Part 3
…Qur’an speaks directly to your heart in a way that nothing else does
In my heart, I knew that I was going to become Muslim. But I said, I have to do my due diligence. I don’t want to just have this be an emotional reaction, because I was very emotional. And I was like, I don’t want this just to be an emotional reaction. So I need to make sure I understand what I’m doing. And so I went and I talked to the person that he talked to. But I was already much further along than the process than he was. So I wasn’t going there for him to convince me because I already was convinced. It was just a case of what about this, and what about that? And I just had a lot of questions. So I heard this, and is this true and whatever. So it wasn’t like till four in the morning. I mean, there was a series, he already knew my brother. So by the end of that I knew that I had become Muslim. And it’s a process. I mean, it’s almost like you can see your ultimate destination at that point, but you’re not there yet. You still have a lot of work to do; it’s a process you have to go through. But that was the point where I realized, yeah, I’m going to be Muslim. And this is the right religion. And it was through that experience.
And then obviously, I gave up music, same thing with him [my brother]. I just didn’t, all the things, and that’s what I was telling you about. Sometimes I wish that I had a recorder or I’d go back there and remember what it was like, because so many of the things that were so appealing to me before they don’t appeal to me at all anymore. I work in a company where I’m around non-Muslims, and I get invited all the time, oh, why don’t you come with us to the bar? Why don’t you go to the restaurant with us, and you know, drink, whatever. And even when I see people doing that, it just makes me sick. And I feel sorry for those people. I don’t feel like it’s something even if I was allowed to do, it doesn’t appeal to me anymore. Playing music and going to concerts and going to clubs and all this other stuff. It just, what immediately happened was all of the fascination and appeal of those activities just like faded away. I didn’t have any interest in that anymore.
I had an interest in developing a relationship with God, with learning about the religion. And I spent years and years and years reading books and learning about it, but that was the genesis of the whole thing was that experience. Its strange how, at least for me, and my brother kind of said this too, for me, when I recognize the truth, I had no choice but to follow it. I couldn’t… like, right now, I mean even at that point, and I feel the same way today, even if I wanted to not follow Islam, I couldn’t. I could pretend I didn’t believe in it. Like if somebody said, I’m going to chop your head off unless you say you don’t believe in Islam, of course, I could say that, but nowhere in my heart is that true. And in no way for any reward or any, whatever benefit, because we’ve suffered a lot as Muslims, you know, we have gone through a lot of difficult times.
We were rejected by our family, were rejected by our friends, by our peers, I’ve lost jobs because of it, I’ve lost a lot of friends because of it, etc. So we did go through a lot of hardship. But at no time did I feel like I had a choice to follow Islam or not. And that was never a question, because when I recognize the truth, what are you going to do? I mean, it’s as clear as the sun in the sky. So no matter how much you don’t want to believe the sun exists, it’s still going to be there when you wake up in the morning, regardless. So what are you going to do? You just have to accept it. So I mean, yes, I had the ego. And yes, I did think at some point, I considered my options, but it really wasn’t an option for me to not follow. It was just a question of, when your friends ask you, well, how come you don’t want to go drinking with them, what are you going to say? And, when people say this, what are you going to do in this situation?
The surah I think about the most is Surat Aal-Imran, because it talks about the real story of Jesus. So for me, all of the things in that surah are things that I thought probably had to have been true even before I read the Qur’an. So the image of Jesus that I had in my mind, and the stories that I thought of this is probably how it happened, even though nobody told me that, I found all of those stories in that surah.
Just when it talks about the story of Hazrat Maryam (s.a), and how the birth of Hazrt Isa (a.s), and how, especially the part that says God has made me kind to my mother and has made me… and blessings on me the day that I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I will be raised up again. And the way that Hazrat Isa (a.s) talked to his mother and the way…… because in Christianity, it’s a very weird thing about…. you have the story in one of the Gospels with the feast of Canaan, where he says to his mother, woman, go away from me and you think a Prophet, somebody like Jesus would never talk to his mother like that.
And the beautiful examples you have, I mean, it’s throughout the Qur’an, but especially in that story of the relationship between Hazrat Maryam (s.a) and Hazrat Isa (a.s), and the way that relationship is explained, it’s a beautiful picture of what you would imagine a Prophet would be like, and they call it a surah in the Qur’an is a picture. So when you read those stories, you get a mental picture of what the Prophet was like, almost to the point you can see him. And those were the most amazing parts because the image that it had in the Qur’an was fit with the image in my mind that I always had.
One interesting story was, one of the guys that was in the band with us, his name was Mike. He, initially when we…..obviously both of us became Muslim, the band broke up. So, for a long time, we lost him as a friend because, you know, whatever, and he was Catholic. But then actually, over time, we actually kind of reconnected and he eventually became Muslim. So, and I think it had to do with our, and he’s actually still Muslim, married to a Muslim woman, he has kids. So there are stories like that.
I’m not going to say what company but I worked for a large company before 9/11. You know, now I’m pretty much doing taqiyyah. Before 911, I was pretty open about the fact that I was Muslim. And, people told me that you’re never going to go anywhere in this company, because you’re Muslim, and they eventually fired me, they found an excuse to fire me. So I mean, those kind of things happen. But, of course, those things are nothing compared with the joy that you get from being a Muslim and living as a Muslim and progressing spiritually.
The person that’s found Allah, has found Islam, whatever else he lost, because of that is nothing, it’s inconsequential. And the people who have everything, but they don’t have Islam, what do they have?
So no matter what you lose, you’re not losing anything of value. But I’ve lost, we’ve lost. I married my wife, we’ve been married for 13 years alhamdulillah, to a woman from the south of Lebanon. And we have three kids Zaynab, Ali and Mahdi. I decided that I wanted to marry somebody who was Muslim, who was Shia. Alhamdulillah it’s beautiful, and it’s based on how Islam teaches you to treat your wife and how Islam teaches her to treat her husband, so you can’t go wrong with that, so alhamdulillah.
To be continued…
May 22 2025
Conversion Story by “Ali Smart” – Part 3
Part 3
…Qur’an speaks directly to your heart in a way that nothing else does
In my heart, I knew that I was going to become Muslim. But I said, I have to do my due diligence. I don’t want to just have this be an emotional reaction, because I was very emotional. And I was like, I don’t want this just to be an emotional reaction. So I need to make sure I understand what I’m doing. And so I went and I talked to the person that he talked to. But I was already much further along than the process than he was. So I wasn’t going there for him to convince me because I already was convinced. It was just a case of what about this, and what about that? And I just had a lot of questions. So I heard this, and is this true and whatever. So it wasn’t like till four in the morning. I mean, there was a series, he already knew my brother. So by the end of that I knew that I had become Muslim. And it’s a process. I mean, it’s almost like you can see your ultimate destination at that point, but you’re not there yet. You still have a lot of work to do; it’s a process you have to go through. But that was the point where I realized, yeah, I’m going to be Muslim. And this is the right religion. And it was through that experience.
And then obviously, I gave up music, same thing with him [my brother]. I just didn’t, all the things, and that’s what I was telling you about. Sometimes I wish that I had a recorder or I’d go back there and remember what it was like, because so many of the things that were so appealing to me before they don’t appeal to me at all anymore. I work in a company where I’m around non-Muslims, and I get invited all the time, oh, why don’t you come with us to the bar? Why don’t you go to the restaurant with us, and you know, drink, whatever. And even when I see people doing that, it just makes me sick. And I feel sorry for those people. I don’t feel like it’s something even if I was allowed to do, it doesn’t appeal to me anymore. Playing music and going to concerts and going to clubs and all this other stuff. It just, what immediately happened was all of the fascination and appeal of those activities just like faded away. I didn’t have any interest in that anymore.
I had an interest in developing a relationship with God, with learning about the religion. And I spent years and years and years reading books and learning about it, but that was the genesis of the whole thing was that experience. Its strange how, at least for me, and my brother kind of said this too, for me, when I recognize the truth, I had no choice but to follow it. I couldn’t… like, right now, I mean even at that point, and I feel the same way today, even if I wanted to not follow Islam, I couldn’t. I could pretend I didn’t believe in it. Like if somebody said, I’m going to chop your head off unless you say you don’t believe in Islam, of course, I could say that, but nowhere in my heart is that true. And in no way for any reward or any, whatever benefit, because we’ve suffered a lot as Muslims, you know, we have gone through a lot of difficult times.
We were rejected by our family, were rejected by our friends, by our peers, I’ve lost jobs because of it, I’ve lost a lot of friends because of it, etc. So we did go through a lot of hardship. But at no time did I feel like I had a choice to follow Islam or not. And that was never a question, because when I recognize the truth, what are you going to do? I mean, it’s as clear as the sun in the sky. So no matter how much you don’t want to believe the sun exists, it’s still going to be there when you wake up in the morning, regardless. So what are you going to do? You just have to accept it. So I mean, yes, I had the ego. And yes, I did think at some point, I considered my options, but it really wasn’t an option for me to not follow. It was just a question of, when your friends ask you, well, how come you don’t want to go drinking with them, what are you going to say? And, when people say this, what are you going to do in this situation?
The surah I think about the most is Surat Aal-Imran, because it talks about the real story of Jesus. So for me, all of the things in that surah are things that I thought probably had to have been true even before I read the Qur’an. So the image of Jesus that I had in my mind, and the stories that I thought of this is probably how it happened, even though nobody told me that, I found all of those stories in that surah.
Just when it talks about the story of Hazrat Maryam (s.a), and how the birth of Hazrt Isa (a.s), and how, especially the part that says God has made me kind to my mother and has made me… and blessings on me the day that I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I will be raised up again. And the way that Hazrat Isa (a.s) talked to his mother and the way…… because in Christianity, it’s a very weird thing about…. you have the story in one of the Gospels with the feast of Canaan, where he says to his mother, woman, go away from me and you think a Prophet, somebody like Jesus would never talk to his mother like that.
And the beautiful examples you have, I mean, it’s throughout the Qur’an, but especially in that story of the relationship between Hazrat Maryam (s.a) and Hazrat Isa (a.s), and the way that relationship is explained, it’s a beautiful picture of what you would imagine a Prophet would be like, and they call it a surah in the Qur’an is a picture. So when you read those stories, you get a mental picture of what the Prophet was like, almost to the point you can see him. And those were the most amazing parts because the image that it had in the Qur’an was fit with the image in my mind that I always had.
One interesting story was, one of the guys that was in the band with us, his name was Mike. He, initially when we…..obviously both of us became Muslim, the band broke up. So, for a long time, we lost him as a friend because, you know, whatever, and he was Catholic. But then actually, over time, we actually kind of reconnected and he eventually became Muslim. So, and I think it had to do with our, and he’s actually still Muslim, married to a Muslim woman, he has kids. So there are stories like that.
I’m not going to say what company but I worked for a large company before 9/11. You know, now I’m pretty much doing taqiyyah. Before 911, I was pretty open about the fact that I was Muslim. And, people told me that you’re never going to go anywhere in this company, because you’re Muslim, and they eventually fired me, they found an excuse to fire me. So I mean, those kind of things happen. But, of course, those things are nothing compared with the joy that you get from being a Muslim and living as a Muslim and progressing spiritually.
The person that’s found Allah, has found Islam, whatever else he lost, because of that is nothing, it’s inconsequential. And the people who have everything, but they don’t have Islam, what do they have?
So no matter what you lose, you’re not losing anything of value. But I’ve lost, we’ve lost. I married my wife, we’ve been married for 13 years alhamdulillah, to a woman from the south of Lebanon. And we have three kids Zaynab, Ali and Mahdi. I decided that I wanted to marry somebody who was Muslim, who was Shia. Alhamdulillah it’s beautiful, and it’s based on how Islam teaches you to treat your wife and how Islam teaches her to treat her husband, so you can’t go wrong with that, so alhamdulillah.
To be continued…
By english • Chronicles of the converted to Shia • 0 • Tags: Ali Smart, conversion story, converted to Islam, Converted to Shia, Holy Quran, Mostabserin