Brother Y T T W M accepts Islām

My journey began many years ago when I was a kid, I grew up in an atheist household but I never believed that the world, universe and all of its contents came from simply nothing, that life was just a coincidence. As I began thinking more and more about a Creator, I would ask my friends many different questions about their faith. A lot of my friends growing up were Muslim so I spent a good amount of my time listening about the teachings of Islam and how they view Allah SWT. I also saw the brotherhood in Islam when I was younger, as all my friends would talk about Ramadan and how they spend time with family and loved ones and how they meet each other at the masjid to pray tarawih salah. That was something that really did interest me in my earlier years of life and it was something that I wanted to explore, but I wasn’t sure how I was exactly feeling back then.

Moving on to secondary school my journey continued to find out more about the Creator of everything. I was much more mature then and understood things far better, so I would ask my friends about Islam and I would ask more detailed and complex questions as I didn’t want to go into anything blindly. I knew from then when I had a true understanding of what it meant to be Muslim and that Islam was the path of life for me. However, I didn’t know how to approach it, so I just went on with life till about year 9 when I met my Muslim brother Hamza. He joined my secondary school that year and we did become good friends. From the onwards, the height of accepting Islam for me was very strong. However, a year later I got into a relationship and it fell down from there. For a time, I wasn’t researching or asking questions about the beautiful religion of Islam as much. I was just going about my time blinded by the love situation I was in. In the time that I spent in that situation, I grew depressed. I was unhappy and I really didn’t want to live anymore. However, looking back at it, the answer was right in front of me – go back to Allah and I will be fine. We eventually broke up and I did just that, turn to Allah and subhanallah, I no longer felt that kind of way anymore; at last I was happy. I did end up in the relationship again; however not leaving Allah this time. We soon broke up. During the second time being in the same relationship, we had a lot of problems and that truly made me understand why Allah made such interactions haram.

It was a few days after the break up and I was just staring at the ceiling and at this time my heart was set. I knew what lifestyle I wanted to follow. I said to myself “what am I doing? I want to be a Muslim yet I’m not doing enough to prepare myself.” My eldest brother gave me a Quran that he got from a dawah stand in town. I had asked him for it previously but he misplaced it and when I had that thought he gave it to me. I started reading the Quran and it spoke to me. I had a connection with Allah and His ayats. At that time, I wanted a job more than anything and soon after picking up the Quran, Allah blessed me with my first job. My heart was set from then onwards and I knew that I was going to accept Islam.

My dear friend Hamza was the one who really helped me and guided me through my acceptance period. He would always speak to me about the faith in detail as he is quite educated and always invite me to the masjid. It was the summer holiday of 2021 when we were talking seriously about me accepting Islam and I was putting it off; it was not because of doubts but because I was afraid of my parents’ reaction. We were talking and my thought process was to wait until I’m 18 (at that time I was 17) to accept Islam because I’d be a man, even though I knew then that Allah could take us from this world whenever Allah chooses. He explained to me in detail that that this isn’t how it works. He properly told me that I can’t delay taking my shahadah and should do it as soon as possible because I already believed that Islam is the truth. His words that day really did have an impact on me and I was ready to accept it the very next day.

My friend Hamza organised a meet up at Light of Hira for me. Hamza, Feras (another one of my close friends who I have known for around 13 years) and I went to this meeting. We spoke to Maulana Isa who spoke to me in details about certain things I needed to know as a new Muslim and how important it is to understand other things as my journey progresses. I was ready to take my shahadah that day, but he told me that I needed to talk to my parents. I really respect him for that because who knows if my parents would know that I’m Muslim even to this day if it wasn’t for his advice. I took what Maulana Isa said to me to heart. However, I was afraid to tell my parents in fear of their reaction. It took me till November to tell them because I told Maulana that I would. I told my parents about my decision to accept Islam. My mum started to cry as she thought I was unhappy with life. I reassured her that that wasn’t the case. I said to her, ‘this is me going down the path of truth and the best of ways to live.’ And to my amazement and all praises be to Allah, on that day my mum and my dad went out to buy me halal food, as previously I had become vegetarian because I didn’t want to eat anything haram all along. 

I informed Maulana Isa that I was ready, and he organised my shahadah at the Islamic Dawah Academy. On the 24th of December 2021 I accepted Islam with my friend Hamza along with me. After that day, I have felt nothing but joy and happiness. Not a day goes by where I’m not grateful to Allah for blessing me with iman and everything that I have in my life, Allahu Akbar. I have also been going to Shaykh Muhammad Saleem Dhorat’s Tuesday programmes at the Islamic Dawah Academy; they have helped me benefit and grow as an individual for the sake of Allah immensely. My Maulana strongly advised me to come to Shaykh’s programmes and eventually I did. And since I first attended them, I haven’t missed a single one. I strongly advise the brothers who are reading this to come to IDA after Isha on Tuesdays to sit down and listen to the Shaykh’s talks (and the sisters can listen at home) as they are influential and very deep to the heart. I request everyone who reads my humble journey to please make dua for my mother, father and two brothers to accept Islam as well.