Tell me more about your conversion. What did you convert from?
Well what would you like to know? I was a Buddhist before. Although not a very good one. I was more a... cultural Buddhist then a real Buddhist. That is, I didn't follow a lot of the rules really, nor did I study the scripture.
I am majoring in theology in school right now. I was studying about many different religions. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i, Sikh, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jainism etc etc
But Islam got me real interested. I wasn't looking for a new religion but I just loved the way Islam sounded. Complete Submission to Allah (swt). Of course at the time I did not believe in God. Although I was Buddhist I was a strong atheist. I read books such as Godless by Dan Barker and excerpts from the God delusion and others. I was at that point convinced that religion was not evil in itself, but was in the way of true peace. So even though I thought Islam was a nice idea, I at the time decided it had flaws.
I began to read about Prophet Muhammad (saws) and really admired him. He was a revolutionary. He was a spiritual person and completely absorbed in the love of Allah (swt). He did so many wonderful things, and his followers, although not perfect, also did wonderful things.
I read the Qur'an and at first when I read it I got afraid and kind of sad. It had beautiful descriptions but also horrific ones of hellfire. When I heard it in Arabic I was shocked! But still nonetheless scared of it.
I began to research Sharia and some aspects of it put me off as well at first.
The whole Dhimmi idea. The punishments of adultery and homosexuality. And apostasy, theft, a whole multitude of ideas. Although I agreed with the idea behind it, the manner in which it was to be carried out I did not like.
I am more liberal when it comes to Sharia law then other Muslims. Although, I still hold the belief that Adultery, apostasy, theft and those others are a huge sin.
I began to contemplate the idea of God. I liked the idea of pantheism, and the idea of the Brahman in Hinduism. It took me a while to believe that God was a good part of life. that being said, whether or not he existed didn't matter at that point, I thought it was good to have a belief in HIm. Then later, I began to believe in Him as well.
Then I began to see the Qur'an as a model for me to be. And Prophet Muhammad (saws) as the ideal person to strive to be. I didn't accept him yet as a Prophet or the Qur'an as the literal word of God. I was more a... I guess a Sufi then anything. (although a lot of Sufis are Muslim, not all of them are). Oh I forgot to mention the whole hellfire thing also kind of making me sad.
I began to pray as Muslims do. I began to fast. I gave to charity, lowered my gaze, did not do sexual promiscuity, did not steal, stopped doing drugs (I did pot), and all these other things. I saw that in a lot of ways I was already Muslim. After a while I realized that I was a Muslim. So I took my shahada (declaration of faith) at a mosque, and have been going there ever since.
