The Deen Show – Never been a fan of Religion until this happened

			They're
		

			in the law
		

			and
		

			we'll have another
		

			solo law
		

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah Salam aleikum. How're you guys doing? We're here in Pompano Beach, Florida.
And I was a little bit late, but you had some going on today
		

			in the law
		

			and then we'll have another
		

			solo
		

			shabu
		

			and Nisa, and Mandisa, Abdullah Abdullah, also
		

			the Korean
		

			I bear witness, I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, there is no god that Muhammad peace
be upon him. That Muhammad the peace upon is a spiral basically. Is this final time? Alright
		

			yeah, it's a very special day. I came after the fact. He did you Did I converted to Islam today. You
did? Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So for our audience, tell us
what's your name again? My name is Neil. Where are you from? I'm from New York. My parents are from
Dominican Republic.
		

			That's pretty much it. Yeah. How you pretty young now? Yeah, yeah, just law 18 Turning 18 Yeah.
Okay, so how, what made you come to that decision that you actually ended up taking your shahada
today. So I pretty much just like, I never really been been a big fan of religion, but I always
wanted to find like, an inner peace. And I looked into the other religions, and I saw that Islam is
like the way for me, I just love everything about it, you know, the praying and all that stuff.
devoting your life to Allah and stuff like that. So just pretty much just finding inner peace in my
life. What religion did you grow up on? When you grew up? Was it? What were your family from
		

			Dominican? So Catholic background? Catholic? Yeah. How did that fit into your life at that time? Did
that?
		

			What What? What made you drift away from the Catholic religion? So it was never like, my family was
never religious. They were just Catholic by name, but they never went to the church never pray the
number really, like mentioned God too much in my household. So at some point, I'd even thought that
we were just atheists, you know, we didn't even think wow, but my mom was like, Yeah, we're
Catholic, but we never practiced the Catholic religion. So then, so you were never into religion?
Yeah, you were searching for inner peace. Very important. That's like what we see around nowadays, a
lot of people just not into religion. You know, there's a lot of manmade religions, and they kind
		

			of, you know, associate religions, all these weird things. Did you see any weird things like when
you were investigating Islam?
		

			Not that I saw nothing. Weird. I loved every part of it. Like I saw the five pillars and all that
stuff. Really thought like, Yeah, this is me right here. This is what I, this is my path. This is
where I need to go down. What at your age, we're usually, you know, you think of 19 year old
nowadays, stuck somewhere in the basement playing Xbox, you know what I mean? All day just, you
know, minds on so many other things, but you're searching for inner peace. You know, I mean, your
search, we see also a rise in suicide, we see a rise in drug abuse amongst the youth. So, I mean,
that's kind of scary. Like, if you're searching for purpose in life for meaning going in this
		

			direction? Or what are you seeing with a lot of your friends, you know, the lifestyles that they're
choosing? And what are you exposed to at this young age? I can imagine.
		

			It's so basically just for me, you know, yeah, I play video games, I go home, I do this.
		

			You know, I was, I didn't like the way how unhealthy my lifestyle was, with the, you know, dirty
room, always laid. Now waking up in time, you know, what I mean? Talking back to my parents and
stuff, and I just thought, Man, I, I can't continue this lifestyle. You know, I needed to be more
healthier as a person, like, have a better, you know, just a better mindset when it comes to life.
This is very important for other youth, your age, to see that to see somebody that's dedicated to
looking to enhance their life to become a better human being. And now tell us, like what so you
talked about the five pillars? We'll stick with one of them this thing that you did today, the
		

			testimony that there's nothing worthy of worship is of the Creator of the heavens on earth, God
Almighty, Allah, and that Muhammad is his messenger. Yes, you know, this, this is something that
I've seen interviewing so many hundreds of different people, you know, they go through all around
the world, all the different world religions and you know, they get turned off from worshipping a
human being, you know, stick stone, a bone, all the different things that are out there that people
you know, go towards, but
		

			when people come to Islam, what they really love is this
		

			a one on one connection with the Creator or no intermediary this towhee this pure monotheism? How
did that connect with you?
		

			It first connected to me because even though it wasn't Islamic yet, I still practice the religion
just a little bit. And a lot of really does answer your, your prayers gives you advice and stuff
like that. So I'll pray at night, you know, my wishes will come true. It'll just be you know, just
like the simple things. Hey, wish me good luck tomorrow and make sure nothing goes bad for me. You
know, put me on the right path tomorrow. Make sure my life just goes straight and no bumps and
little things. Even if there were bumps. I know that he would fix it and he would help me guide me
through. Yeah, so it was just pretty much that just like, just a lot just answering my prayers and
		

			stuff like that from when is the first time we had exposure to a Muslim? But you actually came
across How did you end up coming across Islam? Did you have a friend that somebody expose you to it?
		

			It was my own? Your uncle? Yeah, he he, his wife was actually Islamic. So Muslim. Yeah, she was
		

			a Muslim, but then he converted he he converted you decided to shut out and then from there, he you
know he'll text me things. Have a good day of all wishes well, and stuff like that. And then one
time he came down in Florida and taught me a couple things and taught me how to pray and and then
that's when I really got exposed and really decided to dive into it that stuck with you. Hmm, yeah.
Beautiful, beautiful. Well, we just wanted to get a little some highlights, you know, from your,
from your journey, the journey has just begun. You know, life. As you know it now. You learn Islam,
you get the tools, so you can go ahead and deal with many of the challenges in life, but it's
		

			beautiful that you found out you know, what the purpose of life is that to submit to the creator,
you know, to be a good human being by observing and living by the Quran and the authentics is a lot
to absorb. But what else can you before we conclude? So, you were looking for a way of life that
brought you peace of contentment? How do you deal with the backlash by some your friends or your
family? Now that you've accepted Islam? How are they been? They've been supportive? Yeah, they've
been 100% Is there been any teasing from from friends or anything? Like so with some negative
comments? No, I mean, the only thing I've gotten were like, Hey, I don't believe we're really gonna
		

			do it. And I'm like, Yeah, because like no one really thinks you're gonna go Convert, you know, you
can say something and never really do it. But I was deeply serious but my family that supported me
100% Everybody my family you know, they just showed me the love and support even my sisters came
with me today you know, they're not Islamic but they decided to you know, get a job and you know,
come to the mosque support me, you know, I mean, beautiful. Well, thank you very much for sharing a
little bit good. Thank you your story with us. And that's the beautiful thing now you did the
shahada Inshallah, you learn how to make the salon to prayer five times a day. So important to get
		

			really grounded, really grounded in your in your deen we say this way of life. So then you're able
to deal with all the challenges and all of the obstacles in life gonna make you a better son, a
better brother, a better human being a better all around person, you know, but that's takes some
commitment to putting aside time to learn so you grow when you grow, you start to benefit from all
the beautiful treasures that Islam has. Yeah, so we're here also for you. There's a there's a
beautiful website, usually we recommend is called new Muslim Academy. academy.com is like the day
after Shahada. So then people go online and they start to take the courses there. Learn how to make
		

			wudu how to pray and all the other pillars of Islam and Your journey begins.
		

			So, thank you, thank you. Take care slowly.