Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson holds talks with Dr. Muhammad Al-Oqala, president of the Islamic University in Madinah. (AN photo by Yousuf Muhammad)
MADINAH: Former boxing champion Mike Tyson, who embraced Islam while serving a prison sentence in the 1990s, is on his first visit to the Kingdom to perform Umrah. He arrived in the holy city of Madinah on Friday to perform prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque.
While in Madinah, Tyson met Dr. Muhammad Al-Oqala, president of the Islamic University, who briefed the world heavyweight champion on the services being rendered by the university to students from across the world.
From Madinah, Tyson will travel on to Makkah to perform Umrah, press reports said. He will also visit Jeddah, Abha and Riyadh as part of his Saudi tour. His visit to Saudi Arabia was arranged by the Canadian Dawa Association (CDA) as part of visits it organizes for new Muslim celebrities to the Islamic sites in the Kingdom. Shazad Mohammed, president of CDA, was present at Prince Muhammad International Airport in Madinah to receive Tyson.
Mohammed, an ambassador of peace with the United Nations, said Tyson would be in the Kingdom for one week, visiting the holy places as well as important landmarks in the country and meeting with Saudi people to get to know their culture and traditions.
Please make dua brothers n sisters that our brother mike tyson can benefit from this umrah trip and that it changes his life around , he has had good compmany in the past , i knwo for a fact that our brother Mutah shabaaz beale " Napoleon" Has been trying with him for quiet some years now and Alhumdolillah the effects are showing , Mutah has known him since tupac days and r good freinds.
Mike Tyson has arrived in Madinah with the Canadian Dawa Association for the umrah
Riyadh: Former boxing champion Mike Tyson, who converted to Islam while in jail in the 1990s, is visiting the Muslim holy cities of Makkah and Madinah on pilgrimage, a Saudi daily reported on Saturday.
Tyson, who was world heavyweight champion from 1986 to 1990, arrived on Friday in Medina with the Canadian Dawa Association for the umrah, or minor pilgrimage, the newspaper Okaz said.
From Medina he will travel on to Makkah and also plans to visit other Saudi cities, it reported.
Tyson, 44, converted to Islam while serving a 10-year prison sentence, later commuted to three years, for raping a US beauty queen in 1991.
After prison he attempted a comeback, but was never able to regain his title and finally gave up professional boxing in 2005.
Last January, he took part in a WWE Raw pro wrestling event in the United States."
Tyson does have a really good heart and a soft spot believe it or not , lets hope this trip benefits him and he can get back to be with and around good brothers and keep good company , coz keeping good company has helped a lot of people , even famous people like loon from bad boy now know as amir muhadith junaid and freeway n all.Hope he can get back n connect with brothers like abu yusuf khaleefah and fareed abdullah n other callers n students of knowledge in the west so he can benefit.
May Allah forgive him n reward him n bless him.
How perfect You are O Allaah, and I praise You. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except You. I seek Your forgiveness and turn to You in repentance
I find it amazing what changes can come upon a person through accepting Islam. Mike Tyson, amazing.
“All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
Was I mistaken. I knew he had converted while in prison in the 1990s but I was under the Impression he had converted to NOI. Truly wonderful that he had the opportunity to have found Islam and was not misled by the NOI. Subhan Allaah(swt)
You are right woodrow. He said he reverted to Islam via NOI after he was convicted of rape. And he hasnt changed since then either but I think he might have now. Maybe this time he was reverted to the true Islam. Maybe....
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one.." [Bukhaari].
Off topic, but doesn't Farrakhan say that he is a prophet? How can a Muslim claim that there were any prophets after Muhammad?
Farrakhan is leader of the NOI (Nation of Islam) they do not follow Islam and it is a United States born religion founded by Elijah Muhammad. From the "Official" NOI web site:
On July the Fourth, the day of America's Independence celebration, He announced the beginning of His mission which was to restore and to resurrect His lost and found people, who were identified as the original members of the Tribe of Shabazz from the Lost Nation of Asia. The lost people of the original nation of African descent, were captured, exploited, and dehumanized to serve as servitude slaves of America for over three centuries. His mission was to teach the downtrodden and defenseless Black people a thorough Knowledge of God and of themselves, and to put them on the road to Self-Independence with a superior culture and higher civilization than they had previously experienced.
He taught us the ways of love and peace, of truth and beauty. We are being led into the path of a new spiritual culture and civilization of complete harmony and peace, one of refinement in the pursuit of happiness and eternal joy in the Supreme Knowledge of God and the Science of everything in life.
IN 1931, THE MASTER WAS preaching this Great Truth of salvation when He met a man named Elijah Poole in Detroit, Michigan. He chose him to be His Divine Representative in continuing this most difficult task of bringing truth and light to His lost and found people. For 3 1/2 years He taught and trained the Honorable Elijah Muhammad night and day into the profound Secret Wisdom of the Reality of God, which included the hidden knowledge of the original people who were the first founders of civilization of our Planet and who had a full knowledge of the Universal Order of Things from the beginning of the Divine Creation.
The NOI call themselves Muslims, they call their holy book the Koran, they call their places of worship Mosques and they call themselves Muslim.
But, they are not following Islam
They do have a very powerfully prison ministry in virtually all of the US prisons and many converts come from this prison ministry. Sadly the adherents do believe they are Muslim and many have gone on Hajj professing to be Muslim. A few such as MalcolmX (a great man) did discover they were not following Islam when on Hajj and reverted to Islam after learning the truth.
Malcolm X is truly a great man. So was Muhammad Ali. I find that a lot of people who return from the Hajj look at the world differently. Have you done it yet, Woodrow?
Last edited by Darth Ultor; 07-07-2010 at 04:22 AM.
I am loving this kind of news where a person changed so much after receiving hidayah from Allah SWT.
It resonates with my personal experiences and I can definitely identify with it.
Malcolm X is truly a great man. So was Muhammad Ali. I find that a lot of people who return from the Hajj look at the world differently. Have you done it yet, Woodrow?
Sadly I have never made Hajj. I was in Mecca about 40 years ago, long before I had reverted and did not know non-Muslims were not supposed to be there.
I would like to go back for Hajj, but at this time it seems unlikely. Age and the time to obtain a visa are in a race to see if it can be a reality.
May Allah make it easy for you , i hope you can go for hajj soon bro.
How perfect You are O Allaah, and I praise You. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except You. I seek Your forgiveness and turn to You in repentance
Sadly I have never made Hajj. I was in Mecca about 40 years ago, long before I had reverted and did not know non-Muslims were not supposed to be there.
I would like to go back for Hajj, but at this time it seems unlikely. Age and the time to obtain a visa are in a race to see if it can be a reality.
really? how did it feel being in makkah as a non-muslim?
He it is Who sends blessings on you, as do His angels, that He may bring you out from the depths of Darkness into Light: and He is Full of Mercy to the Believers. [Quran {33:43}] www.QuranicAudio.com www.Quran.com
really? how did it feel being in makkah as a non-muslim?
You need to understand this was in the 1960s. I was in my early 20s and had very little knowledge of Islam except for what I was taught in comparative religion classes while a I was a seminary student. It was not during Hajj. The Taxi driver that was my guide did not point out the significance of anything except to tell me that all of the buildings were closed and I could not go into any. The city seemed to be deserted, in my eyes it looked like a large vacant plaza with very few people and no stores open. I was expecting the hustle and bustle like I saw in Riyadh and was disappointed in not finding anyplace to buy any souvenirs or even a post card. The ignorance of youth and the blindness of not being able to see beyond the visible.
I could not understand why Muslims had any desire to go to Makkah. To me it was a pretty city but empty and nothing of any attraction to a casual tourist.
Looking back I believe that Allaah(swt) did not allow me to see Makkah as a non-Muslim. I was there physically but could not see the real Makkah.
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