[Introduction] AfdalFS

[AfdalFS]

Salam Alaykum!

My name is Afdal, (Okay, that's my new name, my older one is Simon and is still used on papers), I live in Canada and I am twenty-three years old. I speek french but I'm good at english too. I've been interested in Islam for about one or two years. In my town, that is very little, there is no mosque, and no muslims at all. I only have a friend that one of her friend is a muslim and that I had the chance to meet with her family one time when they were in vacation in my town.

I wanna tell you a bit about how I had the Quran in my possession because I love how I got it. I was shopping with a friend, I was in vacation in her town. We saw on the street a little place where they were selling things like cute tea glasses, spices, things like that. The worker at the cash was a muslim girl. I looked for things, saw some cool cookies that I had never seen before. I continued and saw a beautiful shelf. The Quran was there, in three formats, there were also some DVDs about Islam. I took the bigger Quran, a very beautiful one, and looked at it. There were the Arabic suras with the french traduction on each page. I felt in love.

I looked at it again, and I didn't see any price on it. It was my last day of vacation so I only had money to pay for gas to come back home. I went to see the girl at the cash and asked her if they were selling the Quran. She told me yes and showed me the price that was inside the book ($35). I was a bit sad because I didn't have any money. So I told her thank you and placed it back where it was. She came and told me she could sell it to me for a cheaper price. That's when I explained her that I didn't have money anymore but I would come back one day to get it.

You know what she told me? She told me to get it, and come back when I'll have some money to give her. I was shocked! I thanked her so much and she was as happy as me. I went home with this beautiful book and now today she received her money.

That's my little story about how I got the Quran! I started to read it, and my muslim 'friend' (friend of a friend) suggested me to read the books of Tariq Ramadan, and that's what I did. I really felt in love. Everything feels so good to hear and it is always a passionating religion to study.

Today, on november 10, 2016, I pronounced the Shahada and started to pray. Let me tell it again for you guys, because I was alone when I did it:
Ash-hadu anlaa ilaaha illAllah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasululah.

It feels so good to say it! I feel so free right now. My biggest fear is about praying. Five times a day seems so much for me, but I want to try it for Allah. I wanna make him happy and I know it's for the best.

So I'll stop here, if you have some questions you can always ask them, and I hope to see you soon around here!

Afdal

[*charisma*]

Wa'alaikum Asalaam @AfdalFS

Welcome to the forum and welcome to Islam. Thanks for sharing your wonderful story mashallah!

You will inshallah be able to pray 5x a day. The most beautiful thing in life to me is prayer. It's the only time you can truly let your guard down and really feel that the Most high knows your situation and that no matter what happens, everything will be alright in life. There's nothing in the world that can give you that same feeling.

I just want you to remember that learning how to pray is not something that will happen over night. Even for practicing muslims can struggle to pray 5x a day because as humans our faith can fluctuate or we get lazy etc. So take it easy and enjoy learning it because it's such a beautiful journey and don't feel distraught about it. Once you make a habit of it, it becomes easy because you'll find ways to make it your priority. Also one of the most important things to keep in mind is that once you learn how to pray, hold on to it. Even if you make mistakes, or sin, or do anything that may make you feel ashamed, do not let go of your prayer because it's the glue that keeps your faith intact when you may feel like you're not valuable enough to have a relationship with Allah.

Anyways, I hope you will enjoy this forum, and we'll all be happy to help you! Let me know if you need anything :)

[AfdalFS]

Wow, thank you very much for this message!

I loved how you described the prayer. I will follow what you are telling because I think that is the truth. I will probably make some mistakes (well, already made some, Arabic is not very easy when you don't speak it), and I know sadly that I will probably forget or skip a prayer some days but your message makes me want to continue. I will think about it in the next few days when it will be time for prayer.

[فصيح الياسين]

ماشاءاللہ باراك الله في عمرك

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[eesa the kiwi]

Brother when I converted to Islam it was hard for people to understand how Muslims pray five times a day

Now I find it hard to understand how people get through the day without them
Make the effort and inshaAllah you will come to enjoy them

[AfdalFS]

Thank you everyone! It was inspiring to read your message Eesa the kiwi!

[*charisma*]

@AfdalFS

Some helpful resources from this forum:

For some basic terms in Islam check out this thread: Basic Islamic terms
To learn the basics of arabic try: Madinah Arabic
How to Pray: http://www.islamicboard.com/new-musl...ml#post2892052

[sister herb]

Salam alaykum

Welcome to Islam. And also welcome to forum. Hopely this place will be useful to you to find more knowledge and advices for every questions which may pop up to your mind.

[AfdalFS]

Thank you for these links! The How to pray website looks very usefull!

[muslim brother]

:wa: