From priest to active preacher

This is the concluding part of Yusuf Estes’ story who embraced Islam. A former priest and now an active preacher of Islam, Yusuf recalls the ups and downs in his life and eventually his conversion to Islam.

AFTER sharing this story with the man in the wheelchair, he looked up and me and apologized. He told me he was sorry for his rude behavior and that he had experienced some real serious problems recently. Then he said that he wanted to confess something to me. And I said that I was not a Catholic priest and I don’t handle confessions. He replied back to me that he knew that. In fact, he said: “I am a Catholic priest.”

I was shocked. Here I had been trying to preach Christianity to a priest. What in the world was happening here?

The priest began to share his story of being a missionary for the church for over 12 years to south and Central America and Mexico and even in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. When he was released from the hospital he needed a place to go to recover and rather than let him go to stay with a Catholic family, I told my dad that we should invite him to come out and live with us in the country along with our families and Mohamed. It was agreed by all that he would, so he moved out right away.

During the trip out to our home, I talked with the priest about some of the concepts of beliefs in Islam, and to my surprise he agreed and then shared even more about this with me. I was shocked when he told me that Catholic priests actually study Islam and some even carry doctors degrees in this subject. This was all very enlightening to me. But there was still a lot more to come.

After settling in, we all began to gather around the kitchen table after dinner every night to discuss religion. My father would bring his King James Version of the Bible, I would bring out my Revised Standard Version of the Bible, my wife had another version of the Bible (maybe something like Jimmy Swaggart’s Good News for Modern Man. The priest of course, had the Catholic Bible which has 7 more books in it that is the Protestant Bible. So we spent more time talking about which Bible was the right one or the most correct one, than we did trying to convince Mohamed about becoming a Christian.

At one point I recall asking him about the Qur’an and how many versions of it there were in the last 1,400 years. He told me that there was only ONE QUR’AN. And that it had never been changed. Yet he let me know that the Qur’an had been memorized by hundreds of thousands of people in its entirety, and were scattered about the earth in many different countries. Over the centuries since the Qur’an was revealed, millions have memorized it completely and have taught it to others who have memorized it completely, from cover to cover, letter perfect without mistakes. Today, over 9 million Muslims have memorized the entire Qur’an from cover to cover.

This did not seem possible to me. After all, the original languages of the Bible have all been dead languages for centuries, and the documents themselves have been lost in their originals for hundreds and thousands of years. So, how could it be that something like this could be so easy to preserve and to recite from cover to cover.

Anyway, one day the priest asked Mohamed if he might accompany him to the mosque to see what it was like there. They came back talking about their experience there and we could not wait to ask the priest what it was like and what all types of ceremonies they performed. He said they didn’t really do anything. They just came and prayed and left. I said: They left? Without any speeches or singing? “He said that was right.”

A few more days went by and the Catholic priest asked Mohamed if he might join him again for a trip to the mosque which they did. But this time it was different. They did not come back for a very long time. It became dark and we worried that something might have happened to them. Finally they arrived and when they came in the door I immediately recognized Mohamed, but who was this alongside of him? Someone wearing a white robe and a white cap. Hold on a minute! It was the priest. I said to him: Pete? — Did you become a ‘Moslem?’

He said that he had entered into Islam that very day.

So, I went upstairs to think things over a bit and began to talk to my wife about the whole subject. She then told me that she too was going to enter into Islam, because she knew it was the truth.

I was really shocked now. I went downstairs and woke up Mohamed and asked him to come outside with me for a discussion. We walked and talked that whole night through.

By the time he was ready to pray Fajr (the morning prayer of the Muslims) I knew that the truth had come at last and now it was up to me to do my part. I went out back behind my father’s house and found an old piece of plywood lying under an overhang and right there I put my head down on the ground facing the direction that the Muslims pray five times a day. Guide Me! O God! Guide Me! Now then in that position, with my body stretched out on the plywood and my head on the ground, I asked: “O God. If you are there, guide me, guide me.”

And then after a while I raised up my head and I noticed something. No, I didn’t see birds or angels coming out of the sky, nor did I hear voices or music, nor did I see bright lights and flashes. What I did notice was a change inside of me. I was aware now more than ever before that it was time for me to stop any lying and doing anything sneaky. It was time that I really work at being an honest and upright man. I knew now what I had to do.

So I went upstairs and took a shower with the distinct idea that I was ‘washing’ away the sinful old person that I had become over the years. And I was now coming into a new, fresh life. A life based on truth and proof. And become new!

Around 11:00 A.M. that morning, I stood before two witnesses, one the expriest, formerly known as Father Peter Jacobs, and the other Mohamed Abel Rehman, and announced my ‘shahadah’ (open testimony to the Oneness of God and the prophethood of Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him).

“I bear witness, there is no deity to worship, except Almighty God, alone and He has no partners and I bear witness that Mohammad is His messenger and servant.”

A few minutes later, my wife followed along and gave the same testimony. But hers was in front of 3 witnesses (me being the third).

My father was a bit more reserved on the subject and waited a few more months before he made his shahadah (public testimony). But he did finally commit to Islam and began offering prayers right along with me and the other Muslims in the local masjid (mosque).

The children were taken out of the Christian school and placed in Muslim schools. And now ten years later, they are memorizing much of the Qur’an and the teachings of Islam.

My father’s wife finally acknowledged, before she died, that Jesus could not be a son of God and that he must have been a mighty prophet of God, but not God. She passed away within a few months of this statement at age 86. May God accept her statement of faith, ameen.

Now stop and think. A whole entire household of people from varying backgrounds and ethnic groups coming together in truth to learn how to know and worship the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. Think. A Catholic priest; a minister of music and preacher of the gospel; an ordained minister and builder of Christian schools; and the children, even a greatgrandmother — they all came into Islam!

Only by His Mercy were we all guided to see the real truth of Islam, by removing the coverings over our ears and the blinders on our eyes, no longer having seals over our hearts — He was Guiding us now.

So, now you have the introduction to the story of my coming into Islam and becoming Muslim.

Peace to you and Guidance from God the One Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer of all that exists.