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I came from a very Atheistic background

I went through a lot of pain but I reminded myself ‘With hardship comes ease’ and how with my suffering I could give the best of life to my kids and their kids and the kids of their kids knowing that my suffering would be a witness in Qiyama.

According to rahyafte (the missionaries and converts website):
An interview with John (Yahya), New Muslim from Spain by: Atefeh Keyhani

Please start with a biography of yourself.

In the name of Allah, The compassionate, The Merciful Lord of the universe. May Allah send peace and blessings on Muhammad and progeny of Muhammad.

My name is John. (My Muslim name is Yahya). I was born in Spain, to a British father and a Spanish Mother. I live in the North of Spain in a small town.

How old are you? What is your level of education?

I am 16 and I’m studying History.

How many brothers and sisters do you have?

I have a sister.

What is your parents’ job?

My Father is an English teacher and my Mom is the head of an administrative department of a Television channel.

What was your religion before converting? Also tell us about your parents’ religion.

I came from a very Atheistic background. My father had been brought up as an Atheist in Britain and had always taught me that there was no God and that religion was cancerous and all around it is evil. His family is also a very conservative family that is often racist especially towards Muslims. My mother on the other hand had been brought up in a Basque family as a Catholic although forced since the government of that time would force people to become Catholic but later on in life left the religion to become an Atheist a couple of years after she had met my father. To this day I don’t know if her purpose was to make my dad shut up or she truly didn’t believe in God Almighty but today I firmly know she doesn’t believe in God. Her family, unlike my father’s, is much more leftist and more tolerant of Islam and other religions.

When I was born, I was sent to a school that barely had any Muslims at the time only one and from this moment I knew that Islam existed. This friend’s name I shall keep private but we never ever really talked about religion at all since we were only 5 at the time. But I was still an atheist and didn’t really show much interest about Islam. In my home my father would always teach me about how there was no God as I mentioned above and that religion is evil. Since a young age, we would watch videos of making fun of religious people but never really got most of the jokes. As time went by I had finished what we call in the Basque Country ‘Haur Hezkuntza’ which basically means kid education that is from the age of 2-5, I had entered primary school and this is the moment I really started to be anti-religion after 2 years. At primary school we had the choice on whether to choose between Ethical Teachings like philosophy or the choice of Religion that only included Catholic Christianity. So what happened is that one day our teacher had not come to the school. So we were sent to the Religion class and from the first moment I had said negative stuff about religion from saying that believing in God is illogical, stupid and that people who believed in it where lacking nerve cells (Yes I said that to the the teacher). So that was my last  encounter with any religion more or less except for a couple of occasions such as saying that I went on a plane and saw no God up there to a Christian friend.

Why and how did your conversion happen?

It wasn’t until I was 14. I had really started to bash religious people and religions again. I would always watch nasty videos which all they would do is be nasty to religious people and especially religious figures. I would say horrible stuff about them that I would rather not mention. But one day on an afternoon when I was 14 I searched for having a bit of fun ‘There is no God’ on YouTube but came up a suggestion that said ‘There is no God but Allah’ and clicked on it out of curiosity and came up a video titled ‘The meaning of Life ‘ by Kamal Saleh (May Allah bless and send peace on him) that discussed many points like Quranic Science that truly amazed me. Since I had never been told about any of this before in my life until that moment. I searched Islam for about a week and then just forgot about it randomly. It wasn’t until I had received the news that my dear cat had been diagnosed with cancer that I had again started to research Islam. I looked deeper into Quranic sciences and different miracles that I had truly started to believe in Islam.

I had started to see how much miracles the Quran contained from science like Astronomy, to Historical accuracy with the preservation of Firaun to Firaun and Human living at the same time, Prophecies being completed like when the Persian Fire worshipers had invaded Rome, the Qur’an stated that the Christians would soon win it back and Arabic that had never been used before at such eloquence. After all of this, I had decided to convert to Islam.

How did you tell your parents about your decision and what was their reaction?

The next step was to tell my parents and this is when it started to get really hard. I invented a quiz that had supposedly been given by one of our teachers that asked how they would react to us converting to different religions. When it came to Islam, my dad said ‘I would seriously ask the fact on why you did that’ which really disappointed me. The argument increased and ended up with him saying ‘If you become Muslim, you are no longer my son’ which tore right through my heart and made me cry really hard. For months I had not mentioned Islam to my parents. But in my phone I had been watching Islamic videos And asking people through Yahoo what they would recommend me to do. But all I got was atheists’ responses, telling me that my parents are right and that I should leave Islam.

Tell us about the difficulties you had in this path.

For a whole year I had gone through calamities from my dad shouting at me for not wanting to eat pork, having to pray in the toilet. I came to a point of such suffering that I nearly considered suicide but with the help of people I knew and reading Qur’an Alhamdulillah I had gotten over it. I went through a lot of pain but I reminded myself ‘With hardship comes ease’ and how with my suffering I could give the best of life to my kids and their kids and the kids of their kids knowing that my suffering would be a witness in Qiyama. After a year and a half of hiding my parents finally they had found out that I am Muslim, the events I shall keep private but they finally know. My father has been more accepting which I found really weird but my mother is still a bit unaccepting and claiming that ‘I have destroyed the family’ but Insha’Allah she will come to finally accept it.

You are so young and you have a lot of time to know more. Why did you choose Islam? Why not other religions?

Because Islam had so much more. I mean the Bible contradicts itself so much. The Torah says there were plants before the earth and evening before the sun was created. And tell me what other religion is better than Imam Ali ‘s (Peace be upon Him) religion?

How about you friends? What was their reaction concerning your conversion?

Some do not know but the ones that know sometimes make a joke about bombs unfortunately.

Did you choose Shiite Islam at the beginning?

No. I was Sunni first but then I talked to some Iranians and an Afghan and they convinced me. Also by watching lectures by Sayed Ammar Nakhshwani and reading Peshawar Nights.

How do you see the spread of Islam in your country?

Not good. People are still brainwashed by liberals. Here is a very liberal society.

What was your feeling when you prayed for the first time?

It was amazing. I felt like I finally found the act I most love.

Thank you very much for your attention and for your very comprehensive explanations.

By Atefeh Keyhani

 

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