Stories of Muslim Reverts! - Post yours here!

asalaam alaikum! i'm a new brother (very new...less than a week!) and i wanted to introduce myself and share my story of how i found Allah(swt), and Islam...the best moment of my life so far.

i was raised catholic. it worked fine for me as a kid, and there's a lot to like about catholicism. then i got older...and realized there was a lot more i didn't like. so i gravitated away from the church during my college years, and stopped practicing altogether not long after. much to my (very, very catholic) family's chagrin.
that was about, oh, 10 years ago now. ever since i've kind of been floating through life. plenty of good stuff--great friends, an awesome family, a successful career. but lately, within the last 18 months or so, i was feeling lost. exceptionally so. i attribute a big portion of that to the fact that i'm living somewhere i don't really like (and can't leave yet because i'm under contract), without many friends or any family close by. combine that with a very stressful job and a joke of a romantic life, and i got pretty seriously depressed. i won't go into the gory details but there was one day where it manifested itself in a horrifying way, and i never felt so scared in my whole life.
i went into therapy for a while, and that helped, but not a whole lot because i've never been very shy about it. my friends and family knew i was struggling. talking to a stranger wasn't very cathartic. i tried exercising, i tried taking up new hobbies, i tried all kinds of things...and it all had minimal, short-term effects.
last week i was having one of my worst days in a while. i was mad at my boss, i was angry about something else i can't even remember now, i was lonely, i was stressed out, and i was just really sad. to the point where i nearly hit another car in traffic because i got so mad (again, don't know why) i floored it up to about 65 in a 35 to pass him on the right. and i didn't even realize what i'd done until afterwards, and it scared the heck out of me.
that night, i came home and something--i can only presume now it was Allah(swt) himself--drove me to research Islam. and everything made sense. i went to one of the new Muslim help sites and talked to a brother on chat, and peppered him with all kinds of questions (poor guy), and everything. made. sense. all the while i was tabbing back to research about the Prophet (pbuh) and EVERYTHING. MADE. SENSE. a couple of hours later, the guy helping me asked if i was ready to take the shahadah. i was, and i did.
knowing me, i fully expected to wake up the next morning in a cold sweat, panicking about what i'd just done. instead, i woke up refreshed. all the things that were infuriating me 18 hours earlier...all the isolation, the loneliness, the general malaise...it was all gone.

and still i feel amazing. now i'm just trying to learn as much as i can, grow my faith and forge bonds with other muslims.

sooooo...that's me. :)
 
Here comes my story:

How I became a Muslim

The first time I heard about Islam in the school at the 1970´s. I was about 9 or 10 when my teacher in one class told that Islam is coming to Europe. At this time nobody didn´t talk about Islam or Muslim anything, not good or bad. But as he didn´t explain to us what this Islam really is we kids left to the idea its something unknown coming and propably we can´t do nothing to stop it. In children´s mind it was like some darkness what is coming.

Some years after that I found the old Quran from my parent´s bookcase. I was wondering why it was there as my home is quite atheistic; my family is Christian but when I was kids my parents never talked about religion. So I could say they were quite secular. My mother told that book belonged to my father´s mother who was interesting about other religions and read a lot about them. She was Christian and quite religious. Any ways, she died long before I was born.

I have always been interesting about history and other cultures so I was thinking "why not" and read that Quran. I was about 14 years old then but I didn´t feel that this book would to be anything special to me. In the matter of fact, it felt quite odd book.

During the years I read more and more about history. While reading about other cultures I also became aware about nowadays problems and became interesting about human right matters. I took part to the peace marches and several other kind of campaings. History books lead me also to think about happenings in the Middle East like wars and occupation. And of course, I loved to read more about its history too. I started from the beginning and learnt a lot about some ancient cultures. Then I found mentions about Islam again from some history book.

I remembered there were that old Quran again and decided to read it again. Also with my human right activities I had met some Muslims and many of them felt nice and kind people. They mentioned Islam to me and I wanted to know more about their believes. So I started the Quran again, over 10 years I had read it at the first time. Now I read also some other books about Islam and understood also the Quran much better.

I started to think the life and compared the Islamic values to my own atheist values. I hadn´t never thought these matters very much at all - like is here the God or not and if He is somewhere, then where He is. To me as the atheist world was already perfect without any nonsense about God. But something put me to read more and think more and looking for more books.

The biggest matter to me was to understand where the God is. I didn´t see that the God would to be part of this world at all. Then i turned my way of thinking to up side down and started to think that maybe the God isn´t part of this world but maybe this world is a part of the God. This sounded to me very interesting and new way to think.

As I am the person who collects knowledge and understanding, these new ideas about the God didn´t leave me alone. It would be the most easy and natural way to looking for answers from the chruch but I haven´t had any contacts with my family or friends to the church at all plus I had always felt that ideology of the Christianity isn´t for me. All this trinity stuff didn´t make any sense. Looking for information about Islam was a way too harder as in my city hadn´t many Muslims at that time. Only few and I didn´t know them at all.

But I had books. Unfortunately this was the time before the internet where I could find very easily a lot of information as well other Muslims and some forums (like this one). So I continued to looking for more books and thought all this only by myself alone.

Soon I felt this Islam thing is something I can´t just leave. Something in my mind started to tell me it is my things and it will change all my life when I will find out what it really is. Finally, after many years of reading and thinking I found myself to thinking that Islam is like a garden. I saw to there but there were also a high fences around of it. I saw there something so beautiful I never hadn´t seen and urgently wanted to go in but because of the fence I couldn´t. The secret of Islam was inside of those high fences. I found there was a gate but it was locked and I hadn´t a key. So I had to turn back and started to looking for the key. But I didn´t know what they key even is so looking for it was a mystery to me. I felt I wanted to become a Muslim but how I can? What would to be the matter what makes me a Muslim? How it would happens? What I have to do?

Then I got an idea: what Islam means? It means to submit to the will of the God. That was the key I was looking for - submission to the will of God. This idea opened the gate to me but...

But then I suddenly felt myself so insufficient, so unpure, so worthless. There was just only little step to take and I would be in, but I couldn´t take it. I felt like it wasn´t my decision if I can take the last step or not. I had to give this the last and the most important decision to the God.

So, by the other words, I submitted the will of the God.

A little moment I felt like I would be light as a feather and I had the feeling like someone would touch me and lift me over the doorstep inside of the garden. I was a Muslim.

A week later I traveled to the other city where was a nearest mosque and said shahada in front of witnesses. It was on the 15th of April 1995. I felt like it would to be my the new day of birth.
 
Assalamu Alaikum. Thought I could share mine! Last year, at this time of the year (December), I was second guessing my own faith at the time (paganism) and was hearing all of the crazy things going on in the world. Seeing everything crazy happening with wars and hate increasing and love and connection decreasing, I wondered how long I had left to live my life as I now know it.
I never had anything against Muslims or Islam, but I knew people who did. I just didn't know anything about it. The tings the people I knew would say about Islam and Muslims really bothered me since hate speech is a BIG pet peeve of mine. So it was in the back of my head I was thinking, "do they really know what they are talking about?" and I started to wonder for myself what the Quran actually says, what Muslims really believe. Ever since 9/11/01 hate crimes an hate speech against people of the Islamic faith has increases. I mean even today Donald Trump is doing it SO publicly and no-one has stopped him yet. I say yet only because I think he will be stopped soon or at least that he will drop out of the presidential race. But that is beside the point of this post. Then, all this crazy ISIS stuff started happening and people started going off even more on ALL Muslims just because of this one group who only claims to be Muslims, but is NOT. And people started saying things like "all Muslims hate anyone who isn't Muslim" blah blah blah. And people would just verbally attack Muslims saying they are all terrorists. I was very mad about this even though I still did not know much about Islam, but was learning about the peaceful ways. In my heart I knew that they were peaceful people so I started reading even more for myself. I kept reading and researching. I even attended a masjid a couple times to talk with people. I did anything I could to learn more and after that I went online and found this place that sends people an entire box of FREE books on Islam about everything you could think of. I can't remember what it was called, but I received a normal sized Quran, a pocket sized one also, books on basic teachings, and books on very detailed things. It was so peaceful. So after a lot of thinking and praying, I had to do it. I am still keeping it secret mostly. Especially with all the hate doing around. Did you know there are actually people who protest at masjids lately? This is just crazy.
 
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God guides who He wills. Nate Leonard Richards is a professional fighter. He wrote in to Brotherhood In Islam: “I am the only Muslim in my town and I face persecution for my beliefs every day but I know Allah guides me. I am a professional fighter. I always praise Allah after my fights win or lose no matter what the crowd thinks. I love this page. All the content is great for me to read. I go on first thing every day.”

He took his Shahadah (testimony of faith) a year ago and since then, stopped getting tattoos. “I do not miss prayer.”

When asked what brought him to Islam he said, “I was seeing a lot of negative talk in the media for many years, I never make judgement without knowing for myself. I have many Muslim friends and I asked to borrow an English version of the Qur’an. He told me to keep it and I just knew in my heart it was the truth.”

He said he has never felt so strong in his spirit before. “I wish everybody could see the power and beauty of Islam and I will always do my best to spread the deen.”

He added: “I will strive my best to be the best Muslim I can be before it is my turn to face him. And if Allah sees fit to grant my mercy then I will go to Jannah with who I love.”

I thank our brother Nate for getting in touch. One verse came to mind when reflecting on his story:

"Allah will change their sins into good deeds" Quran {25:70}

"Allah does not look to your faces and your wealth but He looks to your heart and to your deeds." Abu Huraira, reported from Prophet Muhammed ﷺ, Sahih Muslim 2564.

May these quotes be a glad tiding for you.

Pray for him, make dua for him that Allah keeps him firm on the straight path.

Via Brotherhood in Islam FB page.
 
So who's going to tell him to get his tats removed?

Although mashallah, never missing prayer gives him a +1 on most people.
 
My story isn't exactly exciting, but here goes!

Most of my life I haven't been religious. I never though about it. I come from a totally non-Muslim background. But my mum met a Muslim man and he introduced her to Islam. She reverted around the time she married my (Now) stepdad. After that my mum and stepdad introduced me to Islam. I was given lots of Islamic books and even enrolled in a class. I had lots of encouragement and eventually I said my Shahada in July 2014. So I'm now in a completely Muslim family.

I won't pretend that it's all been easy. When I became Muslim my whole life changed forever. A lot of it has been good and has helped me try and become a better person. I've been sticking to my prayers and Ramadan was good. But I've found a lot of it hard too. Especially wearing hijab and jilbab, not being able to have boys as friends, restrictions on going out and all that kind of stuff. But still trying to be a better Muslimah all the time!
 
TRUE STORY ABOUT A REVERT SISTER:

"Subhaan Allah. I got pregnant at 18. I was not yet officially Muslim but had been studying Islam. I had no money, not much of an education and a Muslim told me that I should abort the baby because it was still early in the pregnancy and its soul had not come in yet. I was confused but knew in my heart that I could not do it.

So one night I picked up the Quran and said a prayer before opening it saying " God please give me the answers I need to help me through this."

I opened the Quran to a page right on verse 151 in Surah Al A'naam (Chapter 6) where Allah says: "and do NOT KILL KILL your children for fear of poverty; for We provide sustenance for you and will provide sustenance for them also.."

Allahu Akbar!! I still get teary remembering that moment. It changed me forever and I thank Allah for my beautiful daughter, one of the biggest blessings in this life. Alhamdulillah"

Abortion is HARAAM in Islaam, a MURDER so do not fear anyone except Allah & always seek His Help surely He helps His slave in ways we cannot imagine
 
:sl:



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How does a middle-aged, white Scottish man living in the Scottish Highlands end up becoming a Muslim - especially when he hasn't properly met a Muslim in his life?

For me, it all started when I heard the call to prayer from a local mosque while on a beach holiday in Turkey. It woke something up inside me, and inspired me to begin a spiritual quest.

Back home in Inverness, I went to the local bookshop, bought a Qur'an and started to read. While reading, I always asked God to guide me on the journey I had set out on.

A lot of praying. A lot of time on my knees.

The Qur'an really shook me. It's quite a scary book to read because it tells you so much about yourself. Some things that I found out about myself I didn’t like. So I decided to make some changes.


http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...er-meeting-a-muslim-this-is-how-a6862936.html
 
I grew up in a very traditional Spanish/Mexican-American family. Most of my family members were very devout Catholics, as is to be expected among Spaniards and Mexicans, even those living in America. However, despite the strict Catholicism of my extended family, my more immediate family was much less stringent about religion (my mother is agnostic, and my father is a Lutheran convert), and allowed me the freedom to explore and determine my own religious beliefs.

For a while, during my teenage years, I was pretty apathetic about religion in general; sometimes going as far as to be disdainful of it entirely. I converted to Paganism at age 13, but was on and off about it. In late high school, I started studying Spanish history, and became exposed to the culture of Andalus, and was, in a sort of nationalistic pride, determined to live up "Spain's Glory Days"

Looking back on it, I was a really dumb kid, but good did come out of it. Once I was done with the Spanish Nationalist Pride, I actually got around to reading about, and studying Islam; reading the Qur'an, talking to Muslims, visiting masjids, and really learning about Islam for the sake of learning about Islam. I was very, very enamored by the beautiful thing that I had come to intimately learn about, and decided that I wanted to seriously follow this path. I formally declared the shahadah at my local masjid in September of 2014, and have never regretted a day since then.
 
al-Andalusi said:
I grew up in a very traditional Spanish/Mexican-American family. Most of my family members were very devout Catholics, as is to be expected among Spaniards and Mexicans, even those living in America. However, despite the strict Catholicism of my extended family, my more immediate family was much less stringent about religion (my mother is agnostic, and my father is a Lutheran convert), and allowed me the freedom to explore and determine my own religious beliefs.

For a while, during my teenage years, I was pretty apathetic about religion in general; sometimes going as far as to be disdainful of it entirely. I converted to Paganism at age 13, but was on and off about it. In late high school, I started studying Spanish history, and became exposed to the culture of Andalus, and was, in a sort of nationalistic pride, determined to live up "Spain's Glory Days"

Looking back on it, I was a really dumb kid, but good did come out of it. Once I was done with the Spanish Nationalist Pride, I actually got around to reading about, and studying Islam; reading the Qur'an, talking to Muslims, visiting masjids, and really learning about Islam for the sake of learning about Islam. I was very, very enamored by the beautiful thing that I had come to intimately learn about, and decided that I wanted to seriously follow this path. I formally declared the shahadah at my local masjid in September of 2014, and have never regretted a day since then.
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I am also Spanish! The history of Andalusia is so interesting because it's really intrinsically tied to Islam. :P If you look at the work by Americo Castro he writes about how Spain came into being after 711 (when Muslims came into Spain). There's also Claudio Sanchez Albornoz (but he takes a really anti-Islamic approach on Spanish identity).
 
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These 3 body guards from UK accepted Islam this evening after doing some thinking and comparison and having their misconceptions cleared out.

They loved the fact that Allah is the Most Merciful and that His mercy encompasses His anger.

May Allah reward them tremendously for acknowledging the truth.

- Rayan Fawzi Arab
 
:sl:

All these stories about reverts are so inspiring and motivating!:ma:

May Allah bless them with goodness in this world and high status in Jannatul Firdaus ameen!:alhamd:
 
The Islamic State is what made me come to Islam, that's all I have to say. I seen them on the news and that's what made me come to Islam.
 

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