like it's bringing tears to my eyes now
because i know is that you
stephen jackson
rasulullah i was i've always been at a
place where i
i was growing towards peace but i knew
so congratulations my brother no day
that i've had in my life has started off
that way since i've been praying since i
took my shahada i've had at least
10 nba players accidentally because my
whole family's baptist and i just had a
conversation with my mom
i'm going to mention some names michael
jordan scottie pippen magic johnson tony
cucco
larry bird hakeem elijah shaquille
o'neal my big brother
how are you doing my brother i'm pretty
good how are you
is that you stephen jackson yes sir
on the dean show alhamdulillah
it's really an honor to have you on the
program uh
we'd like to uh introduce our next guest
stephen jackson you could tell us
why don't we start off for the people
who don't follow basketball tell us some
of the highlights
of your career of your accomplishments
first off uh i'll praise doodle
um i started off
got draft out of high school um
ended up playing in the nba
for 14 years winning the championship
with the san antonio
spurs in 2003. coming out of high school
i played in the
biggest high school game with kobe
bryant jermaine o'neill tim thomas
all the top basketball players i had a
great year for what i said a 14-year
career played on the we believe team
um and golden state the first team to be
the eight seed
in the seven game series i mean excuse
me to be the one seed in the seven game
series
and i just i just been blessed one of
those guys who earned his money
and uh you know appreciated everything
that the game gave me
when i used to follow basketball i
remember the names like and i saw you
you uh you played with him for a little
bit of
michael jordan for instance right and
then you guys uh
kind of went back and forth he was he he
was what was he the he was the owner of
the team that you played for
how how did that work out with my with
you and mike yeah um
at that time i'd um i was with uh golden
state
and i wanted to get traded and they
traded me to charlotte mike traded for
me
and uh he was the owner at the time and
uh you know mike is a competitive guy
he's somebody we all look up to and um
we're both guys both competitive guys
and he challenged me one day in practice
because the team wasn't playing well
and um he decided to get in the mix get
into practice and try to start some
things up to try to get us going and
work
to where me and him had words going back
and forth but it was
it was good for us and it was good for
the team morale because we needed that
at the time
i'm going to mention some names and you
tell me uh these are the people that i
remember
back when i followed basketball a little
bit more magic johnson
have you and have you met tell me have
you met them have you played with the
with with
these people i'll mention um i played i
played one game against mike actually i
didn't play but i watched him play i was
on the team he played against my uh the
spurs
um never played against magic but i met
magic magic is
top five all time um
one of the greats scottie pippen
scotty pippen is somebody i've had in my
game after you know a lot of guys
you know we all looked up to mj but i
patted my game after scotty pippen and
grant hill
those guys were similar to my my style
of build
they played like me and uh those it was
it was easier for me to paddle my game
after guys like that
larry bird ought to go with the white
jordan
um i mean there's not too many guys ever
to come through to come in the nba and
get 40 with their left hand on purpose
uh bird was different one of a kind man
and uh i got a chance to play for him in
indiana he was the
general manager when i was in indiana
and he's one of those people that always
spoke highly of me tony cucoch
don't know too much about him but i know
when he came to the league from croatia
i think
um he was he was
he just set the league on fire nobody
expected him to be that good
because he didn't play too well against
the american team in the olympics
so everybody had kind of counted them
out but he showed up to the nba and
really did his thing
hakeem elijah somebody that um i've
always looked up to i grew up in porto
alto texas which is an hour from houston
and i looked up to akimolajwan growing
up and
was uh was a blessing martial he was
able he called me
and um i never met him in my life the
whole time i was in the nba i never met
him anything and and uh
you know after i took my shahada i got a
call from him for a facetime call from
him
and got a chance to talk to him and meet
him uh i'm i'm just
it was it was it was unbelievable you
know to be able to conversate with him
somebody i've been looking up to
and for him to tell me he's proud of me
taking these steps i'm taking and doing
what i'm doing man it meant a lot to me
so i mentioned uh this the the last um
muslim basketball player now there were
some others also
who they would actually fat they would
play but uh they were fasting what's up
everybody
so i'm about to break my fast before the
game i thought i heard that you know he
was fascinating during 94.95 and he won
an mvp
and i texted him it was the first day of
ramadan
who were some of these did you know some
of these uh there was one famous one
abdul
ralph was it who um and
do you remember watching any of these at
that time and saying how are these guys
you know they're
they're playing basketball but they're
fasting did you did you ever hear
stories like this no because at that
time you know i'm on those guys i stay
in my own bubble
so i really i really didn't know you
know you know i really didn't know what
they were doing or any other player you
know what they were fasting or not i
didn't know what they were doing in
their free time i was too
i was too busy locked into my own build
my own stuff now something's coming
around the corner fat ramadan is just
right around the corner are you excited
uh
is this going to be your first official
ramadan first official ramadan i'm
excited
how is it you said something now this is
really important because here at the
dean show
i mean what we focus on is helping to
clear many of the misconceptions
you know a lot of the false fears you
know bridging the gap of
misunderstanding
now you said you've been saying some
words and it's kind of like uh
if i tell people uh you know when they
hear hallelujah it's like you know god
is the greatest you know what i mean
allahu akbar it's kind of the same
uh when you say the shahada tell us you
know
and this is basically just testifying
what's giving birth to what's already in
your
nature that there's nothing worthy of
worship except the creator of the
heavens and the earth and that's what
you did you acknowledge that there's
only one in one god
and you were going to follow the last
and final messenger and this would
automatically include not exclude all
the preceding messengers
jesus just happy happened to be one of
those you know we have a deep love and
reverence for jesus
what had it what had you give birth to
what was already inside of you what was
that breaking point that you finally
you know i we read some of your story
that you had you know some muslim
friends some
i believe it was a muslim mazi who was
staying with you and then you were
seeing you know their character and
you know how they were living and what
was that breaking point that finally
you ended up taking your and then you
had our brother uh
tone uh muslim tone uh what was it at
the end
and and to congratulate you because many
people they acknowledge that this is the
truth but they don't have the fortitude
nor the courage they're
more worried about what he she the media
is going to say
but you had that fortitude in that
courage so congratulations my brother
you know and what was it that finally
had you take that bold step
why should i do now mohammed rasool
allah
it's hard to explain because
for me i've always been
searching for the truth in my heart
not just the truth of what i hear what i
see and
and through different
testimonies through different trials and
tribalizations in life
um i know for a fact that allah was
pulling me home through every situation
and me being so intrigued
about the islamic culture talking to my
my friends that were muslim asking them
you know what they say when
all these things wasn't a coincidence it
wasn't a coincidence and
it started seven years ago you know you
know and i think
seeing one of my close muslim brothers
get buried and being
at a muslim funeral for the first time
that changed my life
because everything in islam is personal
everything in islam is is
is heartfelt you know it is meaningful
everything is meaningful and to be to
see his mom
and me and and his extra family members
actually the ones
putting the dirt on him and burying him
like that touched me we was the last
ones there
and that was my first time experiencing
that so
it's a lot of things man i i could talk
all day
about the about my testimony and how
allah has been pulling me all this time
to come home
but all i can say is
i made the decision when it was in my
soul
and it was the easy one i woke up one
morning called tone
i told tone i'm ready to take my shahada
it wasn't even a question
and uh and and he set it up and i got on
the plane and with the feeling and got
it done but
it has to be in your heart like i said
this it's been seven years
of me ready to walk back in the doors
and
come back home and um i'm just i'm just
happy it happened at the right time
alhamdulillah again congratulations
we're really excited elated
uh do you see this happening a lot i
mean because
now it's kind of like people they're
in the spotlight you know and then you
recognize the truth
but sometimes now it's like the worry
about what
what people are going to say you know
what i mean my career can it you know
end up being hindered can it do you see
this uh being an
obstacle for me it might be for them but
not for me i mean if people know
anything about me
i never i always stood on morris
and and the way i live i never i never
worried about a dollar because what for
you
i would all i have for you ain't gonna
miss you for nothing it's gonna hit you
directly in the face
and i know that and i know that no
human being controls my fate or what i
have going on in my life
so there therefore that's that's never
been how i thought man i
if it's something that i lost because
because
i'm screaming i love allah then so be it
let me lose it it wasn't for me
and i'm willing and not and i've always
stood that way everybody doesn't doesn't
have that in their heart to stand their
way
and i understand that but for me i'mma
screen as loud as i can whoever don't
like it then
so be it uh let's go back to uh uh some
other greats uh in the basketball abdul
kareem jabar
have you met him played with him i
haven't met him but
me me and him uh don't see eye to eye on
a lot of things i respect him one of the
best players to ever
to ever play the game but i don't
i don't agree with a lot of things that
he says these days when you look at
the history of the african-american
people did that also
play into you accepting islam when you
look at for instance malcolm x
when you look at muhammad ali when they
went back to their roots right
they saw that it was islam submission to
the creator not the creation this is and
then kunta kite have you see i mean
you've seen
roots when he's calling out allah oh um
definitely malcolm x and and and
muhammad ali of course i've
i even got a text from um muhammad ali's
daughter
and malcolm x's wife's yes so uh
i'm i'm i'm just honored man i've never
felt so good like i said i won a
championship
and i've done a lot of things in my life
but i've never been i never received so
much love than i received for the
homelessness ever since i've took my
shahada
it's unbelievable but although muhammad
ali malcolm x
definitely i mean that's all i do now
is study these guys you know i i read
and and i study everything because a lot
of the
things that malcolm x stood for and what
he was fighting for
there's a lot of the same things that
i'm standing and fighting for
so so i understand that and if if i
could be
if not greater than him if i could be
close to malcolm x
then i i've done my service here on this
earth were you one of those at all
affected by the many many you know
nowadays the uh hate machine
is it's a big business bashing islam did
you at all at one time
get affected by that you know years ago
did you hear certain things and then
you know did it turn you off did you a
lot of times you'll say muslim and then
right away
synonymous with that people think oh
terrorists you know terrorist islam they
always you know
attributed with the boogeyman coming to
get you were you at all at one time
before you got the proper knowledge and
education
were you at all of uh you know affected
by that some of this pro
negative propaganda never because i like
i said i had muslim friends i had muslim
brothers i never
no i i've never really thought that i've
been one guy man
like i said i grew up around so many
different races and i told somebody from
every race that i love them and mean it
so that something like that wouldn't be
in my circle
you know because because we we have
relationships with everybody where we
live
so uh nah nah i i i never had that type
of thought but i never even thought
about it either
because what people think don't matter
at all and then like i said
that's never been the thought of mine
you're reminding me of one of the
companions of prophet muhammad peace and
blessings be upon um
uh when he uh you know he's he went out
and he wanted to uh you know
go out and he didn't care what others
would say and he just
you know to testify he said aren't we on
the truth right
and said let's get out there a little
bit let it be known
uh so this is one of the characteristics
that you reminded me of alhamdulillah
let me go back to
some basketball players uh kobe bryant
my idol
um i i admired this guy since the
teenager we grew up together
uh was able to play the mcdonald's game
with him spend some time with him i just
admired him because everything he said
he was going to be as a teenager
he it came true you know a lot of a lot
of times the team that when you're a
teenager you have goals you have dreams
and you want them to come true but you
don't work for them to come true you
hoping they come true you pray they come
true
kobe worked for it he wanted it he
dedicated his life to it
and and i just admired that because
he never wanted to be a basketball
player he wanted to be one of the best
players and he and he did that and
and for where he was going after
basketball to
to putting the light on women's
basketball and all things he was doing
with his family and becoming a
one of the best fathers ever to lose him
hurt a lot man and
uh i i'm gonna forever admire him miss
him
and um i could talk about kobe all day
because
uh there's no other basketball player i
looked up to more than kobe
how did how are you and most people
because again
he's uh at a point of his life that you
know the whole world's opened up to him
and when that
when when the uh helicopter went down
and he died
i mean many people are not thinking
about their reality that moment that
death
is awaiting all of us you know did this
also you know that moment when he died
and
and then a lot of people they just they
get numb
at that moment but then they go on with
life did that how did that affect you
and just the reality of death you know
what i mean the reality
of the real real you know uh awakening
moment
when it when our soul leaves this body
how much did i also play
you know in your decision you know to
take this life more serious to really
reflect what's the purpose of life why
am i here why have i been created i
think
with me the only thing that shocks me
about death
is just the untiming of it you can't
predict it
yeah that's the only thing that bothers
me i you know i'm
i'm kind of i'm well i'm honestly at the
point where i don't fear death because i
know
who's protecting me and who's watching
over me and the service i'm doing here
oh man i i know i'm gonna be rewarded
for it
so so i'm not really worried about it
and i don't think about it i just think
that the shock factor
of death and the realization of knowing
the person you love is gone
i think that's that's what affects me
but and i
uh i still cry you know i see pictures
of me and kobe i wake up because
i know the person he was you know what i
mean i know the person he was and uh
i i i i play back our moments a lot but
at the end of the day
like you said i'm one of those people i
understand that the day is
coming for all of us i just know that
where my heart is
and whatever they decide to come for me
i'm gonna be ready do you like the point
that islam
has a complete blueprint for life from a
from when you wake up
you know starting the day off you see a
lot of people even kobe was talking
about this
you know a lot of the celebrities like
tony robbins and all they talk about
meditation
and being grateful but we start our day
by being grateful to the creator of the
heavens and earth with fajr
and then from there you know a whole
system of how to be morally upright how
to
you know live for justice and how to get
that peace you know what i mean
did how did that play into your decision
how does that you know
play into your life now you know i never
thought i'd be the face of the biggest
civil rights movement ever
you know all 18 countries 50 states all
protests at the same time and i never
thought i'd be the face of that so
so with with to whom much is given much
is required
and i know with the responsibility of me
you know taking on a burden for so many
people and getting love from so many
places
that i never want to be a person that's
contradicting myself
you know i i've always was a person that
can see you can see my emotions on my
sleeve
and i was i've always been at a place
where i
i was growing towards peace but i knew
i honestly knew once i got to that point
where
i accepted islam and i got i came back
home
and i got to the point where i was
forced
to teach myself discipline i was forced
to teach my self-control i think
i knew that i was going to be this
person once i got to the point where i
was forced to do it
and and and and
i can honestly say that my days
start off so much better when i wake up
and pray for her in the morning
that's my my
no day that i've had in my life has
started off
that way since i've been praying and and
and and people can think i'd just be
saying stuff and you know
but in my soul like it's bringing tears
to my eyes now because i know
i know how i feel now when i wake up
when i start my days it's a totally
different feeling
it's a totally different feeling
alhamdulillah shaquille o'neal
my big brother um through everything
i've been through
uh me standing up and saying things that
that going against the grain and having
hard to say things shaq
is one person that always had my back
never never shied away
from me because the media was trying to
blackball me and things like that
he never shied away he always had my
back he always spoke up
i'll tell you a quick story i was in i
was in court for a traffic ticket
and uh a traffic ticket in uh i think
i'd have my uh
tag or something on my car and soon as i
stand up the judge was about to address
man the judge said before i address you
let me call somebody right quick and she
called somebody on facetime and turned
the phone around and it was shaq
and he just started laughing on the
phone and she ended up dropping the
charges and everything so
shaq is one of those guys that i think
he takes he texts me at least once or
twice a week to tell me
keep going because he knows you know he
appreciates me
being the leader i am but he also knows
i'm like a little brother to him so he
supports me and everything is shaquilla
is it true that shaquille o'neal he's
also he's muslim
is shaquille o'neal
i mean but when i speak to him he gives
me salams
i don't know i'm not sure um
we never had that conversation what
would you say now to some of your old
uh nba partners if you got a chance you
know to sit to talk you know talk about
you know
serious issues like again the the
billion-dollar question what's the
purpose of life you know
uh you realize what it is now you're
living it islam
you know how would you where would you
start off how would you you know go
ahead and uh
you know and what's the feedback that
you've got from some of you know some of
your players
some of your former colleagues players
well i've i've always been a leader bro
i've always been the guy who
kind of went opposite from the crowd did
my own thing and
with that i've always stood on morals
and respect
and the younger generation and all the
nba players they respect me because i'm
a stand-up guy
you know i don't i i don't bend i ain't
compromising nothing for nobody i stand
on what i believe so a lot of guys
respect that so
every i can tell you i can honestly say
since i took my shahada i've had at
least
10 nba players ask me why did i
why did i come back home to islam and
and and and how long i've been on my
journey and to send them stuff to read
and i have five nba players at least
five
that i send stuff that i read
scriptures uh from the quran and the
pages from books that i'm reading
i sent to them daily every morning and
uh actually one nfl play as well
so um a lot of guys are asking these
questions because they know for me
how real i am or what i stand on and for
me to take this step
you have no idea how beautiful this is
to hear alhamdulillah not only were you
brave enough
you know and certain enough that you
ended up accepting the truth that
there's no deity worthy of worship
except the creator of the heavens and
earth and muhammad
is the last and final messenger that's
what you keep saying by shahadah and
again this would automatically include
jesus how is your relationship now
because many people they don't know that
we love and revere jesus not as a god or
a little son of god but as a mighty
messenger of god
you know so is this new is this
something that's new to a lot of people
that they don't know
how much love that you can't be a muslim
unless you believe and love jesus right
and
and it it it's hard explaining it to him
you know it's hard to explain to him you
know he's he's definitely one of the one
of the one of the mighty prophets we all
know that
he's just not a guard to us and even he
said it cause my whole family's baptist
and i just had a conversation with my
mom you know because she's well she's
watching malcolm x she this is like
10 minutes ago and she said malcolm x
don't believe in heaven and i have to
explain it to her why he said that
you know just like we don't believe in
spirits you know god is a man god you
know
this this is a lot of stuff you know
what i'm saying it's just a lot of stuff
how
you know how they how they made uh to be
some type of spirit and spook
you know what i mean and i'm just trying
to explain that to her that he's not
you know it's just some real tricky
conversations to have with my family
but we gotta have them we got to have
them eventually
absolutely many people don't know you've
been saying allah but aramaic
the actual language jesus spoke he would
say allah
so he would call on the creator of the
heavens this is the same god jews and
christians who are arabic speaking
they say allah so this is not some
different god a moon god no no no
we don't worship the sun the moon or
anything in croatia but the one god
so just a couple more questions uh
stephen jackson tell us just a switch
now from
uh something that's also real important
i mean you're an athlete a professional
athlete for all these years you know
uh what what would you say are the keys
besides you know putting in the
dedication the hard work
nutrition is important factor how is
your nutrition you know
what do you like to eat uh well i mean
i'm
i'm a chicken guy like if i eat chicken
all day
every day all day chicken is my go-to um
i'm a big fluid guy water vitamin water
stuff like that i don't
i really don't eat too much red meat you
know of course no pork but
i'm i'm a chicken guy man i uh i eat a
lot of salads we real healthy around
here we don't really eat too much and we
really don't
experiment too much either you know we
uh i i've tried halal food uh in philly
uh i got it i gotta really get into that
but uh
i'm real simple man i really i really
don't take too many chances we really
don't deal too many seasons and nothing
like that
you know um and my uh my daughter here
she's an athlete as well so
what else what advice do you have for
people coming up you know the
uh hard work and people who are now
youth coming up and you got the streets
will take over and then they just you
know lose everything
people are just you know focused on the
bling bling you know what i mean
uh what what advice do you have for the
youth you know they're looking up to you
someone like you
uh what advice do you give them you know
to maybe some words of encouragement you
know to help get them through the rat
race of life
i'm trying to lead by example you know
um i think with the younger generation
they so misled by material things
you know social media and all this stuff
to tell them to make them think
or may take have a picture of what
happens looked like when that ain't
happening that's not real life
it's all a facade and i think you know
when you can sit down and
and teach these youngsters
you know a lot of times it's good for me
because i'm i'm talking through
experience
i'm not telling them about a story or
telling them something that
i saw somebody else go through you know
i actually went through this so when we
can
able to reach these young young kids and
teach them about our experiences
and show them what got us to this point
then maybe they can avoid some of the
hiccups and mistakes we made
that got us to this point you know it's
all about it's all about
uh teaching through your experiences but
at the same time when you're teaching
them something
and taking like the guns and the drugs
out the hand you got to put something in
it
so so we got to have something to
substitute you know when we take when we
tell them to get off the street
and taking the guns out their hands and
stop selling the drugs we got to have
something to put in their hand
so they can retrain themselves we're not
just sitting out there on the block
we're trying to figure out what to do so
it's it's a lot to it but at the end of
the day man
you have what you have everything in you
all ready to be great
you don't need to wake up at your house
or look on social media or go outside
and wait for somebody to tell you that
you're great everything you need to be
successful and be a star is already in
you and you have to know that before you
walk out your house uh the last thing
was
i want to ask you about this moment when
you saw at the funeral you saw this
mother bearing her child and this is
something
that captivated you you know to see her
talk about if you love my son
put the dirt on him because from god we
come to god we return
can you share that with us that story
yeah um
his mom was just the strongest person
i've ever strongest woman i've ever
seen that lost the son like she wasn't
she wasn't bothered she didn't shed a
tear
the comfort of allah um
the knowing that
protected like i seen it all over her
face you know normally
when you go to a normal field the
mothers falling out the chair
and screaming and all that none of that
was going on at the funeral
none of that was going on everybody was
at peace everybody knew
you know everything that was going on
and and and for her
to be so strong and to single
the people out that was my first time
meeting her at the funeral
so for her to single me out and other
guys out
and knowing that we were the closest to
him you know it meant a lot and just
that just that whole moment
man of of knowing how personal it is
you know i i honestly
i honestly can't wait till the day for
me to see who to see who really loved me
you know what i mean
for those people out there now they're
listening they're watching you they
could be nba players the average
joe the average person you know they
hear all these negative things about
islam you know they're tuning in to the
dean show
you know they like the the simple
message of worshiping the creator not
the creation
doing good deeds being morally upright
uh and
what would you say to them you know what
advice would you give to them
man listen if you claim you righteous
this is where righteous is islam a
hundred percent
righteous there's no racism we're 100
righteous and when i say love for all
who have love for all
that means i love only the righteous and
that's what islam is about
that's beautiful because i-s-l-a-m islam
says love all mankind and that's why
we're sharing this message this message
of peace peace acquire by submitting
your will to the creator of heavens and
earth
tell me uh when's the last do you have
any plans on visiting have you visited
chicago
are you planning on visiting anytime
soon yeah i go i go to chicago a lot
actually i uh i got uh something going
with some guys on the ground out there
to do something you know i've been out
there once to do something for the city
of chicago for the youth and i got to
plan on coming back real soon
so can we get you here in the studio
we're right in the city
in chicago our studio can we get you our
next meeting this is our first kind of
i'll call the break in the ice
but we can in what of course of course
inshallah we can make it happen when
you're in chicago where do you where do
you reside
where are you in atlanta okay so either
if i get to atlanta first or have you
met oh have you hooked up with our
brother uh
loon he's in atlanta have you met him
hey you know what's funny
uh my partner al harrington my brother
al harrison sent me loon's number last
week said loan want to speak to me so
i'm glad you reminded him i gotta call
him when i get off with you there you go
i'm just i'm glad we could we were we're
you know
a part of making that uh thing happen
with a reminder i want to thank you i
look forward to
i'm gonna hold you on that chicago you
got a date you me
here on this show inshallah okay
thank you very much for being our guest
on the show may god almighty allah
preserve you protect you and make you a
a source
you know goodness for the for the people
of sharing this thank you so much my
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you assalamu alaikum
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