Well, the simple version of that is I
went to uh when I went to the United
States and I went to public school, I
went to high school. Majority of the
people around me were non-Muslims.
Actually, I didn't know any Muslim for
the first two years or first year of
high school. I didn't know any Muslims.
And um the environment is completely
different, the language is completely
different. And you just a natural
tendency for a young person is to try to
fit in. And of course, the thing that
makes me different from everybody else
is Islam. As a matter of fact, because
you have five days of public school,
even on Fridays, you don't take time off
to go to Juma. I didn't I didn't pray
Juma for 2 years when I was in high
school. So slowly you start making
friends and all my friends are
non-Muslims. And of course, if they're
non-Muslims, their lifestyle and
everything about them is has nothing to
do with religion. And so I start
adopting, you know, what they what they
do. And you know, my parents don't
expect me to change. So I have I was
kind of someone else at home and someone
else when I left home for school. I
think to this day and I I don't think
it's just in America. I think that a lot
of these values that we hold dear in
Islam, they're not even promoted enough
or properly enough even in Muslim
society. I used to think before I
traveled outside of the US that what I
went through is something is specific to
me. It doesn't happen to other people.
As a matter of fact, it's happening to
millions of people even today, you know.
And I I uh a point came where you know
you feel guilty when you're living a
life that is against the teachings of
your religion and you hate feel nobody
likes to feel guilty. So eventually you
have to decide either you're going to
accept the religion or you're going to
you don't want to feel guilty anymore
and you just get rid of the thing that
makes you feel guilty just kill your
conscience and just do what you want to
do. And that's the road I chose to take.
At one point it reminds me of a hadith.
I was completely away from Islam um even
early on in college and I happened to
meet you know uh
just I just happened to meet this young
person who was putting up a flyer for
the Muslim student association and I
asked him what that was about and I
thought you know if it's a Muslim
student association they must have the
best parties cuz they must they must get
Muslims from all the countries at their
parties. So I asked him do you guys
party? and he said, "Yeah, yeah, we
party." [laughter]
So, but when I went, it was just these
two guys and they're discussing
something about the Quran or something.
I said, "This is not a place for me."
But these guys were really nice to me.
And they started spending time with me.
They're giving me rides home. And slowly
but surely, I still wasn't praying or
anything, but one day, you know, one of
one of those friends, he just pulled
over to pray. And I just felt bad and I
prayed just cuz he was there. And I just
got a taste of it. And before I knew it,
I was praying five times a day again.
and relearning how to pray. I didn't
even remember how many there were in and
what do you recite you know when you sit
in I had to go through all of that over
again but I did alhamdulillah I
attribute it entirely Allah made my
friends a way to do that one of the most
important messages I think that
benefited me that I hope other Muslims
can benefit from is number one there's
nobody who's hopeless cuz you know if
you saw me in college and you were you
were religious and you just came out of
salat and you saw me walk by in high
school you would look at me and
Look at these people, you know, I was
one of those guys. But then somebody
decided not to judge me and just think
of me as just a human being who has some
goodness in them, you know, and we have
to do that for other people. We have to
have some patience with them in giving
them Islam, you know, and it's not going
to happen overnight. And this this
brother that I'm talking about, one of
my best friends in life, he never
actually gave me dawa to Islam. He never
actually told me to pray. He never told
me about the Quran.
I had no idea and he you know he's the
one that uh just through his company
little by little by little and it was a
a good year-long process that he did
this with me for subhan allah that I
came towards the dean