Ramy Youssef Quotes

And it took me, since I was 17 and left home, running from God, to now, as a 30-year-old man, when I honestly feel like I've come full circle and my heart's finally in the right place.

I was born with a serious spiritual consciousness and for many years studied different paths.

I have a much wider, freer view about spirituality. I feel that people need to pursue it on their own, personally. You know, let it be theirs - a personal relationship with their soul, or their God, or with their church.

I went to church as a kid, but it was as much a social thing as anything going to the youth group with the other kids and whatnot. It wasn't until I got out of college that I got on my own religious trip and started finding other things out there as well as philosophies. I've kinda been on my own spiritual path since then.

For me, God is in my life. I don't hide from that... I think the search has been on since the '60s.

I've been mayor so I believe there is something else for me. I don't know what that is yet, but I definitely have a testimony now brother! As far as talking to young couples, talking to brothers who are strong, they have it going on, they know exactly what they want to do, how they want to do it but they don't have any God in their life. They don't really move by a spirit. They are not really connected to the community. There is a testimony in here somewhere that I think I can share but I don't know.

I've always been very spiritual, since I was a very, very young child. The older I get, I'm reading more, I'm experiencing more, and so that's all reflected in all of my music. All of my fans are pretty familiar with me and my beliefs. It's all about connecting to yourself and sticking to your own spirituality.

It just took all of that to come to a screeching halt, to get to the point of having nothing, for me to finally realize, Hey, what are you fighting with this for? Until then, I hadn't claimed my faith as my own; I had just grown up with it.

I'm always pursuing knowledge; I'm a seeker of spiritual equilibrium - and music is a big part of that.

I was raised as a Christian but the transaction has to be made by yourself - you and God - at some point.

'Faith and Will' is aimed at the same readership as 'The Artist's Way.' The book is for spiritual seekers in all walks of life.

Faith is a continuum, and we each fall on that line where we may. By attempting to rigidly classify ethereal concepts like faith, we end up debating semantics to the point where we entirely miss the obvious - that is, that we are all trying to decipher life's big mysteries, and we're each following our own paths of enlightenment.

Each one of us has our own evolution of life, and each one of us goes through different tests which are unique and challenging. But certain things are common. And we do learn things from each other's experience. On a spiritual journey, we all have the same destination.

I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.

Every worldview I chose, it seemed, edged me toward belief.

My hope is that 'Beyond the Heavens' will encourage people to explore faith, open their mind and go beyond what they think they know. That is what my mother encouraged me to do. I hope to encourage others to do the same through this story.

I also work with the spirituality of people.

I've always had God, but now I want to go back to church for the sense of community and that feeling of positive thinking, a place where I can think about being a better person.

Religion has been an important part of my understanding, my inquiry into what it means to be human.

People don't see this side of me. They don't know I read, like, 800 million spiritual books. Lately I am just really getting into a lot of spirituality.

Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.

Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.

I am certainly not a good Muslim. But I am able now to say that I am Muslim; in fact it is a source of happiness to say that I am now inside, and a part of the community whose values have always been closest to my heart.

All of us, regardless of how we identify, need a community in which to grow our faith. We require the tangle of other souls to enlarge our hearts, to perfect our relationships with one another and to help us understand more deeply our better Selves (big 'S').

Well, the research into it affected me. And the novel, it very much strengthened my faith.