Convert Stories
3 / 4
Part 3: The Path Back from Cultural Apostasy | A Muslim Convert Story
When Sh. Abdullah Oduro went to Hajj and then studied in the University of Madinah, he began to realize the role of culture in his life.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. The Qur'an is the only religion that teaches the Qur'an. So when I continued to learn the religion of Islam, I found an opportunity to go and study in the University of Medina. Because when I came back to America, I was an individual that wanted to learn the Arabic language. Because I got lost in Mina with a friend of mine, and SubhanAllah, I said I'm learning this language. Lost after dhuhr, wearing ihram, in the middle of Mina, not knowing where you are, you don't know the language. I came back and I wanted to learn the Arabic language. So almost every day I was learning from a sheikh at Masjid Mu'mineen in Houston, Texas. And we were going day in and day out, learning the Arabic language. And he had so much patience with me in learning that language. I met a sheikh that came from overseas, and MashAllah, he made it possible for us to not only to go to Hajj, but also to study at the University of Al Medina. When I went to study at the University of Al Medina in 1999-2000, I made it a point. You said, you know what, I want to get to know my Ghanian culture. I never really knew it. I was never really introduced to it. I knew the American culture, but I never knew the Ghanian culture. My mother and father came from Ghana, and I don't even know my cousins. I don't even know my grandfather, grandmother. I've spoken to a couple of aunts in the UK, but I don't even know how many cousins I have. So when going to Al Medina, I met one of my mentors till this day, Abu Sufyan Ahmed. He was someone that, MashAllah, really served as a beautiful mentor for me. He was doing his master's program in Tarbiyah, which is basically like, you know, we could say psychology or how to deal with communities and people.
So SubhanAllah, this individual Ahmed, may Allah bless him. Allah sent him to me and really taught me how to live as a Muslim, as a student of knowledge, and as a respectable Ghanian man. And that's where I really learned the embodiment of being a Ghanian Muslim from this individual. And SubhanAllah, Ahmed Sufyan is the one that started the process in me finding my wife, MashAllah. So that was something that was beautiful for me when I got to meet the Ghanian Muslims. But really, what was the second element of impact for me, and knowing my culture, is when I went to make hajj with the Ghanians. That's when I met a majority of the Ghanian students that studied with me in Mecca, in Al Medina, some in Egypt, somewhere in Malaysia. I got to meet the Ghanian students. And what was so interesting is that I saw younger versions of my father. The way that they acted, the way that they joked, the way that they got upset, right? The way that they would even teach reminded me of my mother. So I saw my element, where I initially came from, and I was so appreciative of it. It was, there were jaw dropping moments. I'd be in Mina. There were jaw dropping moments, I would be in Mecca with them, and just sitting and listening to them and talking to them, seeing their knowledge of Islam and the knowledge of their culture. And many of them telling me, don't forget to go back to America to tell people about the deen. Don't forget to go back to the place where you were born and raised, where your people are. Yes, we're your people, but you were raised there, so they have a right upon you. That's where I started to really think and ponder, who am I? Now I know that I'm Ghanian, and I appreciate my Ghanian culture. And because of Islam, it allowed me to see that by coming to Medina and meeting the Ghanian students
and seeing the evolution of my reality as a Ghanian and an American. After graduating in 2007, I came back to America and I recognized that subhanAllah, it's much different, much different. I started to recognize the fact that, yes, I do come from a Ghanian culture. I should acknowledge that. It is something that, it's who I am. I should represent that to the best of my ability. Yes, I am a Muslim, and that Islam allows me to represent my culture. And there was no clash. And from learning the religion, particularly when learning what is called maqasid al-shari'ah, the Islamic objectives from hifdh al-nasl, the preservation of the lineage, and learning even what we call in quwaid fiqhiyya al-'ad al-muhakama, that the uroof or the custom takes precedence. So Islam does consider culture. It does consider what is normalized amongst a group of people. So the basis is that culture is accepted and Islam sifts it out. And getting educated, being around Ghanians that were much more educated than me, that some I studied from, I really understood the true embodiment of Islam and who Abdullah Oduro really was. When coming back to America, I realized that, subhanAllah, I was still young, and I still had a lot to learn. Knowing what to accept from the American culture, particularly in the hip-hop culture, knowing how to move as an upright Muslim man, and knowing how to, at the same time, respect my elders and parents. Because one thing that I knew Islam brought me was respect of the elders. But even amongst the Muslims in America, I didn't see it as I saw it with the Ghanian culture.
And as we know, many cultures have Islam, you know, it's within it. It's within it because of the generations that have been present, that Islam has been present within these cultures or within these countries. You see that Islam is permeated within certain practices and actions of these people, in these different areas around the world. Ghana was one of them. Being that I came from a Christian family, yes, and my mother, someone till this day, preaches the message of, you know, what they believe being Christianity and Jesus Christ, they were in Kumasi and Accra, which is further central, southern portion of Ghana. You'll find in the northern portion of Ghana, from Bikinifah to Somali, the effect of Islam and Muslims, in which the majority of the students were in Al Medina. So years after coming back, I had the opportunity, and I use this as the opportunity to see my family. But that opportunity was presented to me not as an opportunity in the beginning. I received a call from my mother around 2016, July 2016, that my father, the individual who came to this country, wanted a better life for his future children. My father, the one who was an architect in Houston, eventually retired, went back, because he had a number of strokes. My father, the one that took care of his wife and tried his best to take care of his children, my mother called me and told me that he passed away. She called me and told me that Allah has taken him. But that was not it. The responsibility upon me, that's when it really hit me, that, look, man, you can't just throw your culture out the window like that. You have to know where you come from, and that is an exemplification
and an example of a true, well-rounded Muslim.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
