WHAT DREW ME TO ISLAM:
By Shk. Omar Muhammad Khajar
My journey in finding Islam began with a hunger for something I could not explain. It started while I was very young, living in the Republic of Panama, a veritable melting pot of cultures that lived together in peace.
I knew very little about Islam or Muslims at the time; the only reference to Islam was the call to prayer that sounded in the French Quarter of the city daily. It was a mystical sound that marked the dying sun, the rising moon, the coming of night and the beginning of a reflective time when quiet and silent hours would present dark questions to which there seemed to be no light. The questions in my head felt cold and scary, their size increasing by the hour, exhausting my reserves of faith.
Life continued, and I was without realizing it keeping with the Fajr (morning prayer) schedule, getting up at the time for Athan and quietly vocalizing what I envisioned to sound like a call to prayer (but sounding more like a sleepy gypsy flamenco singer than a true mua-thin).
As time passed, I ended up in Bahrain for two years. It was there that I began to live in Daar Al Salaam and the depth of the experience was both a relief and promise of peace in my heart, for there seemed to be more beyond my eyes than was possible to even begin to describe.
It was not until I returned to San Diego, and after I processed my experiences in the Middle East that the change began to manifest itself. I looked at and felt the world differently, knowing suddenly that there is only this one life to live, and how one goes about living it will be the measure of one’s character and a way to separate one person from another. In the Islamic month of Safar, I recited my shahadah and all things were explicable in a rush of clarity. My witnesses over the internet webcam in Saudi and in Bahrain wept and smiled in joy for my having found Allah and the true path, alhamdulillah (Praise be to God).
Shk. Omar Muhammad Khajar, formerly Tristan Desiderio Cajar of Panama City, Panama, declared his shahadah in March 2006 in San Diego. He currently resides in La Jolla and worships at Abu Bakr Mosque while continuing his practice and education under Imam Taha of the Islamic Center of San Diego (ICSD).
http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/4038/238/
By Shk. Omar Muhammad Khajar
My journey in finding Islam began with a hunger for something I could not explain. It started while I was very young, living in the Republic of Panama, a veritable melting pot of cultures that lived together in peace.
I knew very little about Islam or Muslims at the time; the only reference to Islam was the call to prayer that sounded in the French Quarter of the city daily. It was a mystical sound that marked the dying sun, the rising moon, the coming of night and the beginning of a reflective time when quiet and silent hours would present dark questions to which there seemed to be no light. The questions in my head felt cold and scary, their size increasing by the hour, exhausting my reserves of faith.
Life continued, and I was without realizing it keeping with the Fajr (morning prayer) schedule, getting up at the time for Athan and quietly vocalizing what I envisioned to sound like a call to prayer (but sounding more like a sleepy gypsy flamenco singer than a true mua-thin).
As time passed, I ended up in Bahrain for two years. It was there that I began to live in Daar Al Salaam and the depth of the experience was both a relief and promise of peace in my heart, for there seemed to be more beyond my eyes than was possible to even begin to describe.
It was not until I returned to San Diego, and after I processed my experiences in the Middle East that the change began to manifest itself. I looked at and felt the world differently, knowing suddenly that there is only this one life to live, and how one goes about living it will be the measure of one’s character and a way to separate one person from another. In the Islamic month of Safar, I recited my shahadah and all things were explicable in a rush of clarity. My witnesses over the internet webcam in Saudi and in Bahrain wept and smiled in joy for my having found Allah and the true path, alhamdulillah (Praise be to God).
Shk. Omar Muhammad Khajar, formerly Tristan Desiderio Cajar of Panama City, Panama, declared his shahadah in March 2006 in San Diego. He currently resides in La Jolla and worships at Abu Bakr Mosque while continuing his practice and education under Imam Taha of the Islamic Center of San Diego (ICSD).
http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/4038/238/