Proof that I was Muslim
My name is Abdullah Sameer and I am an exmuslim. I used to believe in Islam and now I left it. Here’s proof that I was a believer.
Most reasonable people accept that I used to be Muslim. It is obvious enough that I am telling the truth when I said I was Muslim for 15 years. I am well known in the local community, my projects are quite well known, and really I have no reason to lie about this. But sometimes its difficult for someone that is deeply indoctrinated to accept such a thing.
Now I know I don’t have to do this. But I like seeing trolls squirm. So yalla here we go!
Not a true Muslim!
Some have such strong cognitive dissonance that they think that nobody can really leave Islam after thinking it was true. But people come to new realizations all the time. Imagine telling a former Christian like Dr. Bilal Philips or Sheikh Hamza Yusuf that they were never really a Christian to begin with. That is just absurd!
What is considered a true Muslim?
- One who sincerely believes in the religion, that’s all.
- Practising it is a proof of the pudding.
- Making sacrifices is another.
- Promoting it and evangelizing for it is another proof.
But according to Prophet Muhammad in several narrations it is not allowed to question someone’s faith who claims to be a believer:
People want to judge what is inside someone’s heart and this is not allowed. Muslims are to judge by the apparent, as the prophet teaches. This is what I used to stand by, as a Muslim.
The sites I founded
I founded two major websites. One was LightUponLight.com which received over 3 million downloads to date. Many of the videos I personally recorded myself at various events or converted to digital format to place online. This was before YouTube existed and I had to order several servers to pay for the hosting costs. I received some donations and ran a web hosting company to help recover the costs.
The other one was VerseByVerseQuran.com:
The site was used by various other Quran sites like Tanzil, Quran.com, and tons of iOS and Android Quran apps. All of this was given out free of charge for the community. The above site was eventually handed over to the Quran.com team who can verify that I created it. They run it now.
Emails I received
The following is an email from Mahmoud Hammam, the administrator for the King Saud Quran website. He used to take some of the Quran recitations that I worked on and use it on their site. He sent me this sad email when he found out I left Islam:
As a side note, the problem of how life started is still something we are yet to completely figure out, but even if we don’t know the answer, it doesn’t mean that Muhammad spoke to God.
I worked closely with Sheikh Yusuf Estes in supporting him technically on his various web sites for several years. I was responsible for some of the web hosting as well. Here is an email where I suggested he take over the servers as I didn’t want to work on these projects any longer:
Muslim notables who know me
I also spoke to Eddy of The Deen Show on the phone for multiple phone calls of several hours each after leaving Islam. I spoke to Kamal ElMakki of AlMaghrib Institute on the phone after leaving Islam. Imam Waleed Hakeem mentioned me here:
I studied under Muhammad Alshareef, Yasir Qadhi at Almaghrib. I spoke to the imam of Alhuda Institute several times in person (Dr. Idrees, husband of Farhat Hashmi).
Islamic posts I wrote
The dua of Maryam’s mother is one such original piece I authored:
There are tons more on my old blog.
You weren’t in my sect!
What sect was I in? I was born as Ismaili (which many Muslims consider them to be disbelievers) and converted to Sunni Islam around the age of 18. Sometime in my journey of being a Muslim I inclined towards Salafism. Being a convert, I was a general Muslim for some of my former Islamic life, but then inclined towards salafism and was a Salafi after that.
Does this mean my arguments are now false if I wasn’t from the exact sect you were? No, of course not. That would be the genetic fallacy.
You judged something as either good or bad on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it came.
Most of my arguments against Islam would apply outside of the particulars of my sect of Islam I was in.
You’re just arrogant!
This accusation doesn’t make any sense. I (and all the others who left our religions whether its ex-Christians or ex-Mormons or ex-Muslims) are so arrogant that we are okay with going to hell? No, this does not make sense. Any rational person would do whatever it takes for self preservation. Either I really don’t believe in hell (which is the actual case), or I am crazy to reject it (in which case I am insane and don’t deserve it either). In both cases it doesn’t make sense to punish me in hell. Or maybe I actually don’t believe Islam is true? Think about it…
Why I left Islam
The particulars of why I left Islam are outside of the scope of this article, but in a nutshell I don’t think there is any good reason to believe Muhammad spoke to Allah. My articles cover the fact that the Quran depicts a flawed version of the world (science), philosophy (hell is unjust and cruel), morality (i.e. Islam treats women badly), the stories in the Quran are made up fables, and other reasons too.
Family pictures
Here are some family photos of me being Muslim:
What about your wife?
My wife chooses to keep her beliefs personal and so I am not going to discuss them here.
In conclusion
I think it’s sufficiently clear that I am who I say I am. I am a former Muslim. This wasn’t really necessary to prove, but it was fun doing it. Thanks for reading.
Please check out my blog for more details on why I left Islam.
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