Orthodox Christian Priest Accepts Islam Gould David I Prayed to God to show me the TRUTH

A community that acknowledges you know, has been rocked by, by me, making this choice serving as a priest in the way that I was was to was to say that what I had felt and known and understood was a lie, and I could not do it. My life experiences as a Christian, including struggling with Christianity. You know, for years, I've had a quarter and on my bookshelf, barely touched it, by you know, commenced theological studies. And that really made me drill down on the Bible

and on church history that that was a you know, a major motive in me saying, I need to take shahada now, because you know, no one knows.

100 is our brothers and sisters, we've acquired the future dissenter property and we want to get the masjid open first. It's all coming along we're installing the doors we can make wudu we've installed the carpets we have many details to finish up but it's coming along and Hamdulillah we need a new roof we need new windows and we need a min butter that's right we need a min but for the Masjid. Now if all of you want to be a part of history and help build a house of worship, build a masjid for the sake of Allah so Allah the Creator can build for you a house and Jenna click the link below donate right now may God Almighty Allah reward all of you.

As salam aleikum, greetings of Peace My next guest he became an Orthodox Christian in 1978 was ordained as a sub deacon in 1994, a deacon in 2017 and priest in 2020. Being made parish priests of exultation of the Holy Cross Church but now he's planning to do Umrah for Ramadan this year with the hopes to serve God Almighty Allah the Creator in the deen in Islam and the Dawa. Let's bring out of the Rama the servant of the Most Merciful David Hello. I'm very excited for this interview

man

and his final messengers, Muhammad peace be upon him. This is our religion, Islam.

This is the dijo.

Much respect I have for the faith of Islam show Welcome to the deen show. The Deen show.

Somebody come? Well, they come with salaam greetings of peace. How are you? How are you? I'm good. Thank you. I'm good. Thank God, I just heard the amazing news a few days back and we reported on it and we got in touch and we're and hamdulillah you're on the program now. Amazing. It is amazing. It is amazing. Alex really works in in amazing ways.

Let me 45 years. Let me start by correcting though 45 years Orthodox, not 45 years a priest

the internet being what it is, this would make me a lot older than I am.

Let let's correct that. So give us the proper it's 45 years, became orthodox in 1978 I was only a priest for the last two years and a bit before I resigned to to become a Muslim.

So, you know, my life was spent, you know, largely around from the age of 16 at

you know connected with Holy Cross.

I you know a community that I have great affection and love for you know, I come in community that acknowledges you know, has been rocked by, by me making this choice.

But it was a choice that you know that I felt utterly guided by Allah to make

and that is you know, I felt that

my life experience as a Christian including struggling with Christianity

without with aspects of it,

you know, it was a reflection of my search for God and my search for God wasn't really complete in Orthodoxy.

You know, while I was orthodox through those years, it's not that I didn't, you know, look elsewhere saying you know, is this right

You know, I became orthodox in a in a church that the parish priest had died in 1973, I became orthodox in 1978. And we had no resident priests from 1973 to 1994, we only had priests flying in every six, seven weeks from the mainland of Australia. So it was a kind of, you know, a community without leadership. And, and so that helped shaped my, my religious life, I guess.

It was a community that I loved, and which is why when, when I spoke with my bishop about, you know, send us a priest, he said, Well, why don't you become a priest?

So, you know, in, in as part of that requirement, I, you know, commenced theological studies, and that really made me drill down on the Bible.

And on church history, and the fact that so much, that is in the Bible in, you know, which as we know, has been shaped by, by theologians and the Fathers of the Church, after many years, and indeed, centuries after Christ was on this earth.

That there was, you know, massive accretions, doctrinal, you know, additions, which got reflected in the Constantinople and creed. And then the subsequent Creed's, you know, the

as a spouse through the counsels of the church, so I came to kind of the conclusion that there was challenging the doctrine of the Trinity, which was not referenced in the way the Church teaches that in the way most Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox conceive of the Trinity, and

that was, you know, problematic.

But

it was not, you know, an intellectual

conviction that brought me to, to Islam. So, I'll recount you know, what happened.

I had to go to Perth to my brother in law's funeral to support my sister purse on the other side of the country, you know, five hour flight away.

And when I went there, I booked a hotel. And I noticed when I booked it, that it was, you know, only 100 100 150 yards from the Perth main masjid, which was actually built

at the turn of last turn of the 19th and 20th century,

I think substantially by Afghan immigrants who, who were brought over in the days before rail to bring camels, because they were like, the, you know, the long they were the equivalent of trains of their day.

And while there were earlier Masjid set up in Western Australia, and in other places, this one was, you know, a substantial one built anyway, I was staying very close to it.

And every day I you know, I walked around, it passed, and I felt this, you know, call to go and visit it, but I was nervous, you know, as an orthodox priest.

And, nonetheless, I chose to go in and I went and sat in this lovely courtyard garden. Nobody around and just sat and thought, you know about this as a as a house of God.

I subsequently, you know, on another visit, sitting there met the Imam and he gave me a Koran. And now it's true. You know, for the years I've had a quarter and on my bookshelf, barely touched it.

But this time i i went back to my hotel, and you know, I prostrated and ask God, you know, show me the absolute truth. Show me whether Islam is true or false. Whether Christianity is right or wrong, whether Orthodox Christianity is right or wrong, and I prayed for some time on my knees prostrate.

Orthodox Christians actually prostrating in a way very similar to to Islamic sujood especially in penitential seasons. Anyway, I was used to prostration I prostrated

and prayed. And then I sat up and I read Quran, and

I realized, you know,

intuitively, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, that this was the the actual word of God that I had

not paid heed to not pay respect to and I read it with completely different eyes. And I just knew I instantly

knew that this was the absolute truth, and that I could no longer ignore it.

So I, you know, I went

I went and talk further with the Imam

and, and stood probably awkwardly and through margaree prayers at the back of the of the masjid.

And then I had to fly back to Tasmania and I flew back and

reflected, and

I could not continue on as before.

So I prayed, and I read Quran. And, you know, the only way I could go back to what I was serving as a priest in the way that I was was to was to say that what I had felt and known and understood was a lie, and I could not do it.

You know, was I unhappy being a priest? No, was I you know.

And, you know, I was a priest that wasn't paid to be a priest, I worked full time because my parish was so small, you know, that I work, I'm a hospital social worker,

working with many Muslim colleagues, as it turns out, Alhamdulillah. And

so I wrote to my bishop,

you know, alanda, that was

easy to write on one level, of course difficult to write a letter that is severing ties of a lifetime and pulling out from a community that I have committed to serve.

And I declared

shahada in that letter to the bishop,

god but Allah, and Muhammad, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is his last messenger, and that this is the final message. And that I had no choice, no choice but to obey it.

So Alhamdulillah I

contacted the imam in Perth

and took shahada over the telephone.

And then that was on a Wednesday and then on the Friday, I went to Juma Masjid in Hobart.

There were some brothers over here doing Dawa, from big Masjid in Melbourne, Faulkner,

you know, a masjid that I now have connection with, and, and so took shahada in front of the community. And of course, was humbled in, in a masjid full of people, packed with people, packed with brothers to have everyone coming to congratulate me.

So that's, you know, the story about how this Orthodox priest,

you know, not a senior priest, not a saintly priest, a sinner, but you know how I could not ignore?

Quran could not ignore the truth that God is not three, God is one that God has no,

no some.

And that

his final message was the message that all of us all Christians, everyone needs to hear that I needed to pray as Jesus prayed

to pray as the prophets that were honored, you know,

prayed. And, you know, I've been at peace with this decision.

Since I want to back it up. For many of the non Muslims, Not Yet Muslims who watched this and when you say Allah, I mean, many people, if you look back is in this now in the language that, that Jesus spoke, of course, in ILAHA RMA is so so close to the Arabic and of course the Christians today, you know,

Coptic Christians and Christians in the Middle East that are Arabic,

Palestinian Christians use Allah for God.

In the same way, of course, their

understanding of God is is nuanced and different, but the language is the same. And and I think, you know, there's this immense

relief, this satisfaction that you know, the world's largest religion, Islam is the completion of what God delivered

to Moses and to the prophets to the prophet David, you know, my my, my my Christian namesake. Now I'm David name,

you know, to

Prophet Elias to and of course to Jesus.

Peace be upon you

I'm here to all the messenger. So this is Kong, congruent congruence it that

we as Christians have, have missed and misunderstood. What's the difference of how you honor or respect Jesus now because you didn't abandon Jesus, what's your relationship with Jesus? Now, you know, I would say, I love Jesus, no less than I love Jesus before, but I have, I understand Jesus in proper relationship and perspective to God Almighty. That's the difference. You know, that, you know, most Christians that seriously look at Quran are amazed that you know, that we have

Surah, you know, in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus, you know, the most spoken of woman in,

in Quran and, of course, a woman highly revered and respected by, you know, by, by Christians and by Orthodox Christians.

In particular,

you know, and

then as a major,

part, comfort to a Christian becoming Muslim, and knowing that you are not abandoning Jesus, you're not abandoning Mary, you're placing them in correct relationship to Allah. And that's the difference. And that, in that sense, makes that translation from one to the other, are easy. Of course, you know, there are cultural differences there are, there's so much to learn.

Of course, there's the notion that when one takes shahada, that,

that our sins and failings are wiped and that we have the opportunity to have a new relationship with God that is

in the right situation.

And you know, masha Allah, I, I have not looked back.

That doesn't mean I don't love and respect the people that I served, the friendships that I made, and regret the loss of friendships that go with this kind of a change. But,

you know, it's the price that I pay for obedience to God, and it is, and, you know, as challenging as it can be on a human level. on a spiritual level, it's what I must do. You know, it's the, it's a sacrifice for, for Allah. It reminds me when you open up the Bible, when you talk about shahada, and you look at John 17, three, it says that this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ who you sent. So you would have said that Jesus is the messenger at that time. Yes. Now, the final messenger is Prophet Muhammad, and you are worshiping the one that Jesus says is greater than Him, God, Almighty Allah, so you're putting Jesus in the place where he put himself not

elevating him to God, you're worshiping, worshiping the God of Jesus, and accepting him as a messenger as a prophet of God, and then Muhammad peace, be upon them all, as just the final messenger to completion of the chain of messengers that came since the beginning, until the end, he was the final.

I mean, that, you know, that the chorus is full of, you know,

you know, the so much teaching is the same, you know, the, so much so much account is the same of Moses in Egypt, of Pharaoh of the parting of the Red Sea,

of you know,

of, you know, God's punishment of wrongful people

have God's mercy and forgiveness to those that love and obey Him, you know.

So, on one level, this journey is very similar.

But it's, you know, it's, it's gone from the basis of incorrect belief to right belief, and of course, that you know, that that's ultimately what orthodoxy means, you know, right. Belief and, and Islam as has right belief. So, so were you before 1978 I wasn't, I wasn't Anglican. So, you know, I'm an Aussie, an Australian, I was raised in Anglican and Anglican. Yeah. So that's, you know, the Church of England.

I see. Some would call a Protestant. Some would say reformed, Catholic, you know, different labels. When,

you know, when when the Anglican Church

ordained women as clergy in contravention of a

of scripture in contravention of

all tradition, I knew that this couldn't be of God that this this, you know, this was, you know,

you know, this was done. And, and so I looked for conservative Christianity that hadn't changed this. And it hadn't changed other things, you know, that called liberalism that, you know, Christianity today as you, as you know, especially in the West, in the West, not in the east and not in Africa, in places is, has this belief that if you have this approachment with with the world, you know, if you have

gay marriage, if you have, you know, now you have, you know, the Church of England saying, Oh, we've got a transgender Bishop, you know, which would have been

insane

I remember an Anglican priest when I was a boy laughing and saying this will never happen to hear this you know, women priests could never happen here. So I think you know, when you have

you know, Christianity is not built on on the solidity of Islam, we have, you know, we have Koran, which has not changed a word.

Not a word. Allah handed down the Bible, as we know, you know, they had to decide the Fathers of the Church hundreds of years after, after the life of Jesus peace be upon him, you know, which books in which books out Catholics say these are in Orthodoxy? No, these extra books are in Protestant say, No, all these books are out. So you know, they can't agree. So for people that don't know, it was the church was it wasn't the church that put the Bible together? Absolutely. Yes.

The church, you know, put the Bible together, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not the authors, you know, they're a scribe to those those personalities, but in reality, we don't know, who wrote the who wrote the first four books of the gospel, then who wrote them? Well, we know also is unknown, unknown, you know, which is why you have you know, you have,

which is why John's Gospel has significant differences to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So the, you know, there are,

there are things that are similar, and there are things that are unique to each of those books.

And then, of course, you have some Paul who came afterwards, you know, some Paul the, the,

you know, the Jew, supposedly had his road to Damascus, enlightenment, and, and who significantly changed many things, you know, changed the Christian response to the law,

you know, essentially shifted things from, you know, he made the first big shift from where, from what was at the time of Jesus, Jesus didn't, you know, abolish everything, Jesus prayed as, as you know, as his forebears prayed to God, you know, in prostration, in sujood, in, you know, to the One God, you know, he prayed that way in the Garden of Gethsemane.

So, you know, Paul changed much, and then, and then, you know, Constantinople, the Emperor when, you know, the Roman Empire became Christian, and Christianity was made the religion of the Empire then there was massive change,

massive change. So, you know, and you've had that through to the Protestant Reformation, you have that in the 21st century with, you know, these changing attitudes to morality to,

to

sociology, you know, has changed with that. Of course, for some Christians, that hasn't changed. There are Christians who are, you know, in their own way, as conservative as as, as Muslims are, but there is not the

incontrovertible foundation that is in Islam.

Is the difference between because most people when they heard priest, I think Catholic priests, of course, yeah. What's the difference between the Catholic priests and the kind of priests? Sure, well, you're the Orthodox Christian priest, Orthodox, Orthodox priests, they're, you know, if you like two varieties, married and unmarried. So, you know, Christian clergy were married from from, you know, the early days of Christianity.

leaders were married, clergy were married.

And it only became a, you know, a much later, you know, you know, essentially 10th 11th 12th century accretion or in the West, under under Rome, that

that celibacy was made mandatory for all clergy and in the east. That was never the case. And so you have a tradition both, you know, the, the East has a very strong monastic tradition, and bishops that, you know, the seniors come from the ranks of monastics, whereas most, you know, 95% of all parish clergy are married.

You know, I guess experiencing the normal things of life that go with being married.

So orthodox priests can get married. Yes. If Allah says, you have the confession boxes in Orthodox priests, you don't have that to you. You have confession in Orthodoxy, but there's not a box per se, but there is, you know, the Orthodox understanding is that your confession is to God and the priest is a witness. So help us understand. So you have sub Deacon, Deacon, and then you have priest. Yep. And then after that you have, you know, bishops after that you have ambition. So I It reminds me of a friend of mine also, I've interviewed he was the late May Allah grant him Jana, his name is Dr. Gerald Dirks. He was also a deacon in the Methodist church, and he had a doctor and divinity. And he

when he went to the seminary school, and he took a deep dive into the, into the Bible and textual criticism and whatnot. And he saw kind of what you're talking right in the middle of yourself. And he said, I couldn't, I couldn't get back on their pulpit, I couldn't, I couldn't get out there and things that I knew that weren't the original, and anything that we have of a copy of a copy a copy of the original, I couldn't get out there and preach many of these things that I had been preaching before. And he was a man of integrity. And later he ended up accepting Islam that kind of similar to your story, Dr. Gerald Dirks.

So this struggle, the struggle happened for how many years? When this?

You know, I would say, on one level, you know, it predated me being a priest this struggle with you know, I,

you know, I looked,

I looked at Buddhism, I looked at, you know, other versions of Christianity, you know, through those years before I was clergy, I really looked and, and some of that, you know, I went to things and you know, where is, and the one place, of course, I didn't substantially go to was Islam, you went to everything else, except Islam. That's usually what is the same thing I get from for many other people. And

it's hard to explain why that was. Because there's such a stigma, there's so many misconceptions, and people, maybe maybe there are misconceptions about it, like, you know, it's just,

you know, that whole

Islamophobic thing about fanaticism, and on one level, you know, Christianity with its doctrinal Lee and how it's lived and how the church is, is incredibly complicated.

And Islam is

simplistic in its, you know, in its requirements of us, of course, that great requirements, but you know, it's, it's,

you know, maybe I felt it was too simple, you know, how could it be, you know, that simple that, you know, God is one that we're required to, you know, to do these simple things pray five times a day, you know, to fast in Ramadan to give us a cut, you know,

those pillars, you know, to go on Hodge, you know, those those pillars on one level seem very simple. It's pretty straightforward. It's not.

And yet, you know, what I've realized since becoming a muslim is there is a depth of wisdom and

a great depth of knowledge and insight that supports us to apply Islam in our daily life,

in what scholars have said, in, you know, in writings,

but, you know, fundamentally we have this one book,

that is the word of God, the incontrovertible Word of God. And we have the sooner you know, we have the Prophet and his example. And, you know, we have, you know, the understanding of what the Companions

you know, their qualities.

So, there's a simplicity that I think is very appealing. And, you know, in the west today, you know, we have my God, you know, we have

a breakdown of, you know, the West we know, as a Christian,

focused continent, and society, you know, has within my lifetime abandoned so much, you know, when I was a child, everyone went to church on Sundays, pretty much most people or if they didn't go, parents sent their kids to church. Now, no one does. Now you know, more people don't get married and get married more, you know.

The whole you know, notion what is male and female, let alone all this diverse gender stuff and sexuality stuff. It's a radical reshaping of

our

of

society as we know, and here we have Islam, which is, you know, growing in the West exponentially.

With this, you know, solidity and certainty and community. You know, I haven't even talked about that community, my goodness, this notion of the Luma. This notion of this brotherhood and sisterhood of believers is profound in Islam in a way that I haven't seen in anything, any experience,

including the church. How did you tackle with the crucifixion? Now someone says, Okay, you believe one God, and this is all nice, but who's dying for your sins? Who's paying the price? What's the answer in Islam that you found? The concept of salvation of sin?

The answer is that you know, is that we're accountable for our own lives, our own actions, and when we're responsible for our own salvation, we're responsible, you know, we'll be judged, every human being will be judged on the Day of Judgment, you know, we have an angel

writing down, you know, everything, you know, you know, the Bible itself confirms that, you know, you know,

the Gospel says, not a blade of grass moves without God knowing it, you know, consider the, you know, the birds of the air, that God provides for them.

without any human intervention, you know, nothing, then nothing is not known by Allah. So, you know, ultimately,

my reversion to Islam isn't between me and my Creator.

And I'll answer for that gladly answer for that on the Day of Judgment. That's beautiful.

Finish, sorry, my, you know, my responsibility is to finish the course.

That's another beautiful thing along with the pure monotheism, we call the towhee, the oneness of God, and then the whole concept of turning to who you named your, your, your name, the opposite of man, the servant of the Most Merciful that God,

I chose that name because I,

you know, I wanted to be the servant of the Most Merciful and I acknowledge that for me as a lifelong sinner, that

that it is the action of the merciful that has brought me to Islam, not my own action. Yes. So the Most Merciful, the Most Loving, you turn to the most loving, you know, you know, this notion of the people have in the West in particular, you know, maybe colored by events, I don't know that Islam is somehow harsh, and you know, that we have this

fierce God is so wrong. Yeah. You know, God through the 99 names of Allah, you know,

you know, those qualities of mercy, compassion, forgiveness,

so profoundly strong. And, you know, this is what, you know, Allah is perpetually open to us being repentant.

So, you know, and that was profound hope in Islam for humanity. And that dispels the myth, what you just said there is because Allah being the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate is when you turn to Him alone and you seek repentance and you seek his forgiveness. He forgives all sins. Absolutely. Yes. So this is one of the beauties of Islam and it's it's so beautiful and right there, you dispelled another myth, you have orthodox priests accepting Islam submission to the will of the Creator. And I often say that this isn't the Lord's Prayer, Islam or Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. That's Islam, your will be done. This is

this isn't what Islam and you're just doing God's will. You're not doing something.

Something weird, something strange. You're doing what Jesus did you submit it not to Jesus, but you submit to the God of Jesus, the Lord of Jesus is meeting you know, the God of Isaac and Abraham, You're the God of Moses, you're submitting to the One who created

Adam and Eve you're submitting to the One who created everything. That's it simple, plain and simple.

It almost seems simple. It's like this is the most logical conclusion that this is the truth distantly.

Tell us, what else can you share before we conclude? So you started reading the Koran and

What out what else did it for you? So you one of the things was the preservation of the Quran, the simple message of the pure monotheism of worshiping one and only one God, is there anything else that captivated you about

this notion of, you know, believe, just believe, and,

you know, I felt that so strongly and then,

you know, when I took shahada, I felt such peace

Alhamdulillah such peace, and then you know, when you experienced this wraparound love of community for you, and support

you know, it has been

humbling to see, you know, the, to experience to see to feel to experience the trauma in

living leaving

Islam.

And, you know, there's

I'm really taken with, you know, in Christianity, you know, as a priest, I prayed lots, it's true. But, you know, the discipline of the five daily prayers, and making that show, that life is shaped around this and not around other things that are our life, that that our material life is shaped around our spiritual life

and not the other way around.

So, you know,

for me, that's, that's been an unfolding happiness. To experience that of course, you know, I'm a, I'm a neophyte, I'm learning.

I'm hoping I've just, you know, started with a

with a teacher for learning Quranic Arabic,

from the community at Faulkner in Melbourne.

I, you know, I've had some great experiences, I went, you know, to

the masjid at Faulkner, where, you know, with 150 brothers all spending 24 hours together, and you know, there were sheiks from Saudi there, and it was, you know, he spoke English and it was just the most fantastic learning and experience and teaching. So, you know, Inshallah, yes, Amara, and one day Hajj is my hope, you know, in Tasmania, where I am, which is, you know, the island state to the south of Tasmania, you know,

you know, there are about 20 20,000 Muslims now, there was one masjid for the whole island.

And now there are three for three and a couple of prayer rooms, you know, we

we need to build a new or or massively extend the the masjid that we have in the capital in Hobart because it's not big enough.

So, you know,

the community here is growing and

Alhamdulillah that's, you know, a great thing to be proud of. So this is a city in Australia. Hobart. Yeah, so it's the

Tasmania is the island state to the south of, of mainland Australia

has a population of half a million, just under half a million capital has 200,000 people. So it's small, by and by, by many standards. And it's, you know, largely a rural place, you know, has some industry but a rural place. So,

the, you know, Alhamdulillah you know, there are people bit by bit embracing Islam also, we have new arrivals from, you know, elsewhere in the world that are, you know, migrating here. So, we have, you know, a very diverse community of,

of Muslims here.

What,

go ahead, finish your point. You're right, thank you. Tell me, what advice do you have for someone else like yourself who they're in a mirage of many of the falsehoods that are perpetuated against Islam, much of this Islamophobia industry, it's a billion dollar industry and there's so much fear and apprehension, stereotype stigma attached to Islam, but they're looking at you and they like, what you have to say, you know, they're also been confused about this trinity confused about the purpose of life, you know, death can be right around the corner, we don't know how long you know, we're gonna be on this earth and they are listening. And you know, that, that that was a, you know,

a major motive in me saying I need to take shahada now, because you know, no one knows. You know, I work in a hospital I am

I see death as a very regular event, I deal with it as an issue.

And,

you know, God alone knows when our time is, you know, not a blade of grass moves without his will well, you know, our life ends when he wills it and we don't know when that is, and, you know, where,

you know, committing of, you know, share by by by assuming that, you know, we're going to live forever even though you know, the Bible Old Testament, you know, says that, you know, threescore years and 10 Is that is, is our lifespan, and any more than this, you know, is toil and suffering. So we don't know.

But

so I would say to people that are considering Islam is

get a copy of Koran and read, ask God

in your heart, with humility, with love to say, please show me the truth.

And also try and look at Islam in the lens through the lens of this understanding that it is the completion, that it's you know, Christianity as,

as Jesus lived, if we pray as Jesus prayed, that we love and respect Jesus peace be upon him, we love and respect his mother. We love and respect the prophets before. So there's a continuity between us going back to Adam,

you know, the first man that is, that is there. So if you look at it through that lens, not through the lens of,

you know, Islamophobia of politics of, you know,

you know, of the sinful actions of some, you know,

you know,

being Muslim doesn't make us immune to sinning, but, you know, we, you know, we have an accountability before our Creator, and responsibility.

And that's why you'll find that

the Muslims truly are a community of peace, and of love, and of

shared love of God and community. And so, Muslims are not a community to be feared.

Muslims are a community that you that you should be curious about. And, you know, masjids, open places, mosques are open places, so come visit,

you know, you will find,

you know,

in all over the western world, you know, you'll find Western, convert, Revert Muslims.

And you'll find us side by side with, you know, brothers or sisters from all over the world and of course, reverts as well.

And, you know, we're, we're one people, you know, there's no nationality. There's no one culture in Islam where one people of God

so Hamdulillah, please,

you know, know that, that I certainly I as a Muslim?

Does that mean I, you know, I have no love and respect for Christians? No, of course I do. Including people that I prayed with, worked with, shared life with. And for me, I wish that they would

see the beauty of what I've seen in Islam, see the truth of what I've seen in Islam. And consider that and pray to God for that and seek His guidance and direction. Beautiful, beautiful advice. Thank you, I was honored to, to meet you here for this interview. May God Almighty Allah continue to bless you along this journey.

Thank you, brother. So, you know, my,

my advice is, get this, get this book and,

and

and, you know, imbibe of its wisdom, and its truth, and I know that it's the final revelation of Almighty God. And there's a clarity there that we all need another world hugely needs at this time. Absolutely needs. Absolutely. Humbling that he's local. Hi, thank you, my brother. Thank you. Thank you a pleasure talking to you. I you know, it was a great happiness as a new Muslim to find the deen show. And

and, you know, I look forward to to continuing to watch your show and and to enter supporting it.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Right? When it comes to lamb, a very good friend of mine, brother Eddie from the deen show, who I've known for a number of years from the very beginning when he started I was among his early guests, and mashallah, our brother Eddie has been very active in promoting Dawa, spreading the message of Islam and he has now taken everything to the next level. Eddie has now after a number of years on the deen show taken the Dawa efforts to the next level, which is that of establishing a Dawa center for the USA. He is about to launch it in its fullness, but it has already started in Florida and he needs your support. This is an effort which began

already some months back and they need your support for spreading the message of Islam in the USA. So my brothers and sisters reach out to support him. We need your support. Now.

And if you are I cannot leave without giving you a gift if you're not yet Muslim and you're tuning in to see what the Muslims are talking about. And you'd like a free copy of the Quran. Go and visit the deen show.com We'll take care of the postage and everything and get it delivered to you and if you still have some questions about Islam call us at 1-800-662-4752 We'll see you next time until then Peace be with you are Salaam Alaikum