Tuesday 28 June 2011

Why I reverted to Islam - my story



By: Brother Daniel

In 2001, I was 17 and very immature. Having been born in South London, I was raised on several of its different council estates. By the time I left school I was spending most of my free spare time either DJ-ing or hanging around on the streets. Life was a constant battle; trying to avoid being caught by the police for one of the many petty crimes we may have done; trying to avoid conflict with other misguided youngsters from different areas who were competing as to who could achieve the most respect or street credibility. The biggest battle we had was trying to figure out some sense of direction for not only our lives but for the approaching weeks and months ahead of us.

I remember when and how I first came to hear about Islam. My mum had a friend who would visit our house occasionally; maybe once or twice a year. She was married to a man who I mistakenly assumed was of Mediterranean appearance. When they would visit he would impress me with his flash lifestyle; the usual things – money, cars, expensive clothes, loud music etc... However in early 2001, he turned up one day dressed as he normally would, with his wife but he had grown a small beard. I questioned him about it and he told me he was a Muslim from the Middle East. I had this false assumption that Muslims were Asians, so I was surprised to see his new image.

I asked him what it means to be a Muslim and he told me three things that have always stayed with me. He told me that Muslims believe in only one God and they reject the worship of anything else. He also told me that the God, the Creator of the universe is not like any creation. He gave me the example of Jesus (peace be upon him) by saying that God was not born from a woman in a stable, nor was he circumcised, nor was he breast fed, nor did he eat, drink, sleep, cry, or need the toilet and nor was he tortured in public and eventually suffer a humiliating death. I imagine he told me this because he may have presumed I had a Christian background. When I was born I was given a Biblical name, I played Joseph in the nativity play in infant school and as a teenager I went to church only once – and that was to look for a girlfriend; that is about how ‘Christian’ I ever was; therefore not very. He also told me that Muslims do not ‘turn the other cheek’ and that they are peaceful people, however they respond to unwarranted aggression with similar aggression. I imagine he was trying to appeal to my ‘street culture’ by telling me this.

When he had finished telling me that God is one, he is unlike men and Muslims stand up for themselves, I told myself there and then, that one day I would become a Muslim. It is strange how particular things affect the way people think but because of the experiences I had endured in my life up to that point, Islam seemed to give me a clear look at the reality of life. I say this because before I became a Muslim, I lived a life where I was constantly fooling myself; fooling myself that I was something great; acting tough in the presence of my friends who eventually turned out not to ‘have my back’ as I thought they did. I would convince myself that I would find happiness in money, cars, designer clothes and women but my heart was never content with these things. I had seen people bigger and worse than me, killed or given very long prison sentences and I felt that life had to have a purpose. Islam seemed to agree with my head – but not my heart because of my addiction to the filthy life I was living.

I never became a Muslim until 2004, despite wanting to. I had a strong attachment to my previous lifestyle and I feared to embrace Islam because I anticipated a negative reaction from those around me based upon information they had received from the mainstream media. Between 2001 and 2004 I experienced many things which helped me embrace Islam; they are too numerous to mention here. I became convinced that death cannot be the end of a person. A person’s soul must go somewhere. I always believed that everybody gets what they deserve, whether during life or after death. Many good people suffer throughout their lives, while many very bad people enjoy the best of lives without any hardships. There must be a reward or punishment beyond this life? I never really thought about it until I became fed up with chasing money and women (neither of which I was successful at acquiring).

In 2002 I met the woman who is now my wife. She was raised as a Catholic from the Caribbean, however never really had much respect for her religion. Our first meeting lasted several hours and I knew immediately that she would one day become the mother of my children and the woman I would marry. I had kept my vowel to become a Muslim ‘one day’ secret from her. I did not know how she would react towards Islam. She had stumbled across some of my Islamic books and began asking her Muslim colleagues some questions, so they gave her some books to read for basic information. I noticed in her the same attraction and apprehension that I had after initially hearing about Islam. At that point I decided that I would walk into a Mosque and try speaking to some Muslims. I did not know how I would be welcomed and was unable to contact my mum’s friend’s husband, so I felt as though I had no other choice.

So one day I saw a gathering of Muslims outside of a Mosque as I was on a bus. I got off the bus and asked one of them about Islam and he welcomed me into the Mosque and showed me how to wash before praying and how to pray in congregation. I formally became a Muslim and my girlfriend did too shortly after me and we got married and now have four children. I felt as though I had triumphed over the evil, coward within me, who was content to continue living without really thinking about what I wanted from life; becoming a Muslim is the best thing I have ever done. I now feel comfort and tranquillity because I know that I try my best to submit any desire that I may have, to the will of God. Islam is an Arabic word which means submission, however in order to submit to God, one begins by acknowledging the Creator as one single entity – without attributing or describing him with any characteristic that he has not assigned to himself, such as having partners, children or being dependent on physical needs like sleep or food.

Unfortunately the reaction that I received from those around me was exactly as I had expected. Some people I was very close to from amongst friends and family have shown a disappointment and even a deep hatred toward me for becoming a Muslim. There could be several different reasons for this but after analysing reasons cited for their anger or disgust with Islam and after studying Social Anthropology, it saddens me to say that many people in our society are ‘scientifically’ prejudiced. This type of discrimination describes those who are intolerant towards people who are different to them because of belief, political system, nationality, culture or other similar reason. Many people in our country hate Islam without knowing anything about it and those who claim to be able to support their hatred with knowledge, have either been misinformed, or are just completely narrow-minded fanatics.

If, as intelligent people, we were to sit down and use our intellectual attain reasoning and agree on what we would expect from a true religion, based upon no biased opinions whatsoever, Islam would be the preference of most people. Islam does not differentiate between social class, skin colour or nationality. Islam offers solutions for the many social diseases that we suffer from in our ‘civilization’. Islam gives clear answers and reasons as to what happens to the human beings after death and more importantly, Islam clarifies what God requires from mankind during their very short lifetime on Earth. Unfortunately for most people, there is no interest in what will happen after death. We run around like hamsters on a wheel, chasing money without a care for what the true purpose of life is. Our true purpose in this life is to worship Allah alone and to follow his final messenger to mankind, Muhammad (May God’s peace and blessings be upon him). Understanding and accomplishing this is the greatest achievement any human being can ever attain. I pray that Allah gives me the ability to succeed according to what he wants for humankind.

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