If you feel it's appropriate, would you please briefly elucidate how you came to that realization?
I would say it is probably very individual and different tor each person. so speaking just for my self. I am a fairly recent revert having reverted just a little over 2 years ago, March of 2005, Just a few months before my 65th birthday.
I was familiar with Islam in an academic sense. But, I was pretty much of an agnostic although I preferred to call myself a Buddhist. i was also familiar with Arabic as a language. I had spent a number of years in the North African and Mid-Eastern countries in my younger days. I had a Qur'an written only in Arabic. At the time I did not know that a non-Muslim should not have a pure Qur'an unless they had been taught how to respect it. For nearly 40 years I had that Qur'an as an academic guide. I saw it simply as a piece of literature and a very interesting study in the Arabic Language. I had never had any desire to accept Islam and nobody had every asked me to. I had never spoken to an Imam or ever even discussed Islam with a Muslim to any extent.
At the time of my reverting I was living in a small town in Anderson, county Texas. I was not aware of any Mosques in Anderson County and did not even know if there were any Muslims in Texas.
I was a semi-church goer, even being agnostic. In small town Texas, a person is pretty much expected to, at least a few times each year, put on your Sunday go to meeting duds, and mingle with the folks at church. That was my limit on organized religion.
Anyhow I was cleaning up the house, and came across my Qur'an. I had been alone for 2 years and living the life of an old bachelor out in the middle of no place. My car had been dead for a few weeks and I was pretty much on foot.
Was semi-courting the widow lady down the street, we would have coffee together at her house a few times a week. Did occasionaly have some fleeting thoughts that perhaps I would remarry. she was/is a good woman with some nice values and at the time, we had some serious discussions about marriage.
Anyhow that particular day after coming across my Qur'an I thought I'd try to refresh my Arabic and began reading it. For some reaso as i read it it, I was overcome with a feeling of deep comfort. I had always known I could not read the Qur'an properly as I did not understand the proununciation marks so my pronounciation was very colloquial and not Qur'anic. But, even reading it simply as literature and viewing it as a language tool, This particular day, it was like a bell rang. The words made sense and were not just poetry. the more I read the more relaxed I became. The more relaxed, the more comforting it was. I read through the Qur'an non-stop until I had read the entire book, and then started over again. I don't really know how many hours I read and could not stop. I know it was at least 2 full days.
After reading it, I knew I was Muslim, it was as if I had found my way home. I said the Shahadah. (Yes, I knew what the Shahdah was, from having studing religions, and yes I knew how to say it. That came from old military days. When I was in North Africa, it was general Barracks hogwash talk, that if we ever got into a war with any Arab nations and got captured by Arabs we would not be killed if we said the Shahadah so many of us had learned it by heart)
After saying the Shahdah, I just sat and reflected for a while. I had said the Shahdah with full intent and sincerity. I knew I was then Muslim for the rest of my life. I slept for awhile. work up and decided to walk down to the convenience store about a mile down the road. When I was in the store a stranger came in. For some reason I got talking with him. I learned he spoke Arabic. We carried on a brief conversation in Arabic. I was surprised he could understand my broken, mispronounced speaking. I found out He was Muslim, I told him I had just said the Shahdah. He immediatly invited me to go with him to the Mosque on Friday. I did not know there was one in Texas. Turns out there was one in Tyler about 60 miles away. We went to the Mosque for Jummah that Friday. We got there early spoke with the Imam. I repeated the Shahadah publicaly and My life has changed. Besides being Muslim I met a life long friend, who was the first Brother I met in Islam.
So how I came to the realization that Islam is the truth, i can not fully say. It was not a planned thing. Everything just fell into place and I am very gratefull for what I gained. i also gained much, much more. But that is a seperate story.
Also, could you recommend any writings, that would give an unbiased account of the prophet's life.
Preferably, not contemporary, but rather, written close to his times, ergo 6th, 7th , 8th centuries.
The first early books I read about Muhammad(PBUH) were from the 10th Century, written from the Christian perspective. Not very flattering quite biased against him.
I have recently begun trying to search for early writings about Muhammad(PBUH). So far no luck. The only books I know of about him are the Hadith, which do contain a lot of information about the last 20 years of His life written by people who were close to him. I believe you would consider the Hadith to be biased and not valid from a historical view.
Your Welcome
