Reversion To Islam Stories

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

 

PCSO converts to Islam after helping ‘honour’ violence victim

 

 
29 Jan 2013 08:04 

A mum-of-two has told how she was inspired to convert to Islam – after helping a victim of honour-based violence as part of her job in the police.

 

Police Community Support Officer Jayne Kemp, 28, decided to find out about the faith while helping a Muslim woman suffering domestic abuse.

 

After speaking to other Muslims on Twitter, she was inspired to give up her Catholic faith to fully convert last year and now lives a completely Islamic lifestyle.

 

She now goes out on her PCSO patrols in?Eccles, Salford, wearing the traditional hijab headscarf and makes time up at the end of her shift to attend Friday prayers.

 

Jayne, single mum to a son, nine, and daughter, seven, formerly converted in a Shahada ceremony last April and now plans to change her name to Aminah.

 

While her children spent Christmas Day at their dad’s so they could still celebrate, she went round to her mum’s – but had to cook her own dinner so it would be halal.

 

Jayne, who joined GMP in August 2009 and lives in south Manchester, said: “It started when I had a woman approach me at work who was experiencing honour-based violence.

 

“Where I work in Eccles there’s a big mosque and big Muslim population, so I thought I should find out more about it.

“I’d thought Islam was all about women being forced to slave away in the kitchen – but found out it was about being generous with your time, patient and respectful of others.

 

“As I looked into it I saw similarities with Catholicism and also values like looking after your neighbours and valuing the elderly that older people say younger people don’t have any more.

 

“I wasn’t looking for any religion at the time but for every question I got answered about Islam I just had five more – I think I fell in love with it.”

 

Jayne made the decision to tell colleagues she had converted when she wanted to start wearing a hijab to work – and says they have all been supportive.

 

She is now working with the Greater Manchester Muslim Police Association to design a regulation police hijab and tunic – as one has never been needed before in the force.

 

Jayne said: “I was worried about what my colleagues would think but they have been so understanding.

 

“People in Eccles have been great too – most don’t even mention it.

“If my children had struggled with me covering my hair I wouldn’t have done it.

“They have both asked a lot about it but I would never push Islam on them and they will be brought up Catholic.

“I just hope by speaking out I can show it is OK for a Muslim woman to work in the police force and also change negative stereotypes about Islam.”

 

Jayne, who grew up in Wythenshawe, said: “My family in general are supportive. As long as I’m happy, they’re happy.

“I was very open about my reading and studying Islam. My sister said the other day I’m the happiest she’s ever seen me.”

 

Jayne was helped to find out about Islam by Muhammad Manzoor, who runs Muslim Twitter account Local Masjid from his Whalley Range home.

 

He said: “I was humbled Jayne was asking me these questions as it made me find out more about Islam too.

“She has found this religion for herself and hopefully it shows Muslims can mix in society without compromising their faith.”

Manchester Evening News
 

[ummtaalib]

Pen Pals to Islam

 

A Young British student writing to her Pakistani Muslim pen pal is the path Allah ta’ala chose to lead this pretty young Christian girl to Islam. The young couple’s affection grew through the correspondence and this eventually led her to visit Pakistan. She says when she first approached her mother regarding a visit to Pakistan she absolutely refused to let her go alone. She insisted on accompanying her daughter and they travelled together, met his family and came back with a good impression of Muslims.

The next year the boy’s visit to England led to them discussing marriage. He explained that he could never give up his religion and nor could he have a relationship with her outside of marriage and she said this impressed her. She asked questions about Islam and very quickly decided that Islam and marriage to this young man was what she wanted. When she told her mum, to her surprise she accepted it saying at least it would save her daughter from having a string of boyfriends without a future. She even presented her with a copy of the Qur’an!

The young English girl accepted the Islamic way of life, seeking knowledge enthusiastically and was soon a good practicing Muslimah. Today the young couple are happily married with three lovely children who are able to recite the Qur’anic chapters from a young age....As for the mum, she has not as yet accepted Islam however she often visits her daughter and son in law and is happy about the choice her daughter made! May Allah ta'ala grant her Imaan!
 

[ummtaalib]

A Mugger converts Allhamdulilah

 

This is a story of something that happened quite recently in London UK

A brother was on a train when a man came up to him and asked for his wallet, intending to rob him, the man may have had a weapon i cant remember Allahu alam.

Allhamdulilah the brother said, "I am a muslim and that means i am willing to defend my property, should i die doing so then i will die a shahid and enter paradise, if i dont die then i get to keep my possessions. Its a win win situation for me"

The robber looked stunned and walked away..

A week later the brother is on the train again and is approached by the same man, who says, "I've been looking for you all week, i cannot sleep for thinking about what you said, tell me what it is that gives you such faith, what is being a muslim?"

Of course the brother told him about Islam and Allhamdulilah the man took his shahada Allhamdulilah to be taken from the gutter by the mercy of Allah to join the ranks of the Believers inshaallah.
 

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

French Rapper Diam’s embraces Islam 

Saudi Gazette report


Young French Rapper Diam’s has converted to Islam, explaining to the French Press, “Medicine was not able to heal my soul, so I turned toward religion.”Diam’s has received a great deal of media attention as she has adopted a black covering and hijab since converting to Islam following marriage to a Muslim man.


 Diam’s (real name: Mélanie Georgiades, born July 25, 1980 in Cyprus) is a French-language rap artist of French and Greek Cypriot origin. Her family moved to Essonne (near Paris) in 1984.In 1998, when she was just 18, Diam’s signed a development deal with BMG Music Publishing France. With the publisher’s help, Diam’s worked on her craft and signed with Universal Records in 1999. 


She appeared in a song on DJ Mehdi’s 2002 album “(The Story Of) Espion”. The 2003’s Brut de Femme was her breakthrough, reaching gold and spawning the top 10 single DJ. Since then she has won a number of awards and boasts of a large fan following. Her fans – waiting for her new album set to release in November – have reacted with surprise over her conversion. 


Paris Match has featured a four-page report devoted to her story, in which she says all profits from her new album will be donated to humanitarian organizations and that she now never leaves home without her hair covered. 


http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009101951948

[ummtaalib]

French Rapper Becomes Muslim And Stuns Fans

There is already a lot of debate in France about the hijab worn by Muslim women. But fans of a famous rapper have been left amazed after finding out she became a hijab-wearing Muslim.

 

Mélanie Georgiades, known as Diam’s, went through a transformation over the course of several years. And since 2009, she had been unusually absent from the mainstream rap scene, prompting more than three years of controversy over where she was.

Diam’s was finally interviewed with French TV station TF1. She talked about her past experience with drugs and even being in an asylum, until she discovered the “serenity of Islam.”

 

It all started when she wanted to pray with her Muslim friend. She recounted, “it was the first time that I touched the floor with head, and I had a strong feeling that I have never experienced before, and I believe now that kneeling in prayer, shouldn’t be done to anyone but Allah.”

She then began to learn more about Islam and read the Islamic holy book, the Quran. After becoming more interested in the faith and realising it was the path she wanted to choose, she became a Muslim, leaving her fame and previous lifestyle behind.

 

In her interview, she said her conversion to Islam was “the result of a personal conviction, after understanding the religion and reading the Holy Quran.”

 

She put her fame aside and conquered various hardships in her life. She is now living a happy life, focussing on her spiritual path.

[ummtaalib]

How do families react when a loved one converts to Islam? Rageh Omaar looks at four real-life stories


1. Yvonne Ridley

Yvonne was the journalist captured by the Taliban while reporting undercover in Afghanistan, soon after 9/11. Held on spying charges, she feared she would be stoned. Instead, she was treated with respect. She promised her captors that, after her release, she would study Islam. She read the Qur'an looking for an explanation of the Taliban's treatment of women, only to find there wasn't any: "It's a magna carta for women!"

She converted in 2003 and has found that her new faith has helped put behind her three broken marriages and a reputation as the "Patsy Stone of Fleet Street." But she still can't persuade her Mum that converting was a good idea.

2. John Standing

John used to try to talk his Muslim girlfriend, Nasera, out of her faith. It was only when she stood firm that he decided to read the Qur'an for himself. Within months, he'd converted to Islam. His father, Tony, admits that John seems a calmer, kinder person since his conversion, but can't help worrying that John's been brainwashed. He's warned him that, if he gets involved in violent extremism, the family will disown him... Not that they expect him to.

What his father can't understand is why John feels the need to change his name to Jamal Udeen; why he's abandoned a promising musical career (John believes Islam forbids music); and why he's now talking about emigrating to a Muslim country. Does Islam really demand all those changes?

3. Aqeel Burton

Aqeel was brought up in Manchester by Jamaican Christian parents, but rejected his parents' faith because it seemed to him a white person's religion. Not that Islam seemed any less exclusive. The only Muslims he knew at school were Asians. It was only when a Jamaican friend converted that Aqeel became interested in the faith. He read the Qur'an and found that whereas in the past his head had been full of questions, in Islam he found answers.

A former professional boxer, Aqeel no longer fights, because of his new faith, but he still trains and finds that the discipline of boxing goes hand-in-glove with the demands of his new faith.

4. Shahnaaz Malik

Shahnaaz grew up in a white family in Slough and converted to Islam when she married her Asian boyfriend, Naseer. Back then, he wasn't even a practising Muslim, but over the last six years, she has brought him back to the faith. First, she started wearing a headscarf or hijab. Then, this year, without any prompting from Naseer, she started wearing the full burkha veil. "Ninjas, we call them," says Nas, a little bemused.

Not that Shahnaaz is discouraged. She feels liberated from "the beauty contest" that, she says, dominates western culture. Interestingly, her veil provokes abuse from both Asian and white people.

All four of the converts have found different ways to reconcile their old lives with the new. However, the fact that all four of them are determined to reconcile the "before" and "after" versions of themselves is a very hopeful sign. Perhaps, in them, we can see a living bridge between Islam and the West - two cultures that many see as being on an inexorable collision course.

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

 

New Zealand rugby player Sonny Bill Williams embraces Islam

He's converted from a rugby league teen sensation into an All Black juggernaut, and along the way become a promising heavyweight boxer. 

But Sonny Bill Williams has also made a spiritual conversion to Islam. 

While rumours of the 25-year-old sporting superstar's religious beliefs have circulated for some time, the Herald on Sunday can reveal he made the leap of faith two years ago. 

He has since become the first Muslim to wear the All Black jersey, and requested halal food during the Northern Hemisphere tour last year. 

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when followers are forbidden from eating between dawn and sunset, falls in August this year - when the All Blacks play three Tri Nations matches. It is during the final build-up to the Rugby World Cup. 

Williams regularly attends Friday prayer sessions at a Christchurch mosque, according to friends. 

Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand first vice-president Javed Khan said his allegiance was commonly known among the Muslim community.

"He is practising the religion and he is a great role model for the youngsters. We will pray to Allah that he will win the World Cup for us. Everyone talks about it you know. The Muslim community, everyone knows everyone, you know." 

Williams' manager Khoder Nasser and mentor, league star and boxer Anthony Mundine, are both Muslims, as is his brother Johnny, who lives with him in Christchurch.



Williams' friend Tairek Smith said he had regularly prayed with the 1.91m, 108kg second five-eighth since he embraced the Sunni branch of Islam during a ceremony at the Regent's Park mosque in Sydney's western suburbs in 2008, where former Canterbury Bulldogs teammate Hazem El Masri attends. 

All Black manager Darren Shand said the star's religious beliefs had a "minimal" impact on the team. 

He said: "He has talked to us about his dietary needs and we do make some concessions there. We request halal beef and so on but he doesn't make a big deal of it. 

"We always leave players' religious affiliations and a lot of those holistic things outside of the game. That's their personal life and they decide what they do." 

When asked if his faith clashed with the All Blacks' philosophy for encouraging players to be free thinking and self reliant, Shand said Williams was a "sponge" for information. 

"That's why he is so good at all the sports he has been involved in. He just ticks all the boxes. He wants to be the best." 

Since converting to Islam, Williams has put a string of embarrassing alcohol-related incidents behind him. 

He is in training for the Crusaders' Super Rugby campaign and was unavailable for comment. 
* * * 

Sporting conversions 

Muhammad Ali: The boxing legend changed his name from Cassius Clay in 1964. 
Mike Tyson: converted to Islam after being imprisoned for rape in 1992. 
Brad Thorn: The hardest man in NZ rugby gave up the hard living in 1998 to become a Christian. 
Kaka: the Real Madrid football superstar suffered a spinal fracture at age 18, and devoted his life to God after his miraculous recovery. 
Mark "Bull" Allen: The shaven-headed former All Black prop and TV personality joined Brian Tamaki's Destiny Church. 

 

[ummtaalib]

Major Dutch islamophobe accepts Islam

 

 

 

In Holland, a major islamophobic political and social activist, former member
of parliament from a right-wing party, Arnoud van Doorn accepted Islam.

 

 

The former islamophobe announced his decision to accept Islam on his Twitter
profile. He says it is a new beginning of his life and published the declaration of Shahada (the words on monotheism
to become a Muslim) in Arabic.

 

At first, other users took the news as a joke. After all, an active supporter
of a notorious Dutch hater of Islam, Wilders, has repeatedly approved
islamophobic statements and public actions, and personally participated in them.

 

But van Doorn, who now serves as a regional adviser at the City Hall in The
Hague, personally confirmed his decision to practice Islam in an official letter
to the city Mayor.

 

Most recently, the politician filed a formal application to the mayor of the
city to allow him to perform prayers obligatory for Muslims during his working
hours.

 

The information on conversion of van Doorn to Islam was confirmed on the official website of the mosque Al-Yaqeen in The Hague.

 

"We wish brother Arnoud a good new life as a Muslim and a lot of strength
with the acquisition of knowledge", the website says.

 

After accepting Islam, van Doorn gave an exclusive interview to Qatari
English-language TV channel Al Jazeera, the text of which he published on his Twitter page:

 

Al Jazeera: What would you say to the people who are sceptic
towards your conversion into the Islam?

 

Van Doorn: I can understand that people are sceptic, especially since
it is unexpected for many of them. In my own close circle people have known that
I have been actively researching the Koran, Hadith, Sunnah and other writings
for almost a year now. In addition, I have had numerous conversations with
Muslims about the religion. This is a very big decision, which I have not taken
lightly.

 

Al Jazeera: How did you get in touch with the Islam?

 

Van Doorn: I have heard many negative stories about the Islam, but I
am not a person who follows opinions of others without doing my own research and
forming my own opinion. Therefore, I have actually started to deepen my
knowledge of the Islam out of curiosity. My colleague Aboe Khoulani from the
City Council in The Hague has brought me further into contact with the
as-Soennah mosque, which has guided me even further. There, I have been received
very warmly and very positively.
 

 

Al Jazeera: In hindsight, do you have regrets of joining the
PVV (Freedom Party)?
 

 

Van Doorn: I have learned that every experience in life has a purpose.
However, with the knowledge I have today, I would have undoubtedly made a
different choice.
 

 

Al Jazeera: Which reactions have you received regarding your
conversion?
 

Van Doorn: According to some people I am a traitor, but according to
most others I have actually made a very good decision. The reactions are
generally positive though. And I also receive quite some support via twitter. It
feels good that people who do not know me personally have understanding of my
situation and support me in my choice.
 

 

Al Jazeera: Is there anything else you would like to
state?

 

Van Doorn: I have made mistakes in life as many others. From these
mistakes I have learned a lot. And by my conversion into the Islam I have the
feeling that I finally found my path. I realize that this is a new start and
that I still have much to learn as well. The expectation is that I will continue
to face much resistance, also from certain government institutions. I have all
faith in Allah to support me and to guide me through these moments.

 

Department of Monitoring

Kavkaz Center

 

 

[ummtaalib]

Saved at the Last Minute!

 

"This is a true story that happened in Egypt (related by Shaykh Wahid ‘Abd al-Salam Bali in his lecture):

A young man flagged down a taxi in order to take his ill mother to the hospital. They both got in and the driver made his way to the hospital. However, on the way, the son asked for the taxi to be stopped so that he could get out and quickly get some medication for his mother. As he was away, the mother’s health suddenly plummeted and subhan’Allah, the driver noticed the signs of death on her. He immediately went to her side and guided her through the Shahadah (testimony of faith), in accordance to the hadith: “Whoever’s last words are la ilaha illa’Allah (there is no God but Allah), will enter Paradise.” [Abu Dawud]. The mother looked at the driver acknowledging it, and finally she uttered the words of faith before breathing her very last.

When the son returned, the driver informed him of the news. The son went into a natural hysteria whereupon the driver consoled him saying, “Don’t worry, I helped her utter the Shahadah and she said it in a clear voice.” The son then exclaimed, “What! Why did you do that? Don’t you know we are Christians?!”

Subhan’Allah, the wonders of the Qadr (Decree) of Allah. You just don’t know where it will take you and what your last words/deeds will be. This was a Coptic Christian mother in the throes of death and Allah saved her just in time. May Allah grant us all a good end, ameen.

The Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said: “Iman is to believe in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day and the Decree; the good thereof and the bad.”" [Muslim]

 

http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?103954-Amazing-Story-of-accepting-Islam

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

 

 

New Muslim footballer.

Yesterday, Abanda Herman, a Cameroon footballer who play as defender in Persib FC Bandung, Indonesia, declared shahadah in masdjid Nurul Iman Bandung City and became a new Muslim with name Ahmad Abanda Herman. 

Persib FC manager, Hajj Umuh Muchtar said "Abanda actually had long wanted to convert to Islam, but I gave time to him to reflect back on it, do not let him move conviction because of compulsion. But he did reveal that he was very serious and full awareness of heart wanted to embrace Islam. I welcome and emotion"

Abanda interested in choosing Islam because he saw in Islam all is set up in such a way like in prayers or doing anything. Moreover, he often saw his colleagues in Persib FC perform congregational prayers wherever and whenever they are, both being in Bandung and being out of town on tour.

"I'm glad to see my fellow perform congregational prayer, it made me interested to learn Islam. I realized that Islam is the perfect religion for mankind," he said.

[ummtaalib]

This is the same person in post number 8...he went for umrah!

 

 

‘I am sorry, O Prophet…’

MADINAH – Former Dutch Islamophobe and a former leading member of far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ party Arnoud Van Doorn visited the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah to pray and say sorry for becoming part of a blasphemous film.

Doorn was among the Freedom Party leaders who produced the blasphemous film, Fitna. Last month he reverted to Islam after an extensive study about the religion and the Prophet (peace be upon him).

He said that the worldwide outrage against the film made him study about the Prophet (pbuh) and that eventually led to his conversion.

He headed for Makkah to perform Umrah after meeting the two imams of the Prophet’s Mosque, Sheikh Ali Al-Hudaifi and Sheikh Salah Al-Badar, who enlightened him on how to lead the life of a good Muslim and confront challenges facing Islam in the West.

A member of the Dutch parliament and The Hague City Council, Doorn announced his decision to accept Islam on his Twitter profile. He also posted a tweet in Arabic declaring that “there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.”

At first, other users took the news as a joke. After all, an active supporter of a notorious Dutch hater of Islam, Wilders, he repeatedly approved Islamophobic statements and public actions, and personally participated in them.

But Doorn, who now serves as a regional adviser at the City Hall in The Hague, personally confirmed his decision to practice Islam in an official letter to the city mayor.

Most recently, the politician filed a formal application to the mayor of the city to allow him to perform prayers obligatory for Muslims during his working hours.

“I can understand people are skeptic, especially that it is unexpected for many of them,” Doorn told Al-Jazeera English satellite channel.

“This is a very big decision, which I have not taken lightly.”

“In my own close circle people have known that I have been actively researching the Qur’an, Hadith, Sunnah and other writings for almost a year now,” he said.

“In addition, I have had numerous conversations with Muslims about the religion.”

Driven by his party’s anti-Islam discourse, Doorn decided to dig in for the truth about the religion himself.

“I have heard so many negative stories about Islam, but I am not a person who follows opinions of others without doing my own research,” he said. “Therefore, I have actually started to deepen my knowledge of Islam out of curiosity.”

The 46-year-old has continued on The Hague Council as an independent candidate since splitting from Wilders’s party. Doorn’s decision to embrace Islam has won mixed reactions in the Netherlands.

“According to some people I am a traitor, but according to most others I have actually made a very good decision,” he told Al-Jazeera.

“The reactions are generally positive and I also received quite some support via twitter.

“It feels good that people who do not know me personally have understanding of my situation and support me in my choice.”

Asked if he now regretted joining the Freedom Party, he replied: “I have learned that every experience in life has a purpose. However, with the knowledge I have today, I would have undoubtedly made a different choice.”

For the Dutch politician, finding Islam was finally guiding him to the true path in his life. “I have made mistakes in life as many others. From these mistakes I have learned a lot,” Doorn said.

“And by my conversion to Islam I have the feeling that I finally found my path. I realize that this is a new start and that I still have much to learn as well.”
See Also : Ex-Islamophobe to produce film on Prophet
 

[ummtaalib]

A Female Buddhists journey to Islam

 

My Background before being a Muslimah

My family and relatives are strict Buddhist. We are from the middle class of the society. My family’s nationality is a mix of Chinese and Thai.

I was raised and trained to be a loyal Buddhist. As a young girl, I had supported the local temple, and I went to the temple quite often. Almost every day I would give charity to the monks as I believed that this is the way to enter paradise. Moreover, I was a good daughter and granddaughter. I used to take care and obey my parents and was good to  all relatives.

 

How did I become a Muslim?   

When my older sister graduated from Grade 9, she had a good chance to study in USA. She stayed with a Muslim family. They told my older sister so many things about life after death and Oneness of God.My sister embraced Islam. She used to write letters to me telling me to avoid eating pork as it is not good for health. I only read her letters, but I didn’t realize the importance of Islam and what she said to me.

When I was in grade 10, I became more attached to the temple and supplicated to the Buddhist Statues. One day in the class, one thought just came to my mind about the statues, “Why I never get anything I have asked to these Gods?” However, I just ignored this thought. At the end of the semester, my parents sent me to USA for the summer camp and visiting my sister.

 

I had only few days to stay with my sister with the Muslim family. I heard about life after death and oneness of God “Allah” from them. I believed what they told me was true but I didn’t yet accept Islam. During the summer camp, I heard someone in my group saying something bad about Islam. I didn’t like that, and I had an argument with that person. I felt like I wanted to protect Islam because it is a good religion. Finally, I just stopped the argument as we knew on one would win this argument.

 

After summer camp was over, I went back to Thailand and continued my study until I graduated from High school. My parents wanted me to go with my father to visit my sister in the USA. So I had a chance again to go and stay there. Fortunately, everybody in this Muslim family had convinced my father to let me stay and study in USA

.

The family I lived with always spoke about the greatness of Allah and life after death. After a few days, I told my sister that I would like to be a Muslim. I was about 19 years old. My sister taught me the first and the second Kalimah. After that, I learned how to pray from my sister. I cried a lot because I wanted to be able to pray salaat like other Muslims.

 

Every Sunday, the grandfather of this family took my sister and i to the masjid to learn how to read the Quran.The Muslim teacher there put me in the kindergarten class and learn few alphabets. I felt so ashamed to stay in the class as I was the oldest but knew nothing. I couldn’t express my difficulty to anyone and I couldn’t even communicate with other Muslim teachers there because my English was very poor and only few people understood me.Finally one Muslim sister taught me the basics of reading Quran (Alphabets and vowels).

I wanted to learn more about Islam. I searched the internet and came across Mufti Taqi Uthmaani’s name.I got in touch with him and Alhamdulillah he sent me some books on Islam which were most valuable.

 

I also found the website of Jamiatul Ulama, South Africa.  Whenever I had any question/or needed any suggestion, I would send an email and waited for the reply eagerly.

 

One Ramadhaan, I contacted the Jamiat.They suggested to me to contact Mufti Ebrahim Desai as he was in America. I sought advice and took Bay’ah from him. Whenever I needed any advices, I would contact Mufti Ebrahim Desai via email. Mufti Ebrahim Desai has helped me to have a better understanding of Islam and practice Islam.

 

Life after returning home

After I graduated from Associate Degree, I got scholarship offer from New York University to continue my bachelor degree. My parents didn’t allow me to go there and study because they wanted me to revert to Buddhism. I didn’t want to turn back to Buddhist anymore because I believed and loved Islam dearly. I thought too much about life after returning back to Bangkok, Thailand. For example: what should I do as I would face non-Muslim relatives and friends; what would I do there; would I pray and wear hijab; what food I would eat, I didn’t have any Muslim friends at all etc.

 

Finally, I had to go back to Thailand. Life in Bangkok with my family was not easy at all. I had to face so many difficulties. I still wore the hijab but everyone was against me. My Imaan was weak and I stopped wearing HIjab. I rarely had a chance to connect with Mufti Ebrahim Desai. My parents ordered me to go to Laos and stayed there almost a year. Every day we had big arguments about me being a Muslim. I admit that I was weak.  However, I didn’t abandon my prayer and fasting. I tried my best to eat Halal food.  I couldn’t go anywhere as this place was not my hometown and I didn’t have money or car to go out without my parents’ permission. I was forced to dress up to look more beautiful for the public. I cried many times and made Dua that Allah helps me to practice Islam and make me a good Muslim. Alhamdulillah,once a Lao Muslim family sent me Halal food as they knew that I became a Muslim.

 

I thought hard about what I should do to practice and follow the commandments of Allah.I asked my parents to return to Bangkok to continue with my studies. This is the only reason that I could use to return to Bangkok as I could do as I wish. Yes, my decision was right with the Help of Allah. Now I could wear the hijab, and I had Muslim friends.

 

After marriage, I didn’t contact Mufti  Ebrahim Desai.What I had learned from him while in America has been very valuable and carried me a long way. Mufti Ebrahim Desai sent me books which were and are more valuable than any of my belongings. Whenever some matters arose, my husband would come and consult with me as he knew that I learned from reliable Ulama. During previous years of my marriage, I still had so many difficulties but my Imaan was stronger and the love for Allah has been increasing. The love of Allah helped me to overcome many challenges of life.I feel being in touch with reliable Ulama is the greatest bounty for people like us who have very limited access to Islamic knowledge.

 

Our Comments:

Allah says ‘’When Allah opens up the heart of someone for Islam, that person is on light (guidance) from Allah’’.

 

IdealWoman

[ummtaalib]

Experiences of a Recently Converted Hindu Woman

 

My Experiences and How I Find that Islam does not Oppress Women"

by Sister Noor, University of Essex

 

I came from a purely Hindu family where we were always taught to regard ourselves (i.e. women) as beings who were eventually to be married off and have children and serve the husband-- whether he was kind or not. Other than this I found that there were a lot of things which really oppressed women, such as:

• If a woman was widowed, she would always have to wear a white sari (costume), eat vegetarian meals, cut her hair short, and never re-marry.
• The bride always had to pay the dowry (bridal money) to the husband's family.
• And the husband could ask for anything, irrespective of whether the bride would have difficulty giving it.

Not only that, if after marriage she was not able to pay the full dowry she would be both emotionally and physically tortured, and could end up being a victim of "kitchen death" where the husband, or both the mother-in-law and the husband try to set fire to the wife while she is cooking or is in the kitchen, and try to make it look like an accidental death. More and more of these instances are taking place. The daughter of a friend of my own father's had the same fate last year!

 

In addition to all this, men in Hinduism are treated literally as among the gods. In one of the religious Hindu celebration, unmarried girls pray for and worship an idol representing a particular god (Shira) so that they may have husbands like him. Even my own mother had asked me to do this. This made me see that the Hindu religion which is based on superstitions and things that have no manifest proof (1), but were merely traditions which oppressed women could not be right.

 

Subsequently, when I came to England to study, I thought that at least this is a country which gives equal rights to men and women, and does not oppress them. We all have the freedom to do as we like, I thought. Well, as I started to meet people and make new friends, learn about this new society, and go to all the places my friends went to in order to "socialise" (bars, dance halls, ...etc.), I realised that this "equality" was not so true in practice as it was in theory.

 

Outwardly, women were seen to be given equal rights in education, work, and so forth, but in reality women were still oppressed in a different, more subtle way. When I went with my friends to those places they hung out at, I found everybody interested to talk to me and I thought that was normal. But it was only later that I realised how naive I was, and recognised what these people were really looking for. I soon began to feel uncomfortable, as if I was not myself: I had to dress in a certain way so that people would like me, and had to talk in a certain way to please them. I soon found that I was feeling more and more uncomfortable, less and less myself, yet I could not get out. Everybody was saying they were enjoying themselves, but I don't call this enjoying.

 

I think women in this way of life are oppressed; they have to dress in a certain way in order to please and appear more appealing, and also talk in a certain way so people like them. During this time I had not thought about Islam, even though I had some Muslim acquaintances. But I felt I really had to do something, to find something that I would be happy and secure with, and would feel respected with. Something to believe in that is the right belief, because everybody has a belief that they live according to. If having fun by getting off with other people is someone's belief, they do this. If making money is someone's belief, they do everything to achieve this. If they believe drinking is one way to enjoy life then they do it. But I feel all this leads to nowhere; no one is truly satisfied, and the respect women are looking for is diminishing in this way.

 

In these days of so called "society of equal rights", you are expected to have a boyfriend (or you're weird!) and to not be a virgin. So this is a form of oppression even though some women do not realise it.(2) When I came to Islam, it was obvious that I had finally found permanent security. A religion, a belief that was so complete and clear in every aspect of life. Many people have a misconception that Islam is an oppressive religion, where women are covered from head to toe, and are not allowed any freedom or rights. In fact, women in Islam are given more rights, and have been for the past 1400 years, compared to the only-recently rights given to non-Muslim women in some western and some other societies. But there are, even now, societies where women are still oppressed, as I mentioned earlier in relation to Hindu women.

Muslim women have the right to inheritance. They have the right to run their own trade and business. They have the full right to ownership, property, disposal over their wealth to which the husband has no right. They have the right to education, a right to refuse marriage as long as this refusal is according to reasonable and justifiable grounds. The Quran itself, which is the word of Allah, contains many verses commanding men to be kind to their wives and stressing the rights of women. Islam gives the right set of rules, because they are NOT made by men, but made by Allah; hence it is a perfect religion.

 

Quite often Muslim women are asked why they are covered from head to toe, and are told that this is oppression--it is not. In Islam, marriage is an important part of life, the making of the society. Therefore, a woman should not go around showing herself to everybody, only for her husband. Even the man is not allowed to show certain parts of his body to none but his wife. In addition, Allah has commanded Muslim women to cover themselves for their modesty:

 

"O prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) over their bodies (when outdoors). That is most convenient that they could be known as such (i.e. decent and chaste) and not molested." (Quran 33:59)

 

If we look around at any other society, we find that in the majority of cases women are attacked and molested because of how they are dressed. Another point I'd like to comment on is that the rules and regulation laid down in Islam by Allah (God) do not apply just to women but to men also. There is no intermingling and free-running between men and women for the benefit of both. Whatever Allah commands is right, wholesome, pure and beneficial to mankind; there is no doubt about that. A verse in the Quran explains this concept clearly:

 

"Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and protect their private parts (i.e. from indecency, illegal sexual acts); that will make for greater purity for them. And Allah is well aware of what they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and protect their privaate parts (from indecency, illegal sexual intercourse); and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments...." (Quran, surah "Al-Nur" 24:31)

 

When I put on my hijaab (veil), I was really happy to do it. In fact, I really want to do it. When I put on the hijaab, I felt a great sense of satisfaction and happiness. Satisfied that I had obeyed Allah’s command. And happy with the good and blessings that come with it. I have felt secure and protected. In fact people respect me more for it. I could really see the difference in behaviour towards me.

 

Finally, I'd like to say that I had accepted Islam not blindly, or under any compulsion. In the Quran itself there is a verse which says "there is no compulsion in religion" (3). I accepted Islam with conviction. I have seen, been there, done that, and seen both sides of the story. I know and have experienced what the other side is like, and I know that I have done the right thing. Islam does not oppress women, but rather Islam liberates them and gives them the respect they deserve. Islam is the religion Allah has chosen for the whole of mankind. Those who accept it are truly liberated from the chains and shackles of mankind whose ruling and legislating necessitates nothing but the oppression of one group by another and the exploitation and oppression of one sex by the other. This is not the case of Islam which truly liberated women and gave them an individuality not given by any other authority.

 

Sister Noor has been a muslim for over a year and a half and is currently in her second year of undergraduate study in the Department of Biology

[ummtaalib]

From WASP to a Muslim

Jonathan Brown
05/03/2003

From Washington DC to California

I would like to start the story of how I became Muslim with a bit about my background prior to embracing Islam. I come from a white, upper-middle-class Anglo Saxon American family from Washington DC. Growing up I would accompany my parents to soiree’s, potato-salad laden outdoor luncheons at friends’ houses and church on Sundays. My parents were very well educated and both successful in their respective fields. My days were spent in a coat and tie at private schools. I was not exposed to much diversity, unless by diversity you mean different kinds of rich white people.

 

Despite my excellent education, I certainly had little real understanding of how people from other countries or other religions perceived the world. I was religious as a child, but I did not care too much about the Protestant doctrine my Sunday school teachers tried to teach their students. I was religious, I suppose, because I believed in God in the same way so many people in this world do: I called upon Him when I needed Him, pledging my undying service and devotion if only He’d grant me whatever wish I desperately wanted at the time, only to forget Him later. But I suppose I really did believe in God, for throughout my life I always knew that some higher truth existed and going off to California for boarding school further constricted the role of religion in my life. My father could no longer make me go to church, and California’s rich and liberal environment has never been known to welcome any religious expression other than vapid adulterations of Eastern faiths such as Buddhism and Hinduism. When a teacher at my school suggested having a private Bible study at his house after formal dinner for any students interested he drew criticism from faculty and students alike.

 

With such issues cast aside, then, I spent my high school days studying, drinking when I could and desperately trying to hook up with whatever female would let me near her. Time slipped by as my friends and I knocked tennis balls back and forth in the warm California sun, hoping to impress girls and reaping the inevitable heart-aches with which spoiled youths are constantly stricken. Beyond my English classes, clumsy attempts at getting drunk and days at the beach I knew in both my heart and mind that my life was not complete. I knew, with perhaps too much perspicacity, that all the fleeting delights of my life and all its momentary agonies could come to an end with the wrong turn on a highway or a freak accident. I knew that all my hopes and dreams as a person had to have more significance than simply the transitory whims of an animal born and bound to perish without history even noticing. I knew all this, so I kept looking for the truth that could grant my life meaning.

 

Encountering Islam

Soon I went off to college. There, among stacks of required readings and friends smart and arrogant enough to provide stimulation conversation for each other, I pondered these questions. Motivated and excited by my classes, my mind was always racing from thinker to thinker, from book to book. My university had a theology requirement, so I decided to take a class on Islamic Thought and practice. My professor was a Palestinian Muslim woman who made no apologies for her faith. She presented Islam in a fair and reasonable light, stating on the first day of class that she expected her students to “step into the shoes of a Muslim in order to understand Islam.” I was initially averse to sympathizing for a religion spread by the sword and so closely associated with terrorism, and I took every opportunity I could to argue with the professor about the merits of the religion. As the semester progressed, however, I found myself identifying more and more with the image of Islam that she presented: One God, totally beyond our comprehension, the Creator and Shaper of a rational and ordered universe; a message sent from on high, over and over again to the various human communities that had thrived on and then vanished from the earth; men corrupting this message out of the desire to hasten felicity, out of greed or the lust for power; one last messenger, sent to the dry earth of Arabia, that Near-Eastern crucible of human faith, to deliver the pronouncement one last time; God is, and you must worship Him, when you do, you will be free from fear and pain, and all the trials and vicissitudes of this life will gain meaning; one last book, intact, preserved for all time for the generations that would ponder it as the centuries passed.

 

Surrendering to God

This was the God I had believed in as a child, the God and the message cleansed of human accretions and worldly corruptions. This was the message that sat peacefully both in man’s heart and mind, bringing reason and faith together in submission to God. Yes, the manifestation was foreign; I knew no Arabic, barely understood the world into which the Qur’an was revealed and could hardly grasp the manifold transformations that would affect the Islamic tradition as time and space moved Muhammad’s revelation away from its origins. Nonetheless, I felt that I had alighted upon the truth that had evaded me for so long and that at last my nagging fears and doubts had come to an end. I spent the summer traveling in Europe and Russia and was able to ponder these questions with the seriousness and depth that only long hours of traveling afford. When I returned home to Washington to start my sophomore year of college, I decided that I had already become Muslim. I believed in God’s message, as delivered through the Prophet Muhammad, and all that remained was to formalize my commitment and begin living as a Muslim. I had already weaned myself off liquor and, quite unwillingly, put a stop to my attempted womanizing. I said the shahada (testimony of faith) in front of some of the Muslim friends I had made while learning about the religion and began to pray. God made this transition very easy for me. My family gradually understood the change that had occurred in my life, and they have never been anything but supportive and sympathetic. They are very result-oriented; when they saw that I no longer came home drunk or acted like an idiot they realized that my life had improved.

 

Little can be compared to the euphoria of those first days. With every step I took and every glance at the green trees around me I felt that I had begun life anew. My life and everything in it took on a new purpose. Gone were the doubts and fears of yesteryear. All I wanted to go was serve God and worship Him…all I asked was that He grant me peace in this world and the next. I continued to take classes on Islam and gradually focused on Middle Eastern history. As my college career continued it occurred to me that studying and research were my forte and that pursuing graduate studies in the study of Islam and Islamic civilization would allow me to best serve God.

 

Understanding Islam

But I suppose I had another reason. It is difficult to explain to someone who has not experienced it, but Muslims have long conflated culture and religion. As a convert to Islam it is thus very difficult to distinguish between Arab, Indian or Iranian culture and the actual faith and practices of Islam. Moreover, Muslims have not exactly carried themselves well in the modern era. Their societies and states are poor, uneducated, backward, decadent, and torn by pathetic and pedantic racial or class conflicts. In addition, it is difficult to know when a Muslim is actually committed to their religion, when he is just waving it as some kind of flag to make himself feel better in a world in which secularism, modernity and the West have become paramount. Studying the history and development of the Islamic community helped me answer the important questions “How should I live as a Muslim in the modern world? What elements of Islamic tradition are authentic and which are just the cultural additions of Muslim cultures?”

 

These problems are all interesting, but the Muslim ailment that has affected me most personally is the parochial visions of marriage that abound in the Muslim world. In Islam race should mean nothing. A person’s merit is determined by their belief in God, good deeds, and character alone. Unfortunately, many Muslims are overly concerned with race when it comes to marriage. Whether they are Muslim immigrants in the United States or families that have remained in their countries of origin, an alarmingly large percentage of Muslim parents are only interested in marrying their children to members of their ethnic community. Syrian immigrants in the United States want their children to marry other Syrians, Indian Muslim immigrants want their children to marry Indian Muslims, etc. This is all well and good for those people involved, but it presents somewhat of a dilemma for an American convert to Islam.

 

This attitude is completely antithetical to the original spirit of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad was cast out of his hometown of Mecca because his preaching irked the city’s elite. He was welcomed in the city of Yathrib by noble folk who had embraced his message. As more and more Meccans converted, they made the journey to Yathrib, newly named al-Medina, to be welcomed into an emerging believing community. The Prophet wove these new emmigrants into the fabric of the community and, although tribal divisions did remain, the fraternity of Islam trumped them. Like these early immigrants I long to be accepted and welcomed into a Muslim family.

 

Nonetheless, these problems amount to little when compared to the blessings that God has given me as a Muslim. He has allowed me to explore new peoples and cultures far removed from the white suburban fences and gin-and-tonic cocktail parties of my youth. He has given me a passion for learning and a mission to fulfill in contributing to man’s understanding of history and the world of Islam. He bestowed dignity upon me by leading me away from habits and vices not befitting an upstanding man. He has given my life meaning and saved me from the fear that plagues those whose mortality and life styles haunt them. He has given me brothers and sisters in faith who have embraced me as one of their own.

[ummtaalib]

Da'wah On Wheels

by Anisah David,

Islamic Horizons, Sept./Oct. 2000

 

Taking Islam to bikers is helping fulfill their search for truth.

 

 

Imagine yourself driving down the highway with your family, pleasantly enjoying the view of the Great Plains of the American west, and being overcome by the sound of thunder. It is not the thunder of a distant storm, but the thunder of something you have never experienced. You look around and discover that this commotion is coming behind you, in the shape of a vast army of motorcycles whose helmet-clad riders are traveling en masse. You not only hear the thunder of their engines, but your very bones feel the rumble as they pass you in waves. And as they pass, you note a familiar symbol on the side of each bike and on the backs of each jacket: the bold gold and green symbol of Islam.

 

This is the dream of an American-born revert, Victor David. An avid biker who once lived the rough and rowdy life of an American biker, David is working to make his new dream come true.

 

His goal is to organize a Muslim biker's association -- similar to the Christian Biker's Association -- to bring the message of Islam to bikers. A resident of South Dakota, David would like to develop a nationwide organization that focuses on bringing the message of Islam to people like himself.

 

David embraced Islam in 1998, after learning that his older sister, with whom he had lost contact, had been a Muslim for several years. Studying Islam to prove that it was not the "true" religion, he embraced it 8 months later. Today, only the tattoos remain in a re-born David

 

Tent of Light

David's current project is to travel to Sturgis, SD, during the sixtieth annual Biker's Rally in August [2000]. Usually, this event attracts some 275,000 to 290,000 people, and more come each year. He asserts: "It's time that Muslims bring Islam to the people, and this event is only one such event."

 

He is not planning a run-of-the-mill Da'wah activity. Instead, the group would focus on Da'wah by using the common interest of motorcycles. He wants to pitch a tent of enlightenment in Sturgis and invite his fellow bikers to come in, sit with him and fellow Muslim motorcycle enthusiasts, and discuss Islam.

 

David dispels commonly held stereotypes about bikers by stating that they usually are individuals who have decided that the American system does not work and then launch themselves on a search for truth.

 

The organization that plans to begin working in this unique medium is still in its infancy. David hopes that other Muslim bikers will join in this annual endeavor each August, beginning in the year 2002. "We are planning on having a central meeting point in eastern South Dakota somewhere near Brookings, in sha' Allah [by the will of Allah], where we will camp out and organize ourselves before traveling together on to the town of Sturgis in the Black Hills of South Dakota," says David.

 

His organization needs to raise $2,000 for the proposed Da'wah Tent at the rally. He hopes that he can save enough money to purchase a good quality, large canvas marquee that can hold many people at once.

 

Why a tent? David explains with a smile: "A tent is the most suitable form of shelter, since it is also an image that comes to the mind of many when they think of Muslims." "Tents," he continues, "are used on Hajj." David says that a large white tent with green trim would be a sight to see, even in a large rally like Sturgis. "It is sure to catch the attention of some individuals, in sha' Allah," he declares.

 

The biking enthusiast insists that Islam needs to be taught to everyone, not just to university students or a certain social set. "Too often we have ignored the middle and lower classes in America, and then wondered why they didn't know anything about Islam," he said. "I am trying to reach a group I am familiar with, and one who often is outside the social mainstream."

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

 

Jazakiliilah    khair for  sharing

[anisafatima]

Salam peace to all. Allah Almighty (SWT) grants special importance to a person who was born in a religion other than Islam but due his or her wisdom accepted Islam as a religion. As a Muslim, we are responsible to provide comfort to that new comer.

[ummtaalib]

My Story of Islam

How a nurse in Germany, gave up her uniform for a shuttlecock burqa!

 

I had a typical life for one brought up in Western Culture.

 

It was an upbringing, which was highly influenced by materialism and discrimination, without any real aim in life. No one in my family was inclined toward a religious way of life.

 

We were taught, my three brothers and I, early on that this world is a materialistic one, and the goal in life was to acquire the finer things of this world.

The method with which we were taught to achieve these things was to firstly get a good secular education free from religious teachings. This was to be followed by securing a good job. A good job was one that would give you a respectable status within the society. This in turn would allow one to develop his self esteem to the fullest and then you could become free to do whatever your heart desired.

 

The belief in Allah was never part of my thinking when I was young. The belief in a Creator of this world and everything in it is taken away while you are very young when you live in the West. We were taught about the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus and other non-existent personalities.

These personalities had the same characteristics as Allah.

 

We were taught that Santa Claus knew everything about everyone and he traveled around the entire world in one night.

 

Later as we got older we were told that all of these things were a lie.  There was no such thing as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

 

This just reinforced our belief that if you can not see something, then it means it does not exist.

 

So the conclusion one reaches after coming face to face with the reality that all of these characters don’t exist is that, nauthu billah, Allah did not exist either.

 

So I completed my education and I became a nurse. This allowed me to get my own apartment, car, mobile phone and other luxuries.

 

I was young and free to do, as I wanted as I was living apart from my parents. I could now enjoy some of the finer things in this dunya that I had dreamed about throughout my childhood.

 

Although my dreams had become reality, I was still not satisfied with my life.

 

Life and Shaitan continued to mislead me.

 

The job I had, the status in society I had also, but what about starting a family of my own with a loving husband?

 

So I began my search for a life partner. Since religion was not an issue, I began looking in nightclubs, discotheques, the Internet chat rooms, and just about any place I could think of.

 

I adorned my self with make up and wore all kinds of shameless dresses, with the single purpose of catching “Mr. Right”.

 

Since I was German and my family brought me up hating   any human who belongs to another tribe, color or simply showed any sign of which the “German Race”, meaning being a fascist and nazi, did not approve of, ( have white skin, blue eyes light hair and blaming the downfall of the economy on just any foreigner who stepped foot into Germany and taking up jobs that no German would even dare to think of doing below a certain amount of wage ), I tried my best to r.follow my families teachings and those of the German Culture and looked for a typical German cultured life partner and just following the slogan: Deutschland den Deutschen. Auslaender raus!

 

Germany  for the Germans. Foreigners out!

And all this while toning my skin to look brown and curling my hair to look like those whom we hated so much! kinda hyprcritical. Hm?

But I could never obtain the respect of any man or the rest of society like the western culture’s TV and magazines had promised.

I therefore slipped into depression.

 

I started to hate my body and myself and began to change my body so I could turn into the image which the west projects as the perfect woman.

 

But I only succeeded in becoming a shell of my former self, destroying my health and natural beauty and mindset Allah ta’ala created me with, namely being g , good mannered, loving and caring to mankind, respecting  and serving the man of the house and taking care over sick, weak and needy and have shame.

 

However, things were about to change. Mankind plans and Allah ta’ala plans, and Allah ta’ala is the Best of Planners.

While working as a nurse it offered me an opportunity to witness many, many people die. No matter what the doctor or nurses did. Respect ,  dignity and feeling pity toward the human body was and has never been a part of modern medicine.

 

The hospital are just places of weird , inhuman experiments on old and sick and the helpless children.

 

Furthermore the false and weird christian religion showed its true face. majority of doctors and nurses are atheists and so was I. Believing that we were in absolute power of doing anything, even to resurrect the dead! But the Truth always struck us full force , but we kept rejecting it and blaming the sick!

 

When the patient was sick or on the death bed the truth could not be withheld.The sick and dying chase the female or male priest out theri rooms ,cursing them for the falsehood they preached, forbidding them to read from the bible .

 

Man times, when i had night shift alone, i witnessed the work of the angles of death. It exactly happened as hadith explained.

Patients screamed at me to chase away this fierce looking persons who gives them  pain and scare them .

 

Often the old and young dying patients would call me.. nurse  help me. do you not see these men? Go away. go away!…etc..

 

I was able to see the powerlessness of modern medicine.

 

With all of its x-ray machines, and fancy equipment and the sincere efforts of the doctors and nurses, it could not prevent the patients from dying at their appointed time.

 

As a result, I began to question myself as to what is life’s purpose.

 

All praise is due to Allah, that He planted a spark in my heart that led me to understand that there must be more in store for one after this short worldly life.

That spark started me reflecting on the life of my older brother.

 

He had accepted Islam about 10 years before me.

 

Shortly thereafter he left Germany to study in the madrassah in Pakistan.

 

While he was away in Pakistan he wrote letters to me explaining what Islam was really like. He emphasized the important status a woman had in lslam (paradise lies under the feet of the mother and other hadith like that). He also wrote about the importance of keeping oneself covered, modesty shame etc. at the time he was writing these letters, I was not ready to accept what he was saying.

 

I could only think negatively about purdah, and the burqah.

 

These things represented a prison for a young westernized woman like me,  below her dignity to bear children and to love and serve her husband. 

 

And the example Muslims life  and interpreted their religion did not bring me close to Islam at all but made me reject the truth even more!

 

However, after analyzing the direction I was going with my life was not correct, I decided to investigate further as to what Islam was all about.

After all I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

I could see that obtaining worldly possessions was not the key to happiness.

I had most of the things that I had wanted, yet I was still unhappy and thoroughly depressed.

I thought maybe Islam had something to offer me.

 

After all, my brother seemed to be happy and I had always looked up to him when I was a child.

He was always had been an example to me. Initially I chose to follow and imitate him in many ways to please my mum as she was always in praise of him and to find the way to go.

 

As he knew what I was going through in my personal life, because he did the same things I did before Islam.

One day over the telephone ( when wanted to make an end to all again, after breaking up with my life partner, etc,) from Pakistan he suggested I turn to Allah to solve my problems and everything would be alright after that.

 

After some thought, I decided to give Islam a try. It was the best thing I ever did. But the results were not seen immediately.

 

Accepting Islam at first left me very afraid. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.

I was now alone in Germany (the first thing I had to do was leave my boyfriend and live by myself).

I didn’t know any one in the country who was Muslim. How would I learn the prayers and the different things that are halaal or haraam?

I was in a difficult situation.

So I decided to take a leave from the hospital from where I was working and go to Pakistan and learn the deen from my brother directly.

I had no other choice at this time.

 

This would give me the opportunity to learn enough of the deen so I could return to Germany and perform the basic functions of Islam and learn what was expected of me from my Lord.

 

I arrived at the airport in my western dress, searching for my brother.

He came in shalwar kameez along with his wife.

 

The first thing I noticed about his wife was the black burqah she was wearing complete with niqab and netting over that! When I saw this I could only think to myself that I hope my brother doesn’t expect me to dress like his wife!

 

All the negative feelings I had had prior to Islam about the burqa were coming back into my mind.

Shaitan had come with a full force attack aimed directly at my weakest point.

 

Then all of a sudden my worst fears were realized.

My brother pulled a burqah out of a plastic bag he was carrying and said: come on little sister, it’s time to dress like a Muslim woman!

It’s amazing how fast the fear left me after putting on the burqah for the first time. The fear was suddenly replaced by feeling of peace and safety. Now I was being respected as a Muslim woman.

Nobody could see how i looked like. no man or women reduced me to only my appereance.

 

There was the  respect that I had searched so hard for before Islam and never achieved it.

At last I had found it in Islam after donning the burqah. In addition, I felt more pleased with the way I looked now.

I no longer desired to change my looks to please others.

 

I finally became happy with my whole self (both internal self and external self).

But this was not enough, I wanted more.

 

I wanted the complete package i.e. the netting over my niqab, gloves to cover my hands and closed shoes along with black socks to cover my feet.

I saw that the more I covered myself the better I felt, as I knew that this was the proper way for a Muslim woman to be.

When a Muslim woman covers her body from strange men then Allah is pleased with her. This was what I was now striving for.

Now when my leave was over from the hospital and I had to return to Germany and go back to work, I no longer felt that Germany could be my home.

And when I did return with a different way of dressing, eating, attitude, etc, my old friends either didn’t understand me or didn’t like me anymore and i became a target of mockery and insults.

 

But why? Because I found believe in God, which they all claimed to have and because I chose to cover my body ans hide my beauty or ugliness and did not prostitute myself anymore?! 

 

They thought I had just gone to Pakistan on vacation and that I didn’t enjoy my trip.

 

They didn’t realize I had gone there to seek a new way of life and this is what had happened.

 

So I then decided to quit my job at the hospital and return to Pakistan with the intention of learning more about my new religion. One month after I arrived, Allah blessed me with a husband.

 

Now the amazing thing here has to be mentioned is:…. My husband is an black american, ex-practicing christian who equally hated whites as much i hated blacks!! wow.. Please read it and let it sink into the brain.

 

I had been blessed with a husband i prayed for since i took shahada!  Awise, tolerant, deeni  and loving husband whom i can respect and serve and have children with and who cares for me no matter ho how sick i am or how i look like! 

 

This had been another proof for me that Islam is the absolute truth.

 

Before Islam i would have rather beat up or killed my now husband and i would not have even thought about marrying a man who is quiet some years older than me and not a German! .. smile.

 

Only in Islam man and women have rights which be fulfilled on both sides. Only Islam teaches mutual respect and love and has a uniqe family system which binds together the human race thru brotherhood and sisterhood as we all have our origin from the same parents. Adam and Eve alayhimus salaam

 

Now I try to fulfill the rights of Allah by staying home and remaining occupied with the domestic duties of a wife and mother  of now 5 Kids.

 

I keep learning and searching for the truth and halaal only and I’m trying my best to be occupied in homeschooling my children toghether with my husband according to Islam.

 

I’m occupied in preparing my own medical treatments, cosmetics, food stuff and many other things.

 

I rarely go outside the four walls of my house anymore. I have found complete serenity and contentment in my house where I am the queen of my castle.

 

Those rare times that I go out now are only with my husband and with my blue shuttlecock burqah.

Or at least a very long and loose black Burqa which is always in accordance of the Sharia!!!!

The Truth Seeker

[ummtaalib]

Mujahid Brother Dawood (Shaheed Inshallah)

 

Dawood, from Britain. Killed during a battle against Croatian Forces in Bosnia in 1993. Aged 29. 1st hand account. Present on In the Hearts of Green Birds Born and brought up as a Christian in Britain, he started his job in a Computer Company. One morning he came to work wearing Islamic dress. Upon being asked why he was wearing this dress he informed his work colleagues that he had converted to Islam. One week later he was fired from his job and went to Bosnia with two other brothers. Four months later, his brothers were returning to Britain for a few months and they asked him to come with them. He refused, saying,

 

What is there for me to do in the land of disbelievers?

 

He was a very calm and quiet brother, funny at the same time. He loved guarding his brothers on the mountain in snow and cold weather. A very fast learner of Islam and the Arabic language, he loved to keep all the Sunnahs of the Messenger of Allah (SAW). He used to sleep on his right-hand side in a crouched position, he used pray all night and fast most days. Commander Abul-Harith (RA) said about him,

 

All of us knew that Dawood would be the next Shaheed from amongst us, as he was getting higher and higher and higher in his Iman and Taqwa.

 

The night before the Operation, Dawood had a dream, in which he saw himself running in a place with large palaces on either side. He asked,

 

Who do these palaces belong to?

 

It was said to him,

These are the houses of the Shuhadaa.

 

He asked,

Where is the house of Abu Ibrahim?

(the Turkish brother from Britain who was shot dead by the French United Nations near Sarajevo Airport). The voice said to him,

The house of Abu Ibrahim is over there.

 

And so in the dream Dawood began to run towards the house of his friend, Abu Ibrahim, and then suddenly he fell down and woke from his sleep.

 

The following morning there was a large operation against the Croats. During this operation, while he was running, he was killed by a single shot to the heart. He fell down and his body rolled down to the Croat bunkers below. After three months his body was returned to the Mujahideen. It was as new, it was bleeding and smelling of musk. His body was found crouched on its right-hand side, just how he used to lie down to sleep.

(Story courtsy of WWW.AZZAM.COM)

[ummtaalib]

The conversion to Islam of Karima Burns

 

This Iowa student of Arabic became a Muslim in her heart when she started reading the Quran in order do to her university homework and couldn’t put it down.

 

I sat in the Alhambra Mosque in Granada, Spain staring at the script that bordered the walls. It was the most beautiful language I had ever seen. “What language is that?” I said a Spanish tourist. “Arabic,” they answered.

 

The next day, when the tour attendant asked which language I wanted my tour book in, I answered, “Arabic.”

“Arabic?” she said, surprised. “Do you speak Arabic?”

“No,” I replied. “Can you give me one in English too?”

 

By the end of my trip I had a bag full of Arabic tour guides to all the sites I had visited in Spain. In fact, my bag was so full that at one point I had to give away some of my clothes so I could make everything fit. But, I hung on to my Arabic tour books as if they were made of gold. I would open them every night and look at the letters of the language as they flowed across the page. I imagined being able to write such beautiful script and I thought to myself that there must be something worth knowing about a culture that had such an artistic language. I vowed that I would study this language when I started college in the fall.

 

Only two months before, I had left my family in Iowa to take a trip through Europe, alone. I was only 16 years old and due to enter Northwestern University in the fall and I had wanted to “see the world” first. At least, that is what I told my friends and family. In reality I was searching for answers. I had left the church only a few months before and did not know where to turn. I knew that I was not comfortable with what I was being taught, but I did not know of any alternatives.

 

Where I grew up, in the Midwest, there was no room for confusion – you were either part of the church or you were not. So, I had no idea there was something else. When I set off for Europe I hoped that there was.

 

In my church we were not allowed to pray to God, we could only pray to Jesus and hope that he would relay the message to God. I had intuitively felt that there was something wrong with that and so, without telling anyone, I secretly prayed to “God.” I sincerely believed that there was only one entity to pray to. But, I felt guilty because this was not what I had been taught. Then, there was the confusing matter of what to do during one’s “daily life.”

 

“I dutifully went to church every Sunday and was very serious about what I learned regarding honesty, kindness and compassion. So, it confused me when I saw people from church acting so differently during the week. Were there no rules during the week? Did they only apply on Sundays? I looked for some guidance…but found none. There were the Ten Commandments that covered the obvious things like killing, stealing and lying, but other than that, I had no guidelines for how to act when I wasn’t in church. All I knew was: perhaps there was something wrong with wearing mini-skirts to church and only going to Sunday School because of cute guys that attended.

 

One day, I went to a teacher’s house and saw a shelf lined with Bibles. I asked what they were. “Different versions of the Bible,” my teacher replied. It did not seem to bother him at all that there were so many different versions. But, it bothered me. Some of them were really different and some chapters were even missing from the version I had. I was very confused.

 

I returned to college that fall disappointed that I had not found the answers I was hoping for in Europe, but with a passion for a language I had only just learned about – Arabic. Ironically, I had stared right at the answers I was searching for, on the walls of the Alhambra. But, it took me two more years to realize that.

 

The first thing I did when I reached the campus was…enroll in Arabic classes. I was one of only three people in the highly unpopular class. I immersed myself in my Arabic studies with such a passion that my teacher was confused. I did my homework with a calligraphy pen and I went into the Arab areas of Chicago just to track down a Coca Cola bottle written in the language. I begged him to lend me books in Arabic just so I could look at the script. By the time my second year of college came around, I decided I should consider a major in Middle Eastern Studies. So, I enrolled in some classes focusing on the region. In one class we studied the Qur’an.

 

I opened the Qur’an one night to “do my homework” and could not stop reading it. It was like I had picked up a good novel. I thought to myself, “Wow. This is great. This is what I have always believed. This answers all my questions about how to act during the week and it even states very clearly that there is only one God.”

It just all made so much sense. I was amazed that there was this book written about everything I believed in and had been searching for. I went to class the next day to ask about the author of the book so I could read more books by them. In the copy I had been given, there was a name. I thought it was the author of the book, akin to the Gospels written by St. Luke or the other religions I had studied…that all attributed their writings to some person who was inspired enough to write it down.

 

My professor informed me that it was not the author but the translator because “according to the Muslims no one had written the book.” The Qur’an was, according to THEM (referring to Muslims, he was Christian) the word of God and had not been changed since it was inspired, recited and then transcribed. Needless to say, I was fascinated. After that, I became passionate, not only about my studies of Arabic, but about studying Islam and about going to the Middle East.

 

My senior year in college I finally went to Egypt to continue my studies. My favorite place to go became “Islamic Cairo,” where the mosques always gave me a sense of comfort and awe. I felt that by being in them, one could really feel the beauty, power and awe of Allah. And, as always I enjoyed staring at the elegant calligraphy on the walls.

 

One day a friend asked me why I didn’t convert to Islam if I liked it so much. “But I am already Muslim.” My answer surprised me. But then, I realized that it was a simple matter of logic and common sense. Islam made sense. It inspired me. I knew it was right. Why did I then have to convert? My friend informed me that in order to “be official,” I needed to actually go to the mosque and state my intention in front of two witnesses. So, I did. But, when they gave the certificate to me, I just filed it in my file cabinet with my “other” medical and personal records…because to me, I had always been Muslim. I didn’t need to hang a piece of paper on my wall to tell me that. I had known it the minute I picked up the Qur’an. The minute I opened it, I felt like I had found my long lost family. I hung a picture of the Alhambra Mosque on my wall instead.

[ummtaalib]

 

Aminah Assilmi (1945 - 2010), an energetic caller to Islam who traveled around the nation giving lectures and inspiring other, and President of the International Union of Muslim Women once said:

“I am so very glad that I am a Muslim. Islam is my life. Islam is the beat of my heart. Islam is the blood that courses through my veins. Islam is my strength. Islam is my life so wonderful and beautiful. Without Islam I am nothing, and should Allah ever turn His magnificent face from me, I could not survive”

 

Sister Aminah died in a car accident in the early morning of March 5, 2010, outside of Newport, Tenn. She was returning with her son from a speaking engagement in New York. Her son, who was injured in the accident, was taken to a hospital in Knoxville.  She was 65. . To Allah we belong and to Allah we will return. The following write-up is excerpted from a longer write-up on Sister Aminah’s biography. -- TML

 

 

It all started with a computer glitch.

She was a Southern Baptist girl, a radical feminist, and a broadcast journalist. She was a girl with an unusual caliber, who excelled in school, received scholarships, ran her own business, and were competing with professionals and getting awards – all these while she was going to college. Then one day a computer error happened that made her take up a mission as a devout Christian. Eventually, however, it resulted into something opposite and changed her life completely around.

It was 1975 when for the first time computer was used to pre-register for a class in her college. She was working on her degree on Recreation. She pre-registered for a class and then went toOklahoma City to take care of a business. Her return was delayed and she came back to college two weeks into the class. Making up the missed work was no problem for her, but she was surprised to find that the computer mistakenly registered her for a Theatre class, a class where students would be required to perform in front of others. She was a very reticent girl and she was horrified to think about performing in front of others. She could not drop the class for it was too late.

Failing the class was also not a choice, for she was receiving a scholarship that was paying for her tuition and receiving an ‘F’ would have jeopardized it.

Advised by her husband, she went to her teacher to work out some other alternative to performing, such as preparing costumes, etc. Assured by the teacher that he would try to help her, she went to the next class and was shocked by what she saw. The class was full of Arabs and “camel jockeys”. That was enough for her. She came back home and decided not to go back to the class anymore. It was not possible for her to be in the middle of Arabs. “There was no way I was going to sit in a room full of dirty heathens!”

Her husband was calm as usual. He pointed out to her that God has a reason for everything and that she should think about more before quitting. Besides, there was the scholarship that was paying her tuition. She went behind locked doors for 2 days to think about. When she came out, she decided to continue the class. She felt that God gave her a task to convert the Arabs into Christianity.

Thus she found herself with a mission to accomplish. Throughout the class, she would be discussing Christianity with her Arab classmates. “I proceeded to explain to them how they would burn in the fires of hell for all eternity, if they did not accept Jesus as their personal savior. They were very polite, but did not convert. Then, I explained how Jesus loved them and had died on the cross to save them from their sins. All they had to do was accept him into their hearts.” They still did not convert, and so she decided to do something else: “I decided to read their own book to show to them that Islam was a false religion and Mohammed was a false Prophet”.

At her request, one student gave her a copy of the Qur’an and another book on Islam. With these two books she started on her research, which she was to continue for the next one and half years. She read the Qur’an fully and another fifteen books on Islam. Then she came back to the Qur’an and re-read it. During her research, she started taking notes that she found objectionable and which she would be able to use to prove that Islam was a false religion.

Unconsciously, however, she was changing from within which did not escape the attention of her husband. “I was changing, just in little ways but enough to bother him. We used to go to the bar every Friday and Saturday, or to a party, and I no longer wanted to go. I was quieter and more distant.” She stopped drinking and eating pork. Her husband suspected her of having an affair with another man, for “it was only for a man that a woman changes”. Ultimately, she was asked to leave, and she soon found herself living in a separate apartment

“When I first started to study Islam, I did not expect to find anything that I needed or wanted in my personal life. Little did I know that Islam would change my life. No human could have ever convinced me that I would finally be at peace and overflowing with love and joy because of Islam.”

Throughout these times, she continued studying Islam and although she was changing subtly from within, she remained a devout Christian. Then one day, there was a knock on her door. It was a man in traditional Muslim robe, who appeared to her as a “man in a long white night gown with a red and white checkered table cloth on his head”. His name was Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik and he was accompanied by three other men in similar dress. She was very offended by Muslim men coming to her in nightgowns and pajamas. She was further shocked when Abdul-Aziz told her that he understood that she waited to be a Muslim. She replied that she was a Christian and she did not have any plan to become a Muslim. However, she had some questions to ask if they had the time.

At her invitation, they came inside. She now brought up the questions and objections that she noted down while she was researching. “I will never forget his name”, she said of Abdul-Aziz who proved to be a very patient and soft-mannered person. “He was very patient and discussed every question with me. He never made me feel silly or that a question was stupid.” Abdul-Aziz listened to every question and objection and explained it within the proper context. “He explained that Allah had told us to seek knowledge and questions were one of the ways to accomplish that. When he explained something, it was like watching a rose open – petal by petal, until it reached its full glory. When I told him that I did not agree with something and why, he always said I was correct up to a point. Then he would show me how to look deeper and from different directions to reach a fuller understanding.”

It would not be long before she would externally submit to what she had already been submitting to internally during the last one and half years. Later in that same day, this Southern Baptist girl would declare in front of Abdul-Aziz and his companions: “I bear witness that there is no god but God and Mohammed is His Messenger.” It was May 21, 1977.

Conversion to Islam, or to any other religion for that matter, is not always a simple thing to do. Except for a few fortunate ones, a new Muslim usually face consequences. The convert may face isolation from family and friends, if not pressure to go back to the family faith. Sometimes, a convert may even face sever economic hardship, as in the case of those who are asked to leave the house because of converting to Islam. Some converts are fortunate to continue to be well respected by family and friends, but most of them face minor to severe hardship especially during the first few years after the conversion.

But the difficulty that Aminah Assilimi had to go through and the sacrifice that she had to make for the sake of her conviction and faith is almost unheard of. There are few who could rely so much on Allah as she did, standing firm and meeting the challenges, making sacrifices, and yet maintaining a positive posture and influencing people around with the beauty of what she found and believed in.
She lost most of her friends, for she was “no fun anymore”. Her mother did not accept her becoming a Muslim and hoped that it was a temporary zeal and that she would soon grow out of it. Her “mental health expert” sister thought that she lost her mind. She attempted to put her in a mental health institution.

Her father was a calm and wise man. People would come to him for advice and he could comfort anyone in distress. But when he heard that his daughter became a Muslim, he loaded his double-barrel shotgun and started on his way to kill her. “It is better that she be dead rather than suffering in the deepest of Hell”, he said.

She was now without friends and without family.

She soon started wearing hijab. The day she put it on, she was denied her job. She was now without family, friends, and job. But her greatest sacrifice was yet to come.

She and her husband both loved each other very much. But while she was studying Islam, her husband misunderstood her for her apparent changes. She became quieter and stopped going to the bar. Her changes were visible to him and he suspected her of having affair with another man, for whom she must have been changing. She could not explain to him what was happening.“There was no way to make him understand what was changing me because I did not know.”Eventually he asked her to leave and she started living separately.

After she openly accepted Islam, it went worse. A divorce was now inevitable. This was a time when Islam was little known, much less understood for what it is. She had two little children whom she loved dearly and whose custody should have rightfully be given to her. But in a grave violation of justice, she was denied their custody just because she became a Muslim. Before giving the formal verdict, the judge offered her a harsh choice: either renounce Islam and get custody of the children, or keep Islam and leave the children. She was given 20 minutes to make a decision.

She loved her children very dearly. It is perhaps the worst nightmare that a mother can have: asked to willfully leave her child - not for one day, month, or year, but forever. On the other hand, how could she keep the Truth away from her children and live as a hypocrite? “It was the most painful 20 minutes in my life”, she said in an interview. Those of us who are mothers and fathers, especially of young children, little imagination is needed to feel the pain and torment that she must have passed every second in those 20 minutes. What added further to her pain was that according to doctors, she could never bear another child because of certain complications.

“I prayed like I had never done before … I knew that there was no safer place for my children to be than in the hands of Allah. If I denied Him, there would be no way in the future to show my children the wonders of being with Allah.”

She decided to retain Islam. Her two dear children – one little boy and one little girl – were taken away from her and given to her ex-husband.

For a mother, is there a sacrifice greater than this – a sacrifice that is done for no material reason but only for faith and conviction?

“I left the court knowing that life without my babies would be very difficult. My heart bled, even though I knew, inside, I had done the right thing” . She found comfort in the following verse of the Qur’an:There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory). (Quran 2: 255)

Perhaps the air of Colorado was too thin for justice. Or perhaps there was a plan in Allah’s greater scheme of affairs. Aminah Assilimi later fought back and took her case to the media. Although she did not get custody of her children again, a change was made in the Colorado law that one cannot be denied child custody on the basis of his or her religion.

Indeed Allah’s love and mercy engulfed her so much that, as if, she has been granted the touchstone of Islam. Wherever she goes, people are touched by her beautiful words and Islamic manners and become Muslim.

By accepting Islam, she became a changed person, and a much better person. So much so that her family, relatives, and people around her started appreciating her mannerism and the faith that brought about such changes in her. Despite her family’s initial reaction, she remained in touch with them and addressed them with respect and humility, just as the Qur’an enjoins the Muslims to do. She would send cards to her parents on different occasions, but she would always write down a verse from the Qur’an or the Hadith without mentioning the source of such beautiful words of wisdom. It was not long before she started making a positive influence among her family members.

The first to become Muslim was her grand mother. She was over 100 years old. Soon after accepting Islam, she died. “The day she pronounced Shahada, all her misdeeds had been erased, while her good deeds were preserved. She died so soon after accepting Islam that I knew her “book” was bound to be heavy on the good side. It fills me with such a joy!”

Next to become Muslim was her father, the one who wanted to kill her after she became Muslim. Thus he brought alive the story of Umar ibn Khattab. Umar was a companion of the Prophet (peace be on him) who persecuted the early Muslims before he converted to Islam. When he heard one day that his sister became a Muslim, he went out with an open sword to kill her. But upon hearing some of the verses from the Qur’an that his sister was reciting, he recognized the truth and went straight to the Prophet and accepted Islam.

Two years after she (Assilmi) accepted Islam, her mother called and said that she appreciated her faith and hoped that she would keep it. Couple of years later, she called again and asked her about what one would need to do to become a Muslim. Assilmi replied that one had to believe that there is only One God and Muhammad was his Messenger. “Any fool knows that. But what do you have to do?”, she asked again. She replied that if that is what she believed, then she was already a Muslim! At this, her mother said, “Well … OK. But let’s not tell your father just yet”.

She was not aware that her husband (Assilmi’s step father) had the same conversation with her a few weeks earlier. Thus the two lived together as Muslims for years in secret without knowing that the other was also a Muslim. Her sister who wanted to put her in mental institution accepted Islam as well. She must have realized that becoming Muslim is indeed the most healthy and sound thing to do.
Her son, upon becoming adult, accepted Islam. When he turned 21, he called her and said that he wanted to become a Muslim.

Sixteen years after the divorce, her ex-husband also accepted Islam. He said that he had been watching her for sixteen years and wanted his daughter to have the same religion that she had. He came to her and apologized for what he had done. He was a very nice gentlemen and Assilimi had forgiven him long ago.

Perhaps the greatest reward for her was yet to come. Assilmi later married another person, and despite the doctors’ verdict that she could never conceive another child, Allah blessed her with a beautiful boy. If Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala makes a gift to someone, who can prevent Him? It was truly a wonderful blessing from Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala, and so she named him Barakah.

The sacrifice that Assilmi made for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala was tremendous. And so Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala turned in mercy to her and rewarded her with enormous blessings. Her family discarded her after she accepted Islam, and now by Allah’s mercy, most of them are Muslim. She lost her friends because of Islam, and now she is being loved by so many. “Friends who loved came out of nowhere”, she said.

Allah’s blessings came upon her so much that wherever she goes people are touched by the beauty of Islam and accept the Truth. Both Muslims and non-Muslims now come to her for advice and counseling.

She lost her job because of wearing hijab, and now she is the President of the International Union of Muslim Women. She delivers lectures nationwide and is on high demand. It was her organization that successfully lobbied for the “Eid Stamp” and had it approved by the United States Postal Service, but it took many years of work. She is now working on making the Eid Day as a national holiday.

She has tremendous trust on Allah’s love and mercy and she never looses faith on Him. She was once diagnosed with cancer some years ago. Doctors said that it was in an advanced stage and that she would live for another year. But her faith in Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala remained strong. “We must all die. I was confident that the pain I was experiencing contained blessings.”

As a brilliant example of how much one can love Allah, she mentions about a friend of her  named Kareem Al-Misawi who died of cancer when he was in his 20’s: “Shortly before he died, he told me that Allah was truly Merciful. This man was in unbelievable anguish and was radiating with Allah’s love. He said: “Allah intends that I should enter heaven with a clean book.” His death experience gave me something to think about. He taught me of Allah’s love and mercy.”

All praise is due to Allah, she continues to live in good health. She now thinks that having cancer was the greatest blessing that she ever had.

Source: famousmuslims.com

[ummtaalib]

A British Woman on a Mission

 

Sidra Khan reports on Aisha Bhutta's bid to convert the world to Islam

The Guardian Newspaper, London

Thursday 8th May 1997

Aisha Bhutta, also known as Debbie Rogers, is serene. She sits on the sofa in big front room of her tenement flat in Cowcaddens, Glasgow. The walls are hung with quotations from the Koran, a special clock to remind the family of prayer times and posters of the Holy City of Mecca. Aisha's piercing blue eyes sparkle with evangelical zeal, she smiles with a radiance only true believers possess. Her face is that of a strong Scots lass - no nonsense, good-humoured - but it is carefully covered with a hijab.

For a good Christian girl to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim is extraordinary enough. Butmore than that, she has also converted her parents, most of the rest of her family and at least 30 friends and neighbours.

Her family were austere Christians with whom Rogers regularly attended Salvation Army meetings. When all the other teenagers in Britain were kissing their George Michael posters goodnight, Rogers had pictures of Jesus up on her wall. And yet she found that Christianity was not enough; there were too many unanswered questions and she felt dissatisfied with the lack of disciplined structure for her beliefs. "There had to be more for me to obey than just doing prayers when I felt like it."

Aisha had first seen her future husband, Mohammad Bhutta, when she was 10 and regular customer at the shop, run by his family. She would see him in the back, praying. "There was contentment and peace in what he was doing. He said he was a Muslim. I said: What's a Muslim?".

Later with his help she began looking deeper into Islam. By the age of 17, she had read the entire Koran in Arabic. "Everything I read", she says, "was making sense."

She made the decision to convert at16. "When I said the words, it waslike a big burden I had been carrying on my shoulders had been thrown off. I felt like a new-born baby."

Despite her conversion however, Mohammed's parents were against their marrying. They saw her as a Western woman who would lead their eldestson astray and give the family a bad name; she was, Mohammed's father believed, "the biggest enemy."

Nevertheless, the couple married in the local mosque. Aisha wore a dress hand-sewn by Mohammed's mother and sisters who sneaked into the ceremony against the wishes of his father who refused to attend.

It was his elderly grandmother who paved the way for a bond between thewomen. She arrived from Pakistan where mixed-race marriages were evenmore taboo, and insisted on meeting Aisha. She was so impressed by thefact that she had learned the Koran and Punjabi that she convinced the others; slowly, Aisha, now 32, became one of the family.

Aisha's parents, Michael and Marjory Rogers, though did attend the wedding, were more concerned with the clothes their daughter was now wearing (the traditional shalwaar kameez) and what the neighbours would think. Six years later, Aisha embarked on a mission to convert them and the rest of her family, bar her sister ("I'm still working on her). "My husband and I worked on my mum and dad, telling them about Islam and they saw the changes in me, like I stopped answering back!"

Her mother soon followed in her footsteps. Marjory Rogers changed her name to Sumayyah and became a devout Muslim. "She wore the hijab anddid her prayers on time and nothing ever mattered to her except her connections with God.

" Aisha's father proved a more difficult recruit, so she enlisted the helpof her newly converted mother (who has since died of cancer). "My mumand I used to talk to my father about Islam and we were sitting in the sofa in the kitchen one day and he said: "What are the words you saywhen you become a Muslim?" "Me and my mum just jumped on top of him." Three years later, Aisha's brother converted "over the telephone - thanks to BT", then his wife and children followed, followed by her sister's son.

It didn't stop there. Her family converted, Aisha turned her attentionto Cowcaddens, with its tightly packed rows of crumbling, gray tenement flats. Every Monday for the past 13 years, Aisha has held classes in Islam for Scottish women. So far she has helped to convert over 30. The women come from a bewildering array of backgrounds. Trudy, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a former Catholic, attended Aisha's classes purely because she was commissioned to carry out some research. But after six months of classes she converted, deciding that Christianity was riddled with "logical inconsistencies". "I could tell she was beginning to be affected by the talks", Aisha says. How could she tell? "I don't know, it was just a feeling."

The classes include Muslim girls tempted by Western ideals and need ingsalvation, practicing Muslim women who want an open forum for discussion denied them at the local male-dominated mosque, and those simply interested in Islam. Aisha welcomes questions. "We cannot expect people blindly to believe."

Her husband, Mohammad Bhutta, now 41, does not seem so driven to convert Scottish lads to Muslim brothers. He occasionally helps out in the family restaurant, but his main aim in life is to ensure the couple's five children grow up as Muslims. The eldest, Safia, "nearly 14, alhumidlillah (Praise be to God!)", is not averse to a spot of recruiting herself. One day she met a woman in the street and carried her shopping, the woman attended Aisha's classes and is now a Muslim.

"I can honestly say I have never regretted it", Aisha says of her conversion to Islam. "Every marriage has its ups and downs and sometimes you need something to pull you out of any hardship. But the Prophet Peace by upon him, said: 'Every hardship has an ease.' So when you're going through a difficult stage, you work for that ease to come."

Mohammed is more romantic: "I feel we have known each other for centuries and must never part from one another. According to Islam, you are not just partners for life, you can be partners in heaven as well, for ever. Its a beautiful thing, you know."

Source: islamfortoday.com

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

 

 

 

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.

[ummtaalib]

I just looovvve these stories! I too wish everyone is blessed to see the beauty of Islam. Unfortunately we Muslims are not a very good example for others to follow  ) :

[MUSLIM WOMAN]

 

I just looovvve these stories! I too wish everyone is blessed to see the beauty of Islam. Unfortunately we Muslims are not a very good example for others to follow  ) :

 

 

so  true  :(