I plan on being very honest because you
\nknow through that honesty you’ll see a
\nlot of the blessings that I’ve been able
\nto enjoy from a loss opponent to
\nalthough one of the things I want to
\nkind of put in the beginning in your
\nguys’s heads right now is this idea of
\nwater I do do a lot of studying as we
\nall are supposed to but I’ve also
\nstudied the Japanese samurais anybody
\nknow what samurai means and Japanese
\nJapanese samurai means one who serves
\nso in this jumper you know Japanese
\nsamurai tradition there’s a big emphasis
\non water as well as in throughout the
\nQuran waters mentioned multiple times
\nand the water is something we can hold
\nsomething we can drink something we can
\nuse or evaporate if used on a rock it
\ncan split that rock and truly Allah has
\nblessed me so many times with droplets
\nthat it has split me into just a
\ncontinual happy believer and I continue
\nto receive blessings and more knowledge
\nas I go so we’re talking about the the
\ntransformation into Islam and I was
\nfortunate my parents you know neither my
\nparents are Muslim which I think helps
\nsometimes you know because I was able to
\nlearn things for myself a lot of the
\nthings that we hold onto for the rest of
\nour lives are things that we found
\nourselves because we know them to be
\ntrue and we feel them in every aspect of
\nour life so my parents were both
\nBuddhist and Baptist they kind of gone
\nback and forth but we were going to a
\nUnitarian Church at the time and when I
\nwas 13 14 our job as teenagers was to
\nwhat is your declaration of faith what
\nis your faith statement and I don’t know
\nabout you guys when I was 13 14 I was
\nyou know picking up the cordless phone
\nand call my friends hanging out some of
\nthese guys probably know what a cordless
\nphone is huh
\nyoungest young cats so there’s this
\nwhole idea of finding your face so it’s
\nlike okay well what do I believe in and
\nI was going to this coming from public
\nschool and knew I was going to this
\nCatholic high school so I thought hey
\nI’m gonna what about Catholicism I check
\nout Catholicism Christianity and you
\nknow Jesus is a great prophet to us you
\nknow and the whole Trinity thing to me I
\nwas like okay yeah I know I believe in
\nGod but Jesus is God I don’t know you
\nknow I don’t know what that I don’t know
\nwhat that is you know when my
\ngrandfather is a deacon in the Baptist
\nChurch you can imagine he was he was
\nlaying down some biblical verses and the
\nhistory of being Baptist and everything
\nand still didn’t really sink in with me
\nand it wasn’t until I was in my eighth
\ngrade social studies class sleeping
\nunfortunately in the social studies
\nclass but literally there was a video
\njust it was like the world religions
\nvideo one hour probably made by 60
\nminutes or something and they say this
\nis Islam they believe in one God Jesus
\nas a prophet mohammed mohammed is a last
\nseal of the prophets and they also
\nbelieve in Moses and Abraham and it was
\nlike a just a shock to my system also
\nthat’s exactly kind of how I’ve been
\nfeeling like you know I know Jesus lived
\nbecause clearly reason there’s an
\nimprint so I looked into Islam and it
\nliterally felt like God just unzipped my
\nheart and just gave me faith and I’ll
\nnever forget that so I called it my
\nfriends literally on 3-way back in the
\nday when you couldn’t do it on your cell
\nphones young people but uh so we get on
\n3-way
\nand neither of these two are Muslim but
\nI just knew I was Muslim I knew then so
\nI said she had a ladder that he little
\nlost the one the mohammed rasoolullah
\nthey’re like what are you talking about
\nI’m like I just took Sodom you know
\nthey’re like okay who
\nso after that it was just kind of on me
\nto find out what happened so being a
\nyoung guy not really knowing any any
\ndirection I go into this I go to this
\nCatholic High School and surrounded by
\npeople with faith and I had an
\nimpression on me because you know as the
\nQuran teaches us we have brothers and
\nsisters who are believers in the book
\nand true believers in the book they
\nrespect your faith and their faith is in
\nevery day of their lives
\nit was an inspiration to me being around
\nfellow Catholic brothers and sisters
\nbecause it was in everything they did
\nwas in everything they did so I but at
\nthe time you know I was just trying to
\nbe me you know young african-american
\nkid and predominately white school got a
\nlot of anger so what I did you know I
\ngot the silver chain that set a law in
\nArabic you know rock that thing hard I
\nwent to this interracial conference and
\nI saw on the list one of the teachers
\nwas neighbor
\nAbdul Wahid said well that sounds like a
\nMuslim I’m gonna go check it out you
\nknow Allah please help me out some of
\nwhat I’m doing I literally had a teacher
\nself aslam book from Barnes & Noble
\nwhich couldn’t be more wrong I only know
\nhow that’s legally printed it could be
\nsome propaganda so so I go to this
\nconference and he kind of sees me in the
\nback you know I got the bling on and he
\nsays hey man you know do you know what
\nthat means he said yeah but I don’t know
\nwhat I’m doing man you know help me out
\nso I’m doing a lot of that was the one
\nof the first second droplets I guess of
\nwater on me and to this day that man is
\nstill my teacher and they wonder why
\nhe’s giving me Dean and show me the path
\nand continued to guide me even when I’ve
\nwhen I’ve asked some questions so much
\nthanks to him so then the first
\nexperience I had at the mosque so now I
\nknew I was most of my kind of knew how
\nto pray excited want to go to mosque and
\njust be standing there you know not
\ndoing what I should be doing and it blew
\nmy mind man it was a little I don’t know
\nif anybody’s been to Minnesota but we
\nactually do bench so you actually know
\nwe actually have a lot of diversity a
\nlot of Somali brothers a lot of brothers
\nin the Middle East but when I went to
\nthe Masters it’s a little one-room
\nmosque in the top of this dilapidated
\nbuilding at Saint Paul and this this
\nolder Muslim was just teaching this is
\nwhy guy
\nhow to read Arabic and just teaching
\nthem don’t like wadis that’s amazing I’m
\nlike so you guys friends I got these
\nmethods to do today
\noh my okay well that’s pretty cool and
\nthen when we got to prayer I still
\nremember my first prayer because it was
\namazing to me I did I’ve never met any
\nof these brothers didn’t know any of
\nthem by name and they came shoulder to
\nshoulder foot to foot with me and if you
\never pray next to me I will be touching
\nyour feet so because that was
\nunbelievable to me you know even in the
\nCatholic tradition when I watched my you
\nknow friends pray everybody’s in their
\nspace give me some space you know but
\nhere we’re saying no I man we need to be
\ntouching we are one that was a profound
\nprofound impact on me
\nand for for me Islam has really saved me
\nfrom a lot of different things really
\nguided me despite me not listening at
\ntimes everybody you know people want to
\ntalk about the NFL but I would not be an
\nNFL football player not only if it
\nwasn’t for a loss of heart Allah but if
\nit wasn’t for the Deen because through
\nthe Deen I’ve learned discipline and
\nsacrifice so it made it easy to have
\ndiscipline and sacrifice for a sport so
\nthrough high school now some Muslim I’m
\ntelling everybody you know yeah Muslim
\nyou know do my thing and all of a sudden
\nI’m going I gotta go to college now I
\ndon’t know if anybody you’ve been on a
\nrecruiting trip to d1 school anybody
\nraise your hand Wow so I needed my Deen
\nthen you know I’m saying I’m a kid in
\nMinnesota so I’m going think about going
\nto Miami and Notre Dame and Miami knew
\nwhat they were doing okay these people
\nmake literally millions of dollars off
\nthese athletes you get a 17 year old kid
\nfrom Minnesota to come to Miami in late
\nNovember they take me to the beach I
\nknow you ever been in the beach in Miami
\nyou will need your Dean if you go to the
\nbeach in Miami and Taylor right now
\nthis is a struggle so I go to Miami and
\na they won over a seventeen year old kid
\nthat’s for sure
\nyou know I was happy I was I liked the
\nbeach I wanted to be there but then I
\nwent to Notre Dame and at Notre Dame
\nit’s not South Beach but there was this
\nwonderful tradition there and we’re
\nthere playing Michigan at the time if
\nany of you are thinking about going the
\nUniversity of Michigan don’t it’s a bad
\nschool go to Notre Dame but it was a
\nhuge game for Notre Dame and I’m seeing
\nall this tradition of faith I mean you
\nknow and there are brothers in the book
\nthey have a they have a you can’t even
\nimagine how big this building is with
\nJesus on it with his arms open wide and
\nto me just that symbol of acceptance was
\nwas unbelievable and that’s one of the
\nthings that people go to the University
\nof Notre Dame to see all the time so not
\nonly that when I get on the field after
\nthe big win somebody grabs me from
\nbehind
\nthey say hey you go anywhere else you’re
\ngonna be a number you come here you’re
\npart of a family I said wow man yes
\nthat’s incredible no one did that at
\nMiami no one did that at Michigan so I
\ncame home I still like Miami you know
\nit’s cold over there himself in you know
\nMiami’s got the beach and it’s cool so I
\ntold my parents that I want to go to
\nMiami
\nlike no nope never seen my mother more
\nupset with me in my life to this day she
\nsaid you’re not going and then this just
\nthis piece came over me and I just came
\nover me you’re not going you’re not
\ngoing and so I ended up going to Notre
\nDame and a lot of people asked me to say
\nyou know what was it like being Muslim
\nat Notre Dame those brothers and sisters
\nand at Notre Dame they helped me be a
\nbetter Muslim
\nanybody want to get so many masses they
\nhave
\nyeah anybody want to guess how many
\nmasses per week there are at Notre Dame
\nseven anybody else 330 masses per week
\nat the University of Notre Dame on
\ncampus so you talk about people with
\nDean you know I’m saying though they’re
\nnot you know Muslims that’s it that’s a
\nlasting example every week in my
\ncommunity so I was able to grow because
\nwhen I was saying that’s the Amen what’s
\nthis Ramadan thing hey it’s kind of like
\nLent in a way okay cool so they laid
\nleave me alone they know I’m doing my
\nprayers you know if I said it they say
\nman we’re going to this movie and now
\nI’m a guy I gave my prayer in you know
\nthey understood so from that
\nunderstanding not only did I grow as a
\nMuslim but I always always will and I
\nalways encourage all you to respect
\npeople of the book those who are true in
\ntheir faith because they will respect
\nyou as well
\nand they will make you better about your
\nDeen in colleges are also needed my Dean
\nI don’t know how many you’ve been in
\ncollege but you will need your Dean at
\ncollege and especially you know Hum Dil
\nI was able to to play and do good things
\nand they know where you live in college
\nyou know it’s one thing in in the pros
\nwhen you go and then you go back to your
\nhouse you know in a community but when
\nyou’re saying it when you play a Notre
\nDame they know you live at Siegfried
\nHall you know so people are coming by
\ngood times are being had and I really
\nneeded my Dean to continue so finally
\nhome do LA get to get to my junior end
\nof my junior year all these projections
\ncoming out a you’re going to be a number
\none pick you’re going to be a
\nfirst-round pick all this stuff and I
\nhave my first of what would be three
\nback surgeries and four surgeries total
\nin five years
\nso here I am now I have a back surgery
\nI’m like man I don’t know what I’m gonna
\ndo
\nI need my Dean again so I’ll continue to
\npray continue to pray God drafting the
\nthird round hamdulillah first week of
\npractice in the pros back went out again
\nI needed a second back surgery kept on
\nmy Dean kept on my Dean came back and I
\nthink I have probably the worst
\npreseason game in the
\nhistory to NFL when I finally came back
\nin one half I had three penalties two of
\nthem back to back two of which were
\nholding which is like the worst penalty
\nan offensive lineman could have and then
\nagain I just I knew I had my faith you
\nknow I knew I had the Dean and I just
\nkept praying I kept praying Allah I have
\nnothing I have nothing I fear nothing
\nbut you please guide me through this
\nplease give me opportunity again you
\nknow I’m doing a lot of that year went
\non to do good things
\nthen again I’m going through and I keep
\ntelling you this because it’s so
\nimportant to me that I’ve been able to
\nkeep my team but there were times when I
\nwent away and I don’t know if any of you
\nhave had that as well but there will be
\ntimes if you’re young that you will you
\nwill struggle but every time I struggle
\nsomething happened made that made me
\ncome back to the Dean and I would not be
\nstanding here today without that one of
\nthose things that I’ve been kind of
\nliving living it up a little bit you
\nknow doing my thing and also I was going
\nto the mall so I was hitting jhummer you
\nknow but I was still you know doing my
\nthing and literally I just I literally I
\nfeel something grabbed me on my couch
\nsaid if you do not stop you will go to
\nhell we all know who that was talking to
\nme
\nyou know you all know who that was that
\ngrabbed me so hum doing laughs I stopped
\nI stopped Connor with the we’re living
\nthe life now I’m doing a lot of the next
\nliterally the next week I met the woman
\nwho on July 7th will be my wife I met
\nher at a charity event cuz I wasn’t
\ndoing nothing I said I might as well go
\nto a charity event you know one of the
\nwooden otherway that I got kind of that
\nwater and then this this recently for me
\nI had gone to I finished my four years
\nat at the Denver Broncos and I was set
\nto make whatever amounts of money okay
\nand at that time it was important to me
\nI’m not gonna lie to y’all man making
\nmillions of dollars is important to me
\nit really was and for an unknown reason
\nliterally unknown
\nokay I’m traveling I’m doing my thing
\nhaving a good
\ntime my back gives out again I have to
\nhave my third back surgery people say to
\nme sometimes how do you know there’s a
\nguy said you think a man with three back
\nsurgeries be playing an NFL if God
\ndidn’t exist so here I am I’m waiting
\nfor the money I can’t wait for the money
\nand it doesn’t happen I decide for a
\nminimum contract okay have another back
\nsurgery and now I’m rehabbing and out
\nand you go home
\neverybody’s like so what’s going on with
\nyou what’s going what’s the deal you
\nknow I came back from that serve when I
\nday I got out of the surgery table I
\ncame home I said God I will not lose
\nfaith I will not lose faith in right
\nthere hours after my back surgery
\nI made some lockers it would not break
\nme it would not break me coming back
\nthrough that whole experience I’m alone
\nI’m working out I don’t know if you ever
\nhad anybody rehab an injury torn ACL
\nit’s a lonely time over there you’re
\njust doing little exercises so you can
\ngain an inch in a week or a rep in a
\nmonth
\nthat’s how slow you’re moving I prayed a
\nguy said god I pray I continue my faith
\nand I pray it that one day you’ll help
\nme and I will be back and just when it
\nwas as bleak as possible I go to the
\nMasjid I’m still going to Juma and that
\nin all of us have that time where it
\nsays hey give up it’s not working you
\nknow go something else I kept praying
\nand Hum do a lot of the Broncos signed
\nme back for two years and that’s where I
\nam today
\nso through my faith it’s just been a
\nblessing you know to start from a kid
\nwho had a silver chain to being here
\nspeaking in front of you guys today and
\nespecially for the youth I just
\nencourage you to stay on the Dean no
\nmatter where you are and make sure that
\nyou talk to somebody older somebody like
\nmyself or somebody in your community
\nbecause we all in here know the power of
\nallah subhanho wa taala
\nand I’m so blessed and happy and I’m so
\nhappy that I was able to share this
\nstory with you today so thank you very
\nmuch
\n[Applause]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
877-Why-Islam presents the story of Ryan Harris, an American football offensive tackle for the Houston Texans. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Notre Dame. Harris has also been a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n
Harris is a devout Muslim.Before finding his faith, he was raised in the church of Unitarian Universalism, at Unity Church Unitarian in St. Paul. Harris was drafted by the Denver Broncos as a 3rd round pick (70th overall) in the 2007 NFL draft. In the 2008 season, Harris only allowed 1.5 sacks on QB Jay Cutler.<\/p>\n
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Tax-Deductible Donation at http:\/\/www.whyislam.org\/donate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3515","testimonial","type-testimonial","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"thumbnail_link":"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/SmqQjNr_50M\/mqdefault.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesus-is-muslim.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonial\/3515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesus-is-muslim.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonial"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesus-is-muslim.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/testimonial"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesus-is-muslim.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesus-is-muslim.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesus-is-muslim.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}