Bronx-born James Delgado was working his nighttime security shift as a sergeant when he witnessed his coworker do something odd on the cameras.
“I just kept seeing him going on the floor, so I knew he was awake,” Delgado said, remembering the event from a decade ago. “I was calling him over the radio nonstop, and he wouldn’t respond to me.”
Delgado then decided to drive over to his coworker’s location to get to the bottom of his ignored pages.
“He kind of chuckles, and he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I was praying,’” Delgado said. “I was so confused when he gave me that response.”
Until that day, Delgado never witnessed the Islamic prayer, salah. What he saw on the camera was his Muslim coworker engaged in a form of worship called the dawn prayer, Fajr.
Open Door to Islam
From then on, the Muslim coworker left the door open for Delgado to comfortably ask any and all questions related to Islam from women’s dress to the media’s association of the religion with terrorism to fasting in Ramadan.
On one particular shift, the two were working a double. Delgado asked his coworker if he was ready to take his break.
“He explained to me that he’s fasting. I had no idea what this meant,” Delgado recalled. “He told me that he does not eat or drink from [before] sunup to sundown. So I’m like, ‘That’s…that’s insane. I don’t know how you’re doing it, Bro, but good luck.’”
Delgado was intrigued, to say the least. He wanted to fast too.
“I fasted the whole month, and every year since I was 19 to the moment I took shahada—every single year—I fasted during the month of Ramadan,” Delgado said.
During these years, Delgado admits his fasts weren’t up to par. He wasn’t a Muslim at the time, and he didn’t know some of his deeply ingrained habits like smoking or cursing or anger could hinder the fast.
Growing up, Delgado became involved with drugs, alcohol, and gangs before the age of thirteen. People considered him miserable, angry, and impatient. So much so, his nickname at work was “Pitbull.”
“I didn’t really care about what my mother thought. I didn’t really care about what my father thought. I was more into impressing the people I was around,” he said. “And growing up like that, you grow up with a lot of arrogance. You grow up with a lot of hatred for people in general.”
Delgado admits he probably was miserable, angry, impatient, and arrogant like people said. But because it was his norm, he didn’t realize it.
A Full Fasting Experience
In his twenties, the Bronx native moved out of New York to Pennsylvania. He maintained his Ramadan fasting in his new warehouse role. The special Islamic month was around the corner again, but something was different about Delgado’s ritual this time.
“I want to fast this Ramadan, but I want to do it one hundred percent the right way. And I might—I might—turn Muslim after this,” Delgado recalled telling a close friend.
That Ramadan, Delgado refrained from food and drink, yes, but also from smoking, vaping, cursing, and getting angry. He performed the five prayers each day. He achieved the patience he wanted to experience so badly, and even his children noticed the difference.
On the last day of that Ramadan, Delgado returned to the Bronx.
“I decided that if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it where it started—home,” he said. “I took my shahada.”
Now, it was official.
“I remember feeling chills off of my back. I remember taking a deep breath and just looking at everybody around me and not believing that this is a real moment,” he said. “I’ve been happy since.”
Sharing Islam’s Happiness
Delgado didn’t want to keep that happiness Islam brought him all to himself.
“A lot of people knew me for the New York in me, blasting music around the warehouse. They knew me for being arrogant. They knew me for doing stupid things. They just knew me before Islam,” he said. “And then they knew the Islam me, and it really caught a lot of people’s attention. One by one, they all started to ask me questions.”
Delgado’s coworkers saw him praying and using his breaks to recite the Islamic holy book, the Quran. They witnessed him quit smoking. They noticed he stopped cursing and talking bad about others.
The drastic change in Delgado’s demeanor, in his character, in his interests intrigued the people around him. He invited questions the way his coworker in New York did for him all those years back.
“I always brought the story back to [my coworker], and I always said, ‘This guy made me feel as comfortable as possible to ask him whatever questions. I want you to feel as comfortable as you can to ask me whatever you want,’” Delgado said.
Working with Converts
Slowly, Delgado invited about seven people into the fold of Islam. “Now Alhamdiulillah [all praises due to God], I’m part of the dawah team at the masjid,” Delgado said. “I get to meet so many new converts.”
Many converts, he said, see a false reality when they embrace Islam or come to the mosque during Ramadan. It’s full, dinner every night, the place is buzzing with spiritual highs and beautiful energy. However, Delgado wants converts to know the mosque isn’t like that 24/7.
“If you can just enjoy the moment of Ramadan with minimal expectations, then you will be able to take those baby steps, and it won’t take you away from the masjid [the rest of the year],” he said. “I’ve seen so many converts just after Ramadan. They don’t see the 200, 300 people. They don’t see the food anymore. They don’t see everyone hugging you every day.”
Delgado advises it’s not that people don’t like you anymore, but it’s the new kid in school effect. One day, you’re the new kid, and everyone wants to speak with you. A few months later, you’re a part of the school. You are not unliked in the community, but you are fully considered a part of the community.
It’s been about ten years since Delgado first witnessed his coworker bringing his forehead to the ground in prostration over and over again. At first sight, the Bronx native couldn’t have foreseen he would be engaged in that same act of worship years later. He couldn’t have foreseen the happiness the Islamic prayer and fasting in Ramadan would bring him. He couldn’t have foreseen that it would expel the other vices within him. He couldn’t have foreseen he would be donning a Muslim cap that reminds him of his faith and encourages him to act upright in all aspects of his life.
But those unpredictable foresights are the exact events that stemmed from that fateful morning at fajr time for James Delgado, or Sadiq as he is also known.
And now, his transformation is what plays that important role in bringing others to Islam.
If you are looking to experience these changes within yourself as well, call 877-WHY-ISLAM. You deserve to know!