A Message to the Legendary Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu family

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Here is a big deal decision with sia. Poof avo participant o programa. De show seguro saibaba Shah motiva. gabra Sombra says that Allah cha cha. Hello, everyone, please join us in a drink Show. I'm pretty sure you guys are gonna find a big segment tonight. Thank you.

He's been to Salt Lake. Ooh, welcome, Sam. Rebecca to the bank to the bank to the bone. Was that mean? Yeah, for the people that don't understand Portuguese Brazilian. So that means What's up? How's it going? How are you? Now? I mean, you just hit home man, because I've been so excited. You know, I come from a background that I've been trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, okay? The the people, my teachers, they originate from Brazil. Right. And some of the I mean, some of them are the nicest, friendliest people, you know, and they're really welcoming and warm. And, you know, I used to travel there to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And I always wanted to, and I have shared, you know, with many

of them the purpose of life and trying to, you know, talk to them about this, but it's different when they hear someone who's from the culture from the background, and you're Brazilian, and in a predominantly Catholic environment. Now, how did you? How did how did you end up becoming a Muslim one who submitted to the will of God, that's what a Muslim is in your Brazilian houses was that? Well, you know, sometimes I think, you know, every time we talk about Brazil, the first thing that comes out of people's mouth is Carnival, the beaches, the surfing, and I'm not going to say the other items, that tends to be the stereotypical, you know, but, you know, like you said, you know,

it's a predominantly Catholic culture. And it mostly, like I said, when we say Catholic, it doesn't mean that the people necessarily follow those, those beliefs. It's more of a cultural thing. And for me, growing up, I kind of grew up in the, the cultural side of the Catholic faith, just, you know, christmas new years, and but when it came in February, Carnival, you partied up and you did everything that you really weren't supposed to do, right. And then you get back again, and you repent, and you do all this stuff again. But for me, I think the pivotal point in my life was when I immigrated to the US in 1990. You know, I think, and I actually came on myself, I remember I was

nine years old, and the stewardess talking to me in English, I can understand the word that they were saying, but for me, it was this melting pot, this cultural shock of just coming to the US and meeting people of different nations and different songs in different colors and different backgrounds. And that was really an eye opener for me. And while I was in Brazil, like I said, I grew up in a place called New Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That's where you were born you go to Rio de Janeiro huge Ashanti area, that's why people you say how do you say properly huge meal because the ru the H Exactly. Yeah. And and usually people from Rio we call them caddy. locka. So if you're from

Rio, I think the Brazilian audience, they probably know what I'm talking about. I'm considered a kajioka. Because that's kind of like the nickname you know, like say from New Yorker, New Yorker. So we say I'm a Carioca. I'm from Rio. Exactly. Now you also train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you know, the gracies who are the developers of this art that came over to the United States and had the ultimate they the ones that develop the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and they prove without a shadow of a doubt that it is the most effective martial art in the world? That's how they became known. Do you know about you obviously know about the Gracie Yeah, absolutely. No, you know, growing up in Brazil,

you know, we always heard about the familia Gracie, the family Gracie. And, and I did cup where I think most people probably don't know, Cup Winners and other traditional martial arts that was actually started by the African slaves, first disguised as kind of like a dance and ritual, but really, it was more of a training technique to protect themselves from the plantation owners. But growing up in Brazil, you know, and the beach and that environment. You know, I think there's a lot of my Cheeseman. Right so I did have a lot of friends who were jujitsu fighters. But really for me, my family wanted me to do more of the traditional Taekwondo and capoeira. But when I came to the US,

I really got into grappling I wrestled part of my middle school year and when I joined the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps has its own martial arts program. mcmap so it's a lot of grappling and actually talking about the Gracie they introduced a lot of the grappling from the Gracie family. So you know, Hickson Gracie, I've seen him. A couple of

I met him and Matt Hickson. Yeah, for our audience that doesn't know Hickson Gracie has you know, they they know Swartz negar, they think that's a real strong guy. Yeah, but no Muhammad Ali, but Hickson Gracie, you know, in his time or even to the days of undefeated

martial artists, martial artists, people know that it's like 400. No, exactly. Yeah. And I think it kind of goes into, and I know probably the viewers, you know, they don't know about the story about O'Connor right, who was a companion of the Prophet peace be upon them. And this particular companion, he was somebody who our guests at that time, let's say he was kind of like the Hickson Gracie if we can try to compare. So he was somebody in the time in Arabia that nobody can beat him down. No one can take him down. And if your comes, you know, just undefeated, ultimate wrestler, Grappler Going to the Beloved Prophet peace be upon them and challenging him. Not only once, not

only twice, but the third time and then finally the third time he says eyeshadow Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah Shadowhunter Sula, meaning I be witness and testify that there's only one God and that the Prophet Muhammad is a final messenger. So I think when I became a Muslim, and I and I, and I came across that prophetic saying, you really kind of just opened my eyes and like, wow, it's an incredible story, just to see that this man was able to say, you know what, I was knocked down. And this is the Prophet of Allah. But yeah, I always think about Hickson grace. And I always think about the story of Locanda. And I just say, it's something that I can equate, you know, between the two of

them, I know, a lot of the Brazilians, they can relate, if they look into Islam as submission to the will of God, they see that it's something rational is logical, you know, many of them have good etiquettes good manners, you know, good character, just, you know, nice people in general. So, is there what kind of Muslim outreach is there? Is there I know, when I was there, I found a smaller mustard was like 1% Muslims there, and how can we like, you know, do more to help deliver the message of the purpose of life, you know, to the people in that, in that part of the world? Yeah, Brazil is a very big country. And it's actually part of the acronym brick, which a British economist

actually came up with that terminology. So Brazil, Russia, India, and China. So it's a it's a country that's developing very fast. And I don't know, I don't know if the viewers know, you know, but actually, in 2014, the World Cup is going to be in Brazil in 2016, the Olympics. So there's a lot of Muslims, Brazilian Muslims, like myself, there are a lot of Brazilians that are accepting Islam, especially in the city of San Paolo, because there's a big Lebanese community in Brazil. And through those immigrants who came, obviously, they bought into Islam. But you do have a lot of people accepting Islam and real The problem is, you know, you have a beach culture, a beach

environment, and and it kind of tends to be a more of a challenge, you know, how do you go ahead and present this beautiful way of life, but Brazilians are very down to earth. They're loving people. They're very friendly. And I'm pretty sure you know that already. Yeah. And I think as part of my culture, that's what it is, you know, we say, we're, I'm meetings, we're friends, and they're very hospitable people, as well. And I think this is part of the nature of the people there maybe has something to do to tropical climate. But when I went there a couple of times, you know, to visit my family to go to business, you know, the first thing and when they see they see the beard, you know,

they see the the hat the Koofi, and they think all of us out to be you know, you're Arab. And you know, but they see it in a friendly way. And unusually, you know, there's a lot of stereotypes which are called frequent status. So usually we have to break away those stereotypes. And once you break away those stereotypes are like, Well, I didn't even know that i don't know that i don't know that Muslims believe in Jesus that you know, there's a chapter in the Quran called, you know, certain medium, the chapter of Mary, we didn't know that Abraham, Moses, these are all prophetic, you know, prophets that got sent to humanity. So once you start explaining to them these things, it's really

an eye opening because unfortunately, the media they're just like anywhere, you know, they give a lot of false claims about Islam. So I think once you start addressing the real issues, that that people say, I want more, I want more kettle mines or kettle mines. So and then that's when you really you know, begin the work of propagating Islam, the Creator of the heavens and the earth the One God the same guy that Jesus worship Abraham, Moses, the creator who created creation you know, through his last and final messenger we know that is the same that if you're not thankful to the people, you know, thankful to God so I know myself I'm very thankful to this family, the Gracie

family that I got to benefit and learn this art that I'm getting to pass on to others teaching people how to defend themselves in certain situations, you know, training living a healthy lifestyle they've been caught a Gracie diet wonderful people and I you know, to give back you know, I can give them let's say money or you know, give me a house a car, you know, these material things that you know, they'll perish, you know, at the end, but I feel the greatest gift that we can give is to share this message of peace purpose, Islam, if we can share it with them so hopefully some of them you know, are tuning in I'm good friends with a lot of them and come to the law thanks to the

creator that I got a Brazilian Muslim on the show. So let's dwell into this before we go to break, you know, beach volleyball and at the beach, drinking

All these are parties and all that stuff. But you know, most people, it's not satisfying to the soul, you know, to me just chasing your lesson desires. You were living that like karneval. And you know, just a freestyle lifestyle. You know, why is it important to think to ponder about purpose of life? Why have I been created? I'm going to die soon, where am I going? When I die? You thought about these questions all the time, in the time that I grew up in Brazil, in Brazil, there was a lot of violence. And I know you've been to Rio and the thing about Rio was that, you know, you have the richest of places and poverty is right in your face, Eddie, you know, you have the favelas, the

slums, and growing up in this economical injustice, you know, you saw a lot of hostility. So growing up, I remember times, in Brazil, I didn't have the fruit, you know, the pretty yellow bus, I had to walk to school, you know, actually close to two miles up the hill. And there was a time a season where, you know, just like, maybe you're driving down the road, and you see a dead squirrel, but there was times that, you know, as a young man, as a young boy, I saw a lot of dead people in the street, because the violence was so strong. And I think seeing that, as a young child seeing that, wow, you know, this, this physical state, it's gonna, it's gonna die. One day, I'm not going to be

here. So at a very young age, you know, beings, you know, seeing death like that right in front of your face, I've always asked, you know, you know, what's the purpose of life? Why am I here? And, and I think that's something that from the very beginning, God was already calling me who's already, you know, calling me to the straight path to this way of life. And, and it's something that a lot of Brazilians, you know, at that time, even now, there's still a lot of violence. But as things are changing, you know, as anywhere, it's becoming materialistic, but you still have people who are humble, who are down to earth, and they know that all this material, having fun karneval enjoying

the beach life, you know, I think after a point, you've kind of said, I did everything. And that was the situation with me, you know, I did everything at a young age, I experienced everything. And after that, you say, what else? And I think once you hit that point, you know, that's when there's a void. And you start saying, Well, you know, what else I have done everything. What else do I do? And, and for me, it was, you know, a new life experience. And like I said, from a very young age, you know, seeing that and going through a near death experience, I think, is something that kind of woke me up and choked me up and say, you know, I need to find what's the purpose of life, I need to

go ahead and discover who is the Creator of the heavens and earth. And I began that journey, I began that journey and all praise be to God. I'm here, and I'm grateful to be a Muslim. And most importantly, being grateful to be in a country where we have freedom of religion. And even though I never had the privilege prior to Islam, to know, a Muslim, you know, I read about Malcolm X hydromatic, of shabads, and just reading his autobiography, especially when when he went to Mecca, and he said, I sit next to my brother with the blond hair and blue eyes, you know, I always gives me the goosebumps, because it's just an amazing story. And ever since I've read that autobiography, I

wanted more, I wanted more. And then, you know, eventually, I think the main thing that caught my attention was a PBS program was, you know, getting power from a public broadcasting station. I don't know if you ever heard of the religion and ethics program on PBS. So I was actually watching a program with Michael Wolfe was a Muslim convert. He did a lot of beautiful production American American broadcasts Exactly. And in this particular show, it was a story about two Americans who accepted Islam. I remember Sunday morning, sitting there and watching this program, and being like, wow, I want to, I want to follow that way of life. I want to experience that piece that they're

experiencing. And I remember the next day, you know, college guy in New Jersey at that time, and obviously all tatted up and I remember I went to school, and that's when I actually made the decision to go to the Muslim soon Association at Montclair State University and meet the Muslims. We're going to continue on with your story. And we're going to start giving some evidence because Islam is not something that is overtakes you, you get philosophical and you have this mystical experience. Islam is calling you the creator's calling you to reflect and think and is based This truth is based on proof on evidence. Is that right? That's right, and we're gonna dig some more

Thompson portugues. We'll be right back. I want to

spend moments in

the show tell

everybody in deep down they believe that there is a God Yeah. And as much as they deny.

If God exists, and he does, if God says prophets, and he does if God reveals books, and he does, should he not tell me how to live my life? Doesn't that make sense?

They feel more secure and safe now, inside the religion of Islam than they ever felt out in the streets.

The best way to bring true profound happiness, true, profound peace, true profound tranquility, is by following the guidance that God has given.

You.

See for yourself, what Islam has to say because it really is

The path to happiness and truth in life comes to you the truth and the attribute of the one who created you that he's one and alone, running this universe, that he doesn't become born, he doesn't die, he doesn't eat and go to the bathroom. This is not God. problems here.

Doesn't make sense. Who is Jesus worshipping? This is recorded in the Gospels and despite all of the other issues about the Gospels, we put those aside and just say it's mentioned there that Jesus, worship God

from hunger.

Yo, welcome back to the Dave Show. Hey, man, what's going on? We started again without me man. hamdulillah listen now, okay, party is getting played out. You know, you've had all the money and you've had all this fame, and many people that are chasing these vain pursuits. But def cons, it's a reality. You know, it's a party stumper. You just don't want to talk about it, but we're all gonna die. And there's a purpose to life and the one who organized life there is a creator. I mean, most Brazilians don't they believe that, you know, what, this whole universe and everything and it didn't just happen by chance? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, and that's something that in my culture in

the way I grew up, you know, an open society and being taught to respect people of different backgrounds. I mean, you do overall, you Brazilians tend to be aware and keen about the spirituality, you know, you know, they talk about the spirit of the spirituality of life, and, you know, the purpose of life. And, you know, what is the afterlife, you know, that's something that you have a lot of Brazilians who actually, you know, look into that subject about their hereafter afterlife, you know, obviously, we don't believe in reincarnation, but we do know that we will be resurrected by our Creator, and we will face what they say in Portuguese. God uses, you know,

Judgement Day. So you do have a lot of reasons to believe in that. And obviously, as Muslims, we know, that our Creator, a law God, that we will be before our Creator on the Day of Judgment. So tell us now, design, obviously, in the case of designer, and we're intelligent human beings. So we know that there has to be someone who's responsible, everything has to create it, right. So now, what was it, you believed in a creator, you partied your life? At one point you were partying, having a good time, and now you're like, Okay, I got to figure out the purpose of life, death came into equation, you're like, I'm gonna die, but to figure this out before I die? And then what was it

about this way of life, Islam submission to the will of God, that captivated your attention even more. So the evidence is the proof so that Brazilian whoever else in the world He's like, I need some proof. I don't want to follow organized religion, organized by man or men, I want to I want to follow a way of life that is from the Creator, not a human being. Absolutely. And you know what, these are all important questions, and even myself before becoming a Muslim, anyone who submits to the will of God. How do you say that in Portuguese? musulman.

Muslim? And what how do you translate? kings to be metrodeal? is one who submits to God, that's it. Okay. So I, you know, I had all those concepts. And I went to an Episcopalian boarding school in Boca Raton, Florida, and obviously not having to go to chapel and three times a day. And having gone to like a religious type school and Episcopalian, which is a sect of Christianity, and being

always learning, learning the Scripture and trying to understand the Scripture, you know, whatever variation, whatever language, I always wanted to understand the Scripture. And I think for me, after I had my medical discharge from the Marine Corps, and going through a difficult experience during my training and a near death experience, I think that really was an eye opener in when I moved back to New Jersey and I went to college, and studying anthropology. I think that was another way of learning different cultures, learning different languages. And one particular course, we studied what's called, you know, the cultures of the Middle East. And in that particular question, I really

learned a lot about what is the Middle East? And what are the different cultures and obviously, Islam, there's a lot of Muslims in the Middle East. And when I begin to search and watching that program on PBS, I think, you know, to those people who say, Well, I don't want to follow organized religion, but I'll tell you something, I never plan I never wrote down in my agenda that in 2004, November of 2004, a college student, I was going to go to the Muslim Student Association that I was going to go there and become a Muslim because the way it happened is you know, here I am Philippi matchings, Philippe Martin's, a guy from huge Angular Brazil, here him and for me

It happened as if like it was the will of God. Like it was something that that was the will of God. And it's sometimes people they want something tangible, right? They want something that they can feel. And the feeling that I had is like going there, and seeing the Muslims and being welcomed. And I'll tell you, I never knew what the word Shahada was, which for your heroes, I don't know if they know the declaration of faith. But everything that a Muslim believed, I already believed, I believed in the one God, the Creator of the heavens and earth, because I'll tell you, when my grandmother had the image of Jesus peace be upon them as a blond haired, blue eyed, fierce skin, not that there's

anything wrong with that, you know, these are just the pigmentation of your skin. But that was the image of what my grandmother told me. That's God. And as a young, a young child, imagine, I say, How can God be a creative thing? And I remember when I would ask that the priest would just say, we have to have faith, you know, how do I have to go to you to seek forgiveness, and I seek the forgiveness from the one who created you and I. So as a young child, I think that's something that's called the fit that it's a neat, and when I went to the Muslim Student Association, I already had those beliefs. So for me, it was a desire to go back to something that I was I was already part of. And I

remember one of the brothers, you know, he said, Well, you should take your Shahada. But I remember Eddie, I said, You know what, I want to Shahada. Where's the Shahada? You know, having been in a fraternity, I say, okay, where's the ritual, but it wasn't dunking on the water or doing some crazy ritual, it was just sincerely declaring that I bear witness and testify that there's only one deity with your worship, which we say Allah, Arabic, and that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is the final messenger. And I believe that, especially after I read the book, I believe we covered it in one of your shows, the 100 Most Influential People in history. And I read that as a student, and

I was amazed by the character of Muhammad, peace be upon them. And having been in the military, not only from the military aspect from a statement of father, and just seen this wonderful man. And I think, you know, that was another way that really caught my attention, reading about the who is the Prophet Muhammad, and that really opened up so much doors for me just to say, I want to emulate and follow in his footsteps. Now, what was at the end, so you took this step forward, you found out that Islam was true, based on proof. And then you took the Shahada, you declared that there's nothing worthy of worship except the Creator of the heavens on earth. And Mohammed is the last and final

messenger, your relationship with Jesus didn't get cut off? It didn't. It didn't get caught off. If anything, it became more clear and evident because Jesus Himself never pour plain, nor did he ever say, because obviously, nowadays, no one speaks Aramaic, no one speaks the actual language. And obviously, Bible comes from the Greek word vbios. So just to make a long story short, you know, after studying extensively, and I wanted to become a pastor, I wanted to actually go into that route. So I begin to read a lot of engage other different versions of the Bible. But if anything, he made it more clear in crystaline, understanding that Jesus, the son of Mary, whom Allah sent to this

earth, for the people, at that time, was a way for people to be guided to the right way and that particular time and place and that the Prophet Muhammad is the final he's called the Futterman. I mean, he's the seal of the prophets, if anything, made it much more clear. And I think it's you can't just blind follow anything. You have to seek the truth and seek knowledge and be objective and try to understand because once you really are sincere, God will guide you to the right way. We're gonna come back with more to wrap it up here on the show, don't go nowhere.

On the outside, everything looks good. You see the $100,000 cars, you see a lot of diamonds you see a lot of females and they think that this is you know, this is a life this is this is like no paradise right here.

To go into someone's heart and change their heart, your job is to tell people what the truth is. The reality of it is while we're sitting here, while I'm sitting here, constantly paying for the disease, to kill was free.

And if we're going to worship something, I figured I might as well worship the Creator, instead of any of the creations.

Now it upon investigating the religions, I remember finding out the meaning of what Islam is what a Muslim is. Those who surrender their self to God is a Muslim. Those who cement submit to God, God's will that Islam was pure, it was just, you just pray to God your Creator.

Back here on the dean show, with

Philippe Philippe Philippe to the bone to the bay Mamiya array and we are reaching out to all of humanity especially the people that really dear to my heart, the Brazilians and we know about the Gracie family Hickson Gracie hoist Gracie. I would just with the Gracie, who father brought the Ultimate Fighting Championship here. henner Gracie, and we try and Carlos Gracie Jr. is my teacher Marcio. feitosa, so many people to mention hens Oh, Gracie, no hens, oh, Gracie, and so many of the graces that I really, you know, love dearly, and we really want to share this purpose of life with them. So continue on, we're almost out of time. So again, helping people such as themselves, who are

successful, and they have so much, and why do you feel it's important like you did to stop and reflect that, look, I should be thankful to God, the Creator who created me. And you mentioned we mentioned Jesus, many people are connected to Jesus, but as a Muslim, that and cut your connection over this confusion over this man, right? But Islam cleared it up that Jesus was a mighty messenger of God, never did he ever say he was God. Right? He called people to worship God. Absolutely. And from there, you you figured out that this has to be the truth. So give us some other things that you feel that they can relate to, from your experiences that will help them along the way to at least,

you know, stop, reflect and look into this some more investigate this form and investigation, look into the verbatim Word of God and do some homework. Absolutely. And kind of just going back to it. You know, at that, at that particular point in my life at EA when when I was searching for the truth I was searching for what is the right way? And what's my purpose of life. And I think you know, everybody, you know, at one point or another, we always ponder and you say, you know what, you know, you think about a ticket, the boarding pass. And you know that the boarding pass, there's a time of departure. And I I say that to my Brazilian moms, the moms and brothers, my brothers and sisters in

humanity, that you know what, we have this departure ticket, and we have a departure time. And all of us will face that particular particular time. But we don't know when so i think is we have to prepare and in preparing that in this wonderful way of life. It's a way of life that brings success not only in this life, but God Willing in the hereafter. And it's a way of life that brings about so many good things, bullish squeezes good things, things that will make you a better person, a better father, a better son, a brother, husband, whatever it is, if you're a professor in jujitsu, it's gonna make you a better professional Jiu Jitsu, if you're a competitor in Jiu Jitsu is going to make

you a better competitor Jiu Jitsu. And I say that because I find that now that I'm a Muslim, and things are so much clearer, right, I'm not chained. I'm not enslaved, by what culture and what society wants you to be. Because if you become enslaved by what society wants you to be, you're never gonna fully evolve as a human being. And that's what I wanted to do. I didn't want to being shackled by what society wanted me to be how I have to work, what kind of car I have to have, how much money God doesn't care if you have one cent or a billion dollars in the bank, or if you drive a Ferrari or hoopty as we say, in my neck of the woods. So it's more about who you are as a person who

you are as a human being. Before we leave just in Portuguese break down some of the the main crux of the matter of Islam and we can go expound on this for so long but did we only have like, give me like 30 a minute in Portuguese, and then just break it down summarize in English Go ahead.

Back to the the brother Eddie. primera cosa Islam, the most frequent sects of Islam Islam, El Camino adoos now Kashmir assigns you to the professor's Professor Don Barbra home she's Jewish village Maria usual Professor Mohammed Pasha community equal safety association was a past one Tampa Tampa when you see a slum you say conservatives have a serum which does some massaging. Mr. oj Did you view the the process there's a bunch coming on Illumina I saw multiple God. Now what do you say briefly just real quick, basically just saying that Islam is a way of life it's it's a way that brings about success. And it's the message that all the profits from Adam, Abraham, Noah, Jesus, the

son of Mary, in the last prophet, Muhammad, it's a way of life that it brings about success. And it's a way of life that for sure it's going to make you a better human being thank you very much for God Almighty, the creator, Allah reward you for being with us. Thank you so much. And that was it. Another episode of the Dean's show when you die and we will all die. And there's only a few things that follow us to the grave. I'm telling you right now, this is the truth. This is the truth. Your family will follow you and you will follow you and then your actions which you did in this life. But the only thing that's going to carry on over with us to the next slide are your actions, your

wealth,

and your material goods stay behind. And the only thing that you can take with your your actions

The best action that you can have in this life is to work to please your Creator before you meet him to worship the Creator, and not his creation, not to worship Jesus not to worship Moses, Muhammad, but to worship the God who created this whole universe and everything in it. The same God that Jesus worship, the same God that all of mankind profess, that created this creation. That's the one God So now is the chance to reflect Why have I been created? Where am I going when I die? And now is the time to beseech to ask to ask the creator for guidance before it's done. And then you got the Hellfire in front of you and paradise. Now you can extend your head for paradise union work for so

work right now hard in this life, to be the best that you can be following God's game plan, not your desires. So we hope you got the benefit one 800 662 Islam and read this book The Karate pick it up, read it, you read everything else. We'll see you next time peace be unto you.