Pedro's Conversion

Salaam

After Jummah today in Danbury, a Dominican male named Pedro made the best decision of his life,Alhamdullilah, by accepting the deen.

During the shahada, I could not help but to be in awe of the focus and humbleness in Pedro's face.  In fact, not just his face, but his entire body. As he recited -- very well -- the shahada in Arabic, taking cues from Shaykh Usman (Imam of the Danbury Masjid), his entire body was in submission to Allah.  Whether he consciously knew it or not, his head was lowered in acknowledgement, of both the seriousness of this new commitment as well as the honor of what his new commitment has blessed him with.  His body and the surrounding environment were all in prostration of the baraqa-filled moment.

Soon after the shahada was complete, Shaykh Usman began reciting a dua both in Arabic and English.  Brother Pedro was in tears; it was a touching moment and one that made you appreciate and reflect upon your own relationship with Allah.

After the dua came the ceremonious hugs.  I gave him a hug and congratulated him like everyone else; however, being loosely aware of the plight of new Muslims not having a significant support network, I told him that if he needs anything at all, let me know.  After praying our sunnahs, I went up to him again and asked him to take down my number and we started talking about how he converted.

My impression of him is that he's a welcoming, conversational type of guy who enjoys joking around.  Now onto his conversion story:

Before Pedro started reading anything about Islam, he happened to have a big beard. People would actually come up to him and ask him if he was Muslim, and he'd say that he wasn't and that his beard was long just because he was lazy.  Those questions and that lazy long beard, however, were perhaps the seeds that planted his acceptance.

One day, he was across the street from a masjid at a printing store with a friend who worked as a journalist.  Pedro happens to see the masjid across the street and decides to run in and ask about how he could learn more.  Someone gave him a copy of the Quran.

Soon thereafter, he started reading the Quran and, as is the miracle of the Quran, the words began to penetrate his heart.  Pedro asked me if I saw the movie Kingdom of Heaven (I did) and if I remembered the guy who played Salahuddin (yes).  He said he started to see someone who looked very much like that person in his dreams quite regularly.  He joked it off saying something along the lines of, "I'm not trying to say I'm some sort of visionary and if they ever wrote a book on me, should I hopefully be worthy and good enough of that, I could see how this could be blown out of proportion because people always like to hear a good story."

Nonetheless, that's how he converted, ma sha Allah.  These small things had propelled him towards Islam and the message was received and, ma sha Allah, accepted.  He had one more joke to offer me: "I became Muslim because I was lazy" referencing back to how he randomly had a long beard.  To offer a little more depth than that, he did remark about how it's amazing that the mundane, small things can really make you reflect, but how to people who don't buy into that, they just look at you with confusion.

Subhan Allah.  While on the surface, it sounds like a simple, kind of funny conversion of how someone came to the deen, but it's really quite profound.  Allah guided him before he even realized it and he,ma sha Allah, noticed these things to be able to do something about it.

I assure you, I'm not trying to indulge in bearing witness to Pedro bearing witness.  After talking to Pedro after Jummah, he probably would say himself, "Hey, don't over hype my story here, brother."  But this is what I really felt during the conversion.  Subhan Allah.  I actually felt reinvigorated in my own convictions and heart that, yes, our deen, our faith, is in fact truth itself manifested in every facet of creation.  We are at one with the universe when we submit ourselves to Allah and this was a reminder of that.

These are signs for those who reflect...

cheers