Save-Ur-Souls

How a "Martial Art" led brother Abdul-Lateef Abdullah (Steven Eric Krauss) to Islam

2013-11-17T12:37:00.001-08:00

My experience in Islam began as a graduate student in New York City in 1998. Up to that point in my life, for 25 years, I had been a Protestant Christian, but had not been practicing my religion for quite some time. I was more interested in “spirituality” and looking for anything that didn’t have to do with organized religion. To me, Christianity was out of touch and not relevant to the times. It was hard for me to find anything in it that I could apply to my everyday life. This dissolution with Christianity led me to shun everything that claimed to be organized religion, due to my assumption that they were all pretty much the same, or at least in terms of their lack of relevance and clarity.

Much of my frustration with Christianity stemmed from its lack of knowledge and guidance around the nature of God, and the individual’s relationship to Him. To me, the Christian philosophy depended on this rather bizarre intermediary relationship that we were supposed to have with Jesus, who on one hand was a man, but was also divine. For me, however, this difficult, and very vague relationship with our Creator left me searching for something that could provide me with a better understanding of God, and our relationship to Him. Why couldn’t I just pray directly to God? Why did I have to begin and end every prayer with “in the name of Jesus Christ?” How can an eternal, omnipotent Creator and Sustainer also take the form of a man? Why would He need to? These were just a few of the questions that I could not resolve and come to terms with. Thus, I was hungry for a more straightforward, direct and clear approach to religion that could provide my life with true guidance, not just dogma that was void of real knowledge based in fact.

While in graduate school, I had a Jewish roommate at the time who was a student of the martial arts. While I was living with him, he was studying an art called silat, a traditional Malaysian martial art that is based on the teachings of Islam. When my roommate would come home from his silat classes, he would tell me all about the uniqueness of silat and its rich spiritual dimension. As I was quite interested in learning martial arts at the time, I was intrigued by what I had heard, and decided to accompany my roommate to a class one Saturday morning. Although I did not realize it at the time, my experience in Islam was beginning that morning at my first silat class in New York City back on February 28th, 1998. There, I met my teacher, Cikgu (which means teacher in Malay) S., the man who would provide with my basis and orientation to Islam. Although I thought I was beginning a career as a martial artist, that day back in 1998 really represented my first step toward becoming Muslim.

From the very beginning, I was intrigued by silat and Islam and began spending as much time as possible with my teacher. As my roommate and I were equally passionate about silat, we would go to my teacher’s house and soak up as much knowledge as we could from him. In fact, upon our graduation from graduate school in the spring of 1998, upon his invitation, we spent the entire summer living with him and his wife. As my learning in silat increased, so did my learning about Islam, a religion that I had hardly any knowledge of prior to my experience in silat.

What made my orientation to Islam so powerful was that as I was learning about it, I was also living it. Because I studied at the home of my teacher, being in the presence of devout Muslims allowed me to be constantly surrounded by the sounds, sights and practices of Islam. For as Islam is an entire lifestyle, when you are in an Islamic environment, you cannot separate it from everyday life. Unlike Christianity, which lends toward a separation between daily life and religion, Islam requires its followers to integrate worship of Allah into everything we do. Thus, in living with my teacher, I was immersed in the Islamic deen and experiencing first-hand how it can shape one’s entire way of life.

In the beginning, Islam was so new, different and powerful to me. It was also very foreign in many ways and the amount of discipline it requires was difficult to understand. At the time, I was so liberal in so many ways, and was used to shunning anything dogmatic or imposed, regardless of who authored it! As time went on, however, and my understanding of Islam grew, I began to slowly see that what seemed to be religious dogma was really the lifestyle put forth to us by our Creator – or the Arabic term, “deen” of Allah. This lifestyle, I would later learn, is the straight path to true contentment, not just the sensual and superficial way of life that my society and culture promote. I realized that the question is quite simple actually. Who could possibly know better than the all-wise Creator, what is the best way of life for human beings?

From the day of my first silat class in New York City to the day I took my shahadda, July 30, 1999, I underwent a thorough self-examination that was comprised of two major experiences. One was the process of questioning the culture I was brought up in, and the second was struggling to understand the true nature of God and the role of religion in my everyday life. As for my culture, this one was not as difficult as most people would think. For me, growing up in America and knowing no better, it took a powerful experience, a gifted teacher, and the right knowledge to experience truth. American culture is very powerful because it constantly bombards us with sensual gratification. Unless we are removed from it, it is difficult to see its limitations, which are based on worshipping and putting faith in everything but God, the only One that can provide us with real, lasting support in our lives.

Being a social scientist by trade, much of my time is spent working on and pondering over the ills and dilemmas of our society. As I learned more about Islam, I came to the conclusion that societal ills are based primarily on unhealthy, dysfunctional social behaviors. Since Islam is a lifestyle focused totally on the most healthy, positive way of conducting our lives in every setting, then it is, and will always be, the only true answer to any society’s social dilemmas. With this realization, not only did I decide that Islam was relevant to my everyday life, but I began to understand why it is so different from other religions. Only Islam provides knowledge and guidance for every aspect of life. Only Islam provides a way to achieve health and happiness in every dimension of life – physical, spiritual, mental, financial, etc. Only Islam provides us with a clear life goal and purpose. And only Islam shows us how to live in and contribute to a community, not just talk about it. Islam is what everyone needs, and what so many who have not found it yet, are searching for. It is the path to purpose, meaning, health and happiness. This is because it is the straight path to the source of all the power we could ever need – Allah.

It was only until I actually became Muslim that I realized just how encompassing our lifestyle truly is. Literally everything we are instructed to do has one underlying purpose – to remember Allah. It just shows the absolute and divine brilliance of the deen, in that there is a lifestyle that can show you how to remember your Creator in as simple an act as greeting someone, or getting dressed in the morning, or waking up from sleep. Islam shows us that by constantly remembering Allah, everything we do becomes focused on Him, and thus becomes an act of worship. From this, our energy, our thoughts, and our actions all become redirected away from unhealthy and useless causes, and focused on the source of all goodness. Thus, we are continuously tapping into His divine strength, mercy and grace. So, by remembering Allah constantly, we become stronger, better, and healthier in every aspect of our lives.

There were, and still are, aspects of Islam that have proven at least somewhat difficult for me. Nevertheless, I thank Allah everyday for the ease to which he has allowed me to make the necessary changes in my life so that I can continue to live in America and still be, Insha-Allah, a good Muslim. As a white, middle-class American, many of the cultural aspects of Islam are quite different from what I, and those close to me throughout my life, have been used to. In fact, when I finally broke the news to my family that I had taken my shahadda and become Muslim, almost all of their questions and concerns were related to cultural differences – marriage, social life, family, etc. They were much less concerned about my general beliefs around God and religious practice. For my family, friends, and co-workers, becoming Muslim was not seen necessarily as a negative change, but it has required a great deal of education for them about Islam. In fact, as with my own education, this process of sharing the truth about Islam with them is never-ending because there is no limit to how much knowledge we can acquire, and it is the responsibility of every one of us to share whatever right knowledge we have.

Because acquiring right knowledge is such a critical component to a Muslim’s development, having a teacher who has taught me how to apply Islam in everyday life that has made all the difference for me and helped me in managing whatever difficulties I have experienced from my reversion. Having someone knowledgeable you can turn to whenever you have questions is a wonderful support that every new shahadda should go out of their way to find. Islam is not a religion that can be rationalized, in the way that Christianity and Judaism have been over the ages. It is a clear path that must be followed exactly as Allah laid for us through the life of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), his companions, and the saints and scholars of Islam.

In this day and age, in this society, discerning the path can often be difficult, especially when we are constantly faced with questions and doubts from people who on the surface may not be hostile to Islam, but whose general lack of faith can have a harmful effect on someone who bases everything they do on their love for Allah. It is also not easy being in an environment where we are constantly bombarded with sensual temptations which are seen as ordinary, common aspects of everyday life. But when we have the support of a knowledgeable, experienced teacher, who is able to apply the universal teachings of Islam to his life, then the truth becomes clear from error, exactly how Allah (SWT) describes in the Qur’an. From this, we are able to understand how to apply Islam correctly to our own lives, and thus receive Allah’s many blessings. The ultimate test, however, of anyone who claims to have true and right knowledge, is to look at how they apply it in their own lives. If their actions support their teachings, then and only then should we look to them for guidance.

My journey to Islam, although short, has been a life-altering experience. It is one that with every passing day, makes me more and more appreciative and thankful to Almighty Allah. The extent of his mercy can only fully be understood from the perspective of someone who prostrates themselves regularly and submits their will to that of the Creator. This is what I strive for through Islam, and what the ultimate jihad is. It is the struggle that we must fight every moment of every day, but one that we love, because we know who to turn to for support and who is helping us along.

I look back at my life prior to Islam and reflect on the different ways I sought guidance. I think back to all the different ideas I once had of who God really is, and how we can become close to Him. I look back now and smile and perhaps even shed a tear because now I know the truth. Through Islam, I know why so many people who do not believe have so much fear inside them. Life can be very scary without God. I know, because I once harbored that same level of fear. Now, however, I have the ultimate “self-help” program. It’s the self-help program without the self. It’s the path that puts everything is in its proper place. Now, life makes sense. Now, life is order. Now, I know why I am here, where I want to go, what I want my life to be, how I want to live, and what is most important not just to me, but to everyone. I only hope and pray that others who have not found the path yet, can feel the same that I do. Alhamdulillahi rabbil aylameen (All praise and thanks are for Allah, the Lord and Cherisher of all creation).

Finding the Prophet in his People - Ingrid Mattson

2013-08-30T19:22:00.001-07:00

I spent a lot of time looking at art the year before I became a Muslim. Completing a degree in Philosophy and Fine Arts, I sat for hours in darkened classrooms where my professors projected pictures of great works of Western art on the wall. I worked in the archives for the Fine Arts department, preparing and cataloging slides. I gathered stacks of thick art history books every time I studied in the university library. I went to art museums in Toronto, Montreal and Chicago. That summer in Paris, "the summer I met Muslims" as I always think of it, I spent a whole day (the free day) each week in the Louvre.

What was I seeking in such an intense engagement with visual art? Perhaps some of the transcendence I felt as a child in the cool darkness of the Catholic Church I loved. In high school, I had lost my natural faith in God, and rarely thought about religion after that. In college, philosophy had brought me from Plato, through Descartes only to end at Existentialism-a barren outcome. At least art was productive-there was a tangible result at the end of the process. But in the end, I found even the strongest reaction to a work of art isolating. Of course I felt some connection to the artist, appreciation for another human perspective. But each time the aesthetic response flared up, then died down. It left no basis for action.

Then I met people who did not construct statues or sensual paintings of gods, great men and beautiful women. Yet they knew about God, they honored their leaders, and they praised the productive work of women. They did not try to depict the causes; they traced the effects.

Soon after I met my husband, he told me about a woman he greatly admired. He spoke of her intelligence, her eloquence and her generosity. This woman, he told me, tutored her many children in traditional and modern learning. With warm approval, he spoke of her frequent arduous trips to refugee camps and orphanages to help relief efforts. With profound respect, he told me of her religious knowledge, which she imparted to other women in regular lectures. And he told me of the meals she had sent to him, when she knew he was too engaged in his work with the refugees to see to his own needs. When I finally met this woman I found that she was covered, head to toe, in traditional Islamic dress. I realized with some amazement that my husband had never seen her. He had never seen her face. Yet he knew her. He knew her by her actions, by the effects she left on other people.

Western civilization has a long tradition of visual representation. No longer needing more from such art than a moment of shared vision with an artist alive or dead, I can appreciate it once more. But popular culture has made representation simultaneously omnipresent and anonymous. We seem to make the mistake of thinking that seeing means knowing, and that the more exposed a person is, the more important they are.

Islamic civilization chose not to embrace visual representation as a significant means of remembering and honoring God and people. Allah is The Hidden, veiled in glorious light from the eyes of any living person. But people of true vision can know God by contemplating the effects of his creative power,

Do they not look to the birds above them,

Spreading their wings and folding them back?

None can uphold them except for The Merciful.

Truly He is watchful over all things (Qur'an, 67:19)

If God transcends his creation, it is beyond the capacity of any human to depict him. Indeed, in Islamic tradition, any attempt to depict God with pictures is an act of blasphemy. Rather, a Muslim evokes God, employing only those words that God has used to describe himself in his revelation. Among these descriptive titles are the so-called "99 Names of God," attributes that are recited melodiously throughout the Muslim world: The Merciful, the Compassionate, the Forbearing, the Forgiving, the Living, the Holy, the Near, the Tender, the Wise.... Written in beautiful script on lamps, walls, and pendants, each of these linguistic signs provokes a profoundly personal, intellectual and spiritual response with each new reading.

Deeply wary of idolatry, early Muslims with few exceptions declined to glorify not only God, but even human beings through visual representation. Historians, accustomed to illustrating accounts of great leaders with their images captured in painting, sculpture and coin have no reliable visual representations of the Prophet Muhammad. What we find, instead, is the Prophet's name, Muhammad, written in curving Arabic letters on those architectural and illustrative spaces where the sacred is invoked. Along with the names of God and verses of the Qur'an, the name Muhammad, read audibly or silently, leads the believer into a reflective state about the divine message and the legacy of this extraordinary, yet profoundly human messenger of God.

Words, written and oral, are the primary medium by which the life of the Prophet and his example have been transmitted across the generations. His biography, the seerah, has been told in verse and prose in many languages. Even more important than this chronological account of the Prophet's life are the thousands of individual reports of his utterances and actions, collected in the hadith literature. These reports were transmitted by early Muslims wishing to pass on Muhammad's tradition and mindful of the Qur'an's words: "Indeed in the Messenger of God you have a good example to follow for one who desires God and the Last Day" (Qur'an, 33:21). Eager to follow his divinely inspired actions, his close companions paid attention not only to his style of worship, but also to all aspects of his comportment-everything from his personal hygiene to his interaction with children and neighbors. The Prophet's way of doing things, his sunnah, has formed the basis for Muslim piety in all societies where Islam spread. The result was that as Muslims young and old, male and female, rich and poor, adopted the Prophet's sunnah as a model for their lives, they became the best visual representations of the Prophet's character and life. In other words, the Muslim who implements the sunnah is an actor on the human stage who internalizes and, without artifice, reenacts the behavior of the Prophet. This performance of the sunnah by living Muslims is the archive of the Prophet's life and a truly sacred art of Muslim culture.

I first realized the profound physical impact of the Prophet's sunnah on generations of Muslims as I sat in the masjid one day, watching my nine year old son pray beside his Qur'an teacher. Ubayda sat straight, still and erect beside the young teacher from Saudi Arabia who, with his gentle manners and beautiful recitation, had earned my son's deep respect and affection. Like the teacher, Ubayda was wearing a loose-fitting white robe that modestly covered his body. Before coming to the masjid, he had taken a shower and rubbed fragrant musk across his head and chin. With each movement of prayer, he glanced over at his teacher, to ensure that his hands and feet were positioned in precisely the same manner. Reflecting on this transformation of my son, who had abandoned as his normal grubbiness and impulsivity for cleanliness and composure, I thought to myself, "thank God he found a good role model to imitate."

In my son's imitation of his teacher, however, it occurred to me that there was a greater significance, for his teacher was also imitating someone. Indeed, this young man was keen in every aspect of his life to follow the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. His modest dress was in imitation of the Prophet's physical modesty. His scrupulous cleanliness and love of fragrant oils was modeled after the Prophet's example. At each stage of the ritual prayer he adopted the positions he was convinced originated with the Prophet. He could trace the way he recited the Qur'an back through generations of teachers to the Prophet himself. My son, by imitating his teacher, had now become part of the living legacy of the Prophet Muhammad.

Among Muslims throughout the world, there are many sincere pious men and women; there are also criminals and hypocrites. Some people are deeply affected by religious norms, others are influenced more by culture-whether traditional or popular culture. Some aspects of the Prophet's behavior: his slowness to anger, his abhorrence of oath taking, his gentleness with women, sadly seem to have little affected the dominant culture in some Muslim societies. Other aspects of his behavior, his generosity, his hospitality, his physical modesty, seem to have taken firm root in many Muslim lands. But everywhere that Muslims are found, more often than not they will trace the best aspects of their culture to the example of the Prophet Muhammad. He was, in the words of one of his companions, "the best of all people in behavior."

Living in America, my son's role model might have been an actor, a rap singer or an athlete. We say that children are "impressionable," meaning that it is easy for strong personalities to influence the formation of their identity. We all look for good influences on our children.

It was their excellent behavior that attracted me to the first Muslims I met, poor West African students living on the margins of Paris. They embodied many aspects of the Prophet's sunnah, although I did not know it at the time. What I recognized was that, among their other wonderful qualities, they were the most naturally generous people I had ever known. There was always room for one more person around the platter of rice and beans they shared each day. Over the years, in my travels across the Muslim world, I have witnessed the same eagerness to share, the same deep belief that it is not self-denial, but a blessing to give away a little more to others. The Prophet Muhammad said, "The food of two is enough for three, and the food of three is enough for four." During the recent attacks on Kosovo, there were reports of Albanian Muslims filling their houses with refugees; one man cooked daily for twenty people domiciled in his modest home.

The Prophet Muhammad said, "When you see one who has more, look to one who has less." When I was married in Pakistan, my husband and I, as refugee workers, did not have much money. Returning to the refugee camp a few days after our wedding, the Afghan women eagerly asked to see the many dresses and gold bracelets, rings and necklaces my husband must have presented to me, as is customary throughout the Muslim world. I showed them my simple gold ring and told them we had borrowed a dress for the wedding. The women's faces fell and they looked at me with profound sadness and sympathy. The next week, sitting in a tent in that dusty hot camp, the same women-women who had been driven out of their homes and country, women who had lost their husbands and children, women who had sold their own personal belongings to buy food for their families-presented me with a wedding outfit. Bright blue satin pants stitched with gold embroidery, a red velveteen dress decorated with colorful pom-poms and a matching blue scarf trimmed with what I could only think of as a lampshade fringe. It was the most extraordinary gift I have ever received-not just the outfit, but the lesson in pure empathy that is one of the sweetest fruits of real faith.

An accurate representation of the Prophet is to be found, first and foremost, on the faces and bodies of his sincere followers: in the smile that he called "an act of charity," in the slim build of one who fasts regularly, in the solitary prostrations of the one who prays when all others are asleep. The Prophet's most profound legacy is found in the best behavior of his followers. Look to his people, and you will find the Prophet.

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Dr. Ingrid Mattson (born August 24, 1963), Ph.D. is a Muslim religious leader, a professor of Islamic Studies and an interfaith activist. She lived and worked in the United States beginning in 1989 for over two decades and is now the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.

Ingrid Mattson, the sixth of seven children, was born in 1963 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and raised in Kitchener, Ontario where she attended Catholic schools. She stopped practicing Christianity as a teenager and “forgot about God altogether. She credits the Catholic women religious of her youth with providing “a fantastic education” and “a place to explore and develop this early, youthful spirituality. She studied Philosophy and Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo in Canada from 1982-1987. For her program, she traveled in the summer of 1986 to Paris, France where she befriended West African Muslim students. She converted to Islam in 1987 in Waterloo after reading the Qur’an gave her as she put it, “an awareness of God, for the first time since I was very young.” From 1987-1988 she lived in Pakistan where she developed and implemented a midwife-training program for Afghan refugee women with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). She moved to Chicago in 1989 to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Chicago.

Mattson is the first woman and first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). In 2001, she was elected vice president of ISNA, and re-elected for a second two year term. In 2006 she was elected president and was re-elected for a second term in 2008. From 1998-2012 she was Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT, where she also founded the first accredited graduate program for Muslim chaplains in America. For a number of years she was also the Director of the MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. In 2012 Dr. Mattson was appointed the first London and Windsor Community Chair of Islamic Studies at Huron University College’s Faculty of Theology.

Professional Lady Pilot Reverts To Islam

2013-07-12T13:37:00.003-07:00

My Name is Aisha Jibreel Alexander and I grew up in a Roman Catholic family. I was always very interested in knowing about religion and always questioned the “dogmas” of the catholic faith, but I found the same answers every time I asked about the trinity. “You have to believe and not question your faith because you are committing a sin”, the nuns at the school always replied. With this concept, I grew up and I developed a fear of challenging my faith, so I continued in the road of Christianity with great faith and trust in God and on what I learned to believe, “the holy trinity.”

In 2001 I had the first encounter with Islam when I worked for a Canadian Company owned by Muslims. There, I had my first confrontation with the faith, but as I was young and very much dedicated to my professional career, I left the questions about religion behind, and I concentrated on finishing my career and taking care of my responsibilities with my family who also relocated with me from Colombia (my mother and my grandmother who are now 61 and 93 years old). I was very blessed with the family where I was born. These two women taught me the love and respect of God. They started my journey towards Islam by teaching me that I could not be or do anything without faith in God. Regardless the school they adhered to or followed, they taught me all about faith and respect of God.

I got married in 2003, a marriage that unfortunately marked my life with domestic violence, but out of the sad episode, I had my dearest son who is now eight years old. My husband at the time did not believe in God. Or should I say he believed in his own way. He drew me far from God; even from Christianity. It was the saddest episode of my life. But one day in 2005, I broke out of that situation with the help of my mother, and I continued life alone with my son and my mother, working hard to achieve my career goals, while becoming the main provider for my home.

Aviation brought me many opportunities; most of them really good. I had the opportunity to live in Malaysia, a country that shares three religions - Islam mainly, Hinduism and Buddhism. Back then, I lived in South America and I worked in the United States as a Corporate Pilot. Now, I am an Airline pilot flying mainly to Asia, Middle East and Europe. Unfortunately, being the only female pilot, almost everywhere I went, I spent most of time lonely. Maximum of my colleagues spent their spare time in night clubs and bars, and I was looking for something else that I could not have ever found in a club or at a bar, so I dedicated my spare time to continue my university studies online, but no time for God, other than a small prayer in the morning, and maybe at night time; no time to go to churches. So I was growing as a career woman but what about the life after?

Whenever I travelled to the Middle East, I always felt something special inside. There, I felt like dressing in a more decent manner than I normally did. I used to wear tight jeans, tight pants and fashion tops but I didn’t feel like dressing that way in the Middle East, not at a place where they called the name of God five times a day. I felt ashamed. I guess this is how the conversion started. Once in Bahrain, while waiting for my airplane to be fixed, I downloaded the Quran and I began praying every day in the morning before going for breakfast. I was feeling very empty inside; my life then was limited to waking up, working, eating, exercising and sleeping, but what about my spiritual life? Even when I returned back Home, I was not leading my son spiritually in the way I was supposed to. Previously, on my search to find God, I went from the Catholic church to the Baptist church, and after the ceremony of baptism, we only went to church a few times, mainly because of my tight schedule at work and honestly, there was no connection. Something was missing. I was not there completely.

Was God in my life? Yes, indeed! But He had better plans for me. I think He was just waiting for me to realize that my life was not only to work and pay bills. He knew I had more responsibilities with myself and my son; responsibilities to build for the life after. So God knocked at my door...and I was afraid to open. I thought just by talking to God in my mind all day and saying His name many times in the day was enough to feed my soul….but no it wasn’t enough. God knew I was in urgent need of Him saving my life.

The moment I said Islam was for me, it was in the Middle East; when I heard the call for prayer. At that moment, I had to cover my eyes with my sun glasses in front of the other pilots that were with me on the way to the restaurant, because my eyes were filled with tears...I felt like saying, “stop! I have to join this prayer”. I still remember one of them making fun of the call for prayer, and I felt so upset inside. I felt like calling him ignorant, & saying, “Don’t you realize it is a call for praying to God?”…but the words didn’t come out. Only tears kept rolling down my eyes. On that night after dinner, I came to my room, grabbed the praying rug, and bowed down to God; as I asked for His guidance for finding my spiritual light. After that night, my search started stronger than ever. I watched videos, read the Quran on my long flights, looked out for Islamic organizations to find answers, and finally one day in Argentina; while resting after a long flight, I listened to a program about Islam in the country. So I googled for Islam in South America, and found that I was not the only Hispanic interested in Islam. The community was bigger than what any one could imagine. I committed myself to return to Argentina soon and visit the biggest Masjid in the American Continent. So I did. Three months passed, and I was assigned a trip to Argentina on thanksgivings day. After arriving, I made an appointment and went to visit the Masjid. I met with the Sheikh, a Saudi Arabian man who led the prayers in the Masjid. We talked for about three hours and before I left, he asked me if I wanted to embrace Islam. I said right away, “Yes!” I feared I might not return back to Argentina or get a similar opportunity.

My biggest struggle was to change my preconceived conviction of Jesus (peace be upon him) being God. At first, I felt I was betraying him. I was concerned and scared. I couldn’t wash out those phrases of the nuns back at school saying “not to challenge the religion because it was a sin”. This was the most difficult part.

Sheikh Mohammed from the Masjid in Argentina helped a lot with a little phrase he said to me, “Ibrahim, Moses, Noah, and Jesus (peace be upon them) where all in this road. Do you think is there any reason why you can’t be following them?” Reading the Quran and finding the recognition that Jesus (peace be upon him) enjoys, the importance of Maryam in Islam (she is in Islam, more important than she is for many Christians in Christianity), reading about the influence of Constantine and how he changed Christianity, all these studies helped a lot in clearing out my mind and feeling comfortable with accepting the truth that was always hidden to me; not by purpose, hidden just because it was the truth that my parents and ancestors knew, but “never challenged”.

As far as my lifestyle was concerned, I stopped drinking; this happened few months before I accepted Islam. Soon after my trip from Bahrain, after I prayed for guidance, I met with a good friend of mine; she and I always ate at the same restaurant and had a drink or two with the food. That day, I said “no” I don’t drink anymore, and I declared inside I was never going to have another alcoholic beverage, because I wanted to seek God. Also, I don’t eat pork anymore and I am changing my wardrobe, which is very difficult because I love clothing and fashion. I was always proud of my body and I liked dressing in a way so that everyone would look at me. Now, I have starting wearing a Hijab, wearing loose clothing, abayas, and modest long shirts.

At work, I am struggling very much. In the company where I work, most people are biased towards Islam. As far as my mother is concerned, she is still Christian, but she says she’s glad of my positive changes, and she is learning more and more about Islam every day, and she feels proud of me for being a Muslim. And now that my 8 year old son also reverted to Islam at his own free will, she is happy that we are on this safe path seeking for God.

My dream as a new Muslim is to study Islam, and help those families that are struggling with accepting the idea of converting to Islam. I want to focus particularly on children coming to Islam.

I think converting to a new faith is harder for parents with younger children because they can be easily confused. This is why I would like to concentrate on children of converted families in the future.

I also would like as a Muslim Pilot, to show the world that Islam is not the submission or oppression that many think it is, and defeat the idea that Islam rejects career women; on the contrary, being able to do what I do is something that only Allah could make possible.

The last thing I would like to share is that I have chosen a Muslim name for me, which is Aisha Jibreel. Aisha means ‘new life’, as Islam is a new way of life for me, and Jibreel, because he is the messenger of Allah, and I am in Islam because Allah delivered to my heart a message of peace, by showing me the road to Islam.

"Journey to Light" by Anna Linda Traustadóttir

2013-07-05T03:24:00.001-07:00

I was born Anna Linda Traustadóttir to Icelandic/Danish parents in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1966 and baptised into the Lutheran Church. My family moved to Vancouver, Canada and then to New York City when I was young. I finished high school at 16. In 1988, I got my B.A. from McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Since then I have been travelling around the world, studying and working. Denmark has been my base since 1990.

In 1997, while studying Arabic in Cairo, one of my English girlfriends, a born-again Christian bought me a portable Bible, with both the Old and New Testaments. I was extremely pleased because I had decided that I needed to know what the Bible was and what was in it. And I felt that I could hardly call myself Christian without consciously studying the Bible.

In 1998, whilst studying at Damascus University, I read the whole Bible, from cover to cover, taking notes as I went along. Once I had completed it, I realised that there were too many inconsistencies, too many things I didn't agree with. Like the Old Testament's portrayal of God and women, not to mention all the things that Paul wrote in the New Testament. And when I read about the holy men, the Prophets, like Noah, Lot, David, etc., I found that I didn't respect them. I love and admire Moses (from the Old Testament) and Jesus (from the New Testament). Having already read the Torah, I tried getting a complete Jewish Talmud, to no avail. I’d always heard that Jews (except for reformed) do not recognise someone who converted to Judaism. Also, many, though not all, Jews are Zionist (those who support Israel). And I am terribly anti-Zionist and anti-Israel, and so, by default, pro-Palestinian. I also wanted a religion that would accept a convert. I dabbled with Buddhism but decided this was not for me, as Buddhists don't believe in God. And I strongly believe in God, always have. Buddhism is still interesting as an alternative way of life. My mum and I used to discuss Hinduism and so I was very interested in it, but there are just too many Hindu gods for me. Therefore Hinduism was out of the question. That, and the fact that you cannot convert to Hinduism.

When I had my son, Andrés Ómar, in October 2001, I was asked whether he would be baptised, and even then I refused. I felt that innocent children would surely be welcome in Heaven, baptised or not. Anyway, how could I introduce him into the Christian religion when I myself did not call myself a believing Christian, though I was born and raised as a Protestant? I didn't believe in the Trinity, in Mary as the "mother" of God, in Jesus as the "son" of God, in Jesus dying to cleanse us of our sins, in Jesus crying out in Aramaic on the cross: "Eli, Eli, lama sabakh-tha-ni?" I mean why would Jesus cry out: "My God, my God, why hadst thou forsaken me?" when Jesus knew he was sent on a mission by God as a prophet of God?

I grew up being one of the most anti-Muslim, anti-Islam people you could ever meet. This is true: I was. I had also been anti-Arab before moving to Cairo to study Arabic (I thought Arabic calligraphy was beautiful). I'd grown up in the States, raised on American movies, which always portrayed Arabs as fundamentalists, radicals, women-oppressors, religious fanatics, terrorists, never normal, average people. The large majority of people who are anti-Arab have never been to any Arab country. The reality there is very different.

In 1999, I went back to Damascus to work at an embassy. There in 2000, I met an engineer named Muhammad. We married soon after we met. To be honest when I married Muhammad, I married him because I loved him, even though he was Muslim. Over time, I realised I loved him because he was Muslim. A good Muslim. I had met many Muslims here in Denmark and in the Middle East, and just like in my life, I've met some nice and not-so-nice Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. I thought all those Muslims I'd met were representing Islam. And whenever I asked Muslims questions about Islam, one thing struck me: Nearly everyone claimed to be an expert in Islam, even those who gave me, I later found out, false information. It would have been more prudent just to say: I don’t know/I’m not sure. Yet I never judged Christianity or any other religion by its followers. Strangely though, I judged Islam by every Arab I met, even though 1) not all Arabs are Muslim. Some are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Druze, Coptic, Alawite, etc. And 2) most Muslims aren't Arab. Muslims can be Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, Macedonian, Malay, Russian, Thai, African, Bosnian, American, Swedish, etc., and of course, Arab. I had been raised not to be prejudiced, but I was. It took me a long time to realise this.

It's only after countless hours of discussion, and at times arguments (!), with my husband that I came to be open-minded enough to realise that I didn't have the full picture.

During Ramadan, November 2002, I asked Muhammad whether he would help me read the Qur'an in Arabic. He had little time, but I was determined to read the Qur'an in Arabic with the help of a good translation. When I read the Qur'an, Islam’s holiest book, I thought it was beautiful, so scientific, so compassionate, so feminist! Nearly all the books I'd ever read about Islam, all written by non-Muslims, showed Islam in a negative light. Those people who wrote against Islam sometimes gave partial quotes from the Qur'an, leaving out the rest of the verse, or they would translate the verses incorrectly, on purpose or by mistake. I knew enough Arabic to know that what I was reading was unlike anything I'd ever read.

So much science, so much knowledge that has been only recently discovered. I mean the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) mentions: black holes, space travel, DNA and genetic science, evolution (transformation and mutation), geology, oceanography, embryonic development, aquatic origins of life... WOW! I had always heard that the Qur'an was basically just a watered-down version of the Bible, but none of this was in the Bible! I wondered how someone over 1400 years ago could have written anything like this! Some of these ideas were only discovered this century. Then I thought, well, Arab scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, cartographers were so advanced for that time, maybe some of them got together and wrote a book, loosely based on the Torah and the Gospels. But then I studied it further and realised that the Arabic scientific revolution followed the arrival of Islam. Then I read that Muslims believe that the Qur'an was given to Mohammad (peace be upon him) through the Angel Gabriel, and is the continuation of God's word. Muslims believe that parts of the Torah and parts of the Gospels, which speak of Jesus’ life, are inspired by God, or "Allah" as God is called in Arabic. Not just Muslims, but Christian and Jewish Arabs also call God "Allah." Muslims revere Abraham, Solomon, Moses, Jesus, and Noah, in fact, all of the Biblical Prophets. It is also mentioned that there are other prophets that came to other nations to help them become better people. They also believe that the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) is the last prophet, until Jesus returns to Earth.

It says in the Qur’an that Allah can put a veil over our eyes and a stone over our hearts so that we can neither see nor feel the message of the Qur’an. Only when Allah is ready for us to know it, do we understand. On 12 December 2002, I had an incredible dream that started me thinking and contemplating religion more deeply. Dreams are very important in Iceland and dream interpretation is practically a science! I never thought I needed a religion. Religion fascinated me, but I had believed I was doing fine just believing in God, taking bits from different religions until I got my own cocktail: "Anna’s Mix."

In January 2003, I started looking at the Internet, just doing searches like: "Islam," "Qur'an," "Muslim," etc. In March, whilst in Reykjavík, I got the opportunity to speak with one of my best Icelandic girlfriends, a Muslim, and she recommended a really good English translation (the Abdullah Yusuf Ali version), to go along with the original Arabic. In April, I received it and started using it as a supplement.

In May 2003, my Icelandic Muslim friend returned the visit and stayed two weeks with us. We started talking about the Qur'an. I told her that I wanted to translate it into Icelandic. She told me it was her dream too. We agreed we would do it together. We used our time together well, discussing Christianity, Judaism and Islam all day, every day. She had questioned her Lutheran faith, considered Judaism, visited Israel ("Occupied Palestine" as far as I am concerned) twice, and only on her second visit, started to consider the other side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. She got interested in Islam. She had earlier gone a similar path as I, coming to the same conclusions. Back in 1995, when she told me she'd become Muslim, I behaved badly: I was extremely negative. Shame on me for being unsupportive!

Now I found myself seeing myself Muslim. I told my husband about my revelations, and he questioned me at length. He asked me to wait with changing my religion. He told me that becoming Muslim would make my life more difficult, that people who didn't know Islam would treat me differently, that at this time, in the year 2003, and in this world we live in, people would ridicule me. He said I might lose contact with my family and my friends if I took on the Muslim faith. He feared that people that didn't know me so well or that I hadn't seen in a long time, or ever met him, would think he was forcing me to become Muslim. I told him if that were true, we could not have got married, for when we married, I was Christian, and had remained Christian up until then. Also, I argued, people who have known me at all know I am a strong-minded, true feminist/humanist, that I am opinionated, but not narrow-minded, and that no one can control me...My parents have tried for years to no avail!

I decided then and there that if friends and family didn't want any contact with me because I decided to become Muslim, so be it! My religion is mine and I am proud of my research into Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. It has taken me years and countless hours of reading and soul-searching to get to this point. My belief in God is something I have always taken seriously and I have never been ashamed to declare this faith, even when others ridicule me for believing in something they say we cannot see. I argue, look around you, how can you not believe in a supreme being that created everything around us. And for those of you that view Islam as some kind of cult, it isn't. Its one of the biggest religions in the world, if not the largest: One in four people on this planet is now Muslim, and it's the fastest growing religion.

So finally, on 4 June 2003, I decided to officially become Muslim so that I could go on Hajj to Makkah. I had been searching for answers for a long time, since my childhood, and by the mid-1990's, I was buying books on different faiths. Deep inside, I imagined it would find the answers for me. I remember the first time I heard the "Azan" (the Muslim call for prayer, when a fellow says "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) from a minaret at a masjid). It was a bright, sunny, February Sunday in Cairo in 1997, so church bells were also ringing, but when I heard the call for prayer, tears streamed down my face, without my realising it. I wasn't Muslim, but it moved me. One of my oldest and dearest friends, a Catholic, was in Beirut a while ago, staying at a hotel and woke up to the call for prayer at 4.30 during her first night in Lebanon. She thought it was so moving that she also cried.

When I read the Qur'an, I feel it in my stomach, deep in my gut, that this is right for me. The inspirational beauty of the Qur'an makes me sometimes cry. It's an all-encompassing way of life. No other religious book ever moved me to tears.

The Qur'an simply put is the most complex book I've ever read. The more you read it, the more you understand and at the same time, question. The Qur'an is meant to inspire you to learn more. Every time you read it, you peel off different layers of understanding. I am not an expert; I never will be. Even if I read from it every day for the rest of my life, I will still learn something new. It's full of mysteries. I still also supplement my Qur'anic studies with Biblical studies like the "Gospel of Barnabas," "The Torah," etc.

I've also since got some new Muslim girlfriends over the Internet. Whilst searching the net, I came across an Icelandic Muslim site: www.islam.is, and I contacted the writer. We started a correspondence. Around New Year's 2004, I sent her a report I wrote entitled "Islam in Iceland 2003," which I am submitting to the Saudi Government, she suggested we three work on the translation of the Qur'an from Arabic to Icelandic (Kóraninn), as she also speaks Arabic. So it seems that we will be three Icelandic Muslim women working on translating the Arabic Qur'an. For those of you looking for a good English version, I’ve heard the Muhammad Asad translation is also very direct, but I myself have yet to get hold of it.

I did however buy an incredible amount of reading material in Kuala Lumpur last summer. It’s a new Muslim’s Makkah for books. I really stocked up! My husband, son and I stayed a month in Malaysia. What an incredible place! Of Islamic areas, I had only been to the Arab Middle-East and here was a whole new Islamic world in South-East Asia! The experience was wonderful to say the least. I had always been fond of Islamic art and architecture, and all of Malaysia is both an indoor and outdoor museum!

I always try to be positive, so I think it's a very exciting time, the 21st century! If someone like me can become Muslim, there’s hope for anybody! The friends that I have discussed religion with recently know that I have become Muslim, and without fail, they have been extremely supportive. I was a bit surprised that they were not shocked. They said they knew one day I'd find my niche (I'd been searching so long), and they were happy for me. Some even call me by my new Muslim name: Núr, which means light. I also still use Anna Linda, because it's the name my parents gave me and it represents part of the person I was for 36 years. Núr is just the continuation of me!

So ends my story: "Journey to Light," a journey which is, in fact, just beginning!

Maa is-salaama wa Allah makum!

Núr

The Man, The Legend - Malcolm X

2013-06-29T14:50:00.001-07:00

Early Life

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louis Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with the family's eight children. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.

Earl's civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday. Regardless of the Little's efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground, and two years later Earl's mutilated body was found lying across the town's trolley tracks when Malcolm was only six. Louise had an emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Her children were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages.

Malcolm was a smart, focused student and graduated from junior high at the top of his class. However, when a favorite teacher told Malcolm his dream of becoming a lawyer was "no realistic goal for a nigger," Malcolm lost interest in school and eventually dropped out at the age of fifteen. Learning the ways of the streets, Malcolm became acquainted with hoodlums, thieves, dope peddlers, and pimps. Convicted of burglary at twenty, he remained in prison until the age of twenty-seven. During his prison stay he attempted to educate himself. In addition, during his period in prison he learned about and joined the Nation of Islam, studying the teachings of Elijah Muhammed fully. He was released, a changed man, in 1952.

The 'Nation of Islam' 

Upon his release, Malcolm went to Detroit, joined the daily activities of the sect, and was given instruction by Elijah Muhammad himself. Malcolm's personal commitment helped build the organization nation-wide, while making him an international figure. He was interviewed on major television programs and by magazines, and spoke across the country at various universities and other forums. His power was in his words, which so vividly described the plight of blacks and vehemently incriminated whites. When a white person referred to the fact that some Southern university had enrolled black freshmen without bayonets, Malcolm reacted with scorn:

When I "slipped," the program host would leap on the bait: "Ahhh! Indeed, Mr. Malcolm X, you can't deny that's an advance for your race!"

I'd jerk the pole then. "I can't turn around without hearing about some 'civil rights advance'! White people seem to think the black man ought to be shouting 'hallelujah'! Four hundred years the white man has had his foot-long knife in the black man's back and now the white man starts to wiggle the knife out, maybe six inches! The black man's supposed to be grateful? Why, if the white man jerked the knife out, it's still going to leave a scar!

Although Malcolm's words often stung with the injustices against blacks in America, the equally racist views of the Nation of Islam kept him from accepting any whites as sincere or capable of helping the situation. For twelve years he preached that the white man was the devil and the "Honorable Elijah Muhammad" was God's messenger. Unfortunately, most images of Malcolm today focus on this period of his life, although the transformation he was about to undergo would give him a completely different, and more important, message for the American people.

The Change to True Islam 

On March 12, 1964, impelled by internal jealousy within the Nation of Islam and revelations of Elijah Muhammad's sexual immorality, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam with the intention of starting his own organization:

I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else's control. I feel what I'm thinking and saying now is for myself. Before, it was for and by guidance of another, now I think with my own mind.

Malcolm was thirty-eight years old when he left Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam. Reflecting on reflects that occurred prior to leaving, he said:

At one or another college or university, usually in the informal gatherings after I had spoken, perhaps a dozen generally white-complexioned people would come up to me, identifying themselves as Arabian, Middle Eastern or North African Muslims who happened to be visiting, studying, or living in the United States. They had said to me that, my white-indicting statements notwithstanding, they felt I was sincere in considering myself a Muslim and they felt if I was exposed to what they always called "true Islam," I would "understand it, and embrace it." Automatically, as a follower of Elijah, I had bridled whenever this was said. But in the privacy of my own thoughts after several of these experiences, I did question myself: if one was sincere in professing a religion, why should he balk at broadening his knowledge of that religion?

Those orthodox Muslims whom I had met, one after another, had urged me to meet and talk with a Dr. Mahmoud Yousef Shawarbi. Then one day Dr. Shawarbi and I were introduced by a newspaperman. He was cordial. He said he had followed me in the press; I said I had been told of him, and we talked for fifteen or twenty minutes. We both had to leave to make appointments we had, when he dropped on me something whose logic never would get out of my head. He said, "No man has believed perfectly until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself."

The Effect of the Pilgrimage 

The pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the Hajj, is a religious obligation that every orthodox Muslim fulfills, if able, at least once in his or her lifetime. The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House (of God built by the prophet Abraham) is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (Quran 3:97)

Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (Quran 22:27).

Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other.

That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men.

There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white. America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.

Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white but the "white" attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.

Malcolm's New Vision of America

Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities, he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the wall and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth, the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.

I believe that God now is giving the world's so-called 'Christian' white society its last opportunity to repent and atone for the crimes of exploiting and enslaving the world's non-white peoples. It is exactly as when God gave Pharaoh a chance to repent. But Pharaoh persisted in his refusal to give justice to those who he oppressed. And, we know, God finally destroyed Pharaoh.

I will never forget the dinner at the Azzam home with Dr. Azzam. The more we talked, the more his vast reservoir of knowledge and its variety seemed unlimited. He spoke of the racial lineage of the descendants of Mohammad (peace be upon him) the Prophet, and he showed how they were both black and white. He also pointed out how color, and the problems of color which exist in the Muslim world, exist only where, and to the extent that, that area of the Muslim world has been influenced by the West. He said that if one encountered any differences based on attitude toward color, this directly reflected the degree of Western influence.

The Oneness of Man under One God

It was during his pilgrimage that he began to write some letters to his loyal assistants at the newly formed Muslim Masjid in Harlem. He asked that his letter be duplicated and distributed to the press:

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Mohammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures (peace be on them all). For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions.

This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) while praying to the same God, with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.

We were truly all the same (brothers) because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude.

I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man, and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God.

Malcolm returned from the pilgrimage as El-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz. He was afire with new spiritual insight. For him, the struggle had evolved from the civil rights struggle of a nationalist to the human rights struggle of an internationalist and humanitarian.

After the Pilgrimage 

White reporters and others were eager to learn about El-Hajj Malik's newly-formed opinions concerning themselves. They hardly believed that the man who had preached against them for so many years could suddenly turn around and call them brothers. To these people El-Hajj Malik had this to say:

You're asking me "Didn't you say that now you accept white men as brothers?" Well, my answer is that in the Muslim world, I saw, I felt, and I wrote home how my thinking was broadened! Just as I wrote, I shared true, brotherly love with many white-complexioned Muslims who never gave a single thought to the race, or to the complexion, of another Muslim.

My pilgrimage broadened my scope. It blessed me with a new insight. In two weeks in the Holy Land, I saw what I never had seen in thirty-nine years here in America. I saw all races, all colors, blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans in true brotherhood! In unity! Living as one! Worshipping as one! No segregationists no liberals; they would not have known how to interpret the meaning of those words.

In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I will never be guilty of that again - as I know now that some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are capable of being brotherly toward a black man. The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.

To the blacks who increasingly looked to him as a leader, El-Hajj Malik preached a new message, quite the opposite of what he had been preaching as a minister in the Nation of Islam:

True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete.

Since I learned the truth in Makkah, my dearest friends have come to include all kinds - some Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and even atheists! I have friends who are called capitalists, Socialists, and Communists! Some of my friends are moderates, conservatives, extremists - some are even Uncle Toms! My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white!

I said to my Harlem street audiences that only when mankind would submit to the One God who created all, only then would mankind even approach the "peace" of which so much talk could be heard but toward which so little action was seen.

Too Dangerous to Last

El-Hajj Malik's new universalistic message was the U.S. establishment's worst nightmare. Not only was he appealing to the black masses, but to intellectuals of all races and colors. Now he was consistently demonized by the press as "advocating violence" and being "militant," although in actuality he and Dr. Martin Luther King were moving closer together in outlook:

The goal has always been the same, with the approaches to it as different as mine and Dr. Martin Luther King's non-violent marching, that dramatizes the brutality and the evil of the white man against defenseless blacks. And in the racial climate of this country today, it is anybody's guess which of the "extremes" in approach to the black man's problems might personally meet a fatal catastrophe first "non-violent" Dr. King, or so-called "violent" me."

El-Hajj Malik knew fully well that he was a target of many groups. Inspite of this, he was never afraid to say what he had to say when he had to say it. As a sort of epitaph at the end of his autobiography, he says:

I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America, then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.

The Legacy of Malcolm X

Although El-Hajj Malik knew that he was a target for assassination, he accepted this fact without requesting police protection. On February 21, 1965, while preparing to give a speech at a New York hotel, he was shot by three black men. He was three months short of forty, the age of maturity according to the Quran. While it is clear that the Nation of Islam had something to do with the assassination, many people believe there was more than one organization involved. The FBI, known for its anti-black movement tendency, has been suggested as an accomplice. We may never know for sure who was behind El-Hajj Malik's murder, or, for that matter, the murder of other national leaders in the early 1960s.

Malcolm X's life has affected Americans in many important ways. His conversion must have had an influence on Elijah Muhammad's son, Wallace Mohammad, who, after his father's death, led the Nation of Islam's followers into orthodox Islam. African-Americans' interest in their Islamic roots has flourished since El-Hajj Malik's death. Alex Haley, who wrote Malcolm's autobiography, later wrote the epic Roots about an African Muslim family's experience with slavery.

More and more African-Americans are becoming Muslim, adopting Muslim names, or exploring African culture. Interest in Malcolm X has seen a surge recently due to Spike Lee's movie, Malcolm X. El-Hajj Malik is a source of pride for African-Americans, Muslims, and Americans in general. His message is simple and clear:

I am not a racist in any form whatever. I don't believe in any form of racism. I don't believe in any form of discrimination or segregation. I believe in Islam. I am a Muslim.

From MTV To Makkah

2013-06-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Kristiane Backer, 45, a London-based former MTV presenter who had led a liberal Western-style life, turned her back on it and embraced Islam instead. Her reason? - "The ‘anything goes’ permissive society that I coveted had proved to be a superficial void."

The turning point for Kristiane came when she travelled to Pakistan in 1992 during the height of her career. She says she was immediately touched by spirituality and the warmth of the people.

Kristiane says: ‘I began to study the Muslim faith and eventually converted. Because of the nature of my job, I’d been out interviewing rock stars, travelling all over the world and following every trend, yet I’d felt empty inside. Now, at last, I had contentment because Islam had given me a purpose in life.’

‘In the West, we are stressed for superficial reasons, like what clothes to wear. In Islam, everyone looks to a higher goal. Everything is done to please God. It was a completely different value system.’

‘Despite my lifestyle, I felt empty inside and realized how liberating it was to be a Muslim. To follow only one God makes life purer. You are not chasing every fad.’

‘I grew up in Germany in a not very religious Protestant family. I drank and I partied, but I realized that we need to behave well now so we have a good after-life. We are responsible for our own actions.’

‘In Germany, there is Islamophobia. I lost my job when I converted. There was a Press campaign against me with insinuations about all Muslims supporting terrorists — I was vilified. Now, I am a presenter on NBC Europe.’

‘I call myself a European Muslim, which is different to the ‘born’ Muslim. I was married to one, a Moroccan, but it didn’t work because he placed restrictions on me because of how he’d been brought up. As a European Muslim, I question everything — I don’t accept blindly.’

‘But what I love is the hospitality and the warmth of the Muslim community. London is the best place in Europe for Muslims, there is wonderful Islamic culture here and I am very happy.’

Kristiane Backer, who has written a book on her own spiritual journey, called From MTV To Makkah, believes the new breed of modern, independent Muslims can band together to show the world how much stress the faith of Islam lays on the rights of women.

‘I know women born Muslims who became disillusioned and rebelled against it. When you dig deeper, it’s not the faith they turned against, but the culture.’

‘Rules like marrying within the same sect or caste and education being less important for girls, as they should get married anyway —– where does it say that in the Quran? It doesn’t.’

‘Many young Muslims have abandoned the “fire and brimstone” version they were born into have re-discovered a more spiritual and intellectual approach, that’s free from the cultural dogmas of the older generation. That’s how I intend to spend my life, showing the world the beauty of the true Islam.’

She writes about her spiritual journey to Islam in her book "Der Islam als Weg des Herzens: Warum ich Muslima bin." Backer discusses her high-flying media life, where she hosted many live music shows in Europe with acts like the Backstreet Boys and Lenny Kravitz, and was cheered by thousands of screaming fans. She met many people in the business who were wealthy and "took drugs or drank a lot" but were not really happy. She says she used to drink champagne at parties every night, but now that she is a Muslim and doesn't touch alcohol she is happier, and her happiness comes from within.

Backer performed Hajj in the year 2006. She called the pilgrimage a serene experience "so holy, On Hajj the whole universe is gathered, a king prays next to a servant, a black next to a white. You realize in front of God nothing counts but what is in people's hearts and their actions."

Part-time DJ finds her Escape Route through Islam

2013-06-29T14:14:00.001-07:00

Lynne Ali, 33, from Dagenham in Essex, freely admits to having been ‘a typical white hard-partying teenager’.

‘I would go out and get drunk with friends, wear tight and revealing clothing and date boys.’

‘I also worked part-time as a DJ, so I was really into the club scene. I used to pray a bit as a Christian, but I used God as a sort of doctor, to fix things in my life. If anyone asked, I would’ve said that, generally, I was happy living life in the fast lane.’

But when she met a Muslim guy at university, something dramatic happened.

‘His sister started talking to me about Islam, and it was as if everything in my life fitted into place. I think, underneath it all, I must have been searching for something, and I wasn’t feeling fulfilled by my hard-drinking party lifestyle.’

Lynne converted aged 19. ‘From that day, I started wearing the hijab, and I now never show my hair in public. At home, I’ll dress in normal Western clothes in front of my husband, but never out of the house.’

Lynne Ali remembers the night this hit home for her. ‘I went to an old friend’s 21st birthday party in a bar,’ she reveals. ‘I walked in, wearing my hijab and modest clothing, and saw how everyone else had so much flesh on display. They were drunk, slurring their words and dancing provocatively.’

‘For the first time, I could see my former life with an outsider’s eyes, and I knew I could never go back to that.’

‘I am so grateful I found my escape route. This is the real me — I am happy to pray five times a day and take classes at the masjid. I am no longer a slave to a broken society and its expectations.’

A Mathematician & Christian Missionary who Challenged the Quran

2013-06-29T14:11:00.001-07:00

Dr. Gary Miller was a very active Christian missionary and was very knowledgeable about the Bible. This man liked mathematics very much, and that's why he liked logic too. One day, he decided to read the Qur'an to try to find any mistakes that he might take advantage of while inviting Muslims to convert to Christianity. He expected the Qur'an to be an old book written 14 centuries ago, a book that talks about the desert and so on. He was amazed from what he found.

He discovered that this Book had what no other book in the world had. He expected to find some stories about the hard time that the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) had, like the death of his wife Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) or the death of his sons and daughters. However, he did not find anything like that. And what made him even more confused is that he found a full "Sura" (chapter) in the Qur'an named "Mary" that gives a lot of respect to Mary (peace be upon her) which is not the case even in the books written by Christians nor in their Bibles. He did not find a Sura named after "Fatimah" (the prophet's daughter) nor "Aishah" (the Prophet's wife), may Allah (God) be pleased with both of them. He also found that the name of Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) was mentioned in the Qur'an 25 times while the name of "Mohammad" (Peace Be Upon Him) was mentioned only 4 times, so he became more confused. He started reading the Qur'an more thoroughly hoping to find a mistake but he was shocked when he read a great verse which is verse number 82 in Surat Al-Nisa'a (Women) that says:

“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy”.

Dr Miller says about this verse: “One of the well known scientific principles is the principle of finding mistakes or looking for mistakes in a theory until it’s proved to be right (Falsification Test). What’s amazing is that the Holy Qur'an asks Muslims and non-muslims to try to find mistakes in this book and it tells them that they will never find any”. He also says about this verse: "No writer in the world has the courage to write a book and say that it’s empty of mistakes, but the Qur'an, on the contrary, tells you that it has no mistakes and asks you to try to find one and you won’t find any."

Another verse that Dr Miller reflected on for a long time is the verse number 30 in Surat “Al-Anbiya” (The Prophets):

"Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of Creation), before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?"

He says: "This verse is exactly the subject of the scientific research that won the Noble Prize in 1973 and was about the theory of the “Great Explosion”. According to this theory, the universe was the result of a great explosion that lead to the formation of the universe with its skies and planets."

Dr Miller says: “Now we come to what’s amazing about the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and what’s pretended about the devils helping him; God says:

“No evil ones have brought down this (Revelation), it would neither suit them nor would they be able (to produce it). Indeed they have been removed far from even (a chance of) hearing it.” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 26, Verses 210-212.

“When thou does read the Qur'an, seek Allah's protection from Satan the Rejected One” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 16, Verse 98.

You see? Can this be the devil’s way to write a book? how can he write a book then tells you to ask God for protection from this devil before reading that book? Those are miraculous verses in this miraculous book! and has a logical answer to those who pretend that it’s from the devil”.

And among the stories that amazed Dr Miller is the story of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) with Abu-Lahab. Dr Miller says: “This man (Abu Lahab) used to hate Islam so much that he would go after the Prophet wherever he goes to humiliate him. If he saw the prophet talking to strangers, he used to wait till he finishes and then ask them: What did Mohammad tell you? If he said it’s white then it’s in reality black and if he said it’s night then it’s day. He meant to falsify all what the prophet says and to make people suspicious about it. And 10 years before the death of Abu Lahab, a Sura was inspired to the prophet, named “Al-Masad”. This sura tells that Abu Lahab will go to hell, in other words, it says that Abu Lahab will not convert to Islam. During 10 years, Abu Lahab could have said: “Mohammad is saying that I will not become a Muslim and that I will go to the hell fire, but I’m telling you now that I want to convert to Islam and become a Muslim. What do you think about Mohammad now? Is he saying the truth or no? Does his inspiration come from God?”. But Abu Lahab did not do that at all although he was disobeying the prophet in all matters, but not in this one. In other words, it was as if the prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) was giving Abu Lahab a chance to prove him wrong! But he did not do that during 10 whole years! he did not convert to Islam and did not even pretend to be a Muslim!! Throughout 10 years, he had the chance to destroy Islam in one minute! But this did not happen because those are not the words of Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) but the words of God Who knows what’s hidden and knows that Abu Lahab will not become a Muslim.

How can the prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) know that Abu Lahab will prove what is said in that Sura if this was not inspiration from Allah? How can he be sure throughout 10 whole years that what he has (the Qur'an) is true if he did not know that it’s inspiration from Allah?? For a person to take such a risky challenge, this has only one meaning: that this is inspiration from God.

“Perish the hands of the Father of Flame (Abu Lahab)! perish he! No profit to him from all his wealth, and all his gains! Burnt soon will he be in a Fire of blazing Flame! His wife shall carry the (crackling) wood; As fuel! A twisted rope of palm-leaf fibre round her (own) neck!” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 111.

Dr Miller says about a verse that amazed him: One of the miracles in the Qur'an is challenging the future with things that humans cannot predict and to which the “Falsification Test” applies. This test consists of looking for mistakes until the thing that is being tested is proved to be right. For example, let’s see what the Qur'an said about the relation between Muslims and Jews. Qur'an says that Jews are the major enemies for Muslims and this is true until now as the main enemy for Muslims are the Jews.

Dr Miller continues: This is considered a great challenge since the Jews have the chance to ruin Islam simply by treating Muslims in a friendly way for few years and then say: here we are treating you as friends and the Qur'an says that we are your enemies, the Qur'an must be wrong then! But this did not happen during 1400 years!! and it will never happen because those are the words of The One who knows the unseen (God) and not the words of humans.

Dr Miller continues: Can you see how the verse that talks about the enmity between Muslims and Jews constitutes a challenge to the human mind?

“Strongest among men in enmity to the Believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the Believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians": because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. And when they listen to the revelation received by the Messenger, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears, for they recognize the truth: they pray: "Our Lord! We believe; write us down among the witnesses” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 5, Verses 82-84.

This verse applies to Dr Miller as he was a Christian, but when he saw the truth, he believed and converted to Islam and became a herald. May Allah support him.

Dr Miller says about the unique style of the Qur'an that he finds wonderful: No doubt there is something unique and amazing in Qur'an that is not present anywhere else, as the Qur'an gives you a specific information and tells you that you did not know this before. For example:

"This is part of the tidings of the things unseen, which We reveal unto thee (O Prophet!) by inspiration: thou was not with them when they cast lots with arrows, as to which of them should be charged with the care of Maryam: nor was thou with them when they disputed (the point)” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 3, Verse 44.

“Such are some of the stories of the Unseen, which We have revealed unto thee: before this, neither thou nor thy People knew them. So persevere patiently: for the End is for those who are righteous” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 11, Verse 49.

“Such is one of the stories of what happened unseen, which We reveal by inspiration unto thee: nor was thou (present) with them when they concerted their plans together in the process of weaving their plots” The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 12, Verse 102.

Dr Miller continues: “No other holy book uses this style, all the other books consist of information that tells you where this information came from. For example, when the Holy Bible talks about the stories of the ancient nations, it tells you that this King lived in this place and that leader fought in that battle, and that a certain person had a number of kids and their names are... But this book (Bible) always tells you that if you want to know more, you can read a certain book since that information came from that book”.

Dr Garry Miller continues: “This is in contrary to the Qur'an which gives you the information and tells you that it’s new!! And what’s amazing is that the people of Makkah at that time (of inspiration of those verses) used to hear those verses and despite the challenge that the information in those verses was new and was not known by Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) nor by his people at that time, they never said: We know this and it is not new, and they did not say: We know where Mohammad came from with those verses. This never happened, but what happened is that nobody dared to say that he was lying to them because that was really new information, not coming from the human mind but from Allah who knows the unseen in the past, the present and the future”.

Ex-secularist explains how he thinks it is easier to follow Islam as a revert in Europe, than one being born & raised up in it

2013-05-12T09:35:00.003-07:00

My name is Yahya Schroder. I am a "European" (Ex Secularist) Muslim. I became Muslim when I was 17. I am living now in Potsdam, Germany and I want to share my experience with you as a Muslim in a non-Muslim state.

As a convert to Islam, I think it's much easier to follow the religion than a born Muslim who is being raised up here. Almost all young born-Muslims I know want to become German. For them Islam is only a tradition and they think that they have to give up their tradition (Islam) to be accepted by the Germans, despite the fact that the Germans won't accept them even if they gave up their religion.

I grew up in a little village. I lived with my mother and my stepfather in a huge house with a big garden and a big pool. And as a teenager I "lived a cool life"; I had some friends whom I used to hang around with, do stupid things and drink alcohol like every young German teen.

The life of a Muslim in Germany is quite difficult than one would think especially for me as a German Muslim because when someone asks a German what they know about Islam, they would tell you something about Arabs. For them it's like a mathematical operation; Islam = Arabs. They still don't know about our big nation.

When I converted to Islam I had to leave my family and I moved to the community in Potsdam near Berlin. I left this huge house and all my material valuable stuff. When I lived with my mother and my stepfather I had everything; a big house, my own money, TV, Play-station. I was never concerned about money, but I wasn't happy. I was searching for something else.

When I turned 16, I met the Muslim community in Potsdam through my biological father who became Muslim in 2001. I used to visit my father once a month and we used to attend the meetings of the community which were held on Sundays. At that time, I was interested in Islam, and my father noticed this and told me one day that he wouldn't speak about Islam when we are together because he wanted me to learn from people of greater knowledge so that other people won't say:

"Oh he became Muslim just because he's 17 and does everything his father does."

I agreed and I started visiting the community every month and learned a lot about Islam but at that time something happened and changed my way of thinking. One Sunday, I went swimming with the Muslim community and fractured my back at two places after jumping in the pool and hitting the ground with my head. My father brought me to the hospital and the doctor told me:

"You have fractured your back quite bad and if you did one wrong movement you'll become handicapped". This didn't help me much, but then just a few moments before they brought me to the operation room, one of my friends of the Muslims community told me something. "Yahya, you are now in the hands of Allah (God), it's like a roller coaster. Now you are on the top. Enjoy the ride and just trust in God." This really helped me.

The operation took five hours and I woke up after 3 days. I couldn't move my right arm but I was feeling like the happiest person on earth. I told the doctor that I don't care about my right arm; I'm so happy that God has let me survive. The doctors had told me that I have to stay in the hospital for a few months. I stayed for only two weeks there, because I was training very hard.

One day a doctor came and said: "Today we will try to take one step on the staircase" - the exercise that I did on my own two days before. Now, I can move my right arm again and I was just two weeks there Al-hamdu lillah (thanks God). This accident changed a lot in my personality.

I noticed when God wants something; the individual's life can be turned over in one second. So, I took life more seriously and started thinking more about my life and Islam, but I was still living in this little village.

My wish to become Muslim became so strong that I had to leave my family. I left my stepfather, my mother and the nice luxury lifestyle to go to Potsdam.

I moved to my father's apartment which is rather small and I had to stay in the kitchen but it was okay because I had nothing; just a very few clothes, school books, and some CDs. It must sound to you like I lost everything, but I am very happy. I'm as happy as when I woke up in the hospital after the dreadful accident.

The next day was the first day of Ramadan. The day after this was my first school day in my new school. The day after my first day of school, I said the Shahadah (testimony of becoming a Muslim), praise be to God. So, everything was new for me; new apartment, new school, and the first time without my family.

In my school when they first noticed that I am a Muslim, they started to make jokes at me. I think this is usual because of what they learned from the media. "A terrorist", "Osama bin Laden is coming", "Muslims are dirty". Some people thought I am just a crazy guy. And they didn't even believe that I was German.

But after 10 months, the situation changed. I made a lot of dawah (inviting to Islam) to my classmates, and now, I even have a praying room, although I'm the only Muslim in my school. My classmates changed from making jokes to asking serious questions about Islam, and they noticed that Islam is not a religion like the other religions.

They noticed Islam is cool! They see that we Muslims have Adaab (good manners) in dealing with each other. They noticed that we are independent from all this peer pressure; we just keep it real; we don't need to be in a special group like in my school. At my school, there are three main groups: the hip hop guys; the punks; and the party people.

Everybody tries to be a member of one group, so as to be accepted by others, except me! I can be friends with everybody. I don't have to wear special clothes to be "cool." So what happened is that they are always inviting me and my Muslim friends to their bar-b-que parties.

The special thing on this is that they respect me as a Muslim and even more, they get Halal (allowed) food especially for me and they have organized two bar-b-que grills; one for themselves and one for us Muslims! The people here are very open to Islam.

Michael David Shapiro - From Judaism to Islam

2013-05-12T09:22:00.004-07:00

I am ethnically a Russian Jew. My quest began when I was 19 years old. I was recovering from my stint with Scientology (yes I was brainwashed into it).

My belief in God was uncertain. My goals in life were to be a rock star. I was living in my Pasadena apartment and working as a secretary. Funny, I know.

One night I was walking to the kitchen, and encountered a dark fellow. I remembered asking him: “Can I keep this vodka in the fridge tonight?” We shook hands and went to sleep. After that point, my life changed drastically…

This dark fellow, a Muslim, was the first Muslim I had ever met. Extremely curious, I conversed with him about his faith. What’s this stuff I hear about praying 5 times a day? And about Holy War? Who is this Mohammed guy?

Our talks were accompanied by our Christian roommate, Wade. Together, we created “The Jewish, Christian, and Muslim dialogue sessions”. In it, we discovered many differences, and many commonalities.

My interest had then shifted from sex, drugs, and parties, to a massive search for the truth. A search that I had to complete. A search for God. And a search for how to follow him.

In my quest for the truth, I asked myself: “Ok let’s start simple, how many God’s do I think are out there?” I figured only one; knowing that a divided God is weaker than One God; figuring that if one God didn’t agree with the other, there might be arguments and feuds. One God was my choice.

Once I opened up my mind to the possibility of the existence of God, I analyzed both atheist and theist beliefs. The thing that directed me to the latter was the quote “Every design has a designer”. With that in mind, eventually I woke up with certainty that God exists. I can’t explain why, I just felt it somehow.

This newfound excitement was accompanied by a sense of responsibility to follow the Creator. The world of religion was my next frontier.

Then I asked myself, “Where do I start?” There are literally thousands of them. I need a way to narrow them down to a just a few. How do I accomplish such a task? “Find the ones that are monotheistic” entered my mind. “Hey that makes sense, since I believe in only One God.”

Ok, then. This ruled out Buddhism and Hinduism, both being polytheistic faiths. The major religions I encountered that fell under the title of Monotheistic, where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Well since I’m a Jew, I started with Judaism. One God, some prophets, 10 commandments, Torah, Jewish souls…uh, what: “Jewish souls?”

While doing research this idea was brought to my attention. The story goes, “if a person is born Jewish, then they have a Jewish soul, and they must follow Judaism.” Hold on a sec…that’s discrimination, isn’t it? That’s not universal.

So God makes Jewish souls, and Christian souls, and Muslim souls, and Hindu souls? I thought all men are created equal? So, because one is born into a religion that means by the decree of God he must remain in it… even if the person believes it to be false? Hmm…I don’t agree with that.

Another thing really bothered me…there is no strict concept of hell in Judaism…then why be good? Why not sin? If I don’t have fear of strict punishment, then why should I be moral?

Moving on, I discovered Christianity. Ok, one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost…one more time: one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost. Uhhh, please explain. How can all those things be one God? 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 right? So how can you say you believe in only one God?

Explanation after explanation, equation after equation, comparison after comparison, analogy after analogy, I couldn’t grasp this concept. Ok let’s keep looking here.

Ok, next major doctrine: Jesus died for our sins and he did this because we all are polluted with “Original Sin”. So, Jesus Christ, the “son of God”, had to be murdered to save everyone from Hell and cure us of our sin “given” to us by Adam.

Ok then, so are you saying that we are all born as sinners? And to sin is to do something wrong right? Then you’re telling me that a one-year old baby is guilty of sin or doing something wrong? Ok that’s strange, so based on the actions of one man, all of mankind must suffer? What’s the moral of that story? Punish the whole group if one deviates? Why would God create such a rule? That’s just not in agreement with my logic.

So Jesus died because he “loves mankind”. Hold on, it says in the Bible that Jesus said “father, why have you forsaken me?” So, apparently, Jesus didn’t understand why he was being brutally murdered. But you just said he “volunteered” to be sacrificed. Anyway, I couldn’t accept this belief. Ok, what’s the next religion?

Islam. Islam means submission. The main beliefs are as follows: One God, worship God five times a day, give 2.5% annual charity, fast during Ramadan (to be closer to God and appreciate life…among other reasons) and finally journey to Mecca for Hajj if you are able financially. Ok, nothing hard to understand so far.

There’s nothing that conflicts with my logic here. The Quran is a book with all of these interesting miracles and timeless wisdom. Many scientific facts only discovered recently where proclaimed 1400 years ago in this book.

Ok, Islam had passed my initial religious prerequisites. But I wanted to ask some deep questions about it. Is this religion universal? Yes, anyone can understand these basic beliefs…no analogy or equation are needed. Does it agree with science? Yes, dozens of verses in the Quran agree with modern science and technology.

As I sifted through the countless logical facts that I read through and researched, one thing took my attention the most. “Islam”. The name of this religion. I noticed it is written many times in this Quran.

However, recalling my prior studies, I didn’t remember once seeing the word “Judaism” in the Old Testament or “Christianity” in the New Testament. This was BIG. Why couldn’t I find the very name of the religions in those two books? Because, there is no name in these books! Thinking…I noticed that “Judaism” could be broken down to “Juda- ism” and “Christianity” could be respectively “Christ-ianity”.

So who is Juda? Or Judah, rather. He was the tribe leader of the Hebrews when God revealed his message to mankind. So this religion was named after…a person. Ok let’s look at who Christ is. He was the person who delivered the message of God to the Jews. So this religion was named after…a person.

So in recollection, we can deduct that the names of these religions are people’s proper names attached to “ism” and “ianity”. Regardless of that fact, the very names of those religions are not mentioned in their scriptures. I thought that was very odd.

If I went door to door selling a product, and I said “Would you like to buy this _______”? Wouldn’t the logical question be: “What is this _____ called?” I would make no money off of a product without a name.

Naming is the very basis which humans identify with objects, both physical and non-physical. If religion is supposed to be practiced and spread to every person on earth, shouldn’t there be a NAME for it?

Moreover, shouldn’t the name be given to us from God Almighty? YES, my point exactly. The names “Christianity” and “Judaism” were not written in the Holy Scriptures. Humans named them, not God. The notion that God would ordain a religion for mankind to follow without a name is impossible for my mind to accept.

At that point, both Christianity and Judaism lost their credibility as pure, logical, and complete religions, at least from my perspective.

Islam is the ONLY of these religions to include the NAME of the religion in its scriptures. This is so huge for me.

I realized I would follow Islam at that point. I then became a Muslim. I knew the truth. I was out of the darkness. I came into the light…

The Heart Sees What The Eyes Can't - How an Ex Christian blind brother from Canada, Malik Mohammed Hassan, accepted Islam

2013-05-12T09:17:00.002-07:00

October 23rd, 1996. Assalamalaikum brothers and sisters and non-Muslims. First off all, I would like to start by saying that this true story is not for my own fame or admiration but for the sake of my Lord and your Lord Allah.

All praises due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful Owner of the day of judgement. I would like to repeat to you something I heard: the journey of a thousand miles has to start with the first step and this is the first part of my journey.

My name is Malik Mohammed Hassan and I have recently converted to Islam. When I was in junior high school I was first introduced to Islam by reading the book Roots by Alex Haley. It taught me a little bit about the strong will that most Muslims possess, myself included. It also introduced me to Allah.

I had never heard of Allah in his real form until I read that book and I was very curious. I then started reading about The Nation Of Islam (specifically Malcolm X) and it fascinated me how devoted he was to Allah, especially after he left the self serving Nation Of Islam.

Reading about Malcolm made me think about a God who (for a change) did not have any physical form or limitations and, being a totally blind person, it made me relate to these people: the people who Malcolm and Haley referred to as Muslims.

I continued reading what I could about Islam which wasn't as much as it should have been. My reading material was very limited because like I said above:

I am a totally blind person and the material available about Islam in Braille or on tape was not only very little, but also very general. I believe the reason was that the material that I had access to wasn't written by Muslims and it kind of painted a dark picture of Islam.

I think most of the literature written by Christians or non-Muslims about Islam tends to do that most of the time. And I didn't know that their were even Muslims in Halifax so I obviously didn't know any. I didn't even know about the local Islamic association until I was already a Muslim.

So, I read what I could until my first year out of high school around the month of May, 1996, when I received a phone call asking me if I wanted to participate in a camp for blind and visually impaired people known throughout Canada as Score.

I agreed and sent them a resume and praise be to Allah I was excepted for work. At first I really didn't want to go but something kept telling me it would be a good idea if I went. So, on June 30th 1996 I boarded a plane from Nova Scotia to Toronto and took my last trip as a non-Muslim; I just didn't know it yet.

I got to Toronto and everything at first was pretty normal... It was on the second day that I was there when the journey of a thousand miles first started. I arrived on a Sunday and on the next day I met the person who Allah would use with His divine power to help guide me to the beautiful Religion of Islam.

I met a sister named Rizvana and if she reads this I hope she doesn't get mad at me for using her name. When I met her, I immediately wanted to talk to her because I liked her name.

I asked her of what origin her name was and she told me that it was Arabic; so I asked her if she was Muslim and she replied with the answer of yes. I immediately started telling her what I already knew about Islam which lasted about ten seconds. I started asking her questions and also asking her to talk to me about Islam.

One particular incident that comes to my mind is when all of the workers at the camp went to a baseball game and the sister and I started talking about Islam and missed pretty much the whole game. Well, anyway, we talked for about three, maybe four days on and off about Islam and on July the fifth if my memory doesn't fail me I became a Muslim.

My life has been totally different ever since. I look at things very differently than I used to and I finally feel like I belong to a family. All Muslims are brothers and sisters in Islam so I could say that I have approximately 1.2 billion brothers and sisters all of whom I'm proud to be related to. I finally know what it feels like to be humble and to worship a God that I don't have to see.

For any non-Muslim reading this just look at it this way. It's good to learn, but you never know when you will be tested and if you're not in the class at the time of the final exam no matter how much you know you'll never get any credit.

So like I said it's good to learn but if you want to get credit sign up for the class. In other words, declare Shehada (testimony to faith) and let Allah teach you everything you need to know. Believe me the reward is worth it. You could say the reward is literally heaven.

If any good comes out of this story all the credit is due to Allah; only the mistakes are my own. I would like to mention a part of a speech by Prophet Muhammad that has had a great effect on me and that is: "Worship Allah as if you see Him and if you don't see Him, know that He sees you."

The Party Girl who has Embraced a New Life as a Muslim Convert

2013-05-12T09:15:00.001-07:00

Her conversion from Ibiza party girl to hijab-wearing Muslim in barely three months may well raise a few eyebrows. But trainee teacher Heather Matthews, 27, says Islam has brought her ‘love and happiness’ that she never found in her old ‘shallow’ lifestyle.

Mrs Matthews, a mother of two, converted to the faith in September 2012 – two months after returning from a holiday in Ibiza. And she says that the photographs of the ‘old her’ taken on that trip show all that is wrong with Western images of beauty.

She said: ‘I thought I needed to act and dress in a certain way to feel good about myself. I see girls now and think about what image they are portraying to other people, especially men.

‘It is about self-respect. If you dress and act in a certain way, rightly or wrongly, you’ll be treated in a certain way.

‘Islam has taught me about real love, not false passion and lust. I can even see the logic in arranged marriage.’

A study by multi-faith group Faith Matters found the number of Muslim converts in Britain has now passed 100,000, doubling in ten years.

The report estimated nearly two-thirds of the new converts were women, with an average age of 27 – like Mrs Matthews.

Her path to conversion began when she tried to convince her ex-husband Jerrome, himself a Muslim convert, that the religion was wrong. She was ‘very suspicious’ of the faith, and began reading up on it to support her arguments.

Although they separated last year, she continued to learn about Islam – and identified with it more and more. Then, in late September, she completed the ‘revert’ process. She said: ‘I underwent the ‘Shahadah’ ceremony of conversion to Islam by repeating a declaration of faith in front of the Imam at my local multi-faith centre.

‘I had several Muslim sisters with me and they bought me a hijab and Islamic books to celebrate. It was wonderful.’

But she admits that her friends have been shocked at her conversion to a religion which is often seen as being oppressive towards women.

‘People are probably thinking “Oh, it is just another one of Heather’s fads”. It isn’t. It is what I’ve been searching for during the times I’ve been filling my life with instant gratification,’ she said.

Mrs Matthews, from Preston, has also had a cautious reaction from her family. But it is the response from passers-by that surprised her the most – especially the effect of her headscarf.

‘No men try to chat me up. It is an idiot repellent. When I’m wearing the headscarf I can smile at people without them thinking it is a sexual advance,’ she said.

‘I definitely agree with Islam’s principles of not having sex with someone you’re not married to and to save your beauty for your husband. So I think my next partner would need to be a practicing Muslim to understand.

‘It is easy for me to say this now, with hindsight, having made the mistakes, but I think I would have been better off with partners who my parents thought were suitable, learning to love them through friendship first.’ Mrs Matthews has given up alcohol, sticks to a halal diet and plans to fast during Ramadan. She has an English-language Quran which she reads daily, and wants to learn Arabic so that she can recite prayers five times a day.

‘People think I must be oppressed but I’m a strong, confident and free woman,’ she said. ‘I know I’m one of the most unlikely people to revert to Islam.

‘It astounds me. But I’ve done it for love and happiness and it has completely changed my life.’

British Musician's Journey towards the Light of Islam

2013-05-12T09:11:00.002-07:00

Abdullah Rolle was born in the UK and embraced Islam about nine years ago. Since an early age he has been involved in music production, musical instruments and singing. He launched his first Nasheed CD, ‘Peace’ at the Global Peace and Unity Conference held in London, in 2008.

His journey to Islam is closely linked with the development of his career as a nasheed artist. One day he was walking in a market and a Muslim came up to him and asked if he could speak to him for a minute. This man asked Rolle if he knew anything about Islam and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rolle admits that he always knew God is the creator of everything but noted that he had been taught about Jesus, not Muhammad. Rolle tried to get out of the discussion. “I wasn’t into religion in any way at that time A few years later I got into a conversation with a Muslim about Almighty Allah, but I still wasn’t ready to consider anything about Islam or become a Muslim. I wasn’t around anyone like that. The people I was associating with were in the music business and they have their own type of lifestyle. So at that time there was no chance of me being drawn toward Islam.” The right time had not yet come.

A Bookshop Changes His Life

Rolle moved to East London and used to go to a book shop called Dar Assalam in the West End. He recalls, “I‘ve always liked reading about world affairs and conspiracies and what’s going on. Some things I read about were true and some weren’t but it didn’t bring me any closer to the Creator. My soul was always searching even though I wasn’t one hundred percent aware of that. The brothers at the shop used to give me booklets and I’d take them home and put them in the cupboard. Shortly after Iraq was invaded, and after reading up about it all, I felt sympathy for the Muslims. I used to ask myself why the world was always attacking Islam and Muslims.” Rolle noticed that the media was portraying Muslims as terrorists, and he just knew that could not be right because he was aware that the media does not always tell the truth. He wanted to know why they were attacking the Muslims. In response to his confusion, he went into his bedroom, put his head down on the floor, prostrated and prayed.

Later, outside the bookshop he said to his son, “I need something to feed my soul. These other books aren’t doing anything for me.” His son pointed out a DVD called What Is The Purpose of Life? by Khaled Yaseen. He took part one home and played it and watched it and felt greatly inspired. “Everything that was being said on the DVD I felt I already knew. I knew it was the truth,” recalls Rolle. He learned that Muslims pray five times a day but because he was still into mainstream music at that time, he thought he would not be able to make time to pray like that. However, his soul was telling him that it was right. The bookshop gave him some books but they could not get him past this point of praying five times a day.

Being Nurtured by Muslims

Rolle remembers that the Muslim community nurtured him and he found himself surrounded by brothers who really showed that they care. He says, “I spent a lot of time with them for about two years. They taught me, corrected me, and reminded me. These were mainly brothers in the bookshop. I have been with them ever since.”

He adds, “I have always found that most Muslims are polite, generous and kind-hearted. Even though there are problems in the Ummah worldwide, the individual Muslims have always been kind to me. I wanted to try to become pious and I keep trying. I want to be like them.”

By this time, Rolle believed in Islam and had acquired fundamental knowledge of the religion and was on the way to learn more and more. At that time, the brothers were telling him that he should declare the two testimonies of faith and they reminded him that death is always near. However, he still felt he was not quite ready.

Another DVD

He told his wife about the DVD he had seen and explained how it really moved him. Then he saw a DVD by Sheikh Fiez in Australia called One Islam. When he watched that and learned about the last days and the Day of Judgment he felt he was being reborn. The fear of Almighty Allah had entered his heart. If he could have made the two testimonies of faith at that moment he would have. The following day he told the brothers that he was ready to officially become a Muslim. The brothers told him they would arrange things for him at the weekend which was a day or two later. He says that he has not looked back since that day.

Sometimes, he observes, he is a bit envious of the scholars. He wishes he could have come to know Islam when he was much younger. But Allah knows best.

Rolle observes, “The brothers used their common sense with me. So they worked slowly with me step by step. They didn’t tell me music is haram in the beginning. If they had I probably wouldn’t have become a Muslim because I was involved in a number of projects. They assured me that it is ok to still be in it as long as my intention is to come out of it.”

Challenges

Rolle recalls that the greatest challenge after accepting Islam was learning Arabic and learning the prayer in Arabic. “I felt like I was going back to school. I was lucky because I managed to memorize some Qu’ran and I could read it, so I was able to Pray and I wanted to do that more than anything else.” There is a CD entitled Pray as You Have Seen Me Pray and Rolle says that this is an excellent CD that helped him a lot. One of the brothers would take him to the mosque but he admits that he also had to spend time learning himself. He watched the CD many times until he knew it by heart. He also focused on memorizing invocations and wanted to fill himself up with as much Islam as he could. He learned to put aside any distractions and put his head in the Qur’an, books and DVDs and start learning.

Music or no Music?

In the beginning of his Islam Rolle was working in schools teaching music to children and composing songs in city learning centers. He worked with children who had left home. He came to know many sad stories from young people and he wanted to help them. He was also working in community centers and had his own business teaching music to young people.

Slowly it dawned on him that perhaps there is no blessing in what he was doing. He thought, “If I have to stand in front of Allah what will I say about me and teaching mainstream music? So I just gave it all up; the schools, the community centers and so on. Some people respected what I did and others thought I was wrong. I had no intention of doing nasheeds after that but I had a recording studio. I spoke to a brother whose father was a scholar in Saudi and he had Tawhid mosque in London. He had been doing lectures there for 15 or 20 years. I sought his advice.” Rolle took many of the lectures this scholar had delivered and revamped them and prepared them for CDs to be sold in shops. He did this for Al Qu`ran society. He had some of the lectures published including Surat Ta Ha and Surat Yaseen.

Then the same Al Qu’ran society asked him if he would like to work for the Islamic Shari`ah Council. He agreed and started working with fatwa as well as with divorces. His job was to keep all the clients updated about their cases. He found that the sisters wanted to know about their cases and he had been told he should be hard, and not get involved. He recalls, “The problem was that the sisters would speak to me because I could speak English, and the other brothers were from Pakistan. When I heard about how disturbing their marriages are I found it impossible to be hard.”

Rolle is now focusing on developing his career as an international nasheed artist.

The Oldest Muslim Revert in the World!

2013-05-12T09:08:00.001-07:00

The 92-year-old Georgette Lepaulle from Berchem (Belgium) is the oldest Muslim convert in the world. She became Muslim last year. "The friendliness of the people especially attracted me; and Allah answered my prayers."

During the introduction, Georgette held her hands deep in the sleeves of her djellaba. She refused to outstretch them. "You should not take this personally, but since I am Muslim, I get no strangers anymore. I will only touch my husband. Not that I have wedding plans. What, should a widow of 92 still act a virgin?" she began laughing loudly. The huge laughter of Muhammad Maddah (Georgette's Neighbor standing next to her) followed.

Georgette and Maddah had remained neighbors for more than 40 years. She lived alone in the Antwerp region. Two years ago, her family decided to put her in a nursing home. Maddah suggested he be allowed to host her under his roof, so Georgette came to live with him and his family. It was not a problem because Maddah’s wife, son and two daughters had known Georgette all throughout their lives. Maddah had actually just lost his own mother. Georgette would fill her space.

"By coming to live here, I was pulled towards Islam", says Georgette. "I saw these people pray together. I saw how caring they interacted. How they talked to each other. How important family was to them. Totally different from my cold family. Since my conversion, I have not heard from my 72 year old daughter."

Last summer, Georgette accompanied Maddah for a family visit to Morocco. It was in Ramadan, the fasting month for the Muslims. "I knew what fasting is, because I’m Catholic. I was baptized, went to nun school, was twice married in church and gave my two husbands an ecclesiastical burial. During my work years, I worked as a maid in a Jewish family. But religion had never touched me. On the contrary, I lived quite apart from God. On my fifth, I smoked my first cigarette and my last on my 78th. On my seventh, drank my first glass of alcohol and before my conversion, I drank half a bottle of wine every day. That was a habit from my first marriage with an Italian fighter pilot who was killed in the war."

During Georgette's participation in Ramadan last year, a deep religious feeling awakened. It was shocking for her. She had never imagined experiencing such a completely new feeling so late in her life. For the first time, she had contact with something higher. With Allah. She felt His presence. His love. She asked Him for the healing of a friend and the rescue of a little boy who was on the wrong track. Her two supplications were answered. That was the sign for Georgette to convert to Islam.

Georgette talks of her experience after the ingress ritual. "They continued to kiss me. So glad they were because I was a sister of them. I’ve never been kissed so much – you know by women – as since entering Islam. I had to give up many things. Alcohol, tobacco, pork and – it is not easy for a woman – even makeup. Previously, I always put thick layers of makeup."

Back in Belgium, they went to the main masjid in Brussels for a certificate for Noor Islam – Georgette's new name. The masjid in Brussels reported the conversion of the then 91-year-old Belgian woman immediately to the masjid in Makkah, wherein they plunged into the archives but found no older converts. Immediately, the king of Saudi Arabia contacted them through an envoy to Berchem; sent with a gold watch for Georgette. She was invited to visit Makkah the following year at his expense. The Saudi television followed her. Every famous network turned in a report on her.

It’s a dirty question, but it must be asked: Had Georgette been paid something to convert to Islam? She looked very serious and yet again answered laughing loudly: "Money has nothing to do with it. I took this decision entirely voluntarily. Everyone is free to do so."

The Trinity led me to Islam

2013-05-08T13:26:00.001-07:00

My name is Roger Hadden, and I am originally from Dungannon in Northern Ireland. I am a dentist currently working in England. I have lived in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and I am now based in England. I was raised as a Christian, and my parents are born-again Christians.

Although I was raised with the teachings of the Bible, I did not particularly adhere to its principles. I suppose I was like most British youth, in that I liked to have fun but maybe didn't know where the limits were set. While I did not practice any religion, I always believed that there was a God.

I was scientific minded, but realized that acknowledging there was a Big Bang did not necessarily rule out the possibility of there being a God who controlled and planned this event. We could not have come out of nothing, and we did not create ourselves, so we must have been created. I thought about God from time to time, but it never had a real impact on my heart. My first encounter with Islam I suppose was the media, but I tend not to judge people or things until I see or find out about them myself and hear both sides of the story.

When I went to university I met many Muslims. At that time we discussed religion a little, but I was not seriously thinking about becoming religious. My desires were too strong, so I just wanted to enjoy myself. At that time, I knew that at some stage I would want to change my ways and become a Christian. I then would also want to find out about other religions and understand what makes people believe in them.

When I was in final year at university, I made plans to reform myself and become as my parents, a "born-again Christian". So I started my research with reading the Bible.

The concept of the Trinity always bothered me, and it was my main aim to understand it. I remember as a child wanting to ask God for something. I was not sure whether to pray to God or to pray to Jesus. I decided to pray to God as I knew if He created everything, then He will hear me and help me.

I spoke to some ministers, and several attempts were made to explain the Trinity. None of them convinced me. I continued to read the Bible, searching for the truth. Obviously I am not a scholar in the Christian religion but the Trinity issue bugged me. Why did the Old Testament prophets all pray to God and do righteous acts hoping for God's forgiveness? Who did Jesus pray to?

There was no mention of the Trinity in the Old Testament, and many argue none in the New Testament. I knew God did not change, so there was a problem somewhere. I spoke to my friends at University. Some were Sikhs, Catholics, atheists, and some were Muslims.

When I found out that Islam commands the worship of One God, and not to make any partners with Him, I was very interested. I continued reading the Bible and Christian sources but also started reading some Islamic books.

I read that Muslims believe that God sent his message to mankind through different prophets since Adam (peace be upon him) the first man. All the prophets believed in only One God and they also believed that there was going to be a day of reckoning when everyone will be raised and judged.

I realized that this is what I believe, and what I thought the Bible was saying to me. I discussed things with my parents, and they were not too impressed. Within a couple of months by the grace of God I became a Muslim.

My conversion changed my life completely, and looking back, I know I made the correct decision, thank God. Instead of living my life in a selfish way pleasing my desires, I try now to help others and please my Lord. I have now been a Muslim for more than five years and I am still learning new and amazing things about the religion.

Every time I hear something "negative" about the religion, I get the issue explained to me and it turns out to be a very positive and beautiful thing. I am continuing to learn Arabic and the Quran. In my career it has made me much more focused, and I now desire to do everything to my best ability. My friends at university are often surprised with regards to my change, especially relating to dentistry.

My parents believed I was brainwashed, and many of my friends thought, and still think, it is just a phase. As it has been over five years now, my parents know it is not just a phase.

I first told my parents that I was thinking of becoming a Muslim, and they told me that it was a "hate religion" and that I should not do it. We talked about it for a while, and as I was convinced, I was sure I had to do it. I did not want to be punished in the next life.

A few months later I took the best step and embraced Islam. The same day my Dad bought me a car, not as a conversion gift, rather, it was his kindness and it just happened to be on the same day.

Since university, I have always lived away from my parents but I try to visit them a couple of times a year. Overall though, I feel my relationship with my parents has improved, as I try to be good to them as God commands in the Quran.

I have moved on from university and lost contact with many of my friends, some I speak to now and again, but as with life, we keep moving on and old friends we see less of and new friends are made.

I am currently working as a dentist in the UK. I am working and doing a part time masters program. I am learning Arabic, and I regularly attend Islamic talks and seminars in order to increase my knowledge.

I am married to a very special lady and we have, by the grace of God a beautiful boy named Ismael (Ishmael from the Bible). We are trying to improve as Muslims, and we would like to travel abroad to a Muslim country. Ideally we would both love to study Islam to a higher level, so we are looking for opportunities to fulfill this dream.

Alma And Levi - The Two French Sisters' Story of Transformation

2013-04-07T03:36:00.002-07:00

Laurent Levy, an Atheist Jew, noticed dramatic changes in his two daughters - Alma and Lila Lévy-Omari, but he did not attribute much importance to them. One day, the two girls stopped eating pork. A while later, they informed him that they intended to fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. then the sisters informed him of their intention to pray five times a day, as commanded by the Qur'an. There is no reason why they shouldn't do this, thought the father. Then they stopped going to the beach and wearing bathing suits. At night the two sat and learned chapters of the Qur'an by heart. Friends in the neighborhood and at school were amazed by the change in the two cheerful young women. Gradually they began to wrap themselves in long clothing, even in the summer, and covered their legs with thick stockings.

A little while later, the transformation was completed. Lila and Alma donned scarves and covered their heads. At school they stopped talking to boys. They did not take part in physical education classes, as they were required to wear gym clothes that they felt revealed too much of their bodies.

According to the father, his daughters were captivated by the Muslim religion and he found himself helpless in the face of their accelerated transformation. All his life he had loathed religious beliefs of any sort and blamed them for ignorance and various kinds of distress. He preached secularism and joined the movements of the extreme left, because he only felt at home there.

The two sisters were called into the office of the principal of the Henri Wallon High School, where they studied. Their external appearance, they were informed, was causing ferment among the students, and therefore they must dress like the others; if not, they would be expelled. The girls refused. The school sent a letter to their parents and warned of the steps it was about to take. The parents, who are divorced, defended their daughters, each in his or her own way: The mother, a non-practicing Muslim, tried to moderate her daughters' stubbornness, the father supported their struggle.

The two sisters were suspended from school until the convening of a disciplinary committee that was supposed to decide their fate. The media depicted the affair as a test of the state's secularism, and the story quickly hit the headlines. The intellectual community was in an uproar, as were local political institutions; both intellectuals and politicians openly applied pressure on the school's disciplinary committee members to reach a decision that reflected their point of view.

Before the girls were suspended from school, they were asked to remove their head coverings because of their religious significance. The school authorities relied on a law concerning the separation of church and state, and argued that the head coverings violated the spirit of the law.

The disciplinary committee met at the school. Dozens of journalists crowded into the entrance to the school, and television cameras broadcast live the arrival of the girls and their father. The deliberations began at 6 P.M. and went on until after midnight. The French waited for the committee's ruling as if the future of the French Republic depended on the decision of a few members of the school board of an obscure suburb of Paris.

At the end of the discussion, the members of the Levy family left the hall. The expressions on their faces testified to what had happened inside. "This was not a pedagogical discussion," one of the teachers told the journalists. "It was like a court martial." Another teacher, with a broad smile on his face, related that the correct and inevitable decision had been taken. "We decided to expel them from the school," he said, "because the internal `balance' in France makes it essential that a head covering not cover the hair, the ears or the base of the neck. It turns out that Muslim young women do not want to expose these parts.'

"This shows how low France has sunk." Levy told Haaretz two days later. He couldn't fall asleep that night, nor could his daughters. They read verses of the Qur'an. "I was proud of them," he added. "I educated my children to be rebellious and I am proud that they have followed in my footsteps."

"Let there be no doubt," added Levy, "I know that the disciplinary committee's decision was taken at the highest levels of the country's government. Only someone who isn't French is unable to understand this country's insanity when it comes to the veil. Say `head covering' to a French person and they're ready to embark on a civil war. I'm a leftist and definitely a secular person, but as I see it, secularism is the freedom to act on your religious beliefs without the government interfering."

"Members of the disciplinary committee demanded that the girls expose parts of their bodies... Since when, I asked them, can people be forced to expose their bodies? To my regret, this was an embarrassing spectacle. None of them listened to me because the outcome was predetermined."

Hundreds of girls like Lila and Alma Levy are forced to make a decision: to take off the scarf and continue their education or to insist on wearing it and face exclusion and even humiliation.

One of the reasons some politicians and scholars cite for supporting the ban of the head covering is that the scarf - in their view - is a universal symbol of women being oppressed by men.

Alma says: "In my point of view, if you want to defend an oppressed woman, then don't oppress another one."

Whats amazing in this story is the fact that the difference in religion never stood as an obstacle in front of love. The father is an Atheist from Jewish ancestry, but he supported his daughters until the end. All respects to Mr Laurent Levy. Also, the fact that the two sisters had a strong will and an iron personality is commendable. In spite of the hard situation, they decided to choose what's right and never give up. These girls serve as a shinning example and an inspiration to every Muslimah struggling in society for their right to follow their faith. May Allah bless them immensely.

The Story of an Ex Jewish (Yiddish) Muslimah

2013-04-07T03:32:00.004-07:00

"This is not true!! Liars!! How can you even SAY THAT?! You make my heart cry!"...That’s how I first interacted with Islam (before then I had spent a good month and a half looking into Islamic websites, feeling like a traitor as I marveled at the peaceful logic).

I read that Muslims think that Jews eat pork, and that they perform unmentionable abuse to baby boys as they circumcise them. Immediately, as a well-trained media controller from a renowned Jewish religious youth movement, I contacted the source of these “lies” I had read. Eloquently yet passionately, I refuted his claim and asked him for references to the immoral teachings he was spreading, adding what a “Chillul Hashem” (disgrace to God) he was to the Jewish People. Within days, I got a reply, as eloquent and well-mannered as the one I had sent out. It clearly stated where in the Talmud (Rabbinical commentary) and Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law, lit. “Set Table”) I could find the sources for his “accusations”, and a polite invitation to confirm it with my local Rav (Rabbi).

I did. And as I had proudly marched to his office, thinking he would tell me that the accusations were just that, instead, he simply confirmed the horrible facts I had read online, leaving me wandering out of there in a state of disillusion. What had I believed in?

“Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem is everywhere”…except in the bathroom, which is why you as a religious person find yourself reading classic, contemporary literature in there, in an attempt to save the rest of the house from the “tumah” (impurity) of these books. Or having a secret milk chocolate bar after eating meat…

I started looking for God. I knew where He wasn't. I went into a website presenting Islam’s interpretation of God. In Islam, God is above the 7th heaven & with us in His knowledge, and always aware of everything that happens to everyone. Content, I agreed and thought that such is the case in Judaism as well, but just to make sure, since I wanted to battle it out in a good conversation with non-Jews, I tried finding a Jewish source that would confirm my beliefs. I could not find this anywhere.

I come from a very varied background; Jewish, Christian, Atheist, liberal, intellectual and empathic people line up in my family tree. When I was very young, I chose to bring forth my Jewish heritage. Since Jews only recognize you as being Jewish if your mother is Jewish, I had to convert. For me, this involved six years of intense studies, including everything from Torah and Halacha (Jewish Law) to Tzniyut (Jewish modesty laws) and Chassidut (mystical, sometimes heretical teachings). After countless begging and pleading, and even marrying a Jew according to civil law, I finally converted to Judaism some three years ago.

Converting was such a relief, but more than anything, my mind was weary and drained, having lived through all the pros and cons (ignoring the cons however) of Yiddishkeit (religious Judaism) for such a long time.

Throughout my Jewish life, when praying, I always had the feeling that mine was the role of a pupil being sent to the principal's office. I was begging Him to please listen, if just for a minute. Many times I would spend the whole day in prayer, begging for a way out of my situation and for Him to keep his people close to Him. Due to personal hardship, I underwent a series of negative experiences with the Jewish world, and although I do not hold them accountable for them, I nonetheless lost my faith in Judaism. This opened up a door to the outside world, which I had shut closed three years earlier. I started seeing that my perfect people were the source of other people’s misery.

It got to the point where I couldn't pray anymore, simply because I didn't think that the Jewish People were deserving of anyone asking God to keep them safe and "speedily uproot the wanton sinners". The more senior citizens I saw being denied to see their home in Palestine one last time before they die, the more traumatized children crying in the street I saw on TV, the more flyers I saw begging the public to donate medical equipment and clothes to the Palestinians...while hearing the Israeli politicians talking about striking back even harder at them...made it all start to feel a little too much for me to accept, let alone give my prayers to.

Feeling a little uneasy about my new-found soft attitude to the “Goyim” (the non-Jews) I figured I must have become a liberal Jew. So I became a supportive member of 'Peace Now', in an effort to identify with them. At some point, I felt that I was too liberal even for them :-)

At the same time, I ordered booklets on Islam, from Kuwait. When I received them, I was taken aside and questioned by my community. Was I dealing with terrorists? Was I a security threat? Did I become Muslim? And if so, can I kindly remove myself and my family away from the Jewish neighborhood?

The turning point was when I saw a video about the suffering in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I had seen things like this many times. Only this time, instead of the usual reaction I would have had a year ago - sighing and belittling Muslims - instead, I broke down and cried. For hours.

From then on, a remarkable change in my prayers started to happen: I remodeled them to suit my own needs. I cut out 'Am Yisrael' and replaced them with their Islamic counterparts. I started praying for the welfare of the Ummah. I started praying for the children and mothers in Palestine, not in Israel. I started directing my heart away from the Kotel Hama’aravi (the Western Wall). The Kotel became more…like the ruin it is. To quote a dear friend of mine: “The Third Temple IS rebuilt – it stands there NOW in front of their eyes, with a roof of gold.”

I went into an Islamic chat room to see if I would be kicked out when I’d say I was Jewish. At this point, the term “Jewish” served only to describe my creed. I had removed all the traces of Jewish religious life from my family and myself and replaced it with a big empty, anticipating hole.

As I announced my presence, I was greeted politely by a written choir of “asalam alaikum w/r w/b” to which I replied, clumsily, “hi”. Curious at the incoherence of basic Islamic greeting phrases, I was asked if I was Muslim. “Not yet” I replied, and felt life rushing inside me. “Where are you from?” was the natural follow-up. I folded and told everyone that I am Jewish. And that was OK. Nobody came to kick me out, or speak indecently with me. I was respected as I was, but the mere fact that I had said “not yet” prompted a few people to try talking to me. Most of the time, I would leave people feeling helpless since I would ask how I could be a Muslim if I don’t know the Quran very well, and Islamic Law, and commentary, and new books, and, and, and…everything I used to know in Judaism, only mirrored into Islam. Most people would tell me that they didn’t know what to say. Except one.

One night, a man and his wife from an Islamic country spent hours on end talking to me. Out of all the things we were discussing, one talk stuck to me:

“Let’s say you admire an author, he is your favorite one, but he’s only published one book so far. You've read it over and over and you love it. Then one day, the author announces that he is publishing two new books. Will you read them? Or will you say that only his first book is valid and any other works are not worthy of reading? Surely you would not.”

These words took me off guard. I remained silent for what seemed an eternity.

As the days went on, a small yet clear and strong feeling, a kind of gentle energy inside me, called out to say the words. I rehearsed them over and over. I even wrote them down on paper and carried with me wherever I went, just in case I would brave myself and go ahead.

A few weeks later, I decided that I could not wait any longer, and what was I waiting for anyway? Or who? I was waiting for myself. And when I realized this, things started making sense to me again.

So one evening, as I was about to go online again and talk about talking about Islam, instead, I poured up a hot bath, and pacing up and down the hallway and while the tub filled, all the doubts were racing in my mind: “What will my family say? The Jews will think I have gone mad! There’s no such thing as a Jewish Muslim!” In the midst of my own little inferno, I could hear my soul gently whispering: “Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem”. As if it was pushing me in the direction I wanted to go into but wouldn't dare to. Staring at the image in the mirror, I heard the logic in the talk I had been part of only nights before. Silently, I slipped into the armchair by the computer, and contacted the people who had been so patiently bearing with me as I was talking about talking about Islam. I was ready.

As I said the Shahada, I trembled, not out of fear but rather from love and the intensity of knowing that the truth lies in such a misunderstood religion. May Allah guide you to a life of peace and knowledge, and may He open your heart to the truth, justice and serenity of Islam.

Swiss politician Daniel Streich who rose to fame as a result of his opposition to masjids in his homeland embraces the very faith he reviled

2013-04-07T03:27:00.002-07:00

Daniel Streich Embracing Islam

Streich was an important member of Swiss People’s Party (SVP) in Switzerland. His importance could be estimated from his influence on party’s policy making, in which he always had a prominent role. His movement against minarets was aimed at gaining political attention and interest. He won the slot of military instructor in the Swiss Army due to his popularity.

Born in a Christian family, Streich had a comprehensive study of Islam merely to malign and confront, but Islamic teachings had a deep impact on him. Eventually he de-linked himself from political activities and he embraced Islam. Streich has termed the SVO activities against the Muslims as satanic.

He says that he used to read the Bible and often went to chapel, but now he recites the Holy Quran and offers his prayers five times a day. He further says that he cancelled his party membership and made public his conversion. Streich says that he has found the truth of life in Islam, which he could not find in Christianity.

With the party’s campaign to ban minarets leading to a referendum, Streich said the situation had become unbearable for him.

In the lead up to the ban Streich said “If the initiative passes, it will be an absolute deep blow for me. I would have to ask myself, why I applied myself professionally and politically for over 30 years for this political system. It is not worthy of Switzerland to force Muslims to practice their faith in back alleys.”

He has now focused his intentions on participating in the building of the new Conservative Democratic Party in the canton of Freiburg. Freich’s new movement is in contrast to his previous one and he aims to promote religious tolerance and peaceful cooperative living, in spite of the fact that ban on masjid minarets has gained a legal status.

He is vehemently opposed to the Minaret ban and is hoping to establish Switzerland’s fifth masjid and the most beautiful in Europe.

The most interesting thing in this regard is that at present there are four masjids in Switzerland and Streich wants to lay the foundation for the fifth one. He wishes to seek absolution of his sin of proliferating venom against Islam.

This is the greatest quality of Islam that it comes up with even greater vigour, when it is faced with confrontation.

The question of ban on minarets was put to voting in Switzerland, wherein the Swiss nationals gave the issue a legal status.

As per voting results 42.5 percent people voted in favour of the minarets and 57.5 percent supported the ban, while the Muslim population in Switzerland is only 6 percent. The most wondrous thing in this regard, therefore, is the support of 42.5 per cent of population for only six per cent Muslims.

Analysts claim that ban on minarets and Islamic rituals has attracted the people towards Islam.

On the other hand the Swiss military authorities have feared that Streich, who was once a military instructor, might reveal army secrets to the Muslims.

An SVP National Council member says that Streich as military instructor could be dangerous.

However, a spokesman of Swiss Army while rejecting this impression said that the performance of our military was more important than that who instructed it.

From within their own ranks, a man is now working for the promotion of Islam and its teachings. The law of a country can ban minarets but not minds and hearts.

National Geographic’s Hajj Introduces Sister Nura to Islam

2013-04-07T03:17:00.004-07:00

This is my reversion story, in-sha-Allah. My journey to Islam was really a life experience.

Ever since I was a little girl, I was fascinated with South Asian culture.

And as a teenage and as a result of a book report at high school, I became totally obsessed with Laurence of Arabia, and he had a strange fascination with Islam, so I did that.

And then before that my brother had an extensive collection of National Geographic issues that some friends of our parents had given us.

There was a correspondent by the name of Thomas Abercrombie who was actually a revert, and in the 1960s he covered the Hajj (Pilgrimage to Makkah) for National Geographic. And I remember reading the article in late 1980s and I was looking at the pictures of all of these people circling the Kaaba and I remember thinking to myself with great emotion how much I wanted to be there. I didn’t know what it was.

I didn’t know what they were doing. I didn’t understand anything about it. But something in my heart told me that this is where I wanted to be. This is a good place to be.

But I didn’t understand that a person could become Muslim. I didn’t understand that Thomas Abercrombie hadn’t always been Muslim. I was only 12 or 13 at the time. So I thought becoming Muslim was like becoming Hindu. You couldn’t do it. You had to be born Hindu and that was it. I also thought that women couldn’t go in Hajj. I thought it was only for men because the pictures Thomas Abercrombie submitted were of the men only because he was kind of recording his Hajj. I didn’t understand it was because of the segregation of the genders, and that there were a lot of women too.

Also, growing up I was always very artistically-minded. I was always drawing and writing and things like that. And I remember starting writing Arabic words. I didn’t know what I was writing. I would draw the Saudi flag and write the words on it. I didn’t know then I was writing things like bismillah (In the name of Allah) and the shahadah (Muslim declaration of faith).

Anyways, life went on. I finished high school. I got married, went to college, went to work. I forgot all about my obsession with South Asia and with the Middle East. I was living in Austin Texas, and at the University of Texas there were loads and loads of Pakistanis and Indians. I started making friends with these Indians and Pakistanis and I finally met my first real life Muslim. I had grown up in rural areas so there were not a lot of Muslims and Arabs out there.

In trying to learn more about Pakistan, because I knew nothing at all about Pakistan and Pakistani people, so I wanted to learn about the country. I always wanted to know where my friends come from. In doing so I started hearing more about Islam because Pakistan’s official name is “The Islamic Republic of Pakistan”.

Also at the same time I started to notice that there was a difference between my Hindu and Muslim friends and I had really to make that comparison because I also had friends that were Indians, either Hindu or Muslims, and I noticed there was a difference even if they were not really good practicing Muslims, you know like Jumuah (The congregational worship performed on Fridays in place of the Midday worship) and Eid Muslims, there was still something peaceful to them. There was something different that my Hindu friends didn’t seem to have. I’m not saying my Hindu friends were not happy or nice or anything else, but there was something different I was noticing. And so that also made me want to find out more about Islam. I wanted to find out what was different.

So in the course of a conversation with my friends, I discovered that one could actually become Muslim. I was like “Wow” I was shocked really because at the same time I had become so disheartened with Christianity. I was really feeling spiritually lost and I had started looking into other religions. I was no longer attending church.

I was married at the time to my now ex-husband. He was not religious. He just did it because everybody else did it, you know, his parents were Lutheran, his grandparents were Lutherans, so on and so forth. So he was a bit worried about me because surely I was acting strange but he loved me to pursue my search.

I tried Buddhism and Shinto-ism. I was completely confused by the concepts of all these gods and goddesses and spirits and all these other things. Also it’s totally not done in English at all. I know some people would say Islam is also done in Arabic. Well no, yes we have Duaa, prayers and we recite the Quran in Arabic, but you can get a lot of English and you can get a lot of your original language where it seemed like Buddhism is all done in a language that nobody speaks anymore.

Anyways, I knew Hinduism was out of the question because like I said you have to be born into Hinduism and also it always kind of seemed like some sort of spiritual journey type like the life of Beetles and Hippies, if you are not an Indian, I’m talking about white western people.

Anyways I was really starting to feel like that there was no religion out there for me. Nothing seemed to fit what I needed. Nothing seemed to be saying what I was feeling in my heart. I yearned for religious structure and clarity. Christianity had lost me once I started questioning the whole three into one teaching, the trinity.

Finally with Islam I had found a religion that is teaching God is one, has no sons, nor is He begotten. Then I went online and I started chatting with loads of Muslims, stopped socializing with my non-Muslim friends. I stopped eating and drinking things that were haram. I even started buying my meat at a Halal market.

But I still had not made the shahadah. So I was still not Muslim. I was starting to live like a Muslim but I wasn’t a Muslim yet, because I wanted to learn as much as I could about Islam. I wanted to be sure what I am getting myself into. And I’ve obsessive compulsive disorder that just came in very handy here. I would stay all night studying and I would ask my friends questions, and I would take notes on everything. I would sleep maybe three or four hours and then I would get back right in again. I surfed all the information that I could but I had still not taken that final step.

And then one day a friend said to me: “You know what is the difference between you and me?” I said “No” He responded “You haven’t said the shahadah yet. That’s it. It’s the only difference.”

And then at the same time, somebody also had given me a link to a lecture that Hamza Yusuf did about all the people walking around this world who were Muslim but didn’t know it yet. That made me really think about it. Then the final blow came when another friend asked me “What’s going to happen if you die before you say the shahadah? Stop delaying it. Say it already”.

So finally, on August 31st. 2002 in Austin Texas in an original Dawah conference I said the shahadah: La illaha illa Allah, Mohamed Rassul Allah (There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is His messenger.) And then I got divorced from my Christian husband who had made it very clear that he would never become Muslim. He wasn’t a very good Christian but you know I guess he felt that being Christian was better than being Muslim. And I decided to move to Chicago so that I could be around more Muslims. And the rest as they say is history.

I just want to add that Islam truly is the natural religion. And for those of us whom Allah guides to Islam we discover that it was with us in our fitrah (our nature) all along. I was a Muslim and I didn’t even know it and I tell you that the term “Revert” is much better than the term “Convert”. I prefer the term revert because when I became Muslim I was doing nothing more than reverting back to who I was, to what I was, as a 6-year-old girl. I had the same beliefs about God then as I do today. It was just the time in between 6 to 26 that everything had gotten messed up. Alhamdulellah, Allah gave me the chance to get it all straight and back out.

Heart of a Muslim ღ By Jumaana Salma Amatullah (Formerly D. Jacqueline Cosens)

2013-04-07T03:14:00.003-07:00

" Raised in Christianity, I never found satisfactory answers to many questions of the teachings. Always curious and filled with tremendous conviction, to find ‘Who’ my Creator was, and what my existence and purpose was on earth, I began seeking various doctrines and philosophies for decades.

Covering the assorted divisions in Christianity, and still unfulfilled, I progressed through many other beliefs until one day I just decided it was all myths. Having come to that deadening conclusion of atheism frightened me. It certainly made no sense when one looks at the reality of the universe around them. If there was no Creator, then there seemed no genuine purpose in living.

My children, writing, research, travel, and various studies filled my life until 1987. Suddenly everything seemed to change. My father, whom I was closest to died that year. I had never thought about losing him. It just never crossed my mind. I was unable to do anything to help him, as I watched him grow more ill with each passing day. When he was gone, I felt so incredibly alone.

The sadness was overwhelming, unlike any I had ever known. No one could feel it through me or for me. It was ‘my’ sadness. In desperation, I prayed through tears of sincerity for ‘my Creator’, whomever that might be, to guide me to the right path. My studies brought knowledge of Him in my mind, but my heart just could not find Him.

One morning I turned on the television, trying desperately to fill my mind with nothingness, and trying to distract myself from the constant nagging thoughts about religions and beliefs. On the screen, was Phil Donahue, a popular talk show host. He was interviewing a man who spoke about Islam. Next to him was the man’s wife who had converted to Islam. I was paying alot of attention to what the woman was saying, because I had known numerous women who converted to their husband’s religions.

She sat there, in a modest type of dress, and her head covered with a scarf. It was beautiful. She looked pure and happy, spoke intelligently and without the crazy antics, that usually emerged from most of the talk show circuit guests. It didn’t matter that you couldn’t see her shape or what her hair looked like. It was all in her eyes and in her voice. She was telling about her conversion to Islam. So much of what she talked about was exactly the way I had believed and how I had lived, in spite of all the craziness around me. They called themselves Muslims.

The only Muslims I had ever heard about as a child in America, were connected to a racist group, who was said to hate anyone with different color eyes and hair than they had. Islam was also part of the name for their organization, so this didn’t make a lot of sense at first. Assuming they were the same people, there must have been some radical change that occurred from when I was a youngster. I quickly became glued to the talk show and learned that the true Islamic Faith, which began in Arabia, did not have any kind of prejudices involved.

True Islam does not propagate any racism or hatred for anyone. The more I heard, the more I was interested. Having had one idea of what Islam was or wasn’t had come strictly from the media. I had assumed that if a group uses the name Islam in their title they were the same as all Muslims who practice the Islamic Faith. One should never assume anything, I learned that quite quickly. The more I listened, the more I learned.

Something was happening to me even then. Something or someone had drawn me to that talk show that particular day, as I generally was not a television watcher. My heart or my soul, something within me, was being drawn to listen, and it had actually been the visual of these two Muslims alone, that had made me sit up and take notice. I felt connected again and my attention was clearer than ever.

I think it is true that everything in life has a prescribed timing. That day, it became the time in my life, that I was to hear of this thing called Islam. I can’t remember much of what else was being said that day but there was a serious conviction growing deep within my soul. There was talk about the ‘Qur’an’, about staying modest in this perverted world, about husbands being faithful and loyal to their families, but none of it seemed to be the hype religions use to manipulate their practitioners.

It all made perfect sense. It seemed logical and dealt with reality. These Muslims worshipped the Creator alone and not a man...and I liked that. Here, in front of my eyes, seeping into my ears, were words that fit the way I thought, lived, and believed. But now, I did have a word that fit my beliefs. That word was ‘Islam’.

During that time, I was living in a little town in the deep South. There were no books on Islam at the library. When I asked, they told me they pre-read all their books and a committee approved which ones they would shelve. Having been born and raised in New York, I knew more than one way to get information others might consider ‘censored’, out in some hill-town. I was told there was one Muslim, a Math teacher at their little high school, living in the town and married to a Methodist woman. I called the Church, explained who I was trying to locate and they gave me the name of the family.

Although I am basically timid around those I do not know, I called and asked if he might know what translation of Qur’an was best and where I might acquire one. I was given a name, found a bookstore a hundred miles from where I was living, and ordered an English translation copy of the Qur’an. When I got my copy in the mail, I read it cover to cover in two days. It was poetry to me. It was in that moment, when I embraced Islam and was embraced by Islam.

I was like an addict. Never before was I so obsessed with anything in my life. I couldn’t get enough of it. I called the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, DC. assuming that the only real Muslims probably lived in Saudi Arabia, which goes to show once again that one should never assume anything! I was surprised and elated to find how many Muslim live in this world and the numerous countries they reside in.

Within a week my mailbox was filled with beautiful brochures containing precious information. I literally holed up in my home, not wanting to be disturbed from my newly found treasures. Everything, every word, every explanation, every answer I read suited me. I saw through the messages and words, the way I already believed all along. Having tried to fit into other’s people’s ideas of how I should live just never fit me.

Each time I tried to follow someone else's suggestions or advise, it was always a disastrous end. Now, finally, I had the answers. I had found my Creator’s wishes, commands, and the reason for living. It had been with me all along. Where I would go from that point, I was sure would be limitless…not accepted by others perhaps, but limitless for my own life and heart.

I believe Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta ‘ala) will forever more, direct my steps in whatever way He chooses. I thought back of how I prayed so hard and how the Creator had answered through a strange talk show, one that had lasted only an hour out of decades past in my life. Incredible and strange? Yes! At least, to me it seemed strange. Then I remembered an old saying that 'God works in mysterious (strange) ways' and I knew what that meant.

Eventually I did find a place for books, tapes and prayer rugs. I ordered everything I could. I received another copy of the Qur’an. Such beautiful words filled the thick, green and gold hardcover book, in Arabic with the English translation. I felt protected inside myself, knowing finally that all my differences and desire to find the answer for being on the earth, had finally come to fruition.

It was, is, and will always remain, to worship the Creator Allah, and to submit to His Will in everything. I began having the most wonderful dreams about other countries where I have never been, Muslims whom I have never known, and Masjids where I have never visited.

Growing up, I had always doubted my own beliefs, after years of being told what was right by others. These beautiful dreams were a verification for me, that Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta ‘ala) did guide me to Islam and that I am now exactly in the spiritual nature which I am supposed to be. Now, I wake each morning rested, peaceful, happy, and ready to be a Muslim.

Since those days nearly a decade ago, Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta ‘ala) has blessed me with a wonderful husband and an adopted son, changes in my life that I would have never expected or planned. But Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta ‘ala) knows best and for me, I will accept whatever He Wills. By remaining in submission to Him, I have discovered that my life has been in harmony, which certainly was not the case when I thought I was in control of it prior to becoming a Muslim.

My hope is Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta ‘ala) will continue to lead me to the correct ways, laws, and prayers, that will allow me to live in the fullest for Him, and to fully develop the true Islamic lifestyle in everything I do. What I do know, is that I have finally found the way, not just knowledge of the mind like the many times before, but now, deep inside, I found what had always been the part of me that seemed to be missing…The Heart of a Muslim.

Why This Denver Family Chose Islam !

2013-04-07T03:04:00.001-07:00

Tim moved from the UK to the US ten years ago, and worked as a Human Resources Manager for a large company.

His wife, Paige, worked for a large bookstore chain in the US, and together with her daughter Kayla are very comfortable to wear hijab when going out from their home in Denver.

The following is a brief summary of their stories finding Islam.

>Husband: Tim

My name is Tim, and I converted to Islam 18 months ago.

Growing up, I went to a school that was actually part of the Church of England. In high school, we had at least 2 hours of religious education built in the curriculum each week.

It wasn’t until I finished college and left home and starting out by myself that those nagging thoughts came to my mind, that have always been inside me, a deep-rooted belief that there is a God who looks after us and created us all and created the world and universe that we live in. At that time I needed to try and understand and explain the concept of God more closely to myself.

When I first met my wife, we both had very heavy spiritual influences, not necessarily a part of any organized or structured religion. But we had feelings and we understood that there was certainly a lot more to life than just being here and now. I think we both had a belief in the afterlife or spiritual life, but neither of us really explored that too deeply at that time.

It was a couple of years later before Paige started having interest in Islam, and then me following that interest really to see what it is, what is she getting into here. This led us to visit a mosque here in Denver, Abu Bakr mosque. This was a very interesting experience because my wife phoned up the mosque and made an appointment to go on a Friday around lunch time. I was very surprised to see that there was a police car there with its lights lit up guiding the traffic because there was a lot of traffic.

We went between the two sets of prayers that occur. We have roughly 500 people that are attending each of the two Jumua (Friday) prayers and khutbah (sermon) that take place each Friday. There was a cultural shock to me there. We had a lot of different nationalities walking around the place in their own costumes and national dresses and things like that. There were very few Americans walking around in jeans and T-shirts, and it was just a bit of a step back for me. It was like I walked out of America and entered into somewhere in the Middle East.

We were very fortunate to meet with a person who at that time was the president of the mosque, a sheikh by the name Muhammad Norzai, and he was the one who gave us a quick tour and explained some things about Islam, and then guided us to a place where we could observe a khutbah taking place. For me, that was certainly getting my first experience about what prayer and worship is for Muslims.

I always believed that there was a person called Jesus and that he was a great prophet and a messenger that came down from God. The problem I had trouble with is that Jesus was a man. He was born of a woman in a miraculous way but he was still a man. He was not a God. And why should we as men be worshiping another man? Surely we should be worshiping God. And the concept that there is just one God and that you should only worship that God alone and not worship idols or other people, and that forgiveness can only come directly from your relationship to God, really what started clinching it for me.

>Wife: Paige

My name is Paige and I converted to Islam 2 years ago.

I was raised by my father who was an atheist and he raised my sister and I as atheists, and I didn’t believe in any God at all. Growing up, I thought that people who were religious were silly. I thought that religion was something that governments used to keep their population in line because if you have something better to look forward to in the after death, you will be more obedient during life.

Sometimes when I was at high school I started going with a friend to her church occasionally as a guest, and I was really moved by the faith that people seemed to have, but I still couldn’t get my head around the inconsistencies of Christianity that there are a lot of leaps of faith that I was just not willing to make.

I’ve always been interested in philosophy, people in general, religion, and religious history, and I happened to be watching a documentary about the three Abrahamic faiths; Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And for the first time I really listened to something about Islam. I found it fascinating that Islam comes from Christianity which of course comes from Judaism. And the messages are essentially the same messages. And I thought that it’s like God tried to give us this message and human beings kept messing it up.

After 9/11, I was working in a bookstore here in the United States called Barnes & Nobel and everything we had in the store that had Islam, Quran, Muslim, Middle East in the title just sold up the next day; 9/12. I just thought this was fascinating, and I didn’t know anything about it.

So I started kind of reading. I bought a book called “Islam for Dummies”, really good. There were just some really beautiful things about Islam and I found myself more and more drawn to it especially its rationality. Like I said, Christianity has leaps of faith but Islam doesn’t. It’s all very rational religion, everything makes sense.

In fact the first time I went to the mosque, I thought of having this feeling that I was going inspite of Muslims. It was nothing to do with these crazy people you see on the TV blowing things up, you know, and I was terrified to go into the mosque. But I felt like to find my religion and I had to put up with these people who go to the mosque. That was before I met my first Muslim.

When Tim decided to become a Muslim, I was absolutely tickled because I had been a Muslim at that point for a few months. I wasn’t quite sure like what my plan of action was going to be. As a Muslim woman I can’t be married to a non-Muslim man, but leaving my husband was not really an option. I think like I sort of knew that he wasn’t going to be too far behind me when I said my shahadah. And I was right, within six months he said the sahadah as well.

>Daughter: Kayla

My name is Kayla Botello. I was born in the United States of America. I was raised here my whole life and I converted to Islam over a year ago. We didn’t grow in a religious household. We didn’t grow up believing in God necessarily, but knowing that there is a greater being. So there wasn’t really any certain religion that we followed. We just made sure that we were well-rounded and knowledgeable.

I believed in God. I’ve always had a kind of positive attitude on life. So for me I was kind of looking around. There was so much beauty in the world, how could there not be a God? But as far as any kind of religion, I didn’t have a religion.

Converting to Islam was like a series of events, you know, it wasn’t one defining moment. I think what really got me about Islam was because I started to attend classes after my mother had converted, so I just started attending classes just for my mom to be respectful and to understand her and a lot of things that caught me was the science in Islam. They talked about the Big Bang and they talked about things like where the salt water meets the fresh water, that was only discovered in the 1970s. Things like that just make you think how did they know that 1400 years ago? And for me I believed in God but I also believed in science.

>Daughter's Husband: Yassir

My name is Yassir. I’m an American-born Muslim and I’m Kayla’s husband. My father came to this country about 1980. He was doing aviation school, lived a single life for a while until he met my American mother with whom he befriended and had very good connection with. When they came to religious talks and they had this intellectual spark immediately. They got married and they gave their five children the opportunity to live the American life and the Syrian life.

We have been going to Islamic schools since we were very young. So we had that kind of education and we have always been very close to our American neighbors, friends like that. There has always been that kind of relationship, never any tension, and we really had a lot of good friends who actually came to our house and learn about the Islamic and Arabic culture.

When Kayla converted to Islam, I believe it was something that was destined to happen whether or not I came into her life. She had many qualities in her that reflected so many good attributes that were already in Islam, and it was something that she just needed to find and apply in her life. There were so many things about modesty and just being a good child to your mother and father and being obedient and just having that consistent respect to your fellow men and fellow women. I mean there were some things that she had but she just needed something to define it on a bigger scale … which was Islam.on a bigger scale … which was Islam.

"I Wondered Why Muslims Are So Proud"

2013-04-07T02:42:00.002-07:00

My name is Aysha, and I am from North Hungary. I heard about Islam when I was in secondary school in the history lessons, because Hungary was under occupation by Turkey for 150 years.

After that I went to university to study molecular biology, where I met many Muslim foreign students.

I was always curious why Muslims are so proud that they are Muslims.

I was Catholic, a good one, but I always had doubts and I didn't agree with some parts of my religion: for example, how can God have a son and the concept of the Trinity was also not believable for me.

Then I started to talk with my friends, and one time, when we were having dinner and the Adhan started, one of my friends asked me to stop it, but I said no. I was very much impressed by it and something surely touched my heart.

Then I don't know why at that summer I downloaded a Quran program. I was listening to it in Arabic and was reading it in English. Then I was thinking a lot about Islam and I was reading many books about it.

But then, after two months of thinking I finally chose Islam. I declared Shahadah in front of two of my friends. I said: La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad rasul Allah (I bear witness there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah)

I chose Islam against my culture and my family, especially my mom.

After that, Ramadan started and I decided that I will start my new life in Islam with Ramadan. Alhamdulilah (thank God), I made it successfully.

I started to offer prayer on the 4th of August. It was very hard for me at the beginning because people around me were not that practicing Muslims, so I couldn't ask anyone.

I learnt how to pray by myself from the Internet, because no one showed me how to pray or how to make wudu (ablution), or what invocation to say before it or how to do ghusl (ritual cleansing of the body) or what are the etiquettes and the rulings of Islam.

Once I had a friend and he made me really down. He told me you will never understand Islam, because you were not born as a Muslim. When I told him I want to start fasting Ramadan, he said it is not just about being hungry. At that time I was so new to Islam, I had converted just a month before he said that.

At that time I got so scared, what if I will never learn how to pray in Arabic? What if I don't do it the correct way? And I didn't have hijab (head scarf) or a rug to pray on, and I didn't get any help. So I had lots of fears.

But when I started to pray, I was thinking God must be smiling on me now. Because I used to write down the text of the ritual prayer on a paper and its instructions,and I kept my papers in my right hand and read loudly and then bow down and read again and so on. I'm sure I was looking so funny. But afterwards I succeeded to memorize it in the Arabic language so then there was no problem.

Then I came to Facebook and got many new friends and many sisters. From online sisters I got so much love and courage. Then a Muslim man proposed to me and he got me my first hijab and prayer rug and an Islamic book. And I got my first Arabic Quran from Jordan by post because we cannot buy it here. Now it is more than a year that I wear hijab.

I went through a very bad period with my mom. She would say to me that I will be a terrorist and I will leave her as I left my religion and I will leave my country too. She would put all pork things in the fridge and I would refuse to eat it so it turns into a big argument.

She couldn't stand seeing me praying or seeing me in hijab. So I pray upstairs in my room. She would never look at me when I'm in hijab and she would say: "I gave birth to a Christian child not to a veiled Muslim."

So we had serious problems, but I was never harsh or rude with her. But alhamdulilah (thank God) she calmed down now and she seems accepting that I converted. I'm really thankful to Allah for that. Now I go out in hijab, and she doesn't say anything.

I was not talking with my father for all my life and he didn't want to see me. But now, because of Islam, I opened towards him so now he visits us regularly.

Yes, my life is a big test but I thank God for it and I have patience and hope. On the Day of Judgment I will be very thankful for them. So I'm trying to be better and better and learn more and more to understand my religion.

I believe everything is predestined, so whatever Allah has decreed that will happen to me I cannot change, but I can choose to live my life nicely.

I try helping others now in Debrecen. I organized a project to collect second hand clothes for refugee camp people. There are a lot of Muslims there who don't have a home because of wars. So we collected clothes and we went there and I made them Pakistani bread, for children and for females, they were so happy and it was so nice to see them.

I used to raise my voice if somebody says anything that bothers me. But now I am showing example everywhere I go.

I'm trying to guide also those who want to convert or just converted. I met with two Hungarian sisters, the other day, and they have just converted to Islam. So I gave them books, and my prayer rug and a copy of the Quran, so alhamdulilah we prayed together and they were really happy.

I always try to leave the image that we Muslims are nice, friendly and we have a good heart.

I converted one and a half years ago. Now I am learning Arabic, to be able to read the Quran. I read Quran in Hungarian, I offer prayers five times a day, I try to follow the Quran and the Sunnah, and I read many books to understand better.

This is my story. Peace be unto you.

Abdullah Takazawa - Yakuza Tattoo Artist turned Muslim

2013-03-25T09:24:00.001-07:00

Shaykh Abdullah Takazawa from Japan, was previously a tattoo artist for the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), but when Allah (Subhana Waa Taala) blessed him with Islam through the Daa'wa of a foreign brother, he traveled to Saudi Arabia to make Hajj, then was offered a scholarship to seek knowledge there, where he stayed for several years. He came back to become an Imam in Tokyo. Ma sha' Allah, a very, very humble brother. Proves again, you should never exclude ANYONE from Daa'wa and ALLAH Subhana Waa Taala is the turner of Hearts.

American Christian Troy Bagnall embraces Islam because of its Amazing Simplicity

2013-03-24T10:56:00.001-07:00

My name is Troy Bagnall. I reverted to Islam while I was studying in college at Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, Arizona in the US. I was then in a film & media studies program at the ASU.

I accepted Islam almost 5 years ago for a multitude of reasons. I had been interested in Islam for quite some time, as it is a hot topic when it comes to the news and current events. I am very interested in ancient history and world history as well as war and politics.

As I would hear about conflicts in the news that were happening in places such as Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, Lebanon, etc., I would research those conflicts simply so I would understand what was really happening in those conflicts as the media here tends to be very vague in explaining them in a fair and unbiased manner.

As I researched the conflicts, I also became interested in learning about the history of the Muslim world. I spent time on my own learning about some of the history and culture of the Muslim world. I also took a class at ASU called Islamic Civilization. As I learned about the history and culture of the Muslim world, I became interested in the religion, Islam, itself.

I had been raised Christian but quit practicing it when I was 15. I personally found Christianity to be very confusing and not logical. The trinity and doctrine of atonement really do not make sense considering there are verses from the Bible that contradict those doctrines.

When I took the Islamic History class, I met a brother named Mohammad Totah who is very knowledgeable in the Bible, Quran, and all three Abrahamic faiths. We had many talks about comparing the faiths. I researched on my own as well. I learned more about how Christianity contradicts its own scriptures.

I learned more about how many Biblical scriptures actually support Islam too. Another thing that got me too was the Gospel of Barnabas which prophesized and mentioned by name, the coming of Mohammad (peace be upon him). This Gospel was also removed from the Bible.

Now to the Quran, which is beyond amazing with its flawlessness. I found the Quran to be quite simple and easy to comprehend. Islam itself is a very simple and straightforward with no complex doctrines. Islam does not feature the blind faith that Christianity does.

It also has a feeling of fulfillment that Judaism does not have as Judaism denies later prophets such as Jesus (peace be upon him) and John the Baptist (peace be upon him) for example.

As I learned more about Islam, I realized that it made sense of the uncertainties I had with Christianity. I actually know more about the Bible and Christianity now since reverting to Islam than I did while I was a Christian.

I feel much closer to God as a Muslim, too. Not to bash Christianity, but I find it to be more about the teachings of Paul and the other Apostles instead of the teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him).

I also spent much time learning about the history of the religions after they were established and how they spread across the world. I know that Islam is portrayed as being some exotic eastern religion here in the west, but it is really just what all the prophets were sent to teach, which is submission to God. It is also really frustrating how the media always portrays Islam in such a negative light.

I understand there are conflicts and violence in parts of the Muslim world, but those conflicts are really more about politics.

Yes, I will admit that it has been a bit tough practicing Islam considering I do live in America and the media here pushes negative stereotypes about Islam all the time. It is also a bit tough on me simply because it is not like there are many American college kids giving up the carefree party life and converting to Islam.

That was not much of a problem for me though, as I am pretty much a studious nerd. I get questions from non-Muslims concerning politics and Middle Eastern cultural practices, and I have to show them the difference between what is really Islam and what is political ideology and cultural practices.

The Middle East is obviously the center of the Muslim world, but it is frustrating too how the media stereotypes Muslims as always being Middle Eastern, as Muslims come from all over the world. I think racism is involved too, as the West seems to overlook the fact that Judaism and Christianity’s origins lay in the Middle East just like Islam.

To sum it up, I accepted Islam simply because I declared it to be the true religion of God. It is simple, straightforward, and not confusing.

I also love how Islam has such a universal bond of unity amongst its followers. Islam has helped me to become a better person.

I feel at ease when I practice Islam. It helps me feel better about life and helps me deal with stress and life problems.

I really hope that people here in the West become better educated on the Muslim world and what Islam really is as a religion instead of listening to the negative and not always entirely true criticisms that the media portrays about Islam.

I hope my story will inspire those who are interested in Islam to want to learn more about it.

Sister Sara Hermansson, an Ex Christian from Sweden explains how Islam showed her the True Purpose of Life

2013-03-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

My life before Islam was empty in a way. Just the feeling to live for the day and not knowing the meaning and purpose of life. My self-confidence was quite weak. I didn't feel that I belonged anywhere in the society, something was missing. I was searching for something, I just didn't know what it was at that time.

It was a long journey and it took time. I knew there was a God, I just couldn't identify myself with Christianity. God for me has always been something so great and big that my mind is limited to understand what He is. This, as God has such great power and can not be compared to a human being. God has no limitation, he is capable to do whatever He desires.

I searched for a long time among different religions and the more I came to know about Islam, the more I felt Islam is the full truth and it made complete sense. Islam described God as I had always imagined Him.

What I mostly love about Islam is Allah's love and mercy. For me, being a Muslim means to live in peace with yourself and your friends, family and the whole society. And to show the best behaviour as possible, according to Prophet Muhammad's (peace and blessings be upon him) Sunnah and how he treated people and how he showed love, charity and mercy. And also to please Allah Almighty and follow His words and ask for forgiveness and thank Allah for everything.

a rich life, in the sense that life has a purpose and you feel peace and love in your heart.

I believe Islam is very much relevant to the world today. There is so much hatred in the world and a lot of people have the wrong concept of Islam, which is in many ways our own (we Muslims) mistakes in showing Islam in a wrong way. We need to show Islam in a peaceful way and with patience.

Islam has many things to offer the world today. For example, charity is very much emphasized and to not be greedy regarding money and material things.

To share love with your neighbors and with strangers. To keep self-respect, to show that confidence is not to show your body, it is to protect it; which is the ground to confidence and good morals.

There are unfortunately many misconceptions about Islam. For example, that women are oppressed and forced to do whatever men say. So, it was not strange that my parents were not happy after I told them that I reverted to Islam, but they knew that I started to read about Islam since a long time before that.

They had and still have a negative view about Islam. Very much due to what is portrayed in media, but also because of the many bad actions done by Muslims who fail to correctly represent their religion. Unfortunately, I am held responsible for other peoples acts.

My parents do accept me and they love me very much and when I'm there at their house they always cook food that I can eat as well. In that way they respect me, but they do feel ashamed if I need to pray somewhere.What's positive is that they think that I'm helping them a lot and that I'm very caring.

Some of my friends reacted in a negative way when I became Muslim. I have no longer any relationship with some of them, unfortunately. Others, I still got a relationship with, but I try not to discuss Islam too much with them, as some could feel uncomfortable with that. However, they do sometimes ask me things.My parents are not keen on discussing Islam.

With time, I pray they will start asking and become Muslims insha Allah (God willing).It's in the hands of Allah. I try to be kind to them, help them as much as possible, respect them and just show good behaviour.

I guess my relatives think I'm strange to revert to Islam, but none of them ever commented about it.- From the Arabic language and/or specific acts of worship.I have felt frustration on not understanding Arabic. I have also not felt completely free to pray in any place, even in Islamic countries.

Friends who showed charity and love and open arms had a great effect on me. I felt I did not see a purpose with life. I had an empty feeling; no peace. I embraced a whole new way of life with daily prayers, etc. I'm still doing the things I liked to do before that are permissible.

It was not difficult for me to accept the belief in Prophet Muhammad. When you read about his beautiful way in dealing with people with understanding and love and his respect and love to people as well as animals in addition to how logical his acts were, it's easy to believe in him

I read about Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism before embracing Islam, I believe that knowledge about other religions is very relevant to be able to compare and to get a larger understanding for your own religion and for other religions.

If we, as Muslims, want people to understand and respect us and our religion; we must act in the same way to others. Islam has given me a feeling of peace and harmony. It's a feeling of satisfaction that I found the truth.