"I Questioned Hindu Gods” - Just One Surah Led him to Islam
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I grew up as a Hindu. In order to get to God, you have to go through these idols. These idols, they're like massive, right? Very colorful, bright imagery. But what really shocked me is when I got to this house where she was sitting. Them telling me that this is your God. She must have been like, nah, eight, nine years old. She was younger than me. Someone called Sai Baba, is when he had -- have his followers, he would sprinkle his fingers like this and ash would automatically come, magically out of his hands. He would regurgitate golden eggs. My sister, she said to me, My friends invited me to this program. It's about Islam. When I got there, I was completely shocked.
My skin and my bone -- it was like bone chilling. I had never heard nothing like this. And then I came across, obviously the Quran, when I read those four verses, it's like this light that's in front of me went off in my mind. And I was like, "Oh my gosh." So then obviously it would have affected my parents. Like, "Okay, how could you let your child become the enemy, the Muslims." I just get emotional thinking about it. Assalamualaikum (peace be upon you), brother Salahuddin Patel, thank you so much for joining us. We are very happy to have you with us at Towards Eternity. I want to start with who is Salahuddin Patel? Can you tell us briefly about your life please.
Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah). Assalamualaikum, my name is brother Salahuddin Patel and I'm from London, the UK. I grew up in London. I come originally from a Hindu background. So my parents are originally from India, my mum grew up in Uganda. And so I grew up in the '80s. Um, a very interesting time. And then over time I realized certain things didn't make sense and it was at the time of university that I embraced Islam. How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? I grew up as a Hindu and like most people, you know, you follow your family's tradition, you don't question it. You believe it to be true. My father would take me to the temple as a family.
These idols, they're like massive, right? They're like maybe 10 foot, 12 foot, so you're looking up at these idols, right? Very colorful, bright imagery. You could imagine me as a child, I found it really scary, I'll be honest. You know, you see these idols and it would be very bright. A lot of them would be blue, but people were believing that this idol could manifest into the physicality. In order to get to God, you have to go through these idols. You wouldn't really question it. This you'd just say these are the practices of our forefathers, our ancestors. What was the thing that made you question your beliefs?
Maybe I was probably in High school, watching the Mahabharata, this program on TV. I began to question these ideas. Like they just didn't make any sense. Because, you know, logically, rationally, certain things just don't add up. Just like a God being a human being that is limited in nature. A God not knowing everything. A God needing the help of another God to manifest. The idea of God that needs to come into the world, the God being in the world, and outside of the world.
One day I was at home, and you know, I was with my brother, and my parents came to us and they said, "Look, we're going to go and visit this holy person." But what really shocked me is when I got to this house, which was a normal house, they had all these images of this young girl, she was dressed like in white, sitting down, so you could imagine like these massive images of a girl, right, sitting around the house. And we were led into this house to this special sort of chamber where she was sitting. And I remember thinking, like them telling me that this is your God. She must have been like, nah, 8, 9 years old. She was younger than me.
This young girl, they said, "Yeah, look, we got to ask blessings for her, we got to pray to her." And my parents took it really seriously. Right, but for me, growing up, I was like, what on Earth is going on? Why am I praying to this young girl? But you don't question it because it's your parents. You take what they tell you to do, you hold it to be true. Here's a young girl, she's younger than me, she's a human being like me, and they're telling me this is your creator, we have to ask her for blessings, we have to worship her, we need to prostrate down to her. And I'm thinking, for me it was like this is wrong. Another example is maybe some other people know it, someone called Sai Baba.
So he was like an Indian guru, he became very big, right, over millions of people in India. And we used to have a picture of him. Like a photograph in his religious garb, he would have the, you know, the garland of flowers around his neck, and we would have it, his idol and we would have his picture. My parents would worship. One of the things that he used to do is when he had -- have his followers, he would sprinkle his fingers like this and ash would automatically come, magically out of his hands. Right, so they -- it's like this is blessings. He would also have this thing where he would regurgitate golden eggs.
So there would be like a, imagine a metal plate, and then he would do some recitation of some, you know, chanting, right, and you'd see the audience members, and then he would like pretend to regurgitate, then all of a sudden a golden egg would come out. So when it came to the ash he would have little ash balls here in his fingers, you know, hidden. So when he would go like this and go like that he would be crushing. Even the regurgitation, again it was, I don't know whether it was up his sleeve or it was down here, but when he would regurgitate like that, it would look like it's coming out of his mouth, it was all sleight of hand.
Right, and so you see this within Hinduism there's a lot of these practices where people are using these types of technique to trick the masses. I just came to the realization that these things just didn't make sense but there must be something. So my worship, you know, when I talked about calling out to God, it was always just me speaking to God in my language, in the English language. Uh, so I would just ask God like, "I need help with this" or you know, "Please forgive me for doing this" or I believe that this is innate, that this is built in within all of us. And so I was just connecting to that. How did your journey towards Islam begin?
I did go with my friends, before I was Muslim, to the mosque for Jumu'ah (Friday prayer). So remember going into the mosque and seeing rows and rows of people, but I did find the practice, which was different from Hinduism, especially when you go into the Sajdah (prostration) when you're -- you're basically putting your hands on the ground, your face is on the floor, and it's a sign of pure submission. And something that I had never done in my life before. Because I had been to churches, I had been to temples, I had even seen Buddhist temples, right, and you always you would see either imagery, you would see idols, and here you come into a mosque, literally you don't see anything.
It's just all very simple, plain, you have the Mimbar (pulpit) at the front, which is where the Imam (prayer leader) would stand. Very clean, you know simplistic, you know, minimalist, and here you're praying to God. So yeah, it was strange not to see any idols but at the same time it was a confirmation of what I believed. A sense of serenity, no one is asking for money. You know, no one saying, "Okay, you got to pay, you know, something to these gods," you don't have to offer any sort of food in order for the worship to be accepted. And that was the beautiful thing. I started looking into obviously the religion. Originally I thought it was a Pakistani religion.
Then I see people of different backgrounds. Arabs, African, Oriental, Turkish people. 100% I had Turkish friends growing up. So I remember the Muslims being, you know, very friendly, very generous, very clean, I felt an affinity towards them. But you realize this is, you're like this is how it should be. In Islam you have this understanding of the one pure monotheistic God, not part of creation, eternal. Then you got in Hinduism, you've got a multitude of gods. God coming into creation. That's opposing to what Islam. Then you got Christianity which is this idea of a Trinity, which they claim to be a monotheism, but I had seen that again.
Like I said, in Hinduism you had the Trimurti, their own version of a Trinity. And then same thing, they're saying that all leads to one God. And what's striking is when I looked at ancient Greek mythology, Persian mythology, Babylonian, they all have this idea of a Trinity. If something like that's been recycled down, you know, over the ages. So for me it was like it doesn't matter what people may claim to believe, there must be a universal truth. Then I came across the basic theology of Islam and I was shocked. The understanding that there is a God that is one, which is not part of the creation, this all-powerful entity.
Now for the first time in my life, I'm coming across a religion that sits with what I understood to be true. And then I came across, obviously the Quran, and Surah Al-Ikhlas (Chapter of Purity). When I read those four verses, it's like this light that's in front of me went off in my mind. It was like, "Say, He is God, the One and Only." I was like, yes, I believe in one God. The eternal, absolute, self-sufficient. Of course, if there's a God, He must be that, can't be a created being, right, self-sufficient. "He begets not, nor is He begotten." Meaning He has no parents, and He has no offspring.
Here I come from a tradition where you have gods, demigods, sons of gods, daughters of gods, which I rejected. Here God is the creator, doesn't have no parents, have no offspring. Yes. But the final one, and there is none like unto Him. Meaning anything you can imagine of God, that's not God because God sits outside of the creation, God's not in the creation. All of our imaginings was perceived of what we see around us. And I was like, oh my gosh. And so that was a beginning like, this makes perfect sense.
Then I started obviously reading books on theology, read through the Quran, I remember watching it's interesting, you know, at the same time happening, me getting closer, then them telling me more and more about Islam, I seeing their practices how they would worship, right, I would see how they would pray in unison in one line worshipping God to the point when I graduated, I had to make a decision which was what do I do now. I got to a point I was like, no, if I don't do this I'm going to live my life as a lie. And I can't do that. I have to take this decision. And so I decided, and I told my friends, and when I told my friends, they were shocked.
I had no idea, like, you know, what it involved, in terms of the practices or the basic theology. All I know this was true. I have to take the step. This is God, this is God's religion, this is the truth, this is the path. How did you feel when you took your Shahadah (testimony of faith)? Can you take us to that day please. When I remember that day, I remember feeling very, very nervous. And I remember I said the testimony of faith, and I remember a lot of people say this, it's like you feel this massive burden being lifted from your shoulders. You feel light. I said it, and all my friends hugged me, you know, it was really emotional.
You felt clean, you felt light, you felt connected, you felt a sense of peace. And how did your parents react to your conversion to Islam? When it came to my conversion, obviously that's something I had to take into consideration, but then I realized, you know, I couldn't live like a lie. So the next realization is then, I have to tell my parents, right? When I did tell them, they were not happy. They were disappointed. I think my mum was really angry, my dad, you know, again he just didn't understand it. You know, because you're seen now as the black sheep of the family. And then word spreads especially in a small community like the Hindu community.
So then obviously it would have affected my parents. Like, Okay, how could you let your child become the enemy, the Muslims. So, you know, I just continued on my journey, and what I realized was for a number of years, even though that I had taken my Shahadah (testimony of faith) and I felt good, I realized it was the truth, something was still missing. I was not practicing 5 times a day. And yeah, something, God, Allah sent me a sign. It was incredible. I just get emotional thinking about it. Cause, you know, as a revert you're alone. Sorry, I don't mean to cry. So it was around that time 2008-2009, I started looking at more videos, more knowledge, then Allah just sent this amazing sign.
My sister, she's 10 years younger than me. So she was a practicing Hindu. Then one day, she said to me, My friends invited me to this program. It's about Islam. So okay, let's go and check it out. The way they run their program is on a Friday they do a free taster, then the whole program runs on a weekend Saturday, Sunday. It's usually in like a top hotel. When I got there, I was completely shocked. I had never seen anything like this. And I remember the Sheikh (Islamic scholar/leader), so he would recite the Ayat (verses) live. And I would say, like, you know, my skin and my bone it was like bone chilling. I had never heard nothing like this. And I was like, look...
this is what the religion is all about. So the Friday ended and I was like oh this is beautiful. You know this is an incredible, hundreds of people, I had never been on a course like this, so obviously I hadn't signed up but she had signed up. So I told my sister, "Look.”, I had full confidence, I said, "Look, if you have any questions, just ask the Sheikh, yeah if you have, you know, don't worry, you're going to be fine, you're going to be there with your friend," cause her Somali friend was actually a volunteer. That's how she got invited to the course. I remember that day clearly on the Saturday.
I was just doing out my usual things with my friends, getting up to no good, you know like people do on a Saturday, right? And in the evening, my sister sent me a text, she said, "Hi, I just wanted to let you know, you know, I've been asking questions in the program and I've decided and I took my Shahadah (testimony of faith)." Out of nowhere. The Sheikh (Islamic scholar/leader)... like I said, he recounts the story. He said he came on the Friday and I've met him since.
He saw all of these people, right in front of him, the brothers at the front, sisters at the back, and obviously he's getting ready to deliver, and he notices in the sisters' section, there's one sister without the hijab (headscarf). So the Q&A session happens. He spots that, you know, that that sister without the headscarf, and she starts asking questions. It becomes very apparent to him that that's my sister, a non-Muslim. So he goes into Da'wah (invitation/preaching) mode cause he's a Da'ee (caller to Islam). And he starts asking her questions.
And what happens is, because he does it in a very sort of clever way, it gets to a point where he says to my sister, "Well, if this all makes sense to you and you have no further questions, why don't you consider, you know, embracing Islam?" Something along those lines. And she said she had no answer to it. So in front of all of those sisters, she took her Shahadah (testimony of faith). And what shocked me even more, cause remember she's a teacher like on placement, when she embraced Islam, she put on full hijab (headscarf) and abaya (cloak). So I remember she telling me she went to school, and then all the kids said to her, "Miss, miss, what happened to you?" Because she changed like...
"Did someone force you to become a Muslim?" She said, "No, no, you know, I decided to become a Muslim." And obviously the Muslims were there and obviously her work colleague was so happy and so shocked. And for me, that was the answer. I asked Allah, and that was my sister. And she was a rock. Like I said, she was the one, you know, like I said the sisters are better than the brothers, she started practicing immediately, taking the religion. So that helped me obviously. And she tells me, yeah, when I took my Shahadah and became Muslim, it had a profound impact on her. I didn't realize, cause she was thinking about it, obviously. And obviously Allah is the one that guides.
That December, my sister came to me, cause it's the holidays, she goes, "I've been invited to this program. It's for new Muslims, where they teach you the basics. What do you think, should we go?" "You know what, why not, let's go and check it out, we're not doing anything anyway, what -- what have we got to lose." And we went to that new Muslim retreat, here I met other new Muslims, going through that same journey, I met a brother from a Sikh background, I met a brother from a Christian background, I met brothers from a Chinese, Buddhist background. It's like Allah guided me, and Allah obviously is the best of planners.
You know, and so for me that's what I needed at that time, and then I started, you know, getting involved in the work in my area. If you were given a chance to pray for someone that, you know, would be accepted, what would you pray for and for whom? I would say, without a shadow of a doubt, all reverts will probably say the same answer. And that's the answer is, your parents. It's the hardest thing for reverts... you know, to think that you know, your parents that sort of brought you up, that they're not guided. So... What impressed you the most about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? The Prophet (peace be upon him), people forget, he grew up in a society that was full of idols.
360 idols were in that Kaaba (sacred building in Mecca). And he came to purify it. You know, that message that he was chosen for, you know, pure monotheism in a polytheistic society that originally was monotheistic. I have a strong connection with what the Prophet (peace be upon him) did. He purified that whole area, removed idol worship, and I love that, because I can relate to that, you know, that story. So what is the core belief in Hinduism? Yeah, so the core beliefs in Hinduism, it's different. It's a polytheistic religion. What that means is they believe in a multitude of gods. Then you begin to realize certain things are confusing. Because which God am I going to actually pray to?
And like if there's a multitude of gods, how do they sort of navigate order and all of these things. In terms of the ideology of life and death, in Hinduism you have this ideology of reincarnation, right, so you come back into the world, you know, reincarnated based upon the life that you lived. If you worked good, you know, you'd come back as a higher life form. So say for example you are a rat, right, if you were a good rat then maybe you'd get elevated to maybe something like a bear. But the same way as a human being, if you lived a life that was bad, you were a criminal, you mistreated others, then you would come back as a lesser life form.
Like a cockroach, let's say for example right, not so appealing right when you think about it. And so this is the whole cycle of life and death in Hinduism. And so again this applies to human beings as well. So, for example, if you see a human being that's born disabled, with some, you know, limitations or deformities, unfortunately people will mistreat them. Because their understanding of theology is that okay, this person in his previous life was someone that was bad.
And so that can lead to oppression, injustice, not seen as someone you know, good in society, they get marginalized and we know this is not the case because these people they're innocent people, they already have something that they need to overcome. And also you like I said in the caste system, you have this group called the untouchables, right, and they're really like, you know, marginalized in a way that society won't interact with them, they won't get the same benefits, and so imagine you're born into this, right, you can never break out of this.
But also this idea of anthropomorphism, right, which is, you know, when you look at these idols, what's striking about them, they're human in terms of their looks, right? And so this idea of anthropomorphism is that God will come down into a sort of either a human or sort of animal form in order to enact some sort of justice. So an example of that is Ganesh. He's a god that has a human body but an elephant's head. And then there's a story behind that. Behind that understanding that, you know, that one day these two gods, they basically got married, okay, and one of them, the father had to then go and spend some time in isolation. And he didn't realize his wife was pregnant.
So after a number of years, like after a decade, he came back home and he tried to enter the house, and his son, who he didn't know, was protecting, and he was obviously didn't recognize this man who was his father, trying to enter the house. So obviously there was a struggle and then what happened was that that god obviously chopped off the head of this young boy. Obviously, what happened was the mother ran outside, "What have you done, this is our son." So then what the god did was in order to sort of save his son, he tried to get the closest animal which he happened to be an elephant and used that as a head to revive his son. So for me that was one of the problems that I had.
So, you know, when you see Jake, he actually like puts on, you know, this suit, and then he can-- he's basically talking to the blue avatars, right, it's almost like God comes down in human form as an avatar it descends down in order to enact justice, right? So I started wrestling with these ideas growing up. So all of these ideologies that form the sort of basis of Hinduism, for me, over time, they just didn't make sense, it just didn't sit right. Like the idea of many gods, like okay who is in charge, who is the main God? What makes one God more sort of powerful or knowledgeable than the other. The second thing is anthropomorphism and avatars, you know, God being a human being.
The idea of God also being within the creation. Again, you know, when I started thinking about this, it's like you know, a carpenter who makes a piece of furniture, like a table, right, he's the designer, he creates it, he puts it together, right, but he can never become the table. Because the nature of the carpenter as opposed to the nature of the table or the chair is different. So they can never become a part of furniture, right, and the same way like when you look at God, God is the creator who sits outside of the creation, He created everything, doesn't become part of the creation. Where do you see the difference when you compare the Hindu scripts with the Quran?
Number one, when it comes to the Quran, just the message contained within it, it's very clear, right? The message is very simple and very clear. Which is there is one God, right, He's not part of the creation, and He is the creator, sustainer of all. He has communicated to us throughout humanity through the use of prophets and revelation. To guide us, to show us what is true, that this life is a test, to connect back to the Creator who we will return to, and to live a good life. Because just like the person who creates let's say the mobile phone, you need an instruction man to understand how to use it best.
The same way as human beings, we need a manual that comes from our Creator to understand. So that's how I see the Quran, it is coherent, it is clear, it makes perfect sense. But then beyond that, when you look at the Hindu scriptures, again, has a lot of good teachings, a lot of good values, with the Quran, we know it comes from a specific time that was revealed to the beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And we know that the years of-- 23 years of revelation, we know that it's been preserved. Because this tradition of preservation is not primarily in the written text, but the oral tradition, which exists to this day.
We have millions of people that have memorized the entire Quran off by heart, right, and you can see that manifest. Meaning that it has been preserved and God mentions that in the Quran, that We are its preserver, We will preserve it. When it comes to the Vedas, the Upanishads, we don't see that. Number one, I don't know any single person that has memorized that script. Let alone any other script. This is a miracle. These are signs. And then like you said, when you look at certain things within the Quran as well when you delve deeper into the mult -- you know like Hamza Tzortzis says, the multi-layered, the multi-faceted meanings and the signs, and again everything is a sign.
Allah, you know, when they say I'm trying to find God, Allah has laid signs all around us, you just have to look. And that's why I say when you're going out and sharing the message of Islam, the best thing you can honestly do is give someone a copy of the Quran. That person is sincere, they will understand that that is the word of God. Is that true, is it true that they worship cows and they don't eat meat, and why is that? Yeah, so in Hinduism, the cow is seen as a religious sort of symbol. And the reason for that is they believe that the cow is holy because it provides sustenance, it provides milk. They do not eat the cow because it is seen as sacred, so they don't eat beef.
Also, you know, they take the uses of, you know, the cow pat, which is the sort of the dung, and they use it for building houses and for burning purposes as well. So they see a multitude of uses for the cow, and so it's been elevated, so even in their theology they believe in the mother cow, right, and so you can understand, you know, the idea of mother is really highly revered. And some extreme ideologies is they believe that the cow is a manifestation of God, right? And you do see that. So they would sort of do religious practices towards cows. You know, if you did anything against the cow, they would see it as, you know, something volatile against them and their community.
Most Hindus are vegetarian. If you look at strict teachings of Hinduism, most of them would be vegetarian. But some people would eat chicken, would eat lamb, so yeah I grew up not sort of eating beef. My mum, she did get us chicken, she did get us lamb, but there was a point in time where she decided to become a bit more religious, and so we didn't -- we weren't allowed any meat. But I remember growing up, I used to rebel and we used to go to like a cheeseburger, wouldn't tell them... I was eating it, yeah, even though it was against our tradition.
I wouldn't do it at home, it'd be highly offensive, you wouldn't have beef at home, but when you look at it overall, it just doesn't make sense because at the end of the day, the cow is another beast like any other beast, you know the which is the creation of God. Yes, it is, it provides a lot of nourishment, but it doesn't mean then it is holy or divine in any shape or form. Ganges river being like sacred, does that have any meaning or do you have anything to say about this? What the Ganges is, is they say it's a blessed river in India where they come and perform ritualistic practices in order to get blessed.
I, you know, I know my parents and my family members, they would talk about the Ganges, they would go and sort of wash themselves, it's almost like a spiritual purification, by bathing yourself in the river. They also take the ashes of their dead. So, you know, in Hinduism, when it comes to when someone dies, obviously I mentioned reincarnation, but where we sort of bury the dead, what they do is they believe in cremation, and cremation is basically burning of the body.
And burning of the body until it becomes ash and then you'd take that ash and put it in an urn, and then you would float that ash into the river Ganges, you know, like in essence what they believe is you're coming back into part of the creation. Is that a weekly practice for Hindus or daily or weekly? Predominantly, majority of Hindus, what they do when it comes to practicing their faith, they actually have an area of worship in the house, it's called Puja Ghar (house of prayer), they would have like a setup of idols and there'll be this daily practice of, you know, revering the gods maybe in the morning, giving some food as a sacrifice to bless the food.
We do, you know, in Islam you do like Du'a (supplication) like this, but you probably seen this symbol in Hindus, which is a sign of respect, it's also a sign of worship, so they would make this symbol in front of the idols, right, in terms of asking it. So yeah they believe that these idols are a manifestation or representation of God, right, so some people believe the idols have power. And again it's interesting because you see in Islam right, you have the names and the attributes of Allah, but these are the names and attributes of one God. It's almost like what they've done is they've taken these attributes and then they've created idols specifically for each one.
What would you say to a person who says I find spirituality when I practice Hinduism, so why do I need another faith? Imagine we're friends, yeah me and you, and you people that are viewing, we became really good friends. And imagine I'm such a wealthy sort of billionaire. And I want to help you. I want to give you a gift of let's say 10 million pounds. So when I give you that gift of 10 million pounds, what do you do? But the point is you say thank you. Whenever someone gives you a gift.
So when it comes to our existence, right, our understanding that the blessings that we have, the ability to see, the ability to speak, the ability to experience every single moment, we didn't create ourselves. We didn't decide the color of our skin, our gender, all of these things have been given to us as a gift. And spirituality is a part of that. Now going back to that example, imagine I gave you that 10 million pounds. But instead of thanking me, you thanked Lionel Messi. Yeah, he's a great footballer. Yeah, but he's got nothing to do with me giving you that 10 million pounds. And I see religion a bit like that.
That there is all of these religions, there's all of these spiritual practices, we're all trying to fulfill this spiritual need, but we're misdirecting it. Once we investigate and we look at things from a theological perspective, we understand there must be a universal truth. Once you connect to the actual truth, which is the Creator, the one true God, that's when you truly will fill that spiritual void that you have. If you had a chance to speak to all the Hindus in the world, what would you say to them in a few moments? We are all, you know, human beings, and just like me, you know, you follow your family's traditions because you don't question it.
But if we delve a little bit deeper, we must come and realize that there are all of these traditions across the world, and different places across the world. When you look at the theology of these religions, which teach good things, they cannot be true at the same time. You can't have multiple gods and one God at the same time. You can't have a God that is outside of the creation and eternal, whereas one which is within the creation and outside of the creation. Look, I'm not here to challenge your beliefs. I'm here to get you to think, and come to an understanding that there must be a universal truth. And I say to you from my understanding, that I believe that Islam is true.
That Islam is the belief in the one true God, that is eternal, that has no parents or offspring, that is self-sufficient, that is not contained within the creation but external is the anchor, is beyond anything we can imagine, is not a human being, is the true religion. Read the Quran, have a look at what it says, look at the basic information of Islam, speak to a Muslim. And believe that this is true, then God will guide you to the truth. Have you also converted to Islam but don't know where to start? Or maybe you've been a Muslim your whole life but want to make a fresh start and learn Islam from scratch? That's exactly why we built this Step Islam app.
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My skin and my bone -- it was like bone chilling. I had never heard nothing like this. And then I came across, obviously the Quran, when I read those four verses, it's like this light that's in front of me went off in my mind. And I was like, "Oh my gosh." So then obviously it would have affected my parents. Like, "Okay, how could you let your child become the enemy, the Muslims." I just get emotional thinking about it. Assalamualaikum (peace be upon you), brother Salahuddin Patel, thank you so much for joining us. We are very happy to have you with us at Towards Eternity. I want to start with who is Salahuddin Patel? Can you tell us briefly about your life please.
Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah). Assalamualaikum, my name is brother Salahuddin Patel and I'm from London, the UK. I grew up in London. I come originally from a Hindu background. So my parents are originally from India, my mum grew up in Uganda. And so I grew up in the '80s. Um, a very interesting time. And then over time I realized certain things didn't make sense and it was at the time of university that I embraced Islam. How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? I grew up as a Hindu and like most people, you know, you follow your family's tradition, you don't question it. You believe it to be true. My father would take me to the temple as a family.
These idols, they're like massive, right? They're like maybe 10 foot, 12 foot, so you're looking up at these idols, right? Very colorful, bright imagery. You could imagine me as a child, I found it really scary, I'll be honest. You know, you see these idols and it would be very bright. A lot of them would be blue, but people were believing that this idol could manifest into the physicality. In order to get to God, you have to go through these idols. You wouldn't really question it. This you'd just say these are the practices of our forefathers, our ancestors. What was the thing that made you question your beliefs?
Maybe I was probably in High school, watching the Mahabharata, this program on TV. I began to question these ideas. Like they just didn't make any sense. Because, you know, logically, rationally, certain things just don't add up. Just like a God being a human being that is limited in nature. A God not knowing everything. A God needing the help of another God to manifest. The idea of God that needs to come into the world, the God being in the world, and outside of the world.
One day I was at home, and you know, I was with my brother, and my parents came to us and they said, "Look, we're going to go and visit this holy person." But what really shocked me is when I got to this house, which was a normal house, they had all these images of this young girl, she was dressed like in white, sitting down, so you could imagine like these massive images of a girl, right, sitting around the house. And we were led into this house to this special sort of chamber where she was sitting. And I remember thinking, like them telling me that this is your God. She must have been like, nah, 8, 9 years old. She was younger than me.
This young girl, they said, "Yeah, look, we got to ask blessings for her, we got to pray to her." And my parents took it really seriously. Right, but for me, growing up, I was like, what on Earth is going on? Why am I praying to this young girl? But you don't question it because it's your parents. You take what they tell you to do, you hold it to be true. Here's a young girl, she's younger than me, she's a human being like me, and they're telling me this is your creator, we have to ask her for blessings, we have to worship her, we need to prostrate down to her. And I'm thinking, for me it was like this is wrong. Another example is maybe some other people know it, someone called Sai Baba.
So he was like an Indian guru, he became very big, right, over millions of people in India. And we used to have a picture of him. Like a photograph in his religious garb, he would have the, you know, the garland of flowers around his neck, and we would have it, his idol and we would have his picture. My parents would worship. One of the things that he used to do is when he had -- have his followers, he would sprinkle his fingers like this and ash would automatically come, magically out of his hands. Right, so they -- it's like this is blessings. He would also have this thing where he would regurgitate golden eggs.
So there would be like a, imagine a metal plate, and then he would do some recitation of some, you know, chanting, right, and you'd see the audience members, and then he would like pretend to regurgitate, then all of a sudden a golden egg would come out. So when it came to the ash he would have little ash balls here in his fingers, you know, hidden. So when he would go like this and go like that he would be crushing. Even the regurgitation, again it was, I don't know whether it was up his sleeve or it was down here, but when he would regurgitate like that, it would look like it's coming out of his mouth, it was all sleight of hand.
Right, and so you see this within Hinduism there's a lot of these practices where people are using these types of technique to trick the masses. I just came to the realization that these things just didn't make sense but there must be something. So my worship, you know, when I talked about calling out to God, it was always just me speaking to God in my language, in the English language. Uh, so I would just ask God like, "I need help with this" or you know, "Please forgive me for doing this" or I believe that this is innate, that this is built in within all of us. And so I was just connecting to that. How did your journey towards Islam begin?
I did go with my friends, before I was Muslim, to the mosque for Jumu'ah (Friday prayer). So remember going into the mosque and seeing rows and rows of people, but I did find the practice, which was different from Hinduism, especially when you go into the Sajdah (prostration) when you're -- you're basically putting your hands on the ground, your face is on the floor, and it's a sign of pure submission. And something that I had never done in my life before. Because I had been to churches, I had been to temples, I had even seen Buddhist temples, right, and you always you would see either imagery, you would see idols, and here you come into a mosque, literally you don't see anything.
It's just all very simple, plain, you have the Mimbar (pulpit) at the front, which is where the Imam (prayer leader) would stand. Very clean, you know simplistic, you know, minimalist, and here you're praying to God. So yeah, it was strange not to see any idols but at the same time it was a confirmation of what I believed. A sense of serenity, no one is asking for money. You know, no one saying, "Okay, you got to pay, you know, something to these gods," you don't have to offer any sort of food in order for the worship to be accepted. And that was the beautiful thing. I started looking into obviously the religion. Originally I thought it was a Pakistani religion.
Then I see people of different backgrounds. Arabs, African, Oriental, Turkish people. 100% I had Turkish friends growing up. So I remember the Muslims being, you know, very friendly, very generous, very clean, I felt an affinity towards them. But you realize this is, you're like this is how it should be. In Islam you have this understanding of the one pure monotheistic God, not part of creation, eternal. Then you got in Hinduism, you've got a multitude of gods. God coming into creation. That's opposing to what Islam. Then you got Christianity which is this idea of a Trinity, which they claim to be a monotheism, but I had seen that again.
Like I said, in Hinduism you had the Trimurti, their own version of a Trinity. And then same thing, they're saying that all leads to one God. And what's striking is when I looked at ancient Greek mythology, Persian mythology, Babylonian, they all have this idea of a Trinity. If something like that's been recycled down, you know, over the ages. So for me it was like it doesn't matter what people may claim to believe, there must be a universal truth. Then I came across the basic theology of Islam and I was shocked. The understanding that there is a God that is one, which is not part of the creation, this all-powerful entity.
Now for the first time in my life, I'm coming across a religion that sits with what I understood to be true. And then I came across, obviously the Quran, and Surah Al-Ikhlas (Chapter of Purity). When I read those four verses, it's like this light that's in front of me went off in my mind. It was like, "Say, He is God, the One and Only." I was like, yes, I believe in one God. The eternal, absolute, self-sufficient. Of course, if there's a God, He must be that, can't be a created being, right, self-sufficient. "He begets not, nor is He begotten." Meaning He has no parents, and He has no offspring.
Here I come from a tradition where you have gods, demigods, sons of gods, daughters of gods, which I rejected. Here God is the creator, doesn't have no parents, have no offspring. Yes. But the final one, and there is none like unto Him. Meaning anything you can imagine of God, that's not God because God sits outside of the creation, God's not in the creation. All of our imaginings was perceived of what we see around us. And I was like, oh my gosh. And so that was a beginning like, this makes perfect sense.
Then I started obviously reading books on theology, read through the Quran, I remember watching it's interesting, you know, at the same time happening, me getting closer, then them telling me more and more about Islam, I seeing their practices how they would worship, right, I would see how they would pray in unison in one line worshipping God to the point when I graduated, I had to make a decision which was what do I do now. I got to a point I was like, no, if I don't do this I'm going to live my life as a lie. And I can't do that. I have to take this decision. And so I decided, and I told my friends, and when I told my friends, they were shocked.
I had no idea, like, you know, what it involved, in terms of the practices or the basic theology. All I know this was true. I have to take the step. This is God, this is God's religion, this is the truth, this is the path. How did you feel when you took your Shahadah (testimony of faith)? Can you take us to that day please. When I remember that day, I remember feeling very, very nervous. And I remember I said the testimony of faith, and I remember a lot of people say this, it's like you feel this massive burden being lifted from your shoulders. You feel light. I said it, and all my friends hugged me, you know, it was really emotional.
You felt clean, you felt light, you felt connected, you felt a sense of peace. And how did your parents react to your conversion to Islam? When it came to my conversion, obviously that's something I had to take into consideration, but then I realized, you know, I couldn't live like a lie. So the next realization is then, I have to tell my parents, right? When I did tell them, they were not happy. They were disappointed. I think my mum was really angry, my dad, you know, again he just didn't understand it. You know, because you're seen now as the black sheep of the family. And then word spreads especially in a small community like the Hindu community.
So then obviously it would have affected my parents. Like, Okay, how could you let your child become the enemy, the Muslims. So, you know, I just continued on my journey, and what I realized was for a number of years, even though that I had taken my Shahadah (testimony of faith) and I felt good, I realized it was the truth, something was still missing. I was not practicing 5 times a day. And yeah, something, God, Allah sent me a sign. It was incredible. I just get emotional thinking about it. Cause, you know, as a revert you're alone. Sorry, I don't mean to cry. So it was around that time 2008-2009, I started looking at more videos, more knowledge, then Allah just sent this amazing sign.
My sister, she's 10 years younger than me. So she was a practicing Hindu. Then one day, she said to me, My friends invited me to this program. It's about Islam. So okay, let's go and check it out. The way they run their program is on a Friday they do a free taster, then the whole program runs on a weekend Saturday, Sunday. It's usually in like a top hotel. When I got there, I was completely shocked. I had never seen anything like this. And I remember the Sheikh (Islamic scholar/leader), so he would recite the Ayat (verses) live. And I would say, like, you know, my skin and my bone it was like bone chilling. I had never heard nothing like this. And I was like, look...
this is what the religion is all about. So the Friday ended and I was like oh this is beautiful. You know this is an incredible, hundreds of people, I had never been on a course like this, so obviously I hadn't signed up but she had signed up. So I told my sister, "Look.”, I had full confidence, I said, "Look, if you have any questions, just ask the Sheikh, yeah if you have, you know, don't worry, you're going to be fine, you're going to be there with your friend," cause her Somali friend was actually a volunteer. That's how she got invited to the course. I remember that day clearly on the Saturday.
I was just doing out my usual things with my friends, getting up to no good, you know like people do on a Saturday, right? And in the evening, my sister sent me a text, she said, "Hi, I just wanted to let you know, you know, I've been asking questions in the program and I've decided and I took my Shahadah (testimony of faith)." Out of nowhere. The Sheikh (Islamic scholar/leader)... like I said, he recounts the story. He said he came on the Friday and I've met him since.
He saw all of these people, right in front of him, the brothers at the front, sisters at the back, and obviously he's getting ready to deliver, and he notices in the sisters' section, there's one sister without the hijab (headscarf). So the Q&A session happens. He spots that, you know, that that sister without the headscarf, and she starts asking questions. It becomes very apparent to him that that's my sister, a non-Muslim. So he goes into Da'wah (invitation/preaching) mode cause he's a Da'ee (caller to Islam). And he starts asking her questions.
And what happens is, because he does it in a very sort of clever way, it gets to a point where he says to my sister, "Well, if this all makes sense to you and you have no further questions, why don't you consider, you know, embracing Islam?" Something along those lines. And she said she had no answer to it. So in front of all of those sisters, she took her Shahadah (testimony of faith). And what shocked me even more, cause remember she's a teacher like on placement, when she embraced Islam, she put on full hijab (headscarf) and abaya (cloak). So I remember she telling me she went to school, and then all the kids said to her, "Miss, miss, what happened to you?" Because she changed like...
"Did someone force you to become a Muslim?" She said, "No, no, you know, I decided to become a Muslim." And obviously the Muslims were there and obviously her work colleague was so happy and so shocked. And for me, that was the answer. I asked Allah, and that was my sister. And she was a rock. Like I said, she was the one, you know, like I said the sisters are better than the brothers, she started practicing immediately, taking the religion. So that helped me obviously. And she tells me, yeah, when I took my Shahadah and became Muslim, it had a profound impact on her. I didn't realize, cause she was thinking about it, obviously. And obviously Allah is the one that guides.
That December, my sister came to me, cause it's the holidays, she goes, "I've been invited to this program. It's for new Muslims, where they teach you the basics. What do you think, should we go?" "You know what, why not, let's go and check it out, we're not doing anything anyway, what -- what have we got to lose." And we went to that new Muslim retreat, here I met other new Muslims, going through that same journey, I met a brother from a Sikh background, I met a brother from a Christian background, I met brothers from a Chinese, Buddhist background. It's like Allah guided me, and Allah obviously is the best of planners.
You know, and so for me that's what I needed at that time, and then I started, you know, getting involved in the work in my area. If you were given a chance to pray for someone that, you know, would be accepted, what would you pray for and for whom? I would say, without a shadow of a doubt, all reverts will probably say the same answer. And that's the answer is, your parents. It's the hardest thing for reverts... you know, to think that you know, your parents that sort of brought you up, that they're not guided. So... What impressed you the most about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? The Prophet (peace be upon him), people forget, he grew up in a society that was full of idols.
360 idols were in that Kaaba (sacred building in Mecca). And he came to purify it. You know, that message that he was chosen for, you know, pure monotheism in a polytheistic society that originally was monotheistic. I have a strong connection with what the Prophet (peace be upon him) did. He purified that whole area, removed idol worship, and I love that, because I can relate to that, you know, that story. So what is the core belief in Hinduism? Yeah, so the core beliefs in Hinduism, it's different. It's a polytheistic religion. What that means is they believe in a multitude of gods. Then you begin to realize certain things are confusing. Because which God am I going to actually pray to?
And like if there's a multitude of gods, how do they sort of navigate order and all of these things. In terms of the ideology of life and death, in Hinduism you have this ideology of reincarnation, right, so you come back into the world, you know, reincarnated based upon the life that you lived. If you worked good, you know, you'd come back as a higher life form. So say for example you are a rat, right, if you were a good rat then maybe you'd get elevated to maybe something like a bear. But the same way as a human being, if you lived a life that was bad, you were a criminal, you mistreated others, then you would come back as a lesser life form.
Like a cockroach, let's say for example right, not so appealing right when you think about it. And so this is the whole cycle of life and death in Hinduism. And so again this applies to human beings as well. So, for example, if you see a human being that's born disabled, with some, you know, limitations or deformities, unfortunately people will mistreat them. Because their understanding of theology is that okay, this person in his previous life was someone that was bad.
And so that can lead to oppression, injustice, not seen as someone you know, good in society, they get marginalized and we know this is not the case because these people they're innocent people, they already have something that they need to overcome. And also you like I said in the caste system, you have this group called the untouchables, right, and they're really like, you know, marginalized in a way that society won't interact with them, they won't get the same benefits, and so imagine you're born into this, right, you can never break out of this.
But also this idea of anthropomorphism, right, which is, you know, when you look at these idols, what's striking about them, they're human in terms of their looks, right? And so this idea of anthropomorphism is that God will come down into a sort of either a human or sort of animal form in order to enact some sort of justice. So an example of that is Ganesh. He's a god that has a human body but an elephant's head. And then there's a story behind that. Behind that understanding that, you know, that one day these two gods, they basically got married, okay, and one of them, the father had to then go and spend some time in isolation. And he didn't realize his wife was pregnant.
So after a number of years, like after a decade, he came back home and he tried to enter the house, and his son, who he didn't know, was protecting, and he was obviously didn't recognize this man who was his father, trying to enter the house. So obviously there was a struggle and then what happened was that that god obviously chopped off the head of this young boy. Obviously, what happened was the mother ran outside, "What have you done, this is our son." So then what the god did was in order to sort of save his son, he tried to get the closest animal which he happened to be an elephant and used that as a head to revive his son. So for me that was one of the problems that I had.
So, you know, when you see Jake, he actually like puts on, you know, this suit, and then he can-- he's basically talking to the blue avatars, right, it's almost like God comes down in human form as an avatar it descends down in order to enact justice, right? So I started wrestling with these ideas growing up. So all of these ideologies that form the sort of basis of Hinduism, for me, over time, they just didn't make sense, it just didn't sit right. Like the idea of many gods, like okay who is in charge, who is the main God? What makes one God more sort of powerful or knowledgeable than the other. The second thing is anthropomorphism and avatars, you know, God being a human being.
The idea of God also being within the creation. Again, you know, when I started thinking about this, it's like you know, a carpenter who makes a piece of furniture, like a table, right, he's the designer, he creates it, he puts it together, right, but he can never become the table. Because the nature of the carpenter as opposed to the nature of the table or the chair is different. So they can never become a part of furniture, right, and the same way like when you look at God, God is the creator who sits outside of the creation, He created everything, doesn't become part of the creation. Where do you see the difference when you compare the Hindu scripts with the Quran?
Number one, when it comes to the Quran, just the message contained within it, it's very clear, right? The message is very simple and very clear. Which is there is one God, right, He's not part of the creation, and He is the creator, sustainer of all. He has communicated to us throughout humanity through the use of prophets and revelation. To guide us, to show us what is true, that this life is a test, to connect back to the Creator who we will return to, and to live a good life. Because just like the person who creates let's say the mobile phone, you need an instruction man to understand how to use it best.
The same way as human beings, we need a manual that comes from our Creator to understand. So that's how I see the Quran, it is coherent, it is clear, it makes perfect sense. But then beyond that, when you look at the Hindu scriptures, again, has a lot of good teachings, a lot of good values, with the Quran, we know it comes from a specific time that was revealed to the beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And we know that the years of-- 23 years of revelation, we know that it's been preserved. Because this tradition of preservation is not primarily in the written text, but the oral tradition, which exists to this day.
We have millions of people that have memorized the entire Quran off by heart, right, and you can see that manifest. Meaning that it has been preserved and God mentions that in the Quran, that We are its preserver, We will preserve it. When it comes to the Vedas, the Upanishads, we don't see that. Number one, I don't know any single person that has memorized that script. Let alone any other script. This is a miracle. These are signs. And then like you said, when you look at certain things within the Quran as well when you delve deeper into the mult -- you know like Hamza Tzortzis says, the multi-layered, the multi-faceted meanings and the signs, and again everything is a sign.
Allah, you know, when they say I'm trying to find God, Allah has laid signs all around us, you just have to look. And that's why I say when you're going out and sharing the message of Islam, the best thing you can honestly do is give someone a copy of the Quran. That person is sincere, they will understand that that is the word of God. Is that true, is it true that they worship cows and they don't eat meat, and why is that? Yeah, so in Hinduism, the cow is seen as a religious sort of symbol. And the reason for that is they believe that the cow is holy because it provides sustenance, it provides milk. They do not eat the cow because it is seen as sacred, so they don't eat beef.
Also, you know, they take the uses of, you know, the cow pat, which is the sort of the dung, and they use it for building houses and for burning purposes as well. So they see a multitude of uses for the cow, and so it's been elevated, so even in their theology they believe in the mother cow, right, and so you can understand, you know, the idea of mother is really highly revered. And some extreme ideologies is they believe that the cow is a manifestation of God, right? And you do see that. So they would sort of do religious practices towards cows. You know, if you did anything against the cow, they would see it as, you know, something volatile against them and their community.
Most Hindus are vegetarian. If you look at strict teachings of Hinduism, most of them would be vegetarian. But some people would eat chicken, would eat lamb, so yeah I grew up not sort of eating beef. My mum, she did get us chicken, she did get us lamb, but there was a point in time where she decided to become a bit more religious, and so we didn't -- we weren't allowed any meat. But I remember growing up, I used to rebel and we used to go to like a cheeseburger, wouldn't tell them... I was eating it, yeah, even though it was against our tradition.
I wouldn't do it at home, it'd be highly offensive, you wouldn't have beef at home, but when you look at it overall, it just doesn't make sense because at the end of the day, the cow is another beast like any other beast, you know the which is the creation of God. Yes, it is, it provides a lot of nourishment, but it doesn't mean then it is holy or divine in any shape or form. Ganges river being like sacred, does that have any meaning or do you have anything to say about this? What the Ganges is, is they say it's a blessed river in India where they come and perform ritualistic practices in order to get blessed.
I, you know, I know my parents and my family members, they would talk about the Ganges, they would go and sort of wash themselves, it's almost like a spiritual purification, by bathing yourself in the river. They also take the ashes of their dead. So, you know, in Hinduism, when it comes to when someone dies, obviously I mentioned reincarnation, but where we sort of bury the dead, what they do is they believe in cremation, and cremation is basically burning of the body.
And burning of the body until it becomes ash and then you'd take that ash and put it in an urn, and then you would float that ash into the river Ganges, you know, like in essence what they believe is you're coming back into part of the creation. Is that a weekly practice for Hindus or daily or weekly? Predominantly, majority of Hindus, what they do when it comes to practicing their faith, they actually have an area of worship in the house, it's called Puja Ghar (house of prayer), they would have like a setup of idols and there'll be this daily practice of, you know, revering the gods maybe in the morning, giving some food as a sacrifice to bless the food.
We do, you know, in Islam you do like Du'a (supplication) like this, but you probably seen this symbol in Hindus, which is a sign of respect, it's also a sign of worship, so they would make this symbol in front of the idols, right, in terms of asking it. So yeah they believe that these idols are a manifestation or representation of God, right, so some people believe the idols have power. And again it's interesting because you see in Islam right, you have the names and the attributes of Allah, but these are the names and attributes of one God. It's almost like what they've done is they've taken these attributes and then they've created idols specifically for each one.
What would you say to a person who says I find spirituality when I practice Hinduism, so why do I need another faith? Imagine we're friends, yeah me and you, and you people that are viewing, we became really good friends. And imagine I'm such a wealthy sort of billionaire. And I want to help you. I want to give you a gift of let's say 10 million pounds. So when I give you that gift of 10 million pounds, what do you do? But the point is you say thank you. Whenever someone gives you a gift.
So when it comes to our existence, right, our understanding that the blessings that we have, the ability to see, the ability to speak, the ability to experience every single moment, we didn't create ourselves. We didn't decide the color of our skin, our gender, all of these things have been given to us as a gift. And spirituality is a part of that. Now going back to that example, imagine I gave you that 10 million pounds. But instead of thanking me, you thanked Lionel Messi. Yeah, he's a great footballer. Yeah, but he's got nothing to do with me giving you that 10 million pounds. And I see religion a bit like that.
That there is all of these religions, there's all of these spiritual practices, we're all trying to fulfill this spiritual need, but we're misdirecting it. Once we investigate and we look at things from a theological perspective, we understand there must be a universal truth. Once you connect to the actual truth, which is the Creator, the one true God, that's when you truly will fill that spiritual void that you have. If you had a chance to speak to all the Hindus in the world, what would you say to them in a few moments? We are all, you know, human beings, and just like me, you know, you follow your family's traditions because you don't question it.
But if we delve a little bit deeper, we must come and realize that there are all of these traditions across the world, and different places across the world. When you look at the theology of these religions, which teach good things, they cannot be true at the same time. You can't have multiple gods and one God at the same time. You can't have a God that is outside of the creation and eternal, whereas one which is within the creation and outside of the creation. Look, I'm not here to challenge your beliefs. I'm here to get you to think, and come to an understanding that there must be a universal truth. And I say to you from my understanding, that I believe that Islam is true.
That Islam is the belief in the one true God, that is eternal, that has no parents or offspring, that is self-sufficient, that is not contained within the creation but external is the anchor, is beyond anything we can imagine, is not a human being, is the true religion. Read the Quran, have a look at what it says, look at the basic information of Islam, speak to a Muslim. And believe that this is true, then God will guide you to the truth. Have you also converted to Islam but don't know where to start? Or maybe you've been a Muslim your whole life but want to make a fresh start and learn Islam from scratch? That's exactly why we built this Step Islam app.
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