asum my name is ABD and I'm from Britain
I was raised in a non-religious secular
family we never discussed Islam we never
discussed any kind of religion and I
came to my own conclusions that there
was no God and that science had the
answers to everything because that's
what I was being taught in school and
that's what I was hearing on the TV even
so despite coming to my own ideas that
there was no God every once in a while I
had the doubt and asked myself is there
a God maybe maybe there's a God now
going through high school I was unhappy
much of the time because there's a lot
of peer pressure at school to conform to
be fashionable to be popular to be
daring and so on and I didn't want to be
like that I didn't I saw the popular
people were not respecting the teachers
not respecting knowledge I didn't feel
that they were really looking to develop
themselves and to really contribute to
the world so I was lonely and and being
lonely is unhappy especially as a
teenager in fact it reached a point
about two or three times where I felt
that since I had no clear purpose in
life maybe I should end my life but
thanks to God I didn't do that as Allah
planned it I had a Muslim friend at high
school and sometimes I would go to his
house and he would say I'm going
downstairs to pray sometimes I would ask
him why do you pray or how do you pray
and the thing I really appreciate about
him is that he was not shy to tell me
about his Islam at least when he was at
home this is very important for Muslims
today because if you don't make an
effort to show something of your Islam
you cannot expect anybody to have an
interest in Islam or to learn about
Islam now after I'd known him for about
5 years when we were 16 he decided that
I would probably appreciate Islam so he
made an effort to persuade me to learn
about it and for a period of about 3
weeks every day he was telling me you
should learn about Islam it's the
religion of of Truth there is a life
after death there is a paradise and a
Hellfire Allah is the most merciful he
didn't know much of the Quran or the
Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad peace and
mention of Allah be upon him he just
kept telling me the same points over and
over again and eventually we reached a
point one evening as we were walking
together and I looked up at the moon and
I said to myself if what he's saying is
true if there really is a life after
death then it would not harm me just to
investigate this for myself and come to
my own decision and honestly from that
point onwards my heart was just open to
Islam and I can remember I began to talk
to God and to say I can't believe that
all my life I've never spoken to you
I've never acknowledged you but now I
really believe in you it was really as
simple as that for me of course I took
the trouble to learn about Islam as he
advised me to do so and I think also
something that was going through my mind
at that time was that after death If
there really was another life then I
would not have the luxury to just run
away from Allah and do as I please
another thing I should mention about my
life before I became Muslim is that
around that time age 16 the nightclub
scene was becoming very popular and
promoted on TV so I was really aspiring
to reach the age of 18 where I could do
as I pleased I was making music on my
computer and I just wanted to get into
the club scene to experiment with the
drugs and to experiment with girls and
so on I was so close to entering that
lifestyle and I often wonder where I
would have ended up had I gone into that
life but thanks to God he saved me from
that and gave me Islam as I mentioned
before I became Muslim I was interested
in science and I felt that science had
the answers to all our questions about
where we came from and how the universe
works now what interested me when I
first began to learn about Islam is that
actually Islam and science do not
contradict at all and there have been
many scientific discoveries which
support what is mentioned in the Quran
for example about embryology or cloud
formation or the structure of the earth
so this motivated me to study about
Islam particularly from this scientific
aspect the one thing that really
impressed me about my first Muslim
friend and his family was their
hospitality and the way that they
treated me as a guest and I think that
this is very important for Muslims in
their interaction with the non-muslims
because if we want to charm them towards
Islam and encourage them to learn about
Islam then we have to be aware of
something which is that
non-muslims have more information now
about Islam than they used to and they
are probably aware that Islam does not
allow many of the things which they are
accustomed to doing and this could make
them reluctant to learn about Islam but
by treating them well and showing them
the very welcoming and uh the community
Spirit amongst the Muslims this I think
will help them to embrace Islam in my
case when I became Muslim I was very
lucky because I did not
face much Conflict at all with my family
or with the friends I had at that time I
remember that my father in particular
was concerned about the direction I was
taking um but he was supportive and I
would say that the Big Challenge really
was just to adjust to the Islamic way of
life and to learn to submit to Allah and
one of the things that really helped me
to do that was to take the attitude that
whenever the truth comes to me when I'm
toward something about Islam which is
different from what I was doing before
it is not something which is against me
but it is something which is for me
because it will bring me closer to God I
would say the main changes that occur to
me after becoming Muslim is that I
learned to respect myself more and over
time I came to appreciate the importance
of having a healthy diet having regular
exercise having a healthy mind and a
healthy body keeping good company taking
care of what I hear and see all of this
helped me to become a better Muslim of
course I welcome any opportunity to
discuss Islam with friends and family or
even complete strangers but the
challenge is that sometimes the better
you know somebody or the closer you are
to them the harder they find it to
accept the truth from you now the
response of my father to my telling him
about Islam has been positive and I
think that the potential is there he is
interested but he's very busy with the
work that he does
whereas with my mother who has a lot
more time on her hands to reflect and to
think she makes the excuse that she
chooses to worship God as she pleases
you see she acknowledges the existence
of a God but she doesn't want to submit
to his
rules and I have yet to find a way to
really help her to understand the basic
principle that Allah does not prohibit
anything except because it's harmful to
us and this is something which honestly
many of the Muslims and non-muslims
today are unaware of they see Islam as a
set of restrictive rules which are
preventing them from having fun and
being free and so on and in fact the
true freedom and the true happiness
comes by submitting to Allah's rules and
we can see the consequences in many
societies today where people are
ignoring the rules of even Christianity
or Judaism for example and this is
leading to break up of families and
break up of societies so I think the
difficulty with my family is the lack of
a really good example for them to see
how effective Islam is when put into
practice in terms of my efforts to
spread the message of Islam of course I
first and foremost try to give a good
example myself um also I like to
distribute cassette tapes perhaps
interviews of how people became Muslim
or stories of the prophets of Allah and
so on and I also like to discuss with my
friends creative ways to Spur people's
curiosity for example leaving a piece of
paper with a few questions about life in
maybe a phone booth or on a table
somewhere so that someone might pick it
up and it might just have a few
questions which encourage them to learn
more about Islam the current situation
in the Muslim world is a sad one and we
see that many of the Muslims are
deceived by the an Islamic ways but at
the same time with each year we find
more and more people leaving those
anomic ways and finding peace and
happiness in
Islam the media today portrays a very
negative and false impression of Islam
and one cannot help but wonder why that
is when the truth is available for all
to see now even at the time of the
Prophet Muhammad peace and mention of
Allah be upon him he faced this
challenge people would describe him as a
liar as a sooth say and many people were
forced to ignore those claims because
his example was so contrary to what was
being said about him so likewise our
response to the media Onslaught against
Islam today should be to present the
best image of Islam that we possibly can
the message that I would like to convey
to the Muslims today is that your
religion is your flesh and blood and
that's Allah tells us in the Quran what
means that he he doesn't want harm for
us but rather he wants to purify us and
complete his favor upon us so that we
may be grateful to him and as he also
tells us in the Quran what means it is
in the remembrance of Allah that the
hearts find rest so I really want to
stress that you can never escape from
Allah the most high so instead of
continuously trying to run away from him
and somehow avoid him face up to the
fact that he is not looking to harm you
he just wants you to worship him so that
you can have the honor of seeing his
face in the paradise so please be
prepared for the inevitable meeting with
him when I began to learn about Islam I
was fortunate to meet many Muslims who
were enthusiastic to spread their
religion and to give me books to read
and so on and what impressed me the most
about some of the books I was given was
their constant reference to the Quran
and Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
there are many books in the world today
but many of them are containing opinions
of people or narrations about the
prophet Muhammad peace and mention of
Allah be upon him which are not
correct now we come to the story of how
I actually took the shahada and became a
Muslim for I had been studying Islam for
perhaps two or 3 months and it took me
some time to build up the confidence to
actually enter Islam formally even
though I had begun to pray to God and to
even fast in Ramadan very early on but
for some reason I never felt quite ready
to accept Islam
formally So eventually towards the end
of Ramadan I went to the mosque and I
invited my Muslim friends to come and be
with me at that time and of course the
process of becoming Muslim is very
simple you simply testify that none has
the right to be worshiped except Allah
and that Muhammad is his slave and
messenger but what happened after that
was somebody suggested that I make say
some prayers for the Muslim world
because I had just become Muslim and
therefore all of my passings had been
forgiven but what nobody told me was how
to actually conclude the prayer so I
prayed and I prayed some more and I
prayed even more than that and I must
have included almost every Muslim in my
prayers in one way or another and then I
paused because I ran out of things to
say and somebody subtly hinted that we
conclude this prayer in your name oh
Allah and after that people were
impressed that I had managed to pray for
about 40
minutes who may surprise someone that a
boy born in a non-religious family could
have an innate love for his creator but
actually Allah creates each person
initially upon the fitra or the natural
disposition and then his parents may
turn him into for example a Jew or a
Christian so the heart always has a
desire to worship Allah and I remember a
nice story which is worth mentioning
here about a doctor I think he was in
London and he treated a Muslim patient
so he asked that patient you seem to be
a Muslim who is practicing your religion
I'd like to ask you something about
Islam which he did and the Muslim took
the opportunity to ask him you are a
doctor and you're a very wealthy man are
you happy and the doctor replied by
saying well actually no sometimes I'm
very depressed so the Muslim asked him
if you wanted to give Comfort to your
eyes what would you do and he replied by
saying that I would look at something
attractive and the Muslim went on to ask
him how would you give Comfort to your
ears or how would you give Comfort to
your tongue so then the Muslim asks him
does it make sense to give Comfort to
Your Eyes by listening to something
enjoyable and of course the doctor said
no and the Muslim asked him does it make
sense to give Comfort to your tongue by
looking at something attractive and of
course the doctor said no so the Muslim
went on to say to him this is the
problem your heart will gain Comfort by
worshiping Allah and giving thanks to
Allah and having a connection and a
relationship of Allah but you are
depriving your heart of that connection
and that is why you're unhappy the
number of women becoming Muslim today is
greater than the number of men and when
I first heard this it surprised me until
I mentioned it to a former work
colleague who was a Christian and she
explained that in her experience of
organizing church activities women
tended to participate more actively than
men
so it would seem that women generally
tend to be motivated more um in
religious
activities than the men are however this
is not an excuse for women to be
complacent now women can take their
Tidings in the fact that the prophet
Muhammad piece of mention of Allah be
upon him also told us that the whole
world is a place of provision and the
best object of provision in this world
is a righteous woman last year for the
first time time I had the opportunity to
make umra which is the Lesser pilgrimage
to Makkah and I had very high
expectations of it because of what I'd
heard from friends who had the
opportunity to go before me I would say
the greatest benefit I got from making
the umra is that I felt very very close
to God and I felt I could confess
everything to him since I was so close
to his house the cataba and I felt
completely sincere I felt that I could
confess all of my thoughts to him and
ask ask him to purify my heart and help
me to rectify my ways many Muslims today
have observed that people who revert to
Islam from another religion are more
enthusiastic to learn about Islam than
those who have been raised in Muslim
families and I believe it was the great
Omar alab who once said that a person
cannot truly appreciate Islam unless he
has seen Jia or pre-islamic ignorance
now we should all desire a stronger
relationship with Allah
and it starts with Dua or prayer the
prophet Muhammad peace and mention of
Allah be upon him the Dua or the prayer
which he would mention most frequently
in his home was what could be translated
as oh Turner of the hearts turn my heart
to your dean and the prophet Muhammad
peace and mention of Allah be upon him
was not told to ask Allah for an
increase in anything in the Quran for an
increase in anything except knowledge in
addition to prayer
I would advise any Muslim who wants to
develop a desire to learn more about
Islam to mix with those Muslims who are
learning about Islam because the prophet
Muhammad pie and mention of Allah be
upon him told us that a man is upon the
religion of his friend so let him be
careful whom he takes as a friend Life
as a Muslim in Britain can be
challenging because you are in an
environment where you feel like almost
everybody is telling you to disobey
Allah now having said that I have to say
that I believe there really is a great
potential for many British people to
become Muslim because they have among
other things an intelligence to know
that what they hear about Islam in the
media is not necessarily true or it
could be that they just ignore the media
R together and I really stress to all
Muslims living in countries like Britain
please don't hide your Islam show the
best image of Islam that you can don't
be shy tell people that you pray tell
them about the morals that Muslims have
let them see the beauty of Islam because
I think that many of them are very close
to accepting it at school in Britain
from what I can remember we had one or
two lessons about religion per week but
what I remember also is that the media
in general is regarding religion as
completely worthless so there is a
tendency to promote respect for
different people's religions but the
message in general is that religion is
of no use today I hope you enjoyed my
story and I hope that I motivated you to
learn more about Islam as a way of life
thank you for
listening