# NYC Christian Singer Converts To Islam! - “I Sang in Churches… Until I Found Islam”

- Language: en
- Published: 2026-08-26
- Canonical: https://blog.towardseternity.com/en/blog/nyc-christian-singer-converts-to-islam-i-sang-in-churches-until-i-found-islam
- Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK7geVgDHPQ
- Channel: Towards Eternity

This is the cleaned transcript of the source video. The speech is unaltered.

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In the career path as a professional singer in New York City, it would be a large orchestra, maybe a chorus of 100 people and four soloists. So, I would be part of that. And we got talking, he said, "By the way, I'm a Muslim." And I said, "I'm embarrassed to tell you, I don't know anything about your religion. Tell me." And he started explaining the monotheism of Islam. And I was shocked. Really shocked. Like what? And I sort of decided after a Thursday night rehearsal, I can't do this. I think I'm Muslim. One woman said to me, "Oh, are you going to become Muslim? You are ashamed of your body.

You want to cover it?" And then the guys were saying, "Oh, he's going to take you and put you in a slave market in Egypt." Like it's 1989, guys. Hello? I went to the coffee shop and I told my friend, "Okay, I'm ready to do it." He said, "To do what?" I said, "To whatever I have to do to become a Muslim." And he kind of laughed and he looked and he said, "She's a performer." I said, "No, no, I'm serious." I wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building and shout down to the people, "Get a hold of the Qur'an and read it. You just don't know." Assalamualaikum Sister Noor Saadeh. Thank you so much for accepting our invitation. We are very happy to have you with us.

I want to start by asking, who is Noor Saadeh? Can you tell us briefly about your life? Waalaikumassalam. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. My name is Nur Sade. I grew up in a small Midwestern town in the United States. Ended up in a career path as a professional singer in New York City. I sang classical music, opera and concert music. Can you tell us what were you believing in? What I believe in before, we weren't... Not that we weren't a practicing Christian family, we were. I was raised Christian, but we were not church-goers very much. And maybe that's a blessing in the long run, because I didn't have all that Trinity to get through and those types of things.

But we very much mentioned God in our home, and I found God revealed Himself in music a lot to me. Especially classical music, because a lot of it was divinely inspired. My mother was a religious person. I think my dad found religion in the duck blinds when he was hunting and fishing. But we were not church-goers. I even had some Christian friends tell me later, like we were never much of a Christian. I said, "Why? Because I didn't go to church?" I think I follow the Sunnah of Jesus (as). But a lot of people would say to me, you weren't that practicing. Perhaps I wasn't. You started your singing career in New York City. How did that happen? Well, you go the usual route.

You do a lot of regional sort of singing. You sing wherever you can for whatever money they give you, so you can practice the pieces that you'll sing eventually professionally. A lot of times singers would join a church choir. They would be part of a professional group of a quartet of voices that would beef up the choir section in a church or a synagogue later on. I was also in a very nice job that was the paid professional choir of the New York Philharmonic in New York City. And we were like one of the top 100 young singers in New York City. And we sang with all the great conductors, the great orchestras, the great soloists. So how did your journey to Islam begin?

Well, when I was singing in New York City, I liked coffee a lot, and I was looking for new coffee shops. And one opened in my neighborhood and I walked in. It was run by an Egyptian, and I was always curious about people who were different than me. And I was like, "Okay, tell me about Egypt. Tell me about Pharaoh. Tell me about pyramids." And we got talking. He said, "By the way, I'm a Muslim." And I said, "I'm embarrassed to tell you, I don't know anything about your religion. Tell me." I didn't know anything about Islam. Sadly, I don't know how, but I didn't.

And he started explaining the monotheism of Islam, and the various prophets that I knew from my Christian upbringing were also in the Qur'an. And I was shocked. Really shocked. Like, what? It's Judeo-Christian. That's it. There's no other. How would I not know there's another monotheistic religion, a very monotheistic religion in the world? How did I not know that? I was in my 30s. I had traveled a lot. I sang all over. I read quite a bit, like, how did I miss that? And he said, "It's no, there's..." I made the funniest question, like, are there a lot of you? Like, a billion and a half. Like, oh, okay. But he started to just inform me because I was curious. He would tell me more.

And he started to inform me, and start to explain about the Holy Qur'an and about the succession of prophets. And he said something that's really stuck with me that I've never heard anybody else say. It's religion, Islam is like the three C's. It came to Concur, agree with what came before the people of the book, Judaism and Christianity. It came to Correct what people had mistakenly changed out of their own ideas, their own ego, whatever. And it came to Conclude with Prophet Muhammad as the last prophet, that this has all been the same revelation. But this is the last person we're going to send to you to conclude everything.

And it's like the lights go off and the puzzle pieces fall together. It made so much sense. It made sense out of religion. It made sense out of history. It really made sense out of religion. Hearing from the Jews and Christians, "We're made in God's image." Whereas Islam said, we are nothing like Allah, nothing at all. So it settles you, I think, as a human being, that there's a purpose in life, for example. And that there is just one very beautiful way to follow God that still incorporates all these other people. So I would go back for repeated cups of coffee and information. And the more I learned, the more it just seemed to me this was really "Haqq", as we say, the truth.

It was very clear. For me, it made immediate sense out of history, out of religion, that God has one unique message. God alone is one being, omnipotent, knowing, all-seeing, all-hearing. Created all of us. And that He sent one message to mankind. But people were a little bit contentious and argumentative and thought they had a better way so they would change things. But out of His benevolent mercy, He would send another prophet to relay the same original message to that particular group of people. And this went on and on and on, from Noah to Moussa to Isa to Muhammad (saw). And it just made sense. It made sense of the history of the world.

It made sense why there were so many religions, people arguing over what's right, what's wrong, why Christianity never made a whole lot of complete sense to many of us, that how can there be a triune God, for example? How can Jesus be God and the Holy Spirit be God and so forth? And when you would talk to Christians over the years, things didn't add up. I was thinking to marry a Catholic man at one point and they said, "Well, go and study Catholicism." And when I asked questions about worshiping Mary and statues and things like that, they were like, "Huh? Out, out you go, out you go. Either you believe or not." So I said, well, that doesn't make sense.

No one can really tell me when I have a question, they can't answer me. But yet when I would ask the Egyptian questions, he would say "Yes, here's an Ayah from Qur'an, a verse of Qur'an." That solved that issue and it made 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.

I think just after reading so often and going back for coffee and conversation and asking a lot of questions... I was in a church, a Unitarian church, which accepted all beliefs, for example. So we could sing anything we wanted. Didn't have to be religious. But we were coming up on the Christmas holidays, and Unitarians are a little bit strange. They were saying, "Well, the congregation is complaining, we talk about God too much." And it's Christmas time. So all the songs we're singing about God, we're going to switch the word 'God' to 'love'. Love did this, and love did that. What? What kind of nonsense is this? And I sort of decided after a Thursday night rehearsal, I can't do this.

I think I'm Muslim. I think I have to take my Shahada and quit this. This is nonsense. So I went in for the Sunday service and I sang the service, I did my job, and I said, "Well, guys, I think I have to quit, because I'm going to take Shahada and become a Muslim. And this stuff you're talking about is nonsense." I just I went to the coffee shop and I told my friend, "Okay, I'm ready to do it." He said, "To do what?" I said, "To whatever I have to do to become a Muslim." And he kind of laughed and he looked and he said, "She's a performer." I said, "No, no, I'm serious.

Tell me what I have to say." And I struggled through all this Arabic, which I couldn't wrap my mouth around, and that was it, in a coffee shop. -In the coffee shop? -Yeah. 90th and Broadway in New York City. I never did take it in a mosque or anything. Because as far as I understood, I took my Shahada, between Allah and me. So, yeah. And how did you feel? I think through the whole process I was euphoric about it. I was learning something that was so amazing and I'm telling everybody about it. And they were looking at me like I'd grown two heads. Seriously. One woman said to me, "Oh, are you going to become Muslim? You are ashamed of your body.

You want to cover it?" I said, "No, but I don't know how to make you understand, because I don't have, I'm too new at this to be able to explain to you. I know it's right, and I know what you're saying is silly." And then the guys were saying, "Oh, he's going to take you and put you in a slave market in Egypt." Like it's 1989, guys. Hello? This kind of nonsense. So maybe you can tell, you know, this euphoric moment. What did you want to do when you became Muslim? I wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building and shout down to the people, "Get a hold of the Qur'an and read it. You just don't know.

You'll know everything there is to know about the world if you just read this book, seriously" And how did your family or your close circle react to... The close friends, the singers? Like, "Ah, she's crazy." So I just kind of shut the door and just stayed home and read the Qur'an a lot in English. I knew what I was doing was right, but I didn't have the vocabulary or the background enough in it to really explain to them. I just knew it's right. I knew to the core of me that what I'm doing, what I'm believing in is right. Initially, I started to dress more modestly, but it was a journey. It was a one by one by one.

I was on stage in the beautiful concert gowns and all the hair and makeup you can imagine. I had to sort of work my way out of that too, gradually, so I didn't become impoverished, not having an income. And then wonder what to do after that. But yeah, my family was another story. They didn't mind. I think my mother, my father passed away many years ago. My mom didn't mind the religious change so much, as she was appalled that I would start to dress differently. And what would people say? Like, what is she doing now? She became a Muslim. She's covered, you know? Like, oh, boy. And of course, she got flak from her friends, too, that I wasn't privy to. But they would come and complain to her.

My brother complained bitterly to my mom. Yeah, it wasn't easy. And I think most of us faced that too. And I think it's sort of a test Allah puts us through. Like, how serious are you about doing this? This is not going to be an easy life from here on in, right? So then, did you leave your music career? I did gradually because I went to some of my conductors and said, "I'm going to have to leave you." I left my church job, my synagogue job, things like that. I wanted to just embrace the whole of it, I really did. And I also wanted, because I'm sort of a message person, I wanted to share with everybody that I'm Muslim. I wanted to change my name. I wanted to dress like a Muslim.

I wanted to talk about Islam. I wanted to change my name. So, okay, talk to me. What was the reaction? Different reactions. My Christian friends got very annoyed, and the minute I foolishly tried to read them Surah al-Ikhlas, oh, my friends got so angry. What? What? You know? God is three, Jesus is this, and so on and so forth. And I should have known better because they were very religious Christians, and I should have known better than just to dive in with this particular surah. I should have been... You don't know at first. You don't know how to do da'wah. You just you jump in and start talking.

What would you say to a person who would say, "why did you leave the team of Jesus and left Christianity?" I think, mostly, that's an easy answer. We didn't leave him. We didn't leave him at all. And I think for us, we have a better understanding of who Jesus was. That, you know, Jesus was a servant of God, as was Abraham, as was Moses. Jesus, Prophet Muhammad (saw) and all the prophets were servants of God. They submitted to God. Everything in the Bible shows Jesus submitting. You know, the Father blessed me with these miracles and so forth. He's not saying, he never says, "I'm God.

Worship me." There's never one single Ayah, which a lot of Christians will argue that, "I'm going to go back and find it in the Bible and show it's true." He never says, "I am God, so worship me." If that's the main aqidah or the main creed of Christianity, why doesn't he repeat it over and over and over in the Gospels, in the Injil? We know Allah is one, Allah is one, Allah is one, Allah is one. Over and over and over in Qur'an, it's the most repeated thing. Allah is one, Allah is one. And Muhammad (saw) is His messenger. This is the Shahada that we say morning, noon and night in our prayers. It's in the Adhan, it's reiterated. It's the creed of Islam. It's our main belief.

If that's not what you're saying, then how is that your belief system? It's all played with. It's like, "Oh, it's inferred." What do you say to a Christian that says, "I find spirituality and feel connection with God when I pray. I don't need any other new thing, new religion?" Someone made a nice comment about this online just the other day, which I liked, which is true. They said the Jews were connected in a very intellectual way to their religion. The Christians became very emotionally connected to their religion. Islam is both. Islam appeals to the intellect and Islam appeals to you emotionally. It talks to the brain. Don't you hear? Don't you see? Don't you think, think, think, think?

Ikra. Read. Learn. Study. It appeals to the intellect, but it also appeals to you emotionally. And that's the balance. We talk about being a balanced ummah, a balanced nation. What I like about Islam, it's not extreme in one way or another. It's very balanced. Were there some interesting experiences that you had when you were singing with, you know, in synagogue choirs or church choirs? There was a lot of music in the synagogue, a great deal of music, particularly in their high holy days. And one thing I found interesting is that we were never... The non-Jews were never allowed to stay and listen to the sermon or the khutbah, and I never found that to be true.

In a Christian church, people were never asked to leave, like you can't hear what Christians are saying. And even before I was Muslim, I used to wonder, what are they saying we can't hear about? I mean, why would they usher us out and say, it's break time, go have coffee, donuts? And I said, "Well, I want to listen." They said, "Well, you can't." "Go, have a break." So I thought that was very strange. That got me thinking. And of course, now that I've seen what's happening in Israel and Palestine, you start to put things together. And what about the Sirah of the Prophet? What impressed you the most about him? Oh, the character of Muhammad (saw), the character, his character.

These people that I read about in the Qur'an, this kind of mannerism, this kind of adab, this to be kind, to be generous, to forgive people, to be merciful. Those are all things I really believed in as a person. Not to gossip, not to slander. Someone talks against you. You just, you forgive them. That kind of thing. You make up things. And I really love that kind of character. I thought, these are the people I've been looking for all my life. If you could watch one day of the Prophet's (saw) life, which day would you want to watch? There are so many. I should have prepared for that one. I've said before that I like this story.

When he was given the revelation and he ran down in terror, down to his beloved wife, which is a beautiful thing to do. He ran to his wife. "Cover me. Cover me. I don't know what happened to me." And she was just this beautiful support system, and I just, I can see the room. I can see this glow of the candles or the lights and everything. And he's under a blanket, trembling, and she's comforting him with these incredible words. There are many people who accept that Islam is the true religion, true belief system, but they are hesitant to take this step to become Muslim. And they know that there are flaws in the Christianity belief system. So what is the reason for that, do you think?

Well, I think just like the early companions of the Prophet (saw). It's not difficult to go back to your family when they don't know about Islam, and they're so opposed to it. And unfortunately, the media, the movies and everything are portraying it in a very long way, for almost the whole life of Hollywood, for example. So it's not easy. I've often said if someone was so entrenched in the American system, and in Jesus and in Christianity, if they really understood the truth about Islam, it would probably destroy their world in a way. Can you imagine? Somebody who's so close to it like, "I've been wrong all my life.

My belief system has been wrong." The person I've been worshiping all my life is not correct. What would facilitate that for such a person? I think number one, just continue reading the Qur'an in whatever language is your original language. And making dua to Allah to strengthen your heart and guide the people around you, of course. Also, I think just reading about the stories of the Sahaba and what they had to go through, I think is really helpful. Like a lot of times, the communities, as we said before, you know, get married, wear hijab, do this, pray five times a day, fast in Ramadan. Boom boom boom. Whereas the community of the Muslims, early ones, everything was gradual.

So I think we can go easy on some of these people and say, just take it gradually. Try to do your prayers, try to do what you have to do. The main pillars of Islam. Keep your belief system correct inside. Stay tight with the Qur'an. Read it as much as you can. The Qur'an, of course, will give you strength. It's shifa, it's healing, it's furqan, it's criterion, it's guidance. I mean, how else do we know what's right and wrong? How else do we know what's truth and what's falsehood? The Qur'an makes those things very clear. But also just looking at the history of the Sahaba, they didn't go through an easy time. Not at all. You're going through what? They went through it.

And they became the best people of all time. For a person who is considering Islam, living in the West in particular, sometimes they have fear, like, if I become Muslim, I have to change my name. I have to abandon my entire culture. I have to become something, a different person. Is that really a legitimate concern? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Everybody has their own personal journey, and I say that from knowing so many converts in my life. Even at the Sirah of how people embrace the religion, according to Prophet Muhammed (saw), not everything was easygoing. Even the alc***ol took a while to get rid of, right? Things didn't happen all of a sudden.

People didn't put on hijab all of a sudden. People didn't have all the manners in adab and all these things that came way later in Medina. There were how many years in Mecca where they were just getting the basic surahs of who Allah (swt) is and that type of thing. I consider some born-Muslims almost like converts because they leave their surroundings. They leave their home countries and they come to America, and they have nothing but Allah. So they turn to Allah. They really become serious Muslims, as if they take Shahada in a real, true way. There are people maybe who are thinking, women thinking that I am not ready to go into hijab, wear hijab.

And so that's the obstacle for me to become Muslim. So, what would you say to such a person? It's not easy. It's really not easy. It's not easy for you to start covering, I think. And also the people around you are going to give you a hard time for sure. I think you should strive for it because it's something that Allah ask for and it will be a benefit to your life. The one comment I hear from women across the board is they feel safer. They feel safe when they put this on, which talks a lot about what we feel coming from us, from all directions, from men, which I felt in New York so much, it was very annoying.

This fact that I can call you and make noises at you and approach you without an invitation. I put hijab on, that all stopped. Alhamdulillah. If you had the chance to speak directly to all the non-Muslims in the world, what would you like to say to them in just a few moments? I think, like I said, when I wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building, just pick up a Qur'an and read it. It's not going to bite you. It's not going to make you deviate. And there are so many stories, wonderful stories that people felt the Qur'an calling to them and they were like, "I'm avoiding it." I have so many friends, "I'm not going to read that book.

I'm not going to read that book." "Well, I need to read it so I can convince the Muslims they're wrong." And they finally pick it up and it's like... And they're afraid. They're actually afraid to pick it up. And I think some of the other religions teach you that, like, "Oh, don't go to mosque, don't go to church. Don't enter into somebody else's religious space." It can't hurt. Even if you don't become Muslim. There's so much wonderful guidance in the Qur'an. I always feel so sad when I hear Americans, they refer back to the Bible all the time, or the Torah. The Bible, the Bible, the Bible. Like, could we just mention the Qur'an?

There's a wonderful, beautiful ayah about what you're talking about that makes so much sense. Just infuse the world with Islam. It's not going to hurt anybody. We're not coming to take over. That's not the intent. But there's so much to be benefited from knowing about Islam. So much benefit. Sister Nur Sade, thank you so much for sharing your story. And may Allah reward you. May Allah allow you to Inshallah, enter Jannah. Jazakallah khairan. Jazakallah khair. Thank you for allowing me to share my story and Inshallah, it's enlightening to people.