Yusuf Estes Tells His Story
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salaam Alaikum peace be unto you. Welcome to the deen show, which is a way of life we try to put out there for everyone to see helping you understand Islam and Muslims. And we have one of those Muslims on the deen show today, special guests. A good friend of mine good brother. I'm gonna let him talk about himself. We're gonna bring him on. He's gonna introduce himself, we got a real great show for you
is His Messenger.
You should ask us setup Aleykum. Brother. Thank you so much for joining us today on today's show. I'm thankful to allow the editor to have this program and that you took the time to come here to be a part of the conference. And for those of you who didn't know, we're actually right now in Connecticut, Hartford for the Snowmass conference. And while we're here, there are people who are learning about Islam, I just came from one of these symposiums. And they were talking over there about what is the belief of the Muslims, the origin of Islam and scriptures and where they come from. And this was for the majority of the audience there. Maybe you observed they weren't Muslim?
Yeah, many of them were Christians, even they had priests there. They had ministers from other sects of Christianity and so on. And it was really interesting, you know, to dialogue with them, especially afterwards, you know, it was really great. Yeah, today, that's what we want to know a little bit about for those because we try to reach out to everyone across the world, helping them understand his beautiful way of life, which is practiced by over 1.5 billion human beings all around the world, which is for everybody. Now, you being a former Christian preacher, correct? Can you tell us just a little bit because we don't have too much time? A little bit how you came to Islam, how
you came to know about this beautiful way of life? We start off with this? Well, yeah, actually, what happened, Eddie was that some years ago, I was preaching Christianity. And at the same time, my father was ordained minister, but we spent a lot of our time in business ordained minister, what does that mean? Well, this means that someone has studied and gotten their ordination is up in the ranks? Well, actually, I wouldn't even say that I just means that somebody's giving you a piece of paper saying officially, you have the right to be a minister knows the Bible. Well, should okay. And he can minister can officiate it, funerals at weddings, things like this. So anyway, what we were
doing in those days was to present Christianity in a very straightforward manner. And for the average person, we had a place that was for crafts and things like this, people could come in exhibit, there were their artistic things. And then we would come from a Christian point of view with it. So it was a consignment shop, and many people came there. And one day we met a Muslim man from Egypt, and we were interested in doing business with him. Over a period of time, I decided, you know that I would try to convert him to Christianity. He was a Muslim from Egypt is that what is it when you say, convert someone? What are you trying to get them to convert to when you say
Christianity is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Exactly. That's what it is. That's that's the idea we had at least, and that we would like for him to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, He died for your sins, he's on the cross, things like this. And what I came to know, though, was that Muslims already believe a lot of the tenants of Judaism and Christianity, but they don't accept the points that we just mentioned. For instance, Muslims do believe there's only one God, one God, he created all the heavens and earth in six days, and that he is the one that you give all your worship to, and there's no Gods beside him. These are things mentioned in the Bible as well. And
then there are Muslims though they accept Jesus as a miracle birth and the Jews don't. Yes, the Muslims also accept Jesus is doing miracles and prophet sighing and talking about things in the last days. And clearly, Muslims agree that he is the Christ Christ is from Christos, which is Conan Greek. And it's a translation of the word mercy, which is from the Hebrew and also Arabic And it means the Anointed One, or Messiah is chosen by God. Yes, in this case, it will be chosen by God but what they used to do when there was a king, for the Jews, they used to anoint his head with an anointing oil or olive oil. Yeah. And so this is why the word and see he is applicable because to do
this is to miss. So when you wipe anything like you make Miss on your socks as a Muslim you will do so this wiping action is called messy that
So he was called the Messiah. And that's where it comes from. I didn't even know that, okay, at that time, I'm just saying, you know, Jesus is the Christ, and I had no clue what it even meant. So
the other thing is that the Muslims accept that Jesus is the logos. Now that's another of the cone a Greek words, means that he is the word of God, literally the Word of God. Well, they believe it because in the Quran, it says that he is the kalama. To law kalama means word, he is the spoken word. And God says Be and it is, however, in the Quran, Allah said, is no harder for him to make Jesus than it was to make Adam in the first place. Because Adam had no mother or father, no mother or father, and then Eve, she had no mother. And if he will just want to say that well, because he has no father, you're gonna pray to him? What about Adam? What about he we don't pray to them? he
does, he would deserve that bigger right thing, if that's your only criterion. So that right away made me start thinking a lot. He's telling you these things. Oh, yeah. Over a period of time. You know, I picked up on some of this than that. I kept thinking, hmm, there's a lot of logic in what he says. The one thing I was afraid of was to put on because the friends that I had I had some other preacher friends, and they were telling me watch out for that Quran, whatever you do, don't let them recite that array or don't read it, stay away from it. They claim it was a book that the devil, so when he presented me with a Quran, I said, just lay it up on the counter, and I'll get to it later,
it was somewhat of a fear of, you know, big john. Yeah. And jack, I decided one day, I'm going to look at him or what I'll do is I'm going to seek refuge with God before I even open it. So I said, Oh, God, you know, I see great what you would do from any evil, and then I opened it and start to read it. Well, what a Muslim say anytime they read the Quran, oh, the Billahi min ash shaytaan regime, right, seeking refuge seek refuge with God, from any evil. Yes, the, and I just did it. So that means that without knowing it, I was saying the right thing. And then I open it up, and I read in there. And it says, very clearly in the first verses that God is the only one to worship, we only
worship him. He's the Almighty, He is the Merciful, the Gracious the Owner of the Day of Judgment. And we turned to him for guidance. And then it says, and it's like this, we seek your guidance, Guide us to the straight path. And I'm thinking, there's nothing wrong with this. This is good. Now, I don't know about the rest of it. But this is the right thing to say. Then I remembered that there's a verse in the Bible that actually says, a prayer from Jesus telling his companions pray like this, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You're saying that to God, God's will be done on earth as it is. And come to find out this is what the word Islam actually means. Do what God
wants you to do on his terms in peace, surrender or submission. As Lama Now the word Islam is the root. And that's what it means. That's the literal translation of Islam what it means as far as as you conduct English or just to recap, submission, surrender sincere obedience, obedience to greater peace, to the Creator of the heavens and earth. So now you're getting these this new information before that, what did you know about Islam? Nothing, nothing. Did you get any information from the media back then or anything? Even then I didn't even know that what I was hearing about was about Muslims. I just heard about people from Iran. They were talking about these Iranians are terrorists
and things like that back in the 70s. They were hijackings of airplanes, things like that. But I never even made the connection between a Muslim and Islam there. I didn't even realize the same thing. But still, there was some stigma attached. Oh, and once I learned about that, I was shocked. I said, Oh, my God, wait a minute, what am I getting myself into here? Because Muslims that I had heard of the black Muslims and the Black Panthers, and I'd heard about the Nation of Islam, just to make a note, Nation of Islam has nothing to do with Islam.
Well,
not really what actually it's a long story, but that started out with some people that came here. Yeah. To this country from India. Yeah. And they were in a sector of Islam called the qadiani, or the Armenians. And then this guy took it a step further by telling people He was God. Yeah. And which is, you know, this is obscene. And, you know, later he recanted, by the way, but they never did tell the people about that. But he said, originally, he was God. And he was calling me Elijah Poole. He said, You are my Prophet, and you're more nationalistic and became Elijah Muhammad. And then he was, yeah, very nationalistic. It was black nationalism, and militant kind of a thing
because Islam brings the white, the Chinese, the yellow everyone together. Doesn't matter what nationality background in actually where this all started, I guess.
sad because in the book that I have at home about the origin of the Nation of Islam, they actually said that if you would kill so many white people, I think for white people, you get to go to heaven automatically. You have this more in detail on your
Your website. Yeah, what's the website? We can if someone wants to go more into your notes of all this work and best way to get anything about what we have is our new websites called search for Islam search for islam.com, right? Yeah, S e a r CH, fo R is Li m.com. And when you go there, just type in any of the words that you're looking for, like any search engine takes a little time to get used to how to use it. But you'll see it'll pull up it goes through all of our websites, this goes through Islam tomorrow, Islam yesterday, Islam, always watch Islam here, Islam chat, Islam, any of the ones that we've got anything out there are new ones called YouTube, Islam, 99, Islam, all your
information, and I go to search for Islam. And this is coming to the source because like I say, you don't go to a car mechanic for brain surgery. So now you're coming to the source to learn about Islam and Muslims and his beautiful way of life. So now you're finding out more true information from a Muslim and things are starting to to make sense. And your your your mind is starting to open and what happens from there. How does it was it? You're here now we know but
you know, that's 16 years ago, but still to me today, I'm still thinking, wow, what happened? And actually what took place was something strange because there was a Catholic priest that I knew. And he was recovering from heart. Apartment had been in the hospital, when he came to stay with us to recuperate. He was listening to this conversation between me and the Muslim. And he took me aside one time and he was saying, you know, actually, as a Catholic priest, we had to study Islam. He said, a lot of what this man is telling you is exactly true. So really, Cydia actually said there's some things in the Vatican that I could tell you that I have seen. I know about some scriptures that
have never been published. Well, since then, I came to know that's called apocrypha, and I have copies of it now. But at that time, I was amazed about all of this. He said, This man is telling you something that is very accurate. And it was actually the Catholic priest who had a big influence on us. Because here's what happened one night, we're sitting there after dinner. And we decide, you know, let's, let's bring our book. So I'm gonna bring my Bible down, and I'm really gonna preach the disk.
So you're ready, you got your Bible, and you're ready to go. Wait, let me tell you what, okay, my dad comes up with his Bible, which is the King James Version. Yeah. But I come out with my version, which is the one I love to read, which is called the Revised Standard Version. Well, here comes my wife now with Jimmy Swaggart, good news for modern man, she's got that one. And then the priest is telling us about the version they have, which is much older, which has 73 books. Ours only has 66 books. And he's telling us, you guys at this time of Martin Luther, when you broke off from the main church, you threw away seven of the books. virgins are out there. What about hundreds? I've heard as
many as seven or 800. But I don't really know that. Yes, there are hundreds of versions of this. And no, one of them is exactly the same. The sources themselves vary. Now if someone says no, no, no, that's a translation it Can you explain to our guests What do we mean, when we say version? Well, the versions actually, many of them are taken from different scrolls, that you might have a scroll over here that says this, but an old scroll over here, this is something else. And it refers to that in some of these books that if you get some of the extra juice of the Bible, and it explains it's called Tafseer, in Arabic, and it explains that there's an old manuscript that actually didn't have
these verses, and there's a real real old one that did have such and such. So you become at a loss to know which one is the most accurate. So a lot of them like to go with the oldest manuscripts assuming that the newer manuscripts are a corruption of the older ones. Gotcha. But there is no original of the whole Bible anywhere, no written in the old manuscripts not so it's a it's a translation of a translation of a translation of its translations of different manuscript or different menus of different time periods. So in this time period, let's say there's a particular manuscript that exists, but an older manuscript partially exists. And it's not exactly like this
one. One of the oldest that is most similar as the book of Habakkuk have occurred, which they found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, is very similar to one of the older manuscripts they have and have a cup. But this is not an average layman. She is trying to get this can get confusing now. Right, but you have this and I don't think God meant to confuse us, did he?
Well, there is a passage in the Bible ad that says that the devil is the author of confusion was the author of what it says. So if you want more detailed information about this, you also have this on your website, share islam.com search for Islam calm. We have Sherry slasher Islam calm so you can go into details of this also. Now you're at the table. You're
father got one version of the Bible. You know, the Catholic preacher has one version, your father has one version, your wife has one and you got one version, you got like four, none are more alike. None are more like what happens next? We basically had got an argument with each other. What's he doing? What's the Muslim lady sitting there smiling? So finally, you know, we just said, Okay, let's give up on this. And I turned to him in almost defensively and I said, Well, how many versions of your co round do you have? He said, Well, actually, there aren't any. There's just one. It's in Arabic. It still exists exactly as it was. Yes. I'm like, yeah, you just said that, you know, what
else could I say? But I came to know now that actually exactly what Mohammed a piece of your bunny heard. he conveyed to his companions, they heard and they conveyed to their companions. And this went on for generations upon generations, in 1400 years, you would assume that there's no way that that would still be extended the same way you wouldn't believe that. But it's not logical. And it is, in fact, a miracle. Because if you go to Malaysia, or if you go to Saudi Arabia, if you go to Egypt, if you go to Turkey, if you go to UK, or United States even go to Texas, you're still going to hear the exact same recitation, there's no difference when they recite it for verification of the
crime as it was revealed 1400 years ago. Two more points about this. Every single Muslim alive knows some part of it in the Arabic language. Every Muslim alive knows some of the Quran in original language Exactly. Even if all they know is Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Alhamdulillah bill Rabbil aalameen you know Surah Fatiha they still know it exactly as it came from the Quran it is this been memorized by millions all over the world, correct? Wait, I wouldn't even do that. I'm saying no. Every Muslim that's 2 billion people are agreeing totally. Whatever they know. They always agree. This is no difference. Yeah. Okay. Originally your ancestry from Bosnia? Yes. And the Quran in
Bosnia is no different than the Quran in Iran. The search is no different than the one in India no difference in the one and well, you're not gonna sit at a table now and have a discussion is one of these his own version from the Crimea is one Quran? Not only that, if you did, people would say you must be stupid, you don't know. Let's go to what you said. You talked about people memorizing the whole Quran. Nobody on Earth has memorized the entire Bible in the original land you met? Have you met somebody? I put actually put a challenge out there because I did a show Oh, that's not fair. It's easy to do that nobody know. Because, first of all, where would they even know which one of the
manuscripts that would go to? And how would they know how to even pronounce it? These are dead languages. So there's no one out there that has memorized the whole entire Bible. They used to Okay, let me be real clear about this so that nobody gets the wrong idea. We're not trying to attack Christianity or Judaism just educate education only because they used to have the same as us. The Quran with them was not called Quran, but it was the same thing. The angel gabriel Gabriel comes to Moses and recites to him on he had written it down and he brought it down from Mount Sinai, yes. And what he brought with him was essentially the same thing. And those people memorize that. And they
used to have all these commandments and things memorized, and they used to pass it on generation upon generation. At the time of the Babylonian exile, when all of the children of Israel were taken off in capture, they lost the Ark of the Covenant and all the scripture in it. And so but it was during that time in Babylon, that another prophet came to them, his name was there. And in the Bible today is called Ezra, Ezra. Yes, Ezra, but uzair actually is the one who went back and took the time to give them the real message again, and Allah inspired him, and he came out with something. These are the originals that we as Muslims believe in, but today we don't have the original.
You don't have the original except that we do have it in a way we still have an in the Quran because in the Quran, Allah tells us what he revealed to them. Yes. If you want to know what did the Jewish really have revealed? Just read the Quran, it tells you, what did Christians really have? What did David and Solomon What did they really have? Because if you go to it, you're gonna see it's in the Quran. Here's what it said. It's not that much different. Really. What you find is more clarification. Let me give you an example. Just one example of many, many, many. The story of Jonah, this is in the Bible, there's a whole book called Jonah. Now Jonah is in a whale. And he is there
because of the same events mentioned in Quran you find in the Bible. He was with his people giving them a message. He left them he went out in the water, the big storm came up, they threw him overboard in the whale swallowed him up to here, we're 100% agreement. Now he's down in the ocean at the bottom of this ocean for days and nights. Now it says, like three days nights in the Bible, so many days and nights. We have an ad, who cares? It's there his night while he's there. What's important is what he says because they don't have that anymore. But in the Quran, you have it so you want to know what it used to say. There. It is.
He said the ilaha illa, anti Superman comic con $2 million mean, and it means that there is none worthy to worship except you, Allah and the glory, the Majesty is for you alone. And barely the wrongdoing, I did it to myself, which is a very good psychological
benefit to the Creator of the heavens Earth. Yeah, you're admitting that essentially, look, I'm the one who did wrong. Yes, I'm the one that messed up. And I need to repent to you a law. I'm sorry, forgive me. And immediately that's when a lot of causes the will to take them and spit him out on the dry land. Tell us now we're at let's go back to the story of you coming to a song. So you're at this table with the version. Next we get that we dropped it the next night. Let's go to another night you dropped that dropped like a hot potato. Let's go to something else. And he's asking us what what do you guys believe? He said, we believe God is one. I said, Well, sure we do do it's in
the Bible. There's only one God, it's in Deuteronomy. It's in the Old Testament. It's in the New Testament. They asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment, he said, is to know Oh, Israel, to know oh Israel, that the Lord your God is One Lord. So the commandment is to know something, you have to know that your Lord is one, one, and then it goes on. And you have to worship him or love Him with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength. He says, Then I give you a commandment like unto it, that you love your brothers yourself. This whole quote, including the part about loving your brother is the same as you find in the Old Testament, he didn't give any new
commandments. And by the way, he says this and another part of the Bible in the New Testament, in Matthew, He says something like this, don't think that I came to destroy the law of Moses, and the and the testament, he didn't come to destroy the testament of the prophets. And I'm giving you different translations here. But in in the King James, it says, Think not that I came to destroy the law and the prophets, I came not to destroy it, destroy, but rather to fulfill. And he's saying that if anybody adds to or takes away from the law, that they're going to be in the least in the kingdom. But if anybody keeps the law, and follows it and teaches this, that he'll be the highest in the
kingdom. So right away, we see that, okay, he's sticking to the law. So who is somebody to come up later and say, you don't have to circumcise, you can eat pork, now you can get drunk, you can do so. And so and all of this kind of teaching is not from Jesus. It's from Paul. And this is easier sell goes, Oh, Big Easy sell. I mean, you know, get anybody to your religion. Now you do anything you want to do just say, Jesus, I resent okay. In a way. And now the parties Well, yeah, I don't I don't want I don't mean to make light of it. Because that That isn't what Christians are teaching today. That isn't what it's really about, although there will be those who will play with it that way. And
we don't want to take advantage of that. What we're trying to say here, though, is that when he asked you about your God, we said one,
he said, Then can you explain Trinity?
And I said, Okay, sure. Why not? Trinity? Yeah. How do you understand Trinity? I said, it's like an apple. You take the apple, you got a skin on the outside, you get the meat on the inside. And inside of that you got the seeds. You're telling him this now? Yeah. Okay.
And he said, I see. He said now and that is three. I said, Yeah, three things. One.
Is that how many seeds are in there?
Okay, okay. I said, No, no, no, no, no. He said, What if there's a worm in there?
As a guy, so I went to a preacher, friend of mine that this guy hated Islam. He didn't know something about moving. He hated it so much. He said, just stay away from those guys. Don't talk to them. Don't be around them. They are the devils. I said, I just want you to me one. How can I explain to entities that just stay away from them? Well, I'm gonna save this guy. He said, stay away.
So I just want to explain Trinity. He said, Okay, tell him about the egg. I went up. I got it. So I went back and said, okay, like the egg has a shell inside the shell is the white inside the white is the yellow, three things one egg. He said, Okay, so what if it has double yolk? Double yolk, two yellows?
He said, What if it's rotten? Can God be rotten? I said, Man, no, this
is not the analogy I want. I want to give them a good solid analogy. Well, then a young man told me he said, No, no, no. He said, Why don't you just tell him like this? He says, Look, I'm one man. Right? My wife is one lady, right? And my child is one boy, right? 1111 family. I said, that's it. I went back. I told him that this is the family of God See? 111 and given the whole thing he said, Oh, that's fine. But I thought most families have more than one job.
How would you explain it? Can God be four or five?
Can God get a divorce? He said, Here's one for you. One of the members of the family could always die true. scape Can God die.
said whoa, God died on the cross. He said God died on the cross. So who is running things? Well, God's dead
Well, the other God, the Father God said, so there's two gods.
No, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. Now when you turn him, are you because I'm confused already? Yeah. Were you confused yourself? And you tried to? Or did this make sense to you at the time?
I don't think it ever made sense. So what? What do people? I mean, they might have a good intention. But do they just because Was this something that let's go back a little bit were you something this was something that you were born into, and you just now believe that it didn't fit, but you had to make it fit.
When I was a little kid, little boy, because I try to sit here openly with an open mind, try to understand I can't, okay, when I was a little boy, I remember going to church, we had a big beautiful church and my grandfather was the one who laid the cornerstone for it. It was the pillar of the community and our family's always been really big in church, okay, the whole family.
And that huge church with several 1000 members, and we'd have that big organ playing pipe organ. And every single Sunday, they played this one song, which is called Doc's ology. The doxology says, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
That's what it says, praise, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
When I was a kid, I was thinking, father, my father standing right next to me. So I understood father, but I didn't understand about a ghost. I was the Son, myself, and little kid trying to put all that together, and I couldn't get it. later on. They said, No, no, this the Father, the God and the son, the God in the spirit, the God or the ghost is the God. And these three are one.
And when you ask about it, they say it's a matter of faith. If you don't have the faith, then you can't be saved. So you just need to say yes, and let it go at that. So don't try to reason it out. Don't think about history. Yeah, basically. In fact, that is one of the things that they say they say it is a mystery. But God knows best. So just leave it alone. I just want to remind our viewers how simple and logical the pure message of Islam is that there's only one God he's not divided like a pie like an apple, you split it he's one unique alone running the universe. He's nothing like his creation he is but above his creation one, absolutely one pure Li one. This is the simple message of
Islam as go back to here. I just want to remind our guests about this. Actually, what you're saying is true. What happens is that some people will say, Okay,
what about God? Where's God? And they say, Well, he's everywhere. No. And if they say this, that Allah is in the creation, and he's a part of the creation, so everywhere, if they say that don't know what that means is pantheism Yeah, that's the exact opposite of monotheism. Because everything that comes God, everything is God. They'll say, this is God your God, I'm God. And and this is there are religions that have that but but actually, Christianity is not one of those. Christianity does say there's only one God. Clearly they say is the one and even they will say he's above the heavens. They will say that as three though that's how if someone's Okay, we believe in one God also was,
what is the major difference now with them saying was saying one, and then saying one, but now you got three in one? Well, this is what happened that night. Well, we were talking about it. I'm saying this, my wife is saying something else. My dad's talking about the mystery. Actually, my dad said, Look, God is just one and forget about the Trinity. He just said it clear like that. He said, most of my dad, he said, Forget about the train. Forget about the Trinity. He said, You know, we're not trinitarians anyway, but then, if that's against my mother's church, but my dad's church is not that way. So you're going to different churches, also. Oh, we went to a lot of different churches. Okay.
In fact, we even visit the Catholic Church, do you go as a family or you're going you sometimes and sometimes individually? Yeah. Okay, because we want to hear what other people have to say want to be more homogenous, so to speak, and give a chance to understand where people are coming from and also to share a message that we felt that we had, then the Catholic priest said something amazing, he said, Nobody can resolve the Trinity. He said, never in the history of the church, was it ever resolved as something you can define? In fact, it is a mystery. So if someone today wants to try to be smart and trying to define it, if they couldn't define it, then you're not going to try to define
it. Now. It's, you can try all the time with
them all. Oh, they'll come up with a new one tomorrow. Somebody come up with one not too long ago, they were saying, No, God is like water. I said,
God is like water. They said, Yeah, because you know, water can be a vapor, water can be a solid, it can be a liquid, these three things and I said there's no way I don't even go there. Because you're saying that water can be three different things right? But it can't at the same time.
And here are how so you're saying he's the son for a while. Then he becomes the father for
Then he becomes the ghost for a while. That doesn't work at all. That's not three things are one. That's one thing, which is trance, transferring from one shape to another shape or you know, from one state to another state. So that doesn't make any sense. Either. You can compare God to water. Now tell me this, the guy says, You know what, this is what my parents believe, and their parents. And now what you're telling me is, is going against what I was brought up into, let's call it a day and God will decide at the end. How about if someone says this now? Well, he's right about that. And he ended, but he continues, he's right about what he said, though, that in the end, God will be the
final judge. Yeah. And for me, as a Muslim, I have to remember what Allah told us in the Quran to tell him the straight message to warn them, and then get away from them. That is not our job to guide them. Yes. Our purpose I have in the program right now today isn't that we think that we're going to guide anybody God, God's who he was. That's true. And it's not like salesmanship or one upmanship, either. I mean, I love everybody. Um, you're all my brothers and sisters in humanity. Yeah. But if you would like to know the truth, if you want to come to the realization of who is God, what is our purpose in life? Why are we here? What is the whole meaning behind all of this? If this
is your desire, then that's what we want to do want to help is to deliver the clear message
because the media has probably got the people scared today and just like the people were telling you stay away from Islam, stay away from these this Quran, stay away from Muslims. But now you're coming to the source. And you've seen some different from what everybody's property Let me tell you what happened next. I asked the Muslim I said, Well, what do you guys say about God? That's fair. You know? He said, we say what Allah told us the same in the Quran, it says, I will blame in shepherds investment on him. Whoa, whoa, Allahu Ahad Allahu Samad. Then Iliad. Well, lamb you live well and miroku Lovell, Khufu one I had, more or less the meaning here it says, say this is the order for us.
And when am I asked about a law? What's the nature of a law you say? He is a law.
He is the unique, uniquely one, the word I had here is meaning uniquely one no two is going to come after. He is some at some odd means that he is eternally sought after for sustenance. Well, he doesn't need any systems. He's totally independent of his creation. Yes.
He is not letting you live while I'm EULA. He is not the father of anything. And he's not the son of anything. There's no genealogy. God is God and he stays the same. He doesn't change. He's always a constant. In fact, he's the only constant. Then he continues, and he's not like his creation in any way, shape, or form. And then he reminds you He is a HUD uniquely one. So you can't get any more one than I had. I noticed you said something about sun. Tell us what is Islam's view? What does God say about now him having sons or any of these things? Actually, there is a verse in the Quran that said this is a pourraient to a law, that you would say that he has a son, something very bad. It's the
one of the worst things you can do because he says he is free from any of the things of his creation. creation has sons and daughters are human quote, that's a human thing. That's an animal thing. And you're putting God who is the creator Sustainer of the whole universe. on a human level. It's a big No, no, also to say that Jesus is a literal Son of God, or any any we be, we have something that's very nice, we say that he is the object of a law. What they changed it and they said he is the even, he's the, but they said he's the admin. admin is the slave, the servant of the Almighty Master, which is really the way Jesus describes himself even in English translation, or
what remains the manuscripts. It still says that he didn't do anything except by God's permission. God tells him to do something he does it. And he says that he doesn't even know only God knows he's making clear that he does everything on the authority of almighty, even that if someone who knows some of the Bible, and this is what many people here at church, that he's the only begotten son. You heard this before? Well, sure that's in the Bible. That's one of the most famous verses that God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but everybody.
Well, it's got a lot of problems in the statement of So first of all, you don't have the original manuscripts. Second of all, you don't have accurate translations of what it really says in some of the translations today, they vary. They don't really go back to that same way of saying it. And what we find here is that it's saying that
God, a law in the Arabic language in the Arab Bible, there are Arabs who are Christians. It says a lot that a lot of the world's from Arabs disappoint Arabs and Christians who read the Arabic Bible Allah is mentioned in the Bible. Oh, yeah, that's the word they use this everywhere you see God what a capital G
in English
In Arabic Bible, you see a lot a lot. Okay, so this is page one page one of Genesis, the first page of the Bible, Allah is there 17 times, just imagine that.
It's amazing. So we covered. We're going from the story we jumping around a little bit. We talked about this big notional saying that God actually has literal sons, Islam, daughters or daughters. What about someone dying for your sins? Would you believe this fully? Before we jump on to this thing about diversity? The thing about the daughters, the Arabs at that time, they had this thing that they wanted to say that the God had daughters. And he said, and yet they themselves didn't want voters, they used to kill their little daughters when they were born, because they considered it a big
insult. In a way you know that you have a daughter instead of a son. You just take them out in the desert, bury them alive. So as I was saying, Why do you attribute to me daughters, they've seen angels or girls. Yeah, you've driven me daughters, and you don't even want daughters. So the son or daughter either way, because Allah is not male or female. Now as far as somebody dying for your sin, because I want to bring it back to you, being a former preacher, Christian, this is something that you held firmly on that Jesus was the Atonement of your sins. Correct? Exactly what now you got to give this up now. Now, if there's someone else watching, who's also he's holding firm, because we
actually have a brother and who recently took Shahada, and you are on the phone, Chris? And I remember Chris, yeah. And he was kind of he didn't believe Jesus was God. He didn't believe in the Trinity. But like many others, he was holding on to the crucifixion. Because you, you know, here's something to think about. If you really believe there's an X live, and you really believe there's a heaven, you really believe there's a God. You don't want to jeopardize any chance you've got to get there. Yeah, no, it is very clear in the majority of Christianity, not all but the majority, that there's this Trinity thing. And also, the majority of it is saying that you got to believe Jesus
died for your sins, for getting the Trinity part. Leave that alone, just go to this. If you didn't accept Jesus died for your sins, what would happen then on the day of judgment? What if you really were stuck, man, you'd have to go to *, because it wouldn't be any forgiveness. So this is important for Muslims to be sure to convey the proper salvation. What is salvation Islam.
In Islam, we understand that each person is responsible for all of their actions. The events that take place, you don't stage them are lost they just the event, but you're responsible for your action. This is very important, so that I'm making choices and I'm going to be held accountable for my choice. Now, I've made bad choices. I sinned, I did X, Y, or Z, whatever. Now how will I get forgiven? They say God is pure and he can't forgive sins. Well, wait a minute. Allah didn't say that. There's no way this isn't a crime. In fact, he said, Yes, he's pure. And he said, we're not and we make sense, but he is the one who accepts repentance. He is a tough one. He's the the one who
accepts all of the Toba or repentance. And he's the forgiver. of before, and he's the merciful rock man. And he's specifically merciful Al Rahim. He is our dude, the loving he is the loving the forgiver, the Merciful, the beneficence and for sure he's the one who accepts repentance. So if you understand that, all you need to do is go to him and say, Please forgive me. But be sincere. And don't do it anymore. That's true repentance may submit it admitted, made mistake. Second, is that you ask for forgiveness. Yes. And then third, don't do it anymore. What if you mess up again? You mess up a few times. You just keep going and you keep going back? You try to be more sincere.
Obviously, you weren't too sincere, because you screwed up again. Here you are. There's not a limit. I messed up three times and I can't go for the four. Is there something in the Quran though, that says that if a person disbelieves after believing, and then they come back, and then they want to disbelieve again, then Allah saying how many keep taking them back? But I'm talking about just regular sense. Lions and disbelief are not the same, not the same. They're not. So what's the what's the what doesn't He forgive though? There's only one thing he said in the Quran. Forgive disbelief. What does this mean? meaning to associate partners with him or to deny that He exists? I can
understand. For our viewers that's real simple that he doesn't that's like an atheist, someone who doesn't believe that God exists credits true. What do you mean associate partners? Can you give us analogy about this? I guess the best way to explain it is the Arabic word itself shirt. Shirt means to take on partners. If somebody has a partnership in business. That is that's an appropriate word. Anytime you have any kind of agreement or partnership with somebody and you You and I are agreeing on some business together or whatever. This is
is a form of shirt directing worship to something other than God going through saints economy that a person says I believe in God. But I also believe in this or that is a way to get to God, or something that's with God, or there's something alongside of God, even a one who says the devil is bad, he's evil. And God is good, and he's pure. And God has power. But the devil also has power. If he says this, there's also a shirt, because he's saying the devil has power. There's no power, except the power of a law. So a law created the devil, even created evil, because he's putting us in a test. This is a test for us. This is a test. That's the whole purpose of it, to test us, who will
come to the correct belief, and who will do the deeds of righteousness, good deeds, and at the end, the reward is what? paradise paradise. So even if you have sins is high as a mountain, or as deep as the ocean, a lot can forgive it as long as you don't associate partners, a lot of sense. But God, Almighty God says, walking, forgive anything except shirk, that's kind of like for the layman. If you have a business and someone's giving your earnings to someone else, you should be giving it to you that well, I don't know if I'm going to compare a lot to a businessman. But I will tell you this, that if you if anybody starts to attribute starts to attribute, things that come to us, as
coming from a source other than a law. This is a big mistake. Yeah. Anything comes your way you say handler, thank you a lot for what came to me. Even when bad things happen to us, we say handler, thank you overall. And the evil I say is from myself, but it I'm still not going to say the devil is the one responsible for this or that. Because we don't share blame me though. I take full blame for what I do. I Salah Forgive me. And the same way that the priest told us he said that, you know, when people come to me, and they want to be forgiven, he's talking about priests, priests. And you know, maybe you know this, they have a deal setup where the person comes to them in a little room, there's
a little box, box confession box, and they sit down and there's a little slide that he raises up and, and he says
to the blushing My child, how long has it been since your last confession? He says so many days. And he said, Father, I have sinned. He says, What sins have you committed? and blah, blah, blah, and they go through this little routine and he tells all the sins that this priest, yeah, then the priest tells him what he needs to do to make his penance for he has to do so many what they call laps around the beads, they have these little beads that they say hail Mary full of grace, he has to donate some money or do some charitable act or you know, give something so all of that the preschoolers would in Islam. He said they don't have that everything. And he's right. It everything
in Islam. I just, I just asked God, you know what I made mistake? Will you forgive? I'll direct? Exactly. That's a direct connect few more questions. And we'll cut out tell us, you start to finally leave the crucifixion, the sonship of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus, and you finally accept Islam. What happens? Next thing happened? The priest asked the Muslim if he could go to the mosque with him and see what it looks like. When he came back. We took him aside. We said What did they do? They slaughter animals and knew What's going on? He said, No, no, no. The people came, they stood they prayed and they laughed. I said, Oh, he said, It's very nice. It's very peaceful. No, I said, Well,
what did they say? He said, Well, actually, they didn't really say anything. Their leader just was saying something like a low white bar and stuff like that. And which means was I mean, God is great. God is the greatest. Well, then the next thing and we know the preschool is back again. And they stayed there all day. And when he came back that night, he was wearing a white outfit like this head on little white cap. And I asked him, did you become a Muslim? And one of the requirements you have to do that? No, I don't have to worry. There's a there. But yeah, I like I said, I bear witness. There's only one God, none other to worship.
And a bear witness that Muhammad says last messenger. That's quite simple. I was shocked. I said, How could it be that a Catholic priest has now become a Muslim? That's all you have to do is say that he said that and he becomes a Muslim. But then what happens?
in the church, they basically are kicking him out. Yeah, they're saying he's got to go to *. Now he's excommunicated. excommunicate needs to cut off the communication between you and a lot. Yeah. So that's what they said they did to him. Now, for me, that was a pretty big shock. And then the next thing I'm telling my wife about this, and she said, You know what, I want a divorce. And I said, whoo, what's that all about? She said, Well, you know, you guys are talking about religion and everything in that and what's going on here and she says, a Muslim can't be married to a Christian. I said, Hold on, hold everything. I didn't say I want to be able to say that. I said, I didn't. I do
not want to be a Muslim.
Don't worry about I said, but even though you remember he said that a Christian man can't be married to a Muslim woman. But a Muslim man could be very deficient. So if I did it, okay, it'd be alright. Yeah. She said, that is what I'm talking about. She said, I want to be a Muslim. Therefore, I can't be married you anymore. Oh, your wife is wanting to be I didn't see that coming. By the way. I was not ready for that. So you had a Catholic priest became Muslim. Now your wife. And then I said, Okay, let me go get this guy. I went and got him. And we started talking. And we were walking all night long. And we talked and funny got to a point. He said, Look, it's not between me and you
anymore. It's not between you and your dad. It's not between you and your wife. This is really between you and your Lord. You need to go talk to him. I'm like, what kind of salesmanship is this? You know. And so what he did was the best thing he could have done, he let me go, and I just start talking to the Lord. And I put my head down on the ground, the same direction where I'd seen this Muslim praying every day, you know, I put my head down on the ground, when my head on it, you humbled yourself very much. Because I want to be humble in front of the Lord. And I said, Oh, Lord, Oh, God, if you're there, guide me. And then I come to find out that's the right words that anybody
should say if they want to get into STEM because you can't get in without guidance. Yes, the guidance has to come from Allah. And hamdulillah he guided me very beautifully and hamdulillah I've been you know, Muslim ever since it by the way, I will tell you, it's not easy. When you get into Islam don't think it's going to solve all your problems. What advice do you have? What do you guys do you have a lot of brothers, and people who have entered into Islam? What advice do you have for a lot of the new Muslims that went through the you know, a lot of the things that you're going through? Well, the first thing I would tell anybody, if you're thinking about Islam, you do it for a
law, you don't do it for the people don't do it. So you can get married to a Muslim, don't do it. So you can do business with a Muslim and don't do it thinking that's going to help your worldly matters, because a lot of promises you in the Quran very clearly, that do they think they're going to be left alone on saying we believe in that they won't be put into a big test. For sure. We tested the people before them to show who are the truthful and who are the liars. So you're going to be putting this test. And it is going to be for everybody who comes into Islam. It's not just a joke. And everybody came into Islam, I saw them go through a lot of stuff, a lot of things, I'm sure
you've had your share of a stroke is a big test. But this is one of the things that makes you know it's real. You realize it's very real, because if it wasn't okay, then everything lovely, blah, blah, blah, and you're, but we're not looking for paradise on earth. This is not where it's at the real paradise, that's in the next pass the test. And it's quite simple. Can you tell our viewers as to what to worship god alone, and to do good deeds to adhere to what he's told us to do, however, is the first thing I would always say is that you have to clear your heart. Okay, clear your heart out, get get it clean, and clear your mind out and get rid of everything you've ever heard about anything
and start slow. And ask yourself, do I really believe there's God? And is he really one? And do I really want to have a good relationship with him? And is he the boss? Or am I going to tell him what to do? Because if you get this right in your head, then you're more Muslim than some of the people born into Islam. And you don't have to know the Arabic You don't have to know these words. A person on a desert island could easily be a Muslim and not even know it simply because he recognizes only one God, everything I've got coming from him and I say thank you to him. I don't know what else to do. I've done all I can do. But as things come to you and you learn them that yes, this is
necessary. circumcision, it's mentioned in Islam is something you should do if you can, or the end, that's for men only, by the way, the thing about not eating pork, you shouldn't eat pork, it's a sin if you eat it, unless there's nothing else to eat, then you can and then you should dress appropriately covering your body men and women, both these things that are come stage after stage, you don't do that. In the beginning, the first thing is clean the heart and acknowledge there really is God. And then as he reveals to you what he wants, you must take when you know this is really from God. You take that and run with it. That makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. A couple more points. Tell
us for those that think Islam is originally terror or violence. What do you have to say?
Watching too much TV watching too much TV? Yeah, really, because I as I've already explained, Islam is the submission and surrender and peace to Almighty God. So how can you twist this around and say that this is talking about terrorism or hurting other innocent people? It's very clear in the Quran, whoever it takes even one innocent life is like he killed all of humanity. Whoever saves the life, it's as though he saved all of humanity. There's no way to misconstrue this to say that Islam is a religion of terror. However, there are people who are doing things and saying this is Islam. And some of them aren't even Muslims. Some of the people are doing this and then they say, well, Muslims
did this thing and some of them are Muslim.
by name, but they're certainly not Muslim by action or that you're not acting accordingly to Islam. And maybe, you know, maybe they're very confused, messed up people doing XYZ, whatever. But that doesn't give anybody the license to say that this is from Islam. This is from crazy people or this is what mixed up people, or it's from people that are, you know, they're back to the wall, and they're just reacting men saying that it's Islam. But for sure, Islam is very clear about the subject. And the treatment of other people is right next to godliness. That's a big teaching in Islam, how you treat the people you will be asked about it on the Day of Judgment. Listen to this
prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said that God's going to ask you on a day of judgment, he's gonna ask you, listen,
I was hungry, and you didn't feed me and they say, your God, you don't need any food. I was thirsty and you didn't give me a drink.
I'm gonna give a drink to God. I needed clothing you didn't call me doesn't work. Well, what are you talking about? I need to shelter and you didn't shelter me. And he said, I don't get it. And then a lot reveals to you something that as you treat it, the least of the human beings, this is the way you treated me. Now, this is a teaching in the New Testament. Exactly the same in Islam. So how are you going to say that it's okay to oppress that it's okay to put down other people that it's okay to act aggressively. That it's okay to commit boom, oppression to people and Islam is so against it.
And these are opposites that Islam doesn't teach you know, it's a religion. Listen it at I condemns it doesn't condone it, it condemns it in terms of if
yes, oppression. A couple more points for someone who's not really into the Bible, not really into religion, but he feels like, you know, he's doing good. And he feels like, you know what, I'm gonna make up my own way, and give it to God as a subtable.
Stop and think, well, I don't want to organize religion. Okay, you get exactly what you just said is, I want to make up my own religion. Well, in that case, you must be God. Oh.
Because in order for God to accept it from you, that means you had to do what he wanted you to do. So it's up to him to tell you what your way is. Yeah. And he said it in the Quran real clear. What mommy and daddy viral Islam Edina follow you below man who will who will fill out 30 men will have serene that if anybody wants a way of religion other than the one I'm revealing here, then it's not going to be acceptable. And in the Hereafter, they're going to be with the losers. So don't think you can make up your own religion. He already has one the religion is clear, to worship him without partners and obey His prophet
to Allah wa t. o Russell, which means to obey Allah and obey His message, who's the last and final messenger to mankind, each nation had their messenger Allah said that he never punished any nation, except he sent a prophet to them first. Many of the prophets will never even heard of more than 124,000 prophets profits have come. And most of them we never even knew their names. But the last and the final messenger was stolen humanity. And all the jinn name is no more or less. None. That's it, oh, it says in the Quran, that Mohammed is not the father of any of your men. But here's the seal, the Hutton of all of the unviable all of the profits. So once you understand that it's not an
option anymore, to say, Well, I still like to believe in Jesus, we believe in Jesus. But we also know that when Jesus comes back, he's going to say, I'm not coming with any new religion. This is all on the religion of Muhammad, peace be upon him benefits. couple more questions when we're out benefits of becoming a Muslim of entering into Islam. What are the benefits? People want to know? What do I get here in this life and in the Hereafter? Immediately when a person accepts Islam and says that they're witnesses and under worship, except Allah and Mohammed says, messenger, as soon as they do that, all of their sins, their previous sins are immediately forgiven on the spot right off
the slave and replaced with an equal amount of good deeds. So this person has mountains of good deeds, no sin,
Virgin notions, like they just came out of their mother. But they get to keep all of their good deeds Plus, they get to give their brain and you know, right from wrong, you got your experiences to work with. So you're way ahead of the game. And if anybody what used to be a Christian and then came into Islam, they get double reward because the messenger Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said that when a Christian comes to Islam, he gets a double reward. Because you believed in my brother Jesus as a prophet, it means brother as a prophet. And now you believe in me? Yeah. So these are a few of the things Another thing is that immediately anything they ask for is taken from God
directly. So they can just start immediately asking and asking and asking. And by the way, if you're thinking about accepting Islam, as soon as you
The first thing to ask for as the law to make it easy for you and keep you guided, and not to let you go astray, because this is very important. Just because you get into Islam doesn't mean you're going to stay. Now this is a gift. So you get a peace of mind peace, that many people who are rich, they don't have peace. They don't have contentment, which Islam gives no, you get this contentment is peace. How about in the next life? What do you get? Well, in the next life, a person who has sincerely accepted this message and acted on it, they will be forgiven of any sins. And they will enter into the paradise and they will be rewarded according to their deeds and to their their
belief. And this is a very good thing. This is a place where everything is unbelievably beautiful. And it's, it's mentioned in the Arabic language, double, it's mentioned double. And that was those two rivers, there's two gardens, there's two mansions everywhere, everything is at least double or more or more the real life in real life, and you'll never die, never done. And he's everything feels good. Now, that's where the believer for the disbeliever he has a hard time because everything's horrible. But he's still exist, but he's living a horrible life. Amazingly enough, Islam teaches that even people in * can get out. Even people in * can get out, except those who refuse and
they said, Who's the ones who refused. Those who continue to make partners with the law in worship, even though they knew better the message came to them as it's coming to you right now. If you can deliver, if you listen to this message, and you accept it, you're in good shape. They want to accept another sitting at home, and we caught them at 230 in the morning, and the person is soul searching and you know what everything makes sense. I want to be a Muslim, how do they be Muslim? How they become a Muslim? First thing to do is I already mentioned is to just say what you believe, say I believe there's only one God, I believe there's only one God, and I need to do what he wants me to
do, I need to do what he wants me to do. And that means I accept Mohammed, as as mentioned, Muhammad is His last in front, because I won't know what he wants me to do. Unless I know what Mohammed said about it. Yeah, that's basically what you're saying, I want to do what God wants me to do. I believe that God is what I want to do what it wants me to do some of that. If a person is
limited in their thinking, their mental capacity is really weak. If they can still say God is one God, like this is sufficient to consider that person as a believer. Yes, that's sufficient. They don't, you don't have to have a huge mental capacity. You don't have to have this long dialogue that we just had. Yeah, you believe there's a God you want to do what he wants you to do. That is between you and him. It is it's not up to me. It's quite simple. I just keep asking him to guide you. And I hope it works. We're gonna we're gonna close out give us some final comments, advice for the viewers anything. For the Muslims, I would like to remind you that you cannot guide anybody, Allah is the
only guide, I told you that in the Koran you don't guide who you love, but allow guides whomever He wills to his straight path. And for those of you who are thinking about Islam, don't do it for anybody except the law. And realize that when you do it, you better hold on tight, because testing will come to you. But it will be something that you'll be able to withstand provided you're really sincere. And he says he will never ever put you in more than you can bear. He doesn't put people into a test more than they can handle. And for those of you that are still skeptical and you want to know more, I will encourage you and very highly to visit our websites, go to our website, sharice
lamb or search for Islam. These are dot coms, you can check out some of the other websites that we have. And just keep asking God to guide you. If you believe there's a God just keep asking him to guide you. And if there's any guidance, it'll come from him. Until next time, by the way, I'm on the deen show with my good friend Eddie. Thank you man. I'm thankful for this great opportunity and thank you for being with us and with you guys. We can we give you a big Salam Alaikum Salaam Alaikum peace be unto you