My conversion to Islam began in my eighth grade year. There
was a Muslim student by the name of Raphael who first told me a little about
Islam. At the time he was not so knowledgeable about Islam, but he put the
initial interest in my mind which never went away.
In the ninth grade
there was another student by the name of Leonard who claimed at one time or
another that he was a Muslim but he was more or less a 5 percenter. The one
thing he did do was to give me a pamphlet on true Islam which increased my
interest in Islam. I didn't hear much more about Islam until my tenth grade
year.
That year me and Leonard would sit in the back of geometry class
and blame all of the world's problems on white people while we would exalt the
status of black people above all other races. At that time in my life I thought
that Islam was the religion for black people, but unfortunately the Islam I was
talking about was nothing more than black nationalism with a slight touch of
true Islam. It was very similar to The Nation of Islam. As time went on I began
to see that my black nationalist views and my perception of what Islam was about
became tired. It was useless to hate almost all white people and to blame this
on Islam. Around the same time I totally denounced Christianity as my religion.
I got tired of the unintelligible doctrines and the many contradictions within
the religion.
The next year of high school I was conversing with a few
students about religion and they told me to buy a Qu'ran so I did. I went to the
nearest bookstore and bought a very poor translation of the Qu'ran but it was
the first real look into the truth about Islam. Within a few weeks I took on the
beliefs of a Muslim even though I hadn't taken shahadah yet. Most of what I was
doing concerning Islam was wrong because I never had a chance to go to a masjid
because my mother totally forbade it. As time went on I finally got an Abdullah
Yusuf Ali translation of the Qu'ran which opened my eyes to so much about Islam.
In the meantime my mother was doing everything in her power to prevent
me from embracing Islam. She took me to see her preacher three times which was
of no avail. As time passed I began to learn more and more about Islam from
various books I could get my hands on. I finally learned how to make salat
correctly from one of these books. My mother was still trying her best to make
me become a Christian again.
My mother and I would frequently argue
about religion until one day my mother had enough and told my dad that I was
going to have to live with him. He had absolutely no problem with this. The day
after I graduated from high school I moved in with my dad. I can see now that my
parent's divorce was actually a blessing in disguise. Their divorce provided me
with a place to live in which I could practice Islam freely. My dad had no
problem with my interest in Islam.
One day I called the Islamic Learning
Center in Fayetteville and a brother by the name of Mustafa told me to come down
for the Taleem (lesson) to learn more about Islam. Everybody was extremely
hospitable and Mustafa even gave me a ride home. After three weeks of going to
Jumuah (Friday congregational prayers) and Taleem I finally took my Shahadah on
July 2,1995. Ever since then I have been an active member of the Islamic
community. I am also very pleased to say that Raphael (the person who gave me my
initial in interest in Islam) got back to Islam seriously and took shahadah a
few months before I did. We still keep in touch even though he is in England.
October 28, 1996
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