168K subscribers
25,497 views·
This is me and my father. But we weren’t always like this. Two long beards. Two people who, at first glance, look visibly committed to Islam. In fact, if you had met us years ago, this would probably be one of the last outcomes you would have expected. My father migrated to Spain searching for rizq and a better life for his family. Then I was born and raised there. I grew up in Western society. Influenced by the same trends, the same culture, and the same distractions as everyone else around me. And statistically speaking, someone from my environment was not supposed to become serious about Islam. Let alone leave everything behind to study it. Yet Allah had written something else. Out of five siblings, I was the only one who showed any real interest in practicing Islam. And certainly the only one who became obsessed with seeking knowledge. At 16 years old, I dropped out of school. I told my parents I wanted to go to Egypt to learn Arabic and study Islam. As you can imagine, that wasn’t an easy conversation. After a lot of back and forth, they finally agreed. And as you can see in this video, my father was the one who dropped me off at the bus station that would take me to the airport. I still remember that moment. I left Spain as a teenager. And I spent the next six years in Egypt. Those years changed me. I learned Arabic. I memorized Qur’an. I studied. I struggled. I made mistakes. I learned how to survive on my own. I learned lessons about manhood, responsibility, patience, and sacrifice. And when I finally came back, there was something burning inside me. I wanted my family to experience what I had experienced. I wanted them to see what I had seen. Because once knowledge enters your heart, you realize that many people are simply living without seeing. Not because they are bad people. Not because they don’t care. But because they haven’t been exposed to the truth in a way that reaches their hearts. So I started with my family. Not social media. Not followers. Not content. My family. The first person I wanted to save was my grandmother. She was the oldest. And I knew I didn’t have forever. By the permission of Allah, she accepted Islam at 92 years old. And she passed away at 94. To this day, that remains one of the greatest gifts Allah has ever given me. Then I continued. My sisters. My parents. My relatives. One by one. Conversation after conversation. Reminder after reminder. And today, alhamdulillah, my entire immediate family is upon Islam and practicing. Praying. Learning. Trying to get closer to Allah. And when I look back, I realize something. The greatest accomplishment of my life is not business. It’s not money. It’s not social media. It’s not even building Andalus Institute. The greatest accomplishment is seeing the people I love worshipping Allah. Because at the end of the day, what greater gift can a parent receive than righteous children making dua for them? And what greater gift can a child receive than seeing their family guided? I wanted to share this because there are many new people following this page. Many of you only know me from videos. You see the public side. You see the personality. You see the content. But the reality is that I never set out to become a public figure. It just happened. What I originally wanted was knowledge. And if there is one piece of advice I can leave you with, it is this: Don’t learn knowledge so you can become somebody. Learn knowledge so you can remove ignorance from yourself. Then use it to benefit the people closest to you. Your parents. Your spouse. Your children. Your siblings. Your relatives. Because in a time where everybody wants to become a caller to Islam online, many people are neglecting the people Allah already placed under their responsibility. Start with your family. Get busy with them. And ask Allah to make you a means of guidance for those you love.
