From Lady Gaga's Manager's Friend to Islam | The Inspirational story of a Madina Graduate

alhamdulillah a writer who was salat wa salam o adam and lana be a rider who were bad my name is tire white from philadelphia pennsylvania I'm currently a PhD candidate at the Islamic University of Medina awaiting my defense in comparative religion I was born and raised in Philadelphia from the second grade all the way to high school I went to Philadelphia public schools I was blessed to go to some of the better public schools in the city so I went to jr. Masterman for middle school and for high school I went to Central it was at Central High and in 1993 that I accepted Islam my father used to be a Christian youth minister but when he got a bit older and it was time to go to college he went to Philadelphia College of Bible that is when he decided to leave Christianity he studied some of the history of the Bible is compilation and he was no longer convinced that it was the Word of God so he left Christianity my mother was also raised with a Christian not a strict Protestant but she also left Christianity for a number of reasons so I was not raised as a Christian which was very different from the majority of my peers whether they were classmates neighbors or otherwise but I was raised I would say with a sense of justice and that that justice is important that people should be treated equally regardless of race or gender ethnicity okay I would say that the pivotal point in my life was probably 1991 or 1992 when I met Troy Carter who is most famous for being a Lady Gaga's manager Troy at that time was a friend of a friend and he was fresh off of a record deal with Jive Records and he had a very good relationship with Will Smith and Daddy Jefferson so I looked at as an opportunity I was an aspiring artist if I can use the term loosely I was about 14 at that time and and so meeting Troy it was a game changer for me in a lot of different ways he kind of took me under his wing told me about an idea that he had for a group he wanted three guys and a girl which was that was a bit abnormal at this time so like I said we talked in early 90s 91 92 I'm not exactly sure the reason why was a game changer for me I would say is because it basically it filled up all of my time there was no time to do anything other than go to school make sure you get your work done your homework your projects and so on and so forth and practice so we had rigorous daily practice as a group under the management of Troy Carter and that was to prepare us for you know stage performances so our our daily routine consisted of exercise vocal practice I mean just a whole lot of things but the main thing was like I said it took up the lion's share of my time so I don't have time to get into a lot of things that other people would get into just hanging out on the streets we were with Troy for over a year we had a production deal back then a production deal was basically you get a hundred or two hundred thousand dollars for to produce a record so you have to pay freelance musicians and things like that with that we'll do the music for you and this is the interesting point here was that Troy gave me the responsibility of reaching out to a lot of these people that we would organize our meetings with so one of them happened to be a Muslim I didn't know it at the time and we started talking about you know meeting up so we need to meet at such-and-such a time anyway before we got off the phone he said to me are you a Muslim and I was like no and he said but your name is taught here how or back then because we didn't have like Paul and Tamara so there's like your name is ty here how are you not a Muslim and I was like well that's what my parents named me I don't I'm not interested in Islam and I really wanted to shut that door I was used to like Java's witnesses and and on the door I don't think the Mormons had started coming around yet but I was not as I did not want to talk about religion and I think that that's like a common American thing as well like that's not a door that you open so I told him I said okay I don't want to talk about religion so he says okay he said do you like to read I said of course I like to read they said all right when I see I'm going to give you a book and then we'll take it from there anyway I guess we met within a week it wasn't more than a long time we met and he had a book I don't remember the name of right now I think it was something like understanding Islam or something like that and it was not long I would say was about 50 pages was colorful it had some pictures it was printed by the Saudi embassy in Washington DC from what I remember I began to read this book as a matter of fact I think I read it in one sitting I was pleasantly surprised because my idea of religion at the time was Christianity you know I've read a bit about Christianity I read about the Trinity that never made sense to me but Islam that basic message of there being a creator that the Creator deserves to be worshipped he deserves to be thanked and worshipped and that he sent messengers to mankind to teach them the path that leads to his pleasure that was something that made sense to me and I'm not going to say that I agree with everything 100 percent right away but I also didn't disagree with it there was nothing that was repulsive about it which I was I couldn't say for certain other religions that I had read about or ways of life if you will because not everything was a religion but sometimes they're just certain ways of life that I would read about I just couldn't get down with it but this man was it made sense to me another thing that I enjoyed about this book I could remember reading about salat that concept of a personal connection to the creator and that's something that's that I felt was was always missing in the social justice circles you know when you look at the political activists a lot of times and especially back then it's we'll be talking about the early 90s late 80s you look at social activist is all about what's going on somewhere else so I'm a young kid I wasn't even nine years old when I learned about Robert's Rules of Order out of chair meeting learned about apartheid in South Africa the Contra affair in Nicaragua and you know things were going on around the world so you talk about social justice we are looking at racial equality and so but a lot of times there is nothing about you what is it that purifies your soul what is it that brings you true happiness and so I think that I think that that was something that that resonated with me about its land that there was this thing that made me think about me Who am I what where do I fit into this big scheme of things that are going on and I you know I saw the pictures of hydrogen kind of reminded me of the the story of Malcolm X when he went on hydrogen how it changed his life so there were a lot of emotions and a lot of thoughts as well that were inspired by me just simply reading this book accident the the brother contacted me I don't know within a few days we probably saw each other and he says to me so what did you think about the book I told him it was okay I didn't want to tell him how interested I was because I still didn't want to talk about religion I wasn't ready to do that yet but at the same time you know I did want to let him know that I was feeling comfortable about what I was reading this process went on for about two months this was maybe October of 1993 by December a lost hands Ida had opened my heart and I was ready to accept this lamb and I did I accepted Islam December 13th I think it was 1983 uh you know somebody's not I think that a lot of people who come to Islam they had then that first spurt even the prophet alayhi salaatu wa salaam said between the armored and ship level including shifflet's and settlement so every action is a period of enthusiasm and then there's some downtime right I didn't experience like this this period like immediately as soon as I became a Muslim of being overzealous in fact when I first became Muslim I really I didn't even know you had to pray five times a day you know I thought that that was something that Arab Muslims did because you know their culture I didn't think that that was I didn't really consider that to be a religious thing I know we had to pray as Muslims but I didn't understand that we had to pray five times then you had to make Jamaat I didn't have anyone directly teaching me when I first became Muslim and I would say that this process lasts I read I read a lot about you know different aspects of this man but I would say that this process lasted for probably six months and so we're into the summer now of 1994 the end of the school year and then Allah Allah blessed me to meet some young brothers who were practicing his land and these brothers were practicing Islam you know they were praying five times a day and the one of the one of the brothers I would say he was my first introduction to the concept of seeking knowledge so there was a young brother named Hamid and we had all her like you know the younger Muslims we had all heard that at Martin Luther King junior high school in Philadelphia that they had established Juma at the high school that the Muslims there were afforded the opportunity every Juma to on together and pray and he had a you know Khatib and everything like that and so that was just like an amazing thing this brother Hamid was the student organizer of that effort to to have Jimmu at the school and so I met this brother I guess it was in June late June of 1994 and there were a number of other brothers there I would say at least 10 to 12 all in the late teens early 20s and so it was an immediate attraction today just the fact that wait a minute there's a lot to learn about this religion that I don't know and I don't want to be a part of anything that I don't know about and so you know I would say that that was where the period of zealousness came in and I not that it wasn't tampered but I was I would say I was unnecessarily you know strict about a lot of things just because I honestly didn't know and I wanted to err on the side of caution the other good thing that happened that same summer was that three of my friends that lived on the same block as as I did at the time the they all accepted Islam so that was another push and there was a message that was recently opened approximately what three blocks away from where I was living so I got to frequent the mansion a lot more and I think that that solidified my my journey as as a beginning Muslim you know I think that every every new Muslim has that phase that they go through with a either going to stay infirm or they going to fall to the wayside it doesn't mean they're going to leave its land but they're going to hit a plateau and they're not going to learn a lot and they've got to basically stay where they are and practice the way that they learn up into that point I think that this was one of the things that lost hands on a bless me with was that many of the people around me were Muslim at this point you know the people who I chose his friends and also people who were with me from you know from before but they accepted his name and so we started frequenting the message and there were people there who taught us a lot more about our religion and took us somewhat of the systematic steps to learning Islam learning about the the articles of faith and so on Philly has a lot of Muslims and even at that time had a lot of Muslims and there were Muslims who had studied even back in the 70s they were brothers who left Philadelphia went to Saudi Arabia Mecca primarily but some some of them came to Medina as well who had studied his name and so that concept now of going abroad to study Islam was not a foreign concept uh and that's not something I mean as we know even for people about that he has that book called oppression if he probably is right which is to to go abroad to or to travel to seek knowledge so there were also other brothers who went to different parts of the Muslim world Egypt Yemen Jordan even and in the search of knowledge by this time by 1995 you had a number of brothers who had graduated from the Islamic University of Medina or who at least attended some years and then went back to America and they were calling people to Islam and given classes and their lectures were being taped and things like this we don't take back then by the way cassette tapes because that was the way knowledge was spread back then we didn't have the ability to go on it was no YouTube or anything like that so you know there were certain brothers who had the plugs this brother from Philly is plugged into this brother from New York and this one from Washington DC and we would get these tapes we used to get tapes even some brother that would go to Hajj they would bring back tapes and mass produced them and so the idea of going to brought to study was something that kind of took root in my heart and I said if I get that opportunity I would definitely want to go learn Arabic but that was the extent of it I didn't want to you know I didn't want to spend a whole lot of my life you know studying this name I figured that if I studied Arabic then I could just you know read the books myself and I'd be good okay so basically I finished high school in 1995 I went to I got a scholarship to Temple University so I studied three semesters at Temple University in that first semester when I was at when I was at Temple one of my teachers who taught me from the beginning from the beginning like I said after that six months this was December of 1995 he said there's a delegation from sallee there in Fairfax at the WIA SA basically you know that the mod they called it back then the Institute in Fairfax he said look there they've come to Fairfax and they're doing interviews for the Islamic University of Medina we need to go down and you know you can get your interview I was like I'm doing now okay so I skipped school the next day we got my car I think at least there was at least three of us we rolled down we did the interviews there and Fairfax and I remember dr. Mohammad IPV who interviewed me he asked me at the time he said okay so what are you doing right now said I'm studying at Temple University I'm a math major so and so forth he said if you get accepted to the Islamic University of mabini would you leave Temple University and come to Medina absolutely so so something that what happened was about seven months later I think it was July of 96 I got word that I was accepted to the Islamic University of Medina and so that was the beginning of my journey yeah so basically once I got word that it was that I was accepted to UM to the University I was actually in the summer semester at the time and yeah I would say that that was that was life-changing I was married I had one child a hungry lion that was born in May like just two months prior and I was living on my own I had a just perfect just bought a car like the week before and I got that information I was like some kind of law it's time to change I got a change I'm going to make you know I got to make a life change I wrote a letter to Temple University asking them to defer my scholarship I told then I was going abroad I wanted to study language and the foreign language and that I would be back in a year you know so I wanted to take two semesters off defer my scholarship and that was basically for me that was like something that I could fall back on they say look if I don't like it when I go over there well I've always got something to fall back on you know I went through the process all the paperwork medical exams and so forth and I came with my family in in September of 1996 my first impression of Saudi Arabia was that I don't think I can make it here because the heat is unbearable I honestly remember landing in Jeddah and you know you have to get off the plane to get on the bus as you know to ride to the terminal when they open that door it feels like somebody has a hairdryer like a blow dryer you know on your face and I'm saying is Pannalal what's going on I didn't know that there was a heat that existed like that and I remember that first day that I landed and you know two guys fighting over a parking spot in the shade and I thought of that Heidi on the day when there is no shade except for the shade of Allah you know really because those are not things that I'm thinking about you know in Philadelphia I in any event finally made it to Medina and I could tell you and that this would be something I would think is more specific forward to level and for those brothers who need to hear about what it means to have patients back then when I first came like I said in 96 nobody had telephones I mean obviously nobody had cell phones that didn't exist until later here but even in your home you know having a telephone was not standard so there was no connection to the outside world when you come here you buckle down all you think about is what you came here for and that is honestly that's one of the the ideas behind of lycia people of it in that you actually go out to seek knowledge that you travel that you go abroad right because the reality is is that when you are abroad the things that would normally distract you when you're in your residence and your comfort zone those things are not there anymore so you have to focus on the goal and keep your eyes on the prize you came here to learn Arabic you came here to learn about Islam you came here to memorize for it's time to buckle down that's it there's nothing else to do it was very difficult when I got here there were a total of including me and the brothers that came at the same time that I came there a total of 12 Americans so of course we all know each other I don't think there were many more British if they even had the same number so it was like all it was kind of like a Western thing like the Western people we all knew each other our wives had a very difficult time to say the least because again there's no connection to the outside world and we're going out at least we're going out every day either going to the Language Institute or those brothers who were in college at the time going to college but the sisters that weren't afforded that opportunity they hadn't they didn't have an institute for the women just yet that didn't come until maybe 98 something like that but back in 96 there was nothing so it was it was difficult and I would just say man as a man as a husband it was rough you know watching my wife go through those changes and trying to balance that with going to school five hours a day and school is very different I'm thinking the Islamic University of Medina I'm thinking Temple University right just juxtapose and in Medina where I have a 15 credit hours at the most or something like that you're going to school for five hours a day you're sitting in desk that were made for middle school students you literally the air condition is so loud that you can barely hear the teacher if they turn off the air conditioner everybody's going to die because it's a hundred twenty degrees outside so the conform II just adjusting to living conditions I took a lot man it took a lot it was it was not easy I will say that and that's an understatement but at the same time we came in September and Ramadan was like December that year and so there wasn't a long time Ramadan was beautiful mask panel on experiencing a Ramadan in the Muslim world for the first time just that BEC 200 in the prophets messages breaking fast and the prophets message it was it was an amazing experience and I would say that as Musa said to his people a Testaverde noon Ella dijo a dinner we let evil hate and you want to turn in that which is better for that which is worse when I considered everything when I when I took everything into consideration I recognize that Medina was such a blessing man along with the hardships but there is a reward for being patient with those hardships and I think that that is a conclusion that every student that is going to make it here eventually comes to is that yes there's a reward for being patient with this yeah we're going to go through some rough times and it was like that it was financially difficult like I said it was difficult for my family and a lot of other difficulties but a lot strata you know at the end of the day he didn't burden us with anything that we couldn't bear and alhamdulillah I made it through that first year and that was that was the critical year that was Adi critical year after that things got easier from a from a standpoint of conditioning now I know what I'm getting into I had no idea what I was getting into from the beginning but but after that it became clear and then I was able to reset I remember clearly in 97 that first year we went back the first summer I remember where I was I was driving and I was in Philadelphia and we were about we were back for about ten days and I hadn't heard the advance for ten days man called out loud you know other than July but you start getting used to certain things in Medina you media then five times a day it's very easy to get to the message so you're praying in congregation you always see another Muslims the lifestyle the lifestyle is very conducive to being a Muslim get back to Philly against Philly had a lot of Muslims that wasn't the issue it's just the life was different and I remember we were stopped at a red light and we bought it was about 10 days back we both were eager to get back to see our parents and so on and it was ten days in and we looked at each other the red light and we said it's time to go in other words it's time to go back to Medina we still had you know another two months of summer suspended in Philadelphia so after that first year I did another year in the my head and then they had banked them what they called me so Thomas the fifth level so I did that so I finished the mat in 1999 started the College of hadith studied in hadith for four years graduated from there in 2003 from there I did a graduate diploma in Dawa which I finished in 2004 2004 I started the master's in art even the master's program and Ikeda at that time was you do one year of coursework and then they give you three years for your Salah or your thesis so yes I started the master's in 2004 and I finished in 2008 but I didn't do the the defence until 2009 after that 2008 I started teaching at Loyola University so when I finished a master's I actually took a year off and that started my doctorate the testing for the doctorate in 2010 but the actual coursework didn't start until 2011 and now I'm waiting for my defence of the PhD look I see let me say this I think that every person who studies in this university the University of Modena or if you ask a Muslim in general what are yet aspirations for the future my aspiration is Jenna and I know that that might sound like a bit esoteric and a bit far you know like oh you know but when we talk about goals that we set for ourselves you you have to look at what is your endgame and then work backwards right because how do you get to that goal your goal in the future is to do a b c and d well you need to set certain things in motion that are going to get you to to that point and so that is honestly what i work back from i want to get to Jenna our prophet I need is selected with sedan semester coupling yelling Tameka Fenian Vince I had a logo that would be he thought he kind of goodness I mean whoever travels upon a path seeking knowledge and the loss of Tarragona will make easy for him by way of that knowledge by way that knowledge will make easy for him a path to agenda so honestly PhD means nothing to me it means that I had more of a responsibility to continue studying because the loss of Hannah Tyler blessed me to see how much I don't know and so my aspiration is to continue studying this Deen in a more systematic fashion than I did in the beginning of my studies so I'm a lot more aware now of how to study what I should be studying and that's something and I just want to continue to do until I dive in United I also think about the hadith of the prophet alayhi salaatu wa salaam where he said that if a person died when a person dies when the child of Adam dies that all of his actions are cut off except for three a what are the Masada from the other Ulla and a righteous child that makes die for him subject consumed area and he that perpetual charity and anyone Nathuram tough I will be he knowledge that people benefit from and you know I'd like to have stock in each one of those three companies I am doing my best by los zetas lead to raise my children to be righteous and I hope that that's that is a aspiration of mine that I have righteous children and that they make life for me in terms of Southwark orange area or that Perpetual charity it is my future aspiration to develop a system of open in the United States of America or endowments trusts foundations if you will terrible foundations but those that are that are based on not a system of two but will act or a system of charitable giving only but something that we have a solid investment and that the charity grows by itself I try to assess where we are as American Muslims what it is that we need to be doing what direction we need to be going into and I am obviously there's things ideologically is but but from a financial standpoint I think that for for generations now or for decades I can say we've been surviving on a donor based system and so a lot of the masajid are supported by the charity of the people who attend domestic living in the Muslim world you see that there's a different way to do that and you also study the history of Islam and you see that primarily the massage were supported by endowments somebody started a walk whether it was purchasing commercial property or residential properties and then taking the benefits of those properties and using them to cover the expenses of domestic but I also want to expand that concept and create endowments for a 94 educational projects and that's something that as you know a lot of brothers in their latter years in the jam you know when they're about to graduate they're always thinking what's next where do I go and it's not to say that they couldn't go somewhere and be any man with a message and and make any a reasonable salary but a lot of times that's not even dignified because a lot of the massage have been founded by people who have not acculturated to to America and so their concept of any man that somebody that's at the Masjid five times a day seven days a week just a total work force but then on top of that dining and on top of caring for the Muslims who come to the message and their children and the people who have problems you know whether it's marital issues or otherwise they are also required to do outreach and interfaith and and and so he's working 80 to 100 hours a week and the salary is not anywhere near what he could get even working a minimum-wage job somewhere and so and that's a shame and so it is it is my idea that we take these endowments that I'm you know that I hope to be a part of establishing and use them to fund educational initiatives to fund research to pay for the salaries of teachers who are working at the Islamic schools or underpayments on and so forth that's in terms of ammonium tech I will be or knowledge that people benefit from and that would be the typical answer that most people would expect from somebody graduating from Islamic University of Medina are there's no doubt that I want to take an academic path whether that is teaching people and I feel like that's a duty of mine that is a capitalism you know that is these account of the knowledge that we lost and Allah has blessed you with however little it may be that you give back and so I definitely want to teach in a systematic fashion such that a person can really get a good understanding of Islam without spending spending the minimal amount of time possible meaning they're studying the right things the right way building that data and so I do want to develop those kinds of curricula if you will that will help Muslims to understand their religion but it has to have some is and it to have real to be honored to be Muslims to be proud to be Muslims and to recognize that this way of life is the way of life that illogical data has decreed for his servants so in terms of academic pursuits and there is the creation of institutes and infrastructure that will support this systemization of of knowledge that's a real word and as well as some ideas that I have for books that I'd like to do in other forms of getting the knowledge of its land out to the people let me wrap it up by saying this man you know I came into this Dean at the age of like he said 15 16 as a baby and spent 21 years in the city of the Prophet idea salon to ascend up until now and Al hamdulillah I've learned so much one of the main things that I've learned is that there's a lot more to learn but but I'll say this I see a trend happening in America based on my study of Christianity this liberalizing of American Islam or what they want to say is progressive interpretation of Islam and this is very dangerous and opens up doors that people couldn't imagine any when we call for a reinterpretation of this land and that is an interpretation that is different from the way that the prophet alayhi salaatu wa salaam taught his companions in the way that they taught that a being and so on and so forth then you're opening up the door for extremists and you don't even realize it because what's happening is people go extreme to the left and they go extreme to the right so just the same way you have people who want a progressive interpretation of heejun such that you have some people that say that even a bikini is he jet because it covers the private area that is a reinterpretation of what the private area is because it's not covering what is outer and it's land but the same way you have that interpretation which you can say is Alfred liberal if you give them the license to reinterpret why can't you give this all the same license to groups like Isis and al-qaeda and all these other ones who are reinterpreting the text and twisting them to make them mean what they want it to mean which is totally against the classic interpretation of this man this is a dangerous call and we have to as Muslims who have some sense of what it is that Islam requires of us we have to be very active in educating our people the beauty of Islam as is without any of these reinterpretations and to have some pride in our Deen and to learn more about Islam the Escalus of Chanukah with data to increase us and knowledge but be Sydney Elma

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Keywords: islam, muslim, muslims, islamic, quran, koran, allah, muhammad, mohammed, mohamed, prophet, hadith, sunnah, shaykh, imam, lecture, khutbah, khutba, ramadan, bilal philips, sufi, salafi, hanafi, hijab, nasheed, nashid, almaghrib, dars, halaqa, bayan, convert, revert, shahada, dawah, da'wah, maher zain, sami yusuf, atheism, science, atheist, qur'an, recitation, surah, afasy, religion, religious, deen, madhhab, shia, sunni, Tahir Wyatt, lady Gaga, Troy Carter, Saajid Lipham, Ilmstitute

Id: Gx6JhmTxk38

Length: 35min 16sec (2116 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2017