Omar Suleiman

And so for me personally, growing up, going through certain difficulties,

Having a sick parent who struggled in her life with cancer and with strokes, dealing with racism in South Louisiana growing up, it was important for me to learn about God through my difficulties, for example, rather than let those difficulties turn me away from Him.

Many times, people put a barrier between them and God because they can't make sense of the things that are happening in their own lives.

And so they project anger towards God and at the same time deny their own belief in him and do away with this natural disposition that every one of us has to believe in him.

So there are intellectual barriers, certainly.

There are experiential barriers.

But I think that one of the beautiful things about Islam is clarity.

There's an explanation for his existence, there's an explanation for our existence, there's an explanation for the existence of difficulties and trial, an explanation for the existence of desires and distractions, and it all comes together so beautifully and coherently in Islam.

I think that for many of us, we want to be our own gods.

And ultimately, we create and fashion gods in ways that allow us to still be the ultimate determiners of our own fates, of our own story.

And that's very unfulfilling when you fail at your own plan.

But when you realize that there is one who is all-knowing, that there is one who is all-wise,

you actually find peace in submitting yourself to him.

And so submitting your will to him, submitting your desires, submitting your own fate to him becomes actually an experience of liberation because you trust the one that you're submitting to.

You trust his knowledge over yours.

You trust his wisdom over yours.

And that gives you a lot of peace.

And then you have direct access to him.

You pray to him, you call upon him, you supplicate.

And everything in your life suddenly has meaning.