Why I Embraced Islam - Waterloo, Canada, Reversion Story

just by a show of hands is there anybody in the audience today that is not a Muslim just by the show of hands is there anybody here that's not Muslim fantastic anyone else yeah fantastic welcome Brothers I'm going to be sharing quite a few things with everybody here today God willing uh inshallah so I do hope that you do find some benefit in this as well um but fundamentally what I wanted to share today is how a very small and seemingly insignificant piece of Da can completely change an individual's life forever you see I was born and raised in a Christian family my father was the pastor of our church and my mother was a beautiful singer within the choir and from a very young age I've been nurtured by the names of the prophets from Abraham and his sons to Noah upon his ship and Moses with his remarkable courage to guide his people to safety and it was from this very young age that I've been met with a burning desire to following My Father's Footsteps and to become a religious leader myself and I dedicated myself to that cause and soon found a platform upon which I could share my love and my passion for God and what I then believed his untainted Revelation in my early 20s I found myself in a position of leadership at my church and as my Independence grew religious freedoms took hold I soon started asking questions in my religion and in life there were often left unanswered now what is fascinating is that the first step of Da happened around this time where my mom was approached by a Muslim man because she wanted to write an article regarding Hajj and she was speaking to this man to help her comp OS this article he could not write this article for her but he encouraged her to go out to do the research pertaining to Islam and about H specifically and to write the article herself and soon as it came she started reading the Quran and she started falling in love with the religion now you can understand from my perspective at the time how averse I was to her seeking Knowledge from a completely different Revelation and it was something that I constantly tried to test why would you go to a different Faith to learn about God to learn about the prophets and I just could not comprehend it and there was even a time where she would go to church with us and she would wear herar or her J and I still remember that we would have youth group at our house where we would invite all the youth together we would do praise and worship and we would speak a little bit about the Bible and so forth but after that we would always do a little bit of praise and worship we would sing and glorify God and I still remember I would turn the religious music just a little bit louder to try and call it back to Christianity now during this time I realized that I had to figure out who I wanted to be in life because my quest of following My Father's Footsteps was starting to withart so I decided to go work abroad with on real Caribbean cruises as a photographer I see we have a photographer over there or the best brother it's not an easy uh easy profession to follow um there's a lot of nuances involved but I wanted to go work at Ro Caribbean cruises as a photographer and this is where my life started to change because as I was about to leave for my flight my mom held me in a close embracing time and she prayed a prayer over me which I will never forget she prayed a prayer to a new god named Allah whom I did not know back then and she asked Allah to send a very big Angel With Me on my journey to guide me and to protect me and as I hugged my mom goodbye and I said goodbye to my then girlfriend fiance now alhamdulillah my wife I left for my Flight I landed in Australia I boarded my ship I opened my bag and I realized that my mom had left me with more than just a prayer she left me with a copy of the Quran on the very first first page of this beautiful book she wrote a little note to me and she said that if ever I want to debate against Muslims one day because it was something I was passionate about I had to read the Revelation I had to understand what they believe why they believe what they and so with the love and respect I have for my mommy I cracked open the pages and I started reading the Quran every single night that was the commitment I wanted to make I started reading by one page one turned into two two into three and I found myself completing the Quran from cover to cover now thus dear brothers and sisters is truly where my battle began a battle with left which left my heart my mind and my spirit completely torn because I was separated countries between myself and everybody that I loved and held dear but yet I knew I was exactly where I had to be I felt betrayed by my religious leaders and my community for not teaching me as to what Islam is and what they believe and yet I knew there was something that was guiding me I felt as if I did not really know God and yet I knew he was right there beside me having completed the Quran reading about all the prophets that I've internalized from such a young age I then went back into the biblical text and I started a comparative religious study and what I had found between these Revelations is that there more cohesion than what there is separation from the very principle within the Quran inah 11 where it says say that he is Allah the one and the only the absolute and eternal he begets not nor is he begotten and there's nothing like unto him echoed in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6:4 where Moses says to the Israelites here are Israel the Lord of God the Lord is one this is confirmed by Jesus peace and blessing to be upon him in the Book of Mark 12:28 now in Christianity there are two main Concepts that are held very close the first one is pertaining to the Trinity now the Trinity teaches that there's the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and these three entities are one they're co-equal and co-eternal this was established in the year 325 at the Council of Mia where The Duality between the father and the son was formalized and ratified in the year 381 at the Council of Constantinople the Holy Spirit found itself within this equation and it was a part of this concept of Coe equality but what I had found through my comparative religious study is that Jesus peace and blessings be upon and makes it very clear as to his relationship with the the almighty creator with the father for instance in the Book of John 14:28 he says that my father is greater than I in the Book of John 10:29 he says my father is greater than all in the Book of Matthew 12:28 he says that I with the spirit of God cast out de demons The Book of Luke 5:3 it says that out of my own s I can do nothing as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not to please myself but only God who had sent me therefore making it clear that he is subordinate to the almighty Creator to the father and that in his own right he does not have the power and whenever he performs a miracle it is done so by the spirit of God and a final verse pertaining to this that really hit me hard is that in the Book of John 17:3 he says that this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Me whom you have sent and he's speaking that the father is the only true God that there are no other deities beside him understanding that I could no longer hold on to the concept of the Trinity left me with an understanding that I need to embrace the concept of but I told you that there are two sides to Christianity that are of the major principles that they adhere to the other one is the cross the concept of salvation and forgiveness through the blood sacrifice of Jesus peace and blessings be upon him now what is interesting is that in the book of Hebrew chapter 9:22 a writer by the name of Paul you've probably heard of him somewhere along the line he writes a statement and he says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin this is the only place in the Bible where you would find the statement that without Bloodshed there is no forgiveness however if you study the biblical text and you do a comparative study what you would find is that this is not the case there are instances of forgiveness without Bloodshed throughout going back to the Old Testament in the book of Isiah 1: 11-20 God speaks and he says the multitude of your sacrifices what are they to me says the Lord I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls Rams and goats when you come to appear here before me this is a trampling of my courts take your evil Deeds out of my sight stop doing wrong defend the oppressed take up the pause of the fatherless and plead the case of the Widow come now let us settle this matter says the Lord though your sins are like Scarlet they will be as white as snow not only telling us that there's forgiveness and salvation without Bloodshed completely rejecting insincere Bloodshed in and of itself saying that we need to follow his laws and decrees to gain salvation and forgiveness we find the same with Prophet David peace and blessings be on him in the Book of Psalms where he cries out to God in beautiful songs and he asks God for forgiveness and God speaks out of the heavens and tells him but David I forgive you and I wash your soul as white as s there are more examples throughout the Bible in the book of assiah The Messengers make it clear that I desire mercy and not sacrifice Jesus peace and blessings be upon Him says the same thing in the New Testament I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I have not come to call to the righteous but I came to call the wicked to repentance not to Bloodshed and in the Book of Luke chapter 19 when a man by the name of Zakaria comes to him he asks him a question Oh Lord what shall I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus tells him that of the wealth that you have pay it back to the poor this man then went and he paid four times as much back to those that he stole from and in the Book of Luke 19:9 on the lips of Jesus he says that salvation has come to this house not through Bloodshed but through his actions in submitting to the decree of God furthermore when Jesus peace and blessings be upon Him teaches us how to pray and he speaks to his disciples he says our father that's in heaven forgive us of our sins and have us forgive those who transgressed against us so that we might gain your forgiveness no Bloodshed examples of this run through and through the entire Bible the almighty Creator tells us in the Quran that Jesus peace and blessings be upon him was not crucified but he was only made to a pierce one but not only that what we need to realize is that the crucifixion the statements made long after Jesus peace and blessings be upon him that salvation is exclusive to this Bloodshed is not truthful and there's a beautiful verse in the Quran and this is actually one of my favorite verses but it's in the Quran in chapter 39:53 where the almighty Creator tells us that oh those who AR submission unto me do not despair for the mer Mery of Allah indeed Allah forgives all sins because he's most forgiving and he is most merciful understanding that the two sides of this coin no longer make sense to me that I can no longer accept the concept of the Trinity and I can no longer put my salvation within the cross I realized deep internally within my heart that I'm a Muslim that I wish to pray only to this Almighty creator for forgiveness for guidance for healing and protection that I wish should follow in the footsteps of all the prophets all the way from Abraham Moses Jonah Joshua Jesus Ezekiel Elijah the list goes on the prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon them all and this is where I declared my Shada that there's only one God worthy of worship and that is Allah subhana wa tala and the prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him this his messenger now why am I sharing this with you of course you know I'm a part of our era alhamdulillah been with them now for half a decade doing da every single day and it's a greatest honor but but the reason why I'm talking to you about this is that there's a movement currently around the world that we are seeing because we are in the front lines we are realizing this that so many people are turning towards Islam because they're realizing the truth they're no longer clouded by you know the things of this world and taken away by by media and so forth they are actually taking copies of the Quran and just like myself is starting to read it for themselves but the reason why I'm sharing this with you today is because brothers and sisters all of you collectively need stand up and you need to start doing something I've spent over 20 years of my life not knowing anything about Islam and all it could have taken is for somebody to take me aside and just say that listen you know what we believe as simple as that just to tell them about the Oneness of this Almighty Creator and that forgiveness and salvation is given there is no Penance or you know money that you need to pay or blood that needs to be shed just in sincere repentance and following the decrees of Allah he gives us forgiveness and each of you need to make a commitment to take it upon yourselves to share this beautiful message because it is so simplistic and are people out there their Spirits their souls are crying for this and every single day there are people that pass away not having known God or had a relationship with them and on the final day of Resurrection we will be asked what did you do with your time and if our time was solely spent on the things of this world trying to accumulate wealth or fame or knowledge and Status it will amount to nothing but what will stay with us on that final day is the good that we have done and the knowledge that we have shared with others I realized that I'm running out of time but I would like to leave you with one last thought dawa is like a seed it might seem small and it might seem insignificant but when it is swn with care and by the grace and mercy of Allah that seed can take root and it can Sprout and it can grow into a beautiful tree that not only provides shade for those who I need but also something to eat and at a IRA this organization and I mean a lot of you are involved with the da that we do we do da every single day as we are speaking here right now now we have artre Specialists somewhere in the world that are busy Sharing The Message of Islam with someone and our goal our vision from what we can see for the future by the grace and mercy of the almighty is that we have 1 million of these trees of dawa grow every single year and you need to ask yourself will you be a part of this Mission I just want to leave you with that may Allah bless you abundantly with a SA sacrifices that you make during this beautiful month and may He reward you for your efforts and intentions [Applause]

Channel: Ashraf Schneider

Views: 38,606

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Id: Nun_WYIwEuc

Length: 16min 38sec (998 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024