how are you guys doing we're here in
pompano beach florida
and i was a little bit late
but you had something going on today
there is no god but allah there is no
god
muhammad but
be upon him
that muhammad
is his final recipient is his final
yeah it's a manifesto special day
i came after the fact
you did you did uh i converted to uh
islam today you did yeah congratulations
thank you thank you thank you thank you
so for our audience tell us what's your
name again my name is neil where are you
from i'm from new york uh my parents are
from the american republic
um that's pretty much it yeah how you're
pretty young now yeah yeah just well i'm
18. i'm turning into 18. yeah okay so
how what made you come to that decision
that you actually ended up taking your
shahada today
so i pretty much just like
um i never really been been a big fan of
religion but i always wanted to find
like an inner peace and i looked into
the other religions and i
saw that islam is like the way for me i
just love everything about it you know
the praying and all that stuff
devoting you know your life to allah and
stuff like that so just pretty much just
finding inner peace in my life
what religion did you grow upon when you
grew up was it uh what were your family
from dominican so catholic background
catholic yeah yeah
how did that fit into your life at that
time did that
what what
what made you drift away from the
catholic religion so i was never like my
family was never religious they were
just catholic by name but they never
went to the church never prayed they
never really like mentioned god too much
in my household so at some point i'd
even thought that we were just atheists
you know we didn't believe in anything
but my mom was like yeah we're catholic
but we never practiced the catholic
religion
so then so you were never into religion
yeah you were searching for inner peace
very important that's like what we see
around nowadays a lot of people just not
into religion you know there's a lot of
man-made religions and they kind of you
know associate religions all these weird
things did you see any weird things like
when you were investigating islam
not that i saw um nothing weird
i loved every part of it like i saw the
five pillars and all that stuff i just
really thought like yeah this is me
right here this is what i this is my
path this is where i need to go down
what at your age we're usually you know
you think of a 19 year old nowadays
stuck somewhere in the basement playing
xbox you know what i mean all day just
uh you know mines on so many other
things but you're searching for inner
peace you know i mean you're certain we
see also a rise in suicide we see a rise
in drug abuse amongst the youth so
i mean that's kind of scary like if
either you're searching for purpose in
life or meaning going in this direction
or what are you seeing with a lot of
your friends you know the the lifestyles
that they're
choosing and what you're exposed to at
this young age i can imagine um it's so
basically just for me you know yeah i
play video games i go home i do this
you know i was
i didn't like the way how unhealthy my
lifestyle was with the you know
dirty room
always late
not waking up in time you know what i
mean
talking back to my parents and stuff and
i just thought man i
i can't continue this lifestyle i need
you know i need to be more healthier as
a person and like have a better
you know just a better mindset when it
comes to life this is very important for
other youth your age to see that to see
somebody that's dedicated to looking to
enhance their life to become a better
human being and now tell us like what so
you talked about the five pillars
we'll stick with one of them this thing
that you did today the testimony that
there's nothing worthy of worship except
the creator that has an earth god
almighty allah and that muhammad is his
messenger yes sir you know
this this is something that i've seen
interviewing so many hundreds of
different people you know they go
through all around the world all the
different world religions and you know
they get turned off from worshiping a
human being you know stick stone a bone
all the different things that are out
there that people you know go towards
but
uh
when people come to islam what they
really love is this
one-on-one connection with the creator
that has earth no intermediary this tohi
this pure monotheism how did that
connect with you
um it first connected to me because
even though i wasn't islamic yet i still
practice the religion just a little bit
and allah really does answer you know
you know your prayers gives you advice
and stuff like that so i'll pray at
night you know my wishes will come true
it'll just be you know just like the
simple things hey wish me good luck
tomorrow make sure nothing goes bad for
me you know put me on the right path
tomorrow make sure my life just goes
straight and no bumps and
little things even if there were bumps i
know that he would fix it he would help
me guide me through him yeah so it was
just pretty much that just like just a
law just answering my prayers and stuff
like that from
when was the first time you had exposure
to a muslim that you actually came
across how did you end up coming across
islam did you have a friend did somebody
expose you to it
um it was uh my own your uncle yeah he
um
he uh his wife was actually islamic
so she was muslim yeah she was
a
muslim but then he converted he accepted
this yeah he converted he recited
and then
from there
he you know he'll text me things have a
good day a lot wishes well and stuff
like that and then one time he came down
to florida and taught me a couple things
and taught me how to pray and
and then that's when i really got
exposed and really decided to dive into
it that stuck with you huh yeah
beautiful beautiful well we just wanted
to get a little some highlights you know
from your from your journey the journey
has just begun you know life
uh as you know it now
you you learn islam you get the tools so
you can go ahead and deal with many of
the challenges in life but it's
beautiful that you found out you know
what the purpose of life is that to
submit to the creator you know to be a
good human being by observing and living
by the quran and the authentic sunnah
there's a lot to absorb but um
what else can you before we conclude
so
you were looking for
a way of life that brought you a piece
of contentment
how do you deal with
the
backlash by some your friends or your
family now that you've accepted islam
how have they been have they been
supportive yeah they've been 100 has
there been any teasing from from friends
or anything like
with some negative comments no i mean
the only thing i've gotten were like hey
i don't believe you're really going to
do it and i'm like yeah i am you know i
mean because like no one really thinks
you're gonna go convert you know what i
mean you can say something and never
really do it but i was deeply serious
but my family they've supported me 100
everybody in my family
you know they just showed me the love
and support
even my sisters came with me today you
know
they're not islamic but they decided you
know get a hijab you know come to the
mosque support me
you know what i mean
beautiful well thank you very much for
sharing a little bit thank you thank you
your story with us and that's the
beautiful thing now you did the shahada
inshallah you learned how to make the
salah the prayer five times a day
so important to get really grounded
really grounded in your in your deen we
say this way of life so then you're able
to deal with all the challenges
and all of the obstacles in life going
to make you a better son a better
brother a better human being a better
all-around person you know but
that's takes some commitment to putting
aside time to learn so you grow and when
you grow you start to benefit from all
the beautiful treasures that islam has
you know yeah so we're here also for you
there's a view there's a beautiful
website that usually we recommend it's
called new muslim academy academy.com
it's like the day after shahada
so then people go online and they start
to take the courses there learn how to
make wudu how to pray
and all the other pillars of islam
and your journey begins
thank you thank you take care assalamu