KeanuCordero
New Member
Asalamu-Alaikum !
I came to Islam in an unfortunate situation. I was 16 and my life was mayhem. I was into smoking weed, drinking, stealing and so on, I was confused with no knowledge of Islam but what the media portrayed. I was put in a juvenile detention center for 3 weeks. Within that time I read the entire New Testament of the Bible, I never grew up on any religion, my mom had said we were Christian but we never practiced it or went to church, so this was something new to me. But one thing i can say is my mother never taught me that Jesus was God. This part will come in later in the story. I started praying a lot but I only prayed to God. I went home In time for Christmas which was good at the time because I had missed Thanksgiving with my family. I was on monitored house arrest and slipped up, got high, cut my gps bracelet off and went on the run. I ended up with nowhere to really stay, even with all the friends I had. So I decided to turn myself in. I ended up at a Youth Development Center in Loysville, Pa. I spent 6 months there and in that time I started charging as a person. The campus had a church and so I had started going every wednesday. There was a pastor there who taught us the bible, and he always did a closing prayer. In his prayer we all participated and I had noticed he only prayed to Jesus. So to me this was strange to hear, and so the following day I started reading books about religion in the school. I read about Islam and I was amazed at how drawn I was to it. It was nothing like it was portrayed to be. So I started reading more privately, about Islam. I had starting reading a Noble Qur'an loaned from a friend and in the back it explained the big question that was on my mind since the time I was at that church. I wanted to know why that pastor only prayed to Jesus but left God out of the picture. I read about the Trinity made up of 3 Gods Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and God and thought that this was crazy. I couldn't believe the God would come into a form of a human being, something completely under him. So I asked a Muslim friend about what his beliefs were. He started explaining things to me that made perfect sense. One day they needed workers to clean the school and so I was chosen along with someone that I later convinced into to reverting to Islam. I found a big text book called What Islam Is About and asked the librarian if I could keep it, when she told me I could,I couldn't wait to finish the job and go read it. I read it everyday, studying and asking questions to other Muslims, and they were all welcoming. I started to go to the Muslim services on wednesdays and decided I wanted to finally do my Shahada but the Imam told me it would be better if I did it while I was home in my community. I thought that he didn't believe I really wanted to become a Muslim as if I was doing it because everybody else was Muslim (There were a lot of Muslim residents from Philadelphia) Even I could identify the ones who converted just to say they are a Muslim. But I'm sure I convinced him after I showed him how much I knew about Islam (though it was basics of Islam) and how much I studied. I learned my prayers within a week and when I did it felt so good bowing to Allah on my own, I took my whole stay as a blessing, because it took me from a bad place and introduced me to Allah, and I am forever thankful to Allah. Islam made me a smarter person, though I may sin and miss prayers now, I know in my heart how much I love Allah and I know he knows. I came to this site to be in a community amongst people of peace, who can teach me things.
You can judge me but Allah knows my intentions, what I think about the world, what I want for the world. Even though I make mistakes, my life was predetermined and I can't live life with regrets. I know Allah hears my prayers.
I came to Islam in an unfortunate situation. I was 16 and my life was mayhem. I was into smoking weed, drinking, stealing and so on, I was confused with no knowledge of Islam but what the media portrayed. I was put in a juvenile detention center for 3 weeks. Within that time I read the entire New Testament of the Bible, I never grew up on any religion, my mom had said we were Christian but we never practiced it or went to church, so this was something new to me. But one thing i can say is my mother never taught me that Jesus was God. This part will come in later in the story. I started praying a lot but I only prayed to God. I went home In time for Christmas which was good at the time because I had missed Thanksgiving with my family. I was on monitored house arrest and slipped up, got high, cut my gps bracelet off and went on the run. I ended up with nowhere to really stay, even with all the friends I had. So I decided to turn myself in. I ended up at a Youth Development Center in Loysville, Pa. I spent 6 months there and in that time I started charging as a person. The campus had a church and so I had started going every wednesday. There was a pastor there who taught us the bible, and he always did a closing prayer. In his prayer we all participated and I had noticed he only prayed to Jesus. So to me this was strange to hear, and so the following day I started reading books about religion in the school. I read about Islam and I was amazed at how drawn I was to it. It was nothing like it was portrayed to be. So I started reading more privately, about Islam. I had starting reading a Noble Qur'an loaned from a friend and in the back it explained the big question that was on my mind since the time I was at that church. I wanted to know why that pastor only prayed to Jesus but left God out of the picture. I read about the Trinity made up of 3 Gods Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and God and thought that this was crazy. I couldn't believe the God would come into a form of a human being, something completely under him. So I asked a Muslim friend about what his beliefs were. He started explaining things to me that made perfect sense. One day they needed workers to clean the school and so I was chosen along with someone that I later convinced into to reverting to Islam. I found a big text book called What Islam Is About and asked the librarian if I could keep it, when she told me I could,I couldn't wait to finish the job and go read it. I read it everyday, studying and asking questions to other Muslims, and they were all welcoming. I started to go to the Muslim services on wednesdays and decided I wanted to finally do my Shahada but the Imam told me it would be better if I did it while I was home in my community. I thought that he didn't believe I really wanted to become a Muslim as if I was doing it because everybody else was Muslim (There were a lot of Muslim residents from Philadelphia) Even I could identify the ones who converted just to say they are a Muslim. But I'm sure I convinced him after I showed him how much I knew about Islam (though it was basics of Islam) and how much I studied. I learned my prayers within a week and when I did it felt so good bowing to Allah on my own, I took my whole stay as a blessing, because it took me from a bad place and introduced me to Allah, and I am forever thankful to Allah. Islam made me a smarter person, though I may sin and miss prayers now, I know in my heart how much I love Allah and I know he knows. I came to this site to be in a community amongst people of peace, who can teach me things.
You can judge me but Allah knows my intentions, what I think about the world, what I want for the world. Even though I make mistakes, my life was predetermined and I can't live life with regrets. I know Allah hears my prayers.