The amazing story of my DAD becoming MUSLIM! - Abdurraheem Green

ald We Begin by praying pring Allah we praise him we seek his help and we ask for his forgiveness and we take refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequence of our evil actions whoever Allah guides no one can misguide but whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray no one can guide and I testify that Allah alone is worthy of worship and that Muhammad s. wasallam is his servant and messenger my dear brothers and my dear sisters in Islam may Allah shower his mercy and his forgiveness upon you the prophet sallam said that may his face be rubbed in the dust meaning may he be humiliated the one who when one of his parents or both of his parents reach old age and he doesn't enter Paradise by serving them in another instant a young man came to the prophet sallallah alai wasam enthusiastic to join the fight the battle that was about to ensue and he said to the prophet he said that I left my mother crying and the prophet said to him go back and don't come back until you leave her laughing in another instance similarly another young man came wanting to participate in the struggle with the prophet and his companions against those gathered enemies and forces who were trying to wipe out the Muslims and there he was ready to defend his Dean and the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam said to this young man do you have a mother he said yes he said go back and serve her that is better for you so my dear brothers and sisters reflecting upon these Noble sayings of our blessed Prophet Muhammad sallallah alai wasallam I decided to stay here to spend some time with my mother after to the recent death of my father now the death of my father is something that I would like to share with you and the remarkable story of how alhamdulillah just 10 days before he died Allah subhah wa ta'ala blessed him to make the shahada the testimony of faith on his lips in fact not only once that happened 10 days before he died but three or 4 days before he died I spent half an hour with my father in the hospital half an hour going over with him again and again and again the testimony of Faith there is no God there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad s. wasam is his messenger and there is a really great lesson in my father and his shahada for all of us because calling the world back to Allah of course is all about da it's all about calling those people who are not yet Muslim to Islam but our duty brothers and sisters as we do emphasize is not to convert anyone in fact Allah did not ask us to make people Muslim Allah told us to pass on the message with wisdom and a beautiful exaltation a good admonition and to debate and argue and discuss with them in the best in the ways that are best and so that's our duty we are givers we are the ones who bring warning of a terrible punishment the Hellfire and indeed not only is the punishment consigned to the next life there is in reality a punishment and humiliation in this life as well for those who reject Allah and our duty is to warn people about that reality but our duty is also to bring the good news bash the good news the good news my brothers and sisters of the beauty of Islam the peace that Tranquility the happiness the joy that Islam brings to the heart and of course the delight and the beauty of paradise that is waiting for those who follow Allah's guidance and accept his ways so our duty is to convey the message to pass the message to explain to the people in the best way that we can guidance is in the hands of Allah subhana wa tala Allah is the one who guides he guides whom he wills and he knows best who is worthy of guidance I I'll be honest with you brothers and sisters I really never thought that my father would take shahada I mean for me my father was uh a fantastic man I have to say he he as a father he was amazing um anyone who met him he was a real outstanding personality and no one could describe him as a bad person or a particularly saintly person he was what he was but in many ways throughout the years the 23 plus years that I've been Muslim and throughout those years I have done many many things to invite my father to Islam Subhan Allah when I first started practicing Islam of course I talk to him I wrote him letters I wrote him long letters I gave him books to read um Subhan Allah whatever I could do and and when I had exhausted the Realms of possibilities in terms of giving him materials and talking to him I just decided that I should restrict myself to giving the best example that I possibly could of how Islam should be of how Islam should be lived of how Islam teaches me to respect him as a parent um and I always really sometimes I have to say thought that my father was really to be honest someone who I thought was very uh closed minded to the possibilities of Islam actually quite frankly brothers and sisters sometimes when I read the verses of the Quran describing the people the disbelievers I felt as if those verses were sometimes describing my father and his attitude so brothers and sisters I didn't have much hope that he was going to become Muslim now my father had been very ill for a couple of years and there were quite a few times where me and my mom really thought that he wasn't going to make it and as it happened uh a few weeks ago when I came from England I arrived in the hospital and went to see my dad and I really looked at him and I thought you know what it really looks as if he could die tonight I mean he really was in he was looking really rough and I really thought to myself you know what if I don't say something I'm never going going to I'm never going to forgive myself I know that I've tried I've given him da I've given him books to read I I've tried everything but I have to make this one last effort and I had spent a long time thinking about what I could say how I could say it what was the right way to approach him he was already very ill so I didn't want to distress him I didn't want to make him more upset and of course to be honest I was also afraid that he might say no he might reject my invitation reject my offer and then I was even worried that if he did say the shahada and he did enter into Islam then what if he got better and he came home and recovered and became even maybe more arrogant against Islam that that was even more more scary so it's really brothers and sisters a very very difficult thing anybody who is a convert to Islam who has parents who are not yet Muslim they can they can relate exactly to this Dilemma to this difficulty that I was going through and this was all compounded even more by the fact that my father was not well brothers and sisters never underestimate the power of Dua because it was then when I was almost a loss I didn't know I couldn't rely upon my own intellect My Own Strength it was something I just needed the help from Allah subhana wa tala and I just asked Allah please Allah find me a way to find something to say to my father and so as he was lying there I said to him Dad I've got something really important to tell you are you listening now my dad really couldn't speak very much and he just nodded his head and I said there's something I have to say if I don't say it I'm going to regret it and then I told him that on the day of judgment a man will come in front of Allah and this man will have Scrolls of evil Deeds as far as the eye can see in each Direction and Allah will say to him you have something that outweigh all of that and the man will say what is that my Lord and Allah will say to him you have this piece of paper here and on it is written a statement that you made there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger I said so Dad this is the key to Paradise this is the success in the Life to Come what do you think and he nodded his head I said does that mean you want to say those words and my dad said yes together he said with me the words there is no God except Allah Muhammad is his messenger now the truth is brothers and sisters I had to leave at that time because the hospital has quite strict uh visiting times and I was very confused I was very confused I should have been really happy and elated and I was in one way but in another way I was really confused cuz I was almost expecting him to take the shahada and then that would be his you know last breath um but Subhan Allah he you know I left and I was thinking you know what if he gets better and he comes home and he doesn't follow up with this Lam and so as it happened um well that's it I just left it at that I didn't really tell anybody um about it I just sort of kept it to myself I was really happy he' said the shahada he seemed to be genuine he seemed to be sincere but you know I visited him the next day and he didn't remember and that's how he was he would not really remember anything from one day to the next or even really from one minute to the next but Subhan Allah that was not the end of it because 3 4 days before he died I was leaving Portugal to go back to England for the new Muslim Retreat that I era holds Muslim now we hold a retreat for the new Muslims and um I was going there to uh give talks and lectures in that Retreat so I really had to get back to UK and the last night I visited him my father was very distressed and he would sometimes lie there just going saying help help me help and I said dad what do you want me to do you know there's not much I can do there's there's the medicines here the antibiotics the doctors have done everything they can what do you want me to do he said I don't know I don't know he said give me something to do I'm saying it I'm saying it he couldn't really speak it was actually very very difficult to understand what my father said uh but you know I could make out what he was saying he said give me something to do I said like what what what do you want he said something easy give me something easy to do Subhan Allah brothers and sisters when when he said that I remembered the Hadith of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam where the Prophet said there is something that is light on the tongue and heavy on the scales and it was as if he was asking me to give him something like that so I said Dad if I was you I would just keep on repeating over and over there is no God except Allah Muhammad is his messenger and he said yes that's what I want to do and we spent half an hour half an hour going over and over there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger at one time he even said stop stop I want to do it myself I want to remember it I want to remember it Subhan Allah and the next day I left for UK then I heard that my father had passed away right now brothers and sisters I'd like us all to reflect deeply upon the lessons from the story of my father and for me the lesson that I have learned and that I would like to pass on to you is really about patience and perseverance many times brothers and sisters and even what we teach in I era in our one-day da training courses is often very much based upon the idea that we have a conversation with someone and we try to get them to take shahada right there on the spot and of course that's that's fantastic if we can do that but sometimes the process is a long process sometimes it takes years and years sometimes you're facing someone who seems to be sometimes the very epitome of kufur the very description of a disbeliever that you come across in the Quran yet Subhan Allah Allah can change the hearts and often our job brothers and sisters is to plant the seeds and it may seem right now to many of you that you live in a hostile environment that you are surrounded by people by society that have a very negative perception of Islam and it seems so hard to get the message of Islam across to them but brothers and sisters you need to have patience you need to p severe you need to realize and understand that honestly if Allah can guide my father to Islam and he can die with the testimony of faith on his lips it's possible for anybody to become Muslim we should always have hope we should always have that hope and that care and that concern for our fellow human beings that they are guided to this beautiful beautiful religion of Islam and that's what I era is here to help you do to help you give da to help you talk to people engage with people communicate to them pass on this message of Islam that is at the Baseline the bottom line that is our duty that's Our obligation that's the minimum that we should try to do my brothers and sisters remember Prophet nisam for 950 years he called his people to Islam and most certainly Allah swore by time that verily by time all of mankind is in a state of loss except those who believe and do righteous deeds and help each other they join together they join together in the teaching of Truth and they support each other in patience that's the recipe for True success brothers and sisters and I ask Allah that he gives me and that he gives all of you and all of us success in this D and success in the Allah [Music] muhamed there is no God except [Music] Allah Muhammad is his [Music] messenger [Music]

Channel: iERA

Views: 809,375

Keywords: Abdurraheem, Green, Abdur, Raheem, Rahim, Father, Gavin, Dad, Papa, Islam, Religion, iERA, Islamic, Education, and, Research, Academy, Documentary, Portugal, Deathbed, shahaadah, testimony, of, faith, declaration, beautiful, people, garden, lush, portugal, paradise, story, english, proud, kony, 2012

Id: QsAVcJXvrCU

Length: 20min 6sec (1206 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2011