This is an amazing story about the Golden boy Christian who accepted ISLAM his journey along with the struggles.
2017-06-16
Golden Boy Christian Who Accepted Islam
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the deen show's golden child and the importance of finding a point of view to live in. The host discusses the deity Hamza and the importance of finding a point of view to live in. The speaker emphasizes the importance of showing respect and love for one's parents even though it may be difficult to deal with them. He also talks about the negative impact of culture on personal relationships and family members.
AI: Summary ©
God
is His Messenger.
greetings of peace How you guys doing? Welcome to the deen show. And every week we're here, subscribe if you haven't already to get the newest show sent to you. And with no exception. We have another exciting show with our brother, the golden child. Hamza? How are you, brother? I'm doing well. And I'll make Ramadan.
So you were the golden child? I was in a manner of speaking. Yeah. So tell us I got the head to prove itself. Okay. You came from predominantly? Well, that's interesting, because in India, it's predominantly either Muslim or Hindu. Right? Correct. Correct. And then we talked about the colonization time when they came over. And then the missionaries came. And your parents, can you go off from there? Yeah. So my family's actually, they've been Christian for a few generations.
I think at least three or four. And but I'm sure at some point, somebody was was Hindu. And then you know, the colonists came, and then they converted a lot of people over to Christianity. So I'm a product of a few generations of colonial evangelical, Protestant Christian thought and ideology. That's kind of my background and my parents background. So how did you end up here on the deen show? What was it now about Islam that had you accepted? Once upon a time law, it was a long road, it was a long road.
But in a nutshell, it was the Quran. It was the overwhelming beauty of the Quran. From the moment that and, and I wasn't somebody that learned about Islam, and then just immediately went to the Koran and started reading it. It took me a while for the Quran to come in front of my face. And when it finally did, and when I opened it, I wasn't able to put it down. It changed my life forever. Now, was this one of those things that because you'll see some of these stories, you know, the person had some kind of dream, right? And that Jesus or someone came to him, and that just changed their life, you know, was Was that something like that? So it's not usually a unique experience just for that
person? Not based on it much textual evidence, correct? Yes. So my journey, the interesting thing about my journey is that it wasn't a emotional experience for me, I and I did my best to kind of separate emotion from my decision making process. So just a little bit of background. I mentioned, my family's Christian, they're not only Christian, by the way, they're wonderful people, but they're not only Christian, but you know, they're very involved in the Christian community. A lot of my uncle's are pastors.
And a lot of our family friends are, you know, have their own churches. So I grew up in that environment where Christianity was not only very, very prevalent, it was I grew up in the church, I grew up in the community. And as you alluded to earlier as the golden child, I was I'm the only child of my parents, but in terms of our family, we were highly respected within the community. So I was I was, you know, doing well.
I had no overwhelming reasons to leave the dean, but Savannah law a lot, guys, people in different ways. And the way that that I came to Islam was in stages, the first stage of my life was where I was questioning Christianity. And I know this happens to a lot of people. But the more I would learn about Christianity, I had questions in the back of my head. questions that I asked my family, like, what questions what kind of questions things like, you know,
if, if God had told God had told
all the prophets in the Bible,
especially Moses, peace be upon him, that, you know, your God is one from the get go. And this was the understanding for most of the children of Israel. And they practiced this for, you know, 1000s of years. And that didn't change until after Jesus peace be upon them left this earth. And then somebody else came and made a statement on his behalf, which changed the paradigm from that moment onward. So from that point, everybody worshipped one God and and they knew that the One God had sent prophets after that day
said no the Prophet that then Paul said, the prophet that, that, that God had sent the Jews, Jesus peace be upon him, he actually wasn't just a prophet, he was actually God, you know, in the form of a man. And that really,
that idea didn't resonate properly with me. I had questions about that. I said, why is it that, you know, God changed flip the script, so to speak, all of a sudden, you know, why didn't he just tell people from time of Adam all the way down that, hey, you know what,
I'm God, but really, there's a tribal nature to me, you know, and you should worship all three, that would have been a very simple message. Now, when people go back, and they go, and they start digging into, you know, some of the earlier books of the, the Bible, right, the Old Testament, they try to connect that they try to make that correct. They're trying, I've seen that I've seen that attempt. And it's kind of a sloppy attempt, in my opinion. And, and the interesting thing about it is that when they go back, and they and I don't remember the verses off top of my head, I used to at one point, but I don't know. But when they go back to like the books of Isaiah and Deuteronomy, and they
try to make the connections between Jesus and who they think, or their understanding of God, it, they usually do one or two things. First thing is, they fail miserably. And the second thing is, they usually prove the reality of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon them, you know, because when they go back to like Deuteronomy 1818, when they go back to certain verses in the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament, you know, they all allude to the coming of a prophet, after Jesus, that he himself spoke about. And like in the book of Matthew,
He spoke about the coming of another prophet who wouldn't speak for himself, he would just do whatever God commanded him to do. So and that's, and that fits the bill for the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Exactly. So a lot of that was overwhelming evidence for me. But going back to what I was saying earlier, is that, so what I had doubts about Christianity, and I, and I went, and I spoke to some people at my church, the doubts in Christianity, for people that are coming from that area of faith, where it's just taken on belief, what we say is absolute. If your story doesn't fall in line with the story that's accepted, it's usually rejected. Nobody really wanted to hear my
side of things, from my thoughts about things. So what I started to do is I went on a personal journey to just read about religion. So I lost faith in religion, especially in Christianity. When, when a lot of my family members, they would claim that Jesus had spoken to them in one way, shape, or form via vision, or dream, whatever. And they were all on different pages. They had, they all had different ideas about how to do things, they couldn't agree on things. Now, that necessarily in itself isn't a bad thing. But that kind of made me that made me sour to to the faith, that you know what, you have these people who claim to be so close to God. But at the same time, God's giving them
all different messages. That's what it seemed like to me. And it was a, it was one of those things that made me decide that you know, what, I need to look at, look into this for myself, you know, up until this point, I was just listening, and obeying, but I wasn't thinking. So when I started thinking, I started reading books, I actually went away from Christianity. And as I said, I didn't come to Islam until much later. But I went away from Christianity, I started going down the path of just science, because some of the things that I heard in Christianity were very outlandish. That didn't make sense to me rationally. Things like a story of, I think it was Joshua, how he prayed to
God to stop the sun. And then he just stopped the sun. And I was like, Well, if that happened, you know, everything would have just collapsed. And at the time, I just couldn't wrap my head around those kind of ideas. So I went into science, I actually became atheist for a while, didn't believe in didn't believe in anything. Just thought that there the science was the way to go. Science was, you know, absolute in the sense that we either knew things or we didn't know things, there was no gray area, or at least as I understood. So I went from there. And then I remember I read this book. I can't recall the name of the person who made this quote, but it stuck with me. And it helped me
get back into faith. And that was a quote, I think it was Thomas Aquinas.
something to the effect or it might have been somebody else but something to the effect that
when you religion, or faith is basically like, for example, if you had a tornado that that went through that swept through a junkyard, and then perfectly assembled as a working 747 jet. You know,
That's what faith basically is like, you know, you're saying that the faith in science is producing these these results, but it's not. And so that that kind of left a profound impact with me and I said, You know what, you're right. I mean, the way that we are now the way that our bodies the universe, how everything is designed, it must have a designer, it must have a creator, things couldn't have just, you know, automatically come together and started working on Yeah, we got a lot more to talk about and ask you about your family, how they how they took it. And now the title with the golden child because obviously you were really they were they were preparing you to come up in
the church, right? Correct. Yeah, so we're gonna go from there. Don't go anywhere. For an exciting episode with Hamza. We'll be right back. Thank you, my friends, caring is sharing. So like and share this video and support the deen show so that we can continue educating and sharing the message of peace. Peace acquired by submission to the will of God, Islam, with the world, a semi legal Peace be with you.
Welcome back to the deen show. So what was your your name before you accepted Islam? So my name before accepting Islam was suniel. It's a primarily Hindu name, which caused a lot of confusion for people, because I actually recently legally changed it to Hamza. So Neil doesn't mean anything. It just means. I think it's the color of blue. Yeah. And, and I think there was a lot of famous cricket players in India that were named to kneel. Yeah. So my father, you know, he named that. He named me that. And so you know, when I became Muslim, I wanted to have my Islamic identity. I watched the movie The message. horror movie powerful. Anthony Quinn. Anthony quaner. That's a classic. Yes.
Everybody needs to watch that the message right. The messenger or the message is the message the message? Yeah, that's a wonderful movie. I watched it in high school. VHS. VHS back in the two of them? Yeah, two of them. Part One, part two. This is back in like, 98. Yeah. Before we had all this technology, but wonderful movie, I saw the character of Hamza, and I immediately connected with that character. And it wasn't until and then I became Muslim in 2002. It wasn't until 2002. And somebody said, Hey, you know, if you want to choose a name for yourself, this would be a good time. And and I went through and I said, you know, this was this is the name, Hamza. I love the name. I love the
meaning. I loved the message behind the name. So and it fits. fits for me. Hamza. So we got Hamza here.
So now your parents What? Who was it that brought
Islam to you? Who brought you to? who shared who gave you that? Was it any one particular? Or were you on your own? Pretty much? Or did you have a classmate? Did you have someone that you had conversations with? And they start to, you know, bring up certain questions. And had you thinking, correct? Yeah. So I did have a lot of good people around me from the time of high school. A lot of good brothers and sisters, that were part of the the Muslim Student Association at that time. So you had some Muslim friends, I had some Muslim friends. But what really all brought us together with sports? Yeah, a big fan of basketball. We all used to go play sports. And then afterwards, you know,
they would go to these Muslim club meetings, and they will do things like watch the message and do other things. So I had good influences. But like I said, for me, I'm not somebody that bases decisions off of influence. Yeah. Till this day, I've never smoked a cigarette. Nobody's ever influenced me to do anything that I've never wanted to do myself. So and my family had this concern. They said, who converted you to Islam who force you to take this? And I said, Nobody did. I did. I read, I researched. And I came to this Dean, because from my understanding, this was the most perfect answer to life's questions to all of life's questions. And they were they they couldn't wrap
their mind around it. They said, No, it had to be somebody. So although I did have good influences in my life, I had good people who I could conversate with. But the reality was, these individuals were, you know, they were teenagers. They were young adults, they they had their shortcomings, they did whatever they needed to do.
So I never saw anyone and said, Hey, you know what, this is a inspirational figure. But when somebody brought to my attention, they said, hey, you're studying about Taoism and Confucianism and Hinduism and the other branches of Christianity. Why don't you look at the Quran? You know, why don't you look at some of the, the meanings behind the Quran. And so, in that way I was approached about about Quran and Islam there.
It's a very sensible thing to do. I mean, it was a nice story of a Muslim, Christian and a Jew got together and they start talking about religion. And the Jew says, hey, look, we only I only believe in Jesus. And I mean Moses in his commandments. And the Christian steps up and says, Hey, I believe in Moses, but also in Jesus, they elevate him, obviously to God. And then they look at the Muslim and the Muslim says, Hey, I believe in we believe in Moses, Jesus, and the last and fundamental problem, how many peace and blessings be upon them? So this is in no way, you know, putting down Jesus, and no way putting down Moses? In no way, you know, coming and attacking or, you know, really
just inviting people to look at what Jesus is real message was and look at what he was talking about another messenger, because it's clear if you read it, like you were, that there was another messenger who was coming otherwise, it's incomplete. Yeah. It's in my opinion, and I think in many people's opinion, is Islam actually elevates Jesus, because Christianity brought him brought Jesus peace be upon him at the same status of I think it was
one of the pagan gods that they had, you know, formed his backstory behind. I forget the mitrice. So a lot of the things that presently Christians do now is a result of Constantine and Paul, and some of the people back in the days that had been made decisions that have nothing to do with people today. They made the decision that hey, you know, what, the easiest way for us to take a message that was meant only for the Jewish people. And and Jesus mentions that specifically in the New Testament, I think when a woman comes up to him and says, You know, I have such and such problem, can you help me and he says, I wasn't sent here for you, I was sent here for the children of Israel.
And, and so they had to kind of figure out how to marry those two ideas, that the fact that Jesus came for the Jews, but then also for the Gentiles. And, and so then Paul, and Constantine and whoever they got together and said, Hey, you know what we're going to, we're going to marry mithras, this dismissal, mythological figure that we have, and we're going to end this real person that we have Jesus, marry their identity. So I think Christianity brings Jesus down, whereas Islam elevates him his name. He is a prophet of Allah, beloved messenger, to the Muslims, and I'm sure to a lot of
Christians as well. But at the same time, when when you equate him next to God, that's that's putting him in a tough position.
You know what I mean? I mean, nobody wants to be the guy that's like, Oh, hey, you're on the same status as God. I mean, he's going to deny that on the Day of Judgment, which is what we firmly believe. But that's, that's a difficult position to be in. What are your parents now? Okay, so what was the there's a crossing point. And many people don't want to cross that point, right of no return? because now you're the golden child. Correct? Right. Your family, their name is on the line, right? social status, maybe you got some big inheritance coming your way, you're gonna inherit the kingdom over here, right from from everything your parents have the money, these are the kind of
things people have to think about. Right? Right. And Islam makes sense. There's it just worship the Creator, not the creation, everything is so crystal clear. But now, the courage to step forward and to say, you know what, I'm going to follow this truth. Correct, right? Or you're gonna succumb to the temptation of Look, it's this is more important, right? I'm not, I'm just going to kind of just keep blending in, and just people abandon the truth. What was that, that
thing that have had you say, you know, what, I'm not holding back, I'm gonna give birth to what's inside of me, I'm going to come out. And I'm going to accept that there's nothing worthy of worship except the Creator of the heavens and earth. And Mohammed is the last and final mentioned, that's what someone has to do to become a Muslim. And obviously, that would include Jesus, Moses, and all the preceding messenger, you wouldn't just abandon them. We just give them the proper do that they were mighty messengers not divine with God. Correct. Correct. So that was the turning point for me, or the point of no return. to kind of understand that I have to take just a step back. And that step
back was that the way that I was raised? You know, I, me and my family went through some difficult periods during my childhood. And it got to the point where, for me and my mom, you know, she told me, you're my only hope. You know, I'm hoping that you grew up to be a good Christian, son of mine so that you can get me out of all the challenges that I faced. And so a lot was riding on my shoulders from the family perspective. I've also had my uncles who were trying to pedigree me towards being an intricate part of the church, not saying that I had to be the next pastor or anything but definitely involved deeply in the church.
So a lot of people had a lot of hope in me. And what,
what made me change my mind is that if I, if I had looked at this whole experience through an emotional lens, I would have definitely never embraced this on. So one One day I was sitting with one of my friends, his name is Mohammed By the way, interestingly enough, and he and I'm, this is after I had gathered all this information about other religions as well as Islam. And I knew in my heart that Islam is at the absolute perfect way of life. It's what I want to do. So now you're at that planet, how far in to your journey is this? Is this a few months? Few years? How approximately how long before you realize okay, this is it. This is this is what I've been saying. This is the
truth. So I started around 2000. Yeah. And it took me about two years to get to that. Okay, so this is not something just like overnight. Oh, you took your time I really, really critical thinking correct. Prayer. What, you know, were you asking God for guidance and yourself just reflecting on on things that I knew. Yeah. Things that I understood to be true things that didn't make sense to me. Yeah, I was trying to just put all those things together and kind of thread the needle to what was real and what was obviously not real. So now you're here. Okay. So you're about two years into investigating, you know, really doing some critical thinking and contemplating. And so what happens
from there? Yeah, and not just contemplating but actual research, research, research, I locked myself up in my parent's den and just was reading books. And you know, I would do research on religion. I was you're digging, man, I'm digging. Okay. So I went to UIC for the first couple years of my college 2000 2002. That's, by the way, that's where I took my Shahada. But while I was there, I was researching so much on the deen that, you know, I ended up dropping out of UIC. Because this was so overwhelmingly profound for me. But so fast forward 2002. I'm talking with my friend Mohamed, as I mentioned, and he says one thing to me, which I'll always remember, don't don't don't lose your
place. Sure. Mohammed tells you something. This is this is obviously a friend. This is a friend of yours from the UIC correct. We'll be right back with more here on the D show. Don't go anywhere. So you have two choices. either be a slave to the creation, or be a slave to the Creator, and submit yourself to Him, like all of his noble prophets and messengers did. Hope this got you thinking? Take the first step and start asking sincerely for guidance from your Creator. Thank you. Don't forget to share and like this video, subscribe, and do your best to help the de show reach its goal. Thank you very much. Salaam Alaikum. Peace be with you.
Welcome back to the deen show Hamza in the studio. Golden Child family comes from a staunch Christian background they were how they were preparing you to be what like a pastor in the church or? Yeah, I was being pedigreed to be some type of figure in the church. Yeah. But definitely.
From a very conservative Christian background. Yeah. Okay, so where do you left off now that Mohammed, your friend, Mohammed? What happened from there? So I was just having a talk with him. I think we were just we had just gotten some food or whatever, just having like a casual conversation. So
he says something to me that I'll always remember for the rest of my life. And he said, Now that you have all of this information that you've amassed, really from like 1998 is when I started really thinking about religion, but 2000 is when I researched religion. And he said, Now that you have all this information, what are you going to do with it? Because if you die in a state, where you have all this information, but you didn't act on it, then God could hold you accountable for not making that decision. So that was a very moving statement from me, because that meant I had to take some action. It wasn't just lip service anymore. I couldn't just pretend that I'm still researching. I
knew where I needed to go. I just had to have the courage to go there. And so shortly after March 29 2002, I went to UIC and after their Friday prayer, I went up and you know, I had already arranged it with some of the people there and I took my Shahada got a lot of hugs. It was a very emotional moment at that point. But getting to that point, I tried to use as much logic and reasons Let's help people identify Shahada like paint a picture. Can you get up what this is when someone finally acknowledges after research contemplation, asking God for guidance and now this is the truth and this is nothing new. This is what
Every messenger brought what is the Shahada? What What did you say actually? So the Shahada is what is the declaration of faith is a shadow under either, Allahu Allah shodhana Mohammed Abdullah wa salam, so that you're basically saying, and it's a very profound thing, and I'm, and I'm moved to just hearing it now. Yeah.
It's a very profound thing because you're basically saying that there's nothing, no one worthy of worship but Allah, but you're not just saying that you're casting aside, anything that could even be tried to compare to Allah, and you're putting Allah above everything. And then you're saying that from from the mercy of Allah, He sent the final messenger, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him to clarify all these misconceptions that were made about Allah. And so that's why Muhammad is beloved to me, and to all the Muslims, because he came to really set the record straight about who God is and what God wants and how God wants us to approach him. So, for me, it's a very profound
statement. When I met it, when I made that statement, I was nearly in tears. I wasn't too small. There's a verse in the Bible. I believe it's in john 17, three, from not mistaken where it says, This is life eternal, that they may know you were This is allegedly Jesus speaking, says this is life eternal, that they may know you now he's pointing you not me Is that you? The only true God and Jesus whom you have sent correct Shahada. That's it this is this is that testimony that you're you're acknowledging that? Look, the only one worthy of worship is not a man, not a woman, not a saint, not a messenger, not an angel, not money, not fame, nothing but the Creator of the heavens
and earth, the one who gave you life will give you death, and the messenger that was sent at that time, during Jesus's time, it was him he was the messenger, Moses, his time you would say the same statement, and then acknowledge that Moses, the teacher, the messenger, teaching you how to worship How to get to paradise, right? And Abraham, it was the same statement of his time. And then now we have it our time problem, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon the last and final messenger to seal of the prophets. And you were doing nothing different the same thing I was doing the exact same thing and it was an honor to do it.
A person all their sins, everything from the past day, it's a fresh start. I started out but did * all * break loose after that. Yeah, all the time. It doesn't like it's a real now. It's real now. Yeah, yeah. Now you're tested the ones that God Almighty loves the most he tests the most. Right, right. So Then all * break loose, in a manner of speaking, yes. Now, my parents were wonderful people. I love them to death.
You know, they had a very hard time with this. I didn't, I didn't initially approached him about it, because I kind of had a feeling how they would take it. I kind of hit my Islam at home. I would, when I first when I took my Shahada, people, friends from high school, friends from college, gave me gifts, books to put on copies of Dee.
And I had put all these in a nice little cabinet in my in my den where I was doing all my research. And
so I hid my Islam, and I came home one day.
And I looked inside this cabinet, and all those things were gone.
And I started just freaking out. And I was like, Where's all this stuff? So I looked everywhere. And then I finally went to my mom. And I said, you know, Mom, have you seen these things that I've placed, you know, around this desk? And she's she, she knew what I was talking about? And she said, what things are you talking about? And I said, you know, there was some books, and some other things. She was like, Yeah, I found some things, and I threw them in the garbage. And my heart literally dropped to my stomach. And I felt like the blood loss from my brain. It was a surreal moment for me. And I was just like, oh, man, I mean, she had just thrown the Koran away, something
that brought me to the dean. And I went through a different set of emotions. But what I did was I left the house and I went to the budget, anytime I had any issues, I would go to the budget. And that's, that's a practice that I encourage, and I do till this day, I went to the budget and one of the old mudgett caretakers there, or he was really the only one wonderful name wonderful man, his name is
some he's a person that I'll remember, you know, for the rest of my life. We used to call him the movie Sup? It's something in order, but his name is Muhammad Hafiz. So then he came to me and he said, Why are you looking so sad today? What's wrong?
And I said, I don't even know how to explain this to you. But my mom just threw away everything that I that I owned about Islam,
especially the Koran, and I was in tears. And so he he looks at me and he kind of chuckles he looks like he smiles and I
I'm thinking in my head, like, why is he smiling? This is a very serious moment. Like I'm, I've just lost a lot of things that I really care about, and I'm passionate about. And then, and then he says something to me, which I'll never forget. He says, Your mother may have thrown out the Quran, which is a book, but she can never throw out the Quran, which is in your heart, she can never extinguish that, that light. And that really, it literally sprung me back into action. It was the, I felt like I had been knocked out. And then this before the 10 count, I was backup. So I was a backup and I was ready to go that charged me and it's still charging me for the entirety of my life. So it's
individuals like that, that, you know, they have a profound impact on new reverted Muslims, and they may not know it, or at that time, you know, and I always pray for that brother and his family. But that really charged me to get back into things, and to also give my parents the benefit of the doubt, you know, it's can't be easy to lose your son to another faith, something, you know, I have kids now myself, if my child came to me and said, You know, I want to practice something else, it will deeply hurt me too. So it made me understand my parents perspective. I didn't intend to, you know, hurt them. When I made this choice. I just knew that this was the right thing for me to do.
And I deeply and sincerely wish that you know, they had considered it then and that they even consider it now. So for me, it's been a personal journey to
really educate them about Islam, we went back and forth, that at one point, they said, you know, we don't want to hear about Islam anymore. And so now I make dua, and I tried to be the best son that I can be, hopefully, those actions because I know that this is the Sunnah of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, this is his way, that you not only talk about the good, but you do the good in the hopes that people will see that good and worship Allah. Now they had the they have a bunch of people like from because you had a large family of people who were prominent the church, people lined up to try to like, you know, maybe think maybe he's possessed, you know, Grant works on
exorcism on you. They try to like common, usually what you'll see happening is people will try to distort Islam, they'll try to take the matters of fic. And things out, there's some ambiguity as far as need some clarification where people can get confused, and they'll start to attack, or I know that this happened, there was a lot of people from the go on strong attack, right, they were on the strong offensive, they were from my family. Like I mentioned, my uncles are pastors, some of our family, friends are all pastors very deep within the church, they all came, you know, lined up outside my door in a manner of speaking that with the intent of bringing me back to Christianity,
you know, they told me things like, you know, God is a spirit. It's, it's, they were trying to explain my question of, why did God change the paradigm after Jesus, and before Jesus, it was all the same. And they were trying to explain to me, you know, that God is a Spirit. And, you know, he didn't really communicate the completeness about himself. But now after Jesus, we know, the completeness. And they made a lot of attempts, and, you know, all those attempts now, I didn't really know much about the, the foundations of Islam, I mean, I knew enough of the Quran. And I knew enough about Christianity to say, Christianity is not for me, Islam is definitely for me, I need to
learn more. But when people come to you, and they accuse the Prophet Muhammad SAW some of of X, Y, and Z things that they consider to be crimes, you know, I didn't really have any adequate response for them. So I had to just listen to all of this barrage of kind of insults to the religion while being patient at the same time, and and then then going back, and then I had to hit the books hard and learn what what what are they really talking about? Is there any truth to what they're saying? And you know, you always have as a new Muslim, you always have that fear in your mind that maybe if I turn this page, you know, there's something that I'm going to learn that's going to take me back,
but I had the confidence in Islam. Everything that I had learned, I knew I was sound upon, I knew that there was only one God. You know, that anyone else claiming to be God, which Jesus peace be upon him never did and but anyone claiming to be God, that couldn't be the right way. When speaking to God directly, you know, that he had he himself had not chosen. I took them with a grain of salt, like someone just saying look like many, many
People they'll do. They'll say, look, God spoke to me. I'm speaking to God. Today they're living. They're saying that that's ridiculous. It's It's intense, because they come to you. They have a lot of passion, a lot of fervor. And they sincerely believe that God or somebody speaking to them in one way, shape, or form, visions, dreams. And for the most part, the thing that I love about the religion of Islam the most is that we base our our belief on on facts and evidence, facts and evidence. That's very important. That's very important. Yeah, because and so the way that I look at it, and my approach is this is that we know that God has sent messengers in the past.
And we know that this is the practice of God, he sends messengers to people, those messengers try to deliver the truth, but invariably, they get, you know, for manners, in a manner of speaking, they get crucified in one way, shape, or form. But the interesting thing to me was that Islam was saying that this didn't happen to Jesus, that God saved him that God elevated him, and that he will come back. And then when he comes back, people are gonna come back to him and say, you know, we did all these wonderful things in your name, and he's gonna brush them aside. So, for me, that was an interesting thing to learn about Islam, that the way that Islam saw Jesus peace be upon him, the way
that Islam saw prophets in general, that they were all messengers, you know, from God, and the final messenger of being a homicide, some that he came, not just for a specific nation, but for all of mankind. And that was profound because it made me realize then that you know, it's not a racist thing or a cultural thing, or, you know, there's no class or anything associated with it. It's it's for everyone. Yeah. You hear so many ridiculous statements being made, and I'm sure you would probably hit with them. They're just so ridiculous. And if someone doesn't this, I often bring my book I said, Look, you got to read the complete Idiot's Guide. I never met this brother but I'm sure
he's he's gonna we should meet one day I keep keep pushing his book. As you got to be a complete I love the complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam because you got to be a really complete and never want to, you know, name calling your body but just generally speaking, you really got to be a complete idiot, if you believe somebody stings and just swallow it whole, for instance, that Muslims worship the moon, right? That allows a moon God when you just I mean, Allah says don't worship in more real simple things. Female female genital mutilation, ridiculous honor killings. I mean, this is these are things you know, there's no honor in killing innocent people. basic things that you
look into, you know, the basic teachings of Islam refute this with a little bit of knowledge. And and then another thing, you know, you see like that they try to tell you that the Quran was from the devil. Yeah, I've heard that a lot. It's crazy. You know, every book, every page of this book has God's name on it. be interesting if the devil wrote this, and he's cursing himself, because the Quran is constantly cursing the devil, constantly telling you to be truthful, the devil is trying to get you to not be truthful, to commit all sorts of evil, but everything in the Quran What is it calling you to to do good things to be a good human being? Yeah, did you hear some of these things,
these attacks that started to to come at you? Yeah, absolutely. I heard all those and and even more, the one that was very interesting for me that, that there's idols, that so what people have done is they've taken some information about the history of Islam. And then they've kind of melded that in with their own inclinations towards saying that Islam and and, and Satanism is related in one way, shape, or form. So they've come to me and they've said, you know, there were idols in the Kaaba before. And, you know, that's what that was Muhammad peace be upon him his intent. He wanted people to worship the idols and things like this. And that couldn't be further from the truth. We all know
as Muslims that when Mecca was liberated, first thing not a single person was harmed, not a single plant or animal was touched or harmed. And then what the first thing that was that occurred was all of the idols that were placed by Arab pagans, prior to Islam. Those all those idols were removed from the Kaaba, and the Kaaba is just a metaphorical place. This is a place where we believe that Adam peace be upon him, and then subsequently, Abraham peace be upon him, and his son built this house as a worship to the Creator. So this is this, this is the symbolic and the actual first house of worship for for as as Muslims understand it, so it has a lot of significance. And this is why and
it's a unifying place of direction for everyone. Instead of people playing, praying to the left or the right, or whichever way they see fit. We're all unified in one direction and we pray to the creator
Universal, I've heard a lot of things. But they didn't hold a lot of weight. They really, they really don't. And I, I believe there's great wisdom in this that anytime something is a value, you got to really put some effort into it. You know, most of the precious things are in the ground, there's dirt covering it, right? Islam is a treasure. So there's a lot of dirt around around it. And Allah is the Creator, God Almighty is testing people's sincerity. So are you going to some people, it's Are you going to go back to the club? Are you going to go back to that way of life that you were living before, right of following your desires? because now you're tested here, right? Someone
comes at you. And now you like yourself, you go investigate, you know, these things don't hold weight, because you obviously know the basic teachings of Islam, but some people, right, they fail miserably on such a very basic test, very simple that if you were to just research a little bit, pray to God, everything would have been cleared out. But the desire is strong, many people now they get tested, they go back to the club, they go back to the lifestyle that whatever, it doesn't necessarily be the club, but they go back to whatever they were doing, following their desires. Do you see that that is and that all ties in with emotions, because desires, emotions, all these things
are related. And just make a comment on what you said earlier about people who practice these things in the name of Islam, like female genital mutilation, and so many other honor killings and killings, a lot of these things are cultural practices that have thrown dirt on Islam that really have nothing to do, they have nothing to do with the religion of Islam. It's just people have brought their cultures and ideas and try to, you know, insert them in wherever they see fit. One of the things for me, for example, was you know, growing up as a, as an Indian,
one of the basic things is, you know, you don't get married until you have your degree and do all these things. And, and then sometimes people go on till the age of 30, before they can even find a spouse. And you know, and I see that as a cultural norm, that's perpetuated on people that really causes people to go to those extremes of clubbing or doing this or that and committing sins.
But culture can be a very beautiful thing. It can, you know, be an amazing thing, but at the same time, it can be a very destructive thing when it's implemented in the wrong way. And I've seen that firsthand. Yeah. So what was it now have your parents how have they come around? It's been it's been how many years now? Since? Okay. 2002 has been some time now. Correct. All right. So you've got your feet to law firmly planted. And Dean, how is your relationship now because Islam calls you still to be the best son, right towards your parents to really honor and respect your parents. Right? Like your mother was saying that she wanted some help. And in certain In, she was expressing herself.
Islam doesn't take that away. It actually takes her to a whole nother level. Have they gotten to see that and has their heart softened at all, you know, if I had stayed a Christian, and I know, it's not good to deal with hypotheticals, but if that were the case, I don't know if I would have been a good have son as I am now that I'm Muslim, not that I'm the best son, I have my flaws, and I have my mistakes. But one of the things that Islam compels people to do is to be good to their parents.
And in every manner, except if your parents asked you to associate any partners to Allah, to the Creator of the heavens and the earth. So aside from that, you know, I've been, as I mentioned, not trying to talk so much about Islam, but to show them Islam to show them the good of Islam. You know, really anything that they ask that I be there for them. Because, you know, I deeply cherish and love them for everything that they have done, you know, the amount of love and respect that one has for their parents. This is explained thoroughly in Islam thoroughly in the Quran. We're not even supposed to say, a speak loudly towards our parents, in Islam, as mentioned in the Quran. So you can
imagine that
this is the level of respect we have to show and I feel like since I've become Muslim, I've been able to show them more respect more care. And you know, and they're human beings, and they're a product of their parents raising them a certain way in Christianity. So I recognize all of that and I try to approach them, you know, with the most care that I can possibly have. How's Ramadan? Now this is a you've been implementing another part. Again, Jesus, he called people to worship the Creator, not the creation, not himself. There's nowhere anywhere and this is all due respect, with all due respect and sincerity. That is not to put down you know, any religion, anybody but we are
When you critically think and you look at evidence, it's clear that Jesus called people, you know, just look at the Lord's Prayer correct or Father, we say Our Lord who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And if you just did that you called on the one Jesus called on us for guidance, God will facilitate away and guide you to submission to the will of God Islam, so you're not doing anything different. You took the Shahada that's what Jesus would call what he called people to do to testify there's nothing worthy of worship except the creator Jesus fell on his face and prayed to god you're doing the same thing right and Jesus right he called people to give charity that's there's a cat
again, sounds interesting how that's what we're doing the same way of life is all the messengers nothing different. And He fasted Ramadan he did. He fast, the same thing. So you're fasting now, how's the how's Ramadan going? Ramadan has been going very well on the law.
In when I first became Muslim Ramadan was a bit of a challenge. And not from the fasting perspective, but from the perspective that
Ramadan is usually a time for families to get together, for people to mend relationships, and to really to get together and, you know, celebrate that the Quran was given during the month of Ramadan, but then also to recognize that there are less fortunate people in the community and to also give back to the community, but overall to to increase us in faith, which is the main message of Ramadan. And when I was first Muslim,
I would, you know, it's different when you're the only one in your family doing something, and everybody else is doing something else. And then when you see, you know, I would go to my friend's houses for Ramadan for me, they would invite me over to break fast with them and their families. And although I was very grateful, and appreciative of the opportunity to break fast it inside, I was a bit sad, because I couldn't do this with my own family. And one of the things that I frequently prayed for is that for one day for me to have my own family that I could celebrate the joy and happiness of Ramadan with and that eventually, one day inshallah even my parents would be
celebrating Ramadan with us as Muslims. So yeah, I mean, and I make that do all the time. So that was something that I, I wished for the longest time in spatola. Now I have a wife and three children and a family of my own and, and Ramadan is a wonderful time for us. And, and I reflect back on those days, when I was by myself, you know, eating cereal at home. And then I think, and I say so holla if somebody had told me back then that you know what, be patient one day, not only will you have your own family, but you will be amazingly happy. I would have sit down with that, that couldn't be possible because I couldn't see that happening. I didn't know how I was going to get out of my tough
situation. But hamdulillah Allah has planned for everyone. And you know, I'm grateful for Ramadan, I'm grateful for the ability to fast. And the great thing is now at the end of the month, we all get together, even with my parents. So it's a wonderful time for me, guys, it's very important. I mean, we take some benefit, much benefit from these people who are really in a situation where they don't have to struggle like you did you follow me with their family, and having all * break loose like this? He found me they are brought up in a Muslim family, you know, breaking iftaar having to start together, but many people, they're taking it for granted. Correct? You follow me? Correct. And I'm
sure that touches your heart. Also, when you see the struggle that you had to go through what advice do you have for Muslims who are taking the deen for granted?
Please don't. That's the first and foremost advice. I mean, it's easier said than done. The Deen has to come from your heart. It has to come from after understanding the deen and, and really wanting to change your life and and unless hasn't caught on if somebody's sincere about the deen that Allah will guide them to the deen. So just getting rid of all the superficial things, you know, getting rid of the cultural biases you know if you have if you know of people who are newly reverted Muslims or people anyone who's who has gone through some tough times, you know, invite them to your house to eat, you know, give them a smile. This is one of the suddenness of the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him one of the things that he used to love to do, and he encouraged us to do which can really brighten someones day. So that's my advice is, you know, don't take Ramadan for granted don't take being Islam for granted. One of the prayers I always make for myself and I and I also pray for my family is that we we take this understanding of Islam with us all the way up until the moment we die, that this is something that we don't ever take for granted not even for a second. Yes, that's deep and for everybody watching it and many of the not yet Muslims people are tuning in and the message makes
sense worship to create an application there's some homework I want to leave you with. There is a cutesy Hadith we're probably Muhammad peace be upon him is relating to us that the creator law is saying that all of my slaves are misguided every one of us is misguided unless I guide them right unless God guides you your laws humans guidance so ask me God is saying asked me if my guidance that is something so simple as profound. And there's brilliance and simplicity, something you could do right now. You can be that person watching and maybe your families or the KKK, right? And you're like, Man, I'm not with that this makes sense. I want to be a Muslim I want to be like Jesus was one
who submitted a will of God. You could do it right now you can call one 800 662 Islam you could be a someone who was coming from the strip club. You can be someone who is from the worst background done the worst of things. There's always mercy there's always forgiveness because God is the All Merciful, all forgiving. You just got to have a sincere heart as God as the creator for guidance, asking for forgiveness. And if you have any more questions, call us one 800 662 Islam and, and take benefit from this wonderful story. It's as simple as that easy worship to create another creation, I want to thank you tremendously for sharing taking the time to share this story and inshallah other
people can benefit from your experiences and take, internalize this and, you know, really recharge themselves because that's what we need this month, we need to recharge absolutely, like batteries, and we need to be recharged. But it was a pleasure being here. Thank you for the opportunity.
And I hope there's benefit from this inshallah, if I made if I said anything, right. It's from Allah. And if I made any mistakes, it's for myself. So thank you, man. Thank you very much. Appreciate the blessed Ramadan. Take care. And thank you guys for tuning in. Subscribe if you haven't already in tune in every week. These are the things that we talk about these inspirational stories really touched the heart. So if you are tuning in for the first time, like I said, do the homework that I told you to do. And call us if you have any questions. And we hope to see you every week here on the D show. Until next time, peace be with you. Let us follow in the footsteps of the
greatest men who ever walked this earth the messengers that God Almighty sent like Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them all, who all call people to worship the creator alone and not his creation. Take a moment now and fulfill one of those qualities and that's of giving towards the dollar. Something all these great giants did and call people to do. help us reach our yearly goal for Ramadan. Help be part of sharing the truth. Support the deen show