The Quran and the New Muslims

Salam Alaikum and welcome to living Muslim. The month of Ramadan is the month of Quran, it's the month where the believers they build, they you know they strengthen their relationship with the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala but many of us in truth actually don't know how to read the Quran. Although the love is there to be connected with it you find that we struggle when it comes to reading, and many of us tend to have 101 excuses as to why we can't read the book of Allah Alhamdulillah Joining me today is a very close, very special friend of mine. Brother Charles. Brother Charles, thank you very much for joining us in the studio malice pantalla Audrey, how you

feeling today?

Charles, you're someone who knocks out all the excuses in the world. hamdulillah You know, you're you're someone that was born as a non Muslim, raised as a non Muslim, become a Muslim, and you've got a very beautiful journey before we get into the journey. Tell me a bit about

life before coming to Australia. Okay, well, I was born in England, to a Caribbean father and English mother. My mom's blond hair blue was it's myself and my sister.

We, we came to Australia at a very young age, we grew up on the North Shore as not practicing any religion born in the UK, lived in the north, you must have papers.

Okay, so you grew up in the north, you went to schools?

Where you a very religious person at that time, No, never. We went to the Church of England scripture when we were in primary school, but that as far as our religious journey went, my mum's not religious me and my sister were both agnostic. So you know, no religious background. What was your first

encounter or your first interaction with Islam? Actually, my my sister who's two years older than me, she became Muslim at the age of 17.

She I used to think it was due to a lack for marriage, but she changed that story. She said that no, it was actually her own her own inclination, her own studies that brought her to Islam. So, I mean, was there anything specific that's sort of what your sister over to Islam? Yeah, it was like it was just people asking the right questions, I guess at the right times. She, she was asked at university, she was studying Arabic. And she she actually was asked a couple of questions and was given some books by by one of the sisters in class. And she told me when she first received this book, it was briefly Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam. She said she sat in the car after she

got it. She sat in the car without studying the engine, just reading it from cover to cover once she was shocked. So your sister embraces Islam? She's Muslim for two years now. throughout that period, Did she ever try to convert you? Did you ever try to bring you over? No, it was never active. Our like, it was never like, read this. And have you heard what it says about this? No, it was more about

I would ask her a question. And she would answer it and then leave it. She would never go over the overboard for the doubt. It was more like he's got a question. I'll answer it to the best of my ability, which tremolo was very good. And then she left but she's seen a change in her character. Definitely. Her character was completely changed. Okay. told me about the book, Malcolm X. Yeah. I actually don't remember how I actually came across it. But I, I, I started to read the Malcolm X biography. And from the start, I just loved his character. He's so he's so inspiring. He came from nothing. You know anything about him? I mean, was this a book you just picked up off the show for my

mum, she actually has a picture. I'm not sure if she still has it. It's a very famous picture of Malcolm X, where he's standing in the window of his house holding, holding automatic assault rifle, right? Yes, yes, I've seen it. And from there, it was on the on the poster says liberate your minds by any means necessary. And that always stuck with me as a young kid. I saw that on my mom's wall all the time, right? And just I saw his face in the bookshop. And I said, this is something I want to read. Okay, so you read, you know, say reading through his story, what part of it really touched you? Look, everything was incredible. And I really during the process of reading the book, I took

him as a role model. But when it came to his his part of actually Nation of Islam and then renouncing that and then becoming a Muslim after going to Hajj and he talks about his book called The Quran. And at that point, my sister was a Muslim. She'd been Muslim for about two years. And I said, Okay, this is a this is a book that the Muslims read. Maybe my sister's got a copy of, did you have any? Did you have any thoughts about the Quran? Was there any, you know?

Did you have any misconceptions about the book or anything of that nature towards the Quran? No, I knew absolutely nothing about the Quran at that point. But I initially was picking it up and looking through it for for the sake of finding a fault finding a misconception.

Finding a contradiction. Charles told me about your journey so you know you've come up to the court and you've gone over to his sister she's given you the book. Tell me about that. So like I said, I was looking for contradictions. I was looking for a fault in it and from the from the get go it's very say fault is this because you wanted it to be wrong?

To be honest, I'm not really sure like it was just something that I thought okay, this is I didn't believe in God as such at that point. So I was like, This is from a human, and I'm gonna find out and I'm gonna prove that that is from a human right, you know, so um, but from the very start, just the the language and the words use even in English translation, you can feel that it's not, it's not a normal book, it's not something you can just pick up and just do some light reading. It's very direct and very, very

decisive in its word. Do you remember any striking verses that really shook your heart and if you know, while

though, everything it was, every single verse was just, like, shook me. And it was as if it was talking directly to me, that's the best description I can give is that it was if it was written specifically for me, was that the Quran that brought you over to Islam? Definitely was. And obviously, my sister's, my sister's character, led me to that. So the the Quran is, it was a major parliament. So how long after reading the Quran did you decide that? You know, this is the faith for me, Islam is for me, I actually started the Quran, looking for the faults I went through. And I realized that this, this is the truth. And I said to myself, I want to I don't want to accept until

I finished reading the entire Quran. I got to about a quarter of the way and I said, I can't hold on anymore. Like,

yeah, this is it. Okay, then. You actually accepted Islam while you were in the car with your sister.

What were your feelings when you made the Shahada for the first time?

It was weed, I really account. There's no words. Honestly, my sweet stuff. Honestly, it was. To be honest, I can't remember the exact feelings when you feel the heavens cracked open, and the angels were coming around and flying around. And look, it did feel Honestly, it felt as if a veil has been lifted from my eyes. But you see the world even at that infant stage of Islam, you feel you see the world differently. What you thought was a priority before is no longer a priority.

What you look at as as right is now wrong. And what you looked at as wrong as now is now correct. So you accepted the slum? About a quarter way through? Yeah. Did you learn anything about the dean?

At that time, I was actually involved in a class like a back to basics course. Yeah. Just teaches you the fundamentals of Islam, who is Ally who's the process on them. But after accepting Islam, I was involved in a class straightaway, someone approached me. And they said, Look, I'm teaching a class to learn Quran in Arabic. And I was wondering if you're interested in Australia, why accepted? hamdulillah? You know, I've known you for quite some time and why it's a real honor. It's a real privilege to call you my brother.

You've been quite active since you've become a Muslim humbler, you have been active in at Yuma, you've been active with Dawa, you've been active with the youth?

What are some of the things that concern you with Muslims? Towards the Quran? Because I know that you've developed a real love for the book of Allah subhanaw taala? What are some of the things that concern you towards Muslims and their relationship with the book? Look, I think that for, of, I've said this to you before, when even a practicing Muslim, like someone that you consider a religious right,

you'll find that the connection with the Quran is is not the best. And I think that's because if you miss a prayer, you actually feel guilty. You have this in your heart, the honor of Mr. President is going off and I haven't prayed yet. Or if you've got a girlfriend, deep down, you feel guilty, I shouldn't be doing this. But when it comes to the Quran, because it's not a federal, it's not it's not obligatory. So people think that, you know,

yeah, that's right, exactly. It's not, it's something nice to have in your life. But if I don't have it, well, look, Charles, you're you're, you know, hamdulillah you're someone that not only learned the Quran, but obviously you've hamdulillah you've gone over to teach it. And we also had schools go out and actually speak to some of your students as to how they felt, you know, being your students and obviously being told by a river and being taught the book of law by a non Arab, and this is what suppose came up with.

Ya can hear have lost. Yes, we're live here at the AMA in riverwood. We're going to speak to Brother Charles, any students, it should be good. Follow me.

on it, look into that camera there. And tell your teacher how you really feel to my teacher, Charlie Miller, would you immensely

honestly, like a big brother to me, it's like a role model. So Pamela, one of the reasons I kept coming back was because you're teaching me humbler

You might have very easy for me, and I'm in charge of every letter that I read and surely you get rewarded. And what would you like to tell your teacher?

Thank you very much. Without you obviously, it wouldn't be and

I got taught by a person that's not even Arabs from the dealer. If he can do it, we all did it and you can do it. I'd like to say thank you very much

without you or couldn't have done this, you're a great teacher and I look forward to continuing classes with you.

Thank you for that stores. One lady, some very, very touching comments there. Brother Charles, thank you so very much for joining us in the studio. Brothers and sisters there are absolutely no excuses you know, the prophet of Allah says the best of you are those who learn the Quran and then teach it and humbler Mashallah Charles, you know, is a true testament towards that, you know, he learned the book of Allah and now he's teaching it. So my brothers and sisters there are no excuses. Well, I the only thing that is stopping us from memorizing or learning to read the book of Allah is nothing but our own selves. You know, the prophet of Allah He says, For every time you read a single letter in

the Quran, for you is 10 Hassan it is 10 rewards. And then I shout out a lot, Alana also to eliminate our excuses. She says for the person that struggles when they read the Quran, for this person is double the reward and what better month than the month of Ramadan to make the intentions and take that step forward into learning the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala I thank you so very much again, Charles, thank you so much for joining us. Brothers and sisters thank you also for joining us. And until next time, I ask Allah smart Allah to bless every single one of you as salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.