Andalusian Priest Who Became Muslim

Welcome all to tonight's talk, Ferdinand halacha. And

today really I have a topic that is that is very unique. And it's very telling that no matter what the circumstance, Allah subhanaw taala can give guidance to whom he wills, where he wills, and how he wills.

Tonight I want to discuss with you the story of a man by the name of Anselm Tomita.

Now this sounds like a strange name. And it is for Islamic names or Muslim names at least if there is something called Muslim names. This is a strange name. But this is the name of a man who grew up in who was born in the city of Majorca in Spain,

Knott central Spain but rather, in an island that is known as Majorca even today, hundreds of years later, it's still known as Majorca as well. In Arabic, this area is known as Mayola.

So this man, later on, he became known as Al mayority. He was born to a Christian father. And he was born in the year approximately 758, after the Hijra of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, or in the common era 1357. So the reason why I'm approximating a date is because we don't necessarily know exactly what that date was, but approximately because through his works, we can kind of see that he's saying it this year, I'm this much. So from that, if we do the math, we can get an approximate date, maybe it might be 757, and might be 756, but approximately 758, okay. And he lived until 832. And he himself told us his life story. So we don't have too many biographers speaking of

him. But the writings of this man, there's one main writing of this man, it is used by historians as a source as well for history. He talks about his own life, in the first chapter of a book that he wrote. Now, I won't tell you what that book is until later, but he spoke about his own life in there. And he tells us that he's originally from the city of Majorca. And, again, it's a small island, south of Spain. And this was an island by the way, which was also under Muslim rule as well. So whenever we think of an endless, right, and the Lucia, sometimes we think of Islam only within there, but you have to keep in mind that a number of islands south in the Mediterranean Sea, we're

also under Muslim rule among which happens to be Sicily. And people generally don't talk about Islam and Sicily or Islam in America, because the I mean, it certainly there's still some books on it. But this particular region, there's really not that much written on it. But there was Islam for some time, from the year 847 ce to till 1230. To see this was an era that was largely of Muslim rule within this region. But notice 1232 and the birthday, or the birth year of this man 1357, there is 125 years between the two. So he's born after the Muslim reign in this area, okay. Right now, this this island, it's largely a Christian Island. And his father sent him off as a young child to study

the Bible under some famous priests, priests of his time, at the age of six, he began to memorize the Bible, literally memorize the Bible. And he memorized in two years half of the Bible. By the way, there is a practice of memorizing the Bible as well, just as there is a practice of memorizing the Quran only the memorizers of the Quran far outnumber the memorize the zeros of the Bible, but there is a practice nonetheless of memorizing the Bible. So this young man had memorized half of the Bible in two years. After he finished this course of memorizing the Bible, he started studying the language and the intricacies of the Bible. And he started studying logic as well for six years

consecutively. So from eight till 14, he's studying basically, he's a student of knowledge, but he's a student of knowledge of Christianity. He then moves out from Majorca to another city, that is known as lialda, which is again a city in central Spain. So he leaves now Southern, the Southern Ireland to go to Central Spain, to a place which is around 1.5 hours of drive from Barcelona.

And there he remains, and he starts

to study more Christianity, he wants to basically become an expert scholar within Christianity. He studies astrology, he still studies other sciences. He goes for another course in Bible studies for another four years. This is, by the way, this region at that point is known to be one of the primary places to study Christianity. But that's not enough. This is a real student of knowledge. And he has a thirst of knowledge. But of course, knowledge of Christianity, he then moves to another city called Pamplona, which is again still named is that right now. And he goes to further his studies over there, there he meets a man by the name of and I don't know exactly what his name is, because

I'm transliterating, this name from Arabic, he wrote this book of his in Arabic, he, his name is Nicholas, Martine, so I would say Nicholas Marshall, probably right? So he goes, and studies under this priest by the name of Nicholas Marshall. And he describes him he says, This was considered the elite. Think about it, he's already memorized the Bible, he's already went through a course of study of six years of the Bible, then he did advanced studies of the Bible as well. So this is like a seasoned divinity scholar, right. So obviously, he's gonna have to have someone really elite to now carry on his studies with. So he goes to the top class scholar by the name of Nicholas Marshalls.

And he starts to study the Bible. And he starts to study divinity with him. And he's considered the most religious, the most knowledgeable, the most aesthetic, he's describing him in this way. And he says that all of the kings in Europe, they would send all of their questions to this Nicholas Marshall. And they would along with their letters, they will go and give generous gifts and donations to this man as well. And people will come and they will do double rock as well. The Baroque meaning seeking Baraka wiping the person, just as some Muslims do this. Also in Christianity, there are people who do this as well, right Saint worship. And this is something that

is known to me from someone very close to me who went to the went to the Vatican as well is from a top elite Christian family, who then accepted Islam. And he told me himself that when he went to the Vatican, because of who he is, people started to wipe him all over his body. And they were seeking baraka from him. So just like that, they're seeking baraka from this Christian saint or priest. And they would all wished that this Nicholas would accept their gifts, everybody is hoping for this.

So he learns from him, theology, he learns divinity, and he starts to also serve this man as well service. So much so that priest, Nicholas started to believe this young man is in his mid 20s. At this point, he started to believe this young man to be a very close aide of his, he gave him his own house keys as well.

Now he has access to the top priest, potentially in all of that region. He goes to his house, whenever he wills, He does whatever he wants, he says, I have access to everything, except for one room, the whole house, the whole church, all of the possessions of this priest, well, he's a very wealthy one, too. He says, I have access to everything except for one room in which he would keep his treasure trusts from all of the gifts that he would be getting from across Europe as the questions would pour in. And he served him for 10 straight years. And after 10 years of service, obviously now he is a very seasoned scholar, right? He's gotten through Bible studies, He's

memorized the Bible, he has went and and really like spending time with the top notch scholars of his time. And he himself now is considered a scholar, a very senior scholar of Christianity as well. And

he says, One day Nicholas got sick. And he stayed home. And I went that Ray, the closest student of his he's going to be looking after the Deus right? The lesson. So he goes out and all a number, scholar of that caliber, all of his students are scholars as well. So he's basically all of his peers are scholars. So they get together in this gathering. Obviously, insulin has a special status because of his closeness to priests Nicholas, and he is sitting in the gathering and they start to debate and discuss the meaning of a word which is debated and discussed till today as well. They all started to discuss the verse in the Bible in John 16 Seven, which basically says it is to your

advantage that I go away for you

If I do not go, the Helper will not come. Now, the word helper over here is used. However, the original texts, they have a term that is called parakeet, or fat ugly in Arabic. Now this word is likely it was likely most definitely present in the Arabic Bible as well in the early centuries of Islam. And the reason why I say this is because all of the early sources that quote this John 16, seven in Muslim tradition, they all use the term fat ugly parakeet, but if you look at the current translations that are in the market, they won't use this term, theoretically, they won't use the term parently nor will it be in English or Latin or any other language. Rather, they will translate

it into a number of different translations. Sometimes you'll see the translation helper sometimes you'll see the translation comforter, sometimes you'll see advocate, counselor, Holy Spirit, you know, Savior, different translations, okay. Even in Arabic, you'll see different the Arabic Bible you'll see different translations, some of them they say, I see the comforter, some of them will say, you know, the Savior and Munna Ji, but they don't say alphabetically. But this man, this elite priest from Spain, from

Majorca. He is saying, I'm sitting in the gathering of the top most priest of that time. And all over students are discussing the term parakeet, fat ugly.

And they're all asking one another, who is the Sphatik Lilt, that is to come after isa Valley serum after Jesus, the one who He foretold It is to your advantage that I go away.

Now, when we look at the word fat, at least and we break it down, it literally actually means a helmet. It literally means diamond. We know that through studies, we can we can come to that definition, which is basically the essence of lien which is the

superlative form that says the most praiseworthy, and we know also in the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala says that recently salaam, he's the one who comes overshare on the rasuna team, and that is mu. He gives the glad tidings of your profit will come afterward. His name is Edmund, by the clip argument, but they're discussing they're talking about, they're all saying it's this person or that person and they start to argue, and Anselm says there is no answer. Nobody really had a clear answer on this particular question. And then he goes naturally to his teachers house. And he sits down with the teacher Nicholas asks him, what was the conversation that people were having, as I was absent?

So he says everybody was asking about this term, Fadak leighlin, what it means and who it refers to, and so on and so forth. Is that okay? What was your answer?

He said, You know, the exit XYZ. He didn't mention his name. He said, You know, the exit XYZ. He said, Yeah, of course. He said, That scholar of the Tafseer of the Bible, basically, he said that the fighter cleat is this person.

The priest says, You know what? It's a good answer. But it's close. It's not right.

It's wrong. You had a good try my son, but the exegete didn't get it right.

And then he says, there's only a few people in this world who actually know the meaning of this term. Sadly, parakeet.

And Anslem says, that I've been studying with you for so long. So he falls on the floor, and grabs the feet of the priest and starts kissing his feet. And he says that he pleads him asking him, I've traveled from so far. And you know, I've been serving you for 10 years, and I've been studying with you, and I've been learning from you. And I've been, and I've been perhaps you can complete your fever on me, Oh, Master, and teach me what this mean means. He starts bleeding. The priest has a heart as well, he starts to weep into tears, and he starts to cry. And he says, My son, you are very dear to me, because of your service to me, but I'm afraid if I give you this knowledge, and it

becomes apparent to people in the society that you have this knowledge, the Christians are not going to leave you and they will kill you. And some says By Allah, of course the reason why saying Allah is because he's writing in Arabic. But also it should be noted that Christians also use the term Allah. Like Allah is actually the word for God in Arabic. So all Arab Christians, they don't use any other term. They use the term Allah so next time

Some person you know who's ill advised about what Allah means and they start to say your God, Allah, you tell them well your God has also Allah. Because in the Bible that actually says Allah. Many times are the first page of the Bible I counted 17 times it says, but Allah, the the, in the Arabic Bible, of course. So it's the same thing. So it says wala Hill Alvine, by Allah, the Almighty, and by the Bible, and by the one who dropped the Bible, ie swearing by Lisa Ali salaam, I will not see any of this to anybody. I'll keep this completely to myself. The priests down, he says my son,

you remember the day you came to me from Europe?

I asked you in your country? Are they're Muslims? Is there any Muslims close to you in your country? I said, No. You know, your members. And he says, do they attack you? Did they attack you? Or do you attack them? Meaning? Is there a war going on between your people and the Muslims?

He says the reason why I was asking you this question was because I wanted to test your level of hatred towards Islam.

He was born 1357 100 years, 125 years after Islamic green in Majorca finished so naturally, you know, the parents and the second generation and the third generation, they would be filling up their children with hatred that these Muslims, they came and they took over this land and you know, finally our people, they ended up getting this land back, etc. So he wanted to check this priest that is this individual, a hater of Muslims, basically an Islamophobe or not, right?

And he says, No, my dear son, that Pericles is actually one of the names of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.

It is He to whom the fourth book mentioned by Daniel continues, is revealed. He foretold that His religion is true. His creed is the Enlightened creed mentioned in the Bible as well. And Islam is very shocked at this point. He's like, you know, if you know this, why don't you accept Islam? And he says, you know,

he says, My master,

what do you say about the religion of the Christians? Because obviously, now, he has all these questions. He doesn't know what to think of Christianity itself, because all along, obviously, the two major religions at that time as well happened to be Christianity and Muslims, and they're constantly at war. This is an era in which the Crusades are taking place. This is an era in which there's constant war between Muslims in Andalusia in Muslim Spain and the Northern European Christians as well. So there's a lot going on, and he's really confused, unsold. And he says, What do you say about the religion of the Christians? He says, If Christians followed the actual religion

of Jesus, they would be upon the religion of Allah, because Jesus and all of the prophets followed the religion of Allah.

Until he asks the Christian priest, he himself, by the way, is a priest as well. He says, what, what is the solution to all of this? What do you want me to do? Now you've given me this knowledge, I don't know how to handle it. And he says, the solution and this is the priests speaking, he says, the solution is you go and accept Islam myself. The solution is that you go and accept Islam.

young, handsome, he asks this elderly priest, if a person accepts Islam, will he be saved? Because remember, the whole concept of Jesus, Jesus being your Savior? So he's like, Well, if I leave this belief, am I going to be saved on the day of judgment? And the priest says, yes, if you do this, you're going to be saved in this life, and you're going to be saved in the next life as well.

Now, this is really shocking to him. He says, If you know all of this, why didn't you do it yourself? You have all this knowledge of the parakeet that Jesus foretold, and the idea that there's a prophet to come after Jesus as well. And that he happens to be Muhammad and that that is the profit of the people of the people of Islam and Muslims. Why did you choose yourself accept Islam?

Now, the priest, He gives us excuses. He says, You know what? The thing is, I learned this knowledge, not at your age, remember, and Salam is around his mid 20s, early 30s or late 20s, early 30s. And so, there's a difference between this man

and this older gentleman. He's in his 90s. Now, he says, I learned this when I was told I, you know, if I had gotten this knowledge, he literally told them I had it.

Having this knowledge earlier on, I would have left everything. And I would have went and entered into Islam. And you know, as Jesus says He quotes Jesus. And this is actually this one of the statements of Irisa. Allah said, I'm also in the Muslim tradition as well, who dunya Rasulullah Hadiya, the love of this world, and the love of high status within this world is the basis of every evil in every sin. So you know, this is the case. And look at my situation, I have a very, very high status. In the eyes of the Christians, I have so much material possession, if I show even a slight bit of inclination towards this, now, the general masses within public would come and murder me, and

they would kill me, I would die immediately. And he says, let's see, I'll be able to escape from the general people over here. And I end up getting to the Muslim lands, when I go to them, and I tell them, I came to you and I have accepted Islam. And they will simply say, Okay, that's good for you. You've accepted Islam, that is to save yourself on the Day of Judgment, what do we have to do with that? Right? Don't act as if you're doing a favor to us, you're basically accepting Islam, so that you yourself, save yourself, and I'm 90 years of age, I don't speak their language. If I live, I miss them, I live as a poor man, I wouldn't be able to communicate with them, they won't appreciate

who I am, as a human being, I will die of hunger. And we're over. Beyond all of this. Allah knows, this is what he says, Allah knows that I'm actually on the real religion of Lisa Ali Salam. And I don't follow Christianity, as everybody else is following over here.

But here's something to stop that this man basically didn't choose to come to the Muslims, because he was afraid that he's not going to get enough support. Now, this is an elderly gentleman. But this is a reality. Even within our times, there's so many people who want to accept Islam, but because we have not enough support groups for new Muslims, we don't have that support. In fact, in the Sharia, we have a rule that is meant specifically for new Muslims, those people who recently accepted Islam, and that is that we give zakat to them, we give financial support to them, so that they're, they get more established within their Deen as well. So when you see someone willing to or attempting to

accept Islam, you have to be there for them. And we have to start as a community as well developing support groups that will allow them any person who leaves Islam to Christianity Today, believe me, they will be showered with money,

they will be showered with money, that's a reality. And the idea here is not to shower people with money into Islam. But the idea is that this guy sees the truth, but he's afraid. If he goes to the Muslims, he's like, I don't know, maybe I'll die of hunger. I've built my entire life on this. This is my career at this point. If I go to the Muslims, I will die potentially of hunger. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam actually used to give money in the dark to people who recently accepted Islam. And many of the scholars, they believe this rule continues till today as well, even though some of them they believe that a left equilibrium there, that rule has been abrogated. But I

believe that it's a rule that should be enacted, even today that those people who want to accept Islam or have already accepted Islam, and they need support, give them as a co op, so that they will get that support until they can stand on their feet, and they become firmly grounded within the religion as well. Now Anslem, he goes and asks the priest, and he says, My master, would you encourage me to go to the lands of the Muslims, and except the religion, the priest says, if you're an intelligent one, and are asking an open to be seen, saved, you're seeking to be saved, then go and Hastin and do this, go to the land of the Muslims. Because by doing this, you will get goodness

within this life. And you will get goodness within the hereafter as well. Now, after this conversation, finished the priest, he starts to talk to this young gentleman, and he says, Look, I've given you this information. But if you take this information, and you go out and spill the beans on it, and you tell other people in this society, you will immediately be murdered. And on top of that, if they ask you, where are you getting this information, and you say, you're getting it from Nicholas Marshall, I will say I'm not the one who sets up such a thing. And I am sucked up people who will believe what I see. You're a foreigner, you're not even from here. They're not going

to believe what you have to say. I'm the big guy in town. If someone says that, you know, makes an accusation against me levels that accusation against me, who's where they're going to believe you or me, me. So he says, Don't even try that. And he says on top of that, if you die by telling you this information to other people, then I am not responsible for your death. I don't take ownership of your blood.

Money, there is no responsibility that I have for your death because I'm sure that people are going to kill you. But and salami gave him all of the reassurances and he promises and he said, Don't worry, I'm going to make sure that this information stays completely to me. And he says, You know what? I'm about to pack my bags after 10 years of study over here with you, and I'm heading out and this priest, you know, he really wanted guidance for this young man, actually, so much so that he said, Okay, you know what, I will cover your travel expenses as well. He gave him 50 Dean ops, and he told me $50 is a big number one day not as one gold coin $2,500. So you do the math, right, what

would that be? $150,000 Approximately, right. So

he gave him a quite a bit of money, a big sum of money. And he told them that go ahead and pack your bags and head out and start traveling, and Anslem after many, many years abroad at the age of 34, he now travels back to Majorca. And he stays there for six months. And then he travels from Menorca

eastward towards Sicily. And he goes and stays in Sicily for five months, every month each and every day. He's anticipating that there's going to be some ship that will take him from Sicily to Muslim land or in North Africa, because Sicily to North Africa is just a day's worth of trip, right. So he finally finds a ship to Tunisia. He gets on the ship. And he heads off from Sicily to Tunisia. And when he lands in Tunisia, all of the Christians in Tunisia, it's a Muslim land, but there's Christians there as well. All of them come racing to the ship. And they know that and some Tomita happens to be over here, because remember, he himself is very well claimed at this point. He's got a

reputation as a scholar of Christianity. Everybody starts racing to get to this person. And he goes and settles down with the Christians. The merchants are there. The priests are there. The religious men are there, the saints are there, they all take him in and for months, they treat him with absolute hospitality. They give him every single thing that that money can buy. And he says they gave me very good hospitality and they covered my expenses and my life very well. After four months, he says I asked them

is there any person in the salt ins office? The ones who have been Is there any person on the Sultan's office who speaks the Christian language or a Spanish?

They said yes, there is a person His name is Dr. Use of literally a medical doctor.

This doctor Youssef, he speaks the Christian language. He speaks Spanish, and he is the personal physician for the salted. And he's also a translator and he's a very close eight of the Salton as well. So lo and behold, and salam, he finds himself in the house of Dr. Yusuf, he goes there. And he goes and tells Dr. Use of the real reason why he had come to this country, the real reason why he had come to Tunisia, and Dr. Yusuf becomes overjoyed. And he's so happy that in addition to all of the close relationships that he already has, with the Salton, he's going to bring him this beautiful news of a Christian priests converting to Islam as well. So he goes and takes him, he puts them on

his horse and takes them to the house of the Sultan. And now they are both standing before the Sultan. The Sultan says that, how old are you enslaved? Of course, Dr. Yusuf is the translator over here. How old are you? He says, I'm 35 years of age. So what have you studied? What are the sciences that you've studied? Because generally speaking, religious men, whether that be men of religion, and Christianity, and also of Islam, they would and they still to some degree, I know a lot of other arts as well. It was part of your studies, you had to study other things as well. So you said what did you study you told them I studied astrology and a study this study that he gave him some things

that he had studied. And he said, I studied logic philosophy, he was very well instructed in philosophy, as well. And he says that, after this, he welcomed me into Islam.

But as he was welcoming him into Islam, and slim refused, he said, I'm going to accept Islam, but there's a condition. What's your condition? He says that no one leaves their own religion, and goes to another religion except the people of the previous religion. They start to say horrible things about him, and they start to make a lot of lies about him. I want you to gather all of the Christians in Tunisia, all of the dignitaries among the Christians in Tunisia, and I want you to bring them here. Ask them why I'm not over here. What do you think about

Salam Tomita

after they tell you what they think about me. At that point I'll be willing to accept Islam. So the king smiled and he said you're asking the same request that the Sahaba Abdullah had been Saddam had asked the Prophet salallahu Allah He was in there and you know the story of of the live and said I'm delighted that Saddam was a Sahabi. He was from the the scholars of Judaism from the from benoquin Oh God, and he had come to the prophets. I said, let me ask the Prophet three questions. He said, I'm going to ask you three questions and these three questions. No one knows the answers of these three questions except for a prophet. So after he asked him the three questions, and the Prophet

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam answered the three questions immediately Abdullah had been Saddam, he says, a shadow Allah, Allah wa shadow Anika rasool Allah, I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship except for Allah and that you happen to be the messenger of God as well. But he says that tell the Jews he says in the Alia who the Coleman buton Jews happen to be very, you know, people that are very treacherous, so go and ask them about me before you tell them that I have accepted Islam. So you brought the Jews together and he said, What do you think about the law even said, um, they said, Who

is the best of us and the child of the best of us as well? Right? And

the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that, what do you think if you were to accept Islam,

said We seek refuge in Allah from that.

You ask them a second time, what do you think if you were to accept Islam, they said, We seek refuge in Allah, if He does such a thing. Ask them a third time. They said the same thing. And at that point, Abdullah even tsunami came out and he will witness that there is no God worthy of worship except for Allah, and that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his messenger. And they said, Sharon, our Bucha, Rena, he is the most evil of us and the child of the most evil of us as well. And then they started to say, all sorts of evil things about Abdullah bin Salman, they laughed. So this king, he was obviously well versed in this, he said, You're saying the same thing that Abdullah bin

Salam was saying as well, perhaps Enslin had this knowledge, he had this information, maybe he did it anyways, this was the condition he made. And so he gathered all of the Christians together. And he asked them the dignitaries, and they all said, this is we've never seen this at our senior say, we've never seen anyone greater than Him in knowledge and religiosity.

He is a person of religion, and he's a person of knowledge. And the king says, What if he accepts Islam,

they also say the exact almost the exact same thing. They say We seek refuge in Allah from such a thing.

He will never do this. These are their words. And then the king summoned, and slim, who was told to stay in the back room over there, he came out of the back room, and he stood before them. And he bore witness that there is no God worthy of worship except for Allah who is at the origin. And that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi. wasallam is His servant and Messenger. And when he said that, all of the dignitaries and the priests and all of them, they said something slightly different than the Jews without the live and said, um, but they said something. Nonetheless, they said that he's only doing this because he wants to get married.

Because they said that the priests in our religion, they don't get married, so he wants to get married. And that's the reason why he's doing such a thing.

But anyways, their prediction did come true. The Sultan after they left, he invited a noble lady and he said that I'm going to marry her off to you and He gave him a stipend on a daily basis of a quarter dinar. And he gave them 100 dinar to give to his wife as as a gift as well and some that marriage, he had a child, and he named that child. What do you think?

Mohamed Salah who it was named after what happened? That's why he was known as Abu Hamad. And his Muslim name became Abdullah, and he became known as Abu Mohammed Abdullah. Darrell Jumaane, the translator. Why? Because after he got married five years, five months into his marriage, everything is well well, the Sultan summons this man and he says, You're going to become part of the naval forces because we need a guy who knows the Spanish language in the forces. So I want you to learn Arabic as well through that don't during this time, remember and psalms are very intelligent man. Right? He's a very learned man. So he's already picked up some Arabic has been living here for no

less than around 910 months. So he's already picked up some language but he says now after this job

It was given to me one year later, I mastered the language. And he did Master it because he wrote this book and I read it. And the book is in Arabic, and it's well done as well, you can tell that this is not his first time, you can tell there's like, signs of that you can tell as a as a advise reader when a writer is perfect. And he's almost perfect. So he's very good. But you can kind of tell that it's almost like a second language, you understand. So

he goes for a year, and he

learns the language. And this should also tell you as well, some people, they have this lifelong goal of learning Arabic, and they don't ever end up doing it online. It's completely accomplishable. You just got to put your head down. For 910 months, you're done. That's it. 10 months later, he became the translator for the Psalter.

And he became known in the books of history, as I told you, man, the translator.

And he started translating for the naval forces. And of course, because of his work ethic, he started going up and up into the ranks in the Navy as well, so much so that he became a captain. So now this is Abu Mohammed Abdullah Abdullah giovane, Captain

Abdullah, okay, he really literally became known as

Abdullah order Captain Abdullah as well.

Now, one day, as he's in these forces, of course, he has to travel because of this, sometimes, this is a time of turmoil remembers the Crusades are happening, Christians are trying to get back their territory. There's fights happening at the Muslim front, Tunisia is literally one of the fronts, right? Because it's the northern side of the north eastern side of North Africa. So literally, this is one of the funds. So he's at a very, very pivotal area, location, he has to meet these armies that are coming from Europe all the time. And in one of these meetings, he is met with another Christian priest, this Christian priest, he describes him as almost like my brother, because you

remember, he used to be a student of knowledge in the in Christianity, and he says that this was one of my close friends. And we went out to seek knowledge together. And he came all the way from Sicily, to Tunisia. And the reason why he came was because he wanted to advise me to come back into Christianity. So he writes a letter, this Christian priest, and he gives it over to the interpreter, even though Abdullah is an interpreter, but at this point, he's the captain, he's no longer acting as an interpreter anymore, right? So he gives it to the new interpreter interpreter, and that interpreter, his duty is to bring this to of the law, and he's going to read it. And in this letter,

he says that I'm going to give you all sorts of duniya you want money, you want fame, you want, you know, glitter, Glamour, whatever you want. At this point, I has the king of Sicily, in my sleeves, I can take whatever you want from him, and give it to you, but just come back to the dino vizier of the Messiah.

This letter is not given to Abdullah because the interpreter, he feels there's a danger. Remember, this is a convert. So there's like a question mark around them as well. Okay. So he takes this letter, and he brings it to the son of the Sultan himself. And the son of the Sultan brings an other interpreter, and he asks him to translate this letter, and the content of the letter is clearly inviting, and slim, to middle back to Christianity. And so they don't want to give this letter to him.

But then they bring him

everybody is afraid, because they're like, maybe this guy was a spy all along that you didn't even know. Right? So they bring him and they give him the letter. And slim he reads this letter. And he starts to look at the letter, and he starts laughing.

hysterically laughing,

the saltney, the son of the salt, and he's like, why are you laughing? He said, Just give me a minute minute, the content of this letter, I will translate it for you and bring it back to you. So he went, he doesn't know there's another translation that's already happened of the letter. You understand? They're hiding that particular fact from him because they want to test his credibility. So you really want the Muslims or he's not. So he goes back, he translates that letter brings it back to the son of the salted. The son of the Sultan takes the two letters, he compares them and he finds they're exactly the same. There's no difference. Then they felt more comfortable.

And the Sunday says the Son of the Salton the prince, he says to answer them, he says, What do you think of this letter? He said, What do you want me to think of this letter? What do you want me to think of this letter?

I accepted Islam completely willingly. And I will not respond to

Any offer he makes to me.

And at that point, everybody started to feel content. And they said, This person is really, really on our side. And he denied all of this fame, all of this glamour, all of this money, he already had a lot of that now. But this was a even a grander promise. Because Europeans, they had a fair share of wealth. Remember that region, although it is a region of wealth, it's a region of a lot of pain for the Muslims, but it is in decline at this point, Europeans are fast making way into the entirety of the Andalusian province basically, or the region, the Iberian Peninsula and the the the islands that are related to that as well. So he refuses this buffer, and all of the story of his he tells it

to us in a book that he calls for to read sure what the Allah Allah sorry, the gift of an intelligent to an intelligent human being refuting the people of the cross. And they say this is literally the first book of its kind. It's a small, manual, there are various books refuting Christianity. He even caught some of them is wedded into the Muslim tradition as well. He said even has him has a book on this and valon has a book so he knows the books. But he says no one has actually went to their sources and taken the information directly from them to refute them. So this is like the historical deductive, basically. Okay. So he takes this information, even he puts it

together into this book. And we don't have much other information about it. But we know that the scholars of history, they respected the source because they took a lot of the history of that time, because he also wrote a lot about the kings and the Emperors within Tunisia at that time, as well. So they took a lot of information about that era from this particular book, and he died in the year 1430. Some sources they say that he died a Shaheed he died a martyr, because he was always at the front. But we don't know that for certainty. But we know that this man he gave up everything that he had 20 years of or more of his life, 25 years of his life that he spent studying his religion of

Christianity. But then when he realized that the truth happens to be in something else, he left all of that for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. And this is a lesson for all of us, that there are going to be moments in our lives where we believe something to be the truth, even within Islam, sometimes our concepts that happen to be innovations, we might have believed all of our lives, this is true. And then suddenly, we're enlightened. And we're told that actually this one here, this is not according to the Sunnah of the prophets. And suddenly, we have to have the willingness, when we are certain of that, to leave our practices. We don't live by what our forefathers have, and we

don't live because of their situation. And we're and fear that Allah subhanaw taala will not make our situation better. This guy is teacher. He chose not to travel, he chose to travel. But Allah subhanaw taala opened the door for him. We're not We're not saying that that individual may not be given salvation by Allah subhanaw taala everybody has their situation, whether someone will be granted salvation or not, that's up to Allah subhanaw taala that maybe he believed internally and didn't express his belief anyways, that's, that judgment will live up to Allah subhanaw taala. But this man, he sacrificed all of this, for the sake of belief. He sacrificed all of this for

principles, he sacrificed a lot of wealth and status and so forth, that he could have amassed with all of the knowledge he had, for the sake of what, for the sake of principle that he is wants to be a man of belief. And Allah subhanaw taala kept his mansion alive for centuries. And there is a small mausoleum till today in

Tunisia, although I don't encourage the practices of Muslims, but this happens to be the case there is more tomb in Tunisia till today under the name of Abdullah and the people in that region, they know this man as CD. So you need to refer our master to her why? Because he wrote his book to refer to a deep so he's known for that book. Okay, so they became, they decided to call him by his book, and this is none other than Anslem to Remita. And this is, of course, none other also, as he's known as Mohammed Abdullah, a German or CD Topher, he lived between the 758 and 832, as well I asked Allah subhanaw taala to have his mercy on this man. Hola Mami. Ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to allow us to

learn the glaring lesson within his life as well. And that is that we should never have we should never stop from searching for truth. At every moment, we should always be assuming that there's a possibility we have some error within our conclusions, and we have to continue to verify the concrete

wishes that we have, so that when we meet Allah subhanaw taala we meet Allah and we can say to Allah subhana wa Tada that oh Allah I tried every possibility that I saw and every opportunity that I had to seek truth I continue to seek that truth. The reason why we ask Allah for truth in prayer every day is because we have to make the assumption that we might be faulty in some which way? Why does Allah tell Muslims who are praying in the Quran? To read the Quran in their prayer? I thought to and ask Allah 17 times a day in a Serato study, guide us to the correct path, because there are moments and there are aspects of our ideas that may not be correct, that we have to correct and we have to

work towards correcting ourselves until we meet Allah subhanaw taala ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to correct our affairs in entirety in totality long I mean, are some Allahu ala Sayidina Muhammad in while early he was marrying