Peace be upon yall, Salaam Aleykum
I have been meaning to complete a piece of my life in written form, to be more precise the journey to the straight path.
To the reader, this is not a means to give prove Islam right or to show it’s superiority, since this was a personal journey and Islam stands with or without this journey, and I cannot add any benefit to Islam nor can I take away from it’s beauty. The purpose is to merely share a journey of one man which may help others to see things in a better prospective, in the same way that the journey of others has helped me along my journey.
EDIT: My knowledge of Islam was not very accurate, a muslim to me seemed to be an arabic guy with an ak screaming Allawackbar (thats how I used to say it and spell it)
I was the type of boy that before becoming Christian used to play soccer and when I would score would scream ALlawackbar and bow down as I used to see the some muslims do, as a joke to annoy my muslim friends, and do stupid ignorant stuff like that, little did I know I would be postrating in tears pretty soon
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Into Christianity
Before reaching the final destination of Islam I was driven towards my family’s religion Christianity.
During my first year in college (in the U.K. not American College) I found myself being asked to leave after a couple of months, at this period societies nature had taken it’s toll on me and I seemed to be doomed as another young male with no purpose. I found myself out of college, passing day by day with no actual focus. It was out of this darkness that the journey would begin. A sunny afternoon I found myself passing through the local shopping centre, as far as I recall I was going to pick my little brother up from his school, it was then that I found a lady’s outstretched hand, passing me a book, considering I had never read a book up to that point in life, never from cover to cover, except for maybe one for school, I found myself instinctively taking the book, without even knowing what it was about, funny enough after handing me the book the lady eagerly suggest I should provide a donation, nice tactics.
The book was entitled ‘Survivors’ by a man named Zion Ben Jonah. This book struck me by total surprise with its hardcore and explicit statements; it was a great change from everything I had heard before then in Church. The loving, merciful and passionate side of God was always being talked about, what this book did was take the worst case scenario and apply it to the end times which was a very intriguing wake up call to the former ‘happy-go-lucky’ type of attitude in the Church, that nothing harmful would ever happen.
From this concerned prospective I began to stand up and take more of a vocal point at church and began to start engaging with Christianity, I began stating my point of view and my distress at the one sided preaching that happened in the Church. I questioned and questioned as to why we didn’t speak about the end times, why we didn’t talk about the wrath of God and rather spend every Sunday speaking about the same thing again and again. It was this sort of blind Church going that provoked my reaction from myself. I began questioning and reading passages from Revelation to my peers to wake them up, that anyone ‘Luke-warm will be spat out’ and that 100% dedication would be needed and a part time Christian is no Christian at all.
Christian Union
By now the next curriculum year of college had began and I had enrolled in the same college. It was on one occasion that I found a family friend in a room with about 7 or so people at lunch time, intrigued I looked through the door-window hoping to get a glance; she then saw me and indicated that I should enter.
I humbly entered not knowing what to expect, but hearing something very sweet, the speaking of God, on a serious level. I started from this attending the Christian Union meetings, and what I loved more was the preaching contained a balance of both love and justice, the never ending reminders that ‘your mouth will testify about what it was used for, the finger will testify what it was used for’ and so on kept me at an edge and consistently reminded me of the need for repentance and acceptance of God. Although the meetings only took place of Wednesday and Fridays I began to urge for meetings on every lunch time and would find myself restless if no meetings occurred. Such qualities must have been obvious because it was soon after I had expressed my intention of more meetings vocally, that I remember a couple of instances in which the group leaders, whom were all leaving that year, were sat round talking about finding a successor and all in turned expressed that God had spoke to them and revealed some names, now, I don’t claim to be a mind reader, but it was pretty obvious who they were indirectly saying God said.
At that time, I was battling myself, with a major problem I had always had, the problem of putting myself in the right place, since practicing Christianity, the place being that I am nothing, and that all good that I may do is from God and so on, although I believe that and understand it, and even tried my best to practice it, I have always found it hard to even speak without feeling that I have let Satan find a way to place pride in me, so I told the leaders that I couldn’t see myself as a leader because I needed my humility, and with becoming a leader I feared pride.
The Talk
Although I have always had Muslim friends they have never been able to give me da’wah properly (another key factor, this is the need as to why Muslims should learn da’wah, had I died a couple of years earlier I would have never known the proper Islam) but somehow, although it had never entered my mind, I heard about a Muslim talk that was going to take place, I decided to go.
[On a quick note, the decision to go was somewhat similar and instinctive as the decision to take the book from the lady.]
On arriving, I didn’t know to expect, the speaker was not going to turn up, but there were plenty of books and a lot of chocolate, which sure helped me stay, a brother took up the speakers place and just entertained some questions.
From there, December 2004 until July 2005 I started learning the views of Islam and started to also view Christianity, something I hadn’t done, although I had believed in it, I had never scrutinised it and examined it from a neutral viewpoint.
Another point to help me was the Autobiography of Malcolm X, and the journey of his helped in a subtle way to shed a light on Islam.
It was during this period that I slowly started to realise, that Eesa is but Abdullah, meaning that Jesus is but a Servant of Almighty God.
And in, July 2005 I bore my testimony of faith.
[All praise is due to Almighty God for any benefit that has occurred through this article and any mistakes are solely mine and may God forgive me]
Salaam Aleykum Wa Rhametula Wa Berekatu
[Peace be upon yall and mercy from Almighty God and blessings]
Your brother in Islam and/or Humanity
Eesa Abdullah
[Jesus servant of Almighty God]
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