Why I Left Atheism & Accepted Islam? - My Journey to Islam - Abdulrahman

assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh my name is Abraham and I'm from Britain I was raised in a non-religious secular family we never discussed Isla we never discussed any kind of religion and I came to my own conclusions that there was no God and that science had the answers to everything because that's what I was being taught in school and that's what I was hearing on the TV even so despite coming to many ideas that there was no God every once in a while I had the doubt and ask myself is the regard maybe there's a God now going through high school I was unhappy much of the time because there's a lot of peer pressure at school to conform to be fashionable to be popular to be daring and so on and I didn't want to be like that I didn't I saw the popular people were not respecting the teachers not respecting knowledge I didn't feel that they were really looking to develop themselves and to really contribute to the world so I was lonely and being lonely is unhappy especially as a teenager in fact it reached a point about two or three times where I felt there since I had no clear purpose in life maybe I should end my life but thanks to God I didn't do that as Allah planned it I had a Muslim friend at high school and sometimes I would go to his house and he would say I'm going downstairs to pray sometimes I would ask him why do you pray or how do you pray and the thing I really appreciate about him is that he was not shy to tell me about his Islam at least when he was at home this is very important for Muslims today because if you don't make an effort to show something of your Aslam you cannot expect anybody to have an interest in Islam or to learn about Islam now after I've known him for about five years when we were 16 he decided that I would probably appreciate Islam so he made an effort to persuade me to learn about it and for a period of about three weeks every day he was telling me you should learn about Islam it's the religion of truth there is a life after death there was a paradise and a Hellfire Allah is the most merciful he didn't know much of the Quran or the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad peace and mention of Allah be upon him he just kept turning with the same points over and over again and eventually we reached a point one evening as we were walking together and I looked up at the moon and I said to myself if what he's saying is true if there really is a life after death then it would not harm me just to investigate this for myself and come to my own decision and honestly from that point onwards my heart was just open to a slam and I can remember I began to talk to God and to say I can't believe that all my life I've never spoken to you I've never acknowledged you but now I really believe in you it was really as simple as that for me of course I took the trouble to learn about Islam as he advised me to do so and I think also something that was going through my mind at that time is that after death if there really was another life then I would not have the luxury to just run away from Allah and do as I pleased another thing I should mention about my life before I became Muslim is that around that time age 16 the nightclub scene was becoming very popular and promoted on TV so I was really aspiring to reach the age of 18 where I could do as I pleased I was making music on my computer and I just wanted to get into the club scene to experiment with the drugs and to experiment with girls and so on I was so close to entering that lifestyle and I often wonder where I would have ended up had I gone into that life but thanks to God he saved me from that devious life as I mentioned before I became Muslim I was interested in science and I felt that science had the answers to all our questions about where we came from and how the universe works now what interested me when I first began to learn about Islam is that actually Islamic science do not contradict at all and there have been many scientific discoveries which support what is mentioned in the Quran for example about embryology or cloud formation or the structure of the earth so this motivated me to study about Islam particularly from this scientific aspect the one thing that really impressed me about my first Muslim friend in his family was their hospitality and the way that they treated me as a guest and I think that this is very important for Muslims in their interaction with the non-muslims because if we want to charm them towards Islam and encourage them to learn about Islam then we have to be aware of something which is that non-muslims have more information now about Islam than they used to and they are probably aware that Islam does not allow many of the things which they are accustomed to doing and this could make them reluctant to learn about Islam but by treating them well and showing them the very welcoming and the community spirit amongst the Muslims this I think will help them to embrace Islam in my case when I became as him I was very lucky because I did not face much conflict at all with my family or with the friends I had at that time I remember that my father in particular was concerned about the direction I was taking but he was supportive and I would say that the big challenge really was just to adjust to the Islamic way of life and to learn to submit to Allah and one of the things that really helped me to do that was to take the attitude that whenever the truth comes to me when I'm taught something about this lamb which is different from what I was doing before it is not something which is against me but it is something which is for me because it will bring me closer to God I would say the main changes that occur to me after becoming Muslim is that I learn to respect myself more and over time I came to appreciate the importance of having a healthy diet having regular exercise having a healthy mind and a healthy body keeping good company taking care of what I hear and see all of this helped me to become a better Muslim of course I welcome any opportunity to discuss a Salaam with friends and family or even complete strangers but the challenge is that sometimes the better you know somebody or the closer you are to them the harder they find it to accept the truth from you now the response of my father to my telling him about Islam has been positive and I think that the potential is there he's interested but he's very busy with the work that he does was with my mother who has a lot more time on her hands to reflect and to think she makes the excuse that she chooses to worship God as she pleases you see she acknowledges the existence of a god but she doesn't want to submit to his rooms and I have yet to find a way to really help her to understand the basic principle that our law does not prohibit anything except because it's harmful to us and this is something which honestly many of the Muslims and other Muslims today are unaware of they see Islam as a set of restrictive rules which are preventing them from having fun and being free and so on and in fact the true freedom and the true happiness comes by submitting to our laws rules and we can see the consequences in many societies today where people are ignoring the rules of even Christianity or Judaism for example and this is leading to breakup of families and breakup of societies so I think the typical to my family is the lack of a really good example for them to see how effective Islam is when put into practice in terms of my efforts to spread the message of Islam of course I first and foremost try to give a good example myself also I like to distribute cassette tapes perhaps interviews of how people became Muslim or stories of the prophets of Allah and so on and I also like to discuss with my friends creative ways to spur people's curiosity for example leaving a piece of paper with a few questions about life and maybe a phone booth or on a table somewhere so that someone might pick it up and it might just have a few questions which encourage them to learn more about Islam the current situation in the Muslim world is a sad one and we see that many of the Muslims are deceived by the an Islamic ways but at the same time with each year we find more and more people leaving those unexcited ways and finding peace and happiness in Islam the media today portrays a very negative and false impression of Islam and one cannot help but wonder why that is when the truth is available for all to see now even at the time of the Prophet Muhammad peace and mention of Allah be upon him he faced this challenge people would describe him as a liar as a soothsayer and many people were forced to ignore those claims because his example was so contrary to what was being said about him so likewise our response to the media onslaught against Islam today should be to present the best image of Islam that we possibly can the message that I would like to convey to the Muslims today is that your religion is your flesh and blood and lets Allah tells us in the Quran what means that he doesn't want to harm for us but rather he wants to purify us and complete his favour upon us so that we may be grateful to him and as he also tells us in the Quran what means it is in the remembrance of Allah that the hearts find rest so I really want to stress that you can never escape from Allah the most high so instead of continuously trying to run away from him and somehow avoid him face up to the fact that he is not looking to harm you he just wants you to worship Him so that you can have the honor of seeing his face in the paradise so please be prepared for the inevitable meeting with him when I began to learn about Islam I was fortunate to meet many Muslims who were enthusiastic to spread their religion and to give me books and to read and so on and what impressed me the most about some of the books I was given was their constant reference to the Quran and a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu our name was summer there are many books in the world today but many of them are containing opinions of people or narrations about the Prophet Muhammad peace invention of Allah be upon him which are not correct now we come to the story of how actually took the Shahada and became Masum for money I had been studying a stamp for perhaps two or three months and it took me some time to build up the confidence to actually enter sign formally even though I had begun to pray to God and to even fasting Ramadan really early on but for some reason I never felt quite ready to accept a slam formally so eventually towards the end of Ramadan I went to the mosque and I invited my Muslim friends to come and be living at that time and of course the process of becoming Muslim is very simple you simply testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger but what happened after that was somebody suggested that I am mixed and say some prayers for the Muslim world because I had just become Muslim and therefore all of my past sins had been forgiven well what nobody told me was how to actually conclude the prayer so I prayed and I prayed some more and I prayed even more than that and I must have included almost every Muslim in my prayers in one way or another and then I pause because I ran out of things to say and somebody subtly hinted that we conclude this prayer in your name of Allah and after that were impressed that I had managed to pray for about 40 minutes he may surprise someone that a boy born in a non-religious family could have an innate love for his creator but actually Allah creates each person initially upon the fitrah or the natural disposition and then his parents may turn him into for example a Jew or a Christian so the heart always has a desire to worship Allah and I remember a nice story which is worth mentioning here I've had a doctor I think he was in London and he treated a Muslim patient so he asked that patient you seem to be a Muslim who is practicing your religion I'd like to ask you something about this lamb which he did and the Muslim took the opportunity to ask him you are a doctor and you're very wealthy man are you happy and the doctor replied by saying well actually no sometimes I'm very depressed so they must've asked him if you wanted to give comfort to your eyes what would you do and he replied by saying that I would look at something attractive and the Muslim went on to ask him how would you give comfort to your ears or how would you give comfort to your tongue so then the Muslim asked him does it make sense to give comfort to your eyes by listening to something enjoyable and of course the doctor said no and the Muslim asked him does it make sense to give comfort to your tongue by looking at something attractive and of course the doctor said no so the Muslim went on to say to him this is the problem your heart will gain comfort by worshipping Allah and giving thanks to Allah and having a connection and a relationship of Allah but you are depriving your heart of that connection and that is why you're unhappy the number of women becoming Muslim today is greater than the number of men and when I first heard this it surprised me until I mentioned it to a former work colleague who was a Christian and she explained that in her experience of organizing church activities women tended to participate more actively than men so it would seem that women generally tend to be motivated more in religious activities than the men are however this is not an excuse for women to be complacent now women can take their tidings in the fact that the Prophet Muhammad peace of mission of Allah be upon him also told us that the whole world is a place of provision and the best objects of provision in this world is a righteous woman last year for the first time I had the opportunity to make a Mona which is the lesser pilgrimage to Makkah and I had very high expectations of it because of what I'd heard from friends who had the opportunity to go before me I would say the greatest benefit I got from making the Umrah is that I felt very very close to God and I felt I could confess everything to him since I was so close to his house the Kaaba and I felt completely sincere I felt I could confess all of my faults to him and ask him to pure for my heart and help me to rectify my ways many Muslims today have observed that people who revert to Islam from and the religion are more enthusiastic to learn about Islam than those who have been raised in with some families and I believe it was the great former evident who once said that a person cannot truly appreciate Islam unless he has seen jellia or pre-islamic ignorance now we should all desire a stronger relationship of Allah and it starts with do R or prayer the Prophet Muhammad peace of mentioned have allowed be upon him the dua or the prayer which he would mention most frequently in his home was what could be translated as Oh Turner of the hearts turned my heart to your Deen and the Prophet Muhammad peace a mention of Allah be upon him was not told to ask Allah for an increase in anything in the Quran for an increase in anything except knowledge in addition to prayer I would advise any Muslim who wants to develop a desire to learn more about Islam to mix with those Muslims who are learning about Islam because the Prophet Muhammad peace of mention of Allah be upon him told us that a man is upon the religion of his friend so let him be careful whom he takes as a friend life as a Muslim in Britain can be challenging because you are in an environment where you feel like always everybody is telling you to disobey Allah now having said that I have to say that I believe there really is a great potential for many British people to become Muslim because they have among other things and intelligence to know that what they hear about Islam in the media is not necessarily true or it could be that they just ignore the media altogether and I really stress that all listeners living in countries like Britain please don't hide your Islam show the best image of a summit you can don't be shy tell people that you pray tell them about the moles what Muslims have let them see the beauty of Islam because I think that many of them are very close to accepting it at school in Britain from what I can remember we had one or two lessons about religion per week but what I remember also is that the Media in general is regarding a religion as completely worthless so there is a tendency to promote respect for different people's religions but the message in general is that religion is of no use today I hope you enjoyed my story and I hope that I motivated you to learn more about Islam as a way of life thank you for listening assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa

Channel: Digital Mimbar

Views: 53,714

Rating: 4.5905085 out of 5

Keywords: Why I Left Atheism & Accepted Islam, My Jorney to Islam, Abdulrahman, Atheism, Jorney to Islam, Islam (Religion), Muhammad, Allah, Quran, Debate, Darwin, Koran, Prophet, Truth, Nasheed, Holy, science, science had all the answers, Convert, revert, God, Atheist, Richard, Dawkins, Design, Creationism, Intelligent, Logic, Response, Proof, Reason, Theory, Belief, Evidence, Challenge, Morality, Earth, Delusion, Charles Darwin, Why I Left Atheism & Accepted Islam? - My Journey to Islam - Abdulrahman

Id: aMmhUTTMxhU

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 24 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/EvOllj]

As long as you would kill or harm yourself without believing in a god, I aint stopping you from believing whatever you want to believe in. The problems come when you act on your beliefs.

Gullible people who lack the ability to even care about the truth and falsifiability of a claim barely ever act rationally or constructive. They are too easy too manipulate.

[u/polishgravy]

New title: depressed and disenfranchised youth joins cult.

[u/SEQLAR]

oh fuck the comments on youtube...

"The theory states that all the matter in the universe came into existence from one single extremely hot and dense point; that exploded and brought about the beginning of the universe, matches what is mentioned in the verse that the heaven and Earth (thus the universe) where once joined together, and then split apart. Once again, the only possible explanation is that Prophet Muhammad had truly received divine revelation from God, The Creator and Originator of the universe."

oh yeah I love it when believers cherry pick some statements in their holy books and then try to match it somehow to our current scientific theories and claim that the holy book obviously is filled with knowledge it could only come from God not a simple man from few thousand years ago. If my holy book stated that the world came to be from a fart of a donkey I could also match it to the Big Bang. Fart would be the big bang and the donkey is only a metaphor.

[u/[deleted]]

"In high school there's a lot of peer pressure to conform".

Right, because if there's one type of activity that doesn't do this, it's religion. Particularly Islam.

[u/Neverdied]

• He studied Islam for "perhaps two or three months"

• He repeats bad assertions from people he listened to about the Qu'ran being supported by science i.e embrios (rofl)

• He clearly never took or finished any scientific class like Biology or chemistry

I feel sad for people like him who are going to waste their life away in schizophrenia believing in things that do not exist due to a lack of education/knowledge. Religion is a mental illness.