a Scientist explains why he become a muslim, interesting

Yusuf Derbeshyre's Journey to Islam - Reading biography of Prophet Muhammad {sallal lahu alayhi wasallam}

Before I was Muslim I was what you could classify as a “typical British lad”.

I used to go out drinking on a Saturday evening, and all that kind of thing.

Then about five years ago, I was going on holiday to Greece.

When you go to an airport, you've got loads of books packed in your backpack for you to read from, and then you go sitting by the side of the swimming pool with a large bear, sun-bathing and reading a book, and you would never have too many books!

I thought I would go to WHSmith and pick up a good book I could read, and I couldn't find anything. I got my rucksack on my back, and as I turned around to leave, I knocked the bookshelf and all the books fell off.

Not wanting to be a bit awkward, so I picked everything up, and the books were all one book, and it was by a western author, called Barnaby Rogerson, and he wrote a book called “The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography”. I read the first page and it looked interesting. I read the second page. Took it to the counter, I bought it and took it on holiday with me.

So I read the book, and I thought “Yeah I want to learn more.” So I came back, and I started to go to the local mosque, and I spoke to them and I said I wanted to learn more. And the Imam, who took my shahadah, said “Well to tell you the truth, the best way to understand Islam is to become a Muslim.”

I didn’t think twice about it. I just took my shahadah there and then.

I Related to Hamza, The Prophet's Uncle

As I was walking across, it was like I was walking through tranquility. I felt so emotional and tears were just streaming down my face

As a revert Muslim, you find that you sort of adhere yourself to somebody from the Sahabah (The Prophet’s companions). You know you could relate to them, because they were all revert Muslims too. And my relation was Hamza, because of the way that he lived his life before; he was leading a life of hard drinking and hard living, he enjoyed his life to the full. He still enjoyed his life to the full after he became a Muslim. I related a lot to him.

So when I went on Hajj, I wanted to go to the battle scene of Uhud to see where he died. So I went to the cemetery, then got off the bus. As I was walking across, it was like I was walking through tranquility. I felt so emotional, and tears were just streaming down my face, and I couldn’t stop them, and I didn’t know why.

So I kept going, and as I got off this sandy patch unto the little paved area, it all went, and I thought that was strange. I went to the cemetery. I made my duaa to the martyrs and Hamza. And made my way back to the bus when I said “Come on it’s time to go”, and as I walked across that patch of ground it happened again, just crying. Someone asked me “What’s the matter?” and I told him, to the man who was there next to me because he was translating for me. He said “When our Prophet found out what happened to his uncle he cried, and just wept and wept.” And I said “Maybe he just left something there for somebody who wanted to find it,” and I felt it here, in my chest, for Hamza and it hit me fully.

So when I got home I said- and my wife was pregnant at the time- “If we have a son I want to call him Hamza,” and we had a little girl. So before I went to see my mum, I went on to the internet to see if there are any female relations of Hamza to give her a second name, and I couldn’t find anything. My wife said “Ask your mum”. So I asked my mom and my mum went away. A couple of days later, she said she went through the internet and found three names for us. The one we liked most was Safiyya. So we thought “OK then, we will give her the name Safiyya”.

Few months after we had done that, I was feeling really depressed and frustrated. I got a book and I just opened it up to read and see what there is in there. I was reading about the aftermath of Uhud. It just opened there, and it was talking about them going wrapping the Muslim Martyrs up and burying them.

Then the book started talking about Hamza’s sister, coming with two pieces of cloth. And Hamza’s sister was called Safiyya!

Source : http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-islam/my-journey-to-islam/contemporary-stories/455298-prophet-biography-led-me-to-islam.html

My Husband’s Character Made Me Love Islam

By Reading Islam Staff
Sunday, 22 January 2012 10:07

The peace that you feel with Islam is tremendous. I think it is also a connection that you have between you and God, Allah
My name is Ahmad Shakur, and my guest this evening is Michelle Ashfaq, who is originally from New York.

She is married and a mother of three. She is a first-grade teacher at the Charlotte Islamic Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Michelle is consented to share with us her thoughts about converting to Islam, and her motivation for doing so, and her concerns as a Muslim.

Q: Michelle, I want to thank you for joining us this afternoon in our little conversation.

We've got a few things to talk abut this afternoon, but I want to start by just simply asking you how were you introduced to Islam?

My Life Before Islam

Sister Michelle: When I look back now I can say that I think I was introduced to Islam in a very subtle way, even in childhood. When I attended a Catholic school I was so drawn to the stories of prophets, some of them were Jesus and Yunus (may peace be upon them). But I think it started from there just the fascination of somewhere over there in the Middle East.

But I was originally really starting hearing about Islam and learning about it through my husband through his character and his good example and ways in teaching me etiquettes and cleanliness before I was even converted. He just told me a lot of things and then I started reading Islamic books that were sent over from Pakistan from my father-in-law, and I started reading, and that’s how I started to just get a feel for what Islam was.

Q: Before converting to Islam, did you consider other religions or was Islam what you wanted to do?

Sister Michelle: Before converting to Islam I went through a phase of just not knowing any more what I wanted to do as far as faith and prayer, besides being raised Catholic, and I had been attending Baptist church with my grandparents due to circumstances. So I was going to both places to worship. Then when I was about 17 or 18, something happened. One day I went to the Catholic church and then something just told me don’t go inside. And I just felt like every Sunday I just started getting late and things would happen like things would be in my path to stop me from going.

When I look back now, it's amazing that it happened for a reason, that I was just confused and I knew nothing about Islam at all. I knew nothing about any other religion because I was naive. I grew up in a very small town with my grandparents in southern west Virginia, and I was only going to church and back from church. That’s all what I knew.

Q: Now tell me Michelle, now that you are a Muslim, and you have been Muslim now for 12 years, a married woman, how does Islam make a difference in your life?

The Peace is Tremendous

The simplicity of Islam is what really attracted me and knowing the Quran that I can open and I can understand what I’m reading

Sister Michelle: Islam has made the most tremendous difference in my life, like there are no words to explain. The peace that you feel with Islam is tremendous. I think it is also a connection that you have between you and God, Allah. I just cannot find the words. I thought about that question, like how can I put it into words.

But I would say that one of the most powerful things would have to be reading the Holy Quran because of the knowledge and the guidance that it provides; any question that you have, there is an answer. If you have a question when you start reading the Quran and somehow when you turn the page you will read it and the answer is there. It’s a healing. And it says in the Quran that it’s a healing to the breasts of the believers; for any emotional sickness. I would say that the Quran definitely had a huge impact with me.

Q: You mentioned your former Christian life. Tell me a little bit about what you thought about Islam before becoming a Muslim, and what does it signify to you today?

Sister Michelle: Before converting I had really not known anything up until like I said when I met my husband and started reading books about becoming a Muslim.

Q: What attracted you to the religion of Islam?

Sister Michelle: The simplicity of it. The simplicity of Islam is what really attracted me, and knowing that the Quran I can open and I can understand what I’m reading. Because when I was going to the Catholic church we did not have Bibles or books we can open and read and understand what we are reading. We just had to listen to the priest and the sermon he was giving. And we had to think about what he was talking in terms of faith-value, and most of the times I used to question things.

I can still remember two of the things that I questioned deeply: one was that they want you to have confession at a Catholic church, and I remember my mother was pushing me saying “You have to go for confession, you must go for confession” and I would say “Confession for what?” She would say “You have to go to the priest, you have to tell him all the sins that you did”. And for me that was very strange. I thought “Why do I have to go to this man and confess? I know he is a priest, but he is not my father!” Still at a young age, I knew there was something that was not right with that. So we had a bit of an argument. Pretty much I told him I don’t have any big sense to confess and he looked at me very strange. I said “Why do I have to come to you, can’t I talk to God directly?” and he did not have an answer for me. He said “My daughter, just go and do the prayers Hail Mary” that was his answer for me.

You have to wake up in the very early morning, which is hard but I’m doing this for God and I want my sins to be forgiven for the whole day

The other question that I really had to question was if you say that if we don’t believe in Jesus as a savior, what about the people that came from Abraham (peace be upon him)? What about those people that followed him before Jesus came? If you are telling me that if I don’t believe this way that I would go to the Hellfire, so what about those people? Abraham was a prophet and they followed him as well. These are the two big questions that I had.

Q: Were their answers not satisfying for you?

Sister Michelle: No, there didn’t seem to be any logical answers to those questions.

Q

: It must have been a frustrating time for you, spiritually?

Sister Michelle: It was. I think the most frustrating time was when I had not met my husband, and I really did not know what to do, where to go to worship, and it was a whole year of just like drifting, questioning God, why is this happening to me? Why can I not go to the church? I was baptized at that church. I loved going to the Catholic church. I loved everything about it. I remember I was the only one who stayed and talked to the priest and talk to any of the nuns. I would stay with them. I even wanted to be a nun when I was small. There were pictures of me taking my shirt and putting it over my head when I was a child. I told mom that I wanted to be a nun when I grow up, I don't want to get married I want to be a nun, and I was so devoted that way.

Q: How are those issues resolved for you now that you are a Muslim. How are you getting those questions answered now?

Sister Michelle: Definitely I would say that when you learn about Islam is like learning how you are to live as a human being. Like any question that you have or any problem that you face, you have the hadith of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). For me hadith is such a wonderful book of knowledge to have and how to deal with problems that we have everyday that we face.

This cannot be found in the Christian faith

.

Another thing is our salat (prayer) that we pray five times a day and how significant that is, because that keeps you focused. You think about the five times. You have to wake up in the very early morning, which is hard but I’m doing this for God and I want my sins to be forgiven for the whole day. So this makes a big difference. Also, the fasting; to think about the poor people, to really fast and truly feel hungry and feel like I’m making a sacrifice for God Almighty like I’m doing this for Him and Him alone. And Zakat (giving money) that constantly keeps me reminded about the importance of these things.

European Scientist converts to Islam

Dr. J. Nicholson, PhD from Scotland - How I Came to Islam

American Jewish Girl Studies Islam and Converts

Sister Penomee (Dr. Kari Ann Owen, Ph.D.)

July 4, 1997.
A salaam aleikum, beloved family.

"There is no god but Allah, and Muhammed is his messenger."

These are the words of the Shahadah oath, I believe.

The Creator is known by many names. His wisdom is always recognizable, and his presence made manifest in the love, tolerance and compassion present in our community.

His profound ability to guide us from a war-like individualism so rampant in American society to a belief in the glory and dignity of the Creator's human family, and our obligations to and membership within that family. This describes the maturation of a spiritual personality, and perhaps the most desirable maturation of the psychological self, also.

My road to Shahadah began when an admired director, Tony Richardson, died of AIDS. Mr. Richardson was already a brilliant and internationally recognized professional when I almost met him backstage at the play Luther at age 14.

Playwrighting for me has always been a way of finding degrees of spiritual and emotional reconciliation both within myself and between myself and a world I found rather brutal due to childhood circumstances. Instead of fighting with the world, I let my conflicts fight it out in my plays. Amazingly, some of us have even grown up together!

So as I began accumulating stage credits (productions and staged readings), beginning at age 17, I always retained the hope that I would someday fulfill my childhood dream of studying and working with Mr. Richardson. When he followed his homosexuality to America (from England) and a promiscuous community, AIDS killed him, and with him went another portion of my sense of belonging to and within American society.

I began to look outside American and Western society to Islamic culture for moral guidance.

Why Islam and not somewhere else?

My birthmother's ancestors were Spanish Jews who lived among Muslims until the Inquisition expelled the Jewish community in 1492. In my historical memory, which I feel at a deep level, the call of the muezzin is as deep as the lull of the ocean and the swaying of ships, the pounding of horses' hooves across the desert, the assertion of love in the face of oppression.

I felt the birth of a story within me, and the drama took form as I began to learn of an Ottoman caliph's humanity toward Jewish refugees at the time of my ancestors' expulsions. Allah guided my learning, and I was taught about Islam by figures as diverse as Imam Siddiqi of the South Bay Islamic Association; Sister Hussein of Rahima; and my beloved adopted Sister, Maria Abdin, who is Native American and Muslim and a writer for the SBIA magazine, IQRA. My first research interview was in a halal butcher shop in San Francisco's Mission District, where my understanding of living Islam was profoundly affected by the first Muslim lady I had ever met: a customer who was in hijab, behaved with a sweet kindness and grace and also read, wrote and spoke four languages.

Her brilliance, coupled with her amazing (to me) freedom from arrogance, had a profound effect on the beginnings of my knowledge of how Islam can affect human behavior.

Little did I know then that not only would a play be born, but a new Muslim.

The course of my research introduced me to much more about Islam than a set of facts, for Islam is a living religion. I learned how Muslims conduct themselves with a dignity and kindness which lifts them above the American slave market of sexual competition and violence. I learned that Muslim men and women can actually be in each others' presence without tearing each other to pieces, verbally and physically. And I learned that modest dress, perceived as a spiritual state,can uplift human behavior and grant to both men and women a sense of their own spiritual worth.

Why did this seem so astonishing, and so astonishingly new?

Like most American females, I grew up in a slave market, comprised not only of the sexual sicknesses of my family, but the constant negative judging of my appearance by peers beginning at ages younger than seven. I was taught from a very early age by American society that my human worth consisted solely of my attractiveness (or, in my case, lack of it) to others. Needless to say, in this atmosphere, boys and girls, men and women, often grew to resent each other very deeply, given the desperate desire for peer acceptance, which seemed almost if not totally dependent not on one's kindness or compassion or even intelligence, but on looks and the perception of those looks by others.

While I do not expect or look for human perfection among Muslims, the social differences are profound, and almost unbelievable to someone like myself.

I do not pretend to have any answers to the conflicts of the Middle East, except what the prophets, beloved in Islam, have already expressed. My disabilities prevent me from fasting, and from praying in the same prayer postures as most of you.

But I love and respect the Islam I have come to know through the behavior and words of the men and women I have come to know in AMILA (American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism) and elsewhere, where I find a freedom from cruel emotional conflicts and a sense of imminent spirituality.

What else do I feel and believe about Islam?

I support and deeply admire Islam's respect for same sex education; for the rights of women as well as men in society; for modest dress; and above all for sobriety and marriage, the two most profound foundations of my life, for I am 21 1/2 years sober and happily married. How wonderful to feel that one and half billion Muslims share my faith in the character development marriage allows us, and also in my decision to remain drug- and alcohol-free.

What, then, is Islam's greatest gift in a larger sense?

In a society which presents us with constant pressure to immolate ourselves on the altars of unbridled instinct without respect for consequences, Islam asks us to regard ourselves as human persons created by Allah with the capacity for responsibility in our relations with others. Through prayer and charity and a committment to sobriety and education, if we follow the path of Islam, we stand a good chance of raising children who will be free from the violence and exploitation which is robbing parents and children of safe schools and neighborhoods, and often of their lives.

The support of the AMILA community and other friends, particularly at a time of some strife on the AMILA Net, causes me to affirm my original responses to Islam and declare that this is a marvelous community, for in its affirmation of Allah's gifts of marriage, sobriety and other forms of responsiblity, Islam shows us the way out of hell.

My husband, Silas, and I are grateful for your presence and your friendship. And as we prepare to lay the groundwork for adoption, we hope that we will continue to be blessed with your warm acceptance, for we want our child to feel the spiritual presence of Allah in the behavior of surrounding adults and children. We hope that as other AMILA'ers consider becoming new parents, and become new parents, a progressive Islamic school might emerge... progressive meaning supportive and loving as well as superior in academics, arts and sports.

Maybe our computer whizzes will teach science and math while I teach creative writing and horseback riding!

Please consider us companions on the journey toward heaven, and please continue to look for us at your gatherings, on the AMILA net and in the colors and dreams of the sunset.

For there is no god but Allah, the Creator, and Muhammed, whose caring for the victims of war and violence still brings tears from me, is his Prophet.

A salaam aleikum.

Source : http://www.islam-universe.com