Mujahid Mohammed
Well-Known Member
I am talking about the martial arts I take and Islam. They both took me 27 years to find. they are both realGodlike said:
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Your Journey to Islam; Fullyveiled Muslimah, Mujahid Mohammed...
- Thread starter Sahar
- Start date
fullyveiled muslimah
Evil incarnate!
What kind of martial arts do you study? I took up TaiChi a few years ago but never had any formal training.
Mujahid Mohammed
Well-Known Member
Tai Chi is real good. All Gung Fu has tai chi in it. But I study Lieu Siong's Royal System of Gung Fu many call it kun tao and there are alot of cheap imitations out there as well many do not have the real deal. GUNG-FU, Liu Seong Kuntao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Homefullyveiled muslimah said:
I have studied martial arts before you know the usual but this art is superior to all other arts. GM Lieu Siong or Willem Reeders was the President of the World Gung Fu Federation. My teacher was taught by GM Arthur Sikes, who was taught by GM Lieu Siong, and his disciple GM Willie Wesel, and one of his first teacher's Arthur Sikes students Robert Baker.
This art is like no other art, from the conditioning to the training and the movements it encorporates so many different arts into it and the techniques are deadly we cannot even spar and we always practice the movements slow. This art was only given originally from the Chinese emperor to his son. Originally, this
there are many stories about him, things he was able to do. I have a ton of them I may post them insha Allah. The only one out of the group still alive is GM Arthur Sikes, this man can do some crazy stuff that people would have to see to believe.
But many will not believe because they have never seen it or felt it. It is just like with anything we try to explain to people they will not believe it unless they see it. They same thing Galileo went through when he tried to convince the world that the earth was round.
People have to come to class and see and feel inorder to truly understand. Same for religion, I can show you and tell you but unless the experience it or really see it people will continue to disbelieve.
I also take many forms of tai chi among other things that are all incorporated into this system
asalamu alaikum
Mujahid
Mujahid Mohammed said:
Ah, cool. I taught myself T'ai Chi, Ju-Jitsu and Karate attendent to my Yoga exercise over the last 15 years. I agree that martial arts are of the Real, but yet also have a very unique spirituality to each of them. Now I see that all arts, martial included, are essentially One, expression of the same fundamental constant. A Muslim would most certainly attribute this to Allah: does this come close to your understanding, Mohammed?
Peace
Quran & Sunnah
Mujahid Mohammed said:
Yes indeed, the best model to follow is the model of our beloved Prophet peace be upon him. He is the best of teachers! And he is my ideal example in life
May Allah grant us his company in Paradise, ameen!!
Mujahid Mohammed said:
A good idea brother
Peace
Mujahid Mohammed
Well-Known Member
Not all art is the real art. Because certain teachers will not teach it all to you. They teach a part of it and leave the rest for themselves because some teachers do not want their students to pass them. What I mean is there are alot of imitation art, which are essensially OK but they not the complete system within the art. Some forms of Karate for example are real and some are hollywood. When you get the real art you know it. Just all the other religions out there. All except Islam are hiding some secret or information is left out or not taught correctly that is what I mean. Islam is the superior way of life and the Real art is superior to all other arts. Lieu Siong knew this and the over 2000 people he killed knew it too. His art is superior just like IslamGodlike said:
Judgement Day
Active Member
Subhanallah. Very very interesting, my sister and my brother. It is somewhat more appealing compared to the ones posted in Islamic websites because it is something that happened to a fellow RF member. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Sui
Member
Salamu Alaikum! I've been referred to this thread by sister Peace, and after reading (several times) the touching stories of others, I also will do my best to share my own experience here.
Well, I was raised among a mixture of Catholics, Protestants, Agnostics, and Atheists. Religion never played a significant part in my life, church was a rare occurrence. The only time we went there was for certain occasions such as Christmas, Easter, marriages, and funerals. When I was about 6 or 7 I guess, my mother began dating a really religious guy...his father was a pastor if I'm not mistaken. So church was definitely important to his family. To accommodate that, my mom and I went more regularly; I even went to a few Sunday School classes. Although, being no more than 8 years old at that time, I wasn't all that interested in religion. This went on for a while and Christianity still never clicked with me, even through all the sermons, Bible studies, etc. I never really voiced my questions either, as far as I remember at least, but the trinity was an absolute puzzle to me. After things between that man and my mother didn't work out, eventually she found someone else. He and I never got along at all throughout all the 5 or 6 years he lived with us. After he first moved in, it became obvious that he had total issues with alcohol. I won't go into detail, but things soon escalated into abuse and violence. The logical thing to do would be to leave after the first sign, but mom and I were stuck there for various reasons. Just after I turned 13, I was at my grandma's since I visited her and my dad every two weeks. I began crying and pleading for her not to take me home, I was too afraid to go back. Skipping ahead a few months or so, my father got custody of me and I've been living with him ever since (I'm 18 now). The first two years after leaving my mom were definitely tough. I felt like I'd abandoned her, and she felt like she had failed me. Before this I had my doubts in Jesus (as), but never in God...but soon I began to. With my 13 - 14 year-old mindset I kept asking myself that if God is so loving, then why were bad things happening and making my mom cry. Surely God would never make us cry, right? Well, with those kinds of thoughts it didn't take long for my confused self to reject God and go on my way as an Atheist.
This continued until I was 16 and had yet to find any sign of truth anywhere. Over the internet I started talking to someone from Sohag, Egypt. He was a really nice guy and so we comfortably talked about many different things. Naturally the subject of religion came up and I found out he was Muslim...honestly I was quite perplexed by this, since he was so nice. It must be said here that the only exposure to Muslims I'd up to this point was through the media and my seriously misinformed teachers. I asked him to tell me a bit about Islam to clear things up; his words quickly gained my fascinated attention. I thought: "the news and my teachers talk about Islam as raising evil bombers, and this guy is telling me about peace?" After deciding to look into this situation myself, I found myself unable to stop. I spent my time reading internet articles, checking books out of the library, going to Borders and buying my own, etc. My family thought I was crazy (and they still do). It was a bit disheartening that my family wasn't all that supportive, but I wasn't about to let that get in my way. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became...Islam became the center of everything for me. It was perfect...the idea of unity, peace, tranquility, boundless faith, love...I knew that it was end of my searching; I had found what I needed. All doubts of Allah (swt) were gone once I opened my eyes. I had truly been so naive. Right before my 17th birthday, I reverted, alhamdulillah.
Islam gave me what nothing else could...truth answers to my questions and doubts, peace of mind, strong passion for knowledge and tolerance, and powerful motivation to live my life positively through Allah's guidance. I've certainly come to see how blessed I am, subhanallah! After being stubborn and bitter and ignorant, Allah showed me the light. There are no words to describe such a feeling...but words will never be enough anyway. Allah (swt) knows what is in my heart, that's the important thing.
Oh, as for the name question...no, I never changed it. My mother named me after Prophet Yaqub's (as) wife, Rachel...I've read that it means "ewe" or "one with purity" in Hebrew.
Well, I was raised among a mixture of Catholics, Protestants, Agnostics, and Atheists. Religion never played a significant part in my life, church was a rare occurrence. The only time we went there was for certain occasions such as Christmas, Easter, marriages, and funerals. When I was about 6 or 7 I guess, my mother began dating a really religious guy...his father was a pastor if I'm not mistaken. So church was definitely important to his family. To accommodate that, my mom and I went more regularly; I even went to a few Sunday School classes. Although, being no more than 8 years old at that time, I wasn't all that interested in religion. This went on for a while and Christianity still never clicked with me, even through all the sermons, Bible studies, etc. I never really voiced my questions either, as far as I remember at least, but the trinity was an absolute puzzle to me. After things between that man and my mother didn't work out, eventually she found someone else. He and I never got along at all throughout all the 5 or 6 years he lived with us. After he first moved in, it became obvious that he had total issues with alcohol. I won't go into detail, but things soon escalated into abuse and violence. The logical thing to do would be to leave after the first sign, but mom and I were stuck there for various reasons. Just after I turned 13, I was at my grandma's since I visited her and my dad every two weeks. I began crying and pleading for her not to take me home, I was too afraid to go back. Skipping ahead a few months or so, my father got custody of me and I've been living with him ever since (I'm 18 now). The first two years after leaving my mom were definitely tough. I felt like I'd abandoned her, and she felt like she had failed me. Before this I had my doubts in Jesus (as), but never in God...but soon I began to. With my 13 - 14 year-old mindset I kept asking myself that if God is so loving, then why were bad things happening and making my mom cry. Surely God would never make us cry, right? Well, with those kinds of thoughts it didn't take long for my confused self to reject God and go on my way as an Atheist.
This continued until I was 16 and had yet to find any sign of truth anywhere. Over the internet I started talking to someone from Sohag, Egypt. He was a really nice guy and so we comfortably talked about many different things. Naturally the subject of religion came up and I found out he was Muslim...honestly I was quite perplexed by this, since he was so nice. It must be said here that the only exposure to Muslims I'd up to this point was through the media and my seriously misinformed teachers. I asked him to tell me a bit about Islam to clear things up; his words quickly gained my fascinated attention. I thought: "the news and my teachers talk about Islam as raising evil bombers, and this guy is telling me about peace?" After deciding to look into this situation myself, I found myself unable to stop. I spent my time reading internet articles, checking books out of the library, going to Borders and buying my own, etc. My family thought I was crazy (and they still do
). It was a bit disheartening that my family wasn't all that supportive, but I wasn't about to let that get in my way. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became...Islam became the center of everything for me. It was perfect...the idea of unity, peace, tranquility, boundless faith, love...I knew that it was end of my searching; I had found what I needed. All doubts of Allah (swt) were gone once I opened my eyes. I had truly been so naive. Right before my 17th birthday, I reverted, alhamdulillah.Islam gave me what nothing else could...truth answers to my questions and doubts, peace of mind, strong passion for knowledge and tolerance, and powerful motivation to live my life positively through Allah's guidance. I've certainly come to see how blessed I am, subhanallah! After being stubborn and bitter and ignorant, Allah showed me the light. There are no words to describe such a feeling...but words will never be enough anyway. Allah (swt) knows what is in my heart, that's the important thing.
Oh, as for the name question...no, I never changed it. My mother named me after Prophet Yaqub's (as) wife, Rachel...I've read that it means "ewe" or "one with purity" in Hebrew.
Masha'Allah, so young. Some people take so long before they found out about Islam. Thank God you have been blessed by Islam in the beginning of your life, may Allah bless you and increase you in faith sister.
Regarding names, it really doesn't matter. Some unlearned muslims ask new muslims to change their names but that's wrong. Prophet changed only the names which praise certain figures or signs in other religions, etc, but there is nothing wrong with keeping your name if it was a normal name.
You don't know how much i'm happy for you sis.
I have a couple of questions if you don't mind ...
1- How do you face the descrimination against Islam in the US, especially the one which touch your personal life directly whether in school, street, etc?
2- Do non-muslims american deal with you as if you were just another typical american or as a stranger, in the same way they look at the muslim immigrants to the US?
3- What are your hopes for the future regarding your fellow muslim brothers and sisters, and the muslim ummah/community as a whole?
4- What are you planning to do next in your life? going to the university? what field?
I hope these weren't too much questions, thank you so much for sharing with us your experience.
Regarding names, it really doesn't matter. Some unlearned muslims ask new muslims to change their names but that's wrong. Prophet changed only the names which praise certain figures or signs in other religions, etc, but there is nothing wrong with keeping your name if it was a normal name.
You don't know how much i'm happy for you sis.
I have a couple of questions if you don't mind ...
1- How do you face the descrimination against Islam in the US, especially the one which touch your personal life directly whether in school, street, etc?
2- Do non-muslims american deal with you as if you were just another typical american or as a stranger, in the same way they look at the muslim immigrants to the US?
3- What are your hopes for the future regarding your fellow muslim brothers and sisters, and the muslim ummah/community as a whole?
4- What are you planning to do next in your life? going to the university? what field?
I hope these weren't too much questions, thank you so much for sharing with us your experience.
Peace
Quran & Sunnah
Salamu Alaikum! I've been referred to this thread by sister Peace, and after reading (several times) the touching stories of others, I also will do my best to share my own experience here.
Well, I was raised among a mixture of Catholics, Protestants, Agnostics, and Atheists. Religion never played a significant part in my life, church was a rare occurrence. The only time we went there was for certain occasions such as Christmas, Easter, marriages, and funerals. When I was about 6 or 7 I guess, my mother began dating a really religious guy...his father was a pastor if I'm not mistaken. So church was definitely important to his family. To accommodate that, my mom and I went more regularly; I even went to a few Sunday School classes. Although, being no more than 8 years old at that time, I wasn't all that interested in religion. This went on for a while and Christianity still never clicked with me, even through all the sermons, Bible studies, etc. I never really voiced my questions either, as far as I remember at least, but the trinity was an absolute puzzle to me. After things between that man and my mother didn't work out, eventually she found someone else. He and I never got along at all throughout all the 5 or 6 years he lived with us. After he first moved in, it became obvious that he had total issues with alcohol. I won't go into detail, but things soon escalated into abuse and violence. The logical thing to do would be to leave after the first sign, but mom and I were stuck there for various reasons. Just after I turned 13, I was at my grandma's since I visited her and my dad every two weeks. I began crying and pleading for her not to take me home, I was too afraid to go back. Skipping ahead a few months or so, my father got custody of me and I've been living with him ever since (I'm 18 now). The first two years after leaving my mom were definitely tough. I felt like I'd abandoned her, and she felt like she had failed me. Before this I had my doubts in Jesus (as), but never in God...but soon I began to. With my 13 - 14 year-old mindset I kept asking myself that if God is so loving, then why were bad things happening and making my mom cry. Surely God would never make us cry, right? Well, with those kinds of thoughts it didn't take long for my confused self to reject God and go on my way as an Atheist.
This continued until I was 16 and had yet to find any sign of truth anywhere. Over the internet I started talking to someone from Sohag, Egypt. He was a really nice guy and so we comfortably talked about many different things. Naturally the subject of religion came up and I found out he was Muslim...honestly I was quite perplexed by this, since he was so nice. It must be said here that the only exposure to Muslims I'd up to this point was through the media and my seriously misinformed teachers. I asked him to tell me a bit about Islam to clear things up; his words quickly gained my fascinated attention. I thought: "the news and my teachers talk about Islam as raising evil bombers, and this guy is telling me about peace?" After deciding to look into this situation myself, I found myself unable to stop. I spent my time reading internet articles, checking books out of the library, going to Borders and buying my own, etc. My family thought I was crazy (and they still do
Islam gave me what nothing else could...truth answers to my questions and doubts, peace of mind, strong passion for knowledge and tolerance, and powerful motivation to live my life positively through Allah's guidance. I've certainly come to see how blessed I am, subhanallah! After being stubborn and bitter and ignorant, Allah showed me the light. There are no words to describe such a feeling...but words will never be enough anyway. Allah (swt) knows what is in my heart, that's the important thing.
Oh, as for the name question...no, I never changed it. My mother named me after Prophet Yaqub's (as) wife, Rachel...I've read that it means "ewe" or "one with purity" in Hebrew.
Masha'Allah Allahu Akbar! I am really impressed my dear sis!! As brother Faisal said you are guided to Islam in a young age masha'Allah and that's really a blessing from Allah who guides whoever He wants to His right path! Allah certainly loves you sister Rachel alhamdulillah
May our dear Allah keep you firm on His right path and may He increase your iman more and more, ameen!
So many thanks for your promptness in responding to my request by sharing with us your spiritual journey in reverting to Islam.
Peace
Sui
Member
Masha'Allah, so young. Some people take so long before they found out about Islam. Thank God you have been blessed by Islam in the beginning of your life, may Allah bless you and increase you in faith sister.
Regarding names, it really doesn't matter. Some unlearned muslims ask new muslims to change their names but that's wrong. Prophet changed only the names which praise certain figures or signs in other religions, etc, but there is nothing wrong with keeping your name if it was a normal name.
You don't know how much i'm happy for you sis.
I have a couple of questions if you don't mind ...
1- How do you face the descrimination against Islam in the US, especially the one which touch your personal life directly whether in school, street, etc?
2- Do non-muslims american deal with you as if you were just another typical american or as a stranger, in the same way they look at the muslim immigrants to the US?
3- What are your hopes for the future regarding your fellow muslim brothers and sisters, and the muslim ummah/community as a whole?
4- What are you planning to do next in your life? going to the university? what field?
I hope these weren't too much questions, thank you so much for sharing with us your experience.
Thank you very very much brother, may Allah reward you for such kind words!
And the questions are no problem, I don't mind at all.1. I've learned to be patient with the negativity from people, it isn't worth getting worked up over and losing control of my tongue. The hardest part is dealing with my family, but insha Allah that will get better with time.
2. The only time I've ever been treated like an immigrant was when I was confronted by some angry, crazy guy who, in short, basically said all Muslims should be shot. However everyone else has just been curious, if not a bit awkward.
3. Well, I feel we need to do everything we can to put the ummah back on track. I dont even know where to begin with this. There are so many ignorant Muslims that are running rampant with misguided ideas and the media isn't letting the world forget. What about iman? Knowledge? Unity? It's just hard to believe something so beautiful is being portrayed as something so ugly.
4. Ah, my future plans...well this was supposed to be my first year of college but the expenses are too much at the moment. I'd like to become a translator though.
Sui
Member
Masha'Allah Allahu Akbar! I am really impressed my dear sis!! As brother Faisal said you are guided to Islam in a young age masha'Allah and that's really a blessing from Allah who guides whoever He wants to His right path! Allah certainly loves you sister Rachel alhamdulillah
May our dear Allah keep you firm on His right path and may He increase your iman more and more, ameen!
So many thanks for your promptness in responding to my request by sharing with us your spiritual journey in reverting to Islam.
Peace
And thank you to you as well sis!
Islam is a blessing for sure. I just hope that insha Allah I won't let this great blessing go to waste! I appreciate the immense kindness from you and brother Faisal...sharing my experience was a pleasure 
Sajdah
Al-Aqsa Is In My Heart.
Wa' alaikum asslam warahmatullah wa barakatuh.
Jazaki Allahu Khayrn sister for this wonderful thread. I love reading stories of those who convert to Islam, just to say Alhamdulilah on the gift of Islam.
Allahu Akbar walillah elhamd.
welcome back sister to Islam, I'm so happy with your story.
Masha'allah, your poem is great, I truely loved it.
Peace
Quran & Sunnah
We had recently a new Muslim member who joined us here in RF , Abu Rachid. Since he was a non-Muslim and Allah blessed him and guided him to Islam, we will be glad if you can share with us brother your story of conversion since this thread is open for that purpose.
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
Abu Rashid
Active Member
as-salaamu alaykum wa ra7matullahi wa barakatuh,
Masha'allah I've just read through sister fullyveiled_muslimah's story and I must say it's a hard one to top. I find quite a few parallels with her story in my own life too and it draws me back to the period of my life when I first learnt about Islam.
bismillah ar-ra7man ar-ra7eem.
Unlike most other stories I read of reverts, I did not grow up religious at all. I never once attended a church, and my family was fairy irreligious. I wouldn't say we were atheist, but as good as. We had no connection to God, religion, belief whatsoever. Most people that I knew were very materialistic and their lives were 100% secular. Religion was something that was laughed at, and placed in the same category as the tooth fairy and dragons.
So I lived a fairly "free" life, doing as I pleased with only one limit in my life to slow me down, my own self. In a sense I guess we took ourselves as gods, and our religion was "freedom". This went on well into my teens, and it wasn't until I approached the age of 20 that I began to really think about what I was doing with my life. I was always fairly inquisitive and I often reflected on the reality around me and what it meant, I especially used to love to look at the stars and ponder what it all meant (this perhaps has something to do with the name I have taken as a Muslim). I also had what I can only describe as an innate concept of there being a "higher power" that governed all existence, and also a feeling that having no limits in life, other than one's own desires, was not right and was the path to ruin.
When I looked around me, and at the society I lived in, where it had been, where it was going etc. I came to the conclusion that it was on a spiraling descent, and that I too was in for the ride. Western societies are destroying themselves from within, due to their own self-centred arrogance and basically the belief that they themselves are gods and that freedom is to be worshipped. So I knew that I had to reverse this cycle, at least in my own self, and so I began to look into various "spiritual paths", to see what they had to offer to nourish the soul.
I always felt some kind of admiration for the idea of Jesus Christ (pbuh) but the Christian belief system just seemed ludicrous and contradictory to me and I always considered it to be a misrepresentation of him. It was based on some semblance of monotheistic roots, yet it was quite clearly polytheistic. I had spent a bit of time with a movement known as "Know God", which were basically somewhere between Judaism and Christianity. They believed in Jesus (pbuh) but they retained a very Hebrew way of life. Their "mix" was interesting, yet still not spiritually satisfying for me, since they still accepted most of the Christian claims about Jesus (pbuh), and the Hebrew roots of Christianity already seemed to be corrupted anyway, since their beliefs in God had already bordered on polytheism in many ways (which is probably also part of the source of Christian polytheism).
When I began to slowly bring some order back into my life and settle down I began to think seriously about the "correct path" for human beings. I also thought about the concept of fasting as being a way to cleanse the soul (I don't know why, it just came to me). I drifted on in this way for a few years until I met some Arab students at the college I was studying in at this time. They were mostly Christians, but they spoke sometimes about Islam and it's impact on Arabic society and culture. At this time Islam was mentioned fairly regularly in the media, due to the conflicts erupting in the Middle East, so I was already becoming aware of it's existence (prior to that the only mention I remember of it was as the strange "eastern" religion Cat Stevens embraced). So I began to look into Islam, and the more I did, the more I found it was exactly what I'd been looking for. I remembered back to my thoughts of fasting to purify myself spiritually, which I'd had a few years before, and now I actually found a religion which had as one of it's pillars fasting to purify oneself. It was strictly monotheist, the only religion I'd found so far that was like this. If religion is about God, then pure religion has to be purely about God, this was my perspective. But it still took me about 2 years before I finally became Muslim. Unlike others who just clicked and became Muslim, I was very hesitant, and needed to test every single aspect of the religion first before "jumping in".
Around this time the internet became fairly widespread in my country (mid-late 90's) and so I began reading up about Islam online. I was lucky to have some nice sister send me a package from Canada full of books and pamphlets about Islam, as well as a Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur'an (may Allah bless that sister, whoever she was, immensely, and reward her for her part in helping me on the path to Islam). One of the books was Maulana Mawdudi's book "Towards Understanding Islam", and it was this book that I think finally made it all concrete in my mind. It laid out Islam as a complete system of life that was able to comprehensively address all of mankind's needs and provide for him a pure and just way of managing all of his affairs (not just the spiritual).
Al7amdulilah I was blessed with being introduced to some very sincere and knowlegable brothers in Islam not long after this, and I made my shehadah and have never looked back, just being thankful each day to Allah (swt) for the guidance that he's bestowed upon me, in rescuing me from the path that I was on, and that so many others are still on, may Allah (swt) guide them.
Hope it didn't bore you too much.
Masha'allah I've just read through sister fullyveiled_muslimah's story and I must say it's a hard one to top. I find quite a few parallels with her story in my own life too and it draws me back to the period of my life when I first learnt about Islam.
bismillah ar-ra7man ar-ra7eem.
Unlike most other stories I read of reverts, I did not grow up religious at all. I never once attended a church, and my family was fairy irreligious. I wouldn't say we were atheist, but as good as. We had no connection to God, religion, belief whatsoever. Most people that I knew were very materialistic and their lives were 100% secular. Religion was something that was laughed at, and placed in the same category as the tooth fairy and dragons.
So I lived a fairly "free" life, doing as I pleased with only one limit in my life to slow me down, my own self. In a sense I guess we took ourselves as gods, and our religion was "freedom". This went on well into my teens, and it wasn't until I approached the age of 20 that I began to really think about what I was doing with my life. I was always fairly inquisitive and I often reflected on the reality around me and what it meant, I especially used to love to look at the stars and ponder what it all meant (this perhaps has something to do with the name I have taken as a Muslim). I also had what I can only describe as an innate concept of there being a "higher power" that governed all existence, and also a feeling that having no limits in life, other than one's own desires, was not right and was the path to ruin.
When I looked around me, and at the society I lived in, where it had been, where it was going etc. I came to the conclusion that it was on a spiraling descent, and that I too was in for the ride. Western societies are destroying themselves from within, due to their own self-centred arrogance and basically the belief that they themselves are gods and that freedom is to be worshipped. So I knew that I had to reverse this cycle, at least in my own self, and so I began to look into various "spiritual paths", to see what they had to offer to nourish the soul.
I always felt some kind of admiration for the idea of Jesus Christ (pbuh) but the Christian belief system just seemed ludicrous and contradictory to me and I always considered it to be a misrepresentation of him. It was based on some semblance of monotheistic roots, yet it was quite clearly polytheistic. I had spent a bit of time with a movement known as "Know God", which were basically somewhere between Judaism and Christianity. They believed in Jesus (pbuh) but they retained a very Hebrew way of life. Their "mix" was interesting, yet still not spiritually satisfying for me, since they still accepted most of the Christian claims about Jesus (pbuh), and the Hebrew roots of Christianity already seemed to be corrupted anyway, since their beliefs in God had already bordered on polytheism in many ways (which is probably also part of the source of Christian polytheism).
When I began to slowly bring some order back into my life and settle down I began to think seriously about the "correct path" for human beings. I also thought about the concept of fasting as being a way to cleanse the soul (I don't know why, it just came to me). I drifted on in this way for a few years until I met some Arab students at the college I was studying in at this time. They were mostly Christians, but they spoke sometimes about Islam and it's impact on Arabic society and culture. At this time Islam was mentioned fairly regularly in the media, due to the conflicts erupting in the Middle East, so I was already becoming aware of it's existence (prior to that the only mention I remember of it was as the strange "eastern" religion Cat Stevens embraced). So I began to look into Islam, and the more I did, the more I found it was exactly what I'd been looking for. I remembered back to my thoughts of fasting to purify myself spiritually, which I'd had a few years before, and now I actually found a religion which had as one of it's pillars fasting to purify oneself. It was strictly monotheist, the only religion I'd found so far that was like this. If religion is about God, then pure religion has to be purely about God, this was my perspective. But it still took me about 2 years before I finally became Muslim. Unlike others who just clicked and became Muslim, I was very hesitant, and needed to test every single aspect of the religion first before "jumping in".
Around this time the internet became fairly widespread in my country (mid-late 90's) and so I began reading up about Islam online. I was lucky to have some nice sister send me a package from Canada full of books and pamphlets about Islam, as well as a Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur'an (may Allah bless that sister, whoever she was, immensely, and reward her for her part in helping me on the path to Islam). One of the books was Maulana Mawdudi's book "Towards Understanding Islam", and it was this book that I think finally made it all concrete in my mind. It laid out Islam as a complete system of life that was able to comprehensively address all of mankind's needs and provide for him a pure and just way of managing all of his affairs (not just the spiritual).
Al7amdulilah I was blessed with being introduced to some very sincere and knowlegable brothers in Islam not long after this, and I made my shehadah and have never looked back, just being thankful each day to Allah (swt) for the guidance that he's bestowed upon me, in rescuing me from the path that I was on, and that so many others are still on, may Allah (swt) guide them.
Hope it didn't bore you too much.