My Journey to Islam #1

hamdulillah salatu salam ala Rasulillah. I was born in New York, 1946 Christian parents and I grew up in sort of as an orphan. Although I had parents, I accepted Islam in 1965, from a very dignified personality by the name of Shugborough. Ahmed Faisal 9665 was the same year that Malcolm X was assassinated. So he was assassinated in February, and I became Muslim in October, foursomes that away, and each one of them were a different persuasion of Christianity, we can see like, there was like a buffet, so Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, so I had the whole spectrum by the time that I was 16 years old. And then I went into the military service, and I was in the Air Force for two

and a half years. So when I was in military service, the Catholic religion was the most dominant. And so I had an occasion to go and talk to a priest, because I thought that, you know, the priest is a person that he can mentor you or whatever. And then I saw some inconsistencies in that. So I tried my hand Catholicism, but it was just too rigid, too much Mystique, to European to clinical. And then there was some tremendous contradictions inside the Catholic Church that manifested itself later on. So while I was in the Air Force, I was still trying to practice Christianity. You know, traditionally, in some forms, it wasn't making sense to me when I was seven, but you digest it

because it's given to you. But there were issues that were not making sense. Jesus being God and His own Son, that didn't make sense to me. And then he's also somehow the personality of the Holy Ghost. So you know, the Trinity does whole three and one concept in a person, three separate persons, but one God, it just didn't make sense to me. At 17 years old. I remember riding on a train, I saw this letter, it was the New York Times and New York Times did a a complete full page advertisement or they printed the letter of Malcolm from Mecca. So I remember reading that letter. And in that letter, Malcolm Gotthard Allahu Allah, he mentioned words like Mecca. You know, the Prophet Muhammad

Sallallahu Sallam he mentioned to Kaaba. He mentioned the Quran, so just five or six or seven things that he said in that letter, Hajj artifacts, and I never heard those words before. So at that time, we didn't have social media, if you were fortunate as a young person, and I was one of those fortunate young people. I had a set of what was called at that time, the Encyclopedia Britannica. So I went to the encyclopedia, and I looked up these words, that was it. I never saw those words. Before. When I understood those words, I understood why Malcolm was moved, understood why he could not put his car into reverse. So I started looking into this Nation of Islam that he evolved out of,

I started looking at his words and his trip to Mecca. And just before he was assassinated, I had a chance to, to attend one of his talks in Harlem. And it was a very cold morning, he, I think he spoke from the hotel Teresa, which is no longer there. And I was one of the people that was there. 1000s of people were industry to listen to Malcolm to see him. We saw him we, we came, we were on the roof, myself and two or three others, and his security soars on the roof and told us to come down. We came downstairs, and of course, we were very cold. And he called us over and we shook his hand. And when I look back now, that was very memorable. It's just something that happened at that

time. Malcolm was, he was electric. You know, he was a personality that African Americans had never seen, but Malcolm took his Shahada. He was assassinated in February 1965. I was 17 or 18. And so he was assassinated in February and I became Muslim in October.