in the name of Allah most gracious most
compassionate I went to the bishop and
told him that I'd like to take it a step
further and become a
priest after my training en Rome had
finished I returned back to the UK was
ordained a priest and I worked as a as a
Roman Catholic priest in a parish and
that was a very privileged time too I
was working with good people and it was
a privileged occasion you know pet for
people to let you into their lives when
their babies were born to baptize them
to marry people to hear their
confessions to say Mass to anoint the
sick to get a phone call in the middle
of the night and be asked to go and
anoint your mother who's dying very
privileged occasion to be a priest and
so I when I look back at my time in the
church I I have deep gratitude to Allah
Almighty and people say to me brother
adris you know what a change in your
life you are going in this direction and
then all of a sudden you change I see no
change I look back on my life and I see
a straight line and I see you know when
I was sitting in those lecture halls in
Rome learning about St Thomas aquinus
and the Bible and church history I can
see now that I wasn't training to be a
priest I was training to be talking to
you today as a Muslim that I know now
that it was Allah almighty's plan from
the beginning of time that I would be
Muslim and I'd be sitting here today
talking to you about his
Islam so how how how did it happen why
did I leave the priesthood not because I
I had any problem with the church none
at all I was happy being a Catholic and
I had no plan to leave my
religion but Allah almighty this is very
important God Almighty speaks to us in
different ways he wants to bring us to
him some people he speaks to them
through sport or through a beautiful
sunrise or through the words of the
Quran or through science
he spoke to me through my heart because
as a priest you know that priests in the
church they don't
marry and I was very lonely I was lonely
and I made a very difficult decision I
didn't want to leave the Catholic church
but I decided I would leave my job as a
priest so I left the church I left the
the
priesthood and leaving the priesthood is
like uh a death and a divorce and your
house burning down all rolled into one
it's a big deal so I needed something to
to cheer me up having left the
priesthood so I decided I needed a
holiday I had no money so I went on the
internet and looked for the cheapest
holiday I could find and the cheapest
holiday I could find was a holiday to
Egypt now I knew nothing about
Egypt sand camels pyramids oh and just
one other problem
Muslims I'd never met a Muslim in my
life all I knew about Muslims was what
the television told me that they chop
your hands off and that they blow
themselves up and that they hit ladies
so I thought to myself oh this is a bit
dangerous if I go on holiday to Egypt
maybe I'll be kidnapped maybe these
Muslims will will seize me and chop my
head
off but I in the end I said well I have
no money I have no choice so I I went
and that week on holiday in Egypt
changed my life because For the first
time in my life I I encountered I met
Islam
the first Muslim I met in my life was
not some important
Sheik my introduction to Islam was not
through reading a book about Islam or
watching a TV program or listening to a
sermon by a a Muslim preacher my
introduction to Islam came from a little
kid in the street cleaning shoes and I
walked past him one day and he saw my
white skin this little boy he was thin
and he was wearing little plastic
flip-flops on his feet
and he saw my white skin and he said to
meum peace be upon
you and he meant it you know he meant
this little kid he meant peace be upon
you and for the week I was in Cairo I
would walk past the boy every day near
my hotel and I learned some words in
Arabic to say to him I learned to say z
z and he would reply to me alhamdulillah
all praise be to
Allah so my introduction to Islam came
from a little kid greeting me with the
words assalam alaykum and all praise be
to Allah so when I went home from Egypt
at the end of the week I knew nothing
about Islam but I knew that Muslims
weren't what the television told
me so I went back home I was without a
job I needed to get a job so I got a job
teaching in a school remember my
background was in a teaching order so I
got a job in a in a state school I think
in the US and Canada you'd call it a
public school and this was a very
naughty school the kids in this school
were very very naughty kids but they
were
also uh Arab children so a lot of them
were Muslims so my job was to teach the
children in the school about the six
major world religions Buddhism Hinduism
Sikhism Christianity Judaism and Islam
now I knew about Christianity and I knew
enough about Judaism but the other four
I knew nothing about so to teach Islam
to these Muslim kids and I was teaching
them for public exams I had to get the
books out each night and and read about
Islam to teach
them and the more and more time went on
the more I read the more I liked what I
read I liked what I was reading until it
came maybe 3 four months into into this
journey and I found myself I was
mentioning the name of prophet Muhammad
upon him be peace and and tears would
come in my eyes when I was teaching the
kids or a lump would come in my throat
which I quickly had to disguise cuz
these were rough kids you know you
couldn't you couldn't let anything away
that with them Ramadan came and they
approached me and they said sir we've
got nowhere to pray in Ramadan and your
classroom is the only room in the school
with a
carpet coincidence hey my room was the
only room in the school with a carpet
and a wash basin they needed a wash
basin to perform the ablution before
prayer so they said can we use your
classroom to
pray so again this was this part of the
journey the long and the short is that
during Ramadan they prayed and I sat at
the back and marked my books and
prepared my lessons but basically after
a few days began to watch them pray and
I'd look up and say oh they're doing
this now and now they're doing
this and and I became fascinated and I
went to the internet and without telling
them I learned on off by heart the
Arabic words they were saying so at the
end of Ramadan I knew how to pray these
kids had taught me how to pray and as
well at the beginning of Ramadan when
they said can we pray in your room I
said yes but also I said in solidarity
with you I'm not a Muslim but I'll fast
with you during the month of Ramadan so
at the end of that Ramadan I'd learned
how to pray and I'd fasted not for
Allah's sake but I'd fasted to encourage
the children's Faith so more and more
months went went by and by this time I
knew what Muslims were like I knew they
were good people I felt comfortable with
Muslims so I began to go to London
central mosque to learn more about Islam
for myself not to teach but for my own
for my own heart of my own
mind
and the the final one of the talks that
was given by Yousef Islam Cat Stevens
the the famous singer and at the end of
his talk I I went up to him and said
brother what do you do to become
Muslim and he said well I said I don't
want to be Muslim but if someone wanted
him a Muslim what would you do he said
well first of all Muslims believe in one
God I said well I've always believed in
one God he said a Muslims pray five
times a day I said well actually I I
know how to pray in Arabic and he gave
me a very puzzled look and he said and
Muslims fast during Ramadan I said well
actually I fasted in Ramadan for the
whole month and he looked me directly in
the eyes and he said to me brother you
are Muslim already who are you trying to
fool and with those words brother you
are Muslim already who are you trying to
fool the call to prayer sounded in the
mosque
allahar for for
Salat and everyone got up to go and pray
in the prayer Hall above and and I was
like a drunken man
because I could hear in my mind brother
who you trying to fool you're Muslim
already and then outside I could hear
Allah abbar and we went up to the prayer
Hall and the brothers prayed in the hall
and and the sisters up above in the
balcony and I sat at the back against
the wall when Salat M began and it was
as if it was as if angels Beyond number
came into the
mosque it was just the most beautiful
thing when the Quran began to be recited
and I began to cry and I cried and I
cried and I cried like a baby and I knew
in my heart that the whole journey of my
life had led me to that moment and when
the prayer was finished I went to use of
Islam and I said brother I want to
become Muslim tell me what to
do he said say these words after me
say I bear witness that there's no
created being worthy of worship but
Allah
I bear witness that Muhammad peace be
upon Him is his messenger and then of
course all the brothers greeted me and
it felt wonderful