Converting to Islam

I recently talked about how changing religions can be challenging but it is also necessary for some. Converting to Islam was something I had decided to do once I was introduced to it. When my husband had talked to me about Islam I knew I had to make a choice for the sake of my family. I sure am glad I picked Islam as my religion.



Islam is not easy to learn but the great thing about the religion is that we all encourage each other to keep learning, keep reading and keep praying. I have never felt bad for asking questions related to the religion and it's because the sisters who are there to answer my questions help me out graciously. They have never made me feel bad about asking questions. If I made a mistake, they tell me with kindness and help me understand why we can't do this or that. At the beginning when they would tell me not to do this, dress like this, you need to do it this way, I felt like they were picking on me. Well that was until another sister help me understand that they are trying to help me because they want my prayers to be answered. It made me feel better that this community was trying to make me better by giving me advice and tips and correcting me when I was wrong.

The hardest part about converting was learning how to dress accordingly. That meant, wearing a hijab and covering my body in full, no short sleeves, no short skirts, no tight clothes. I wasn't used to a hijab and still not but with time I will become more comfortable with it either in hot weather or cold weather because in the end it isn't about how I think others will perceive me, it's about pleasing God. Some may not know or understand why we wear hijabs. From my understanding is that the woman wear the hijab because we need to modest in our dress and we don't want males looking at us in a way that only our husbands should look at us. We dress modest so we don't cause unnecessary attention to ourselves.

Muslims pray five times daily. I have never prayed so much in my life with other religions. Islam teaches me that I must always remember Allah (God) and to please him we must pray. Praying five times daily is a reminder throughout the day that there is a God and that we must remember him at all times. We don't thank any prophet or anyone else for that matter for what was given us, we always thank Allah. When we eat, drink, dress, wash our bodies with clean water, get home from work, buying new things, seeing beautiful flowers, etc, we always thank Allah for all that he has provided for us. Praying five times daily at certain times of the day is a daily reminder that we are here to worship the creator, not the creation.

Once thing I am struggling with is having to learn my prayers in Arabic. The Quran is written in Arabic and when we recite our prayers we recite in Arabic. Learning a second language isn't easy and to have to learn how to do it on your own is even harder. There are resources out there and even Muslim brother's and sisters who teach Arabic for free. It's just a matter of me having that extra time to attend a class and making time for it. I learn a lot of my prayers from online resources that teaches me not only how to recite in Arabic, but also what I am reciting in English. I am blessed that my children are able to learn Arabic at school and at age 5 my daughter was starting to read Arabic. Two years later she is able to open up the Quran and read the Arabic language as if it was her first language. She is very smart and intelligent and has always impressed me.

I have met a wonderful group of Muslim sisters. They are ever so kind and gentle in their ways. They have always provided me with insight and we help each other out. They encourage each other to do better, achieve  higher standards, to be patient with our children when teaching them, to understand our husbands and to always remember to pray. They are also very nice and funny. They love to cook and give to other's. We never pass by another Muslim sister or brother without greeting them, even if we don't know them personally. We always greet and we always return the greeting back even better should they greet your first. We greet each other with "Assalamalikyum" which means "peace be upon you." When returning the greeting we say " wa 'alaykumu s-salamu wa rahmatu l-lahi wa barakatuh" which means "may peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you." So when we greet each other, we are also praying for each other. There is so much to learn in Islam that everyday is a learning day.

MORE TO COME.....