Hamza Tzortzis: When a Question Became a Way of Living
Andreas Tzortzis grew up in London around questions his father took seriously: what does life mean, and how can a person understand their place in it? Books and different ideas were part of the household. Hamza later described how that atmosphere shaped his search. His parents had a Greek background, and his upbringing included belief in God and concern for life’s meaning without making church observance its centre.
At school he made Muslim friends from different backgrounds. Their confidence in their faith and friendships across ethnic boundaries attracted him. As his questions widened, he read about religions, including Buddhism, and began exploring Islam. Understanding why he lived mattered alongside deciding what career or success he might pursue.
His inquiry brought him to intellectual conviction about Islam, yet he described a distance between what he knew and what he had inwardly absorbed. He began learning passages of the Quran in Arabic and performing some of the daily prayers before formally embracing Islam. Advice from his brother’s friend about nearness to God in prostration stayed with him. He began asking God for guidance as he prayed.
Conversations with an old schoolfriend continued. In the preface to The Divine Reality, he recalled sitting with that friend in a car on the evening of 4 October 2002. They spoke about death and life’s brevity. He did not remember the exact words, but described their effect: what he understood began to reach him inwardly, and changing his life no longer felt like something to postpone.
The following morning, 5 October 2002, he went to London Central Mosque and embraced Islam. Learning, practice and conversation had preceded that step. Looking back on his first months, he recalled the importance of going to the mosque for the dawn prayer. What he had studied now had a place in his day and a form of worship shared with others.
The decision did not end the need for reflection. He described early difficulties with his family, later speaking of a more open relationship and the importance of serving parents with kindness. He also acknowledged mistakes in his early efforts to explain Islam and arguments that needed correction. His search continued through philosophy, writing and discussion with people holding different views.
His journey brings intellectual inquiry alongside prayer, then the enthusiasm of a beginning alongside learning from mistakes. Embracing Islam was followed by further examination of how he understood, spoke and treated others. It leaves the reader with a question: what changes when knowledge we find convincing becomes a way of living through an ordinary day?
Sources
- Hamza Andreas Tzortzis — The Divine Reality, Preface: My Journey
- Towards Eternity — Interview with Hamza Tzortzis
- İLKHA — Interview with Hamza Tzortzis
- University of Birmingham — Online Islamic Dawah Narratives in the UK, 2017, pp. 61–67
- Sapience Institute — The Divine Reality: book and author information