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Before discussing my journey to Islam, I thought it would be worthwhile to lay out my intentions with this newsletter.

After seeing how much Islam changed my life for the better, it became apparent to me that it's the antidote for all of the problems we see in modern culture—problems that have become so normalised that we accept them as part of our identity.

A society, for the most part, that is hooked on alcohol, gambling, drugs, materialism, p*rn, video games, and endless distraction. Trapped in jobs we despise. Completely devoid of any purpose or vision. Just drifting our way to retirement.

This channel will be for individuals who feel, deep within, that they are destined for more and are tired of living the life that today's society has assigned them.

Insha'Allah, I will help you break free from the grip of a weak society's hold on your goals and aspirations. I will show you how to create an ideal worth living for and align your life with your deepest values, allowing you to live as the most authentic version of yourself.

I should preface this and all other pieces of content by saying: I will use emotive language to stir a response within you. I want to wake you up.

Let's get into the newsletter.

My Journey to Islam

Before embracing Islam, I was blessed with the awareness that my thoughts, feelings, and actions directly influenced the circumstances of my life. This came from a self-development journey that began around seven years ago while I was living in Sydney.

After nine months of traveling and trying to 'find myself,' I had put on more weight than I was comfortable with. A quick search for 'the best way to lose weight' led me to the fad diet of the time: the ketogenic diet. From that point, I became absolutely obsessed with all things health, diet, and nutrition.

A few weeks later, I was 38 hours into a dry fast without eating a carb in weeks—unsurprisingly, I felt absolutely terrible.

I managed to tone it down and found a balanced way of eating, and I stopped going to these extremes. It turns out you can feel pretty good just eating healthily.

A few years had passed, and the obsession for self-improvement had not subsided, and my new passion was how to use my mind to create the life I wanted.

New Age Spirituality

This led me to dive into the world of New Age spirituality, exploring concepts like the Law of Attraction, manifestation, the flow state, and the power of gratitude and living in the 'present moment.'

I finally thought I had cracked the game of life. I thought this was it—this is how I will create the life of my dreams. This turned out not to be the case. While these practices brought significant changes to my circumstances, I still felt completely unfulfilled. I later came to realize New Age spirituality, for the most part, is the teachings of Islam—Insha'Allah, I'll do a full deep dive on this topic in the future.

By the age of 26, I had achieved everything society told me I had to in order to be deemed 'successful.' I should have been content with life; I was on a six-figure salary, had an 'amazing career,' a new car, an apartment in the city centre, was going on multiple holidays per year, was fit and healthy, and had a wardrobe full of designer clothes—I was living the life I had always dreamed about, yet I could feel my soul yearning for more. I couldn't help but think there has to be more to existence than this.

From my time researching New Age spirituality, it was clear to me that the 'universe' was intelligent and was interacting with my thoughts and feelings. However, this then made me question: 'What made the universe intelligent?' There had to be an intelligent designer.

Does God Exist?

Was 'God' real? An opinion I had dismissed my whole life. An opinion that gave me a sense of intellectual superiority over people who were 'brainwashed' and 'illogical.'

I made it my priority to find out. It only took me a few days to come to the conclusion that God was real, and it was more illogical to think otherwise. I, in fact, was the idiot.

To hold the belief that God didn't exist, I had to believe that the entire universe coming into existence was by 'random chance,' in a universe where 'random chance' doesn't exist.

I had to believe that nothing created everything.

I had to believe that there was absolutely no point to existence.

I had to accept that there could be no objective truth to concepts like good and bad, as without an intentional design or higher purpose, everything had to be different shades of the same meaningless existence—just a bunch of decaying matter interacting with each other. I think, deep down, we all know this is not the case.

Not to get too deep in the first newsletter, but here’s a question to think about:

If we are just a bunch of matter interacting with itself, what’s aware of the matter?

On reflection, this seems way more irrational than looking at clear intelligent design and affirming there must be an intelligent designer.

If someone presented you with the Mona Lisa and told you, "Nothing created this, the paint just randomly found its way onto the paper," you would be dubious. But we're to believe the human eye, trillions of times more complex than a painting, was just a random coincidence.

I thought to myself—if God actually exists—then surely one religion must be true. It wouldn't make sense for The Creator to not advise His creation on what their purpose here on earth is and prescribe the best way for them to live and interact with each other.

One thing I knew is that I could never follow a religion with blind faith. I had to be able to use rationality and evidence to come to my conclusion.

It Could Only Be Islam

It became apparent that Islam was the only choice I had.

I tried to disprove it. It was impossible. Try it if you don't believe me.

I remember picking up the Quran the first time after realizing God exists. It was like every lightbulb my brain had the capacity to hold was simultaneously bursting with light.

I think I knew subconsciously that my life would never be the same after this point.

It combined everything I had been looking for. It's the user manual for life. I had finally found the thing that would nourish every part of my being.

"Did He not find you unguided, then guide you?" (93:7)

Next week, Insha'Allah, I'll discuss why Islam is provable beyond reasonable doubt. Subscribe here to have this emailed to you.

Thanks for reading.

Email me if you'd like to discuss anything further: liam@30daymuslim.com