The Fragrant Dispersion Concerning Tate's Conversion

“Say: O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty! Thou givest sovereignty unto whom Thou wilt, and Thou withdrawest sovereignty from whom Thou wilt. Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and Thou abasest whom Thou wilt. In Thy hand is the good. Lo! Thou art Able to do all things.” [Quran 3:26]

“O ye who believe! Whoso of you becometh a renegade from his religion, (know that in his stead) Allah will bring a people whom He loveth and who love Him, humble toward believers, stern toward disbelievers, striving in the way of Allah, and fearing not the blame of any blamer. Such is the grace of Allah which He giveth unto whom He will. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing.” [Quran 5:54]

“…None knoweth the hosts of thy Lord save Him. This is naught else than a Reminder unto mortals…” [Quran 74:31]

“Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves…” [Quran 48:29]

“O ye who believe! Be not forward in the presence of Allah and His messenger, and keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Hearer, Knower. O ye who believe! Lift not up your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor shout when speaking to him as ye shout one to another, lest your works be rendered vain while ye perceive not.” [Quran 49:1-2]

Abu Huraira reported:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

Love whom you love mildly, perhaps he will become hateful to you someday. Hate whom you hate mildly, perhaps he will become your beloved someday.

Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 1997

Abu Dharr reported:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

Allah Almighty said:

O My servants, I have forbidden injustice for Myself and I have forbidden it among you, so do not oppress one another. O My servants, all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek guidance from Me and I shall guide you. O My servants, all of you are hungry except for those I have fed, so seek food from Me and I shall feed you. O My servants, all of you are naked except for those I have clothed, so seek clothing from Me and I shall clothe you. O My servants, you sin by night and day and I forgive all sins, so seek forgiveness from Me and I shall forgive you. O My servants, you are unable to harm Me and you are unable to bring benefit to Me. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you, to be as pious as the most pious heart of anyone of you, that would not increase My dominion at all. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you, to be as wicked as the most wicked heart of anyone of you, that would not decrease My dominion at all. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you, to rise up in one place and make a request of Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested, that would not diminish what I have any more than a needle would diminish the sea if put into it. O My servants, it is only your deeds that I record and then recompense for you. Let him who finds good praise Allah, and let him who finds something else blame no one but himself.

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2577

Abu Dharr reported:

I came to the Prophet ﷺ while he was asleep, covered in a white mantle. When I came back, he was still asleep. When I came back again, he was awake. I sat by his side. He said,

No man said la ilaha illallah and died in that state but he entered Paradise.

Even if he committed adultery and theft?

Even though he committed adultery and theft.

Even if he committed adultery and theft?

Even though he committed adultery and theft.

He repeated this three times and on the fourth said,

Even if Abu Dharr doesn’t like it.

So went Abu Dharr repeating:

Even if Abu Dharr doesn’t like it.

Source: Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 179

Legal maxim for hyper-literalists

العبرة بعموم اللفظ لا بخصوص السبب

Consideration is given to the generality of the statement, not the specific reason for which it was uttered.

Even if online Muslims don’t like it

Andrew Tate is a Muslim. If he dies as a Muslim, he will enter Paradise. Even if online Muslims don’t like it.

May Allah grant us all the best of endings.

It means something to Allah

After the news spread, I got messages from two well-known Imams from the USA. The first said,

“If he took his shahada that means something. It means something to me, and even if it doesn’t it means something to Allah. So who am I?… I pray that Allah gives us the tawfiq to make good on our Shahadah.”

The second wanted to give Andrew a gift. I’ll be hand-delivering it.

Genghis Khan of the internet

Everything bad that happens to you is your fault. It’s reported that Genghis Khan said,

“I am the punishment of God…If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

Andrew Tate is the Genghis Khan of the internet.

Allah sent him to show us how cucked and impotent we all are. In our faith, in our intelligence, in our finances, in our manhood, in our marriages, in our parenting, in our reverence of our parents, in our laws, in our rulers, and more.

Even his conversion is a test. One that many Muslims are failing.

You lost your trump card

The negativity and vitriol that persists from Muslims toward Tate after he converted is nothing but cope. The source of all cope is hasad.

When he was a non-Muslim, Muslims had a trump card against Tate.

“Yeah he’s a charismatic, genius, four-time kickboxing world champion with a nine figure net worth, 27 supercars and unlimited access to females… But he’s a kafir.”

That’s gone now.

The good reason and the real reason

Author and podcaster James Altucher says people always have a good reason and a real reason for doing the things they do.

The good reason is the one they tell you. The one you’ll accept. The real reason is the one they don’t tell you. The one that really drove their action.

All the criticisms of Tate by online Muslims are good reasons. What are the real reasons?

An online Muslim personality who has a habit of challenging people he disagrees with to fights. Tate can beat the brown off him and put him in a coma; the only determining factor in whether he lives or dies is Allah’s decree and after that, Tate’s mercy. He’s threatened.

A scholar whose lane is helping Muslims with their finances. Tate knows more about making money – halal and haram – and makes more money in a year than this scholar and his children will make in their lifetimes. He’s threatened.

An academic and Islamic apologist who’s spent decades clarifying misconceptions and refuting misrepresentations of Islam. Tate comes along saying imprecise but directionally accurate things about Islam and reaches more people with a single interview, Muslim and non-Muslim, than his articles will over the course of their entire existence on the internet. He’s threatened.

A preacher who says he left the street life to do da’wah and exclaims how content he and his family are, living in squalor in their tiny apartment. Tate flaunts his immense wealth at every opportunity, proclaims every man can and should get rich, and shows people how to do it. He’s threatened.

These four examples are people you know.

“We’re warning people about this fasiq. It’s the Sunnah.”

That is a good reason.

“This fasiq came along, AMOG’d (Alpha Male Other Guy) us and made our life’s work irrelevant.”

This is the real reason.

Mental models that work

The value of a mental model is in its ability to predict the future. Applying it should get you the outcomes you want. If Andrew Tate’s mental model of the world is wrong:

• Why did he become a 4-time kickboxing world champion?

• Why is he an ultra high net worth individual?

• Why does he have unlimited access to the most beautiful women in the world?

• Why has he achieved superlative social status?

• Why does he have the adulation of millions of people?

• Who allowed all of this to happen?

The akhirah will come. And we’ll all hang out together in Jannah, inshallah. You are alive in the dunya here and now. What are you doing with your time here?

The metaphysics of a shahadah

Those of you who know the truth about Tate and those of you who believe the lies about him, think about who he is and what you know about his life. The good and the bad.

Now think about al-qadr and what has transpired. Allah wrote in al-lawh al-mahfudh that Emory Andrew Tate III would become Muslim.

Just think.

Alhamdulillah.

Celebrate the W

This should be a time of celebration. It’s a win for Islam and a win for the Ummah. Lord knows we haven’t had many of those of late. Instead we have Muslims cutting each other off over minor disagreements with regard to Tate.

Here’s a snippet of conversations I had with a Muslim before and after Tate’s conversion.

Note that my word as a Muslim meant nothing to him.

This man knows me. We’ve hung out together. And yet, even though I know Andrew Tate personally and he does not, he is unwilling to take me at my word and give the Tate brothers the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe he thinks I’m a fasiq and this verse applies to me:

“O ye who believe! If an evil-liver bring you tidings, verify it, lest ye smite some folk in ignorance and afterward repent of what ye did.” [Quran 49:6]

If so, fair enough. I’m no saint.

This is unacceptable.

“You should be wary about supporting (a convert) until the dust clears…” It sounds like he’s hoping something bad will happen so he can say, “I told you so.”

“Humble yourself…” I’m quoting verses from the Quran and statements of the Prophet. He’s arguing, scolding, and threatening me.

“You have offended me greatly and if you don’t apologize, I’ll cut you off…” I held up the Magic Mirror, that’s all. Nevertheless, I’m not going to cut ties with my brother over a silly online disagreement. I apologized. It wasn’t enough.

Status, celebrity, impact

If the chieftain converts so will the tribe. The problem with online Muslims is the internet makes us think we’re all equal. We think we are worth the same as our betters, temporal or metaphysical.

No soul is equal, Muslim or non-Muslim, in life or death.

We believe in hierarchies: prophets, martyrs, the righteous, then all the rest of us. Among the rest of us: kings, presidents, celebrities, billionaires, brokies.

Some souls are born, live and die, and it’s as if they never existed. That is their impact on the world. Their rank in the Hereafter is between them and their Lord. Other souls change the face of human history and their names will never be forgotten.

Five minutes of Tate being Muslim is of more benefit to the Ummah that many born Muslims will provide throughout their entire lives. I include myself in the latter and hope to fix that shortcoming before I die.

“Glorified be thy Lord, the Lord of Majesty, from that which they attribute (unto Him.) And peace be unto those sent (to warn). And praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds!” [Quran 37:180-182]

اللهم صل وسلم على نبينا محمد كلما ذكره الذاكرون وغفل عن ذكره الغافلون

May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, as many times as the mindful mention him and as many times as the heedless forget.