Hello friends. In today's video, we will look at John Fontain's story of conversion to Islam. We'll look at 9/11, Jazz singing, etc, and many topics. By sharing this video with the people you love, you can help these truths reach more people.
Intro
Who is John Fontain
What were you believing in?
What was the thing that made you question your belief?
When did you first hear about Islam?
What reason, did you feel the attraction towards Islam?
At that time, did becoming a Muslim cross your mind?
In Senegal, did you have any memory that you cannot forget?
When and how did you accept Islam?
So who invited you then?
And how did your family and your close circle react to your conversion to Islam?
What was the major challenge you faced after becoming a Muslim?
What impressed you the most about our Prophet (saw)?
What was your purpose in your life before Islam and what is it after Islam?
What projects are you doing right now?
If you had a chance to speak to all the non-Muslims in the world, what would you like to say to them?
What was it like to say in your final comments?
#FormerJazzSinger #RevertStory #AmazingJourney #Christianity #PersonalTransformation #FaithConversion #InspiringStory #SoulfulRebirth #JazzToJesus #SpiritualAwakening #MusicalTestimony #LifeChange #FaithJourney #SecondChances #TestimonyTuesday #JourneyOfFaith #NewBeginnings #JazzAndFaith #UpliftingNarratives
Intro
Who is John Fontain
What were you believing in?
What was the thing that made you question your belief?
When did you first hear about Islam?
What reason, did you feel the attraction towards Islam?
At that time, did becoming a Muslim cross your mind?
In Senegal, did you have any memory that you cannot forget?
When and how did you accept Islam?
So who invited you then?
And how did your family and your close circle react to your conversion to Islam?
What was the major challenge you faced after becoming a Muslim?
What impressed you the most about our Prophet (saw)?
What was your purpose in your life before Islam and what is it after Islam?
What projects are you doing right now?
If you had a chance to speak to all the non-Muslims in the world, what would you like to say to them?
What was it like to say in your final comments?
#FormerJazzSinger #RevertStory #AmazingJourney #Christianity #PersonalTransformation #FaithConversion #InspiringStory #SoulfulRebirth #JazzToJesus #SpiritualAwakening #MusicalTestimony #LifeChange #FaithJourney #SecondChances #TestimonyTuesday #JourneyOfFaith #NewBeginnings #JazzAndFaith #UpliftingNarratives
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in?
00:05What was the thing that made you question your belief?
00:08Around seven years old, I was like, what?
00:11You know, this is like a light bulb moment where I realized that I don't believe in this faith.
00:16I do not believe Jesus is God.
00:18Me, Muslim? I'm not going to be a Muslim. What are you talking about?
00:22Islam is a terrorist religion. These people are evil.
00:25America and other countries were going into Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:29I remember watching it on the news.
00:31We will bring freedom to others.
00:37Thinking, yeah, let's go and get these Muslims.
00:39Yeah, let's go and get these Muslims.
00:41You know, I was kind of like cheering them on because I'd never been properly introduced to Islam.
00:48And I'd never learned the true teachings.
00:53Asalaamu alaikum, Brother John. Thanks for coming.
00:55We will be having an interview with you inshaAllah.
00:57To start off with, who is John Fontaine and can you tell us briefly about your life?
01:01Yes, so my name is John Fontaine. I'm a convert to Islam.
01:04I converted in 2008.
01:06Before Islam, I was a jazz singer.
01:09I was also studying diamonds and working in Africa.
01:13So I'm from Manchester, the famous city.
01:15You know, a mixed upbringing.
01:17I went to school, college, and then I started to get into business and singing as well.
01:22How was your life in regards to faith? What were you believing in?
01:25I was born and raised as a Christian.
01:28So from a very young age, I used to go to church.
01:31I went to different types of churches.
01:33I also went to evangelical churches as well, which is a very different religion to Protestant Church of England religion.
01:39I was also into music.
01:41So I started to play the church organ.
01:43I played the ukulele, banjo.
01:45I played the trumpet.
01:46So I was very musical from a very young age.
01:48So in my teenage years, I got into singing.
01:52So from the age of 14, I was singing.
01:54And then when I became around 16, 17, I started to sing professionally as a job, singing in jazz clubs and cruise ships and football in Manchester United's ground and different places.
02:05It's fun.
02:06You know, in Jahiliyyah, my time before Islam, I felt like I'd got to the peak of where I could be in the music industry.
02:15You know, I wasn't going to be the number one singer in the world.
02:19I didn't have the, you know, the dark, handsome looks of a jazz singer.
02:23And when I was singing in some of these clubs, I just thought, well, I've done it.
02:27It was like I'd reached my goal and it was it was an empty feeling.
02:32You know, when you've made it, you know, you've tried to work so hard to succeed in a particular field.
02:39And then all of a sudden you're at the top of where you can be.
02:43And then what?
02:44Am I going to do this for the rest of my life?
02:46It's not fulfilling.
02:47So this is why I started to look into business as well.
02:50I started to study diamonds.
02:52And that's when my journey took me to Africa and on to different things.
02:57What was the thing that made you question your belief?
02:59Was it an event?
03:00Was it a thought?
03:01And when was it?
03:02That's an interesting question.
03:03From a young age, the age of about seven years old, I remember being in Sunday school in church.
03:08We had to write a song about God and my song was called Jesus and God.
03:14And that was the chorus.
03:15It was like a rap.
03:16I had some verses.
03:17I still remember the verses.
03:18I'm not going to sing it now.
03:19And I remember the pastor, one of the youth workers, he took the piece of paper and changed the words.
03:26So originally, my song was Jesus and God.
03:29And the pastor changed it to Jesus is God.
03:32And around seven years old, I was like, what?
03:35You know, this was like a light bulb moment where I realized that I don't believe in this faith.
03:41I do not believe Jesus is God.
03:43You know, my concept of Jesus was that he's a man, he's a human being, he's a prophet of God.
03:48And there's no way I was going to accept that Jesus is God.
03:51So this was the kind of the first instance where I started to question, well, what is the right religion?
03:57Because I did believe in God and my concept of God was what my concept of God is today.
04:03We can't imagine God.
04:04You know, he's one.
04:05He's something beyond our comprehension.
04:07But there was no way I was going to accept that Jesus is God.
04:10So this was shocking for me.
04:11From a young age, I knew, you know, what's going on.
04:14You know, all my family, my friends, my community, they're all following this religion.
04:19And it doesn't make sense.
04:20It was very eye-opening.
04:21When did you first hear about Islam?
04:23I would say the first time I started to hear about Islam and think about it as a religion was 9-11.
04:30I remember I was in school.
04:32I was in a woodwork class.
04:33I was making my GCSE product of a rocking horse.
04:37And there was a lot of commotion.
04:39We had the teacher got the 9-11 incident on the laptop.
04:43And we were shocked, you know, that somebody had flew a plane into the World Trade Centers.
04:48And all I heard was, they're Muslims, it's Muslims, it's Muslims.
04:51And from then I went home and I was watching the news.
04:54And I remember when America and other countries were going into Iraq and Afghanistan.
05:00I remember watching it on the news, thinking, yeah, let's go and get these Muslims.
05:04You know, I was kind of like cheering them on, not knowing anything about Islam.
05:08All I thought I knew was that Islam is a terrorist religion.
05:12These people are evil.
05:13And that was kind of my first introduction.
05:15For what reason did you feel the attraction towards Islam?
05:18Initially, I was looking into Islam online.
05:21I was watching YouTube.
05:23When YouTube first came out, coming across some different videos.
05:27I also, at the age of 18, I traveled to Senegal in West Africa.
05:32And for those who don't know, Senegal is a Muslim country.
05:34When I was in Senegal, I was actually quite scared of Muslims initially because of 9-11,
05:39because I had many misconceptions about Muslims.
05:42So actually going to Senegal opened my mind.
05:45I realized, number one, that there's African Muslims.
05:48I had never seen African Muslims.
05:50So I was really interested in understanding how did Islam come here, you know.
05:55And when I went to Senegal, this was the first time I actually heard the Adhan.
05:59It was fascinating.
06:00You know, I was really happy to hear the call to prayer.
06:04I wanted to understand it.
06:05I wanted to understand the meaning.
06:07And I met some Muslims.
06:09I came across a brother who, at the time, he was working in the hotel.
06:13And he invited me to his house, to stay in his house.
06:16So I ended up living with him for some time.
06:19I went to a Muslim wedding.
06:21I went to a Muslim funeral.
06:22And I witnessed him and his mother and his family praying.
06:27We ate together, sitting on the floor.
06:30And all these things were amazing to me.
06:32At that time, did becoming a Muslim cross your mind?
06:35But I wasn't convinced on Islam.
06:37So even though I liked the culture, I liked my experience,
06:42this wasn't enough to make me a Muslim.
06:44This just sparked my interest even more to kind of...
06:47It was kind of weird because I started to attack Islam by using Christianity.
06:53Even though I knew Christianity wasn't true, culturally I was still Christian.
06:57So I started to, you know, try to find problems of Islam, you know,
07:02spark discussion with some of the Muslims.
07:04But the more I researched, the more I questioned Islam,
07:07the more I was impressed about the teachings and the message of the Quran.
07:12And I guess I was willing to accept Islam.
07:15When I say willing to accept Islam, I mean I was willing to give Islam a chance
07:19because the Africans had a part to teach me about Islam.
07:24In Senegal, did you have any memory that you cannot forget?
07:28So I was 18 years old. This is five years before I converted.
07:32And while I was staying in the brother's house, who's a Muslim,
07:36his grandmother passed away. And she was 105 years old.
07:40And he was crying. He was sat on the bed crying.
07:43So I sat next to him. I put my arm around him.
07:46And I said, you know, she'll go to a better place.
07:49And he said, I'm not crying because she's passed away.
07:52He said, she's a Muslim. He said, she goes to Jannah inshallah.
07:55He said, I'm crying because she's a very old woman.
07:58And I wanted her to meet you so that she can make du'a that you will become a Muslim.
08:03And that touched me. I thought, me Muslim? I'm not going to be a Muslim.
08:07What are you talking about?
08:08You know, I didn't say that because, you know, he's still upset that his grandmother passed away.
08:12But this had an effect on me.
08:14I was like, why is this so important for this man?
08:16Why is he crying? He's just lost his grandmother.
08:19He's not crying because she's passed away. He's crying because he wants me to be a Muslim.
08:23And that was something that made me think, wow, this guy actually believes.
08:27He really believes in this religion.
08:29When and how did you accept Islam?
08:31I eventually accepted Islam when I was 23 years old.
08:35I was doing some research.
08:37But again, at the time, I was not willing to give up singing.
08:40I was not willing to give up certain things.
08:43And I guess, I didn't know how to become a Muslim.
08:46In fact, I didn't know I could be a Muslim.
08:48I thought Islam was something you're born with.
08:51You know, something you inherit from your parents.
08:54I'd never known they were converts to Islam.
08:56It wasn't until when I was researching, I came across videos with people like Abdulrahim Green
09:01and Yusuf Estes and other people, converts.
09:04When I realized, wow, there's actually a lot of English and American people who are accepting Islam.
09:10And I can be a Muslim.
09:11So that was something that led me to think, okay, now this is something I should look into.
09:16So who invited you then?
09:18I was in Egypt at the time and I went to a mosque and I asked my friend to teach me how to pray.
09:23And he refused.
09:25He said, no.
09:26He said, you're not a Muslim.
09:27I said, well, I believe.
09:28You know, I fasted Ramadan.
09:30I tried to pray.
09:31He said, okay, you have to say the Shahada.
09:33I asked him, what is the Shahada?
09:35So he told me the Shahada and I became a Muslim.
09:38I felt like a big weight was taken off my shoulders.
09:42I felt clean.
09:43And Alhamdulillah, I already believed.
09:46You know, it wasn't like the belief just came at that point.
09:49I've always believed in Allah.
09:51And then I went back to the UK.
09:52I tried to find a mosque.
09:54And I was still scared to go to the mosque.
09:56I felt that the Muslims were terrorists.
09:58I still had negative feelings about Muslims.
10:01So I went to a place.
10:03I thought it was a school, but it wasn't a school.
10:06It was a mosque.
10:07And SubhanAllah, behind the reception, there was an English man.
10:11I was shocked, you know, as a white man walking into a mosque.
10:14I was expecting to see Pakistanis and Arabs.
10:17And he's a white man.
10:19And he helped me.
10:21Taught me the Fatihah.
10:23Taught me the small surahs.
10:25And taught me how to pray.
10:26Every day I would go there.
10:27He would teach me how to pray.
10:29He would listen to me, read the Qur'an.
10:31And there were some other brothers in the mosque.
10:33I would sit there having coffee.
10:34And they would be teaching me.
10:36And that's how I started my journey.
10:38And how did your family and your close circle react to your conversion to Islam?
10:42I think in the beginning, people just thought it was a phase.
10:45That it's not going to last long.
10:47He will grow out of it.
10:48And now, 13 years on, I'm still a Muslim.
10:51Of course, many of them had concerns that Islam was dangerous and Muslims are terrorists.
10:57And I totally understand people having them concerns.
11:00You know, because all they know is what's in the media.
11:03And this is the problem of the Muslims.
11:06Because the Muslims are not educating the non-Muslims about the correct Islam.
11:10You know, so if the non-Muslims know about Islam, they won't have these stereotypes and these concerns.
11:16So yeah, it was difficult in the beginning.
11:18Lots of family and friends were confused and worried.
11:22But Alhamdulillah, now everything is okay.
11:24What was the major challenge you faced after becoming a Muslim?
11:27The hardest thing for me was praying salah.
11:30If you're not in the habit, the salah is difficult.
11:33Because we're not used to spending that time five times a day to pray the salah.
11:39One way I dealt with this is, I promise myself that I will never sleep at night unless I've prayed my five daily prayers.
11:47So imagine you're praying all five daily prayers at night before you sleep.
11:51This is not allowed by the way, this is not permissible.
11:55But of course, as a new Muslim, you don't know and you're coming from kufr and jahiliyyah.
12:00And now you're trying to learn the deen.
12:02And then I realized that it's so difficult at the time to pray all them salah at one,
12:07that it's easier to spread them around.
12:10So I think this helped me spread the salah in the right time.
12:14And of course, when you grow in Islam, you learn more about the religion,
12:17you realize that it's obligatory to pray these prayers on time.
12:22What impressed you the most about our Prophet ﷺ?
12:25This is an amazing question.
12:27When we look at the reality of the Prophet ﷺ,
12:301400 years ago he came, one man in the desert received revelation from Allah,
12:36as well as the highest status a human being can be given, which is a Prophet.
12:41And the impact that he had on the world, even to this day,
12:45and his followers who follow his sunnah, follow his way, or we try to follow his way.
12:51The love that we have, look, we're here today.
12:53We're spending our wealth and our time on the deen.
12:57We truly have iman in this.
12:59And just imagine all the followers of Islam, not just the ones that are alive today,
13:04but for the past 1400 years, preserving the sunnah,
13:08preserving the statements and the actions of this man,
13:11and obeying the Messenger of Allah, obeying Allah.
13:15And the impact that he's had on this world,
13:18that a third of the world currently follow the Prophet ﷺ,
13:22or they're Muslims.
13:24This is just the introduction.
13:26Seriously, when people reflect on this man and what he did,
13:30and more importantly, the message that he was given,
13:32the solutions that the Qur'an has for humanity,
13:35you bring the Sharia, the law and the guidance from Allah,
13:40and you compare it to any other religion or any other philosophy,
13:44any other way of life.
13:45Islam beats any other religion or way of life in its wisdom.
13:50And it's also simple to understand.
13:52What was your purpose in your life before Islam,
13:55and what is it after Islam?
13:57Purpose and the goal is to see Allah,
13:59you know, to be in paradise,
14:01be in Fuddaws and have the opportunity to actually see our Creator.
14:06You know, that is the ultimate.
14:07And of course, after that, see the Prophets,
14:10you know, sitting with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ,
14:12sitting with Isa and all the Prophets,
14:16having conversations with them.
14:17You know, this is the purpose.
14:19Before Islam, I don't think people really think about the purpose of life.
14:23I don't think they make their own purpose.
14:25I didn't.
14:26You're just living day to day.
14:28What projects are you doing right now?
14:30For myself, I'm doing some work in Africa,
14:33planning on building schools in Africa.
14:35I'm also writing a book about the Islamic perspective of Revelation
14:40and the previous scriptures.
14:41I'm also writing a book about atheism,
14:43tackling some of the issues on atheism.
14:46I also have a YouTube channel.
14:48I have a podcast called Young Smirks.
14:50So go and subscribe.
14:51Apart from that, just reading, studying, doing dawah,
14:54and trying to share the message of Islam.
14:57If you had a chance to speak to all the non-Muslims in the world,
15:00what would you like to say to them?
15:02I would just encourage them to look into Islam sincerely.
15:05You know, learn Islam from Muslims who have studied their religion.
15:09Take some time out.
15:11Read some books on Islam.
15:12Understand what this religion has been so dominant
15:15for the past 1400 years believes.
15:17No doubt Islam is very influential on the world.
15:21You know, we're talking a third of the world's population are Muslim.
15:24So this is something just out of respect for your neighbour,
15:28out of respect for your fellow human beings.
15:30You should learn about what they believe.
15:32Take some time and study and learn about the concepts in Islam.
15:35And just be sincere to yourself.
15:37I would encourage all the non-Muslims to worship Allah, the Creator alone.
15:42That God that you make dawah to when you're in need.
15:45That God you pray to, I should say, when you're on the plane shaking.
15:50You've got turbulence and you're calling out to the Creator.
15:53That's the God that Muslims believe in.
15:55That's the God that Muslims pray to.
15:56So ask that God to guide you.
15:58Put your head on the floor in your bedroom when you're alone.
16:01Just put your head on the floor and ask the Creator to guide you.
16:04What would you like to say as your final comments?
16:06One thing I would say is just, I would actually advise the Muslims who are watching this.
16:12Maybe you're not praying. Maybe your Salah is not on time.
16:16Maybe you're weak in Iman. Maybe you don't have much knowledge about Islam.
16:21Try to learn more about Islam and focus on your Salah.
16:24Make sure that your five daily prayers are on time.
16:27As a Muslim, if you have your five daily prayers on time, prayed correctly,
16:31you will see that your life will fall into place.
16:34When your connection is right with your Creator, the dunya is easy.
16:37This life is easy. Allah is al-Razzaq. He's the one who provides.
16:42He's the one who protects. He is the all-wise.
16:45When you have Iman in these things, when a calamity comes,
16:48you know that the all-wise, al-Hakim, is behind that.
16:52SubhanAllah, Iman comes through knowledge.
16:55It's not just through saying, I love the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
16:58Loving the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
17:00The proof of that is that you obey him and follow him.
17:03Take it step by step. Start with your Salah and things will work.
17:06And I encourage everyone, whether you're Muslim, whether you're non-Muslim,
17:11to take Islam seriously. Reflect on the Qur'an. Read the Qur'an.
17:15Give Islam a chance. Read about what Islam teaches.
17:18The pure, strict monotheism of worshipping only God alone.
17:23We don't pray to Muhammad. We don't pray to anything.
17:26We don't pray to saints. We don't pray to anyone.
17:29We pray directly to God alone.
17:31Thank you for your answers. It was a beautiful interview.
17:33So, hope to see you and collaborate with you again, inshaAllah.
17:36Peace be upon you. As-salamu alaykum.
17:38Peace be upon you.
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