Top American Surgeon embraced Islam - "I was trying very hard to be a Christian"

peaceful peaceful peaceful sees this madad hamdulillah assalamualaikum which means peace be up to you welcome to another episode of the Deen show you want to know about Islam you've come to the right place you want to know about Muslims you've come to the source our next guest is the author of some very unique books we're going to be talking to him we're going to be talking about how he came to Islam sit tight you don't want to go nowhere with our next guest coming up dr. Brown we'll be right back on the Deen show peaceful peaceful peaceful please peaceful peaceful peaceful assalamualaikum waalaikumsalam what off until I have over to captain dr. Brown thank you for being with us on Deen chose to treat my pleasure strike dr. Bonner officer Brown no no dr. Brown okay so the people our audience just got to read a little bit about you once you just briefly tell us they got to see that you had graduated your doctor you an officer a retired major and the Air Force is this correct tell us a little bit about this well I don't know if you will really can say retired because that in most people's minds means that they spent 20 years in the military yeah I was 16 years 8 years in active reserves and eight years active duty but the bottom line is that I'm an ophthalmologist I'm a specialist in cataract & refractive surgery on the medical director of a major eye center during the last 10 years I've authored a number of books about Islam I first became Muslim about 14 years ago and in the first in the first few years it was just accelerated learning I got to a point where I realized that there was basically an absence of literature with regard to certain subjects and I felt that that that that void needed to be filled and that's what started me on writing so over the last 10 years I wrote a series of five books many readers might know the first one it's called the first and final commandment however I have now rewritten that into two books one is called misguided and the other is called called gadot those are basically volumes one and volumes two of the first and final commandment the latest book the one I'm most excited about is the eighth scroll and the reason that I'm excited and I feel others should be as well is that that's actually an action/adventure it's a novel and it's a very exciting very fast-paced book and it's a book that people will read because they enjoy it but at the same time they'll take home a deeper message now about it let's talk about people are excited because you mentioned the word excited I'm sure they're excited to hear how you came to Islam talk about this talk about your past religious experiences and what led you to Islam sure actually you know it's it's kind of a fun topic for me because most people assume that I was Christian before I became Muslim and I have to correct them I have to tell them no I I was trying very hard to be a Christian I had tried for many years to be a Christian in many different ways and it just never worked out for me and I get a lot of funny looks when I say that but the the bottom line is that what happened was that I started on a spiritual search about 19 years ago I had a daughter who was born with a with what's called a coarctation of the aorta it's a is a lethal problem meaning that a child born with this condition most often dies and they usually die in a particularly bad way meaning that they have open-heart surgery and then a few years later they repeat the open-heart surgery and then a few years later they repeat it as the child is growing they have to increase the size of the graft and in the end these children die so this was the first time when I got the news of her condition this is the first time in my life I felt I had no control I I couldn't do anything about this situation every time before in my life when there was a problem I dealt with it on my own if I needed more money I worked harder if this needed fixing I found somebody or I fixed it myself etc etc everybody knows what I'm talking about when this baby was born her name was Hannah she went straight to the intensive care unit her body from here down was almost the color of my closer to color of your suit just kind of a dusky gunmetal blue because her body was not getting oxygen her body was literally starving in front of her eyes oxygen starved in front of our eyes and and that part of her body was was literally dying and when I saw that like I said it was the first time in my life that I needed to turn to some greater power I was a theist up until then I had been raised in a family that was basically Quaker one of the Protestant sects but not practicing and I myself had never taken on any religion so I had to leave the intensive care unit because they brought in a team of doctors a team of specialists in the field and while they were doing their thing I just went to the prayer room and for the first time in my life I really prayed and I prayed kind of the typical atheist prayer there's a there's a prayer called the prayer of the skeptic the prayer of the skeptic goes like this Oh God if there is a God save my soul if I have a soul okay that's the prayer of the skeptic and most atheists when they pray they pray in this way they say Oh God if you are there you know because they're not quite sure and that's basically what I prayed I just said Oh God if you're there I don't know if you're there or not but if you are I need help and I made a promise to my Creator on that day I promised that if he would save the life of my child and then guide me to the religion that was most pleasing to him that I would follow and that was that that was the simple promise and I and I was only away for maybe about 15 minutes 15 or 20 minutes but when I went back into the intensive care unit my daughter was on the other side of the intensive care unit and when I entered the door and looked across the room the doctors raised their faces from my for my daughter and I could see right away something had changed their faces were mystified as if they didn't really understand what was going on maybe a little bit shocked when when I walked up to them they simply told me that she was going to be okay and that she wouldn't you know she wouldn't die and sure enough she went back to being a completely normal child and all respects I mean you know normal quirks but but completely healthy she didn't have surgery she didn't need medication just her condition completely reversed and here's the thing we had we had an ultrasound film of her heart beforehand and we had an ultrasound film of her heart after and before she had the problem I told you about after it was completely gone stone-cold normal and the doctors I remember the doctors sort of went through an explanation trying to make sense of it to me trying to make sense of it to themselves I feel that they bought that explanation but I remember standing there looking at them just thinking you know I know that explanation works for you but it just doesn't work for me and that's I mean I prayed this prayer and I just have to believe that this was the hand of my creator so I knew he had made good on his promise and I had to make good on mine so that started me on a religious search and I was I thought I would find the truth in Christianity I studied Judaism first that led me to study in Christianity I thought I'd find the truth there for years years I tried to convince myself I tried to become Christian I mean I went to seventh-day Adventist Mormon Quaker Southern Baptist Roman Catholic Greek orchid Orthodox I don't know exactly how many different sets how many different churches I went to trying to find the truth of Christianity and I always kept coming up against the same thing I always kept liking some part of it but having trouble with others and when it came down to the tenets of faith I would talk to the priests and I would say well how about this and they couldn't explain it and how about that and they couldn't explain that and well what about this they kind of shrugged their shoulders and I just say well you know thanks anyway and move on to the next congregation it wasn't until I found Islam that all of my questions were answered and it wasn't until I found Islam that peace entered my heart and I realized that this was where all of the pieces of the puzzle came together what were some of these I'm sure the viewers want to know what were some of these questions that you had that were they weren't able to answer when you were going to some of these higher ups in the church well you'll find you'll find these as central themes in my books but the simplest ones were were simply that I didn't find foundation to the tenets of faith okay but for for example the Trinity it is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible you know where do you find the word Trinity it was a doctrine that was derived 300 years after the time of Jesus and in my simple mind I just thought well if this were a true doctrine you would have thought that Jesus Christ would have spoken about it explicitly so I would ask for justification you know how do the Christians justify the concept of the Trinity and they would always go to certain passages you know where Jesus was quoted as having said you know I and the father are one or there are three on earth you know the the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and I would say okay fine that's written in the Bible but here are the arguments that cancel those you know for example the Trinitarian formula the strongest evidence is is this quotation about the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and that is not in the original manuscripts that was a marginal note that was written by a scribe into the into the margin of one of the manuscripts which was later copied into the into the scripture and so I would point this out to priests and you know the frustrating thing is I would talk to them and they would finish the sentence for me I would say this thing that you just told me it's not in the scripture it was a margin and they would say a marginal note added by a scribe yeah okay we know that okay well the next point is and I'd be thinking subhanAllah if you know this is not the Bible if you know that it's in insertion and illegitimate insertion why are you preaching it as if it's gospel truth there are many instances like this and you can read about this in my books but one of the one of the biggest things that disturbed me was that I believed in Jesus Christ as man and as a prophet so I would ask them prove to me where Jesus Christ is God or even a son of God and again we would we would go through that explanation they would they would say their piece and I would say look 88 times in the Bible 88 times Jesus Christ calls himself the son of man yes no where does he call himself the son of God nowhere now there are a couple of places where it's mistranslated or it's spoken of metaphorically but that is very different from literal meaning and I just pointed out that on to them I said you know this place here this is metaphorical this place here this is mistranslation and again they would finish the sentences for me they say yeah yeah okay we know it's taken out of context and so on and I've been looking thinking about you know who's the one who's supposed to know the scripture here you know I'm a novice at this they're a priest so so now somebody didn't do his homework like you did you can see how some we can see how somebody can kind of get led in a way that they want to lead that individual you know exactly I mean I I think that the Bible itself is it's difficult to understand but there there are some very simple lessons that I think people can take home of it and it's stressing those lessons I think that brings out the truth one of the one of the central lessons to me was that you have to make a choice Jesus Christ and Paul taught opposite opposite things yes now you can you can rectify this in different ways but in a nutshell Jesus Christ taught that God is one three times in the New Testament he is quoted as having said you know no Israel though I thy Lord is one God okay one God that's what Jesus Christ said okay on the other hand Paul and the Pauline theologians who followed in his wake developed the concept of the Trinity that's one point when it came to the law Jesus Christ was a rabbi he followed Old Testament law that's why we call him rabbi Jesus he taught Old Testament law Paul came along and said it doesn't apply anymore he canceled the law Jesus Christ taught that he was the son of man others taught that he was the son of God Jesus Christ taught a tone taught accountability that everybody is accountable for their own actions again he was an Orthodox Jew it's written in the Old Testament that no son shall bear the iniquity of his father no son shall bear his iniquity of the father and yet the crux of Christianity is that we all bear the sin of Adam how do you how do you make these two concepts fit well Paul did it just by saying just a fit and justification by faith all you have to do is believe and you will be justified in whatever you do okay and it goes on and it goes on but the point the point is that if you take the teachings of Jesus and you take the teachings of Paul these are opposite I haven't found a single instance where they were the same and this is why you find Paul and James the you know alleged brother of Jesus at odds with one another in the Bible and it's also why we in our minds should should recognize this conflict and make a choice mm-hmm you have to make a choice if two people are teaching opposite things you have to choose which one you're going to follow yes now I believe I believe we should choose to follow the Prophet Trinitarian Church for the last seventeen hundred years what they have what they have said is take these two teachings even though they're opposites and put them together and make them work Jesus said God is one Paul says God is three so God is one and he's three jesus said the Old Testament law applied Paul said it was cancelled so we'll take what the last person said last person said is cancelled so we'll kind of will kind of try to make that work against the teachings of Jesus or take the job the top part of the suit the fish the pant don't fit you know put it together it doesn't fit at all well you know it's different ways of looking at it each person has to find their own formula but but this is you know we're just talking about what happened with me and I just looked at it and said that doesn't work for me what works for me is he was a prophet he's a man I'm going to believe what he said I mean I'm not going to believe what the person who canceled his teachings said and that's that's why I could never accept Christianity dr. Brown let's kind of reverse you mentioned atheism and being from a family of Quaker Protestants I think the majority of people they can relate to this simple thing as far as being in a Christian household not practicing Christianity and you know what many people just doing their own thing and a lot of people probably borderline agnostic how are you living at that time were you just doing your own thing until that moment hit where you found out that I need you know I'm not self-sufficient talk about this I was living in the way that I think a lot of close Christians live you know I mean people who are close to Christianity but for one reason or another they have not fully embraced the tenets of one particular faith and that is I was living with with the Golden Rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you and the opposite of that of course is don't do unto others as you would not want them to do to you yeah so I was basically living according the golden rule I was trying to live with as sound principles as some moral principles as I felt I could but I don't think that's such an unusual experience I think I think in America that's probably the majority of people I think the majority of people in America are in this position where they have foundational beliefs that they hold on to but they simply cannot accept the full package of what they're being taught by any particular church and what I mean by that is just that they may have sound moral values they may have sound spiritual values they believe in certain fundamental things they believe they believe in God they believe in his prophets including Abraham and Ishmael Isaac Noah Moses Jesus and they see you know they see certain truths in the biblical teachings but then when it comes down to the tenets of Christian faith they find maybe points one and two and three they can accept but other things they find that they cannot accept so they're searching they're searching for how to make sense of all of this and that's the position I was in until I became Muslim it was Islam that to me made sense of everything and it was trying to convey that which was the reason behind my books I always believed in continuity in the chain of prophethood I always believed with it without it needing to be explained to me I always believed that Moses was a prophet and that Jesus was a prophet I always believed that but when I found Moses speaking of three prophets to follow and the Jews are still waiting for those three prophets this is no mystery and then I found Jesus Christ speaking of one more prophet to follow it raised a very big question in my and ok Moses spoke of three prophets to follow John the Baptist we have to count as one Jesus Christ we have to count as two and that leaves 1/3 and then you find Jesus Christ speaking of a final prophet and a lot of people are going to say where did he do that where did Jesus Christ speak of the final prophet read my book and you'll know but the point is this is why Christianity is a messianic religion for for 2,000 years people have been looking for the completion of the the prediction and and that was the question in my mind Moses spoke of three we have two Jesus spoke of the last one also who is that last one when I studied the life of Muhammad peace be upon and what I learned about Islam that that fit the niche for me that made sense and that to me explain the continuity of the chain of Revelation up to its completion tell us dr. Brown we went from atheism to trying to make Christianity fit to Islam they want to know what happened how did you stumble across Islam and accept all the tenants and the teachings and now you're Muslim well basically I had all of these unresolved questions in my mind I believe in God is one God I never believed in the Trinity I believed in Jesus Christ as a man and as the the man you know the second to last one who predicted the final prophet and I didn't believe in him as God or son of God I believed in the chain of prophethood I believed in the mercy of our creator and I believe that our Creator would not leave mankind without guidance and without definitive guidance guidance that once a person saw it is easy to understand and easy to make part of your life I gave up on Christianity I studying and studying the studying to the point where I felt I felt hopeless basically I felt like I could not find any Christian sect that represented my beliefs and a lot of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about a lot of you out there are in the exact same position you have studied you have looked you have certain beliefs you know what I'm talking about they you have not been able to find a church that that in its completeness embodies those beliefs now I'm just I'm just telling you that when I studied Islam when I learned about Islam read the Holy Quran I read a book by Martin Ling's called Mohammed his life based on the earliest teachings and those books just clarified everything for me that's what I became Muslim so dr. Brown now you're Muslim tell us you know many people they assume that you know Muslim is someone with the we do have a beard but a turban I don't know it's someone from living in and right what you do live in all right but tell us some of these stereotypes some of these misconceptions people have I'm sure you've dealt with them but you know we look at you you're a doctor you know you look like a very well address devote intelligent human being you know you know it wants what everyone else wants tell us you know some of the misconceptions that people have and how this is far from the truth can you share some of these things that you've come across and I think I think the easiest way I can put it is the observation of one of my Muslim friends when they came to when they came to the West and saw how we were living in America how we were living in England they just said everything's upside-down and I can't put it better everything I feel is exactly upside down to my understanding you know in the West in the West Islam is portrayed with a media bias that is no mystery to anybody who has studied it we were raised I was raised to believe that Muslims were a bunch of towel headed terrorists riding camels out in the desert yeah planning on how next they're going to destroy Western civilization and and it it was only learning about Islam as its true teachings are and coming to know Muslims and living amongst them that I just found out as I said everything's just upside down look you find good and bad people everywhere you can't avoid that you find good and bad people everywhere and it's from the bad people it's from picking up on the example of the bad people that the media can spin things any way it wants to but the fact of the matter is the vast majority of people in all walks of life are basically good people they basically want the same things they want to they want to go to bed at night knowing that they have a peaceful night ahead of them with you know in the security of their homes that they're not going to be attacked in any particular way they want to wake up to a morning of hope and promise where they can they can go out and earn a decent livelihood for their family they want to kiss their kids and send them off to school knowing that that they're not going to face any kind of persecution or or or problems you know either going or coming they want to have a normal life that that is the vast majority of all humanity you get a few bad people the media grabs ahold of that and spins it the way they want to and what I found was just that I just found that everything I had ever heard was media spin just trying to make his mom look bad and the real truth was that I just I just found that Muslims were my family the vast majority of them I felt have softer hearts better manners just just more kindness and more of that humanity that I was looking for in the West in the West to me things are getting harder people's hearts are getting hardened they're not as generous with one another the kindness the kindness is is disappearing materialism is taking over the tensions the tensions of of the rat's race of life and the West is controlling people and I just found amongst Muslims the exact opposite I found these things I told you and more and the living example of Islam the living example of Islam is an example of modesty it's an example of kindness generosity truthfulness and most of all it's the it's the example of submission to our Creator and that to me is life the way it's supposed to be lived it's very simple I can thank you dr. Brown for being with us my pleasure you can visit dr. brown at level truth calm level truth calm or eighth scroll calm eighth scroll is spelled exactly as the book ERG HTH SC AR o ll calm and I'd like to thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Dene show I hope you've enjoyed this week's show with dr. Brown you've got to learn about Islam coming to the source Islam simply means submission and surrender to one God alone submitting to him on his terms and a Muslim is one who does the action of Islam and now from here if you've enjoyed what we got we have to say continue to come back every week here on the Deen show you can contact me if you have any questions you can also contact dr. Brown if you're interested in any of his books and we hope to see you next time here on the Deen show until then assalamu alaikum peace be unto you you you

Channel: Digital Mimbar

Views: 835,009

Rating: 4.8347216 out of 5

Keywords: Atheist, Christian, God, atheism, agnostic, scientist, psalms, George, Bush, Prejudice, Bible, Islam, Allah, PeaceTv, HudaTv, Deenshow, TheDeenshow, Ummahfilms, Islamchannel, Ufc, Dr, lawerance, Brown

Id: _J5_VETwfew

Length: 30min 14sec (1814 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 08 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Amazing video. Thanks for sharing.

It intrigued me when he said Moses pbuh foretold of three prophets to come : John son of Zakaria, Jesus son of Mary and Muhammad peace be upon them all.

I m researching this today.