Thinking of Coming To Islam ?

Take some time to read these Stories :

Zehra's Conversion

My name is Zehra. I converted to Islam over 7 years ago. Alhamdallilah! My husband convinced me of the truth in Islam before marriage.

I've always been deeply religious when I was a Christian. I've always thought that religion was very important. The only thing was that no church really satisfied me, heart and soul. I always felt something was missing. That something was not quite right. So I'd go from church to church, trying to fill that gap that I felt. Nothing worked.

Then I met my husband. At first, he didn't say to much about his religion, then slowly he did. He started telling me about Islam, and I became more interested. Now you have to understand, that my mother always taught me to be tolerant of other religions, and to have an open mind. So I think that helped a lot. Anyway, as I learned more about Islam, and my husband was reading the Qur'an, along with other teachings. Pieces began to fall into place. I began to feel whole and to be happy in my soul. I'd finally come home. I was sooo excited.

Everything made perfect sense.

Allah had made the perfect religion, and I'd found it.

Praise be to Allah!

May Allah always bless my husband for this. My goal in life now, is to help someone else to find Islam even if only one. Inshallah, I will.

 

Aaron's Journey To Islam

by Aaron "Haroon" Sellars

Why did I accept Islam? This is a question that I have been asked many times by others and a question that I have asked myself many times. Firstly, it was the Will of God because it is He that changes hearts and guides someone to a way that is straight! Secondly, because I was looking for the truth, the real truth and nothing but the truth! Thirdly, because there were doctrinal elements in my previous religion of Christianity that at first hearing seemed acceptable but when reflected, analyzed, and prayed upon, proved to be not only unacceptable but also contradictory, inconsistent, and even blasphemous! But why ISLAM? Why, when I was looking for the real and whole truth did God guide me to Islam and not to one of many religions available to man or just another branch of Christianity? The answer to this important question was to unfold as I took my first steps towards my spiritual quest.

The basic seed of God-consciousness was implanted in me from birth, but my soul was moulded to the teachings of the Christian church. My religious upbringing was never something that was forced, nor was it just occasional or just habitual. It seemed to be a natural and essential part of the fibre of my family. One of my fondest childhood memories till this day is of my mother reading me Bible stories every Sunday. But when I reached my teens and especially when I entered college, that spiritual nurturing became tainted more and more.

The college scene is where most people of religious background either completely abandon that upbringing or like in my case, just put it on pause. It's really hard not to when you are surrounded by co-ed dorms, open promiscuity, easy access to alcohol, 24 hour parties, and curfew-free nights. There weren't any churches around campus that I was interested in so my Sundays began to feel like any other day of the week. While in college experienced many things and learned many lessons of life but one particular experience had brought me right to the edge of cliff of death! The situation was so unexpected so shocking, so overwhelming, that I honestly felt that the only solution was suicide. It took someone whom I had known for just a little while, breaking down and crying when he realized what I was about to do, for me to just pause and think. I thought that something was truly wrong if this guy had a higher value for my life than I did. As I stood there, I never felt so empty in my life. There was this big void where my soul was supposed to be and I felt like Moses (pbuh) and his followers being chased by the enemy from all sides only to be confronted by the impassable Read Sea! I realized that it was time to make the call they had made. The call of faith-the call of God!

I decided to return to the church of my youth, a Baptist church in Washington D.C. I heard that there was a new pastor preaching there that was thorough and I decided to try him out. Praise God, the preacher was young, dynamic, and effective. He really made the Bible come to life in his sermons and made living for God seem real and worthwhile. Coming from the position of a person who was ready to kill himself, these messages were beginning to fill my emptiness and make me want to live and give life another chance. I remember the nervous excitement of accepting the call to new membership at church and the newness and freshness of being dipped into the water at my baptismal ceremony. I felt reborn! Clean With the lips I accepted Jesus (pbuh) as my "lord and saviour" but deep down in my heart, I was just reaccepting the reality of God in my life! As I went deeper in my walk of faith the problem that had almost caused me to slay myself vanished like an illusion! Life it was only there to make me turn to my Creator! This gave me a new drive, motivation, and a sense of purpose. I became very active to the extent of encouraging a few of my friends to join the church. I would watch and listen to the pastor in awe, day dreaming of becoming one myself. I honestly felt that the best thing to do for a living would be to help people turn to God. Something that had proven to be so successful in my life. But at the same time I was always very open-minded, especially when it came to spiritual truth, I think this is what made me a vessel to receive the full truth, in Islam.

After a while I began a private hobby of studying world religions. The first book I read, "The Religion of Man", was actually one that I had borrowed from a friend. The first chapter I read was the chapter on Islam and it was a tremendous surprise! It began with a little Arabian history and a biography of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) followed by an explanation of the basic tenants and doctrines of Islam. I could not believe the similarity and relationship that it had with Christianity. It wasn't some foreign religion made up by some foreign man who worshipped some foreign God. It was the true Abrahamaic (pbuh) religion, revealed through a man whose very lineage traced back to Abraham's (pbuh) first son Ishmael (pbuh) who worshipped the same one true God. This further fed my curiosity and interest in Islam. I had decided to keep myself open so I also read the history and doctrines of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Native American spirituality, and other smaller religious sects, cults, and movements. Buddhism seemed to renounce the world too much yet was not clear on the afterlife. In Hinduism the worship seemed too loose and unfocused with its great deity residing in many reforms, Judaism seemed basically true but had had too much of a racial bias, and Native American to vary by the tribe. Islam was the only one whose theology and practices seemed truly universal. The information that I had gathered so far was not enough to make me want to change my religion but that was soon to change when I came into contact with the Qur'an!

I was working at a music store where a young woman used to come to the store with whom I used to have general conversations and on one occasion happened to bring up the topic of Islam. I then found that she was a Muslim and she told me that I could get more information on Islam at a little session that her father helped teach with some other Muslim. I was both nervous and excited at my first visit but it was my first time being around real Muslim! I was initially impressed by the racial variety, the simple environment, and the warm humbleness of the attendants. They answered a few basic questions of mine but I was there mostly to listen. When it was prayer time, I quietly watched from a distance with a smile. Seeing all the men, women, and children bow in unison and put their faces flat against the ground in prayer seemed a little strange and funny, yet so humble, so unified, and so natural. It seemed like this was the ultimate way that we as God's creations were supposed to pray. I recalled in my mind accounts in Bible of other prophets like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (pbuh), throwing themselves to the ground in humility and prayer to God yet this is not the way we prayed in church as "Christians", but the Muslims did! Jesus (pbuh) told us to greet each other by saying "Peace be with you", yet we Christians didn't do this. It was the Muslims who greeted each other saying "As-Salaamu Alaikum" which means "Peace be with you". In Christianity only "orthodox" nuns covered their heads and bodies, but this was a standard practice of modesty, chastity and humbleness for millions of practicing Muslim women who were interactive members of the society. It wasn't something reserved for the "orthodox". I left that little session engulfed in a maze of thoughts.

When I saw my Muslim friend at the music store again I thanked her and told her how wonderful it was and that I was sure to return. She then asked me if I had a Quran yet. I said "No". I thought that the Quran was only in a foreign language and that I couldn't read it but she said that she would give me an English translations from the original Arabic. I gladly accepted the offer and was even more excited when I received it! "WOW! My first real Quran". I couldn't wait to start reading it. The first thing I did was to look up Jesus (pbuh) in the index and look up every verse it listed under his name. This was the prophet that I was raised on and was dear to me so I had to know what God had revealed in this book about him. If it degraded, ridiculed, or rejected him in any way I was going to close the book and leave Islam alone. I agreed when I read that God was not three in one but one in an exclusive and unique sense. I agreed even when I read that Jesus (pbuh) was born of a virgin but was not God's "Son". When I was studying idioms in ancient Hebrew and other Semitic languages "Son" meant nearness and was used in the Old Testament in reference to other people and prophets, the term "Son of God" meant one who was near and closely attached to God, as the term "Son of man" meant one near and close to man. Incidentally, the use of the term "Son of man" outnumbers the use of the term "Son of God" in reference to Jesus (pbuh). Even thought, in the Quran Jesus (pbuh) was always referred to as the "Son of Mary". God revealed that the birth of Jesus (pbuh) was like that of Adam (pbuh)-He merely said "BE" and "He was", and Adam had neither a physical father or mother and no one worshipped him as the "Only Begotten Son of God"! I agreed when I read that Jesus(pbuh) was not God in human form but a human prophet that was created by God, sent by God and Jesus (pbuh) himself needed, depended on, feared, and prayed to God. I agreed when I read that the Jews had no victory in killing him and that God raised him to Himself. But when I read that they also did not crucify him I was in shock! The impact of the 157th verse in the 4th chapter of the Quran was to dramatically change my life from that point on!

I'm not one to just accept something right away or to just reject something right away. I investigate. In the day I would reflect on that one verse, and at night I would pray over it. I would beg God in tears to show me in a dream what actually happened in detail to Jesus (pbuh) if he was not crucified. What was real? What was false? I wanted to know badly. I was looking hard. Examining, searching, and debating. The soul was the most important thing in the world to me and mine was on a quest. I always wanted to know my Creator and serve my Creator but I wanted to make sure that I knew Him the right way and I wasn't going to let up until I found what I felt was the right path.

When I finally stopped waiting for that big dream and asked myself "Well, what does this word crucifixion mean for the Christian?î For the Christian this word meant salvation! Salvation meaning the deliverance from the penalty of sin which was spiritual death in Hell. It also meant success in this life and the next. To me this is the vital thing that religion must give man or else it is useless. To say that if Jesus (pbuh) was not crucified, there's no way that God Almighty could forgive His beloved mankind did not sound right. Jesus(pbuh) was very dear to my heart and to think that the Loving, Forgiving Do sent him on earth only to be murdered for an innumerable mass of suns that he himself never committed did not seem fair or even sensible. If God could create the whole universe by saying "Be" and "IT WAS" then why couldn't He do the Same for the any littler sinner who is admitting his guilt and asking Him for forgiveness? Why couldn't He say to the person "Be forgiven" and he or she is forgiven? Why was the murder and blood of an innocent man a necessity for this forgiveness? I said to myself, "If this book can map out a plan of salvation that has nothing to do with murder or blood then I will submit to God and His plan".

This made me deeply review my Bible and try to find what essential necessity for salvation was. The Jews and the Muslims never put anything in between them and their prayer to God so why did the Christians? There was nothing in between Adam and God, or Abraham and God, or Moses and God, or David and God, or Jesus and God! God had taught through the Bible that a person was individually responsible for his sins and that no one else could pay for or be penalized for them. Jesus (pbuh) was preaching repentance and telling people that their sins were forgiven before this supposed crucifixion! So why all of a sudden was the blood of one martyr necessary for humanity to be forgiven? This issue of sacrifice, blood, and forgiveness seemed to be summed up in just a few verses in the Holy Quran.

Concerning sacrifice chapter 22:37, had the answer,

"It is not their meant nor their blood that reaches God, it is your piety that reached Him. He has made them (animals) subject to you, that you may glorify God for His guidance to you".

Concerning sin and forgiveness God revealed in chapter 12:87,

"No one despairs of God's mercy except those who have no faith".

Also, in chapter 39:53,

"do not despair of God's mercy for God forgives all sins. He is indeed OFTEN Forgiving and Most Merciful".

I found exacting parallels in the Bible in Psalms 30:5, 32:5, 62:1-2, 1st Samuel 15:22-23, Luke 15:7-10, Ezekiel 18:20-35, Isaiah 12:2-3, and Luke 7:47-50, 10:25, 18:24, and many others if you just look them up and reflect. When I read in the Quran in chapter 10:57,

"O mankind! There has come to you a direction from you Lord and a healing for the diseases in your hearts-and for those who believe, A Guidance and a Mercy!"

I said to myself, "This is it. This IS THE WORD OF GOD!!"

My Muslim friend from the music store had shown me a mosque that to my surprise was 10 minutes away from my home! On my second visit to the mosque, I declared my faith in 1994 and stated that "There is no God worthy to be worshipped except the ONE, Most High God or Allah. That Muhammad (pbuh) is His Last Messenger to mankind. That the Quran is the last revealed and written will and testament of Allah to and for mankind to follow until the Day of Judgment". I had finally come home and found peace! As I gradually built my faith and practice in ISLAM, I found that Islam was not the religion of killers and terrorists! It is the true religion of humankind, nature and all creatures seen and unseen. Islam is by name the religion of those who seek peace and success through obedience and submission to the will of Allah! I had found the path to success, the path to true salvation! Allah in the revelation of the Quran has refocused all forms of worship, prayer, fear and thanks to Him and Him alone! You are High, Lord of all creations, and has reminded mankind and all creations of their true place-dependent and subservient to Allah and Allah alone!

 

My Story: From Christianity To Islam

by Sr. Khadija Zafar

No one could have ever imagined me make such a decision! Even in my wildest dreams, looking back five years, I could not have foresaw this turn of events. Those who knew me uttered in disbelief, "Teresita converted to Islam? What got into her?". My decision devastated my parents and my entire family -- all of whom were devoted Catholics from the Philippines -- and caused me to loose all my friends. However, Allah Al'Alim (The All-Knowing), Al-Wali (The Protecting Friend) and Al-Jami'(The Gatherer) had opened my heart and made me realize that I had been worshipping a false deity; There was simply no turning back. This is the story of my conversion to Islam.

After 11 years of marriage which ended in 1992, my life was filled with black clouds. Everything seemed to be falling apart. Raising a young boy all alone was not easy and I often sought help of our Lord. I tried to distract myself by being around friends, spending time in the mall with my son, or just keeping busy at work; but, that did not change my feeling of loneliness and loss. Then, one day I met and befriended an Afghan family I spent most of my free time with them and became acquainted with their culture and their delicious food. Yet, what I found most intriguing was their devotional worship and belief in God and His Messenger, Prophet Muhammad .

As a firm Christian, I furiously debated with them and stated that Christianity was the only way to salvation, but they insisted that Islam is the way to everlasting paradise. We spent hours discussing the merits of one religion over another and at the end of these friendly debates, we felt exhausted and reached nowhere. Finally, I decided to study Islam for myself and understand the message of the religion which instigated such devoted faith from my friends.

I obtained an English translation of Qur'an and began reading through the chapters of the Book. To my amazement, I was unable to stop reading and went on for hours. I found the Qur'an very simple, clear, and easy to understand. I began to experience an overwhelming sense of upliftment and rejuvenation; it was simply wonderful. It felt almost like Qur'an was alive and speaking directly to me. I experienced an inner change and knew that things would never be the same.

A few days later, I visited my Afghan friends with my copy of the Qur'an and told them of my intention of becoming a Muslim. Well, knowing now, the first pillar of Islam is the Shahadah (to proclaim belief in God and His Messenger) which I sincerely uttered "La llaha Ilala, Muhammada Rasul Allah", in their presence. They were all so happy about my decision that even Grandmother (as I called her) burst into tears.

Now what? Or what was next? I had no idea how to practice Islam. Due to distance, going over to my Afghan friends to learn Islam was not very convenient. I checked Out the phone book and looked for a mosque where I could get more information and be religiously involved. I found one with an Islamic Library and paid it a visit. The librarian helped me find books that were suitable for beginners and put me in touch with a sister -- also from the Philippines -who patiently helped me with my questions. My first Qur'an was now replaced by an Arabic/English text. I started to learn to pray in English and slowly memorized them in Arabic. Then, I started wearing hijab (head scarf) and changed my manner of dressing. Gradually, I began paying attention to the halal (allowed) and haram (forbidden) food.

Seeing the change for the better in me, my son also declared his shahadah and (alhamdullilah) tries to be a good Muslim, the best he could possibly be at the age of nine. We started getting involved with our local masjid's activities and I obtained more Islamic books and literature which we have studied at home. Since then, I have tried to convey the message of Islam to as many non-Muslims as I can; some of them, even, have become interested and embraced the religion of Truth.

 

From Judaism To Islam

As-salaamu-alaikum,

I come from a Jewish family in New York. My mother was from S. A. but also Jewish. She never was comfortable with anyone knowing that. When my father died, she remarried a Catholic and became one herself. And that is how she brought us up. From the age of 5 I was told that Jesus was also God...? I never felt comfortable with it.

We moved to the Philippines - that is where my stepfather was from. And life there was unbearable. My stepfather, to put it mildly, was abusive to me and my 2 brothers. The effect of that hard life: my spelling is poor, one of my brothers is now a drinker, and the other has a low self worth.

When I grew up and we returned to the USA, I left home. I took care of myself by working hard. I never had time for God, whoever He was. I did not feel that God helped me in any way, so why bother? I did try to get back to my roots but Judaism made no sense, so I let that go. I did come across Muslims from time to time but the effect was, how do they dress that way, and why do they seem different? Over time, the idea of Islam kept coming back to me, so I tried to find out more. I read the history and life of Mohammed . That is what got to me: such kindness and sabr (patience) in the face of hardships.

It seemed to me that my life had no direction, so I went to learn more. After reading Surah Al-Fatihah, I knew I had come home - this is where I wanted to be! I became a Muslim and have never regretted it. I always knew there was only ONE God - ALLAH - and things have not been always easy for me. My mother died of cancer soon after I became a Muslim. But the faith I have helped me make it. Just being able to go to ALLAH with all my pain was such a relief. It is the only true lifestyle known to man, and it is the truth and the last chance for us. I wish all mankind could come to know the truth (haq) of Islam, and its peace and beauty!

 

My Journey To Islam

30/03/2003 - By Matthew C. Ingalls

Allah guided me to Islam when I was 14 years old. My initial readiness to accept Islam and my reversion to din al-fitrah (the religion that conforms to human nature) at such an age seems to imply that I was all but a Muslim already. But if we were to examine it as a cause and effect relationship, we must first start with the conversion of my friend Nabil in the summer of 1992.

Nabil was born in Africa to Ismaili Shiite parents of Indian descent, but he spent his childhood in Canada. The only contact he had with anything even remotely Islamic was his infrequent visits to the Ismaili Jamaat Khana with his parents. Essentially, he knew nothing about Islam. In the summer before he was to attend a Protestant boarding school in Massachusetts, Nabil visited India as a tourist with his cousins.

The majority of the trip was spent in idle pursuits; however three days before he was scheduled to return to Canada, Nabil went to the market of Delhi to buy gifts for his family. While shopping, members of a daíwah(Islamic missionary) group from South Africa, who were in Delhi for a four-month stint, approached him and asked him his name. When he replied,'Nabil' An apparently Muslim name, one of the brothers replied with the Islamic greeting of as-salamu alaikum (peace be upon you).

Nabil, though ignorant of even the correct response to such a greeting, was nonetheless intrigued by the genial group of men, and accepted an invitation to join them the next day at the Islamic daíwah center in Nizamuddin, a small city just outside Delhi. They told him to be there at 5:00. He learned from his cousins later that evening that this meant 5:00 a.m.

With the God-given ability to do anything commendable, Nabil made the hour-long journey to the center long before sunrise. He witnessed thousands of worshippers perform the dawn prayer in perfect unison -- an astounding spectacle to him.

Afterward, he listened to a motivational talk by the renowned Indian Sheikh, Molana Umar Palanpourri, which was translated by a member of the South African group that he had met the previous day. Based on a paradigm that was completely foreign to Nabil, the essence of the speech lay slightly beyond his grasp, but the boy listened patiently and attentively. Afterwards, he was invited downstairs to partake in breakfast with the foreign da'wah groups. By the Will of Allah, Nabil sat next to a group from Egypt. The head of the group, an elderly soft-spoken gentleman, glanced compassionately at the boy who was eating what he could of the simple food. He asked the boy his name, reflected for a moment, and then asked, 'Nabil, why are you here?'

'Well, I was invited by the group from South Africa to come this morning'

'No, no, this is not what I mean,' replied the old man with a remarkably fluent command of the English language. 'Why are you here, on this earth' breathing, living, waking up every morning' for what purpose is all this?'

Nabil was silent. In the fourteen years of his existence on earth, he had never once even thought of such a question. Taking the boy's reticence as ignorance, the man continued, 'You are here to perform a great job -- the greatest and noblest job there is. You are here to know the One Who gave you everything -- everything you have, have had, and ever will have. And then you are to tell others about this One. If you do this correctly, you are successful; if you don't do this, then you have failed to fulfill the purpose for which you were created.'

The man's words were simple, but Allah had opened Nabil's heart to their weightiness. He remained in the center for the next two days, and before he left for home on the third day, he announced his conversion to those present with the shahadah, the testimony of faith. The rest of the summer he spent in Canada learning as much as he could about his new religion.

That fall, Nabil's parents sent him to St. Mark's boarding school in Massachusetts, where he would struggle to fulfill the purpose for which he was created.

I was in the height of my awkward stage that freshman year at St. Mark's. I met Nabil in passing during the first week of school, and my first impression of him was that he was Indian and wore a fuzzy beard. A month later, we sat next to each other on a long bus ride to the school of a rival sports team. We spoke the entire ride. Nabil struck me as jovial, polite, and intelligent. In a short time, he became one of my closest friends.

I was particularly attracted to his generosity. While all the other prep-school students would get food from their parents and horde it, eating it secretly when alone or cruelly in front of other students, Nabil would buy food specifically with the intention of sharing with others, be they friends or not. As I was completely ignorant of Islam at that point, the only thing that struck me about his religious identity was that he did not eat pork and that he would explode in rage when anybody touched the strange sacred book that he kept in a mother-of-pearl jewelry box on top of his bureau.

One day Nabil, in a moment of spiritual zeal, burst into my room, where I was sitting with another student, and without establishing the customary rapport, blurted out, 'I'm going to tell you guys something that if you say it, one day you will be happier than you can imagine, and you will wish that you had said it more than you did.'

Intrigued, we pressed Nabil to tell us, to which he replied,

"La ilaha illa Allah; Muhammadu rasulu Allah."

We repeated the words after him and he corrected our pronunciation, promising to tell us the meaning later. Though the strange language meant nothing to me, I took it upon myself to write down the transliteration of the words. I read the sentence to myself repeatedly that week, and within a few days, I had memorized it. Allah was meanwhile opening my heart to its meaning without my knowledge.

Dave from Texas was a notoriously racist student. Every black student at St. Marks hated him. He had been beaten earlier that year by the token Native American student because of his particularly skewed racial outlook on society, which had already landed him in the heads office three times within the first six months of school. When he first learned that Nabil was Muslim, Dave remarked in his affected southern twang,

"Yea, well I saw that movie Not Without My Daughter, and ya'll worship the devil as far as I see it." Perhaps it was not a deep-rooted hatred in Dave that produced such comments, but rather his love of confrontation as a product of his own insecurities. Nabil sensed this, and bore Dave's bigotry with patience and sympathy for the troubled boy. Eventually he managed to explain the true message of Islam to the Texan, and he accepted it at once. By the second half of freshman year, Dave was waking Nabil up daily to perform the dawn prayer.

In the meantime, Nabil was conducting intensive late-night Islamic talks with another young student named Hammer, who had recently become disenchanted with Christianity. On an average Saturday night, Nabil would answer Hammer's questions and field his objections until 2 a.m., after which he would come talk to me, either continuing with the religious discourse or delving into the worldly.

He explained the meaning of the foreign words that I had previously memorized and used this as a launching point to explain the greater purpose to human existence, namely the knowledge and worship of One God, as had been generally explained to him by the Egyptian Sheikh that previous summer.

I found the teachings logical; I knew God to be one already, and the role of Jesus (peace be upon him) as a prophet and not the son of God cleared my head of the problematic tenets of faith that I had encountered in Christianity. But to consider my eventual conversion to Islam a logical journey, particularly at the age of fourteen, is erroneous. In retrospect, I believe that due to my age, I was close enough to the natural predilection (fitrah) toward belief in One God with which we are all born.

The memorization and repeated recitation of the Islamic credo, La ilaha illa Allah; Muhammadu rasulu Allah (There is none worthy of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah), opened my heart to the reality of this natural predilection and facilitated my submission to what it required of me.

One late evening, after a particularly exhausting religious discourse, I abruptly interrupted my companion's thought and said, "Nabil, I'm ready."

"Ready for what?"

"I'm ready."

I looked at him in the eyes with the recalcitrant stoicism of a man who knows, with certainty, of the thunder that he is calling down upon himself with the choice he is about to make. Nabil narrowed his eyes, reading my resolution. He smiled and slapped my palm.

Nabil took Hammer and me to the mosque for the first time on a Thursday night in May of 1993. Referring to a visit to St. Mark's earlier that year by a Muslim man named Issa from Providence, Hammer confided in me on the way to Boston that night, "The moment it clicked for me was when Issa was speaking to us. He was saying, "A car's purpose is to take its owner from place to place, and if it breaks down and isn't able to fulfill its purpose, the owner has no use for it. Likewise, if we don't fulfill the purpose for which the Creator and Owner of all created us, then He has no use for us." I figured we owe it to Allah to find out what our purpose is, and then to do it, or else we're useless and ungrateful."

After the evening prayers and an informal talk to a medium-sized audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mosque that night, the Sheikh of the mosque, Abdul Badia', explained to Hammer and me the basic pillars of Islamic belief, the pillars of worship, and a few the things we must not do.

He spoke with a certainty and wisdom that I had never encountered in a religious figure before him, as if the unseen Truths were as manifest as those of the seen world. He asked us if we accepted these principles, to which we replied in the affirmative. We recited the shahadah before the Muslim audience, made du'a (supplication) in a group, and then braced for the deluge of congratulatory hugs and handshakes from our new brothers in Islam.

I later learned that Allah had guided over five thousand people to Islam at the hands of Sheikh Abdul Badia'.

Hammer and I returned to St. Mark's the next day as new people. There were only few weeks left in the school year before summer vacation, but we managed to establish the five daily prayers among the Muslim students.

Another student, Marshall, began to join the prayers by his own impetus, and he would come back the next school year as an official Muslim. Nabil would take time daily to teach us verses of the Quran and the method of prayer, ritual ablution, and Islamic purification. The school year soon ended, and each student went home for the summer.

My parents at first dismissed my conversion as merely a passing phase, but with time they realized that I was committed to my new beliefs. Nevertheless, they never opposed my decision once, and through the years they have taken great pains to help me fulfill the obligations of my religion -- buying me halal (Islamically slaughtered) meat, delaying dinner for prayer times, paying for my trips around the world to study Islam, even helping me to wake up for the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan. Thank Allah for American relativist noncommittal liberalism! Marshall experienced a similar reaction from his parents, while Hammer bore through several years of hostility from his.

The next year, our small band of Muslims braved a series of trials. Reverend H. W., the school's official (female) minister, warned our parents of the evils of our conversion, and even lobbied the schools administration to have Nabil expelled

from school.

The next year she was fired for her Bible-thumping fundamentalism. Another Armenian Christian teacher derided our religious beliefs at every opportunity and openly voiced his animosity towards Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Allah, Who has promised the believers an egress from where they could never have imagined, disgraced him by exposing his molestation of a female student, for which he was fired that spring.

Our group has been through several ups and downs throughout the ten years in Islam.

Nevertheless, we have held together and, by the Mercy and Guidance of Allah, have maintained our religious observance. As I have experienced firsthand, Allah increases the faith of those who are steadfast and patient in the face of hardship.

I pray that Allah uses my story to increase the faith of those who read it.

 

Muhammad Alexander Russell Web

by Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb

About the Author:

Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb was born in 1846 at Hudson, Columbia county, New York. Educated at Hudson and New York he became an essayist and a short-story writer. He took to journalism and became the editor of St. Joseph Gazette and of Missouri Republican. In 1887 he was appointed United States Consul at Manila, Philippines. It was during this assignment that he studied Islam and joined its fold. After becoming Muslim he extensively toured the world of Islam and devoted the rest of his life to Missionary work. He also became the head of the Islamic Propaganda Mission in U.S.A. Mr. Webb died on 1st October 1916.

I have been requested to tell you why I, an American, born in a country which is nominally Christian, and reared under the drippings, or more properly perhaps the drivelling, of an orthodox Presbyterian pulpit, came to adopt the faith of Islam as my guide in life. I might reply promptly and truthfully that I adopted this religion because I found, after protracted study, that it was the best and only system adapted to the spiritual needs of the humanity. And here let me say that I was not born as some boys seem to be, with a fervently religious strain in my character. When I reached the age of 20, and became practically my own master, I was so tired of the restraint and dullness of the Church, that I wandered away from it and never returned to it

... Fortunately I was of an enquiring turn of mind --- I wanted a reason for everything, and I found that neither laymen nor clergy could give me any rational explanation of this faith, but either told me that such things were mysterious or that they were beyond my comprehension. About eleven years ago I became interested in the study of Oriental religions.. I saw Mill and Locke, Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Huxley, and many other more or less learned writers discoursing with a great show of wisdom concerning protoplasm and monads, and yet not one of them could tell me what the soul was or what became of it after death... I have spoken so much of myself in order to show you that my adoption of Islam was not the result of misguided sentiment, blind credulity, or sudden emotional impulse, but it was born of earnest, honest, persistent, unprejudiced study and investigation and an intense desire to know the truth.

The essence of the true faith of Islam is resignation to the will of God and its corner stone is prayer. It reaches universal fraternity, universal love, and universal benevolence, and requires purity of mind, purity of action, purity of speech and perfect physical cleanliness. It, beyond doubt, is the simplest and most elevating form of religion known to man.

 

Why I Embraed Islam

by Sumayya (Evelyn) Tonnellier

Many may ask why a young, Canadian-born, Caucasian woman would embrace a religion that not only supposedly oppresses women, but takes all her freedom and independence and is treated as a second class citizen. I reject such accusations and pose to them the following question, "Why is it that so many women who have been born and brought up in the so-called 'civilized', societies of Canada, USA, and Europe are willing to reject their liberty, and independence, to embrace a religion that supposedly oppresses them and is widely assumed to be prejudicial to them?"

As a Canadian revert to Islam, I can only present my personal experience and reasons for rejecting the freedom, that women claim to have in this society, in favour of the only religion that truly liberates women by giving us a status and position which is completely unique when compared to non-Muslim counterparts.

As a child growing up in a non-religious home, I often asked my parents if there was a God, who is He, and where did He come from? Their response was always, believe in what you want to believe. This confused me, because many of my friends had religions, and I never understood why I didn't. I remember when I was six or seven years old, I attended Sunday School, at a Church with a friend a couple of times. I found it very boring. I didn't feel comfortable around the other children, and felt pressured by the instructor and other children because I didn't know anything about Jesus (PBUH). Feeling this way I stopped going to the Sunday school, and continued growing up without a religion, with no knowledge of God, which made me feel very lonely.

It wasn't until I was in high school when I learned about religion in my social studies class, and remember vividly how my teacher told us women in Islam have no rights, women are denied education, must be circumcised, and how women must obey men, otherwise, the men can beat them. This made me think. No matter what this teacher said, something in my mind kept telling me this couldn't be true. Ironically, around the same time I was learning this, I met a Muslim, named Khaled (who is now my husband) at the place where I worked and asked him about what my teacher said. He was shocked to hear the school boards were teaching this about Islam and told me they were all untrue. When discussing this with my teacher in front of my fellow students, the teacher told me that my source is wrong, and he has the information in his books, otherwise he wouldn't be teaching us this stuff.

My teacher pretty much made me look stupid; however some of my friends believed me. I continued talking to Khaled at work about Muslim women and was very curious about the role of Muslim women. I have to admit that I never agreed all the time with what Khaled said, but I was also a non-believer at that time, and never understood fully what Islam was. I was (and still I am) always fascinated with how the Muslim women would cover themselves, they always seemed to have the look of peace on their faces. I would never have guessed that I would one day be one of those ladies who is fully covered.

Two years later, Khaled and I were married and had our first child, Alhamdulillah. It wasn't until one year after my second child was born, Alhamdulillah, when I began to feel depressed and adrift, feeling a large spirituality void. I felt there was a big chunk of my life still missing. This was when I began to read about various religions, and it wasn't until I bought a translation of the Holy Quran when I finally understood the true meaning of life, and our Allah (God), that there is no God but He (Laa Ilaaha illa-llahu). The Quran answered all the questions I was looking for, and some that I never even thought of.

One week before the holy month of Ramadhan, I taught myself to pray memorized two surats, and said my shahaadat. I no longer felt adrift and I believed in God. It was like having the feeling and guidance from Allah Ta'ala.

Wearing the scarf for the first time made me feel as though I had more peace, I was someone, not only a someone, but a Muslim. I was (and am) protecting myself from all evil. I felt a lot more closer to Allah, because He has ordained women in the Noble Quran to cover themselves.

I know in my heart that it bothered my husband a lot to have a wife who did not only embrace Islam, but to see her practicing it when he wasn't. My husband and I have no differences anymore in terms of raising our children (as Muslims), and have never been so happy since he and I started practicing Islam.

My life has changed a lot since I embraced Islam (all for the best), and I'm loving every minute of it! I recommend it to everyone out there, whether a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, to pick up a copy of the Noble Quran and to read not just some of it, but all of it. May God give everyone the strength and courage that He has given me during the past year.

 

Mavis's Search For Truth

By Mavis B.Jolly

I was born in a Christian environment, baptised in the Church of England, and attended a Church school where at a tender age I learned the story of Jesus as contained in the Gospels. It made a great emotional impression on me, as also did frequent visits to the church, the high altar with candles burning, the incense, the robed priests and the mysterious intoning of prayers...

I suppose for those few years I was a fervent Christian. Then with the increase of schooling, and being in constant contact with the Bible and everything Christian I had the opportunity to think over what I had read and observed, practised and believed. Soon I began to be dissatisfied with many things.

By the time I left school I was a complete atheist. Then I began to study the other main religions in the world. I began with Buddhism. I studied with interest the eightfold path, and felt that it contained good aims but was lacking in direction and details.

In Hinduism I was faced not with three, but with hundreds of gods, the stories of which were too fantastic and revolting to me to be accepted.

I read a little of Judaism, but I had already seen enough of the Old Testament to realize that it did not stand my tests of what a religion must be. A friend of mine persuaded me to study spiritualism and to sit for the purpose of being controlled by the discarnate spirits. I did not continue this practice very long as I was quite convinced that, in my case anyway, it was purely a matter of self-hypnosis, and would be dangerous to experiment further.

The war ended. I took work in a London office, but my mind never strayed far from the religious quest. A letter appeared in the local paper to which I wrote a reply contradicting the divinity of Christ from the Biblical point of view. This brought me in contact with a number of people, one of whom was a Muslim. I started discussing Islam with this new acquaintance. On every point my desire to resist Islam fell down. Though I had thought it impossible, I had to acknowledge that perfect revelation had come through an ordinary human being, since the best of twentieth century governments could not improve upon that revelation, and were themselves continually borrowing from the Islamic system.

At this time I met a number of other Muslims and some of the English girl converts endeavoured to help me, with no little success, since, coming from the same background; they understood better some of my difficulties. I read a number of books, including The religion of Islam, Muhammad and Christ and The source of Christianity, the latter showing the amazing similarities between Christianity and the old pagan myths, impressed me greatly. Above all I read the Holy Qur'an. At first it seemed mainly repetition. I was never quite sure if I was taking it in or not, but the Qur'an, I found, works silently on the spirit. Night after night I could not put it down. Yet I often wondered how perfect guidance for man could come through imperfect human channels at all. Muslims made no claim for Muhammad that he was superhuman. I learned that in Islam prophets are men who have remained sinless, and that revelation was no new thing. The Jewish prophets of old received it. Jesus, too, was a prophet. Still it puzzled me why it did not happen any more in the twentieth century. I was asked to look at what the Qur'an said: "Muhammad is the Messenger of God and the last of the Prophets." And of course it was perfectly reasonable, too. How could there be other prophets to come if the Holy Qur'an was the book ... explaining all things and verifying that which is with you and if it was to remain uncorrupted in the world, as is guaranteed in the Qur'an, and perfectly kept so far? "Surely We have revealed the Reminder (i.e. the Qur'an) and surely We are its Guardian." In that case there could be no need of further prophets or books. Still I pondered. I read that the Qur'an is a guide to those who ponder (XVI: 65) and that doubters were asked to try and produce a chapter like it (11: 23). Surely, I thought, it must be possible to produce a better living plan in 1954, than this which dates back to a man born in the year 570 C.E.? I set to work, but everywhere I failed.

No doubt, influenced by the usual condemnation of Islam from Christian pulpits on the subject, I picked on polygamy. At last I thought I had something; obviously Western monogamy was an improvement on this old system. I talked of it to my Muslim friend. He illustrated with the aid of newspaper articles how much true monogamy there was in England, and convinced me that a limited polygamy was the answer to the secret unions that are becoming so distressingly common in the West. My own common sense could see that, particularly after a war, when women of a certain age group far outnumber men, a percentage of them are destined to remain spinsters. Did God give them life for that? I recollect that on the radio programme known as `Dear Sir' an unmarried English girl had called for lawful polygamy, saying she would prefer a shared married life rather than the loneliness to which she seemed to be destined. In Islam no one is forced into a polygamous marriage, but in a perfect religion, the opportunity must be there to meet those cases where it is necessary.

Then about ritual prayers I thought I had a point. Surely prayers repeated five times a day must become just a meaningless habit? My friend had a quick and illuminating answer. `What about your music practice, he asked, where you do scales for half an hour every day whether you feel like it or not? Of course, it is not good if it becomes a dead habit --- to be thinking of what is being done will give greater benefit --- but even scales done without thinking will be better than not doing them at all, and so it is with prayers.' Any music student will see the point of this, particularly if he bears in mind that in Islam prayers are not said for the benefit of God, Who is above needing them, but for our own benefit as a spiritual exercise, besides other uses.

Thus gradually I became convinced of the truth in the teachings of Islam, and formally accepted the faith. I did this with great satisfaction, as I could fully realize that it was no emotional craze of the moment, but a long process of reasoning, lasting nearly two years, through which I went despite my emotions that pulled me so strongly the other way

 

Rachel Noor - The Reversion Story

I reverted to Islam in August of 1999. My first year as a muslim has been quite interesting. When a person first "reverts" to Islam, you are on this emotional roller-coaster ride, where you have your days when you are so happy to be a muslim, and your days where you think that life was so much easier as a non-muslim, especially when you don't have a strong community backing you up. Alhamdulillah, my up days have been more than my down days, and I am happy to report that I no longer have regrets, just memories, and the future is definitely looking brighter than the past. With this said, here is my reversion story. Enjoy!!!!

In January of 1999, I can honestly say that my life was falling apart piece by piece. I was 23 years old, married, with a new daughter that was born in September, working a full time job in a Mexican restaurant while my husband basically lived in Virginia while he attended college and worked. My husband at the time was from India, and he had received his green card in January of 1999 and he had all of a sudden developed his own plans, none of which included me or the kids. (I also have a six year old daughter, who at the time was five) He was a hindu, who originally came from New Delhi India. He decided to go there and visit right away, and of course his family had their own plans for him. I never really got the truth from his side, nor will I ever, but most people tell me that his parents knew that he was married in the States, and they didn't know about the kids or else they didn't care. They wanted their son married to a traditional Indian woman, and that is what was important. My friends where I worked knew of my situation, and had tried to warn me about him in their own ways, but I refused to believe what was happening to me could be true. That was until my life started falling apart.

The people that I worked with were mostly Indian and Pakistani, with an American or a Mexican thrown in here and there for a nice ethnic mix. Most of the people were Muslim, but not very religious in the sense that they had become Americanized. But not all of them. There was a Pakistani guy that worked in the kitchen. His name was Usman, and he was always very quiet. I had worked with his cousin, Sajid, for years and we had always gotten along. Usman was new to Casa Rico, and little was known about him except he was Sajid's cousin, and that he was muslim. One day after my husband had gone to India, I basically had a breakdown mentally at my job. I knew I was surrounded by people that knew about my situation, but were bound by "custom" not to say anything to me. Usman had started talking to me about it little by little, asking me about things since we often had break around the same time. He promised that he would always be there to listen, and he promised not to judge me.

One day I poured my heart out to him and I think it was a week later that I had a mental breakdown at work. That day my thoughts were just pounding in my head. I felt like such a failure, and I wanted to die. That night I went home and I held some pills in my hand and decided that I wanted to end it all. I had nothing to live for. I had been betrayed by my husband and his family, the same people that I gave freedom to, I had two daughters that I could not provide for and whose father didn't care about, I hated my job, I couldn't go back to college because I couldn't afford it, the list just went on and on. Most of all, I felt God didn't care about me. I used to pray and pray that my situation would get better, but it only seemed to get worse. I used to open that bible almost every night and search for the answers to all my problems. Nothing related to my situation, my life did not relate to God' word or God's plan. Then I thought about my kids, left all alone with no one. How could I do it? I swallowed my pride, threw the pills, and called my mom to take me to the hospital. I was broken and I needed help.

That night I was admitted to the psychiatric ward for severe emotional stress. For two days I did nothing but cry and cry and cry. I did not sleep, I did not want to eat, and I just wanted to die. By the second day the hospital staff got involved and they gave me medicine to sleep. I woke up 12 hours later with swollen eyes and a broken heart, but I did feel somewhat better. I was ready to listen. I opened the door and asked to speak to a counsellor. I and the counsellor talked for three hours. I told her my whole story. She told me that peace starts in the heart, and that struggle is a natural process. After she left I wrote down all the things in my life that I wanted to change. I laid all goals and choose to be a survivor, for my kidís sake. Visitor time came, and the nurse came to me and said that I had a visitor. I asked who it was and she said, Usman. Man I was so embarrassed. But I let him in. He walked in and I just started crying. He told me to be brave and talk if I wanted, but he had a few things to tell me. I was ready to listen. He said one statement that I will never forget.

"My country is filled with poverty and problems, but no one ever gets depressed and tries to kill themselves; do you know why?"

"No." I said. "Why?"

"Because the people in my country have Islam. They have the Quran, the final word from God. This Quran answers all of your questions and more. It will give you peace, if only you believe."

This was Usman's reply. I vowed to investigate Islam as soon as I could get out of the hospital. That night I lay in bed and I thought about how my life was destined to change, if only I could make it happen. If I only I knew where to look and find the answers. I thought about the Quran and how little I knew of Islam. I wondered about this mysterious book and why hadn't more people heard of this "miracle?" I fell asleep with a ton of questions swirling around my mind.

The next morning I met with my doctor. I couldn't believe it when I walked into her office and stared right into the face of a Pakistani Muslim doctor. I couldn't believe it. She talked to me about my depression and I answered her questions as best as I could without crying. I told her that my situation was just so embarrassing and unbearable. She recommended that I seek regular counselling and prescribed an anti-depressant.

A moment of silence followed as she wrote out my release form. I took that opportunity to ask her about Islam.

She took a moment, breathed in, and closed her book. She asked how I knew of Islam and I told her I had friends. She smiled and said she would be happy to give me any information that I would need to investigate this further. We sat in her office for an additional hour talking about how Islam was a way of life. She told me about Mohammed and how he is the final messenger of God. She told me about how Islam was very similar to Christianity and Judaism, except Muslims believe that your relationship is directly with God, and that no one should need to intercept this relationship. She told me how we are all accountable for our own sins and that the people that do bad in this world and do not believe in God will be punished by the creator of all things. And she told me that Allah is the answer to all my problems, and that the Quran is the best prescription for happiness. She told me to fill the prescription for the anti-depressant, to investigate Islam, and to come and see her or her staff if I had any other problems. She told me I would be all right, and to keep in touch. She told me that with Islam, I probably wouldn't need the medicine.

I left the hospital that day. I filed for divorce the next day. Most importantly, I started my investigation of Islam wholeheartedly. I enrolled Usman and my other muslim friends in this quest for knowledge. Usman bought me a ton of books to read, and I scourged through them like nobody's business!!! One day, Usman took me and my children to a Pakistani store to buy Islamic books. The storeowner was so excited to find that I was interested in Islam. He gifted me my first Quran That night when I got home I was so happy. I opened the Quran and started reading. I read until four am. I just couldn't put it down. Surah-al Bukhara was intense. The Quran made me feel like ....It was like God was talking to me!!! This indeed was the answer. The Quran spoke of things that I had wondered all my life. What happens when you die? Was Jesus God? Why did Jesus have to die for all of our sins, when it was God who created us? Why would God die for us? The Quran spoke of proofs...it talked of the rivers and oceans.. How they connect and how they remain salt water and not salt water in certain areas. It talked about the cycle of life inside the womb of the woman. How was Mohammed to know of this? An unscholared man, a man that could not read or write? How could he know things that were not known to man until recent centuries? The Quran spoke of ships floating in the water, ships made of steel... Mohammed lived in a desert. The Quran spoke of mountains being like pegs, deeper on the bottom than it was high. These are proofs from God. And we should believe.

I wanted to be muslim. This was what my life was for.To be muslim. To be God's slave. This is the truth.

I took my Shahada in August of 1999.

This was the happiest day of my life.

My divorce from my husband became final in March of 2000. I had not seen him for more than one year. I broke off all communication from him and have not seen or heard from him since I became Muslim. He doesn't want anything to do with the kids. I don't care. My kids have Allah, and they have me.

In April of 2000, Usman asked if I wanted to get married again. I told him yes. We got married April 13, 2000. Things have been wonderful, Alhamdulillah. My kids are doing great. I am in college full time. I will graduate this May with my nursing degree. My husband is the one who helped me convert to Islam. Allah is the best of planners. I guess I was in God's plan after all.

 

Zahira's Story

Assalamu Alaikum,

My story isn't as glamorous as the others none the less it is my story. My sister and I grew up in the Catholic Church along with my other brothers and sisters. But unlike them we always felt something wasn't right. At the end of each service the priest would always say "turn to you neighbour and wish them peace". My sister and I not knowing exactly what we were saying would say "Assalamu Alaikum" because someone told us that meant peace.

Then my mother passed away and we stopped going to church. Everyone else did but we couldn't bring ourselves to go. I use to see all the Muslim brothers and sisters walk the streets but never really paid them any mind until a girl from my school came in one day with a scarf on her head. Of course we asked questions and poked fun but she never paid us any mind. I being the one to always make friends with the girls no one else would talk to, I spent many nights at her house.

After about two months I started to wear long dresses and a simple scarf. Of course my family was confused but never really said anything. Finally I was tired of playing Muslim and I took my Shahadah.

My sister thought I was crazy to leave one religion and jump right into another. My step-mom would make food she knew I couldnít eat just to see what I'd do. After awhile they left me alone. But not my sister. She drove me crazy everyday about the mistake I made and her favourite comment was, "Can't you take it back?î

Tired of my family and there comments I went to stay with an Aunt in North Carolina, for the rest of the school year, who was married to a Muslim but had not yet taken her Shahadah. When I went home not only had my sister but two of my brothers had taken their Shahadahs. We've been striving in Islam ever since.