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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Scared of conversion |
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| cheryl |
| 03/30/02 at 09:18:59 |
| salam, I'm a non-muslim. I have been reading different literature on islam basic belief and teaching. I'm amazed with all the islamic laws and the way you are supposed to live your life here on earth to please and worship allah. I believe if all perople where muslim alot corruption with the family life situation would be of very little and women would get much more respect. ??? I am christian but studing islam has changed me. I feel confused at times, well, shall I say scared to convert I want so badly to do so. Could anyone that has converted from christainity to islam that has experienced this scared feeling I have please enlighten me on what to do. I have no sisters of islam to talk with, my community in which I live I don't see any muslim sisters. Please help me. ??? |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| Kathy |
| 03/30/02 at 12:17:52 |
| Hi Cheryl, My name is Kathy and I became Muslim when I was in my twenties. I am now married with a young son. You are very perceptive. It is true that societies "ills" would be nill if we all followed the rules and examples that Allah has sent us through His book and by Muhammad (peace be with him) You are right- we do spend much of our lives worshipping Allah. The confusion you are experiancing is normal- Yes- many of us go thru it. I was scared too- all of a sudden I was embracing a new thought, process and coming from a Christian background- a new God. I am thinking about your holiday that is tomorrow, Easter. It is a day when Christians are celebrateing- turning Jesus (peace be upon him) into a god. There is only one God. #1 commandment of the Ten Commandments. This board is a great forum to talk- or if you prefer- you can always e-mail me. If you truely want to convert- do it! Your life will change and a new peace will come to you- and your restless heart will find comfort in worshipping the one God- Allah. |
| 03/30/02 at 12:20:58 |
| Kathy |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| eleanor |
| 03/30/02 at 18:51:49 |
| Salaam Cheryl, I'm Eleanor and I converted around this time last year. Like you, I joined this board with a lot of confusion in my heart. Thank God you have come here too :) I was scared to convert too. If truth be told, I was terrified. I knew that I would have to make  a lot of changes in my life. I was raised as a Roman Catholic. I was also raised, like you, in a place where there were no Muslims. The only images of Muslims that I had were negative ones, the main source being the film "Not Without My Daughter". Luckily, I met my husband who was able to explain the basics of Islam to me. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Islam wasn't the strange, foreign religion I had always assumed it to be, in actual fact it was very very similar to the religion I had grown up with. I had never really reconciled in my heart just *how* Jesus Christ was supposed to be the son of God. I just took it for granted and assumed it to be correct, since that was what my family believed and what I was taught in school. Within my soul I had rejected ideas that non-Christians go to hell, the idea of original sin and even the transformation of bread and wine into body and blood of Christ. It was just something that I passively went along with. (editors note: Maybe that's why I'm Scooter - passivity - see Bebsi Stand for details) So it didn't require a huge leap of faith for me to reject the idea of Jesus being the Son of God and the prophethood of Muhammad [saw]. The theology of Islam was okay, no big deal in fact. I was happy to recite "La illaha illa Allah, Muhammadan Rasulallah" all day long and all night too, without any pangs of conscience. What I was really scared of, were the changes that I would have to make to my day to day life. Physical changes: no more pork, alcohol, short/skimpy clothes, fasting, praying five times daily....and and and... You see, essentially I am a very lazy person... so making a lifelong committment to being very self-disiplined was probably what had scared me the most. Next big problem was hijab. Wearing a scarf on my head. I remembered looking at women wearing hijab and talking about them with my mother..along the lines of "look at the poor woman..so oppressed.. forced by her husband/father to wear a scarf...so backward/primitive..etc". How could I allow myself to "sink so low" to wear hijab and more scarily how could I face my family and friends with a hijab on? This issue has yet to be resolved... Thirdly, I had improperly assumed that becoming Muslim would mean my complete submission to my husband. That I would have to obey his every word and become a quiet, passive and humble woman. Yet again I remembered a discussion with my mother ..."Eleanor, never ever let yourself become dependant on a man for anything.." and I had duly promised I wouldn't, so how could I now become Muslim and effectually throw my independance away..? I got the most fantastic answers to my dilemmas here on this board. Here is the thread I posted.. click  [url=http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=sisters&action=display&num=2312]here[/url] to see it. Alhamdulillah (thank God) there are some great answers there.. maybe they can help you too? The main thing is Cheryl, if you believe in your heart that God is one and that Muhammad was his messenger, then don't hestitate to declare it out loud. This is called taking the Shahada - here's what you say "Ash hadu Allah illaha illa Allah, Wa Ash hadu Anna Muhammadan Abduhu Wa Rasulullah" This means "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad was his messenger. When you say this, and truly believe it, then you are Muslim. Don't worry about changing overnight. Start very slowly. One step at a time. And can you tell us whereabouts in the world are you and maybe we can find someone who lives near you? We have people from all over the world here :) Any more questions? Feel free to ask!!! wasalaam eleanor  :-* |
| 03/30/02 at 18:53:42 |
| eleanor |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| Sis_Malak |
| 03/30/02 at 21:27:05 |
| [slm] :-) Hi Cheryl. I too am an American convert to Islam. I became a Muslim 3 years ago. I understand what you mean about being scared. It is kind of scary when you are told all the time growing up that if you don't take Jesus (pbuh) as your Lord and Savior that you will go to Hell. :( But if you believe in Islam, and what Prophet Muhammad [saw] and Allah (SWT) told us in the Hadeeth and Qur'an, then you are already a Muslim, and you know the TRUTH. You are one of the lucky ones whom Allah (SWT) has guided, alhamdulillah. My advice for you is to just ask yourself one question: which one seems more right to you? If you answer Islam, don't be scared anymore. You can email me if you have any questions or if you just wanna talk to someone who has been there. I hope I didn't sound pushy, that was not my intention, I was just trying to advise. Anyways, good luck sister. [wlm] Sis Malak |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| cheryl |
| 03/31/02 at 15:02:32 |
| :) I thank all the sisters for your advices. They were all very helpful and encouraging. For Eleanor your experiences sounds alot of what I'm going thru from wearing of the scarf to eating of the pork to family and associates of what they might say and how to deal with them. You sisters are all wonderful and may allah bless you all. :-* I do have one more question when I do declare my faith or shall I say shahada I will I know what sect I am? I have heard of different sect and I don't know any difference. And what is Insha'Allah? and what is du'aas? |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| eleanor |
| 03/31/02 at 15:32:53 |
| [slm] When you declare Shahada, you are first and foremost a Muslim. Period. As you study and read and learn, you will learn more about the divisions withing Islam, and why some Muslims have slightly different beliefs to others. Initially however, I would advise you not to decide in advance which one you agree with. Just take your time and allow your knowledge to grow. Insha Allah means "God willing". We use it when talking about future events, because if God does not will it, it will not occur. Dua or duas (plural) are the non-formal prayer. The formal prayer is called Salat. This is the one where you have to wash and purify yourself (make Wudhu) and then go through the prescribed ritual of bowing and prostrations. We are required to make Salat five times a day. Dua is the prayer that we make at anytime, anywhere by simply opening our palms towards heaven and asking Allah to hear our prayer. Does this answer your questions? :) Got any more? wasalaam eleanor :-* |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| cheryl |
| 03/31/02 at 16:05:54 |
| Salam Eleanor, Thank you kindly my questions are answered. I do have one concern. Muslim does not celebrate any holidays such as x-mas, new years, easter ect.. I do have two children one son that is 9 y.o. and a daughter which is 8y.o.. How do work with them to make them understand why we will no longer be celebrating these holidays. My children they know I have been studing islam and I do tell them some things that I'm learning are there any sources of children books I could get for my kids to read and learn as well as myself? |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| Sis_Malak |
| 04/01/02 at 01:54:46 |
| [slm] There are a lot of great Islamic childrens books. I would recommend checking out www.soundvision.com or www.darussalam.com These are both websites that you can order books from, and I think they are two of the best. As far as what to tell your kids, I would start by telling them about the new holdidays (Eids) that they get to celebrate before you "take Christmas away from them". That might be helpful. I would also suggest telling them why we don't celebrate them then-there are some books for kids that can really help you with that. I saw your question earlier about sects, and Sis Eleanor is right-we are Muslims....that's the important part. The more you learn, you can figure out which school of thought you agree with the most, but when it all comes down to it, we are just Muslims. Good luck sis :-) |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| jannah |
| 04/01/02 at 02:14:44 |
| [wlm] Good idea Malak...those books could really help! Cheryl kids could be just as excited about Islamic holidays.. They are a little different but still fun for them.. I mean they get the whole month of Ramadan and the two Eids too and Jumahs are fun too!! |
| Re: Scared of conversion |
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| counterplex |
| 04/04/02 at 20:52:14 |
| cheryl, If you would, here are my two cents on the matter. Islam is the deen al-fitra i.e. the natural way. Every child is born a Muslim; only his or her upbringing moves him away from that path. In that context then, I prefer the term [i]reversion[/i] to the more common term [i]conversion[/i]. Reversion implies going back to a previous situation while conversion implies more of a radical change in the forward direction. To me, then, conversion is like getting up and leaping over an obstacle while reversion is more like sitting back and relaxing in the knowledge that you're back where you were supposed to be. Now I'm not a revert, but imo, putting such perspective to the act will help you realize that it's not as big a deal as it might seem. Such an explanation (as true as it is) might also make it easier to explain it to the kids. C |
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