Back by popular demand! This is the newest series in our Convert Perspectives Collection. Interviewee: Suhalia Question #1: Were you raised in a religious home prior to Islam?
Suhalia: I was exposed to religion, but my home was not overly religious. There were times when we went to church and times when we didn't. Question #2: How long did it take you from learning about Islam to actually converting? Why was it a quick or prolonged decision? Suhalia: I was introduced to an academic understanding of Islam in 1988. I was re-acquainted with Islam in 2003. I spent time reading and asking questions. It wasn't until July of 2013 that I was able to observe the daily routines associated with Islam. I began having conversations with a sister about Islam. Once the conversations started, she gave me things to read and websites to explore. On August 7, 2013, I walked up to her up on the street and took shahadah. Once I made the decision, it took no time at all to complete my objective. Question #3: What initially drew you to Islam? Suhalia: That there was an answer for everything. I function best when I know what the rules and guidelines are for anything. There is no ambiguity involved in Islam. That's not to say that we are extremists, it just means that there is a well documented path for us to follow. Adherence to this path will lead us to Jannah. Question #4: Why did you decide to convert? Suhalia: I felt as if my life was spiraling out of control. There were so many things that no longer "fit". I was raised Episcopalian; had attended various Christian churches as a child and by the time I had reached adulthood, I found that there was nothing that "felt" right. When I truly began to read and understand what being Muslim meant, I knew that it was just my size. Question #5: What were the reactions of your friends and family upon your conversion? Suhalia: For the most part, the reactions were positive. My father asked me to share my knowledge with him, because he knew so little about Islam. My mother has always supported what I have done and was pleased that I was able to find what was best for me. My sisters just wanted me to be happy and they knew that I hadn't been for years. Most of my friends were supportive. I did lose a long time friend becuase she was unable or unwilling to embrace my reversion to Islam. I was looking forward to sharing with her all of the joy that Islam had given me. It is a shame that she is missing out on what I have become. My co-workers were skeptical, at best. They had only known me in one light and didn't realize that who I had become, was what had been written for me before I was born. I only had one openly negative comment from a co-worker. She said, "I can't take you seriously with you dressed like that." I was in an abaya and hijab. I just looked at her and said, "It's easy to lose sight of the true prize when all you care about is the wrapping paper." Question #6: Did you face any hardships after your conversion from yourself, family, friends, etc? Suhalia: Not really. Question #7: What advice would you give new converts and those who are interested in converting to Islam? Suhalia: READ! There is so much information available to you , that there is no reason that you can't learn all that you want to know - and more. The connection I have with Allah. Knowing that when I perform salah, there is a direct connection between us, is powerful.
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This is the second and last series in our Convert Perspectives Collection. Interviewees: Francesca and Chib QUESTION #1: WERE YOU RAISED IN A RELIGIONS HOME PRIOR TO REVERTING TO ISLAM?Francesca: I was raised in a Catholic household before I converted to Islam, although I didn't really practice Catholicism myself. Chib: Salaam and hello everyone. I was raised in a Catholic home. My parents are Hispanic and Catholicism is the religion which many Hispanics tend to follow. I, however never really felt any connection to it. I attended Sunday school and did my first Communion but afterwards I didn't feel comfortable following a religion which did not seem to fit who I was as a person. So I left the Catholic Church when I was only 11. QUESTION #2: WHAT INITIALLY DREW YOU TO ISLAM?Francesca: My friend from school went to Saudi for Umrah(pilgrimage to hajj that is taken outside of the month of dhul hijja), and when he came back he showed me pictures of Mecca. I remember looking at them and feeling like someone had taking my breath away, SubhanAllah. Everything was just so beautiful, and I wanted to know more. My friend began telling me a few things about the pilgrimage and what it involves and he then sent me a link of the Adhan. When I listened to it, I started to tear up and I felt like something touched my heart. I'd never admired something so much before, and it felt weird. I began to research a little bit about Islam after this independently, and began to find myself agreeing with what it taught and discovered the true beauty of Islam. Within a short period of time, I'd already believed that Islam provided me with a connection with God that I had never experienced before. I was very scared though at what other people would think, so I kept my thoughts to myself. However, after a conversation with my friend, he started to ask me how I felt about Islam, and when he asked me if I believed that Allah is one and that Prophet Muhammed(PBUH) was his final messenger, and at that moment I realised that there was nothing holding me back so I decided to take my Shahadah, Alhamdulilah. Chib: What initially drew me to Islam to begin with was always the fact that there was one God to pray to. Also that the Qur'an has not ever been rewritten. The more research I started to do the more I fell in love with Islam. How it intertwined with science and gave explanations as well as how it explained how the Qur'an is the real word of Allah SWT by giving examples scientifically as well as mathematically and logically. Also how women are viewed as the highest things in this world. That was what sealed the deal for me. QUESTION #3: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO CONVERT? Francesca: See response to #2 Chib: I decided to convert because I knew this was what I was looking for. My whole life has always been a long search for something to make me feel whole. I never understood what I was trying to find so I decided to fill it with other things like relationships, parties, drinking, smoking you name it. After a while I fell into some hardships and decided to start searching for religion again. I tried to become Christian but it didn't feel right to me. I remember looking at this Youtube video that was titled “Don't Be Sad Allah SWT Knows Why”. After watching that video I just couldn't believe that everything I had been so confused about was answered in this video and right then and there I knew that Islam was for me. I felt it in my heart. QUESTION #4:HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU FROM LEARNING ABOUT ISLAM TO ACTUALLY CONVERTING? WHY WAS IT A QUICK OR PROLONGED DECISION?Francesca: My interest in Islam always lingered in the back of my mind but I never really took it seriously. It was just something I was aware of. Once I began to think about what Islam meant and whether I wanted to be a Muslim, it wasn't long before I converted. Chib: It took me around 4-5 months before I actually decided to take my Shahada, I knew after finding Islam that I wanted to convert. However I wanted to make sure I took my time and did my research before I made that commitment to Allah SWT. I always told myself that Allah SWT would tell me when the time was right and on January 6th 2014 I woke up and it was the coldest day in Chicago -35 degrees and I knew today was the day. QUESTION #5:WHAT WERE THE REACTIONS OF YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY UPON YOUR CONVERSION? Francesca: My parents do not know that I am Muslim, I did try to tell them when I originally converted. They already knew that I was interested in Islam, as I would talk about it to my mum. My mum seemed very calm about it and would be interested to. I thought it meant that when I would tell her about my interest of being a Muslim, she would have been okay with it but I was wrong. The first thing I decided to do was give up pork, so I told my mum that I no longer wanted to eat it anymore because I wanted to take my interests in Islam seriously. My mum got very angry with me. And over the next couple of weeks, my parents and I argued constantly. Eventually, it ended up in a lot of tears from both sides. I remember my parents saying things like "Aren't you proud of us" "Do you love Islam more than us", and it broke my heart because I didn't know what to say. My parents are very ignorant about Islam and make assumptions so they weren't happy and it caused a huge amount of stress. They said a lot of hurtful things about Islam, and our relationship isn't the same anymore, but it just made me want to stick by the decision I had already made to be a Muslim. My friends however, are really supportive and are happy for me.
Chib: After converting I decided to only let 2 of my closest friends know, they were very supportive and provided me with so many sources about Islam to make sure this was what I wanted. They even took me to the masjid to take my Shahada. However not all my friends were as supportive. I lost a lot of friends after they had found out about my conversion. I even stopped talking to one of my closest girl friend because she just wasn't the type of person I wanted to surround myself with anymore. I would say a good percentage of my friends were surprised because I never looked like the type to be Muslim. But they were so happy for me because most of my friends were Muslim. As for my family they were a little uncertain on how to take the news. I had to hide it from my parents for a bit because I wasn't sure how they would react. After I told my mom she told me she was happy for me that I found something to believe in. As for my father he doesn't really discuss it with me. Aslaam Aleikum! Striving For Clarity has started a new collection titled “Convert Perspectives”. The goal is to begin an ongoing collection about converts. Each month iA, we will have a few questions that we will ask several converts to answer. We will then share these on the 'Convert/Revert' section of the site. By learning about other people's experiences, we can gain wisdom and build connections. Every month(or less if we get an influx of responses) we will we changing the questions asked in order to offer you various viewpoints on various issues. If you would like to contribute to the next series in the "Convert Perspectives" collection, email us at [email protected]. QUESTION #1: ABOUT YOU: WRITE 1-3 PARAGRAPHS THAT INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND, HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN A MUSLIM, WHAT INITIALLY PEAKED YOUR INTEREST IN ISLAM, AND THE REACTION OF FAMILY/FRIENDS TO YOUR CONVERSION.Amina Panama: Bismillah. When I was 6 years old I saw a muslim woman and I asked my mother “why they wore a veil?” She didn't know so she told me “you can use one if you want to, nobody will know that this its you.” Time went on and I forgot about the veil. I was Catholic and i used to practice as much as I could, I used to be in all of the activities of the church and I helped a lot. Finally one day, I told my mom that it was so silly to pray to people and not to God, so at the age of 16 I stopped participating in church activities and dedicated all my time to sports. At the age of 16 my life was empty, I was an international athlete and I studied a lot in high school but without friends and my parents working all time, it was so hard for me and I started looking for love in others and eventually got my heart broken many times. I was so lost and I decided to stop everything and have a normal life without sports. One day a friend of mine gave me her phone and I saw her contacts and I asked what about this guy and she said “He is Arab and Muslim but you know what they are so cool because we are always together.” So I took his number and he invited me to go out but five days before going on our date I started reading about his religion and I fell in love with Deen. Eventually before our date I told him “it’s haram for you to date me so stay away”. As time passed, and I used to cry all night reading all these amazing stories about women in islam and three months later I said to myself “this is what I want for my life” and decided to revert. My parents hate it a lot and hate who I am now, my friends love it and protect me. Overall, my reversion was great with friends but I lost my family, I have now been Muslim for three years Alhamdulilah.
Julius Allen: Assalaamu Alaikum! I'm a former Christian who accepted Islam in 2011. Islam and other religions were never the topic of conversation during my upbringing. Any knowledge of different faiths was a personal endeavor and this never really took place with anyone in my family. We had our faith and that was the end of discussion because if it was good enough for our elders than it was for everyone else as well. My faith was more of a cultural practice than a religious one because everyone I knew usually spoke of religion on Sundays. I had my beliefs but I lived my life the way I saw fit rather than defining myself in light of my Christian faith. I've always been intrigued by other faiths but never to the point of converting. However intrigued I became with other faiths, I was always interested in the "one path". I figured it was "one path" that catered to the commonalities of humanity and truly emphasized on what united us rather than what divides us. I never truly made an effort to engage in religious talks or research other religions. My interest was just wishful thinking and if the opportunity presented itself, I would then move forward on learning. Islam came to me in a special way that took my curiosity to the next level. I was interested in Islamophobia and the western narrative of Muslims. I then began to spend time with Muslims more than before because I wanted to know about their faith for general knowledge. I made it clear that my intent was to learn because my experience contradicted the western stereotype. I immediately began to rethink my Christian faith while researching Islam. I saw gaps in my faith that Islam filled and soon after I would go on to revert to Islam. Since then, my faith has become a defining factor in my life and more than just a one day a week conversation. Julia: Hi, my name is Julie and I am from Australia. I was raised in a strictly NON-religious home where religion was outwardly condemned. Being in a predominantly Christian country I was raised with traditions such as Christmas, Easter, etc. and was exposed to some of these teachings at school. As a teenager I was attracted to alcohol, drugs and sex and felt very lost. I attempted to go to church in my late teens in my search for religion. This experience was mostly ok except for a few instances which turned me off religion myself. I then went down the path of partying, drugs and alcohol until I had children at 23. After 2 children and a divorce I found myself on the dating scene again at about 28 years old where I met my now husband who was born Muslim. He was living here and was originally from Jordan. We realised very early on that we loved each other and wanted to make the relationship official for us to move in together and begin our marriage. We got married at the mosque even though I was not yet muslim and I even went to Jummah sometimes and did A LOT of reading about Islam including reading some of my translated Qur’an. I finally converted almost a year after my marriage began(approximately one year ago) and I have become the happiest person I have ever been. I gave up smoking and drinking as soon as I started even reading about Islam and now feel I am content with who I am and feel less pressured from external things including what is 'socially' acceptable. It took me a long time to come out to my family and some still don't know. My mum was the first one I told and she was at first a little apprehensive about what it meant for me and the kids. However, she just went to Jordan to visit my in-laws and she has come back truly loving Islam Alhamdulillah! I live in a small town where there are no other muslims which makes my next step a lot harder. My next step and goal is to start wearing hijab. I really want to make this step but feel worried about the persecution which may also come with it. I am a teacher and feel my work prospects may be tarnished... time will tell, the calling to wear hijab is getting too strong. Inshallah, this will eventuate soon. Aslaam Aleikum! If you haven’t heard, Striving For Clarity has started a new collection titled “Convert Perspectives”. The goal is to begin an ongoing series about converts. Each month iA, we will have a few questions that we will ask several converts to answer. We will then share these on the 'Convert/Revert' section of the site. By learning about other people's experiences, we can gain wisdom and build connections. Every month(or less if we get an influx of responses) we will we changing the questions asked in order to offer you various viewpoints on various issues. If you would like to contribute to the next series in the "Convert Perspectives" collection, email us at [email protected]. Interviewees: Amanda, Aisha and TasreenKhaldi QUESTION #1: ABOUT YOU: WRITE 1-3 PARAGRAPHS THAT INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND, HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN A MUSLIM, WHAT INITIALLY PEAKED YOUR INTEREST IN ISLAM, AND THE REACTION OF FAMILY/FRIENDS TO YOUR CONVERSION. Amanda: I was raised Roman Catholic, in a Polish-American community. We were real Catholics - Mass every Sunday was a must, Wednesdays were almost weekly for a Latin Mass, first Fridays were tried. No meat on Fridays throughout the year, etc... I'm pretty young, I converted while I was in college. My family did not take my conversion well, and basically we are at a point where we just don't talk about politics or religion because it causes too much tension.
Aisha: I was raised without religion. My parents said religion was for the weak and used to control the masses. We never lived in one place for too long and moved a lot. My family followed the fruit and vegetable crops during the Spring and Summer months and in the Winter we followed tree planting or wintered in Arizona. My father was paranoid schizophrenia bipolar and he would therefore change his personality like one would change clothes. It was very scary and we never knew what to expect. All of that changed when I was 15 when he killed himself. My mother then moved us to Arizona and I basically raised my little brother and sisters while my mother drank herself into a haze. I got my G.E.D(high school diploma equivalency) and went to culinary school then went on to have 2 children. I slowly started researching religions and none of them really made sense. In 2004 I started researching Islam then something happened; my sister who is 2 years younger than I, got into trouble and went to jail. It was then I decided to accept Islam. It was hard. I didn't receive a lot of support . I taught myself as much as I could and tried to make Muslim friends in the community but it is sad to say that there was a lot of cliques and it was hard. I did manage to make a few friends and I pulled through. it is slow going and I struggle to learn every day TasreenKhaldix: My name is Tasreen and I am 17 Years old. My mother is half English, half Irish and my father is Pakistani. I embraced Islam at the age of 14 years old Alhamdulilah, just as i started my GCSE'S (Beginning of year 10). I took my Shahadah on the 21st September 2011, it has been 2 years and will be 3 this coming September in sha Allah. I was raised by my Mother alone and had no involvement with my Dad up until i was around 9/10. My mother is Christian (catholic) and my father is Muslim. I was born with no particular religion, but I would attend church, especially to celebrate Christmas. Religion was never really implemented into my life and therefore i did not really have any knowledge of religion, however when something bad happened I would immediately turn to God. I had many troubles whilst I was growing into my teenage years. Certain issues arose that made it hard for me to cope. Things such as bullying and depression lead me to become unhappy a lot of the time. I never really felt like I knew who I was, I never felt as though I 'fitted in' anywhere. It's like I was subconsciously searching for who i really was. How I came to convert is quite confusing. There is no clear reason Alhamdulilah. All my friends at the time were different races and none were Muslim. However, I had one muslim person on my BBM contact list. I would always see this person post things about the religion, really vague things even as little as saying ‘Masha Allah’ or ‘In sha Allah’. This is the first thing that sparked my interest. So the next few days I approached the only Muslim girl I’'d only ever really spoke to or had a connection with. I knew NOTHING about the religion at all, however randomly I told her how I felt and she began to speak to me Masha Allah. A few of the other girls then decided to help me out a bit (ALHAMDULILAH p.s i love these girls). They would text me and always talk about islam with me. However, when I told my mom, she was not so pleased. She felt as though I wouldn't be able to conform to the religion. For example, I used to love to style my hair, and she thought that I wouldn't be able to handle hijab. That really disheartened me, and then a few events in my life happened and it was a hard period for me, so I dropped the idea of converting. I went on holiday to Spain for six weeks, and once I returned I noticed I had lots of text's from one particular sister. Masha Allah she tried so hard. At this moment in time I began to question and challenge the religion with really stupid questions just so that I didn't have to convert (embarrassing lol). I started to come up with excuses such as I’ll convert when i leave college etc. To cut the story short, she defeated me intellectually and I eventually took my Shahadah. I knew nothing about the religion but something within me was just yearning for this! The reaction of everybody was not so great. Eventually, I lost all of my friends. What hurt me the most was losing my closest friend with whom I had been close with since year 7. Nobody really knew that I had converted until after 2 weeks, when I started to wear hijab. Everybody began to talk. All this talk was negative, people claiming I had done it just to fit in, others saying that I wanted attention. Alhamdulilah I had my new Muslim girls who gave me the strength to deal with it all. It was extremely hard. My mom at first, was not so supportive and absolutely hated the religion. She had an extremely negative view on it and would moan at the things i would do. However, eventually, ALHAMDULILAH she realized that this is what I wanted, and she was supportive. She now understands a bit more about the religion through me, and her views have changed; In sha Allah, Allah guides her. My mom is the most supportive even though she is not muslim, and puts effort in buying halal meat when she can and even taking me shopping to buy scarves. My dads family were very happy and are still supportive to this day. |
IntroductionWelcome to our "Convert/Revert" section. This section of Striving For Clarity is dedicated to articles and stories geared towards those who chose to enter Islam later in life. If you would like to contribute to this section, visit our Guest Contributor page. Archives
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