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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
Turning Point |
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eleanor |
03/03/02 at 10:42:10 |
Bismillah. [slm] I read books, watched videos, listened to cassettes, visited Muslim homes, questioned my husband endlessly.... I felt stuck in the middle.. neither a Christian nor a Muslim.. I couldn't ever go back, but I was blind as to the way forward. then I found the Madinat message board and finally found Muslims who could answer my questions. I think the turning point came for me when I discovered that Muslim women can be intelligent, educated and assertive. Converting did not mean stepping down or backwards, rather it was very much a step upwards. My question to the converts is what was the turning point in your life which caused you to convert to Islam, if at all there was one? A question to born Muslims..has there ever been such a turning point in your life? Where you decided to take Islam and your deen more seriously? wasalaam eleanor :-* |
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Marcie |
03/03/02 at 12:10:34 |
[color=Teal] [slm] I don't know if there was an actual turning point for me, but from a young age I knew that I did not want to be a Catholic. My mum had tried to raise us to be good Catholics, but I never felt like it was for me. I stopped going to church and was basically afloat. I knew that I believed in God, but not how. I always assumed that I would eventually become a liberal christian, but I made no effort to search for something. Then I was introduced to Islam. I really did not know that much about Islam, but I missed having a relationship with God and praying. The road was difficult because I knew little about Islam and there was no support system for me here in New Hampshire. I did not even know where to find books. When Ramadan came some Malaysian brothers gave me a sheet about fasting and I was on my own. Al hamdu lillah when I moved to Germany I found some wonderful sisters, who helped me to grow and learn about Islam. :) [wlm] Marcie :-)[/color] |
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Tesseract |
03/03/02 at 23:37:42 |
[slm] Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, [quote]A question to born Muslims..has there ever been such a turning point in your life? Where you decided to take Islam and your deen more seriously?[/quote] I am a born Muslim, Alhamdulillah. The turning point in my life were those 15 days that I spent in Makkah and Madinah for 'umrah. Those days are undoubtedly the 'golden' days of my 25 year old life spent todate. I just cannot explain the feelings in words..................... Wassalam. |
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BUSHRA |
03/06/02 at 08:26:30 |
[slm] I was born and raised a muslim ALHAMDOLILLAH and that too in a muslim country though I never practiced wearing hijab properly and only prayed when my parents scolded me to. After I got married and moved to UK with hubby I'm sorry to say that for a while only prayed on Jumma or on ramadan and even that seemed like a chore to me. :( Meanwhile I had two wonderfull children and after my second baby someone gave me tafseer of the quranin two volumes and also the entire sirat of the prophet (saw). I started reading the sirat first and I could not put it down , I felt so ashamed of myself for not praying and wasting my time in general. Then while reading the tafseer of quran I realized the importance of Hijab and started right away. I think that was the turning point for me and mainly because ALLAH brought me back to the right path again. although it is still a struggle to prau namaz on time or refrain from listening to music and stuff but atleast I'm struggling instead of giving up. [wlm] BUSHRA :-) |
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AyeshaZ |
03/06/02 at 16:07:39 |
[slm] I was born a Muslim.. but my turning point was at my high school graduation, it was my official 2nd day of wearing hijab and no one around me was being supportive about it. Everyone was pointing at all the conss of wearing hijab and someone also said that atleast wait till your pictures are taken :'( :'( So I just ignored everything and still managed to put a smile on my face and as I was sitting, waiting for my name to be called out.. I looked around me and everyone was so extremely happy and i was so extremely sad... And than i realized that inshaAllah on Day of Judgement it will be the opposite *inshaAllah* Everything just fell into perspective and I truly felt at ease at that point i realized that how temporary my life is on earth. You spend your entire life pleasing people and forget about pleasing Allah(swt).. May Allah(swt) give us all Himah to continue being good Muslims. JazakumAllahu Khair :-) :-* :-* :-* |
03/07/02 at 12:59:35 |
AyeshaZ |
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Yasin |
03/07/02 at 23:41:17 |
[wlm] I born and raised a muslim ,my father was scholar and i spent my first 11 years of my life in religious environment. In mid 88 a war broke up in my home town and we become refugee in neighouring country and i lost my father. After 4 years i become a practising muslim and my turning point was mid-93 when i pray MAGHRIB with my friends who force me to pray with them , after we prayed my friend's friends tell us that there will be a TAFSIR (translation of the quran) after maghrib and it will be started after 2 weeks,everyone said i'll start , but i didnt say anything ...That day i prayed ISHA and i couldn't sleep that night asking myself serious questions about life , next morning i pray FAJR and i become a practising muslim till today i never miss a prayer ALHAMDULILAH. After the two weeks i came mosque after the maghrib and i couldn't get a place to sit , it was full then the next day i came early after ASR to be the first row .That was my turning point and i THANK TO ALLAH to be on his right path again. ThE-YaSkA ;-) |
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Laila |
03/08/02 at 21:08:09 |
[slm] The turning point for me came while learning about Isalm so I would not embarass :-[ myself in front of a new friend's Muslim friends. In my research I discovered the beliefs in one God without partners, no trinity,etc. that were the beliefs of the Muslims were the beliefs I held :o! For YEARS (since a teen) I had searched and struggled for the truth, and studied many different religious teachings. I went to different churches, tried spouting the appropriate phrases, but felt like the fraud I was. When I studied Islam it was like a heavy cloud lifted :) :) :). And while I'm not the best Muslim in the world :(, I try to do better, and am always glad that Allah(swt) chose to guide me to Islam. [wlm] :-) Laila |
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momineqbal |
03/09/02 at 01:46:19 |
[slm], My turning point (although it was such a slow curve!) was when I read a book "Let us be muslims" (Khutbaat in urdu) by Imam Maududi. It shook me and put so much guilt into me about how laid back I was that it weighed rather heavy on me. The next curve was listening to Dr. Zakir Naik's daily lectures on cable TV while I was in Bombay and some hot (but friendly) discussions with my room mates (all hindus) on various questions about Islam they asked. Then another curve was finding a factory infront of my workplace which was owned by a muslim and had Salat in Jamaat which I began to attend. Another curve was coming to US and being in company of some very good muslims and listening to lectures by various speakers, meeting some reverts, reading books and so on. All of these are rather slow curves and it has not cumulated into a turning point yet. InshaAllah someday soon. Wassalam Eqbal |
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ahmer |
03/09/02 at 07:59:15 |
[slm] The greatest turning point in my life was the day i was born to my mother..:) I owe all to her. She taught me Quran, arabic, morals, activism and specially 'love for books'. I remember when i was little.. the first thing i heard every morning was the recitation of Quran. From the endless moments in Makkah and Madinah to numerous travels around the world, she never forgot to give us Islam. May Allah reward my mother and father for all..ameen the other most important turning point has not been too long ago.... and i guess that was when i realized the gravity of my sins. that was when i decided to do something... i am still trying to turn to Allah. Hasan Al Basri said, 'the greatest sign of a hypocrite is that he says he is not a hypocrite' Shaytan is always looking to misguide us..May Allah protect us..ameen ma'salam ahmer |
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Road2Jannah |
03/09/02 at 08:33:55 |
[slm] I think that our whole lives we are faceing turning points. We will never stop facing them. It seems to me i go through that every day, lol j/k Our Eman is never in balance, only if we keep on the straight path. But the thing that always wakes me up, is reading the Quran Allhamdulilah; without Allahs help and the Quran my heart would never feel anything. to come think of it, everyday is a turning point for me, since i am still struggling to keep up with my eman; i will always have turning points. But Alhamdulilah i am a muslim. :-) |
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Abd_al-Rashid |
03/09/02 at 08:54:45 |
[slm] For me it was reading the autobiography of Malcolm X. I couldn't believe it, the strength and discipline he had. You know in high school there is a lot of peer pressure and people follow the popular stars (athletes, artists, etc) but I was like "I wanna be like Malcolm" I mean he went from the lowest of the low to the level of shaheed insha'Allah. The number one quote that sticks out in my mind from that book is when he said "a lot of people don't realize how one book can change someone's life" I wish he were still around so I could tell him that his book changed mine. [wlm] |
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zomorrud |
03/10/02 at 06:33:45 |
assalamu alaikum [quote]For me it was reading the autobiography of Malcolm X[/quote] subhannah Allah, how that book affected so many lives. The following article is one of many listed http://www.islamonline.net/english/journey/journey.shtml. Read them for inspiration and reflection... wassalam [center] ______________________________ Conversion from Nowhere [/center] By Sa'ad Laws I have often been asked how I came to Islam. I mean, it isn't too often you see a white guy from "cow country" turn to Islam. I guess the most amazing thing about the whole thing is where I started. Now, I am not one of those stories of brothers who you hear were in gangs, addicted to crack, or worshiped devils at stone altars. I come from quite a typical background. I have two sisters; a brother; and both my parents are still married. My father is an engineer; while my mother is a housewife (or domestic engineer, as she likes to say) and we are as middle-class as you can get. My family lives in a small country hamlet, just to the south of nowhere. To give you a glimpse of how rural it is, there is a general store about a mile from my house, where the lady who runs it say "ya'll come back now, ya hear" when ever you leave the store. Religion was always a strange subject in my house. My father is an Irish-Catholic by birth and my mom is a Methodist. We went to church on occasion, but for the most part, religion was a "spiritual" matter that you just had in your heart. I can remember as a kid looking at a small figurine of Jesus (which I had "borrowed" from the family nativity set) and wondering why do we go to "number two" when we pray or want something? Why don't we just go to "number one", God? Growing up, the whole concept of the trinity never made since to me, but since I lived in a spiritual Christian family, this wasn't really an issue. As I got older and entered high school, I quickly noticed that I was a bit different. In my school, like in most schools in America, there were basically four groups with whom you could be associated: the "Alternative", the "preps", the "crack-heads" or the African-Americans (being that 90% of the county I grew up in was white, they ended up being somewhat alienated and kept to themselves). Then there was me. I have to say looking back now, that this was one of the blessings of Allah. I very much feel like Allah was protecting me from all sorts of things which, had gotten involved in them, could have brought me down later on. For example, I was always in search of a "girlfriend", much like any other typical high schooler. However, whenever the situation presented itself for me to take advantage of, I always found myself overwhelmed with shyness and I wasn't able to do anything, not even move my lips. I am extremely grateful for this now, even if I wasn't then. Although I hung out with the "Alternative" group, I never really felt like I fit in. They liked to talk about music, trash their friends, and do drugs or some other mindless pastime. I, on the other hand, was interested in the Black Panthers, Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. This made me look a little odd to say the least and I received more than a few tags as being a "Black wannabe". It was at this time, while in the eleventh grade, that I began to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the ultimate anti-white leader, or so I was told. I read his book, and the more I read it, the more I couldn't put it down; his story was amazing to me. He came from nothing and then…there he was. But, it was the chapter entitled "Mecca" that would have the most profound effect on me. In it, he told his story of how he was affected by the generosity and compassion of, not only the Muslims he met while making the Hajj, but also by Islam itself. I read that and thought to myself, "who are these guys?" So, I went to the school library and started to check out every book that I could about Islam. I was amazed at what I read; here they believed in the same principals I has found so innate within myself. They said that there was only One God, that Jesus was not his son, but a rightly guided Messenger and Prophet. I was taken aback. I knew that whatever this "Islam thing" was, I needed to be a part of it. At that time I considered myself a Muslim. If you had asked me what my religion was, I would have said Islam. I hadn't taken my official shahada mind you, but in my heart I was a Muslim. I was a bit naïve at that point though. I knew that Muslims were supposed to pray, but I didn't know how many times, or how to pray and so on. I didn't know much, and there wasn't anyone for me to learn from at that point. I was just kind of walking around saying "hey, I'm Muslim". It was then that I got the jump-start that I needed. A friend of mine got a bit agitated by me saying I was a Muslim all the time (I was a bit over zealous at this point) and said that I wasn't really Muslim. "You don't even pray," he told me. I thought to myself, you know what…he's right. I knew I needed to take this being a Muslim thing a step further. That's where I ran into a problem. Who were these Muslims? I didn't know a Muslim or where to meet any. There wasn't exactly a mosque down the block from my house you have to understand. You could have literally found gold more easily than a Muslim where I lived. So, I searched the phone book and came across a mosque in Washington D.C. But, that was unfortunately about two and a half hours away and might as well have been two thousand miles away. When I first called them I was so nervous. Here I was about to talk to a Muslim! They were very pleased by my enthusiasm towards Islam and my eagerness at becoming a Muslim. But, they wanted me to come to the mosque. This would of course be a problem. At the time I was still in high school and under the reign of my parents, who also controlled my extended whereabouts, especially since it was the family vehicle that I was driving. My chances of getting that car for a trip to D.C. were slim at best. What was I going to do? I couldn't get to the Muslims, so how was I going to be a Muslim. I asked them if they could come down here, but that was to no avail. I needed to do this now; I couldn't just sit around for another year or two with this. It was after much prodding that I finally convinced the brother to let me take my shahada right then and there, on the phone. I guess that might have been a first…conversion by phone. So, that is how I came to Islam. I can truly say now, looking back on the whole story, that I was overwhelmingly blessed by the way Allah guided me to Islam. I look back now and see my old friends from high school and how lost they are. Then I look at myself. I mean I know that I have more than a few rough edges and that I have much improving to do, not only as a Muslim, but also as a person in general. But, I can't help but feel a bit awed that I was guided and that Allah picked me to be guided and out of where? Nowhere. I look back and I think…what was it that guided me? What could have led me to this? This "religion of the Arabs", that was so foreign to me that I would have needed a passport just to get in. Then I realized that what happened to me was from Allah and that He alone has guided me. I feel kind of awestruck when I think of it. I mean, I don't know why, but Allah picked me for this religion of guidance. I feel like I have been saved from the Hell fire and plucked from the ashes. It is this, my being guided to Islam by Allah and Allah alone, that is the greatest blessing that I have ever received. |
NS |
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Halima |
03/10/02 at 06:35:42 |
Road2Jannah has hit the nail on the head as they say. There are several turning points in our lives in this beautiful religion. I am a born Muslim, Alhamdu-Lillah. But I was not a practising Muslim as far as Salaat is concerned. And there is nothing worse than that in a the life of a Muslim. I got sick for a period of 4 months last year. I went through all the motions of treatment, modern and Qur'aanic. Although the modern medicine helped a lot, the Qur'aan is what made a great impact to me at that stage in my life. Everytime a Sheikh read the Qur'aan to me during my illness, I felt a lot peace and fell asleep while the Sheikh is reading the Qur'aan. Since, then, I listen to the Qur'aan a lot and play a tajwiid cassette every time ago to sleep. And now, Alahmdu-Lillah, I pray the five times Allah wants us to pray. I would like to congratulate wholeheatedly our new Muslim Sisters and Brothers who convert and take this religion seriously. You have not only chosen the right path, but you have also humbled your born Muslim Sisters and Brothers who took this religion for granted. May Allah bless you a thousand folds and you may be a great example to all Muslims, INSHA-ALLAH. Wasalaam. Halima |
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UmmWafi |
03/11/02 at 11:44:48 |
Salaam Life is abt traversing the Path until we reach our final destination, the Hereafter. As in all journeys, there are many turns and crossroads. I am born a Muslim, Alhamdulillah. Prey to the modern world, I was a slave of pleasure and luxury that the world can offer. As a teen I was more obsessed abt my acne problems than my faith. I grew up, Insya'Allah. Whats my first major turning point (for i had many) ? Its too painful to recount. But, in 1994 I had a major illness and that lesson was well learnt. Everyday I am so grateful to Allah SWT for the ni'mah of Iman that He has blessed me with, Amin. Wassalam. |
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Raindrops |
08/15/02 at 15:33:42 |
[slm] I just read this thread and everything that everyone has written touched my heart ...so I thought I should add my two cents worth. :)... I am a born Muslim but like many muslim youngsters never really thought about Islam ...it was just something that was ......infact I don't know why but I would deliberately avoid anything Islamic while reading magazines and stuff. ???..... Anyways .....my maternal uncle became a practicing muslim 6-7 years back.......and lets just say my family was not very pleased with him because he used to go around telling everyone in the family to pray and the females to cover their heads etc........since he was the youngest everyone including the kids used to make fun of him(infact still do >:().....5 years ago I got admission in a medical university and started to move with the 'in' crowd and I'm sure the Pakistani's here can imagine the in crowd of Karachi.......well in the summer holidays that year we went to spent the Eid at our maternal grandfather's.......most of our relatives were there and what I saw happening was that as soon as my youngest uncle would be about to enter a room all the females would cover their heads and as soon as he went away would take off their dupattas and make fun.....this just did not agree with me and when my uncle told me to cover my head I told him that I would not do it because of him but whenever I decide it would be for Allah ,in short I was very rude and in front of the whole family too :(.......and another thing that happened was that I was telling my cousins how all the girls in my class had played a practical joke on one of our teachers by covering up their faces during a session.......well my uncle was right in the next room and he heard everything ...he was so hurt by this disrespect for purdah by 'muslims' that he started crying and could'nt stop. Anyways after I came back from there ......i still had a month of summer holidays left and nothing to do so I sort of picked up the tafseer of the Holy Quran and started reading it .......A week later I called a classfellow to learn proper wudu.... :-[......then I started praying ...sometime later I started wearing the head scarf and by the end of that year I started doing proper hijab......and Alhamdullilah am still ...... The funny thing was that while I was going thru these changes my uncle had no idea about this and when I called him up one day he said that he had prayed a lot to Allah for my guidance and that Inshallah one day I would start observing the Hijab :o and then I told him I was already doing it... :-*.... I still slip up sometimes (read as most of the time ) but I know that I can never go back to the way that I was neither would I want to :)...... when I look around me and see all the muslims that r totally oblivious of the blessing which has been bestowed upon them.....I just get so 'scared' as to why me out of all those ?? I realize that it was due to my uncle's dua but that dua of his could have been saved up for his Akhira :) ....I am thankful to Allah for opening my eyes and my heart to the truth..........but it's just such a big responsibility .. :(..... [slm] Your sister in Islam :-* :-* :-* |
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Muneerah134 |
08/15/02 at 18:14:12 |
[slm] I check in from time to time, and this is a great thread. My turning point came when I looked at my newborn daughter, thought about accepting Islam, all that I had "lost" (not much!) and how much more I have gained; thought about how much my Rabb meant to me; how He had blessed me at my age (almost 40, first child! ;)) and whispered the shahadah in her ear... :-) Muneerah [] |
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