basically my my story begins in first teen University I had a year where I think a lot of problems happened to me my parents separated that year my dog died was a particularly tough day subhanAllah I had two currents and it's in the space of one week and also sadly I had a friend pass away that you I think that you'd let me just sort of ask some questions along the lines of why my here why what's the purpose of life why do I get up in the morning why do I even bother why don't I just sit on the couch watch TV Jerry Springer whatever and I think I started to ask questions about you know the purpose of life and that led me to start to do a bit of a holy quest naturally as an Ozzy the first thing I did was investigate Christianity I had a few Christian Christian friends and I remember going to a church camp was one of the funniest camp sort of events in my life everybody was singing I didn't know what the words were I didn't know what they were saying sounded great I had beautiful voices but it just seemed really strange and everybody was telling me how much God loved me and I was thinking God loves me my dog died so I kept on investigating Christianity and I went to a whole lot of I guess different aspects of Christianity so we're talking about Catholicism two men Anglican Baptists you know priests pastors and every time I go there and ask questions I'd find that they wouldn't pick up the Bible and start to say this is the answer my dear brother they would just start answering me they would just answer from their own opinions and I started to realize that there was a lot of interpretations of Christianity and a lot of people had their own interpretations and one priest from one church was believing one particular aspect of Christianity whilst another was proclaiming another so I started to think to myself the Bible is one text but there seems to be so many different interpretations and it was confusing at the time while I was in first-year University I was also working in a service station one of my part-time jobs and one of the one of my colleagues was a Hindu it was an Indian Hindu and we regularly changed shifts and at that time I was very inquisitive and I'd say to him who wants to deal with the elephant head guy you know what's the deal with I know why is that going on an elephant head and he's going oh that's Ganesha you know this December couldn't you chosen like a lion's head or something something amid better we'd have you know these really really big theological debates while people were buying petrol and I'd be saying yeah but why I had five bucks of gas thanks my dear no problems and again I found that that was very hard to stomach so I sort of been missing out a little bit further I went into I had a good friend of mine was a moment and I found that this religion actually appealed to me the most out of all of the Christian religions that the Church of latter-day saints though quite strict they don't drink alcohol they they don't drink caffeine unfortunately cokes out guys cuz under the live loads love caring but again you know there was that leap of faith I felt that I had to make to embrace this religion and I found that you know I wasn't just into making a leap of faith I wanted proof I also investigated Judaism which I believe and my original name before a bucket is Ruben so if you probably see all the movies you seen Rubinstein at the end they probably thought I was Jewish so they thought oh this guy's either one of us but again you know I just didn't find what I what I was looking for lastly I probably looked into Buddhism and I found that this was probably the the religion that I was going to choose I thought that this is great you know there's a there's so much you know people people at peace here they seem to be really switched on and they seem to be living one with the world and that's what really appealed to me but the more and more I looked into it I guess I realized that it wasn't a religion of God it was just a nice way to live one of my friends one of my close friends who's a Christian would you believe said tell me the religions that you've investigated so I went through them I said you know judaism christianity catholicism buddhism hinduism that i guess what about it slam it slam I'll get it terrorists I'm not going to miss the game over crazy why would I even look at that religion but lo and behold I found myself walking into a mosque one day this is my eternal quest so I walked straight in shoes on Australia cross the prayer room there was a brother praying I looked straight front of him as he went to be going to sigillum I stepped on his head subhanAllah I didn't have any clue what I was doing I looked over and I saw this brother you probably know this going this is over Hamza he's come here in his lectured a few times subhanAllah I call him up well done because he's got a very large bid and I show love he came walking out towards me and I thought today I'm about $2 this is the last day of my life i'm a dudeman I'm a white boy in limbo and what am I going to do here he came walking across and then he just walked out of the Sahara there's a big a million big man what's the puddle on the first words he said word get a man how you going I've only had the can of BP it would have been perfect semana I was very taken aback by his body's welcoming nature as Aussies I guess now that I want to offend any Australians here but my upbringing from a country up being my parents raised me as an atheist they were raised as Christians they were dragged along to church every Sunday and they hated every minute of it so soon as we were born they drummed it into our heads that when you die your worm through that's it there's no afterlife there's no God it's all rubbish so I was raised as a as an atheist so when I walked across in there and I saw a bow hunter and he was talking to me I'm very polite fashion which I was very thankful for because I was sure and said you want the five o'clock news hijacking your plane now Fuzzy's a hospitable don't get me wrong but levers are the most hospitable people I've ever come across and as the brother Hamza was saying these brothers are making me cups of tea you know and honestly they did they keep going to the toilet every five minutes they just kept putting tea in front of me biscuits I've never seen anything like it and I think it to some degree I kept coming back for the biscuits but also for the religion so when I sat down with these brothers actually started asking questions I asked all the questions that I've asked of the the priests of the pastor's of my friends and Subhan Allah that the thing that really struck me is that every time I asked the question they wouldn't just answer they would pick up a foot in and they would say read this bro read this and there was the answer every single time and I would ask another question you know the hard questions not the easy questions why do women have to wear the scarf why one in the hey Jim how come I can have four wives and she can't have four husbands you know I wanted to know all the tough questions which is the first questions I guess you asked when when you come across a slammer but lo and behold they kept on answering the questions with the content not from their own opinion and I got frustrated with this and I actually said to one of the brothers because by this stage on Ali I've been going there for about a couple of weeks there was always a few brothers there when I went and I said to one of the brothers I said you know what's your opinion on the matter why won't you give me your opinion and one of the brothers turned to me one day and said how can I have an opinion when this is the oil of God subhanAllah I remember that really hit me so I asked them if I could take it and I didn't say I was gonna use it to chalk up the couch or anything like that I said I was going to respect the book so they took it home I started reading and what I found was while reading it wasn't as though I was reading a story it was though I was reading someone committing me you know someone giving me guidance and one night I decided to really try and get this spiritual move happening and I'm sure probably some of you have heard this story before so I apologize I'd lit a candle had the window open had the curtains drawn and I was trying to get that really spiritual feeling it was a nice summer night in Melbourne as summer as a Canadian problem and sitting there thinking this is it you know this is the night I've been you know investigating all the spiritual proofs or the scientific proofs about the fact that the mountains are the pegs about you know how the embryo develops inside the you know the woman all these amazing proofs but I still needed that little push it's like I was on the edge of a cliff I was ready to jump I just needed a push so sitting there here's good corner I was ready put in my stop I said I love her this is my moment this is the time I'm about to jump into Eastland all I need is just a sign just a little sign nothing huge maybe a bolt of lightning maybe half the house could fall down or something you know just just small it's not for you man you bet it is come on so I said there I was waiting for the candle to start lighting up to 4 meters high like in the movies and somehow um nothing absolutely nothing happened I was really disappointed to be honest so I sat down I said Allah this is your chance yeah no go away I'll give you another chance okay maybe you busy time I've never saw the world as a whole lot of stuff going on maybe this time it could just be like a car backfiring you know something small all right the house the candle was forgiven a brick could fart outside I don't care just anything so I said okay Joe and subhanAllah absolutely nothing happened and I mean I couldn't have even said that was it that they creature said in the wall that was it absolutely nothing happening I was really disappointed I was sitting there thinking this is it you know this was my last chance it's then and I really I haven't found them I pulled back to put in turned back to where I was reading so far about the very next verse on the next page for those of you who asked the signs have we not shown you enough already look around you look at the stars look at the Sun look at water these are the signs for the people of knowledge subhanAllah I'm through the dinner over my head I pretended I was asleep I was that scared is I couldn't believe how arrogant I'd been to want my own specific sign when all the signs have been there for me all along the fact that we have this world the fact that there is this creation these are the science for all of us the next day I decided this is in on becoming a Muslim I've been investigating Islam now for probably about six months to be honest I went in and I said to myself this is it I'm going to make sure head I had no idea what I had to say I had no idea what the words were it was probably close to a shared prayer so it would have been you know seven eight o'clock at night I went in and I couldn't believe it there was about a thousand people at the mosque I thought somehow look at this religion look at how strong they are was the first night of Ramadan Ramadan Muslims so I stand there and I'm very nervous I must admit I got up and this person's going to me you gotta say these words bro - handle your mother - one time I decided English noticing oh you've got to say no because I thought looked at over the seein beards that I could see in fact I mean I thought if I get these words wrong I'm a dead man again I had this routine you know and I was staring at me and I don't know if you know this but Australians can't steer living these people can stick so I was sitting there I was very scared I got up and Sao Paulo as soon as I started to say the words all fear went out of my mind it felt as though a shower was inside my head and someone had just turned on the cult ever felt like I've been flushed clean I've said the words and I wasn't expecting so many brothers to come up and you know that beard on my butt and started kissing me and hugging me now I've never been kissed by that many men in my life but it was a beautiful day I must admit and that day was the day that I had more brothers than I could ever ever imagine more sisters as well but I guess since that day I've never looked back and my family I think initially we're very worried that I was going to be I guess a little bit weird towards them that they thought that I was going to break out the ak-47s and the grades but they realized I think soon that this religion was actually making me a better person crying - it's then you're not going to believe it I had a mohawk I did I had I'm not going to show you any photos I had army greens I had the Metallica t-shirt I had the cherry dogs I was shocking groan I thought it looks great but I look terrible and humble ever since then I look as good as I do now and laugh please but my parents were the first people to actually say to me once which really amazed me they said my father actually asked me for the Koran recently which I was really happy about I always thought he'd be one of the hardest people to to work on but he said to me ever since you've been a Muslim you've been a better person you're more reliable I can count on you to come and pick me up if my car breaks down Ralph Oregon then I was drinking my smaller my pistol animal system member Oh