My Journey To Islam

My Journey to Islam

Lecture by Sheikh Yusha Evans

Grand Mosque - Kuwait

Opening

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions.

Shahada

وَأَشْهَدُ أَن لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger.

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Introduction and Gratitude

Peace and blessings be upon you. He said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud)

"Whoever is not thankful towards people is not thankful to Allah." Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4811

So I am grateful and thankful to all of you for the opportunity to come here and be here. Again, the reason I do this is I have an intense passion to try to share the message of Islam. Never think that I'm any better than any of you. Wallahi, I might be the worst in the room. But one thing I do know is I understand my purpose. I understand why I was created. And I also understand the mission of da'wah. So I will, regardless of circumstance, try my best to present the message of Islam in the best possible manner. To the best of my abilities.

Welcome to Guests

Really quickly, how many guests do we have with us tonight who are not Muslim right now? Please raise your hands. You have one? You have just one? Then you are our honored guest for this evening. For the brothers. I can't see the sisters. I see a couple of hands back there. Know that you are actually the honored guest of this

evening. You are the guests of the Muslims. You are my guest. And I hope that you find that you are treated kindly. That you are treated warmly. That people welcome you and try to give you any information about Islam that can help you learn more about this beautiful way of life that I entered into 17 years ago.

My Background

I was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. Into a conservative Christian home. I was born and raised as a Christian in the South. And I was raised as a typical Christian boy would be.

Growing Up Christian

We went to church very religiously. We were a very religious family. The church that I attended was two houses away from my house. And I went to Sunday school. I went to all of the Bible studies and Sunday services and Wednesday services and Christmas services and New Year services and everything. And I was raised to have a very astute belief in the creator of all things.

A Grandfather's Wisdom

Something that stuck with me for a very long time that I spoke about last night. One day as a young boy, I asked my grandfather: "How do we know that God exists if we can't see him? If we can't see him."

He said something to me that has stuck with me for a long time. He said: "There is no painting without a painter." Meaning that when we look at the world around us, what we can see is an evidence of the fact that a creator exists because the creation exists. Very simple message he gave me that stuck with me throughout my life.

Youth Services

At the age of 14, I started to attend youth services at my church, which were quite different than regular. I went to a Methodist church, which was, for the better way to say it, it was boring. Methodist churches are not like you see, you know, jumping and singing and screaming and shouting. No, Methodist churches are very formal. You sit down and listen to the pastor. You get up, you sing a song out of the back of a hymn book and you sit down and listen. You stand up and you sing a song. You sit down and listen and that's it.

But youth services were quite different. We had fun. We played games. The youth minister was a man who was near our age, who could reach out to us, who would talk to us in a language that we understood.

You see, because that's a lot of the connection or disconnection that you find with the older generation to the youth today, is they don't speak the language. You know what I mean? You not only have to know what to tell these kids, you don't have to know how to tell them. You have to know how to reach them on their level.

So I try to bridge that gap, inshaAllah. I'm not a young man anymore. Age is creeping up on me, probably a lot older than many of you think. Just the traveling keeps me young, I guess, inshaAllah. But I try to bridge that gap to be able to reach out to our youth, knowing how to speak their language, staying in tune with what they're

in tune with. Trust me, if you want to get to the youth and you want them to learn their deen, create an app. Create an app. Create an app and they'll be all over it.

Young Life

Also started attending something called Young Life, which is non-denominational Pentecostal preaching. That's more of the fire and brimstone, people screaming in tongues, yelling and screaming, and music and bands and all of this.

It was at that point of my life I got saved, meaning that I willingly gave my life over to Christ as the Savior of my sins. I also envied the young men and women who I saw leading Young Life, because they looked like they were having fun, they were enjoying their life, they went on retreats and they did things together. But at the same time, they were preaching the Gospel of Christ, they were doing it in a very wholesome manner. They were enjoying life, but in a very wholesome way.

My Christian Aspirations

So I decided I wanted to be like them. I tried to stay around them as much as I can. I became very good friends with the youth pastor at my church, and I decided that I wanted to be like them. I wanted to go to Bob Jones University, which is in my hometown, which is an astute Bible college that is known throughout the globe for Christian academia. I wanted to finish my theological studies, become ordained in the church, become a missionary, travel the globe spreading the Gospel of Christ, probably to people just like you.

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The Turning Point: Reading the Bible

In the summer of 1996, that took a turn. My life took a turn. What happened was I actually decided to read my Bible from cover to cover, and find out what my religion was about.

I am a perfectionist at heart. My wife says I have an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I like to just think that I like to do things a certain way. I'm the type of person that if I'm going to do something, I throw my 150% into it, and I'm going to try to be the best at it, and I'm going to try to beat everyone else who is doing it. That's just my competitive nature. I have a very obsessive habit about this. Anything I do, I try to be the best at it.

So as a Christian who wanted to preach the Gospel, I wanted to know the Bible in and out, front and back. I wanted to know its historical reference points. I wanted to be able to quote to you front and back, left and right, without having to throw them through the pages. I wanted to know my religion.

Sadly, that was the beginning of the end of Christianity for me, was knowing my religion.

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Problems with the Old Testament

When I started to study the Old Testament, I began to realize, there were quite pondering and illogical things found throughout the Old Testament. Things that number one, made no logical sense. And I'm not here to bash

religion. You want my story? This is my story. I have to give it to you from my vantage point.

Things that were illogical, the story of creation, physically impossible. The stories of the prophets were terrible. You have the story of Noah. And I have to reword some of these stories I'm going to tell you tonight. If I were to quote to you the stories that I'm going to tell you tonight, directly from the Bible, we would have to ask the children in the room to leave. Because these stories are not for children's ears. They would be banned. X-rated stories, some of them.

The Story of Noah

The story of Noah, where Noah was supposedly found by his two sons, drunk and naked, passed out on the floor of his house. He partied very hard one night. And his sons found him in this condition, were ashamed, put their outer garment over him and left.

I'm thinking to myself: "Wait, hold on a second. Isn't this the same Noah, that helped build the ark and God talked to him and stuff of this nature?" This could be an issue of credibility for Noah. Because if you see someone who is an alcoholic, which Alhamdulillah you don't have that issue here in places like Kuwait, in America. This is something very prevalent.

If you see an alcoholic who's sleeping on park benches, drunk, naked, and then the next day he's telling you that God speaks to him and tells you to do this. You're going to look at this guy like, you know, you need some help. You know, you're sure God's speaking to you? It might have been the cat, you know, that sleeps next to you on the park bench that was spoken to you. So it's credibility issue.

The Story of Lot

Then you have the story of Lot. Lot Alayhi Salaam. He's not considered a prophet in the Bible. We consider him a prophet Alayhi Salaam. The story of Lot is horrible. This is one of the stories I have to water it down a little bit and hope that you understand it.

The story of Lot is that he was an old man and he had no sons. And his daughters became worried about this fact. We all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc., so on and so forth. Why would they be worried that he has no son? True. They would have no wali after their father dies. There would be no wali. They would be basically public property. There was no, you know, general services and al-qaf and anything at that time. You know, if you didn't have a male in the family, you really didn't have anybody.

So they decided to fix the issue, not by getting him a wife, but by being with him themselves and becoming pregnant by him. So that they might have a son, one of them. This is in the Bible. You won't hear this from any Sunday pulpit. You won't hear preachers talking about this on TV. They need to be asked: "Why? Why? This is your inerrant word of God."

Why can't you tell everything? There's not a single verse in the Quran that I won't open and speak publicly to anybody about.

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The Story of Solomon

Then you have the story of Solomon, Suleyman Alayhi Salaam, who is supposed to be one of the patriarch kings of Israel and the prophet, who starts worshipping idols. In the Bible he starts worshipping idols. And then he builds temples so that other people can go and worship idols. Breaking the number one rule: "Thou shall have no God before me." Solomon is breaking this rule. And he's allowing other people to break it by helping them break it.

This is a conundrum for the children of Israel. What are they supposed to do? The children of Israel are commanded to obey God and worship Him alone. But they're also commanded to obey their prophets and kings.

So who do they obey? They're being told to do one thing by God and another thing by their prophets. Conundrum. Unjust. We know God is not the author of confusion in the Bible.

The Story of David

Then we have the story of David, Alayhi Salaam, treachery on behalf of David, Dawud Alayhi Salaam, where he found this woman named Bathsheba that he thought she was so beautiful that he had to have her. He had her. Problem was she was married to a man named Uriah.

And if you doubt any of these stories in the Bible, go ask Sheikh Mufti Mawlana Google. You know that guy, right? We all know him, yeah? He knows everything. Go ask Google. Type in Noah. Alcohol. Type in lot daughters. Type in Solomon idols. Type in David Bathsheba. Right there. I'll give you the verse. I want you to do a little homework. I'm not gonna hand feed you, spoon feed you.

So he committed what sin? What sin did David just commit? By being with this woman Bathsheba who's married. I'm not asking rhetorical questions. This is actually a proper question to you. Adultery.

According to the law of Moses, according to the Torah, that David was supposed to be implementing on earth. What was the punishment for adultery? Stoning to death. A very harsh form of it actually. The Bible says, let you be the first to throw the stone. No mercy in this. So David just committed a sin that he should be killed for.

But he decides to fix the issue by not repenting. That's not what happens right away. He calls Uriah back from the front lines because Uriah is in the army. And he tells Uriah: "Go be with your wife."

Why? Because if she's pregnant, he wants to be able to attribute it to Uriah.

Then he writes a letter to the commanders of the army and it says: "Whenever there is the next battle, I want you to put Uriah on the front lines and tell everyone but him when the battle is the fiercest, turn and run. And leave Uriah out there by himself so he dies."

So now David has decided to commit, cover up the sin of adultery with what sin? Murder. Breaking the: "Thou shalt have no God besides me." "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." These are in the first ten commandments. "Thou shalt not kill."

The Ultimate Treachery

And the treacherous, the most devious part of this, guess who David gives the letter to, to have it delivered to the commanders? Anybody know? He gives it to Uriah himself. He seals it and tells Uriah: "Hand this to your commanders but don't open it." What treachery.

He makes the man deliver, not only were you just with the man's wife, but now you hand him his own death sentence and make the poor guy deliver it and he's killed for it. (اللهُ الْمُسْتَعَانُ - Allah is the one whose help is sought)

My Reaction

So when I'm reading all of this and I'm getting a bit confused here because I'm saying: "Hold on one minute. I've been taught all my life that the children of Israel were very, were very rebellious. They were very disobedient. This is why God had to punish them again and again and again."

But now in the Bible, I'm starting to empathize with them. I'm saying: "Look, I kind of get it. If my prophets were like this, if the messengers you sent to me were like this, I mean, you wouldn't elect one of these guys as the mayor of Kuwait city. You wouldn't even elect him for parliaments. You wouldn't even let him clean your car if you knew what his background was. He wouldn't pass a background check for anything."

But these are supposed to be God's men on earth. I'm thinking I understand why they were a little bit rebellious. I would have rebelled against Solomon too. Look, I'm not worshipping those idols. And David, I wouldn't even let the man in my house because if he sees my wife and thinks that she's attractive, I gotta watch my back. Man might have me killed off. I wouldn't let Lot anywhere near my daughters and I wouldn't let Noah babysit my five-year-old son.

What I Found in the Old Testament

So, we got a problem here. But I am seeing in the Old Testament that God is very clear about who He is. No doubt about that fact in the Old Testament. "Here is your I, the Lord, your God and one." And the word used is not the Hebrew number one, it's Echad. Meaning uniquely one, differently one. The very same grammatical word as Ahad.

Ahad means one as well, correct? But is it one number one? What if you try to take Ahad and add it to another Ahad? What do you get? You get Ahad. That's it. It's undividable. It's unaddable. It's not changeable. So this is the God of the Old Testament. Unchangeable. Echad. And what He wants from human beings is very clear: "I want you to worship me."

Also that God is not like His creation is very clear from the Old Testament. "I, God, am like none else. There's nothing like me. Nothing."

Questioning My Faith

So I'm a bit confused going through the Old Testament. Worried, perplexed. This is something weird about this

Old Testament thing. I wish I could tell you the entirety. The whole story is an hour and twenty minutes. But it's on YouTube. You can see it. Two million people have watched this somehow. I don't know Allahumusta'an who's given eighty minutes of their time. But may Allah bless them.

So I'm asking my pastors and preachers: "How do I reconcile what I'm reading with what I'm believing? Because there's weird things going on here."

I'm being told that: "Look, the Bible, the Old Testament is for the children of Israel and it was different. Their covenant with God was a bit different and Jesus came and solved all of that."

And I'm telling my pastor: "But wait one second. The God of the Old Testament says in Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament, in one of the very last verses of the Old Testament. There's a verse that's supposedly the words of God directly. Where He says: 'I do not change.'"

"I do not change. Therefore, the sons of Jacob, meaning the children of Israel, have not been destroyed." It's a very beautiful message. What is happening here is God is reminding the children of Israel: "The covenant I made with you, I have upheld my end of the bargain. That's why I have kept you on earth." Because Allah promised to never wipe them off the face of this earth.

The Quran's Message to Bani Israel

Very interestingly, if you open the Quran, chapter 2, one of the earliest verses in the compilation of the Quran, Allah says to the children of Israel:

"O Bani Israel, remember the covenant that I made with you." Reference: Quran 2:40

This shows the ultimate mercy that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has. That even though the children of Israel for thousands and thousands and thousands of years have denied Him, have rejected Him, have killed the prophets and messengers, He is still reaching out to them in Al-Quran, willing to be merciful towards them. Just come back to the covenant. Just come back. Allahumma sa'an. For those of us who deny or do not understand Allah's mercy.

The New Testament

So I began to read the New Testament thinking that I would find the solution in Jesus. But I was a bit worried in the fact that I knew God didn't change. Therefore, throughout the Old Testament, He's one. And in the Old Testament, He says that the path to salvation is repentance, tawbah.

Now all of a sudden, in the New Testament, we're taught that Jesus is three. God is one, but He's in three unique personages. God the Father, God the Son, Holy Spirit. And they're all three the same God. Jesus was God in the flesh. This is not making very much sense.

What Jesus Actually Said

So I decided to make this story short so we get to the end. I decided to read what Jesus Himself is supposedly to have said in the New Testament. I could spend the next hour just explaining to you why the New Testament as it is today, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are actually fairy tales. Most of it, fairy tales.

What happened was the first gospel compiled in the New Testament today is the book of Mark. That's the oldest. It was written over a generation and a half after Jesus was already gone from this earth. And it was written by a man who never named his name who wrote down stories that were being passed around about Jesus at that time.

You guys know what can happen in a generation and a half about stories about a man who healed the sick and blind and brought people back from the dead and a lot of things can happen. And it's not the oldest document. There's a document before that that was called the Q document that does not exist anymore. So we don't know what Jesus really said according to the New Testament because Jesus spoke a language known as Aramaic which is a language that is very seldomly found. There's some places in Syria where Aramaic is still spoken.

But Jesus spoke a language known as Aramaic. The Gospels are written in Greek which is translating a Semitic language, Aramaic into a non-Semitic language which means you lose 80% of the meaning and it's just a translation of an interpretation of what the person thought. And then those things were again translated over into Latin and a lot of it was captured in the Latin Vulgate and then put back into Koine Greek.

So we don't really know what Jesus ever said.

Jesus Taught Tawhid

But according to what's in the New Testament today you find a Jesus that said the very same things that God said. Number one, He said:

"Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one."

And in His language He would have used a word extremely similar to Ahad and He would have called Allah, Allaha. So He said the very same thing that the chapter 112 of the Quran verse 1 says:

"Say, He is Allah, [who is] One." Reference: Quran 112:1

This is what He told them. This is the greatest commandment. When a man came to Jesus and asked Him: "What is the greatest commandment?" It was a trick question by the way. Tomorrow we'll talk about some of that. We'll go deep into the New Testament to explain some of these reasons for why people believe what they believe now and what happened in the New Testament, etc.

But the question was a trick question because in Judaism there's no considering a greater commandment. They're all exactly equal. So He asked Him: "What's the greatest commandment?"

Jesus responded back: "I cannot tell you the greatest commandment without telling you the first commandment. He said: 'Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one. And you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your might and with all your strength. And then you should love your neighbor like you love yourself.'"

He said: "All of the law of God and all of the prophets hang upon these two principles."

This is Islam

I don't know about you, but to me that's Islam. That is the entire religion. If you ask me to sum up Islam, I could do it so by quoting that statement.

Everything in Islam is divided into two parts. Rights that are given to Allah and rights that are given to human beings. And the core teachings of Islam is to love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with all of your being, to give Him all of your adoration and worship. And for human beings, you are to treat them as you would desire to be treated. This is the deen.

So this is what He taught. He also taught that the law should never be broken. A man came to Him and asked Him: "How do I go to heaven?" He said: "Obey the law. Obey God's law. Do what God told you to do and you'll go to heaven."

The Problem: Paul

So what I found was quite different than what I believed. Come to find out, the reason I believe the way I believe and the reason why most Christians believe what they believe today is because of a man named Paul who was before Saul of Tarsus, who was a politician. Religion from a politician. That pretty much sums it up right there. Religion from a politician.

He was a politician who never met Jesus, never spoke with Him, never talked to Him, never walked with Him, not once in his life. He and he preached his own version of Christianity that the disciples disliked. It is right there in the acts of the apostles in the Bible that they did not like Paul at all. Only Barnabas gave him the benefit of the doubt and then Barnabas, after spending some time with him, realized this guy is nuts and left him. So this is Paul.

A very same Paul who was a scholar of the Jewish law. So he understood how to twist things and turn Roman paganism into Christianity sprinkled with a little bit of Jesus love on top so that the Romans would accept it.

Paul's Journey to Arabia

Interestingly enough, Paul's very... one of his very first trips, just a little tidbit of information for you to ask a Christian the next time you see them. Paul made some journeys throughout his little life preaching Christianity and in the back of some Bibles they have the map. Do you know where one of his first trips was? Anybody know? Arabia.

Why did Paul go to Arabia? He specifically went to Northwest Arabia. Why? Why go to Northwest Arabia? Because he very well knew as a scholar of the Jewish law that this is where the next prophet was going to come.

He was not a fool. So he made a trip there to make sure he hadn't come yet so that he could continue his mission. You see, Paul was no fool. Paul was very intelligent.

So this is what Paul did and then continued to spread his religion. And then I realized that the Bible was replete with contradictions, errors, mistakes. There's over 10,000 of them just in the New Testament alone.

God is Perfect

Let me tell you something about God. He's perfect. Is Allah perfect? Is God perfect? Then everything that comes from Him will be perfect. This is the reality. If God has a book, it will be perfect without one single mistake. If God has a religion, it will be perfect. If He sent prophets, they will be the most perfect of us.

I did not find this in Christianity nor in the Bible. So I ended up leaving Christianity. Tomorrow I'll delve into a little bit more of the very minute details of why. That'll take hours. We don't have hours. We have 15 minutes.

Leaving Christianity

So I left Christianity. But I always knew that God existed. Again, no painting without a painter. But I did not know what religion He wanted me to follow. So I searched through the other religions. But I wanted something particular. Now I didn't want words. I wanted proof. I wanted tangibility. I wanted you to put something in my hands. Here's proof that my religion is. Because I figured if God exists and He created all of this, surely He would have something tangible to prove that His religion is what it says it is. Gotta be.

Searching Other Religions

So I studied Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Wiccan, Confucianism, Bushido, all the isms and wisms and things that are out there. The moment I found something that was a mistake, illogical, against scientific information that is known, the first mistake I was done.

One man jumped up at a lecture and he says: "I've been studying comparative religion for 40 years and you mean to tell me you went through the world's religions in about a year period of time and wrote them off? You're a fool."

I said: "Let me ask you who's the fool. You put 10 cups of water in front of me like this. You fill one of them with sour milk. You blindfold me. I take a cup and pick it up and it's the sour, excuse me, you put 9 of them sour milk and only one is clean water. How many sips does it take for me to realize I've picked up the sour milk? One sip, that's it. I'm done. I'm moving on to the next one. I don't need to drink the entire vessel thinking my mind, my senses are fooling me and this might happen to be water. If I believe it's water, it might be water. No. One sip, sour milk, done."

That was me with the world's religions. Even with Islam.

My Misconceptions About Islam

I read a book about Islam that said Muslims worship the moon god that lived in a box in the desert in Saudi Arabia. And that as a hobby they beat women. And that the greatest deed a Muslim could do was to kill a non-Muslim and they would get 70 virgins when they went to heaven.

I didn't care what evidence you guys had. You know what I mean? I didn't need it. I've never met a Muslim in my life. The only ones I had seen was Ramzi Yusuf during the 93 World Trade Center bombings in Bin Laden and every other Muslim they put on TV. You know, if they put a Muslim on TV for a criminal act, they will find the worst picture that has ever been taken of you. You know what I mean? The angry of the one where you're like, you're ready to kill the world. That's the one they put on TV.

So every Muslim I had seen was looking like that. I had nothing to do with them. I'm from South Carolina, we don't have no Muslims. Alright.

The Streets

So I decided to make the streets my religion. I said: "God look here, I've looked for you. You don't want to be found apparently. So I'm gonna do my own thing." I fell into the hip-hop lifestyle. At that time, hip-hop was becoming very big in the South with Biggie Smalls and Tupac just have been assassinated and murdered. I'm not gonna get too deep into that. Our Shabab don't need to understand those things.

But understand one thing. Hip-hop is not just music. And if you think it is, you're not fooling anyone. Hip-hop is a lifestyle. There's a dress code. There's a lingo. There's a walk. There's a talk. There's a code of conduct. Everything goes along with it. And none of it is becoming of a Muslim. None of it. If you weren't born and raised talking like that because you're from New York or you had friends like that, there's no need for that for you. No need for that for you.

Two Near-Death Experiences

That ended very quickly though. I decided I wanted to be a gangster. You know, gangster, thug life. Come to realize that there are no real gangsters running around anymore. They're either in jail or they're already dead. I did meet one though.

I got into two incidences that should have ended my life. I got into a car accident I should not have lived from. No way. The car flipped and turned into pieces and I walked away unharmed. The police officer told me God had a purpose for my life and I laughed at him. "I don't think you understand me. And God, we're not really on good terms right now."

Then I went to New York City because I wanted to go see where hip-hop was born, Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Bronx. I went to an ATM machine, a cash point to take money out. I took some money out. I turned around and I met my first gangster. He had a gun pointed at my face. See, that's how gangsters do it. He didn't say anything. True gangster fashion. He just pulled the trigger. You see, that's how gangsters do it. Blow this kid's head off,

take the money and run. This happens every day in New York City. Nothing new. I would not even have been noticed.

The gun did not go off and we got into an altercation and I ended up getting away, ran away.

Becoming a Deist

I then realized that: "Wait a second, maybe I am here for a reason. It has to be something. I should have been dead now twice in a period of six months."

So I became a deist who believed in God, but I believe that God did not actively play a role in human life anymore. There's those type of people. They believe that. They're agnostic deists. They believe God exists but He just kind of created the world and let it spin. That's it. See what happens.

Meeting My First Muslim

I happened to meet a Muslim during this time in my life. Little did I know I already knew this Muslim. I had been to his house on several occasions. We used to go to his house after school. He was an African-American from New York. His name was Musa, but we called him blunt because he was the local cannabis salesman at my hometown. He was the weed guy, sold marijuana for a living and he was a rapper.

Yeah. I've come to learn after 17 years Muslims come from all walks of life and never to judge a book by its cover.

I was at his house one day and the issue of religion came up and I laughed and said: "God has no religion. He gave up on humanity. You know what I mean?"

And he said: "Have you ever heard of Islam?"

I said: "Yeah, bro. I've heard of Islam. Trust me. Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep." All these explicatives I've said about Islam. He was insulted.

He said: "Look, I'm a Muslim."

I was like: "No, no, no. I'm not talking about Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan and five percenters." For those of you who think that a lot of these rappers they call themselves Muslims or Muslims. They're not Muslims. Most of them are something called five percenters who believe that they are Allah. They believe the word Allah means arm, leg, leg, arm, head. Yeah. So be careful of who you call a Muslim.

Anyway, he said: "No, I'm a real Muslim. I'm a Sunni Muslim." I knew that meant something because I read it in the book that there were Sunni and Shia Muslims and they killed each other too.

He asked me to come with him to the mosque on Friday for Juma. I didn't know what it was but come to find out the mosque in my hometown was across the street from my house. Next to the church. Not the church I

went to, that was on the other end of the street. But on the other end of the street there was a church that had a brick building next to it and that was the mosque.

I grew up across the street from the mosque my whole life. No one ever came and told me about Islam. No one ever came and gave me da'wah.

My First Juma

So on Friday I went for Juma. I met the imam. This guy Musa never showed up by the way. He got arrested that week for drug trafficking. I've never met him again.

I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if he dies upon deen that he shares in the reward of every good that I've done and everyone I've ever encouraged or brought to this deen he gets reward for it as well. That means you have no excuse. A drug dealer is the reason I'm here today. What's your excuse?

Meeting the Imam

Anyway I met the imam who was an Egyptian guy. Had to be. And he was a big bearded guy. Had to be. But he was wearing a dress. You don't mix those two together in the south. Beards and dresses don't go.

He invited me in and I was suspicious because he was too happy to invite me in. Too happy for me to be there. What's wrong with this guy? I was the only American guy there. They sat me in the back in a chair. There was a curtain going from wall to wall with women chattering in the back and I don't even know how they got in there.

I thought maybe that was the haram like in Lawrence in Arabia where they have those tents in the desert with the women.

Then I'm thinking to myself that Musa set me up. I think he sold me to these Arabs. Because he was always talking about getting that Arab money. Because there are a lot of drug dealing that comes from Arabs in New York City unfortunately.

I said: "This guy sold me to these Arabs so they can do their jihad after Juma and get their virgins. No, no, no, I'm leaving."

As I went to leave the imam got up and everybody sat down and got quiet. So I said: "Okay, as soon as you start talking I'm leaving because between me and the door was this group of..." At that time I thought it was all Arabs but it was a bunch of our subcontinent brothers. At that time you all look the same to me. There's two types of people in the south in America. There's Americans and there's everybody else. And you guys were everybody else.

The Khutbah Begins

So he got up and started his sermon:

I'm like: "Oh my god, he's telling them to kill me right away." Because this screaming in Arabic, he's pounding on the thing, and he's pointing at me.

I'm saying: "That's it. They're getting ready to whip out the sword." You know, the only thing that's missing was for the women to start going: "La, la, la, la, la, la, la." That's coming next. The bucket is gonna come out with the heads in it.

So my thing was, I'm about to... There was an old uncle sitting right in front of me. My thing, I said: "I'm gonna knock him out right now. And when everybody's shocked, I'm gonna take off running."

Can you imagine if I had done that? Knock the uncle out. They would have talked about me forever. You know, this girl that came in and knocked out the uncle.

The Translation

But he finished before I decided to put the uncle in the hospital. And he started to translate:

"Verily all praise belongs to Allah. We praise Him and praise Him alone. We seek His help and His help alone. Whomsoever Allah guides, no one can misguide. Whomsoever Allah leads astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that nothing has the right to be worshipped except the Creator of all things, who is uniquely alone and has no equal. And I bear witness that Muhammad is indeed His messenger."

Caught my attention.

The Khutbah on Allah's Mercy

His entire khutbah on that day was about the rahmah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The mercy of Allah. As if you, for those of you who came last night, I always like to reiterate because that was my very first sermon I heard was about this very topic. About how Allah was so merciful. By the end of the khutbah, I started to fall in love with this, whoever Allah was. Because He seemed more merciful than my own mother.

After the Khutbah

So after the sermon I went to Him, He tried to tell me about Islam, and I said: "No, no, no, no, no. Let me ask you a question. Does your religion have anything that proves what it is? Do you have something you can put in my hands to prove what Islam is?"

He smiled and went to his office and came back with a book. Put it in my hands, and it was one of those blue Qurans that come out of Saudi Arabia. He said: "Here it is."

I said: "What is this?"

He said: "This is the noble Quran. This is God's word."

I said: "I've heard that one before."

Then He tried to tell me about the Quran. I said: "No, no, no. If your book is what you say it is, then it will do its own selling. I don't need you to sell me the book. Let it do its own thing."

Reading the Quran

So I took the Quran home and started reading it. And the first chapter reminded me of how Jesus taught His disciples to pray. The second chapter, the first verse made no sense:

الم

A-L-M. But the second verse struck me:

"This is the book that has no doubt in it. And it's a guidance for someone who fears God." Reference: Quran 2:2

That is the most profound, prolific challenge at the beginning of any religious book on the face of this planet. That challenged me, the reader. And I was angry. "Are you kidding me? I will prove you wrong. There was no way on God's green earth these crazy backwards Arab Muslims had the right religion. There's no way. I'm gonna prove this verse wrong."

Three Days with the Quran

So for three days, I dug through this Quran, non-stop. And I kept finding more challenges:

"If you're in doubt about this book, bring something like it. Call whoever you want to help you to do so. And when you fail, which you will fail, then fear the fire whose fuel is men in stones." Reference: Quran 2:23-24

"Had this book been from other than Allah, you would find in it contradictions." Reference: Quran 4:82

Challenge after challenge, the Quran is put forward to mankind for over 1400 plus years.

The Prophets in the Quran

Then I found the stories of Noah. I found the stories of Lot. I found the stories of David. I found the story of Solomon. I found the story of Zachariah, of John the Baptist, of Jesus. And guess what? These people were the best of mankind in this book. They were the best of us. They taught the talk and walked the walk.

And the entire book is telling me to do two things. Number one: worship God alone. Number two: obey God alone. And for doing so, you will have palaces on high forever in heaven. Simple. So simple the Quran was to

Accepting Islam

By the end of the third day when I put the Quran down, I said: "God, look here. I never expected to find you here, trust me. Believe me, sooner than the last place I would have looked. But here you are. I'll be a Muslim, if that's what it means."

So I went to the imam the next day. And he told me, I said: "I wanna be a Muslim."

He said: "Why?"

I said: "Because your book is what you say it is."

He said: "Well, to be a Muslim, you have to believe two things. We're done in two minutes. So give us time for Isha."

He said: "You must believe that there's only one God worthy of worship."

I said: "I've always believed that. Paul just messed me up for most of my life."

He said: "You also must believe that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the messenger of Allah. So come in and let me tell you about Muhammad, peace be upon him."

I said: "Don't tell me anything about him. Answer me one question."

He said: "Just one."

I said: "Just one."

He said: "Okay."

I said: "Did he give us this book? Is he the one who gave us this book?"

He said: "Yes."

I said: "Then he is who he says he is. Because if this book is the word of God, which I believe it to be, and it is perfect with no error as it claims to be, therefore the messenger who brought it is who he says he is."

So that was enough for me. In December of 1998, I said:

After 17 Years

The Duty of Da'wah

We need to understand that there are people here in Kuwait, just like me in 1997. There are people like me in Kuwait who are lost. They don't know the truth, even though they might live in a Muslim country. They still might not know that, trust me, you will be surprised walking the streets of Kuwait how many people do not know what Islam is truly about.

And here you are, been gifted by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with hidayah. Allah has granted you the gift of guidance. A gift which he wrote for you 50,000 years before creation. In a book that is only with him that you would be a Muslim.

There are people out there who deserve it just as much as you. You're no better than them. You're just more aware than them. Allah created them just like he created you. He wants them to worship him just like you worship him. But he's not going to speak to them from the skies. He's not going to send angels down to them. Qurans are not gonna start raining from the sky. Trees are not gonna talk to them.

Your Job

So who is supposed to deliver the message? That's your job. Allah commanded you, even if there were no other verse of the Quran.

When I was sitting with Sheikh Abdullah Amin Ash-Shafqiti, Hafidh Allah ta'ala, the Mufassir of Medina. He told me: "Even if this verse was the only verse Allah ever revealed about da'wah, it would be sufficient to cement its place in this deen."

When Allah says:

"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction." Reference: Quran 16:125

That one word, دَعْ, becomes an amr from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the general sense to anyone who reads that verse, that they must convey this message of Islam. And since it is a command, you will be questioned about it. Any command Allah is going to question you about. And since it is a command, you have no excuse of ignorance.

Just because you don't know how to pray, you're not excused from praying. It means you must learn. Just because you are busy, does not give you the excuse not to pray. You must make time. That's the same with every command of Allah. And since da'wah is a command, its knowledge is mandatory. Time for it is mandatory. Money spent for it is mandatory.

The Example of Khadijah

For those of you who think that da'wah doesn't need money, I hear this all the time: "Why you guys need all that money for da'wah? It's free."

You forget the legacy of our dear, beloved mother Khadijah radiAllahu anha wa raddaha who was wealthy when Islam was given to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلمand she died without a single penny. For what reason? For the sake of the da'wah she gave it all. She gave it all for the sake of this deen.

This is why, and I finish with this, this is why when one day, long after she was dead, some sadaqa was given to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلمand in it was some jewelry that belonged to Khadijah radiAllahu anha wa raddaha, and he started to cry. And Aisha radiAllahu anha, we know she was very quick and very witty. She said: "Why do you still cry over this old woman?"

You know she got upset, and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم scolded his most beloved in this life. He said:

(Source Name)

"There is no woman like Khadijah. She believed in me when no one believed in me. She supported me when I had no supporter. And she lived her life serving this deen." Reference: Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2435

Working Together

So realize, brothers and sisters, that da'wah takes knowledge. Da'wah takes time. Da'wah takes money.

There are two types of people when it comes to da'wah as we finish. There are people who have the knowledge. Why? Because they've spent their life trying to get it. Guess what? Learning Islamic studies is not a lucrative profession. Let me tell you right now, there's no money to be made in it.

So those people who have the talent for da'wah, usually don't have the means. They don't have the means, because they've been spending their time. And then you have those who have plenty of means, but no time. Why? Because they're busy in their tijara, making money.

Those two people need to connect with each other. The people who have the money, get with the people who have the time and the knowledge. Share in it with each other, support one another as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says: "Work together, work together."

We need more effort in da'wah. When this ummah was strong in da'wah, Allah gave us the world. Because we were worthy of it, we were going to do something with it. Now all we want to do is suck it up, so Allah is protecting us from that.

We have to sometimes thank Allah for the humiliation He's put on us, because it keeps us maybe from doing some of the nonsense that He knew we would do if He just handed the keys over to us. Muslims, we have trouble even running our daily affairs. We're ready to kill each other over smallest thing. Imagine if the world handed the keys to us and said: "Here you go, you run it." We'd probably make this world uninhabitable in a month. We'd kill everybody.

So Allah is not going to give us what we're not ready for, what we're not ready for.

Personal Responsibility

What we need to be doing is working on ourselves. Lastly, I was with Shaykh Adil al-Qalbani, Rahim Allah Ta'ala, two weeks ago in Kenya. And I asked him: "What can we do to change the world? I'm one person, what can I do?"

He said: "If you were to do your best to try to live as a Muslim, you were to help your wife to do her best to live as a Muslim, you were to raise your children as upright and just Muslims. If you do that, and then your neighbor does the same thing, and your neighbor does the same thing, and their neighbor does the same thing, you will create an ummah. It's about personal responsibility."

He said: "Stop trying to change the world. Change you, change you. And pass on the message that it's about personal responsibility."

This was from our dear Shaykh who used to be the former imam of the haram, that it's all about us. We need to be worried about making me a better person. Along with that, help those people out there to be a better person as well. They deserve it.

Wallahi, this is not yours. It does not belong to you. The deen of Allah is not yours. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to Allah. He has commanded you to distribute it. So get out there and distribute it inshaAllah.

Closing

I want to thank everyone for their time. Because time is precious. Time is precious. You don't get it back. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in a hadith of Qudsi:

"I am time."

Therefore do not abuse it.

For Our Guests

For our guests that were in the room today, I ask you sincerely to consider the religion of Islam. You were created by your Lord to worship Him. And that's a personal relationship between you and Him. He created you with not asking anyone else. He didn't take consultation to create you. Therefore it's a personal relationship between you and Him.

I ask you to do one thing. If you don't want to accept the religion of Islam tonight, which I would love if you did so. But if you don't want to do so, do me one favor and I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

Go home tonight, by yourself with no one around, and speak to the Creator of all things. Even if you're doubtful that He exists, still just try this. Say: "My Creator, if You exist, and You created me, and You want me to worship You, then guide me to the right way to do so."

If you say that sincerely, I will give you a guarantee that you will find what you are looking for. Because the Quran says: "We guide those who will to walk upright. Those who walk upright and seek us, we will guide them to our ways."

So if you search, you will find. If you knock the door, it will be open for you.

Final Words

I thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to seeing you guys tomorrow here at Masjid Al-Kabir, from after Dhuhr until Maghrib, where we're going to go in-depth into the da'wah, to the theories of Christianity, to the theories of tawhid, to the theories of atheism, and try to give you some tools and tips to take this message out here in Kuwait.