At just six years old, while kneeling at his bedside in a Catholic monastery school in Cuba, Leonard Wingard experienced something that would shape the rest of his life. A clear, unmistakable voice spoke to him during his evening prayer and told him to pray only to God — not to Jesus. That single moment planted a seed of pure monotheism that would eventually lead him, decades later, to embrace Islam as his faith and way of life.
A Voice That Changed Everything: Pray Only to God
“I was kneeling and I was praying to Jesus, my evening prayer, and suddenly a voice talked to me and said: Leonard, pray only to God — don’t pray to Jesus. I opened my eyes to look and see who had talked to me and there was nobody around.”
Leonard was raised in a Catholic school run by nuns, where he was taught to direct his prayers to Jesus. But from that extraordinary night forward, he committed himself to praying to God alone. This instinct toward pure monotheism — the belief that prayer and worship belong exclusively to the Creator — is the very foundation of Islam. Muslims believe that Jesus (peace be upon him) was one of the mightiest messengers of God, worthy of deep love and reverence, but never an object of worship. The Quran makes this distinction with absolute clarity, and Leonard’s childhood experience aligned perfectly with that truth long before he ever opened its pages.
From the Quran’s Pages to the Declaration of Faith
After a remarkable life spanning multiple continents and careers — from the Swedish Royal Navy to Ericsson telecommunications across Latin America — Leonard began a personal search for deeper meaning. Studying the powers of the mind led him to religious scriptures, and when the Bible left his questions unanswered, he picked up the Quran on his own, with no outside influence and no preconceptions. What he found astonished him:
- God authored the Quran and delivered it through the Angel Gabriel to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), an illiterate man who could not have produced such a work himself
- The Quran provided detailed accounts of creation, the nature of Satan, and prophetic warnings that were missing or altered in previous scriptures
- God Himself states in the Quran that He grants wisdom and understanding to whomever He wills — a truth Leonard experienced firsthand
- The prophecies in the Quran confirmed and completed what Leonard had studied in earlier scriptures, pointing unmistakably to a single divine source
- Unlike the Torah, which God told the Prophet Jeremiah had been changed by human hands, the Quran has been preserved in its original form
“I had never in my life imagined anything like it. God had authored this fantastic book and given it to His new prophet Muhammad through His archangel Gabriel. The more I read, the more interested I became.”
Why Leonard’s Story Matters for Every Seeker of Truth
In 2017, Leonard took his Shahada — the Islamic declaration of faith — and officially entered Islam. His conversion was not driven by cultural pressure or emotional persuasion. It was the culmination of a lifetime of honest inquiry, beginning with a divine voice directing a child toward monotheism and ending with an elderly scholar recognizing that the Quran is the unchanged, final word of God. Leonard’s journey is a powerful reminder that the truth of Islam speaks for itself when hearts are open and minds are free from prejudice. For anyone curious about the relationship between God, Jesus, and prayer, his story offers a profound answer: worship the Creator alone, just as every prophet taught, and just as the Quran confirms with perfect clarity.
