never before in my life i encountered such a beautiful thing.last night,myself altogether with the rest of the people in that very hall,witnessed a non-muslim being converted into a muslim.

my neighbourhood held an open talk on islam at the dewan near my house and it was open for anybody including non-muslims.the person who gave the talk whose name is sheikh yusof estes ,is a convert himself.he hails from texas and has been a muslim since 1991 and has been giving islam-related talks around the world ever since.and believe me,he is a funny,funny man which made the talk more interesting and not boring.it amazes me to see a white old man with a texan accent talking about something i could religously relate to.for a white man to clearly speak verses and verses of surahs from the quran,and telling you of the importance of 'hafazan'.i bet each and every one of us in the hall last night felt a burden of shame in ourselves when we were asked "how many of you in here have memorize the quran?" and nobody, not even a single soul of the majority of muslims in that dewan raised a hand.i could see the dissapointment in sheikh yusof estes and he then says "what is wrong with you guys?" ,expression full of distraught.that sure does ring a bell to us doesn't it.

people were allowed to write questions and then were read and answered by him at the end of his talk.some of the questions that i remembered was "does a muslim have to wear a hijab?" , "do muslim men have to grow a beard","where is allah?".lastly,he read out the last piece of paper and it read,"i believe in god,and i believe that muhammad is his messenger.but can i worship god in my own way?".he asks if the person could stand up and called him to sit up front.sheikh asked a few questions to the man who claimed to be 26 years old and wasn't a muslim yet at that point.sheikh then told each and every the rukun islam to the man and asked him "can you do all that?" and he nodded in interest.me and the other 200 people in the hall just watched and listened in full concentration,everyone went completely silent.lastly,sheikh recited the kalimah syahadah and the man repeated it and he automatically became a ligitimate muslim.i was on the edge of my seat and nearly cried,seriously.people cheered and somebody let out a loud "allahuakbar".

i don't know about you guys,but i am so amaze by this that i can't stop thinking about it.i felt lucky to be one of the witnesses of such thing and i am very glad i came.may the man who just converted,become a good muslim.insyaallah.