thank you, and yes my patience has been tested a lot of times, when i am praying someone comes knocking on my door, or now during ramadan, they force me to eat, its gets hard and frustrating, i try to get as many days i can to work, from 4-10 pm so i can go there right after school and then break my roza when i need to....but then i work in a restaurant and stand all day which is draining out my energy, its hard but all sacrifices are for Allah and Islam, and i am more than willing

My First Ramadan



For years, Jelly Panderias watched her Muslim friends, even those who are not very practicing, fast the holy month of Ramadan.


"I used to ask them about their feelings and why they were not eating or drinking as usual," she recalls.

This year, Panderias finally got her chance to experience the same feelings of her Muslim friends.

"This is my first Ramadan as a Muslim," the 22-year-old told IslamOnline.net.

Born to Catholic parents, she pronounced the Shahadah – testifying that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) is his Messenger – at a mosque in northern France two months ago.

"Fasting Ramadan is the real embodiment of becoming a Muslim," she said proudly.

"I'm now living the same feelings of nearly one billion Muslims around the world."

Muslims worldwide began this week observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic lunar calendar, began in France like in most world countries on Monday, September1.

During Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to become closer to Allah through prayer, self-restraint and good deeds.

Special

Panderias spent her first Ramadan day with the family of a Moroccan friend.

"My friend invited me for iftar and after that we went together to perform Tarawih in the mosque," she added.

"I'm so excited about my Ramadan experience."

Tarawih is a special nightly prayer performed by Muslims in their thousands during Ramadan.

Panderias is not alone.

"Embracing Islam ahead of Ramadan has become very common," Sheikh Zuhir Bureik, the head of the French Council of Imams, told IOL.

He noted that three girls in their 20s and a man in his 30s came to his mosque in a Paris suburb a few days before Ramadan to pronounce the Shahadah.

"Ramadan was a central factor in their decision to embrace Islam," said Bureik.

"One of them told me that she used to fast Ramadan before becoming becoming a Muslim. She said that encouraged her become a Muslim."

French statistics suggest nearly 3,500 people convert to Islam every year in the European countries.

Unconfirmed statistics put the figure at nearly 50,000.

France is home to 6 million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.


http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/S...News/NWELayout

Mashallah thats even more stonger. May Allah Tallah make your path easy sis.
*hugs*

I want to tell my story. It was a few years ago that I reverted.

I went to a Christian college as a "devout" atheist. Astaghfirallah, I hate to say it, but I openly denied the existence of any God and argued that religion was a negative characteristic of humanity. I even went to church on Sundays with this girl just to make sure that I was correct. There, I just found all my justifications for believing this way. It all seemed so ridiculous to me. (but Christians, please know that I don't believe Christianity is ridiculous or that Christians are foolish for believing what they believe... this was ONE church, and ONE way of looking at the Bible and the Gospel)

I began to get jealous of one particular professor who I held in high esteem for his intelligence, but I could not explain his unbreakable faith. How can he be so smart, yet buy into this whole idea that some magical character came and died so that we can get into Heaven if we believe in him? I wanted to have faith and believe like all these other happy people, but it seemed my reasoning prohibited me from doing so. I went to his church to learn as much as I could, but I could not get the whole "christianty" thing, still. In addition to church, I was learning about several other religions through the school.

One day, I finally asked him how he did it: how do you, such a smart man, believe in all of this stuff, and what should I be doing to figure it all out? He simply told me to pray. It doesn't matter how I do it, just let God know that I am looking for Him. He said God does not hide from you if you are looking for Him.

So I did. I went home and looked up at my ceiling, and I told God that I was looking for Him and I would appreciate anything He could do to make the search easier for me. And I was serious too!

Well, there was this nail that stuck out of my bed and it would scratch my arm as I slept, sometimes. The next night, that nail clearly scratched what looked like a J and a C in my arm. Of course, I thought, "OMG, Jesus spoke to me!" So I started studying the Gospel in earnest. I went to church as often as I could and prayed to God a lot! Thank you for this, thank you for that, I'm sorry for this and sorry for that. Bless my family members, etc.

I didn't have anymore bursts of faith like that morning when I woke up, but I kept trying. Finally, after attending several other churches and talking to lots and lots of Christians, I became fed up with trying to be Christian. It just wasn't working and I couldn't make sense of this whole story that a magical Jesus/God was dead/alive so that I could get to Heaven simply by believing it all. Then I wasn't even sure that God did hear my prayers anymore.

So right at this time, alhamdulillah, we start studying Islam. Islam offered me new perspective to the story of Jesus. It seemed foolish to me, that if I am searching for God, to abandon Jesus entirely. After all, more than half of the world directly connects him in some way to God. So I figured if anything is true, then it is Islam, and I should learn about this Muhammad guy (saws).

Went to the mosque within about two months and gave Shahadah. When I gave shahadah, I had the same sort of feeling (the awareness of a religious experience) as when I woke up with that JC scratched in my arm.

So now I was trying to be a Muslim. I worked all day and went to school, and tried to make my prayers as best I could. But it always ended up that I would try to make all Fard and Sunnah prayers at night at about 2:00 am when I got home from work (I didn't know the Fiqh of it all). Let me tell you, this does not work for a normal white kid who doesn't know much about Islam. It left me wondering, how is Allah going to do this to me? Does He really want me to feel like I am suffering through prayer to Him? My reasoning told me that something was wrong. I knew it was something wrong with me and not the religion, and so I asked Allah to forgive me, but told Him that I would take some sort of hiatus from all religious inquiry until it made complete sense to me.

Fast forward through the worst year of my life, emotionally etc., and you come to about exactly a year after I gave shahadah. I won't go into details, but I find myself sitting on my couch depressed and wanting more things to occupy my time and keep me happy. I flip on the telly and, for some reason, turn to a Christian channel on which is a movie about Jesus.

I forgot the quote from the Bible, but Jesus is saying something about the temporary nature of worldly possessions and eternal nature of the Divine. It must have hit me at the right time, because that point changed my life forever.

I was so depressed and tired (i.e. what alcoholics call the feeling of rock-bottom) and it seemed that nothing in the world could satisfy me. When I heard the Jesus on television saying those things, I just knew that I had to abandon my habit of staking my claims of happiness on these temporary worldly possessions and put my happiness on something eternal, or Allah.

Now I didn't go monk-style and abandon all worldly things, or give up my life to go into Dawah, but I understood life in a totally new perspective. Then praying became easier and more natural. I could relate to other Muslims easier, and so with my parents and with other non-Muslims.

Now I am just like that professor. I don't just take religion on blind faith, but I studied and struggled through my beliefs so that I am both a freethinker and someone who will die without ever having questioned my shahadah. That is, I still seek wisdom and keep an open mind despite my own unbreakable faith.

Of course it is this struggle that shows Allah that you desire to please Him, and so He has blessed me more than I could ever begin to say here. On one level, I am engaged to a beautiful and devout muslimah, with plans for a family (inshAllah), and on another I walk around this world with the blissful serenity of knowing that Allah chose me out of all these people to know Islam and siratal mustaqim; to have a purpose that is based on divine guidance.


That is to some extent the story of my coming to Islam, and I mean it seriously, so I thought I should end with something kind of funny. Naturally, my friends and those around me who find out that I am Muslim are sort of shocked. People always ask me what made me become Muslim, and I tell them, with a slight sense of irony, that it was the teachings of Jesus Christ that made me certain of Islam. HAHA! SUBHANALLAH!

Many of us that had been devout Christians at one time, say the same. It is the teachings of Jesus(as) that led or helped us to Islam. Makes perfect sense. Isa(as) was a great and wonderful prophet.

Mashaa'Allah, that's a beautiful story.

ما شاء الله عليهم كلهم

الله يهدي الجميع ان شاء الله

inshallah

martyr
proud islamic revert

"napolean i get my pleasure outa seein sin blah blah blah..."

tunage: made nigg*z.

nice

ok... might as well...my revert story??? its a beauty. allah is a master strategist... his plans are perfect...

promise i'll be brief.


i was kind of present at an islamic exorcism when i was about 4yrs old. islamic iman doin the exorcism... hindu family in house, i was young hindu kid. hindu lady was gettin exorcised... ( sweet) it was my aunty... i was a lucky kid.

time went past and i hitt 22yrs old.

i was socially outcasted for "dossing" "chilling" "and being a naughty boy" " a rebel" i got suspended from university.... i drank, i smoked, and i was cool.

but i'd had enough of the unfulfilled meaningless fleeting life. the spark grew within...(cue drumrolls please....)

i ordered the koran, the torah, the bible and the bhagavad gita from amazon.co.uk.... (the multifaceted, mysterious ways of the revert ;) )

i read. i studied.... i fell in love ... the koran ... undeniable.....

i was a little arrogant at first... thought i was the best thing since sliced bread.... i rationalized myself verbally to unbelievers in the following ways... and i suppose to myself...

1) this is wat i felt and wat i told myself: " i'm better than my peers, these losers will never amount to anything, i'm gonna forge my way, i'm gonna lead these dumbfounded people with no clue to glory and beyond..... my mind is formiddable, (i told myself.... before fully reverted....arrogant i know but i new arrogance as a social trait seduced unbelievers very easily) my mind can handle anything! if god has wrote books i'm gonna read them cos i'm smart and clever, and i can do better!! so that was one way i introduced my theological exploits to the narrow minded... i'm goin up against god and gods books ...haha..look at me....i'm great, i'm a genius" anyway the koran soon set me straight and taught me a thing or two.

and i secretly converted... didnt have the courage to tell people for months though...

secretly i was the humble type...good natured and all that good stuff.... but once i was in the social environment... thats when sin gripped hold and turned me into mr arrogant man that the unbelieving ladies loved.... mr nice guy nobody wanted to talk too..... that is just the way it was....


anyway... today is 8 nov i think... i'm fully reverted.
my family knows, and they kicked me out the house.
(sweet... i'm a thrill seeker ;) reverting is fun.)
.....

and yeah this aint your regular revert story..... so wat? i was born on the other side of the fence in the land of unbelief.... to survive in that world i had to without a choice learn the ways of the unbeliever... lol.... the way of the shaolin fist.... and ultimately the ways of glorious islam.

so praise the lord... truly. allah is merciful...definately.

.... i just went thru a 6month test folks.... phew. i made it. i'm even more purified now. (deep sombre sigh as i sign off my note)

*praise the lord, the mighty the wise*

Nice experience there GHengis!

God burdens people only with what they can bear. You are working through a great test.

InshaAllah you will rewarded for all your sufferings .

Welcome to Islam

South London Rapper Finds Islam


By Selma Cook



This article is based on an interview with Bilal Chin, who lives inLondon.


Bilal Chin was brought up in London but traveled to Egypt and stayed there for about one year. Now in his mid-twenties, he says that Egypt was good for him, as it helped him to get away from his surroundings and make a fresh start in his life.



He became a Muslim when he was nineteen years old. He admits that he had not really known what Islam was about. If he saw any women with scarfs and anyone who fasted, he thought he or she was an Asian or an Arab and that this was just part of their culture.



He didn't know it was a religion and no one tried to teach him about the religion. Later after, he embraced Islam, he remembered girls in school who used to wear a scarf and realized they were Muslims.

....Bilal's Muslim friend told him, "When you come to Islam, Islam will come running to you." Indeed, Bilal saw that Islam started knocking on his door. One day, he wanted to buy some trainers and left his bike with a man in the market and this man said he would keep an eye on his bike if Bilal read a certain book. This man was a Muslim.


When Bilal went into the shoe shop he heard the shop keeper say: "Salamu Alaikum" when we was talking on the phone. Bilal realized that he too was a Muslim. Islam started coming to him from every angle.


full story here

http://www.readingislam.com/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1226471414485&pagename=Z one-English-Discover_Islam/DIELayout