"I Left My Medical Career for Islam" - The Untold Story Behind Towards Eternity

“I Left My Medical Career for Islam” - The Untold Story Behind Towards Eternity

The worst day of my life. June 21st, 2017. That morning I received the most painful news of my life. In an instant, my whole world turned upside down. At 6:00 a.m., my phone rang. It was my sister. In a panicked voice she said, “Mom can’t breathe, come to the hospital quickly,” and hung up. I was completely shocked. Because she had only been admitted for a rise in her blood sugar, and she was expected to be discharged the next day. When I visited her the night before, everything seemed under control. I rushed out of the house and got into my car. When I arrived at the hospital, I saw a security guard standing in front of my mother’s room. That’s when I realized how serious the situation was. Doctors know it. Security is placed outside the door when CPR is being done inside. At that moment, I understood what it means for your knees to give out. Normally, as a medical doctor, I was the one performing such emergency procedures. But this time, there was nothing I could do except pray. A few minutes later, the doctor came out. The look on his face said it all. He quietly said, “We did everything we could, but I’m sorry.” I had lost my mom. My whole world fell apart. For weeks, I felt completely hollow inside. But I also felt this Sabr (patience) that Allah gave me. It was right here, so real. He protected my heart from shattering. Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah). I was 35 years old. Back then, I was someone who prayed maybe two or three times a day, who didn’t enjoy his career as a doctor, and spent most of his free time playing Assassin’s Creed on PlayStation, watching football games, and then hours more watching post-match commentary. In short, I had no clear direction, no sense of purpose in life. I was like a ship drifting in the middle of the ocean without a compass. My sleep was so deep that even the trials I faced here and there wasn’t enough to wake me up. But then, at the moment I least expected it, Allah took away the person I valued the most. This is her. With that painful loss, Allah brought me back to myself. He didn’t just wake me up, but also kept me awake for many nights to come. You know how a seed has to go underground and decay before it can grow into a tree? That day, when my twin brother and I placed our mother into her grave with our own hands, wrapped in a white shroud, I felt like I also went into the ground with her. And I began to decay. What I didn’t know was that this sudden goodbye to the one I loved most would become the reason a tree would grow from her lineage, and that I would become part of a movement that would touch the hearts of millions of people. My mother had a deep love for the Quran. She used to read it all the time and share its meanings with those around her. That day, as we buried her, I thought to myself, “Mom, Insha’Allah (if Allah wills) you made it. With all the preparations you made, Insha’Allah (if Allah wills) you will be in Jannah (heaven).” And at that moment, I made a promise. “I will not let this banner of the Quran, which you held so dearly, fall to the ground. Insha’Allah (if Allah wills), I will carry it forward.” She made tremendous efforts for our religious upbringing. So I thought to myself, “I must carry on this legacy.” So I turned back to the Quran after 20 years. I started reading it again and again. And this time, I tried to truly understand it. As a doctor, there were certain issues that kept bothering me. During my six years in medical school, I had received an entirely materialistic education. While searching for answers to my faith-related questions, I came across a street interview by brother Bestami on the Turkish channel of Towards Eternity. I could not believe what I was hearing. I thought, “How can someone this young be so confident, so knowledgeable, and so deeply rooted in his faith?” I thought, “I must go to these people and ask all my questions.” And one day, I knocked on the door of their center. I was welcomed with genuine warmth and sincerity. As I kept attending the weekly Halaqah (religious gathering) and reading the Risale-i Nur (Treatise of Light) tafsirs (exegesis), I found answers to all of my questions. Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah). The light of faith was slowly growing inside me. I was feeling its sweetness. Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah). And after some time, I wanted to do something for Islam too. But wanting alone wasn’t enough. After all, I was a father of two children. I had to provide for my family. I prayed desperately, asking Allah to grant me the honor of serving the Quran. And not long after, Allah answered His servant’s prayer. He opened the door of passive income that gave me my financial freedom. I no longer had to work to make a living. I could dedicate my entire day to serving the Quran. Shortly after that, I resigned from my job as a doctor. So I decided to go speak with brother Fatih, the founder of the Towards Eternity channel. I explained my situation and shared my desire to serve the Deen (religion). And Alhamdulillah, I found myself part of this incredibly sincere team. There was incredible potential within the team. But there was one issue. Aside from brother Fatih, no one in the team was fluent in English. There was a reason why I had pushed myself to learn English so intensely, even though I didn’t really need it and despite how rare that was in Turkey. Today, I am fulfilling one of the most important roles within the English branch. Alhamdulillah. I’m also one of the main presenters on the channel. It felt like both sides were making Dua (supplication) not just with words, but also with their actions. And at that point, Allah allowed our paths to cross. And that’s when I realized something. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi was a scholar who struggled for Islam together with his students under extremely difficult conditions in Turkey. One day, he shared a profound reflection with them and said, “When you carefully look back at your life, you will see that destiny has been preparing you to become the person you are today, step by step, without you even realizing it. Throughout your life, it was shaping you into this version of yourself who would one day serve the Quran. Every hardship, every turning point, and every trial was part of a divine training, preparing you to become a servant of truth.” So my turning back to religion after losing my mom, going to the very place where I would find answers to my questions, even the materialistic education system in medical school that had planted those doubts in my mind, not having to work for a living, those were the crossroads that led me to where I was meant to be. There was a reason why I never felt truly fulfilled in my profession. There was a reason why I ended up with a wife who would stand by me through this entire spiritual journey. When we got married 15 years ago, neither of us truly knew why we had chosen each other. But all along, faith was quietly putting the puzzle together. 40 years ago, as Allah was preparing these days through His perfect plan, my father had no idea why he was making those investments instead of living a more luxurious life. SubhanAllah (glory be to Allah). How amazing is destiny. It turns out Allah was preparing me for something far greater than I could have imagined. He was shaping me to become part of the core team of a platform that now produces content in 13 languages, with 2.8 million subscribers on its English channel, 1.17 million in Arabic, 700,000 in Urdu, and 400,000 in Russian. And I am not the only one. Everyone of the 40 people in our core team has a similar story. Each of our lives had been shaped in many different ways so that we could do the very work we are doing now. And eventually, all our paths met at the same crossroad. From there, through the internet cables running beneath the ground, we spread across the world. One cable reached Russia, another entered homes in Japan. Through the phone she held in her hands, we reached a Muslim youth in Canada. She was on the verge of atheism, and now she took a step back. One end of that cable is now in the home of a young man in Algeria who just decided to leave his haram (forbidden) relationship. Do you know why I am sharing all this with you? Because the man in this image, walking towards his destiny, isn’t just me. He stands for everyone who wants to do whatever they can for Islam. If you also look closely at the turning points in your own life, you will begin to see traces of a divine plan in many of the things that happened to you. And realize with awe and gratitude that Allah has been preparing you, step by step, for the person you are meant to be one day. My brothers and sisters whose hearts beat for Islam, have you ever asked yourselves these questions? Why do you watch Islamic videos? There is a reason for that from a destiny perspective. Why do you feel such deep concern for the future of Islam? Isn’t it enough to just pray your five daily prayers, read some Quran, and be a regular Muslim? Now it is becoming clearer, isn’t it? Why your family was so devoted to your religious upbringing? That painful hardship you went through, the one that shattered your heart. It turns out your Creator was using it to shape your soul. That one video that touched your heart and changed your life, or that spiritual experience where you felt incredibly close to Allah. In your story, without even realizing it, everyone was preparing you for something. So in reality, no one in this story had any idea what was happening. But destiny had been paving the way, starting from 70, maybe even 100 years ago. That’s why when you look back at your life, at your past, take a moment to reflect upon all these and say, “SubhanAllah (glory be to Allah), Ya Rabb (Oh Lord), You were preparing me to serve this Deen (religion) all along.” Everything begins with a story. And the story of our channel goes back about 20 years. This is where it all began. A handful of confused university students searching for answers came together and rented a 150 square meter apartment. Just a small, humble place where they started to have deep conversations. They didn’t have fancy equipment, just a cheap camera and a shaky tripod that could barely stand. But they had something far more valuable, sincere and pure intentions. So what is the main theme, the main focus of Towards Eternity? First and foremost, it’s about proving the articles of faith and offering convincing, evidence-based answers to the difficult and confusing questions people have today. While strengthening the faith of Muslims, we also aim to extinguish the spiritual fires that are attacking belief today. And at the same time, we introduce Islam to a non-Muslim audience through rational arguments and compelling evidence. Because people today are not so interested in “what”. They are asking “why”. “Why Islam?” And in providing these answers, one of our greatest sources of inspiration is the Quran tafsir (exegesis) Risale-i Nur collection. And second, we focus on using techniques that help this message go viral. In other words, we try to dress the truth in a viral outfit. Through our script writing, storytelling, editing style, presentation, whatever tools we have, we use them to make the content go viral. Because when you just say, “Hey, I’ve got Islamic knowledge, come and listen,” the algorithm doesn’t say, “Sure, go ahead.” And that’s exactly why now we are going to dress the truth in a viral outfit. Have you ever seen one of our balloon videos? They might seem simple, but they completely changed the game for our channel. Thanks to those videos, we were able to capture the attention of thousands of young people. To this day, the balloon videos have been watched over 100 million times in total. These are the languages in which we are currently producing content and running channels. According to Looker Studio data, we even have viewers in Greenland. In fact, in the English language, our videos have been watched in every single country in the world except one. And that is North Korea. And these are our views in the Russian language. So in these countries, there are Russian speaking people who view our content in that language. Do you know the word diaspora? It refers to communities living outside their homeland who often preserve their mother tongue and pass it on to the next generation. So when we enter a country, we don’t just bring one language, we bring 13. That’s how we are able to reach people across many different languages and backgrounds. Actually, one of our key motivations came from something we heard in a MrBeast video. He said, “If you produce content in the world’s top 15 spoken languages, you can reach 90% of the global population.” That idea really inspired us. Let’s be honest, the world is huge. And when it comes to sharing the message of Islam with all of humanity, we are still far behind. The truth is, there are millions of people out there, people with sincere hearts and open minds, who are waiting to hear this message. After the Qatar World Cup, we had the chance to meet with brother Adnan Rashid, who was actively doing Dawah (inviting others to Islam) throughout the entire event. And when he spoke about how Latin Americans respond when they hear about Islam for the first time, he used a powerful phrase that really shook us. He said, “We criminally neglected the Latin American people.” That hit us hard. There are over 400 million Spanish speakers in the world, and yet the amount of Islamic content in this language is shockingly low. As we started working on Spanish dubbing, something very interesting happened. Let me share that with you. At first, we couldn’t find a Muslim voice-over artist for our Spanish channel. So we hired a Christian voice-over artist named Pedro. He recorded the first couple of videos, and we were happy with his work. Then he did 10, 15, 20 videos, and slowly he began to be impressed by the content. Because he was being exposed to scripts that spoke about the contradictions in Christianity and the evidence for the truth of Islam. Then one day, he sent us a message. He said, “I’m starting to feel a closeness to Islam. Would it be possible to schedule a call with you? I have some questions on my mind.” And let’s see what happened next. -“Ash-hadu (I bear witness) -“Ash-hadu (I bear witness) -an la (that there is no) -an la (that there is no) -ilaha (deity) -ilaha (deity) -illa (except) -illa (except) -Allah. -Allah. -Wa ash-hadu (And I bear witness) -Wa ash-hadu (And I bear witness) -anna (that) -anna (that) -Muhammadan (Muhammad) -Muhammadan (Muhammad) -abduhu (is His servant) -abduhu (is His servant) -wa rasuluhu (and His messenger).” -wa rasuluhu (and His messenger).” “Congratulations again, brother. You have two billion brothers and sisters all around the world. All your sins are forgiven, and if you Insha’Allah (if Allah wills) die upon this faith, you will enter eternal paradise. So how do you feel?” “I feel great, I feel really, really excited, I’m emotional right now and I don’t know… Thank you very much.” “It’s our pleasure, brother. So you will take just baby steps, don’t rush. If you have any question, any help, any motivation, anything you need, we are at your fingertips, brother. You know, Allah gave you this gift of guidance. Please try to protect it as careful as you can.” “Okay, brother, thank you very much. Yesterday I did your voice for the Joram interview.” “Oh perfect! Amazing.” “It’s a great pleasure I’m so happy to hear this news, Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah). It’s so motivating for us. Insha’Allah (if Allah wills) we are gonna meet soon, physically Insha’Allah (if Allah wills). Where do you live? In Spain? Argentina?” -”Argentina! I live in Argentina.” -”It’s so far away.” This is just one example. There are so many criminally neglected nations and languages out there. And the truth is, we cannot do this alone. And that’s exactly why we wanted to make this video. We hoped maybe we could inspire someone. Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah), we recently had a development that gave us a lot of hope for the future. YouTube gave us access to something only a few channels in the world currently have. The multi-track audio feature. You might have seen it in MrBeast videos. When you watch from a specific country, the video automatically plays in that country’s language. This feature is still experimental, and we were also curious to see what we could do with it. So we tested it on one of our videos. Along with the video itself, we uploaded 13 separate audio tracks, each in a different language. And here are the results. Our job is to put in the effort. The outcome is in the hands of Allah. In one sense, we see ourselves as successful. Alhamdulillah. But at the same time, we feel there is still so much we are failing to do. Insha’Allah (if Allah wills), we will all leave this world with faith in our hearts. But there are eight billion people on this Earth. If we only create content for the two billion Muslims, if we only focus on protecting ourselves, then we will be held accountable for the remaining six billion. Just think about it. Every time you count 1, 2, 3… six people leave this world. Some die with faith, but some without it. They enter a path of no return. In the face of such a reality, what is our responsibility? To simply say, “It’s not my problem”? Why aren’t we reaching out to those people? Why are we only thinking of ourselves? They are not losing something small. They are losing their eternal life. Millions of people are waiting for a hand to reach out to them. Your city is on fire, but perhaps you have just closed the curtains, thinking that if you don’t see it, it isn’t happening. If people were drowning right in front of us, and we had life savers in our hands, but we didn’t throw them, wouldn’t that make us murderers? We hold in our hands spiritual remedies like the Quran, the Sunnah (Prophetic tradition), piety, and faith. If we don’t make it our concern to deliver these to even one person, if we don’t even pray for it, wouldn’t that make us responsible? And you too carry this burden. You too are concerned about it. That’s why this video came before you, and you’re still watching it. And that is why, when it ends, you will set a goal for yourself. Whether small or big, you will take a step to learn your religion better, and you will make Dua (supplication) for it. Am I talking about something that will never happen? Brothers and sisters, the state of the world doesn’t deny it. On the contrary, it confirms it. If someone came to you in the early 1800s, when even radio didn’t exist, and said, “Islam will one day spread across the entire world.” How would you react? You probably wouldn’t argue, but deep down, you’d wonder, “How is that going to happen?” If they said “TVs are out now.” You’d say, “Alright. But the message is still controlled by the broadcasters.” Just remember how the conventional media poisoned us. Then came the internet. You’d say, “Okay, that makes sense. It can reach every home. But still, they are in control.” Then came social media. Now your hopes start to rise. The world is on Facebook. Maybe now we can finally do something. But the algorithm is not so great. Then came Reels, Shorts, and TikTok’s algorithm. This changed everything. Now, follower count does not matter at all. If your content is good, if it’s truly viral, then even with just 10 followers, your video can reach 20 million people. And that’s when I said, “This is it. The barriers are finally being lifted. Islam can now reach the whole world.” But wait, how do we produce content in so many languages? It was still a massive barrier. And then came artificial intelligence. Now it all fits. Now the puzzle is complete. There is nothing left standing in the way. This message can now reach every home, every small town, every village, every heart. No matter what happens to us on this path, no matter what we face, even if we are stoned, we, all of you, will continue this struggle until our last breath. Why? Because all along, faith was quietly putting the puzzle together for you. In other words, Allah was preparing you for the person He wants you to be.