Stories of Muslim Reverts! - Post yours here!

Salam 3leykom everyone ! Well.. as i promised, I would like to share my story as well ! Warning ! It is a very loooong story ! hehe ...

Ok, so I was born in Laredo,Texas USA ( a border city right next to mexico! ^^ ) and i am a proud Mexican-American :) I grew up in a Catholic household but later on when i was about 5 or 6 years old, my parents and my sister (except for my brother is an atheist) converted to Evangelical Christianity (Protestantism for a lack of a better word hehe) but the church I grew up in was non-denominational , meaning it was not affiliated with Baptist , Methodist or Pentecostal churches... ( i still dont know where are these different sects/ denominations come from ! ^^ )
I remember being thrilled with the new transition to a different church ! I thought to myself.. "hey this church is way better ! People sing and dance joyfully for the Lord!" lol.. In contrast with the Catholic church my parents used to attend, there was no type of worship of that sort nor was there Sunday School for children or for teenagers.. so even though i was little, i began to see the difference right away.
So anyways.. as I grew older and was baptized at the age of 12, I was well-defined in my faith and my relationship with God kept growing and growing :)
But... problems began to emerge within the church i was attending.. me and my family noticed how rigid the teachings were about certain issues that affected our spiritual lives..
Our Pastor began to go a little overboard when he talked about going to the movie theater. He said that he deeply discouraged anyone (especially a youth) to go to the movies due to evil spirits that might be there... ( o_O ) And then he mentioned how this principal also applied to shopping malls.. and bowling allies ( x_X ! )
I noticed how many Christians can become a little or if not very paranoid with the issue of demons, satan, and other things pertaining to evil spirits. Its like they are every where and they blame the devil for everything ! lol Whereas, they should realize how important is to emphasize that God is with them ! And also, if something bad happens, they shouldnt always attribute it to the devil, but rather take responsibility for themselves.. and even.. to consider it to be a test from God and that He has everything in control ! not satan..
But this and among other things drove our family to a Assemblies of God Pentecostal church ( or churches, because i attend 2 for the youth services)
This type of church is very specific and a minority not to mention the one that is considered to be the "weird one" among all the other Christian churches out there.. [ please look up assemblies of God in Wikipedia i cant post links yet ]
The best known doctrine that they preach is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the practice of speaking in tongues.. which by the way, i have experienced and till this day it is somewhat controversial in my life, but deep down inside i know that this was just another way that God was telling me.. "listen, i love you and i am with you!"
Now let me explain my relationship with God... and the Trinity which since i was like about 8 or 9 years started to have questions about .. and the thoughts and experience that i had before planted the seeds for my conversion to Islam
So, yes i grew up learning that there is ONLY 1 God with 3 different personalities..ok.. but during the moments of Worship, where the congregation began to sing to God ( or to Jesus ? -_- ) In my spirit, i felt it break down.. i felt it moved and shaken whenever i would pronounce the word/name of God ! Even saying Jewish words liked Adonai ! Elohim !( which to me meant and still means Lord! despite what other people say about plural m thing.. >_< ! ) Jehova Jireh ! Jehova Rafa! Jehova Shalom! i was subconsciously declaring my devotion/ love/submission to God ( la ilaha ila Allah ) and also practicing a type of dihkr :D ! Because i would repeat the dfferent names of God over and over as Adoration to him. which is why the Hebrew language (Biblical) had and still has an affect to me to this day.
Also,
The non-denominational church was all in Spanish and the Pentecostal one bilingual.. so all my biblical knowledge and religious studies were in Spanish which lead me to associate this language with God and religion so it is naturally for me and i prefer to pray and worship God in Spanish ( and now of course in Arabic ^^ hehe ) But where i am going with this is, that i began to listen to music in Spanish and Hebrew which the term for it is "canciones mesianicas" messianic songs.. which was very much played in my church. But i can not help noticing that my worship in these songs were veered only to God! such as in Roni Roni Bats Zion, hine ma tov and Shalom Aleichem..
"For the Lord your God in the midst of you
Mighty is His name
Rejoicing over you
With songs of gladness
Sing joyfully
He will save us"
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" is my favorite one of hinei ma tov..
And this is why i can never be against Jews! For we indeed worship the same God amin ! And it is good to know that Jews and Christians are considered to be People of the Book ^^ in the Holy Qo'ran ..
You might ask .. So why this so much talk about music? Because it plays a big role in my life and it was a factor that really did question my relationship with the Trinity.
During services at church.. (especially Youth services) Music became almost if not the most important way for us to worship God. Which is common among many Christians..
This is good.. it is nice to worship God in many different forms.. and i still do only because i see it a part of my culture that i simply can not abandon despite being a Muslim.. the only difference now, is that i put limits and i am aware that the best form of worship to God is through obedience! This is a factor that even the Youth Pastor at my church pointed out.. that worship does not mean to always clap our hands and sing to God, but rather to offer our sincere obedience and submission to God.. He would use the word "surrender" but it means the same thing to me ! :) But still, many people still failed to see this and i even i failed to realize that.. and ultimately my relationship with Jesus depended only on emotions and feelings created through an environment that consisted of a mass of young people, musical instruments and neon lights.. ( the altar or "stage" at our church was very very distracting -_- ) I began to feel empty inside... and I was even more conflicted with my relationship with God the father, the son and the holy spirit... until i decided to analyze my situation and start to think things through.. So i noticed a pattern within myself... I noticed that whenever i prayed, id prayed to God.. and feel his presence.. whenever i would worship.. i would worship like this: "Señor digno eres tu de mi alabanza.. y nadie más.. Eres el omnipotente, el omnisciente y grande es tu Misericordia ! " My Lord (God) You alone are worthy of my worship and no one else.. You are the Omniscient and the All-Knowing .. All-Merciful !" :) So, I realized all by myself that it was easier for me to separate God from everything else.. and i perceived the "holy spirit" to just be simply the presence of God. However, this was me thinking as an individual and way before i knew anything about Islam. I was kinda practicing what is known as Oneness Pentecostalism [ once again, please check out oneness Pentecostalism in wikipedia]
So in conclusion, I decided to research about Islam and what it meant to be a Muslim.. I believe God lead me to this path.. because i feel and i know i have peace in my heart.. God has not abandoned me... I still feel his presence El7amdulilah!! Though I did receive help from my online Muslim friends on msn.. lol i was in no way forced to be a muslim.. it was a decision i made between me and God ! And.. no, my parents do not know this, I DO NOT plan to tell them any time soon, it is much too complicated to explain why here.. ill make another thread asking for all of your advice and help.. But bascially it has to do with my Mexican/Hispanic culture and my parents especially my Dad is very strict with religious matters.. it would be something taboo for them to ever hear that i have converted.. they dont understand islam.. but little by little inshallah.. they will :)

Salam !
 
Masha'Allah great story, congrats on being muslim

from what I know theres quite a few hispanic muslims?
 
Amira_Zelda said:
Salam 3leykom everyone ! Well.. as i promised, I would like to share my story as well ! Warning ! It is a very loooong story ! hehe ...

Ok, so I was born in Laredo,Texas USA ( a border city right next to mexico! ^^ ) and i am a proud Mexican-American :) I grew up in a Catholic household but later on when i was about 5 or 6 years old, my parents and my sister (except for my brother is an atheist) converted to Evangelical Christianity (Protestantism for a lack of a better word hehe) but the church I grew up in was non-denominational , meaning it was not affiliated with Baptist , Methodist or Pentecostal churches... ( i still dont know where are these different sects/ denominations come from ! ^^ )
I remember being thrilled with the new transition to a different church ! I thought to myself.. "hey this church is way better ! People sing and dance joyfully for the Lord!" lol.. In contrast with the Catholic church my parents used to attend, there was no type of worship of that sort nor was there Sunday School for children or for teenagers.. so even though i was little, i began to see the difference right away.
So anyways.. as I grew older and was baptized at the age of 12, I was well-defined in my faith and my relationship with God kept growing and growing :)
But... problems began to emerge within the church i was attending.. me and my family noticed how rigid the teachings were about certain issues that affected our spiritual lives..
Our Pastor began to go a little overboard when he talked about going to the movie theater. He said that he deeply discouraged anyone (especially a youth) to go to the movies due to evil spirits that might be there... ( o_O ) And then he mentioned how this principal also applied to shopping malls.. and bowling allies ( x_X ! )
I noticed how many Christians can become a little or if not very paranoid with the issue of demons, satan, and other things pertaining to evil spirits. Its like they are every where and they blame the devil for everything ! lol Whereas, they should realize how important is to emphasize that God is with them ! And also, if something bad happens, they shouldnt always attribute it to the devil, but rather take responsibility for themselves.. and even.. to consider it to be a test from God and that He has everything in control ! not satan..
But this and among other things drove our family to a Assemblies of God Pentecostal church ( or churches, because i attend 2 for the youth services)
This type of church is very specific and a minority not to mention the one that is considered to be the "weird one" among all the other Christian churches out there.. [ please look up assemblies of God in Wikipedia i cant post links yet ]
The best known doctrine that they preach is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the practice of speaking in tongues.. which by the way, i have experienced and till this day it is somewhat controversial in my life, but deep down inside i know that this was just another way that God was telling me.. "listen, i love you and i am with you!"
Now let me explain my relationship with God... and the Trinity which since i was like about 8 or 9 years started to have questions about .. and the thoughts and experience that i had before planted the seeds for my conversion to Islam
So, yes i grew up learning that there is ONLY 1 God with 3 different personalities..ok.. but during the moments of Worship, where the congregation began to sing to God ( or to Jesus ? -_- ) In my spirit, i felt it break down.. i felt it moved and shaken whenever i would pronounce the word/name of God ! Even saying Jewish words liked Adonai ! Elohim !( which to me meant and still means Lord! despite what other people say about plural m thing.. >_< ! ) Jehova Jireh ! Jehova Rafa! Jehova Shalom! i was subconsciously declaring my devotion/ love/submission to God ( la ilaha ila Allah ) and also practicing a type of dihkr :D ! Because i would repeat the dfferent names of God over and over as Adoration to him. which is why the Hebrew language (Biblical) had and still has an affect to me to this day.
Also,
The non-denominational church was all in Spanish and the Pentecostal one bilingual.. so all my biblical knowledge and religious studies were in Spanish which lead me to associate this language with God and religion so it is naturally for me and i prefer to pray and worship God in Spanish ( and now of course in Arabic ^^ hehe ) But where i am going with this is, that i began to listen to music in Spanish and Hebrew which the term for it is "canciones mesianicas" messianic songs.. which was very much played in my church. But i can not help noticing that my worship in these songs were veered only to God! such as in Roni Roni Bats Zion, hine ma tov and Shalom Aleichem..
"For the Lord your God in the midst of you
Mighty is His name
Rejoicing over you
With songs of gladness
Sing joyfully
He will save us"
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" is my favorite one of hinei ma tov..
And this is why i can never be against Jews! For we indeed worship the same God amin ! And it is good to know that Jews and Christians are considered to be People of the Book ^^ in the Holy Qo'ran ..
You might ask .. So why this so much talk about music? Because it plays a big role in my life and it was a factor that really did question my relationship with the Trinity.
During services at church.. (especially Youth services) Music became almost if not the most important way for us to worship God. Which is common among many Christians..
This is good.. it is nice to worship God in many different forms.. and i still do only because i see it a part of my culture that i simply can not abandon despite being a Muslim.. the only difference now, is that i put limits and i am aware that the best form of worship to God is through obedience! This is a factor that even the Youth Pastor at my church pointed out.. that worship does not mean to always clap our hands and sing to God, but rather to offer our sincere obedience and submission to God.. He would use the word "surrender" but it means the same thing to me ! :) But still, many people still failed to see this and i even i failed to realize that.. and ultimately my relationship with Jesus depended only on emotions and feelings created through an environment that consisted of a mass of young people, musical instruments and neon lights.. ( the altar or "stage" at our church was very very distracting -_- ) I began to feel empty inside... and I was even more conflicted with my relationship with God the father, the son and the holy spirit... until i decided to analyze my situation and start to think things through.. So i noticed a pattern within myself... I noticed that whenever i prayed, id prayed to God.. and feel his presence.. whenever i would worship.. i would worship like this: "Señor digno eres tu de mi alabanza.. y nadie más.. Eres el omnipotente, el omnisciente y grande es tu Misericordia ! " My Lord (God) You alone are worthy of my worship and no one else.. You are the Omniscient and the All-Knowing .. All-Merciful !" :) So, I realized all by myself that it was easier for me to separate God from everything else.. and i perceived the "holy spirit" to just be simply the presence of God. However, this was me thinking as an individual and way before i knew anything about Islam. I was kinda practicing what is known as Oneness Pentecostalism [ once again, please check out oneness Pentecostalism in wikipedia]
So in conclusion, I decided to research about Islam and what it meant to be a Muslim.. I believe God lead me to this path.. because i feel and i know i have peace in my heart.. God has not abandoned me... I still feel his presence El7amdulilah!! Though I did receive help from my online Muslim friends on msn.. lol i was in no way forced to be a muslim.. it was a decision i made between me and God ! And.. no, my parents do not know this, I DO NOT plan to tell them any time soon, it is much too complicated to explain why here.. ill make another thread asking for all of your advice and help.. But bascially it has to do with my Mexican/Hispanic culture and my parents especially my Dad is very strict with religious matters.. it would be something taboo for them to ever hear that i have converted.. they dont understand islam.. but little by little inshallah.. they will :)

Salam !
Click to expand...

Asalaamu Alaikum,

Thank you for posting your story Sister, was a very interesting read. Be happy to know you follow Jesus(pbuh) more now then you ever did before :)

 
MashaAllah sister Amira_Zelda, very inspirational story!
Congratulation and welcome back to Islam. I pray that Allah will ease your affairs with your family and that everything will be fine with you. You just reminded me of an online friend I know from US who reverted to Islam 2 years ago when she was 15 and had the same issue with her family but they are more understanding now and they are getting better with her. May Allah keep all of us steadfast on the right path.
 
Thank you all for making me feel welcomed :) !!!!!!
i also found that video to be very helpful ^^ i really liked it thanks Perseveranze it made alot of sense to me

wa salam!
 
Brother Naidamar asked me to share this story over here.So here i go :)

Endymion said:
Here is the revert story of my very good friend Ayesha,it made me cry so much.I hope this will help you :)

My Revert story... my journey to islam

My name is Aysha, and I am from North Hungary. I heard about Islam when I was in secondary school in the history lessons, because Hungary was under occupation by Turkey for 150 years.

After that I went to university to study molecular biology, where I met many Muslim foreign students.



I was always curious why Muslims are so proud that they are Muslims.



I was Catholic, a good one, but I always had doubts and I didn't agree with some parts of my religion: for example, how can God have a son and the concept of the Trinity was also not believable for me.



Then I started to talk with my friends, and one time, when we were having dinner and the Adhan started, one of my friends asked me to stop it, but I said no. I was very much impressed by it and something surely touched my heart.



Then I don't know why at that summer I downloaded a Quran program. I was listening to it in Arabic and was reading it in English. Then I was thinking a lot about Islam and I was reading many books about it.



But then, after two months of thinking I finally chose Islam. I declared Shahadah in front of two of my friends. I said: La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad rasul Allah (I bear witness there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah)

I chose Islam against my culture and my family, especially my mom.



After that, Ramadan started and I decided that I will start my new life in Islam with Ramadan. Alhamdulilah (thank God), I made it successfully.



I started to offer prayer on the 4th of August. It was very hard for me at the beginning because people around me were not that practicing Muslims, so I couldn't ask anyone.



I learnt how to pray by myself from the Internet, because no one showed me how to pray or how to make wudu (ablution), or what invocation to say before it or how to do ghusl (ritual cleansing of the body) or what are the etiquettes and the rulings of Islam.



Once I had a friend and he made me really down. He told me you will never understand Islam, because you were not born as a Muslim. When I told him I want to start fasting Ramadan, he said it is not just about being hungry. At that time I was so new to Islam, I had converted just a month before he said that.

At that time I got so scared, what if I will never learn how to pray in Arabic? What if I don't do it the correct way? And I didn't have hijab (head scarf) or a rug to pray on, and I didn't get any help. So I had lots of fears.







But when I started to pray, I was thinking God must be smiling on me now. Because I used to write down the text of the ritual prayer on a paper and its instructions,and I kept my papers in my right hand and read loudly and then bow down and read again and so on. I'm sure I was looking so funny. But afterwards I succeeded to memorize it in the Arabic language so then there was no problem.



Then I came to Facebook and got many new friends and many sisters. From online sisters I got so much love and courage. Then a Muslim man proposed to me and he got me my first hijab and prayer rug and an Islamic book. And I got my first Arabic Quran from Jordan by post because we cannot buy it here. Now it is more than a year that I wear hijab.I went through a very bad period with my mom. She would say to me that I will be a terrorist and I will leave her as I left my religion and I will leave my country too. She would put all pork things in the fridge and I would refuse to eat it so it turns into a big argument.



She couldn't stand seeing me praying or seeing me in hijab. So I pray upstairs in my room. She would never look at me when I'm in hijab and she would say: "I gave birth to a Christian child not to a veiled Muslim."



So we had serious problems, but I was never harsh or rude with her. But alhamdulilah (thank God) she calmed down now and she seems accepting that I converted. I'm really thankful to Allah for that. Now I go out in hijab, and she doesn't say anything.



I was not talking with my father for all my life and he didn't want to see me. But now, because of Islam, I opened towards him so now he visits us regularly.



Yes, my life is a big test but I thank God for it and I have patience and hope. On the Day of Judgment I will be very thankful for them. So I'm trying to be better and better and learn more and more to understand my religion.



I believe everything is predestined, so whatever Allah has decreed that will happen to me I cannot change, but I can choose to live my life nicely.



I try helping others now in Debrecen. I organized a project to collect second hand clothes for refugee camp people. There are a lot of Muslims there who don't have a home because of wars. So we collected clothes and we went there and I made them Pakistani bread, for children and for females, they were so happy and it was so nice to see them.

I used to raise my voice if somebody says anything that bothers me. But now I am showing example everywhere I go.



I'm trying to guide also those who want to convert or just converted. I met with two Hungarian sisters, the other day, and they have just converted to Islam. So I gave them books, and my prayer rug and a copy of the Quran, so alhamdulilah we prayed together and they were really happy.



I always try to leave the image that we Muslims are nice, friendly and we have a good heart.



I converted one and a half years ago. Now I am learning Arabic, to be able to read the Quran. I read Quran in Hungarian, I offer prayers five times a day, I try to follow the Quran and the Sunnah, and I read many books to understand better.



This is my story.



Peace be unto you.

A Hungarian Muslim
Click to expand...
 
WOOOW Mashallah !! Thanks for sharing with us that story, you know in many ways I can relate with her. Her first steps in Islam were similar to mine

Alhamdulilah !! I feel sooo happy reading that.. thanks !
 
Amira_Zelda said:
WOOOW Mashallah !! Thanks for sharing with us that story, you know in many ways I can relate with her. Her first steps in Islam were similar to mine

Alhamdulilah !! I feel sooo happy reading that.. thanks !
Click to expand...

Im happy you like the story sis Amira :statisfie May Allah swt bless you and guide you and make this life easy for you.Amen.
Keep me in your doaa :)
 
Masha'Allah sister Ayesha what a beautiful inspirational story.. may Allah swt assure your steps and accompany you on your journey.. amazing how one is like when they come to Islam anew sob7an Allah.. pls. keep me in your du3a..

:w:
 
Asalamu alykum,

this is not my story, itz a story of a brother and a good friend of mine... i was sort of aware of the whole tranisition. At a young age he was sort of part of our "crew". i mean, even though we werent a gang or anything we used to cause mischief together. He knew we were muslims and initially he was interested but we werent really practising at that moment in time so a lot of us would not answer the question. When we started to grow up, go to college and such, some of the muslims started to practise (including myself, Alhamdulillah). Since we fiercly got into our deen, him and our other christian friends started practise their religion more. We used to get into a lot of debates to the point that they would get frustrated and leave, we even used to go to their homes and plant islamic literature in his home, which he later admitted that he did have a flick through. one day, he invited us to the church, which we accepted and he introduced us to the priest and challenged us to question him. We jumped on the trinity, at which point we got kicked out the church, loooool, that was a funny day. Our friend then disappeared for a while due to us being a "bad influence" on him. when he came back to us he told us he was no longer a christian but neither was he a muslim. Alhamdulillah, we thought since atleast Allah got him to give up the christian belief. Few weeks of dawah went by and then one day he came running to a house of one of our close friends where a lot of the practising muslim members of the previous crew were hanging out. he banged on the door, we opened it, he sat down and told us this story "I had a dream where I was in this dark room and there was a creature in there with me. he was holding the quran and he told me to take it... to accept the truth". Praise and Glory be to the One who guides us to the path of the righteous, our friend became our brother that day.
 
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