Mustafa Khattab – Story Of Brother Gary
AI: Summary ©
A guest speaker discusses the struggles of praised Muslim named Zakhal and how he faced challenges in learning and adjusting to Islam. He explains his personal background as a Christian and how he needed guidelines and rules to live in his new life. He also talks about his past experiences with Islam and how he made bad choices, but eventually made good choices. He emphasizes the importance of learning from past experiences and practicing Islam, and stresses the importance of trusting parents and following the prophet.
AI: Summary ©
Okay. I know today is the Q and
A session, but,
we have, brother Gary, our
guest speaker today. Inshallah, we'll be talking to
you for about 10 minutes on his story,
how he became to how he became Muslim,
and,
and the challenge he faced, and how he
is trying to adjust as a new Muslim.
So please welcome brother brother Gary, Zakhal.
Okay. I'm not really prepared because he kinda
surprised me. I was coming here to pick
up a book and then he said, by
the way
and, I didn't realize there were so many
of you, so it's a little crazy.
I can talk in front of adults, but
when I get in front of children, I
get a little nervous. You guys scare me.
Oh, yeah.
So, to be quick, because,
I, accepted Islam when I was, about 35
years old. So that was in 2007.
So I do I don't look that old,
so people kinda get surprised by that. I
have a son who is 17. I have
a daughter who is
14.
I have another daughter who is 13, and
a son who is 6. And, the 6
year old is Yusuf. He accepted he was
born after I accepted Islam. So he's the
first in our family to be
to be, born Muslim.
So, I come from a Christian background.
Catholic is I don't know if you guys
know much about that, and, you should focus
on Islam anyway, but in if you get
older, you might take some religious studies and
learn about other faiths.
And that's one that is the biggest religion
here in Canada.
Or the biggest religious group, and I come
from that background.
I had a a bit of a difficult
life,
because I can see
is that closer? Is that right? No stairs.
For some of you guys, the older brothers
here, I I understand some of you are
about 14, in that range.
So for me, when I was your age,
I moved out of the house.
So I had to I had to grow
up very fast.
So when all of my friends were in
school learning, I was out working.
I had to live on the street for
a while, sleeping in parks and things like
that.
And, you know, what it's like in Canada.
It's very cold. Even in the summer time
you'd be surprised sleeping out in a park.
It's very very cold.
So, these are just things that happened to
me.
And a lot of other things. I got
into a lot of trouble. Because
the beauty of Canada is that it's very
open, it's very free, we can practice our
religion,
but it's also very easy to get into
trouble, right, if we don't pay attention to
what we're doing.
And so for me, I got into a
lot of trouble. And I did a lot
of bad things. I got in trouble the
police and I got in trouble with my
parents and my family.
But then eventually when I got a little
bit older I realized
something was missing. I didn't have even though
I had a belief in God, I wasn't
really connected with with Allah.
Right?
So one day I prayed and I said
if you're up there, please guide me. And
I started to learn about Islam.
And I had a couple of friends
that were that I worked with who were
Muslim.
And
as I started to learn about religion, going
back to Christianity
and, the things that I knew, I started
to look out at other things. I didn't
know anything about Islam.
I thought it was just about camels and
curved swords and desert and but I I
didn't know. So I started to ask questions
and alhamdulillah, they were there and they they
taught me a lot of stuff.
And, after a couple of years I decided,
you know what, this makes sense to me.
This is what I need.
Because I got into so much trouble,
I realized
at that point, as an adult, 35 years
old, I realized how important
the rules that Allah
had set. And if I had been following
these rules
much sooner,
all I know is I may not have
gotten into so much trouble.
And, that was really the main reason why
I accepted Islam, was because I needed those
rules
and those guidelines.
Right? We come and we pray 5 times
a day. There's a there's a routine that
we develop. There's a habits that we develop
that are really good for us. And I
didn't have that.
Being 14 and moving out, I had to
figure things out on my own. So,
I didn't even finish high school until I
was 38 years old.
I had to go back to school.
So,
the decisions that we make, for the younger
guys you won't understand so much now, but
for some of the older guys, 14, 15,
and the sisters,
you realize that you guys are getting into
that stage where you guys are adults, you're
young adults.
From
our from our Dean, you are adults. When
you start to get to 14, 15 year
old, you're you're you have to start making
decisions.
The things that you do, that your parents
are going to let you do, make more
choices. You're going to be going to college
in a few years, in university.
And as I said, in Canada, there's so
much that we can do, but at the
same time we have to be very, very
careful about the decisions we make.
So, Abdullah accepted Islam at 35 and,
I came home about a year later
and I had just finally learned salah. So
when you guys say, Assalamu Alaikum,
you know, that took me a long time
to learn that. We're talking a couple of
years to say it, right?
I I've been working on my recitation and
so on. So after a year, I came
home and,
my wife had said to me that she
wasn't the man I was that she had
married. She was kind of upset. Things were
changing.
I accepted Islam for me. She was still
doing what she was doing as a non
Muslim.
But then she said to me, she says,
because of Islam, I see you becoming the
man I've always wanted you to be.
And she said to me, I wanna accept
Islam.
So this is how my family, my wife
and I, became Muslim.
So I accepted Islam and she saw the
changes and the good choices I had made.
Prior to that I had made a lot
of bad choices, as I said.
So it was because of Islam that I
started making good choices in my life. I
started listening to Allah. I started following the
prophet.
The sunnah, the things that he did, the
things that he said, and it really changed
things for me.
And,
Alhamdulillah,
9, 10 years later, I've been very active
in the community.
I try to to do these types of
things.
Usually with a little more notice. It helps
inshallah.
But,
but I think it's very important. And you
guys will learn this as you get a
bit older. Alright. One of the things I
had difficulty with was my parents.
I wasn't always very respectful with my parents
and that was part of the reason why
I had to move out when I was
14.
Alright. And this is something that's very important
for us. You may not understand now, but
you will in the future. My parents are
getting older now. And our Canadian culture
is not,
as caring towards our parents as we should
be. So you guys need to learn this
as well. It's really important. So if your
parents say no, they don't want you to
do things,
you know, there's usually a reason for it.
Right? You have to trust him. Just like
we trust him Allah. We don't always know
what Allah is telling us to do, but
we have to trust in him
and we have to, you know, realize that
there's a reason why he's telling us. We
may not know now. We may never know.
But, eventually, we may get to know, okay,
well, Allah had told me this
then because now I need it today.
Does that make sense, guys?
So, you know, it's the same thing with
your parents. You have to trust your parents,
the decisions they made, the things that they
say.
And if you can benefit from any of
the things that, you know, I've done a
lot of things and not not,
you know,
just things, bad choices that I made. So
inshallah, may Allah protect you guys, help you
make good choices,
have good,
have a good path in your future. And
don't be afraid to practice your Islam. I
know there's a lot of things, especially the
older brothers and sisters, you realize there's a
lot of stuff going on. Just try to
remember Allah
It's gonna be hard. Don't let the things
in the world shake you. You always have
to come back and think about Allah, and
it will it will get better. It takes
time, and this is the one of the
beauties of Kanyog.
You know, some bad things happen here, but
we do have one of the best countries
in the world where we can practice art
Islam.
So, Salaam Alaik.
Brother
Gary,
he is visiting from Waterloo,