Alhamdulillah like to thank everybody
for sticking around to want to witness
this beautiful moment
of a person in a sense being reborn
that when a human being
he comes to the realization
that it's a time in my life that I have
to ponder and think, what's the purpose
of my life? Why am I here? Is it just to
play, have fun, go to the nightclubs,
kick it on the weekends, earn some
money, have a good time, and then I die,
or is there more to life?
You see, people dying every day.
It's very important that we think about
these things. And this man thought about
it and he's been researching for a few
months now. Contacted me. We know each
other a little bit. We've been talking
and he uh emailed me in short.
[Music]
her phrasing his email that He was once
a Christian, but he always had this in
the back of his head, the confusion of
the power that's supposed to be given to
the creator being given to somebody
else. It didn't make sense.
So, how does one distinguish with all
the different ways of life, calling to
other to people, telling them that
they're the only way? How do we
distinguish what's the right way with
all this confusion?
When a human being uses the tools that
the creator of the heavens and earth has
given him, he's embedded in all of us
this innate nature to worship the one
God.
A spiritual chip in a sense. So when you
see the attributes of man,
man is weak, man is born, man dies.
When you see a cow, when you see
animals, when you see the sun, these are
all the creations of the creator.
But when it comes to you, the truth and
the attribute of the one who created
you, that he's one and alone running
this universe, that he doesn't become
born, he doesn't die, he doesn't eat and
go to the bathroom. He's not a man that
has an area code, a zip code. Now, you
can f fingerprint him, take his picture,
and the girl say, "Oh, he's cute." That
he has a color, a skin tone, a skeleton,
that he eats, goes to the bathroom,
comes out of the womb of a woman. This
is not God.
And this is something that anyone, even
if they're a non-Muslim and they're
listening. The inside of him, if he's
not bobbing his head, yes, the inside of
him is saying, "Yes, I want to worship
the one God, the God who created the
sun, the moon, the God who Jesus called
upon." When he fell on his face, he
prayed to who himself? No, he prayed to
the one God. He prayed the same way
Moses prayed. The same way Abraham
prayed and the same way we're praying
here today.
Worshiping not the sun, not the moon,
not Muhammad, not Jesus. We're
worshiping the same way all the
messengers of God, they worship. And
when our new brother here, when he
investigated this, he took the time out
of his busy schedule. He's an architect.
He's a professional.
And he trains the body and the mind. And
he says, "Man, my soul, I need to look
into this a little more because I spent
all the other time researching and
studying how to be the best architect,
how to make money, but this is a little
more important. I need to take a time
out." So, he picked up the Quran, which
is the last and final testament, the
last and final revelation.
It's not edited by man, changed, suited
for the time. It's been preserved for
1400 years. If every anyone wants to
take a look, it challenges the reader.
Prove if you find one contradiction, it
can't be from God. God doesn't make
mistakes.
So this book that has been preserved,
that was revealed over a span of 23
years in the Arabic, the original.
He studied this. He looked into it. He
saw that the attributes of the creator
that we define that he's one absolutely
alone worthy of worship. Not worshiping
the creation but worshiping the creator.
He acknowledged this in the same way
that this shahada this testimony is
nothing new. This is something that if
you were living during the time of Jesus
as what we have allegedly attributed to
Jesus because we know we don't have the
past books. They've been changed. We
don't have the originals but what we
have today we see Jesus peace be upon
him saying this is life eternal that
they may know you the only true God and
Jesus who you have sent. So if you were
living during the time of Jesus you had
to follow him. He was the way, the
truth, and the life. He was a messenger
teaching you how to get close to God.
But he didn't call you to worship him.
None of the messengers called on the
people to worship themselves.
Moses, if you were living during the
time of Moses, Moses didn't call people
to worship a man, God, to worship the
sun, the moon. He called the people to
worship the one God. So did Abraham.
They were ones who submitted themselves
to the one God. This is the same way of
life that God has sent throughout time.
It's a universal way of life to
surrender and to submit to the one God
doing what he wants you to do, not
making your own organized religion. We
shouldn't have to follow a man-made
religion. And he has acknowledged that
he's going to be taking the declaration
of faith, doing what
all the messengers of God did,
submitting to the one God. Islam is not
a new religion brought by Muhammad. It's
the same way of life that was
implemented during the time of Moses,
Jesus, Abraham, Noah, and all the
messengers of God that came with that
same way, the one way
surrender and submit to God alone and
not his creation.
So,
we're going to do the first step. It's
the shahada.
How you feeling, brother? Uh, great. All
right. So, I'm going to say it in
English
and then we're going to do it in the
Arabic.
Now,
I just want to take a minute because a
lot of these things for new Muslims, for
people when they hear certain Arabic
words, some things you have to
understand is kind of foreign to them.
But when we say Allah, we just define
who Allah is. He's not a man, a monkey,
the sun, the moon.
He's not like us. Can you be God? You
ask yourself, no. Because you have
certain man qualities. God doesn't have
the same qualities. He's the creattor.
We're the creation. So when we say
Allah, he's one absolute eternal. He's
not the father of someone. He doesn't
have sons and daughters like we do.
Doesn't go to the bathroom, eat, get
sick, and have to take an Advil. No,
this is not God.
So this is Allah. In Aramaic, the
language that Jesus spoke, he didn't
speak English. He didn't say God. He
said aloha.
in Hebrew, Eloh Elohim, Allah doesn't
take a person with too much intelligence
and too many doctor's degrees to see
that Eloh Allah Allah it's the same God
that the Jews and Christians who are
Arabic speaking they call on Allah. So
that's the testimony of faith that he's
taken our new brother today
is that he bears witness. It's a first a
negation of all the other gods. Could be
a money god, can be your own mind,
making god into something convenient in
your mind and you're worshiping your
mind instead of god. The money, the
material things, a man, a monkey, an
elephant, anything in the creation. He's
acknowledging that these are not God.
God is the one who created everything in
this universe. That's the one I'm going
to worship and prostrate to. How can you
go wrong doing that?
So in English, I testify. I bear witness
that there is none worthy of worship
except the creator of the heavens and
earth, Allah. And Muhammad is his slave,
servant, and messenger, confirming
Jesus, Moses, and all Abraham and all
the other messengers. Do you believe in
this? Yes, I do. Were you coerced? Did
someone twist your arm? Did somebody
make you coersse you? Put a spell on you
to do this? Nope. Beautiful. Now, in the
Arabic.
All right. Yeah.
Ashu Allah Allah illuash
before all the brothers come and
introduce themselves, I want to make
this clear that this God that we worship
is a merciful God. He's a loving God.
And when a person takes the free choice
of either worshiping the creation or the
creator, he absolves him from all his
sins. Clean slate. All his bad deeds are
turned into good deeds. If you owe
somebody some money, you got to pay the
debt. You did something wrong to
someone, you got to go make amends. But
God has absolved you of all your sins.
You're like a newborn baby. You're going
to establish the prayer five times a
day. Pay the charity. fast during the
month of Ramadan. Do the Hajj when
you're physically and financially able.
Stay away from bad. Invite people to
good. Do good. And be the best human
being that you can be. Welcome to Islam,
my brother.
the way. It's the right way. It's the
only way.
Feels good, man. It feels really good.
It's the best thing I ever did. Study.
Study, look it up, research it, and may
your mind be open and accept.
Feels pretty good.
Good.
Worship the soul, creator of the
heavens, and the universe.
Bismillah.