As'salam mualaikum...

I came across this story in my friend's blog (hope she don't mind me copy and pasting it here). Touching story...SubhanaAllah...

How A Person Could Change

The following story was narrated to us by brother Mahmud from Preston, England. Once, he along with a group of Muslims were visiting a city for inviting others to ALLAH. They happened to pass by a group of youths who were Muslims by birth but became gang members. The brothers didn't give those gang members the negative attitude that others gave while passing by them. Rather, they went and hand-shook with them out of brotherhood. With love and affection, the brothers invited the youths to come to the Masjid (Mosque).

Not being familiar with such kindness, the gang members were surprised and decided to come to the Masjid for once. These youths were so much away from Islam that they were smoking in the Masjid and doing a lot of other disrespectful acts. However, brother Mahmud and others were discussing with them about the Greatness of ALLAH with patience and endurance. A time came when the brothers had to return to their homes and before leaving they advised the gang members to turn towards ALLAH.

After several years, brother Mahmud was attending a large gathering of Muslims when suddenly someone called him from the back. There were few people dressed in sunnah (according to how Prophet Muhammad was dressed) standing behind him. They asked brother Mahmud if he recognizes them. They told him, “We are those gang members whom you visited few years back. We decided to go out and learn more about Islam and eventually changed our lives.”