分类： Revert Stories

The beautiful faith, like a song without words, brushes over the longing of the eyes, roams over the pursuit of the heart, and turns into the most beautiful notes in life, interpreting the same melody of different regions and ethnic groups.

The first time I saw Ma Ma Nai was in the love activity of “Main Ma Public Welfare” to visit compatriots of different nationalities in Longwu Township, Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture with the theme of promoting national unity. The white top hat, clean dress and polite words and behavior of saying “Sai Liangmu” when he meets Muslims reflect the atmosphere of Islam everywhere, proving his identity as a Muslim. But in the course of the interview, it was revealed that he was a converted Muslim. What is more shocking is that he used to be a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and spent thirty years of his life reading Buddhist scriptures and propagating Buddhist culture in an environment where Buddhist temples abound and Buddhist culture is renowned.

When asked about Ma Ma Nai’s journey to conversion, he was as frank as he could be. He told us that his first contact with Islam was due to his acquaintance with his wife, who fell in love with a beautiful Muslim girl and thus fell in love with Islam. It must have been a warm encounter, a soulful attachment, and Allah’s marriage that led him to the path of Islam. It has been twenty years since Mammanai’s conversion to Islam, and eighteen years since he began to follow his Lord’s commands and observe his worship.

“The path of conversion is always difficult, and the greatest pain I suffered at that time was the strong opposition from my relatives and the rejection from other Buddhists, who did not communicate with me for five years, and my elderly mother even wanted to cut off her blood relatives from me.” Here, Ma Ma Nai was a bit emotional, but soon regained his composure “By God’s guidance, after five years, my family slowly began to accept and forgive me, and now the relationship is very cordial.” Although Ma Ma Nai’s Mandarin was not fluent, each of us was deeply shocked. Converting to paganism was not only a break with his loved ones, but also a betrayal of the Buddha’s teachings for those around him. In the face of many difficulties and obstacles, Ma Ma Nai is as tough as a bamboo, only for his own beliefs in the heart of the sea precipitation, holding fast to the heart of the faith as a treasure.

Before he converted to Islam, Ma Ma Nai was one of the majority of the people in the area who earned their living by making thangkas, embroidery, and wood and clay statues of the Buddha. At today’s prices, a statue of Buddha can be made for at least 10,000 yuan, and if he had continued to make a living from his skillful craftsmanship, he might have had quite a bit of savings over the years. But since his conversion to Islam, he has voluntarily given up his Buddhist craft, and his wife and he work as laborers to support their family of four, which is a very difficult financial situation. However, there is no trace of regret or complaint in his peaceful and calm expression. He just smiles quietly with his wife and seems to be enjoying the mercy of Allah. For them, what is material prosperity compared to the attainment of righteousness?

Led by Ma Ma Nai, we visited her elderly mother. Her home is still full of Buddhism, with a bronze statue of Buddha on the throne room and pictures of living Buddhas hanging on the walls. Her mother, who wore a long braid and a Tibetan robe, did not speak Mandarin, so we used simple body language to express our feelings. Ma Ma Nai patiently explained for the mother, the old man has been peaceful smile. When we pointed to the sarong on her head and asked her if she liked people in Muslim dress, the old man immediately gave a thumbs up and nodded his head to show that he liked it. Although there were not many words between us, sometimes language can be abandoned, respect and tolerance between people of different faiths in God’s arrangement of mutual integration, so that we are immersed in this untainted in the grace of the dust.

In the town of Longwu, surrounded by mountains, the rain-drenched air is particularly fresh, and seems to have become sweet and clear because of the persistence of believers. Those who pursue the right faith under the forest of Buddhist temples practice their reverence for the Lord in the Buddhist atmosphere with the fear of the Lord, day after day, year after year. In the channel of time in the pursuit of righteousness, this believer who has been influenced by Buddhist culture for thirty years is bound to encounter the thorns of the jungle and the icebergs of the reef, which will block his steps like a counter-current. However, all difficulties are tests, and those who follow the rope of Allah, even if they go through a lot of suffering in their lives, are bound to end up in the darkness and reap the happiness of two lifetimes!

The host asked a Western Muslim: How did you become a Muslim?

He replied: In 1993, my wife and I were traveling in Turkey and got lost in a village. I asked a passerby if he knew the location of this hotel.

The passer-by said, “There is no hotel here, so please come with me to my house!

He said, “We went with him to his house, and it was already dark when we entered. He has five children and two elderly people. Then he brought us a simple supper, and we ate it.

Then he said, “You and your wife will sleep in this room, and we will sleep in the other.

We went to sleep, and when I woke up in the morning to thank him, I went out of the room and was surprised to see that there was no other room.

This was the only room in his house! When I looked for him, I saw him and his whole family sleeping under a big tree outside the door, and it was cold!

I asked him: Are you crazy? Why are you doing this?

He said: I am not crazy, but I am a Muslim, and Islam requires me to take care of you as much as I can because you are a guest.

He said: My wife cried when she saw this, and I said to him: This is Islam, not the Islam we hear!

I said to the owner of the house: How can I learn Islam?

He said: You can read the Qur’an and the Sunnah in translation and you will understand.

He said, “Then I bought the Qur’an and read it seriously for two months, and then I was initiated into Islam by reading, “Nothing is worshipped but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”.

Praise be to Allah! I started spreading Islam, more than a thousand people have become Muslims, and now that I’ve built an Islamic center in Romania, I want to reach even more people.

The story is an inspiration to us:

You know how easy it is to evangelize with Islamic virtues, which have a much greater impact than the other way around!

Just by the virtue of generous hospitality, this homeowner will be rewarded with the gifts of the initiates until the Day of Resurrection.

Unfortunately, a lot of Muslims think that Islam is just about worship and fasting, and you see their very bad character towards Muslims and non-Muslims, which is a very serious mistake and tarnishes the image of Islam.

This is a very serious mistake, and it tarnishes the image of Islam, because Islam requires you to worship and fast, but it also requires you to treat people with kindness, to be kind to them, to smile at them, to be kind to all of them, and not to harm Allah’s creatures.

“I used to hate Muslims, but now I am proud to tell everyone that I too have become a Muslim.”

This is the confession of Siddharth, a young Indian man who, in 2012, decided to give up his longtime Hindu faith and convert to Islam, changing his name to Shadab.

At the time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of India’s two largest political parties, was pushing an anti-conversion bill that aimed to prevent Hindu people from converting to Islam. The implementation of this bill set off a new wave of anti-Muslimism in India.

Born into a Hindu family, Siddharth would go to the temple every Tuesday and Saturday to pray, he would respectfully follow all the rules and requirements of the Hindu faith, he would regularly go to the temple to offer desserts to the gods, and he would celebrate all the festivals and traditions of the Hindu faith.

At the age of 19, Sidharth finally began to have doubts about his faith. He recalls, “I began to ask my parents to explain the Hindu faith to me in a more profound way, I wanted to know what our religious beliefs, doctrines and customs really meant, and they just told me that the faith was passed on from father to son, but they couldn’t give me any logical answer.”

From a young age, Siddharth’s parents indoctrinated him in the teachings of the Hindu faith, and he knew it so well that he knew which day belonged to which god, and which god was in control of which things. Eventually, however, he began to question the beliefs that had been handed down to him by his parents.

With doubt, he began to look for truth in other faiths. Because of the deep-rooted influence of the Islamic faith in mainland India, it was only natural for Sidharth to study the Islamic faith. As his interest in Islam grew, so did his family’s antipathy and opposition to him. However, nothing could stop his interest in the Islamic faith. One day, Siddharth began to worship in secret and to fast in the month of Ramadan.

As he moved closer to Allah, the gap between him and his family became more and more insurmountable. The family clearly sensed the change in him, so they began to monitor Shadab’s movements closely, even raiding Shadab’s room, searching for any books or objects related to the Islamic faith. One day, the family’s raids came to fruition: they found a prayer rosary, a prayer hat, and a pamphlet of worship instructions in Shaddaiq’s backpack.

The scary part is that even Sardai Rad’s neighbors began to help his family spy on him, and even began to question his family with hostility as to why they didn’t discipline Sardai Rad more severely. The hostility towards Shadaydaiq from his family, close friends, and neighbors continued to grow, and finally, in 2016, when Shadaydaiq was 23 years old, his family officially cut ties with him and kicked him out of the house.

To make matters worse, his demonstrated interest in the Islamic faith also angered his boss, who promptly fired him. Since then, he has lived a life of homelessness, with no one to turn to. For my family and all my compatriots who have shown hostility toward me, it is not my choice to leave Hinduism that they hate, it is my choice to convert to Islam,” says Shadbhai. Shadab’s love for Islam was so strong from the start that his family’s rebuke and alienation, and the hostility and hatred of his family, friends and neighbors, did not stop him from answering the call of Allah, and eventually he bravely marched into a local mosque and formally converted to Islam.

Although Shadab was expelled from his home by his own family, he gained a group of Muslim brothers and sisters who were more like family than he was. With the help of the Muslim community, Shaddai Radish was able to get on his feet and soon found a job, and he finally realized that the hatred of Islam in India could no longer be described as mere Islamophobia.

To this day, there are still violent attacks on Muslims, and there are even cases of summary executions. As a young Indian who converted from Hinduism to Islam, Shadab naturally felt a great sense of crisis and pressure.

After his conversion, Shadab was almost forced to live a life of dual personality. In the office, he could only worship in secret, but after work, he would go to the mosque to pray and study with other Muslim brothers. After work, he would go to the mosque to pray and study with the other Muslim brothers. After leaving the mosque, Shaddai-Daib would take off his hat and put it in his pocket, and whenever he tried to wear it outside, his inner Sidhas would stop him.

Even his Muslim friends who knew him before he converted were shocked by his decision, and some even said he was digging his own grave. Since India was founded, Islam has always been discriminated against and suppressed, and the Muslim community has long struggled to survive in the cracks. Now, a young Hindu man openly announces his conversion to Islam, casting a dark shadow over his life and future in Indian society.

At last, Sardarai feels the same dilemma that the Muslim community in India has long struggled to survive. No one understands the situation of Muslims in India unless they can empathize with it,” says Sardarai. However, many Indians say, in a sarcastic tone, ‘Muslims are safe, so why are you making a fuss? But, this is not the case, in India, Muslims are treated as second-class citizens, and I have sensed this deeply since my conversion, I have witnessed too much injustice and wrongdoing.”

In December 2019, the cabinet meeting of the Indian government approved the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill. The bill further relaxes the criteria for non-Muslims to acquire Indian citizenship, but does not make any provision for naturalization of Muslim communities living in India for long periods of time. Angry at this, the converted Shaddai Bhatti actively participated in protests and marches. In addition, Shadab came to realize that the Indian government and civil society hated the wealthy Muslims in particular, and that the government and civil society’s attacks on and suppression of the upper-class Muslims, in his view, were akin to the raiding of the people’s money by thugs.

Shadab said that in the eyes of the Hindu community, to believe in Islam is to commit a heinous crime. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been vigorously pursuing an anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic strategy since it came to power, and has been propagating conspiracy theories against the Muslim community, claiming that Muslims in India “have been forcing the people of India to convert to Islam by hook or by crook”. However, Shadabab’s experiences and confessions are a powerful rebuttal to these conspiracy theories.

Shaddai says that although everyone should have the right to freedom of religion, in India, due to the constant suppression by the ruling party, the Muslim community has been forced to survive in the cracks, hiding their Muslim identity in the most low-profile and secretive way.

For Sardarai, he is determined to keep his faith, but at the same time, he believes in the constitutional rights of every individual, and he firmly believes that every citizen should enjoy sufficient freedom of belief and freedom of speech to practice his or her religious beliefs.

I was born in 1979 into a devout Orthodox Roman Catholic family in Kerala, India, and my entire family took their faith very seriously, seriously, and devoutly. My people were actively involved in the church and the church’s jurisdiction, and to this day there are many priests, nuns and missionaries in our family, with my grandfather presiding over the construction of a church in his hometown.

For as long as I can remember, I realized that our family was very religious and wanted to be good people, and my mother was so religious that the pastor of our church used my mother as an example in every sermon, encouraging others to learn from her. Indeed, my mother was a good Catholic, she read the Bible every day and prayed with great devotion.

It was out of her love for her Creator and her devotion to her faith that my mother encountered many challenges while practicing her Catholicism. As she continued to learn more about the Catholic faith, she began to feel skeptical and even dissatisfied with it. She found that the Bible did not seem to address the deeper issues of life and human nature, and her love and reverence for the Catholic faith and the Bible gradually faded, and at one point she even began to doubt life.

Shortly thereafter, she was introduced to the Islamic faith. When our family lawyer was away on business, he recommended a Muslim lawyer named Ibrahim Khan to help my parents with their immediate needs. Driven by curiosity, my mother attempted to engage him in some faith-related discussions, which led to her initial knowledge of Islam, when I turned thirteen years old.

I was the eldest daughter in the family, and at that time I had no deep understanding of life and faith, and was in a state of ignorance and even confusion. Later, when my parents’ marriage broke up, my mother decided that her marriage with my father had become meaningless and empty, so she divorced my father and my mother was thrown out of the house, and soon after, my father abandoned us and disappeared. As a young girl, I believed that Islam had “poisoned” my mother, and I couldn’t believe that she had lost her love and trust in my father because of her faith. I grew up respecting my mother, who was well-educated and of good character, and I couldn’t believe that my talented mother could be obsessed with a backward faith that originated in the Middle Ages. One day, I could not help but ask her why she had abandoned Christianity for a faith that had been criticized by the world, for my dislike of my mother had extended to her new faith, Islam. My mother’s answer was simple: she told me to turn to the Bible and read it page by page.

So, with anger in my heart, I began the long journey of studying my faith. Fortunately, even though I was young, I was able to read and understand much of the Bible. In the course of my study, I found many inaccuracies and contradictions in the Bible. I realized that we Christians did not really follow the teachings of the Bible, and that many of the theoretical points in the Bible lacked the support of logical thinking, and I also found that the Bible explicitly mentions Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. However, I stubbornly refused to accept the facts and the truth, continued to study the Bible, and gradually became interested in comparative religion, but my hostility and opposition to Islam never changed.

One day after that, I received a letter from my mother mentioning the chapter of Faithfulness in the Koran, as well as the English translation and commentary of the chapter of Faithfulness. That day, I kept reading this short passage of the Koran and its commentary, and I became obsessed with it. In the end, I even had the feeling that all other religions, except the Quran, could not satisfy my desire for truth. So I began to study the Koran and was finally convinced that the Koran was the truth that I had been searching for so long! All my doubts and questions were answered in the Quran, and from that moment on, I knew that I had answered my destiny. I studied Christianity intensely for two years, but I am very grateful to Allah for finally allowing me to find Islam. I had just turned fifteen that year.

Soon after, I was on a plane back to Mumbai, hoping that my mother would be able to see me recite the halal words and become a Muslim. I later realized that ever since my mother converted to Islam, she had been praying to Allah to guide me to embrace the Islamic faith because she had been isolated by everyone since her conversion and she wanted her oldest daughter to understand her decision and to have the support of her eldest daughter. Praise be to Allah, who eventually guided me to follow in my mother’s footsteps and find the Islamic truth.

The year I converted to Islam, my younger siblings, who were actually still young, trusted me unconditionally and said that they wanted to believe in Islam as I did. I moved with my siblings to Mumbai to live with my mother. In fact, from the moment my siblings and I decided to convert to Islam, we knew that there was no place for us in our hometown, after all, Kerala is a Hindu town. Insha’Allah, the Muslim community in Mumbai gave us endless support, and as a family we began to learn Arabic, the Quran and Islam.

Insha’Allah, it wasn’t long before my father returned to Mumbai and wanted to live with us again. Although he was still a Catholic, we were happy to welcome him back. After his return, our lives improved considerably and he supported us, the four of us, despite the pressure. As for our relatives and other clansmen, they were adamantly opposed to our decision to convert to Islam, but they did not deliberately make things difficult for us. In the early years, we often received letters from family members and even strangers who wanted to persuade us to renounce Islam, but over time we received fewer and fewer such letters.

Not long ago, we returned to Kerala as a family to visit my grandparents, this time without the fear and worry we had before. This year is the tenth year of my conversion to Islam, and inshaAllah, I am proud to be a Muslim.

Saki Takao, 26, is taking one of the most important steps in her life, about to make a life-changing choice, as she chooses a kimono of her choice, with her mother by her side.

When asked why she chose to wear a traditional kimono when she converted to Islam, she said that although she chose to call herself a Muslim, she would not forget her Japanese identity. She decided to wear the kimono to recite the halal words that represent her conversion to the Islamic faith.

On November 25th of last year, after a long period of reflection and study, Ms. Shoko decided to convert to Islam on her 26th birthday. Ms. Xiangzi, a high school teacher, was accompanied by 15 friends and family members at her home and recited the halal words in Arabic to the effect of “I testify that there is no God but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” In this way, Ms. Xiangzi completed the whole ceremony and officially became a Muslim.

Ms. Xiangzi’s journey to conversion was a thorny one, and she encountered many challenges, but in the end she succeeded in waiting for this day.

According to experts, the number of Japanese people converting to Islam is increasing year by year, mostly due to marriage, but also due to the desire for Islamic faith.

Takao Shoko, a native Japanese, studied at Osaka Women’s College University. During her junior year, she traveled to Taiwan for six months as part of the school’s exchange program.

During this time, she became friends with a male student from Turkmenistan at an international student gathering. Despite the vast cultural differences between them, Takao found him easy to talk to. They talked in English and soon became very close, sometimes going out together.

About a month after they met, Takao suggested taking his friends out for sukiyaki, but the friend from Turkmenistan said he couldn’t eat the dish because the soup contained alcohol.

It was only then that Takao realized that her friend was a Muslim, as Muslims are forbidden to drink alcohol in Islam. Takao then felt that her friend was “scary” because the words “Islam” and “Muslim” immediately reminded her of the extremist organization Islamic State and terrorism.

Takao was so scared that she wanted to run away, and she never contacted or spoke to him again.

After returning to Japan from her exchange program, she began to feel ashamed of her childish behavior.

Takao studied international affairs and English at university, with a focus on intercultural communication, and thought she was highly tolerant of different cultures.

Overcoming Negative Stereotypes

After returning to Japan, Takao Shoko would always think of her Muslim friend from Turkmenistan. She began to reflect on how she had deliberately distanced herself from him because of his Muslim identity, and even began to feel shame, a shame that tormented her and ultimately fueled her desire to try to understand Islam.

Islam is one of the world’s three major religions, and Muslims make up a quarter of the world’s population. Shoko Takao remembers, “I worked hard to learn English, and it would have been a huge waste if I hadn’t made good use of it to communicate deeply or build friendships with different people around the world.”

Two years later, in the summer of 2019, she embarked on a solo “Muslim tour” to Turkey, Indonesia, and other countries with the world’s largest Muslim populations.

Along the way, Takao met many kind people, including a young man who shared bread with her on a bus, and a Muslim woman who let her stay in her home for a few days for free.

All of these interactions with Muphoslim gradually weakened Takao’s resistance and hostility to Muslims and Islam, and ultimately gave her the idea of learning more about Muslims and their beliefs.

After returning to Japan, Takao soon made friends with a Muslim student at the university, and they talked about life and faith. After graduation, Takao began working as an English teacher at a high school in Osaka.

The Beginning of Faith

Takao attempted to explore Islam with her students in her English classes, and quickly realized that her students’ perceptions of Islam and Muslims were much the same as her own, associating the religion with “terrorism.

As it turned out, the negative image of a small group of extremists seemed to overshadow everything else,” says Takao. “I saw in my students who I once was, who had nothing but hostility and prejudice against Islam.”

In her spare time, Takao Shoko began to visit a nearby mosque regularly, hoping to learn more about the Islamic faith. She visited the mosque almost every week and began to try halal meals that conformed to the requirements of the Islamic faith, avoiding alcohol and pork. She even began to experience Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting between dawn and sunset in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and was surprised at how relaxing it made her feel.

Before studying Islam, one of her biggest misconceptions about the country was the rumored inequality between men and women in Islam. However, after she became a full-time teacher in the field of education, she began to feel a deep sense of unease about this “top-down imposition of gender equality”. In the workplace, the spirit of equality between men and women is carried through to the fullest extent. Under this concept, men and women are given the same amount of work, regardless of their physical strength or working ability; she is treated equally, but she is physically and mentally exhausted, and she always feels overwhelmed.

According to the standards of the Islamic faith, there is a clear distinction between men and women. First of all, the physical differences between men and women are undeniable, which makes her think that the Islamic faith has achieved equal treatment and respect for men and women in a unique way, and this different concept of equality resonates with her and causes her to think about it.

As she learned more and more about the Islamic faith, Takao even developed a desire to convert to Islam.

So, Takao Shoko revealed her thoughts to her family. Like families all over Japan, her family practiced Buddhism and celebrated Christmas; in short, she lived in a typical Japanese family.

Her mother wept when she heard of her daughter’s wish to convert to Islam and said she regretted that they would not be able to enjoy pork dishes and wine together, but she was not opposed to her daughter’s idea.

Shoko’s father, on the other hand, warns his daughter that a new convert will only see the good in her religion, and he warns her to be prepared for the “negative aspects” of her conversion to Islam that she will not be able to understand. He told his daughter, “If you are prepared for that to happen, all you have to do is to keep learning and thinking about your faith after you accept the Islamic faith”.

His father’s heartfelt words were a great encouragement to Takao Shoko.

In April 2022, Takao decided to convert to Islam. Takao said that he had never felt more relaxed when he made this decision.

However, as the date of his formal conversion approached, Takao’s inner tension grew. The night before her conversion, Takao had trouble sleeping. Although she went to bed early, she had nightmares and woke up in the middle of the night. The next day, she found out that she was infected with the New Crown Pneumonia Virus.

Thinking that the time was not yet ripe, Takao canceled her conversion program that day.

Shortly afterward, a friend introduced her to a Muslim man from Malaysia. They communicated in Japanese and English, and Takao was soon attracted to his kind, generous and cheerful personality.

Although Takao was confused by the rule that Muslims are not allowed to date before marriage, she knew instinctively that this man was the one. The Islamic faith requires that a Muslim man and woman must not enter into an intimate relationship until after they are married. She had been discouraged from converting to Islam because she had witnessed the coldness, discrimination and prejudice suffered by too many Muslims, but after meeting this Malay man, her anxiety and uncertainty about the possibility of conversion gradually dissipated.

It was a life-changing decision that meant a lot to me,” said Takao. I had been thinking about converting to Islam for a long time, but had been hesitant to do so, and I realized that even though I might regret it in the future, I should be brave enough to take this step.”

Finally, on her 26th birthday, Takao recited halal in front of her boyfriend, family and friends. To overcome her nervousness, she practiced the chant over and over again.

After reciting the Chant, Takao was relieved when her boyfriend smiled and asked her, “Will you marry me?” Takao looked into his eyes and nodded with a smile.

Takao Shoko said that from now on, she would have to think seriously about things from an objective point of view. Interestingly, as a new Muslim, Takao says she is not satisfied with all the Islamic teachings, the main one being that Muslim women are not allowed to perform daily prayers during menstruation. I know it’s strange to wonder, but it’s only strange because I’m new to the Islamic faith,” she said. From now on, I hope to keep this feeling fresh in mind for the rest of my faith journey.”

As a Malaysian Chinese convert to Islam, I have been a Muslim for more than twenty years. I have been thinking about whether I should share my conversion story and why I chose Islam.

“Why? Elaine, why did you convert to Islam?”

This is one of the most common questions I get asked. In the initial stages of becoming a Muslim, it was difficult for me to answer this question, and many times I would fall into awkward silences for long periods of time, not knowing how to answer.

I must admit that in the first few years of my conversion to Islam, I was terrified of this question and mostly avoided it. I didn’t like the way people looked at me, as if I had made a big mistake.

However, over time, I came to realize that the people who asked me this question did not mean any harm, but rather because they cared about me and loved me. Inevitably, they were worried when they found out that I had become a Muslim. Praise be to Allah, who is the greatest, and I am now able to deal with all of this openly. I am happy and proud to share my conversion story with you.

Before I share my story, I think it is important to distinguish between the two most common words used to express conversion in English, “Convert” and “Revert”, as this is another common question, especially asked by my non-Muslim friends. This is another common question, especially from my non-Muslim friends.

Generally speaking, “Convert” refers to a person who converts to a new religion. The common definition of the word is “to change from one religion or belief to another”.

However, in the Muslim community, you may hear people use the word “Revert” to describe their conversion process to Islam. This is because some people see conversion to Islam as a return to their true faith, i.e., a return to the purest connection between mankind and its Creator.

A common definition of “Revert” is “to return to one’s original state or beliefs”. In the Islamic view, every human being is born in submission to Allah. Therefore, when a person converts to Islam, he is not changing his beliefs, but returning to his original state of belief, only to deviate from it later due to various external factors.

To be honest, before I converted, my knowledge of Islam was very limited. Living in Malaysia, I had the same impression about Malays and Islam. In my mind, Islam was equal to Malay, and Malay represented Islam. But gradually, I realized that Malay is an ethnic group and Islam is a religion. Therefore, I am a Chinese Muslim, not a Malay Muslim. Unfortunately, to this day, many people still mistake me for a Malay because they see me wearing a headscarf.

In addition to this, I also realize that there are many misconceptions about Islam in our society today:

1. Islam is a religion of violence – This is one of the most widespread misconceptions, and it stems mainly from media coverage of terrorist incidents. Some extremist organizations have committed acts of violence in the name of Islam, leading many to believe that Islam encourages violence. However, what Islam really preaches is peace and justice.

2. Muslims are all terrorists – This misconception is also influenced by media reports. However, the truth is that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, law-abiding citizens who play a positive role in society.

3. Islam oppresses women – This misconception stems from a misinterpretation of Islamic teachings. Islam attaches great importance to the dignity and rights of women and provides them with legal and social protection.

4. Islam is a backward religion – Again, this is a biased view that ignores the great contributions of the Islamic civilization in art, science and philosophy. In fact, Islamic civilization has led the world in many fields.

5. Muslims do not respect other religions – This misconception stems from a lack of understanding of Islam. In fact, Islamic teachings encourage respect for all religions and promote peaceful coexistence and dialogue between different faiths.

It is for this reason that we need to clear up these misconceptions in order to promote understanding and harmony between different faith groups.

Growing up in Johor, Malaysia, I spent my childhood in a typical Chinese family, surrounded by neighbors who were almost exclusively Chinese. As a result, I had little exposure to other ethnic groups or religions.

I was born into a Buddhist family, and whenever my family asked me to pray to a statue of a deity, I did so without question. But deep down, I had a lot of questions that wouldn’t go away:

“Why are there so many idols with different faces?”

“Every family has a different idol, which one is the most powerful? Which one is the God who controls the universe and really answers prayers?”

“If I leave home to study overseas, am I leaving God or is God leaving me?”

……

These questions have always haunted me, and I have never had an answer. Perhaps it was because I didn’t understand enough about Buddhism and didn’t have the opportunity to explore it deeply.

I still remember that my study abroad experience made me think more deeply about my faith. At that time, I had been away from Malaysia for more than a year, and I suddenly realized that the statue of God that I usually worshiped at home was not around me, did this mean that my God was not around me? I felt like I needed God’s blessing, but I couldn’t find anything to pray to, and I was deeply touched by that feeling of confusion and helplessness. This experience led me to a deeper level of thinking – where is the real God? Who is the only Creator?

When I returned to Malaysia, I began to search for answers. It took me about four years to unravel my questions about Islam. I was fortunate to have many friends who encouraged me and accompanied me to religious programs that helped me through this challenging period.

During a religious program in 2000, I learned how to pray. As I stood on a carpeted floor, with no statue, no picture, no nothing in front of me – I could feel clearly in my heart that God was there, even if I couldn’t see it with my naked eyes.

In that moment, I knew that Allah was always there. Praise be to Allah, the Most High. In that year, I formally pronounced the Syahadah at the Islamic Council of Singapore (MUIS) and heartily converted to Islam.

Every Muslim who converts to Islam has a story and a reason that is unique to him or her. Everyone’s journey is unique.

When someone wants to learn more about Islam and considers conversion, I always encourage them to do more research and learn more about Islamic teachings and practices. Converting to Islam means accepting the belief that there is no God but Allah and following the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). If you want to learn more about Islam, you can read the Quran or consult with local imams, scholars, or even other converts for more insight.

Faith is a personal choice, and conversion to Islam should come from within, not from outside pressure. Take the time to learn, think and make sure that this is a path you truly believe in and are willing to follow.

Ultimately, becoming a Muslim is a decision that comes from the heart, based on your own beliefs and pursuits. Allah says in the Quran:

“And they believe, and their hearts are quieted by the remembrance of Allah; verily, all hearts are quieted by the remembrance of Allah.” [13:28

This is the attribute and enjoyment of the grace of the believers in Allah, for their faith in Allah does not come from blindness and gullibility, but is based on thinking and participating in the source of all things in the universe and the unified law that governs all things, and so their belief in the uniqueness of Allah is extremely firm, and their hearts are filled with tranquility whenever they remember Allah, and they are proud of their faith, and they are happy because of the remembrance of their Lord. They are proud of their faith and happy to remember their Lord. They know that what awaits them is Allah’s wonderful promise.

He then slept under a tree, and in that act he converted thousands of people to Islam.

A radio reporter asked a Muslim from the West why he had converted to Islam. He replied, “In 1963, I was traveling with my wife to Turkey and got lost in a village. I met a pedestrian and asked him, “Are you familiar with this place?” He replied, “There is no such thing as a village here. He replied, “There are no hotels in this neighborhood, so come with me to my house.”

Then we went with him to his house and entered the room, which was unlighted and dimly lit. We found five children and two old men of advanced age. Then he brought us a supper which could not have been simpler, and after we had eaten, he said, “You and your wife will sleep in this room, and I and my family will sleep in the other.”

Then we went to sleep. Early the next morning I got up and went to thank him. When I stepped out of the room I realized that there was only one room in the whole house and no more. When I found him, I found him and his family sleeping under a tree, enduring the cold.

My wife cried at the sight and I told her that this is Islam, not the Islam we hear.

I asked the owner of the house and said: How can I learn about Islam? He said: Take a translated copy of the Qur’an and Hadith classics and you will learn about it.

He went on to narrate, and as he said, I went and bought a translation of the Qur’an and hadith and sat down and read them for two whole months. After that, I proclaimed, “There is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

Praise be to Allah, it is my duty and obligation to convey Islam. Through me, nearly a thousand people have been converted to Islam. Currently, I am building an Islamic center in Romania, and my desire is to spread Islam to the entire world.

Do you see?

Through the character of Islam we

how easy it is to go and spread it.

It is more powerful and effective than any other way.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my journey to Islam and I feel that sharing my faith experience with you can help you in your journey. We all come from different cultures, countries and religions, and we all come from a seemingly confusing and disturbing world. When we look closely at the world around us, it is easy to think of it as a world of trouble – war, poverty, sin …… However, if we look closely at our own upbringing and our education, how can we be sure that everything we hear is the truth? What can we be sure that everything we hear is the truth?

Unfortunately, many people in this world choose to hide, to run away from the suffering of the world rather than face the truth. It is true that it is difficult to face the truth, but the question is, are you willing to stand up for the truth? Are you strong enough? Or, are you going to die out and choose to run away?

Years ago, I began a quest to find the truth about our existence on earth. Of course, coming to grips with life is the key to solving all present-day problems. I was born into a Christian family, and that, in turn, was the beginning of my journey. I had studied the Bible, I had all kinds of doubts, and soon, I was disappointed. The pastor told me, “Just believe.” Studying the Bible made me realize that there are many contradictions in the Bible and many glaring errors. Could it be that the Creator would contradict Himself? Could it be that the Creator would lie? Of course not!

So, I gave up on Christianity. I was convinced that the classics of Christianity and Judaism had been so artificially flawed that it was simply impossible for me to find truth in an otherwise erroneous religion. I began to search for Eastern religions and philosophies, especially Buddhism, and I spent a lot of time going to Buddhist temples to meditate and to monks to clear my doubts. I spent a lot of time meditating in Buddhist temples and going to monks to get answers to my questions. Seriously, meditation did give me a very refreshing feeling, but the problem was that it could not answer the questions about our “beingness”. On the contrary, meditation made me avoid all the questions, and it even made me feel that these questions would make me stupid.

In my search for truth, I visited many places, and I slowly became interested in traditional tribal beliefs and spiritual thinking. I realized that those tribal religions do contain a lot of truth, but I don’t think that all the information contained in a particular tribal religion is the truth. I felt the same way when I was studying Christianity.

So I came to believe that there is truth in everything, and that it doesn’t matter what we believe or what we follow. Indeed, this is a cop-out in disguise. I mean, does it really make sense? Does it mean that everyone should have a distinct truth? Of course not, since it is a truth, it is meant to be unique.

I felt so confused that I prostrated myself and kept praying, “O Lord of creation, I am so confused, guide me to the truth.” This, then, was the beginning of all my stories with Islam.

Of course, I had heard of Islam before, yet all my naive knowledge of Islam came from the propaganda of the Western world. After I began to study Islam, I was amazed by what I found. The more I studied the Quran and the more I wondered about Islam, the more truths I found. The biggest difference between Islam and other religions is that Islam is the only religion that treats the Creator differently from the created. It is the Creator that the Islamic faith worships, and as for other religions, you can always find some worship of the created. For example, it is not surprising to worship someone as an incarnation of the Creator, or even to worship objects such as stones. Of course, if you really want to have an object to worship, you should worship the Creator of all things, the one who gave you life and eventually took it away from you. The only sin in the Islamic faith that will not be forgiven by Allah is to worship a created object, i.e., to match the object with the Lord.

The Quran itself contains the truths of Islam, and the Quran is like a literal guide to life in which you can find the answers to all your questions. For me, the single truths that I have found from all the previous religions are superimposed as a complete jigsaw puzzle that perfectly explains Islam.

Therefore, I sincerely hope that you will also consider taking Islam into account. I mean the real Islam as depicted in the Quran, not the Islam that the Western world has indoctrinated us with. If you want to find the true meaning of life, at the very least Islam will provide you with some sort of shortcut.

In any case, I wish you all the success you desire.

Born in 1954 in the rural northwestern United States, I was raised in a Roman Catholic family.

During my childhood, I remained unquestioning about the spirituality offered by the church even though I was surrounded by a much more real world, but as I grew older, and especially as I entered a Catholic university, the more I read of the classics, the more questions I increasingly had about my faith, from the spiritual to the practical.

One reason is that since the Second Vatican Council in 1963, the frequent changes in Catholic liturgy and religious ceremonies have made the average believer feel that the church does not have a strict standard. On the other hand, priests emphasize the flexibility and variability of worship, but this is like groping in the dark and generates confusion for the average Catholic. God has never changed, nor have the needs of the human soul changed, nor has there been a new revelation from heaven, yet we are constantly changing, week after week, year after year, adding, deleting, switching from Latin to English, even introducing guitars and country music. Because the congregation never listened quietly and nodded, the priests just repeated it over and over again. In the quest for adaptation so many assured classics were lost that few of the most primitive ones remain.

The second reason was the difficulty in understanding many dogmas, such as the Trinity, which has never been convincingly answered by any pastor or ordinary believer in history, and for which theological committees deliberated and reached the basic explanation that the Father, who rules the universe from heaven, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, who saves the world, and the Holy Spirit, who appears in the form of a dove and is relatively weak, are one. I remember wanting to make a special friend who could handle all my business affairs with other friends, and after each business was done, he sometimes prayed devoutly to God, and at other times prayed to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, the latter two always being in the object of his prayers as well. Later I thought that God must be in charge of the latter two as well, and that this doctrine of the Trinity was the greatest obstacle to my understanding of Catholic doctrine and Christian theology. And, in every detail it produced an apparent contradiction between humanity and divinity, finitude and infinity. The fact that Jesus was also God was something I remember never really believing, either in my childhood or later.

Another doubtful point is that the church operated the latter-day sale of atonement scrolls, which was abetting the self-indulgence of the faithful, who could be forgiven for their sins for a number of years by paying a certain amount of money for the scrolls, a false doctrine that kicked off the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther.

I also remember expecting a sacred classic that was all-encompassing and could provide guidance for people’s lives. One Christmas I was given a hardcover Bible, but as I read through it I realized that the chapters were loose and lacked coherence, which made it hard to think of basing his way of life on Scripture. Later I came to understand the Christian solution to the problems encountered in practice, i.e. Protestants emphasize their own sect’s doctrines by creating theories of their own school of thought and belittling the others, while Catholics refer only to their canonical texts and ignore the rest. Some passages of scripture seem to lack some of the qualities of the canon of the Holy Spirit to the extent that they cannot be seen as a coherent and complete system.

College Career

I majored in Philosophy in college, which taught me that no matter who proclaims the truth we need to ask two basic questions: what is the real meaning of what he is communicating? and How do we get to the truth? When I asked these two propositions of my traditional religion, I couldn’t find the answers, and I realized that Christianity had slipped from my heart. Since then, I have been on a quest, perhaps not unfamiliar to Western youth, to find the true meaning of living in this meaningless world. Because of those philosophers I lost my old faith, but I needed faith, and since then I have known that I was looking for not just a philosophical doctrine, but a complete philosophical system.

On a personal level, the great pessimistic philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s fiercely worded attacks on Christianity, especially the essay “Moral Genealogy,” have benefited my understanding of the transition from a monotheistic tradition of faith to a detailed form of analysis. He separated the notion of epiphenomena from the nature of the world (e.g., that the Almighty’s self-immolation on the cross is a singular epiphenomenon), which I no longer believe, but have come to a deeper understanding of the independent triad that God exists, that God created this world and mankind and descended to give guidance for the behaviors he expects, and that in the hereafter God will judge individuals by their behavior in this world, and will give eternal rewards or punishment. The Qur’an is the most important of all the Qur’anic texts.

I read the early translations of the Qur’an when I had only a grudging appreciation for the Qur’an and was still teetering on the edge of agnosticism as to the purity of those basic concepts mentioned in the Qur’an, even if they were man-made, and I can think of no more intrinsically religious expression. Considering that, as a literary monograph, the translated version of Quran might have lost its original spirit due to the sales factor, resulting in translations that are clearly contrary to its thematic ideas, and knowing that the original Arabic version of Quran is widely recognized among the many religious classics of mankind for the beauty and eloquence of its language, I am eagerly eager to learn Arabic and read the original Quran.

One school holiday I was walking along a dirt road between wheat fields, watching the red sun sinking in the west, when a sudden flash of inspiration occurred to me, and the thought occurred to me that might not this be something like the bowing worship of time to the One Sovereign? But this was by no means a sign that it was up to me to comprehend the full details, but rather a flash of a strange idea, and perhaps this was the beginning of my realization of the falsity of atheism. When I transferred to the University of Chicago, some of the questions that plagued me remained with me. At the University of Chicago, I studied the epistemology of ethics and wandered through the writings of numerous philosophers expounding on the meaningless philosophical proposition of how moral judgment works, which was both a personal and an important philosophical proposition in our time.

Working with Fishermen

Because the University of Chicago was expensive and I needed to raise my own money for tuition, I took a part-time job on the West Coast for the summer following fishing boats to Alaska. I worked here part-time for eight semesters to earn money, and the sea became another school for me in its own light. I met all kinds of people on the fishing boats and saw the immense power of wind, water, storms and rain, while feeling the insignificance of mankind. It was like a tome in front of me, but my colleagues and I recognized only the pieces that were relevant to our work, the goal of catching as many fish as possible in the allotted time and selling them for a good price, and very few of us had any idea how to read it all as a whole. Sometimes we meet a wave that rises up like a mountain, and the captain takes a firm grip on the wheel, our bow slamming up onto the tip of the turquoise wave one minute, reaching the bottom of the wave the next, and rushing into the sky before reaching the tip of the next wave, and so on as the wave lurches over and over again.

Sometimes the fishing boat sank and the fisherman was buried at sea. I remember a fisherman who worked on another boat near us, doing the same job as me, casting nets on the bottom of the sea. He always smiled as he waded through the water to cast his nets from high above the deck, then went aft to straighten his lines for the next step. A few weeks later, his fishing boat ran into a storm while out fishing and was capsized, and he was drowned while collecting his nets. I met him only once in my dreams, and he still stands in the stern of his boat smiling and greeting me.

The shocking scenes of our lives – the storms, the waves towering hundreds of feet vertically above the sea level, the cold, the wet, the fatigue, the occasional casualties among our fellow workers – have left some impression on most of us. These scenes haunted me from time to time during my studies at the University of Chicago the following year, and in studying philosophical systems of morality I began to see that in the past philosophical systems had not played a significant role in the morality of people and in the prevention of crime, and to realize that there was little hope that they would be used in the future to achieve this end. Comparing and contrasting the study of different human cultural systems and societies of different eras that continue to evolve with history, and the different moral relativisms that have been proclaimed by many wise men, I have found that all human civilizations are like the crops that exist on the earth, that break out of the ground when there is an abundance of seeds and soil, and that there are periods of strength and prosperity and periods of wilting and decline. For no moral value has ever been able to work across cultures on its own merits, and introspection leads to extreme skepticism.

I’ve begun to reevaluate the philosophers I’m familiar with

Like Schopenhauer I thought that more education produced better people. But at the university, there was a conspiracy to falsify experimental data in order to secure sponsorship for the next year’s research grants; the so-called learned academics were reluctant to allow their lectures to be recorded even for fear that their fellow competitors would surpass their own research and dispute their publications; and professors knew nothing better than to compete with each other over the length of their own course outlines.

Those mundane, pristine moral values with which I am familiar seem to exist only among college freshmen in this already world-weary university. If you scoff at the fact that the fishermen with full loads of fish are constantly going back and forth in front of the crowd in order to make the public understand that their work underwater is so laborious, but on the surface it seems as if they are busy trying to catch more fish. So what do we think of those whose doctoral qualities are only manifested in their books and speeches? I find that their knowledge does not enhance their character, which is often why the best people never come from communities of deceit.

I often wonder if I can go as far down the path of philosophy as those who have gone before me. While philosophy has taught me about the flaws of my religion, Christianity, and has given me a truer perspective, it has still not provided answers to the great propositions of life. Moreover, I always had the feeling that it was all more or less interrelated, but I wonder if the fact that our traditional knowledge seems to have stopped seriously pursuing self-knowledge is the cause or the effect of such an ending. No matter what role we play, philosopher, fisherman, janitor or king, excluding of course those virtual theater roles, all of us are diligently playing our roles until we are replaced after the final performance, so what are we really?

Exposure to Islam

At this crossroads of thought, I read a great deal of Islamic writings, some of which were by Sayyid Hussein Nasser, who argued that many of the problems that are occurring in Western society today, especially environmental problems, are due to the fact that people have thrown away the wisdom that religion tells us comes from the Creator, and that religions all tell us that our true identity is one of the creatures in nature created by God, and that we should recognize and fear the Creator. Without this knowledge, commercial-style development applies increasingly efficient technology to consume nature, destroying the earth’s environment, while one’s own heart grows emptier and emptier because one does not understand why one exists or what consequences one’s actions will lead to.

I would agree that this is indeed the case, but this brings up the question of the truthfulness of apocalyptic religions. Everything on earth, all moral and religious systems are on the same footing, and unless you can be sure that the truth of one of them comes from a higher revelation, then its objectivity, authority and moral law can only be guaranteed; otherwise, each school of thought has its own pros and cons, and we are still stuck arguing for our own interests, and thus no school of thought will be strong enough in its objectivity to defeat the other weaker schools of thought.

I have also studied other Islamic writings, such as Montgomery Watt’s translation of the famous Islamic theologian and Sufi mastermind Ansari’s Guide to the Lost Path, some of whose chapters inspired me. Ansari, in his middle age, began to constantly question and doubt, and finally realized that in this world there is no light that can illuminate the straight path of truth except the prophecies of the apocalypse, which is very much in line with my principles of philosophical inquiry. For Hegel, the wise men are usually those messengers who give authoritative answers to good and evil by virtue of divine revelation.

I also read the English translation of the Qur’an by Arthur John Abberley and recalled that my early desire was to have a copy of the sacred text. Even with the Quran translation, the superiority of the Muslim classic from word to word far above the Bible was an obvious thing, as if the real divine revelation and the life I had vaguely heard about were set aside before my eyes. The Qur’an, with its nobility, intensity, irreversible end, and bizarre ways, prophesies and refutes the atheists’ central thesis. The Qur’an clearly articulates the attributes of the Creator and man, inspiring the spirit of reverence for the Creator, the unity of mankind, and the fairness and justice that people should observe in their socio-economic lives. I began studying Arabic in Chicago, and after completing a year of grammar for degree credit, I decided to take a break and study in Cairo for a year at my own expense to improve my Arabic language skills. Similarly, the thirst to pursue a higher level of knowledge led me to the Middle East after my third semester as a part-time fisherman.

Recognizing Pure Monotheism in Egypt

In Egypt, I experienced many of the events that I think brought me into and thinking about Islam, namely, the telltale signs of pure monotheistic belief in its adherents, which also enlightened me more deeply than anything I had encountered before. I met many Muslims in Egypt, both good and bad, but all were more deeply indoctrinated by their classical guidance than people I had ever met elsewhere. By now 15 years have passed and I don’t remember all of them, or even most of them, so perhaps these people I can recall are enough to illustrate the impact they had on me.

One of them was a man I met in the Miqyas Gardens by the Nile, where I often walk. He was worshipping on a small piece of cardboard facing the Nile when I came across him, and I was about to pass in front of him, but suddenly I stopped of my own accord and went around behind him, intending not to disturb him. I stared at him for a few moments before walking away, noticing a man so absorbed in communion with God that he ignored my presence and my attentive gaze on him and his religion. It occurred to me that there must be something very noble, and to me from the West very strange, in the fact that in the Western perception, worshipping in a public place is just an act of blasphemy against religion.

The other was a high school student who greeted me in the neighborhood of Khan al-Khalili, I spoke Arabic, he spoke English, he wanted to tell me about Islam, and together we walked a few miles through the city to Giza, explaining Islam to me to the best of his ability along the way. When we parted, I remember him saying he would pray for me in the hope that I would become a Muslim.

Another Yemenite friend who lived in Cairo gave me a copy of the Quran when I asked him to help me learn Arabic. There was no table in my room, and I usually read sitting on a chair, and I used to stack all my books on the floor. But when he saw that I had stacked the Quran there as well, he quietly bent down and picked it up, all out of respect for the Quran. This scene had a profound effect on me because I knew that he was not devout, but was simply imbued with Islam by virtue of living here.

Another was a woman I met while pushing my bicycle on the muddy path leading to Luxor. on the other side of the Nile. I was covered in dust and my clothes were a bit tattered, while an old woman walking in front of me, wrapped from head to toe in a black robe, without saying anything or even looking at me, she just slipped a coin into my hand, and because it was so sudden and shocking, I dropped the coin on the ground. When I reacted and picked up the coin, she had already hurried away. Because I seemed poor to her, even though I was clearly not Muslim in appearance, she gave me some money without any expectation except for her and her foster master. This kind of behavior has prompted me to think a lot about Islam, because there must be an inner drive for such behavior.

The Search for Ultimate Truth

There were many other things that caused me to think during the months I spent studying Arabic in Egypt. I found myself thinking often about the necessity for one to have a faith, and I was impressed by the influence of Islam on the lives of Muslims, the conviction and noble purpose of life and the generosity of the soul was something I had never found in other religions, including atheism, on their followers, and it seemed as if the Muslims possessed more of that than we do.

Christianity certainly has its strengths as well, but they seem to be laced with contradictions, and I find myself leaning more and more toward Islam for its all-encompassing beauty and its perfect formulation. The first proposition I have been pursuing comes from a collection of early philosophical questions and answers Why were we created? Which of the answers of seeking knowledge, love, and serving God is the true reason. In my search, I have found that Islam offers the most complete and understandable answer to this proposition, and it is reflected in our daily behavioral practices.

With regard to the situation of political weakness that Muslims face today, I do not want to simply resign this to Islam or to the inferiority of Islam among all types of ideologies in the world today, but only to see it as a low phase in the circle of human history.The Mongol horde that swept from the steppes of Central Asia into the Muslim heartland in the thirteenth century, razing cities and murdering people, and inflicting heavy blows on Islamic civilization, was a clear evidence of the hegemony of a foreign power over the Muslim lands. Muslim lands. Then, by Allah’s will, fate decreed that the Ottoman Empire would rise and stand for centuries with its shocking political power. History teaches us that contemporary Muslims are truly at a crossroads of struggling for the birth of another new historic Islamic civilization, and that reality will surely change for the better if only we have the will to do so.

One day a friend in Cairo asked me, why don’t you become a Muslim? I found that Allah had long ago implanted in my heart the will to thirst for the Islamic faith, which enriches Muslims from the simplest of hearts to the richness of complex minds. One does not become a Muslim by going through a thought struggle of the mind and the will, but it was Allah’s grace coupled with the ultimate analytical thinking of reason that led me to Islam in Cairo in 1977.

Do the believers think that the time has not yet come so that their hearts are not softened by Allah’s teachings and the truths He has sent down? They must not be like those before them who used to follow the Scripture, whose hearts were hardened after a long period of time, and many of them sinned. And know that Allah is the One Who raises the dead earth, and indeed We have explained to you many signs so that you may understand. (Quran 57:16-17)

I want to be a good Christian, but some key questions have remained unanswered.

I once knew an atheist who never believed in the existence of God. He believed that people of faith were people of weak character who needed to find support for their incompetence and laziness, so they chose church. Whenever the question of faith was discussed, he was always agitated, but was unable to convince the other with his arguments. He despised people of faith with an almost hysterical attitude. However he had a very close friend who believed in God. They came to an agreement to avoid discussing matters of faith whenever they were together.

One day, perhaps in a moment of “weakness,” he accepted his friend’s invitation to go to church. At this point he was pointing and jeering at the believers in the pulpit because he thought it was ridiculous to preach out loud in public. But, as we know, God exists in mysterious ways. He went to church, sat in the back pews, and watched the people pray. The Mass service began and he gave a mocking glance in return. Then came the sermon, which lasted 15 minutes. Suddenly, right in the middle of the sermon, he wept. A strange feeling of joy and happiness replaced the hostility, and a feeling permeated his whole body. After Mass, the two friends left together. They remained silent with each other until they went their separate ways, and when he asked his friend if he could go to church again, they decided to go back the next day.

Perhaps some of you have guessed that I am the hardened atheist. I used to harbor animosity and contempt for believers. But in that 1989 sermon, the priest told us not to judge others if we don’t want to be judged ourselves. After that, my life suddenly and dramatically changed. I started going to church regularly, and I was eager to know everything I could about God and Jesus. I attended sharing sessions where I shared spiritual experiences with young Christians. I realized I was born again. Suddenly, I felt the need to become a believer. I needed to make up for the last 18 years.

The atheistic family I grew up in never guided my spiritual development, but this time it agreed to my baptism. I remember being in sixth grade when a communist comrade explained to us why God did not exist. I remember understanding everything he said. For me, there was no need to be convinced. I believed everything he said. His arrogance, contempt, and hatred for believers is the same way I feel about believers. Now, however, I want to make amends for these past years.

I meet with priests and friends who guide me. I was harboring tons of questions that needed to be answered by them. Afterwards, I realized that I had made a huge mistake: I had accepted everything without contemplation and reflection. It could be said that they informed me in an indoctrinated way, but that was not fair to them. In fact, it was my fault. I did not think deeply or critically about what they said. This led to a great deal of difficulty for me later on. Looking back, I believe a major factor that influenced my behavior was age. And I was too young to understand well such serious and complex things as faith.

I wanted to be a good Christian, and God knows I put a lot of effort into it. But after a while, I wasn’t able to explain the contradictory theories in the Bible, such as the divinity of the prophet Jesus and the concept of inherited sin. The priests tried to explain these to me, but eventually, they lost patience. They told me that these facts should be accepted as faith, and that these questions were a complete waste of time and would only cause me to drift away from God. I think back to the day I argued with a religious leader, and it renewed my self-destructive tendencies. Maybe I was wrong after all. I was very young at the time.

How I became a Muslim

My path to becoming a Muslim was not smooth. You might think that since I was disillusioned with Christianity, I should have quickly embraced Islam as my faith. It would have seemed like it would have been water under the bridge, but at the time my knowledge of Islam was limited to the fact that Muslims refer to God as Allah, they recite the Qur’an instead of the Bible, and they worship a man named Muhammad. At the same time, I didn’t think I was ready for Islam. So I quit the church organization and wanted to become an independent Christian. But I found that even though I didn’t miss the Christian organization or the church, God was so engrained in me that I couldn’t forget Him. I didn’t even want to forget Him. Quite the contrary, I felt happy with God and I wanted him to be on my side all the time.

And then, one stupid thing after another, I lived a life of luxury. I didn’t realize that it would lead me away from God and to hell. A friend of mine told me that the only way to really feel the earth beneath my feet is to “go to the bottom of the valley”. That’s exactly what I was doing at that time. I had already fallen into the abyss. I could imagine that the devil Satan was waiting for me with open arms, but God did not give up on me and gave me a second chance. in July 2001, I met a young man from Iraq. His name was Ibrahim. We quickly struck up a conversation. He told me he was a Muslim, and I responded that I was a Christian. I was worried that I would get in trouble for being a Christian, but I was wrong. I’m glad I was wrong. The funny thing is that I wasn’t trying to become a Muslim and he didn’t try to convince me to convert to Islam. Although I felt that Muslims were an alien organization and I wanted to learn more about Islam. This was a very good opportunity. I realized that the person in front of me could tell me a lot of information about Islam, so I gathered the courage to ask him for information about Islam. This was my first step in facing Islam, in fact my first step. After some time, we parted and I did not see him again, but the seed of Muslims had germinated.

I remember, I had read an interview with Muhammad Ali Srihawy (an old Czech Muslim) and I longed to know his address and wanted to write to him. Next, 9/11 happened. Because of the political climate at the time, I didn’t feel that this was an appropriate opportunity to contact Srihavi, and I felt that I had reached a dead end. About two months later, I mustered up the courage to write a long letter to Sri Harvey. Some time later, he wrote me back and sent me a parcel containing Islamic books and pamphlets. He told me that he had informed the Islamic Foundation in Prague and asked them to send me a translation of the Quran. That was the beginning for me. Step by step, I learned not only that Islam is not a radical religion, but on the contrary, a religion that promotes peace. My questions were answered.

For various reasons, it was not until three years later that I decided to visit Mr. Sri Harvey. He patiently explained various things to me and suggested that I visit the Brno Mosque (Czech Republic). When I stepped into the Brno Mosque, I was worried about being seen as a stranger. To my surprise it was just the opposite. I met K and L, who were the first to help me. Of course I also met other brothers who welcomed me in the warmest way.

I started to look deeper into all aspects of Islam and realized that Islam is so easy to understand and so logical. I slowly began to learn to worship, and to this day I have mastered the prayers and have no difficulty in worshipping even in Arabic. I changed my bad habits that were not in harmony with Islam. I was a gambler, a total gambler. It was really hard to struggle with my ego, but with Allah’s help I won.

If I had ever doubted my desire for Islam and wondered if I could live the life of a Muslim, now I am finally convinced that my love for Islam is constant and I have considered myself a Muslim. It may seem very simple, but I am winning with the help of Allah. Before I settled on Islam, I thought carefully about it. Frankly, for the whole of 2003 and the beginning of 2004, I wasn’t entirely sure if I could do it. But in the end, I was firm in my decision. I was no longer the young man I was in the early 90s.

And that is why I am happy today that I am a Muslim. I finally feel free. I still have flaws, but I am trying to improve. I believe that Allah will help me. Today, I want to tell you what I consider to be my duty: I believe in my heart and declare that there is no Lord but Allah. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.