Assalamu alaikum,
I've been on TTI for about a month now, and I feel like I can trust the people here to give me some good advice. There are soem questions I have but before I get into that I'll first get into my life and Islam because I think its important for people to know what my stories is first. This will only help you understand my reasoning behind my questions better. However you decide to take it, is how you take it. All I ask is that you read it with an open mind.
Before I start though I want to thank Brother Bawar for actually encouraging me to be open with this topic. I was debating with myself weather I wanted to post this on here or not but I talked with brother Bawar for help and he encouraged me to be open about it. So I'll be open with you guys.
-Islam and I-
I'll admit that when I was little I didn't care much about religion at all. Like most kids my age I was to excited to go play then study Islam. In my native country Bangladesh, my parents made pretty good living. We weren't rich, but we had more luxury than most middle class families. When I was younger my parents used to hire teachers to teach me surahs and such and also in my school I had an Islamic class. There we learned how to write arabic and stuff and diffrent surahs and their history. This was when I was about 8 years old.
I never really paid any attention to that stuff. I got good grades, but never really soaked it into my mind. I was 8 years old, the only thing on my during that time was Cartoon Network. HAHA
I remember one time when I was about 8 years old. My parents were thanking Allah for soemthing during dinner time, and I spoke out against him. As far as I remember, I said something like "Allah doesnt give you what you want, because I never get any of the toys I want" or something like that. I mean you gotta understand I was young, I was very materialistic. My parents were somewhat upset from what I said, but was understanding. They made me apologize and moved on.
Time went by, and I came to U.S the age of 8. Been living here for about 11 years now. We settled in TN. It was interesting. I had my ups and down. I learned that restroom isnt really a place where you go to rest. Its infact a fancy word for bathroom.
As with many foreigners we had some settling issues but we got through it. Through out my teen years my Islamic teaching started to diminish. A little by little I forgot some surahs and then eventually prayer. I just remember some stuff but not as much as I used to.
My parents tried to teach me, and I gave it a shot for a while. Due to school and my plain uninterest I put the books back on the shelf.
It wasnt untill when I was 16 years old when I got heavily into science. As you guys seen from my very first post I talked about evolution and I backed my information up with scientific evidence which I used to believe in.
I started later to study psychology. I was interested into that also.
Something didnt make sense to me though.
The Science behind evolution, and the beginning of the universe, seemed to defy God's existence, where as Psychology encouraged God's existence.
Because of studying psychology I believe, I am starting to develop stoicism. I believe this is why I'm very open minded about things. I know how the mind works to some extent.
I understand now why I all those years ago never really had the patience to learn Islam in first place. Why I never really saw it out to the end. Its because I dont like to blindly follow anything. Subconsciensly I was rebelling against it because though I was born a Muslim, never really "discovered" Islam to accept it. Because my parents were Muslim, I was automatically one.
I'm quite happy now that I discovered and starting to accept Islam a little by little. As the days go by, I accept it more and more. During my days of studying psychology, which I still do by the way, I also looked into diffrent religions. I figured there has to be something out there for me that clicked with the way I thoughy through things. That matched my logic.
It wasnt untill I looked into Islam that made a lot of sense to me. What I had been looking for been under my nose.
I'm 19 now, and I really want to adapt Islam into my life. It's the religion for me. When I would go to Eid prayers with my dad, I used to like that a lot. I felt kinda like being home with all those people at the masjid. I also liked the bond between my dad and I. I dont know how to pray but I just followed what othes did in the masjid and listend to the Imam.
Now that my "essay" is finished, lol, my question is, anyone know a place where I can get the following:
- A complete guide to praying for beginners?
- A completely english translated Quaran? (I dont know Arabic and I dont have the time to learn it either. I have college studies. Not that I have anything against Arabic, but its too complicated of a language for me to learn fluently)
I could probably learn Arabic. I have a Rosetta Stone and the arabic pack. However I'm quite eager to learn the Quaran than learn arabic.
Thanks for reading my long post
-Oh and Brother Bawar if your reading this...Thanks again for the help.-
Wassalam
I've been on TTI for about a month now, and I feel like I can trust the people here to give me some good advice. There are soem questions I have but before I get into that I'll first get into my life and Islam because I think its important for people to know what my stories is first. This will only help you understand my reasoning behind my questions better. However you decide to take it, is how you take it. All I ask is that you read it with an open mind.
Before I start though I want to thank Brother Bawar for actually encouraging me to be open with this topic. I was debating with myself weather I wanted to post this on here or not but I talked with brother Bawar for help and he encouraged me to be open about it. So I'll be open with you guys.
-Islam and I-
I'll admit that when I was little I didn't care much about religion at all. Like most kids my age I was to excited to go play then study Islam. In my native country Bangladesh, my parents made pretty good living. We weren't rich, but we had more luxury than most middle class families. When I was younger my parents used to hire teachers to teach me surahs and such and also in my school I had an Islamic class. There we learned how to write arabic and stuff and diffrent surahs and their history. This was when I was about 8 years old.
I never really paid any attention to that stuff. I got good grades, but never really soaked it into my mind. I was 8 years old, the only thing on my during that time was Cartoon Network. HAHA
I remember one time when I was about 8 years old. My parents were thanking Allah for soemthing during dinner time, and I spoke out against him. As far as I remember, I said something like "Allah doesnt give you what you want, because I never get any of the toys I want" or something like that. I mean you gotta understand I was young, I was very materialistic. My parents were somewhat upset from what I said, but was understanding. They made me apologize and moved on.
Time went by, and I came to U.S the age of 8. Been living here for about 11 years now. We settled in TN. It was interesting. I had my ups and down. I learned that restroom isnt really a place where you go to rest. Its infact a fancy word for bathroom.
As with many foreigners we had some settling issues but we got through it. Through out my teen years my Islamic teaching started to diminish. A little by little I forgot some surahs and then eventually prayer. I just remember some stuff but not as much as I used to.
My parents tried to teach me, and I gave it a shot for a while. Due to school and my plain uninterest I put the books back on the shelf.
It wasnt untill when I was 16 years old when I got heavily into science. As you guys seen from my very first post I talked about evolution and I backed my information up with scientific evidence which I used to believe in.
I started later to study psychology. I was interested into that also.
Something didnt make sense to me though.
The Science behind evolution, and the beginning of the universe, seemed to defy God's existence, where as Psychology encouraged God's existence.
Because of studying psychology I believe, I am starting to develop stoicism. I believe this is why I'm very open minded about things. I know how the mind works to some extent.
I understand now why I all those years ago never really had the patience to learn Islam in first place. Why I never really saw it out to the end. Its because I dont like to blindly follow anything. Subconsciensly I was rebelling against it because though I was born a Muslim, never really "discovered" Islam to accept it. Because my parents were Muslim, I was automatically one.
I'm quite happy now that I discovered and starting to accept Islam a little by little. As the days go by, I accept it more and more. During my days of studying psychology, which I still do by the way, I also looked into diffrent religions. I figured there has to be something out there for me that clicked with the way I thoughy through things. That matched my logic.
It wasnt untill I looked into Islam that made a lot of sense to me. What I had been looking for been under my nose.
I'm 19 now, and I really want to adapt Islam into my life. It's the religion for me. When I would go to Eid prayers with my dad, I used to like that a lot. I felt kinda like being home with all those people at the masjid. I also liked the bond between my dad and I. I dont know how to pray but I just followed what othes did in the masjid and listend to the Imam.
Now that my "essay" is finished, lol, my question is, anyone know a place where I can get the following:
- A complete guide to praying for beginners?
- A completely english translated Quaran? (I dont know Arabic and I dont have the time to learn it either. I have college studies. Not that I have anything against Arabic, but its too complicated of a language for me to learn fluently)
I could probably learn Arabic. I have a Rosetta Stone and the arabic pack. However I'm quite eager to learn the Quaran than learn arabic.
Thanks for reading my long post
-Oh and Brother Bawar if your reading this...Thanks again for the help.-
Wassalam
