so a lot of people see that as that's
modern-day witchcraft which is like a
scary term but this is like with the gin
and stuff right but
the the love i have for jesus is is what
brought me into islam like they would
basically tell us their people over
there they hate all of you they want all
of you dead but they also cast spells
and stuff which is never so much my
thing that's dealing with the jinn
that's what
animals are slaughtered and that like
that meant the world to me so i didn't
know anything about islam and i
definitely didn't know anything correct
[Music]
welcome to the d show now my next guest
sister
faye
was raised in a rural christian bible
belt where
white was considered the only color that
mattered in christianity was
a common topic not just in the church
but also in school she says the sunday
school embedded her with the idea that
you are born a sinner
she grew up watching the people around
her preach christianity in the church
but outside would turn
to lying stealing cheating and
practicing ill will she came to
associate her religion at the time with
hatred and ignorance and god too by
association
she went on to explore other religions
and for a long time she said she was a
pagan and spent
time
investigating looking into
wiccan and other religions and decided
that energy
made the most sense to her
but she was she also also believed that
there was something greater out there
about a year and a half ago she met an
amazing muslim
she had never been exposed to islam the
morality and compassion of this muslim
showed was it was astounding to her she
started reading about islam met a muslim
friend and she's here with us to steer
her story let's start off with
sister faye before we get out with our
next guest sal nick was just there
how are you i'm all right so you grew up
in the bible bell what yes can you tell
us about this
it's uncomfortable it's incredibly
racist to be honest um if you meet
someone who's not white it's an anomaly
probably less than one percent
i grew up most of my life not actually
knowing what race was
but you're not that old you would think
that's maybe from the 1920s or something
it still exists
yes they still do lynchings and
everything sometimes where is this in
america it's southern west virginia wow
that's amazing subhanallah so is that
like where the kkk is from i have no
idea
because i know they still have fun
people think that this group has been
eradicated but they still have i believe
like 200 some functioning
branches in the united states
yeah so tell us so you're growing up you
so you're started off with your faith
christian faith
yes it was more of the when you grow up
in a faith it's just what's there you
don't necessarily know if that's
you know if it's anything other than
what people practice
so every everyone there all the children
went to sunday school every sunday
i don't think i ever heard of any other
religion for the longest time
oh so so from there what happens how did
you hit a crossroads where you at what
point in your life did you start to
drift away and realize okay this is not
for me
um it started with one day like every
day in sunday school they were
constantly talking about jesus more than
god and even as a child it just seems
weird when you say you're worshiping god
to constantly be talking about jesus
every time you never hear the name of
god
and but the main topic every sunday
school was you were born a sinner and so
you need to repent one day or you're
always going to be going to hell you're
always going to be weighed down by your
sins you need to repent you're born a
center and for me this was rough because
i was being abused at home so this told
me i'm being abused because i'm a sinner
and then one day they said anyone who
wants to accept jesus christ into their
heart as their lord and savior
raise your hand everybody like close
their eyes and everything and i had my
hand shot up there because i'm like this
is it this is going to be better this is
going to change my life
and i go in there and they tell you
exactly what to say and that you're
supposed to see jesus and he's supposed
to accept you and everything you know
you're no longer a sinner you've got
them in your heart all of that and i did
my best for however old i was at that
time i think it was the most fervent i'd
ever prayed for anything
and i saw nothing
and it broke my heart and the next thing
i know they're like you saw him right
but
i knew from experience if you tell
someone something they don't want to
hear bad things happen
so i lied on top of being brokenhearted
about this i lied
and i go back out there and everybody's
like you've accepted jesus and i'm just
sitting there crying and they're
thinking i'm happy
and so that jump started it and then
from there i just started seeing that
nobody was the way christianity was
supposed to be so that's interesting
because we
as muslims now i mean you know this that
we're born every muslim is born upon the
fitra the natural inclination to only
worship the creator of the heavens and
the earth so your innate nature was
rejecting this
worshiping of jesus would you say yes i
would say it didn't do anything for me i
know it does something for other people
but i didn't feel anything in church
yeah well i mean i've interviewed so
many different hundreds of people who
with similar situations that they would
just be really you know amazed like okay
everything i'm going to
uh church and everything revolves around
jesus i mean it doesn't take anything
away from because you know obviously now
like it's a tendent of our faith to
believe and love jesus just not as a god
or a son of god but
a messenger that was sent just like
abraham moses knowing all the other
messengers calling people to worship
just one god so now
islam still didn't come across
you still had no
experience with islam yet no they they
would not talk about the religion there
did you ever heard this term islam i
don't think i did honestly and the most
i got of it was um we would see
in history would say pictures of people
in the middle east and there was this
general
like they would basically tell us their
people over there they hate all of you
they want all of you dead and it's
religious and that's about it that's
what we were told so i didn't know
anything about islam and i definitely
didn't know anything correct okay so now
you're uh at this crossroads you don't
know much or anything about islam
and from there you get involved in
wiccan
uh yes i have tell people for for the
audience that they have no idea what is
wicked so a lot of people see that as
that's modern-day witchcraft it's like a
scary term but this is like with the gin
and stuff right no actually no it's
people who worship nature mostly that's
why i usually hung out with like wiccans
because they're some of the most
positive people i've ever met they love
everybody they love nature that's just
all they do but they also cast spells
and stuff which is never so much my
thing that's dealing with the gin that's
the unseen world yeah yeah
yeah so that's me let me let me i don't
want to leave our sister out now now we
got another great introduction here
next in line and we'll go ahead go back
and forth
our second guest sister isadora never
really felt like she belonged anywhere
but she had always been inclined towards
search for religion for god for
understanding her parents had
their faith but weren't church-going
people
seeing church and religion as more of a
money-making scheme
yet at the height of her spiritual
awakening she would attend
non-denominational catholic and
presbyterian churches every week
just trying to build her spirit and more
and understanding who god and jesus was
there was even a period of time when she
studied
jehovah's witnesses and judaism but
couldn't even connect there because it
seemed like a religion that focused more
on the group of people of a particular
race
ethnicity than a religion for all people
she's also here with us to share some of
the highlights of her story why she
accepted the way of jesus but not the
worship of jesus assalam-o-alaikum
as well yes i'm still learning i'm very
much in my infancy i'm with islam i've
been fortunate to make a wonderful
friend here faye and she's teaching me
as i'm going along and as we're
interacting and gaining a relationship
as well everyone has those beginning
steps and we want to congratulate you
everybody here you know so you just
recently accepted uh islam yes in
december in december yes
talk beard
tuck beard
yes this is like kind of like hallelujah
but god is praising god god almighty
allah the creator of the heavens and
earth parents they also came from a
christian background but they really
weren't practicing christians they when
we were younger they would drop me and
my brother off to catholic church
and i did my communion
when i was younger as well when i was
older
i guess when i got into my first
marriage
what is the second part that you do
you're
when you really accept catholicism i did
that
um
but as far as
my parents they
really never pushed religion on me they
actually told me to stay away from it
and then for me i've always had this
inclination to to search for god to
search for understanding and unlike a
lot of people that when i watch a lot of
muslims things on youtube
people haven't connected with jesus
whereas like i felt like i had a real
connection with jesus jesus was real i
read the book of john like i understood
the trinity all of these things were
real to me
in islam i'm learning to kind of
separate the ideas and focus on god and
god alone but
the the love i have for jesus is is what
brought me into islam that's the
beautiful thing about islam like usually
when people come to you know obviously
islam submitting your will like in the
lord's prayer oh our lord what in heaven
hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come
thy will be done it's submitted that's
islam
to submit your will not to jesus because
jesus submitted his will to the creator
and giving jesus his right as a
messenger but he was a messenger for
that time moses is a messenger for his
time prophet muhammad is a messenger for
your time my time for our time and he's
the seal of the prophet he's the last of
the final messenger and this doesn't
take away from jesus at all because
obviously as muslims if i say any ill
thing about jesus if i disrespect him or
i deny him as a mighty messenger this
can land me a ticket to the hellfire
right so as muslims we're proud to say
we love jesus do you guys love jesus
are we just trying to like rub shoulders
and gain points for that with uh our
christian neighbors or is that the truth
can i hear you
absolutely alhamdulillah so it's like
making those adjustments you know what i
mean it's like when you go in your
fridge islamic law allows all the tai ba
the pure the good foods but you got some
bacon in there you have to replace it
with maybe some turkey bacon right
if you got some alcohol maybe you know
you you got put some non-alcoholic for a
time but just get rid of it you know
what i mean if a person uh has some
statues stick stones and bones to
worship it you make some
adjustments now and they're in the
debate now you know usually if you're
going to uh uh
different churches you got like pictures
of a white jesus a spanish jesus african
american jesus and they're like this is
god
you get rid of all that because you
worship the unseen creator who is the
most loving the most just
the the the self-sufficient you know
those beautiful attributes that we get
to know and by and you just make those
small adjustments you know what i mean
so those are those baby steps that we
take so tell us um
let's go back to you so you get into the
to the wiccan
and then what goes on from what goes on
from there
um i was in that for a while but uh like
i said it just the spell thing never did
it for me especially because it seems
like it's mostly a lot of people who are
lost and they're looking for meaning and
i didn't i don't think i ever met anyone
who seemed like they'd found meaning in
that and i didn't feel
i didn't find meaning in it either i
would feel
kind of like an energy if they were
casting a circle or something but i came
to decide like this is this is the
feeling of belief when people have faith
in something because i went to
conferences for geekong too and when you
have a bunch of people who are trying to
put positive end to the world you feel
something similar
so just like our sister was saying now
because a lot of times christians have a
really deep
love for jesus that they end up
elevating him to the status of god right
so how did you now coming to islam
see how islam viewed jesus and how did
that appeal to you
i actually i didn't come from jesus
because jesus kind of fell from the
waveside for me because i had that
association with christianity um before
i ever heard about islam i did start to
learn some things about jesus that you
don't normally hear because you usually
just hear a water from wine all of that
and i started to hear things about like
basically he he and i would probably get
along he wasn't for corruption either
stuff like that
and so i started to respect him
and
then i
like like i said i met that that man and
i started to learn about islam from
there because i started to learn oh why
don't why don't you why are you so
honest with me i'm not used to men being
honest and i'm not used to men like
taking care of their appearance i'm not
used to men like actually wanting to
give to homeless people and do good
things for their friends and their
family if they make money i'm not used
to this why is this and he would explain
you know this is this is islam and he
always spoke of it was such endearment
and that's not something i was used to
either usually when i hear people speak
of christianity no offense to people who
do it well but
it's almost like a bragging thing it's
like oh i'm christian i'm in the club
it's not oh christianity does these
wonderful things that teaches me how to
take care of myself and do good for
others it's
it's a different attitude i'm seeing in
islam and i saw that with him and that
made me curious because
like i'd already occasionally been like
would i ever turn to god which was the
thought that i wasn't expecting to have
and so when i heard that i'm like well
what is this and i started looking into
it more
so tell us i mean if we go if we go back
because obviously you know the thing
that differentiates islam from what we
say many of the man-made religions is
this pure monotheism because somebody
can do a world of good and you'll see in
many religions they'll be people who
practice the religion and they're very
charitable they'll be kind they don't
lie steal there's people like that who
take those moral teachings but at the
end of the day if it's not based on the
pure monotheism
that is what corrupts all of the good
deeds that's the beautiful thing so how
was it the appeal for both of you now
this when you when as you guys are
learning you know this direct connection
to worship the creator not the creation
how did that
make into your decision to accepting
islam either one of you
okay um because even when i was pagan
i'd always noticed
like even when things got bad no matter
what
i would get where i needed to go
something would turn out i was never
like completely destitute i was never
like nothing the worst never happened
something always worked out
and i just i noticed that time and time
again and people would say you know no
there's no plan you know things just
happen and i just never accepted that
regardless of what i believed and i
always felt like there's something
there's something making this work out
because if you look at everything no
matter what i went through i had to go
through it to get to this good point in
my life and so if that's not a plan what
is there and so
that to me
it was just a matter of taking those
steps and recognizing that that plan
that force that was that was allah that
was doing that that was somebody in my
life actually
had my back all along and i just didn't
know that a lot was there hamder did
that
um i know when you were saying about
people raising jesus to the status of
god but for me
the understanding of jesus was that god
brought himself down
to man
and for me that was the the biggest
story and that's where i fell in love
with jesus and i guess in that when you
say the elevation of it i never really
saw
um
i didn't
disassociate jesus from god but
it was more of the story of god coming
down which was the biggest part in me
accepting jesus and loving jesus
so my question is uh related to the fact
that you said you had some kind of
association with the wicked religion
uh so
does the fact that islam
uh
specifically allah
asked us to ponder over the creation
is that something that also helped you
in uh understanding that there
or moving towards islam because we are
constantly asked to ponder over the
creation who created us
and all those things so it's very close
to nature as well
how
for instance how um halal
animals are slaughtered and that like
that meant the world to me that there is
the emphasis not just on it being clean
but it's compassionate and so that was
just a pleasant surprise what was it at
the end finally that had you conclude
that
this was
the truth and you
ended up taking your shahadah
muhammad rasulullah there's nothing
worthy worship except allah the creator
of the heavens and earth and by the way
you know i'd like to explain this that
this was the same statement obviously
you probably know now if you're learning
that if you were living during the time
of jesus you'd have to make the same
statement
there's nothing worthy of worship of
allah and in his time jesus was the
messenger at abraham's time
ibrahim abraham is the messenger at this
time
so what was that at the end that had you
professed the statement and now you're
on your way to
living it slowly learning it and making
it a lifestyle um
what got me to profess was the act of
prayer um worshiping
god getting on my knees and work
physically worshiping god and that's
what brought me to islam
um
so how did you feel when you converted
to islam
it was really exciting i
i wanted to do it the first night i came
to first open house honestly but i
wanted to make sure i was doing it for
the right reasons and so i spent a month
building up to my shahada every day like
kind of bursting with it and then i
finally got to say it and i was so
nervous and i was ashamed that i was
nervous but it was just it felt good and
i left that night feeling like i had a
family for the first time in my life
honestly it was wonderful
so i'd like to thank you guys for being
with us made the community and i'm sure
you got so many sisters here you got you
met another one here that they embrace
you and they help you along your way
because it is about getting grounded and
the more we understand and know this way
of life the more we know our creator the
more we love our creator and the more we
want to obey our creator so may this
journey
you know be a wonderful one all the way
to
jannah inshallah
and against my to my viewing audience
that's not a war cry that's praising the
most high and we'll see you next time
here on the dean show subscribe if you
haven't already peace be with you all
the way from florida boca raton assalamu
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