 As-salamu alaikum everyone. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim al-hamdulillah wa-salaatu wa-salaam wa-ala ashraf al-anbiya wa-al-mursaleen Sayyidina wa-mawlana wa-habibina Muhammad Sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam wa-alaihi wa sahbihi wa-sallam Tasliman kathira. As-salamu alaikum wa-rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu everyone. Al-hamdulillah first and foremost Jumu'a Mubarak to everyone insha'Allah. We are so honored and blessed today here as we always are at the MCC, May Allah protect and preserve this community. Al-hamdulillah to have our sister here, Christine. Is it Fernandez? Yes, Fernandez with us. Al-hamdulillah she reached out recently to the organizers and requested information on how to become a Muslima. She is ready, we believe already of course with certainty that the fact that she's here means that she already has the firmness of faith in her heart and this is of course the first pillar of Islam, the declaration or the shahada which we do in public view of with witnesses so Al-hamdulillah this is definitely a first step for anyone who wants to embrace this beautiful faith so we're very honored that Christine has chosen our community to do this and I'm so excited because I have yet to hear Christine's story but she came today prepared and willing and excited to share her story. So Christine first and foremost again welcome to our community. Thank you so much. Very happy to have you here. Please tell us what prompted you to take this next step in your faith journey. First and foremost it's good to see all of you everyone. I was born Catholic and my parents were also Catholic and they raised me like five years ago I came in here I am I am a nurse and I came in here in the US with with with the faith of like having a good future. Two years ago my dad passed away all of a sudden from a stroke and my faith was shaken and it was so bad I was in a dark place. A year ago my mom passed away from COVID so with all of those that's happening I was in a very dark place and I lost my faith to God and I'm like I don't know where to go I wanted to end my life and I'm just very lost. I'm so glad that my partner his name is RJ he's with me right now. He's a born Muslim and he was with me all the time. When we when we first started dating he never insisted for me to convert to being a Muslim. He never pressured me he he just prayed and I see him and I respect him and he respect my faith as well and then the Ramadan came in last year and it was in a very dark place and I saw him fasting and for me I was asking like why are you not eating why are not drinking and that's when I started looking like why are you doing Ramadan and that's the first time I appreciate and I was very thankful that I was able to know why you're doing it and I started doing it even though I'm not a convert yet like I'm not doing the shahada yet and it feels so good and I appreciated God or Allah's gift to us the food all the blessings it made me appreciate everything and that's what made me convert to Islam. What a beautiful testimony wow as someone who has lost both her parents I completely relate to what you experienced and it's just such an incredible you know blessings that Allah is proud of that in the midst of your agony of grief that he opened this door to find your faith and we are again so so honored Masha Allah may Allah's father bless your partner for again being patient with you and modeling Islam that's really the best dawah that we as Muslims can do we don't you know we don't force our faith upon anyone we just are supposed to have inshallah the best character and just practice our faith as we are taught and that usually does exactly what happened to you which is bringing people to the faith so what a beautiful story we're so again honored so the process to become a Muslim the formal process the shahada which I know now by now you know is a very simple process what we do is we basically you declare you make a declaration of faith in front of witnesses it's a phrase that we say in Arabic and just to simplify it you can say it once or two or three times but for today inshallah we'll do it one time it'll be very simple and usually those who are in the audience will also pronounce it with you just to reaffirm our own faith inshallah so it's always good for Muslims to practice and to we say it anyway in the prayer many many times throughout the day but it's good in times like this to just come together so I invite everyone here as well to also repeat inshallah as we will and I'll go very slow we'll do the Arabic and then we'll do the translation and that's pretty much it and then at that point inshallah there will be a line of sisters waiting to embrace you and welcome you after of course Aisha and myself we want we want to get that first so this man everyone ready and most importantly are you ready I'm ready we are ready all right Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem so we begin when we say first ash ash everyone ash hadu hadu an an la la ilaha ilaha il Allah Allah wa ash wa ash hadu hadu anna anna muhammad an muhammad an rasul Allah rasul Allah inshallah takbir inshallah kristine you just testified in front of all of these witnesses and everyone who will be watching or is watching that you declare that there is no god with a small g right no god other than the one and only god and that muhammad is the last and final messenger of god alhamdulillah welcome to the faith our dear sister we are so happy to have you mashallah again to be at everyone and sisters that was the time come get your barakah dua of course brothers please keep kristine and her partner inshallah um in your dua and also know kristine that today is the beginning of your journey your all your sins have been wiped clean you are brand new like a baby and we that's why we seek your dua so please remember us in your dua today and every day inshallah amin jazakamu alaykum wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu everyone thank you