A great story about why a young 20 year old man chose to leave the religion of his family and gave up partying and chasing his desires to enter Islam.
Why Young 20 year old Isa entered Islam
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss their struggles with their parents' names and their desire to change their life. They also talk about their journey as a Christian and their interest in learning about other faiths. The importance of researching the Koran and personal growth is emphasized, along with the need to learn from theiriter and pursue prayer.
AI: Summary ©
Miller hamdulillah Peace be with you. Welcome to another episode of the deen show and my next guests coming out at the young age of 20. accepted this Deen is beautiful way of life, as practiced by over 1.5 billion people all across the globe. And he started to ponder and think and started asking those serious questions purpose of life. Have you ever wondered? Have you asked those questions? Where do I come from? Where am I going when I die?
We're replete with everything else. Money, cars, jewelry, bling, bling. But at the age of 20, this young man started to think about purpose. And now he accepted the deen and he's on the deen show. All the way from Serbia. He was born in Serbia. Raised in Hungary actually in Toronto. You know what? We're just gonna wait bring him out. He's gonna tell us the rest. So we got an exciting show with our next guest Aesop. Greg here on the dean show.
Back here on a D show with Esau. How are you my brother? I'm good. How are you? Alhamdulillah praise for the credit have is an herb before I was starting, I was starting off and I was gonna, like, you know, go into your whole biography. But let me just not mess it up. Okay, let's bring you on. And you can kind of go ahead and talk to us a little bit about yourself. I mentioned in an opening that you were born in Serbia, is that right? That's in Europe, former Yugoslavia. Yeah. Hungarian background. Yeah. Live, have lived almost your whole life in Canada. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Tell us talk to us about this. Okay. So, um, I was born in Serbia. And I was a year old when my parents
moved here to Canada. And so I've lived pretty much my entire life in Toronto, Canada, I visited back home quite a few times. And on my recent trip, back home, I got a chance to travel a little bit more throughout the region, you know, to such places as Bosnia, which was really nice. And you've been to Bosnia. Yeah. I've been to Bosnia. And that was my last trip in Europe, that I went on with my family. And it was just after I had accepted Islam. Now. So your parents did come from a Catholic background? Christian background? Yep. So I was baptized, confirmed, and also also had my first communion as well as as a Catholic. Yeah. Now, you know, the whole
purpose of the show is really promoting purpose of life for people to really think and ponder as well as those serious questions. Yeah, where'd I come from? We just popped up in this world, right is a moment in time we didn't exist, then we're in the room. And now we're in this world. And now, and pretty soon we'll be in the tomb. So really, to get people to reflect about the importance of you know, knowing your purpose in life, living your purpose in life. And you started to ask these these important questions. You started to ponder and think at a young age at around 1920 Yeah, 20. What stimulated that 20 years old? Well, I must say it was it was through meeting a very nice
brother. And it was through him that I actually got introduced to Islam. And from that point on, I definitely started to research and study, read the translation of the Koran, and also go to different monasteries in Toronto. I went to I had the honor of going to the first journey of faith conference, where I was delighted to to run into you. And I had been watching some of your shows. This was right at the beginning of when I actually was looking into Islam and I had actually accepted Islam without
without fully researching it, because I just simply knew through the person who
told me about Islam that Islam
is Islam was that was that was the truth. I was I was I was totally, I would say convinced. So we'll explain that again. Someone says okay, so you accepted it because someone had provided you with the evidences, the proofs, you were convinced from everything, they told you what they tell you. Well see, it was more I would say more through his his actions that I was convinced. I saw that he had very strong faith. I thought, you know, I just saw sign him a lot of sincerity, a lot of genuine care for other people. And he's somebody that, you know, has helped a lot of people and I was I was done
fortunate enough to have met him. When when at a point in my life, I was ready to change. Now someone says, look, Mother Teresa helped a lot of people, she fed a lot of poor, you know what I mean? So it could have been just the other way around. You could have met some some other person who was a Hindu, who was helping a lot of good people helping a lot of people good character. You know, what if somebody came at you and said, you know, look, you want me to really think about purpose of life. And you know, what's so special about this Dean this way? You know, besides that, what else was it that? I mean, I definitely had my I had doubts at the beginning, I would definitely say, I
had my doubts, you know, those questions come up that is Islam the truth? Is this really the way? You know, so I could definitely say the best. They say the best cure for ignorance is knowledge. So I would definitely say that's exactly what I did. I was doing my research, I was talking to people, I was talking to imams in Toronto as I was meeting brothers, you know, Congress, Islam, hearing their stories. That's actually what really helped me a lot at the beginning, was listening to other people's stories, how and why they came to Islam. And that really just, you know, solidified, solidified it for me, you know, all the research I did all the people I talked to, and, you know,
after I did that research, that's when I was I was fully convinced, and about
five or six months, after is when I fully started practicing as my first Ramadan. I started praying, I the chance to go to a Middle Eastern country, Dubai for three weeks, with some very nice brothers. And that experience I definitely would say, changed my life completely. Now, there's somebody out there, I'm sure they just can't get past the beard. So someone's thinking, like, Look, this guy like, you know, he's what, what is? Why is he going to beard now? What's with the beard? Tell us? Well, I mean, quite honestly, I had a problem with your family or somebody. You know, that just was it gives you a hard time because my mom gives me a little bit of a hard time like groundless as
well. So why why are you growing a beard? Why don't you shave it off? And quite honestly, um, you know, I'm not growing it for my mom, my grandmother's other people, you know I'm doing is simply to to follow that which the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, told us, his, his followers to do. So that's, you know, simply the reason why, why I'm doing it. Now. Your name, okay. Your name was Greg. Okay. Now, technically, you don't have to change your name. No, right. Okay. Why did you choose to change your name to Isa? Well, it's quite an interesting story.
I had I met that Albanian brother who had introduced me to Islam, because formerly I didn't really have much exposure to Islam and Muslims. You know, I grew up in an area where it's mostly Catholics and also a fairly big Jewish community. So those are the, you know, people that I grew up with in, in Toronto. And so after I had met him,
he, he was saving my name. Well, he he forgot my name. And he happened to save my, my name in his phone as Isa. And the next time that I met with him, he told me so that he had saved my name is Isa and I just said you know what, that's that's very nice name is the name of Jesus peace be upon him. So I just from that point on, decided that I like that name. And it's, you know, stuck with me since so that's actually the name of that mighty messenger that no Muslim is a Muslim as he believes in Jesus peace be upon him. Isn't that's what your name is named after. Jesus. Yeah, absolutely. Jesus had a beard. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Moses had a beard. Yeah. Abraham. Abraham had a beard. Yeah.
All these mighty messengers had a beard. And not only the last the final Mr Pawan, but all of them. So yeah, it's amazing that you know, Muslims, who are praying like Jesus, who are greeting each other with peace, like Jesus who are refraining from, you know, keeping the commandments like Jesus did. Yeah, we're continuing that tradition that being that way of life. Exactly. So at what point now, you're a young man. Yeah. And you're thinking you're contemplating? Did you start asking yourself, okay, you know, those important questions? What's the purpose of life? You know, why am I here? Where am I going when I die? Did you start contemplating that way around? What time was that
in your life? Absolutely. I would say what, when I was 21. I'm one of the main first questions that this brother, whose name is Abdul Rahman, actually told me, I started he asked me, he says, What do you think were to happen to if you were to just simply die, you know, die like that. Just living a life of just always having fun going out, you know, having a girlfriend and just being heedless of, you know, what our purpose here in life is, and what's what's actually going to happen to us once we die. And I remember just putting my head down and seeing and thinking to myself that I didn't want to die. I didn't want to die like that. I didn't want to die where I was. I wasn't living
Life that, you know, I was I was happy with. And, you know, I definitely want it to change.
And, you know, that's that's the one question that really, really made me think. And definitely my journey began from there to to research and find out what happens to us once we die. And you know that we ought to, we ought to die.
in a state where we're, we're in a state of peace, where we're happy with ourselves, we're happy with the type of life that we're living. We're gonna we're gonna take a break, and we'll come back with more continue on with your story and your experiences here in the deen show. We'll be right back. I started asking deeper questions. The question I want people to really ask themselves
is, when you come back from a night on the town, you've been drinking, you've been boozing, you've been dancing. You've been hanging out with girls, guys, whatever. Number one.
Did you improve yourself as a human being?
Number two, did you contribute anything to the betterment of humanity?
The amazing thing is, is that the most advanced studies in psychology about human happiness, show
that these are the two key factors in making people profoundly happy. I take five minutes out of my day, and prayed to the Creator, and none of the creations and I feel deep internal peace. And I still have my normal life.
Back here on the D show with Greg Isa, and you are asked by a Muslim Yeah. Okay. You are asked like, and at that point of your life, you're not living a good organic, wholesome life, obviously. Right. Right. So now he's asking you, you know, what happened? What would happen if you died right now? And then you what happened from there?
Well, I would definitely say,
you know, after that point, I, the brothers were very, very kind of very nice. They gave me an English translation of the Noble Quran, they brought me for Juma, they brought me to the masjid. And from from that point on, I just really started to look into what Islam was. Because at that point, I didn't really know much about Islam. And that's when I started to really research, read the English translation of the Quran, again, meet with other people who are more knowledgeable, ask them questions. And at the same time, you know, look into other faiths as well, because Islam doesn't, you know, encourage us to be stay ignorant, encourage us to learn to understand, to, you know, feel
free to look into other faiths. It's not like Islam is the only faith that exists. And we're, we shouldn't look into any other other faiths. So I definitely took the time then, which I didn't before to look into Christianity, see what Christianity was all about what it taught, you know, things about the Bible, what the Bible is teaching. And I definitely, you know, looked into other other religions at the same time, which I hadn't done previously. So it actually encouraged me to learn, understand about Judaism more about Christianity more and about other faiths as well. And at the same time, I was learning about what, what Islam teaches about, for example, Jesus. And I had no
idea before I became Muslim, that Muslims believed in Jesus as a prophet and a messenger. And they believe in the miracles of Jesus, that he was born miraculously without without a father, and that he performed miracles. These were all things that were definitely new to me. And looking back on that, and knowing now because I still have all these see a lot of family members and old friends that still don't have have, you know, still don't know things about Islam, such as the fact that we believe we believe in Isa as a prophet and a messenger of God. It's It's really amazing that, you know, so many people are still in a situation where they don't have peace in life, right? Because
they're not living purpose. So you see, many of you know, human beings who are emulating someone. We want to emulate despoil, ask you about the beard. Yeah, you know, we want to emulate the best of people absolutely imitate the prophets of God, because they were the ones who are teaching us how to get close to God. So do you feel like now, you know, with full conviction that if anyone investigates this, Dean, yeah, using the faculties that the Creator has given us, your brain, your reasoning, you know, and all everything that God has given you that you'll come that person will come to know that this is definitely away from the crater, no doubt about it. Absolutely.
Absolutely. And and I look at it in the way also is that people go to university and spend four years of their lives, they pay for their education. They will
up in the morning, they study for their exams, and all simply for diploma so that they could get a better job. I would just encourage everybody to spend even a lit not maybe not that much time, maybe not four years of their time, but at least put forward somewhat of an effort, somewhat of an effort into researching about the Koran. But what the Quran says about the prophets, look into what Christianity says as well. You know, I compare the two and I believe anybody that's sincere, has has has a sincere intention, and is truly looking for the truth that, that they will find it. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, I'm just the more you know, I look into it, the more I investigate it, the more
I'm convinced about it, because it really stimulates the mind. It's not something where we're blindly following. It's based on his truth based on proof or evidence, right. So you know, and you see, like, you know, you follow if you follow some of the news, some of the, you know, things that are going on, I was just reading like, recently, I don't know, you had Randy Travis. He's like a big time country singer. Okay. I want to just bring this up because a lot of people they emulate the superstars, the celebrities that if you see their lives upside down, yeah, he was just caught, you know, driving drunk, combated with the police. They found them naked, you know. So this is a country
superstar, right? And you have people like Miley Miley Cyrus, or he's like a big hit in Canada over there. Drake, Drake, AC throttle. Oh, he was just in a fight with the Chris guy. What's his name? Chris Brown, Chris Brown, and nightclub. And he's busted up. Did you read about that? No, I'm not really following this. Yeah, you don't you just sometimes you read the Yahoo News. And you see all this, you know, all this drama that's out there. And obviously, you see that these celebrities who aren't most of them in Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew? Yeah, you heard about that. And their lives are upside down. Now. They'd have substance abuse, you know, many of them are suicidal, they're on
crack on meth on all sorts of coke and all sorts of dope, right? And their life's upside down because they don't have purpose. They have money, but they don't have purpose. Right? Do you run into some of your old friends and family people who still aren't, you know, live in purpose live in you know, how the creator wants him to, to live and how your experience has been? Now with the the Have you had some hostility also, from people from back home from hungaria, or family members now that you've accepted as Wade Dean's way of life? I would say at the beginning, I did have some hostility when it came to my sister and my dad, not so much. My mom, my mom's definitely been very
supportive of me throughout last four, four and a half years. But I do see with my old friend, my old friends are there a few years older than me, and, and I know, I know for a fact that they're getting sick and tired of that lifestyle of always going out always, you know, chasing girls, and doing you know, they know that lifestyle has nothing good to offer at the end. It's it's something that that people imagine in their minds. That is fun. It's exciting. And and it's only when they follow through with it that they realize that it has had there's no substance when you live that that type of lifestyle. And you know, we were mentoring mentioned Drake before. And interestingly
enough, I found out recently through a friend that he actually has a copy of the Quran in his apartment in Toronto. He does Yeah, this is to a friend. Yeah. My God Almighty. creator, guide them May Allah guide him. Yeah, definitely. So tell us now you have you have you as a new Muslim? You know, now how how you said your mom supportive? Yeah. How about your father and your sister to giving you a hard time and have been able to share and tell us for for I know, we all make mistakes. And sometimes, you know, we look back and say, Man, I wish I could have did some things different, right. So for some of the new Muslims, people have accepted his way of life right now. They can
learn from your experiences, some of the do's and don'ts, some things that you would encourage them to do not to do. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I would say at the beginning, because my sister and my father were a little bit hostile. You know, I, I was a little bit impatient, I was a little bit impatient, and got upset at certain things that they did certain things that they said, and looking back on it truly now. I mean, you know, I just wish that I could have done a little bit more when it came to still keeping those communication. I still keeping with those communications when it comes to Islam, with my father with with my sister. I mean, unfortunately now because there
was a bit of hostility. I just kind of had the attitude is, you know what, I'd rather not even talk about it with them. But that's definitely not the right approach. I mean, you know, we should always as everyone knows, we should always keep good relationships with our families, with our fathers, with our sisters, with our with our mothers, and talk to them about Islam. Try to find creative ways
of bringing it up, or finding other people that could talk to them about Islam. And we should always stay steadfast in trying to give down to our family members. And, you know, and just simply, simply do our do our best and, and do our part because that's all we could do is in the nicest way, convey the message to them, and pray for them that a lot, puts, puts, puts that puts him and puts faith into their heart. We're going to take a break, we'll be right back with more of our brother Esau, here on the deen show, you think these things are gonna bring you happiness? You know why you keep going back to the club, and you keep going back to these desires.
Because you never find satisfaction.
That's gonna end up causing you if it hasn't already a lot of pain.
Think you're happy? You're kidding yourself, is really
what we are offering in Islam. What we have found in Islam for ourselves is a means by which our hearts are at peace. They're at rest. They're not discontent, we are pleased with what we have.
Back here in a dish show, and we're talking with our brother Isa, talking Tell us about your experiences how you came to this beautiful way of life. What what was what was it at the end? Okay, you said that you met this, this brother and his character? Yeah, really, you know, had a profound impact on you. And you just, you know, he invited you to Islam and you accepted Islam. Yeah, I mean, for the most part, a lot of people they study Islam fully, but I think, you know, why, why take a year or two years? Why wait years? Why wait? You know, once, you know, once you, you know, you shouldn't really think about what what's gonna be the consequences of me accepting Islam. See, I
never thought of those things. I just simply, you know, I had a lot of trust in this brother, because I just saw from his sincerity, you know, his, his character, and like, how strong his faith was, and the things that he was telling me. Like, he was truly trying to help me get out of the struggles that I was going through in my life. And, and I just knew that what what he believed in was truly the way I just I just, I just truly knew at that point, and I didn't think of the consequences of Oh, what's my, what are my friends gonna think? You know, what's gonna happen? What are other people going to think? Because I truly believe a lot of people are actually asleep to
those types of those things. They're always worried about, okay, you know, how they look? What what are they? What are friends thing? What, what are people out working to say? What, what are what are other people going to think of me, and when you're always trying to impress, when you're always trying to impress your other people, you're actually not being yourself, you know, you're just, you know, you're just always, you know, a simply a slave to that, you know, is our other people around you gonna accept you? Definitely, you see a lot of people procrastinating. And I've had this experience talking to a lot of people and then they know, it's like, you know, they know that this
is the truth, but because of the surrounding fact, right, friends, you know, what other people gonna say? It's like, they
put it away, put it away, put it to the side, and they just keep on with life. Yeah, so you know, this is good advice. Don't procrastinate. Yeah, exactly. Yes. The truth be upon the truth. Exactly. Yeah, I agree. So tell us more now you've gotten also to what what were besides your family? What were also some some challenging because life is a test, obviously, we're going to be tested. So what were some of the other challenges being a new Muslim? And these challenges that you had, and you overcame? And how did you overcome them? Right? I'll probably say the, the biggest challenge was, I decided I completely want to change. So I left off that lifestyle of drinking and going out and
just, you know, being around friends that I knew were gonna negatively influence me, so I totally left off those friends. And, you know, at the beginning, it was hard because there was a lot of times, it became fairly lonely. I didn't I didn't know anybody. I hadn't grown up around Muslims. I didn't know any, you know, I didn't have any friends. I would say that. And that was probably the biggest difficulty at the beginning. But 100 All Praise be to Allah, that Allah replaces those old friends with much, much greater friends that I'm definitely blessed to
Have today. And what I could simply say is for the new Muslims at the beginning, it's gonna be, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a little bit tough, it's gonna be a little bit tough. And,
you know, it definitely gives you a time to build that relationship with Allah. When, when you're in those times of loneliness, and you know what I could say to Muslims, if you see a new Muslim or somebody that you've never seen before at the masjid, go up to him, you know, ask him how he's doing, what his name is, you know, how long he's been Muslim, you know, invite him out with, you know, some brothers, and just show that genuine hospitality that that true Muslims that true Muslims have. And that was probably my biggest challenge. And that's what I try to do. Today, if I know someone just became Muslim, I'll get his contact information, I'll say, Hey, I'll come pick you up,
or bring you for Juma for Friday prayers, you know, I'll introduce you to some, like brothers in the masjid. And, you know, simply take him out. And, you know, just try to show him a bit of hot, any bit of hospitality that I can. Now before we cut out and show's almost over, you know, obviously, we can understand, you know, a lot of times, you know, people look at this Dean this way of life as the other. So now you become a Muslim, and let's say your parents, they think that maybe look, he's become a terrorist or something, obviously, Islam has nothing to do with that. Right. So, you know, but now when they get to know what we believe, and they see that Islam is actually beautiful, is
calling a person at peace with their creator with themselves and the rest of their humanity become a better son, and become a better and more honest human being, and you're more moral in your life, and you have more compassion and love and good character. Now, you know, for those people, you know, your father, and whoever else is out there from your family, you know, that maybe might get to watch this show, you know, and they were a little bit reluctant to have you explained because they were so on the defensive, you know, and other people out in the world who might be from Hungary watching it, or from Serbia, or whoever, and they just have no idea about Islam. What is it now? So what is it
about Islam that really, you know, changed your life? And what are some of the beliefs? What do you believe now? Do you believe in some, you know, Martian from outer space? Or, you know, what, what do you believe now? What is it about Islam? And what do you believe?
Well, I would say, I would say Islam has really given purpose, purpose to my life. And, and Islam is not a way of life that's boring by any means. You know, Islam is such such a beautiful way of life, that there's always something new and interesting to do. No, we have our five daily prayers, we have a Friday prayers. On Friday, we're where we go to the masjid, we hear a nice lecture, we spent some times with brothers afterwards we just had Ramadan that just unfortunately passed us and this past Ramadan was one of the one of the greatest Ramadan for sure, the greatest Ramadan ever had. And it was so nice on E to give all the brothers you know, big, nice hugs, like after eat. And inshallah
I'll be also going to going for Hydra as well. And I mean, you know, there's definitely nothing, you know, that you should be bored with, there's always something to do. You know, there's always something new to learn, new to new to do. And at the same time, we should also be calling people to Islam. You know, that's that that's very important. And but obviously, before that, we have to know what Islam is. We have to seek that knowledge, we have to go to the right sources. We have to learn from our scholars, from our imams at our Masjid, and truly understand what Islam is, implement into, implemented into our lives. And, and then also call, of course, call other people to it. And Islam
is very simple. It is it is the only pure monotheistic faith
on the earth, there's no there's no other faith that is, as that is pure, monotheistic, we simply believe that there's only one God worthy of worship, and that we should follow His commands. And we should follow the examples of all the prophets and messengers that God has sent us. We we live according to the books that he has revealed to his messengers, and the last and final book that he has revealed to all of mankind. So till the Day of Judgment, is of course the Quran. And we should try to really read it and internalize it and
and just just simply live according to the Quran, to the best best of our ability. And a part of following the Quran is of course, following the sooner which is the way of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and we should study about we should look at his biography. You know how he treated his
His enemies, how he treated his friends, his wives, his children, and we should truly, you know, we should truly always look at the best of creation, and the best of examples, which were the prophets and messengers of God, Almighty. And we should do our best at all times to just live according to their way, the way of life that they live, and try to really establish that establish that relationship with our Creator. And,
you know, and really put an emphasis on establishing the prayer. That is, that is very important. We need to at the beginning discipline ourselves. And it's funny, I heard something recently that, you know, somebody I was listening to said, you know, they would always tell their mother, you know, oh, I have to pray in the mom would say, Why do you have to pray? And then and then from I have to pray, it became to, I need to pray. I want to pray. And at the beginning, it does have its challenges establishing the prayer, but it definitely is very important and after our belief in one God, and after a belief in the last, the final messenger of God, we definitely need to put a lot of emphasis
on a prayer, prayer prayer. Yes, definitely. We can't go wrong worshipping only God praying to one God, doing good being good. Thank you very much for being with us on a D show. So is a pleasure to talk to people like yourself and get to share your experiences with the viewers of the deen show. May God Almighty the creator rewards you for being with us. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you again for sitting through another episode of the deen show another human being story, another person's story on how they came to this beautiful Deen and how they're living purpose, living according to God's will, not their desires. And that's what life is all about. You got one
shot to get it right. And at the end, we die. And then we die and then it's either paradise or to hellfire. So we're gonna follow those individuals who are not bringing us closer to the Creator, Bad Company, bad friends that are just bringing out the worst in you. You smoking dope drinking, not Kool Aid. But jack and coke. And you Snoop and dope, and you're lying, deceiving, cheating, and you're not living a good wholesome life. You're not happy. You're gambling. Your whole life away. Not only are you gambling, but you gathering a whole life away and you're not living your purpose and you're not happy. You're not contented you'll never be content until you live according to God's
gameplan. And you got one shot to get it right. One life. If you're watching this episode, and you'd like what our guests had to say, really contemplate and think as the creator asked him alone to guide you. Only God and if you can understand that, and you like that only praying to God, not having to go into confession box 10 Hail Marys praying to a man to a woman to a stick to a stone to a bone. No, you only pray to God. He's the only one that could forgive you. No one in creation, but to the one who created creation, the one created tour, you pray to him and ask him right now you could have done the worst of things. But right now it's your chance as the creator to guide you as
the creator. Because if you ask then you shall receive but if you keep going and live your life A heedless Life Life of debauchery. Just find your lesson desires, what's going to happen to them when you die? Just like our guest when he was asked that question what if you died right now death came upon you. It's over is done. Don't let it come to that. Ask the creator right now to guide you. Repent for your sins, and start living a good wholesome organic life. And you can call us at any time one 800 662 is snam Don't forget to pick up the new dinya to Dean and visit us here every week on the dean show. We'll see you next time God wanted until then, peace be unto you.
Bismillah Alhamdulillah Salaam Alaikum greetings of peace to everybody. How are you? You come to get some food for the soul. You've been replete with everything else, but it's not satisfying the soul Money can't buy that happiness. It won't bring you peace. Not even a six pack a piece. You can buy it