welcome everyone thank you for being
\nhere
\nto tell to hear our stories and i was
\nthinking as i was hearing the stories
\nbecause i didn’t really
\nprepare where i was going to start or
\nwhere i was going to finish so i’m just
\ngoing to go based on the time
\ni’ve been given so my story is a little
\ndifferent than the speakers before me
\nsomething similar something’s very
\ndifferent
\ni come from the life of what
\nthe dunya brings you when you think
\ndunya is what is
\nmost important i come from being a
\ncelebrity personal trainer nutritionist
\ntraveling around the world training
\nprofessional athletes celebrities
\nnotable people behind the scenes
\nbeing in miami las vegas and hollywood
\nand that life was filled with a lot of
\ngreat things at the time
\nthere is not any party in the hamptons
\nor in vegas
\nor in l.a that i hadn’t been to there
\nwasn’t a magazine i wasn’t in
\nthere wasn’t a celebrity or rapper or
\na professional athlete that i didn’t
\nknow or associate with
\nbut with all that said at the end of the
\nday
\neven though i was born and raised
\ncatholic from
\na puerto rican family but not so
\ntraditional because i was raised in an
\nitalian neighborhood
\nso i was like the only puerto rican girl
\nin the italian neighborhood
\nand i’m from brooklyn so if you could
\ntell a little bit by my accent
\nbut nonetheless i was
\nalso a national level fitness competitor
\nso a fellow competitor a guy
\nhappened to be lebanese and was muslim
\nso we’re both
\ncompeting at the national level i mean
\nhe’s competing
\nin the small attire that they wear and
\ni’m in my bikini
\nand he decides at some point tell me
\nyou have to change your ways you have to
\nchange how you dress
\ni said but wait a minute you wear the
\nsame thing i’m wearing we’re both
\ncompeting what are you talking about you
\ndo the same thing i do what’s so
\ndifferent
\nand of course being a feminist like lisa
\ni was like no
\nwomen can compete just like men do so
\nhe gives me the quran and i was like
\nokay but he did it in such a forceful
\nway
\nthat it reminded me of something that
\ni’d seen
\nfrom born again christians which my
\nfather
\nis actually a born again a born-again
\nchristian pastor
\nin orlando florida as we speak and my
\nmother is still
\nsomewhat catholic so i looked at it i
\nwas like okay whatever
\ni opened i read like a page or two and
\ni put it on the shelf and that was back
\nin like 1998. so
\nthe years are going by again i’m
\ntraveling the world
\nand in my work it was put to me to
\nmake a trip to malaysia but it was eight
\nmonths after 9 11.
\nso they asked me would you feel
\nuncomfortable to travel to malaysia
\ni said well i don’t think in my mind
\ni’ll ever get to go to asia or malaysia
\nor anywhere like that again so i’m not
\ngoing to say no
\nso here i go i land first i went to hong
\nkong then i went to malaysia
\nand when i got there i was like wow
\nthere’s so many muslims i thought they
\nwere asian
\ni didn’t know so and it just so happened
\nthat it happened to be ramadan it was
\nnovember
\nof 2002. so i’m doing my
\nuh my circuit that i had to do because i
\nwas a presenter
\nat the collegiate level and also on the
\ninternational level so i had to present
\nat kuala lumpar’s islamic university
\ni didn’t know it was an islamic
\nuniversity so i get up in front of all
\nthe faculty the professors
\nall the physiology department the
\nanatomy
\nthe you know all the exercise
\nphysiologists that are staring at me
\nthey’re all men
\nso there’s like maybe two women i had to
\ngo off
\nof my lecture for about 45 minutes to
\nprove myself
\nbecause i didn’t look like the typical
\namerican i wasn’t
\nblonde hair blue eyed and they just were
\nlike okay we got to make sure you know
\nwhat you’re talking about
\nand it was just so interesting because
\nthe people
\nwere just had this tranquility to them
\nbut it didn’t really hit me
\nso i go back to my hotel after my
\nlecture and i noticed i was like why is
\nit so
\nquiet where is everybody it’s only like
\nfive o’clock
\nso my hotel was connected to a large
\nmall
\nand then i said oh let me go to the mall
\nthey told me the mall was going to be
\nopen late so i go to the mall all of a
\nsudden
\ni don’t know at seven eight o’clock
\nthis stream of people came from
\neverywhere it was
\nthe middle of ramadan so it was after
\niftar so after iftar
\neveryone was everywhere there were
\nmuslims everywhere i was like
\nwow supan allah didn’t say subhanallah
\nat the time
\ni said subhanallah wow
\nand everybody’s covered up okay this is
\ncool
\nso that was in 2002. that just stayed at
\nthe back of my mind
\nso now we’re going to flash forward to
\n2005.
\ni’m now a competitive triathlete and
\nbiathlete which i was at that time the
\nbest shape of my life and i was
\npreparing for that
\nuh this was in september of 2005 the
\nfollowing week
\ni was preparing for a pretty big uh
\nbiathlon
\nin long island and i was driving to my
\nnutrition office in howard beach queens
\nand i had just recently gotten my first
\nsuv
\nso i thought it was cool i was driving
\ndown the highway
\nand apparently maybe somebody had a blow
\nout of a tire or something
\nthere was debris in front of me so just
\nas i thought i’m in an
\nsuv i can just kind of veer around it no
\nproblem
\ni go like that and all of a sudden
\ni start to skid into the grass
\nso i said i’m an suv it’s no problem
\ni’ll just
\nget back on the road oh no in a
\nmillisecond
\nthe car started to flip
\nand i flipped across what’s called the
\nbelt parkway
\nfrom one side of the belt parkway to the
\nother side i flipped five
\ntimes and landed on the opposite side of
\ntraffic that goes back towards manhattan
\nnew york
\nsubhanallah it was
\na very surreal millisecond similar
\ndifferent to sister armani
\ni opened my eyes i don’t know if i was
\nunconscious
\nor the paramedic that was driving
\nwatching my car flip touched my face
\nbut no car hit me subhanallah by the
\ngrace of allah i am standing here to
\neven tell this story
\nand i was rushed to a hospital in
\nbrooklyn lutheran
\nand all i could think is
\noh my client i’m in the ambulance i was
\nabout to see
\nsome nutrition clients later in the
\nafternoon i had more clients
\ni made the lady in the ambulance i said
\nif you do not give me my cell phone so i
\ncan call my client
\nyou will have to get me i will not go in
\nthis ambulance
\nso i’m like with the gas the oxygen
\ntelling my client excuse me
\ni’m not going to make a garden to a car
\naccident my dedication
\nto what i do of helping people
\nwomen and men at the time that is
\nthe soul that i have always breathed
\nthat’s the breath within me that is the
\nsoul that i am
\nso that was the most important thing to
\nme at that time
\nso i get to the hospital and apparently
\nthere might be blood on my brain oh oh
\nthat’s a problem
\nthey stick me in icu so at this point
\nuh my friends get a hold of my mom and
\nmy brother they’re like flying from the
\nbronx
\nto get to the hospital and alhamdulillah
\nthe blood in the brain or what they
\nthought they saw it
\nthe swelling went down so it was fine
\nbut i was admitted because i had a
\nmassive concussion
\nwith that type of accident most people
\ndon’t even make it
\ni just had a little cuts on my elbow
\nand i had a nice little gash on my head
\nbecause of the seat belt my head was
\nbanging into the seat belt as the car
\nwas flipping
\nso as the weekend passed on monday
\nthe administrator of the entire hospital
\ncomes
\nto my bedside now
\napparently he doesn’t come and visit
\npatients so
\nhe said to me this is off the record
\ni just wanted to come and see the person
\nthat survived this accident
\nbecause most people come into this
\nhospital with a quarter of this accident
\nand don’t make it
\nso i wanted to see who it was and he
\nsaid to me again off the record
\ni don’t know what you believe in but
\nwhatever it is if you believe in god
\nyou find out what god has planned for
\nyou and you go and you do it
\nnow that was 2005. so that kind of
\nstayed there
\ndidn’t really do anything with it i
\ncontinued with my dunya
\nfast life hollywood vegas
\nyou know that scene like you see it on
\ntelevision all the flash
\nand now we fast forward to
\n2009 so i’m flying back from a business
\ntrip in
\nin los angeles and i had to get to a
\nwedding a catholic wedding
\nand it was march of 2009 i landed in
\njohn f kennedy airport
\nraced to the uh
\nto the church in queens because it was
\nmy good friend
\nand client getting married and she was
\nnot gonna walk down the aisle
\nuntil she saw her personal trainer
\nbecause we worked so hard
\nto get her in the best shape of her life
\nalhamdulillah
\nanyway so i get there i’m like and i
\nwatch the mass i can recite the catholic
\nmass like if it was
\nlike you know part of breathing and in
\nsome moment
\nwatching her get married i said
\ni no longer want to be catholic i didn’t
\nknow why
\nmaybe because i just didn’t have that
\nconnection in that mass i just felt
\nso disconnected from god that’s all i
\ndid know
\ni said i know i don’t i don’t want to be
\ncatholic anymore this is
\nthere’s something lacking and it’s my
\nconnection with god
\nnow when i walked out uh i did know i
\ndidn’t want to be jewish
\nbecause i knew that process was just way
\ntoo long i read about that i was like oh
\nno i don’t want to do that oh they’re
\nnever going to let me in
\nnot with my past so
\nliving in bay ridge brooklyn a very
\nheavily diverse community
\nand probably the largest arab american
\ncommunity in
\nnew york city i had a lot of friends
\npalestinian-american egyptian-american
\nso i was around a lot of people
\nthat were muslim were practicing muslims
\nand basically i uh
\nthank you i called up
\nthe closest family i was closest to an
\negyptian american family
\nand may allah preserve them and raise
\nthem in rank for what they’ve done for
\nme
\nuh i called them up because
\ni was like i think i want to take my
\nshahada
\nwell before i said that i actually
\ngoogled it how to become a muslim
\nthat’s it that’s all you have to do you
\njust have to say that that’s it
\nwow and then i called the monam family
\nand said you know what
\ni think i want to take my shahadah
\nthey rushed me to the local masjid and
\nbay ridge mossab
\nand at the time there was a library next
\ndoor i mean i walked out with books like
\nthis
\nand i said to myself i know i’m not
\ngoing to read any of this
\nso what i knew was in my heart it wasn’t
\ngoing to be on books
\nso i got the quran in every possible
\ntranslation transliteration arabic
\nenglish every combination
\na book of sata and of course what do
\nthey tell you read
\nread this is what they tried to tell me
\nto do the first time
\nso of course okay i read one two pages
\nput that to the side so this was march
\nbut in my heart
\ni had already didn’t know what ania
\nor intention was but i made the
\nintention that i knew for 2009
\ni wanted to fast for ramadan and i
\nwanted to be muslim
\ni didn’t know how i was going to get to
\nthat point but i knew that
\nania was already there okay
\nso again back to the flash las vegas
\nla miami so now we’re in june of 2009 so
\nwe’re getting close to ramadan which was
\nnow going to be
\nat the end of august so i come back from
\na trip to la
\nand my car was parked in long-term
\nparking
\nso i’m walking got my luggage
\nsubhanallah as i’m standing here
\nthe hoshua just entered in my heart i
\nwas ready for my shahadah
\ni don’t know how i don’t know what the
\nquran of allah
\nthe hoshua subhanallah it just entered
\nmy heart i knew i was ready at that
\nmoment i don’t know where it came from
\nit’s as if
\nit was an information that was in my
\nbrain already there
\nso on the drive back to bay ridge i
\ncalled the monam family again
\ni’m ready to take masha’allah
\nalhamdulillah
\nokay here’s what we’re gonna do on
\nfriday we’re gonna go to the masjid
\nyou’re going to take your shahadah but
\nyou know you don’t need to do that you
\ncan take it by yourself
\nwell lo and behold whatever happened
\nyou know there they were on arab
\nstandard time
\nand i was on my time somehow we missed
\ntiming so i didn’t get to go with them
\nto the masjid for jummah to do my
\nshahada
\nand i did my shahada by myself with the
\nlaw the angels
\nand my computer
\nnow i don’t know how to do anything so
\nme being a very
\ntype a structured person as everyone who
\nknows me
\ni was like oh my god i need to know what
\ni have to do i have to do this
\nso days are going by it’s getting closer
\nto ramadan lo and behold i didn’t learn
\nhow to pray till the first day of
\nramadan 2009
\ni’m with the sheets of paper oh what do
\ni have to do
\nawesome oh alhamdulillah
\nit took me three weeks to memorize my
\nfatiha subhanallah was the most amazing
\nexperience
\nso nonetheless i said okay this is
\nramadan
\ni didn’t really have any to spend it
\nwith my family
\nwas kind of on the fence didn’t really
\nknow
\nsince i didn’t know anything about islam
\ni didn’t know what to tell them
\nso i said i need to learn anyway
\nafter ramadan i knew i need to go
\nsomewhere to learn
\nand again allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala had
\nblessed me with the mecca center
\nthat is a school in manhattan primarily
\nfor converts
\nand i took the new muslim program
\nand subhanallah without that i wouldn’t
\neven be able to continue with my story
\ntoday
\ni walked in in my gym clothes
\nmy regular gym clothes like the
\nnon-muslim gym clothes
\nand my teacher i came in
\nhe said brooklyn where are you going
\nlike that
\ni said oh oh well
\nand i looked around and i said oh i
\ncan’t come dressed like this
\nso within a couple of weeks one of the
\nadministrators gave me my first abaya
\nand that was at the end of october and
\njanuary 1st
\n2010 i put my hijab on
\nalhamdulillah for me the biggest
\nstruggle
\nhas been the manners and behaviors
\nbecause i come from
\nbronx brooklyn street life and
\ncorporate life so for me i don’t come
\nfrom any of these cultures
\ni don’t know too much about any of these
\ncultures i know
\nhow i had to raise myself i’ve been on
\nmy own since i’m 18 no
\nparents divorced parents i raised myself
\nso i wasn’t
\nthe shyness the how you treat a guest
\nall these things were these are the
\nhardest things for me
\nhow to interact with people from all the
\ncultures
\nthat out the gate treat me differently
\nbecause i’m not like them
\nand as a convert my biggest struggle has
\nbeen
\nfinding a masjid or a community that
\naccepts
\na latina convert coming from
\na different background i pray five times
\na day
\nat least i fast i do dawah i do charity
\ni’m not even about to talk about naduna
\nand all the things i do
\nbut tomorrow i am teaching another class
\nat 10 in the morning for sisters
\ni teach a lecture called fick of
\nnutrition and i’ll be doing
\nan exercise class which is a group
\npersonal training class called fit for
\nallah that i’ve been teaching for
\nover two years in manhattan and for me
\nthe biggest struggle as a convert is the
\nacceptance by people from other cultures
\ni’m not arab i’m not pakistani i’m not
\nthis
\ni’m not that so i’ve had to
\nsometimes doing ramadan travel 45
\nminutes to a masjid in new jersey
\nwhere sister nahila is from just to feel
\ni’m home that is the problem for me
\nthe biggest thing is the being able to
\nmesh
\ninto these other cultures i’m just not
\nfrom that
\nbut i love allah just like you do i love
\nthe rasulullah just like you do
\ni love all the prophets just like you do
\nwe’re not the same but we are the same
\nwe’re here for the same message and
\nthat’s to praise
\nand please allah thank you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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877-Why-Islam presents the story of Sr. Zainab Ismail, nicknamed the Sheikha of the health and fitness industry. She is a fitness and nutrition expert who has had many celebrities from Hollywood and sports as her clients. But a series of events over a few years brought her to Islam by the Mercy of Allah SWT. Her yearning for the closeness to Allah led her to accept Islam not once but twice. She shares the importance of supporting new Muslims and accommodating them in our communities. <\/p>\n
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For more information, please call 877-Why-Islam or visit <\/p>\n
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