Through Patience and Understanding
By Lorena
I come from a small town in Ontario. I was raised as a Christian and attended a Pentecostal church. I stopped attending church because I did not feel I fitted in with that setting, although I did keep practicing Christianity.
I had no contact with Muslims, and had no idea what Islam was. My conception of Islam was only what I heard at school, namely stereotypes and misconceptions about the faith. This ignorance was aggravated by a movie that I watched in the tenth grade called “Not Without My Daughter.” My teacher did not help to dispel the ideas that were brought into our heads because of this movie, and so in my final year in high school, I had the same teacher for a social studies class, and once again we watched the movie.
The teacher gave us a huge essay, in which we could choose any topic that commented on the family institution. I began looking into the effects of religion on the family. I chose the topic because I had gathered a small amount of information about Islam on the Internet while chatting, and I thought it would be a perfect chance to learn more about the religion while doing an essay on it. Allah Almighty showed me the beauty of Islam during the four-month course of my research. After a lot of reading, I reverted to Islam in January of 2002, alhamdulillah (all praise be to Allah)!
While doing my research for the essay, I was so intrigued by Islam that every moment of free time I spent in non-stop reading about Islam. When I finally wrote my essay, I strayed very far from my thesis since I not only talked about family life but also about Islam in general. I was so excited about all the new information that I had learned. My essay may have helped the teacher to see what Islam really means in sha’ Allah (God willing), because in my essay I discussed in detail how the media has misinterpreted Islam. When my teacher taught the same class next semester, she did not show the movie.
The foremost idea that caught my attention was the Islamic concept of one God, without son or anything other partner along those lines. Additionally, I was amazed that the Qur'an is still in its original Arabic language and has not been altered through time. The religion opened my eyes up to many new ideas and a new way of living that made so much more sense to me. All the aspects of praying and being modest just really led me to believe this was what I should be doing.
All my life I felt different from my friends: I never had any real religious friends who were like me, but even though I practiced Christianity I did not really understand what it meant. I could never grasp the idea of more than one God, I did not understand why I had to pray to Jesus (peace be upon him). Thus, when I learned about Islam, all my questions were answered. There was no way that I could turn my back on it when the answer was right in front of me.
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Through Patience and Understanding
By Lorena
I come from a small town in Ontario. I was raised as a Christian and attended a Pentecostal church. I stopped attending church because I did not feel I fitted in with that setting, although I did keep practicing Christianity.
I had no contact with Muslims, and had no idea what Islam was. My conception of Islam was only what I heard at school, namely stereotypes and misconceptions about the faith. This ignorance was aggravated by a movie that I watched in the tenth grade called “Not Without My Daughter.” My teacher did not help to dispel the ideas that were brought into our heads because of this movie, and so in my final year in high school, I had the same teacher for a social studies class, and once again we watched the movie.
The teacher gave us a huge essay, in which we could choose any topic that commented on the family institution. I began looking into the effects of religion on the family. I chose the topic because I had gathered a small amount of information about Islam on the Internet while chatting, and I thought it would be a perfect chance to learn more about the religion while doing an essay on it. Allah Almighty showed me the beauty of Islam during the four-month course of my research. After a lot of reading, I reverted to Islam in January of 2002, alhamdulillah (all praise be to Allah)!
While doing my research for the essay, I was so intrigued by Islam that every moment of free time I spent in non-stop reading about Islam. When I finally wrote my essay, I strayed very far from my thesis since I not only talked about family life but also about Islam in general. I was so excited about all the new information that I had learned. My essay may have helped the teacher to see what Islam really means in sha’ Allah (God willing), because in my essay I discussed in detail how the media has misinterpreted Islam. When my teacher taught the same class next semester, she did not show the movie.
The foremost idea that caught my attention was the Islamic concept of one God, without son or anything other partner along those lines. Additionally, I was amazed that the Qur'an is still in its original Arabic language and has not been altered through time. The religion opened my eyes up to many new ideas and a new way of living that made so much more sense to me. All the aspects of praying and being modest just really led me to believe this was what I should be doing.
All my life I felt different from my friends: I never had any real religious friends who were like me, but even though I practiced Christianity I did not really understand what it meant. I could never grasp the idea of more than one God, I did not understand why I had to pray to Jesus (peace be upon him). Thus, when I learned about Islam, all my questions were answered. There was no way that I could turn my back on it when the answer was right in front of me.
To continue the story please visit the link
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