what's happening what's going on are you
dead are you going to die
what's going on he looked at me and he
said
god sent me back
assalamu alaikum greetings and peace
welcome to the dean shaw your host
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alhamdulillah
we'll be bringing on exciting guests
with exciting stories to help motivate
you in life
and my next guest was one who was
partying and playing
he was doing what people do at that age
but then he had an extreme event happen
have you ever had a friend almost die
while partying have an
almost have an asthma attack and then
come back to say
god sent me back what an amazing story
with my next guest coming up
here on the dean show esa nicholas to
share with us what brought him here to
be with us today this amazing
journey that what he went through so
inshallah you can reap the benefits
we'll be right back
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how are you doing good how are you doing
my brother
i'm doing great thank you you have an
amazing story to share
tell us a little bit about yourself so
it's issa nicholas
issa nicholas pasero that's right so uh
i'm cuban american born and raised in
miami florida
broward county miami fort lauderdale
area
took shahada in 2013 and um
i'm here to share my story with you guys
so go ahead and start what happened you
were a young boy catholic boy
were you practicing christianity what
was your purpose your mission in life
at that young age what was the goal
sure so in my younger years
my parents did do their best to instill
some form of religious religiousity in
us by taking us to church and putting us
through
uh catholic teaching and
uh during the week and we we believed in
god and we practiced as we believing how
we used to say prayers and all these
things but as we got older
we our family as a whole drifted further
away from
from catholicism but in my heart my the
teachings that my parents
instilled in me of believing god they
always stuck
so tell me what around what age was this
uh this was around 14 14 15.
you had a unique experience happen you
got a long journey but let's narrow it
down to this experience
that now from typical young boy
partying playing you know what were you
doing
sure so as i became
a young man a young adult
i began to just get caught up
in the typical western lifestyle which
is partying
lusts drugs just a very frivolous
lifestyle
not taking on much responsibility not
developing myself
and not really trying to do my best in
my relationship with god for sure i was
distracted
so during that time uh is when i had a
an experience that that changed the
course of my life forever
inshaallah so i'll share that with you
now
that event was my friends and i we had
already tried to develop a sort of
spirituality
through different means outside of
religion
um i would call it more of a hippie
lifestyle
more than anything and during that time
one night in particular
uh my friend who was living with uh with
me and my parents house
he was known to suffer from asthma and
while as we were partying that night
it was late into the night about 2 three
am
i'm wondering where is he so i go up to
his room
and i find him in his room and he is
noticeably
suffering from an asthma attack so i
said to him hey are you okay
do you need me to take you to the
hospital and he looked at me
he couldn't speak but he nodded his head
and said
yes i need to go to the hospital
basically so at that moment i just
jumped into urgency mode
and i rushed him into my car i was 20 at
the time
i rushed him into my car and we
we got on the way to the hospital on the
way to the hospital
my car breaks down and
at this moment if anybody has been in a
duration
you realize there's only a few things
you can do here
so i reached for my phone to call 9-1-1
to get help
and i left my phone at home i look at
him
uh and he's unconscious
so i start digging in his pockets to get
his phone and he also left his phone at
home
and in this moment here when you have
used all your means and there's nothing
left there's only one thing to do and
let's pray to god
so right away i began to pray to god god
please help me
please don't let this happen to me and
my friend i feel responsible for him he
lives with me what am i going to tell my
parents
am i going to tell his parents please
save us
at this moment uh i was breaking down i
was crying
the car stopped i began to uh
look into look into the streets try to
get someone to stop in traffic to help
me but i was hysterical it was late at
night no one was stopping for me
during this time i look back at my car
and i see my friend he has rolled out of
the car
and he's coughing up blood out of the
passenger seat
i run up to him and i say what's
happening what's going on
are you dead are you gonna die what's
going on
he looked at me and he said god sent me
back
what did he say he said god sent me back
he said god sent me back where was he
where was he where'd he go
he i was under the impression and he
wasn't an impression that he was dying
and where he was at that
explicit moment spiritually god knows
wow
so he felt this was it he felt like he
was leaving this world
that he had that moment that he had to
have been experienced something like out
of this world that he would say like
i'm back god sent me back oh absolutely
without a doubt
so and he recognized that so
the first thing he said to me after he
told me god sent me back he asked me
what i was doing
during that time and
i said to him oh i said to him i was
praying for you
and at that moment we both broke down
and we
we recognized that we had recognized the
reality of god in the reality of the one
who created us
and how important it is to to recognize
that and and
foster that relationship with him now
you being both
both i'm assuming you being raised
christian catholic what about him what
was he raised he was also raised
christian christian i'm not sure what
denomination uh respectfully most
christians
they uh besides the unitarian christians
they who don't believe in a trinity but
majority of christians
nowadays they pray to father son holy
ghost trinity and jesus
so this is what they learned at that
time when the calamity hit
were you saying dear father son holy god
were you
like praying through a trinity how are
you implementing this
this earnest desire seeking god's help
no good question so actually i was
invoking the trinity during this time
and what
subhanallah i was not invoke invoking
the trinity
but that but but that's what you were
raised upon wasn't it
was it weren't you raised on it
absolutely absolutely
and uh the reason i believe i wasn't
invoking the trinity during that time
is because my natural instinct in a
desperate situation when i had no time
to think
was to call directly on the one who
created me alone
so what i was saying you did was in your
very nature you called upon not a
trinity
not nothing in creation you didn't you
didn't call upon this mighty messenger
jesus
or anything in creation but you called
upon the one and only creator of the
heavens and the earth
you did the natural thing to do that's
amazing
did you even you didn't you didn't have
to think about it i was just instinctual
it was instinctual i i didn't have to
think about it nor did i have time to
think about it
it just happened okay so this thing
happens what happens next
so after this i realized that uh i need
to have a relationship with the one who
created me so i began
to search for that and that started
naturally by going back to christianity
because that's what i was familiar with
and to be honest that's the only
religion i knew but at the time i
i was in college so i had access to a
library i can go get books so i began to
study
buddhism hinduism christianity together
i didn't know about islam yet at all
and i was benefiting
about the different things that those
religions had to offer
however one day we were all hanging out
with my friends
and we were talking about the events and
we're talking about god and then one
during this discussion my friends and i
began to talk about
jesus eleazar and when is he coming back
as the messiah and some of my friends
said he's going to come back soon you
can tell because the signs of the end
times
some of my friends said we don't know
when he's going to come back another of
them said
oh i know where he is he lives in brazil
somewhere we're just
they're just talking nonsense in certain
in certain aspects but then one of
he said uh
i believe in jesus christ but i don't
believe he's the son of god
and i believe he's the messiah but i
believe that god is one alone
and i believe the prophet muhammad is
the last messenger and i read the quran
and when he said this i was shocked i
had no idea what this was
i never heard of it and i said wow i
need to get the quran
so i downloaded the quran on my phone
and i began to read the quran along with
the other books i was reading
the bhagavad-gita of the hindus some
buddhist book that i checked out from
the school library
and the bible that i had as a child and
i began to read
and now it began the process of
elimination for
for what i actually believed about the
identity of who god was
and how i can have a relationship with
him
so in buddhism uh
depending on the sect of buddhism they
really don't worship god they don't
believe in god a lot of it has to do
with
a discipline and ascension in your
discipline in life and this is good
but i already established that i believe
in god so at this point i didn't need
buddhism anymore
then hinduism had very similar aspects
about discipline
but they had thousands of gods
and i already established i only believe
in one god
so i didn't need the hinduism book
anymore so i just began to read the
quran in the bible
and i was amazed in the quran about how
many of the prophets and the stories
that i learned growing up
are actually part and parcel of islam
and their tea and the teachings of islam
so i was i was really
fascinated by that then
what it came down to at last was the
fact that
the islam and christianity differentiate
the identity of jesus christ
so allah said in the quran allah created
jesus christ the same way that he
created adam meaning without
with without a certain uh without
needing parents
all he said is be and he was and this
right there made so much sense to me
that if anyone was to be the son of god
it would have been adam with no parents
because allah created him directly and
if allah wanted
us to worship anyone adam would have
been more worthy because he was created
without parents
but allah showed us that these are
prophets created
by the miraculous nature of by one of
god's miracles by allah's miracles
so this immediately
showed me who jesus christ was and who
actually deserves to be worshiped and
that is the one that jesus christ
himself worshiped i love
love hearing these these stories i love
hearing these true events these
testimonials
and i love hearing it from people such
as yourself who are such a young ripe
age
and now you're doing what everybody else
is doing partying playing lust desires
but the fitra now is becoming awake
you and your friends you're talking
about the oneness of god and if someone
is sincerely
humbly searching for the truth god
almighty the creator allah will guide
them to the truth and then those signs
were sent to you you also had an
incident that you shared with a police
officer can you
and you you saw that as a sign also sure
yeah absolutely and this was this was a
previous event when i was a little bit
younger
um we got pulled over by the police
for for some criminal activity that we
were doing at that age
and we were actually in my vehicle so
when the police
pulled us over i was the one responsible
so at that time again
uh i was desperate i needed help i knew
that i was guilty
so i began to pray to god and in this
situation although i was brought up
christian and i knew the christian
theology i knew about the trinity
i was praying directly to god and i
asked him to help me and save me from
this situation and save me from the
punishment that i was going to receive
so in this situation the police they
give out the carbon copy forms
one goes to the police office one goes
to the courthouse and one goes for to
you
and it's an arrest but it's a written
arrest they don't take you to jail
so they distributed the forms after they
wrote me up and they gave me the form
that was supposed to go to the
courthouse
so it ended up making the court case
uh invalid so humdil thank god i never
got in trouble in this particular
situation but it was just another
reminder on my journey to identify who
god really is
and help me to to recognize that
how much longer after that moment now so
you had this incident
that you heard about the quran you heard
about islam so how much longer
a timeline that we can establish did it
take for you to investigate it to look
into it
like most people it comes up last so
they get to experience
all these different religions all these
different ways but then they come to
islam like most people that i've
interviewed they finally see like wait
this makes the most sense it's logical
rational but now they come to a crossing
point like hold on my family
my friends the environment social
pressure usually keeps people away from
taking that step forward to accept the
truth
how much time did it take investigating
this that you finally ascertained that
is the truth
and what was that deciding moment like
that you actually took your shahada
excellent question so from that
situation with the police officer it was
about five years
until the events with my friend having
the asthma attack and from that moment
with my friend having the asthma attack
began my my serious searching
and researching took about i want to say
a year or maybe six a year to six months
six months to a year and after i had
established that the quran was the most
logical to me was the most logical
explanation
i began to read only the quran and i
slowly during those six months
began to change my behaviors and and
stop the things that i already knew were
wrong
but i didn't have the
the the feeling of responsibility or the
maturity
to change those things in the past but
now that i recognize
i'm responsible for myself and i need to
be accountable for myself i began to
change and that
means stopping the partying stopping the
law stopping the drug you stopping the
line stopping the cheating
stopping all the negative behaviors that
have a negative impact on
on myself and society so
as i began to change based off what the
quran is is guiding me to
um it reached the day before my 21st
birthday
and i was going to south beach miami
with some friends
and on my way to the to the beach i
saw a man and he was obviously a muslim
he was wearing a thug he was he had a
beard
i recognized him as a muslim right away
and i went up to him and i asked him uh
hey i said sam alaikum are you a muslim
he said yes i'm a muslim
i'm here just visiting the beach i'm
actually from pakistan
and i'm just visiting i said wow and he
says me am i a muslim i said no i'm not
a muslim but i read the quran
and he said to me oh wow so do you know
that we believe in one god that we
believe in the prophets that we believe
in the books that he sent that we
believe in
the angels that we believe in the last
in the last day
and that we believe that allah sends
decrees and
has destiny written for everyone and i
said yes i believe all of these things
and i know it from the quran and he and
then i asked him there on south beach
which is an area of
uh not an area for spirituality to put
it
in a way and i asked him uh
how do i become a muslim and from that
moment
which is the right the day before my
21st birthday
so wait so you took shahada with this
man
at that moment right then and there
right then and there yes sir subhanallah
in miami beach
you ended up taking the shahada
subhanallah
and it's i didn't uh you know
it just happened in a way that it wasn't
planned
i i i didn't know that this man would be
there but i
i was and i didn't have any muslims
around me to to show me how islam was
going to be that one friend who told me
about islam
he only told me that muslims um
put their forehead on the ground but he
didn't tell me anything else
yeah the same way that jesus prayed to
god and he went a little further and he
fell on his face and prayed to who
himself now he prayed to the creator of
the heavens and earth it's there
what we have in the in the bible what
tell us what happened to
your friend the one who said god sent me
back
whatever happened to him sure so
that friend of mine um
to be honest with you he he had he's
he's had a hard life
um going through foster homes and and
and different things
that happen to people it happened to so
many people
um and and all of my friends during that
time they know that i was
taking this path toward having a
relationship with god and him in
particular he supported me
in my journey but and he agreed
and he agreed with all the teachings
that i was sharing and all the
the points i was giving about who i
believe god
to be but um
none of my friends actually followed me
in this path
and i think it had a lot to do with some
of the challenges that it takes and some
of the
the discipline that it takes um
to be to hold yourself accountable
everyone's uh
indiana i'm sorry he ended up surviving
and he's alive and he's healthy now
he hadn't received the proper medical
treatment and he's doing well
see the truth can be up at a on a steep
mountain
and many people they don't like to climb
so
many people don't like to dig i mean the
most precious things
are buried in the earth and many of the
things
that are not good for you are just open
and plentiful
so the truth is there it's something
that you have to want and desire and
earnestly be seeking
and you just have examples of how many
people you know accomplish greatness how
many people finish at the top
of their class top of universities in
the beginning people start
but then now the the road is a tough
road right to
suppress your desires to even if you've
done like a person might have been
praying
i mean partying doing all the
things that a person can do that is
opposite to the way that god almighty
wants
them to live but god almighty allah is
the most merciful the most just
a person can come with all the sins
racked up to the heavens and earth but
if they come worshiping god almighty
alone sincerely asking for his
forgiveness god almighty he's the most
merciful the most loving he will guide
individual forgiven their sins
but many people they don't end up taking
that
they take the easy road and like i said
earlier you recognize the truth
but how many people are already are
courageous enough to go against you know
the societal pressures
you know and worrying a lot of times
what people are going to say
how people think do you think this was
an obstacle to a lot of your friends
because you said
many people agree when you talk about
the oneness of god almighty allah the
pure monotheism they agreed
the basic tenets of islam they agree but
now
change has to start to happen you got to
start implementing the truth
you think this was a hindrance for a lot
of people now they were scared of what
he she's going to say
all their all the the societal pressures
absolutely i i do and and you know the
funny thing is that my friends
i still keep in touch with and and they
know that i'm a practicing muslim
and some of them even before i actually
had that they used to make
um they used to put their forehead on
the ground with me
in prayer and i received a text message
from one of my friends he said
if you ever make it to paradise please
don't forget to ask
allah don't please don't forget to ask
allah for me or to help to save me
which shows that the person he he cares
and he believes
if you want something you have to work
for it and that goes for
physical fitness that goes for academic
pursuits and it also goes for
spiritual pursuits yeah just i have
just envisioned how many people in the
beginning they get all you know
riled up they get all excited and they
start the beginning of the semester for
instance
and then start climbing and you start
people some start studying start some
some start many cutting class but at the
end there's only a few
that graduate you know only a few the
rest they drop
out so this is a greater sacrifice
a sacrifice to attain that ultimate
reward of jannah paradise and to avoid
the hellfire and eddie i want to also
share something with you and and this
also
comes up a lot when i when i talk about
my experience
but any and and we we know this that
when when you
believe in allah and you don't associate
any partners with him and you
and you take your shahada allah removes
all your your sins
and you start off with a fresh slave as
a new person
as a as a person who can live a renewed
life
but at the same token even if you commit
sins after you become a muslim
allah can allah as long as you're
sincere and asking allah to forgive you
you can start again with a clean slate
at any time because allah is forgiving
and will forgive you
and he's so generous that you even
replace your sins with good deeds and
it's very important to know that
because we're all going to make mistakes
even after we we've changed
for a bet for the better very important
point
very important because this is a also a
misconception many people have and
the shaitaan the satanic forces they try
to have a person comfortable in their
realm and thinking that now
if they come living this way of life
that we're talking about that they have
to be perfect human beings there's no
such thing as a
perfect human beings otherwise you'll be
like an angel but we're all works in
progress
we're going to make mistakes but you
have a lord a creator who's the most
kind the most merciful just keep turning
back to him but long as you're making
the stride forward to go ahead and make
yourself
a better human being getting closer
nearness
to your creator this is the ultimate
goal
so thank you very much is there anything
else you'd like to say for someone who's
out there who's kind of stuck
you know they're hearing your story you
know their fitra
is gravitating towards what we're
talking about the oneness of
god almighty allah they've investigated
some of the different
religions out there they like the
complete submission and surrender
because that's what islam means to
submit your will to god almighty alone
to have no other gods besides the one
god they they believe that jesus was a
mighty messenger peace be upon him
they believe muhammad peace and vision
be upon him is also a messenger evidence
is pointing at that they see all the
proofs and evidences
but now they're watching but they're
still like on the fence
right what do you say to someone like
this
absolutely um i would say to this person
whether they're someone's confused maybe
they don't have all the evidences
the best thing to do as you believe in
god but you don't know what choice to
make
pray directly to god and ask for
guidance god guides the people who are
sincere to them and he will answer your
prayer
as long as you ask him and ask him alone
and be sincere
god will guide you and the person who
has has received all the evidences and
is convinced
but but is hesitant to really make that
commitment
uh my my advice to them is
the life is short the life is very short
when i i remember that instant when i
was 14 15
like it was yesterday and now i'm i'm 29
i'm married i have children my life has
changed you never know
any moment could be your last moment and
if you really want to
be having a feeling of peace and
security and safety
you can only receive that from having a
relationship directly with god so don't
hesitate
and and be confident and be confident
the evidence is that god has guided you
to
and with by doing that there's no way
you can go
did you get a chance to remind your
friend
of his situation where god sent where he
said god sent me back
did you get a chance to remind him
because the next time
maybe when it does happen or for sure
we're not going to be coming back once
it's over it's done
and we don't get a second chance like he
got like he testified to
you get to remind him that god sent me
back
absolutely i i reminded him that short
shortly uh
many over the years it's been it's been
almost 10 years since
since that event but any chance that i
get to talk to talk with him and and we
still
talk as if no loves lost when we do talk
um
it's definitely something that i remind
him about and something that
he agree that he agrees with and he
understands but again
uh sometimes um to make that commitment
people may be afraid of what other
people think of them
yeah may allah guide him to be on the
path that
that is pleasing to the created heavens
and earth god almighty allah
islam thank you very much brother for
sharing your amazing story with us
thank you for having me eddie it's an
honor assalamualaikum
may allah