Mahdi Bray .. Imam of American Muslims

2. Mahdi Bray tells his story saying
during my studying days in my collage, a
Pakistani friend gave me a copy of
.English translated Qur'an
It was covered with a plastic bag and he
.told me: this Book will help you
I’ll give it to you but promise
me with one thing,,
so what did he promised
him? and how did he repent
..?from Christianity to Islam

3. I was a Christian, that’s true. I lived my childhood in a system
seemed . to be like the apartheid in South Africa
And though I was a Christian, they separated between black
and white people in the church as black Christians wasn’t
.accepted
This racism had a big influence on my as a child. My
house used to be thrown with rocks by a racist group
who was against the presence of black people in the
city. Due to that my whole life has all become about
social integrity and I’ve visited many places looking for
.justice
The civil rights movement in the church, African Nationalism,
Left Socialists and others. Finally, I started thinking about
capitalism when I started my work in Rock and Roll music

4. I’ve learned many things by joining these
organizations. Even though, I felt an empty
space in my heart, and this space ended
when I was working in rock music with Rock
. and Roll stars
I’ve got a lot of money and I had
.an enormous fortune
. Still, my deeps stayed empty

5. during my studying days in my collage, a Pakistani friend gave
me a copy of English translated Qur'an. It was covered with a
plastic bag and he told me: this Book will help you. I’ll give it to
you but promise me with one thing; wash your hands before
reading it and put in a clean place, don’t enter the bathroom
while having it and don’t left . it or put it in the floor
And I promised him so. He also gave me “Yusuf Ali”
translations for Qur'an meanings and I took it with me in all the
. places for about seven years
When I was in my job in music, I
used to read it from time to
,,,another
but it’s words hadn’t
passed through my heart
.yet

6. In a day in 1972, I stood before the mirror and I looked at myself
remembering that little child. I started thinking with the things
my parents have taught me. Honesty, integrity, respecting
women and modesty, I lost them all, my heart was totally void
but somehow it was missing something. So
I opened Yusuf Ali translation for Qur'an meanings, opened
Surah number 55, Arrahman
:and there I read verse seven which says,
[ {وَ}السَّمَمَ}ا ءرَ}فَ}عَ}هَ}ا وَ}وَ}ضَ}عَ} الْممِيزيززَ}انَ}} [الرحمن: 7
And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the
(Balance) of Justice
!…felt like stones falling over my head
There I knew that, justice doesn’t come from
Martin Luther King, not from Chi Guevara nor
.Malcolm X or any one of these
..JJuussttiiccee,, ccoommeess ffrroomm AAllllaahh

7. And I wanted to be involved in this justice. I
escaped with myself to The Forgiving God. I
:didn’t know how to say
La Elaha Ella-Allah
”There’s no God but Allah
.I just said: Oh God, I want to be a Muslim

8. So I continued reading Surat Arrahman,
and I found in it such great blessings
from The Almighty. How can we praise
?His Blessings
I started crying. Not because I was upset, but due to
all these wonderful things I found., I found
Islam! . And I’m a Muslim from 30 years now
Actually I haven’t found Al-Islam, but Allah SWT has
guided me to it. There was no place in America to teach it
because in that time, Islam was still humble in there and
there were no masjids. So, I started reading books. At
first, I was transliterating Arabian letter into English, like
,saying “Astagfirollaha” than saying
أستغفر ال

9. At the end, I went to an Islamic Center
in Washington, the biggest Masjid
there. It was a day of Eid Al-Fitr and I
didn’t know the meaning of “Eid”.
Everyone was shouting “Eid Mubarak”!
I though there’re saying “Eat Mubarak”.
I didn’t get what they meant, I thought
” !!they’re saying “Blessed Food
. And that’s, my story with Islam

10. Text source : Islam … story web site
www.Islamstory.com
:- Prepared by
Translation Campaign Team
www.facebook.com/translation.campain
2012