Discovering Islam

It has been almost two years since I've started my journey with Islam and Alhumdullilah these have been some of the most transformative years of my life. Through my discovery of Islam, I have opened my mind to new ideas and opinions that have allowed me to transform myself from the inside out. I am extremely thankful for my faith in Islam, as well as all of the people who were so welcoming and amiable towards me when I was learning about the religion. Not only was I treated so well by the Muslim community, I am so blessed to have friends and family who were supportive in my decision to follow Islam!

This has been an incredible journey for me, but it was also filled with many challenges along the way. I have struggled immensely with my self identity after converting to Islam, as I imagine many Muslim converts often do. While this has been an obstacle for me, it has also come as a blessing because it has given me the opportunity to evolve as a person and reinvent myself. I created this blog in hopes of helping people who may be facing similar challenges or experiences to those which I have faced amongst my journey. I also hope that those who are unfamiliar with Islam enjoy my posts and learn new things about the religion!

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My husband was the first person who helped me on my journey of discovering Islam. I met him while living in a shared apartment in New York City when he moved into a room down the hall from me. Over time, we started to become friends and he became the first Muslim that I have ever had the pleasure to get to know! Of course I had encountered Muslims before and heard about the religion of Islam, but I've never really had the opportunity to develop a friendship with anyone from the Muslim community or deeply learn about their religion. As our friendship started to develop, I began to learn about Islam through spending so much time together. When he would offer namaz, a form of prayer done 5 times a day by Muslims, I would watch in curiosity, eager to know what he was doing and what it meant for him. Being a spiritual person myself, I was always fascinated to see how other people connected with God. My husband, who was still my friend at the time, was so happy to help me learn more about the religion and was always open to any questions or misconceptions that I had about his faith. As many are aware, Islamophobia has been a rising issue as of recent times, and the misconceptions about Islam and its followers are immense. As someone who once themselves believed many of the misconceptions directed towards Muslims and their faith, I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to learn the truth behind the practices of the religion, despite the fact that the world tries to paint them a certain way in the media. I never found that anyone was offended by the questions that I asked, but instead they were eager to help me learn about their faith and what they follow.

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Slowly but surely, I began to learn about Islam for the first time and while I highly respected the religion, I was skeptical of many things. Because my curiosity was growing, I started eagerly researching the religion and its teachings but I was constantly faced with many articles and videos claiming to teach about the religion that did not sit well with me. I remember feeling frustrated and angry at a lot of the content that I was being exposed to and almost every day I would have new questions for my husband, arguing with him about the religion and its teachings. He helped me learn how to properly research the religion and sort through the flood of misconceptions surrounding the true teachings of Islam by using authentic sources and fact checking all of the information that I came across. Every single time that I found upsetting information on the internet, he would lead me to a reliable source that taught me the correct meanings of any scripture or practice of the religion that was being misled online. Although I was constantly discovering articles and videos where people used the religion to try and control women or were promoting things that I did not morally agree with, the further I researched, I realized how the religion actually taught the opposite of the misleading things I encountered on the internet.

Not only was I pleased with all of the answers I had found, I was also surprised that they had aligned so well with beliefs that I had prior to learning about the religion. Before Islam, I was a very spiritual person and I was constantly reading books trying to learn more about self enlightenment, spiritually, and building a connection with God. Although I was a very spiritual person, I've always been skeptical of religion and I never felt any type of connection with the main stream religions that I had priorly learned about. I've always believed that God was the Supreme Power of the Universe that does not take the form of any gender and is beyond human comprehension. I found that Islam shared this conception of God, which we refer to as Allah (the Arabic word for "God"). Allah is not a man nor a woman, Allah does not procreate nor was Allah created. We believe that Allah is the Supreme Power of the Universe, that always has been and always will be. Through learning about the practices of Islam, I found a way to execute and fully express the beliefs that I already had before finding the religion.

Before, I used to try so many different ways to create a connection with God, such as creating a shrine in my room where I would pray, but I never felt that I could fully connect with any ritual that I created or stay consistent with it. When I began to practice Islam, praying five times throughout the day brought me so much peace and tranquility and it allowed me to satisfy my spiritual needs throughout the day, meanwhile teaching myself discipline and consistency ( I will fully explain prayer and what it means to me in a different post!). I think that because I had already believed in God and was looking for a way to express my faith, Islam came as a blessing for me to flourish my spirituality in a new and profound way. Before I had always believed that religion would take away my sense of spirituality, but instead, Islam has helped me increase my spirituality in a way I never imagined before. While this was the case for me, I know that of course it's not the same for every religion nor everyone's personal experience with a religion. I fully believe that spirituality and following any religion or set of beliefs is a very personal experience, that has to be done through your heart, and varies from person to person. With my own experience, I can say that I am more in touch with my spirituality and God than I ever have been before. I've also seen this connection to my spirituality influence every other aspect of my life to flourish as well.

My decision to finally take my shahada (when you declare your belief in Islam, kind of like a baptism) was an easy decision. I had already incorporated Islam into every part of my life and there was no doubt in my mind that this was the path that I wanted to follow for the rest of my life. Alhumdullilah, my faith constantly grows stronger and there is constantly something new to learn about the religion to help me grow. It has become a major source of happiness for me and has allowed me to become the best version of myself! I really hope that my experiences with Islam will help others to better understand the religion. Not only incase they are interested in following, but also to clear up so many misconceptions about the religion! Finding Islam for me was the best thing that could have happened for me to further develop my spirituality and develop faith like I never had before. I hope that everyone finds whatever brings them closer to God and helps them become a better person regardless of what that is!