 Hi Melissa, how are you? Hey, I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm so happy to see you and meet you. It's an honor for us Thank you so much. Happy to meet all of you, too Yes, so please forgive me. I kind of entered I think at a conversation that was already in progress But I would love to learn more about I just have some friends that I kind of witnessed them Like their practice or religion Islam and then I kind of became very interested in that and um So I just they gave me the resources to like reach out to you guys and To kind of like move forward on Yeah, I'm very shy Thank you. So if you don't mind I would love if that's okay I don't know how much Edlyn or when you have already kind of prompted you or asked certain questions But when we do this process right of someone entering Islam, it's very simple by the way I don't know how much you know But like honestly becoming Muslim is probably one of the easiest things you could do you just have to say a phrase Like yeah, yeah, I did read a little bit I was doing a little bit of research and I just see that you guys kind of like Rephrase it for us because it's an Arabic. So yes. Yeah It's easy for us to kind of like Say it and exactly so the way that the What we'll do is I'll kind of just give you a summary of how the process is okay Just so you know what to expect so Initially, I would you kind of like to just ask questions like about your background your knowledge about Islam You kind of just summarize that you've studied a little bit because of friends gave you resources But I would like to ask specific questions for example What's what was your previous faith or did you have one and and then we would kind of have a conversation like about specific things? Related to that right just to again make sure that you're clear on what the creed of Muslim is like what what the beliefs are of a Muslim so that there's no conflict and if if you fully a hundred percent Accept and you're ready to take the next step of coming into some I mean We are so happy and honored again to facilitate that for you and the actual process is just literally I'll say a phrase very slowly in Arabic and you will repeat after me word by word and then I'll give you the English translation and in that point you are a Muslim and And then sister Edel and she can then from that point forward give you more of the specifics like now that you're a Muslim What do you what should you learn and how should you pace yourself? Like what's priority first, right? Do you have to because a lot of women especially when they become Muslim? They suddenly worry about having to look a certain way and so they want to wear hijab But we would say you know, let's let there's other things, you know, that will come and there's no rush We literally go at your pace and you know, I just like to always emphasize that Islam came in 23 years You know when you study Prophet Muhammad's life The whole faith was completed over that period of time because we have to as human beings be, you know, like There's it's a process, you know, you can't just transform over night But the faith if it's in your heart, that's all you need Then the changes that you're gonna make are more practical day-to-day changes like tomorrow's, you know Okay, what does that mean, right? So those are the things that sister Edwin can talk to you about but so if you don't mind I would love to just that first question that I asked you Did you have a previous faith and what was that? It was Catholic, but um, we didn't really like Don't know how to say like it wasn't really yeah practice it And then like I said like so me having friends that really practices mom and watching them kind of like Make me want to follow and like believe in a Go that's why I wanted to pursue to Islam Okay, that's wonderful. Well sister Edwin I'm sure she may have told you but she also had a Catholic background a lot of the converts that we've found it I've actually done a few different shahadas also had a Catholic background And I think the what I've observed is there's a lot of similarities if you if you knew anything about your Catholic faith in terms of Ritual and tradition respect and reverence. There's a lot of Prayers that that people I think feel just very comfortable, but then obviously the biggest Difference that we just want to point out is the role of Jesus and and and also Mary I would say because both of them are very Central figures and Catholicism right Mary being the mother of Jesus and there are divinity or there is divinity ascribed to You know Jesus in terms of him being the son of God So those are things that we always want to clarify that you understand fully that in Islam We are in a very very strict monotheist, which means God has no partners whatsoever and prophets are Our human beings that are given specific roles, but we do not worship prophets We don't worship anybody but God even prophet Muhammad. Yes. Okay, so that's clear for you Great Yes, yes, no, I'm totally I'm sure you know all this It's more for us because you know as an organization too We want to make sure that we do our part to clarify all this stuff But I'm sure if you've studied it, this is pretty clear that yeah, we don't worship any anyone else So thank you for clarifying and then So and you accept fully that God is one and that prophet Muhammad is the last and final messenger. Yes Perfect, then that's all really that and I'm sure like I said all the other stuff as far as the five pillars and the articles of faith The fact that we believe in in heaven and hell we believe in an unseen world. These are all just central parts of the belief of a Muslim But if you've studied and you've read then you know that So what we can do now is we can do the actual process of you taking your shahada InshaAllah, which is again very simple. It's just I will recite the Arabic and you can go We'll go kind of like You know, like it's like a dance kind of I'm doing it and then you do it and then you know So we'll do it that way and I'm not rushing you at all. So just feel free if it's like not clear Can you repeat that? Okay, we'll try to be I have my mic really close here So I'm gonna speak as clearly as I had enough apologize in case I'm my wordiness that correct Oh, no worries. Don't worry it at all I like I said, that's why we try to do a very fanatic so that it's doesn't don't worry Hopefully it won't be intimidating to you All right. All right, so we start with saying in the name of god, which is bismillah Okay, so I'm and that's what I'm saying bismillah, which just means in the name of god And now we'll actually do the shahada which begins ash ash hadu hadu an an la la ilaha ilaha il Allah il Allah wa wa ash ash hadu hadu anna anna Muhammadan Muhammadan Rasul Rasul Allah Allah Very good. That was one time. Now we're going to do two more times just like that. Okay ash ash hadu hadu an an la la ilaha ilaha il Allah il Allah wa wa ash ash hadu hadu anna anna Muhammadan Muhammadan Rasul Rasul Allah Allah Very good. And one more time. Okay. Ash ash hadu hadu an an la la ilaha ilaha il il Allah Allah wa wa ash ash hadu hadu anna anna Muhammadan Muhammadan Rasul Rasul Allah Allah That's it. Allah is the greatest. You are now officially a Muslim, Sister Melissa. Welcome to of Islam. We're so happy. If you were with us, we would hug you. You might find that awkward, but they were hugging. Exactly. But what did we just say? All you said was I testify that there is no God but God or Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the last final messenger of God. That's all that was said. So once you declare that publicly in front of witnesses and you believe it in your heart, you are officially Muslim, but you were Muslim before you met with us today because you believed it. So this is just ceremonial, but we're so honored. Thank you so much. Again, I wish we could come through the phone and hug you properly. But it's a beautiful gift. You know, there's a saying of the Prophet Muhammad that says that everything has keys, right? And the keys of paradise is the words that we just shared. So you gave us the keys. We gave you the keys. And this is just, it's just an exchange and inshallah, God willing that we will all be together inshallah in paradise in the next life and here as a family of Muslim brothers and sisters. So welcome to the faith of Islam. Thank you. You're very, very welcome. So honored you and thank you so much for the honor of giving us this opportunity. Thank you. I appreciate all of you guys. Thank you. You're very welcome.