Shaun King - A Story Only Allah Could Write | Miftaah Institute

A Story Only Allah Could Write

Glad to be here. I am from here, and this is my first time speaking here, but as a Muslim. Many times I spoke at many churches, maybe about 40 churches all over Lexington, and I became a Christian in Lexington, and became a Christian minister in Lexington, and this place, in many ways, it broke me and made me, and if you grew up here, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. But I wanted to tell really two stories.

The Advice of Sheikh Omar Suleiman

When I first embraced Islam, my teacher, one of my best friends Sheikh Omar Suleiman, told me something, and it surprised me. I didn't even understand it at the moment. Literally, right as I was taking my shahada, he said to the audience — he knew that I had been a preacher for most of my adult life.

He said, "Shaun, I'm just asking for two years, three years, maybe more, that you not preach from the Quran that you just learned." And it surprised me to hear it, but we hadn't talked about it, and I didn't fully understand it when he first said it. A few weeks later, I completely understood. As much as he knew that my tendency would be to be a preacher, I'm not yet skilled. I went to seminary as a Christian, even here in Kentucky. I went to Asbury Seminary. I went to Emory University Seminary. I truly thought and believed that I would be a Christian and a pastor my entire life.

But it was beautiful to hear about seeds and gardening, and I wanted to tell you a very personal story of mine, and then tell you a beautiful story from our Prophet, peace be upon him.

The Seed Planted 29 Years Ago

In 1995, I lived in Versailles — and if you're here from Lexington, Versailles is like 30 minutes away. I had been beaten so badly at the high school that I went to, Woodford County High School, that in 1993 and 1994, I missed two years of high school recovering from the injuries. I had three spinal surgeries and fractures in my face.

During that time, the movie X about Malcolm X came out. While I was home recovering from the third spinal surgery — and this is talking about someone planting a seed — a dear friend of mine brought me the Autobiography of Malcolm X. At that time, it was actually cool to have read that book, and I read it three times. I was stuck in my bed. This is before the internet, before iPhones, and so I read a lot.

A friend of mine named Calvin, a brother that I went to high school with — he and I so badly wanted to be like Brother Malcolm that we decided we wanted to be Muslims. This is 1995. But you have to imagine, I lived in Versailles. There was no masjid in Versailles. There was no Google. There was no internet. And so we wanted to be Muslims, but we didn't even really know what being a Muslim meant, and there was no one to ask, there was no one to search.

Things have changed so rapidly. We searched for weeks in the phone book, trying to find someone to call about us wanting to be Muslims. And we finally found in the phone book Masjid Bilal — and the hilarious part is it was in the church section of the phone book. Back then, it didn't matter if it was a Jewish temple or a masjid. They put everybody in the church section.

I called Masjid Bilal, and back then it was not the masjid it is now. It was in a house, and I think the number that I called was the Imam's home phone number — he just had his home number as the number for the masjid. I was famous among my friends for prank phone calls. I did not prank call the masjid. But I would call anybody.

Imam Shaheed answered the phone, and he said the smartest thing to us. I told him that we had read the autobiography of Malcolm X, that we wanted to be Muslims, and he might as well have offered me a million dollars — because he said, "Young brother, if you come to the masjid on Friday for prayer, I'll write you an excuse and you won't have to go to school."

I hated school. And I literally asked him, I said, "We don't have to go to school for the whole day?" I don't know if that was typical of him, but he said, "If you just come up here on Friday, I'll write you an excuse." And that next Friday, we went to the masjid. For three straight Fridays, we went to the masjid. I even went to the YMCA in downtown Lexington — I don't know if it's still there — and worked out with him. He was becoming our mentor.

But we were so mischievous that we realized that the school was not checking our note. And it was — I wish I could blame it on Calvin — it was my idea that we would no longer go to the masjid. We would just pretend we went to the masjid. And for 30 Fridays, we just stayed home and played video games.

Listen, the story will redeem itself.

The Timing of Allah

When I took my shahada, Sheikh Omar — he knew this story — and he told me, "Shaun, I've been praying for this for the past 10 years." And I told him, "Man, had you told me that 10 years ago, I might have been a Muslim 10 years ago." And he said, "No, Shaun, it's the timing of Allah."

Our niece, who lives here in Lexington, told us that she wanted to embrace Islam. And we knew that she needed a masjid, and the only masjid I knew at the time was Masjid Bilal. We came here, we took our niece to Masjid Bilal, and Imam Shaheed — I didn't even know his name at the time, I didn't remember his name. His son was there, and his son went to high school with my wife and recognized her. And then he came and introduced himself to me, and I asked him — he said his father used to be the Imam. I asked him if his father was still alive. He said yes, and said, "My father's just right back there in the back."

And he introduced me to him, and Imam Shaheed said, "You won't believe this." I told him the whole story I just told you. He said, "My son showed me a video, and he said, 'Dad, this is a famous man from Brussels who became a Muslim.'" And he said, "But I did not know that the man in that video was the boy I invited to the masjid 29 years ago."

And I just started to cry. We're talking about gardens, we're talking about planting — 29 years ago, he planted a seed. And anybody who has known me my entire life has known not just my closeness with Muslims — I even taught a college course on Islam 15 years ago. Imam Shaheed planted that seed, and so much of who I am started in this place. And so I thank all of you for your prayers.

The Wisdom of the Prophet's Strategy: The Mu'akha

Let me close with a story I'm studying. When the Muslims left Mecca for Medina, the Prophet, peace be upon him, did something so genius — and I'm studying it as a leader. He paired each Muslim from Mecca up with a Muslim from Medina.

I'm so lucky because I have so many scholars that I can text and ask questions of. I asked my local imam: "Is there a word for this process, this matching up of the Muslims of Mecca with the Muslims from Medina?" He said it's called a mu'akha — the brotherhood.

I've been studying it because, as many of you know, a lot of the work that I do now is in Gaza, and I help oversee many humanitarian efforts there. And we're thinking of this very concept — but using it with Palestinian families and families from around the world.

When the Prophet, peace be upon him, matched them up, it did at least three things.

It made something really massive very small. Suddenly, one family was just responsible for another family. It wasn't one city responsible for another city. This thing that would have felt overwhelming on a macro level — he took a macro problem and made it a very manageable one.

Think of it in this way. When any of us see the hunger and devastation in Gaza, it's overwhelming. But if I asked you — any one of you — "Do you think you're capable of looking after one family in Gaza? If you tried, would you be willing to do such a thing?" Yes, two million hungry people is overwhelming. One family is not overwhelming.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, understood: make a major problem micro by making it human. He took a problem that was very complex. Some people had barely left Mecca to relocate to a place where many of them had never really spent serious time — but suddenly they weren't strangers. They had people who often gave them half of their wealth, half of their property. Families who didn't just say, "Yes, you can stay with me for a night." Families who said, "You are now my responsibility." He took a complex problem and made it very simple.

Principles and Strategy

The last thought I want to leave you with is my understanding of our Prophet, peace be upon him. He was such a master strategist. This concept — it was a strategy. There are principles and there are strategies. And often we teach from the microphone. We teach principles, and we should. We teach values — patience, kindness, worth. We teach these things. Strategy is really how you put those principles to practice.

And he was a master strategist. I think it's so relevant because as I travel — I have now spoken in 49 states — I am incredibly concerned that we're often a people of principle, and there's nothing but good there, but we're a people of principle with no strategy. And my early, very young understanding of our Prophet, peace be upon him, was that he was a master strategist.

Before ChatGPT made a major update to ChatGPT-5, I ran a test, and we did this all over the world. If you ask ChatGPT who the most influential person in the history of the world ever was — and you say you can only name one — right away, ChatGPT replied to me: the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

My kids — half of my kids are Muslims and half of my kids aren't Muslims. My non-Muslim kids said, "Dad, ChatGPT is just telling you that because it knows you're a Muslim." I said, "Well, you ask ChatGPT this question." And she asked, and she said, "Dad, it's probably because we're on the same network." Or, "Dad, ChatGPT probably hears you on the microphones throughout the house."

So I said, "When you leave the house, on your phone, ask and see what it says." And it said the same thing. And then I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled down. The fourth reason that even ChatGPT gave was that our Prophet, peace be upon him, was a master strategist.

Even ChatGPT notes this. We should model our lives — our lives at home, our lives in the world, in the masjid, out of the masjid, your life at school. Does it have a strategy? And never think again that when you're strategizing, you're doing anything other than being like your Prophet, peace be upon him.

A Personal Request

I do have one request, particularly for the young people in the room, and then I'll close. Please pray for the rest of my children, that Allah will continue to guide them. They're good kids. I joked with some of the brothers — I thought I knew that my son would be the first Muslim in our family after me. And now eight other people have preceded him. And we're still — so at best, he'll be ninth. But inshallah, he'll be ninth. And so please continue to pray for them, that Allah would guide them.

Thank you so much for your love and support. Assalamu alaikum.

Closing Remarks

We appreciate you coming out and being with us. To listen, insha'Allah, it will benefit you in your journey. Insha'Allah, regardless of how many times you share it, all of us will be blessed by it. And we hope that Allah grants that to your entire family — all your children, your relatives, your dear relatives.

Just like how people came later in their life but became the cause that made other people become Muslim, we hope that Allah gives you the same, insha'Allah ta'ala. We appreciate you. Once again, give a round of applause to everyone.

And definitely, coming on time, coming early — even in our religion, I know we think coming late is the right thing to do, but coming on time is actually rewarding within the texts of our religion. Not just because the culture says so. We understand that whatever time they say, you add at least two hours — and if you add hours, you don't use a watch.