alhamdulillah alayum peace be unto you
what a beautiful greeting this is a
greeting that Jesus greeted his
followers with Moses Abraham all the
messengers of God and the last and final
messenger of the Prophet Muhammad peace
be upon them all they greeted their
followers with this greeting of peace
and we are greeting you here today with
that same greeting of peace now we're
I'm very excited we're bringing out to
continue the story of one man's road to
Islam who graduated with honors from the
Harvard University he was an ordained
minister and a deacon who started
preaching the Bible at a very young age
and he was filling the churches people
excited to hear him speak going to
Seminary school he's a Muslim now what
happened did he take a wrong turn or he
took the right turn tell us now
well actually he's going to tell us how
he accepted Islam when we come back here
in the dean show you don't want to go
nowhere
Allah there's only one God and muham is
his
messenger
Allah there's only one God and Jesus was
his messeng
I don't know why I did that maybe maybe
it's just to break the iceam alaykum
allum for those people now I wish you
peace you wished it back upon me and I
told them that's the greeting of all the
prophets yes and we also mentioned
something about the beard last week you
want to just fill in the
blink well Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon Him instructed us to uh have beards
yeah and uh also in places instructed us
to just let them grow yeah and so I've
let my beard grow and we addressed this
last if you didn't see last week's show
that was part one to why Dr Gerald Dirks
accepted Islam and I had mentioned that
some people can can't get past one time
my guest was wearing a what do you call
it a u kofy not a kofy something else on
the top of the head and and I had to
have him address it and once he
addressed it people you know they they
just start to understand little better
and then they can appreciate it and what
we said in the first show is that Jesus
most likely he had a beard and any
picture you see supposably they try to
paint Jesus you you'll never see him
without a beard or all the prophets this
is a Pious way of trying to emulate not
the movie stars but the best of humanity
the prophets of the creator of the
heavens and earth yes all right so now
we talked about and you can see this in
part one how you went from at a young
age teaching preaching ing the Bible
finishing and getting a Divinity degree
MH and going to Seminary school and then
from there sum it up along with what I
just said and then we'll go on to the
rest of the story how you actually came
to
Islam well as we mentioned last week in
1974 I graduated from Harvard Divinity
School with a master of divinity I was
an ordained minister in the United
Methodist
Church uh but at that point uh I spent
three months in that summer filling u
pulpits in two rural parishes in Kansas
and then in September of 1974 I left the
parish Ministry for good uh I was still
an ordained minister I still believe
very definitely in God but coming out of
my Seminary education as we talked about
last week I had no belief in the
Divinity of Jesus or in the concept of
the Trinity Etc so I started a path that
I call my path of being an atypical
Christian MH believed very much in God
prayed read the Bible uh studied new uh
archaeological finds as they came out on
the Bible and other Christian texts uh
but again no belief in the Divinity of
Jesus peace be upon him no belief in a
trinity uh and I basically continued in
this uh line as an atypical Christian
from 1974 until 1993 M but the Turning
Point actually started a couple years
before I became a Muslim it was 1991 MH
and my wife and I for several years had
been doing research on the history of
the Arabian horse and we had some uh
Arabic documents what's the Arabian
horse the Arabian horse well well it's a
horse for for for the people who uh you
know the the Arabian horse is a horse
that was bred for Centuries by The Bins
of the Middle East okay they typically
have one less ver Brae in their back and
one less vertebrae in their tail than
other horses and they are the preeminent
endurance horse yes uh so we'd been
studying the history of the Arabian
horse for a number of years and been
writing about it and we had some Arabic
documents yeah hudes that had
accompanied a shipment of horses in 1906
to the United States MH these were the
Arabic testimonials of Purity and about
the origin of these horses that came
over in that year mhm we wanted to get
them translated mhm uh and and they
hadn't been translated up to this point
in time yes and this brought us into
contact with a portion of the Arab
community in Denver Colorado that
happened to be Muslim and our first such
contact occurred in the summer of
1991 and it was with uh brother Jamal
and he came out to our farm looked at
our horses glanced at the Arabic
documents and said sure he'd be happy to
tr translate them for us mhm and we
began that process a little bit here a
little bit there but along the way very
close friendship developed yes and
before long we were spending we were
getting together on a weekly to
bi-weekly basis uh just socially you
weren't a little nervous skeptical
thinking like you know had some
preconceived ideas or Notions that you
know what you might have seen on TV that
you know I got to be careful this guy
might be a some kind of terrorist or
some kind of well again we're talking
1991 so it's a little before little
before all the drama yeah but no I
didn't have any such uh feelings
whatsoever um along the way and it's
important I think to to point this out
Jamal never proti MH he he never said uh
this is the way to believe yes he never
said you ought to become a Muslim mm
however that first time he came out to
the farm before he left he asked if he
might use our restroom to make ablution
mhm uh before praying and he came out of
the restroom and then said you know may
I borrow a piece of newspaper to put on
the floor so that I can pray so this is
the ritual washing before one and then
and we gave him the the newspaper and
and he uh laid it out on the floor and
and he did his prescribed prayer now
again he never said anything to us about
hey are you Muslims or why aren't you
Muslims or you should be doing this his
dawa or his preaching was in his
behavior his actions huh yeah his
example he prayed yeah a very powerful
form of preaching actually yeah describe
this prayer for us please for those seen
it was the standard uh Islamic prayer it
had the different uh postures you begin
standing and then uh there are some
things that you say this was during the
day so he was saying them to himself
yeah uh and then you uh you bow and then
after bowing you stand again and then
you prostrate
and then you kneel and then you
prostrate and uh you go through this uh
uh cycle which is called a Raad did you
think he was praying maybe to a moon God
or did you think no of course not no
what who did you think he was praying to
to God to God okay yeah his
understanding of God yeah yeah so anyway
social contact continued we were getting
together once every week to every two
weeks uh and as he continued to
translate stuff for us occasionally
uh he would begin to share with us
knowledge about the history of the
Arabian horse in the Middle East yes and
along the way of doing that he began to
quote different verses from the Quran or
different sayings of prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him different aspects of
Islam not to
proti but to give us a way of
understanding the Islamic context of the
history of the Arabian horse yeah yes so
again it was all presented not as proti
but as you're interested in the history
of the Arabian horse I will seek to meet
your needs MH but in doing that I'm
going to have to explain this context to
you so you really understand it yes so
this continued on and over the next 16
months our contact expanded not just
with Jamal but also with w and his
family with um
Amar in his family uh Ahmed in his
family Etc these were just other Muslims
these other Muslims we're getting
together socially again
no active or direct prestiz going on but
in the process of observing these Muslim
Brothers I became increasingly impressed
with their behavior I mean they were
living a very moral and ethical life
bending over backwards to do it as a
matter of fact yeah I remember Jamal who
who ran at that time sort of a mom and
pop grocery store in Denver yeah and I
was at the store once when the state
weights inspector came by to uh examine
the scales yes and he examined them and
came told Jamal you know they're within
tolerance and Jamal said well look this
is what I want you to do I want you to
turn them against me to the limits of
what's tolerance in the state yeah
because I want to make sure I'm not
short changing my customers wow so this
is the sort of behavior I was observing
MH and it wasn't just ethics in terms of
their business life it was the ethics in
terms of their family life uh the way
they interacted with their wives with
their children Etc very powerful
behavioral example and I observed this
for about 16 months and finally oh it
must have been in December of 199 92 I
got around to asking myself the sort of
the fundamental question which is what
separates these Muslim friends of mine
from me in terms of
belief where's the difference MH now I I
had studied uh Islam sort of
superficially yes or briefly back uh at
Harvard and comparative religions
courses and uh but this question was
eating at me I mean here are these
people living these very moral and
upright lives my wife and I have been
trying to do that as well but we felt
that we were sort of doing that within
the context of a moral vacuum yeah What
Separates Me from them in terms of
actual religious beliefs MH well I
suppose I could have asked them yeah I
didn't want to okay I didn't want to
impinge on our friendship yeah and so I
went downstairs began dusting off all
the book books on Islam I had acquired
back in those comparative religions
courses yes and they were all written by
non-muslim Western Scholars M and
there's probably half a dozen or more of
them and I took them down I reread them
I took down two different translations
of the meaning of the Quran that I had
acquired back in those courses read them
and the more I
read the more I said wait a minute you
know this is what I believe starting to
connect yeah very much starting to
connect and the other thing that
eventually happened in that
process was as I continued to read in
the English translations of the meaning
of the
Quran especially where it was talking
about uh Biblical history yes uh and
biblical
Concepts I saw within the Quran
statements about these things that I
knew could not have been known by any
illiterate 7th Century Arab and of
course Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him was
illiterate uh he didn't know how to read
write the history confirms this yes yes
and he was known as the truthful is that
yes yes and so now I'm left with a
question yeah where did this come from
so you're looking at this and you're
like this can't come from from this man
or any man he could have known it no he
couldn't have known it uhhuh uh and so
that left me with with the conclusion
you know this had to be inspired yeah
however you want to Define inspired in
some sense this knowledge was inspired
by god wow Subhan Allah and quite
honestly brother I was uncomfortable
with that conclusion why I didn't like
that conclusion uhhuh because that
raised questions about my own sense of
religious identity yeah you know I still
continued to call myself a Christian
even though I was an atypical Christian
and I didn't like that challenge to my
sense of identity
so this is where things started about in
December of
1992 and in late December of 1992 my
wife and I were talking about this all
the way through we were filling out our
passport application forms for a
proposed trip to the Middle East to do
some research on the history of the
Arabian horse and one of the questions
on the passport form was religious
affiliation mhm well I didn't even think
about it you I just wrote in Christian
and went on yeah and if you seconds
later my wife turned to me and said uh
how did you fill out the question on
religious
affiliation and I said well Christian of
course and I I laughed just as you're
laughing right
now uh and then went on to say you know
I'm a Christian not a
Muslim now is the same at the same time
is she doing her own research with you
along with you yeah we're talking about
it all the way through the time okay
okay now the thing is in terms of this
story uhuh you know I was trained have a
doctor in Clinical Psychology yeah you
know I was a practicing
psychotherapist I knew that laughter is
often a release of psychological tension
and I had laughed at this question yeah
oh what was the psychological tension
that needed to be released when my wife
asked me this innocuous question
furthermore why did I
need to immediately follow it up by
saying I'm a Christian not a Muslim you
know a person does not defend against an
accusation that has not been
made now my wife hadn't said did you
write on Muslim in fact her response
when I said I'm a Christian not a Muslim
her immediate response was well no I was
inquiring whether you wrote down
Christian or Protestant or Methodist uh
so the accusation had come from my own
unconscious mind you know there was a
part of my own unconscious mind that was
saying you're a Muslim yeah and my
conscious mind was saying oh no I'm not
it's a battle within now yeah it's a
battle Within
and this battle continued mhm you know
by January of 1993 I was now reading my
third different English translation of
the meaning of the Quran you know
because again I wasn't going to trust
these first two you know I I didn't like
that conclusion I had come to yeah that
Muhammad peace be upon him had been
inspired by God yeah because this raised
issues in terms of my own identity yes
well I continued studying though and in
January of
1993 I began experimenting was saying
the five daily prayers of Islam alone in
private and of course in English because
I didn't know the Arabic to do them that
way and I found this very spiritually
rewarding very spiritually
gratifying um but again I'm an atypical
Christian I may be an atypical Christian
who doesn't believe in the Divinity of
Jesus who doesn't believe in the Trinity
who's reading the Quran every day in
English translation and who's saying the
five prayers of Islam every day in
English English but I'm still an
atypical Christian yeah well late in
January of 1993 mhm it was my lunch hour
at my private practice so I went to a uh
an Arab restaurant I started to
frequent and I took with me my third
translation of the Quran that I'd get
some reading done over lunch yeah and so
I walked in I sat down and I started
reading and all of a sudden Mahmud the
owner of the restaurant who was from
Damascus and and a Muslim uh came up to
my table to take my order he glanced
down at what I was reading but he didn't
say anything took my order and left and
so I continued reading well when my
order was ready instead of Mahmud
bringing it back to me he sent his wife
to bring it to me who was an American
and a convert to Islam oh she had
accepted Islam oh yes yes and and wore
the hijab the scarf that I had come to
associate with Muslim females and so
sister Yan came and she brought me my
order and she glanced down said oh I see
you're reading the Quran are you Muslim
and the Word was out of my mouth before
it could be modified by any social
etiquette whatsoever I said no and about
that way brother and she said well
that's okay and she turned around and
left and I said to myself my goodness
what is going on with me you know I
answered an innocuous question rudely
and
aggressively this isn't like
me and I started doing over it then as I
ate my lunch you know I'm I'm I'm going
to have to make some amends to Sister M
on when she comes back to bring me the
check for the meal and so I thought
about it and I thought about it and I
thought about it when the meal was over
she brought me the check and I said uh
something to the extent of you know I I
think I answered your question a little
abruptly yeah uh when you asked me
whether I was a Muslim if you were
asking me whether I believe there is
only one God yeah my answer is yes and
if you were asking me whether I believe
that Muhammad peace be upon him though I
didn't say that at that point was one of
the prophets of God my answer is yes so
this is from researching now looking
into his life and reading the Quran that
you're coming to this conclusion yes yes
but you just didn't want to the identity
now is a problem the identity is an
issue yeah and uh I knew at that point
that in my own English words I just said
the shahada yeah or the Islamic
testimonial of Faith MH
and sister Iman very nicely smiled and
said that's okay it takes some people a
little longer than others and and left
me yeah to to Stew on it a little more
now again I knew I had just said the
shahada but I was still an atypical
Christian mind you uhhuh you know now
I'm an atypical Christian who's reading
the Quran in English translation saying
the five daily prayers of Islam in
English and
private is willing to say that shahada
in my own carefully parsed English words
mhm but I'm still an atypical Christian
I'm not a Muslim yeah if somebody else
some Muslim wants to take what I've said
and say you're a Muslim that's their
label of religious identity just real
it's not mine Define what a Muslim is
really quickly just and then continue on
please well a Muslim is one by
definition by definition linguistically
one who submits and that's one who
submits to God uh but typically one says
a person becomes a Muslim when they say
the shahad or the testimonial of faith
and that just made easy summed up with
one word in Arabic right mm that's yeah
simple okay so I'm still an atypical
Christian yeah and I think I'm starting
to sort my way out of this challenge to
my sense of religious identity if
someone asks me whether I'm a Muslim
I'll go through a long five minute song
and dance in which I'll say I don't
believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ
I don't believe in the trinity I do
believe there is one and only one God I
do believe that Muhammad peace be upon
him was one of the prophets of God uh
and yes I'm saying the five prayers
every day in English at their appointed
times and yes I'm reading English
translation of the meaning of the Quran
every day uh but I'm an atypical
Christian and so that's sort of where
things were for a while how do you get
past this now well around start of March
of that year Ramadan started yeah and
this of course is the month in which
Muslims fast from dawn to
Sunset well I have all these Muslim
friends and I spend so much time with
these Muslim friends and it would be
very rude of me to eat or drink in front
of them while they're fasting so I I
won't do that but if I'm going to spend
that much time fasting
anyway well you know why don't I just go
ahead and fast from dawn to Sunset like
there doing and I I sort of rationalized
and half convinced myself I was just
doing this out of common courtesy for my
friends but again I found it very
meaningful yeah as I began to do it so
now I'm an atypical Christian who is
willing to say the Shahar in English
reading the Quran in English saying the
five prayers in English fasting during
Ramadan but I'm still an atypical
Christian you're you're kind of driving
the car the Porsche but you're not
calling it a por that's about where
we're at
and again I thought I had it all worked
out yeah uh other people could call me a
Muslim if they wanted to but that wasn't
my you weren't ready label of religious
identity I was an atypical Christian and
I thought I had it all worked out I I
thought I had it planned out perfectly
you know I could believe as my Muslim
friends believed I could practice as my
Muslim friends practiced but I could
keep my sense of religious identity of
being a
Christian well that lasted for quite a
while but it was late in March of 1993
and my wife and I were now in Jordan
doing that Middle Eastern trip and we
were staying with the extended family of
one of our friends in
Denver uh and one day Uncle aood motion
for me to come with him Uncle who a a
that was his name awood m and uh he
spoke not a word of English elderly a
Palestinian Muslim brother so I got in
the car with him and we drove off and he
took me to a Palestinian refugee camp
and we got out and we started walking
down the Narrow Lane of the camp and as
we were walking down that lane another
elderly person came walking towards us
who also it turns out spoke not one word
of English MH and we met there and we
exchanged assalam alaykum or peace be
upon you and shook hands and then he
turned to me and he asked me a question
in Arabic in Arabic now in Arabic cuz he
spoke no English yeah now my Arabic was
limited to a few simple words and
phrases yes and that was about it I
certainly couldn't hold even an
elementary conversation in Arabic but I
knew just enough Arabic that I fully
understood his question yes and his
question was are you a Muslim
oh and you know my five minute verbal
Jam gymnastics out the window now out
the window utterly
useless you know knew just enough Arabic
that I could answer Nam for yes or La
for no and those were the only two
choices I had you got set up I was set
up set up by uh someone far far the
creator of far better platter than I yes
and uh alhamdulillah praise be to God at
that point in time I said n or yes but
it took all of that before I was willing
to give up that sense of relief
religious identity that I had and I
think this is something that people who
are involved in Sharing The Message of
Islam often fail to
appreciate sometimes it's much easier to
get a person to change their religious
beliefs than it is to get them to change
their sense of identity of who they are
that can be very difficult yeah and you
finally with the help of uh the creator
of the heavens and the Earth in Arabic
we say Allah that is it finally happened
and now you're writing books on Islam
and helping people understand this
beautiful way of life trying to help
clear the misconceptions could we
briefly they're signaling that we're
almost out of time tell us now you
mentioned that before you accepted that
okay I'm a Muslim I'm one who's chosen
consciously to submit to the one God you
said one God what what do you believe
now what do you mean when you say I
believe in the one God but you don't
believe in these other things that the
Divinity of Jesus sunship crucifixion
but you said you believe in one God what
does that mean can you elaborate a
little bit about this what do you
actually mean when you mean well I
believe in in one God there is one and
only one God and that one God because
some Christians would say we also
believe in just one God well and in
point of fact to be fair yeah they do I
mean if you properly understand the
notion of the Trinity it is monotheistic
yeah however from a Muslim perspective
yeah they are adding partners
partners uh and so they have their
trinitarian Formula Three persons and
one substance yeah and and for us as
Muslims it's the unity of God there's no
three persons in one substance there is
only God mhm so it's just purely
absolutely one God no co-equal no
partner no one alongside with God yeah
no three persons in one substance no
Sons or daughters or any kind of family
bloodline DNA none of this with God no
no okay no human qualities associated
with God oh God is far above that far
above any of these human deficiencies
okay talk about the Five Pillars now
that you practice so someone can get a
sense of you know is this something
eccentric is something way far-fetched
that you know goes against my nature is
is something that if you can understand
this then you know what this is like the
engine this is what you know makes it
run there there are basically Five
Pillars of of practice Yeah uh the first
one is saying the testimonial of Faith
uh which basically means I testify that
there is no God but God and I testify
that Muhammad peace be upon him was one
of the messengers of God now does this
exclude like Jesus Moses and all of them
absolutely not absolutely not in fact
the Quran tells us we have to accept
those prophets as well so is your
relationship now with Jesus do you feel
like stronger do you feel like you've
lost connection with him no I don't feel
like there's any loss of connection at
all no no of course not what do you
believe about Jesus now uh basically
what I believed about him during my
years as an atypical Christian which was
that he was uh inspired by God he
received a revelation from God but he
was not God yeah so he was like the
other Messengers sure doing
what sharing the the Revelation that God
gave to him that's it a teacher teaching
us so can is it safe to say that he was
during his time the way the truth and
the life just absolutely Mes in terms of
the message he preached in fact the word
Prophet yeah comes from the Greek and
it's a translation of the Hebrew word
neim which in turn comes from the
Acadian language and if you go back to
that Acadian language and look at what
what it means it means one who speaks
for yeah and in a religious context one
who speaks for yeah it means one who
speaks for God this is what a prophet is
yeah one who speaks for God by
definition that makes sense okay so the
belief in one God that there's no God no
deity except the one God yes and
Muhammad is his last messenger and that
confirmed all the other Messengers that
preceded him and then very quickly the
the other four pillars uh saying the
five prayers of Islam every day uh third
pillar fasting during Ramadan fourth
pillar Pang zakat or obligatory charity
on one's economic surplus and fifth
pillar making the Hajj once in your
adult lifetime now the last three of
those are conditional based upon your
physical and financial well-being what
is what is has this changed your life
now by implementing this is this like a
complete blueprint on how you need to
function from A to Z throughout the day
in many respects yes and in some
respects no tell me uh in terms of no
many of the things I was already
basically practicing yeah you know I you
know before I became a Muslim I did you
pork I did eat pork that was one thing I
had to give up did you like a little
Jack Daniels or did you like some you
know I I I drank you can't drink now
obviously yeah I I drink maybe once a
year uh one drink a year yeah so I mean
giving up alcohol that was I basically
give yeah uh giving up pork that took
some getting used to uhuh uh but uh
those are changes but
um in terms of of living this sort of
ethical life Etc uh that's not a change
and terms of much of what I believed is
not a change now we talked about that
main pillar that one he acknowledges
that there's no God besides the one God
and this is something that just goes
with your nature that you worship God
alone you don't set up a co-equal co-
partner you don't pray to Jesus but you
pray to the one Jesus prayed to yes and
now the prayer did you feel like now
that since you're implementing because
that's the second pillar of Islam this
prayer was this having a a positive
influence on your life cuz who can
reject I mean prayer this is when you
ask someone is prayer good like yeah so
you pray now five times a day yeah well
the prayer of worship five times a day
yeah you know there's personal prayer
anytime anytime any place any anywhere
yeah basically but yeah in terms of the
prayers of worship the five prayers of
worship every day as I mentioned before
even before I was willing to call myself
a Muslim and I was saying them in
English yeah uh in private you know I
found them very rewarding I you know I I
found them spiritually rewarding yeah
and I think the big difference brother
would be this
you know in terms of my belief
structure not that much changed yeah
from going from being an atypical
Christian to being a
Muslim so my
intellectual approach to religion didn't
change that much yeah but the spiritual
approach Ah that's where the change was
I see you know because I found the
spiritual
gratification um this feeling
uhhuh uh that uh it's very hard to
describe but is a very very meaningful
thing very comforting thing a very
enriching thing and by following the
Five Pillars you know I I found this
spiritual gratification the sense of
spiritual reward that I was not finding
as an atypical Christian okay just
reverse for a second and then we're
going to come forward and finish things
up and then we want to talk a little
about your book but tell us
was it as far as Can someone say or did
you feel that it was a kind of back then
it was an esoteric say uh thing where
only now you had to someone can say you
weren't maybe feeling the Holy Ghost you
had to be full of this to really
understand it and you didn't have
it h i I don't know that I want to use
the word Holy Ghost yeah but
uh you know the spiritual side yeah
there there's where the change was uhhuh
not so much the intellectual
understanding not so much the the
morality and the ethics uh but in terms
of the spiritual the spiritual
gratification and enrichment the sense
maybe this is a better way of putting it
the sense of being close to God yeah and
is is this something that everyone as I
said do you have to get something that
just overtakes you and you're just on
Cloud9 or is it something that you use
just your Good Old Common Sense and your
intellect and your sincerity asking God
to guide you that someone can come to
that feeling well I I think different
people come to it in different ways and
if you were to interview 20 different
converts to Islam you probably would get
20 different variations okay uh and so I
think for each convert uh they have in
some ways their own unique path whereby
they reach God and and reach the truth
of God's religion Islam okay so you had
the Five Pillars tell us now that you
have some books that we had discussed
you have the easy understanding of Islam
you have the abrahamic faith yes you
have Muslim history in America you have
uh letters to my elders you have a lot
of books here brother we have
understanding Islam the cross and the
Crescent where can someone if they want
to they're intrigued by your story they
want to learn more where can they go to
visit and to pick up some of your books
well um I have a website yes Dirks
online
books.com and they can go there and and
order any of the books that they want as
well as contact me by email if they
choose to okay and that's right there uh
Dirks onlinebooks outcom your email is
there if somebody wants to invite you
maybe to uh come speak do a public
lecture you're available for those yes
yes and again they can contact me with
the email that's available uh on my
website we got to come to and give
please some sincere advice you've been
through a lot in life you have now come
to this realization this is the truth
not everybody has to agree with this
that's right but for that person who is
Sincere he is having the same issues
with the identity he doesn't want to
leave possibly the identity of being a
Christian or Buddhist or this or that he
has his inner circle his status he fears
maybe Allah people going to look at him
funny what advice do you have for this
person well I I the advice I would give
if if you're wrestling with this issue
of religious identity is don't
compound the uh the conflict becoming a
Muslim does not mean that you give up
your National or your cultural identity
I'm an American I was born in America I
was raised in America my national
cultural identity hasn't changed at all
I'm still an American and to become a
Muslim you don't need to give up your
national identity or your cultural
identity the only identity under con
consideration is your religious identity
and so if you've studied the
Bible uh and the Bible is one of the
paths to Islam I would maintain if
you've studied the Bible if you've done
your research through the commentaries
if you've come to the conclusion that
there is one and only one God uh and
that that God is Unity not
Trinity uh if you've come to the
conclusion that Jesus was inspired by
God and God gave Revelation to Jesus but
he was still a human being then please
take a look at Islam because we're
really talking the same language here
and again you don't have to give up your
National cultural identity to be a
Muslim thank you this is some great
advice and thank you very much for being
with us God willing we're going to have
a special section because we're going to
look forward to God willing doing some
more topics with you pick in your brain
so we can learn some more from this
indepth uh knowledge you have of the
Bible and some of your experiences so
more of us including myself can benefit
okay thank you my pleasure and I'd like
to thank you for being with us again on
the dean show I hope you got the benefit
from Dr uh durk's story and his way to
Islam and I hope that you continue to
come back visit us here at the dean show
and we hope that inshallah God willing
that God Almighty guides us all to the
one truth that he guides our hearts our
minds our bodies to accept that he is
the only one to be worshiped he is the
only one that we should turn to that we
should rever that we should love the one
God The God Who Jesus prayed to who
Moses prayed to who Abraham in the last
and final messenger you sent to mankind
the prophet Muhammad who he prayed to
these were the best teachers people who
we should emulate because they were
showing us how to praise God to worship
God and be close to God and get to
Paradise cuz life is short this life is
very short it's transitory it's passing
quickly and they all taught that there's
a better life there's a paradise waiting
and that's what we're trying to get to
and we needs God and we need God's help
to get to that paradise we'll see you
next time thank you once again until
then assalam Alum peace be unto you
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B
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come and see what everyone's talking
about
but the argument here is that God out of
his
love cuz in all honesty if you really
wanted to do something you're going to
find the way where there's a will
there's a way
absolutely there are a few problems here
why were people of generations and
generations and generations being told
to worship one God ask that God for
forgiveness ask him for for salvation
seek his mercy no one
else's so he picked up the Quran which
is the last and final Testament the last
and final
Revelation I was 16 years 8 years in
active reserves and 8 years active duty
but uh the bottom line is that I'm an
opthalmologist I'm a specialist in
Cataract and refractive surgery I'm the
medical director of a major
is we have a question uh from uh a
Christian who says I was born a
Christian I was raised a Christian wants
to take a look it challenges the reader
prove if you find one contradiction it
can't be from
God but the rational idea the rational
explanation is you do your best to obey
your lord you will fall short Nobody's
Perfect all of us make mistakes you do
your best and then expect from God's
mercy what's the purpose of my life why
am I here is it just to play have fun go
to the nightclubs kick it on the
weekends earn some money have a good
time and then I die she's really not
looking to get into a relationship just
to kind of you know wham bam thank you
ma'am and and and walk away from it the
way that men are why do I have to
convert to Islam if God made me a
Christian if God made my family a
Christian then why should I change that
way because God is the one who created
me in that way and most atheists when
they pray they pray in this way they say
oh God if you are there you know because
they're not quite
sure a line of Messengers Who start with
Adam Abraham Moses David sulan and Jesus
and we say peace and blessings be upon
all of them I made a promise to my
Creator on that day I promised that if
he would save the life of my
child and alone running this universe
that he doesn't become born he doesn't
die he doesn't eat and go to the
bathroom he's not a man that has an area
code a zip code now you can f
fingerprint him take his picture and the
girl say oh he's cute a lot of you out
there know exactly what I'm talking
about a lot of you out there are in the
exact same position he said I would
never give up worshiping God as one I
will never give up spreading this
message I hope that you take that
necessary step you don't know if you're
going to live till
tomorrow so you got to find that urgency
to do the right thing right
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now just clarified everything for me
that's when I became
Muslim majority people you talk to yeah
they know they got to change they know
they got to do good but they don't do
the good why is this
the ranking of The 100 most
influential men in the history of the
world
laziness the reality of Life usually
doesn't sink in until tragedy comes you
know this is when you find people yeah
yeah okay tell me about it you
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know you get a few bad people the media
grabs a hold of that and Spins it the
way they want
to and in it he puts Muhammad as number
one he said no human being had more
influence one of the amazing things
about Islam that everyone should know is
that we are the only other religion that
is a tenant of faith that you must
believe in Jesus Christ and everything
that he did or you cannot be a Muslim if
that is missing if you say that you do
not believe in Jesus you have stepped
outside of Islam you cannot be a Muslim
is a tended our faith to to believe in
and love Jesus
Christ these are not God God is the one
who created everything in this universe
that's the one to worship and prostrate
to how can you go wrong doing
that you don't believe in him you're out
of Islam cannot be a Muslim top 10
reasons why Jesus cannot be god let's
get right to it cannot be God number 10
number
10 suban
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you'll be glad you
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didd for