From a Polish sister in New York
Asalam Alaikom Wa Rahmeutlahi Wa Baraketu…
Well this is my story. I live in New York, so we have a pretty diverse culture here, people from all parts of the world. When I was in Junior HS and HS, I did have a lot of friends that were Muslim. At that point in my life, although I do come from a Catholic background, my family was leaning more towards Jehovah’s Witnesses. I slowly stopped believing in the Holy Trinity, celebrating Christmas, Birthdays, etc. I basically denied worshipping or rather praying to statues, confessing my sins to the priest, and such. I was always very conservative, always had hayat when it came to clothing, speech, etc, always very modest. So basically that was me from like the age of 13-19. I Prayed to God, and God only, considered myself pretty religious. One of my best friends was Muslim, and we use to compare Jehovah’s Witnesses and Islam, and there were slight differences, but yet there were a lot of similarities. Time just kept passing and I remember I got into a religious conversation with one of my other friends, and I remember this person telling me that I should look into Islam before I was baptized as a Jehovah Witness. I got a little offended, and I was like I pray to God, I do what I have to do, and that’s it. Although there were similarities between Christianity and Islam, Islam at that moment felt so far fetched.
I must had been like maybe 16 or 17 when I had this conversation, little did I know that I would have had a change of heart later on in my life. I really never in a million years would think that I would be Muslim, honestly. But anyways, time just kept passing. When I was 20, one of my other friends gave me a book about Islam- “What Islam is all about” by Yahiya Emerick, and being the way I was, although I didn’t want to read the book because I was like yah yah in the back of my head saying I am Christian I don’t need to read this, since I promised this person that the book wouldn’t just collect dust, I started to read it. I really got into it, and as I was reading it, I have noticed how SIMILAR Islam really was to the way I was worshipping God at that moment. I started to also read the Qur’an as I was looking into Islam and I came across an ayat:
“Verily, in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest.” (Quran 13:28),
and my Qur’an has hadith on the bottom of the page and this is the hadith-
I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assemble better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.
- Al-Buhkari
As I read this hadith, I was sobbing so much, and I knew it, that I wanted to be Muslim. Every time I think of this, I think of the ayat in the Qur’an that says:
“And when they hear what has been sent down to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflow with tears because of what they have recognized of Truth. They cry: Our Lord! We believe; so you do write us down among the witnesses [to the Truth] (al-Ma’idah 5: 83)“
So I called my other friend from HS and told her everything, and at that moment I wanted to kind of perfect myself, and stop the little things that I did, but my friend said first accept Islam and then work on perfection. And I kind of was procrastinating to say the shahada (or rather the Shaytan was putting excuses in my head of whether I was making the right choice.) But anyways, my friend and I set a date, and her family and I went to a Youth Center, and that is where I said my shahada, it was a Friday, it was beautiful. I barely made it through the shahada because I just kept crying and crying through every single word. When I said it, I felt so light, like a brand-new baby.
It took me about 3 months from the time that I started to read the book, until my shahada. In the beginning, the reason why I became Muslim is because I wanted to worship and obey God the way that He deserves to be worshipped. Pray to Him and Him only; celebrate holidays for Him and Him only, just Love Him. There were a lot of other controversial issues in Islam that at that moment maybe I did not agree with because I did not understand the religion yet. But as my journey to knowledge started, and the more I read about Islam, I really got to LOVE the Prophet as well as the religion, more and more. So this is my story, it is nothing special, but I am thankful that I am Muslim. It has been four years, hint hint Sept 26th, the day that I became Muslim, and Inshallah I will stay on this path until I die, Ameen.
I wish though that Muslims all around the world would really realize how beautiful this religion is, and how much they are taking it for granted. This life is not worth it, we live, we get tested, and we die and test is over. So what is important, this life and its enjoyment that will pass, or the hereafter? My advice to anyone is to read and learn as much as you can, give your excuses a black eye, seriously, it is our duty to educate ourselves. The more knowledge of Islam we have, the better we are, and the more love we develop for our religion!!!
