[Music]
This is the Dean Show. This is the Dean
Show. This is the Dean Show.
Alhamdulillah. Peace be with you.
Welcome back to another episode of the
Dean Show. And today we're going to have
in the studio Dr. Lawrence Brown. He's
an amazing individual. His story is at
the deanshow.com with several other
episodes that we've done with him. He in
short was an atheist. Someone who didn't
believe in God which is evident. I mean
design indicates a designer. Something
that's logical, rational. We didn't make
ourselves create ourselves. Someone
created us and it's the one God.
From there he went to being or trying
very hard to be a Christian
to being a Muslim.
The same way Jesus, Abraham, Noah, they
were all Muslims. They submitted
themselves to the one God. This is what
a Muslim is. But it took something very,
very
special inside a person that needs to
come out. Sincerity. And that's what
we're going to revisit today, his story.
And we're going to try to find out what
was it. What was it that really led him
finally to making that step of sincerity
to accepting look that I don't have
answers to all the questions. I'm going
to take a break from all the baseball
and the football games. I'm going to put
the beer down, the Jack and Coke. I'm
going to stop visiting the nightclubs.
And I'm going to stop just chasing the
money and living from Friday to Friday,
paycheck to paycheck. And I'm going to
inquire and really want to find out
what's the purpose of life. I don't have
answers to all these questions. Where am
I going when I die? And what have had
him take the extra leap to step forward
and accept the way of life that brings
you peace, happiness, contentment in
this life and paradise in the next.
We'll be back with Dr. Lawrence Brown.
Don't go nowhere.
This is the show.
This is the show. This is the show.
This is the show.
This is the show. This is the show.
This is the show. This is the show. This
is the show. This is the Dean Show. This
is the Dean Show.
Most of the world already knows. They've
seen him on the Dean Show before. He's
here with me. Take a good look. He's
back in the Dean Show studio. Dr.
Lawrence Brown. Assalam alaikum. Peace
be with you, my brother.
And to you.
So, all right. People already know who
you are if they've been watching the
Dean Show. You have your own private
section. We've done so many other shows
before and you know the first show that
we did was about your conversion story
and people really enjoyed it. We got so
many emails, so much positive feedback
and we we want to continue on because
there were some questions that arose
from this program and people were
digging. They wanted to really know, you
know, more of the insights. What
actually had you take that that extra
step? Because many people, you know,
everything when it was explained to
them, the tenants of faith, the oneness
of God, day of judgment, accountability,
original goodness, not original sin,
everything in Islam makes sense. Brings
you, you know, peace, happiness. But
sometimes all this evidence, you know,
people see it, but they don't accept it
because they have other things on their
mind. Maybe they're not sincere with
themselves in their creator, but seems
like you were you're here. What
happened? Talk to us.
Um, well, I think it's a good question
and I think basically what you're what
you're saying is what made me take the
step. Okay, we all know what put me on
the religious search. Uh, anybody who
has seen my conversion story knows that
I was on a religious search, but how did
that end in Islam?
And uh I actually I trace it all back to
the prayer that I prayed when uh when my
daughter was in the intensive care unit.
Um you know, in brief, just to kind of
recap, anybody who wants to look back on
my conversion story, it all started when
my daughter was born with a uh a a
lethal uh defect in in the uh aorta, the
major vessel that comes off of the
heart. And uh that led me to to pray a
prayer. And I remember to this day that
what I prayed was I was atheist at the
time. So I didn't even know if God was
there. So I prayed sort of a typical
prayer for an atheist. Said, "Oh God, if
you are there," I said, "I don't know if
you're there or not, but if you are
there, I need help."
And I remember that in that prayer I
promised God that if he would save my
daughter and then guide me to the
religion that was most pleasing to him
that I would follow. And I think that to
me is the key because
uh you know after he saved after after
our creator saved my daughter I realized
I had made a promise that put me upon my
religious search. uh you've introduced
me many times by saying that I was
trying hard to become a Christian. Why
was I trying to so hard to become a
Christian? Because I was trying to
fulfill my promise to God. I had
promised that if he guided me that I
would follow. And growing up in America,
I just naturally assumed I would find
the answer somewhere in Christianity.
And I kept going from congregation to
congregation to congregation.
Um, I know I've described to you. I
don't know if I've described to the
viewers. I mean, I attended Mormon,
Seventh Day Adventist, Greek Orthodox,
Roman Catholic. Um,
you know, my head kind of Southern
Baptist, my head kind of swims with the,
you know, the different congregations I
went to looking for the truth. And I
always went through the same uh scenario
where I would, you know, I would ask the
uh the priests or the ministers or the
pastors. I would ask them questions that
in the end they would never answer. I
would say, "Well, you say Jesus Christ
is the son of God and Jesus Christ
called himself the son of man. He called
himself the son of man. Why do you call
him the son of God?" And we would get
into it. I'd say, "Okay, you believe in
the trinity, which is nowhere in the
Bible." and the evidence you use to hold
up the trinity was written by a scribe
but it's not in the scripture etc etc
etc and we would get into it you know
going through all the different
doctrines of Christianity in the same
way that we have addressed them in other
episodes of the dean show and I never
got any satisfying answers which pushed
me on you know that's that's when I'd
say well thank you you know thanks
anyway and I'd move on. And it wasn't
until I learned about Islam that all of
the pieces fit in place. Islam is the
only religion that answered all of my
questions. It was only when I learned
about Islam that that my heart and my
mind opened to Islam as the religion of
truth. But the key to that is this. The
key to that is I used to think I was
really intelligent. I used to think,
"Wow, I cracked the code. I figured it
out where other people haven't, you
know. I mean,
I I I would I would, you know, I would
attribute it to myself.
You know, some years later, I had a I
had a patient, a woman who called me
telling me she wanted to become Muslim.
I don't know why. She was panicking when
she called me. Couple days later, she
came into my clinic with a newborn baby
who was full of tubes, oxygen in his
nose, Heplock, a feeding tube, a
variety. I mean, this baby, this baby
was, you know, in very bad condition,
but barely doing well enough to have at
least been discharged from the hospital.
And I realized that this was the woman
who had called me a couple days before
saying she wanted to become Muslim. She
knew I was Muslim and and I was known in
that area and she she had called me. But
when she came in,
uh I you know I examined her baby and
the story came out. The story came out
that her baby was born with what was
considered by the doctors to be a
nearthal heart defect. And she called me
when she was panicking thinking her her
son was going to die. And then her son
got better and he stabilized and they
discharged him from the hospital with
all these tubes but discharged from the
hospital.
And I asked her, I said,"Well, you know,
weren't you the one who called me
wanting to become Muslim?" And she said,
"Yes." And I said, "So, do you still
want?" And she said, "No, no, I don't
need it now."
I don't need it now. She said,
she said, "I don't need it now. See,
he's gotten better. My son's gotten
better. So, I don't need it now."
Oh, you want Okay.
Okay. And now I look back on this
situation and I I think okay, you know,
she had a child that was on death's
door. I had a child on death's door. She
prayed to God for God to save that
child. I prayed to God to save my child.
We both made promises to God. Okay. Why
did God put me up on the path of the
religion of truth and keep me on that
path? And why did God not put her on the
same path?
Can it be sincerity? Now
my Yeah. I mean my point is it comes
down to sincerity. Sure that's a big
part of it. But the main thing is that
we just have to recognize that God
guides who he wills and he leaves to
stray who he wills. It's not about
intellect. It's not about intellect.
It's about inspiration. It's about
illumination.
And if we start to think that we are the
ones that we are the ones responsible
for putting ourselves on this path that
we figured it out with our intellect
then we are giving credit in the wrong
direction because the credit really is
to God
to to God.
Thank God for having guided us having
made us Muslim put us on this path and
kept us on this path because he could
just as easily have given this to the
other person.
Yeah.
And taken it from us.
Yes. And when we say God, notice we're
talking about the God of Jesus, Abraham,
Noah, the God who created Jesus, the God
who Jesus prayed to, that's God. Because
you see people say God and say, "Oh,
thank you Jesus." Or, you know, they'll,
you know, praise the creation of God.
When we say God, we're talking about the
one God.
Put it in terms that everybody can
understand. We're talking about the
creator, the creator of the universe and
everything in it.
Simple.
So, the one true God.
One true God. Let's take a break. We'll
be right back with more of this
wonderful story with Dr. Lawrence Brown.
Subhan Allah.
[Music]
Subhan Allah. Alhamdulillah.
[Music]
Allahbar.
Subhan Allah. Alhamdulillah.
Allahb
Allahbound.
Subhan Allah. Alhamdulillah.
[Music]
Subhan Allah. Alhamdulillah.
[Music]
Allahbar
Allah.
This is the
This is the This is the
This is the danger.
This is the Dean Show. This is the Dean
Show.
Back here on the Dean Show with Dr.
Lawrence Brown, PhD in religious
studies, DD, Doctor in Divinity, and you
are a doctor by profession. Yeah, you um
some consider you a Christian scholar
and we've done many shows with you in
the past, but the one that really took
off was your conversion story and we're
continuing on.
We want to people want to know more
details about this. I want to take it
back for a minute. Now I remember in
your story when we first met you said
that if you wanted money as an atheist
now you were self-independent. You felt
like okay if I wanted money I worked
harder. You said if you wanted this you
got that. If you wanted that you got
that. You know you whatever it was
material you fixed it. If something was
broke you fixed it. But this is a key
point that now many atheists we know
that this is a small minority but you
were one of them. and that at that
moment when your your your child your
baby was sick almost at the verge of
death, it was out of your hands.
Mhm.
Can can you comment on this? Was this a
turning point? You said that you felt
like you couldn't do it. You were
helpless.
Well, it's exactly as you said, uh you
know, before before Islam, before
religion, uh if I ever needed anything,
I worked for it. And um that was the
first time in my life that I felt
helpless and I needed help and that's
why I turned to God. There's this old
saying that there are no atheists in a
foxhole. You know there are no atheists
on a battlefield. When you know the
artillery shells are coming down and the
bullets are whizzing by. I guarantee you
everybody gets religion. But uh
you also made a point just and add to
this that many of us have become
dependent health care, Medicare, you
know.
Yeah.
Can you remember how I was talking about
this woman saying I don't need it now. I
don't need God now. The child has gotten
better.
Yeah.
Okay. Uh it's kind of a common feeling
among people that their lives are taken
care of. Yes. From the cradle to the
grave. I mean, you've got health
insurance, you've got car insurance,
you've got house insurance, you've got
disability insurance. Uh if you fall and
break a leg in the store, you're going
to sue the store and their insurance
will cover them and that will pay you.
And on and on and on. And so we live in
a society where people feel that their
insurance is with man-made institutions
which will cover them for almost any
eventuality.
But it's when you face the eventualities
that can't be insured. You know, uh you
can have health insurance to pay for
your illness, but do you really want to
be ill in the first place? Okay, you can
have life insurance that will pay
somebody after you die, but that's not
going to help you once you're dead. So,
you know, you come to critical points
where where you realize that you need
God.
Um, isn't it far better to recognize
that we need God in in all things?
In all things.
You you can you can trust your human
construct of insurance or you can trust
the creator. It's your choice.
Mhm.
But this is the difference between those
who put their trust in the worldly uh
you know institutions and those those
who put their trust in the divine. Now,
let's move it back. Moving forward. Now,
we we're talking about sincerity. You
know, people, they have it in themselves
to be sincere. If somebody really
sincerely wants some drugs, you know,
they'll go out there and they'll hustle
and bustle to get those drugs and
they'll be sincere about it. You know,
they'll cry for it. The the girl who
wants something from her parents, you
know, young lady, older lady, you know,
she won't get her way with her husband
or her boyfriend, whatever the case, and
she'll sincerely shed tears to get what
she wants. Same thing with the man who
wants to get in, let's say, the
nightclub. You sincerely sweat the door,
man. Give him some money to get into the
club. But how about that sincerity of
wanting guidance, wanting
to know the purpose of life? And who
best to tell us than the one who created
life? How does a person get that
sincerity?
Yeah. Well, you know, one thing I think
I would say is I I don't completely
agree with what you just said about
sincerity. People do a lot of things to
get what they want, but afterwards when
they look themselves in their mirror, in
their in their mind's eye, you know, not
necessarily looking in the mirror in a
literal sense, but when they realize
that they just did something, you know,
pretty immoral or pretty low down or
pretty dishonest or whatever to get what
they want, they'll justify it. I mean,
they'll say, "I really needed it. I
really wanted it." But at the same time,
they'll have a little bit of a low
opinion of themselves.
You know, man, did I really have to get
it that way? You know, did I really have
to lie? Did I really have to cheat? Did
I really have to steal? Did I really
have to be immoral? Did I really have to
this, that, the other thing? You know, a
lot of a lot of times people compromise
their values to get what they want. But
you can't do that with God because God
knows what's in your heart and he knows
if you're being sincere or not.
You can't play these games with the
creator.
Yeah. You can't I mean you can't play
these games. I mean I remember once
talking to a Christian and I said do you
really believe do you really believe in
your religion? He said no. He said I
don't believe any part of it but I have
been baptized so when I die you know
I'll have that to fall back on.
you know, as if somehow that's going to
save him. He doesn't believe anything.
He doesn't follow anything. He's not
leading a righteous life, but he
believes that simply because he was
baptized, well, he can fall back on that
as if that's going to save him.
Yes.
So, you know, we we know from the Bible,
faith without works is dead. Faith and
works is the formula. Okay. But in
addition to faith, in addition to works,
you have to have sincerity.
Yes. sincerity. Now you mentioned the
story. We we know your story and you
made a promise to the creator. You know,
he showed you his sign and we know that
okay, every individual they might have
some personal things, experiences that
happened to them. But we have the
ultimate proof, the verbatim word of
God, which is a living miracle, science,
history, prophecies, everything's in
there, facts, not fiction, that a person
can really take an analytical, a
scientific approach to come to the
conclusion as 1.5 billion people have
come to that there's no way that this
Quran could come from other than the
creator of the heavens and earth. But
now tell us,
you were sincere and you followed up
what you stated to the creator, what was
in your heart, you followed up with
action. This lady, she got her prayer
answered, God saved her child, but then
she backed away. Isn't there something
in the verbatim word of God and you
comment on is what God Almighty is
saying that look when they call upon him
alone they drop the son in the Holy
Ghost so they they don't go to Krishna
or this calf god or the baby god you
know they go to the one god and he
answers them and then they go back
to to worshiping other gods besides god
sure and
and they go back to their ways
yeah yeah yeah and it's it's uh I mean
this is well known and there's one the
the story that leaps to my mind is the
story in the uh in the Holy Quran which
describes the sailors in the ship on the
sea that is getting tossed around in a
storm. They think they're going to
drown. They all profess true faith but
then when they reach the land they go
back and interestingly enough
interestingly enough uh I know a real
life story like this.
Tell us this. Tell us this please.
A man a brother a Muslim working in the
merchant marine. Okay. He's working in
the merchant marine on on this
oceangoing vessel. There were something
like 20ome people who uh they were just
constantly making fun of him, you know,
him stopping in his day to make his
daily prayers, his dietary restrictions,
didn't join in with them with the with
the drinking and this that or the other
thing. constantly making fun of him,
making his life miserable until they got
in just this horrendous storm and the
ship became crippled and everybody
believed it was going to go down and
that they were going to drown. And
literally every single person on that
ship came to that Muslim brother and
made shahada. And he I mean he testified
he said every single person on that ship
came and testified and became Muslim.
Now when you say this test Yeah.
And
when they were saved and when the ship
just kind of limped into port and
everybody got off of the ship, every
single one of them went back.
Wow. So at the he
So I mean it's just fulfillment of the
Quranic story.
Yeah.
How how some some people you know when
the pressure is upon them, oh God save
me. God save me. God save what? I'm
saved. Oh, uh, thanks. Um, you know, and
they just, you know, they just go back
to what they were upon before
when you're in the air and the
turbulence
and they may not even say thanks. Yeah.
May just be, oh, well,
it was just a storm. It was just, I
would have been saved anyway,
you know, this sort of thing.
So, yeah. So, when a turbulent hits,
when the waves are high, shaking in the
boat, and you feel your life's about to
end, you turn to God.
Yeah.
But this goes back to you not being
sincere then.
And, you know, I faced this myself.
Yeah. I mean when when my daughter
reversed when my daughter reversed
without medicine, without surgery, with
no treatment and became a perfectly
normal child, the doctors had an
explanation. Okay? And that sufficed for
them. It didn't suffice for me because I
knew the prayer that I had prayed and I
I knew with the certainty that this was
the hand of God in the healing of my
child. But that was what was in my
heart. Where did I get that feeling
from? From myself? No, I that's from
God.
Mhm. You know, there's a famous famous
story of a scholar who was traveling and
in his travels
he uh he he went to sleep and when he
woke up there was a cloud and this cloud
had a light and the light spoke to him
and told him that because of his great
scholarship, because of his great piety,
he God was releasing this man from the
obligation of prayer.
Mhm.
And this scholar didn't even need to
think about it. He just said to the
cloud said, "Oh cursed shan,
you are trying to mislead me. You are
trying to misguide me."
You know, because God did not even
release the prophets from prayer. And
who is more righteous than them?
Yeah. So, so when he acknowledged the
the cloud as what it really was, a trick
of a trick of the Satan trying to
misguide him, the cloud, the cloud
acknowledged that it was the Satan.
Said, "Yes, you are right. This is the
Satan, know that only your intelligence
has saved you."
What did he say? said, "Oh cursed Satan,
Shayan, oh cursed Satan, it is not my
intelligence that has saved me." You
know, the only thing that saves me is
God. Now, how many of us would have said
would have said, "Yeah, yeah, you're
right, man. I figured it out. I figured
out that you're the Satan. So, yeah,
it's it's my intelligence that saved
me." No. The Satan doesn't give up. He
tries to get you to disbelieve. And if
he can't get you to disbelieve, he will
try to get to trip you up in other ways.
Yeah.
So, you know, when he couldn't get him
to disbelieve, he tried to get him to
believing that it was his intelligence.
But being a true scholar, you know, he
said, "No, it's only God that is saving
me."
And what did the Satan say? He said, he
said that he cannot touch him, but that
he had misguided 70 scholars by this way
before him.
Wow. scholars, not ley scholars. It's a
big lesson to us. No matter how high you
get in the chain of religious knowledge,
you can still become misguided. And we
got to be careful. We'll be right back
with more here on the D show. Why is our
news media foaming at the mouth when it
comes to stories about Islamic
terrorists, but not white guy
terrorists?
It's not cuz Muslims are a bigger
threat. In fact, between 1980 and 2005,
94% of all the attempted or successful
terrorist attacks on US soil were not
carried out by Islamic radicals, but
instead by non-Muslims, mostly white
guys. So then why the obsession?
Islam prohibits killing of innocent
human beings. Human life is precious.
Do not kill a woman. Do not kill a
child. Do not,
you know, going to different religious
leaders, Buddhism, Hinduism, uh, forms
of Christianity. I even ran into people
from the Nation of Islam. Kill an old
man. Do not kill an animal. Do not cut a
tree down. Do not pollute their water.
Do not burn their homes.
In the beginning, there was nothing but
a law.
Ooh.
It's a way of life
brought to us by
the messenger,
best of mankind.
Show us the way
to Allah's grace.
This is the dean.
Dean of Islam.
This is the dean.
Dean of Islam.
Back here on the Dean Show with Dr.
Lawrence Brown. Continuing on. Yes. Not
only do we have to be careful, we have
to be extra extra careful because the
devil Shayan is always working to
mislead us. This is something that's
detrimental to our success, not only in
this life, but definitely in the next.
Tell us now in in the last few minutes
that we have. I you know, we know that
faith goes up and down. Sometimes we're
on level 10, sometimes on level five.
And also, you know, some people they
they do sincerely, you know, they pray
to God and then God delivers the
guidance, the help, but now
distractions. Did you ever get
distracted? you know, men with the
women, women with the men, money. So,
what advice do you have for these
situations that occur? Distractions and
the level of faith going down, then you
go back and revert to old ways, old bad
habits.
Did I ever get distracted? Uh, no. I've
been perfect from day one. Uh, no,
nothing.
Of course, I'm being extremely
sarcastic. Uh no it's it's as you said
all of us our faith waxes and waines at
different levels and uh I think you just
have to constantly remind yourself who
is the source of all things in this
life. Uh you have to constantly return
to the to the shahada. The shahada being
the testimony of faith. You know the
shahada is very simple. We are
testifying to the belief in God as one
God. the only one worthy of worship is
Allah, our creator, and that Muhammad
peace be upon him was his final prophet.
And
when when your when your belief, you
know, sort of uh becomes weakened, when
things come at you to fill you with
doubt, in my experience, all you have to
do is go back to the shahada and just
say to myself, "Wait a minute.
uh these things might be knocking me
down a little bit, but the shahada, God
is one God, Muhammad is the prophet.
Yeah, you know what? I still believe
that and that's what I'm going to hold
on to. And as soon as you know, every
time you restate the shahada, even if
you say it out loud, but just to
yourself, it just it raises your iman,
it raises your, you know, level of uh
belief.
And uh so I I feel that's the greatest
tool.
That's the heaviest, isn't it?
It's one of them. I mean, thean regime
to seek refuge from the shan
um
refuge, you know, with Allah from the
Shayan. Um and uh then just just to
remember what you are standing upon.
Yeah.
And that's the shahada. And that that
has always been sufficient for me. But
does our iman wax and wayne? Of course.
Of course. Being around righteous
people, does this help you? People when
you're down that help encourage you and
lift your spirits back up.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, as much as you
can hang around people who are not only
righteous, but who want good for you?
Because there are a lot of people who
who don't necessarily want good for you.
Maybe they're jealous of you. Maybe they
feel threatened by you.
Yeah.
Who knows? But
yeah, what's really helped me, and we're
almost out of time, is the prayer, the
connection with the creator. Many
Muslims, they slack on this and really
establishing and getting grounded with
that connection minimum five times a
day. Yeah, absolutely.
Has this really helped you?
And another thing is increasing the
prayers because there's a saying that if
you leave the sunna, you will leave the
fard.
Uhhuh.
You know, if all you do is you pray the
minimum number of prayers and you don't
ever pray any uh extra prayers. If
you're only praying the minimum number
of prayers, you don't have anything to
slack off on.
Yeah.
And if your iman gets hit for a blow and
you just kind of feel like not doing as
much as you used to do, that's when you
le lose the fart prayer.
Yeah. But if you are in the practice of
making your sunna prayers, your your
extra non-obligatory prayers and
something comes along to just kind of uh
lower your sense of belief or lower your
your zeal for the practice of the
religion, you can leave the suna prayers
without compromising the obligatory
prayers and you will keep your religion
intact.
Yes.
So it it's nice to sort of buffer
yourself sort of make a safety zone.
Yeah. by doing by practicing on a normal
basis more than what you have to.
It's like extra cardio here.
Yeah. There you go.
Yeah. Okay. So, for our not yet Muslim
brothers in humanity who are watching
maybe for the first time and many of
them I get many emails and they like
what we have to say. The message is
simple. Worship the one God alone and
not his creation. Do the good that he
wants you to do because that's a
manifestation of your belief. Talk is
cheap. Do righteous actions. develop
yourself to be the best human being that
you can be. They are sincerely a lot of
them, you know, they're attentively
listening. What advice do you have from
them because you've been there and
you've done that? And then also how
people can get a hold of you if they
need to read some of your books and
maybe have a nice dialogue with you.
You know, I was just talking with a man
the other day who was asking me, "How
can I know for sure?" You know,
basically, um, you know, he had been
raised upon Catholicism. He liked
everything I was saying, but he didn't
trust himself to make the decision. And
I said, "Don't don't make the decision.
Go back to your creator. Pray to your
creator and leave the decision with
him." Okay? You've got your job. You
have to study. You have to investigate.
You have to to the best of your ability
find out what what the truth is. But in
the end, there's nothing that replaces
the power of the creator. So pray to
God. Ask him to put the truth into your
heart and into your mind to show you the
direction to make you sincere and
truthful and to put you upon the right
path. And then when you feel the
certainty enter your heart, when you
feel the certainty enter your mind, that
is when you follow the direction you
feel Allah or our creator has given you.
Thank you very much. May God Almighty,
Allah reward you for being with us
and and you
and to get in contact with Dr. Brown,
some of his books to look him up. He's
at leveltruth.com. If you want to
contact him, press the contact button
and you'll have uh access to him. And
thank you again for tuning in to the
Dean Show. We're here to help you
understand
what it's all about. Purpose of life,
why you're here, why you've been
created, all these very important
topics. Because at the end of the day,
the party will end. We will all die. And
we're going to be accountable for
everything we did in this life. So, we
better get with it now before it's too
late.
So, hope you like what I hope you like
what we had to say. If you'd like a free
copy of the Rebain word of God or if you
have some more questions, call the
number on the screen 1800662 Islam.
Until next time, peace be unto