John The Slovak Gets Sign From Allah

			Real, real Sally key
		

			ad
		

			show we encourage people to come join us
		

			Salaam Alaikum. Guys.
		

			greetings of peace. I'm here with john Smithers. And it's been about a year we had a nice panel
discussion at UIC. We were a PhD candidate there. Yes. What was it about Islam? You know for the
people that didn't watch that panel discussion that we had with Professor Jeremiah was it and also
we also had another Filipino Muslim. And there was another oriental Chinese Muslim also knows his
name
		

			doesn't matter. Yeah. But what was it with you? What was it that really interested you had that
affinity, that attraction that drew you into Islam? And had you been finally become a Muslim? Okay,
well, so to make a long story short, I was doing some research about Islam for a long time. And I
had actually had some Islamic calligraphy on my desktop, I remember Yeah, and, and I had no idea
what the calligraphy of even meant, I just thought it looked cool. And so while I was in class, one
day, one of my students came up to me and he was going to ask me a question, but he looked at my
desktop, and he seen this calligraphy. He was like, Well, are you Muslim, bro? And I was like, Oh,
		

			no, no, but I'm interested. And I said, Why do you ask? And he said, Well, you have the Shahada on
your screen, you know that Allah Allah Illallah. Muhammad Rasul Allah, and I was like, I had no
idea. And so at that moment, I almost felt like, you know, a law was calling upon me to be a
believer because I put that there and without even without even any knowledge of what that meant.
And so after that, I was introduced to some few brothers in the MSA at UIC there and, and, and after
that was history on October 6 2012. I took my Shahada. Yeah, for those that don't know, are people
visiting the deen show and your Shahada, you hear? You know, what really people get drawn to is the
		

			simplicity of Islam, the direct connection with the Creator, and when someone accepts Islam is they
do something that's just really intrinsically been built into them. It's just to testify that
there's nothing I'm not going to worship anything except the Creator. There's nothing worthy of
worship except the one who created me. And the one who brought that message was Muhammad peace and
blessings be upon him just like Jesus, Moses, Abraham. So that's that peace be upon all of them.
That's that same message, the continuation of that legacy of pure monotheism. Now, it's Easter,
right? I think today is Good Friday, Good Friday, tell us you know, for the Muslims out there, they
		

			really don't know much about it. And in also our Christian friends and humanity, wanting to know
that what we'll talk touch upon a little bit, you know, this from the Islamic perspective, but for a
Christian, what was it? What did Easter signify to you? What was the significance? Well, you know,
so I was raised Catholic. And so today, Good Friday, the rest of my family Actually, today is
celebrating today is Good Friday, today. They believe that Jesus, this was the day that Jesus
		

			died on the cross and, and Easter in three days from now on, on Sunday, is considered
		

			the day that He resurrected from the dead. And so, you know, this was a day this is this, this
weekend, actually was a weekend that, you know, whenever I first became a Muslim, I was, you know,
really, you know, concerned about, you know, how am I going to celebrate with my family? Am I going
to celebrate with my family, you know, what am I going to do? And so for the first couple years,
actually, I, you know, I kind of stayed away, I didn't really do much, but, but I got to think and
just like I told you earlier, I was, you know,
		

			I didn't become a Muslim. So I could have strange myself for my family. I mean, you know, if
anything, this is a time to engage with them and a time to, you know, share my beliefs and, and
become closer to with them, you know, and, and, if they happen to particularly partake in alcohol
and stuff like that, I, you know, I turn my head and, and go and sit at the couch with my uncle or
whatever, watch the game, you know, we don't, I just don't participate in in that type of behavior.
But, you know, it's just because I'm a Muslim, and this time is a Christian holidays is no reason
for me. to not spend time with my family. If anything, this this is a time for me to spend time with
		

			them and, and to share and my beliefs and, and my thoughts with them. Yeah, I mean, respectfully, I
mean, someone can opt out from let's say, and going to any religious functions or whatnot. But I
mean, you know, like you said, it's a good time to really like motivate people to really reflect
what was the true message of Jesus Peace be I'm sharing, I mean, that people don't have to start now
because they disagree about religion or whatnot. They start you know, shouting and cursing and
disrespecting, but I think when more people now, you know, when you talk about because obviously,
the Islamic perspective is that God didn't have a good day. Meaning that, you know, he didn't die,
		

			to get resurrected, because he's eternal, right? God is not like us. I mean, God's the creator were
the creation and we have a deep love and reverence for Jesus. And I think this is a great time to
really share you know, how much of a connection Muslims have because many Christians I mean, your
family when you accepted Islam today know that you can't
		

			A Muslim unless you believe and love Jesus as one of the mightiest messengers of God, God sent him
to call people to worship God. I've actually had my uncle one of my uncle's like, he was telling me
He's like, son, you know, you can't be a Muslim. You gotta believe in Jesus. And I told him, I was
like, I do believe in Jesus or a Swami. You know, I can't be a Muslim if I don't believe in Jesus.
Right? I mean, what if there's just some of the theology is different between you and I, but but we
both love Jesus, you know, the same, right? And so, you see Him as God, I don't, you know, but, but
I can't be a Muslim. I can't be in Islam if I don't have a deep love and reverence for these
		

			surveys. And I often like to connect when when we
		

			were just saying peace be upon him. And another thing I like to reference is like, when we say
Islam, I'll reference the Lord's Prayer, because it's there in there where Jesus peace be upon him,
said, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
That's Islam submission to the will of God. And a Muslim is simply one who submits to the will of
God. It's not just an Arab, someone in the desert, but you know, Arabs only makeup, I think 10 11%
of the Muslim population. You know, you're an American. Yeah, Slovak, Slovak. Right. So how is it
now someone sees you? And with all this, Islam, I'm gonna just divert a little bit. How did you
		

			respond to some of your parents? You get some of this negative? Oh, you're a terrorist. Now they,
you know, associate you with some some some cult or whatnot. How do you respond to that? Have you
had some of that? Come up? I mean, yeah, whenever I first became a Muslim for a little while, yeah,
I was actually at a family gathering, you know, and so, you know, someone made a joke, something
about you don't you don't have any bombs underneath your jacket, or anything, do you? And I was
like, Oh, my gosh, you know, I, I didn't say anything to him, I bought my head. And I actually asked
Allah for forgiveness, you know, for to forgive him of his, you know, ignorance, he doesn't know,
		

			you know, and, you know, most most, I'm not gonna say most Americans, but a lot of people, you know,
they don't know, Muslims, you know, a lot of non Muslims don't know, Muslims. And so Muslims tend to
be of something foreign and, and strange or something like that, you know, and, and actually, the,
you know, Catholics were in the same predicament whenever they first came to this country a long
time ago to I mean, and now there's 70 million something, or somebody million odd Catholics in the
country. So
		

			I think every group, you know, in, in the beginning of their,
		

			you know, of their presence, in a country or in a specific region, deals with a lot of these things,
you know, and we just have to have patience, you know, and, and stay stuck for a lot and, and, and
ask Allah for forgiveness for them. But they don't know, you know, and, and with time, you know,
Time heals all wounds. Right. And so I think with time, what will will be, will be just as, you
know, normal in this country and just as predominant in this country as any other religious group
is. Yeah, I mean, this is the the best I think certification we can make is asking God Almighty, to
bless people with the guidance, but the guidance of truth, we all want to know what God wants from
		

			us. Why don't we ask the creator directly say God guidance. And we as Muslims, we should ask for the
guidance for all of humanity, we asked him to guide us how many times 17 times a day, at a minimum.
And this is something for our families, for our loved ones. Now, during Easter, especially making
for the new Converse people, because Islam is the fastest growing way of life out there, according
to the Guinness Book of World Records, the simple message of worshipping the Creator, not the
creation, doing good deeds, prayer, fasting, you know, not some of these things, the exceptions to
the rule, you have some of these people who are out there, you know, an app, a bad app, whatever the
		

			bunch, you don't throw away all of the good apples because of the bad one. And then you you try to
prop up, you know, like the media does this, there's legitimate fear, then there's manufactured fear
that's out there perpetuated to have you fear, something that you should be fearing more your
furniture than you know Muslims, because according to statistics, you have more of a chance of
getting killed by a toddler with a gun, then some radical, extremist Muslim, Muslims are peaceful
people we're talking about now I let me go back I kind of diverge, but Easter will. So Easter was
Good Friday today. That means that this is the day that allegedly people are saying that Jesus died.
		

			And we would now contrast that Islam we say God doesn't die. And then the other point was that Jesus
was resurrected. Again, God doesn't have a birthday. He wasn't born, he doesn't die. Jesus brought a
message called people to worship God. And that's where we kind of differ respectfully, no problem.
So now that what you know and what you share with your family, how does it go now you know, with
what you believe before now and how does everything you know what advice do you give for for also
people new to Islam, and how do you come back
		

			Because it's been how many years since you accept Islam, oh was October 6 2012 I accept Islam. So, I
think I think just the the biggest thing is just like, like I said earlier, you know, don't don't
think of it like, like, you're someone strange and your family now or, or you have to not
participate in their gatherings and stuff, like, I mean, I go and hang out with my, you know, family
on Christmas and stuff like that and Easter and all of their, their Christian holidays and but I
just don't participate in the things that I that I used to right. I don't mean like the original
religious ceremony. Yeah, the same grace, you know, I say, you know, Bismillah, right. I and so I
		

			say grace, I say grace to just my own way. Right. And so,
		

			yeah, it's, it's just, I think it's important to, to know that, like, beyond religious holidays, and
stuff like that, these times are good times to spend with family, and they're good times to be
around the the ones nearest and dearest to your heart, the ones, you know, that you love the most.
And so, so if anything, you know, use these types of celebrations, or use these types of days to
become closer to your family and, you know, to make declare, and say the big come closer to Allah,
you know, and to thank him for guiding you on this path, and then ask him to guide your family, you
know, so that way they one day inshallah they may, you know, take their Shahada as well, yeah. So as
		

			you can see, john, he doesn't opt out of any ceremonial celebrations, because that's something that
we don't agree. And that's something there that obviously people can respect when you respectfully
speak to people because we again, love Jesus, but we don't believe he died, that he was a literal
Son of God, why should you get upset about that, but we do believe that he's came with a message.
And that message was the same as Moses message is Abraham's message as the last and final message
and the Macondo problem, its message, peace and blessings be upon all of them, which was calling
humanity to only worship God to not set up a partner with God to not go through any intermediaries,
		

			no confession box, whatnot. So after we get the elephant out of the room, because the Christian will
tell you, right, look, if you don't believe Jesus, your Lord and Savior and Hellfire, yeah, why am I
gonna freak out over that he loves me, if he's telling me sincerely, if you truly love if someone
truly loves you, and they're sharing this truth with you, say thank you for that. Thank you for
sharing that with me go look into it, see if there's truth there. Just like, see if what we're
saying is the Muslims, that you shouldn't associate partners of God, you should only call upon God,
only God, and we don't partake in alcohol and drinking and the parties and whatnot. But connection
		

			with family with your mother with your father should never be cut off, for sure. For sure. So you
got to hear the Islamic perspective, and also from our brother, john, who also accepted Islam A few
years ago, and we got to talk about the Shahada. And if you want to become a Muslim look, or if you
have some questions, that's what we're here for. Call us. One. 800 662 Islam, engage, make the human
connection. Many times we see people making comments and really acting in a belligerent fashion.
Take the higher route, connect with a Muslim, visit a mosque, make a phone call, call us and ask
those tough questions. And let's see where it goes from there. anything you'd like to say? I just
		

			want to say just like IKEA to you for inviting me to speak right now and and, and share my thoughts
and with with the rest of the Muslim world, john, thank you. And thank you. We'll see you next time.
Beautiful day enjoyed. Thank God thank god we'll see you on Lake wa Salaam Peace be with you. All
right, guys. And that was john accepted Islam a few years ago. And you have a lot of people now that
accept Islam. And then they have this, this problem in the beginning being very rigid, and tough and
rough with their family. And these are the three points that I want to cover and we can conclude for
this week's episode one was to be gentle, to be kind to be well mannered. You know, Prophet
		

			Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him. He didn't come with anything new. Other than a revival of
the pure monotheism and right with that, is he had said that I have not come except to perfect good
manners. And there's so much emphasis of being good to your family. So you really, you know, there's
a you obey your parents to the first point is the respectfulness to your parents just because now
you're you're Muslim, and you don't celebrate Easter or Christmas or these holidays, that you become
disrespectful. You're throwing all the alcohol out of their house and saying really mean things. No,
you can kindly opt out. And it's a great way now to engage and be in the service of your parents and
		

			let them see through your behavior. They can see that wow, as many have testified, look, I can sleep
better at night parents have testified now that my son or my daughter is
		

			Muslim because your your your your bet it's helped you to become a better human being. Let them see
that first and foremost, and obviously to is that we opt out kindly and respectfully from doing any
religious ceremonies. It's easier to invite like, we invite people to prayer. It's something that
connects with our nature, because we're inviting people to pure monotheism to praying to no one
other than God. But if someone's calling you to worship a cow, to worship the sun, you know, some
people worship You know, in India, you can go to jail seven years for eating beef, because people
end up worshipping an animal. We can't do that. Because, according to the Bible, this is an
		

			abomination. This is something where you're setting up partners with God. And this can lead the
person to Hellfire forever. So we don't want to do that we don't want to call on other than God.
Obviously, if you are doing that, and you repent, God is the most loving, the Most Merciful. So in
these holidays, we see that there's an association going on with God, that we're calling on a
messenger people are calling on saints, people are calling upon the creation, and Islam is about
calling upon the Creator. So we can respectfully opt out. But it doesn't mean that you cut off ties
with your family. That doesn't mean that that's point two. And point three, do a supplication asking
		

			for guidance that God guides us and guides our families, that God Almighty makes it easy. And those
people that you love your mother, your father, the doula is the strongest thing that you have
sincerely, this should increase your bother your connection with your Creator, that you're praying
more, that you're actually doing things to strengthen the connection with you. And Allah God, and
this is increasing the likelihood that Allah will guide those whom you love. Right? It's very
important. So being a good example, having good character, strengthening the family ties by doing
everything within the limitations that Islam permits, and there's strong emphasis on family ties,
		

			not breaking them, to opting out respectfully, and three making dua for those loved ones for your
loved ones. I know it can be challenging and hard for many people who, who have accepted Islam,
educating yourself how to how to tackle those tough many misconceptions that people have, and
inviting people if you can answer them. At this time, invite people to call us call us one 800 662
Islamic for you, if you visited this channel, you're a Christian or someone from other faith. really
look at the commonalities that we have in common you see that you know, instead of focusing on you
know, many of these things that are distraction to dis unify us working together on a common good to
		

			make the neighborhoods that we live in a better place humanity a better place. You're fighting on
most of the most of the manufactured fear that's causing you to hate because you have a
misrepresentation of what Muslims in Islam are. And now you form in your head some monster.
		

			Before you do that you continue with this horror movie in your mind. Check out the facts, watch a
few of our shows and call us and before you engage with foul language. Some nasty comments
disrespectful, you know, to someone and and take the higher route is very important. Take the higher
route, make the human connection, engage in conversation, because hate only breeds more hate. And I
hope that this was a benefit and tune in every week to disease. So that's why we do it, helping to
educate those who don't know anything about Islam, and helping to clear those misconceptions.
Subscribe, get our shows weekly sent to you and some short reminders and episodes in between. Thank
		

			you very much for tuning in. I'm your host I hope to see you next week Same time, same channel.
Until then Peace be with us army