we're going to hear the adhan
here in texas from a cowboy muslim
um
howdy everybody you ever met a muslim
cowboy before well if you have it now
you have i'm
not going to met this church anymore i'm
going to this cowboy church where
everyone wears their cowboy hats and and
everything else we don't have any
muslims where i'm from i had never met a
single muslim until this point in my
life and i'm 20 don't don't do like the
muslims do and never humiliate yourself
and put your face on the ground he's
like we're christians we get on our
knees and we ask god this is your
brother hamza andreas
and i want every single one of you to
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and it's also going to be a taoist
center to call people back to allah
muslims and non-muslims and we trust
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[Music]
bismillah alhamdulillah assalamu
welcome to the dean show and i'm your
host subscribe hit that notification
bell if you haven't done already so you
don't miss
exciting episodes like this one coming
up with my next guest who says he was
born in the corpus christi translated
body of christ in texas
he was very active in the methodist
church and did many missions and
retreats so i believe he's a missionary
he was also
being mentored by a catholic youth
minister who did them wrong due to this
he became an alcoholic went into rehab
in 2010 got active with a.a
and even started his own chapter at the
first united methodist church in conroy
eventually he got a hold of the verbatim
word of god almighty the quran
so he read and read and read until he
start crying and crying profusely didn't
know what to do so he calls an old
friend
and he finds out that friend ended up
ended up also accepting submission to
the creator not creation islam he ends
up at a mosque at a masjid
with an old friend of mine who went
m.i.a years ago kamal el meki
so let's find out what happened in
between in the middle at the end with
our next guest
brandon
estes
assalam-o-alaikum
brother eddie how are you doing
alhamdulillah
how are you brandon so you're the are
you the son or nephew of you sylvester's
alhamdulillah i get this message a lot
um this question a lot but it's it's
interesting our ancestors go back to
uh spain and andalusia right but the
the closeness we're not we're not ex
exactly close
except in that i've had the pleasure
alhamdulillah with traveling with him
with learning from him being able to you
know benefit from his his wisdom and a
lot of the things that he has you know
gone through in his personal experience
as a revert as well but no i'm not a son
and it's it's funny too is because
we both are from the same area in
arlington and my wife is from the same
masjid that he converted in so whenever
i travel with him and people know about
all this stuff they're like oh you're
fibbing to us you know you're not uh
you've got to be his son and we're like
no we're just uh evil twin step
neighbors as we say in the south
okay so we got that out of the way
let's start off with this corpus christi
saying that you were you were born in
the corpus christi what does that mean
so corpus is uh one of the
uh
most well-known cities there in here in
texas and it translates as a latin word
that translates into english as the body
of christ
so
the body of christ like whenever you're
a christian and you take the
take the communion you
are eating and drinking the body and the
blood of christ and so the the city of
corpus is considered the it's called the
body of christ
and then you also ended up
doing many retreats
and missionary work as a christian
yes sir um talk to us growing up my my
parents had
really spent a lot of time
uh in stealing a
a lot of love for for god in me
and what's interesting even though i did
a lot of retreats
they were
always really god based they weren't as
chris as jesus based as you would think
but i was very active in going to
different places where you would go to
more
run down areas that needed a lot of
fixing up older houses that were 70 80
90 years old
and they needed a lot of help fixing up
in the community they didn't have the
money so we would go to areas and this
isn't because people do this in other
countries well there's a lot of that in
texas itself and so we went to one city
called jewett
which is by buffalo texas and um that
was one of my most uh
i guess
my most memorable
trips that we took
and we would go and we would help you
know people fix up their roofs if they
had leaky roofs or if they didn't have
uh proper stairs or wheelchair ramps if
they were becoming you know handicapped
in their old age to fix all their stuff
up just different kind of household
projects and even one of the houses that
we went to go fix was a complete
reconstruction right
and that you know required a whole bunch
of teamwork and crew members and we
would go out there we'd do our you know
prayers and everything and to to try to
you know build camaraderie and you know
also give quote-unquote uh christian
tower right good to uh to the people who
were who were in need
so you were born in texas i visited
texas one time and i got to experience
some of the wharf there they called it
with the southern the southern
hospitality people down there are pretty
pretty nice
that's one thing that i'll you know i'll
always miss any time i go anywhere else
is that anytime i went anywhere in texas
i mean you're going to get treated real
well unless you're going to treat people
you know wrong at first but the the
hospitality is very similar
to the muslim hospitality and that was
one thing that
i really loved when i when i uh saw
islam that there was a hospitality that
was equal if not
better than the southern hospitality
that we had so we do like to you know
pride ourselves uh on the uh the good
treatment of others and and just being
friendly you know saying hi like you you
know where i'm from you couldn't go you
know anywhere in your car without waving
at another person in another car you
don't know who they are you just
another person another car just hey how
you doing in texas is it like that
yes a lot of places i mean unless you're
going to houston big cities
i mean you're not going to have it as
much but you know in montgomery where
i'm from up there north of houston lake
conroe area
it's uh it's it's pretty much like that
and everyone kind of
has this uh
this good feeling of closeness to each
other
now you grew up in texas did you grow up
on a ranch were you involved with
cowboys hes the cowboy hat
so
i we i had always wanted to live on a
ranch and my grandfather uh my mom's dad
he actually had a ranch uh down there
it's called
the name of the city is probably you
know it's it's countries you get it's
called rangi yeah and rungey texas is
where my my grandfather had he had over
100 head of cattle and he had i had my
own heifer uh we when we were in the
beef master breeders united the bbu
which was a it's a different it's a type
of cow you got angus you've got the kobe
wagyu all these other different types
all over the world
but angus and beefmaster are two of the
more popular ones in texas and we raise
beef masters so every time my heifer
would have a calf
and it was a you know good calf we'd put
it up for sale at the at the auction
and so i was involved with this kind of
you know work
from a young child
and was a you know member of the beef
master breeders united but never lived
on a ranch we always lived like when i
lived in refurio it was a small town of
about 3 000 people so you know you knew
everybody in town and everyone knew
everyone and everything about everyone
but when we moved to
conroe which was close to houston it was
more of a bigger city you know close to
45 000 people um and we always lived in
the suburbs after that so i i was raised
you know from a real you know country
family we had always been around horses
and cows and all that stuff but when i
went to school year growing up i was
going to school with people from you
know the city and whatnot so i kind of
had
both exposures
now growing up
did you ever jump on the back of a on a
bull and do some uh was it bull riding
i never jumped on the back of a real
bull uh the only thing i've done was a
mechanical bull and i've ridden horses
since i was a kid horses okay
that was that was one thing i never i
never
i never got into rodeo as big as a lot
of other my friends did yeah um
i was
i was more into sports i really loved
baseball and football i mean i played
baseball since i was
as soon as i could throw a ball i
remember my dad really you know put the
love of baseball and sports into me so
and then football once i got into high
school
so tell us the million dollar question
why are you going through all this from
your story what i know is that you were
from what the audience you're born in
this uh corpus christ you active in the
methodist church going on these missions
as a missionary but there's something
going on in your heart you're still
seeking to know the truth i mean if
you're upon the truth why are you
seeking truth
so
you know it's like as i got a little bit
older you get you get my question
because you would proceed okay i got it
i'm doing missionary work i believe you
believe you're on the truth but that
you're still struggling inside like
there's something missing there like
you're you feel like okay there's
something out there this is not it
and that happened whenever i i got out
of high school i
was exposed to
different aspects of
you know without going into it too much
the truth movement right i'm sure you're
familiar with it they call them truthers
or whatever and i started questioning
like the the the main narrative of
everything not just of of 9 11 but just
of different things in life and i
started reading through the bible over
and over again and going through a lot
of things and a lot of things
started not making sense once i started
looking at it critically and so it
wasn't it wasn't a year until years
later until things happened but at this
point in life when i was 18 and i
started getting in trouble with
with my alcoholism is whenever i started
recognizing that something wasn't wasn't
right right and i promised myself
that until the day that i died i was
gonna be someone who sought the truth no
matter what no matter if it you know if
it you know changed the way that people
looked at me if i was gonna you know go
against all you know whatever i was
gonna i was gonna seek the truth no
matter what and so i kind of made that
promise to myself and to god
that when i was 18 i said god i'm going
to seek you in whatever religion that
you're in or if it's a different form of
christianity because like i was said i
was raised methodist and i was like well
maybe there's a different denomination
that's closer to the truth than this one
or whatever and that's kind of where i
began
that's a great quality to have to be a
person because some people might get
stuck in a community a culture
maybe a certain
cowboy sect whatever the case our group
and their friends are there their
livelihood is there and then the truth
kind of gets cancelled out but that's
really nice that you were firm on and
you made this commitment with your
creator that you're going to seek out
the truth no matter what before i go on
to my next question you talk about
alcoholism
do a lot of people from texas especially
cowboys do they
drink a lot you see the heinekens and
beers or whatever other alcohol beverage
they consume is that's kind of common
it's it's very common unfortunately it's
it's something that you know you're
around since you're a kid you know you
go you go to family meetings and
gatherings and there's going to be
people there i remember having you know
my first everyone even two little kids
they're
you know maybe six seven years old
they're getting sips of beer from their
parents they're not getting them
drinking they're not flirting they're
flirting yeah they're flirting with it
they're like oh hey taste this you know
little kid and they think they're like
you know they're like yeah it's so gross
you know you don't like the taste
because the taste is disgusting and so
kids with the natural fitra they're not
gonna like it but it's it's just
something that's just it's there it's
everywhere you go you turn left it's
here it turn right it's there it's i
mean it's you know it's in communion
when you go to the church you drink wine
some places serve grape juice now but
alcohol is just so permeated within
society that you don't go anywhere
without it being a part of the culture
it's a it's a cultural thing right you
know bourbon whiskey and beer right
especially beer um in the south
and it's it was you couldn't escape it
right and actually that was one of the
things that you know later on
that people just are so they're almost
more shocked that you don't drink than
you know other things because it's like
well how are you not going to drink you
know this is what are you going to do
you're just going to sit there you don't
have something in your hand to hold
it's it's
it's hard for people to imagine because
they don't know anything else right
that's that's all they were raised
around
so then what happens next now you
end up in a a alcohol's anonymous i mean
many people they're just become
functioning alcoholics what made you
take that step
to actually start going to rehab and
because it's just common like you said
so many people you'll say
people won't even admit that they're
alcoholics they're just like this is
just part of my life
so it was a couple years later and i had
uh
we'll just say i gotten in trouble a few
more times
and had some issues with my my drinking
and
like most people yeah you're not gonna
you're not gonna address it but me i had
to i had to face it i was i was
my parents you know my dad i remember
one time he came to me
and
you know this was uh in 2013
and you know he told me brandon he's
like we love you you know you're a great
person to be around we love being around
you but when you drink
he said you're you're a miserable person
you know no one wants to be around you
you're you're he said you're a different
person man he's like so you know if
you're not going to stop if you can't
stop this then no one wants you around
and that that like i
something hit me so all the way to my
soul and i'd realized that this was
you know i i couldn't go on anymore if i
was going to have meaningful
relationships with those who mattered to
me and so you know whenever i was going
through my issues and you know going
through aaa i ended up going to a you
know a
a place to get treatment for my
alcoholism and because i wanted to
tackle it on and that was actually where
i
had developed this
idea
not being exposed to any other religions
yet
i had read through the bible again i had
my own septuagint too which was the
greek next to the english
and i would i would read through this
and then one day it just clicked and i
started
you know crying and i said jesus is not
god i said
from everything i'm reading and
everything that he's saying and with
what i've looked at through the old
testament in the new testament all
together i said for the you know i made
this promise with myself you know not
not a muslim just someone who's reading
this on his own i said jesus is my
brother and i'm gonna follow him and do
everything that he did but i will never
worship him again for the rest of my
life and it was just this promise i made
to myself
and this was in 2010
and so i started uh going to aaa
meetings and to the point where i really
saw a lot of people being helped with it
but i noticed because in aaa you have to
have like a higher power and a
quote-unquote spiritual experience to
really get that help and i noticed a lot
of people they would pick you know
because you whenever you go you can pick
anything as your higher power you can
pick your mom your girlfriend your
boyfriend whatever it is as your higher
power and a lot of people would pick
jesus and i noticed a lot of the people
who were picking people including jesus
or other things as their higher power
they were the ones who relapsed the most
wow and and i would tell people you know
as a and i'm a christian right i'm like
don't pick jesus as your higher power i
would have them one-on-one i'd be like
hey pick the father pick the creator as
your higher power because he doesn't die
he doesn't get tired he's not weak he's
not a human right so if you want the
thing that to really be that one who can
keep you under control pick the creator
of the heavens and the earth pick the
god and um and and this was kind of my
my daughter early on and so i started my
own aaa group in kano at the methodist
church and this is kind of where what i
would do with people they would come in
and i'm inside of a church actively
preaching people don't pick jesus as
your higher powers that's kind of a
little funny story and this is not
taking nothing away from jesus you're
doing what jesus did himself he's the
one who called upon the creator alone
and he didn't uh commit what people were
committing was associating partners with
god in this uh by picking another higher
power you were built picking the
ultimate one higher power the creator of
the heavens and earth the only one
that's what jesus would have called to
also and he did
exactly yeah and
and there's peace in that right and and
people would tell me that this was
you know that it makes more sense
and it makes more sense
well at the end of the day this is what
eventually led me to where i am today
was you know kind of when i was going
down that path
so what happens now so before that were
you believing in the what's the
methodist church the articles
of faith that people have to have is it
it's the trinity believing that god is
three in one jesus died for your sins
what what else this is what you were
believing at that that time before this
absolutely the the methodist church is
the closest of the uh protestant
denominations to catholicism um so we're
we don't we have a few things that are
different but many of the
things that you would find in the
catholic creed you're gonna still find
them in the methodist creed for except
for maybe a few things here and there
that they have in the catechism um but
methodist is very you know you do it
it's heavy on the trinity and heavy on
um on communion and different other acts
of worship that you have to do and also
within methodist uh they're they are
focused they are um
of the branch that do believe that works
do matter because you have calvinist and
non-calvinist right so some half of
protestants believe that works don't
matter whatsoever and then the other
ones believe that works do matter and so
methodist we believe that you know works
do play in to your to your salvation as
well
and not just what
not just the
belief because most evangelicals today
i've gone to the direction of works
don't matter whatsoever right they
completely deny that works have anything
to do with your salvation it's just 100
you know your your belief completely
just to believe that jesus
say for you so methodist we were we did
have an aspect of works in there so you
would find methodists were you know
pretty uh
you know practicing right they would at
least try to stay away from some of the
quebec or sometimes obviously you know
without a really rigid system like you
know islam and they're you're still
going to have people doing things you
know you shouldn't but it was more uh
conservative i guess you could say than
what you would find in many other
evangelical sects so hence this is what
will make the difference and the
difference between someone being an
evangelical and methodist as a
modification there of believing
methodists believing more just one
example more in works rather than just
faith and now someone who doesn't agree
with that would jump over to the other
denomination or sect and become a
evangelical for example is that correct
correct
yeah okay so then you
go and start doing research and you
start reading old testament new
testament what else did you read and
then you concluded from your reading and
studies that jesus is not divine
correct
and what were you is that that's from
the old testament new testament itself
from everything looking at the whole
thing in one complete whole because i
mean as a christian we accepted both
right we weren't new testament only
christians um and even if you did just
look at the new testament i mean you're
still going to find very explicit
statements
you know from jesus like in john 17
where he says the only true god is the
father right and
and so you know statements like this you
know when you look at those it puts in
context the ambiguous statements like
whoever has seen me has seen the father
this is an ambiguous statement so i
would look at the
the
the clear and explicit statements and i
would use those to interpret the
ambiguous statements which is
pretty much what we do in islam as well
right you take the the clear of the
mukkam to explain the motif shabby
so what happens okay so you got this is
one aspect of your life many people as
young as you are i mean other doors
start opening up uh friends are calling
you who aren't even not even thinking
about god uh let's go to the nightclub
you got uh parties you got uh more
drinking with drinking comes other
uh recreational drugs like so you got
that whole life of desires calling you
did you go through a stage at this that
you had to kind of
fight with yourself to kind of stay away
from that and all those temptations that
opened up as a young man
so that was
that was where i was after i had
actually gotten out of out of rehab i
was sober for a couple of years and
then i started i was working in the oil
field
after i left the texas a m
university and so whenever i would have
time on the weekends i ended up you know
getting friends and girlfriends who were
like brandon you know you're really not
an alcoholic and i still had my aa group
that i had started um
cowboys party a lot don't they they're
at the bar drinking yeah yeah we did and
i mean i would every single weekend i
would you know go with my i started back
you know again going with friends you
know i would go and i just wouldn't
drink right and so this was kind of one
of the funny things was i would go out
with my friends and you know on the
weekend um and they'd be like brandon
what are you doing not drinking and so
i'd get to the point where you know i
would hold a beer just so i could hold
one so that people weren't asking me
questions right so i could still at
least have a social circle because i
didn't i was really
uh it was really important to me to you
know have my my buddies and my pals and
everybody and you know what not you're
the odd one out huh and so i was odd one
out so i had to start you know faking
and then i had you know like i said i
had this one friend this one time and
they're like brandon you know what
you're really not an alcoholic you're
you know if you were you'd be struggling
you're not even struggling and so the
devil you know chapon tricked me and was
like yeah you're not an alcoholic and i
was like yeah i'm not i can start
drinking again
right and then alhamdulillah i never got
in trouble with it again however
it started leading me back down the same
thought processes and the same you know
holes
and i got to this point
i was with one of my friends one night
and we were going out and we were
talking about you know what we're going
to do when we're 40. we're like okay
what are we going to do 140 we're going
to save up to where we can have a yacht
and we can be going traveling
on our yachts around the world and we're
going to start up businesses together
besides our you know nine to five or
eight to five jobs that we had
and i stood there and i told him i was
like man we do the same thing
every week
you know we we go to work
and we wait for the weekend we can't
wait till the weekend comes and i come
down here to come meet you guys because
they lived uh you know 45 minutes to an
hour away from me and i drive out down
here with you guys and then we go drink
for two nights i feel really bad about
myself then i go to church to feel
better about myself and then rinse wash
and repeat i said i feel like i'm a
hamster on a wheel and we're not going
anywhere i don't see any
anything changing from what what is you
know there's no purpose in any of this
it's just day in day out there's nothing
that i feel fulfilled with i had this
complete emptiness with it and i told
him i said there's got to be another way
and i'm going gonna have to find out
what it is
and and it was pretty soon after this
where
you know one day i had finally had
enough
i i couldn't i couldn't take it anymore
and so i went and opened up my bible and
it was in the morning i was sober that
morning i hadn't been drinking or
nothing yet
and
i
opened it up and it was the part where
jesus peace be upon him he prostrated in
the garden where he he fell on his face
and he was praying and begging to the
creator right to
to not take this cup from him you know
and so on and so forth and i told myself
i said you know what
jesus felt it it was like it hit me
really clearly i was like jesus he fell
on his face he prostrated like the
muslims do and i remembered a couple
weeks before i was at this point i'm
going to a cowboy church now so i'm i'm
a non-denominational i'm not going to
met this church anymore i'm going to
this cowboy church where everyone wears
their cowboy hats and and everything
else and i i i listened to the preacher
and he never because we don't have any
muslims where i'm from i had never met a
single muslim until this point in my
life and i'm 20 uh 26 years old or so um
and he brings up randomly muslims one
day because we're out in you know in the
country and he's like you know don't
don't do like the muslims do and never
humiliate yourself and put your face on
the ground he's like we're christians we
get on our knees and we ask god we don't
put our face in the dirt
and when i and that was a couple weeks
before and so this that day when i had
finally just you know gave up and i was
like you know what god i don't know what
the truth is i've been looking in the
hindu scriptures i've been looking at
christianity throughout all these sex
and all this other stuff um and and uh i
was like i can't find it and when i
opened up and i saw jesus prostrating
there in the bible
i said how dare he say humiliate because
you know even though i don't worship
jesus he's my you know my role model and
he said humiliate i would understand if
he said humble yourself but he said
humiliating so i had this like feeling
of kind of rebellion like you know not
to jesus or to god but to the pastor i
said how dare you so i was like you know
what i'm going to do what jesus did i'm
going to put my head on the ground and i
ask god to guide me and so i did
and every and when it happened
everything was clear i can't explain it
to you eddie except that there was no
doubt in my mind that god was one it was
it was kind of like i just i had what we
call yakin i had certainty and and
something
was telling me to follow muhammad for
the rest of my life and so i told myself
if this was real you know i got up um
you know had a dream or whatever but i
got up and i said if this is real i got
to find out about it so
i actually had a koran on my shelf
because i had a big library in my house
and with books from all over but you
know i was just sitting there collecting
dust because i like to be you know i
like to look at myself as someone who
was you know really intelligent i had
all these books and stuff and i was like
you know what this is one of the books i
haven't read and so i'm gonna actually
read it you know and actually and as
soon as i opened up the book eddie that
first page i started reading
i could not stop crying you know i read
from fact it had then i would go to a
you know open up to another part and
every single word that i read even
though it was an english translation of
the curse resonated with me of the quran
um
it it i i couldn't i couldn't stop i
would it was like a hunger it was
insatiable i just i kept reading and
reading then i would go online and watch
youtube videos like what is this that i
found i cannot believe this who is this
prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi
and peace be upon him
and i
was just over the moon i was like this i
found it you know and why but why me
though because i was still thinking you
know my parents are you know they're
they've done so much for me i'm the i'm
the black sheep and i've gotten in
trouble with alcohol and all this other
stuff you know why did god you know
guide me of all people you know i was
like i've got a thousand other people i
could think of right now who are more
worthy of god guiding than me but i
still was like you know what i'm gonna
still find out and so i i talked to my
friend uh that i knew that was this
palestinian guy um and i was like maybe
he'll have some answers right because we
were in college together and he uh
he had he had you know partied just as
much as i did right and i was like what
do you know when he had told me that he
had you know he had actually converted
and it was actually uh you know you got
to go do this thing called the shahada
to write the testimony of faith and so i
was like well i mean i already believe
it like whatever i got to do you tell me
and so i drove all the way down to
houston to go meet his brother-in-law
and he's like well you have to give
shahada adam masjid on juma so come back
on friday so i drove all the way back to
you know montgomery back to my home um
and waited till friday and then i drove
an hour and 15 minutes that friday to go
to go get my shahada at the masjid um to
uh and and it was actually pretty
interesting because i told my parents
and told everyone about it i was like
man i'm really excited you know and all
this was gonna be you know life changing
and and people were like brandon you
know because there was a winter storm
there was ice on the road and it was
below like 33 degrees it was like 31
degrees like below freezing and so
they're like it's going to be dangerous
on the road and so
you know i i still went ahead and did i
was like look shaitaan satan he doesn't
want me to go everyone all the forces of
evil are going to stop me i was like i'm
going to go give my shahada today and so
i ended up driving an hour and 15
minutes and even though like roads were
closed on houston that day i remember
that like every time i would try to like
go somewhere like a road that was closed
would happen to just be open for just a
little period of time and ended up
making it exactly at the masjid right
when it was time for for salah and
alhamdulillah it was you know the the
most amazing day of of the rest of my
life
you mentioned now that you are going to
be following uh prophet muhammad what
came to me was a
statement authentic statement by him
where he said don't do
as the christians done had done to jesus
peace be upon him they elevated him to a
god don't praise me like that i am but a
messenger a slave servant of god
almighty so by following the last of
allah muhammad you're also following the
way of jesus who predicted muhammad
would come and abraham and moses and all
the other proceeding messengers so they
were just the messengers who called you
to connect you with the one god they
were examples
of how to live your life morally
righteously so that's all it is is it's
not choose jesus or muhammad because
that's how people have an affinity they
have a love they paint this picture in
their mind of jesus
and now they have a connection to a lot
of times it's just a fairy tale they put
in their mind blonde hair blue eye if
they're white if it's another
nationality another color and now
they've painted him to be what they want
an imaginary person in their mind
but it's really not what it is it's
right you are so explain that part that
this is very important for people to
know that it's it's all you're doing is
now
if you love god you're going to love the
messenger that god sent
yes that's that's 100
the
the one thing that was made super clear
on that day
and i
really want to stress and emphasize how
true that is that when even grazed as a
christian when i saw
the way that people talked about jesus
from where i was from 100 percent he is
to them in their mind a you know a white
jesus right and i mean i'm sure some
people even thought that jesus wore
wranglers and cowboy boots and yeah
you know and i talked to uh you know
black hebrew israelites you know today
and they do the same thing they see
jesus as this you know
black man even though we know he was
middle eastern he was something in the
middle but all these people from
different groups they want to see jesus
the way that they want to see him right
yeah um and and they want to make god
you know like them this this this you
know uh this kind of uh
like they want to make him similar to
how something that they can comprehend
right but but jesus and muhammad and
moses and abraham
it it hit me so clearly that they were
just men like us however they're much
more greater than just men because you
don't want to say you know just men they
were the best people ever to walk the
face of this earth they were the best of
society the most truthful
the the these people you know people
talk about
steve jobs and
all of these influencers people who have
completely changed the world with their
inventions and people who met them will
talk about how it was to be around them
if you're in the same room they were
people who just influenced people just
by being there they had this aura the
prophets were light years even above
these kind of people their
character was such that if you just sat
with them your character would change
being around them being around the
prophet muhammad and the prophet jesus
peace be upon them
they they
they they lit up the room and they the
way that they spoke would make you feel
comfortable these are people who are
true heroes right people who are our
real role models and there's no one else
on the face of this earth that is like
them whatsoever however they still ate
food and when you eat food something's
going to have to happen to that food
right they're not god they they were men
who who did you know have moments where
they would forget things they have they
have bodies just like us that get old
and and as such
nothing
i realized was worthy of worship except
for the uncreated creator of the heavens
and the earth
that's very deep so you end up let's
wrap it up here you end up with an old
friend of mine kemal and meki
at the masjid and you take your
declaration of faith your shahada
describe that that moment what you
professed what you truly believed you
already been talking about it
worshipping the creator not the creation
talk about this
and then we'll come to a
end
so after the football was over
which was the lecture that on every
friday you have a lecture kind of like a
sermon you have at church but you know
it was really different for me
everyone's sitting on the ground right
and i'm like where's all the pews you
know but it was comfortable it was like
okay this is some nice carpet and it
smelled really good i was like man i
haven't smelled something like this
before and everyone was like so happy
and you know happy to see me
and
after it's over
he calls me up i'm like oh my gosh
what's going to happen you know even
though i already i was like god whatever
you want i'm going to do it you know who
who called you who caught who called you
come out shake him yeah come out he
called me up to the front uh to the
front of the mustard because i was
sitting you know halfway in
and
i stand up and i at this point i still
don't know what i'm supposed to say no
one had like prepped me on the shahadah
right i didn't even know the english
part of it i just knew that i believed
in god i believed muhammad was his
messenger peace be upon him right and
god was one and that jesus was not god
and all this and so when he calls me up
there
he's like we're gonna you know say it in
in arabic and in english some people do
it english and then arabic
but as soon
as the words left my mouth
eddie i don't know how to describe it to
you
everything like went went white like i
had this experience that like i was just
surrounded with with light and it was
like washing me from the inside out and
and the prophet muhammad he talks to us
about how whenever a person you know
accepts islam
that
all of their sins are completely
forgiven from what they did before but
this was almost like a you know a
manifestation of that and and just i you
know had goose bumps and this euphoria
that was better than anything i'd ever
drank or taken or done before in my
entire life that feeling was better than
the most blissful moment times like a
million and and i couldn't stop crying
and it was crazy everyone i mean i've
been through a lot of shahadas but
everyone in the whole audience uh all of
the other brothers and whatnot every
we're all crying together and kamel and
meki's crying and um it was it was it
was it was ajib and i just i knew in my
heart after i said the testimony of
faith which is i testify that there is
no god worthy of worship except for
allah the god the one true god alone and
i testify that muhammad is the messenger
of god the moment those words came out
of my mouth
these words i knew it it was like it was
writ that this was truer than even my
own name if i would have said i am
brandon you know the son of todd the son
of alfred like that wasn't even as true
as that statement that there is no god
but god like it was there was the
ultimate statement i ever made in my
life
and so
you know i i live by that statement now
alhamdulillah it's uh
so powerful to hear this amazing hence
the muslim one who submitted to the will
of god so a cowboy can also be a muslim
like you now huh
muslim cowboy
i tell you what the
anyone can be a muslim and this is one
thing allah says in the final revelation
in the quran
we have not sent you talking about the
prophet muhammad except as a mercy to
all of mankind and not just mankind but
all of the creation he is a mercy he's
been sent to even the animals to have
mercy to them and to everything in
existence right he is the universal
prophet
and it is for everyone to accept into
their life and there is no difference
between an auto a person who is from the
middle east or from
asia or whatever there no one is better
than the prophet salallahu as some peace
be upon him said between an arab or a
non-arab or a black and a white
they are only better in taqwa which
means god consciousness and that's
something that only god knows what's in
your heart right so there is no
difference between any single person in
islam and it's open for anybody no
matter your background it is not some
religion for those people over this part
of the world or that part of the world
but rather no matter where you come from
god wants you
to submit to him alone without partners
without statues and and intermediaries
and angels we don't worship angels we
don't worship people no matter how
amazing and great and much of role
models those people are
they're still things that are created so
we tell you as god has told us
worship the creator alone and do not
worship the creation
brandon thank you very much for sharing
this amazing story with us may god
almighty allah continue to bless you
preserve you and make so many other
people benefit from this amazing story
and thank you very much i mean thank you
for having me eddie it was a pleasure
i'm very honored i ask allah to accept
all of this from us and insha allah we
if we don't meet in this life then
inshallah we'll meet in uh in the next
one god willing inshallah
thank you so much my brother
you're very welcome
what an amazing story with the muslim
cowboy starting off
as a missionary and from there
partying drinking becoming an alcoholic
and what's amazing is look people go
through so many rehabs and they end up
not being able to make it they fall back
to it but that's the beauty of this way
of life islam it gave him the fortitude
it gave him the strength of relying on
no other superpower
no other human being when he had that
choice
in the aaa a holic's anonymous to call
upon any other person besides god he
said no and he was calling other people
not to call upon the messenger the
mighty message of jesus
or your ancestor or this person buddha
or this person
no he said just call on god almighty the
creator alone this is why he got guided
this is how you can get guided by doing
this simple step
praying like jesus prayed not like the
pastor said no no don't do that don't
humiliate yourself oh no that's how you
honor yourself
is by doing what jesus did he put his
face on the ground and he went a little
further it's in the bible and he's fell
on his face and he prayed to who himself
no he prayed to the creator of the
heavens and earth so why don't you start
off by doing that
do what brandon estes did the muslim
cowboy pray to the creator the heavens
and the earth god almighty allah alone
asks for the guidance and that is how
you can fill that void in your heart and
we can get you a free gift of one made
him read over and over and then cry
profusely when he recognized the truth
that was the verbatim word of god
almighty the quran we'll give it to you
for free go to thedeanshow.com
and if you're in the united states we'll
go ahead and ship it to you
free and that's our gift to you thank
you very much for tuning in subscribe if
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like this and
we are so close
we got to go ahead and
get the remaining for the dean center
support us go ahead and in the
description you can contribute towards
the building of the dean show the first
mega dawah center a masjid athletic
facility
go ahead and do your part be a part of
this history so we can help educate
the closer 300 million americans who
know nothing about this beautiful way of
life that
our brother here accepted and so many
people are searching for purpose they
want to know purpose
and inshallah you can be a part of this
work by contributing towards the
building of the deen center we'll see
you next time until then peace be with
you
do you know anything about islam
no do you know anything about islam no
nothing
do you know anything about islam no i
don't you don't i don't wake up there
are over 300 million americans that
don't know what islam is this is why we
are opening the dean center the first of
its kind 35 000 square foot tawa center
and masjid to show america the beautiful
message of islam inshallah with your
help and donations we can close on the
property launch nationwide programs a
state-of-the-art production studio for
online content and an on-site dawah
center to show what true islam is donate
right now may god almighty allah reward
all of you
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