Sonny Bill Williams Talks being Saved by Allah

Publish Date
Tuesday, 28 June 2016, 1:50PM
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It is prayer time in the Williams household and Sonny Bill is leading the sunset Maghrib ritual with his brother, Jonny, and cousin, Eka, in the corner of the living room.

"Sorry, bro, it will only take a few minutes," says the converted Muslim, who has just dished up a generous serving of chicken fajitas at his Auckland home.

His wife, Alana, is playing with their 18-month-old daughter, Imaan, in the house where the walls are strikingly bare of photographs and sporting memorabilia.

"You can't have eyes on the wall or the angels won't come in," says Williams. "That's what we believe. I don't need a pool room with medals and everything hanging up."

Sipping camomile tea with honey, Williams is embracing Friday family time. Weekends used to revolve around VIP guest-lists at nightclubs but here rugby league provides the television entertainment.

"I grew up in a commissioned house in the next suburb over, Mount Albert," says the All Blacks double World Cup winner.

"It was a two-bedroom house with me, my brother and my two sisters. Mum and dad slept in the lounge and we didn't have wallpaper. All my family lived close by and Eka was our scary older cousin that looked after us. He's been in and out of jail a lot."

Working as a labourer and a stock-taker during his teenage years, Williams's motivation was to buy his mother a house after seeing her 'struggles'.

His playing career took off in Australian rugby league with the Bulldogs, before taking up union and representing the All Blacks, with the unpredictable journey now reaching the Rio Olympics with New Zealand Sevens.

"It's been a long while but, thank God, now I've been able to get my mum a house," says Williams. "My manager in my early 20s put me into a bad investment and I was in debt. People thought I was living the dream in Toulon but I had to pay NZ$750,000 (£400,000) to get out of my contract.

"Never in my wildest dreams would that young fella that went to Australia be here right now. It's such a blessing to be with my wife and children. I used to be a bit of a scallywag. I did a lot of bad things and went off course but Allah was with me."

Williams has gone from ratbag to role model.

His global popularity peaked when he gave away his winner's medal to a young, star-struck pitch invader at Twickenham last year. That generosity shines through when, after providing dinner, he insists on a 50-minute round trip to drop me back at my hotel.

"My wife has already said that if, God willing, I make it to the Olympics and win a medal, then it's going straight on my daughter - I can't give it away!" he says.

"The sevens has rejuvenated me. My sister's in the New Zealand Sevens squad, too, so it's massive for our family."

As the only Muslim in the squad, both in Sevens and XVs, Williams has to find a way to fit the Islamic prayer-and-diet lifestyle around the intensive schedule.

"When I'm most happy is when I'm doing my prayers," he says. "When you travel you can compensate by joining the two afternoon prayers and the two evening prayers together, which is pretty sweet."

"How can you not spare 25 minutes of your day to give thanks? I look at where I came from and feel blessed."

- NZ Herald

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