[Music]
Peaceful peaceful peaceful
peaceful peaceful
[Music]
peaceful brotherham.
How are you doing? Very well. All right.
Thank you for uh being with us today on
the Dean Show. It's a pleasure of mine.
So, here on the Dean Show, we like to
just get straight to it. Gotcha. All
right. So, I'm going to start asking you
some questions. Some questions that I'm
sure the common folk want to know. You
come from uh see Irish descent. Yes,
sir. Irish. Irish and German. Irish and
German. Yes. There's a lot of Muslims in
uh Ireland. To be honest with you, it's
growing. It's a very rapid growing
religion in in Ireland. More than you
would expect. But what's the predominant
Roman Catholic? Roman Catholic. So, you
grew up a Roman Catholic? I was exactly
born and raised Roman Catholic. Okay.
So, how'd you end up uh over here on uh
as a Muslim? Well, as a Muslim, uh as a
child, I really didn't understand what
what it meant to be to understand who
God was. It was almost like a fairy tale
really. Um you would watch a cartoon or
you would you would think of what uh
your parents would teach you, what the
church is trying to portray against you
and you all you're thinking all along
the lines is who is this invisible
deity? What what is it to be God? You
would see this image on a cross
um a dead person on a cross. How as a
child, is this my God? Is this what
they're they're preaching to me? At the
same time, when I look in the fairy tale
cartoons, it's God with a big white
robe, a big white beard hanging his head
over the clouds of the sky. So, I was a
bit confused. Uh so this is where I I
misunderstood what what it was seriously
to be not only Roman Catholic because to
be honest with you I wanted to become a
priest and my father wanted to become a
minister but how would you become a
minister or a priest if you're not
understanding what it is the message
that you're trying to preach to other
people. That's where I u the the the
stop was for me. I didn't understand. So
that's where the road began. Okay. So,
how how did you finally step over into
Islam? To be uh you know, uh it's funny
and it may sound a little uh taboo, but
the one thing that drew me closeness to
Islam was the women, the Muslim women.
I'm not talking about Arab women. I'm
talking about the Muslim women who wore
the hijab, the head scarf. To me, I had
an immediate attraction to them. They
were I I I fell in love with that image.
Like, wow, this is amazing. These
beautiful women are covering theirel up.
Why are they doing this? They have so
much pride and so much love and respect
for their religion. They're not hiding
in a monastery like a nun. What they're
doing is they are portraying their
religion openly and publicly without any
shame. I fell in love with that. And
that, believe me, it sounds a little
taboo, but that's where my my road began
with with women. We're going to help
clear up because that's one of the the
goals of the Dean Show is to help clear
up some of these misconceptions. one by
starting off when you see two um you
were born in Ireland or No. Okay. So
Irish American. Yes sir. So same thing
here. I'm American born in America. So
when you see two Americans who are
actually Muslim because as soon as you
think Muslim you think big beard and you
think an Arab or something. So that's
the first misconception that we're
clearing. Muslim can be from China, from
Ireland, from Bosnia, from England. All
right, that is correct. And we we know
by statistics um this is not a um a
hidden factor less than 15% of all
Muslims are of Arab origin. Yes. That's
a minority. The majority are Asian. Mhm.
And the the more more um African or
black so to speak Muslims than than
there are Arab. So we have this
misconception. But why do we have this
misconception? The reason why we have
this misconception is because we don't
understand the the purpose of our
existence. Exactly. All we understand is
what we are we are portraying ourselves
to be and what we are portray portraying
what the idea of what God is supposed to
have. This is the this is where it it
falters. This is where the lens the
microscope lens falls on a group of
individuals opposed to the entire body.
Yes. So that's one of the
misconceptions. Another thing you
mentioned the Islamic covering where a
woman instead of just flaunting herself
for everyone to see. Right. All right.
Where it's more, you know, the pop
culture just let it all hang where you
were actually impressed by the Muslim
women who are actually preserving their
beauty for their husbands. Right. If you
have a if to give you an example, if you
have a jewel, Yes. Uh what would you do
with that jewel? Would you show it off
to total strangers? would you put it out
in public and just let any anybody hold
and touch that? Eventually, what you're
going to do is you're going to get
fingerprints on it. Somebody's going to
drop it. It's going to get damaged. And
the the the the value of it is going to
depreciate. You're not going to have the
the the total value of that jewel simply
because you did not mask it. You did not
protect it. Yes, that's women. Women are
when we understand what Islam is and how
it was revealed. If we if we really
understand when when the prophet
Muhammad was when he received the first
revelation uh from the angel Gabriel, he
ran straight to his home. Who did he run
to? He ran to a woman. He ran into the
lap of a woman and he cried in the lap
of a woman. Why? Because inside the lap
of a woman is comfort. It's nurture. And
when when Muhammad had died, when he on
his deathbed, he didn't die with with a
sword in his hand. He didn't die he died
in a lap of a woman. Yeah. So, Islam
started by a woman and it ended by a
woman. Women have such a great role in
this religion that are completely
misunderstood that by their beauty
itself there's nurture, there's comfort.
Even in the the the word womb, it comes
from protection, nurture. And that's
exactly what what we seek in the
religion of a nurture and comfort.
Nothing else. For those of you just
turning on, we have author and publisher
uh uh J.R. Farwell. We're going to be
talking about his road to Islam, getting
you familiar with how he lived before
and that's what we're going to get into
now. You are actually born here in
Chicago, the south side of Chicago and
but your family's from Ireland. Um,
second or third generation descendants.
I do have some from Sicily. Yeah. So,
soalian Italian and Irish. Okay. My
father's actually, excuse me, but my
father is German and Irish and my mother
is Polish and Italian. Yeah. So, we have
this European type of east meets east
meets west type of Don't don't don't
have me uh remind me to ask you what
your parents did when they found out
you're Muslim. They bring out the one
brought out the the gun and but we'll
get to that later. All right. But the
thing is now that uh real quick we
mentioned Muslim and Islam. Islam simply
means surrender and submission to the
creator of the heavens and the earth.
And a Muslim is one who does Islam.
action of surrendering one's will to the
will of the creator. Okay. So I wanted
to uh define that for them real quick
just um not to confuse anybody. Now tell
me uh JR call JR Jr. is cool. Okay JR
tell us now what were some of your uh
beliefs before you came to Islam? Well,
what we understand in Christianity and
in Catholicism, there is a code of
ethics uh better known as the easy god
syndrome. The easy god syndrome is
simply um I can do whatever I want. I
could go and live my life any way I
want. But I have to understand and
believe that Jesus had died for my sins.
And by accepting him as an atonement for
my sins, I am completely free from any
guilt, from from any punishment, for
anything that I have done. If I were to
to take something from you, steal from
you, should I go to my neighbor and say,
"Hey, Mike, I stole this wallet from
Eddie. Please forgive me, Mike." And
Mike will say, "You're forgiven." Does
that make any sense at all? Not at all.
It didn't make any sense to me either.
Yeah. And Mike would say, "You know
what? All you have to do is say a few
little prayers and you're good to go.
I'm like, "Oh, cool. I got a whole
wallet. Eddie's out. I'm I'm good." That
doesn't make any sense to me. But that's
not the foundation of where people go
wrong. Uh because I don't want to bash
on Christianity, nor do I want to bash
on Catholicism because there are great
morals, there are great respects, there
are great um foundations of what it is
to be a good person in these religions.
What I want to differentiate is between
what it is to be a follower of God and a
follower of your own worldly desires.
Jesus in the Bible is quoted by saying,
"Why do you trans why do you transgress
God's laws for the sake of your own
tradition?" Now, when we understand
that, what does he mean? He doesn't mean
simply to to follow anything that you
want to do. He's saying obey God's
commandments regardless what you are. He
doesn't say, "Oh, you Jews or
Israelites." He doesn't say, "Oh my," he
said, he does not differentiate between
anybody. He gives it straight. Don't
transgress God's laws for your own sake
of your own tradition. Don't do that.
What are some of the traditions that we
fall into that that puts our philosophy
and our ideologies above God's will? And
that's what um this this show is
basically for understanding how we had
changed put our our laws above God's
laws and how we are currently in our
current situation along the way now
growing up how did you uh figure all
this out now? How how did this stem up?
Well, um I began reading the Bible and
uh um I read the Torah and I I read a
few different versions of the of the
Bible and I had a few like I said, my
father um my father grew up in his 60s.
We we can't understand what it is like a
cause and effect type of situation. You
I cannot I cannot give you my story
until you understand how I was raised.
My father grew up in the 60s um in the
south side of Chicago where the u blacks
and white movement was kind of you know
racial racial segregation. There was a
lot of violence, a lot of fights. My
father actually had fought um physically
with Martin Luther King Jr. Um and so he
formed his own little uh white posi gang
to chase the the black fellows out of
Garfield Park on 55th Street there. So
what this the way he was raised is
simply segregation. And when we look
into the Catholic Church, all we see is
total segregation. Total domination of
what? White race. Everything about the
Catholic Church is white race. The the
image of Jesus is the white race. The
the image of God is the white race.
Every single pope is the white race.
Everything from St. from St. Peter the
first pope all the way up until our
current current pope Benedict all white
race. So this is what I have in my mind.
White race superior. Everyone else is
secondary. This is what I had in my
mind. Now when I start reading the
Bible, I started say, "Wait a second.
Solomon was black. How can Solomon be a
prophet if he was black? God must love
black people. These these some a few of
the things Jesus was was Jewish." Well,
I think in my mind, well, the Jewish
people killed my God. How? And then I
was confused between uh racism,
religion, tradition, culture. I was my
brain was going like a scrambled egg. I
I did not understand where to focus at.
Did you think Jesus was white also, blue
eyes? Absolutely. Blonde hair. Jesus was
my God. He he was my dude. He was just
like my uh my my uh sisters. But when
you read the Bible, actually he's more
on the darker side, darker complexion.
Right. In the book of revelation 1:14
and 15 um where Paul uh has a vision of
Jesus as Jesus as Jesus ascends into
heaven uh Paul had fall he falls on his
hands and knees and he looks upon the
sky and he sees a figure with curly hair
like tight like wool his feet are the
color of bronze and his skin is the is
the shade of darkened uh amber well that
doesn't appear to be this blond blonde
hair blue-eyed god that I've been
worshiping shiping all along. Who is
this person? Uh there are also other
forms of of um the lineage if we can
we'll find in the book of Matthew the
lineage between Jesus and his direct
link or lineage to uh Solomon who
Solomon was black. How do you know
Solomon was black? Uh because in the
book of Isaiah Solomon says do not judge
my skin by the color of the sun shining
upon me for my skin is already black. So
he's he is declaring that I am black by
skin. Don't judge me. Yeah. So we we
have this foundation and this is where a
lot of Southern Baptists find the idea
that Jesus is black and a lot of people
from the Nation of Islam, the Lewis
Farrakhan movement, they actually
believe that Jesus was black. Some of
them believe that he was white. But this
is again we have to get back to the
beginning here. What is the the focus of
this episode? This episode
is misunderstanding God's laws and
putting our ideologies above his will.
Why? How are we doing that? We are
focusing so much on racism and
segregation and nationalism that we
forget to we forget to understand the
jewel, the golden jewel that's in the
package. Jesus was the most precious
package of all. He was a very precious
package. But what we do? We just look at
the outside wrapping the bow and the
ribbon. We never open up and see the
preciousness inside there. Yeah. Stop
looking at the outside image and let's
look inside. Let's explore it. Jesus
says in the Bible, he says to prove all
things, know all things. Prove it and
you will know. He also says truth will
set you free. How is it true if how will
truth ever set you free if you are so um
uh wrapped in your own culture?
You're searching for truth now. You're
really starting to investigate. Did you
feel you had a connection with the
creator? Were you calling upon him to
guide you or at this point? No. Um this
point I began to be almost feel that I
was an atheist to say well hm all of
what I was taught al all along by the
church the church church church is such
a dominant uh business actually it's
like an organization in the world if
they're if they are wrong and there are
more uh Christians in the entire world
then who am I to separate myself from
that Christians I know some very good
Christian people some great Christian
people and at the same time I knew some
very um dishonest and some devious
Muslims. Very devious. Uh many of my
Christian friends were better moral
ethics than some of the Muslim people
that I knew. Now you're really confused.
No, I'm very confused. What's going on?
So I I start to think, well, Muslims I
one of my very good friends in high
school, I went to give her a Christmas
gift and she says, I I don't celebrate
Christmas. So, what are you crazy?
Christmas is a great holiday. It's all
about joy and holly and and cheer. How
dare you? She says, "No, I don't accept
Jesus." Well, excuse me. Jesus is one of
the perfect creations ever in on on
earth. How dare you? And um so and then
I had another Muslim friend who gave me
a Christmas gift. I said, "Oh jeez, one
doesn't accept, another one does." I I
know it's a lot of confusion. So in the
midst of all the confusion, right, how
do you come to know the truth? Well, we
get back to the women. These women were
just in my mind. The the not sexually
attractive wise, uh when you are window
shopping and you will go past the same
window every single day for a month and
see this item in the window and say, you
know what, I know I can't buy that. I
don't have the money for it, but I
really like it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's
exactly every time I would see and it
still happens to me today. Every time
that I see Muslims, especially
particularly the Muslim women wearing
the headscarf, it's I am amazed by that.
It still touches a nice precious part in
my heart. And that's where it started.
Um um I was engaged in high school and
uh my fiance at the time had given me a
Quran as a gift for a birthday present
and I hated the Muslims. I hated them.
Furious. The only thing that was keeping
me alive. You hated Muslims. I hated
them. So that means you hated Islam
also. Absolutely. It was my enemy. I
thought Muslims were Muhammadans. You
worshiped Muhammad. This Middle Eastern
enemy terroristic movement. Yeah, you
know you you Muslims where I would call
them you Muslims you follow Bin Laden
into the desert you yes Arafat is your
leader Saddam Hussein is you know your
commander-in-chief this is what my
perception was but you know what and
that's probably majority of people who
are ignorant about Islam right but you
know what I had to give the benefit of
doubt where it was due because Yaser
Arafat he built an airport I said well
give him the benefit of doubt he built
an airport Saddam Hussein
He gave his children, his people
electricity where now they basically
have nothing. So I gave him the benefit
of the doubt. Well, what else? What I
would do is I would give these tyrant
leaders the benefit of the doubt. And by
doing so, I started uncovering each
stone. giving them the benefit of the
doubt, I would see, well, if I can find
mercy in them, maybe I can find mercy in
this evil religion, this massive um evil
that hates the entire world,
particularly America. I'm American.
Muslims hate me. Gez, I'm never going to
be a Muslim. I'm never going to be a
Muslim. Well, I basically took the Quran
and I threw it in a closet, threw it
away, and I was going to burn it. Yeah.
It's I don't want it. I don't want this
um cult thing in my
home. So, one night, I believe, believe
me, I'm not uh exaggerating. One night,
I was um I my parents were divorced, so
I was living with my father at the time.
And one night, I was just sitting there
in the home and this the sun was shining
through the windows at such a beautiful
ray. And something like touched me and
said, "Hey, you know, there there are
answers to your questions. All you have
to do is seek them." And I went and I
said, "Well, I'll just give this little
book a try." I picked it up, the
Abdullah Yusf Ali translation. And I
started reading it and I started to cry.
And I haven't I've never cried for
religion. Never. In churches, I would
often fall asleep. Never cry. Fall
asleep. Mom, can I come can I go home
now? Dad, what time is it to leave? But
this religion touched me. And I wasn't
even in the first chapter yet. I was
just reading the introduction. Amazed. I
said, "There's no way. No way this has
been sitting in my closet all along."
So, this is the beginning of how I
started perceiving a different image
opposed to this white bearded white man
that hangs his head over the clouds as
God as I thought he was. Now he is a
separate entity from me because
Catholics and Christians preach that God
is everywhere. God is inside of you. God
loves you so much that if you take the
body of Christ and you drink his blood,
he becomes of you. You do whatever you
want. And but this image of God in the
Quran or the
recitation was completely different. God
can't be human. And when you look at the
universe and how minute of a speck we
are. Yeah. Oh no. How can God do
that? Now I started to understand what
it was to be a human being. So there's
where I stopped myself from putting
tradition in front of religion. Instead
I put religion in front of tradition. So
were things more lucid and clear as
before? Because when I, you know, and I
and I have a lot of different uh, you
know, good Christian people, good
friends that I talk to, and a lot of
them have their own opinion. It seems
like it's a lot of confusion. It seems
like uh they're making up their own
religion as they go along. Like like you
said earlier, basically I can just do my
own thing. I just got to accept that
this one Jesus, you know, he paid the
price. He was this sacrificial lamb.
Right. Right. was now that you're
reading the Quran, were things more
clear about who the creator was, what
your purpose was in life, where you're
going when you die, was everything just
laid out? There's no guesswork anymore.
It was as if I was reading a diary of my
life basically. But to explain or to
answer your concern more specifically
because Christians pose a very very very
good um topic. They would say or
question. They would say, "Well, if
every religion comes from God, it must
lead back to God." Right? Great. I would
accept that if it was
true. If I want I'm from Chicago. If I'm
going to take a trip down to
Florida, there is only one way I can go
and that's I'm living in Chicago and I
straight completely go south uh
southeast. Correct. That's it. one
straight shot. And Christians will say,
"Yes, that's great. I'm we're going
Southeast, too. We're going straight
with you. You can either take an
airplane, you can take a car, you can
take a a train, you can take your bike,
you can even walk. Now, if somebody were
to tell you that airplane that you're
going to take to Florida has a faulty
wing and it's going to crash halfway
down, are you going to take that plane?"
Not at all. No. Not if you had sense.
Yeah. If your car if the muffler of your
car was falling off and your exhaust
pipes are you're not going to drive the
the best way what God says to do is to
walk. Who in their right mind would walk
from Chicago to Florida? He says that
take one step at a time. If you take one
step to God, he will take two to you.
Step by step. He doesn't say go running
step by step. Not every single way of
transportation or road leads to God. No,
it does not. God has one mission and he
says it in the Bible numerous times. He
says, "I will tell you again and again
my message is one and I will send it
many times." It's in the Bible. This is
straight in the Bible and I will provide
you with these verses at the end of the
show. Yeah. Now, if God says that his
message is one, where do we get these
different ideas from? Here's where the
disciples of Christ. When we look in the
book of the of particularly Matthew
um as well as Mark, we could find that
the the disciples dishonored Jesus more
than we think they did. For instance,
Peter turned his back on Jesus when he
needed him most. The most precious
disciple to Jesus which Jesus calls
Peter, you are the rock where the church
will be established under your code of
honor. You are the
rock. But when we understand what the
word Peter is, the word Peter comes from
from Latin um uh um Petros and it also
comes from papas. Peter, Peter is
father. It all when you go to the
Aramaic it becomes rock which is the
language Jesus spoke. But over time they
took Peter this entity this one disciple
and they put him as the head of the
church. Peter and Paul had many
disagreements. They disobeyed Jesus many
times when he didn't needed him most.
When Jesus was apparently being
crucified, Peter said, "I don't know
him. I don't know that guy." He turned
his back on his his Lord. He turned his
back on his Lord. If I was your true
follower in faith and I said, "Eddie,
you're the man. You know the way to
Florida, dude. I know it. You do. Jump
me on my back. Jump me on your back and
take me to Florida. No matter what, I
will take a bullet for you. That's how
much I love you. And that's what Jesus
says. Jesus says, "You must love me more
than anything else." Then you will find
the spirit of truth.
Why did Peter disobeyed Jesus numerous
times? He lied about him. That's not
love. That's dishonor. That's
deceit. But Jesus says, he continues to
go on and say this is in the book of
Matthew again. He says don't address
anyone on here on earth as father for
only thy spiritual father in heaven is
the father of of all. So Peter appoints
himself as the first father. The pope
the word pope in Latin means the father.
Every single pope we are calling them
the father. Pope. Pope in in Latin means
the father. The father. Yeah. And when
we when we speak about priests, we say,
"Oh, Father Thomas," forgive me, Father
Thomas, for I have sinned. In the
confession box, we are we are going
against Jesus's or God's will and
Jesus's authority. When Jesus says, "Do
not address anyone here on earth as
father." Yet, we go in a confession box
and we call a priest father, putting him
at equal with God. We are putting the
pope above God by saying, "Okay, we go
to the popes because all the popes come
from Peter, the father." Wait a second.
Now I'm confused. I was I was mixed up.
Here's where I started saying, "Well,
here's where we're putting tradition
above religion. God said don't do that."
Jesus said, "Don't do that. Don't
address anyone here on earth as father."
But we're doing that. How can I pray to
father? Well, then who does this who
does the pope pray to? If the pope is
forgiving me for my sins and the priest
is forgiving me for my sins, who's going
to forgive the pope and the and the
priest for the acts of there are more
than 4,500 cases of child molestation in
the Catholic Church today. Who's going
to forgive them? Theirel
theirel. When you go I I did the
confession. When you go into the
confession box, you say, "Forgive me,
father, for I have sinned. It's been 3
months since my last confession." And
the priest will say, "My son, confess
your sins and you'll be be forgiven."
Right there, the priest is saying, "My
son." He is declaring you his
son. What does he do next? He says,
"Resort, re recite the Lord's prayer."
What is the Lord's prayer? Let's let's
analyze that for a second. Our father,
our father, who art in heaven, hallowed
be thallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come. And we can get on to the rest of
the the prayer, but I want to focus on
the first three lines. Our Father, who
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
This is glorifying God in heaven, not
putting God on earth. So why am I going
to the priest and asking the priest for
forgiveness? Shouldn't I pray to the God
in heaven, my God, your
God? Now I'm I'm getting a clearer
picture of who God is from studying
Islam. No, studying the Bible. Studying
the Bible, right? Yeah. I'm
understanding Islam through the Bible.
You believe that? Wow. And I said, "Wow,
wait a second." So, you're not letting
somebody else uh dictate to you this is
how you need to understand the Bible.
You're taking upon yourself searching
for the truth and seeing Islam in the
Bible. That's correct. Okay.
Because Christian or I'm sorry, not
Christianity, Catholicism uh set up an
ideology called the Trinity, the Holy
Trinity, which was established 300 years
after Jesus. Jesus never preached
trinity. You will never find anywhere
that Jesus preached trinity. But let's
not get into the details of that. Let's
get into the details of something
else. What God had sent to human
humanity is trilogy, not trinity. What's
a trilogy? I'm sure you've watched the
Star Wars movies. And I'm sure everybody
know who who um uh JK Rowling is, the
author of Harry Potter. Um, George Lucas
is the uh the the creator of um of Star
Wars. If you are a Star Wars fan and you
tell George Lucas, you know what, I
watched your first episode back in 1978.
I'm a huge fan. I understand the whole
story. Do you understand the whole
story? No, you can't because you only
watched one episode. Yeah. You got to
watch all six episodes to get the entire
picture. God sent a trilogy, not
trinity, a trilogy of the Old Testament,
which is the Torah, the New Testament,
which is the Gospels, and the Quran.
It's a trilogy. You cannot be a Muslim
until you read the first two epics of
this of this tale. You can't be a
Christian until you read the entire
story. God is laying it out straight.
He's saying, "There's a beginning, a
middle, and an end." Don't jump in the
beginning and say, "You're done with the
story." I didn't I didn't finish my
story in the beginning. I finished it in
the end. In South Africa, we know of the
scholar named
Ahmedat. He had he had put up some
beautiful bulletins indicating that the
recitation which the rec recitation in
English is the Quran. If you translate
Quran to English, it's recitation. He
had put up bulletins the final
testament. Wow. Final testament. What
does final mean? It means the
conclusion. It means he is going from
beginning to middle to end. There's no
more. So when we look back to these to
the Bible as we have it today, it's been
changed. It's been altered. So So for
the person who's looking now for the
ultimate truth, something that's been
unchanged, untampered with, he can find
that today in the book that you read,
the verbatim word of God, which is the
Quran. Exactly. You're absolutely
correct. And we we don't want to we
don't want to mix u the the three
religions to say that one is more
superior than the other from beginning
to end. But what we do say in what we do
know in the Quran or the recitation is
that God had and we can find this in
history. Um I have photos a friend of
mine had he had paid $10,000 for this
Quran that was found in Morocco. It's
980 years old and it's exactly the same
as today. And I have photos of it. Yeah.
Exactly as it is today. Now you're
right. The Bible has been tampered with.
Okay. But what how do we know
that? You don't know that until you read
it. To my understanding out of 10 years
of research, I came to um came to my own
understanding um that the Bible comes in
three parts. Yeah. It comes of
contradictions and faulty errors and and
typos. Another is u scrambled messages
like you well you can read one verse and
the next verse you're kind of what's
going on here just throws you off right
and the other third is God's law because
we can't say that the Bible is never
God's law because it was God's law so
you you we actually have the word of God
in the Bible somewhere it's in there but
you just have to decode it and you to do
that the Quran whatever is in uh
correlation with the Quran Right? We
accept that. Like where you the first
commandment here, oh Israel, the Lord
thy God is one. Jesus says the same
thing, utter the same words as Moses and
the last and final messenger, Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him said the same
thing. Your God is one God. Worship him
alone. So we accept that as just giving
the audience an example that that what's
in the Bible is the word of God. Right.
But where it says now give us an example
where something that's in there that we
can't ascribe to God. Uh are you talking
about in the Bible? In the Bible. Yes.
Um we could we there are many parts for
instance um the treatment toward women
um some some very disturbing verses
where in the book of Sarak Ecclesiastics
uh which you will find in the Roman
Catholic Bible also the um American
Standard Bible you but you won't you
won't find Sarak in King James you have
to go to the Catholic Bible in the book
of Sarak it says that uh women are
stupid women are stupid and they should
shut up at all times and then we flip
into the U we flip into the the the New
Testament and it says that women are
below men. They are inferior inferior to
men and that if women speak out in the
church the man has a right to slap her
and to divorce her. Also another
disturbing verse um which we will find
is that um before I give you the verse
let me ask you what your opinion would
be and just without being biased at all
as a human being as a a a husband would
you if somebody were to do something uh
like rape your wife what do you think
and imp impregnated her what do you
think should happen to the man?
This is a penalty that you know someone
severen you would say penalty. Yeah.
Right. No, the Bible says the woman if
she gets mar if she gets raped and she's
not married, we're talking about the
Bible. The Bible. We're talking straight
the Bible here. The Bible says if the
woman is not married and she is raped
and impregnated, guess what her
punishment is? She must marry her rapist
and she can never get never get divorced
from him or her she will be beheaded. So
obviously this is something that we
would not attribute to God. This is
something that man has concocted and put
into the Bible. So you as someone who's
searching for the truth or myself, we
say, "Look, hold on. This can't be from
God. There's some confusion." But now
you read the Quran, it's clear, it's
lucid, understandable. And where it says
for instance in in the Quran talks about
the same thing the Bible talks about in
Exodus thou shalt not make no graven
images in the heavens above the sea
below and the earth. We accept this
right that's one of the things but you
see now people in the church making
images statues prostrating these things
praying to these things. Well, this is
where Jesus, this is what Jesus had
meant where he said, "Why do you
transgress God's law by your tradition,
your the tradition of your traditions?
Why why do you do that? Why are you
transgressing God's law by taking your
ideologies, your ideas, and you put them
above God?" Well, where where did the
crucifixion come
from? Where did the image of Jesus come
from? As I spoke to you before when I
had first met you, I I had I had told
you that if we look if we do some
investigating some history and we find
out what the image of Jesus really was.
For the first 13 centuries, we're
talking 13 centuries. The image of Jesus
is completely inconsistent. Completely
inconsistent. You will find some images
of Jesus being red, black, yellow,
white. Some looks like he's Puerto
Rican. Uh some looks like that he is
Ethiopian. some fat, some there's no
consistency with Jesus at all for 13
centuries. Then all of a sudden 13th
century comes around 13, 14, 15th, 16th
century. Gez, why is this image of Jesus
looking so consistent? And this is
supposed to be God. This is supposed to
be God. Now let's really quickly go back
to Islam. What does Islam say about God
as the form of a man or anything close
to this? Well, let's let's not answer
that directly. Yeah. Let's try to give
everybody the understanding. There are
four types of creations. We have human
beings. We have spirits also known as
jin. We have angels. And we have
animals. Right? We can all agree on
those are
creations. Human beings were created
from what? Earth. The element of earth,
clay, dirt. The angels were created from
we know straight light. The be most
beautiful light. the jin or the spirits
were created from smokeless fire and
animals were created from from earth and
water. Now, why do I bring this up?
Because we're separating each creation.
Now, one creation cannot take the form
of another creation. I'm made from dirt.
I can never be fire. I an animal was
made from water and and dirt. He can
never be an angel. But the the
Christians have a lack of understanding
of of each form of of of each form of of
each creation because they have this
idea of this fallen angel syndrome where
they say that the devil is a fallen
angel fell from well if the devil is of
the spirits. He is made from fire. He
can never be an angel because angels are
made for of light. He was never an angel
to begin with. So we understand now that
there are four different creations with
four different purposes all doing the
the same will of God.
Where does God come in? Where does God
come in? We will find him in the in the
in the book of Genesis where God says
that he is before his creations. He is
before and after. There is no separation
of him. There is there is no correlation
between God and his creations. But what
we understand truly from the Islamic
perspective which coincides completely
by these the four separate creations is
simple that God he loves the human
beings so much so much more he has mercy
on them to say guess what human beings
you have mercy or you have you have
rights above me. God is saying that you
have rights above me and I have rights
above you because why the chain of
command. Your right above me is that I
will never step in to your doing you.
It's your choice. You have a choice to
do good and bad. I'm not going to step
into doing that. You have that will. You
have the opportunity. But God says what
also I won't do is I will never mix the
creations together. I'm not going to
confuse you. I'm never going to put
myself in a human body and I'm not going
to put a human body in myself. How do we
know that? The only time in history that
we know that a human being spoke to God
directly on earth is Moses with Mount Si
when when Moses begged to God, "Please
Lord, show your face." The mountain is
more sound and more structured than any
human being. The mountain exploded and
burst into nothing but dust. To this
day, there is nothing there. It's gone.
Don't you think a a an a a a a mountain
is stronger than you? A mountain can
crush you. You can't crush a mountain.
So, if God crushed a mountain, can you
imagine if he tried to put himself in a
human body? It just won't work. It is
impossible. It is virtually completely
impossible because that's God's love for
you, his mercy, and his rights upon you.
He will not interfere what's with what's
inside of your heart and inside of your
soul. This body belongs to God, but that
soul is yours. You can do what you want.
This body is yours. When you go and you
rent a car from Enterprise, they say,
"Okay, you can have this car for a
while. Test drive it, take it across the
country, but return it back. Put the
right gas in there. Don't get any
crashes. You're fine. You don't have to
pay any more fines." What do we do? What
we do is we take that car and we drive
it around. We abuse it. We put drugs
inside the gas tank where it's only
supposed to be gas. We put bleach inside
the engine. We destroy it. And then we
say, "Hey, God, look at this. I'm giving
I'm going to return this car back to
you." So, what we're doing is we are we
are trying to mix the creations
together, which the Quran never says
that. It differentiates. Jesus never
said never said in any Bible will you
ever find him saying that he is God's
begotten son. He has said, "I am the son
of man." Who else said he's the son of
man? Well, let's find out. Oh, the
prophets said that they were the son of
man. Muhammad was a son of man. David
was the son of man and Abraham was a son
of man, but not son of God. Yeah. So,
clearly uh distinguishing the creator
from his creation. That's clear and
simple. We're going to start to wrap
things up. Now let let's let's come to
an end and tell us now from m from the
midst of this confusion and now coming
to uh submission and surrender to one
god how is your life now and how how do
you live dayto-day and what's your
understanding of your purpose of life
just briefly touch upon this we're going
to go very briefly um by touching into
the u management world then management
world you have a CEO you have a manager
and you have supervisor and subordinates
correct Mhm. I know that God is the CEO.
Yeah. And the managers are the prophets.
There are no more prophets. They're
gone. Now comes who? Supervisors. Who
are the supervisors? You and I. The
ambassadors of God's decree of the
message. We have to carry that message.
How do we carry it? We carry it by the
most dignified way that we possibly can
in our homes, out in public. We have to
be the backbone of the religion of the
that the prophets left behind for all
humanity. This is not an Arab religion.
This is not a white religion or a black
religion which Elijah Muhammad preached
about. This is a religion for the entire
humanity. It is not it is not a
collective idea. It is God's way. So we
are doing God's will. This is where I am
today. I teach my children how to pray.
Why do I teach them how to pray? Is
because God said if you do this, you'll
be rewarded. Don't think that you're the
smartest. Don't think that you're the
smartest child in my class. You're not
the smartest child in my class. There
are children who are more smarter than
you in my classroom. Don't think that
you're going to pass my class if you
don't come to my prayers. Go to prayer.
Do the homework. Do the schoolwork. And
your and God who is the teacher, the
ultimate teacher, the supreme being the
supreme teacher, he will pass you if you
show up to prayer, if you show up
honest, if you if you completely abolish
your bad habits, if you follow his
rules, his way of life. That's the
bottom line. So, I can't put in my own
opinions or my own ideas. Just got to
submit. Just got to submit. It's there.
That's the way it is. Like to thank you
for being with us on the Dean Show.
Pleasure. Absolutely. We're going to the
time flew. We're going to have to have
you back again soon, inshallah, God
willing. Absolutely. And I' like to
thank everybody for tuning in. Just to
recap, Islam means total surrender and
submission to the creator of the heavens
and the earth and not his creation. We
talked about some of the prophets. One
of the prophets and messengers who's
very dear to our heart, Jesus Christ,
peace and blessings be upon him. But
there's a messenger that came after him
who confirmed
Jesus, Muhammad, peace be upon him,
who's the last and final messenger sent
to the whole man of mankind. And he is
the one who God has used to deliver this
message which is the same message that
all the prophets taught. Surrender and
submission to God alone. The message has
been the same since the beginning.
Worship your creator and not his
creation. There's one God. Submit to him
alone. And that's the main message of
Islam. So, I hope you guys got to
benefit from listening to JR talk about
and giving us some highlights of how he
came to this um way of life. And if you
have any um comments or suggestions,
please send us your emails. Otherwise,
tune in every week on the Dean Show.
That's
tde
show.com. We have a new show every week.
Until next time, we'll see you again.
Assalamu alaykum. Peace be unto you.