Adnan Rashid – My Grandfather’s Death Led Me To Islam.

			to Pakistan since I left, and I heard the news, my grandfather had a stroke. And he may die. So I
packed my bags, I took Musa my child and my wife and my younger child, my daughter, we went to
Pakistan Long story short, so my grandfather dying on his deathbed. And he had a severe stroke, and
we knew is not going to survive. So that was my time with my grandfather, I loved him to bits. I'm
not telling you this so that you admire me for this. I'm only telling you, to inspire you to to
encourage you that things like this may determine your end. What I'm about to tell you right now,
things like this may determine how you end with Allah subhanaw taala. Right. Sometimes, sometimes
		

			you may do things in life, that may turn your destiny, right. So I went to my grandfather, while I
was literally three days before, three days before I left for Pakistan to see my grandfather who was
on his deathbed. My some of my friends had a rock. You know what that means?
		

			You know, that means language has changed, I guess. It's been 20 years, right? They had they had a
problem. And they wanted me to come and join them to be with them. Right? They wanted me to be part
of this. And I told them, Listen, I'm going back to my family after three years or four years, and I
don't want to go with scars and my face broken and things like that. So I'm not interested in this
because I don't want to be part of this. And they started to taunt me Oh, you're scared you're this
you're this and the language. You know, I don't I don't want you to imagine the kind of language are
you? So okay.
		

			So this is these the kinds of situations I was in literally days before I left, and how it changed
me after I got to Pakistan. So I was already not happy with the lifestyle I was going through. It
was just a waste of life, waste of time, waste of everything. You know, I wasn't happy with that. So
I went to Pakistan. And I saw my grandfather and deathbed. And I loved him very much. No doubt I
grew up with him. And the love I had for him cannot be described in words I was shattered, I was
broken when I saw him like that. And I served him to a to the best of my ability. Maybe Allah
destined me to be there for him. So he couldn't clean himself. He had a stroke, he couldn't move, he
		

			was bedridden. And, and he even got bed sore. He had basically wounds on his body, which we would my
father and myself, we would clean those wounds. When he would wet himself, we would clean him when
he would, you know, defecate, we would clean him because he couldn't clean himself. So he was my
father and my father's father. So he's my basically grandfather. So we were serving Him. And I could
see in his high eyes, he's looking at me, and perhaps he's praying for me. You know, at times, he
would he would raise his hand and he would do this to me, on my chin, you know, this is a gesture in
our culture of, of thankfulness that I you know, thank you for all of this. So, I hope he prayed for
		

			me or I think he did. And Allah subhanaw taala turned my heart and Allah produced some things. May,
Allah made some things happen. That Changed my mind for good. While I was there in the village, some
people came to see my grandfather because he was ill. So they spoke with me and they said, You know
what, we have read books with your ancestors mentioned in them. Your ancestors, your direct
ancestor, one of them is mentioned in a history book. And he did this this this. In other words, he
was a freedom fighter. When the British were ruling India, there was a mutiny in 1857. It's called
the Indian Mutiny. And your ancestors are directly involved. And one of them was captured, caught.
		

			He was one of the leaders of an instruction insurrection in northwestern Pakistan. And he was
indicted. He was put on trial, he was going to be hanged, but his sentence was reduced to exile,
where the village is today. Basically, that's where he was exiled. So he was put under house arrest
for seven years. He was in chains. He was praying Salah in those chains. He was making boo boo and
all of that. So
		

			I heard these things. And I asked for the book. Long story short, the book was given to me with a
small pamphlet, my one of my ancestors was mentioned his name was mentioned a house was mentioned
where I was actually sitting at the time. So I was very fast. And I was very kind of blown away. I
was thinking Hold on a second. This is my family history. Is this, who my ancestors are. So they
inspired me. Their history inspired me. I wanted to read more. So I went and grabbed a longer book
from one of the book markets in Rawalpindi. I traveled from a village I went to this market book
market and I found a book. It was titled, Syrah say it amateur heat. So I read the history I got
		

			very inspired and this is one of the examples I wanted to share with you very quickly that
		

			this
		

			kind of history can easily inspire you. This is why history is so important. That's why Allah
subhanaw taala you know continuously talks about the history of the prophets in the Quran. Allah
subhanaw taala mentions the Stories of the Prophets and the struggles and the Dawa against very,
very powerful opponents right? Why is he Why is Allah repeating the stories in the Quran? 30% of the
Quran 1/3 of the Quran almost, is about the stories of the prophets and the struggles why to inspire
you to inspire the Muslims to inspire you so that you can look at these examples of
		

			dedication, sincerity, these people who gave everything for the sake of Allah to preserve this Deen
so that this Deen can reach us posterity, right? And this is why Allah is telling these stories,
history can be very powerful to inspire people. Today the Muslim ummah has completely lost its
history. We are completely ignorant when I say completely. I can prove that right here.
		

			I can prove that right here in this audience in this audience, that we don't even know the life of
the messenger of allah sallallahu sallam. We pray, we fast we go for Hajj. We do all those things.
But we don't read. We don't read. We are not a Bookly people anymore. We were the most Bookly people
in the world. The Muslims were the biggest book collectors, book producers, book lovers, book
writers, and book distributors in the world for 1000 years. For 1000 years. I know this, I'm saying
this with confidence. Today, Muslims are the most bookless people in the world. And I'm saying this
with confidence without hesitation.
		

			Why? One of the reasons is complete ignorance of history.
		

			We cannot take any inspiration from our history, which is great. Our history is absolutely
magnificent. It is mind blowing. It is inspirational. Your children your youngsters will be lost if
you don't teach them the history of your predecessors. People who sacrificed everything for this
Deen people who wrote books people who wrote poetry people who wrote philosophy, people who produced
works of immense magnitudes. The largest libraries were in the Muslim world but God. When Mongols
destroyed the library,
		

			the river became black with ink when they chucked the entire library of Baghdad into the river,
		

			tigress, Digital
		

			River that runs close to Baghdad,
		

			the largest library in the world was the library about that. Then, libraries of Spain Islamic Spain
a londorossi, when Catholic Monarchs took a lot to lose Spain in 1492, from the Muslims, the last
stronghold called Granada. They burnt 1 million books, they knew this is the power of these people.
They knew this is where the power of these these people lay they are the most learned people in the
world. That's why they are the most civilized people in the world. And after colonialism, two
centuries of colonization, we not only got colonized intellectually, we got colonized, you know, in
our culture, in our ideology, in our love for books, we have forgotten our civilization, we often
		

			get forgotten our, our history, and what we produced in the past. We are completely ignorant of our
points of philosopher our thinkers are intellectuals.
		

			And this is the power of history how it inspires people passion through you, you want to do what
your predecessors did. You want to make this world a better place. You want to bring justice to the
world, you want to stand for the truth, you want to be on the right side. And that's only possible
when you have examples to follow. Most importantly, your Prophet, the messenger of allah sallallahu
Sallam and his followers.
		

			And my ancestors inspired me because of the great deeds, I could see, I could read through these
pages that hold on a second. These guys gave everything
		

			they gave, they gave up the freedom they gave up their livelihoods.
		

			To make Islam the dominant force in the region, as it was added add, as it had all always been for
the last
		

			eight centuries or six centuries, let's say.
		

			And subhanAllah, you know, the charge against my ancestor Shechem in Argentine, my direct ancestor,
the charge against him when he was captured in 1857. And he was put on trial in 1859. The charge
against him was he was telling people
		

			of his region that you are Muslims. You are Muslims remain firm on your deen don't give up your deen
will lie. This was the charge against him.
		

			And in order to the chargesheet is written in order do I have the document in my possession in our
ancestor library? It is still there. It is written in Urdu. It states theory the he re idea that he
was inciting the masses what tomb sub muscle man whoa upon a dean per camera Whoa, this is the
charge you are Muslims remain steadfast upon your deen
		

			and to the British establishment at that time, it meant to resist the occupation, foreign occupation
of the British rule the East India rule, which was explore which was to say the least very
oppressive, tyrannical and exploiting.
		

			And no one, I think, disputes that today. Today, no one disputes that the British rule in India was
extremely oppressive. You don't believe me? There is an Indian author called Shashi Tharoor, who is
an Indian politician as well as a historian, he has written a book on this and the book is titled in
glorious Empire.
		

			The book is titled in glorious empire, okay. And he has written a few books on the British Empire
and what it did to India, India, during the Mughal period
		

			as late as 1707, when the last powerful Mughal emperor died or Zabala gear and, and one of the most
Islamic Mughal emperors, because others are not so Islamic. He was the most Islam observing Emperor
of India. He memorized the Quran after he became the emperor.
		

			After he became the Emperor of India, India is a continent by the way, you know, he had a lot of
work to do, and he still found time to memorize the Quran. He was at age 40, he started to memorize
the Quran
		

			or Zivame gear, the man responsible for one of the largest compendium of Hanafi fiqh in the world,
called Al fatawa, alum diria.
		

			Named after his own name, his name was Orangevale and Gil, also known as Al fatawa, Al India. It is
the largest collection of Hanafy jurisprudential opinions in one
		

			Compendium.
		

			And the GDP of India when he was willing was 24% of the world 24% of the world. In other words, 24%
of the global wealth was in India. And when the British left, India was 4%.
		

			India was 4% hence, the freedom struggle, struggle for independence against this oppressive rule.
And this history inspired me It blew me away completely. And I was looking at myself and feeling
ashamed of myself looking in the mirror, who am I, what am I doing? Is this water? Is this what I
was born for?
		

			And look at my ancestors. Look, look where I come from, look, look at the background I have, and
look what I'm doing to my life.
		

			Long story short, I come back to Britain. My father, my grandfather passed away on the day of eat a
little othe he was buried after Margaret. And I left him when he was alive and I am sure he prayed
for me and maybe Allah guided me in my heart wasn't the same when I came back. My friends were
calling me let's go to this club. Let's go and do this and chilled out and chill this and you know,
and I don't want to give the details.