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Top Christian Priest Hilarion Heagy Embraces Islam

Father Hilarion Heagy, a prominent Eastern Christian Priest based in California, United States has embraced Islam, according to various sources.

The American priest, who was earlier Russian Orthodox Monk, is highly respected among his followers who found him exceptionally patient and kind.

“One simply can’t be a priest and monk publicly, and a Muslim privately,” Fr. Heagy, who has changed his name to Said Abdul Latif, wrote in a blog published late last year.

📚 Read Also: Former Far-Right Dutch Politician Recounts His Journey to Islam

Heagy said the flames of Islam ignited his soul twenty years ago at “a little Islamic center in a university town in the rust belt of Appalachia.” But he announced his conversion to Islam only recently.

“As a younger, middle-age priest, my life until this point was set. I had a ‘promising’ career as a priest. I was well-liked. Well educated. Everything, by all accounts, was going ‘right’. Yet my inner convictions have changed,” he wrote.

“Matured? Perhaps. But a seed planted years ago had blossomed into full bloom.”

Though the blog was published in December 2022, a post on Twitter by Jeff Cassman, brought it to the front.

“Homecoming”

The former Christian Priest, who had recently announced plans to found an Eastern Christian Monastery in California, said his conversion to Islam was actually a “reversion to Islam” and felt “like homecoming” after making the announcement.

“It truly is like “coming home”. My primordial faith. For the Qur’an states that we worshipped God alone and submitted to him since before we were even born,” he added.

“It is for this reason that converts to Islam often do not speak so much of ‘conversion’ as they speak of a ‘reversion’ to Islam — our primordial faith. A long process of Returning.”

Many Muslims have welcomed Fr. Hilarion Heagy, now Said Abdul Latif, with open arms.

“The future, for me, is uncertain. A leap into the dark is always wrought with some anxieties,” he wrote.

“And yet, I feel such a peace. A joy. A relief. My pull towards Islam over twenty years has finally led me home. Now begins the work of entering deeper into the faith. A deeper learning. A love for the Deen, a love for the Ummah, a love for the Prophet (peace be upon him).”

Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, with the number of Muslims set to grow at more than twice the rate of the overall world population between 2015 and 2060 according to research by the Pew Research Center.

The post Top Christian Priest Hilarion Heagy Embraces Islam appeared first on About Islam.



source https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/n-america/top-christian-priest-hilarion-heagy-embraces-islam/
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