Now I've told this story to a few already to some degree and the people involved in my life already know, but for those who have no clue.... here ya go. Over a year and a half ago, me being the mmorpg player I am, made a new friend one day. Someone looking for directions to a far-off land. Me being completely cheesed off at my friends that I played with a couple years, decided to open up and lend a hand. It just happened to be an Arab-Muslim brother.
Now, here in America, the media was flooded with propaganda about how dangerous "these people" were. We have been at war with this sort for quite a long time. Me... I believe very little I see in the media.
He told me about himself and who he was and I became interested. I wanted to know more about his culture and religion to see what kind of person I was playing with. I enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the company of my new found friend.
I ended up watching many films about Islam and about the politics in the Arab region. To list a few... 1. Peace, Propaganda and the Promised land. 2. Islam empire of faith. 3. Occupation 101.
All very good and highly recommended (all can be found in YouTube). I then had a very different view of what was actually true and happening. I started watching Aljazeera news online (it's .net in case you were wondering).
I saw many graphic images about the war in Gaza. This was not the story we were getting in our media here and my heart opened up. I discussed this with my friends in the outside world, sadly none of them truly cared and I did some housekeeping in the virtual friends inventory I keep in my head. I watched the media footage for updates everyday of this war in hopes it would stop with no further casualties. Unfortunately there were many deaths and I found myself siding with the Palestinians (the victims).
I know, I jumped a bit off topic but it all does tie in somehow. I was a pagan practicing the craft for 16 years, devoutly. I was very happy with what I believed in and I was very good at what I did. I had no intentions of changing anything I believed or did in my everyday life.
When I started reading the Holy Qur'an I started to doubt everything I knew for so many years. This book that was said to hold hatred and tell those Muslims to go all jihad on the infidels... I read nothing of the sort. I found nothing filthy about this wonderful book. In fact, I wanted my own copy. I would often say to my Arab-Muslim gaming partner, c'mon let's read. He, of course, would be completely chuffed and we would read together.
I found many proofs of known scientific values. The foundation of all life is written in this book making it a guide, if you would, on how to live life on the right path. The more I read these unchanged words, moved me in many ways. I started to listen to Islamic music (some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard made from human mouths) and even joined a great chat room (stickam.com Islam talk) where I was accepted immediately even being a pagan. I learned even more about Islam.
I started embracing Islam. Of course I was oblivious of this until someone else noticed and pointed it out to me (you know who you are). Then one day, I was driving home from work, and I said out loud (having a habit I had no intentions of quiting) "Allah if you really exist, if you truly are the one and only God...take this desire from me," in the snarkiest attitude I could muster, and sure enough, in the time it took me to get home, the desire was gone (and don't wonder because I'm not sharing).
That was all it took. I waited a few weeks and no return of said desire. On June 12Th 2009, I took a leap of faith and said shahada (it's when you say There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger) I would have testified sooner if I weren't so stubborn. Prior to this I had already quit eating pork and been working on curbing what words come from my tongue.
As you kind of figured, I haven't given all of the details but this is the main idea. My points are this... don't believe everything you hear in the media (try reading the Qur'an for yourself before you make a decision), give people a chance to get to know them on a personal level...ie..don't judge as it's not our place to do so (if I didn't give this brother a chance I would not have been able to learn and experience Islam (I first thank Allah and then thank him for this) and have a person I hold dear to me), think... God gave us a most precious gift of a brain and logic...use it--what's the harm?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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MashaAllah. Always inspiring to read about how people come to Islam. Amazing story.
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