Salam aleikum waramotulah brothers and sisters. JUMAH MUBARAK.
For the reverts aboard, please share your story about ur discovery of the Deen or how you became more practising if you're a muslim by birth......let's inspire one another
will come back to share mine :DSalam aleikum waramotulah brothers and sisters. JUMAH MUBARAK.
For the reverts aboard, please share your story about ur discovery of the Deen or how you became more practising if you're a muslim by birth......let's inspire one another
will come back to share mine

Juwonesho:
will come back to share mine

Please hurry back, I can't wait.

Wa aleikum salam:

I guess i would start.

I am born into a muslim family

My primary school was not eventful, I didn't pray throughout unless on eid or when we prayed in Jamah. Prayer was the least of my worries. I didn't even know how to recite the Quran.. I was a very smart kid. my grades were good so it seemed like that was all that mattered.

At the advent of high school, i started praying, on my own. I was not forced or coerced. I just decided one day to start praying. It was like an experiment. I didn't know how to pray but i learnt on the job. I still remember my first prayer, It was Zuhr. i didn't even know how many rakats, it was. I wanted to pray two but my interpretation of two rakat was four so i got it right.

I think starting my salat at that point was what saved my Islam, even though my knowledge wasn't much at all. Fajr was non existent (only on weekends, and late), i mixed the prayers all at once. As imperfect as it was, it saved me from the challenges i was going to go through.

Like Allah says (roughly translated):

[Prophet], recite what has been revealed to you of the Scripture; keep up the prayer: prayer restrains outrageous and unacceptable behaviour. Remembering God is greater: God knows everything you are doing. (Surah 29:45)

My high school was essentially a christian school, morning devotion, songs of praise... A real christian school, I, my sister and some other girl were the only muslims in my set of almost 100 people. Every day, i was exposed to christian dawah, christian prayers and forced to learn and sing christian songs on a daily basis.

I didn't have to be too knowledgeable in Islam to know that the christian concept of God made no sense but trust me if you exposed to constant dawah telling you how ' your life will never remain the same if you accept Jesus as your saviour', it could be troubling. When christians lose logical debates, they turn to these kinds of statements. I studied christian religious studies as there was no Islamic option. We were given free bibles in school and all.

You see, i had built a loyalty for Islam because of my Salat but after a while of this, i started to get confused. I mean, christianity made no sense but when you are been told the same thing and how all you need to do is accept Jesus. In addition, you know very little about Islam, It could all be really confusing. I decided to stop saying salat and be neutral, this lasted for a few days until my mum asked me one day if i had prayed.. It felt as if a boulder fell on me, i was so guilty that i resumed my salat.

I decided to read the bible for myself, this sealed the coffin for christianity. After reading the bible, i knew that while this book contained elements of truth, there is no way, christianity was the way, It looked like a distortion of what the book was saying. Shaytan whispered and i decided to try something, to accept Jesus and see the change, these christians make so much noise about. So i did it.... It lasted, about five minutes.... I have never felt worse in my life, immediately, i knew i had made a huge mistake. I quickly sought forgiveness. The christianity phase was sealed, i had read the book, heard the preaching, sang the songs. It required me to shut down my brain which wasn't going to happen.

Up till this point, i had not read the translation of Quran. Islam made more sense from a theological point of view but i knew next to nothing about it. All i knew were passed done without any evidence. I later found out that some of these practises had no precedence in the sunnah. Towards the end of high school, i decided to read the translated Quran. I started to read from surah Yusuf, because it was a story... Stories are easier to read. It was uninspiring, I didn't get it. What was it talking about? I was totally uninspired by this story. The first time, i tried reading the Quran, i began to wonder about Islam.

Turning point

I decided to pray and ask the creator of the heavens (i didn't say Allah) to guide me if this was the truth. Why couldn't i connect with the story? Immediately, after my dua. i read the story again... It was as if i was reading a different story, something changed in those few minutes. I went from reading a boring, uninspiring story , to reading an incredible, remarkable story.

I was hooked, I kept on reading fortunately we had IQRA tv on DSTV and they showed english programs at night. I started watching that every day. My iman was growing. I bought book after book on Islam. Every two weeks, i bought a new book. I was amazed that this religion was so incredible, I had been totally lost all these while. I wasn't filtering my books so i bought some books that had some weird sufi and shia practises but those books were in the minority so i didn't take them seriously. This was just after high school.

Learning about the prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him)

At this point, i was intellectually and emotionally convinced about Islam but i still knew very little about the prophet. One day, on IQRA tv, they spoke about the biography of the prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) and what he went through, this life and death.... At the end, i was crying like a baby. The seerah of the prophet is incredible, One man, 23 years and a whole new civilization was born. Totally unheard of.

After the seerah, i made salat and for the first time in my life, i cried in my salat... I recited the last few ayah of surah taubah (Lakadijakum) roughly translated:

A Messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering distresses him: he is deeply concerned for you and full of kindness and mercy towards the believers. If they turn away, [Prophet], say ,‘God is enough for me: there is no god but Him; I put my trust in Him; He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.’ (Surah 9:128-129)

By this time, i made sure i understood what i was saying in the salat so reciting this after watching the seerah for the first time was too much. I broke down in my salat.

Since then, i have had my ups and downs but i am grateful, Allah changed my life with one dua. I fall in love with Quran and Islam, the more i learn about it. I am grateful for the opportunities to learn about this deen. I am thankful for the gift of Salat.

Advice to young unmarried/married muslims:
Learn as much as you can about Islam and pass it to your kids in an intelligent way.

Let Islam grow on them.

Do not keep them in environments where there is danger that their deen would be compromised.

Teach them about the seerah.

Thank you

Assalam aleikum

^^^^^^
Walaikum salam.... you have got a very interesting story

OP please come back now.......

Tbaba, that was a beautiful story.
Guess you had a lot of Allah's mercy and blessings on you to survive that "fantastic" evangelical onslaught as a mere teen.

especially loved this:
Advice to young unmarried/married muslims:

Learn as much as you can about Islam and pass it to your kids in an intelligent way.

Let Islam grow on them.

Do not keep them in environments where there is danger that their deen would be compromised.

Teach them about the seerah.

One last point: No matter how bad you become, maintain your salat. It will save you.

Salam alaikum. So I'm back.....finally, and that was a really motivating story you shared, e-ustadh tbaba . Jazakallahu khairan.

I'm from a muslim family; on my paternal side of the family especially, we've always been muslims from generations past. I'm from kwara state, my mom's from Lagos and my family is based in Lagos. I grew up in a predominantly muslim community where it was almost a norm to attend a Madrasah (even most of the christian kids did then), so I attended one with my siblings up to the Translation Class, and there was the Islamic Religious Knowledge (I.R.K) at school too but that was all; I had no particularly "personal" connection with Islam. Growing up I was a happy, carefree kid; no worries so i never thot I had to ask Allaah for anything. (Astaghfirllah!). I was never made to fast if I didn't feel like it (I was pampered enough as the baby of the house so i NEVER felt like it) but even as a kid, I was always conscious of Allaah; never did any secret things cos I always felt He saw everything I was doing. So that was how I went through primary and secondary school. In my undergraduate days i remained a passive M.S.S member, never allowed the muslim sisters come too close cos they always seemed to be "bugging" me (Astaghfirllah) but I offered salaat off & on (mostly on during exam periods). I was more active during my National Youth service period cos I served in the North, very far from home so I needed a sense of belonging and I was beginning to experience adult problems then(if you get my meaning). So I got more religious when I was up there in the North and the moment I was back in Lagos, I fell right back into my normal routine. Untill........

Sometime earlier this year I met a friend who was very religious, very disciplined islamic-wise infact I thought him strict! but Alhamdulillah he gave me the "push" I needed; always reminding me of the imporance of salaat and of my relationship with Allaah. And since then I've been striving to become more and more better mashallah which infact was part of the reason I had to quit my last job as a Customer Service person at a manufacturing Company where I couldn't offer salaat during working hours and proper islamic dressing wasn't allowed (no hijab), so I couldn't grow islamically as I aspired to. Mashallah I'm still striving to keep improving, and I pray Allaah helps me to be steadfast on THIS path.

^Beautiful! May Allah keep you firm on His deen

[color=#006600][/color]So in summary, I believe tbaba nailed it that " Learn as much as you can about Islam and pass it to your kids in an intelligent way. Let Islam grow on them. Do not keep them in environments where there is danger that their deen would be compromised. Teach hem about the seerah.

tbaba1234: ^Beautiful! May Allah keep you firm on His deen

Ameen. 10x. and I hope you didn't cringe at the "e'ustadh" title, lol. You should start getting used to it o

tbaba1234: ^Beautiful! May Allah keep you firm on His deen

Ameen. 10x. and I hope you didn't cringe at the "e-ustadh" title, lol. You should start getting used to it o

Alhamdulilah for you Juwonesho, good thing your faith was strengthened.

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