Abdur-Raheem McCarthy – What made a Sikh love Islam

			sidhwani kumara matola an amazing story about a Sikh who came to me and he wanted to accept Islam.
And what's really amazing about this story is not the fact that he Seguin want to accept Islam.
That's amazing itself. But what guided him to learn more about Islam, and this story happened a
couple of years ago when we were at an Islamic center in the UK in Birmingham, opening up a new
Islamic center. It was myself, our brother, Mufti mink and Sheikh was seemed Kempson. I was giving
you the first or the second lecture. After I finished my lecture. We went to the, you know, the
speaker's room, the VIP room where the speakers go after their lectures that was waiting for the
		

			other shifts to finish. And they were all going to go out to dinner with the brothers in the shifts.
As I was sitting there in the room. One of the team, one of the brothers, the volunteers came up to
me said, there's a seat guy at the door who wants to speak to you should I let him in? I was a bit
surprised. I said, of course, you know that a minute and see what he wants. He came in and sat down
with me and he told me that, you know, he's very interested in becoming a muslim. And he told me his
story. He said, You know that after I start to learn more about Islam, I started watching the
lectures are moved to make a mashallah just like many of the Muslims who have been moved, inspired
		

			by our brother mukti. He also was very inspired. And when he heard he was going to be in Birmingham,
where he's from, he came to talk to him directly about him entering Islam. But after he attended my
lecture, he told me that, you know, there was a connection or something between me and him, perhaps
the fact that I'm a revert to Islam, and he wants to now enter into Islam, he found some type of
connection. So he said, I want to speak to you instead. And he started to tell me his story. That
was a really amazing is he how he learned more about Islam because he was someone as he said, you
know, from his family, I don't know if this all Sikhs and whoever this hatred towards Islam and
		

			Muslims, but he's no his family and Where They're From an India, they know we're raised that they
know public enemy number one, their main enemy was Muslims. And they had a very strong hatred
towards Muslims. We've seen other Sikhs who have stood, you know, with Muslims in certain events. I
don't know, like I said, if that's all of them, but this is how his upbringing was. And then he
started to tell me his story about how he was guided to learn more about Islam and why he was there
that day to accept Islam. And that was because one of his colleagues at work who was like him, you
know, born and raised in the UK, but he was Muslim. And this Muslim brother was implementing the
		

			sunnah of our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and how he used to dress, a forgotten
sunnah for many of us, a sunnah that we don't really focus on, which is how he would wear his
trousers, Ali salat wa salam, and how we encourage the believer to have his trousers that they
should be above the ankles. Many of us today we buy the trousers from the store, and it's below the
ankles, and we don't really care about it. And all you say there's the opinion of some of the
scholars that it's only mcru So people leave it whether it's wider or not. That's something for
another time, but it's the sunnah of our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and this is
		

			how the bleeding man should dress with his trousers above the ankle. So as his problem Muslim came
to work, implementing the Sunnah he was joking with Missy guys joking with him said what are you
doing waiting for a flood? Why are your trousers so high? The Muslim you heard this and he let it
slide. But he said he's gonna come back to him, give him some Dower, this is an aid sometimes these
small things. This could be the key. This is a very important dollar lesson. This could be the key
that opens up the door for $1 conversation. Why do you wear like that? Because the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Sallam used to wear like this and he encouraged us, Islam is this and you open up the
		

			door for a dialogue with an individual, someone comes up to the Sister, why do you wear hijab? And
because I'm modest, that's not why you wear hijab. They go back to why you really wear the hijab and
having it and then open up a doubt without dialogue with that individuals asking you about the
hijab, Allah gives us these types of opportunities, but we have to be able to take advantage of it.
So this brother Hamdulillah, he came back and he said, Do you know why I wear my trousers like this?
		

			He's like why? He said, Because of the teachings of our beloved Prophet SAW Selim, the Prophet
Muhammad, and he set out to set up he used to wear like this and he encouraged us to wear like this,
he explained to him,
		

			this Sikh went home that night, and start to reflect on that,
		

			to this depth,
		

			they know the teachings and follow and love the teachings of their prophet to this extent, what is
this religion? Wear, even how he used to wear his trousers, how you still encourage them to wear his
trousers? That is how they were as well. So he went and started to read into search about Islam. And
so Allah subhanaw taala opened up his heart to want to accept Islam.
		

			Did he accept Islam or not? You have to wait till the end of the video to find out. So he came in
from the lab and he sat with me and explained to me all of this, and he had just a few concerns
about you know, AC and not really concerned about my family. He my wife, he said, I don't care how
she takes
		

			Except he had gotten to actually a pretty good level, he just needed a little push. I was trying to
encourage him, his main thing was just as mother because you know, as you know, a lot of people when
they come, there's another important dollar lesson that people who come from, you know, very strong
cultural backgrounds, they become alienated when they accept Islam, their local communities and
families, they know they fight them, they don't they kick them out from their communities. So they,
you know, they have that feeling of loneliness, it's not an easy thing to to be able to face for
many people. So this is what he was facing about, you know, how his mother was going to get any more
		

			so than anyone else, isn't it a bit of an encouragement, I was sitting with him for actually quite a
long time working with him working with him hoping he would take that step and take his Shahada. But
what had happened, the other lectures had finished. And the brothers were very hungry. And the point
was for us to go out and have dinner with the with the other chefs. And obviously, these gatherings
are very beneficial in the chef's come together, and we have some more volunteer brothers, different
questions, different things, we do have benefit. It's not just about you know, the food, it's the
atmosphere, the gathering. So we all enjoy these things when we travel is one of the benefits of
		

			traveling and lecturing, what have you. So the brothers are like, we got to go, it was getting very
late, the restaurants are going to close, I understand that. But for me, we have the opportunity now
for a Shahada. There's another down lesson, we're giving down lessons to the stories that are just
telling a story that you have to sacrifice, sometimes it might mean that we have to leave our meal,
the brothers may have to leave their meal. But if we can get one someone to accept the half, and to
be guided, that's more valuable than any meal hope that we can eat later, the restaurants close with
grab something from from a petrol station, or grab something, you know, anything with the next meal
		

			tomorrow morning. It's not that big of a deal. But under the pressure and then, you know, he just
wasn't sure. He said you know that he wasn't ready at that time. I don't know if he finally accept
Islam or not. Perhaps he's watching this and he could tell us in chat in the comments below. If he
didn't accept Islam, I'd be interested to know. I wasn't able to keep in contact with him. But
really, I've benefited from this story, how something as we look at as being small, not that big of
a deal. Implementing acting upon one of the Sooners of our beloved Prophet salallahu Salam opened up
this man's eyes and then open up his heart to he die he was ready to take that step, ready to accept
		

			Islam during Islam and he was saying that he believed that Islam was the religion of truth. All of
this from were from following the Sunnah of how our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used
to wear his trousers