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American Teen Finds Islam Through Online Test
It Was the Best Change That Ever Happened to Me
(2 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)
By
Reading Islam Staff Sunday, 08 July 2012 00:00
http://www.onislam.net/english/oimedia/onislamen/images/mainimages/JTI_William_Dallas.jpg">
I started reading about the basic principles of the faith,
restrictions, what I had to do, and stuff, and I found myself in
agreement.
My name is William and I converted to Islam about a year ago. I
was born in Dallas, Texas into a Christian family, and I grew up in a
neighborhood that was almost completely white, upper class and upper
middle class as well. And it was really sheltered. My
family wasn�t exactly what you call ultra-religious as what is the
stereotype with many people in Texas. We were just a typical moderately
religious Christian family. The
only trouble was that I was born with autism. So my social functioning
was quite awkward. So I didn�t fit into the society around me. I�m not
saying I was a loner or like a complete outcast, I mean I had my friends
but just I wasn�t overly popular. I wasn�t overly focused on social
aspects. I mean at that time I was so young, I only cared about video
games more than religion. To me the idea that I�m going to heaven just
because I believe in Jesus Christ sounded like a very good idea; that�s
pretty cool, let�s play video games for my whole life and then go to
heaven, that�s all I had to do.Searching for the Truth Now
the thing was though that even from that young age there were facts of
Christianity I rejected, like God is God, He doesn�t have to do that. So
that was probably my only real criticism at that time but again I
really didn�t care. I
think the only other time I did have some sort of problem within the
religion was when they first brought up the subject of the holy trinity
when I was eleven at the time. What they explained was that it�s three
parts separate but one. Now to me that didn�t make any sense. OK I
thought we have one God not three. To me that was polytheism; to me that
was unimaginable, so I just rejected the notion outright. But
then once I started getting to the high school, I started becoming a
little bit more concerned with what is really going on in the world. I
started getting into politics and then I started really exploring my
religion. Now I rejected the notion of being a protestant outright. The
problem was that there was no specific Christian sect I agreed with. I was quite surprised to find out that Islam was number 2 on the list, about 98% percent compatibility. |
I
had been exposed to other religions at the time through my mum. Since
we have gone through divorce that was quite traumatizing she has been
forced to look for alternative spiritual means. So by the time I
realized I really need to find my niche to get into. My mum recommended
me to take this test online that recommend which religion you belong to
or you most closely match up to. So I took it, and I was quite surprised
to find out that Islam was number 2 on the list, about 98% percent
compatibility. Number 1 was Orthodox Judaism. Now
although I did have interest in Judaism at the time, I really didn�t
see it that interesting as Islam. For me, Islam was like, to typically
say, foreign to me. I�m like thinking �Oh, it looks quite interesting.�
So I started looking into Islam. I looked it up on Wikipedia. I started
reading about the basic principles of the faith, restrictions, what I
had to do, and stuff, and I found myself in agreement. I thought this
makes a lot of sense and I agree with this, and it seems very plausible. I
believed that Jesus rather than being the son of God and not even God,
he was just a teacher, an important teacher to take from. So the notion
of Jesus being a prophet who is basically a teacher of God really wasn�t
that foreign to me. It was something like I had already believed in. At
that point I decided to pick up a Quran. So I picked it up and I
started reading it. I read it like this is amazing. This is something
that explains everything that I have been looking for and I�m in a total
agreement with this, so I want to become a Muslim now. So I decided to take Shahadah when I got into up here to school. I didn�t know a single masjid
(mosque) in Dallas. Plus it was just more convenient to take it up
here. There was a mosque right by the school. So therefore I can just
walk down in my spare time and take Shahadah. So
I told my parents what I decided to, and they didn�t have a problem
with it. They were in the medical field and therefore they had exposure
to Islam they had exposure to other ethnicities and religions as well.
So they were quite tolerant people. The
prospect of me becoming engrossed in religion, they liked that idea
just because they thought it would help me become more loving and more
compassionate with people. At the time I was kind of misanthrope before.
So they were more than eager to see me take up a religion. I
first learned the Arabic script from a friend of mine at the mosque. He
used to be a teacher so somehow he was able to teach me in an hour what
I couldn�t teach myself over the summer. So I was able to master it by
reading a duaas in a particular book titled (Hisn Al-Muslim) and by doing those multiple times a day I was able to get a reading speed similar to that of English. I was able to master the Tajweed (Quran recitation) through an IPhone app that has embedded text and the Tajweed, and by listening to it over and over I can get the rhythm and the pronunciation right. I
have to say the main thing that changed about me when I converted to
Islam would be that I enjoyed helping people a lot more. I care about
people much deeper than I did before. Before, I tended to be somewhat of
misanthrope, I�m not saying like a people hater but I tended not to
trust people. I tended to be more introverted. I was more selfish as
well. So since I converted to Islam I just learned to love people and
I�ve learned to care for them and help them. And I get pleasure out of
helping them as well, so for me I think it was the best change that ever
happened.
------------- Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?
Qur'an 55:13
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