Mohamed Geraldez - From Darkness to Light

I was informed by my cousins of Mohamed Geraldez's talk.  Read the flyers (below) and thought, "This guy have experienced much in life, I should listen. He probably have something good to share"

Flyers of the event

So I went to BSC's (Bangsar Shopping Center) surau and listened to the talk. When I came in, he was just beginning his talk. "I did it all, women, guns, drugs...I have attended funerals of my friends..." Whoa. I never did guns before.

The story is, he was a convert (Some may call it "revert") to Islam while he was in college. He was very spiritual and was not comfortable with his lifestyle back then. "This can't go on forever...". So he studied about religions, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. However, Islam came off as the most intellectual religion for him and it was not long for him to love Islam.

When he embraced Islam, he got kicked out of the house by his parents. When he first started off, he was an extreme Muslim, according to him. So he kinda irked his parents because last weekend he was busy boozing off and partying and the next week, he was telling everyone that they all will be in hell had they not follow God's words.

After a while of practising Islam, doing business as Syariah compliant as he can, people around him started to convert to Islam. His family converted, his friends converted, his friend's family converted. For this, I was quite amazed. He was living in Las Vegas when he got kicked out. Everyone knows what kind of place Las Vegas is; City of Sin to the pious ones.

BSC's surau

He had a wealth of life experience with him. He had spent 10 years being a prison volunteer and witnessed the American prison system first hand. After he embraced Islam, he went overseas to study the Islamic sciences for nearly four years in Syria, Morocco, Mauritania and the Saharan Desert with some of the most renowned scholars of the Muslim world. When he came back, he returned to the U.S. to obtain his Master’s degree in business. His family were immigrants from the Philippines , and lived in a Latino African-American culture in Southern California. And now, he  invests in companies like Jaan J., the largest halal non-silk necktie company in the world, and George Charles & Sons, a custom suit maker in New York City.

The interesting bit is that , Mohamed keeps it real. He related his story when he converted. "Conversion was traumatic. Its not an easy thing".

"I was so eager to practice the Sunnah and went around giving salam to strangers in the mosque. Some looked back at me with a face that was kinda saying "Why u looking at me?"". "And I thought, Hey, this isn't what they said about Islam in the pamphlets!"

"Thus why, I really don't participate in pamphlet Islam, where everything is beautiful and nice and perfect. Its not easy for convert Muslims to practise Islam as you guys in Malaysia do. When we converted, some of us celebrated Eid alone and there were no one to visit"

2 countries that American Muslims often talk about is Turkey and Malaysia. 

There are some other key items that I collected from the talk. Pardon me if I got them wrong.

• "If you know a brother that still drinks (alcohol) and if you go to him and say "Brother, drinking alcohol is haram and you will end up in jahannam" You think he don't know that? Of course he knows that. But by doing that, you will repel him away. When a brother asked me "Mohamed, you think I should stop drinking?", I said "I think you owe it to your bladder bro" .."I mean you gotta be real. Be honest and not be looking down on them."

• "We don't really know what is happening to others that made them do what they do. Everyone is fighting a battle and everyone is suffering in some ways. What we can do is to support them and be there for them"

• A person asked how someone that did it all (like he did) then want to change the people around him. He answered "In order to give 10 dollars, you gotta have 10 dollars first. Before you change others, you gotta change yourself first"

• "The fastest way to lose your blessings is to complain"

• "Everything is okay, everything is good, its all good. I once met a brother and asked how are you doing. The guy said "Well, I am on this side of the ground". I stood there, it was very profound for me. There are so many things to be thankful for that, we take for granted."

• "To dakwah is not just by giving pamphlets around. Islam for example, spread to Malaysia through business when businessman came here. I try to do the same by conducting honest business and behaving with good akhlak."

Well, I might have missed some things. However, I was very impressed with his honesty and he is a smart person. Peace be upon him, peace be upon us all.