Becoming Muslim | 31-5-2019

[Music] [Applause] [Music] look for 20 years in in Australia I started off in Sydney lots of friends there and moved up to Ken's or to Queensland ran my own business and then started working for a large company which then allowed me to travel met many people from all around the world and then finally one of my jobs now is to come to write this so my my journey becoming Muslim starts back in South Africa I was raised a Catholic born and raised a Catholic I would go to the sunday-school and go to all the classes and my mum being a Catholic would have almost answers for me I had lots of questions and I was a stubborn child that hasn't changed as I've got older still a child were to sculpt stubborn and I couldn't get the answers that I wanted I wanted to know where things came from wanted to know why I wanted to know the science behind things a scientist by nature and questioning everything and I don't think my mum was able to answer the questions and the people that I would ask the questions of also couldn't answer and eventually I had enough things happen in my life that I started to question that's basically I was on my own and I needed to be on my own and I was if I was going to get anywhere by myself it would be on my own I would be the master of my own destiny I would solve all the answers solve all the questions it wasn't me in my travels through as I said I made lots of friends in Sydney there's a huge Lebanese community or Muslim community there and many of the people that I worked with were Muslim by this stage I had abandoned Christianity I was calling myself an atheist I came to question that later though but calling myself an atheist and just not believing in believing in myself but the people that I was talking to I was raised to be very respectful and to respect cultures I mean the country that I came from South Africa is a melting pot of of many different religions many different people and cultures and things and so if you can't absorb that and be at one with it then you're just not going to last a very long and so I took those lessons with me to Australia in Australia it's even more accepting even more friendly it's even more very curious with within information and they're very very helpful and of course I met Muslim people who were working for me and they would I remember one young apprentice that I had it was Ramadan and he was supposed to be I don't know anything about Ramadan I mean I knew the name but that's about it and he was supposed to be fasting and of course none of us were Muslim so we didn't know what what to do and then I saw him eating I have something and I was teasing him like what are you doing especially I don't to be struck by lightning now that doesn't happen in these Lamas nothing a little bit ignorant but then I was asking him what I need to do to help you to do this right and so he was just a young kid and he was he didn't follow it very well but he did make me promise not to tell his mother which are cute anyway so moving on moving to to Queensland didn't have any interactions with Muslims there got on with my life and then I started working for a very large international company and then started meeting more people from different cultures and of course having this cost influence one of the one of the people that I worked with he was of a different religion I was very strict the seventh-day adventists I think it was and so we would be having this debate about the Bible we'd be continually talking about Christianity and things and and so having been brought up very religious having known read parts of the Bible and even tried to read it myself it's a very difficult book to read actually and we'd be having these questions and he be asking was if you know so much about the Bible you know why don't you why aren't you a Christian I said that because it's just things that I just can't believe in there's things that are just not not right and we just keep this little battle that was ongoing and I'd repeat these same conversations with other religious people that I don't have and and usually I'd come out on top having asked the same questions about you know why is this why you know do you know that the Book of Kings for instance is is not really as accurate as you'd like it to think and why is there a different version of that Bible to to this Bible you know why is it called the King James Version and these little things and it would stamp a lot of them and I'd feel I'm good coming to to Bahrain of course I'm now in the middle of of an Islamic country under Sharia law is here I haven't hadn't read the any other crime at this date but you know you hear things and you read things and you talk to people and I find it fascinating I do I love history and one of the best things that I learned about Quran when I started reading it is that it is it's a history book and it has these it's factual things that have happened and it's a real person that you could absolutely guarantee was genuinely alive like there's not even a question that Muhammad was a lot of peace and it was and I just started to meet other friends one of the best things I did in Bahrain was buy a motorbike and as soon as of course you buy a motorbike you make lots of friends and they've all Muslim are Muslim and they have these just gentle conversations and it's such a way of life it's an easy way of life it permeates everything that's not intrusive it's and it's it's this gentle conversation and it's everywhere there's that in the writing you know like I said in conversations and having close friends of mine and it just we started to talk about the Quran because now it's a good conversation because everybody knows a little bit about it and I'm learning and aren't asking the questions talking the same questions I had always and then I would be ask the questions about Christianity which I could still mostly remember the answers I'd had many years ago and it started to dawn on me and I remember having a bit of a moment at work where I was there's a Christian guy at work who's very he's very much as evangelist so he's right into preaching and he will go to church for six hours and he really helps people which is fantastic and so we have religious conversations for someone who used to purport bethought to be a an atheist to have so many religious conversations it is interesting any and I remember saying to him once about a week I said before I decided what it was that I was and that I needed to go back was it when it's important to believe it doesn't matter what you believe but it is very important that you believe and he can't look at me honey and let's thought nothing of it and then I went for a walk and I thinking about that and that's when I realized that I was actually a Muslim already it wasn't the the way that I'd been living the way that I'd been behaving in that that I wanted to believe I'd wanted to call myself an atheist I'd wanted to to be my own person and stand on my own two feet fall for so long and but it was in that moment when I realized that I needed to come home soon essentially to have that faith and there was it was very still very still moment for me so I didn't so much of it I went I went home and I died when to say this Shahada which was which was really cool it's very very calming as well there was again that stillness when the blood was flowing the right way around my body again it was great and since since then it's been it's been really really Pleasant it just has been a feeling of of peace before there was this conflict inside me which I hadn't recognized really I'm a particularly hyperactive person I need to be on the move and I need to talk my idea of relaxing is doing something pretty fast-paced but in myself I've noticed a certain stillness that needs to there's just quite relaxed [Music] I'm definitely able to make better decisions I think I mean I've only been a revert for a few months now it's I no longer feel like I have to have all the answers myself all the time I still work very hard to find the answers but if I don't have those answers straight away I know that they will come and I know it's not like I believe they'll come I just know that they will come and I I'm not going to say that's completely on on Islam because maybe it's a maturing of my attitude it's it's coming down and and that maturing are put definitely on Islam you my sister was over the moon she was really happy with me I was not a reaction I was expecting I will confess that I'm not brave enough to tell my mother just yet that's a conversation I will be having with her face to face I heard that much to have that which I will have I'm not scared of having the conversation just I want to I want to tell it yeah first your face because she'll have questions that a conversation of Scott phone call or and what's up calls not gonna be able to answer so yeah I'd like to see her reaction as well [Music] my friends have been amazing they I've never had so many hugs from guys in my life really that was quite cool that was really cool they yeah just out of people that I would normally very stern and they'll be quite rigid and you when that worked out that I was I had reverted to Islam the first thing I get was it wasn't a cuddle like oh yeah that was there that was unexpected but quite nice some of them are being great my evangelist friend at work our religious conversations have actually increased and he keeps asking me lots of questions and so now I'm armed with a little bit more knowledge and I'm reminding him of of things we were talking about the Trinity just last week I had been driving and so I had the steering wheel in front of me and I said I'm pointing to myself in the middle of the steering wheel I said well if I'm here and I need to speak to Allah or deported to God I really shouldn't need to speak to any of these other people here I can just go straight to the boss if you want the answer you guys try to the boss in you know but we have to be dad so that's a conversation will continue to have but yeah and that's just that's just that mark friends have been very accepting even the ones I thought that wouldn't really have me [Music] it's very easy to to go and along a path that you you think is right and think that you have to plow your own way you don't it's the answers are there and there's lots of people to actually help understand it try and understand what it is about Islam that you need to know it's a huge religion with a huge following and I think we owe it to our fellow people to understand as little even just a little bit of what it is that makes people tick by understanding that we can communicate better we can we can understand where someone's coming from better if I think about what I know now compared to what I knew in in Australia was just a few months ago I was so ignorant of what the religion stood for and what it actually meant the the media gets it all wrong everything it found out the answers there are lots of people that can actually just the simple things about evolution the simple things about prayer the simple things about what people have to do and why they do it like the abaya which is probably the biggest misunderstood thing I think in in Australia it's simple and just by finding out the questions by opening themselves up to just allow themselves to ask that question in time they might even find that they are drawn to the religion that they are drawn to find it one and hopefully revert themselves would not not be the end goal but at least it would create a huge communication build a bridge I think that's very important [Music]

Channel: Bahrain International TV

Views: 10,163

Rating: 4.9702234 out of 5

Keywords: Becoming Muslim, ramadan, bahrain, 2019

Id: rEi-gdWC494

Length: 15min 41sec (941 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2019