stayed active in the church long after
my confirmation right up until I went to
college why did you decide to walk away
it didn't make sense to me and growing
up we prayed this is a miracle of itself
just right there by itself alone a
fungus that grows on the roots of trees
what they discovered many years ago
actually now was that this fungus and
the network it creates between trees I
went up to the altar
in front of the cross
and I remember
breaking down in tears
essentially asking and for the 360
joints in your body right at one breath
assalamualaikum brothers and sisters
we're here in Irving Texas y'all and I'm
with a Texan I believe he is and he also
has a wonderful story from a music
producer went on a faith journey of
eight years was in the United Methodist
Church his mother was in the church and
his whole
journey is very very captivating
interesting least to say and then he
became what we're going to be talking
about today and Imam how do you do all
this when we come back and hear this
wonderful story with this wonderful
brother don't go anywhere
[Applause]
alive
and his final Messengers Muhammad peace
be upon him this is our religion Islam
Islam this is the beach
when I was ready to talk about it I
would only talk to you guys and I was
explaining how much respect I have for
the faith of Islam
um
nice to finally make this happen we've
had this in the works for a long time
yeah for sure alhamdulillah now we
finally got to put it together so before
we get to asking the million dollar
question how you ended up becoming an
Imam actually right and for those people
can you explain to the people who are
new to the term what is an Imam okay so
an Imam is a term that's used to signify
the religious leader of a Muslim
congregation linguistically it literally
means someone who stands out front and
if you've ever witnessed a Muslim prayer
and if you haven't we welcome you to
come down to any mosque in your
neighborhood to do just that but a
Muslim Imam the religious leader when
the prayer is taking place the formal
prayer the man stands in front of the
congregation lined up in rows behind him
to lead them in that prayer hence the
term Imam one who stands out front used
to mean a religious leader of the Muslim
Community
[Music]
Law Firm
yeah all right guys so we signed
everything here
next up you gotta get the keys
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
Muslims around here it's it's pretty
huge and uh like this the place the
location that you opened in basically is
far further south from the other other
big massages and everyone I know a lot
of people that I used to I come my
cousin lives nine minutes from here
another Uncle of mine lives about five
to ten minutes from here this area
opened up in an area that it's much
needed and this size yeah I mean this
the center this Center is much needed
for this area and the idea of this
Center needed for the whole stick
because we don't have anything like that
in the whole state that was censor where
it's going to basically nurture and
basically educate and it's gonna
basically spread Islam
so tell me now your journey wasn't
always one of a Muslim background father
mother or Muslim ones who and just for
people hearing that term Muslim someone
who submits his or her will to the
Creator happens on earth now tell me
your mother worked in the church did
your father also work in a church so you
grew up in the church if your mother
worked in a church right very much tell
us about those early Beginnings so as as
my dear brother was saying that I grew
up in the United Methodist Church and
not just as someone who identified as a
United Methodist but as he alluded to my
mother for most of my life worked for
the United Methodist Church the State
offices so we frequently on days off
from school she was a single mother for
most of our life our father and mother
got divorced very early on so we would
go with her to the office because she
had no babysitting so we would spend our
time in the offices of the church we
would be interacting with church
employees and pastors and different
people like that all the time time and I
still remember fondly many times when
she would come home from work in the
State offices of the United Methodist
Church she would sometimes get into
arguments with my grandmother because we
lived with her for a Time who was
Lutheran and grew up Lutheran my mother
grew up Lutheran but converted if you
will the United Methodist when she
married my father and she would come
home barely be there long enough to have
dinner or do anything and we'd walk
around the block to the to the church
behind our house which was United
Methodist Church that we attended and we
would spend a large portion of the night
at the church after that that was an
ongoing theme in our life and I remained
as Eddie and I were talking about
in Christianity in the United Methodist
Church in most Protestant churches
there's a process called confirmation
which is essentially graduating from
Sunday school most of the time when
someone graduates from Sunday school you
don't see them again until they're
married or having children
um I on the other hand stayed active in
the church long after my confirmation
right up until I went to college and
then once I returned from college I was
at the church again on a regular basis
at that point I was far on into my faith
journey and it was more out of habit by
that time than it was anything else but
before that was the way I led my life so
for most people who are ignorant when
they hear these terms
the methodists Presbyterian
Evangelical and all the other different
names that goes alongside Under the
Umbrella of Christianity correct what's
the difference particularly with this
denomination this
particular United Methodist they they
actually at the time I first uh was part
of the church they were just methodists
but there was a change in the
organization of the church they became
United methodists they had joined with
other bodies from within the church
itself ironically that same body that
currently is known as the United
Methodist churches going through a
fracture at this time where you are
having the United Methodist Church and a
growing group of congregational
methodists who is breaking away from the
United Methodist Church the core issue
being the growing shall we say openness
of the United Methodist Church they
Pride themselves as on throwing the
doors open to anyone and everyone
wherever they are in terms of their life
journey in terms of their identification
Etc they're very open and they've been
growing in that for many many years so
in the current trends they are one of
the more shall we say open uh permissive
might not be the right word but
non-judgmental churches that are out
there and so the congregationalists are
starting to break away because they're
looking for more of the quote-unquote
traditional values of the older church
so as a Methodist
priest to be a Methodist priest you can
be any
you know there's certain guidelines and
certain like in Islam you know there's a
certain guideline to being an Imam you
know and are those guidelines now pretty
much just vague are they pretty much
very flexible and it's like you know
anybody can be a a priest or a pastor a
pastor is a title right for the
Methodist right anybody
to to my knowledge I don't know that
much about the the process but they do
have an expectation of a certain level
of Education experience and things like
that frequently they'll have for lack of
a better term like an internship yeah
with a community or something like that
but they do have a higher expectation in
terms of uh education and experience and
things like that Etc now strictly
speaking of course in the Islamic
communities there's not a requirement so
to speak of a formal education a
community say in a small town or
somewhere far flung they would pick the
Iman from amongst themselves and it
would be the one they see as the the
most righteous and the most qualified to
lead so and this is an important
distinction sometimes we need to
understand in Islam the leader of a
community isn't always necessarily going
to be the most knowledgeable religiously
or the one who knows the most Quran
although that is one of the criteria
that we use to try and select
the leader of a community is chosen for
their ability to fulfill the needs of
the community
so sometimes someone someone with maybe
a deficient
lack of deficiency and knowledge
compared to someone else may be chosen
to lead because they have greater skills
and Acumen in terms of leadership or in
terms of conflict resolution or things
like that Etc and if you've ever been in
larger communities conflict resolution
leadership things like that are vitally
vitally important let me ask
specifically before we go on with more
of your journey so we're trying to
understand because the reason I'm asking
is because we see a lot of Christians
getting fed up with people bending the
rules and making things up as you go so
we know in Islam just to be a contract
for out of God's wisdom you know God's
love you know he has certain ordained
certain things and they cannot be you
know transgressed like for instance you
can't unless you're in a state that
you're going to die drink alcohol for
instance or pork for instance right A
man is now because now man is better
than women or anything right but the man
is one who leads the prayer right for
example right and you can't have someone
who a man marries not a man a man
marries woman right so now if you have
someone like opposing this and that
person is the Imam do you see this a lot
of people are we're seeing this in many
churches happening is this happening the
Methodist churches also
because they said they're open right
they are open I I don't know with with
absolute certainty but I know that
there's been Trends towards openly gay
priests and pastors there's been you
know they they definitely are more than
willing to authorize and sanctify a
union of uh the same sex male and male
female and female they they've opened
their doors to that and I don't know
their arguments or their explanations of
the of the verses in the Bible that
speak against that very clearly but they
they have opened themselves to that and
again that's something that some
segments of the church are starting to
rebel against and wanting to separate
themselves so as to maintain some of
those older values it's an ongoing
battle throughout many churches as I'm
sure Eddie has spoken about before
um churches in general around the
country are suffering from a dwindling
population a graying population the
youth are abandoning religion and mass
and the churches themselves even the
even the congregants of the older
Generations are leaving the church
progressively more and more and more
they're becoming dead institutions and
they're closing down or as I've had
experience with some of the pastors and
and the preachers in this area in Irving
Texas alone they're having to combine
congregations you'll find Methodist
Church actually one of the Methodist
pastors near here that I've had contact
with many times he shared with me that
he had I believe it was three different
church services in his space they were
sharing space it was the only way they
could maintain they couldn't by
themselves his very great
some dwindling population especially
after the pandemic of course the
pandemic ravaged every Community saved
the Muslims the Muslims now have
rebounded with a fierceness but he
couldn't support the building that they
had historically used he had to start
bringing in other congregations that
were renting out the space and using it
for their services so two and three
services not like our church our centers
where we're having two and three
services because it's so crowded we need
to have multiple services in their case
they don't have enough people even for
one service they're renting it out for
other people to have their services in
order to be able to maintain and then
you're building and then combining it
with other churches coming together that
can have probably conflicting views
absolutely right absolutely oh wow so a
lot of compromise is happening there
absolutely wow so and that's um this is
something amazing I mean this is just
for someone to really think and reflect
where do you have I was thinking about
this going to fudger prayer at the
Valley Ranch Masjid that's about what 10
minutes from here 15 minutes from here
in 15 minutes yeah and you've been there
obviously right oh yeah okay so we're
going into prayer and I'm seeing all
these cars and I'm seeing it's full it's
like almost like Juma in some unless
it's moss and I was thinking like wow
this is so amazing Warehouse do you see
this that before the sun has risen you
have this many people coming to worship
God Almighty Allah where do you see this
it's truly amazing and when you contrast
it with people who are absolutely I mean
it's hard for people to understand
frequently when we have visitors here
for open houses or mentoring people or
talking to them about the religion
because of their interest and their
curiosity we'll do tours of the building
we'll show them the prayer Hall and the
rest of the building and when we talk to
them about the prayer Hall they get to
see it I talk about some of the
architectural stamp uh features and what
they were used for historically and what
they're used for now versus everything
else and then I talked to them about the
room and how when we pray and that for
the late the later prayers Margaret
Denisha the the sunset prayer and the
last prayer of the night we have on
average on average in the middle of the
week will have 500 people 500 let me be
more accurate 500 men
I can't even begin to speak to how many
women may be here so we're talking over
500 people coming to pray in in the
evening time in the middle of the week
and that's unheard of even in Dallas
that's a that's that's an anonymous
slight anomaly that you get that large
of a congregation that's one of the the
blessings of this community is that we
have such a huge
uh Congregation of mussolin of those who
are praying that are coming on a regular
basis and so even during jumas we have
approximately 3 000 people every jummah
that come through here you know at a
minimum and then for eids of course we
aren't even going to speak about the
eats and I'm going to talk about that
huh yeah so before we even get to where
you're here we're kind of dabbling into
it a little bit but for someone to think
like well I got to look into this
because Islam is powerful you know you
know what I mean to have you now come
into it this way and so many other
continues to be the fastest growing way
of life you went on your journey you
explored
and before you made your decision what
are some of the other things so you
ended up being a part of the church you
had your What's called the confirmation
why did you why did you decide to walk
away
I started having questions in my teenage
years as many children do in their
teenage years many converts
um if they don't actually convert in
their teenage years their Journey
oftentimes begins in those years because
this is an age where children's minds
are developing in such a way that
they're questioning
basically everything especially their
parents and so I was beginning a faith
Journey at that time having uh not so
much doubts but just questions and and
confusions or or Curiosities about my
faith and about how the faith uh felt
about certain things notably the one
thing that I can remember being able to
verbalize was the question of when we're
talking about others
who they behave as we behave in other
words they don't drink they don't commit
fornication they don't worship idols
things like that all things that as a
Christian we looked at as as righteous
we'd saw as something from the
Commandments themselves
but they just don't call themselves
Christian
what do we think about them how do we
feel about them and I I started asking
questions about this I started with my
mother because of you know the the
respect I had for her because the role I
knew she had in in the church and things
like that Etc and she wasn't unable to
answer my question and I started to
explore other denominations of
protestant Christianity
um besides a brief stint with the
Pentecostal Church one of the Holy
Roller holy spirit filled churches
um I never really found any answers and
I started to explore elsewhere as Eddie
and I had talked about earlier
um I didn't explore taoism and
Confucianism which strictly speaking
aren't religions in and of themselves
they're more philosophies from the Far
East
when I was looking into them I even
looked in the Native American
spirituality for a Time the Lakota in
particular which was the common tribe in
the in the Midwest and
um didn't find what I was looking for
and and people sometimes question how is
it that you you reject what you're being
told as not being the right answer and I
tried to explain it to them I tell them
I said if you've ever put together a
puzzle
you have part of the puzzle assembled
and there's gaps in the puzzle itself
you may not know
exactly what the piece you're looking
for looks like but you have an idea you
have a rough conception of the shape of
it of some of the colors and so when you
see it you know
this was like the piece I was looking
for in my spiritual journey I didn't
know what the answer was
I couldn't verbalize the exactness of
what it was I was searching for but I
knew I would recognize it when I found
it and So eventually I did
but it took me six years before I
started through the doorway of that path
to start to explore it and that path
that doorway was a slum and the answer
came in the words of Allah himself
in Surah al-baqarah the second chapter
of the Quran the 62nd eye where Allah
says about those who have believed in
those who are Jews and those who are
Christians and those who are sabians all
who believe in Allah on the last day
and work righteous Deeds no fear shall
be upon them nor shall they grieve
and at that moment it was like a
lightning bolt I had found my answer
the answer was there and not just that
when you talk about Sciences of the
Quran when the law repeats something in
the Quran it's a way of emphasizing the
lesson and the knowledge that he's
sharing with you and that same phrase is
repeated at least once or twice more in
the Quran so that was a very valuable
and important lesson that Allah was
teaching and it resonated with me on a
level that could it was just unheard of
from that moment on it was never a
question of whether or not I was going
to be Muslim is merely a question of
when
because that goes back to what you were
saying earlier you know when we were
talking off camera how you're looking
for that question what about other
people you know a lot of people say what
about the guy he never heard about Islam
he's in the jungle somewhere you know
he's here he's there he's everywhere but
if the person's truly worshiping God
Almighty alone he's just calling upon
the Creator that's the monotheism that's
what Islam is built on a pure monotheism
right right so if someone didn't heard
about heard about Islam he's not
worshiping a stick Stone a bone you know
and he he's not worshiping a dog a cat a
messenger he's worshiping God Almighty
alone right and he's uh committed to
that and when you look at a lot of these
different cultures and you go back and
you look and you dig into their uh
whatever remnants of whatever you know
they're you'll find the roots you'll
find those roots in monotheism right
pure monotheism right absolutely yeah so
that's that's true truly amazing um and
there's uh there's another individual I
walked into your office here can you
hand me the the book here
so this is a phenomenon because this is
another person I spent some some good
time with uh he was a good friend of
mine also I've had him on a show we've
done many many episodes together he was
uh had a doctorate a master's I believe
in church Divinity uh he was a
theologian he was in the uh the church
he was preaching teaching Dr Gerald
Dirks you met him also right I've met Mr
Dirks my brother mayor live Mercy on
here I mean I mean and mail a bus his
wife she's also Deborah Dirk's sister if
you're there watching who who's also
written a book on the Journey of many
many women in their conversion process
telling their story so
um it didn't end with our brother Dirks
his wife has continued the the Journey
of sharing the knowledge and the wisdom
and the experiences of those that are
going through this journey and she has a
wonderful book that contains the stories
of many women's experiences of Discovery
in Islam and The Liberation they found
in that Journey yeah and this is not you
know these are not dumb people these are
wise people who are looking for the
purpose of life why they've been created
why they're here they go into
exploration like you did a fake journey
of eight years and and I never want any
of our Christian friends neighbors think
like oh they're picking on us or this
because when we talk about Trinity or we
talk about because that's where you
started and those are the questions that
people have just like someone you're in
a university and the the teachers adding
up two plus two is five and then you're
questioning that just like you probably
in what were your questions about
Trinity about the crucifixion of Jesus
these are this is the this is the
Bedrock of Christianity just like
someone can go and challenge the the
pure monolithy of the toheed what we
call it of Islam they can challenge
these things in the preservation of the
Quran and we're more than happy to
discuss if a person's sincere that
humble they want to know so what was
your experience with this
the relationship of Jesus him dying for
your sins him being one and three in
Trinity how did you battle and Tackle
like this honestly it was never a battle
for me
um there's one one instance I remember
from my from my later years when I was
still a practicing Christian
for those who aren't familiar during
Easter in the in the Christian calendar
um at least the United Methodist Church
and my understanding as many churches
have similar Services they have this
service on the day that they believe
that Jesus died
the day of his crucifixion and they'll
have this very solemn ceremony in the
church where there's a there's a pre you
know there's a sermon and things and
then they'll shut out the lights and all
that's left in the sanctuary are candles
and the candles are lit and you're
allowed to stay there after everything
finishes as long as you choose
and all they have is one light at least
this was in the church that I attended
one light on the cross in front of the
in front of the congregation and you
would sit there and you would reflect
you would whatever and this one year
in the midst of my faith journey I was
there
and I was
the last person to leave the sanctuary
because I was there and I knew the other
person the last person to leave before
me
was a woman a friend of my mother's who
I knew and we'd spend much time with who
was there for a long time and I knew
part of the reason was because one of
her loved ones had died recently so she
was in a very emotional state she stayed
for quite a long time I stayed as well
after she had left I went up to the
altar
in front of the cross
and I remember
breaking down in tears
essentially asking and I think I even
verbalized it this way why
I didn't understand the why this needed
to happen it didn't make sense to me and
growing up we prayed you couldn't tell
me otherwise you couldn't convince me
that prayer didn't work but anytime I
prayed
I always prayed to God I never prayed to
Jesus and many Christians when you hear
them pray they say you know Lord Jesus
or may the Lord Jesus Etc you know you
provide for us Etc they have this this
it's clear associationism in the way
they verbalize the things that they say
but I never remember praying to Jesus I
always prayed to God the god that Jesus
prayed to exactly and there's plenty of
evidences and there's plenty of examples
in Jesus's own words in the New
Testament to show that how he prayed was
the same
so there's a whole other conversation
that could happen around that Etc but so
you couldn't convince me otherwise but I
was having this moment if there was ever
a faith crisis for me in my journey that
was probably the moment
where I my mind and my heart at that
point could no longer even
fathom or even accept the the idea let
alone the reality that this per this man
had died for my sins and had and that
this was a necessary thing and that this
was a Godly thing that this was
something that you know the Lord of
hosts was was going to do it didn't make
sense to me on a deeply spiritual
personal level
and so I completely just broke down in
tears and just could not accept and
comprehend and understand and that
inevitably only propelled my journey
forward
because
I had I had whatever vestiges of
attachment to that theology to that what
I had been taught in Sunday school and
confirmed in graduated in
broke every last tie that may have been
there and now I was free
to roam unhindered and ask the questions
that my heart had nurtured all that time
and searched for the answers that
alhamdulillah eventually they led me to
a law or led me to his book and they led
me to his Dean subhanallah there's so
many evidences that people use the
scientific miracles in the Quran the
prophecies the authenticity of the Quran
is Preservation what were some of the
key things finally that did it that had
you take your shahada that first step
that initiation that you declared as
nothing worthy worship except God
Almighty Allah and from Muhammad just
like Abraham Moses Jesus and all the
preceding messenger he was the final
messenger sent for all of mankind as a
mercy to the world right what finally
did it for you well the Ayah I'd shared
earlier was really kind of the Catalyst
that was that was Catalyst that was that
was that was the one like I had said
after reading that Aya the the 62nd eye
how long after that did you did you take
your shower it was probably at least six
months because I don't even remember
when it was is your point what you were
saying so the the Aya itself talking
about the you know those who believe and
those who are Jews and Christians and
sabians all who believe in the law and
work righteous Deeds no fears shall come
upon them or their reward is with their
lord no fears shall come upon them nor
shall they grieve I needed to correct
the the way I translated that last time
um that answered the question the the
one key question that was brewing in my
heart and I didn't become Muslim right
away by any means but that pretty much
closed the door behind me there was no
going back at that point it was now a
question of just completing the forward
Journey that I was on and the the
journey with Islam was approximately two
years from when I first started to
explore the Quran and the last year or
so I was going to the Juma services on
Friday regularly
and church services on Sunday regularly
so you're going to the mosque and the
church and the church you're going to
both at the same time hitting at that
time because I hadn't fully committed
myself to the decision it felt
inevitable without doubt it felt
inevitable and people would ask me at
the Masjid all the time when are you
going to take shahada when are you going
to take shahada and I would tell them I
said my family is very religious I said
I need to be sure that this I'm not
gonna just jump the broom and jump right
you're really doing your homework oh
yeah yeah the thing the thing that sold
me on the dean was the dean itself
was the dean itself I was reading the
Quran the entire time I was listening to
Jamal khutba's you know weekly you know
I was you know continue I would don't
remember but I'm sure I was probably
reading some other stuff as well
and having conversations with people in
the in the community Etc and so it was
the dean itself that sold me there was
no personality no individual involved in
my journey this was a very personal
Journey for me and so that that nature
of how I journeyed to the religion of
Islam informs how I out do Outreach to
others I trust in the fact that Allah
will guide their hearts I try to be a
resource I try to be a support but I
don't
pretend to have the ability to make them
any particular way my job is to just
provide them
the facts the truth
and to help open their eyes the way my
eyes were opened and trust that if Allah
wants good for this person they will be
guided and if I can be a small part of
that then alhamdulillah and
alhamdulillah especially in this
position here with the Islamic Center of
Irving in in the Outreach Department
I've been very fortunate to have many
people come through here and I want to
take the Shadow
and like one of my dear my dear teachers
Kareem abuzades I may Allah protect him
um
he mentioned in one of his televised
shahadis he said we don't necessarily
have anything to do with this we're just
here at the end
he he made it very clear that people
sometimes they associate the fact that
someone takes shahada on your hand that
somehow that's that's something that
elevates you or dignifies you it's like
this is no dignity is this they're
dignifying Me by allowing me to do that
they're they're the ones honoring me
that I'm not honoring them I'm not
earning honor for myself there's nothing
I'm nothing in this anyone could have
stepped in and done what I did what I
did it doesn't require me so that Allah
brings them to me is an honor for me
it's not it's it's not something that
that makes me special it's I'm being
gifted I'm the one being blessed by that
I'm the one the one that's poor the one
that's weak that's that's being given
I'm the lower hand
laws is the upper hand and he's bringing
them to me
it's not me doing anything to bring them
what do you have to say for the people
who might be atheist agnostic even
though I I personally don't believe
there's such thing as a true atheist
right I believe everybody there's a lot
of people that say that yeah I believe
everyone deep down inside they believe
in a higher power but because they were
exposed to many of these man-made
religions right and then they go ahead
and just reject that but they haven't
really explored Islam and if they're
sincere they'll come to it like you did
right and you took it to a whole other
level you started studying and really
really growing in knowledge and you
became an Imam and now tell me what do
you say for the agnostic the atheists
the Christian others who are you know
maybe leaving the church or they're just
leaving religion altogether and they're
exploring and then they fall into the
pits of that dark hole of just following
your desires they're not happy there
right now they're listening they're
tuning in you know what is it uh that
separates Islam from all the man-made
religions how do we know it's not
man-made what are the proofs that you
like to point people to in the beginning
stages right there's there's so much in
that and and to be honest with you one
of the greatest
um
tools to opening people's eyes just to
Faith in general was something I learned
from one of your episodes
when you were interviewing I can't
remember the the brother's name and I'll
reward him but he was you were doing a
drive by a drive along interview with
him in in the car and he was mentioning
atheism and a book he had read recently
by Anthony flute Anthony flew
he was like the prophet of atheist yeah
he was the preeminent atheist for 50
years yeah in the in the west was the
one at the Pinnacle of academic
achievement and argumentation in the
faith in favor of the belief that there
is no God at all and make no mistake it
is a belief which in and of itself is a
linguistic irony but that's a whole
other topic
um but I would challenge anyone that
believes that their agnostic atheist or
whatever to read his book A book where
he tells his journey journey of going
from being a staunch atheist to becoming
a believer in the divine
and what he discovers and just as a
summary or as a nutshell of one of the
major points that he makes
the major point that he made because
people will talk about the the idea of
chance or just that things come about by
chance or whatever and while the way he
puts it on paraphrasing you might be
able to explain chance of evolution of a
single book
or or you know a single hand or a single
creature maybe maybe it's even that's
somewhat far-fetched and there's lots of
classical examples in Islam and other
and other Faith Traditions to answer
that supposition but what he points out
is that while you might be able to make
a case for a single entity a single a
single item
the ability to explain the network of
systems that exist in creation the
interplay and the inter-workings of all
the different creations and how they
operate together that is something that
mere chance can never
ever possibly explained and that was one
of the most damning evidences to him of
the falsity of the atheist proposition
the example I often use and some of you
may or may not be familiar with this is
mycelium
mycelium is a fungus that grows on the
roots of trees
what they discovered many years ago
actually now was that this fungus and
the network it creates between trees of
different types and varieties over large
swaths of land in a forest they form a
network almost like a neural network
between the trees
thinking and reacting and responding to
Rises and falls in moisture and
temperature and things like that and
resource redistribution it's a very
complicated Integrated Network between
multiple different organisms
and so something like that
the idea of chance the idea of there
being no designer no no manager no
Creator no planner is completely unable
to answer or explain this is a miracle
of itself just right there by itself
alone this is a miracle and it's called
the what mycelium mycelium and this is a
Fung a fungus that catches to the roots
of trees that creates a network the
miracle of fungus now this messenia yes
wow and this convinced uh him that
wasn't his example necessarily but when
I read that that was the one that came
into your mind because there was many
stories going around in the Years
preceding that about this mycelial
network and the discoveries they had
made and all of the things they had
found about how it operates if you think
just and and people who know me well
they know that I make very nerdy
references frequently if you've seen the
original Avatar not the new one the
original Avatar and they talk about how
the the tree the mother tree is that has
a network throughout the the soil this
network the way they describe it in
Avatar is similar in in a sense to this
mycelial network where it had it's
almost thinking it's almost alive in and
of itself and it processes the memories
Etc but in in a different way and then
in the real life it's not as
superstitious and and Fantastical of
course but it's still no less miraculous
wow this is truly amazing and the
Miracle is right in front of us just
ourselves you know if you dissect you
know the different components to your
body and everything actually the the
hook I gave just the other day
um was on al-fatia and I like to revisit
al-fatiha with people frequently because
it's such a crucial element to our lives
as Muslims but we frequently we don't
reflect on it
and I was talking about just the first
verse
all thanks and Praises due to Allah the
Creator and the sustainer of all the
worlds and I was talking about this idea
of hamt praise and how it contains Not
Just Praise for the perfect attributes
of Allah the perfect attributes of God
but also shukra or gratitude for all
that he gives us and how if we even just
reflect on something we're doing right
now that we aren't even thinking about
our heart is beating
we're breathing in we're breathing out
even just one of those things if we were
to take a moment to recognize it and
show gratitude for it by saying
alhamdulillah
we then would be trapped in a
never-ending cycle of thanks and praise
for that one thing
and that's far from the totality of the
blessings and the mercies that we're
experiencing in this very moment
it's a never-ending cycle of gratitude
even for the most basic thing that we do
you just named a couple things just uh
the heart beating the degree air you're
taking in you know and just not even
just the fact that we breathe but the
breath the breath we take right now
that one breath
and because we've said that the prophet
even in some Hadith he says that the
thing that you've been given when you
say alhamdulillah and I'm paraphrasing
just so that we're clear I'm
paraphrasing the when you respond with
alhamdulillah for something you've been
given what you say is better than what
you were given
what you say is better than what you've
been given wow no matter what it is
what you say when you say alhamdulillah
for having received it is better than
the gift even if you were according to
one narration even if you were given the
totality of the heavens and the Earth if
you said in response
it would be better than what you were
just given
and that's praising the Creator the
heavens and earth like Christian would
say hallelujah yes similar yes wow this
is uh truly amazing it reminds me of
another before we conclude just it came
to me the Hadith where the Prophet
Muhammad sent to mankind peace and
blessed be upon him he said you know
you'd have to pray all day imagine all
day and night you would have to pray
just to thank Allah the Creator for the
360 joints in your body right but he
allows you every day every day right
every day you can do that by just
substituting with two extra units of
prayer right to show your thankfulness
and gratefulness and that's we can go on
and on all day and we'd be here sitting
here just yeah you know absolutely no
there's this is so this is the thing
Islam
frequently I get asked questions about
Islam or they ask me about the answer
and said I give them the answer and
frequently the answer seems almost too
simplistic sometimes yeah and I tell
them I said it's that simple but it's
also that hard because many times the
answer is very simple
it it doesn't require a lot of mental
gymnastics it's designed to be something
that every rational human being can
understand and accept
but it's so it's so magnificent because
even though seemingly simple the depths
of its ocean are so deep that Scholars
spend lifetimes just trying to
understand that one thing the example I
gave in the hood I was referring to
earlier al-fati we recited 17 times a
day at a minimum in our silhouette in
our prayers
our formal prayers
understanding it is so critical to our
life as a Muslim
books have been written on El Fatiha
explaining al-fatia from the scholars of
the past
number at least the translations
numbering in the hundreds of pages in
explaining seven lines wow seven
sentences one of our dear brothers in
California
may Allah preserve him he did a lecture
series on Al Fatiha in which he started
off by apologizing for only scratching
the surface well after then lecturing
for 30 hours on Al Fatiha and he had to
apologize at the start for only
scratching the surface his name again
for people who jamala Deen zeroboza and
interesting enough just like yourself
just like Dr Gerald Dirks he's also
comes from a background Christian
background he was also someone who
converted reverted to Islam yes he's one
of the he's one of the the Elders of the
of the convert community in the United
States having converted in I believe it
was like 72 yes in a very small
community in California where he was
very much by himself he and I have had
the opportunity to sit and talk from
time to time and he was one of my very
early teachers
um
and he's he is perhaps one of the most
humble
people you'll ever meet but his
knowledge is well recognized by people
all over the world
[Music]
so let's in closing now Amazing Story we
can even go deeper
but for the person that's out there you
know and I think that's what's kind of
just shakes people like the Simplicity
and they're like because they're used to
all this esoteric stuff this mystical
these mystical strange things and
whatnot and you hear here it comes with
that beginning step you know what's the
purpose of life why am I here why have I
been created why not ask the Creator
that happens there the one who created
you to guide me I mean how important is
that you know to ask those questions of
purpose why I've been created and then
asking the Creator alone
to God for guidance yes absolutely
absolutely
we believe and even you can find in the
Quran evidenced for this we believe
that
if someone genuinely and sincerely from
the bottom of their heart is seeking God
is seeking Allah
that they will be guided to it so much
so that if you look into the Quran
you'll find places where Allah
challenges the Jews and the Christians
to follow their book
to adhere to their book because Allah
knows and the Muslims understand that
there was real and true guidance in
their books Allah even says that that in
those books there was Nor and
light and guidance in those books
they've been changed throughout history
and time for various reasons
this is what we believe but the final
Revelation the Revelation that we rely
upon that exists
till this day in its pristine form as it
was revealed over 1400 years ago
tells us that if we seek Him He will
bring us guidance if we respond to him
when he calls he will give us guidance
so if you're out there
if you've felt that gnawing inside of
you that we all feel from time to time
and you know somewhere deep inside you
that there's
an answer that there's a path forward
for you
pray to
the creator of the heavens and the Earth
and ask him to lead you to the straight
path and we believe with the firmest of
convictions that if you do
and you are sincere whether in this life
or the next you will be counted amongst
the guided
and we will welcome you in Paradise as
brothers and sisters inshallah Allah
willing thank you Imam said thank you
very much thank you for sharing the
story with us
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