come and see what everyone's talking
[Music]
aboutum welcome to another episode of
the dean show the dean show is on
location and we have a very interesting
story that I could not let go by so I
need to share it with you since you're
my audience and you guys have been
tuning in since the beginning and I like
to thank you for all the
support this brother now I'm not going
to get into the rulings on is the beard
farther uh not if you have to grow it
you can go to the Q&A section where we
have Scholars addressing this issue but
what's interesting is that we have a
brother who stood his ground because of
what he believed in in a very in a very
peaceful way and he did what is called
in Islam he did an action of jihad he
struggled for what was right and we're
going to talk about this today we're
going to let this uh G actually
detective uh shukun did I say it right
brother Shakur Shakur Shakur and we uh
actually have his story of how he
actually came to Islam you can also see
that on the Deen show.com
and please go ahead tell us how this
came about and take it away um I think
uh it started like about in uh
1995 in 1995 I was uh I had previously
worked undercover in an unmarked unit
and
um something happened one day that I
tried to respond to assist officer and
in responding to assist officer there
was a manhole cover that was extended up
off of the ground so I took the unmarked
car and I was driving it and it went and
took out the undercarriage from the
unmarked car the captain undoubtedly was
pissed he said listen you know these
guys got to go back into plain clothes
because he tore up the unmarked car make
a long story short I said uh I can't go
back in I I can't
um I could go back into the plane I mean
go back into uniform but they wanted me
to shave my beard off you know because
you're a detective you didn't actually
have to shave all detectives don't have
to have I mean they don't have to be
clean face you either have to have an an
excuse a note from a doctor saying that
you have what's called Pudo fitis
meaning that you have a skin problem
that when you shave or you're a
detective so when they put me back into
uniform they said listen you got to
shave that beard off I said I'm not
shaving my beard they said well if you
don't shave your beard you're going to
get fire so I said well listen you know
Allah gave me this job you know I mean
if Allah doesn't want me to be a
policeman anymore then Allah going to
take care of me now is this what you're
saying to yourself you're saying say
this to myself okay I'm saying this to
myself so I told them I said listen I'm
not going to shave my beard off they
said well if you don't shave your beard
then they're going to fire you now this
is your boss telling you this right so
the union contacted me and told me that
they had provided me with an attorney
and that this attorney was going to take
care of everything so the attorney
called me up and said listen can you
come to my office office I need to meet
with you so I came to his office and he
said listen today is a Tuesday he said
you're going to need a note from a
doctor before Friday or it's they going
to fire you so I said
listen you know I don't want a note from
a doctor you know I did that before when
I was in uniform you know I'm not doing
that anymore I'm going to um you know
just let Allah decree what he decrees so
he said listen I understand all of that
he said but do this for me just go and
get a note from the doctor so he sent me
to the first doctor I went to the doctor
and the doctor says uh it was a
dermatologist he said what brings you
here I said I'm a political Refugee he
said what is that mean I said my job is
persecuting me and telling me that I
have to cut off my beard I'm a Muslim an
orthodox Muslim practicing you know um
the principles of what the prophet
ordered me to do so he said don't worry
about that I'll get around it so he
wrote on the Note the note said um the
patient tells me that he has a
longstanding history with this problem
and that he shouldn't shave and I concur
with the patient so I fax the note to
the um the lawyer the lawyer got the
note and the lawyer called me back and
said listen the doctor can't say that
you have pseudio fitis so I said doc you
can't say that I have he said I can't do
that so I said okay he can't do that so
he said listen you know what tomorrow
you're going to have to go to another
doctor so I went to another doctor a
female Jewish doctor so she said listen
you know I can't get into that either
she said I tell you what I will do I'll
take a biopsy of your skin which will
buy you time that you don't have to
shave right now so I fax that to the the
lawyer the lawyer said this is not good
he said we're going to have to go get
what's called a call of stay meaning
that your job can't terminate you you
know until we get this stuff before a
federal
judge lawyer called me up next
week um he said
listen I mean not next week that week he
said listen I'm going to have to get you
in front of a federal judge with within
a 2hour span he say so be ready when I
call you to just come right to Federal
Court came to Federal Court the judge
said but um you know what I mean what is
the urgency of getting a cause of stay
today he said your honor if he doesn't
get a cause of stay today this was on a
Thursday he said tomorrow they're going
to fire him he said if they fire him I
can put him right back so what's the
issue he said well your honor we need a
cause of stay the judge said okay I'm
going to give you a cause of stay and
I'll set this matter down for a trial
next thing I know we went like maybe
three four months later
and it came to
trial and I'll never forget it was
before judge Bissell and judge Bissell
was a Caucasian judge who you really
really didn't think that really
understood Muslims and
Islam um so the um defense attorney said
listen all right we up next we went up
in front of the judge and I never forget
the first question that the judge asked
him he said is he a Sunni Muslim
the lawyer was a Caucasian too the
lawyer didn't understand he said what is
this he turned around and said are you
assum I said yeah yeah tell them yeah
tell them yeah so he turned around he
said yes your honor he said okay then
proceed and he said your honor you know
I'm representing the um police officers
two of us it was two of us they said um
f abdulaziz and Shakur Mustafa against
the state he said what the problem is is
that they're persecuting them because
they are mandated by their religion to
wear their
beards and he went on and gave a long
long spill and I tell you something I'm
not an illiterate I didn't understand
one word that my lawyer was saying it
was all kind of legal jogg and I looked
over to another lawyer I
said and the lawyer said next thing I
know the judge said okay all right I've
heard enough of heard enough when he
said I've heard enough he turned to the
prosecutor and said Mr prosecutor you
don't have to feed into that rhetoric
and I said to myself oh God I'm done he
telling the prosecutor you don't have to
feed into that rhetoric present your
case the prosecutor did the exact
opposite of what the judge told him he
started defending himself saying I'm not
persecuting Muslims I'm not a persecutor
of Muslims the judge said okay that's
enough that's enough the judge
said that people
have religious rights the Constitution
guarantees people religious rights as
long as their religion doesn't put
people at risk for example like if a
person says that his religion is the
religion of the astec and they smoke
pyote which is a
hallucina a train conductor
smoking pyote would put everybody at
risk because suppose he has
hallucination if somebody's on the track
and just hit the brakes and everybody
goes and the Whiplash you can hurt
people so he said as long as your
religion doesn't put people at risk then
people are guaranteed that freedom that
right and he ruled in our favor and the
whole courtroom that was packed with
Muslims just erupted allahar allahar and
the judge didn't stop us because he knew
that this was a major victory now if
somebody some of our non-muslim audience
thinks uh can you tell us what allahar
so they don't think there some war war
cry or something it means no it means
praising of God and recognize that
there's nothing greater than God there's
nothing greater than him himself and
this is what we saying when we say Allah
abbar and we're thanking Allah for this
Mighty Victory because we knew that
Allah was the one who allowed this to
happen and it was a major victory it
guaranteed people in the workplace that
wherever you work at as long as your
religion is not a danger or a hindrance
to anybody else you have the freedom and
the right to practice it now this also
goes for Christians or Jews this goes
for everybody because this is the law of
the land federal court a lot of people
had told us had we taken our case to
State Court that we probably would have
lost while
because judges they got someplace they
want to go they want to be a Supreme
Court Judge as a matter of fact the
second bout of this incident and what I
mean that it was the second bout because
the city filed an appeal we went before
What's called the Circuit Court of
Appeals the Circuit Court I don't mean
why did they continue to want to push
this after they continued it because
they knew that this was a landmark case
and technically speaking I used to be
the mayor's Bodyguard the mayor of the
city of North sharp James and sharp
James he did it to punish me out of
retaliation because at one particular
time he went to a nightclub and the
nightclub was all nude women in the
nightclub and he told me go put $20 on
this one of the new women and I looked
at him and I said who you talking to I
said I didn't come here for leadership I
have leadership I already know what my
life my pursuit of life is about I'm not
blind I'm not looking I'm not lustful
you know I have Direction so he said
okay when we get back to North I'm going
send you back to patrol he thought I was
being smart but at the same time too I
felt like he was trying to break me for
who I am and what I
represent so I said well that's why I
took the civil service exam so that I
can't be manipulated by politicians nor
anybody else and when we came back to
North sure up he took his detective
badge from me because that's a that's a
a provision they give it to you if you
worthy of it he took it back took all
the perks back and sent me back to
patrol so now I got a 10 shield and I'm
back on patrol and he saw me one day and
he
said they let you wear that there I said
I had this beard when I work for you and
that's how it all started but the second
B when they sent me to the Circuit Court
the court of appeals there's a judge now
called judge uh alido Alo just got
appointed recently to the Supreme Court
I went before him an African-American
judge and another judge there was three
judges on the court of
appeals and the city had presented their
argument again and they said listen what
he's doing their case was that I was
breaking the spirit of
decorum it's the spirit of decorum that
police are paramilitary organization so
everything is run like from the director
down and a policy is set and everybody
has to comply with that if somebody
breaches that then you just breach the
whole thing they said he's breaking the
spirit of the Quorum they didn't try to
argue the case on safety issues saying
that if somebody grabbed me or this or
that it would have been a weak AR anyway
and the reason why is because I already
been established for years and I have
numerous numerous arrests on my record
you know so he couldn't present that
argument so you've been with the with
the company for the the this is my 23rd
year now you've been serving and
protecting for 23 years yes so make a
long story short at the court of appeals
the black judge I don't remember his
name but I remember when it was his turn
to speak to the prosecutor he said Mr
prosecutor he had a beard the judge he
said for sure you're not trying to tell
us in this court that a man can't be a
professional and wear a beard the whole
courtroom cracked up because it was
obvious here's a judge sitting there
with a beard they went into the issue
about the presidency of the United
States Lincoln War beard you know yeah
they ruled in my favor they ruled in my
favor this was the second bout and you
know what I thought about all of the
time going through this here there's a
verse in the Quran that Allah says fight
those who fight you he said but when
they cease fighting cease fighting
fighting I really wanted to sue the city
and I said to myself if the city cease
fighting I'm not going to get that
opportunity because I have to obey Allah
Allah said they stopped you have to stop
but they kept right on going so you know
what I
did we went and I won on the circuit
court level then the city filed an
appeal
again this case went all the way to the
federal level I mean all the way to the
Supreme Court level and you can Google
my name s h a k o o r
Mustafa m u s t fa a you can Google that
and it'll bring up the whole case that
you can see for yourself and
alhamdulillah when it got to the Supreme
Court level the Supreme Court said that
they agreed with the Circuit Court they
agreed with the lower courts and that I
had the right so it opened up the door
for me to be able to sue you know and I
won they compensated me and then to show
you the beauty that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala proess blessed me with when the
administration changed May Cory Booker
came in to nor and one of the first
things that he did they promoted me and
elevated my status to a position now I'm
the Imam SL chaplain liaison between the
nor Police Department the mayor's office
and the community at large I now work as
a chaplain Imam in the police department
which had never existed before and I'm
the first Muslim in this position and
what I do on a day-to-day basis I
respond to crisis
homicides um child
molestations uh domestic violence um
fires things like that and what we do is
we Embrace and try to give counsel and
the alhamdulillah the very nice thing
about what I do is I don't have to tell
anybody oh yeah you know I'm coming here
as a minister no I don't compromise with
what I believe in I'm a Muslim I I come
there and I tell you I'm a Muslim you
know if you need my services you know
alhamd I mean if you like a Christian I
can go get a Christian you know or a Jew
but it's a nice position to be in to
have labored so long 23 years and now
it's like I'm at the top of the mountain
getting ready to retire and
alhamdulillah I can work for
Allah I was working for Allah then on
the cover but now the cover is off and
everybody know who I am and why I'm
doing what I do now tell us at that time
when the pressure was on it was the heat
was just coming down on you a lot of
people would have buckled what was going
through your mind that you were like you
put up this fight you you went through
what is called a
Jihad you know and I'm glad that you
bring this point out because so many
people think that Jihad is going and and
and bombing you know Christians and Jews
no this term Jihad initially when it
came in the Quran it
was something for the Muslims to pay
attention to Allah was trying to tell
the Muslims listen I know you're new I
know you're new with Islam just struggle
with it struggle with it and in time
you'll see that it'll become better for
you for me when this first happened and
I'll be honest with you you know I'm not
going to tell you that there was 100 men
trying to get me you know in a room and
a Allah made it easy he made it easy for
me and I say that because the Press came
and they used to stake out to just to
try to get a picture of me but see who
is this guy dealing with this case you
know they wanted to talk to me they
wanted to interview me and Allah just
guided me listen people used to call me
from the job and say yo go in the back
door because the Press is waiting for
you when you come to
work you had a lot of guys on the job
that were saying things like you know I
mean if you didn't want the job why
didn't you you know why didn't you cut
your beard when you first came here I
did cut my beard when I first started
because I knew that I would never get in
the door with a beard they would stop me
from the gate so I shaved the beard all
just to get in and then when I got in
you know I was determined to try to
leave some Islamic Legacy you know for
the Muslims at the same time too not
knowing what the outcome would be I
wanted to stand up for Allah's religion
and I wanted the angels to write me down
as standing for Allah's religion and in
doing all that in my heart Allah made it
easy Allah made it easy because I'm not
going to tell you that this this is
something that anybody could just do and
just go in there Fearless no I'm scared
like anybody else but I believed I
believe that Allah I didn't know what
would happen I remember the first day
when the attorney called me to his
office I came to his office with brother
faru who also was a part of my lawsuit
and I walked in and I said to the
attorney I said listen let me ask you a
question he said yeah I said how does it
feel to win a battle without even
throwing a blow
he said I don't understand I said they
think they fighting with me they not
fighting with me it's not my rule of
wearing a beard was his
rule the the lawyer said well let's just
see he said because um you know I'm not
a very very religious person the day
that the case was
over finally I went to the lawyer and I
said do you remember the first thing
that I said to you he said no I said you
don't remember me asking you how does it
feel to win a battle without even
throwing a blow you said you did say
that you did say that no so
alhamdulillah you know out of everything
you know standing up for Allah is
something that some people they want to
do it and sometimes they mix up their
intentions what I really really hope out
of all of this here though I really hope
that Allah gives me the reward for
standing up for him and not showing off
yes I hope that all of us do tell us
give us some advice for you got some
sisters I get emails that are buckling
and they the pressure from society with
the hijab you got this situation with
the beard you got people at work now and
they're scared to go off and make their
their prayer this is just a great
example of how when you do what your
creator wants you to do and the beard I
mean I just want to make a detail this
is something that all the prophets wore
right but tell us give us some advice
for for those people who are the sisters
who are having problems because of
pressure about the hijab what other
people going to say what other people
going to think you know and you know um
there's something that the prophet
sallallahu alai wasallam told us and
that I really really want whoever's
going through any kind of difficulty I
want to tell you this here and selfishly
I want to ask you to make Dua for me
because of two reasons the first the
prophet said sallallah alai wasallam
that 50,000 years before Allah created
the
universe the first thing he created was
the
pen and he gave the pen a soul and an
intelligence and he called the pen and
told the pen right and the pen said I
don't know what to write and Allah said
write what I tell you to write and he
told the pen everything that would ever
be throughout time this is a principle
in Islam that you'll find that is
attached to the H the Divine decree
remember that whatever position that you
find yourself in it is divinely decreed
for you to be
there what you don't know and what
causes your anxiety and fear is you
don't know the
outcome but listen part of the belief of
the Muslim is that we believe in the
good and the bad of the we believe that
the bad of it is good therefore if you
know that this is Allah's
rule ask Allah to give you the strength
to stand up for it because if you stand
and you hold your ground believe me if
you even if you get fired Allah will
give you the victory the last thing the
prophet said s wasallam that the MU that
the person who goes out in Jihad
struggling remember we saying that it
means struggle the person that struggles
for Allah he gets one or two rewards the
prophet said and you can find this
Hadith in the book of jihad he said
either he is
killed either he's killed and he gets
Jenna or he gets the war booty
the thing that he fought for the thing
that he went out
for and the prophet sallallahu alai
wasallam he didn't lie alhamdulillah we
got the war booty and we hope that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will give us
Jen thank you sh for being with us no
thank you for having
me and thank you for sitting through
another episode of the dean show so you
see how this story inshallah can help
you benefit and can increase your Iman
and to remind you that there is one
Creator he is the one that has created
you so he is the one that you should
obey he is the one that you want to
please if you're worried day and night
about what the other people are going to
do and what the other people think now
you're going to be displeasing your
creator so ask him as the shik had told
us to to make it easy for you to to to
help you to strengthen you and inshallah
everything will be all right we look
forward to have you again next time
every week we're here on the Deen
show.com t h Deen show.com until next
time assalam alaykum peace be unto
you