I get asked this one question all the time and I never answer it. But I figured that today I’m going to take the time and answer it.

So what is the question?

The question is: How did you become Muslim? And why?

First of all, I want to say, I wish I had a very special story to tell you. I wish I could make you feel something amazing. But the fact is my story is very simple.

I learned about Islam through people. I’m not going to give their names and their stories or tell too much about them because everybody has a right to their private life.

And so I’m just going to say that I had learned about Islam from some adults of the time who were around me, who were learning about Islam coming in contact with people. And so that is how I got to learn about Muslims, I got to learn about Islam and I made friends. So that’s how it happened for me.

Why did I become a Muslim?

All I remember is having nothing up to that point. You know, I really didn’t have a religion at all. I grew up without one. I grew up without pretty much anything. And it felt like I was asleep.

With Islam, I started questioning, I started thinking about things. You know, that people at that age really usually don’t think about. They’re more concerned with MTV and Lady Gaga… They’re concerned about pop culture and their peers.

But for me it’s like my eyes started opening and I started to wake up. And I started to see Islam and I got to see that people can be good.

Up to that point of my life, I had only known family and friends and people to be something bad who didn’t care about me, who didn’t care about anything who didn’t care about the world.

You know, they didn’t care about having virtues. They didn’t think modesty was important. They didn’t think that being a good person was okay.

I grew up in a place where if people could do wrong, they would do wrong.

Read: Why Do I Consider Islam as the Most Perfect Religion?

Islam taught me that people could be good. And Islam showed me that I could be good too.

And that holding out for good things in your life and saying no to these bad choices, or these bad opportunities is worth it.

That is important to do that. So that’s why I love to be a Muslim. And that’s why I chose Islam.

My Shahadah was a very simple thing. It was with a few people in a room. And that was it. There was no celebration, there was no gifts… which Alhamdulillah, I’m so thankful for that. Because it meant something to me that I came to Islam in such a clean sincere way that it wasn’t full of all that attention.

And so that’s my story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMSDQKAHTs