"The fugitive who returned: I used to steal to survive, but I returned to find life in
Islam."
Hamza Miat is a British Islamic speaker and da'ee (caller to Islam), originally from South Wales. His birth name was Darren. He embraced Islam in October 2001, just three weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Before embracing Islam, he worked as a financial advisor and ran his own finance company. He was also involved in petty crime, including shoplifting, during his teenage years.
Today, he is a full-time speaker, runs a popular YouTube channel called "Hamza Zadan" , and also has his own business selling scarves. He is well-known for his work at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, where he debates and discusses Islam with people of other faiths and atheists.
He is both the hero and the narrator of this story, reflecting on his journey from a troubled youth to a devoted Muslim.
The Thief Who Went Back: The Story of Hamza
Chapter One: The Rule That Was Broken
I had a strict rule in my small world of shoplifting: "If you steal and get away with it, never go back to the same store." It was a golden rule. Going back meant raising suspicions; it meant walking into a trap.
That day, I didn't need money. I didn't need anything. I was aimlessly walking through a Sainsbury's with a friend, just wandering through the aisles. I felt something strange, like I was being watched. I was about to leave, but a weird inner voice whispered, "At least take something, so the trip isn't a total waste." I don't know why I went back. I broke my own rule.
I reached out, took two large bars of chocolate, hid them under my coat, and left.
Chapter Two: The Hand on My Shoulder
A few steps later, I heard footsteps running behind me. I didn't think much of it, assuming it was someone trying to catch a taxi. Then I felt a hand grip my shoulder. I turned around. It was a middle-aged woman, slightly out of breath. "Can you come back to the store with me, please?"
I froze. I fought the urge to run. She was a small woman; I could have easily escaped. A supposedly clever idea popped into my head: I'd walk past a bin, drop the chocolate in it, and then, with no evidence, claim she had made a mistake. I reached into my coat, grabbed the chocolate, and tossed it into the nearest bin. But the bin was empty. The two chocolate bars hit the bottom with a loud thud that echoed in the quiet store.
The woman stopped and turned to me, her eyes sharp. "That wasn't very clever, was it? Take them out. Now."
My plan was ruined. My hands trembling, I reached in and pulled out the chocolate. I was caught red-handed. It was over.
Chapter Three: Shame and an Old Number
As she was leading me to the back office, my dad and his stepmother walked out of a furniture shop just two doors down. They saw me. They saw me with that woman holding onto me. In an instant, everything changed. I was 15 years old, and the shame was overwhelming. I had brought disgrace to my family.
In the middle of that chaos and humiliation, I remembered something. A phone number. Just two weeks earlier, my mum, who had been separated from us for years, had suddenly appeared in our town. She said she had a dream that I was in trouble. She came to a city she didn't know, looking for me, and the first person she asked was a friend who had been with me just minutes earlier! She gave me her number, and I had put it in my pocket, where it stayed, forgotten, until now.
With a trembling hand, I pulled out the number and called her. "Mum, I'm in trouble." She answered without a moment's hesitation: "Don't worry. Get on any train and come to me. Don't worry about your clothes or anything. I'll be there for you."
Chapter Four: A Life-Changing Meeting
I went to Manchester. My mum took me to buy some new clothes. And by some divine appointment, we went into a specific shop. While we were there, my mum asked the owner, "Can you give him a job? He's a really good salesman." I was surprised. He usually only hired girls, but he looked at me and agreed. That man was a Muslim. The first Muslim I had ever really met in my life.
I started working for him and got close to his family. I saw something I had never seen before: a strong family bond, deep respect for parents, and a beautiful culture. They ate together, cared for each other, and welcomed me as if I were part of their family. I felt a warmth I had never known. That feeling alone was enough for me to make a decision: I would never steal again. The man became my friend and my mentor, without ever directly preaching his religion to me.
Chapter Five: The Challenge and the Test of Alcohol
I grew older, and my Muslim friends moved to London. I would visit them there. He would try to talk to me about Islam. One time, I turned the tables on him: "Do you pray five times a day?" He looked down, embarrassed: "No." I told him, "When you pray, when you truly believe in your religion, then come and talk to me."
But his seeds had fallen on fertile ground. He would talk about alcohol being forbidden, and I listened. One night, I was working at a pub on Christmas Eve. I was serving beer to everyone, but I had stopped drinking myself because of his talks. I watched people come in, all smiles. But as the night wore on, the place turned into a nightmare. Women became bad omens, old people grew suspicious, and men became aggressive. I thought to myself, "This really is poison." I quit drinking alcohol altogether, the first indirect fruit of Islam in my life.
Chapter Six: The Lost Deal and the Blow of 9/11
I grew up more. I became a successful financial advisor and started my own finance company. I was on the verge of closing a massive deal with some American businessmen, a deal that could have made me a millionaire. We scheduled a meeting in London for September 12th, 2001. On September 11th, while sitting in my friend's office, we watched the towers fall. The meeting was canceled.
I went back to Wales. During that week, I was reading a book, "The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam" by Yusuf al-Qaradawi. I was intellectually convinced that Islam was the truth. I saw non-Muslims attacking Islam after 9/11, and I found myself defending it, saying, "I have Muslim friends, and I've only ever seen good from them." At that moment, a friend simply asked me, "Then why don't you become a Muslim?" I had no answer.
Chapter Seven: The Price of Truth
The meeting was rescheduled. When I arrived in London, I sat in my hotel room, thinking: If I become a Muslim, this business has to stop. I can't continue with interest-based financing. I'd lose the deal, I'd lose my dad who was my business partner, I'd lose my girlfriend who I lived with and had two daughters with, and I'd lose gambling. Everything was on the line.
I told my friend my fears. He said simply, "If that's what's stopping you, come and stay with me. I'll give you a room, and my brother will give you a job." He removed the material obstacles, but the biggest obstacle was in my heart.
Chapter Eight: The Decisive Moment
I drove back to Wales. Suddenly, on a rainy night, my car skidded and fell into a deep pothole. I stopped, the rain hammering on the windshield. I sat there, thinking. "Oh my God, I could have died just now. And I would have died a disbeliever. All these things I'm holding onto, all these temporary gains, they would have left anyway. Everything is temporary. Why am I clinging to the temporary and losing the eternal?"
In that moment, in that car in the pouring rain, I made my decision. "I have to do this."
I went to my girlfriend and told her. She said, "I don't want to be with you if you become a Muslim. I won't raise my daughters as Muslims." She took the girls and went back to her hometown. I went to my dad. His heart broke. He asked, "Can't you just wait six weeks?" I said, "I can't wait another moment." He told me to leave. He didn't speak to me for 15 years.
Chapter Nine: Leaving Something for God
I cried. I cried more than I ever had in my life, not for my girlfriend, but for my daughters. But I started my new life in London from scratch. I knew this was a new life with values their mother would never accept.
And what happened next was nothing short of a divine compensation. The place I used to meet people in the pub became the mosque. The friends of yesterday became my brothers today. The one I shared sin with, I now shared worship with. I ended up going to Morocco, getting married, and having two more daughters, masha'Allah. Even my career was replaced with something better. The old business I was so afraid to leave? It would have been wiped out in the 2008 financial crash. Truly, whoever leaves something for the sake of God, God compensates them with something better.
Chapter Ten: From Thief to Preacher
Today, I am a speaker and da'ee. I visit speakers frequently, I run my own YouTube channel, "Hamza Zadan". I remember how my dawah journey started with just three people in a local mosque. Then it became ten, then more. We went to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, discussing and debating in the best possible way. I learned not to react, no matter what was said. I always remembered the hadith of the Bedouin who urinated in the mosque, and the patience of the Prophet ﷺ. That is the wisdom of this deen.
I see the future of Islam in Britain as bright. People are embracing it every day, online, on the streets, everywhere. They are searching for the truth, and they are finding it in this beautiful way of life.
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