OPINION
Converts and Reverts
Salaamu Aleykum Sisters and Brothers,
On the Islamway.Com website a sister wrote about how she became
Muslim. She was a missionary for a US based church sent to convert
Natives in the jungles is in South America.
Below is her posting. It's awkward that churches in the US send people
to convert Natives in South America. For the past 500 years
Spaniards have been enforcing church practice on the Natives in South America but the US based churches still send people to
convert the people there to church going.
Here's what the sister wrote:
To all my sisters in Islam and those who are searching for "The right
path". I praise Allah (swt) daily for Him guiding me to "The true
religion i.e. way of life". Alhamdulillah for the Qur'an and Sunnah of
the Prophet (Salallahu Aleyhi wa Sallam).
First let me introduce myself to you, my birth name is Pamela but the
name that I now go by is Huda, which means guidance from Allah (swt). I
would like to share with you my reversion to the most beautiful
religion...which really isn't a religion but rather a way of life, and
how Islam has changed my life.
I was born into a Christian family and can not ever really remember not
going to church and hearing about God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. In my
family no matter how awful you had been during the week, no matter what
sins you had committed during the week, Sunday was "the Lord's day", the
day of rest, the day of honoring God...don't forget that included, Jesus
and the Holy Ghost because all three according to the religion I
followed were one.
After going to church for most of my life, I decided that I was going to
give my life over to the Lord and have him save me from my sins and
share the good news of Jesus with everyone. With that in mind, I did
just that in 1971 at the age of 11yrs old. From that point on my mission
in life was to call people to Christianity which I did with a fervor.
Never mind that I had questions about the "trinity" or about who God
really was or for that matter who Jesus was and where I as an individual
fitted into the scope of things. I had a lot questions that needed
answering but didn't seem to have an answer. Despite that, I accepted my
beliefs by faith because that is what my parents did, and their parents
and their parents before them.
After graduating from high school I went on to Bible College because I
felt that my call in life was to be a missionary and go to South America
and tell those "poor ignorant natives" astaghfirullah, that Christianity
was the way of life, the only thing was that Allah (swt) had a different
plan for me. While in school I realized that I didn't like Bible College
after all and that I didn't want to go to the South American jungles and
call people to Christianity, so as soon as the school year was up I
packed my bags and headed back home and to my church in search of what
was the real truth about God. Unfortunately even those with knowledge
could not answer me about who God was exactly or who to really pray to.
I didn't know whether to pray to God or Jesus and whether the Holy Ghost
was just there to help me. As time went on I enrolled in another
university, and this time it was a private university and one of the
required courses was a class in Bible literature. Well I thought to
myself this will be an easy A because I knew the Bible like the back of
my hand...I found out yes, I knew my Bible but what I didn't know was
that the Bible had two creation stories...which one was correct? What I
didn't know was the Bible was full of inconsistencies, and what was the
worst bit of information that I learned was that the Apostle Paul who I
loved to pattern my life after, had not even met Jesus and yet the
Christians at my church accepted what the Apostle Paul wrote in the
Bible as Gospel. I will never forget my professor saying at the
beginning of the class that the students who had taken her class in the
past came in with an idea of what they knew to be true but when they
left her class their faith was shaken by the truths and proofs that was
there for all to see and upon close examination of studying the Bible as
literature that there was indeed some inconsistencies, wow I knew this
so called Christian professor was going to hell for having the nerve to
even speak those words to the class. This was my limited analytical
thinking about that particular class. However, the proof was right there
for me to read in the Bible and what it said to me was that I needed to
learn more about Christianity and that maybe I wasn't following the true
religion after all.
That year became the year of my search for God, I enrolled in another
class that covered the major religions of the world and Islam was one of
the religions covered in this class. I read up on Islam, wrote a paper
about Islam, and even thought that Islam sound wonderful...except... I
couldn't get over the women in black! My thinking was that, this
religion was good for the people over there but not here in the good ole
USA, so I left the thought of even thinking about Islam as something I
should pursue further.
Subhanu'Allah, as the Qur'an says, man plans but Allah (swt) is the best
of planners, for truly Allah (swt) had other plans for me, plans that
would change my life forever alhamdulillah!
I had just about given up on ever finding God, so I thought I would pray
to God one day and then Jesus the next or maybe both by the help of the
Holy Ghost. One day while on the internet I came across an article
talking about Islam, and I said to myself, I remember reading something
about Islam. I was so intrigued by this article that I wrote to the
author of the article and asked him to send me information on Islam. I
wanted to know what links to go to so that I could learn about Islam.
Well the brother supplied me with some very good links. I will never
forget the first link I went to...www.Islamicity.com, masha'Allah, once
there I stayed on the internet untill three o'clock in the morning. My
mind became like a sponge, I became hungry for Islam I wanted more. I
went to other sites where I would read words from a book called the "Qur'an".
I had never read such beautiful words in my life masha'Allah. I needed
to find this book called the Qur'an, the only problem was, that I didn't
know any Muslims but I did know the library carried so many different
books that just maybe I might be able to find this Qur'an that I was
reading about.
Needless to say, I got the Qur'an and read the first chapter in English
which said : "In the name of Allah, the most Gracious the most
Merciful...Masha'Allah, those first words of the Qur'an touched my heart
alhamdulillah. I still get chills down my spine when I think of these
beautiful word, because they confirmed everything I ever thought about
God. I read the first chapter of the Qur'an, 7 verses only, and the MOST
POWERFUL WORDS I had ever read in my life! Those words touched my heart
so completely that for once, me who had never been lost for words,
became speechless! It was at that very moment that I knew that indeed
Islam was the right path subhanhu'Allah!
Needless to say, after such an experience I went to the nearest Muslim
gathering I could go to which was a Jummah (Friday prayer service) and
had some of my final concerns and questions addressed. I left that
meeting knowing that I was going to embrace Islam alhamdulillah! About
three weeks later I made that step...it was a beautiful March day, March
10, 2000 to be exact, that I embraced Islam. I was so excited about
taking my shahadah (A'shad A'na La illaha il allah Muhammadan Rasulullah,
there is no God but Allah and Muhammed is his final Messenger).
It was a day in my life I will never forget. I thank Allah (swt) for
guiding me to Islam and giving me the opportunity to have a chance at
making it to paradise. I praise Allah (swt) for the miracle of Islam,
for it's beauty and for teaching me how to truly live and behave as a
human being should. For you see in Islam all the questions in life are
addressed and answered. So if you feel something tugging at your heart
today, ask Allah (swt) for his guidance and accept a gift so freely
given to mankind by the Creator himself!
Allahu'Akbar!!!!
Huda B~