LONDON – A month ago, Yeohan Kim was model who enjoys fashion and lights.

Living in the UK since he was 4-years-old, his decision to revert to Islam came when he heard the adhan, the call to prayer, for the first time.

“There is a verse in the Quran that goes: ‘Through hardship there is a ease’,” Kim told Anadolu Agency.

“I got bullied a lot, and I was bulimic and I was self-harming. I heard the Adhan and I wondered what that was, it was call to prayer and it was quite healing.”

Raised as Catholic to parents who live now in Korea, he started searching and learned about Islam through Youtube videos.

He pronounced his Shahada, a mandatory declaration of faith to become Muslim, a month ago, a moment he described as starting “breathing again”.

“I feel more spiritual,” he says. “I only read the Bible at church on Sunday and prayed at church on Sunday.”

“I was not really into religion,” he adds.

“But now, since I have discovered Islam, […] when I pray, it is like giving thanks to [the Creator]. And I feel like when I am praying, I am not praying for material things. Whereas back in the day you just pray when you are in need.”

Observing his first Ramadan in hot summer, Kim said his only struggle was “lacking coffee”.

He also attended his first taraweeh prayer in the first night of Ramadan last Sunday.

“I had never been to Taraweeh Prayer,” he says.

“But on Sunday after the evening prayer they were getting ready for Taraweeh Prayer. I stayed because I thought it would be rude just to walk out. It was quite soothing,” Kim adds.

“I didn’t know how many rakats [prescribed gestures and words] it was after the third one I saw some brothers leaving so I left.”