 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, wa sallam wa rahmah. Thank you everybody for coming. It's an honor to be here today and it's an honor to have these two incredible guests with us from the Laa. I'm really excited today because you know I feel like one of the really great beautiful things about being Muslim is just sort of getting to know our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters and hearing their stories, learning from it, and increasing in brotherhood and sisterhood. So they have a really great opportunity to do that today with two very special people and you know I know a little bit but I don't know a lot of it and so I'm really excited myself to learn more and I think everybody is really gonna benefit from it and find it very interesting inshallah. So I'm not going to introduce our guests because basically this whole session is for them to introduce themselves to us and we're gonna get to really know them a lot better. So we have sister Amber Librock here with us and brother Mujeeb Hamid or MJ here with us as well. So we'll start with sister Amber if you could just basically just set the stage for us. Tell us a little bit about like you know how and where you were born, your family situation, how you grew up. Okay hi everyone I'm Amber Librock. I was born in Hayward, California. I was born and raised right here in Hayward, California, lived there my entire life and yeah when I grew up I didn't come from a very religious background where I grew up was kind of rougher. It wasn't as bad as some places out here in the Bay but you know it wasn't the best. I grew up with a mom who was an addict and she also suffered from just some kind of like abusive tendencies to her children. So I grew up a little bit rough with my mom and when I was eight years old my father unfortunately passed away. So I was raised by my grandma and my grandma Hamdali La was there for me and she took care of me and she raised me to the best that she could but my grandmother worked two jobs when I was growing up so it left me with a lot of time on my own and my mom was kind of in and out of my life. My mom was very young when she had me so she was around then she wasn't around she was around and wasn't around then she ended up starting to have my brothers and so I have three wonderful brothers who we all kind of grew up the same and when I was kind of left to my own vices because my parents were around and my grandma was working two jobs I unfortunately ended up doing what some kids do and turn to the streets and kind of turn to some bad group of people well they weren't bad groups of people they just weren't doing the best of things you know so I went through that little venture of my life kind of growing up in gangs and you know violence same way I grew up when I was a kid and then I started losing a lot of my friends to gun violence and different kind of violences of that way so I was like you know let's just switch this whole thing and let's party instead because that's so much better for you right so then I ended up kind of venturing off into that world where I unfortunately developed my own addictions with alcohol and drugs and ended up losing a lot of friends in that lifestyle as well whether it was from overdoses or unfortunately a lot of suicides in my life and yeah and so all of that brought me to a person who I dated for a very long time I actually met them in the party scene and they were already a professional fighter and that is how I found fighting and when I found fighting I started to clean up my act and I became an athlete and I started to yeah just clean up my act and do some better things make some changes I got clean I got off of drugs I got off of alcohol and I had some really good runs and I eventually ended up going pro and yeah that's where our stories will eventually intertwine so you said you have three three brothers yes I'm the oldest yeah so I'm the oldest and then I have Joseph Michael and Matthew Joseph's about 30 right now Matthew was 23 and my youngest brother is 21 just turned 21 my brother Matthew lives with me and my other two brothers live in Idaho where my mom and my stepfather moved so when my mom had my youngest brother my youngest brother was severely sick he had holes in his heart and he had this disease where his heart beat it went like double the speed it should have so it went really really fast per minute and like you used to be able to see it like beating out of his chest but a humbly love because that is what forced my mom to get clean so when my mom ended up having my little brother and he was so sick she was like wow like I can't like leave this for anybody else I have to kind of take control and she had been with my stepfather pretty much the year my dad died she met my stepfather who unfortunately was in and out of the jail system so when they had my littlest brother my mom ended up getting clean my stepfather got out of prison and they both decided that they were going to change their life and when they decided to change their life they all moved to Idaho and I ended up staying here with my grandmother and right now so this day me and my mom are good so you know I tell the story and I want people to also know the other side but my mom changed you know her life and my mom really has come a really really long way and her and I have fixed our relationship and you know forgiveness comes from you know within and forgiveness comes for the person not for the other person you know forgiveness is for self and you know that's what her and I did I ended up forgiving her and letting it all go and her and I now have a beautiful relationship so if you reflect back on like the earlier time you were saying like this sounded like you were saying you got into by games and and like like you know maybe good good people been doing not the best things what were the sort of the reasons you ended up in that space you feel like well I think where I grew up in Hayward all of us were kind of dealing with the same thing whether our parents were on drugs or they were abusive or you know one of our parents had passed away at a young age so it just ended up being a group of kids that didn't really have nowhere to turn like we had nowhere to go but with each other and in Hayward in like certain parts of the Bay Area like gangs are a big thing and and when you don't have a family at home to turn to you turn to something that's similar to a family and you know they do they accept you they love you they want to take care of you like sometimes it comes at a price you know but so I think it was just a bunch of kids looking for love in all the wrong places and it just happened to be there you know on the streets just trying to find a purpose trying to find you know something to just help us all keep going and then and then you said the next stage was you sort of decided to leave that what how old were you and that happened when you made the transition out of that I was about like 21 so I was about 20 21 when I was like you know I'm losing a lot of friends to the gun violence I had met this a girl who was like oh you got to come with me like I'm gonna take you somewhere it's gonna be so much fun and at the time it was it was a lot of fun at first but it all came the fun didn't last you know because then you start to develop your own problems and your own addictions and then you really start to face your own traumas and your own just you know skeletons in your closet and drugs and alcohol don't do anything but highlight the bad parts you know it feels good for a second but they really just at the end of the day was highlight all the bad parts and everything you're running from and everything you're trying to fix and all those things you know and at the time I knew nothing of religion you know my mom would sometimes get clean and then you know we studied with some Jehovah Witnesses and we studied with Seventh-day Adventists but nobody ever really explained religion to me you know it was just always a new group of people and you know a Bible study here Bible study there but nothing was religious based so there was no like who do we turn to you know and then so that you made the transition to the story so the more like a partying like the game type stuff and I guess then you said you met somebody who introduced you to the fight yeah yeah so in the midst like I ended up meeting a lot of people through like this six-year span and I was about 24 25 when I think it was like 24 when I met my my this person who introduced me to fighting because they were already a profiter and I did end up meeting them through party scene because we knew a lot of people in the same scene and they were even though they were profiter they were struggling with a lot of their own alcohol abuse which now they're clean and sober for many many years and still fighting but yeah so that's kind of how we met and then I knew nothing of fighting I knew nothing of sports I was never an athlete I was never anything of those sorts so when I first started training I was just kind of doing it to stay in shape and fitness and just you know lose weight and just you know be a part of their life a little bit and then they ended up breaking up with me and I was devastated right like what am I gonna do so I just stayed in the gym and someone was like you know you should really try a jujitsu and I was like oh well I don't know anything of jujitsu so okay I'll try some jujitsu put on the gi started training jujitsu and then people were like oh we want you to be like aggressive like you know like go out there and I was the only girl at this jujitsu school at the time and I was like you want me to be a great they're like yeah like keep the boys you know like get them and I was like okay so I started to learn more jujitsu and you know I started to kind of chant that's where I learned that oh I can channel this energy I have and do something good with it and not you know run a muck or you know make bad choices and then I started competing and when I started competing I started winning and of course you win a bunch of stuff it just kind of like in tight what win or lose doesn't matter but I did I started winning I started doing really really well winning big jujitsu medals at you know white belt blue belt and then that's how I snowballed into actually doing MMA so did you stop using substances like alcohol drugs and stuff while you were when you started training it took me about a year so it took me a year and it wasn't really until I kind of got away from the first team I trained with and with the team I'm at you know with MJ's gym now with my other coach coach Kerry and his best friend they own CSA together but it took me a little bit of time to kind of like transition from one to the other and it really wasn't until my second fight as a pro that was a loss there was a really really bad loss you know I got beat up pretty much for three rounds and that was when I decided like if I'm gonna do this I have to give it my all I cannot mess around anymore I need to you know start doing myself some favors and get rid of everything that's holding me back so that's when I finally was like okay no more and that was what 10 years ago and I haven't done anything since that's incredible so brother MJ brother would you have same question to you just kind of tell us a little bit about how you grew up where you were born should be I think you might have done my name is Jeev I go by MJ my life is pretty you know something similar to probably a lot most of you guys you know I was born in Afghanistan and you know came here when I was six years old and with my with my mom with my auntie and my little brother unfortunately my father and my own close were all in person camps at that time you know during the war so when we first came to this country we came alone they escaped from Afghanistan into Pakistan and then from Pakistan to here you know fortunately they would you know it was it was very hard you know the the smugglers who were trying to smuggle us into Pakistan decided to leave my mom and my and my auntie and my brother so we found our way somehow into Afghanistan and then from that point on we my my uncle and my dad and everybody they escaped from the prison camps when they were held by the Russians and they made it to Pakistan and then somehow some way you know one of my uncles ended up here and sponsored us and we ended up in America so I kind of lived a pretty rough life as well too similar to what you know Amber but not as rough as Ambers but you know I grew up in gangs and you know I grew up with you know in the Fremont area and you know just like a lot of our Afghans and Pakistanis and Muslim brothers and sisters that you know grew up in Fremont I was a little bit more heavily involved in in in those in those sectors so but I had a pretty good reputation and everybody knew that not to mess with me you know so even back then so not a lot of people mess with me back then so growing up you know a lot of fights get into a lot a lot a lot of fights so yes a little bit back up so you were wearing Afghanistan where you were I was born in Kabul and then how old were you when you made the path to Pakistan six years old six so about five six you between five and six years old because you know us we don't know our birthdays pretty much you know listen you're a Virgo and I'm like I think so yeah what were you born in September 1st pretty sure that's when I was born yeah so you don't act like a Virgo so when what you said when they were the people who are smuggling even to Pakistan yeah they left behind your your mom and your auntie no they left he left all of us he took the money he left so he just took the money I left he got us a little further into thing and I remember us hiding inside the tanks and on the side of tanks and everything like that yeah so it was that that's that that was those are the parts that I I remember very well yes 100% I can remember those parts very well just trying to get to the other to the other end and it's and it's unfortunately it's it's similar to what what's going on right now you know we see the house and you know in a lot of other places you know they're working their way through and it's similar there's no social media back there obviously back then but you know it's it's pretty similar to what you know what the our brothers and sisters are going through right now so you were six years old you said you and your mom your auntie yep you my auntie my brother brother older than you my brother's younger than me yeah my brother's younger than me and then how did you eventually actually make it to Pakistan some you know somehow some way one of my uncles came to get us from across the border somehow he was in Pakistan already we don't even know how we ended up with him but we just ended up yeah so even my mom you know unfortunately my mom can't talk anymore because she had a stroke ten years ago so from the times when she would tell us it would tell us she's like we don't know how it happened but it happened so she can't even explain it or she couldn't explain it back then so so once you get to Pakistan where do you stay we say shower yep shower for how long two years two years two years of the show yep so do you speak Urdu and I did at the time I remember I remember you know speaking full fluent Urdu you know because my mother was a teacher my father was a principal so and yeah that's that's how we I think you were telling me before you speak Pashto and so so then when you're eight years old that's when you've come to the U.S. I was about yeah five to six like I said I who knows yeah but you spent two years in Pakistan and then you come and then you come straight to the bay I remember what I think I said oh I don't think Oakland Airport exists at that time yeah probably not flights from Pakistan and then so you so you land in Fremont yeah and that's what you were saying kind of environment was yes games yeah you know the thing was was you know being on you know government assistance being on you know welfare food stamps and housing and all that kind of stuff you're they're not gonna put you in the best areas you're not gonna be able to afford the best areas so guess what you ended up in one of the worst parts Fremont at that time was okay but you ended up in the back parts of Fremont because your parents can't afford a nicer home so that's what we ended up in downtown central and you know it wasn't the greatest you know the the back then the crypts of the bloods one street over you know so and then they would come over from Hayward they would come over from you know Oakland so fights would break out all day long so yeah so then how did you so you're you grew growing up in in Hayward you have a little brother and then how do you eventually get into like martial arts so my journey was a little bit later you know going through a lot of stress in life dealing with a lot of stuff and you know I really again wanted to not get into more fights you know so I decided to jump into kung fu so you don't want to get in fights so you do come through I wanted to let my aggression out of you know and ended up with not the greatest coach in the world but you know it made me realize a lot of things in life so you know then I took my aggression out there so versus out on the streets you gotta you know get into fights in a fight it's science really yeah that's true because if I know you trained them for like in the message so you know you did you feel like that word like it was a stress for you absolutely absolutely and honestly was one you know was one of the best things one of the best decisions I ever made and you know mom and dad's prayers really really really really I you know now that you think back you're like those are mom and dad's prayers they want they didn't want you in that environment they didn't want you so you would see them crying and hurting because they wanted you to have that education they wanted you to you know do something with yourself but and I think that that's what led me to there then that's what led me into the fitness industry and then that's what led me to you know owning a gym that's what led me into being in the finance world understandings so you know so I think these are the steps that a lot has taken you know you know the you know the fights on the streets you know dealing with stealing cars you know you know I would say I never robbed anybody fortunately but you know stealing cars and you know going out partying going to clubs all that so you know just one of those so take us to that journey a little bit like so you some kung fu and then we know now how that I am shall I have a very successful you know combat sports Academy but how did you get how did you get from just training and kung fu to that again the fight world you know dealing with a lot of a lot of stress a lot of home stress and all that stuff going from kung fu I met now today my best friend you know my business partner you know I was working out a 24 foot this one and I was just going through it you know and I was commuting I was all over the place you know I didn't have an issue working making money I was financially good but emotionally and mentally I was trying to find myself you know so I met my partner and my best friend today which is you know one Ambrose coach you know and my coach at that time he became my coach so I fought for him so he's like you know what I see something in you MJ I see something in you and and I went I was like that's a 24 fitness and I'm like I really like that shirt you're wearing you know and it just he's just like oh you do oh okay that's one of my favorite fighters I'm like well I want to I I would love to come and train with you I he goes yeah come and train with me he's like but I'm all the way in San Jose can you make it up I don't care where you're at and funny enough the guy that went with me is actually here tonight he went with me my first time surprising he was he went with me my first time when I met my partner we both we both trained together that one day on that point I wouldn't say that in a bad way but I fell in love with my current you know business partner you know we became best friends you know we are we are legitimately inseparable you know and we fight like cats and dogs we argue we laugh we joke we do we do everything you know so you're saying you fought for him so was that MMA I fought kickboxing I didn't wait time for him wait time yeah so I fought a few times and you know and my first-ever fight my first-ever fight it was in Las Vegas and I was I was like you know and I'm this tough guy you know and you know I fought the streets and you know and I'm like this is no problem for me you know he's like okay you need to lose 10 pounds though my I need to lose 10 pounds he goes yeah you're not at weight right now and he's like well you have a week to do it I said don't make me you get to Vegas make you lose 10 pounds that's gonna be even harder so obviously me you know being who I am you know I get to Vegas I'm 11 pounds overweight so he's like all right he made me put a sauna suit on he made me run outside in a 120 degree weather to get me to lose and he followed me in a car on the streets while I'm running falling while eating Wendy's he was eating when he was now I'm addicted to diet pepsi because he's you know and we always fight because I used to do the diet coke and he used to do the diet pepsi yeah so while he's drinking his diet pepsi he followed me in the car eating a french fry you know nice you know so get to the fight and I lose my weight I mean I get to the fight and I'm just like okay you know I'm ready to do this and all of a sudden my heart rate goes up I'm not doing this I'm not right I don't want to fight he goes what do you mean you're not fighting okay he pulls me aside I'm like I can't fight I'm not ready he goes he goes no you're ready no I'm not ready I walk out he grabbed me and he goes what are you doing I said I'm leaving he grabs me he slaps me in place he's like you are wanted to this day he tells me he goes you are the one and only fighter I have ever slacked you know he slapped me so straight that I went out there and I fought and I knocked the guy out yeah he's never he's never okay that's only sure so it was one of those yeah so that was and then I think that was a slap that started a partnership about a year later you know and it's been love at first sight ever since so yeah it was it's been it's been an amazing journey and we built that place to inspire people bring people like amber and multiple others you know ambers not the first convert to come out of combat sports academy ambers that the third third one to come out of calm we had another fight female fighter Jenna which we did her shada here as well too she moved back to New Zealand and then another friend of mine who was training over there as well too and he's a county sheriff's department he's another one that we had him do his shada here as well so yeah so there's more more converts coming out so tell us so we stopped Emory's view you're telling us that you you got into fighting you started having some success yeah you did too first and then eventually you decided to go go into MMA and you basically made it you know past the amateur all the way into the yeah so I got this really good all that cool offered so I was at this lower level gym in Hayward and I got this really good opportunity I was one in one as an amateur so I had one one and I lost one my first fight ever I lost like she dislocated my elbow so I was out for a long time and I won one and I lost one and then I got this opportunity and they were like hey can you make it to Vegas in five days like that you're we want to put you in as a last minute for a pro tournament so if you win the tournament you can go pro we'll sign you with Invicta and Invicta is an all women's fight organization only women fight on it and at the time Invicta was like the place to be for women you know and I was like yeah like let's do it you know I can make the way it went to Vegas and they're like oh you have a good showing and we'll bring you back don't worry well I ended up knocking the girl out in like 30 seconds and then came back in a couple months and beat the second girl so now I was three and one as an amateur and I had just won a four fight pro contract with at the time one of the biggest all women's organizations I went pro in Vegas and I don't know if many people know about fighting or who Rhonda Rousey is but she was kind of the one that took women's fighting to the next level in MMA well I ended up fighting her best friend and it was international fight week I was just going pro we're at the Cosmopolitan in Vegas it was like you know this big deal and I ended up knocking her out in 37 seconds as well um and then I had a second fight my second pro fight against a girl named Megan Anderson and Megan Anderson destroyed me for three rounds and at the time my corner didn't say anything like I remember people that were just my fight friends running up to the cage like instructing me like do this do this do this because I wasn't giving up I was tough but I was definitely losing the fight and after that one of my friends called me and was like hey coach Kyrian um his best friend the other owner our head fight instructor at CSA wants to talk to you he watched your fight and yeah he didn't like what he's seen anything so he can help you he wants to talk to you and um it took me a couple weeks to like get in there and like really go talk to him because I was like this loyalty didn't want to leave my gym didn't want to leave all these things because you know from Hayward loyalty is everything right but uh I eventually made the decision I was like you know what I want to be successful at fighting I want to give myself a fighting chance to actually do well so let me leave this gym that's obviously not really like on my side and let's go on over to CSA where coach Kyrian is and then that's where we met so that was the first time that you guys were yeah well I ended up just taking regular class and I was uh the the person that actually got me into fighting I brought them with me to CSA as well because we were still in a relationship at the time and I brought them with me to CSA as well so we were both training there um and yeah and then that's when we met I think it was just a random Muay Thai class and we met MJ so do you teach the Muay Thai class of that CSA okay so what year is that this is it's gotta be like seven years ago yeah it's probably like seven eight years ago yeah yeah so it was about seven eight years ago it's a while so do you remember that I do remember that yeah I went up to coach Kyrian I'm like who's that who's that girl who's the tall girl that's coming it's working out with that she's like oh he's like oh that's Amber Leibach like is she any good he's like she looks pretty good he's like she's good she'll be good for us I was always tough you know okay and then from that point on I think you know we you know me and Amber became you know really close friends and you know we started building that relationship of you know being you know very close you know and you know Amber would come to me for advice Amber would come to me for help Amber would come to you know there was there was different times you know he there's also coach K and then there's also me we always play the good cop back cop you know they give me different things like coach K super stern and MJ's a little bit more it could be a little bit more softer so like because I didn't have my own dad I did like have my step dad but MJ and coach Kyrian both have really stepped up to be positive male figures in my life that just whenever I need anything even now to this day like those are my guys those who I go to for sure so he's a good cop he's a good good cop yes yes sometimes when it comes when it comes to me yes yes coach K takes a little bit more of a sterner approach you know it's got to keep my attitude under wraps but we have to be there because you know we we do get all walks of life you know all sorts of people that come through there you know people that are hurting people that are paying people that have money people that are broke people that live out of their cars people that have just moved out of the country just to we will have people show up show up at our doors that you know literally just move from another country with their suitcases and say hey I'm here to train I need a place to live so we have to find them a place to live so kind of like what you guys do at the mosque here sometimes yeah so what do you think it is about martial arts or in the may that attracts people that helps them that helps some people get their lives on a better track like I think martial arts unites people I think martial arts unites all races cultures you know religions ethnicities it brings everybody together doesn't matter if you are you know like I said if you're if you're Muslim or you know or if you're Hindu it doesn't matter you know because everybody's treated equally over there you know everybody has treated the same so and it really does change our lives like not only do uh coach Kieran teach me how to fight but they gave me a job you know they gave me a job to coach I have my some of my students are here you know I train some of these these guys and gals that are in class now are here with us now and so they've given me a job they've allowed me to learn how to coach and not only do I run the kids program there but they also allow me to run my one-on-ones there and I work with kids and young people with special needs with autism and it's a avenue of um an avenue I would have never had if they didn't allow that for me so not only have they helped me in my own life and teaching me how to fight but now they've given me an opportunity to help others you know yesterday was my birthday and I got so many messages from a lot of the girls in my class that are like 15 he did forget my birthday guys just I had a text and like hey you know you guys forgot my it wasn't just him coach Kieran without my birthday it's cool but yeah you know and so now I get to do something I get to be on the other end I get to help people I get to watch you know these younger fighters coming up and you know these um a lot of the girls like I was saying messaged me and they're like dude you're just so there for us all the time like and when you're a coach or an owner of a gym or you know a martial arts instructor you're a lot more than just teaching people how to fight like you are there you are there their voice of reason you're someone they respect they trust they listen to sometimes they they feel more comfortable going to you than their own parents and it's um it's a real amazing feeling to to not realize at the moment that you're actually impacting people and changing their lives but when you look at it like a big picture like how much you do for people because what they've done for me him and coach Kieran have done for hundreds of people just like me so I'm especially interested in what you were saying earlier about how you got into certain addictions and that like did you do a 12 step program or did you do something you were basically just through just fighting just fighting and I just didn't want to be that way anymore you know like I because of the way I grew up I was suffering with like a lot of depression a lot of bad thoughts just a lot of like things you know and being an addict and addicted to things was just making it all worse like I felt good for the couple hours but then the next day it's worse the day after that it's worse it's worse and your problems don't go away just because we don't like you you mass them or you don't want to deal with them at the moment like then they just start to pile on and I just didn't want to be that person anymore so yes I wanted to fight and be a world champion and win and all these things but at the same time I also wanted to develop who I was and become a better person and honestly like God used fighting to bring me to him right because I reverted in the middle of last year's season because I was still having a hard time right so fighting just didn't fix that like I needed God a lot to help me fix it and he brought me to fighting through all my struggles that brought me to fighting and then fighting brought me to Islam like well fighting brought me to MJ then MJ brought me to Islam so tell us that story so last year I got an amazing opportunity to fight for an organization called PFL and PFL does a million dollar tournament and at the end of the tournament if you win you win a million dollars I had been on the shelf for a little while had a good fight they gave me an opportunity I went to Vegas and I ended up getting a viral head kick knockout so I was on sports center number one which I didn't know what that was but everyone was like you don't even know how cool that is but and so yeah amazing highs of highs and at the time I still wasn't really having a lot of faith I was still very rocky in my faith some days I felt close to God some days I didn't know what that meant some days I felt like you know how could there be anything else but just us and like I was just constantly like going back and forth with myself and then I had my second fight with PFL against a girl named Larissa Pacheco and she finished me in 45 seconds and she she uh the people on YouTube were like man she hit her so hard she knocked her right into God and it's kind of true she did you know she she punched me right into Islam but but yeah after that fight even though I was in the middle of this amazing opportunity I went back to having like these these bad thoughts and just like these like not wanting to be here thoughts and just like these dark thoughts that I've spent my whole life feeling like I was getting away from and one thing about fighting fighting will expose you it will expose your your goods your bads and all that stuff so I remember just laying in bed after that fight and not praying like we pray I pray now but just like begging God like please I don't know if you're listening I don't know what like just helped me like I can't do this anymore I'm so tired and um that's when MJ just kept being like please like please listen to me you know I would never do anything wrong I would never steal you wrong like learn a little bit about Islam like let me take you to the mosque just please and then he started telling me about what I know now is tajud he's like just wake up it's the most special prayer wake up in the middle of the night and pray just ask God for anything he'll give it to you I promise you and I didn't really know what that meant and I didn't know how to pray like I said I did not grow up religious at all so we didn't pray at night we didn't pray over food we didn't pray at all um so I didn't know what that meant but for a whole week I was waking up 3 30 3 45 4 o'clock every day for a whole week every day every day every day and then finally I was just like man like that's it's got to be something like this isn't just me no alarm clock no nothing I'm just popped up right wide awake at the time that MJ had just told me that like is the most special time to pray um I didn't pray but I but I was very like it like just aware and then I would feel so like this just feels so right like I feels like such a good time of night but it's four o'clock in the morning like why do I feel like this and then that's when I let MJ take me to MCC and then we took my shot and that was eight months ago now so well it's been eight months learned a lot in eight months I've learned a lot in eight months a lot in eight months I'm even I'm even surprised and I'm baffled like wow I'm amazed of the stuff that she comes to me she you know she you know look I learned this prayer I learned this prayer I learned this du'al I learned du'al Eunice and when I'm doing something or if I'm over here don't do that MJ that's not good I try why are you wearing those shorts those shorts are horrible I try I try you know and if I say something if I say a bad word she'll stop put a lot stop you know so I'm getting rid of it so good because I have to you know keep them on tracks you say on top of that so yeah I get reprimanded more than anybody that's why I learned du'al too like du'al too yes we do it's consistent in the gym so and um yeah it's it was it was it's been an amazing journey for and I've just watched her you know and she'll ask me questions and I try my best to you know translate it in a way so she understands it not to confuse her not to tell her something to go from one extreme to another extreme you know and I've told her step by step day by day this doesn't mean you need to wake up tonight and become you know ahaji by you know by years in you know this is step by step because you also don't want to burn yourself out and I tell you don't burn yourself out which is actually something that everybody told me they were like hey don't overwhelm yourself and I'm like what do you mean don't love myself I'm just gonna learn about this amazing religion that I'm a part of now you know like I'm gonna get closer to God but I was like trying to use Islam to get me closer to God and I was just like cramming knowledge in my head and then I just was so overwhelmed and then I ended up feeling like oh I'm not doing anything right I'm not being a good muslim like you know still like have like these little westerner ways about me like have it's like I need to break them need to bend and I was like beating myself because I couldn't break them right away and then finally I just had to take a breath and I was like you know what Amber just go back to what everybody said literally everybody said the same thing when I reverted and I was like and just focus on your prayers just learn your prayers by heart focus on your prayers get close to God and let God do the rest then bring you Islam and bring you Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him like he'll bring you all those things that you need but all you need to focus on is getting close to God and trusting and that's been my biggest thing for the last eight months is Ahamduli law through everything because even though I'm a muslim now like I still go through family stuff you know I still go through issues and still you know I didn't win a million dollars so we're still going through financial stuff and to just trust and just Ahamduli law through everything just believe and trust in God and like he's got me no matter what he's got me and so yeah the last eight months have been a lot and uh or not a lot but like great you know like I feel I feel so much more like relieved and just peaceful and now like I don't feel so alone anymore and I feel like that I have a purpose now like before I used to be terrified to die terrified like it would haunt me at night like I would never you know and now that I know so much and I know that why this life is hard and now I know why um you know things are rough and I know like what this beautiful place is just waiting for us on the other side it's just made everything just so much more relaxed and just I feel so peaceful inside my myself now so it's been a nice eight months so what we're gonna break for a prayer now and we'll we'll start back up and there'll be a time for a q&a so if you have questions thank you thank you all right so so uh again I just want to thank sister ember and brother Majib for uh taking time to joining it join us tonight um and I think where you were you were leaving off I wanted to ask you a question yeah of course you one thing that you said that I thought was interesting was you said that um is it me thinking about okay better yeah so uh you said that you were kind of describing like a deeper sense of like kind of contentment or relaxation that you kind of felt after something is done but you also said that you're still facing a lot of the same challenges yeah so what's what's the same about those challenges and what's different if anything well I guess as like a westerner you you're so um programmed for certain things to be okay right um the no clothes like the very skimpy clothes at like 12 13 years old um the kind of stuff I watch the kind of stuff like I consume you know or still also kind of that's me we'll switch um and then and then also for me too because I have been because I have always been on my own that sometimes my first thought isn't a lot or my first thought isn't like well this is God's plan my first part thought is like how am I gonna fix this like what did I do like what what do I do how do I make it better you know so um as much as I am learning all these things there are times where just by habit my first thought isn't initially ahamda lilah and and it's almost kind of beautiful though because then it does remind me ahamda lilah because I've got first I'm like no no no wait you're supposed to just trust like it's okay like you know like having financial problems like money is nothing you know in this life money is not I'm not taking money with me and like what jenna has for me when I get there is more than anything this life could ever have and um also like just like little bad habits like stuff you watch stuff you you consume like things that in a western society are so normal for us that when you learn Islam you're like no like this is not like the jokes they make the the things that portray this the stuff they say and so those kind of like little habits as well I call it trash TV you know like my trash TV like I'm trying to break those as well so yeah it it it's got a lot of perks but then it also has a lot of reminders of like things that I still need to work on so how do you balance between like you're trying to make progress you want to do things better but you also don't want to be like too hard on yourself or burn yourself out or I try not to beat myself up but I also try to list like when I'm feeling really bad like oh man I'm not doing something right I try to listen to a lot of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him like stories or youtube things and something will always pop up where it reminds me like um women didn't get into the hijab till like 15 years in you know or you know the prayers for all five prayers really didn't get established till eight years in and like small things like that so I tried to remind myself that our Prophet peace be upon him told us to be patient like he told us it's okay to you told me the story about one of the companions right who had his own vices and Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him never treated him differently and so I I try to look for the Prophet in ways of how I should kind of think or ease on myself or relax on myself a little bit when I'm beating myself up if I make a mistake like I listen to a rap song or on some days I'll catch myself kind of cussing more than I have been the last couple days because that's also something I'm trying to like you know cut out and then I'm like oh man you're messing up you're messing up or for me I'm still trying to establish my prayers five times a day so there is a moment there was like well if I miss one I just might as well not pray at all but then I also try to remember myself or remind myself that Allah loves loves his servant that repents so I try to hold heartedly just repent you know and ask for forgiveness and astaghfirullah while I'm praying and you know someone finally told me like how I'm supposed to like give my du'a at the end you know I'm supposed to call my call Allah by his names then all my astaghfirullahs and then be very thankful and then praise the prophet peace be upon him and then go into so things like that just just help and and reminding myself that I'm only eight months in like I'm gonna make a mistake I might learn something that might not be 100 correct and I just try to give myself a little bit of grace that's beautiful and brother Majin for you the same question so or I guess a different question so seeing her except go through that journey go through that that fight and that you know sort of difficult experiences afterwards and then the tahajjud and coming to Islam how did that how did seeing her go through that effect effect you effect your faith to me it just makes me deep inside just really happy you know if I can if I can be just a little bit of help if I can be just a little bit of guidance that's the world to me you know and to see her flourish and to see her work her way through you know life and be the person that she is supposed to be or the person that she's going to become that is so enlightening you know even for me it motivates me like I said earlier it's like oh I gotta you know she'll remind me hey I'm gonna go pray like oh shoot I gotta go pray you know so to me it's also a very strong reminder like you know I see something in her you know what there's another person when I see something in too that I can work on that person as well too and help them better their life you know so there's a lot of aspects of her becoming a Muslim and somebody else that I've converted the other person that I've converted you know that it's you know obviously you know Alhamdulillah get the blessings you know from Allah itself but you know to me just seeing them grow into the person that they are really the person that they really are is just to me it's an accomplishment you know so how do you feel if did you feel like Islam or your faith or does these experience in the last eight months how is it effective your like your martial arts your fighting um well it's really taught me to I obviously didn't win the tournament right and and on the last fight she finished me in like a minute and in that fight I felt like I wasn't even in control of my own body and as soon as the fight was over it's something like all over me was like now your face will be tested because you turn to Islam and everyone was like oh when you turn to Islam like all it's blood you're gonna win you're gonna all this stuff and then Allah was like no you struggle with your faith so let's see you have faith when the biggest opportunity the most money you possibly could have ever made is taken from you now what you know and I think that it pushed me farther into Islam it actually made me made me want to get closer to God and deeper and more involved but as far as my martial arts it's helped me take some emotion out of it um it also made me it is making me because fighting only lasts for so long right you can only be an athlete for so long and as fighters we almost identify with fighting and that's why you see some of your favorite fighters who get close to retire me you're like man why can't this guy just hang it up like i'm watching with my favorite fighter just get demolished fighter because we literally identify with it it is our way of life and now that I have Islam the only way of life I have is alone like that is everything else is secondary nothing else matters the the person I fall in love with the the money I make the career at the end of the day the only thing I live for is to get closer to God to be a respectful and amazing servant to God and to you know make sure my hereafter is something sweet and not you know something not so yeah it's just helped me kind of separate what's reality and what's not but yeah so so it's that and because as a fighter too you can I'm seven and six as a MMA fighter right so that means I've won just as many as I've lost and I've had beautiful head kick knockouts I've had beautiful knockouts I have like I have like a I don't know it's probably like an 88 percent finish rate but I also have a hundred percent being finished rate you know so with something like that it can make your emotions go up and down because this is your life right you've spent your entire last 10 years trying to be the best in the world and might not be yours you know but whether fighting was to bring me to a million dollars or world title fighting was meant to bring me to Allah and that's what my fighting was for and at the moment I started to convert I started meeting a bunch of amazing Muslim fighters like Muqtabak you know like these these guys who are from different countries whose whole life is Islam and it just it's like now like not only am I a fighter but now I'm a fighter that's a part of Islam like now we're like in our own little group so whether I win or lose or whatever it's all it's all okay it's all it's all good and which is something I didn't feel before I had Islam before it was like if I lost I'm a loser I'd say it like I'm not getting out of bed I'm not doing anything like everyone's gonna have a bad day because I'm having a bad day and now it's like it's cool because look it's brought me to like these amazing events like these amazing things like I've put on multiple all women sister events at the gym I'm doing my first self-defense here so even if at the end of my career because I you know I just turned 36 so there's only so much I got left at the end of it fighting has brought me to way more beautiful things and beautiful people and all through like Islam now you know like I was telling you the other day of my Instagram I lost like as soon as I started posting my support to Takasah Palestine I lost thousand followers in like two days but then I went up like like 2000 I'm just like I gained like 12,000 followers of just the ummah in just a couple months you know so yeah Islam has done so much for me when it comes to my fighting and that's a beautiful reflection about how like sometimes you're like oh if I became Muslim everything is gonna and then you were tested and it seems like you knew you were being just I've had people I we won't say his name but he's a super famous fighter just won a belt and he literally messaged me like I can't believe you as a woman want to be a Muslim and in my head I was just like wow like like you're contradicting you like you are such an evil person like you are like from your heart like really saying how you feel and here I am just living my life trying to get close to God and better myself and it really let me know like it was a big realization like people who down talk Muslims or talk about about Islam or all like they just really don't know like the amazingness that comes from being a Muslim or in Islam or this amazing ummah that we're all now a part of like I've been through a bunch of groups in my life and never in 36 years have I felt more welcomed more loved more accepted more honored more just everything then when I became a Muslim and I got to meet like all these amazing sisters and all these amazing brothers are part of this so it's been it's been a nice eight months really it's been a very clarifying eight months we're honored to have you um we can open it up for questions and answers now or we can open it up so there's a brother back back there as an athlete um what would you say like helped you like get through trust times and like what motivated you to become you know the best possible fighter you can be through the tough times which what really motivated me was my brothers so like I said earlier I have three brothers and uh they all go through their own struggles and my family we weren't supposed to make it like I wasn't supposed to make it I was supposed to be the one that ended up on drugs in prison five kids eight different baby dad things you know and um and so to be able to win or lose tough days or whatever to just know that I make an impact on people's lives just helps me keep going all the time so doesn't matter how rough the training gets doesn't matter how low you know fighting is not a rich sport so if you guys are like oh I'm gonna be a fighter because I want to make all this money like some days sometimes it's not like that so it's a struggle in but God now helps me get through my rough days and also just knowing that getting through rough days that there are people watching that are younger than you and they want to see you succeed through your rough days so yeah I hope that answered the question um so after you converted how did you build up your faith um well when things would happen still after I converted like bad things was um making sure that to pray it out right everyone was like in prayer like cry to God like cry was and so at first I was very reluctant to do so and then when things started to go bad or I needed to have faith I would even that like right now I just pray to God and I cry to God and then that helps me it really does help me build my faith because every time that happens something inside of me is like uh now you feel that like you're okay like do you feel like I've got you you're protected and I think that every time I feel that a little bit more like like you looked to me even when things got rough it it makes my faith stronger it makes me feel better it makes me feel like no matter what I'm gonna get through it even if I don't win a bell or even if I don't get all these things or what I'm gonna get through it because my faith is growing and then after you converted did you ever affect your family like how can I explain like did you teach them a little bit about this stuff I do yes I do try and um one of my little brothers lives with me and he's so cute like he'll go grocery shopping and he'll buy like beef hot dogs or like beef like breakfast sandwiches or I've seen like I don't even eat corn dogs but he bought beef corn dogs you know because he knows it like pork is not good and um so yeah I do I try to as much without like trying to like shove it down their throats because like I said my family's not very religious but I do try to involve them my mom too my mom will ask all kinds of questions you know like oh why do you do this why do they cover why do they have their scarf on like you know like you say it all time what does it mean you know you say I'll stuff my brother go here she goes I'll stuff a lot through the house I'll stuff a lot so yeah I do try to give them little little doses where I can and um when you converted since you were trying to also build up your faith are you planning to um so hey um are you planning to start fasting because I know Ramadan is actually coming up yeah I'm going to participate in Ramadan this year I am I have not um pre-fasted until then I know I have this month right that's why I was asking you what Shaban was right because I just learned about the the month before Ramadan um but I am I'm going to fast we're gonna we're gonna do it and this is where I'm hopefully gonna kill some bad habits too of like the music or tv shows I watch and things like that I have amazing people helping me through it because I'm like oh I'm all alone I got no family I've got people to invite me like you can come over to dinner you break your past with me break your past so yeah I am going to participate in it and I'm extremely excited and I have questions for Mr. MJ this was mainly about when you talked about it first that you were going to get smuggled into America I think I might have misheard it but how did you get to America on an airplane oh because I might have misheard it like you were saying stuff about smuggling and I was like wait are you saying you got smuggled into America I'm like in a suitcase in the airplane I'm just kidding uh no uh we I got we got smuggled from Afghanistan into Pakistan somehow and then over here my uncle um had landed in from Afghanistan here and uh they you know at that time you know seeking asylum and stuff like that over here then they sponsored us to come to this country so and sponsorships are a lot easier back then and then um you said that at one point in your life you got led into parties and other things that you shouldn't have how did you get out of those my wife yep yes um you know we you know once once I met my wife then a lot of things changed you know and um I didn't go out with anybody I didn't party with anybody but you know that was my my my party partner you know everywhere we went I went with my wife anytime I did anything I did anything with my wife anything I did I ran it through her you know so happy wife happy life sometimes and then do you guys both live in LA because I think when you guys were talking you guys uh you guys were saying something about and then where's your gym yeah that's a few minutes away yeah that's a Dublin right here yeah and MJ's opening a new gym in Blackhawk so a hundred left for that like now there will be two so there's CSA the regular which is like more fight related CrossFit here like seven minutes away and then MJ's gonna open a bigger more commercially kind of 24-hour fitness slash fight gym in Blackhawk so now we'll have two places semi-close and then in your gym oh what do you teach do you only teach like kickboxing and boxing um I teach the kids five to 14 I teach them Muay Thai I also teach CrossFit and then I run the morning programs which is adult so it's going to be boxing and Muay Thai in the bad classes and I also will jump in and teach a little jujitsu every now and then I wonder if there's something on that part um there's a lot of sisters here so um you know we a lot of parents a lot of mothers and fathers have always approached us and said hey you know I want my daughter to train but I don't want them you know with other people or the crowd or you know my daughter wears a hijab my you know I don't want her to be involved in such things and I always tell them you know it's important especially in this day and age you know that you learn to defend yourself you learn to protect yourself you learn to do those kind of things you know and with us you know we protect you that way you know I've had multiple multiple fathers come to me and say hey I really want my daughter to train I really want her to learn how to defend herself but I don't want her in you know partnering with another male I don't want her partnering with this and you know we're very accommodating to that and I just want to let a lot of the parents know that it's a good thing that if you were to get your kids into martial arts it's very important that you get into because of the day and age that we live now you know so they can learn how to protect themselves so they can learn how to defend themselves and their family so don't be afraid to walk into a gym because you are a hijab you know don't feel afraid because you are Muslim and you're not welcome you know go into those places feel comfortable you know do your thing learn how to defend yourself because in Islam we also have to take care of our health as well too it's very important that we take care of our health so don't ever be afraid to walk in there and don't ever if if it's not our gym walk into a different gym and just say hey I want to learn but I also need to be you know not be around the normal people I don't want to be touched I don't want to be you know as a respect factor so that's also what I started doing my women's events so I try I know we're doing the first one here at MCC but I've done a few at CSA which as soon as Ramadan's over I'm going to start doing them at CSA again they're completely free and I just offer them as often as I can so you know if it is something that you ladies are interested in but don't necessarily feel comfortable walking into a regular gym you know make sure you guys get my instagram or anything like that and I try to keep it posted when I do do them on my instagram so that you know you all are always more than welcome and then when is the one here at MCC it's on Sunday but I believe it's full yeah so it's on Sunday I believe it's full but inshallah it goes well then when you're going to have me here every day don't worry you guys know leave it up to when you're just a little higher on all right I'll come back to you sister go ahead young man Asalaamu Alaikum Wa Alaikum Asalaam I just have a question like in general well what is like the hardest thing in like what is the hardest thing what what are you trying to become pro the hardest thing about becoming pro is the is the the the stuff that you don't see the not being able to pay your bills to not especially if you don't have any family helping you out but the cold nights alone the not having enough food in the fridge the the early mornings the the broken down car I know a lot of fighters who are homeless actually they sleep in their cars in the parking lot those are the hardest parts about becoming pro because it's something that like your conor McGregor's don't talk about you know as much once they get like super super famous but yeah I think that those are the hardest parts and it's just being like okay like this is just a moment in time it's not the rest of time so like let's just keep moving I also have one more like how how do you deal with the students who like who don't really want to learn and I still try to teach them something um well those ones you have to threaten to hang them from the rafters by their toes if they're children and then they usually shape up pretty quickly no just kidding but um you just have to remind them like hey you know your parents pay if they're kids that's like you have to remind them like hey your parents pay a lot of money for you to be here and since you are here like let's get the most of the hour right like you don't want to spend the whole hour with me yelling at you or barking orders at you or telling you to stop doing this or that so you know I just try to remind people or even like some adults or teenagers right because the teenagers come to the gym and usually their parents are forcing them to be there so those ones as well I try to just remind them like don't waste your hour you might as well learn something while you're here and you never know you might be able to take it with you the next day so I don't really have a question I just wanted to give a testament to how amazing your gym is I have two of my kids go to CSA one of them does Muay Thai unboxing with MJ and one of them does CrossFit a daughter and a son and it's a very good gym they're very respectful of everyone and if you're thinking about it yeah for sure look them up and I did also Amber's woman's event and it was amazing so anytime that opportunity comes up I highly recommend our sister she's my new Islam buddy she's been hitting me up like hey come with me to the sisters event like you know like what do you need like you've been sending me like stuff to tell me um translate the cut on and stuff so also thank you very much for that but yeah so the sisters are amazing with me at all times and I'm very appreciative of it it's not only consistent well it comes from thank you so much for sharing with us it's so amazing to hear your story they look at you ease and in your in your journey thank you I was just wondering do you have any recommendations for hijabi workout wear or like kind of I'm not dressing modestly in the gym so uh this is a new realm for me I don't necessarily wear the hijab when I'm out yet like outside I'm but um I have been trying to switch from like your tiny little gym clothes to more modest stuff and there's a brand called Haya H-A-Y-A Haya that makes these really beautiful long like shirts but they're they're not like you still see like a little form you know they're not like they don't look like just like long abayas so I really do like that brand but honestly I've just been big shirting it up like some nice like loose pants something comfortable and you know I don't feel like just because other women at the gym don't want to wear no clothes like that's what you have to do to fit into a fitness environment because it's not true you know um being fit and working out is not necessarily about how you look it's about how you feel and it's about being healthy and strong and being able to defend yourself if you need to and just to feel good in your own skin so don't ever let society or the way the western world thinks is beautiful deter you from stepping into a gym right you go in there and you be your authentic self no matter what these are being funny okay so I do have one question this is remember uh real quick and I'll hand it over so you have a public profile we have a lot of bullying that happens in public schools here in the tri valley in the progressive bay area there's a lot of bullying going on how do you do with the online bullies how do you do with the comments does it get to you don't read them don't pay any kind of attention to them like honestly like don't get into arguments online I know like for me because I'm very uh I speak up a lot about gaza and what's happening in Palestine and so I get a lot of very hateful evil things said to me or I've been in some like really nasty arguments or even like a fighter like I said I've been knocked out a few times in seven and six so people always like to hit low blow like oh well you should just stop fighting because you suck at it well it's like you're just behind your computer you know so what I would say is like don't even waste your time with it like young people especially do not argue with your classmates online do not like use the internet as a way to socialize or like get back at each other and if people are trying to bully you online block and delete like that's our motto at csa block the delete and block and just keep it moving yeah let's not are you fighting or are you retired or you will be fighting oh I'm still fighting I have a couple years left and a hundily laugh because I'm no longer with PFL it will give me an opportunity to fight here regionally locally so my next fight hopefully will be in May at the SAP Center in San Jose so I already told coach K said I'm gonna have the umma there I think better watch out it's gonna be van after van of the masjid just so uh yeah like I'm still fighting I still got a couple years left you know we want to give give these last couple years a good little run but yeah I'm still in it awesome just to follow up uh since PFL has bought Bellator any chance to you going back to PFL and competing yeah so uh I I didn't get re-signed which is cool because they're going through so much transitional stuff there's a good chance a lot of my weight class is going to sit on the shelf for a year um and I'm going to earn my way back they told me to win some regional titles come back with that and hopefully when I do that next year they'll have my weight class back for that million dollar tournament because they're not doing that this year for the featherweights and um yeah I'll give my my second shot to win a million dollars so yeah yeah so this is a question for both of you is there any martial arts class for women almost the women and girls well right now I'm just doing kind of special events I don't have anything specifically on the docket I am trying to get coaching MJ to let me permanently do one on Sundays but you know we're working on that and so right now I just last year I think I did four six of them and it's something that I am trying to do a little bit more I am going to wait till after Ramadan just because I don't know what I'm going to feel like during Ramadan I don't want to put too much on my plate but hopefully I'll get something more consistent so at least I'll have something that will be tailored just for women and girls the other thing too like I said earlier yes if you you know I know we're here but other gyms I don't know about but to us if you want to send you know your female to us we will take care of them you know we will help protect them we will help them not partner with somebody that you don't want to partner with so if you want to send them to to us we will definitely take good care of them so they're learn the same thing as everybody else does without having to be with everybody else so we have we have two girls with hijabies we have other females as well two that are Muslim you know not as modest but you know but they're there so yeah what's your favorite thing that you've learned about Islam so far I'm really enjoying right now learning about the prophets all the prophet stories which is something that I was always like really curious about right like growing up you hear like there was Adam and Eve but it was like then what you know like okay Adam ate the apple okay well what happens then so right now I think my favorite thing to learn about Islam is the prophets and I am having fun learning a little bit of Arabic even though it's it's not great it's not great at all but you know learning my prayers and stuff like that and just like learning dua like if I learn a dua and I remember it by heart like it just makes me so happy so those are just kind of some things that I'm really like enjoying about Islam right now Salam alaykum alaykum Salam I wanted to welcome you to the faith and express how happy I am to see some person convert to Islam and I also had a comment and a question okay thank you anyway my comment is you mentioned numerous times that you've met a lot of wonderful Muslims and you have a lot of new friends who check in on you and ask how things are doing for you I also wanted to bring to your attention that you're also going to meet a lot of not so wonderful Muslims throughout your journey you're going to meet a lot of people who are going to lie to you and be dishonest and be deceitful Muslims are a population of over one billion people who are human beings sometimes the devil gets the best of us so please just keep in mind that Islam as a religion is perfect but Muslims who follow it and practice it are not perfect so please if you ever feel mistreated by any Muslim please don't let that make you start to hate Islam thank you I do appreciate it so you can't see it now but I I do have a lot of tattoos so I am covered in tattoos like my home face and neck is all covered in tattoos and I get a lot of what are you going to get them removed like you have to remove them like you cannot be a Muslim with your tattoos and I'm like well they're not they're permanent they're not going anywhere you know but thank you I really do appreciate that because sometimes you're like wait am I supposed to get them removed because that's going to hurt like a lot yeah thank you yeah and one more comment and a quick question is the second comment I was going to make is like if you ever ever have a question or if you ever have some kind of doubt the intellectual doubt or spiritual doubt please don't ever hesitate to reach out to someone who's knowledgeable who can answer your questions Muslims who've been Muslims all their life or even people who have a phd in Islamic studies there's been cases where they've turned atheists or they've even converted to a different faith despite all the knowledge they have about Islam and history and the Quran and its meanings and stuff like that so yeah faith goes up and down and if you ever have a question please don't hesitate to reach out there's no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to learning about the foundations of your faith and its evidences absolutely I really do appreciate that because um honestly the people in my life I hit them a question wrong time and I think that even my questions sometimes get there like it was born Muslims especially gets their wills turned in they're like holy haven't thought about that in so long but thank you very much and I absolutely will and the question I had and this is a little bit of a completely different topic was do you recommend any uh general supplements for increasing um fighting for performance at the gym um which the way you eat right you gotta make sure you eat healthy and um get a lot of sleep but just stay up on your natural like your everyday vitamins your vitamin c your fish oils your creatine your um things like that but honestly when it comes to fighting your nutrition and your sleep are going to be number one um so my friend wanted to ask this question so I'm asking this for okay and um what was your family's reaction to your conversion they were they were okay I didn't get any kind of backlash I didn't get anything I think one of my little brothers was like hmm well okay like all right like are you happy and I'm like yeah I'm very happy they're like okay well we're happy for you you know um but my family is very supportive especially because I the way I did grow up and like I said like I wasn't supposed to be a success story I was supposed to be like one of the ones that didn't make it and so I think that my family's just happy as long as I'm not messing up or you know in dangerous situations anymore so yeah I've been I'm lucky I've been supported through my fighting and through my conversion so I'm like yeah I'm so happy to happy as part of the umma now and uh something that I realized that you mentioned earlier was how now being a Muslim you don't really relate to like the jokes that you hear the show the shows that you watch it doesn't really hit the same because you realize that's a muslim how like and I just wanted to ask how you deal with that and sometimes feeling like somewhat of an outtider like you don't relate to these jokes you don't really enjoy like some of the things in this dunya and how do you like manage that what is your mindset when it comes to that now it's different it is different or like like we'll just take music for instance like um I used to love me some hip hop rap in which I still really enjoy hip hop rap and stuff like that but then when you just like hear the stuff that they're talking about and you know like like you can play that on Spotify but I can't play my palestine song I stop you know but um it is it is interesting right so I am still in this kind of new new transition where I'm asking a lot to like introduce me to more people who are more doing what I'm doing you know so I have been fortunate enough to like the the the m's that's what we call them because both of the names are more but um they help me a lot and so I've just been trying to to get new friends of the uma and like kind of surround myself more with like muslims than just like everyday people and that way I can you know talk about the prophet peace be upon him talk about the faith talk about Islam and feel okay about doing so so it is still something I'm learning but yeah it's it's it's a learning curve for sure uh who is the greatest fighter in eminent history in your opinion could be could be and I didn't I'm not even saying that because he's a muscle like no like literally it's could be you know but if we're talking women ronda rousey so star amber when you were in new york last year shortly after your conversion um you know when you do the weigh-in and usually wearing pretty skipping clothes that's the thing with mma how do you maintain your modesty in such a female I don't know well in the the last the last fight I did um not the one against lorisa but the one against marina I actually asked them for the the weight cutting curtain so that you they usually only bring the curtain out if you're gonna miss weight and the commission was giving me a lot of like grief about it they're like well you haven't even weighed in I'm like I'm trying to be covered so can you just pull out the curtain please and um that part is hard because like with an organization like pfl they don't really give us an outfit choice so like if they were going to re-sign me this year I was going to ask them for at least a t-shirt you know like like something that covers just a little bit more um and yeah so that part is is kind of like you don't really know like how to like you just do what you can so like with the weigh-ins like I didn't weigh in in my my underwear my bra like I normally do like I asked for the curtain and I think with someone who's a revert like me who modesty has never been the case right western society's like the little or the better and um so I just take a like small step small so that like when's the last time you see me in a sports bra you haven't since I converted you know so I just try to make these small changes where I can and it might not be the for the hadam police that you know we call them on the internet it might not be what they want right now but you know we got to all make it in our own time that's what I'm wondering how can how can you manage like between like professional life and personal life um well for me I don't really have much of a personal life but fighting is is my life so I a lot of my friends are fighters a lot of the things I do are all fighting and when I first started fighting I did have to like like make a choice to not have a bunch of the same friends that I used to have because they weren't really benefiting like where I was trying to go so when you think about something like that you got to think about like your goal right where are you trying to get to are the people in your personal life getting you there or are they trying to bring you back from there because if they're not trying to help you get to your goals or your personal life isn't helping you achieve those goals you need to switch some things around so for me fighting and my personal life they're kind of intertwined at the moment yes of course okay um how is your journey with learning Arabic is it like easy or are you no it's so I of course like I said I get a lot of help um for me just listening to I'll ask MJ I have another friend that I ask him a lot of stuff often as well and um it's just keep repeating it like repeating it repeating it over and over and over again but um for me like I had to kind of learn like where the sound comes from like you know it's got to come like deep from in your chest where it's like Westerners you kind of talk in our mouth you know so um that part's been interesting but I do ask I have to ask like but then I also have to be like MJ can you slow down please because I did not hear anything you just said he's like what I just said that's exactly what I said I was like okay can you not and then I also have to remember that um like because he's Afghan so his dialect is different to somebody who just speaks Arabic so kind of hearing it from two different people helps but that part's been interesting but we try we try we do alright so when she asks me and I say this fast as I can because that's how I'm used to saying it and she goes can you slow down and when I slow down I mess up I'm like wait did I say that you say this way a lot of people like it can you help me with this like I'm like no next another person because that's not going to work but I do have an app on my phone called Nazma Nazma or something like that which they say say the prayers for you and then you can read it and so that helped that has helped me 100% like that app right there is I mean it took me eight months but now I finally know my prayers will start to finish like quite hard um but yeah so the apps help for definitely help thank you for saying of course sorry my question for brother and MJ um I know you mentioned way earlier um that you train a lot of people from different religions and my question is like what inspired you to choose Amber instead? I think um I nothing really inspired me but I just saw a lot of I just saw something in her where I'm like you know I don't know I have this thing about me where I see stuff in people and I usually just go with it so in her situation you know I did see her struggle and I did see her and I'm like she's trying to do something so you know to me it's like why not come to this beautiful religion why not come to you know and if I don't tell her I feel like I failed if I don't tell her so it's worth a shot were you worried about crossing no I never worry about that stuff I cross the line all the time um so no I was I was never yeah no I you know I to this day my own business partner I tell him every single I remind him every single day he was there I visited you guys at CSA and he just kept telling his business partner that he should accept this and I was like you're gonna do it and I tell him every day and he kept being like no he's like you're a great guy you know and I just like with her brother and I told him you're next I'm gonna get you so I do I legitimately do and I'm like hey you're you know why not convert what's wrong I'm a Catholic what does that matter I I literally tell him just like that so and I catch me again how did you bring her just did you give birth no I I earlier and when she was talking about it you know when she's going through her struggles I told her I said you know what I know you don't know how to pray but you know what we believe in is one of the most important parts of the night or the day of the night is tajud right and I said please just wake up just look up and just say God Allah then I'll just say Allah just say God help me you know tell him you know that that is a time where you know like I was gonna ask you what do you want what can I give you it doesn't hurt where when she did that you know that I said just and she did yeah so I just wanted to say thank you to both of you for making time to come and for sharing your stories with us and kind of just being vulnerable and telling us about your whole life thanks for having us we both really do appreciate it because thank you he is we're in the heat well at least I'm in this with him right like he helped me with Islam like he is my my guide and so to be able to do this with him and for all you guys was amazing so thank you guys for having us for sure yes absolutely thank you guys all for being out here for us and hearing us and hopefully I'll see a bunch of you ladies on Sunday we're honored as I can love it all right so I can also