I hope I am posting this in right section!
Ok so some of you were wondering how I became Muslim, it is a long story so I will try explain it.
I was born into a Catholic family but I wouldn't consider my family to be particularly religious as we never went to mass or things like this. However I remember from a young age how much I thought about God and even my mum tells me how I would always talk about having to pray to God because I was afraid God would be angry with me if I didn't pray. This is when I was like 4/5 years old and since my parents aren't religious I don't know who I was influenced by.
Then into my early teens I started second level and we had religion class but it wasn't like primary school anymore because we started to learn about World Religions. I actually remember my first thoughts on Islam as we learnt Muslims pray 5 times a day and do wudu and I just thought oh my God that is so much time I could never do that.
I started becoming really interested in Buddhism for a while and considered myself Buddhist but I think I was mainly attracted to the meditation parts of it because I soon left it. I became really depressed when I was about 16 and I felt like I didn't know what life was all about. I have always been a deep thinker and inquisitive person so I could never accept things the way they are. I always want to look for more answers. I was spending a lot of time at discos and aftertime I started to feel like everything in my life was superficial. I never forgot God though, I still 'talked' to God and asked Him to help me. Then when I was 17 I met a muslim person who really changed my life and that is how I was introduced to Islam on a more detailed level. The person never preached to me or anything but just said that I should research it myself. So I did. I started reading about Islam and thinking I don't believe this mainly because of the women issues. I wouldn't call myself a very modest person back then so it was hard for me to accept why a woman should be modest and why this and why that. I did leave reading about Islam for a while because I wasn't interested but as I spent more time with that Muslim person I was learning more about life and suddenly I found myself changing and wanting to be modest. I stopped eating pork and drinking alcohol.
I would say i spent about 6 months studying the main parts of Islam. I started to understand it more but I am not sure if I started it the wrong way because I was reading books when really I should have turned to the quran alone. Rather I turned to the quran lastly! I was just really angry and upset one night and decided I am going to randomly read a part of the quran. It landed on ad duha and then that is when my whole life changed and I could feel like God was with me or listening to me and had answered me just because of that surah. It was an amazing feeling. I then said shahadah. That was about a few months ago but at the start it took me a long time to adjust - what would I tell people? what about my parents? I did try do Ramadan alone but I didn't complete it as I stopped after 2 weeks. However I never give up on the long term because I know there will be difficulties and that I need patience. I know taht I feel like my life has meaning now. I only started to learn how to pray completely last month. I used to just watch videos on Youtube and use the hadiths to guide me and I gradually picked it up.
The hardest thing is sometimes the feeling of being alone. I dont live in a majority Muslim country and the nearest mosque is 2 hours away so it can get frustrating. I don't feel like there is a lot of information in my country about Islam and I definitely don't think the Muslim community do enough. Did I find the conversion hard? Yes because at one stage I felt guilty that I am leaving the Christian God and accepting the Islamic God but aftertime I realised God was the same all along I just had a different concept of God. Btw I dont believe I ever believed Jesus as being God because I always viewed them separately anyway so that wasnt hard for me.
The best thing about Islam is that I figured out what is real and what is not. The media distorts a lot of things and it makes me sad that people believe it but I think the most important thing as Muslims we can do is: do not tell THEM they have to change their opinions but rather WE need to help them understand Islam better. It annoys me when I hear stories of Muslims saying well this is our way of life you can't understand it because people can understand if they are given the chance and given the correct information. Also I think a thing I was shocked by when I first became Muslim was thinking all Muslims are good e.g. a Muslim drinking alcohol and I was like but they are Muslim how can they do that? Not all of us represent what Islam really is just the way when I was Christian before I did not represent what Christianity was because I never practiced my religion then.
Also another thing I would like to say most Muslims welcome me so much because I converted and it makes me feel like I am so special and part of this big family which is really nice BUT some Muslims treat me like because I am new that I am not on their level and that I am not really like a Muslim which is very hurtful! I just think we all need to be a lot more tolerant of each other and respectful because respect goes a long way.
Well I hope it wasnt too long hopefully its of interest to some of you or if you have any questions then ask its fine!
Ok so some of you were wondering how I became Muslim, it is a long story so I will try explain it.
I was born into a Catholic family but I wouldn't consider my family to be particularly religious as we never went to mass or things like this. However I remember from a young age how much I thought about God and even my mum tells me how I would always talk about having to pray to God because I was afraid God would be angry with me if I didn't pray. This is when I was like 4/5 years old and since my parents aren't religious I don't know who I was influenced by.
Then into my early teens I started second level and we had religion class but it wasn't like primary school anymore because we started to learn about World Religions. I actually remember my first thoughts on Islam as we learnt Muslims pray 5 times a day and do wudu and I just thought oh my God that is so much time I could never do that.
I started becoming really interested in Buddhism for a while and considered myself Buddhist but I think I was mainly attracted to the meditation parts of it because I soon left it. I became really depressed when I was about 16 and I felt like I didn't know what life was all about. I have always been a deep thinker and inquisitive person so I could never accept things the way they are. I always want to look for more answers. I was spending a lot of time at discos and aftertime I started to feel like everything in my life was superficial. I never forgot God though, I still 'talked' to God and asked Him to help me. Then when I was 17 I met a muslim person who really changed my life and that is how I was introduced to Islam on a more detailed level. The person never preached to me or anything but just said that I should research it myself. So I did. I started reading about Islam and thinking I don't believe this mainly because of the women issues. I wouldn't call myself a very modest person back then so it was hard for me to accept why a woman should be modest and why this and why that. I did leave reading about Islam for a while because I wasn't interested but as I spent more time with that Muslim person I was learning more about life and suddenly I found myself changing and wanting to be modest. I stopped eating pork and drinking alcohol.
I would say i spent about 6 months studying the main parts of Islam. I started to understand it more but I am not sure if I started it the wrong way because I was reading books when really I should have turned to the quran alone. Rather I turned to the quran lastly! I was just really angry and upset one night and decided I am going to randomly read a part of the quran. It landed on ad duha and then that is when my whole life changed and I could feel like God was with me or listening to me and had answered me just because of that surah. It was an amazing feeling. I then said shahadah. That was about a few months ago but at the start it took me a long time to adjust - what would I tell people? what about my parents? I did try do Ramadan alone but I didn't complete it as I stopped after 2 weeks. However I never give up on the long term because I know there will be difficulties and that I need patience. I know taht I feel like my life has meaning now. I only started to learn how to pray completely last month. I used to just watch videos on Youtube and use the hadiths to guide me and I gradually picked it up.
The hardest thing is sometimes the feeling of being alone. I dont live in a majority Muslim country and the nearest mosque is 2 hours away so it can get frustrating. I don't feel like there is a lot of information in my country about Islam and I definitely don't think the Muslim community do enough. Did I find the conversion hard? Yes because at one stage I felt guilty that I am leaving the Christian God and accepting the Islamic God but aftertime I realised God was the same all along I just had a different concept of God. Btw I dont believe I ever believed Jesus as being God because I always viewed them separately anyway so that wasnt hard for me.
The best thing about Islam is that I figured out what is real and what is not. The media distorts a lot of things and it makes me sad that people believe it but I think the most important thing as Muslims we can do is: do not tell THEM they have to change their opinions but rather WE need to help them understand Islam better. It annoys me when I hear stories of Muslims saying well this is our way of life you can't understand it because people can understand if they are given the chance and given the correct information. Also I think a thing I was shocked by when I first became Muslim was thinking all Muslims are good e.g. a Muslim drinking alcohol and I was like but they are Muslim how can they do that? Not all of us represent what Islam really is just the way when I was Christian before I did not represent what Christianity was because I never practiced my religion then.
Also another thing I would like to say most Muslims welcome me so much because I converted and it makes me feel like I am so special and part of this big family which is really nice BUT some Muslims treat me like because I am new that I am not on their level and that I am not really like a Muslim which is very hurtful! I just think we all need to be a lot more tolerant of each other and respectful because respect goes a long way.
Well I hope it wasnt too long hopefully its of interest to some of you or if you have any questions then ask its fine!
remain patient and make lots of dua!
