Naveed
Yes — Mike Tyson converted to Islam while serving a prison sentence in the early 1990s and has identified as Muslim ever since, adopting the name Malik Abdul Aziz. In the decades since his release, his public statements suggest a faith that stayed constant but became more personal, increasingly mixed with statements about psychedelic-assisted spirituality that he has tied directly to his 2024 boxing comeback against Jake Paul.
| Religion | Islam (Sunni Muslim, by his own description) |
| Converted | While incarcerated, early-to-mid 1990s |
| Adopted Name | Malik Abdul Aziz |
| Prison Mentor | Muhammad Siddeeq, volunteer chaplain at the Indiana Youth Center |
| Recent Spiritual Practice | Describes using psychedelics (5-MeO-DMT, psilocybin) as part of his spiritual outlook |
Tyson’s Path Through Islam in Prison
Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and sentenced to six years at the Indiana Youth Center. According to reporting by Sports Illustrated and Deseret News, it was during this incarceration that he was tutored in Islam by Muhammad Siddeeq, a volunteer prison chaplain who became his spiritual adviser. Outlets covering Tyson’s 1995 release reported that his first stop after leaving prison was a mosque rather than the airport his promoter Don King had arranged — a detail Sports Illustrated framed as evidence of how seriously Tyson had taken the conversion.
Tyson took the name Malik Abdul Aziz during this period, though he continued to fight and build his public brand under “Mike Tyson.” He has said he studied the Quran along with the writings of Malcolm X while incarcerated. Unlike Muhammad Ali — whose own conversion decades earlier was a public, political statement — Tyson’s has generally been described by religion writers as a quieter, more personal anchor.
How Faith and Spirituality Shaped His Comeback
In the run-up to his November 2024 exhibition bout against Jake Paul, Tyson told Interview magazine that a psychedelic experience — smoking dried toad venom (5-MeO-DMT) — was what convinced him to come out of retirement. He said he had first tried it roughly seven years earlier with a shaman present, and has since done it “80 to 90” times, saying: “Then you meet god. And this is what god told me to do.”
On the Full Send Podcast in 2024, Tyson discussed reconciling his Muslim identity with respect for other faiths, saying, “I’m a Muslim, but I respect all religions… when I die, I want to die as a Muslim.” He has separately credited plant and fungal medicines with helping him move past cocaine and alcohol addiction, telling CBS News that psychedelics “helped me reach [my] highest potential.”
Life After Boxing: What He Believes Today
In interviews tied to the Jake Paul fight, Tyson repeatedly turned to spiritual language about mortality, saying he had reached “the stage now where I’m ready to meet god.” Coverage from outlets including Pulse Sports and EssentiallySports framed the remarks as evidence of a man speaking from religious acceptance rather than fear.
Tyson continues to describe himself as Muslim in public statements, while being candid that he doesn’t always practice with the strictness — five daily prayers, Ramadan fasting — that observant Muslims typically maintain. He has not publicly renounced Islam or announced a different formal religious affiliation; his framing is of a man who holds Islam as his core religious identity while treating psychedelic experiences as a separate, complementary channel to his relationship with God.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Mike Tyson practice Islam before he went to prison, or did it start there?
By his own and his chaplain’s accounts, it started in prison — Tyson was introduced to formal Islamic study by chaplain Muhammad Siddeeq during his 1992–1995 incarceration, not before it.
