Anton’s Testimonial

TRANSCRIPT

Assalam alaykum. My name is Anton, and when I was considering becoming a Muslim about 13 years ago I obviously had a lot of questions about this new religion that I was learning about. Some of those questions were quite controversial and I knew if I were to ask those same questions to some of the Muslims around me today many of them wouldn't be able to answer the questions in a satisfactory manner and some might actually just get defensive at the fact that I was asking them to begin with.  

So alhamdulillah I feel very blessed that at that time I was connected through Sunnipath to Shaykh Hamza Karamali who first of all didn't get upset at the questions and second of all was able to answer those questions in a way that was very simple and straightforward to me and that satisfied me intellectually. 

Remember I was not even a Muslim yet at that time I didn't know how many rak'as there were in maghrib or isha. I didn't know any of the Arabic terminology. I hadn't read any Islamic texts on the subject. And yet he was able to explain things to me in a very simple manner and in a manner that made sense. And so Alhamdulillah that led to my becoming Muslim 13 years ago but even more so it enabled me to have this confidence in my deen, that I knew that my deen made sense, and that if I ever came across something that I didn't understand, I knew that there was an answer for it. I knew there was a resource I could fall back on that would not judge me for the question and they would just explain things to me in a very straightforward manner. 

And alhamdulillah since that time I've studied online, and in person here in the US, and abroad and Shaykh Hamza really has stood out to me as the one teacher who can take a complicated subject and make it easy to understand, but perhaps even more importantly make it relevant to my life today. 

In particular, I've been recently taking a course on Basira on sacred rulings pertaining to business and it's been a huge blessing to me because I'm an entrepreneur and a freelancer. I land myself into all these complicated financial situations just from a tax perspective so you can imagine layering the Islamic rulings on top of that and it becomes very complicated. And up until taking the course with Basira, it was very difficult for me to get straightforward answers to my questions. I would contact teachers and even if they replied to me, I often times didn't feel confident that they really understood the financial set-up that I described to them, if they really understood what I was asking to begin with. 

And so alhamdulillah in this course at Basira what we do is we don't just study a medieval Islamic text and then are left to wonder how do we apply this to crypto currencies and forex trading and international wire transfers  and all that kind of stuff that happens in the modern world, but really what it's enabled us to do is to understand the underlying principles of the shariah when it comes to financial transactions and then be able to look at modern financial transactions and understand what components might be might be problematic from the shariah, what components are not. And so alhamdulillah it made things for me as a person who's trying to follow  the rules of the Sacred Law when it comes to business transactions it's made my life incredibly easier because it's giving me confidence I'm able to make the call myself and if I still feel confused, if I still have a question once again I have a resource I could rely upon that I know that my question will be understood and answered in a way that's both understanding of the modern times and in line with the sacred law.

Alhamdulillah, so I really encourage all of you to take a course on Basira. I really believe that if you take any of the courses on Basira that first of all you will learn a lot, that any confusions that you have will be cleared up, that you will have a resource that you can rely on for clear answers to whatever questions you have so please do take a course. I highly encourage you to do that. Barakallahu feekum, wa assalam alaykum.