Becoming Muslim, my journey
By now I have been Muslim for 7 years! Here is my journey to Islam.
When my sister and I were 15 years old, we lived in a small town in Sweden, and people in that town weren't the most forward or educated people (sorry), they were very much people who married their cousins, overweight and alcoholic. And also very white, whenever there were anyone who looked Arab or black you would see the racism come out, especially in our school. The 'foreigners' would have their own little group and many would pick on them just for being different. It happened to me to, mind, I'm from Denmark, which is just a short drive across a bridge. But I have gotten comments such as 'stupid Dane' and 'go back to your country'... well... ok?
To say the least I think many of the ignorant people were a bit confused as to where Denmark is located...
My sister converted when she was 15, one day she decided to put on a hijab and go to school. She has the courage of a warrior! The first day for her went alright, people were looking and staring, even teachers questioned her, one comment she got, that I remember was 'are you having a bad hair day?' but other than that it wasn't that bad, there were lots of mean girls at our school, but we had our little group that we stuck to and our friends really helped to stand up for my sister.
We just had half a school year left, but once my sister put the hijab on she didn't take it of for anyone.
After my sister converted I felt like I had to do something to, I wasn't really ready for Islam, so I thought I would be the "Christian sister". I read about Christianity day and night to figure it out (we weren't raised "Christians", for me it was more just a category I had been placed in), but there were always something missing, there were so many questions unanswered! During this time I was going through lots of depression, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life or where I wanted to go. I had so many questions unanswered and I always felt like I had a hole in my heart, when I met my husband and fell in love, I really thought I had found what was missing, but no.
When my husband and I (then boyfriend) began getting more serious, he asked me if I would ever be interested in Islam, I told him 'I don't think so, but maybe', then he asked me if maybe I could try and study both, Islam and Christianity, he bought me some books and some mp3 files to listen to. As soon as I opened my mind to Islam there were something that just took me to another world. All of a sudden I had answers to all my questions, I suddenly felt like I saw a light leading me to the right way.
I would read and read, I had to take an hour and a half bus ride to school every morning, so I would read all the way to school. I started just reading books about Islam and one book I really loved was called 'How to read the Qu'ran' it really helped me. You can't just go straight to reading the Qu'ran, in that way you might not understand everything, or you might just misread something.
When I was 16 I moved to my sister in Luxor (you can read about that in another post), then I decided to become Muslim. The first time I wore the hijab was when I was going to visit my husbands family, I was so scared and nervous! But they all greeted me with the biggest smiles and the warmest hugs. And for once in my life I felt like the hole in my heart had been filled, filled with love, beauty and God!
Before I became Muslim I was one of those people who thought Islam is evil, even after my sister converted, I feel so ashamed and stupid now for feeling that way before and for being so ignorant. Education is key, whenever I see or hear anyone make ignorant comments about Islam I always try to encourage them to just read and learn, it doesn't take more than maybe an hour to learn the bases of Islam. You don't have to read the whole Qu'ran and you certainly don't have to convert, you don't even have to like it, but just read and know and understand what this religion is really about! Islam is a religion of peace and it is a beautiful religion.
Yes, there are lots of bad people misusing Islam as an excuse to kill and oppress, but honestly, I don't even consider them to be Muslim. They are just evil people, and you can find evil people in all religions, cultures and of all colors.
This was my journey, I hope you enjoyed reading it <3
Lot's of love..