If you were a new muslim would you please tell us why you choosed islam?

How I Came to Islam (Cat Stevens)











All I have to say is what you know already, to confirm what you already know of the message of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) as given by God - the Religion of Truth. As human beings we are given a consciousness and a duty that has placed us at the top to creation. Man is created to be God's deputy on earth and it is important to realize the obligation to rid ourselves of all illusions and to make our lives a preparation for the next life. Anyone who misses this chance is not likely to be given another, to be brought back again, for it says in the Qur'an Majeed that when man is brought to account, he will say, "O Lord, send us back and give us another chance.' The Lord will say, 'If I send you back, you will do the same.'





My early religious upbringing





I was brought up in the modern world of all the luxury and the highlight of show business. I was born into a Christian home.





We know that every child is born in his original nature, and it is only his parents that turn him to this religion or that. I was given this religion (Christianity) and thought this way. I was taught that God exists, but there was no direct contact with God, so we had to make contact with Him through Jesus, and Jesus was in fact the door to Good. This was more or less accepted by me, but I did not swallow it all.





I looked at some of the statues of Jesus; they were just stones with no life. When they said that God is three, I was puzzled even more but could not argue. I believed it, simply because I had to have respect for the faith of my parents.





Pop star





Gradually, I became alienated from this religious upbringing, and started making music. I wanted to be a big star. All those things I saw in the films and on the media took h old of me, and perhaps I thought this wa my god: the goal of making money. I had an uncle who had a beautiful car, and I thought "Well, he has it made". He had a lot of money. The people around me influence me tho think that this was it, this world was their God.





I decided then that this was the life for me, to make a lot of money, to have a 'great life'. My examples were the pop stars, and so I started making songs. But deep down, I had a feeling for humanity, a feeling that if I became rich, I would help the needy. (It says in the Qur'an that we make a promise, but when we make something, we want to hold on to it and become greedy)





So it happened that I became very famous, as a teenager, and my name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made me larger than life, so I wanted to live larger than life, and the only way to do that was to be intoxicated (with liquor and drugs).





In Hospital





After a year of financial success and 'high' living, I became very ill, contracted TB and had to be hospitalized. It was then that I started to think: what was to happen to me? Was I just a body and my goal in life was merely to satisfy this body? I realized now that this calamity was a blessing given to me by Allah, a chance to open my eyes, 'why am I here, why am I in bed', and I started looking for some of the answers. At that time there was great interest in great interest in the Eastern mysticism. I began reading and the first thing I began to become aware of was of death, and that the soul moves on, it does not stop. I felt I was taking the road to bliss and high accomplishment. I started meditating and even became a vegetarian. I now believed in 'peace and flower power', and this was the general trend. But what I did believe in particular was that I was not just a body, this awareness came to me at the hospital.





One day when I was walking and I was caught in the rain, I began running to the shelter and I realized, 'wait a minute, my body is getting wet, my body is telling me I am getting wet.' This made me think of a saying that the body is like a donkey and it has to be trained where it has to go, otherwise the donkey will lead you where it wants to go.





Then I realized I had a will, a God given gift: follow the will of God. I was fascinated by the new terminology I was learning in the Eastern religion. By now I was fed up with Christianity. I started making music again and this time I started reflecting my own thoughts. I remember the lyric of one of my songs. It goes like this: 'I wish I knew, I wish I knew what makes the Heaven, what makes the Hell, do I get to know You in my bed or some dusty cell while others reach the big hotel/' and I knew I was on the Path.





I also wrote another song 'The way to find God out.' I became even more famous in the world of music. I really had a difficult time because I was getting rich and famous and at the same time I was sincerely searching for the Truth. Then I came to a stage where I decided that Buddhism is alright and noble, but I was not ready to leave the world, I was too attached to the world and was not prepared to become a monk and to isolate myself from society.





I tried Zen and Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology. I tried to look back into the Bible, and could not find anything. At this time I did not know anything about Islam, and then, what I regarded as a miracle occurred. My brother had visited the mosque in Jerusalem, and was greatly impressed that while on the one ;had it throbbed with life ( unlike the churches and synagogues which were empty), on the other hand, an atmosphere of peace and tranquility prevailed.





The Qur'an





When he came to London he brought back a translation of the Qur'an, which he gave to me. He did not become a Muslim, but he felt something in this religion, and thought I might find something in it too.





And when I received the Book, (a guidance that would explain everything to me: who I was, what the purpose of life was, what reality was, and where I came from), I realized that this was the true religion - religion not in the sense the West understands it, not the type foe only your old age. In the West, whoever wishes to embrace a religion and make it his only way of life is deemed a fanatic. I was not a fanatic, I was at first confused between the body and the soul. Then I realized that the body and soul are not apart and you don't have to go to the mountain to be religious; we must follow the will of God, then we can rise even higher than the angels. The first thing I wanted to do now was to be a Muslim.





I realized that everything belongs to God, that slumber does not overtake Him. He created everything. At this point I began to lose the pride in me, because hereto I had thought the reason I was here was because of my own greatness. But I realized that I did not create myself, and the whole purpose of my being here was to submit to the teaching that has been perfected by the religion we know as Al-Islam. At this point I started discovering my faith. I felt that I was a Muslim, on reading the Qur'an. I now realized that all the Prophets sent by God brought the same message. Why then were the Jews and Christians different? I know now how the Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and that they had changed His Word. Even the Christians misunderstand God's Word and called Jesus the son of God. Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur'an; it asks you to reflect and reason, and not to worship the sun or moon but the One who has created everything. The Qur'an asks man to reflect upon the sun and moon and Good's creation in general. Do you realize how different the sun is from the moon/ They are at varying distances from the earth, yet appear the same size to us; at times one seems to overlap the other.





Even when many astronauts go t space, they see the insignificant size of the earth and vastness of space, and they become very religious, because they have seen the Signs of Allah.





When I read the Qur'an further, it talked about prayer, kindness and charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt that the only answer for me was the Qur'an, and God had sent it to me and I kept it a secret. But the Qur'an speaks on different levels. I began to understand it on another level, where the Qur'an says "Those who believe don't take disbelievers for friends and the believers are brothers." Thus at this point I wished to meet my Muslim brothers.





Conversion





Then I decided to journey to Jerusalem (as my brother had done). At Jerusalem, I went to the mosque and sat down. A man asked me what I wanted. I told him I was a Muslim. He asked what was my name; I told him 'Stevens'. he was confused. I then joined the prayer though not so successfully.. Back in London, I met a sister called Nafisa. I told her I wanted to embrace Islam and she directed me to the New Regent Mosque. This was in 1977, about 1 1/2 years after I received the Qur'an. Now I realized that I must get rid of my pride, get rid of Iblis and face one direction. So on a Friday, after Jummah I went to the Imam and declared ;my faith (the Kalima) at his hands. You have before you someone who had achieved fame and fortune. But guidance was something that eluded me, no matter how hard I tried, until I was shown the Qur'an. Now I realize I can get direct contact with God, unlike Christianity or any other religion. As one Hindu lady told me, 'You don't understand the Hindus, we believe in one God, we use these objects (idols) to merely concentrate.' What she was saying was that in order to reach God one has to create associates, that are idols for the purpose. But Islam removes all these barriers, the only thing that moves the believers from the disbelievers is the Salat. This is the process of purification. Finally I wish to say that everything I do is for the pleasure of Allah and pray that you gain some inspirations from my experiences. Furthermore I would like to stress that I did not come into contact with any Muslim before I embraced Islam. I read the Qur'an first and realized no person is perfect, Islam is perfect, and if we imitate the conduct of the Holy prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him), we will be successful. May Allah give us guidance to follow the path of the Ummah of Muhammad ( peace and blessings be upon him). Ameen!





Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)





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If you were a new muslim would you please tell us why you choosed islam?
Growing up I could not understand some things that I was being taught in Sunday school.





My Mother is a Christian and my Dad is an Atheist. My mother would just tell me the same thing that the Sunday school teacher was saying. My Dad would tell me that I needed to find my own answers and told my Mom that if she was not going to help me by giving me an answer that I could understand instead of telling me the same thing without her to questioning the answer then I was not to go back to Sunday school. He told me that I needed to do my own research and find the truth on my own. This was when I was 10.





At this time I would spend my summers with my grandparents. My Grand father was a Deacon and my Grand Mother was a Sunday school teacher. They would try to guide me but when I would question they too could not give me the answers.





Then when I was 16 I was in a world religion class in high school. There I began to learn about Islam and I could finally have my answers. I was so excited when I went home. But my mother was totally against it. And I was told that none of the garbage was to come into her home. At this time Dad was out of town and did not hear what she was telling me. So I would study in secret.





Less than a year after I graduated from high school I was told that I was to get married or get out of my parents home (by my Mother). I married and my husband was anti anything that was not Christian. So again I studied in secret.





After 5 years of an abusive relationship (with him cheating, hitting and being mentally abusive) I got out. I started college and began to openly study Islam. My Mother tried to set me down and tell me how wrong I am but my Dad has been there beside me still telling me that I needed to find my own way.





I reverted 2 years ago and have never been happier. I learn something new everyday. I am now married to a wonderful Muslim man that treats me with love and respect.
Reply:doesn't sound like your mom or first husband were very good Christians. I still think Christianity is the right way, but you have obviously been beaten away from the truth. I'm glad you found a good man. Am wishing well for both of you. Report It

Reply:Babes.





...Oh wait — I'm not a Muslim. But if I was, it would be for all the babes.
Reply:Short (very short!) answer: unlike ALL the other religions (both mono and polytheistic), the two's and two's simply add up to four (finally!).





Salaams and Duas,


Br. Stephen Deneau
Reply:I came from a Christian upbringing. I really didn't have a problem with Christianity except for the some of its Dogma which in my eyes conflcited with teachings of Jesus. I ignored a lot of this Dogma, knowing that God understood that my intentions were good. As I got older I began cross referencing this Dogma with the Bible often finding out that it was nowhere in the Bible or the Dogma was very elaborate interpretrations of the Biblical verses. I thought to myself, there has to be some truth in this, right? I was certain of the existence of God, I could not bring myself to deny him as I witnessed proof throughout my life. But why would Christian institutions preach all of these things and not be able to reasonably back it up with the Bible. Again I had and still have no problem with Christians but I was at angry at the damage false teachings of the Bible was inflicting. So I stepped outside of Christianity with hopes of being able to identify what Christianity truely was. I began doing a lot of objective research only to seem to get less and less of an understanding what Christianity was. So I began cross referencing Chrisitanity with Judaism and Islam.


In short Islam, the Qur'an answered all of my questions about the Bible. Where I began finding the Bible to be more and more confusing in comparison to Christian Theology the Qur'an reconfirmed my belief in the Bible. I will say that Bible reveals Islam and speaks the truth. Islam is about worshipping God through universal and unconditional respect for the world around you.
Reply:there is no use when someone read the story with unbelieving heart. i'm a muslim and thankful to be a muslim. I'd heard that after 11.9 tragedy, islam spread quickly in europe, western's countries, and also jews. this is because, after the tragedy, non muslim wanted to know why muslim willingly to sacrifice their life for their religion (unlike any other religions). and after they studied about islam. they find the truth. you can read about how someone convert to islam in this internet article:





http://www.convertstoislam.com/Stories/s...
Reply:If I were, I might, but I'm not...
Reply:never even when you say it in arobic it means nothing I have Jesus.
Reply:i am not really a revert to Islam, however in the recent year or so my deen has been strengthened and Alhamdulilah Islam found me. I dont know the reason (as in the question) as ALLAH (SWT) knows best. What I can say is that I never knew how empty my life was before and now I have contentment, happiness, inner peace and am a much better person for it. Masha ALLAH.





I really just wanted to say thanks for sharing this story with us. Islam humbles me every day in so many ways. Allahu Akhbar.





Ma'a Salama. ALLAH Ma3ak
Reply:Do you honestly expect anyone to read all of that mess?