Name: Confronting the Difficult Questions: Dr. Ahmed Khater | My Moment of Conviction
Uploaded: 2022-12-08T18:41:45.000Z
Channel: Dr. Ahmed Khater
Description: Was there a moment in your life when you knew for certain Islam was the truth? Dr. Ahmed Khater shares how a desire to be able to respond academically to doubts, led him to a path of seeking knowledge. Revisit a Qur’an 30 for 30 episode where Dr. Ahmed reflects on Juz’ 3.

Was there a moment in your life when you knew for certain Islam was the truth? Dr. Ahmed Khater shares how a desire to be able to respond academically to doubts, led him to a path of seeking knowledge.Revisit a Qur&apos;an 30 for 30 episode where <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/roohi-tahir/juz-3-with-dr-ahmed-khater-and-ustadha-roohi-tahir-quran-30-for-30-season-3">Dr. Ahmed reflects on Juz&apos; 3</a>.

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Dr. Ahmed Khater

Every one of us reaches a point in our lives where we take the shahadah–a moment in which we recognize that Islam is undoubtedly the truth, regardless of whether or not we were born Muslim. It may have been a conversation with a friend, the example of a pious family member, or an epiphany in your own knowledge-seeking that sparked your faith and brought it to life. Whatever the source, it was life-changing. By sharing their stories, reflections, and transformations, our research team invites you to reflect on your moment of conviction.

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My Moment of Conviction

 Alhamdulillah, I was raised in a religious family.  Growing up, I had no doubt about Islam my entire life.  That wasn't even something that had come across my mind.  But when I got older and you get into high school and college,  you start hearing things and learning about things that you didn't know about.  You start hearing things and learning about things that you as a Muslim,  you were certain growing up as a person who believes in Islam and in a Muslim family,  you were certain about Islam, but without having studied previously and not being an expert in Islam,  you come across these things and you hear certain things and you study certain things  that you don't know how to respond to.  And so obviously you mix maybe for the first time with atheists and you study evolution in school  and you may even come across people who are against Islam.  And so they'll say things that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was not a prophet.  The Qur'an was written by a man that didn't come from God.  And you as a Muslim, you yourself have certainty regarding your faith,  but you're not a scholar, you haven't studied, you may even not know Arabic.  And so you don't know how to respond to these things.  And that's what happened to me when I was beginning of my college days as an undergrad.  I came across these arguments and these doubts people make about Islam.  And I for myself, not being able to respond to them was not something I could accept.  So some people say just ignore them and you have yaqeen, you have certainty.  I'm not that kind of person in that I had certainty, but if there's something that I can't respond to  or there's an argument I don't know how to refute, then it's going to eat at me.  And so I would spend, when I started being in a Muslim family,  I never came across these notions in the first place,  that who could even claim that the Prophet Muhammad was not a prophet,  or the Qur'an was written by a man, or there are errors in the Qur'an,  or whatever the case may be, all these different things.  I didn't even know that people were saying this.  But when you get older and you start mixing with certain groups of people,  you become aware of these doubts and these stereotypes and so on.  So for me, I could not live with not being able to respond to these types of doubts with certainty.  Certainly demolishing.  I said certainty about my faith, and I knew these doubts were wrong,  but how to articulate that academically, I wasn't trained, I was a young kid,  I hadn't studied, I didn't even know how to read or write Arabic,  to be able to go back to the sources.  So I would spend maybe 20 plus hours a day, maybe not even exaggerating,  on the computer trying to find answers by previous scholars and previous experts,  responding to these doubts.  And it was so much so that my parents, they feared for my eyes.  I think I started wearing glasses, and they would hide the laptops and computers from me,  because enough is enough, you're harming yourself.  And the more you research, then you come across more things people have said.  And so that path never ends.  So then you start researching response to this and response to that.  So people would say that, how do you prove that there's a creator,  and how do you prove that the Prophet Muhammad was a true prophet,  and he took the Quran from this source, and he copied this source,  and there are grammatical errors in the Quran and Arabic,  and it goes on and on and on.  And the more you start trying to respond to one doubt,  another one pops up, and you start researching how to respond to this.  And then I finally realized that the only way to be able to respond to these  is by seeking sacred knowledge, seeking Islamic knowledge.  And that's what I started to do.  So I devoted my life from then on to seeking knowledge.  And I even remember when I was in high school,  my teachers told me that you'd be a good lawyer.  So they tried to encourage me in high school to go to law school.  I even remember in high school, one of our government classes,  we had to write a paper that one would write if they were in law school,  similar prompt and similar style.  And I remember I got an A on the paper,  and the teacher had written on the paper, you know,  worthy of an A at Berkeley Law School.  Back then it was called Bolt Law, and they changed the name recently.  It said worthy of an A at Bolt Law.  So they were encouraging me to go to law school,  but then I had this feeling that every time I went to law school,  I was feeling that if I'm going to spend three years at a law school  studying man-made laws, then the laws of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala  are more deserving of being studied.  So I decided to seek knowledge, and through knowledge,  I was able to respond to all of these doubts that I'd come across.  Once you study the sacred sciences, anyone who says there's an error in the Quran,  anyone who says there are contradictions in the Quran, in the Hadith,  …

My Moment of Conviction

Dr. Ahmed Khater

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