Bradley Brennan is the owner of a collision shop that he took over after his father’s retirement.
My dad and I argued a lot when I took over the shop. He was supposed to train me for six months and I was supposed to learn how to run the business. But I wasn’t a good student, and he just kept running things as he knew how to run them. He had run it for 15 years and did well.
My dad is a good man. He taught me that you don’t need to wait for recognition, that people don’t need to know about your acts of kindness. He does things and he doesn’t broadcast it. He just does them.
When he was growing up, he was really poor. And he worked really hard to give me and my siblings a chance to be whomever we wanted to be.
I was in high school when I converted. I was surprised by how supportive he was. I used to hide when I would pray. One time, he caught me praying in his closet. He goes, “Why don’t you just pray outside in the room?”
Over time, he learned little by little about the religion. And one of the beautiful things about my dad, he doesn’t have a lot of ego in his heart. And so when he thinks something is right, he’ll go to it.
The other day, he said “I know what to say to be a Muslim, la illaha illa Allah.” It was just me—and I’ve heard there has to be two witnesses to convert to Islam—but God is everywhere. Insha’Allah that counts as two.