Tahir Wyatt – Why I became a Muslim

			I'm gonna start in 1993 inshallah, going back to 1993
		

			What was it that led your heart, inshallah to the, to the religion of Islam and to a loss of Hannah
Taylor's birth Emerald
		

			for the handling Lao salatu salam ala rasulillah. Now on early he was talking about
		

			how it Allah says an okra army, you read the level? Yeah, do Who? Yes, La Sagrada hulin Islam,
whoever Lost Planet, Allah wants the guy, he opens his heart to Islam, he opens his heart to full
submission. And I, honestly 27 years ago, he told me in 1983, I don't know that I would be able to
pinpoint today. what it was that at that very moment just, you know, said to me, it's time to become
a Muslim.
		

			But I do know that I had gotten to a point in my life where I had to accept the fact that there was
a creator. So we just start there.
		

			And, you know, because prior to that, I guess I toyed with the idea of atheism, you know, there was
a period that I went through when I consider myself to be an atheist. Though, as I kind of look back
on it, I don't really think that I was convinced that there wasn't a guide, but I wasn't convinced
that there was a guy. So I was probably stuck in some form of
		

			being some kind of agnostic, if you will.
		

			So I think once I came to the realization, intellectually,
		

			that there had to be a creator. And that as you know, when that intellect, it coincides with your
fits into your natural disposition, which is towards the worship of one God.
		

			There's a cohesion there that kind of takes you to the next level, unless you put a barrier between
yourself and a lot of parents either, which a lot of people do, and that's usually the barrier of
arrogance. And so they allow their pride or their pride in who their ancestors are, for example, you
know, how many people I've come across the disable, you know, I believe what you're saying, but my
whole family is Christian. Yeah, I can't, I can't leave off. You know, that way. That's part of it's
part of their identity. Right.
		

			And so
		

			in
		

			my right, but here's the thing, Chappelle it kind of reminds me of like today,
		

			you know, anyway, it's almost like a religious dysphoria, right? So it's like, wait a minute, I know
that I really shouldn't be Muslim, right. But everybody else is like this and my family. So they
kind of go through this, this turmoil, if you can break down those barriers and you can allow, you
know, both your your emotions, your your, your mental state, the the Fitzwater, that you're upon
that cohesion with the intellectual appeal of Islam. And then oftentimes, the rest is the guidance,
you know, from a loss of Hannah which I mean even at first part is guidance from a loss fantastic,
but I'm saying that once you get your knifes out the way and you leave room for a loss of Hamlet's
		

			attitude permeates your total existence and then allies will don't take solace in you and you start
to see the truth for what it is and you know, our Prophet it was Sam
		

			there's two guys that come to my mind right now. The first is a llama original haka have gone water
zoeken, a teabag. See, the thing is, some people see the truth is the truth. They know that it's the
truth. But they haven't been given that ability to follow the truth. So they know it's true.
		

			And I mean, there's no better example from the seal of the Prophet it sent him than his own uncle
will tell it, who knew that Islam was the truth and he knew that the Prophet sallahu wa sallam was a
prophet, but nothing Yoda Zuck, you know, it's a bow, so he wasn't given that that guidance to to
follow the truth. And then the other one is the Hadith of the Prophet Isaiah. So it was sent and
were part of the dryers, why didn't he? Well, that's it and who daddy guide me and make guidance
easy for me. So some people, they know that this is guidance, the guidance hasn't been made easy for
them. So to kind of get back to your question, again, it'd be very difficult for me to to pinpoint
		

			exactly what it was. But I will tell you, I know the process that I went through the first part of
the process was accepting the fact that there's a creator and just saying, Wait a minute, that Yeah,
in other words, that this creation, these things
		

			that exists could not have come from nothing, you know, even if we trace it back and we say, matter
and energy, and, you know, we start talking about a big bang, and all, even with that something had
to be there to bang, right? So, logically, there had to be a beginning, you know, so there has to be
a creator.
		

			I mean, that was the process I was going through at the time. And then, after that, the acceptance
of the fact that life must have a purpose.
		

			And that the Creator has to communicate that purpose to his creation. And that is communicated
through revelation, which was brought by prophets. So, going through that process, even though I was
young at the time,
		

			I felt like I had lived, you know, certain aspects of life that a lot of older people hadn't
probably lived yet. And I thought that at that point, I just said, you know, what, it's time to stop
playing games. You know, Pamela, this is, this is what it is. And I woke up one morning, I said, You
know what, that's it today, I'm gonna become a Muslim. And that's what happened back in December of
1983. Is that why you chose to study it, then in Medina? Was that the lead to focus more anokhi?
Then, but I went back to the question before that, so I don't forget the question shall not keep it
in mind. I just remember shift. Now when you're speaking the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu
		

			sallam, when he said to the harbor, that there will come a time where they the action of an
individual equal to 50 of you call your salamin a min home, call an acquaintance, you do not have an
hour? And Was this the case? At your time? How do you see people accepting Islam now? And back then?
When did you have enough support at that time? Are you think now hamdulillah? It is better?
		

			quantity? I'm talking about the quality of acceptance, you know? Well,
		

			it's really hard to say, because we've gone through many stages since
		

			since that time, right?
		

			I would, I would definitely say this, Islam was nowhere near as prominent than as it is now.
		

			So we have a lot more massage. Now we have a lot more Islamic centers, and I'm talking about big
ones, right? We have a lot more, obviously, the inflammation is a lot more. I mean, we're all
information overload.
		

			That just did not exist back then.
		

			And, obviously, the world has changed. I mean, 1983, we were not using the internet yet. I'm not
saying that. Well, maybe email became a little bit more prominent, probably 9596. But even then, it
still wasn't like, it wasn't like a prominent thing. And not, you know, everybody just had internet.
You know, there obviously was no social media then and so forth. So it was a different time period.
I think that the
		

			and it would be difficult for me to say that the quality of Muslim was better than I don't. That
would be unfair to say, but we definitely were more strange.
		

			And so the, the the waterbuck, you know, to be a little more about, like, the private is like, glad
times to the strangers, you know, it was very odd to be a Muslim at the time. And
		

			and I'm saying right now, we feel like it's odd in certain places that you might go in the United
States, you know, it's more, it seems more prevalent in larger cities that you know, people know
that you're Muslim, but, you know, back then it was it was a little bit different man.
		

			And we just didn't have the numbers now. So you go through a time period, and then you then 911
hits, right 911 was a generational game changer. Because for some people who were very proud to be
Muslim before 911 they became prouder after 911.
		

			You know, there was no hiding. I'm not going to hide now. No, as a matter of fact, I didn't use the
word Koofi. Now go where Koofi, I want everybody know, I'm Muslim, and I want you to try see what
happens. Because we're not going out like that, you know, I'm not gonna hide because you think I'm a
terrorist, right?
		

			There was some Muslims that were like, they were the Muslims. They said, Wait a minute, this is a
bit much.
		

			And it geographically, obviously, it changes from place to place. And
		

			you know, there's no harm. I mean, there's several things that have happened even since 911. That
have, you know, made us recognize that Muslims are targets, and you don't just want to be out there
being a target, but the whole point is that that
		

			That was a generational game changer. But
		

			you know, despite the the negative aspects of that
		

			attack,
		

			it did make Islam it did put Islam in the spotlight, right? So it gave Muslims the opportunity to
say, wait a minute, that's not what we stand for. This is what a spam really is. And, you know,
people who would attack
		

			innocent civilians and so forth, that doesn't have anything to do with ID. So it puts some people on
the defensive, but even being on the defensive, there was still attention that was being given,
right? So, so it did change the game, in that sense, and it put Islam in a, in a spotlight, not
necessarily obviously, in the beginning definitely wasn't good. But as time went on, more people
began to hear about Islam, and then they would read about Islam, and then they will go try to meet
some Muslims and Muslims became more proactive, and getting out and getting the message out and
trying to meet their neighbors, and so on and so forth. So
		

			your original question was what right?
		

			Yeah, I'm, I'm enjoying now
		

			was the original question because it was it was the brothers at that time, or the Brotherhood of
Muslims at that time? The feeling of it, like when you first become religious, or when you first
		

			different feeling than now being, you know, handler more Muslims, we have more massages, but I'm
sure it's not that the same connection? Well, no, no, no, no, I would, I would say,
		

			one of the major, major differences that I can distinctly recall from that time
		

			was, was the spirit of connectedness, the spirit of sacrifice. Yes. That's that I have found to kind
of dissipate. And I'm not saying that people don't sacrifice now, they don't sacrifice they Well,
you know, to build a massage and so forth. But back then it was different. It was it was different
that was ingrained in us that, and it probably was because our numbers were smaller. Now we've got
more numbers, and many hands, make light work. And, you know, for, you know, massive fundraisers,
this person give businessperson give that, but back then it was like, it was just this little group,
you know, and everybody had to really dig deep, you know, you know, women had to take off the
		

			jewelry, literally, you know, for fundraisers, because we needed everything that we could get, you
know, to support the house of Allah, and that type of sacrifices, not necessarily just, it's not the
same spirit, you know, today as it was that but there still is this things that are better now,
obviously, I mean, the services that are offered to the Muslim community now, I think are much more,
they're much broader than the services that were offered back then. And I think the vision that we
have for ourselves, you know, as American Muslims is, is different than it was back then. And I
would even say, a different in a better sense, like, you know, we, we see ourselves as part of the
		

			society as a whole and therefore, are trying to forge you know, our identity within the broader
society without sacrificing our values and without just totally melting into the pack.