How she found Islam when amazed by
Muslim women's dress.
By Latasha
I am an American
who grew up in a strict religious Christian family.
By the time I was 16 I became very devout and
religious myself. The church was like a home away
from home. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I had read and
studied the Bible on a regular basis. All the while I
was noticing many errors in the Bible. Many
conflicting stories. So I would ask my grandmother or
the pastor of the church about it, but would never get
a solid answer.
I was told to
just brush it off and not worry about these little
details that weren't adding up. So for a time I did.
Later on in my
early 20s I was appointed as Youth Pastor at my local
church. It was during this time that my biblical
studies had become intense. The more I studied, the
more questions I had.
Due to the lack
of answers I was not getting from the church, I
decided to enroll into Bible College. "For sure I
would find my answers there," I often thought to
myself. Again, no such luck.
Nothing could
ease my mind and so I decided to step down from "Youth
Pastor". I felt I could no longer lead the youth
since I was confused and doubting things myself. I
was the one in need of a leader. My heart was crying
out to find some peace in all this confusion.
One night I
turned on the TV and happened to flip straight to
CNN. They were reporting straight from Iraq. Then,
there in the background I saw the most beautiful woman
I had ever seen. She was adorned only in black from
head to toe. She was so modest, and to me that made
her so beautiful. I knew that she was a Muslim but I
didn't know what the religious beliefs of Muslims
were.
I was more
caught up in her clothing attire. It sparked my
interest more than anything. My heart immediately
desired to be like her. Pious and modest. So this is
where my search began.
I immediately
got online and searched "Muslim Woman Dress" & "Muslim
Woman Face Veil". This is when I came across the
words "Hijab" and "Niqab". Wikipedia also referred to
the women who wore it as Hijabis or Niqabis.
These hijabis
and niqabis were my newly-found role models. So I
immediately changed all my online nicknames to
"hijabi" or "niqabi". It had not occurred to me to
investigate the beliefs of Islam yet. But it was soon
to come….
One afternoon my
neighborhood was having a community cookout. I was
sitting next to my closest neighbor and we somehow got
on the subject of religion.
He said "You
know us Christians will probably be in trouble when we
stand before God?"
I just nodded in
agreement but not really sure where he was going with
this.
He said, "Yeah,
you know those Muslims pray 5 times a day faithfully
and we Christians can barely make time to pray once a
day."
More curiosity
sparked!
I immediately
excused myself and ran back to my home. I opened the
Computer and began searching the Internet about Muslim
beliefs. I was amazed at their beliefs as it seemed
to fit in line with mine.
But I wanted to
be sure there were no surprises hidden in their
beliefs; you know nothing that was going to throw me
for a loop if I choose to convert.
The following
weeks I drove to the closest mosque, which happened to
be 50 miles away, requesting information. I searched
the Internet into the wee hours of the morning
reading all about Islam.
After a couple
of months of researching and reading, I decided that I
want to convert. I drove back to the mosque and took
the Shahadah! A peace entered my heart and soul like
never before. Subhanallah!
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