How to Give Shahada in 10 Minutes (Part 1 of 8)

First of all that's not my email address so those of you who joted it down cross it out please if you do get a response it wasn't me uh let me just uh let me find out first how many people have heard the workshop already how to give sh in 10 minutes everybody yeah I can't see I can't see the hand three four okay that's good that's not too bad About 13 people in the room that's good now um I don't really intend on actually giving the exact same Workshop that I've been giving for the

last four years because I understand you have an important event coming up and we I want to make it a little bit more Hands-On and we want to do a little bit more of exercises in the class so that when next week comes around or was it the week after you're ready and you're effective when it comes to um you Know your Islamic Awareness Week how who in the audience will be from amongst the DU that will stand at the da tables at various times okay great okay all right um let me start by saying

this today we're going to go um this has to be here I I don't even want this thing thank you I'll get it with one hand you know what I want us to have a lot of fun Today because that is fun you know it's not too serious there's a lot of room for jokes and a lot of room for opinions there many different ways you can do it so want everyone to relax and we're going to have to be with each other for the next two days inshallah so let's let's enjoy this very much

insh now let's uh what was I about to start before I was about to say something yeah a couple of things first of all there are no hard and fast rules in Da there isn't just one way to do anything and there is no magic want and I have to say that because a lot of times people expect the magic wand and they think I have a number of magic wands so those of you who like to pull me aside during the break and you want an inside tip and I might just say look I

don't give this to everybody but here's a magic wand for you there are none okay and there are many different way rules and many different ways you Can tackle one problem there's so many different ways I can speak to one individual so because of that I would like to invite you to feel free to take and leave from whatever I say today and tomorrow you don't like like anything I say just leave it it's not a problem if you like something that I say take it and apply I've been doing this for about 4 five

years giving this workshop and there are people there are two types of People that come to the workshop there's one group that wants to feel good that they did something Islamic for the week that they sat at some kind of Islamic event and they make themselves feel good by doing that they go home and that's it there's another group that will attend and then they're just going to try some of these techniques they'll just try them right these are the people that I get emails from from around the world and there's so many emails that

I get From people who you know heard the workshop just online not even necessarily those who attended but from those who attended there was a 15-year-old that attended and the next day he went to school spoke to his best friend his best friend became Muslim and according to his words and he's better than some Muslims that I know some born Muslims that I know there's uh there's some um revert American living in Saudi Arabia who heard the workshop online Started giving some da to the to the foreigners there and this was 3 years ago or

four years ago it had about 53 people that came into Islam there's another guy who sent me an email from the United Kingdom and he was listening to the workshop online it's like five parts he heard two and a half and he paused it to go get dinner he said on the way he met someone who uh you know who said that met a non-muslim he said I used something from the workshop he said Something back that that was expected that you mentioned in the workshop then I said something back from the workshop to him

and the guy took a sh he became must so he saiding I only heard half of the material what happens when I hear the other half so of course what happens when he here's the other half is that he gets a every 10 minutes right no this is just the title and I and I wonder sometimes that people who they get really offended and upset at the title Sometimes it happens what are you talking about 10 minutes it's not a guarantee it's just the tile of a workshop and we're not saying that if you can

tolerate me today and tomorrow everybody you stopped and talk to for 10 minutes they can become Muslim and then if they don't become Muslim maybe you spoke to them for 9 minutes and 50 seconds and it's not my fault so the truth is it's not a guarantee it's just a title and but also at the same time People become Muslim you know sometimes without you saying anything and I always tell the story of the guy that I gave a pamphlet to and basically he said what do I do now said for what he said to

become Muslim so it can't be that I'm that good just throw a pamphlet at him otherwise I just rent a small airplane and throw pamphlets off the whole city you know but what happened was that he was already searching for the truth you know I don't know what happened in this Guy's life maybe he's been reading the Quran for the last three months and talking to people and talking to his friends and his uncle is Muslim and so on and so forth and then he's walking somewhere and I give him a pamphlet and he said

you know what that's it that's a sign for me I'm going to become Muslim so all I did was just one little part you see so uh but it is true there are many people who have taken the workshop they got a lot of Shas I always Mentioned this young man in Canada here heard the workshop online I've never met him before so he wanted to start a dow group and he brought let's say about 160 people to Islam and but he retained 95% of them now you will hear me talking about being effective and

being successful as a DI I differentiate between the two effective is just the person who is able to get people to take shahada at that moment but the successful one those Shas start to pray They memorize they learn and they become a part of the community that's a successful diet and I'm hoping that you don't just become effective du after these two days that you become successful du because I don't want us to get caught up in the head count and many many people are many famous speakers also are caught up in the head count

all the do they count how many Shas and some have incredible numbers and I wonder how they keep count like that they'll tell You I brought into Islam you know 1,364 people what do you have you tattoo every time someone becomes Muslim and you count them how do you know that you know and how do you know that they remained what is the percentage of those 1,000 that remained upon Islam most likely it's a really really small percentage it's probably not even you know I would love that it's one or 2% remain upon Islam I

don't want you to get caught up in head counts you know after Muslim Awareness Week everyone's trying to boast how many Shas they got and I got four oh that's it six so that's not what they want but it's happened it's happen so many times so many people caught up in this head did I tell you what the some of you heard maybe the worst the worst the most low quality Shad I've ever seen this this guy probably some homeless guy in Washington DC asked one Of the DU this young man do you have a

dollar so the guy said sure do you know anything about Islam do you already see the equation that's happening now you see it that you know I have to bear and withstand your talk about Islam I get a dollar in the end that's it that's the equation already so he starts to tell about Islam the guy's not paying attention he's looking all over the place he's just not paying attention and as a d you stop and make sure are you Paying attention are you with me you pause and check don't just keep talking don't just

spill something that you've memorized the script that you've memorized and so this person in the end she says so you ready to become Muslim say yeah yeah yeah he just wants the dollar that's all he wants he says okay say after me the guy says the sh then he he he wants to hug him and everything he says okay okay you have the dollar says yeah here's the doll Thanks he walks away wait a minute Quran he okay he just grabbed it wait a minute your phone number I don't have a phone number he walks

off the brother just wanted to get that Shah he could the guy wasn't listening he wasn't paying attention he clearly wanted his dollar but the wanted the head count so at the end of the day two Shas two said three so and I'll SP you all the other examples okay anyways Um so you don't have to believe it that I tell you today or tomorrow but I would like the test between me and you is that you go out and you try these techniques and you might try one technique on one person it won't work

so that gu ripped us off it's not a magic wander remember you try another technique or you try the same technique on a different person and it might work in the end so there's no there are no guarantees here um what else do I want to say before we Begin where do I point at just anywhere anywhere wow very good very good what else do I us to start with I'm make sure I get all the points here yeah I remember now feel free to disagree with me you know a lot of times people think

well you know he came all the way from the states and he's our guest and let's show him some Calgary Hospitality or whatever it is feel free to disagree Anytime I really welcome it most people don't like you to disagree with him but I would like that you put your hand up you say I disagree with you and I don't really like you anyways go ahead it's okay but if you're going to do that one of two things one you better have some kind of evidence from the Quran or the Sunnah or some kind of

collective years of uh experience not just one thing I'm saying Collective I'm not saying you have to be a DI for 10 years in order to Disagree with me no what I'm saying is you know you might say well over the years we have noticed this or I've spoken to a lot of du and they have all said that now I'll tell you why I say that one time I invited people said you know feel free to disagree this guy kept disagreeing with me on one of the only two points that I absolutely insist upon

and in the end I just asked okay where are you getting this from he said um I'm guessing he was just guessing so I'm Giving you years of collective duat whove experienced the same thing and we it's been proven and tested and you tell me you're just guessing so don't disagree with me based on a hunch but feel free to disagree based on you know whatever evidence you have or whatever kind of study you have it doesn't have to be the study done by Muslims it could be even you know psychologist said X that's fine

feel free to disagree okay so I welcome that anytime and I know in Every uh Community there is that guy there is that guy who disagrees with everything everything you know good morning it's actually 12:01 it's afternoon AR what every you know and just as a joke now they tell you there was this guy and he used to they were talking about this guy these four people sitting together said you know brother so and so argues about everything everything you cannot sit with him for 10 minutes without him arguing with you So one of the

people at the Gathering said oh yeah I guarantee you I can go sit with him for half an hour and I'll never argue with him they said no way no matter what you do no matter what you say he's going to find a way to argue with you I bet you I can go and sit with him for half an hour and we can never get into an argument they said okay go ahead and do it so then he goes to the guy's house he knocks on the door argumentative guy says who is it he

says It's me he said no it's not if I catch people dozing off I'll tell you a few jokes got a lot of good jokes right okay uh it's probably time to get started I think uh but I just didn't want anyone to get two two things I don't want you to get the wrong idea I don't want you to think you'll be getting a magic wand that's number one or that everyone will become Muslim if they spend 10 minutes with you number two I don't want you to Think that everything I mean that uh

that uh yeah that you're going to be wasting two days of uh of your life that a lot of people have become you know very successful D from attending this exact same workshop and I think we're going to up it up a little bit at this time and do a little bit more training and back and forth so that you can be more ready for your Islamic awareness week and um you know I've got I've got the another Workshop it's called The Da Part it's a bit longer and and there we discuss you know because

you have the truth the truth is really really strong truth is really powerful so no matter who it is that approaches you they're not upon the truth that's one thing that's a given for sure and you're the one who's upon the truth right so when you're upon the truth truth it doesn't matter who's coming at you you know that you have the upper hand and and that's why you might some people might think Well this technique is just miraculous I used it and it worked like like a charm it's not it's the fact that you

have the truth and the truth is so powerful and it destroys the falsehood as Allah mentioned in the Quran when we throw or hurl the truth against the falsehood it describes the word which means it doesn't just put a dent on it or a hairline fracture but it hits it so hard that the inside can be shown can be seen the D shows up now so The truth destroys the falsehood there's um we're going to discuss the atheist a lot of people are so worried about the atheist how do I deal with the atheist how

do I convince The Atheist you know and they and the atheist thinks that they're the one that are that's rational and scientific because they don't believe in something they haven't seen or heard or touched so they're rational but that's not not the case actually as you will see inshallah you know those Who believe in polytheism you know I've got in in the course notes just one like one page basically on polytheism so I was in I was in South Africa and the guy said to me that you know after we took the course we went

home and I watched my older brother with with my own eyes he picked up the phone and called his Hindu friend since childhood and he basically went through the page from the notes just kept going through the arguments through that one page on in the not in These notes so that's another course you know but and he said by the time he out on the page his friend became Muslim so I'm showing off about this story to sou to Australia I'm telling them to look at South African Brothers they're doing better than you guys you

know trying to encourage them so I'm telling the same story the guy said well the exact same thing happened to me opened up that page on polytheism called up a Hindu friend and by the end of the page the guy Became Muslim now you might think well I got to get my hands on these notes oh wow this is going to be great no it's actually just that the truth is very strong that's it no magic no genius the truth is very powerful we're going to look at ways of of destroying Trinity or talking about

Trinity without getting into you know chapter this verse that just easy quick and easy ways you know just using these Concepts all right let's get started I one thing that's Very important that that I want you to understand the two types of guidance and it's so important for Dua to understand that because once you understand these two nothing can come in your way it's so important nothing can come in your way once you understand these to by the way I am aware of how ridiculous my outfit looks with the sneakers and everything I'm aware of

that don't think that I don't know I do know but it's you know I'm going to be standing so bear with me um it's so important for you to know this because when you know this what we're going to talk about now nothing can come in your way there's nobody that you can't give it doesn't matter so contemplate these verses in the Quran Allah tells the prophet verely you do not guide Those whom you love but Allah guides whever he Wills then in another verse Allah tells the Prophet and verily you guide to the straight

path so how do I understand these two verses one says you don't guide Those whom you love the other verse says you do gu and the answer is that is that there are two types of guidance as the scholars have said there that's your job is when you show someone what the truth is which is what you do as a you tell people this is the truth that's falsehood this is the Evidence I have that's it that's your job the rest is up to Allah when Allah opens that that person's heart to Islam so if

you understand that your job is just to direct someone to the truth the rest is up to Allah who can stop you from doing anything who can stop you from talking to anyone so many times I I would see someone with like piercings and and Tattoos you know in his eyeball and and piercings all over the place and purple hair and said I want to give that Guy da people with me will always say no looks difficult all right let's think about this people what's difficult we have my job which is to tell them about

the TR the truth or direct them to the truth and that's easy and then no one would dare say the second part is difficult so who can stop you who can stop all you have to do is stop the people you know make it as clear as possible wipe away and clear away as many misconceptions as possible and then That's it that's your job the rest is up to Allah so I don't care who it is you can talk to that person as long as you can you have a language you can communicate that's enough

you tell them about Islam and of course as a d now you you're going to you know find out what the problem is find out a little bit about them all these techniques we're coming to inshallah and then the rest is up to Allah and if it doesn't work it doesn't work it doesn't work it doesn't Work you can try them again another time another date it's not a problem uh a lot any people here afraid of rejection don't like to hear no pass out a pamphlet someone says no no thank you you feel bad

a little bit anybody yeah it's not a good thing right when you hand someone a pamphlet and they just say no thank thank you they walk away like so uh one time I a pamphlet to to some lady she was walking by you know and I Was asking what is the purpose of life man and she took the pamphlet from me like that there was a trash can right next to her she was walking really quick very smooth this woman so she took the pamp from me like that and she said to find Jesus do

it right the trash and kept walking didn't even stop her Pace didn't even slow down what's the purpose of life man she took it from me to find Jesus checked it in the trash kept walking You know I I didn't know what to do never experienced something like that I was just walk away my friend said if she comes back he said hey by the way I found him for you here you go whatever okay so don't be you know you're going to be you might encounter people and they might tell you rudely that they

don't want your pamphlet or get out of my way or whatever it is I don't know how rude people are here I Don't think they we we imagine in the US that everyone in Canada is so much sweeter that true no that's too bad okay um well maybe because there's more violence in the US that's why cuz when I was in Toronto I I heard that brothers would get spit out 15 times a month when they're giving the da table in the street and in 15 years I've never heard of a DA being spit out

in the US maybe because we're crazy there somebody spits at you he can expect that he will get Shot stabbed murdered put in a plastic bag and frozen over the years so maybe because we're crazy people don't do things like that in public and maybe because people are calm here maybe they can push it a little I don't know but the point is when someone refuses to accept your pord you just thank them tell them they have a nice day and you keep going we're coming to that but I want you to understand this your

job is just to Direct someone to the truth they become Muslim alhamdulillah they don't that's fine and you keep moving on and there are more people to talk to and you just keep going on and on on but um you know when you want to study something or you want to do something you look at what obstacles might come in your path some of the obstacles here you know I want to move around a bit more is that okay with you yeah that's Uh you know which uh let me just see you think any of

these might apply to you we're talking about obstacles what is what will stop me from going out and giving some da what will stop me from going out and being an active and effective D any of these apply to you perhaps yeah you don't have to say which ones but yeah any of them you know maybe some of you number four you're a bit shy you're like I'm a bit too shy so I can't Really go out there stand in the middle of that what do you call that room where you have all the action

happening North Courtyard the what North Courtyard North Courtyard Courtyard yeah Courtyard so so you know I can't just stand there people are rushing off the class and I'm trying to shove Pampers in their face you shy to do that maybe that's your problem maybe you feel that well I don't have enough knowledge to give da you know what if the non-muslim St me and says Listen I want to know what the four say on this issue think islam.com right uh so these are some of the problems one a lot of people expect instant results and

I want to tell you this that when you're giving your calling your your classmates roommates you know people co-workers to Islam don't expect that they'll become Muslim immediately there are a number of things one they could become Muslim you know Within a short period of time you know it could be a couple of months or what have you two maybe you'll spend a lot of time with them they never become Muslim but maybe you clear away so many misconceptions from their mind that they sympathize with Muslims that's good for Muslims for a lot of non-muslims

understand true Islam that's good for them it's good when law amers understand true Islam politicians understand true Islam and they don't believe everything In the media that's a good investment you're not wasting your time on top of that you're giving da the act of giving da you get reward for it it's not about how many people become Muslim as a result of da just the fact that you're standing and giving da you get reward for that true or false true true and that's why in many verses that we kind of skipped where allahs who is

better in speech than the one who calls to Allah does the good Deed always the action always calls does the good deed and says I'm from amongst the Muslims so you get the reward just for standing and giving that I mean called his people for 950 years and few of them believed you tell me he didn't get much reward for the 950 of course he did so don't expect instant results and you may say something to someone now and they will take it with them and 3 years later something will happen in their life and

They'll remember you and they'll become Muslim we had one person again I'm trying to stress this point don't expect instant results we had one person in Virginia and they used to when they would give him da he would just argue argue adamantly then later on after he became Muslim he told them that when when I used to argue with you I was actually internally convinced with everything you said but I just couldn't lose the argument see so when they're Giving him da what do they see externally he's not accepting the message but internally he was

so they could have given up because they were expecting instant results you know I always joke I say and people now they expect to start talking to someone in the street while they're talking that person's starts to grow and grow and grow and then he's already a Muslim it doesn't happen like that there's a long process that we have to go through have To eat kebabs biris all these things just become Muslim like that excuse my Biryani jokes you know and a lot of people think I like vam because I joke about it so much

I don't hate it but I've got issues with it I'll explain it to you later when we talk about some other things have an analogy with your speech and briani we'll come to that if I don't remind you um you know not having enough knowledge you have if Everyone if you look we won't disagree the more knowledge you have the more effective you can be no doubt I don't think anyone disagrees with that but at the same time you only need very basic knowledge of the religion in order to call someone to same situation with

when he became Muslim he brought to Islam six out of the 10 given GL Tidings of paradise so at that time there were not many or issues revealed or even a that were revealed but he took the little of Truth that he knew and he brought people to Islam you can do the same thing now your best friend is a when you don't know the answer is to say there you go that's it who said because you're you have to have infinite knowledge if you don't know the answer just say I don't know it's the

greatest and easiest thing for you your best friend I don't know so next time someone asks you who's your best friend say I don't Know well who do you like of I don't know you understand please people get used to it I don't know it's good it's easy it makes your life easier and it keeps you humble as well don't try to wing it okay be like George Bush you know try to wing it you make yourself sound worse or you get yourself in trouble don't but you know what I know I'm saying this but

a lot of times young men they just can't say I don't know well we had a young brother and he if he Doesn't know the answer or someone says I want ask the she a question he says ask me let me try it what is it an exercise you're going to try let me try it like it's a game or something no you can try and then you might give you know a wrong statement and then that person will take it with them and then act upon it so get used to saying I don't know

it's really really good you know one of the things I one of the great Scholars and they say that when someone young man Would come to him and he would tell him a thei the memorized it since he was years old and he knew the and he taught it so many times multiple times and he taught it in they said the would sit and just humbly say Subhan Allah like he never heard it before Subhan Allah Subhan Allah Subhan Allah while the while the young man is telling him the Hadith it's as if he never

heard it before you know now how do we do it now when someone is telling you a Hadith and You know the Hadith it's like when someone wants to tell you a joke you you hear the one about the you know the Muslim walked into an airport I heard that one stop it someone's trying to tell you a Hadith and you know it you stop or not wait wasn't one time the prophet was with one of the compan yes it was thisi is narrated in and and in Muslim there's narration there as well but it

has so and so in in the chain so therefore it's Weak go ahead I know what you're talking about humble humble people humble I don't know fine not a problem okay uh you know a lot of people feel they need D and I'm sure all of us in this room feel you know I would like to get get some da I would like to increase my IM to this level or my knowledge to that level but the truth is when you go out and give da it increases your IM you know it was addictive in

our school in the good old days there were so many People who just came down when it was Da day because they wanted and it made them feel good to pass out some pamphlets and talk to people it made them feel good so it's not like you wait for your Iman to increase before you go out and give da your Iman increases as you give da so try that and at the same time the scholars say if you wait for number two and three you will wait your whole life till you go to your grade

and they say if you ever wake up one day and number Two and three are there 100% know that you've gone astray if you ever wake up one day so IM IM is 100% today that's good knowledge is 100% I'm ready now look out world here I come no look out world here I come your B because now you've gone astray uh okay number four we spoke about that you know what the Cure is for number four who knows what's the cure for number four anybody what yes someone's shy what Do I do to this

guy he what's that thing called Courtyard North Courtyard North Courtyard it's like when you first go into it uhhuh like a cold swimming pool uhuh very very nice analogy sir I like it very clever so it's like a cold swimming pool when you jump in in a few seconds you're okay that's it you know what no matter how many years you've been giving that way you always feel awkward in the beginning especially if you sto for a while you're oh man I have To start standing in front of people yelling things at them trying to

get them to stop eye contact things that it's not me to do these things yeah but you know what you call the first guy you call the second third and that's it you're used to it now what about another solution for a shy person how could you help another shy person how could you help him stand there in the north Courtyard and pass out material and not be Shy how can you encourage them yes sir take him with you first yeah so that way he watches you and gets more comfortable okay so you're that good

okay so try to be with Brother rwan on that day you know you get your confidence you know boost and everything be with him so yeah go with go with someone have a partner with you you could be two inexperienced people as partners but they will encourage each other or one more experienced person you go with them and Then you you know first time second time and that's it it gets better number five one problem is a lot of people don't know who they're talking to and they assume and they just keep going through their

script you tailor your talk based on the individual all right because now what if I told you right now that there's someone out there he needs he or she there's just a person out there that needs that one can you prepare your script here and go out and Read it to them who can do that because if you can do that I want to hear I'm going to sit down I want to hear from you because that's that's incredible no one can do that because what if you open that door and you go out and

that person was uh a woman for example so you're this is a brother now going out you're expecting to shake hands you know my name is so and so what's your name you go out and it's a woman suddenly it's a different Story you know so what are you going to do so that means when you go out there you tailor that talk based on the individual tell me is there a difference between speaking and I'm going to give you a list of people tell me is it different in approaching them male or female different

Rabbi or priest or atheist very different old person or young person it's different someone your age also different right what about the Environment where you're standing what if it's like a busy street lot of cars lot of buses making noise and you're trying to talk you have to yell over that does that make a difference yeah what if you're in the library you have to be quiet makes a difference so your environment affects your talk The person affects your talk the weather fect your talk does the weather affect your talk yes yes it does it's

if it's summer and the butterflies are out and everything And you can tell them about the beauty of this religion therefore you can even use big words but when it's cold you're like so so just say and let's get this over understand so everything everything affects your talk everything affects your talk so because there are so many different scenarios and situations and people and belief systems the has to be malleable bendable flexible like like metal you know you have to be malleable you have to be flexible you have to Adjust the situations and sometimes you're

going down a path and you discover something about the person you have to change a little bit one time I was giving a um you talking to someone in the street and he had a son with him and it seemed like it was just like a father and son thing for them the father wanted his son to be a man maybe the kid was 10 or 11 years old so every time I spoke to the father because naturally I think he's a decision maker the father Was just mostly concerned about me addressing his son so

every five every time I'm talking to him he will take he will say you are talking to both of us right he wanted me to acknowledge his son as a man so now I got to talk to this little guy okay so basically you know then I look at him I forget again and he tells us you are talking to both of us right and then I look at the kid again now in retrospect I think I should have just tried to get the kid to take The shahada and then when the father tries to

jump in well he says this grown man what's your problem but anyway uh you might have to adjust Midway I'm going to spread you some of the stories uh but you know a lot of times let me tell you why this Workshop is is usually 6 hours long it's not it's not 6 hours long because we're learning entirely new techniques part of it is that we're unlearning the wrong way of giving da the wrong way of giving da we Have so many rules about da that just don't make any sense or they don't have any

any study or anything to back them up or proof for them and so many ideas and Notions here and there that we need to unlearn all these ways and then also learn a few more new techniques you know uh there's so many things like there's U do we have uh some kind of we have sometimes rituals associated with taking the shahada and like there was one time we were at this conference and then I I Made this point and one of the speakers there he got up and he said yeah actually when I came when

I went to the Masid to take my shahada years ago said I went in I told the brothers at the office i' would like to become Muslim so they said okay sir please have a seat because the guy who gives shahad is not here okay he said I sat down and I kept waiting for a long time until this guy who gives shahad came who is this guy who gives shahad I mean I really want to Meet this guy he's some certified shahada Giver he's got a thing on his on his board like there I'm

certified you know this is my card if you would like to make sure it's not expired yet and say after me who is this guy had a giver you know or know you have to do it after J in front of the people who makes up all these rules you know so okay let's move on then now so we looked at the internal and by the internal I mean the Problems you might have that might stop you from being an effective diet now we want to look at problems that you might encounter on the side

of the prospect now you do know that for these two days when we talk about da we're talking about to non-muslims that includes da to Muslims but we're specifically talking da to non-muslims everyone aware of that because sometimes I'm after I'm done some guy comes up he tell us about Muslim the agreement was how to get a Shah Muslim already gave the had the Shah said the Shah right so um on the part of the or let's call them the prospect the one that you call into Islam they also have some things that will stop

them from becoming Muslim one of the ones I want to focus on a little bit now is the first one and um the whole thing I said about uh about why it take 6 hours because you know as we unlearn and we learn new techniques it might be difficult for you To to to swallow some of these signs or some of these points and so I have to illustrate that a number of times using different stories just to get the point across so a lot of times people will look for a sign from Allah that

tells him this is the time to become Muslim and a lot of times I'll ask in the audience the reverse to tell us you know how long it took him to be to become Muslim and why did you finally decide to do it someone will say something like Well finally one of my Muslim friends said why don't you just become Muslim now uh there was a guy he said I was studying Islam for 3 years waiting for something for a day when I should become Muslim and then uh I one of my friends just suddenly

out of the blue called me up said why don't you just become Muslim right now over the phone said I became Muslim over the the phone right then and there so then I asked him what would you Have done if your friend didn't call you and to to ask you for the sh he said I would still be studying Islam until now still studying so a lot of times people look for sign what do I mean by that in a predominantly Christian Society there's a lot of emphasis on Vision or a clear sign from Allah

and you've probably seen this in in their sitcoms and their cartoons and their movies God Give Me A Sign Lord you know give me some sign tell me what to do and uh you know Paul of Tarsus he became Christian when he was on the road to Damascus he saw a vision um you know Augustine later on he say not Austine emperor Constantine he saw a vision as well you know even the Mormons the guy saw a vision all these visions and clear signs but Allah says in the Quran that his signs are subtle and

his signs are for those who contemplate and Those who consider and that's why so The Story Goes that we I was I went to pray the at an Islamic Center and I saw as I'm walking in this this caucasian American man walking out with a bunch of books and the whole staff of the of the center they're walking out behind him and they're W waving him goodbye all right so what happened he came to them and he said I'm interested in getting um more m some reading material about Islam their job as duat is to

fulfill that Need he said I want to get more material they said here's more material okay now what would you do here a little differently perhaps you would what what would you do differently yes sir give him a quick rundown of Islam beforehand okay anything else that's you're right I'd ask him what he read before uh-huh what he read before what he wants to read what he wants to read what he's Looking for what he's looking for good is that what you were going to say excellent so it's not that you he says I need

reading material on Islam you say you want reading material on Islam that's exactly what I'm going to do I'm giving you reading material on Islam that's it so come on you want to you want to try to sell some more a little bit over here would you like fries with that would you like to supersize that how come everyone else tries to sell you More to give you more we just want to give the P you want pamphlets here you go pamphlets y you're not on my conscious now leave so how come no one asked

him anything so basically I asked him this question I said um you know when I saw him come out I said you know how are you doing what's happening he said well I've been interested ISL in Islam for a while and I came to get more reading material now by the way I'm looking for those of you Who have not heard the workshop to respond to me more so than those who have okay he said I've been interested in Islam for a while and I came to get more reading material what would you ask now

there's no wrong question by the way and I'm going to tell you what I asked that doesn't mean that's what you should have asked there many ways you can go around about this so what would you ask I've been interested in Islam for a while and I came to get more reading material what do you want to find out let start try and find out what's stopping him from becom Muslim okay good try and find out what's stopping him from become Muslim everyone agree with that makes sense what else yes sir what do you know

about Islam okay yes sorry what him interested in the first place uhhuh good how long is a while how long is a while I like that very good question and that's and all The questions were good this thing have to be right there so how long is a while and that's the question I asked them not that it's the best question but maybe I've been interest in Islam for a while meaning you know for like 4 days maybe maybe it's 5 years maybe it's 2 years I want to know what this while is because now

we have two two branches here so he I asked how long have you been interested in Islam he said for about a year now I know there's a problem Immediately is there a problem why is there a problem because he hasn't accepted the Shah yet he's been interested for a year and he didn't become Muslim something must be stopping him something must be stopping him what could it be possibly it could be anything okay you could be waiting for a sign yeah anything else come on there are million one things could be he he likes

pork he likes beer yeah family family what else Nobody's approached it nobody's approached him yeah what else U misconception misconception there you go it's possible right so you need to look your job is you're like a doctor you diagnose you need to find the problem always you need to find the problem yeah great I'm happy some people wrote that down you're a doctor you diagnose you all get phds after tomorrow we're done tomorrow you're all doctors you can tell people I'm a doctor now in What look so you're look one more time he said he's

been interested in Islam for a year he hasn't become Muslim You can conclude there's a problem you need to find out what the problem is so give me some questions you can ask this person what's stopping you from becoming Muslim what's stopping you from becoming a Muslim what else that's right you're right no one's wrong yeah what do you just like about Islam okay I said the Guys who heard the workshop you take it easy thank you sister I'm just kidding there's no wrong answer no wrong question whatever you want to ask I'm sorry I

can't hear you that what confused that you're confused about okay good these are all good questions there's no wrong answer you could have said I'll ask him what's your name that's a right it's a right question because then you use that name In da so I asked him okay what did you dislike about Islam I don't want to know what he likes about Islam I don't want to know that because I don't care I want to know what he dislikes about Islam I he might tell me uh you know what if I ask him what

did you like about Islam he'll say I like the five prayers I like the five prayers um Salah I like Salah he just said Salah I like Hajj H is good zaka is nice I like Zak I don't have time for That I want to know what did you dislike what's stopping you if you've been interested in Islam for a while what's stopping you from becoming a Muslim maybe there's a concept that he doesn't like again you're the doctor when you go to the doctor and you say you know I I feel some dizziness in

in my head he says okay um your nails are they growing well yeah nails are okay good nails are good knee joints everything good with your knee joint yes joints are good your Hearing is good yeah my hearing is great how about how about your stomach you know you have he doesn't ask about what's good he tries to find out what's wrong so you ask about what's wrong so then now let's follow the scenario now until now we don't know what's happening with this guy we're guessing so I don't know if it's a sign I

don't know if it's a misconception I don't know if it's his wife or one accepted do you know no come on people we don't know Right we don't know we're trying to find out so our first question what did you dislike about Islam I want to get right to the heart of the matter and his answer was he thought about it sincerely and he said nothing now what do you think might be the problem so now we know it's not a misconception it's not something with Islam that he doesn't like what is it now possibly

keep guessing it's possible many other things could be his wife Still or it could be that he's looking for a sign so now he said all right it's and and now I have only this hunch that he may be looking for a sign from Allah so I'm going to test it and if it's not I'll go for you know maybe it's family member or other influence so I said okay uh you know I think you're actually looking for a sign from Allah subhana tala because you know I'm guessing he's of Christian background and most likely

he wants a Sign and many times you know people before they become Muslim they keep waiting for that day when they just feel that this is the day to become Muslim you know you know everything is so romantic these days you know I mean it really is everything is romantic you know and and that's not a bad thing it's good I think right but uh so there's too much emphasis on you know you know they want to wake up one day after a good night night of sleep and they go like This and then there's

a robin singing on their window sill and the son is the sun is out and it's just everything is so romantic it's the they say this is the perfect day to become a Muslim and I was tell people it's not that romantic it could be just some you know you know some IM with a broken accent is a little har come say after me a very difficult situ nothing romantic about it whatsoever so I told him look I think you're actually looking For waiting for a sign from Allah to tell you you should become Muslim

today but let me tell you and I this is exactly what I told him I said listen and by the way a disclaimer here as I am telling you this story I become excited as I'm telling you this story but that's not how I talk to people because I'll tell you I said this this this but I don't speak to them like that we speak very calmly but I'm only excited now telling you the story so you speak to People very calmly and very immature and calm and sane manner right so I was telling him

look the signs of Allah they're very subtle you don't expect a deep voice to tell you to become Muslim or a beam of light to show up in a dark room or anything Allah says in the Quran that verily in these signs reallying these things are signs for those who contemplate or those who consider is another verse in the thunder in the beginning so if you contemplate The signs of Allah you'll recognize It's The Sign of Allah if you consider you'll find out it's a sign it's not like neon signs signs of Allah are subtle

so I told told him the signs Allah tells us in the Quran that his signs are subtle you already got your sign what what what's his sign can you can you tell us he I told him you already got your sign someone who hasn't heard the workshop what what are his signs he's already exploring about ISL that's why he's Ended up okay so he's you know the fact that he's in the Masjid he's been reading about Islam what else speak possibly that I'm speaking to him what else that he is nothing that he dislikes about

Islam isn't that a good sign so I told him listen and use those things to convince the person so I said look now there there's so how many people hate Islam you've been interested in Islam for about a year how many people believe what they hear about Islam in the media and have so many issues I asked you what did you dislike you can't think of anything that's your sign Allah made you out of millions of people who hate Islam someone who loves his religion for a full year you've been interested in it you can't

find anything wrong with it that's your so I and it was that simple people not because you know miraculously we we said a few sentences we said insh the right sentences after doing some kind of Probing and questioning and and and and U diagnose diagnosis you know so basically I think I told him I think you should become Muslim right now and you have the rest of your life to read these books and many other books and you're going to keep reading just like all of us until we go to our grave so he actually

just became Muslim right then and there now how long was that talk it was short you know why it was short when you diagnose and you find the and you Address the exact issue it becomes a short talk the problem is many people they want to keep talking and talking and talking and they want to throw scientific facts and they just want to throw things and hope something sticks finally but that's not how you do it so uh should we should we move on or one more example with the sign one more example more one

more example thank you sir thank you for enthusiasm it's a little early huh I Need some coffee in here but okay one more example this was a this was a big convention in United States big bizaar room and they told me that there's a a woman who's interested in becoming Muslim so I went to her with this African-American woman probably in her mid to late 40s her name was Adrian and uh she was standing in the middle of the Bazar room with thousands and thousands of Muslims so you know at the minute I get there

I I've been told it's a woman But I don't know what her story is you know does she know anything about Islam or she knows zero about Islam is she is she atheist Baptist or just some other Den denomination I don't have a clue so I need to find out so I came to her said you know I heard that you you're interested in Islam she said yeah I'm quite interested in Islam I said how long have you been interested in Islam does that make a difference makes a big difference she said 3 years so

now where Am I going where is your mind going now 3 years now you're thinking go ahead what's the problem and it could be what be many things sign could be you know misconception could be you know family members this and that and uh in her case first of all she said that no so so now I said do do you know much about Islam she said yeah I read some books about Islam so you believe that Allah is one she said yes you believe that the prophet wasam was actually the prophet Of Allah she

said yes the Five Pillars make sense yes and I think we did a review of The Five Pillars you know you could do that in 50 seconds fine so now she has the ingredients of becoming a Muslim right so if someone has the ingredients of becoming Muslim what's your next step go ahead now if they have all the ingredients in becoming a Muslim then you ask for the sh ask for the Shah make sense they have all the ingredients Of becoming a Muslim you ask for the shahada if they're missing them don't ask for the

shahada maybe not but she now had everything the five pillars of the proph so I said you should become Muslim then he said no now I need to find out what the obstacle is so one she said that her her fiance told her when you you're going to go to that Muslim convention don't come back as a Muslim now how do you clear that how do you clear that how do you fix That yes sir well I mean in in her way of thinking she went as a must possibly it's very possible I me you

could argue with you know tell her that you know you're basically there you just have to say it what else yes sir discuss the importance ofi uh I didn't quite get you I'm sorry but I think you're on the right track more to her what her fiance says about she's hearing there you go very good yes sir what is your fiance's Problem okay that's possible yes sir kind of along those lines but also why you bring with you okay that's possible yes sir do it secretly at first okay yes sir nothing's wrong here by the

way yeah um could you say you know you never know when you're going to die uh-huh and keep keep pushing keep pushing that thought further you might die by the time you go home okay very good so now what we're getting her to to see is that you Know you're reminding her of the people it's it's Allah and it's eternity in the Hellfire versus you know this guy and and that's basically what I told her so we fixed this quick problem very quickly actually said okay listen you know on the day of judgment everyone will

stand in front of of Allah by themselves Allah will call you by name and you will be held accountable for your deeds and you'll be held accountable for everything the disbelievers they will Just be held accountable so your boyfriend and no or your fiance or your nor your family or father nobody will stand and answer on your behalf so you're responsible for your Deeds so so then basically we took care of that and it was that was the end of that problem said now become cuz now it was an obstacle we fixed it you asked

for the again right cuz that was what stopping her in the beginning you as for the Shah again she said no no I just I just want To you know just not ready I want to take my time or want to see how things go so I figured maybe she's waiting for a sign from Allah now let's see maybe I was right maybe I was wrong I don't know so I'm testing it told her look I think you're waiting for a sign let me ask you this if you were going to get a sign from

Allah if Allah wants to tell you you need to become Muslim will you expect to be walking down the street and then you see a big neon sign that's Flashing that says Adrien become Muslim right now she said no I won't expect something like that said you might expect that sign of love to be subtle a little bit she said possibly I said like some short annoying man with glasses telling you you need to become Muslim right now so she laugh she said that's possible so then I'm trying to get her to see that you

know you've got your sign from Allah so I told her listen and and you're not going to find find Anything phenomenal about what I'm about to tell just very simple things you're just trying to get someone in front of you to think told her how many Muslims are in this room right now he said you know thousands of of Muslims I said how many non-muslims you think are inside this room right now he said probably just me said how many non-muslims are outside of this room she said billions of non-muslims I said okay from the

billions of non-muslims in the world Allah chose you to put you in a room amongst thousands of Muslims and you've been interested in his religion for 3 years I asked you if there's anything you dislike about his religion you said no I told you give me a good reason I forgot to mention this give give me a good reason you won't become Muslim right now a good reason and I'll leave I won't bother you but just give me a good reason nothing like I got to take my give me a good reason and she could

Think of a reason I said you know I asked you for a reason you couldn't think of one I we went over the ingredients of being a Muslim and you're essentially there as far as belief and you're still waiting for sign from Allah so do you think that was enough to get her to become Muslim no no so basically I in the end I told and I don't do this with everybody but sometimes you can see how much you can go with people based on their Personality and how friendly they are I said listen I

mean I actually have to go now I'm going to give you 3 seconds to become Muslim no pressure right you know because it was kind of a jokingly kind of I said look let give you 3 seconds I have to go now one two three I started to walk away she said what you're just going to leave me like that and she became Muslim so again it was you know a combin just in this Example we see how many ways you can see well maybe this is the issue maybe that's the issue and you can

ask like one brother said earlier one of the easiest ways to find the obstacle is to say what is stopping you from becoming a Muslim right now when do you ask this question when they have the ingredients the Five Pillars you say what's stopping me from becoming right now then they will come out with it oh it's my fiance oh it's this oh it's that or it could be Any one of these so so when you're looking for this external problem it could be a sign it could be a misconception they have about Islam or

about the Muslim that's why you ask what did you dislike or what caused you any problems or what caused friction in your heart you find out what the misconception is or they might it might be the influence of family or religion it might be that they think you know you know religion just causes Problems worldwide you might experience that on campus in a few weeks that someone might tell you well I don't like to talk about religion because most people die or more people die because of religion than anything else on earth have you heard

that before okay now who would like to answer that for us how do you refute that someone who hasn't heard the workshop please get some fresh ideas here and to last uh the two most destructive Wars in human history were No religion in okay very good yes sir same thing no I was going to say the plague and stuff like that okay so people die because of diseases possibly okay yeah I was just going to say a lot of people die from Wars since the beginning of time okay but but what if they argue these

are religious wars not necessar okay good yeah can examples uhhuh good try to he said give me some examples try to get to explain to them The difference between uh religion and followers mhm trying to keep the blame away from religion and yeah it's more of like political side of religion it's not really like a religious thing okay good all these answers were actually correct and the truth is that statement is false don't accept that statement it's false that more people die because of religion than anything else on Earth that's wrong it's not true if

you do the math you'll find more people die because of things Related to land money you know conquering people for these purposes and more so than religion and when it when religion is brought into the mix it's not purely because of scripture but because of also another Factor on top of things and again the example I always use is you know New York City there a lot of Jews living there has a lot of Palestinians living there why don't Jews come and bulldoze you know apartment buildings and have Palestinians in them In New York City

why don't they kill and have you know altercations in New York City because neither Rel religion neither religious scripture says you need to kill the other person simply because they're Jewish or you need to kill the other person simply because they're Muslim it doesn't say that anywhere in their scripture does it but because there's an an additional Factor when it comes to their dispute there there's a land dispute can you see what I'm saying so it's not that there's any religion in the world where you open it the scripture says just go kill the other

person because he doesn't belong to your faith but there's always somewhere and some way that you bring the bring religion in just like with the Crusades from the European side they brought the religion into it to get people to join armies you know and they had you know images Muslims were desecrating Christian sites and that got People so riled up and they joined the armies in such huge numbers that they were not equipped to feed them and a lot of them died of starvation so a lot of times religion is used also to R people

up and so on and so forth but was there any War it was purely because of religion or and because of scripture they said just kill the other girl just kill them just like that so anyway so the idea is that it's not true and don't accept that argument you know Anyways uh isn't is it time for a break or something have we done an hour I don't people to get too bored um what time is it 11:25 11:25 and lunch is 12:30 what is one okay then maybe we should take a break so um

if you want a 10-minute break is that long okay 10 minutes break I'm going to be here now let me before we go one second sorry before you go now uh what's going to happen is you during the break you'll Come to me and say what do I say to the someone who believes in Trinity and I will say actually the part on Trinity is coming up in the notes then someone else will come and say what do I say to the one who's an atheist now I'll say actually if you wait with us it's

coming up in the notes in a little bit then someone will come and say how do I deal with the Hindu and I'm going to say well you know what Hindu is coming up in the notes in a little bit so I welcome all Your questions let's ask me any question related to something we've already discussed because there's a lot coming up so try to ask me about things we've discussed say I didn't understand that slide or you skipped this slide what is that saying and so during the break because we don't have too much

time and I want us to to get as much as we can out of these two days so my break is not my break my break is for you I'll be sitting here and maybe next break will Be entirely for the sisters or a portion of lunch will be for sisters so they can ask their questions so uh 10 minutes in