If this is your first time visiting this blog or reading this semi-autobiography, I strongly suggest you start from the beginning. Everything thing will make a lot more sense if you do.

I had a feeling this final year 1995-1996 would be my last year in Trinidad and overseas. I was 19 and quickly catching up in my secular studies.

Darul Uloom has three different academic levels. The first level is similar to completing High School and ends at Form 5 (which is somewhat like Senior Year in High school). Most D.U. students stop at this level and then go on to get jobs or further their education.

The next higher level is Alim (scholar). Those students who go on to this level gain a bachelors degree in Islamic Jurisprudence. And then the next level is Mufti (judge) which is like a Master’s degree in Islamic Jurisprudence.

For a little while I was tempted to stay longer and gain a higher level of Islamic education. Several of the teachers encouraged me to do so, especially as the year came closer to an end. But my homesickness was too strong. I knew I wasn’t coming back.

I know some of you may be tired of hearing about music, but this plays into things that happen later in life.

Near the beginning and middle of 1995 I started hearing I.M. rapping a hook from a song. I had no idea what the song was nor did I know anything about the artist except that he called himself “Big Poppa.”

One day I.M. let me hear the song (we all had black market radios and walkmans). I was immediately captivated. I know New York rap when I hear it and this was true, NYC style rap.

This was the first time I’d ever heard of the rapper Biggie Smalls, later Notorious B.I.G. And I could tell he had some serious skills.

“The musta heard about the Rolex’s and the Lexus with the Texas license plate outta state.”

“There’s gonna be a lotta slow singin’ and flower bringin’ if my burglar alarm starts ringin’”

Ever since I left Senegal, all I heard was West Coat rap with their funny cars and big, plaid shirts and gang colors. Finally I could hear a New York rapper singing hardcore rap and not copying off of that West Coast stuff.

I also remember hearing when Tupac Shakur was shot (the first time). At the time, I had no idea about any West Coast vs East Coast rivalry. I had nothing against West Coast rappers and I actually liked some of it. I was just getting tired of hearing it, and I know I liked New York rap more. But that’s what I grew up listening to.

Alright. That’s enough about music.

Up to this time in my life, I don’t think I ever had any challenges to my faith. By that, I mean I never had to worry about Christians trying to convert me or say crazy things about Islam. When I was a kid in Brooklyn the other kids didn’t know or care enough about religion to say anything (neither did I for that matter). Senegal was almost entirely Muslim. And even though Muslims were a minority in Trinidad, I was usually in a complete Muslim environment.

But I got my first dose of Christian Missionary tactics at Darul Uloom in the form of a comic book.

It was a small comic book, no bigger than a book of stamps. The drawings were in black and white. It had a simple story of a Christian boy and his father who were visiting a Muslim country and watching some Muslims praying at a Masjid (mosque).

The boy asks his father what those people are doing. The father replies: “They’re worshiping their moon-god.”

One of the Muslims overhears the father (typical ferocious looking bearded Arab man with a turban) and approaches him. The Arab says: “How dare you say this about Islam! Don’t you know the Quran says I can kill for those words?” The comic references an ayat of the Quran that supposedly proves this statement.

The Arab man continues by stating a bunch of facts we hear all the time: Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. There will be a Muslim in the White House within 10 years (this was in 1995 and 14 years later the closest we’ve got is a Christian with a Muslim name).

The father then begins to say how Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made up Islam. That the word Allah was actually the name of one of the Arab pagan gods that represented the moon. He says: “That’s why you see the crescent as an Islamic symbol everywhere in the Muslim world.”

The comic then shows pictures of Muslim armies raiding and killing a bunch of people. Then the father tells the Arab that Prophet Muhammad will be in hell (I seek refuge in Allah for even writing these words) for misleading millions of people. And there’s a picture of a man in a turban (supposedly the Prophet) prostrating while surrounded by flames and testifying that Jesus is the son of God.

In the end, the Arab is convinced by the Christian father’s words and asks how he can escape this punishment. The man tells him to accept the blood of Christ and stop worshiping a black stone. The Arab man converts to Christianity on the spot and the story ends.

In all my life, I had never seen so many lies against Islam in one publication. I never knew that there were people who were so opposed to Islam. I always thought the reason people didn’t become Muslim was just that they didn’t know about it or were told the wrong things about Islam. But this silly comic was published by a major Christian missionary organization with publications in several different languages (including Arabic).

I have no idea how this comic found its way onto D.U. But I went into a major depression after reading it. It wasn’t that my belief in Islam was shaken. I knew most of the facts the comic gave were distorted or flat out false. I had looked up the quotes from the Quran that the comic had referenced and they were all taken WAY out of context.

It was just so unbelievable that people could get away with saying such horrible things about Allah, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Islam. And I had never before heard anything like this before.

I was depressed for about a week. Alhamdulillah, Allah guided me to something that would change my entire outlook on how to handle these challenges.

Almost a week to the day after reading that comic I came across a book written by the Grand Master of Christian Smackdown…Ahmed Deedat.

I can’t remember the exact book of his that I read, but I do know that reading it was like seeing sunshine after days of nothing but darkness.

For someone like me, who loves statistics, numbers, facts, and figures, this was just what I needed. Shaikh Deedat brought verses from the Bible, in English and Greek. He compared them to other verses in the same book. He judged them based on historical fact. He used logic and fact to prove the fallacies of the Bible.

Reading words like the following quote from Ahmed Deedat’s book “Is The Bible God’s Word?” reassured me that there were Muslims pushing back against the missionaries. And the Muslims did not have to resort to cheap tricks like comic books aimed at children or blatant lies:

The “gospel” is a frequently-used word, but what Gospel did Jesus preach? Of the 27 books of the New Testament, only a small fraction can be accepted as the words of Jesus. The Christians boast about the Gospels according to St. Matthew, according to St. Mark, according to St. Luke and according to St. John, but there is not a single Gospel “according” to (St.) Jesus himself! We sincerely believe that everything Christ (May the peace and blessings of God be upon him) preached was from God. That was the Injeel, the good news and the guidance of God for the Children of Israel. In his life-time Jesus never wrote a single word, nor did he instruct anyone to do so. What passes off as the “GOSPELS” today are the works of anonymous hands!

After that first book, I read everything I could get my hands on by Ahmed Deedat. Fortunately, D.U.’s library had several of his books. This search for anti-missionary knowledge also led me to read Maurice Bucaille’s book “The Bible, The Quran, And Science.” For a nerd like me, that book was pure gold.

Allah is the best of planners, and I see that his introduction to Christian missionary tactics was very beneficial in the end. Inshallah, you’ll see what happens a few years later.

Around late 1995 the principal, Mufti Shabil started being absent from school very often. As the principal, he was a regular fixture at D.U. The only time he would not be at school was if he was traveling.

But now, he would spend several days in the hospital. Eventually we learned that he was suffering from liver cancer.

At first, I didn’t really think it was that bad. The school’s official line was that Mufti was getting treatment. And whenever Mufti wasn’t in the hospital, he’d be at school, teaching classes, handing out punishments, and running the school.

However, as things got worse he would spend more and more time in the hospital. There were several occasions during this time when the entire school would gather in the Masjid to recite Surah Ya Sin for Mufti. And after almost every prayer, we would make a dua for Mufti Shabil.

My niece was born on April 9, 1996. I remember talking to my older sister the night her daughter was born (she was living in Tennessee). Mufti Shabil had been in the hospital for a long time. I prayed for him, my sister, and my new niece that night.

The last time I saw Mufti was when several of us boys went to visit him at the hospital later that week. He was hooked up to a bunch of machines and was either sleeping or comatose.

A few days later Mufti Shabil Ali returned to Allah.

There was a big funeral and Muslims from all over Trinidad and other parts of the world attended. We carried his bier from the school to the graveyard near Masjid Muttaqeen about three miles away.

The only other Mufti at the school (at the time; there are many more now) was Mufti Wasim Khan and he became the principal. I always liked Mufti Wasim’s khutbah (sermons). But otherwise, I didn’t stay at D.U. long enough to really get to know him.

Exams were coming up and I put it into overdrive. Without trying to explain the Caribbean education system (which is identical to the British) every student’s career boils down to the final exams at the end of Form 5.

I planned on returning home, so I made sure I took the SAT while I was in Trinidad. But I still had to prepare for the CXC’s (Caribbean Examination Council).

And like all of the other boys in my grade I hit the books. And Alhamdulillah, I did very well. Well enough to get a nice plaque for educational achievement from Darul Uloom.

And then it was over. I graduated from D.U. with a Secondary Degree in Islamic Jurisprudence and returned to the U.S on July 11, 1996.

After five years of studying Islam in foreign countries and only two months in America, I was back in Brooklyn. I was 20 years old. No money. No marketable skills. No idea what the heck .com meant or who Bill Gates was.

So what did I do when I got back to the U.S.? Did I start hanging out? Did I try to get a girlfriend? Did I start trying to make money?

Of course not. I headed for the Masjid.

Up next: Masjid Abdul Muhsi Khalifah.