To Convert or Not to Convert

[-Rj-]

:salam2:
Salaam everyone
This is my first post on the site so I hope it works...
I joined the site because I have been thinking of converting to Islam for a few years now. I have read a lot of books about Islam and it seems so great! I feel that it is a religion with a very big sense of community and truth and it's a way of life - being raised a Christian, my family left our church and I was left feeling disillusioned with religion in general and not wanting any part of it - now that I have been reading about Islam a part of me wants to convert SO badly, and the other part keeps saying no. That part of me feels like I wouldn't be accepted by people who have been muslims all their lives, and what my family would think. The other part says it really doesn't matter what others think! But still I have reservations. I am in high school still, and no girls here wear hijab. This would be OK except for constant questions from people like "why are you wearing it all of a sudden" and such. I want to have the strength of God to help me do the right thing, but I don't feel I can do it alone. The masjid in my area is sort of far away and I have school on Fridays during Jumu'aa... why are there so many reasons NOT to convert?!?! I want to so badly, but I feel like putting it off until I am out of high school is disservice to Allah. What should I do?

 

[muslimummah]

First of all, welcome to this site. It is indeed one of the biggest step in one's life. Remember, some of the best muslims were reverts when our prophet's (SAW) time and the very first muslim(a) was a women. You don't need to do everything once you embrace islam(it will overwhelm you). Slowly overtime, you can start practising more and more.

You don't even need to go to mosque to testify your faith but it is good if you do. You can go anytime as it doesn't need to be on Friday. Remember there are around 20 K converts in america alone each year, and majority are women.

Without further delay, I would love to welcome you to the big sisterhood and brotherhood community.

 

[Optimist]

Wa alaikoom assalam wa rahmatu allahi wa barakatoho

Welcome to TTI.

I'll leave the answers to your questions to one of our revert sisters & brothers.

I pray that Allah (glorified He may be) grants you happiness in both worlds. Amin.

 

[amirah80]

Hello,

I commend you for learning about Islam and wanting to convert. I think you should convert because you already said you believe in Allah and his last messenger (saws). When you convert everything will come in time inshallah. But, I would not recommend putting it off until you finish high school. Tomorrow is not guranteed. So you may not see the day you finish high school, Allah knows best.

Alot, of converts feel exactly the way you do. At least I did because I converted to Islam myself. The constant fear of acceptance by peers and family and observing hijab. These will worry you at first but when your faith increases these issues will be less of a concern. They Shaytan tries constantly to presuade you away from accepting the truth and doing whats right by Allah. Believe me this will always happen to you and you will have a struggle within yourself to do right. If you truly believe in Allah and his final messenger (saws) the most important thing is to embrace Islam and take the shahadah and work on the things that Allah has commanded us to do.

I want to give you a example:

Its like when you turn 16 and go to get a drivers license. You are not a experienced driver. But, you know enough to past the test and get the license. After you accept the license and drive for a while you get more experience and with the experience you get better and better at driving.

My point is the same with Islam. You know enough and believe to take Shahadah. After you become muslim your knowledge and Iman increases through this you get better and better at performing for Allah. Hope that makes sense

Inshallah, I will keep you in my Du'aas.

 

[cmelbouzaidi]

:salam2:
Salaam everyone
This is my first post on the site so I hope it works...
I joined the site because I have been thinking of converting to Islam for a few years now. I have read a lot of books about Islam and it seems so great! I feel that it is a religion with a very big sense of community and truth and it's a way of life - being raised a Christian, my family left our church and I was left feeling disillusioned with religion in general and not wanting any part of it - now that I have been reading about Islam a part of me wants to convert SO badly, and the other part keeps saying no. That part of me feels like I wouldn't be accepted by people who have been muslims all their lives, and what my family would think. The other part says it really doesn't matter what others think! But still I have reservations. I am in high school still, and no girls here wear hijab. This would be OK except for constant questions from people like "why are you wearing it all of a sudden" and such. I want to have the strength of God to help me do the right thing, but I don't feel I can do it alone. The masjid in my area is sort of far away and I have school on Fridays during Jumu'aa... why are there so many reasons NOT to convert?!?! I want to so badly, but I feel like putting it off until I am out of high school is disservice to Allah. What should I do?

:salam2: dear sister, I think you should follow your heart. I know what it is like to come from a Christian (Catholic) family that doesn't really practice and is disillusioned with religion I was the only one in my class in highschool many moons ago that would come in with an empty envelope for any of the events tied into the church. Although my father was technically Catholic, my parents were not interested in further funding the church! When I was 21, I reverted to Islam but have only recently started wearing hijab.

I would say that if you have read Qur'an and have studied Islam and it is answering the questions you may have had to your satisfaction, you should go ahead and accept Islam and say Shahada, bearing witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Mohammed is His messanger, and join the fastest growing religion in the world today and our beautiful global community Then you can try to get a booklet at the mosque to help you learn how to perform prayer, Insha Allah. The hijab can be something that you think about when you have done the above. I would not make it more complicated than it has to be because Islam does not ask the impossible from us. However, it would be good, in my opinion to revert to Islam sooner rather than later and start performing proper worship of the one and only God, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

It sounds like you have a great head on your shoulders, :ma:, for a young lady so do not worry about what people may think or say. Once they see you are happy in Islam, those that love you should be happy for you, too

All the very best and feel free to post any questions or send me a private message, if you like

 

[mymohsin]

Salamalaykum,

Welcome to the site Sister. Masha Allah nice to know about masha Allah gr8 that at this age u searching the truth and alhomdolila u found it in as Islam. Sister what i say is if u think u to accept Islam and u worried just because of the surrounding then Sister u can take Shada by urself and on this site and practice Islam to the extent u can and slowly slowly increase in it and insah Allah we all be ur witness, as we dont know what next will be coming by taking sahada insaha Allah u will be eligable for Allah's mercy insah Allah. this is just my thinkng rest Allah knows the best. May Allah help you and make things easy for you. Ameen.

Allah Hafiz.

 

[saffanah]

Sister, masha Allah, may Allah strengthen your eeman (faith) in Islam. My advice is do not delay your revertion to this deen (way of life), because as what sister Amirah say, you do not know what will happen tomorrow (we don't know when the death comes to us). If you're not ready of your family's reaction then do not tell them right away after you revert, let them know when you're ready to say it. and about praying Jumu'ah, do you know sister, that Islam gives us women many easiness, Jumu'ah prayer is OBLIGATORY only for men and not women. Of course it's fine for us to pray in masjid(mosque) but the best prayer for a woman is in her house. So, you can pray salah Duhur in your room after the school if it's still in duhur time.

Barakallahu fiki ukhty,
May Allah bless you my sister.

 

[zahrany]

:salam2: welkom to TTI sister and i hope u choose islam, its such a beautiful religion and if u choose islam, then you are the luckiest person, you are even lucky then the people who born to be muslims, and the thing is you can embrace islam whenever you want, you dont have to wait for friday bcuz we never know when death is coming to us
so sis may allah show you the right path (allah ya arhamak)
and is ok to wear the hijab to skool, i wear it too, and they giv me more respect than they give to others,
:blackhijab:

 

[Ashima33]

Salaam sister,

I converted 1 week ago! So things are very overwhelming right now, although I try hard not to let it get that way. I just have to keep reminding myself... Allah does not expect me to know 100% of Islam right away, because I just converted! So, as long as your intentions are pure and sincere Allah knows this and will bless you. Even if you do something wrong like pray with your feet/ankles showing (this is something I was doing!)... if you don't know, you're not to blame for it. So, I guess I'm just saying this to let you know that you need to have patience with yourself... and the people around you especially your parents. Just told my mom the other day and she just thinks it's a phase. It's frustrating because I'm thinking... "great. how long will it be before she sees it's not a phase? 1 year? 2? 5?!?!!!!" But I know that this, too, is a test from Allah. And I just need patience.
You also don't have to jump right into the Islamic community/social aspect of it. I went to a conference a couple days after I took shahada and learned this immediately. Everyone wanted to hear my story, hug me, comment on me wearing hijab, and some were already trying to marry me off!!! Ah!!! It was a lot to take it! So I decided I just needed to stick with my two friends who were there with me when I took shahada. They are the ones showing me prayer, wudu, and reading the Koran. I'm an introvert so I've just learned that I do better in smaller groups, and that's okay.

Only you can decide if you're ready or not. I don't really think you should let other people's opinion of your situation determine whether or not you should do it. You can still pray and communicate to God about this even though you're not muslim. Not to sound cheesy, but on the day I took shahada... I seriously just woke up in the morning and was like, "yeaaah... so... um. today's the day I become muslim." I mean I had been researching for a long time before that... but wasn't for sure really until that morning. And I'm 1 week into it and know for a fact that this was the right decision for me.

So, I will be praying for you and if you have any questions or just need to unload some random thoughts please Private Message me.