Muhamad Fadhli | Singapore

 بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

My name is Muhamad Fadhli Al Banjari from Chinatown, Singapore. I was born a muslim but grew up being an atheist. I was formerly involved with gangsterism and skinhead sub-culture. Alhamdulillah. I am a revert practicing muslim now. 

Discovering Islam

I was searching for the truth. I studied a few religions i.e. Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and even Satanism, in search of the True Religion.

In 2005, I started learning about Islam. Reading books about Islam got me interested to know more. Then I started reading the translated Quran. I manage to read it from cover to cover a couple of times in English/Malay. I also read Sahih Bukhari/Muslim concurrently.
Allah (swt) gave me ‘hidayah’ in a place where the world is nowhere to be reached.
Thereafter I continued practising Islam for about a year. Soon I realised that the ‘stereotype’ Muslims were not quite supportive towards people who are covered with tattoos and somehow this affected me. And I could not find the right teachers that uphold firmly to Quran and Sahih Hadith. Unfortunately, due to the peer pressure and strong bad influence, I wasn’t able to stand firmly and I drifted back to darkness.

From darkness into light

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتّٰى يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ ۗ وَإِذَآ أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوٓءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُۥ ۚ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن دُونِهِۦ مِن وَالٍ

…. Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron. (Ar-Ra'd: 11)

Wallahi, how powerful is the above verse and this shook me from inside and almost about 3 years back in 2014 Allah (swt) blessed me with ‘hidayah’ again. I begin to rediscover myself. This time I feel there is an urge to call people back to the deen in order for me to remain in the deen. I set up ‘One God SG’ with the support of a group of revert brothers who were from similar backgrounds. The objective of this group initially was to share the light with our circle of astrayed friends. After a while, we started to do street Dawah in public places to non-Muslims giving Islamic flyers and explaining Islam to them. In Singapore preaching of religion in public is an offence, so we discontinued not long after.

The way out

Earlier this year by Allah’s (swt) blessings, a local masjid open their doors for us to do Dawah to non-Muslim visitors. We did our first big dawah project ‘Who Do You Love’ in conjunction with ‘Global Messenger Day’ organised by iERA, London. It turned out to be a successful one. Alhamdulillah.

Singapore Muslims are rather conservative therefore Dawah to non-Muslims is not practiced here on a regular basis rather on an event ‘spectacular’. With Allah’s (swt) help we have managed to go against the odds and prove to the local Muslim community that it is permissible to do Dawah to Non-Muslims for as long as we follow the guidelines. An article about us was published in the local Malay newspaper earlier last year about ‘Ex-gangsters doing Da’wah’. Alhamdulillah. Our Dawah activities are shared on Mission Dawah page. All gratitude for Allah (swt) for His blessings.

Light upon light

All good comes from Allah (swt). I resigned from my full-time job to give full dedication to the ongoing Dawah activities. Now we have regular dawah activities happening 7 days a week in Masjid Abdul Gaffoor where we train Daees to share Islam with non-Muslim visitors in a project ‘Awareness Through Mosque Tour’. We get about 200 to 500 visitors from all over the world daily. A new team has also been set up in a Masjid inside Chinatown.

Free Qur’an (multiple translations) and other Islamic materials for locals and those within the South East Asian region.

On the other side, we give dawah to gangsters, drug-users, sub-culture society etc. We create ‘Open Free’ classes for not yet practicing Muslims introducing the basic understanding of Islam i.e. What is the purpose of life?, Where do we go after this life?, Are we created then who is our Creator? etc. Topics that relate to current issues in our society and how we view it from an Islamic perspective.

We do organize voluntary charity for the homeless and needy locally and in neighbouring countries.

Allah (swt) gave us the opportunity to set up new teams in Indonesia and soon in Malaysia/Philippines In shaa Allah.

Current overseas teams i.e. Indonesia Street Dawah, Surabaya Dawah Movement, Makassar Street Dawah, Padang Street Dawah & Mampang Dawah Movement. (Activities on FB page)

We provide training for youths and also adults who have the passion for Dawah. All with the common intention to call people to Tawheed.

Qur’an and Sahih Hadith is our priority reference.

All I have is a strong passion for dawah and determination to convey the true message about Islam.

Keep on doing Da’wah for Allah!

Jazakum Allaahu khairan kaseerah

Yours faithfully
Muhamad Fadhli Al Banjari
One God SG
Singapore Street Dawah

More information on One God SG and it’s activities can be found at the following links:
www.fb.com/OneGodSG
www.onegod.sg
www.instagram.com/OneGodSG
www.twitter.com/OneGodSG

Credit of the story goes to Street Dawah Mumbai with the permission to share by Brother Fadhli.