converts, quran and learning islam

[xxxangelxxx]

Hello, im 19years old and from the uk...i currently have no religion... a part of me believes to some extent the concept of god, life after death and being judged based on our deeds however ive never had a religion...things are very complicated for me at the moment.... im desperately trying to genuinely and sincerely accept and believe in islam in order for me to have a future with the man i love (which has now got a 100 times more difficult now he is back in his home country... sometimes i feel as though im totally lost and am wayyyy over my head for a 19 year old regular british teenager!)however doing it for him is of course not enough.... i need to convert because i genuinely and truley believe in it...however im finding it extreamly difficultto convince myself to believe in something i dnt believe in...how do i begin to believe that the quran is the message from god and that Muhammad (pbuh) is the last messanger??

Im looking for western muslim converts who have similar experiences to myself to talk to and help me understand and believe...there are so many rules which my boyfriend expects me to follow and its so difficult to complettly change my life for him... ive virtually completley given up smoking and drinking (i say “virtually” because although i haven’t done it for a while i can not guarantee that without belief i have the willpower to permantly refrain from it)... however i need to wear “appropriate” clothing...not hug guys....leave pork....only eat halal meat...etc...and many of these rules are ok... but i find myself really struggling with some of these...i feel asthough i am becoming a puppet and loosing my identity and independence and that scares me... how do western converts learn that all that stuff which is such a normal part of your life for so long doesn’t matter anymore??

Im also looking for books... i need a hard copy of the quran but i need one which is in clear modern “normal” English...i cant read anything which sounds even slightly shakespearian and understand it for the life of me...i need a quran which is written in a way that is clear and easy to understand the point which are made...i guess i also need haddiths too?... what do i even get such books from?
Id also like to learn to pray...i guess im kindda hopeing if i prayed my faith would come from somewhere...however listening to the online voice clips i really don’t seem to be able to say them how they are said...its hard to explain but certain sounds i don’t know how to make... its weird...cant i say it in English?

I need help please.... from people who may actually understand the situation i am in...and theres no-one i know who could possibly understand this...even my boyfriend says that i follow many things of the quran such as being a good person etc so he doesn’t understand why i cant convert and thinks it my stubbornness and my fear of loosing independence which i guess to an extent it is... but its the fact that i need to convince myself that this “story” is infact a genuine undoutable fact!

Any help and advice is much appreciated and any offers to talk or anything feel free to add me on msn :) ...

[Salahudeen]

Aslaam alaykum, well I would suggest reading the Qur'an as a starting point and learning more about Islam. Here are some beneficial vids for you to watch. No 1 can manfacture belief in your heart, the only way you will attain belief is if you seek knowledge and ask questions. A good starting point is what do you think the purpose of life is? Why do you think you were created? where do you think we will go when we die? these are all things that every human has a desire to know.

Watch the vids below, btw Islam gives us answers to all the above questions. You must have a desire to seek the truth.

[Ğħαrєєвαħ]

Greetings of Peace to you sistah xxxangelxxx :)

Welcome to the forum and hope you have wonderful stay here, and there are many reverts who may have been through your situations.

Well the Islamic Concept of God is that "There is only One God" .
To be a Muslim we must submit to the will of our Creator who is Allaah, Allaah is the arabic word for God. The word Muslim means "The one who submits to God". We as muslims must follow life as God commands us to, and that there is no harm in the way God tells us what to do but harm in stuff that God tells u not to do! Like smoking is harmful to your body, Allaah tells us in his Noble Book the Qur`aan to not harm ourseves, and what he the Allmighty tells us is of benefit to us.

Your first Priority is God, everything is to be done for his sake in his way, but for your own Benefit! And the Prophet Muhammad sallahu alaayhi wa salam is the guidance of Light to Humanity to show us the right path by following the way he lived as he Prophet Muhammad sallahu alaayhi wa salam is the Best of Examples , in the Quraan Allaah says

"Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah."

Note that there are many Muslim reverts who left MANY things for the saake of Allaah, they left music, boyfriend,girlfriends, etc etc basically all bad habits, and if you like the Brother and you think he can provide for you and make you feel happy islamically you should marry him but if not you should keep away from him as you are considered (doing Haraam something forbidden in Islaam) and i can understand that maybe be really hard, May Allaah make it easy upon you,Ameen. Truly your Lord knows whats best for you dear sistah and he commands no harm on you.

There is no harm in leaving pork trust me sistah, there is a reason its forbidden in Islaam because it causes harm to the body and many other reasons. Slowly you will get used to it when you realise what your doing is better for you and not continously harming yourself.

I quote you "and theres no-one i know who could possibly understand this" Allaah is the one who created you and he is the only one who knows you more than you know you shall ever know yourself and thats a fact. Dont ever consider yourself alone Allaah has been with you every second of your life.

Anyway sistah i hope i helped a lil bit i must go, and i hope that you recieve better advice InshaAllaah esp from Brothers and Sistahs who have been in your situation :)

But please check this Vid i hope it also helps a lil bit too :)



Wa`Alaaykum Salaam

[Salahudeen]

If you find things in Islam that you find hard to understand just create a thread on the forum and ask about it. But to give you a short introduction Islam is based upon 5 pillars, they are

1. Believe in one God who is alone worthy of worship
2. Sala (The 5 daily prayers).
3. Sawm (fasting the month of Ramadhan)
4. Zakat (giving a certain percentage of your wealth to the poor)
5. Hajj (Making the pilgrimage to the Makkah)

These are the 5 pillars but first you need to believe in God and that he sent Muhammed as a messenger just like he sent the previous prophets like Moses, Jesus, Abraham, Noah.

All the prophets were sent by God to communicate God's will to us and show us how we should live our lifes in a good, pure righteous way.

You see all the prophets preached the same message that God alone is worthy of worship and you should shun the worship of any other thing as this would be associating partners with God and this is a big sin. The message of Islam is simple, There is only 1 God without any partners, and he is worthy of worship alone if you believe this your half muslim all ready, you just need to accept that he sends messengers to convey his will to the people and one of those messengers was Muhammed (saw).

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[xxxangelxxx]

Thankyou for your kind help and support :) it is very usefull and im after all the resources i can get my hands on :)...

...i think its important that i make it clear that i dont want to do this because of my bf and because i need to do it for us to be together... i have always said that i will only accept islam if i can genuinly and truely believe it or its no use....since we studied islam at school i guess its always interested me more than any other religion...infact tbh i couldnt tell yu anythin about any other religion... but i guess its because its the most openly practice religion that it attracted my attention...

it was 2 years ago when i because my current job that i first became "exposed" so to speak to the asian culture and to muslims... there i made some very close friends and it really struck me how kind and sincer they were... i guess being a typical british teenager and being around typical british boy it was so different and no nice to be around these people who willingly would share anything they had with me... would take care of me...and although not "perfect" were never like most young men...there hearts just seemed genuinly and sincerly good...it was a refreshing change to what i was used to...so slowly i started to learn more about islam... just bit... generaly enquiries really...

during ramadan last year i joined in with the fasting for a few days...im not really sure why...(i can guarantee you going without food and water all day isnt something i would usually do! lol)...but they seemed supportive and it didnt seem like it would cause them offense or anythin so i joined in...i guess it was quite a strange feeling...i discovered a will power which i never knew i had...in a way it kindda taught me something about myself

during the first two weeks i also read a translation of the quran...although looking at it now i realise how hurried i must of been to read it within two week and now im sure that i didnt pay much attention to what it said or the meaning within it... but it was a start and raised a few questions :)...

then shortly after ramadan i began to get close to a good friend of mine and before christmas we because bf and gf... we have had a rocky road with or differences in culture and religion which resulted in us splitting up for a while... but looking back its made us so much stronger... its only recently since just before he left to go back home that we realised how serious we are... to the point where his parents know about me (which im told in asian culture is a much bigger deal than in my culture! lol)...and its now that im figuring out what i believe

before i would of told that i dnt have religion and i dont believe in god... but thinking about it... looking within myself i believe
1. there is something/someone...so i guess that means i believe in god
2. there is only one...
3. people go to heaven/hell when they die
4. heaven/hell is based on good and bad deeds

so although these beliefs arent firm and i kindda have tolook hard to see them deep down they are kindda there... which i guess is a good start...

I can understand why the pillars are as such...

belief = because it would be pointless without belief
prayers = because your connecting with god... your submitting to yur creator.... showing yur beleif
ramadam = because you can learn so much about yurself in the time that you are fasting, yu can understand how the less fortunare feel etc which make it even easier to give to charity
zakat = because yur helping others andnot being selfish
Hajj = well although im not sure of the total relevence of this im assuming visiting the place where the whole religion because can be such as strong reinforcer of your belielf :)

i have many muslim friends supporting with and im hopefull that with the support and teachings of my friends, my bf and the online community that i can take the final step and truely believe that Mohammad (pbuh) is the messanger of god and that this faith can remain strong regardless of wether i am with my bf or not :)

thankyou

[Ramadhan]

Here's some Qur'an and its translations/tafseer on the web:

http://www.quranexplorer.com

http://quranflash.com/en/quranflash.html

http://www.quran.com

http://www.kalamullah.com/quran.html

[Salahudeen]

That's good, every night before you go to sleep sincerely ask God to let you find the truth and to open your heart to it.

[Ğħαrєєвαħ]

Aslaamu`Alaaykum

Great to hear from you again sistah :)

I hope some of whats been posted on this thread will benefit you and hopefully that will make you learn more about Islaam itself, just by looking at this forum!

I will make Dua for you that God shows you the right path and that you gain knowledge and keep strong and never lose hope and faith in God your Creator.


Peace

Wa`Alaaykum Salaam

[aadil77]

Peace and welcome to the forum :shade:

Remember that to become muslim you shouldn't try to digest a long list of beliefs, take it easy, start from the beggining of creation

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/13286

[Vigno]

Asalamu Alekum

I am happy to know that you are wanting to learn about Islam so sincerely, I will pray for you inshallah, may Allah guide your path, ameen. I want to tell you that be sure that when you seek and strive to get your belief then Allah will put the faith in your heart inshallah, there is nothing impossible for Him. Take it step by step but don't take it too slow or you might end up going astray (I pray you don't). You are welcome to ask anything you want and inshallah everyone on this forum will help you and above us all Allah will help you inshallah.
Allah says,"Take one step towards Me and I will take ten steps towards you, walk towards Me and I will run towards you." - Hadith Qudsi.

About the things you feel difficulty in remaining away from, that feeling will disappear gradually and I have experience in this myself and with others i know as well. There were many things I found hard to stop and I ever said its impossible to stop, perhaps they weren't so bad but yet it is forbidden so I had to stop. And about my friends, they were doing a lot of bad things but thanks to Allah they stopped and now they hate the bad things they were doing. And by the way, I think i share a little matter with you, I too am not able to be with the one I want to marry yet and shes far as well, but its Allah's will I submit to, whatever Allah wills is the best for us coz Allah never wants us to suffer, even when bad things come to us, Allah rewards us for being patient in the Hereafter inshallah.

You are welcome

[xxxangelxxx]

Thank you all very much for your continuing support :)

That's good, every night before you go to sleep sincerely ask God to let you find the truth and to open your heart to it.

thankyou but how do i do this?...do i just ask within my thoughts or should i pray a formal prayer?...if its a formal prayer how to you prayer a prayer which isnt one of the 5 obligatory prayers?... is there also special words and movements etc for this too?

xxx

[Alpha Dude]

Hey xxxangelxxx,

To make dua/ask Allah for something, you do not necessarily have to do something formal (there are some non-obligatory yet beneficial formalities involved) but since you are non-muslim they are not something that should concern you at this point.

Perhaps after taking a shower (cleanliness is important in Islam) whenever you feel comfortable and at ease, ask Allah for guidance. Be sincere and actually imagine yourself talking to this All Powerful yet All Compasionate and All Merciful being that is ready to fulfil your sincere request then go on to pour your heart out and ask whatever you desire.

Be persistent and optimistic that what you ask for will most definitely be given to you. Never lose hope in Allah and above all stay patient. Everything happens for a reason and there is divine wisdom at work. If at first things do not work the way you desire, it may be that there is harm in what you asked for, hence Allah will guide you to what is ultimately for your benefit, despite there being initial losses.

[Salahudeen]

Thank you all very much for your continuing support :)



thankyou but how do i do this?...do i just ask within my thoughts or should i pray a formal prayer?...if its a formal prayer how to you prayer a prayer which isnt one of the 5 obligatory prayers?... is there also special words and movements etc for this too?

xxx

Nah, not a formal prayer, you can just call out to God to guide you, it can be in your thoughts or you can speak it which ever you want. No special words or movements, just sincerely ask from your heart.