How a New York Firefighter Found Islam

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How a New York Firefighter Found Islam


Brother Kevin James.

Kevin James is a supervising fire marshal in Brooklyn, New York, who converted to Islam as a young man.

"I felt a kinship to Muhammad (peace be upon him) personally, and there are probably about a billion Muslims who would say the same thing: personal, this personal kinship that they feel with him."

Muhammad (peace be upon him) grew up an orphan.

"I'm not an orphan, I have two parents. But, my position in society, I've always felt separate. America is a racial nation, and either you are black, white, Italian, Jewish, or you are this and that. So, coming from a mixed background I've felt like kind of in limbo.

My father is Native American, an African-American, and my mother is Jewish. They were very unreligious, I would say, to the point of being atheist or agnostic.

As children, I recall we got a dreidel on Hanukkah. We had a menorah in the house, and we also had a Christmas tree and we exchanged presents. So, I just never really identified with any religion. But what was always emphasized were discussion and dialogue and seeking for the truth.

So, I went through a period of trial and error searching, and I stumbled, I guess, I almost literally stumbled on Islam."

What nobler calling is there than to save a person's life?
What appealed to me was the universality of the message.

Any religion that gives a code of righteous ethical conduct and respect and gratitude and obedience to one being, is ISLAM. So, here's a book, the Holy Quran, that validates other religions, the diversity of mankind, and puts the onus of salvation on the believer.

The Quran teaches you that the saving of one life is as if you saved all of humanity (5:32). And, that's one of the reasons why I became a firefighter. What nobler calling is there than to save a person's life, to save people, and to save their property?

From being a firefighter, I became a fire marshal, that's an arson investigator. That's another form of prevention, of saving lives. A fire fighter, he'll risk his life to save you whether you're black, brown, red, Jew, Muslim, Christian, or atheist. He's not asking you what your philosophy is or looking at your color. He's looking to get you out of the building. That's why many people say that fire fighting is a calling, because of that self-sacrifice, the willingness to just put others before yourself.

To be a good Muslim, you serve people, and specifically, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) he asked the question to people around him:

Do you love your Creator?
Then serve your fellow man first.

Sephiroth

"I felt a kinship to Muhammad (peace be upon him) personally, and there are probably about a billion Muslims who would say the same thing: personal, this personal kinship that they feel with him."

My father is Native American, an African-American, and my mother is Jewish. They were very unreligious, I would say, to the point of being atheist or agnostic.

This is one confused little man. He doesn't even know that Native American means Red Indians and African American means black people from Africa. How is it possible for his father to be a Red Indian AND a black man at the same time? STUPID ... like many ba$tards in America, this joker must be born without a single idea who or what his family supposed to belong to.

FYI - Religious or not have NOTHING to do with what race you belong to. If his parents were atheists, then they made the choice to be atheists and he was raised in a family without any Spiritual background, regardless what he claim they came from.

Do you love your Creator?
Then serve your fellow man first.

Serve fellow man? Where in Islam says that? Islam is about serving ONE man named Muhammad - by mimicking EVERYTHING he does - from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you sleep at night. You do not serve any God or your fellow men. You serve Muhammad. He is your god.