and he fell on his face and he
prayed to the most high to the creator.
And
>> I want to say like the
>> and
>> the most common misconception I get from
my friends is just about the rel uh
Muslims and the relation our our
opinions and relationships with Jesus
Christ. I'm like we love him just as
much as you guys do. He has so much
value in our hearts, but he was not the
son of God. He was a messenger. And uh
he I I think that's just a really common
thing that I had overcome. I didn't know
that like Muslims viewed
um Jesus so highly. I was I was so uh I
was like, "Oh, really?" I thought it was
like I didn't I didn't think that they
hated them, but I never realized like
how much love they actually had for him.
how they talk about Miam, Virgin Mary,
they how they talk about her has a whole
surah dedicated to her. I was it's
beautiful. It's so if anyone like has
any misconceptions, Muslims love Jesus.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And when you break this
down, when you unpackage it, you know,
in my years of experience, when I'll
talk to and they did a survey about this
that the I think it was like 50% of
evangelical Christians didn't believe
Jesus was God, that he was a righteous
man, a righteous teacher. This is more
in line with Islam. And then when you
really ask people to what do you mean by
son of God? Because we repeat things and
people don't really think about it. You
know, dogs have puppies, cats have
kittens, cows have calves. What do you
actually mean that God has a literal
son? Because in the English language,
what can it actually mean? Literal son,
adopted son, or a metaphor. It's
metaphorical, right? And then when you
break it down, it'll be more in line
because it's the language of that time
and someone dear, righteous, a slave of
God. Like they'll be like, "Yeah,
metaphorically, I believe he's son of
God." Yeah, okay. We believe the same
thing. So when when you when you really
unpackage it and have them really uh
instead of just repeating things that
they just been people have been taught
since childhood, it's more in line.
They'll be more in line with what right
now you accept it as a truth. I accept
it as a truth that Jesus is a is the
Messiah. He's a messenger. He's one of
the best humans to walk on the earth.
But in no way, shape or form can a human
being who ate, slept, went to the
bathroom, got tired, is not truly
self-sufficient, can be the creator of
the heavens and the earth.
>> And one of the biggest when I was
learning about Islam, um, and I was
reading the Quran, um, one of the
biggest points and it says like I always
ask my friends when they're kind of like
confused about this. My friends are also
respectful about my religion, especially
my Christian friends. They've had
nothing but respect when I told them I
was Muslim, but they just ask questions.
And something I usually say and
something that's mentioned in the Quran
is like it's more of an argument that
Adam is the son of go why is it why does
Jesus who had a mother the son of God
while Adam who had neither a mother or a
father he was made from by God why isn't
there more of argument that he's the son
of God oh no because and then it's now
it's a loophole it kind of shows a
contradiction and I remember one of the
most important pieces of media that I
consumed that almost like A month after
I heard this, this might be the most
important like more influential to me
than the Dagistani Chronicles I watched.
The most informational
Muslim video I ever watched was a
lecture by Hal Yasim called his the
historical Jesus. And it's a like an
hour and a half lecture of him talking
about historical Jesus. He barely talks
about Islam and he's a Muslim, but he
barely talks about Islam the whole
lecture. He just talks about everything
that we know about Jesus and what had to
happen like like he made it so non-bias
the whole rant and it was just when he
was explaining it all together I was
like no Jesus is not the son of God and
Islam might be the true religion
honestly and that's when I realized how
simple Islam was. It's no crazy rules.
The things that are haram are obviously
these are not good for you. God does not
make anything haram that benefits you.
like everything that's haram is things
that would was going to hurt you in the
end. I remember when I was dealing with
all like, man, these Muslims have a lot
of rules. Why is everything haram? Blah
blah blah. Cuz I remember one rule was
that they music is prohibited. And I was
like, music's prohibited. It's just
music. Then I started listening to
music. I started viewing it from a
different lens. Oh my god, it changes
your mood. It changes your mood. It has
so much influence on your thoughts and
your heart. And then you listen today's
modern music, it's like they're not
talking about too many good things. And
it's like just Islam starts connecting
all these things together that it starts
making you question things you never
really question before because of modern
society. I mean in the United States
there's so many things that we take that
are so normal that are like this is
really bad. This is really bad from I
didn't know reeba. I remember learning
the concept about reeba. I didn't know
interest was the reason almost
everyone's in debt.
I didn't realize obviously I knew like I
didn't realize like alcohol just even a
little sip of it could cause a huge
downfall. You can't you can't balance
these things in your life. You just cut
them off completely. And I used to think
oh man that's kind of strict, is it not?
It's strict because even just a little
bit can cause a complete downfall. And I
love reading a bunch of self-help books
and just you they always talk about just
cutting off things from the core like
atomic habits just making things if you
want to break a habit make it
unattractive and just like in Islam it
just to prevent more further sin you cut
it from the base you cut it from the
base so it never even prospers in the
first place. It's it's beautiful.
Everything it's it's so well thought
out. And as as as amazing as Prophet
Muhammad was, the Quran was no, not just
one man could know all the knowledge
that was in the Quran. It was he just
spoke it, but the message was from Allah
spoken. It's it's so beautiful. There's
so many miracles in that Quran. If you
just read that book, I feel like you
would be anyone would be just amazed.
You just have to read it with a somewhat
of an open heart.
open heart. It's being sincere. And I
like that it's just too much structure.
It's too too many things in there. A
perfect system that a man could have
made these things up by himself. There's
no way. And it's easy from the sidelines
to go ahead and just throw dirt into um
slander and to say malicious things. But
when someone is sincere like yourself
and you really look into it like you
said you took uh a long time months and
months of listening reading studying and
you obviously asking the creator to
guide you and and here we are you know
so that's the formula sincerity and
invest some time and God almighty will
guide you if you're sincere and you're
looking at it objectively like you were.
So
um how has it been with your you said
your friends have been accepting. What
about your your parents? How have they
been family? Have they been spooked?
Some parents they uh in the beginning
because of so much of the lies and
misinformation about out there about
Islam they get really scared.
>> I will say that my experience has been
very positive. Alhamdulillah.
>> I will tell you that social media will
make it seem like Jewish people hate
Muslims and Muslims people Muslim people
hate Jewish people, Christians hate
Muslims and Muslims hate Christians and
and we all hate each other.
Maybe to the extremes and you see those
are things are going to be pushed to you
through the algorithm. But I had nothing
but positive experiences with other
religions. I am Muslim. I tell Christian
people I'm Muslim. They respect me. They
ask questions. I ask them questions. We
talk very civil and we just learn more
about each other. Then um the way my my
mom was just happy I believed in God.
That was her biggest thing. Like cuz I
like I said I was nothing. I was like
almost agnostic. I would consider but it
wasn't cuz I was agnostic cuz I actually
believed like I was just agnostic cuz I
didn't want to look deeper into it
almost kind of when you look into these
things it gives you anxiety. So I was
like no I'm I kept pushing it away. Kept
pushing away. Kept pushing away. But
like MMA kind of makes you look
internally, you know, you have a lot of
time by yourself, especially when you're
in those fight camps and stuff. You got
to really lock in. I had a lot of time
on myself. And I was cutting off all
those external distractions because I
wanted to focus on my competitions. So I
started asking myself a lot of
questions. And that's how I started
looking into religion. And I remember
when I told my mom like, I think I think
I'm going to do Ramadan this year. She's
like, Ramadan? And then I was like,
yeah, you know, I've been looking into
Islam and this and that. She's like,
okay, are you Muslim? And then I was
like thinking about like how excited I
was to do Ramadan. And then I was like,
"Yeah, I think I am Muslim." You know,
like, and I was like, "Yeah, I want to
do it." And I remember, man, it's so
funny the state the mental state you get
in when you're fasting. And that's uh
yeah, a lot changed for me. I I became
specifically a Muslim during my first uh
Ramadan. So I was like, you know what?
I'm going to do Ramadan and I'm a Muslim
now. So yeah. Uh my my mom was nothing
but happy about it. My coaches noticed
that I was uh a lot more clear-headed,
tunnel vision.
>> I was on a straight path. I didn't know
that was it, but my head was straight.
My head was straight when I got into the
religion. I think a lot of people
respected me for it and were just happy
for me. So, I've had positive
experiences since reverting to Islam.
>> See how education is so important? Just
by you talking, people listening, you're
dispelling so many of the myths. Oh,
it's so many rules. It's so difficult.
But then you're listing the wisdom
behind some of the injunctions are there
pushing away harmful things. And then
Ramadan, oh, how are you going to make
it without food and water? But you're
over here with a smile on your face
talking about, you know, you accepting
Islam while you're going. So that's what
happened. You took your shahada during
Ramadan.
>> Uh yeah. Yeah. I I was I never went to a
mosque or did it I I'm kind of I don't
know. I'm a little bit antisocial. So, I
remember the whole moss thing and the um
I was like actually kind of intimidated
by I'm like I'm just going to be a
Muslim by myself, you know, and I I
learned the shahada. I said it by myself
and I was like, I'm a Muslim
>> and uh Yeah,
>> that's it. Yeah, it's very simple. It's
very straightforward. You testify
there's nothing worthy of worship except
the creator, Allah, and Muhammad is his
final messenger. And that would include
all the preceding messengers, including
Jesus and Moses and Abraham. It just
makes sense the chronological order
connecting it all the way to the first
man Adam. He did Islam submission to the
will of God and the message continued
all the way until the final message of
Prophet Muhammad and they all came with
proofs and evidences. You evaluated
those proofs and evidences. Let's touch
upon that some of the things that
fascinated you. You talk about the
numeric miracles. You talk about these
miracles of the Quran. Unpackage that
for the person who's uh new to that. I
will say that if you just want to like
absolutely blow your mind away,
just go to Quran miracles
and just Google it and it'll the
numerical miracles and we stated earlier
that like yes, prophet Muhammad was
sallallahu alaihi wasallam he was an
amazing man
but the book the contents of that book
could not it it's not man-written. You
read the Bible with there's multiple
authors. I don't want to discredit the
Bible. I don't want to put Christians
down, but there's multiple authors.
There's multiple authors. We know these
guy. They're men. They have no
association with even Jesus Christ
directly. It's according to according
to. It's too much distance. Anyways, the
Quran has so much content. First, it
started off super simple. How many times
are the word day days mentioned in the
Quran? 365 times. Oh, that's that's a
weird coincidence. You know, you start
looking at stuff like that. Then, um,
how many times is the word man and woman
mentioned and they're mentioned the same
equal amount of times? No. And there's
another thing to, uh, another myth. Men
are not viewed higher than women. Women
are talked about so highly in the Quran.
There's a whole section about divorce
and, uh, the whole surah about divorce
and it's only only talking about the
rights the woman has. you can't you
can't mistreat her and all this stuff.
But anyways, um man and woman are equal.
Uh how many times is the word heaven
mentioned? It's just all these crazy
numbers and then it's like it's such a
thick book. It's such a thick book
talking about many different concepts.
Talking about the spiders, talking about
the bees, these and then I I look at
these things and I'm like how you not
one person could have known that. And
not only could not one person not know
that, one person during that time and
then on top of that a man that was
illiterate. So he was saying all this
and he never stuttered one time while
saying it. You know, it's it's insane.
It's insane. It's a miracle. It's a
miracle. There's nothing's perfect in
this world except the Quran. The Quran
is the only thing that's perfect. It's
there's no contradictions. There's no
The numerical miracles are insane. And
it's the book blew me away. The book
blew me away.
>> What final uh closing suggestions do you
have for somebody's kind of in a similar
state of mind? They've been partying.
There's that void. It's not fun anymore
or they they realize that there's got to
be more to life, agnostic, maybe they
come from
other religions. It doesn't make sense,
you know, worshiping creation or man,
Jesus, whatever the case. And then
they're they're tuning in and but
there's so many so many so many
distortions, lies, propaganda against
Islam. So they're like, you know,
they're kind of they're worried like
I've interviewed many people. They're
like, man, I w they wished Islam wasn't
the truth. They were fight because there
was just so much now so many thing
obstacles that they would have to go
through. What advice do you have for
those individuals?
>> I want to comment on that last part. as
a revert.
Man, sometimes I'm like
there's so many like my lifestyle had to
change. I had to change. I'm like, man,
is Islam the truth? Cuz m it holds you
to such a high standard. Holds you such
a high standard. You have to rise to the
occasion. That's what Islam does to you.
Makes you rise to the occasion. Makes
you be a better person. And sometimes as
a reaver, I'm like, man, I just want to
go back to how I was before because I
get kind of tired and those old thoughts
keep coming back, those old habits. But
I will say this um as like a finishing
statement.
If you want someone to look into Islam
and be inspired by it,
my beginning was that I was inspired by
Kabib and all those guys and those mixed
martial artists.
It's easier to change yourself than it
is to change the world. So be someone
that people can look up to. Those guys
that are representing Muslims in the UFC
are carrying themselves so highly and
it's inspiring. So if you want people to
change, you yourself have to be
inspiring and carry Islam to a high
degree. During Ramadan, I was training.
I was training hard. I'm always praying
in my office room when I have a chance.
Hey guys, I need to take a little break
from training. I go to the office.
Everyone knows I'm doing my five-minute
prayer. I'm doing I come back and
they're like, "Oh, Ferris is just
praying." They see it. Then they ask
questions. People ask questions when
they see that you're living the life
that you're talking about. Whether it
comes to fit, if you want people to be
healthier, you yourself have to be a
healthier person. Let them be inspired
by you. If you're looking into all this
stuff and you don't know where to start,
let's start with the biggest thing. And
ask yourself, do you think is there a
creator or is there not a creator?
That's the first biggest hurdle. Don't
worry about Islam. Don't worry about
Christianity. Don't worry about Judaism.
Don't worry about any religion yet. Do
you believe in a creator or not? Look
around. Make that decision. Once you
make into the decision, you have to ask
yourself like, okay, out of all the
monotheistic religions, look into a
little all of them. I learned a lot
during this whole process. I learned a
lot about Judaism. I learned a lot about
Christianity. I learned a lot about
Islam.
Be sincere with yourself and be
extremely open-minded. And
I think you the path will lead back to
Islam.
>> I love it. I love it. And always give
people that same homework and ask the
creator alone to guide you. And if
you're sincere, he definitely will. Like
he guided you. And since you mentioned
that you were inspired by Khabib, what
if you had a chance to uh send a message
to him, we'll try to get it to him. What
would you say to Khabib who helped
inspire you to accept Islam?
>> Well, I would just like to say thank you
for being a role model 100%. And one of
my favorite quotes by him is, people
won't look into the religion. They won't
read the Quran. They won't read the
Hadith. they read you. So being an
ambassador of Islam and that's been
something I've been carrying in my
coaching, in my life, with my religion,
I tried to be the the change that I want
to see in the world. So thank you Kabib
for being just an an example what a
Muslim should be and you're the reason I
became a Muslim also.
>> Alhamdulillah. Thank you Ferris. Thank
you for spending some time with us.
>> Thank you. I really appreciate it.
>> We'll see you hopefully we meet in
person one days.
Appreciate it.