Why would a Persian boy change?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

“Alif Laam Raa. A book which we have revealed to you (Muhammad) so that you may lead the people from out of the darknesses into the light by their Lord’s leave to the path of the All-Mighty, the Praiseworthy.” [14:1]

Struggle is the father of all things, virtue lies in blood, leadership is primary and decisive.I have dedicated my story of Islam and struggle to shed light into understanding Persians and Shiats which I hope it will help the searchers of truth.

There are perfect lessons in Quran, Hadiths and the lives of the companion of the Messenger of God “Mohammad” (May the peace and blessing be upon him). But due to recent political situations around the world concerning Sunni-Shiat fights, arguments and quarrels, I felt that maybe I should break my silence and let the world know the truth.

My name is Abubakr and I come from a middle class family in Iran. I grew up under the secular style of life and ideology. When I was in Iran, my parents use to train me to love the former king of Iran “SHAH”, to avoid religion and to love the west.

During my school years in Iran, we had to study the shiat version of Islam at the public schools, and I mean the pressured way of religious studies whether we liked it or not.

Time passed until mid-eighties, when I became a big fan of western rock stars like Michel Jackson and other famous singers. I used to think that this is the coolest thing to do at those times.

My parents used to feel worried about me that maybe one day the government extremist may arrest me for being pro-western and send me to war against Iraq as it was common in those days for kids to be recruited to fight the war in Iraq.

So they decided to migrate to the land of freedom where we all can be safe and happy. Therefore the ideal country for this purpose was United States where we could start a new life and live with those who have the same ideology as we did. But something was about to happen to me which was a shock to everyone and not just to my family members.

When I arrived to United States, I felt very happy as the luckiest man in the world. But after sometime I started feeling homesick and went in to depression .

I started to feel dark inside as if I could feel my heart tightened, Allah mentions in the Quran that:

فَمَن يُرِدِ اللّهُ أَن يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلإِسْلاَمِ وَمَن يُرِدْ أَن يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّمَاء كَذَلِكَ يَجْعَلُ اللّهُ الرِّجْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ

“And whomsoever God wills to guide, He opens his chest to Islam and whomsoever He wills to let go astray, he makes his chest to be tight and constricted, as if he is climbing up to the sky: This way God puts the anger on those who don’t believe”.(6:125)
(Persian Translation) :

آن كس را كه خدا بخواهد هدايت كند، سينه‏اش را براى (پذيرش) اسلام، گشاده مى سازد; و آن كس را كه بخاطر اعمال خلافش بخواهد گمراه سازد، سينه‏اش را آنچنان تنگ مى‏كند كه گويا مى‏خواهد به آسمان بالا برود; اين گونه خداوند پليدى را بر افرادى كه ايمان نمى‏آورند قرار مى‏دهد

One day when I got out of the shower and I looked at the Quran in my closet, I suddenly remembered what my teacher said to us when I was at school in Iran. He was my religious teacher in the public school who said:” If you want to respect the Quran, you will respect it by reading it”, this saying ringed in my head as soon as I gazed my eyes to the closet where I had a Quran with Persian translation.

So I picked up my Quran and sat on my bed. I told myself, let Allah choose a page for me, so I just opened it and started reading.

I didn’t have a good tajweed or proper Quranic recitation but I tried to read from what they thought us at the school in Iran and then read the Persian translation.

Then suddenly when I was reading it, my head felt light and I felt peace in my heart as if someone threw a water to extinguish the fire. Such a strange feeling of tranquility! This was my first time that I actually was reading the Quran for myself and not for getting a good grade at the school in Iran, it felt a huge difference. After I opened the Quran and started reading it, I came across this verse:

إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا فَأُوْلَئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ اللَّهُ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ حَسَنَاتٍ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا

“Except those who repent and believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous deeds; as for such, Allah will change their sins to good deeds. Allah is ever Forgiving,Merciful.(25:70).

(Persian Translation):

مگر كسانى كه توبه كنند و ايمان آورند و عمل صالح انجام دهند، كه خداوند گناهان آنان را به حسنات مبدل مى‏كند; و خداوند همواره آمرزنده و مهربان بوده است

I was filled with hope and felt that this is the best deal that I can get. I started reading more and more. But sadly, I didn’t know how to perform the five daily Muslim prayers or how to fast due to my dislike of learning Islam in the past when I was in Iran. But since I didn’t know much about Islam but the Shia Islam,I did what I could in order to get closer to Allah.

My father got so worried that he sent me to YMCA or the fanatic Christian camp which they tried to convert me to Christianity but it did not work since I knew the truth and that Allah was with me.

A year passed and I use to go to the market in the weekends and in the market, for the first time, I saw a Suni Muslim. After I came to know that he was a Sunni Muslim ,I assumed that since all the Sunnis are kafir (infidel) therefore I have the obligation of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil by converting him to Shiaism.

But as the shiat guidelines of how to hang around Sunnis, I used the art of Tuqiah or in an easy translation “The Art of Hypocrisy”, which meant that when we meet the Sunnis we say” we all are Muslims, brothers, believing one book and should be united but when we go back to our shiat brethren, we call them kafir.

One day when I was debating him about Shias and Sunnis, and I asked him if the Sunnis say in their Adhan that Omar or Abubakr are the friends of god as the shias do with Ali “I bear witness that Ali is the friend of god, I bear witness that Ali is the proof of God” and he responded no, that in those days these issues and problems about who should be the first caliph and etc didn’t exist that is why this new innovation didn’t exist in the time of the prophet Mohammad(saw).

Mystery of Adhan

This point is where I started to think about the authenticity of the Shiats. This is where I discovered how they have changed Islam and added their own. So if one thing is massed up, what about the rest? Obviously one thing led to other. Therefore I ask, from where are the shias coming from if there was no Shia in the time of Prophet Mohammad? Aren’t we the Muslims suppose to follow the Prophet?

The sunis & shias believe that Ali (Radiallahu anhu) was a great friend of God. But this don’t mean that we have the right to change the Adhan or Azan of Prophet Mohammad. Even Ali (RA) during his caliphate did not do this. For instance, Imam Hasan and Huseen were also the friends of God, therefore why we don’t witness about them in Adhan as well? Or why don’t we include the complete list of all prophets in the Adhan and witness them being the friend of God? Aren’t the Prophets of God, higher statue than the companions or the household of prophet Mohammad (saw)? This innovation started in the tenth century after hijra in the time of King Ismail the Safavid Dynasty. The shia scholars say that this is the sign of the shias in the world. But neither Ali (RA) nor anyone of Ahle bait believed in this kind of Adhan having “Ash-hadu ana Alian waliullah” and “Haya ala khairul amal”. We should make Adhan according to Prophet Mohammad time, the way Bilal (RA) did with his blessed voice. So let’s go back to the root, the true Islam. If it is the love of Ahul-bait or the household of Prophet, then the sunis believe in it as well but they don’t worship them.

Lets get back to our story, After he told me that about the Adhan then this made me curious, hit me like an arrow and I started asking myself, that if it didn’t exist in the prophet time, then where did it come from and why? Why do we shias beat ourselves injure ourselves in the day of Ashura, when suicide and hurting ourselves are forbidden in Islam.

I went and bought a book about knowing Islam in Persian written by a Sunni Iranian and learned a summary of the caliphate of Abubakr, Omar, Othman and Ali (May Allah be please with them). There was logical Islamic explanation for their election as the Khalifah or the caliph of Islam. For first time in my entire life, I came across hadith about Abubakr ,Omar and Othman (RA):

From Sahih Muslim, Jundub narrates: I heard the Prophet (sas) five days before his death saying:

“I declare my innocence before Allah that I should have any bosom friend among you for Allah Most High has taken me as His friend just as He took Ibrahim as His friend. If I were to take any bosom friend from my nation I would take AbuBakr. Listen! Those who came before you took the graves of their prophets and their righteous ones as places of worship. Listen! Do not take graves as places of worship. I forbid you that.”

Or in the case of Omar & Othman (RA):

Narrated Abu Musa: That he was in the company of the Prophet in one of the gardens of Medina and in the hand of the Prophet there was a stick, and he was striking (slowly) the water and the mud with it. A man came (at the gate of the garden) and asked permission to enter. The Prophet said, “Open the gate for him and give him the glad tidings of entering Paradise.”I went, and behold! It was AbuBakr. So I opened the gate for him and informed him of the glad tidings of entering Paradise. Then another man came and asked permission to enter. The Prophet said “Open the gate for him and give him the glad tidings of entering Paradise.” Behold! It was Omar. So I opened the gate for him and gave him the glad tidings of entering Paradise. Then another man came and asked permission to enter. The Prophet was sitting in a leaning posture, so he sat up and said, “Open the gate for him and give him the glad tidings of entering Paradise with a calamity which will befall him or which will take place.” I went, and behold! It was Uthman. So I opened the gate for him and gave him the glad tidings of entering Paradise and also informed him of what the Prophet had said (about a calamity). ‘Uthman said, “Allah Alone Whose Help I seek (against that calamity). [Bukhari]

I was shocked, not even as a joke I expected to see our prophet praising them. But here it was our prophet saying “if I choose a friend, I will choose Abubakr as a friend” or Omar who was given the title of Al-Farooq which means the one who separate the right from wrong, or Othman whom our prophet (saw)said” if I have another daughter , I would have married her to him”. I didn’t even know that Ali (RA) used to love and defend the first three caliphs of Islam and they used to love him as well.

So after I found out that I was living in darkness, I decided that it is time for me to enter the true Islam, the original Islam, or return to the fundamentals.

A week before I become a Sunni, I saw my beloved prophet Mohammad (saw) in a dream. In the dream, I was running away from a crusader and went to this place and closed the door. Then I saw a road in the galaxy coming down towards my direction. I opened the door and it was Prophet Mohammad (saw). I saw him in a green turban as if it was real life and not a dream. In the coming weekend I went to my Palestinian friend in the market and asked him “How can I become a Sunni?” he said: You are a Sunni!

It was a challenge for me as a young teenage boy entering Islam. I didn’t know what was Tawheed or Monotheism,because the shia tawheed or idea of monotheism is like Mushrikin or (pagans),they believe in the opposite, for example, they say that if you ask Allah via 12 Imams is better than you ask Allah directly, so they make shirk and partnership to Allah like some sufis. So I thought that now I must ask the first 4 caliphs of Islam for help or to use them like the shiat Imams as wasitah.

It took me time to realize that this is a major sin in Islam and that it will kick the person out of Islam. Also their prayer, so I didn’t even know how to pray or fast, etc.

At one of the parties I met a so called Muslim who told me that there was a mosque in that city so I got the direction and got on my bicycle looking for the mosque.

After finding the mosque which was a humble house in those days, for first time in my life since my arrival to United States, I entered a mosque. I was so happy that I felt, this is my new home.

I met many Muslims from different countries and it was so beautiful. I found a lot of good friends who used to help me and give me ride to the mosque if they see me walking in street. This is how I started learning about Islam.

But my hardest exam from Allah was about to start.

At first I used to hide my Islam and my connection to the mosque from my parents. Even when I read the Quran, my mother used to check on me in my room, I use to pull my school book forward from underneath my bed, and when she use to leave, I pulled my Quran back again. But this secret was not about to last for ever.

It blew up when one of my parent friends found out from the same so called Muslim who told me about the mosque, but sadly this brother left his religion and turned the fire on me.

I had my Quraish who were the secularist Iranians and my parents uniting against me turning this into a serious and big issue. As Allah said in the Quran:

أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُون

“Do the people think that they will be left to say, We believe,without being put to the test? [29:2]

Obviously my people and parents made many attempts to make me leave the religion but Allah was with me. This is the way of prophets and the men of God and that is to be beaten, imprisoned, tortured, deported and killed for the sake of their creator. My life is nothing compared to their hardship. Scholars say that those who think that after their Islam, they will not be tested are only imagining.
As far as my parents, they were still my parents; I had to respect them and have patience, listening to them as long as they don’t order me to do Haram. May Allah forgive them and guide them.

According to my experience, one of the biggest test that can happen to any Muslim is that someone or some government take away his/her freedom of practicing Islam. That is when the life has no meaning and that is when the believers are willing to fight and to die, no matter how powerful the enemy may seem to be. As a matter of fact, they are strengthening his/her faith.

Dear SHIAS: Remember that you will meet your lord one day and that you will be questioned for your actions. Therefore take the opportunity now and change. Accept the way of our prophet, don’t do what pleases people or anyone else, do what pleases Allah. Just because our parents follow the falsehood, don’t mean that we do the same.

(The truth must be told even if it is against ourselves). The founder of revolution “Khomeini” had his positives & negatives,whether in AQIDAH or actions just like many others.But I must admit that if he was alive today, we may not have had all these problems and killings in Iraq. He memorized the Quran when he was a young boy,fought against the Russian invaders in Iran in the early 19th century when he was 14 years old, and spent a life time of struggle to establish an Islamic state. He was very famous for his night prayers “Tahajud” and defense of different issues in Islam like talking against the Salman Rushdi book, noticing that the book was insulting the wife of prophet “Ayesha” when the so called Muslim leaders of those time did not dare to say anything . Where are the Iranian Ayatullahs or the Muslim leaders today to condemn and take actions against those who offend our prophet in a movie or cartoon drawings? Not even the king of Saudi Arabia dares to say anything, a king without a crown! Khomeini brought back the Friday prayer in Iran,shut down the brothels for prostitution, restored hijab, and many other good works. Many of the fanatic shias from Iraq,Lebanon,Pakistan,etc nor the Sunis don’t really know the history of Iran (1900-present) nor the biography of Imam Khomeiny in details.

At the same time khomeini had his mistakes about some of the companions of the prophet, oppressing the Sunnies in Iran,some false ideologies and other issues due to the fact that he was the victim of misleading books and teachers. His problem was the fact that he spent years in studying philosophy which even the Byzantine empire in the past was afraid of its deviations.

The Arab and western world united against Imam Khomeini, not because of dislike against Shiaism in those days since they really did not know or care much about sects. But because they were afraid of Islamic revival. Therefore ,they supported the Saddam who was following the kufr ideology of Ba’ath party when Khomeini was calling them to unite under one flag and that they could stay as leader as long as the rule of Allah is implemented. This is the same ruling in Sunnah.

Nationalism & Racism are social poison that must be eradicated. Khomeini did not ask them to become shia, it was very seldom to see him talking about Shiaism but instead he used to focus most of his speeches on the actual Islam. Khomeini was shocked to see how the Arab leaders betrayed him when he was doing them a big favor by being against Israel. At the end, Allah justice was fair and smooth, the same Arab leaders who were supporting Saddam to kill innocent people were punished by the same man by invading Kuwait who use to spend billions of dollars free give aways to him . At the end, everyone met his fate as we all witnessed.

That is fine if you don’t chose to be a suni but at least reform your beliefs. Start with Tawheed , stop praying to the dead people,saints,graves and etc. Pray directly to Allah alone for your needs . Love and respect the Companion of the prophet. Remember that every true suni is the Shia of Ali and loves ahle bait as well . Remember that Ali and his two son Hasan and Husein (may allah be pleased with all of them) were the strong supporters and defenders of Othman (RA)the third caliph of Islam. Remember the reasons that Imam Husein stood up and fought for; He fought against the bida’h in order to restore the Sunnah .

Remember that all the wives of the God prophets through the history were protected from adultery including our beloved prophet Mohammad (may the peace be upon all of them).The prophet Nuh(Noah) and Lut(Lot) wives did not believe in the message of Allah but they never committed adultery. Because this is the honor of prophets and God protects their honor. Therefore, how would someone dare to accuse the wife of Prophet Mohammad “AYESHA” for something that even Allah sent a verse in the Quran (ch.Noor) proving her innocence? and top of that all the wives of our prophet are called the mother of believers. That is why accusing Ayesha is considered kufr because of denying the verse in the Quran. Denying any verse in the Quran is considered to be kufr by both Shias and Sunis.

Remember that neither Shias can kill all the Sunies nor the Sunnies can kill all the shias. Therefore if we don’t agree with each other then we should live in peace,respect for human life and mature dialog.

Your guidance is not in my hand , I do my job as enjoining good and forbidding evil and the rest is up to Allah and your choice. If your excuse is that we should follow our forefathers , then pay attention again, how many times in Quran you read verses about prophets coming and telling their people about believing in God and they responded that they follow whatever their fathers did.

If you are afraid of public and what they may say about you , then remember that when you die, they are never there to help you from Allah. Remember that you are not going to be asked in your grave for what they do nor are they going to be asked about you. Stick to the truth even if the entire world is against it.

My dear Persians: Do not hate Islam because of the government behaviors since they are not prophet Mohammad nor the walking Quran. Do not use them as an excuse to follow Satan. All these Iranian satellite channels that curse and lie about Islam 24/7 under different political names are nothing but liars and thieves who are just making money (That is why I don’t belong to any political or religious group because most of the Iran political groups are crooks fooling the people to join them for worldly gain).The Islam should not become the topic of public criticism, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master.

If the Muslims continue to do their duty and follow the valiant Prophet Mohammad as an example and give their life for Islam, then the whole world will be shattered in its assault against us. Then, at the end of this struggle, a Muslim victory must come and we will enjoy our proud good fortune.

The only thing that we should not be able to bear would be the weakness of our Muslim nation. What makes me very happy and proud is the dedication of the Muslims in their greatest distress that they showed in its hardest character. In this era every individual Muslim should remember that it is his duty to sacrifice all for Islam and its preservation for centuries to come.

Whoever suffers must know that many Muslims have lost more than he/she. The life that is left to us should serve only one task-namely, to make up for all the wrongs done by the deviant sects and religions to our nation. It must be our unshakable will to think of victory of Islam alone until our last breath. Man after man, woman after woman, in towns and in the countries, we shall live only for the task of liberating our nations from this distress and reconstruct Islamic Caliphate.

May Allah grant me and Muslims steadfast and I ask him husnul khatimah or a good ending. “Ameen”
For more information about Shias please visit:
www.ansar.org

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