Islam is what I was searching for..from the day my soul has woken up!
The first verse of Qur’an..
The first Arabic sentence..
Which I understood without translation..
Qur’an for me is the source of Eman
Every time I go to Qur’an..
I revive my heart and renew my Eman..
‘Guided through the Qur’an’
‘Living it is the sweetness of life’
‘Longing to the Lord, coming to Him’
‘To Him I submit my soul’
‘It showed me the most beautiful and precious path’
‘And it’s the intercessor, it is the companion’
‘O, heedless, won’t you wake up’
‘And see the way for happiness and salvation’
‘It showed me the most beautiful and precious path’
‘And it’s the intercessor, it is the companion’
Oh heedless, won’t you wake up’
‘And see the way for happiness and salvation’
Why did we go to visit Japan?
Why we are filming videos there..now?
because the Japanese..
Are suffering from a big spiritual confusion..
Although they are a nation of discipline..
My original name is Maeno Nawoki
And After Islam, it is Ahmed
And my nickname is Abu Hakeem…
His pure instinct, has woken up..
So, he searched for the truth..
He started by thinking and asking himself questions..
Who am I ?..
Why I am here on earth ?
Ahmed Mayno..from Japan..
He was in scholarship at another country..
Where he met a Muslim family..
By the way they conducted and acted..They opened a window of hope into his life..
I was living in darkness..
complete darkness around my heart and my soul..
I was searching for the truth..
And..
Looking..
every where..
From one belief to another..
Sheikh Ahmed..What was the religion of your parents and of you..before Islam?
I was a Buddhist!
And my parents too
And..
Please, make Dua’a for them to be guided..
‘O, God of the universe..O, great Lord’
‘You give generously and from you we have the Noble Quran’
So, I decided to be a Buddhist monk
I was 14 years old..
My parents were surprised for this decision very much..
They begged me to postpone it, till after having the intermediate level of school..
At least..
The reason which made me change my mind..
and not to become a Buddhist monk..
Is that.. it was not possible for me to live alone..by myself.
I need to have a wife..
As you know ..The Buddhist monks..
live in a monastery out of this world..
with no relations with women..
That’s why Mayno gave up the idea of being a Buddhist..
And he started to look at other options..of religions..
To be fair in my search..
I read two or three books..
about Islam..
But..
These books were written by western authors..
And.. I thought that…Islam is a religion of terrorism..
And it is adopted by lunatics..etc.
In spite of that fact that I was looking for the truth..
Islam was a very far option for me..
when I was 17 t0 18 years old….
I went to Australia..
As an exchange student..
While being there..
I met a sister from Egypt..
She was my colleague.. we were at the same class..
Yes..
She was the first person..
the first Muslim I know in my life..
Who was the first person invited you to Islam…?
In a direct way..
He was the brother of that Egyptian sister..
He was intersted in the subject of Scientific Miracles
And he wanted to convince me about it..
But I was looking for something else..
Something to satisfy me spiritually..
As you know..Japanese people..are readers..
They read all the time..
These kind of people..
you can’t convince them easily..
you will fail..
But the way their father did.. may Allah grant him good..
He gave me Mus’haf..
I mean..The Noble Quran..
translated to English..
He gave it to me and said..read this Book.. yourself..
i.e. read this Book and think about it yourself..
This way.. made me feel his respect to me..
I was young.. about 18 years old..
So,..
That way had impressed me..
Sheikh Ahmed, we call this the style or technique of Dawa
Allah SWT, says..to us and of course to you as you are Daiyah now..
and to all other Duat..Allah SWT says:
“And speak to people good [words] ”
Allah, SWT says:
“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, ”
“and argue with them in a way that is best.”
‘Guided through the Qur’an’
‘Living it is the sweetness of life’
‘Longing to the Lord, coming to Him’
‘To Him I submit my soul’
While he was studying at Australia..
He met a famous figure, who was Muslim..
His life has changed due to that..
He was the American… Malcolm X,
At 1993..
A movie about him was on cinemas..
About his biography..
Then,
Then I saw a picture of his face..
I found it interesting..
So, I entered to see the movie..without knowing what did he do?
What kind of person he was?
After I went back to japan..
I borrowed his video..
And I saw the film again..
Ma’sha’Allah..
It influenced me so much..
I want to know more about the film..
And about its effect on you, sheikh Ahmed..
When Malcolm X was in prison..
His elder Muslim brother, said to him..
That was the moment..
The moment which affected me ..deep in my heart..
The origin of that word..
As you know, dear viewers, is from Hadith Qudsi
‘ If he came to Me walking, I will run to him’
Because I was like that..
Exactly!
I wanted to be closer to Allah, Almighty..
From all my heart..
‘The darkness overwhelmed my heart’
‘So that it turned curl’
‘I don’t know what is the light anymore’
‘Except with the Qur’an’
‘I reflected upon its verses’
‘So, I found comfort inside the pages’
‘and I took a sip from its scent’
‘How sweet.. is the Qur’an’
Then, when I saw the scene of Hajj
When Malcolm X did Hajj..
He was surprised himself..
When he found himself sitting with the White man who was hating him very much..
That man new the truth about Islam..
I said to myself..
Is there a place in the world..
like this place.. which gather this enormous number of people..
Even for any reason or cause.
Their reason is noble.. and they do the same thing..
Just for Allah, Almighty..”they will come from every distant pass”
“That they may witness benefits for themselves and mention the name of Allah”
We know about many people gather here and there..
But for what..just to play..
It had influenced me very much..
That was he last motivation which I had, and which encouraged me ..
to pass the red line.. and take the last step..
To be Muslim.
‘ It is my paradise, it is a miracle for the universe’
‘ My Qur’an’
‘ My Qur’an, It is my evidence when I come to the merciful’
‘O, my heart, By the speech of my Lord, my soul shines’
‘ And my tongue pray to Allah sincerely’
Sheikh Ahmed, you have reached the red line and the important point..
And you were certain about Islam..
Tell me about when you became Muslim, and when you said the Shahada?
About the important moments in your life..
Praise to Allah..After I saw the great scene about Hajj..
I was convinced..
But I was having some reservations..
Like..being in another religion..
In Japan, this is considered weakness
But, finally I found out that..
To be Muslim..
It is not shameful…completely..
Actually, it is beautiful..and exciting..
I thought that if I became Muslim..
May be, in the future I might need to say to others..
‘Sorry, I am Muslim!’..something like that.
To be religious in a liberal society, like japan..
Is considered a lag behind..a weakness..
But they didn’t know that Islam..
Is actually a real connection with the creator of this universe.
To belong to Islam..
doesn’t mean that you belong to a certain cult
But it is a connection with the creator of this universe
The Lord of the worlds..
Praise to Allah..
That night..
I prayed…not the perfect way..
But, the way I saw it done at the movie of Malcolm X
So, I did the first Sujud..
Praise to Allah, I felt as if light is flowing from the soles of my feet to my head..
After that , I left my house..
To do an international long distance phone call..
I called that sister and her family.. her father..and her brother
Then, I said the Shahada and I asked them to give me a name..
They mentioned some names to choose from them..
And praise th Allah, I choose Ahmed..
‘O, You, Who descended the Qur’an’
‘As brightness upon Ahmad’
‘I felt peacefulness when the clarity began’
‘O, Allah, keep me steadfast on the righteous path’
‘ Because what I fear most’
‘ is to have a bad ending tomorrow’
Imagin..
Only one scene..
from the movie of Malcolm X.. the American
Directly motivated the guidance of Ahmed..the Japanese..
This is a message..
to people who owns capitals.. money..
Please, have your print, an effect upon the media..
May be one scene..
would grant victory for Islam better than digging a well of water!
You have studied most of the beliefs of the world..
– Yes.
Including Islam..
What has drawn your attention to Islam?
The most remarkable thing.. which has drawn my attention..
And pulled my interest to it
Was… that
Islam is what I was searching for..from the day my soul has woken up!
And started to ask me about life…
From where did I come?
And to where am I going?
Why do I live?
And the religion which I was looking for..
Is the religion which has a direct influence on human lives..
entirely..
24/7
This is Islam!
After he said the Shahada..
His life as a Muslim wasn’t more than regular..
Till he heard the Noble Qur’an for the first time..
Allah,SWT, says about Qur’an:
“By which Allah guides those who pursue His pleasure to the ways of peace”
“and brings them out from darknesses into the light”
Allah, SWT has guided you.. and with Qur’an..
Our dear sheikh..
I ask Allah SWT to keep us steadfast in Islam..
What is the verse which had changed your life, sheikh Ahmed..
I was praying Jummah prayer at Koba masjid..
close to Kyoto..
During the speach [Khutba]
Sheikh Muhammad Salama, from Egypt , may Allah put mercy upon him, said a verse..
I take refuge in Allah from the cursed Shaytan
“And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.”
It is about our Master Muhammad, SAW
That verse was..
The first verse of Qur’an..The first Arabic sentence..
Which I understood without translation..
I understood it… by my heart..
Praise to Allah..
It influenced me ..so, I cried..Praise to Allah..
‘The grace of guidance blessed my heart’
‘It is the start of my joy and of my life’
‘So, I decided to depend on the Entirely Merciful’
‘And followed the footsteps of Taha’
“And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.”
Allah, SWT sent the prophet SAW
As a guided mercy to all human ..
At till today..
People get into Islam because of this guided mercy..
After he became Muslim..
Mayno looked for a Japanese woman ,who is Muslim, to marry her..
Today..
He has a Muslim family..he has five children.
I picked the names of my children, according to the tone of the verbs [Fail ] and [Failah]
Starting from Sakinah, Hakeem, Ameen, Kareem, Salimah
Ma’sha’Allah, praise to Allah.
I ask Allah, SWT, to please your eyes seeing them…Ameen
I ask Allah, SWT, to bless them… Ameen
And make them Duat…I hope that you help me to do that..
We are with you…To send them to Kuwait or any other country to make them proficient in Qur’an
There are two major reasons
Why Muslims are few in Japan..?
from my point of view..
It is a historical reason..
And..
the second reason is, due to negligence of the Muslims..
The historical reason is..
You know That the Islamic expansions..
had stopped at Philippines..
And didn’t proceed forward..
Unfortunately, Islam didn’t reach Japan strongly
In addition to that, the Japanese who came to Islam
were very very few..
extremely few..
Even the pioneer Japanese Muslims ..
unfortunately, their offspring are not Muslims..
“[All] praise is [due] to Allah , Lord of the worlds ”
“The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful,”
Sheikh Mayno is not doing Dawa full time..
During week days, he works at a company for petrol and gas to support his family..
In spite of that…
He is very keen to..
To make dawa at Japan for Islam..
he works at weekends..
to give classes for people..
Circles for memorizing Quran..
and explaining the 40 Hadith Nawawia
And he presents so many other activities at the society..
Only Muslims come to these classes…No..NO.
Some Non-Muslims also come..Ma’sha’Allah..
People interested on Islam and Arabic language..
Does any one of them show interest, sheikh..?
anyone contacted you after a lecture.. talked to you.. or asked questions about Islam..
Did that happen to you?
Asking questions..yes, it happens..
I noticed that..
People here in Japan..
Are emotional..
Many Brothers from outside Japan..
They think that the Japanese people are intellectual..
What happens here in Japan after a lecture, is completely the opposite to what happens at the western countries..
After listening to one lecture
five to six persons stand out to ask questions..
This doesn’t happen here..
Their steps are very slow..
Every language has its beauty and
its characteristics..the Japanese and the English..etc.
But the Arabic language..
Is the language that Allah has chosen for His last Book.
Is there anything worth leaving this grace, because of it?
Of course, No..We must not accept this loss
So, you need to be careful..we all need to notice that..
The grace given to us from Allah is enormous..
We have to spread it, and convey it to the whole world..By the will of Allah.
At the end of our Show, sheikh Ahmed..
We always like to plan a Dawah mission..
And give these missions to our guests who became Muslims..like you sheikh Ahmed..
So, we suggest that you..
Because I have seen your interest on Qur’an
Teaching it and reciting it..to children and adults..at your community,,
So, I suggest that you design a contest..
You choose a surah for the kids..
And by the will of Allah, they will compete, and we will provide the gifts for the winners
Do you agree?
Of course, I do
But, sheikh, you, personally, give a great care that these kids memorize the surah
By the will of Allah..And their parents must share the responsibility too
By the will of Allah..May Allah bless you sheikh..Bless you too
Jazak Allah Khyran..
Qur’an..the source of Eman..
Every time I go to Qur’an..
I revive my heart and renew my Eman..
‘I was far from it.. But when I came close..’
‘I was guided by it.. right away..’
‘You had known it.. for a long time.. from childhood..’
‘Why some people have dead hearts?’
‘My criticism, ummah of Qur’an.. is full of love’
‘because it is a sin to desert Qur’an’
‘Tomorrow, the prophet will blame us.. is that acceptable?’
‘Tomorrow, what are we going to say? what’s our excuse?’
‘ My criticism, ummah of Qur’an.. is full of love’
‘because it is a sin to desert Qur’an’
‘ Tomorrow, the prophet will blame us.. is that acceptable?’
‘ Tomorrow, what are we going to say? what’s our excuse?’