“I Read the Bible Cover to Cover… But Became Muslim!” - A Christian Converts to Islam
Published on
When I was in seventh grade was the first time I was actually introduced to a gang. So I got to a point where my father says, "You know what? You can no longer live with me." He drove me to a park near my house. He parked the car. He told me, "Get out." I got out the car and he left. So all of these incidents, in these moments, I would ask God, "God help me." You get me out of this, God, I'm going to be a changed man. And at that point, I began to kind of question, Is Jesus God? But, Jesus died. So, he gave us a Qur'an. We took the Qur'an. We would go to my house and we begin to talk. The light finally turned on. I said, I feel more comfortable calling upon who Jesus called upon, God.
My mother, we battled, we fought. She said to me, "Son, I need to talk to you." I said, "Oh, here we go." She says, "I've been watching everything you do." "Your faith is amazing and what it's done for your life is amazing." "And I want to be Muslim." Assalamualaikum, Imam Wesley LeBron. Thank you so much for accepting our invitation. Welcome to Towards Eternity's interview. Who is Imam Wesley LeBron, can you tell us briefly about your life? Waalaikumassalam. Jazakallah khair for having me on. Alhamdulillah. I am your brother, Imam Wesley LeBron of Puerto Rican descent, I come from the island of Puerto Rico. I was born, raised in the city called Passaic in the state of New Jersey.
I come from a background of a Christian family. I was raised, for the most part, believing that Jesus was God, the Son of God. Until, you know, maybe my middle school years where I kind of strayed away from religion altogether and kind of just got lost in life as a young man in the streets. Partying, drinking, smoking. And then around 20 years old, I was introduced to Islam. How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? So in regards to faith, as a Puerto Rican, Christianity was our form of faith, Believing that Jesus was God, and believing that he was the one that we had to worship, that he was the one that we had to call on.
So naturally, a person being born into a faith like most people are, I didn't question the faith throughout my childhood. I began to question the faith when I was in my teens. But when I began or when I would get into trouble, was the time when religion would pop up. You get into problems. Something happens in your life. "Oh God help me, God save me," right? But I didn't really know who I was calling on. Do I call on Jesus? Do I call on God? And at that point I began to kind of question, Is Jesus God? But Jesus died. If he died, that means he was a man. Can he be God? Does God die? You know, how does all of this work? And really, I kind of prefer to just stay out of religion altogether.
So I never really did any investigation and kind of just continued to live life just worrying about the moment and thinking about having fun and entertainment and living life that way. What was the age when you got involved in the gang life? So when I was in seventh grade was the first time I was actually introduced to a gang. Some of my older cousins, I was always around the older guys. I was the youngest cousin in the family. So, the first experience I had was in seventh grade, when my cousin was part of what was called the Fourth Street Posse, and he asked me if I wanted to be a part, and I said, yeah, sure, why not?
But Alhamdulillah, Allah kind of protected me where I didn't get heavily entrenched because of where I lived. I wasn't reintroduced to the gang life again until I was about 19, 20, right before I almost accepted Islam. I ended up joining Zulu Nation. And Zulu Nation has a bi-fold. It has two faces. It has the face that everybody kind of knows, which is of hip hop and music. He used to have meetings once a month in New York City, in Harlem, a boy who was raised in my house as a foster child. He introduced me to them. And then I got to meet the gang side of life. Because the boy Edgar, who used to live in my house, he was involved in that side of life.
And then what we did, we took that back to Jersey, where we lived at, and we started to create our own sect of that gang in new Jersey. So you were telling me about this foster brother. Can you tell us about, how did you end up in the same house? And was he Black? The foster child. My parents, my father, my mother used to raise foster children. My mother, my aunt and my grandmother. So Edgar was of Puerto Rican descent, like myself. We would go out. I would take him out with me. Come out. Let's go out. Let's hang out. You know what I mean? And then basically, he was the one... At that time too, as well, I had just... I was beginning to search for something.
Because I already had crashed my car a couple of times. Drinking and driving, almost died. I had got into a fight after a club. I got hit in the head, catch a bottle on this side, I still got the scar. I got hit on a coffee cup on this side, got the scar. Doctor said if it had been a little bit over, you wouldn't be here anymore. So I was already asking, what is my purpose in life? Like, where am I going? What am I going to do? How can I continue to live like this? You know what I mean? Or should I just do whatever the hell I want to do, and don't care about anything in the world?
And this is when Edgar told me, "Listen, let me introduce you to Zulu Nation." They have meetings and it's a gang, but at the same time it's connected to hip hop. So it caught my interest and I said, "Okay, let me go and look into that." So partying, drinking, smoking, all of those things became very relevant in my life. Of course, you know, I hid them from my dad as much as I could. But my dad also knew that I was involved in these things. After that, you know, Subhanallah, being lost in this issue of drinking and depression and trying to find a solution for life, I ended up close to being an alcoholic. So what was your major cause of depression, your mood?
So, you were concerned with the kids that you were responsible of, or where your life is going is not really known? My major concern was I didn't know where I was going in life. I came from a good household, you know, for the most part. I had what I needed, but I was missing something. So I got to a point where my father says, "You know what? You can no longer live with me." 18, 19, at this point, he says, "You can no longer live with me." I can't live with my mom. My dad is kicking me out. I didn't have any other family members where I can just say, "Can I come stay in your house?" My father drove me to a park near my house. He parked the car.
He says, "You've been too much, son." "You've done too much things in your life way too fast. You made too many bad decisions. I have a brother. Your brother and sister who are much younger than you. And I can't let you negatively influence them." He says "I love you, but I feel like I'm at a loss. There's nothing I can do for you." He says, "Here's $100." Back then you were able to get a room, rent a room for $100 a week or $50 a week. He says, "Maybe you can find a room for $50 a week. You stay there, and if I can help you, I'll help you. You have a job, you know. But this is all I can do for you right now." He told me, "Get out." I got out the car and he left.
I sat in the park that day crying, wondering what am I going to do with my life? That I would go to those moments and just really got to the point where I just got like, where do I go? What do I do? Like, I have no clue. At this point in your life, you decided to join this movement? Was that the case? So, when I ended up joining Zulu Nation, it was at one meeting. And I meet a brother by the name of Abdul Aziz through Edgar. Edgar and him were connected. He was the gang leader. Edgar was the one underneath him, the soldier. They see each other. They embrace each other. I haven't seen you in years. Where you been at? How are you? This and this and that.
And this was after Abdul Aziz gave a talk that day to everyone who was present. So Abdul Aziz says, "Listen, can you guys drive me to the Bronx? Take me home. I would love to talk to you." So Edgar looks at me and says, "Can we take him?" I said, "Yeah, I'll drive him." So we drove him to the Bronx. He began to talk to us about Tawheed. And I'm like, "What is Tawheed? What is that?" The oneness of God. What do you mean, one God? What does that mean? Means the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. Jesus is not the Son of God. Jesus was a prophet of God, sent to mankind to guide mankind. You know, and this is what we believe in as Muslims.
So he gave us a Qur'an and he gave us my first book, Kitabul Tawheed by Doctor Bilal Philips. The book of Tawheed, The book of the Oneness of God. So me, Edgar and another friend of mine, Tony. The three of us used to be together all the time. We took the Qur'an. We would go to my house and we would read the Qur'an. And we begin to talk. Well, what about this? And what about that? And what about this? And we begin to discuss. And then at that point, we began to look at other religions because I was kind of more skeptical, right? I was like, "Wait, I don't know." My friend Tony, he had been in prison. He ran into Muslims in prison. He knew about Muhammad (saw).
He said, "The right Islam is the one with Muhammad (saw), the Arab." I'm like, "How do you know?" "You got Muhammad the Arab, you got Muhammad Elijah, Muhammad the black guy." Like, how do we know which one is true? He's like, "I'm telling you, it's the Arab one." I was like, "No, no, no. We got to read." We began to read about that. We began to read a book called "From N*gg*rs to Gods," Subhanallah. And for the most part, I indulged myself into the Bible. I said, "I was born Christian. I can't accept anything until I at least give Christianity a shot." I read the Bible from cover to cover. And as I read the Bible, I was amazed that everything in the Bible, the Qur'an was telling me.
I'm like, Subhanallah. It doesn't say Jesus is God, doesn't say he's the Son of God. Why have we been doing this all of these years? Why? And I would go to my family like, "But look! Here. Why?" My grandmother, who was the most religious. I'm like, "Grandma, read this verse for me." And she would read it and she said, "No, no, no. you're trying to trick me." "I don't want to talk about it." Right? She would like, have a fear, to talk with me. And I was like, "I'm not trying to trick you. I want to know." "I want to know the truth. And if you have it, give it to me." But this doesn't make sense. As Towards Eternity, we need your support.
We are a charity organization that aims to spread the message of Islam to the entire world in ten languages. With your support, you can help people convert to Islam, give up harams, start praying, wear hijab, learn to read the Qur'an and so on. And get your share from all these good deeds, Inshallah. Donate to Towards Eternity and don't miss this golden opportunity. And through that journey of reading the Bible completely and studying the Qur'an alongside the Bible, I came to the point finally where Jesus was on the cross. He says, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I had a talk between Christians and Muslims.
The pastor says, "Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is God." I'll wait till afterwards. I go up to the pastor. I say, "Listen, I got a question for you." I said, "I have a problem. My faith right is in shambles." I have a problem. I read the Bible. In the Bible, God says that Jesus says on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I said, "My problem is this, who is Jesus calling upon?" He's saying, "My God, my God." He didn't say "Myself, myself." He's not talking to himself. He's talking to somebody else. It's obvious. Right? Who is he talking to and why doesn't he know his purpose? You said he came to die for us on the cross.
But he says, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Why have you left me? Who is he talking to? He puts his hand on my shoulder like this. He says, "Son, you just have to have faith." I said, "Come on, man, how? You want me to be blind?" God gave me a mind. I'm not an idiot. Alhamdulillah, I didn't graduate high school or got my GED. But I'm not stupid, right? Subhanallah. I said "I feel more comfortable calling upon who Jesus called upon, God." I said, "The only religion that I found that calls upon the Creator is Islam. Everybody else is worshiping something that is created.
I said, "So I'm going to become Muslim." And at that point, we came to see Abdul Aziz one of those times, and he was like, "You know, you're ready to be Muslim." So my friends were like, yes! I was like, whoa, slow down. we're going to do this together. Let's make sure. Are you sure? You sure? All right. I told him, I said, "I'll be Muslim with condition." I said, "I'm a man. Don't tell me what to do, how to do, when to do it." If we can agree to that, I'll accept Islam. I don't know about Muhammad yet, because I don't know who he is. But I'll accept him. I'll find out about him later on. Because I believe that the Qur'an is the book of God.
So if it's a book of God, Muhammad has to be somebody, So Abdul Aziz says, "No problem." Gives me Shahada, Alhamdulillah. Gives us Shahada, Alhamdulillah. And that was the beginning journey of coming into Islam. Alhamdulillah. So I appreciate not having that awe moment of being in the Muslim community, Alhamdulillah. Because I believe it made me or got me to the point where I am today. Alhamdulillah. So I think that having that experience for me was the best experience. Why did you choose to go this journey alone in the first phases? Not really, had no choice, you know, I didn't know Muslims. And you know, the only Muslim I knew was Abdul Aziz, right?
And Abdul Aziz, we would come talk to him every now and then. But then when he told us, "Don't come back to New York," because I think he understood he wasn't in the right place just yet to be a guide for us. And he didn't want to see us. He didn't want us to see him not living the right way. Why? Because you don't want to be a bad example for those who you just brought to Islam. So he told us, "Go find the Muslims." And he allowed us to, Mashallah continue to come and have that urge to want to learn Islam. But right away I knew I have to study the faith if I want to be a good Muslim. Because there's no other way to learn the deen, right? Other than putting the effort and sacrifice.
I was curious, why did you give this disclaimer first? You know, you don't want to touch me about these three. What was the reason of this attitude? I knew myself, I knew if he told me, "Well, you can't have a girlfriend." I'd say "Well, I don't want to be Muslim, then." I need to have a girlfriend. "You have to stop drinking." I'm not ready to stop drinking just yet. "You can't smoke w**d." Why? Stuff that wouldn't have made sense to me. So, I put the disclaimer out there to let him know. Look, if you're going to give me rules and regulations, I'm not ready for that. Right? I'm just coming off the street. I got a lot of stuff going on in my life.
Alhamdulillah, I'm accepting Allah into my life. Don't take me past that right now. I need that, but everything else, the rules and regulations, I can't have in my life at the moment. And I think Abdul Aziz, because he was a revert to Islam, he understood that. He understood the need I had in that moment. And he gave me the space to be able to grow. And I remember sitting there thinking about the story of Ibrahim, where he's telling his people, "The Sun is my Lord, the Moon is my Lord, the stars are my Lord. My Lord is the Creator of all of that." And I'm sitting there thinking about that. And I said, "How many more chances..." I'm talking to myself.
"How many more chances Allah is going to give you?" You almost died, you almost went to jail, you have kids. You went through so much in your life, and you continue doing the same thing. You're sitting here right now smoking w**d, drinking. After saying "La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah." When is it going to stop? I looked at my friends and I said, "You guys got to leave." They said, "What? It's okay. You're high." I said, "No. The light finally turned on. I got to get rid of all of you in my life. Because if I keep you in my life, I'm never going to change. Get out!" And after that, I got rid of my friends. And not only my friends. I got rid of family. Why?
Because some of my cousins, I knew if I hang out with them, I'm still going to smoke w**d, drink, party, womanize, the whole nine yards. And I went to the masjid and the masjid became my house. I would come out of work to the masjid. I'd stay in the masjid till they closed the doors and tell me I can't be there no more. Then, I would go home. I did this every day, maybe for about a year or two. So much so, my wife, who I was married to at that time, is still married to now, Mashallah, 25 years later, 26 years. She said, "Now I know why I used to be so lonely. Because you were always in the masjid and I was home alone." She says, "But I understand you needed that.
It was the only thing that helped you to change." So I say, not only Islam saved my life, but the masjid saved my life. Because if I didn't have a place to go to, I probably wouldn't have been Muslim the way I am today. Your wife, did she become Muslim after you? So my wife, when I accepted Islam in 1998, Mashallah, she became Muslim maybe 3 or 4 months later. So what about your family? How did they react? Your father? Your mother? Your brother? My father was happy. My father said "I can sleep now at night." "At night I can go to sleep and not worry.
Because before, when my son would leave the house, I couldn't sleep because I didn't know if he was going to come back." So when I became Muslim, my father said, "If that's going to help you be a better person, I support it." My mother was different. My mother, we battled, we fought. At that point, I was kind of living with her. I kind of returned back to living with her at that point, for a very short period. She kicked me out. I was like, okay, whatever. I went back to my dad's house for a little while, Alhamdulillah.
But Subhanallah, 20 years after that, being involved in so much work, working with the reverts, working in da'wah, having a humanitarian organization going around the world, helping people. My mother watching that five years ago, she said to me, "Son, I need to talk to you." I said, "Oh, here we go. What's going on?" She says, "I've been watching everything you do, and your faith is amazing and what it's done for your life is amazing." She said, "And I want to be Muslim." And Subhanallah, she became Muslim. Alhamdulillah. And I couldn't give her the Shahada because it was emotional for me. Because I had so many years of this bad relationship with my mother.
And then here Allah was gifting me the opportunity for my mother to be Muslim now. It could be the best gift Allah ever gave me in my life. So can we expect a person to change everything when he becomes a Muslim? So the reality is that you can't expect a person to change when they take the Shahada. Way too often, one of the biggest issues I have, especially with born Muslims, is that they expect the person to change their life. I'll give you a prime example. Just recently, a Spanish lady who doesn't speak English. She took Shahada with a good friend of mine. She goes to the masjid and the masjid asks her if she's married. She says "Yes, I'm married 36 years. Married, raised my children.
Mashallah." The masjid tells her, you have to divorce your husband. And if you don't divorce your husband, you have to leave Islam. So she calls me. He calls me, worried, like, "I think she's not going to be a Muslim anymore." So I call her up and I say, "Listen, I don't expect you to leave your husband. Inshallah, what I expect is for you to focus on you. Have a relationship with the Quran. Learn how to pray. Learn how to make wudu, make that your focus, your Salah, and getting to know Allah (swt) and be a good example for your husband." In terms of these things, I have so many friends who have accepted Islam, women who are in our groups that their husbands are my friends now.
And their husbands accepted Islam a year later, five years later, ten years later. We can't expect people to change. Allah (swt) revealed the Qur'an in the span of 23 years, because He knew the hearts needed time to change. The famous statement of Aisha (ra), she said if the rules came first... We would drink [ARABIC]. Nobody would have changed, right? But al***hol was removed in three stages, and when it was finally removed, the hearts were full of iman. They said the streets of Medina ran with al***hol. The people spit it out of their mouths, right? So of course we can't expect people to change overnight. It took me months to begin to change. Alhamdulillah.
Years to change other things, Inshallah. Can you tell us a moment where you felt really close to Allah? Where you felt you had a special connection with Him? The moment I probably felt the closest to Allah (swt) was the first time I was able to go overseas. When I got accepted to the University of Medina. And I walked into the masjid of the Prophet (saw). And you hear the adhan there for the first time that you've been hearing on tapes and cassettes and on the internet for so long. And Subhanallah, you look around and you just see the beauty of the masjid, and you begin to think that, you know, Subhanallah. This is where the revelation was coming down to our beloved Prophet (saw).
And then being able to go to the Kaaba after that... I swore, the first time I went to the Kaaba, Subhanallah, it felt like I was looking at a mirage, like, is it going to disappear? Is it not going to be there? Am I really here? Subhanallah. And you just can't help but the tears begin to roll down your eyes. And you begin to cry and you get so emotional. And it happens every single time I go. And I think that is the most special moment I have with Allah (swt), when I'm there in that moment, in that time, knowing that this is my purpose in life.
So lastly, if there was a chance to speak to all the non-Muslims in the world, especially Latinos, I would say, what would you like to say if you had a few moments? The one thing that I would like to say. And the best thing that I can give you as a source of advice is, read the Quran in the language in which you understand. And read it with an open mind, an open heart, with your soul, ready to embrace what you read. And if you do that, I can almost guarantee that, number one, you won't be able to close the book. Number two, when you do close the book, you're going to yearn to return back to it and reread what you've been reading.
And number three, it will impact you in ways that you've never imagined before. And perhaps we'll see you praying next to us one day. Inshallah, inshallah. Imam Wesley LeBron, thank you so much for your beautiful answers, sincere answers. May Allah reward you, may Allah preserve you and may Allah allow us to meet in Jennah, Inshallah. Ameen, ya Rabb al Alemeen. Jazakallah khair.
My mother, we battled, we fought. She said to me, "Son, I need to talk to you." I said, "Oh, here we go." She says, "I've been watching everything you do." "Your faith is amazing and what it's done for your life is amazing." "And I want to be Muslim." Assalamualaikum, Imam Wesley LeBron. Thank you so much for accepting our invitation. Welcome to Towards Eternity's interview. Who is Imam Wesley LeBron, can you tell us briefly about your life? Waalaikumassalam. Jazakallah khair for having me on. Alhamdulillah. I am your brother, Imam Wesley LeBron of Puerto Rican descent, I come from the island of Puerto Rico. I was born, raised in the city called Passaic in the state of New Jersey.
I come from a background of a Christian family. I was raised, for the most part, believing that Jesus was God, the Son of God. Until, you know, maybe my middle school years where I kind of strayed away from religion altogether and kind of just got lost in life as a young man in the streets. Partying, drinking, smoking. And then around 20 years old, I was introduced to Islam. How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in? So in regards to faith, as a Puerto Rican, Christianity was our form of faith, Believing that Jesus was God, and believing that he was the one that we had to worship, that he was the one that we had to call on.
So naturally, a person being born into a faith like most people are, I didn't question the faith throughout my childhood. I began to question the faith when I was in my teens. But when I began or when I would get into trouble, was the time when religion would pop up. You get into problems. Something happens in your life. "Oh God help me, God save me," right? But I didn't really know who I was calling on. Do I call on Jesus? Do I call on God? And at that point I began to kind of question, Is Jesus God? But Jesus died. If he died, that means he was a man. Can he be God? Does God die? You know, how does all of this work? And really, I kind of prefer to just stay out of religion altogether.
So I never really did any investigation and kind of just continued to live life just worrying about the moment and thinking about having fun and entertainment and living life that way. What was the age when you got involved in the gang life? So when I was in seventh grade was the first time I was actually introduced to a gang. Some of my older cousins, I was always around the older guys. I was the youngest cousin in the family. So, the first experience I had was in seventh grade, when my cousin was part of what was called the Fourth Street Posse, and he asked me if I wanted to be a part, and I said, yeah, sure, why not?
But Alhamdulillah, Allah kind of protected me where I didn't get heavily entrenched because of where I lived. I wasn't reintroduced to the gang life again until I was about 19, 20, right before I almost accepted Islam. I ended up joining Zulu Nation. And Zulu Nation has a bi-fold. It has two faces. It has the face that everybody kind of knows, which is of hip hop and music. He used to have meetings once a month in New York City, in Harlem, a boy who was raised in my house as a foster child. He introduced me to them. And then I got to meet the gang side of life. Because the boy Edgar, who used to live in my house, he was involved in that side of life.
And then what we did, we took that back to Jersey, where we lived at, and we started to create our own sect of that gang in new Jersey. So you were telling me about this foster brother. Can you tell us about, how did you end up in the same house? And was he Black? The foster child. My parents, my father, my mother used to raise foster children. My mother, my aunt and my grandmother. So Edgar was of Puerto Rican descent, like myself. We would go out. I would take him out with me. Come out. Let's go out. Let's hang out. You know what I mean? And then basically, he was the one... At that time too, as well, I had just... I was beginning to search for something.
Because I already had crashed my car a couple of times. Drinking and driving, almost died. I had got into a fight after a club. I got hit in the head, catch a bottle on this side, I still got the scar. I got hit on a coffee cup on this side, got the scar. Doctor said if it had been a little bit over, you wouldn't be here anymore. So I was already asking, what is my purpose in life? Like, where am I going? What am I going to do? How can I continue to live like this? You know what I mean? Or should I just do whatever the hell I want to do, and don't care about anything in the world?
And this is when Edgar told me, "Listen, let me introduce you to Zulu Nation." They have meetings and it's a gang, but at the same time it's connected to hip hop. So it caught my interest and I said, "Okay, let me go and look into that." So partying, drinking, smoking, all of those things became very relevant in my life. Of course, you know, I hid them from my dad as much as I could. But my dad also knew that I was involved in these things. After that, you know, Subhanallah, being lost in this issue of drinking and depression and trying to find a solution for life, I ended up close to being an alcoholic. So what was your major cause of depression, your mood?
So, you were concerned with the kids that you were responsible of, or where your life is going is not really known? My major concern was I didn't know where I was going in life. I came from a good household, you know, for the most part. I had what I needed, but I was missing something. So I got to a point where my father says, "You know what? You can no longer live with me." 18, 19, at this point, he says, "You can no longer live with me." I can't live with my mom. My dad is kicking me out. I didn't have any other family members where I can just say, "Can I come stay in your house?" My father drove me to a park near my house. He parked the car.
He says, "You've been too much, son." "You've done too much things in your life way too fast. You made too many bad decisions. I have a brother. Your brother and sister who are much younger than you. And I can't let you negatively influence them." He says "I love you, but I feel like I'm at a loss. There's nothing I can do for you." He says, "Here's $100." Back then you were able to get a room, rent a room for $100 a week or $50 a week. He says, "Maybe you can find a room for $50 a week. You stay there, and if I can help you, I'll help you. You have a job, you know. But this is all I can do for you right now." He told me, "Get out." I got out the car and he left.
I sat in the park that day crying, wondering what am I going to do with my life? That I would go to those moments and just really got to the point where I just got like, where do I go? What do I do? Like, I have no clue. At this point in your life, you decided to join this movement? Was that the case? So, when I ended up joining Zulu Nation, it was at one meeting. And I meet a brother by the name of Abdul Aziz through Edgar. Edgar and him were connected. He was the gang leader. Edgar was the one underneath him, the soldier. They see each other. They embrace each other. I haven't seen you in years. Where you been at? How are you? This and this and that.
And this was after Abdul Aziz gave a talk that day to everyone who was present. So Abdul Aziz says, "Listen, can you guys drive me to the Bronx? Take me home. I would love to talk to you." So Edgar looks at me and says, "Can we take him?" I said, "Yeah, I'll drive him." So we drove him to the Bronx. He began to talk to us about Tawheed. And I'm like, "What is Tawheed? What is that?" The oneness of God. What do you mean, one God? What does that mean? Means the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. Jesus is not the Son of God. Jesus was a prophet of God, sent to mankind to guide mankind. You know, and this is what we believe in as Muslims.
So he gave us a Qur'an and he gave us my first book, Kitabul Tawheed by Doctor Bilal Philips. The book of Tawheed, The book of the Oneness of God. So me, Edgar and another friend of mine, Tony. The three of us used to be together all the time. We took the Qur'an. We would go to my house and we would read the Qur'an. And we begin to talk. Well, what about this? And what about that? And what about this? And we begin to discuss. And then at that point, we began to look at other religions because I was kind of more skeptical, right? I was like, "Wait, I don't know." My friend Tony, he had been in prison. He ran into Muslims in prison. He knew about Muhammad (saw).
He said, "The right Islam is the one with Muhammad (saw), the Arab." I'm like, "How do you know?" "You got Muhammad the Arab, you got Muhammad Elijah, Muhammad the black guy." Like, how do we know which one is true? He's like, "I'm telling you, it's the Arab one." I was like, "No, no, no. We got to read." We began to read about that. We began to read a book called "From N*gg*rs to Gods," Subhanallah. And for the most part, I indulged myself into the Bible. I said, "I was born Christian. I can't accept anything until I at least give Christianity a shot." I read the Bible from cover to cover. And as I read the Bible, I was amazed that everything in the Bible, the Qur'an was telling me.
I'm like, Subhanallah. It doesn't say Jesus is God, doesn't say he's the Son of God. Why have we been doing this all of these years? Why? And I would go to my family like, "But look! Here. Why?" My grandmother, who was the most religious. I'm like, "Grandma, read this verse for me." And she would read it and she said, "No, no, no. you're trying to trick me." "I don't want to talk about it." Right? She would like, have a fear, to talk with me. And I was like, "I'm not trying to trick you. I want to know." "I want to know the truth. And if you have it, give it to me." But this doesn't make sense. As Towards Eternity, we need your support.
We are a charity organization that aims to spread the message of Islam to the entire world in ten languages. With your support, you can help people convert to Islam, give up harams, start praying, wear hijab, learn to read the Qur'an and so on. And get your share from all these good deeds, Inshallah. Donate to Towards Eternity and don't miss this golden opportunity. And through that journey of reading the Bible completely and studying the Qur'an alongside the Bible, I came to the point finally where Jesus was on the cross. He says, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I had a talk between Christians and Muslims.
The pastor says, "Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is God." I'll wait till afterwards. I go up to the pastor. I say, "Listen, I got a question for you." I said, "I have a problem. My faith right is in shambles." I have a problem. I read the Bible. In the Bible, God says that Jesus says on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I said, "My problem is this, who is Jesus calling upon?" He's saying, "My God, my God." He didn't say "Myself, myself." He's not talking to himself. He's talking to somebody else. It's obvious. Right? Who is he talking to and why doesn't he know his purpose? You said he came to die for us on the cross.
But he says, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Why have you left me? Who is he talking to? He puts his hand on my shoulder like this. He says, "Son, you just have to have faith." I said, "Come on, man, how? You want me to be blind?" God gave me a mind. I'm not an idiot. Alhamdulillah, I didn't graduate high school or got my GED. But I'm not stupid, right? Subhanallah. I said "I feel more comfortable calling upon who Jesus called upon, God." I said, "The only religion that I found that calls upon the Creator is Islam. Everybody else is worshiping something that is created.
I said, "So I'm going to become Muslim." And at that point, we came to see Abdul Aziz one of those times, and he was like, "You know, you're ready to be Muslim." So my friends were like, yes! I was like, whoa, slow down. we're going to do this together. Let's make sure. Are you sure? You sure? All right. I told him, I said, "I'll be Muslim with condition." I said, "I'm a man. Don't tell me what to do, how to do, when to do it." If we can agree to that, I'll accept Islam. I don't know about Muhammad yet, because I don't know who he is. But I'll accept him. I'll find out about him later on. Because I believe that the Qur'an is the book of God.
So if it's a book of God, Muhammad has to be somebody, So Abdul Aziz says, "No problem." Gives me Shahada, Alhamdulillah. Gives us Shahada, Alhamdulillah. And that was the beginning journey of coming into Islam. Alhamdulillah. So I appreciate not having that awe moment of being in the Muslim community, Alhamdulillah. Because I believe it made me or got me to the point where I am today. Alhamdulillah. So I think that having that experience for me was the best experience. Why did you choose to go this journey alone in the first phases? Not really, had no choice, you know, I didn't know Muslims. And you know, the only Muslim I knew was Abdul Aziz, right?
And Abdul Aziz, we would come talk to him every now and then. But then when he told us, "Don't come back to New York," because I think he understood he wasn't in the right place just yet to be a guide for us. And he didn't want to see us. He didn't want us to see him not living the right way. Why? Because you don't want to be a bad example for those who you just brought to Islam. So he told us, "Go find the Muslims." And he allowed us to, Mashallah continue to come and have that urge to want to learn Islam. But right away I knew I have to study the faith if I want to be a good Muslim. Because there's no other way to learn the deen, right? Other than putting the effort and sacrifice.
I was curious, why did you give this disclaimer first? You know, you don't want to touch me about these three. What was the reason of this attitude? I knew myself, I knew if he told me, "Well, you can't have a girlfriend." I'd say "Well, I don't want to be Muslim, then." I need to have a girlfriend. "You have to stop drinking." I'm not ready to stop drinking just yet. "You can't smoke w**d." Why? Stuff that wouldn't have made sense to me. So, I put the disclaimer out there to let him know. Look, if you're going to give me rules and regulations, I'm not ready for that. Right? I'm just coming off the street. I got a lot of stuff going on in my life.
Alhamdulillah, I'm accepting Allah into my life. Don't take me past that right now. I need that, but everything else, the rules and regulations, I can't have in my life at the moment. And I think Abdul Aziz, because he was a revert to Islam, he understood that. He understood the need I had in that moment. And he gave me the space to be able to grow. And I remember sitting there thinking about the story of Ibrahim, where he's telling his people, "The Sun is my Lord, the Moon is my Lord, the stars are my Lord. My Lord is the Creator of all of that." And I'm sitting there thinking about that. And I said, "How many more chances..." I'm talking to myself.
"How many more chances Allah is going to give you?" You almost died, you almost went to jail, you have kids. You went through so much in your life, and you continue doing the same thing. You're sitting here right now smoking w**d, drinking. After saying "La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah." When is it going to stop? I looked at my friends and I said, "You guys got to leave." They said, "What? It's okay. You're high." I said, "No. The light finally turned on. I got to get rid of all of you in my life. Because if I keep you in my life, I'm never going to change. Get out!" And after that, I got rid of my friends. And not only my friends. I got rid of family. Why?
Because some of my cousins, I knew if I hang out with them, I'm still going to smoke w**d, drink, party, womanize, the whole nine yards. And I went to the masjid and the masjid became my house. I would come out of work to the masjid. I'd stay in the masjid till they closed the doors and tell me I can't be there no more. Then, I would go home. I did this every day, maybe for about a year or two. So much so, my wife, who I was married to at that time, is still married to now, Mashallah, 25 years later, 26 years. She said, "Now I know why I used to be so lonely. Because you were always in the masjid and I was home alone." She says, "But I understand you needed that.
It was the only thing that helped you to change." So I say, not only Islam saved my life, but the masjid saved my life. Because if I didn't have a place to go to, I probably wouldn't have been Muslim the way I am today. Your wife, did she become Muslim after you? So my wife, when I accepted Islam in 1998, Mashallah, she became Muslim maybe 3 or 4 months later. So what about your family? How did they react? Your father? Your mother? Your brother? My father was happy. My father said "I can sleep now at night." "At night I can go to sleep and not worry.
Because before, when my son would leave the house, I couldn't sleep because I didn't know if he was going to come back." So when I became Muslim, my father said, "If that's going to help you be a better person, I support it." My mother was different. My mother, we battled, we fought. At that point, I was kind of living with her. I kind of returned back to living with her at that point, for a very short period. She kicked me out. I was like, okay, whatever. I went back to my dad's house for a little while, Alhamdulillah.
But Subhanallah, 20 years after that, being involved in so much work, working with the reverts, working in da'wah, having a humanitarian organization going around the world, helping people. My mother watching that five years ago, she said to me, "Son, I need to talk to you." I said, "Oh, here we go. What's going on?" She says, "I've been watching everything you do, and your faith is amazing and what it's done for your life is amazing." She said, "And I want to be Muslim." And Subhanallah, she became Muslim. Alhamdulillah. And I couldn't give her the Shahada because it was emotional for me. Because I had so many years of this bad relationship with my mother.
And then here Allah was gifting me the opportunity for my mother to be Muslim now. It could be the best gift Allah ever gave me in my life. So can we expect a person to change everything when he becomes a Muslim? So the reality is that you can't expect a person to change when they take the Shahada. Way too often, one of the biggest issues I have, especially with born Muslims, is that they expect the person to change their life. I'll give you a prime example. Just recently, a Spanish lady who doesn't speak English. She took Shahada with a good friend of mine. She goes to the masjid and the masjid asks her if she's married. She says "Yes, I'm married 36 years. Married, raised my children.
Mashallah." The masjid tells her, you have to divorce your husband. And if you don't divorce your husband, you have to leave Islam. So she calls me. He calls me, worried, like, "I think she's not going to be a Muslim anymore." So I call her up and I say, "Listen, I don't expect you to leave your husband. Inshallah, what I expect is for you to focus on you. Have a relationship with the Quran. Learn how to pray. Learn how to make wudu, make that your focus, your Salah, and getting to know Allah (swt) and be a good example for your husband." In terms of these things, I have so many friends who have accepted Islam, women who are in our groups that their husbands are my friends now.
And their husbands accepted Islam a year later, five years later, ten years later. We can't expect people to change. Allah (swt) revealed the Qur'an in the span of 23 years, because He knew the hearts needed time to change. The famous statement of Aisha (ra), she said if the rules came first... We would drink [ARABIC]. Nobody would have changed, right? But al***hol was removed in three stages, and when it was finally removed, the hearts were full of iman. They said the streets of Medina ran with al***hol. The people spit it out of their mouths, right? So of course we can't expect people to change overnight. It took me months to begin to change. Alhamdulillah.
Years to change other things, Inshallah. Can you tell us a moment where you felt really close to Allah? Where you felt you had a special connection with Him? The moment I probably felt the closest to Allah (swt) was the first time I was able to go overseas. When I got accepted to the University of Medina. And I walked into the masjid of the Prophet (saw). And you hear the adhan there for the first time that you've been hearing on tapes and cassettes and on the internet for so long. And Subhanallah, you look around and you just see the beauty of the masjid, and you begin to think that, you know, Subhanallah. This is where the revelation was coming down to our beloved Prophet (saw).
And then being able to go to the Kaaba after that... I swore, the first time I went to the Kaaba, Subhanallah, it felt like I was looking at a mirage, like, is it going to disappear? Is it not going to be there? Am I really here? Subhanallah. And you just can't help but the tears begin to roll down your eyes. And you begin to cry and you get so emotional. And it happens every single time I go. And I think that is the most special moment I have with Allah (swt), when I'm there in that moment, in that time, knowing that this is my purpose in life.
So lastly, if there was a chance to speak to all the non-Muslims in the world, especially Latinos, I would say, what would you like to say if you had a few moments? The one thing that I would like to say. And the best thing that I can give you as a source of advice is, read the Quran in the language in which you understand. And read it with an open mind, an open heart, with your soul, ready to embrace what you read. And if you do that, I can almost guarantee that, number one, you won't be able to close the book. Number two, when you do close the book, you're going to yearn to return back to it and reread what you've been reading.
And number three, it will impact you in ways that you've never imagined before. And perhaps we'll see you praying next to us one day. Inshallah, inshallah. Imam Wesley LeBron, thank you so much for your beautiful answers, sincere answers. May Allah reward you, may Allah preserve you and may Allah allow us to meet in Jennah, Inshallah. Ameen, ya Rabb al Alemeen. Jazakallah khair.