in the name of Allah the most beneficent
the most merciful
but I want even what we like I want to
have my name is Darren Bryant
my journey to Islam in general began at
the age of 13 what I was very heavily in
TV struggling with how I fit like faces
me in the universe and I grew up as a
Christian and as a Christian I was
taught that Jesus was a divinity he was
one of Allah and I never believed that
and that’s something that never
intellectually sat right with me you
know something I never lose with my
heart but I didn’t know which direction
to go because I wasn’t an atheist the
more I was taught that Jesus possessed
divinities the more I began to hiss
believe in it but I was a Bible student
I was a church community member and I
would study pretty indefinitely
referring to my Bible studies about
teachings in the Torah in the Bible and
what have you but every time it came up
to the point of Jesus possessing
divinity something that I always had a
problem with and whenever I would go to
speak with people about the authenticity
of the the quote-unquote divinity of
Jesus yes your honor they never gave me
answers that were suitable or
sustainable or even factual and it came
to the point where I would be so
inquisitive about asking about the
validity of the divinity of Jesus that
when I didn’t go to church or when I
didn’t go to Bible study people were
actually happy like the then would like
a sigh of relief
because I was the foremost questioner of
this particular theology and the more I
received answers that I knew weren’t
intellectually favorable that drove me
further further away from Christianity
to the point where I decided to just a
disavow myself for Christianity in
general
fortunately I was never an atheist I
never had this belief that a divine
creator does not agree I always believed
that a divine creator in fact does exist
it’s just that I didn’t know how to
worship improperly fortunately I was
never an atheist I never had this belief
that a divine creator does not exist I
always had the belief that a divine
creator in fact doesn’t clear it just
said I didn’t know how to worship the
divine creator properly so I began to
read certain types of material from
different sources about different
religions and everything seemed to have
something missing until I reached upon
seeking information about a son now
ironically by this time – he had had two
years had elapsed already I was already
in high school my freshman year of high
school and I was doing a project a
school project about world religion and
one of my math teachers may Allah guide
him he saw my interest in Islam in
general or religion in general growing
and when I express my interest in Islam
in general he was very empathetic and
even though he wasn’t Muslim again may
Allah guide him he dedicated his time
and effort to making sure that my quest
and thirst for knowledge was quenched
and he’s the one who actually what for
me my very first translation of the
Quran and we went to like a local book
store in Brooklyn New York near master
taqwa and he bought me my very first
translation of the Koran and I began to
read it and I was reading the
translation of the Koran to such an
extent that I didn’t care about school I
would miss school assignments I was late
handing an assignment like two months of
handing him reports two months late
because the only thing that I was doing
was reading the translation of the Quran
and I was so mesmerized
engaged and drawn to what was saying
what was being said what was being
mentioned rather in the Koran even in
the English language because at that
time I knew no knowledge of the Arabic
language of the defected it with the
language so even in the English and this
is a testimony to the guidance of Allah
because the guidance of Allah transcends
all languages it transcends all cultures
or ethnicities or people’s all time and
in light of that and because of that I
was drawn more to the Quran into Islam
in general because when I was reading
what I would read passages in the Quran
about existence about the purpose of
existence about creation about a lot
nature these are questions that I was
thinking about and as soon as I was
about to think about the question I
already got the answer just from reading
the translation and I would say to
myself wow I was just about to asked
about this well I was just about to ask
about that and the more this happened
the more I was drawn towards Islam in
general so at the age of 15 by the grace
of mercy of Allah I became Muslim and 15
years later after Muslim ever since but
being Muslim definitely is not without
challenges and fortunately a lot giving
me the honor to become Muslim in a pre
9/11 world because in a post 9/11 world
there’s a lot more obstacles for people
who become Muslim and I definitely
respect an honor and applaud those who
choose to become Muslim in a post 9/11
world because is that more challenging
and I’ve heard horror stories from my
fellow reverts when people will become
Muslim who their parents are like
adamant their families that adamant in
they say ridiculous questions to them
how can you join a religion of terror
how can you resume join a religion of
violence and to be honest only Allah
knows whether or not someone like me
would have had the fortitude to deal
with those type of challenge
becoming Muslim in a post-911 world as a
Muslim growing up in high school I was
like a typical youth basically I wanted
to fit in I wanted to be popular so I
was willing to do anything and
everything to fulfill that and
unfortunately that caused me to be very
irreligious at that point in high school
and then there was a point where after
high school I began to become more
religious and what ended up happening is
that in my yearning and quest to become
more religious I began to become very
radical and unyielding in merciless to
people and that had a very negative
impression on not only people who knew
me before I became Muslim but people who
knew me while I was there religious and
also people I had begun to encounter or
engage and this take this placed a very
negative taste in their mouth about me
personally as a Muslim and Muslim in
general and there was a point where I
had really had to stop and reflect as to
how I treat people and I realized that
the way I was treating people was very
wrong and I came at a crossroads in my
life as many times in my life even in
the high school I came to a crossroads
in my life is to whether I’m going to be
missing for real or whether I was going
to be riding the fence religiously and
the prison for a law that I made the
decision in high school to make a
sincere make sincere steps towards
becoming more religious and likewise
after high school I received not
received but I’ve reached across another
cross or crossroads in my life as to
which direction was I going to go was I
going to become very radical and
unyielding and extreme or whether I was
going to make myself more Center and
again by the grace and mercy of Allah I
decided to take a turn and become more
center
and I’ve been a better Muslim and a
better person for that
I know people who have done work with
wise mom and I really really respect the
effort to a great here and even like the
methods of why Islam and how they have
this hotline and they’re so engaging
with people that ask that’s actually
encouraged me as a daddy to be more
engaging with people in to look for new
methods and modalities on how to relate
more to people and build more collective
with people because that’s really what
dollars about making the connections
with people because just like I spoke
about edit the reversed panel here a
technical venture it’s calling people to
Islam is not about making people Muslim
or converting people or trying to
convert people because oftentimes as
people who are due at people who are
callers to Islam or Islamic workers we
have this unauthentic notion that we are
the ones who are the source of guidance
when in fact is Allah who is a source of
guidance is that we are or what we hope
and we have hope and a lot too so that
he makes us facilitators of the guidance
we hope that he uses us to guide people
we and also that not the source of guys
only a lot of us look at that
you