From Ex-Communist to Islamic Scholar - ‘It was GOD who SAVED Me from There!’ @aabphilips
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I embraced communism. Communism was the answer for the difficulties and problems that human beings were facing around the world. That kept me searching various religions until I came across Islam, the misunderstood religion. During the sleep, I saw myself riding a bike into a huge storage area. And I kept walking in further and further. And each time I would look back to make sure that the entrance that I came into was still there. So I kept walking till I reached the point. When I turned back and it was all black, I couldn't see anything. If I didn't get out of here, I would never come out. It was death. I started to shout, but the sound never left my throat. Nobody could hear me.
Nobody could come and help me. It's all over. I'm gone. At the point when I let go and accepted I had no way to take myself out of this situation, I woke up. It was God who took me out of here. I was ready for Islam. Assalamu alaikum Dr. Bilal Philips. We are very honored to have you with us. I want to start by asking, who is Dr. Bilal Philips? Can you tell us briefly about your life? Alhamdulillah. Thank you for having me. I was born in Jamaica. I majored in biochemistry. This was my interest. While studying in Canada, I embraced communism and became unofficial member of the Communist Party, active in student demonstrations in these matters.
When I returned to Toronto, came across Islam there. I accepted Islam, and from there I went to Saudi Arabia to study Islam formally. And I've been living actually in Gulf for the majority of my life. How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? I grew up as a Christian, but it was what they call a nominal Christian, by name. I really didn't leave Christianity to become a communist, but I embraced communism for the concepts that it stood for, and in doing so, I rejected Christianity. So it wasn't really a conscious struggle of should I believe in Christ or, you know, Jesus? And what was his...
No, it was just the answer, what communism represented was the answer for human woes, the difficulties and problems that human beings were facing around the world. You know, these problems could be solved through communism. So I joined the communist movement based on that understanding. After spending some time in communism in Canada and in the US, I came to see certain flaws, flaws in terms of people's open statements and their actual practice. Flaws in terms of the failure of communism to be able to compete with capitalism. You know, capitalism outstripped it, you know? So it meant that there had to be something wrong. If it was the right way, then it should be in the forefront.
Communism was beautiful in theory. You know, it had a beautiful package. So the package said, from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. That you would work if you are strong and you would work, you know, that extra, but your needs were less, smaller, so you would only take according to your need. So the one who is next to you, who is big individual, he has big needs. He will get the big chunk from what is produced, But what is required of him, Because he's a big individual, he can only do a little bit. He only does that little bit and that's okay. It sounds beautiful, but in reality, human beings want to see the reward for the effort that they've made.
So what did you do when when you realized this? Well, I felt that I had to look further. I then became open to look into religions. If I rejected religion in the first place, it was based out of an ignorance. I didn't have really knowledge of religions. So I began to read about Buddhism and Hinduism, other religions, and I quickly saw that they really weren't practical, you know? They made claims, they proposed concepts which were weird, unnatural or whatever, you know.
That kept me searching through various religions, talking with different people, different backgrounds, you know, until I came across Islam, and from reading a particular book called Islam The Misunderstood Religion, in which he made a comparison between communism, capitalism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, all the various isms, he made comparison and identified the good points, then identified the bad points, negative points. So what I saw at the end of summary of the reading of the book was that all the good which was in communism, and of course there was good in communism. It may not have been the solution, but there was good in it. It did put some good ideas together.
All that good could be found in Islam, and what was not good, negative, etc. was missing from Islam. It's not in Islam. So it is as if Islam combined all the good that human beings had come up with in one way or another, and it avoided all the bad, the harmful things which, you know, different societies adopt and different religions practice. How did you first hear about Islam? Before this research, did you have any exposure to Muslims? You said that you were in Malaysia. And what conception was there in your mind? Did you have any prejudice? Did you have any good opinions about Muslims? What I saw in Malaysia was cultural Islam. Islam is a culture.
My mother adopted an Indonesian who was living in East Malaysia. State of Sabah, its name is Sabah. And she, along with my father, were aware of Islam as a religion. And as such my mother would particularly do things to facilitate my adopted brothers living with us. In Ramadan, she would get up early and prepare suhoor for my adopted brother. And for iftar, she would also do, prepare foods, drinks for him. When we were eating pork, she would cook fish for him. If on Sunday we have a bit of alcohol, they'd drink, traditionally Sunday dinner, there would be grape juice for him, you know. So she made sure that his Islam, Islamic beliefs were not compromised. So, and he prayed in the house also.
Occasionally myself, my brother and sister, we would enter his room and we would see him on the ground, you know, with his head down and his behind up. And we were wondering, what is he doing? You know, because there in Malaysia at that time, Muslims didn't really practice Islam openly in the capital, right? There were the colonizers. British colonizers had restricted mosques from being built in the main city. They had to be built outside of the periphery of the city. So I never saw a mosque those days.
His practices were just strange practices, you know, like as if we saw somebody practicing yoga or somebody, you know, doing any other type of movements which were unique to certain religious groups. So we didn't see it as anything we wanted to know about, but as just strange. So I saw that. And I didn't understand what he was doing until when I myself converted and was taught how to pray. I said, "Ah, so that's what my adopted brother is a Muslim." So let's go back to your story of embracing Islam. So after you read these books, what steps did you take to finally become Muslim? So let's go back to your story of embracing Islam.
So after you read these books, what steps did you take to finally become Muslim? So it made logical sense. The rest of it was just, for me, it was... I looked at it as sort of like a discipline, the praying five times a day. This is putting certain discipline in your life, organizing your life and so and so. So I mean, at that time I had given up smoking cigarettes. And, you know, I used to be a musician also. So I gave up music, you know, so my life was... I had reached a point where I was ready for Islam. Can you take us to your Shahada moment? How did you feel when you took your Shahada? I was living in a commune of Communist Party people, and I had fallen asleep.
And during the sleep, I saw myself riding a bike, walking it into a huge storage area or something like this, a garage or something like this. The door was slightly open. It was enough to for me to get in, but it was completely dark inside. And I kept walking in further and further. And each time I would look back to make sure that the entrance that I came into was still there. So there was a kind of a fear that I had that, you know, it might close on me. So I kept walking till I reached the point when I turned back and it was all black. I couldn't see anything. And at that point I had the feeling that if I didn't get out of here, I would never come out. It was death.
So I started to shout, call out to people who were in the commune. But the sound never left my throat, you know? And nobody could hear me. Nobody could come and help me. Finally I felt myself, it's all over. I'm gone. At the point when I let go and accepted I had no way to take myself out of this situation, I woke up. And that was just the final point, which just confirmed for me God's existence, that it was God who took me out of here. My friends. My circumstances. Nothing, it couldn't help me. So it just was like the final point. After that, then everything else was just smooth sailing. So I just want to fast forward the story.
You became Muslim and your mother was a defender of Islam and your father was a muwahhid, as you explained. So did they become Muslim at the end? Yes. Alhamdulillah. They didn't have a negative view of Islam because both of them had, when they were in university, they had studied world religions, you know, and they had come across Islam and its teachings. And so they had an idea that it was a good religion, you know, and what happened is that many of their friends, maybe more than half of their friends whilst they were there, were Muslims. So they were exposed to Muslims on a practical level. And they were very nice people and, you know, so they had a good view.
And even my mother, when she was studying world religions in University of Toronto, her professor was Jewish. And, you know, when he spoke about, taught the group about other religions, he would always point out the good and the bad. But when it came to Islam, she found that he was only talking bad. He would not mention any good thing. So she even, you know, stood up in the lecture and questioned the instructor, "Is there no good in Islam? So why are we even learning it?" It was all bad, you know. So she took it upon herself to go and find other textbooks than the ones which were prescribed for the course.
She read other writers, you know, some non-Muslims, but they were moderate in their views and, you know. So she began to actually defend Islam in the lecture hall, you know, amongst the students and that, you know, and she, of course, was not very much liked by the professor. You know, she said they, so they only gave her a B. All of her marks were A's. So at least you're not going to get an A from me, you know. As I said, we were nominal Christians. Meaning that, Sunday we would go to church. All the children, though my father never did. It was as kids, of course, we were not going to question this, you know. Dad doesn't go, you know, but he would send us.
He'd make sure, "You go with your mother." So we always went, but he didn't. Later on, when I accepted Islam and I spoke to him about Islam and my mother, he told me that at that time, that from the time he was 13 years old, when he was studying in school, and in the British schools at that time, they taught logic. When he thought about Christianity, because he was a choirboy in the church. His father was a pastor. When he thought about Jesus being God, this is not logical, you know. It didn't make sense to him. So because of that, from that time onwards, he would always pray to God alone. He didn't pray to Jesus. And now his brothers and sisters, of course they called him the atheist.
So that's how he grew up. And he kept that. That's why he never went to the church, because the church is worshipping Jesus as God. After my Islam, it took another 21 years before the both of them became Muslims. It took 20 years for you to explain Islam, to preach it? No, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I just tried everything, but, you know, I wasn't hammering on them all the time. You know, I would explain some things. They started to live more and more around Muslims. They went to Nigeria and taught in the North, you know, in schools that were schools of Muslims. They went to Yemen, they taught in Yemen. Also again, Muslim country. They went to Saudi Arabia.
They set up an Islamic school in Riyadh, you know, as technicians basically, putting the school together. So they had a lot of interaction with Muslims, which were generally, you know, 90% positive interactions. And so even when they were with their friends and their friends would say some negative things about Islam, you know, they would defend it because they did have enough background knowledge to know what was true and what was false. For them, it was an easy transition. In terms of my father, he basically, this was when he explained to me about when he was 13. I didn't know about it till then, that he was only worshipping Allah, God. No Jesus, no, he's not worshipping any human being.
My mother, on the other hand, it took an incident to bring it home to her. And that was, they were in Jeddah, working in Jeddah Institute. And when I came to visit them from Riyadh, I was in Riyadh doing my masters. My mother told me that she detected that there was something in the house, you know, she would look and it seemed like something would just move very quickly. She couldn't make out exactly what it was, you know. And what she had done to try to remove it from the house, believing it was something evil was she knitted a cross, you know, she knitted a number of them, put one over the doorway entering into the house, one door into the bedroom, into the living room.
But she said after doing it, it still was there. So I said, okay, let me read Surah Al-Baqarah here. This is what we are told in Islam, to read Surah Al-Baqarah to drive out satanic forces from the home. So I sat in the living room and read Surah Al-Baqarah. And then I went back to Riyad and then I forgot about it. So when she accepted Islam, she said, "You know, when you went and read Quran there," she said, "the next day it was gone." She said, "From there, I know there's something right about Islam, definitely fully right about Islam." So that's what really had the biggest impact on her.
And so she accepted Islam the night when I went to visit them in Toronto and she told me, "Don't tell your father, let him make his own decision." And the next morning my dad came and also declared his Islam. After your embracing Islam, you became really active in dawah. And can you tell us one of the, you know, dawah activities that you can never forget? Probably the most exciting moment in my experience, was during what was called Desert Storm. This is the first Gulf War. During that period, some half a million American troops were brought into Saudi Arabia to fight Saddam, to stop him from taking Kuwait.
I was invited by a Saudi sergeant who was himself engaged in dawah amongst those troops before and after the war. The war didn't last for very long, only a few days. So he would visit many of the American troops and tried to invite them to Islam. The idea was proposed that we set up a dawah tent in the midst of the encampment of the American soldiers who were being processed out of the country. And it had a label on it which said “Saudi Arabian Cultural Information Tent.” We didn't call it "Dawah Tent." And there we had tables with many booklets about Saudi Arabia and the animals and the birds and the things of Saudi Arabia. And we also had some pamphlets about Islam mixed in with them.
And we also had copies of the Quran in English for those who wanted to buy. And in the tent we also had shifts of groups of the military, soldiers, men, women who would come in maybe 150 to 200 at a time, and Islam was presented to them indirectly as Saudi Arabian culture, because to talk about Saudi Arabian culture, you basically have to talk about Islam, because that's what's at the bottom of it, where everything that you're seeing is, most of it is coming from Islam. So the message of how Islam is lived in the culture of the people was being conveyed to them. And gradually a number of them were taken to visit mosques. See what's happening inside of the mosque, see how Muslims pray.
And they would ask questions and all of this. We arranged for female soldiers to go to the homes of Saudis who studied in America. Their wives were there. They studied there also. They could communicate with them. So they got a chance to meet with Muslim women, because, of course, they had the idea that Muslim women are oppressed. They're wearing this black garment, and, you know. So in the process of openly discussing with them anything they wanted to ask. Alhamdulillah, over a period of five months, they were processed out of the country, and more than 3000 of them accepted Islam from our tent there, Inshallah. So that was amazing for me. I'd never seen that before.
It wasn't a one time gathering, but over a period of time, but regularly seeing people, and then training them, preparing them, because many of them, after they accepted Islam, maybe one week, two weeks, they had to go back. So we had to try to give them as much information as we could, you know, and try to follow them up after they went back to America also. So that was, you could say, the biggest dawah event that I was involved in. So basically, what was your purpose in life before Islam, and what is it after Islam? Before Islam, there was no clear purpose. There were things that should be done and you try to do them to make the existing life a better life.
I mean, in all my readings of Marx and Engels, I don't remember reading anything which spoke about the purpose of life. It was not there anywhere, As a communist or as an atheist, I mean, you already believe that this is an accident. So if it's an accident, what's the purpose of accidents? Accidents just happen. That's all it is. You know, so there's no room. Maybe, you know, people at certain points may question, well, what's the point of all of this? They'll ask that question, but they don't have an answer. As a Muslim, of course, the purpose in life becomes attaining Paradise. Life is the transition route to everlasting life, what we call Jannah. So how do we get to Jannah?
Through worshipping God. And that's why Allah had said, وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْاِنْسَ اِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ "I didn't create the jinn and humankind except to worship me.” (Qur’an 51:56) in order to attain the fullness of life in Paradise." Dr. Bilal Philips, thank you for your sincere and insightful answers. We benefited a lot from you. May Allah accept your efforts for this deen. Ameen. Ameen. May Allah reward you and your team for your efforts to share the understanding, the meaning of life to those around you.
Nobody could come and help me. It's all over. I'm gone. At the point when I let go and accepted I had no way to take myself out of this situation, I woke up. It was God who took me out of here. I was ready for Islam. Assalamu alaikum Dr. Bilal Philips. We are very honored to have you with us. I want to start by asking, who is Dr. Bilal Philips? Can you tell us briefly about your life? Alhamdulillah. Thank you for having me. I was born in Jamaica. I majored in biochemistry. This was my interest. While studying in Canada, I embraced communism and became unofficial member of the Communist Party, active in student demonstrations in these matters.
When I returned to Toronto, came across Islam there. I accepted Islam, and from there I went to Saudi Arabia to study Islam formally. And I've been living actually in Gulf for the majority of my life. How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? I grew up as a Christian, but it was what they call a nominal Christian, by name. I really didn't leave Christianity to become a communist, but I embraced communism for the concepts that it stood for, and in doing so, I rejected Christianity. So it wasn't really a conscious struggle of should I believe in Christ or, you know, Jesus? And what was his...
No, it was just the answer, what communism represented was the answer for human woes, the difficulties and problems that human beings were facing around the world. You know, these problems could be solved through communism. So I joined the communist movement based on that understanding. After spending some time in communism in Canada and in the US, I came to see certain flaws, flaws in terms of people's open statements and their actual practice. Flaws in terms of the failure of communism to be able to compete with capitalism. You know, capitalism outstripped it, you know? So it meant that there had to be something wrong. If it was the right way, then it should be in the forefront.
Communism was beautiful in theory. You know, it had a beautiful package. So the package said, from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. That you would work if you are strong and you would work, you know, that extra, but your needs were less, smaller, so you would only take according to your need. So the one who is next to you, who is big individual, he has big needs. He will get the big chunk from what is produced, But what is required of him, Because he's a big individual, he can only do a little bit. He only does that little bit and that's okay. It sounds beautiful, but in reality, human beings want to see the reward for the effort that they've made.
So what did you do when when you realized this? Well, I felt that I had to look further. I then became open to look into religions. If I rejected religion in the first place, it was based out of an ignorance. I didn't have really knowledge of religions. So I began to read about Buddhism and Hinduism, other religions, and I quickly saw that they really weren't practical, you know? They made claims, they proposed concepts which were weird, unnatural or whatever, you know.
That kept me searching through various religions, talking with different people, different backgrounds, you know, until I came across Islam, and from reading a particular book called Islam The Misunderstood Religion, in which he made a comparison between communism, capitalism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, all the various isms, he made comparison and identified the good points, then identified the bad points, negative points. So what I saw at the end of summary of the reading of the book was that all the good which was in communism, and of course there was good in communism. It may not have been the solution, but there was good in it. It did put some good ideas together.
All that good could be found in Islam, and what was not good, negative, etc. was missing from Islam. It's not in Islam. So it is as if Islam combined all the good that human beings had come up with in one way or another, and it avoided all the bad, the harmful things which, you know, different societies adopt and different religions practice. How did you first hear about Islam? Before this research, did you have any exposure to Muslims? You said that you were in Malaysia. And what conception was there in your mind? Did you have any prejudice? Did you have any good opinions about Muslims? What I saw in Malaysia was cultural Islam. Islam is a culture.
My mother adopted an Indonesian who was living in East Malaysia. State of Sabah, its name is Sabah. And she, along with my father, were aware of Islam as a religion. And as such my mother would particularly do things to facilitate my adopted brothers living with us. In Ramadan, she would get up early and prepare suhoor for my adopted brother. And for iftar, she would also do, prepare foods, drinks for him. When we were eating pork, she would cook fish for him. If on Sunday we have a bit of alcohol, they'd drink, traditionally Sunday dinner, there would be grape juice for him, you know. So she made sure that his Islam, Islamic beliefs were not compromised. So, and he prayed in the house also.
Occasionally myself, my brother and sister, we would enter his room and we would see him on the ground, you know, with his head down and his behind up. And we were wondering, what is he doing? You know, because there in Malaysia at that time, Muslims didn't really practice Islam openly in the capital, right? There were the colonizers. British colonizers had restricted mosques from being built in the main city. They had to be built outside of the periphery of the city. So I never saw a mosque those days.
His practices were just strange practices, you know, like as if we saw somebody practicing yoga or somebody, you know, doing any other type of movements which were unique to certain religious groups. So we didn't see it as anything we wanted to know about, but as just strange. So I saw that. And I didn't understand what he was doing until when I myself converted and was taught how to pray. I said, "Ah, so that's what my adopted brother is a Muslim." So let's go back to your story of embracing Islam. So after you read these books, what steps did you take to finally become Muslim? So let's go back to your story of embracing Islam.
So after you read these books, what steps did you take to finally become Muslim? So it made logical sense. The rest of it was just, for me, it was... I looked at it as sort of like a discipline, the praying five times a day. This is putting certain discipline in your life, organizing your life and so and so. So I mean, at that time I had given up smoking cigarettes. And, you know, I used to be a musician also. So I gave up music, you know, so my life was... I had reached a point where I was ready for Islam. Can you take us to your Shahada moment? How did you feel when you took your Shahada? I was living in a commune of Communist Party people, and I had fallen asleep.
And during the sleep, I saw myself riding a bike, walking it into a huge storage area or something like this, a garage or something like this. The door was slightly open. It was enough to for me to get in, but it was completely dark inside. And I kept walking in further and further. And each time I would look back to make sure that the entrance that I came into was still there. So there was a kind of a fear that I had that, you know, it might close on me. So I kept walking till I reached the point when I turned back and it was all black. I couldn't see anything. And at that point I had the feeling that if I didn't get out of here, I would never come out. It was death.
So I started to shout, call out to people who were in the commune. But the sound never left my throat, you know? And nobody could hear me. Nobody could come and help me. Finally I felt myself, it's all over. I'm gone. At the point when I let go and accepted I had no way to take myself out of this situation, I woke up. And that was just the final point, which just confirmed for me God's existence, that it was God who took me out of here. My friends. My circumstances. Nothing, it couldn't help me. So it just was like the final point. After that, then everything else was just smooth sailing. So I just want to fast forward the story.
You became Muslim and your mother was a defender of Islam and your father was a muwahhid, as you explained. So did they become Muslim at the end? Yes. Alhamdulillah. They didn't have a negative view of Islam because both of them had, when they were in university, they had studied world religions, you know, and they had come across Islam and its teachings. And so they had an idea that it was a good religion, you know, and what happened is that many of their friends, maybe more than half of their friends whilst they were there, were Muslims. So they were exposed to Muslims on a practical level. And they were very nice people and, you know, so they had a good view.
And even my mother, when she was studying world religions in University of Toronto, her professor was Jewish. And, you know, when he spoke about, taught the group about other religions, he would always point out the good and the bad. But when it came to Islam, she found that he was only talking bad. He would not mention any good thing. So she even, you know, stood up in the lecture and questioned the instructor, "Is there no good in Islam? So why are we even learning it?" It was all bad, you know. So she took it upon herself to go and find other textbooks than the ones which were prescribed for the course.
She read other writers, you know, some non-Muslims, but they were moderate in their views and, you know. So she began to actually defend Islam in the lecture hall, you know, amongst the students and that, you know, and she, of course, was not very much liked by the professor. You know, she said they, so they only gave her a B. All of her marks were A's. So at least you're not going to get an A from me, you know. As I said, we were nominal Christians. Meaning that, Sunday we would go to church. All the children, though my father never did. It was as kids, of course, we were not going to question this, you know. Dad doesn't go, you know, but he would send us.
He'd make sure, "You go with your mother." So we always went, but he didn't. Later on, when I accepted Islam and I spoke to him about Islam and my mother, he told me that at that time, that from the time he was 13 years old, when he was studying in school, and in the British schools at that time, they taught logic. When he thought about Christianity, because he was a choirboy in the church. His father was a pastor. When he thought about Jesus being God, this is not logical, you know. It didn't make sense to him. So because of that, from that time onwards, he would always pray to God alone. He didn't pray to Jesus. And now his brothers and sisters, of course they called him the atheist.
So that's how he grew up. And he kept that. That's why he never went to the church, because the church is worshipping Jesus as God. After my Islam, it took another 21 years before the both of them became Muslims. It took 20 years for you to explain Islam, to preach it? No, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I just tried everything, but, you know, I wasn't hammering on them all the time. You know, I would explain some things. They started to live more and more around Muslims. They went to Nigeria and taught in the North, you know, in schools that were schools of Muslims. They went to Yemen, they taught in Yemen. Also again, Muslim country. They went to Saudi Arabia.
They set up an Islamic school in Riyadh, you know, as technicians basically, putting the school together. So they had a lot of interaction with Muslims, which were generally, you know, 90% positive interactions. And so even when they were with their friends and their friends would say some negative things about Islam, you know, they would defend it because they did have enough background knowledge to know what was true and what was false. For them, it was an easy transition. In terms of my father, he basically, this was when he explained to me about when he was 13. I didn't know about it till then, that he was only worshipping Allah, God. No Jesus, no, he's not worshipping any human being.
My mother, on the other hand, it took an incident to bring it home to her. And that was, they were in Jeddah, working in Jeddah Institute. And when I came to visit them from Riyadh, I was in Riyadh doing my masters. My mother told me that she detected that there was something in the house, you know, she would look and it seemed like something would just move very quickly. She couldn't make out exactly what it was, you know. And what she had done to try to remove it from the house, believing it was something evil was she knitted a cross, you know, she knitted a number of them, put one over the doorway entering into the house, one door into the bedroom, into the living room.
But she said after doing it, it still was there. So I said, okay, let me read Surah Al-Baqarah here. This is what we are told in Islam, to read Surah Al-Baqarah to drive out satanic forces from the home. So I sat in the living room and read Surah Al-Baqarah. And then I went back to Riyad and then I forgot about it. So when she accepted Islam, she said, "You know, when you went and read Quran there," she said, "the next day it was gone." She said, "From there, I know there's something right about Islam, definitely fully right about Islam." So that's what really had the biggest impact on her.
And so she accepted Islam the night when I went to visit them in Toronto and she told me, "Don't tell your father, let him make his own decision." And the next morning my dad came and also declared his Islam. After your embracing Islam, you became really active in dawah. And can you tell us one of the, you know, dawah activities that you can never forget? Probably the most exciting moment in my experience, was during what was called Desert Storm. This is the first Gulf War. During that period, some half a million American troops were brought into Saudi Arabia to fight Saddam, to stop him from taking Kuwait.
I was invited by a Saudi sergeant who was himself engaged in dawah amongst those troops before and after the war. The war didn't last for very long, only a few days. So he would visit many of the American troops and tried to invite them to Islam. The idea was proposed that we set up a dawah tent in the midst of the encampment of the American soldiers who were being processed out of the country. And it had a label on it which said “Saudi Arabian Cultural Information Tent.” We didn't call it "Dawah Tent." And there we had tables with many booklets about Saudi Arabia and the animals and the birds and the things of Saudi Arabia. And we also had some pamphlets about Islam mixed in with them.
And we also had copies of the Quran in English for those who wanted to buy. And in the tent we also had shifts of groups of the military, soldiers, men, women who would come in maybe 150 to 200 at a time, and Islam was presented to them indirectly as Saudi Arabian culture, because to talk about Saudi Arabian culture, you basically have to talk about Islam, because that's what's at the bottom of it, where everything that you're seeing is, most of it is coming from Islam. So the message of how Islam is lived in the culture of the people was being conveyed to them. And gradually a number of them were taken to visit mosques. See what's happening inside of the mosque, see how Muslims pray.
And they would ask questions and all of this. We arranged for female soldiers to go to the homes of Saudis who studied in America. Their wives were there. They studied there also. They could communicate with them. So they got a chance to meet with Muslim women, because, of course, they had the idea that Muslim women are oppressed. They're wearing this black garment, and, you know. So in the process of openly discussing with them anything they wanted to ask. Alhamdulillah, over a period of five months, they were processed out of the country, and more than 3000 of them accepted Islam from our tent there, Inshallah. So that was amazing for me. I'd never seen that before.
It wasn't a one time gathering, but over a period of time, but regularly seeing people, and then training them, preparing them, because many of them, after they accepted Islam, maybe one week, two weeks, they had to go back. So we had to try to give them as much information as we could, you know, and try to follow them up after they went back to America also. So that was, you could say, the biggest dawah event that I was involved in. So basically, what was your purpose in life before Islam, and what is it after Islam? Before Islam, there was no clear purpose. There were things that should be done and you try to do them to make the existing life a better life.
I mean, in all my readings of Marx and Engels, I don't remember reading anything which spoke about the purpose of life. It was not there anywhere, As a communist or as an atheist, I mean, you already believe that this is an accident. So if it's an accident, what's the purpose of accidents? Accidents just happen. That's all it is. You know, so there's no room. Maybe, you know, people at certain points may question, well, what's the point of all of this? They'll ask that question, but they don't have an answer. As a Muslim, of course, the purpose in life becomes attaining Paradise. Life is the transition route to everlasting life, what we call Jannah. So how do we get to Jannah?
Through worshipping God. And that's why Allah had said, وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْاِنْسَ اِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ "I didn't create the jinn and humankind except to worship me.” (Qur’an 51:56) in order to attain the fullness of life in Paradise." Dr. Bilal Philips, thank you for your sincere and insightful answers. We benefited a lot from you. May Allah accept your efforts for this deen. Ameen. Ameen. May Allah reward you and your team for your efforts to share the understanding, the meaning of life to those around you.