By [Bachir/Editorial Staff]
What if love for Jesus led... to Islam? This is the paradoxical and fascinating path taken by Imam Youssouf Rios, a Puerto Rican born in the United States, whose spiritual quest defied all expectations. In an exclusive and moving testimony, he recounts how his love for the prophet Jesus drove him to renounce Christianity and embrace a faith that many, even today, mistakenly perceive as a religion of the sword.
The Dark Night of the Soul: A Young Man in Search of Absolutes
As a young man, Youssouf Rios was immersed in a profoundly religious environment. Growing up between a Protestant father and a devout Catholic mother, he chose the path of Catholicism. But his adolescence was marked by the shadows of a society in crisis: violence, drugs, and a feeling of existential emptiness. "My worldview was very pessimistic," he confesses.
To flee this world he considered corrupt, he turned to the opposite extreme: asceticism. He knocked on the door of a seminary to study for the priesthood, even aspiring to the monastic life. For two and a half years, he delved into the study of theology and philosophy. But the more he dug, the more the foundations of his Christian faith began to shake.
The Intellectual Reckoning: The Quest for the True Face of Jesus
The trigger wasn't rejection, but a deep love. "My love for Jesus. I wanted to know who he really was." It was this thirst for truth about the Messiah that became the driving force behind his conversion.
His studies confronted him with unsolvable contradictions: how to reconcile the scriptures of the Old Testament with Christian theology? "We read the Psalms in their original version. It stated clearly that God had created evil... This contradicted everything." Above all, one central question became obsessive: Did Jesus really say he was God?
Guided by his love for God, he made a decision that would change his life: "My love for God made me realize that Jesus could not be God." He came to understand that the assertion of Jesus's divinity was more a dogma established by councils than a tangible historical reality. Even Christian scholars, he notes, have questioned this idea for centuries.
Fear and Deliverance: The Unfinished Shahada
His path to Islam was not a smooth one. It was fraught with doubts, fueled by Christian teachings that instilled in him the belief that any prophet after Jesus was an imposter. "When I pronounced my Shahada, I started with only half of it: 'La ilaha illa Allah' (There is no god but Allah). I stopped there. The fear was too strong. Was Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) a jinn? A false prophet?"
Yet, the first part of the testimony of faith was an absolute certainty, an echo of the Ten Commandments. He took the leap, accepting that he didn't need all the answers immediately. It was only by studying the life of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), the Seerah, that he found the confirmation he was seeking.
He discovered a leader, a community builder, a man of justice. Far from the reductive cliché of a warrior, he saw in him a model for all of humanity. "People don't see the Muslim world and are unaware that people are freely converting to Islam. They believe Islam was spread by the sword." For him, as a Latino, this accusation has a bitter taste: "Christianity was imposed on us by force."
The Price to Pay: Rejection and Refuge
His conversion sent shockwaves through his Puerto Rican family, where Catholicism and cultural identity are inseparable. His mother rejected him. His grandmother, a central figure and devout Catholic, refused to speak to him. Becoming a father, he had to fight for his own children to have a relationship with their grandmother.
It was in this pain that the Muslim community became his anchor, his surrogate family. "The Muslim community became my family, my refuge."
The Message to the West: A Universal Heritage
Today, after 25 years of practice and service, Imam Youssouf Rios carries a message of hope and openness to the non-Muslim world:
Do not deprive yourselves of the Quran. It is, in his view, the only divine revelation perfectly preserved in its original language, an unaltered source.
Discover the life of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). Beyond the prejudices, his model of leadership and justice provides answers to the crises of our time.
Consider the civilizational contribution of Islam. It is a universal heritage that has enriched humanity with treasures of wisdom, science, and spirituality.
For Imam Youssouf Rios, Islam is not a rupture, but the fulfillment of a simple and original faith—the faith of all prophets, including Jesus. A faith that, far from opposing life, embraces it in all its beauty and complexity. A powerful message for all those who, like him once did, seek the truth with sincerity.
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