Why did you become a MUSLIM? (Muslims ONLY)?

Question

This Q is for new Muslims who were not born Muslim

Why did you become a MUSLIM?
When did you become a Muslim?
What was your religion before Islam?
What is your Nationality?
Did u change your Name after being a Muslim?
And - if you can - Tell us your Journey to Islam

Thank you all

Answer 1

What person was not "born Muslim"? Whether or not a baby has Muslim parents, he/she is still born pure.

Alhamdulillah, I accepted Islam by way of guidance due to reading a translation of the Holy Quran.
I accepted Islam 11 years ago as a teenager.
I grew up going to a Protestant Christian church.
I am European-American.

No, I did not change my name to an Arab name because I like my name and because I am not Arab!

Islam is logic for the mind and beauty for the heart.

Answer 2

I became a Muslim 2 years ago. I became a Muslim because i read the quoran, and found it answered my questions, and feel it was my duty once shown the true path to follow it. Before i was a Muslim i was raised in a home that if asked was Protestant, but none of my family practiced it or where church goers. I'm Scottish first, British second. I did take a Muslim name but people still call me by my old one, i dont insist they call me by my Muslim name.(old habits die hard) It was a frightening prospect at first my ever day life would change, but i adjusted easily enough, learned to pray in Arabic, and simply my life is all the better for it. Now i feel i am doing what God wants me to do and inshallah I'm doing my best.

Answer 3

I met my then boss, now husband and we started to discuss religion and I became interested in his religion, Islam.

I became Muslim 2 years ago.

I was raised in a Christian house. I remember getting kicked out of Sunday school when I was in 3rd grade for asking the teacher how could Jesus be Gods son, weren't we all Gods children? What about Adam, he wasn't Gods son?

I am American.

I didn't legally change my name and everyone in my family still calls me Michelle, but my husband and his family call me Isra.

My journey into Islam has been great. I have all of the answers to any question I have in my Holy Quran. My family wasn't too happy at first about my conversion, but most are ok with it now.

Answer 4

I became a Muslim after attending a seminar on Islam. I found it to be a much more complete religion than Judaism or Christianity, although I respect the teachings of course of the prophets that came before Muhammed (p.b.u.h). I also highly regard the teachings of the Buddha, but more as a way of life than a religion. Sort of the same thing with Jesus. I believe that Allah sent many prophets to many parts of the world with similar messages of love and forgiveness and the right way to live. I was raised Catholic but after going to catholic school, attending mass and visits to other churches with friends, I sort of lost faith in Christianity because so many christians are hypocrites and so judgemental, where as Islam teaches us that by judging, we allow for ourselves to be judged as well, by our advesaries and by Allah after we die. No, I didn't change my name but ironically my last name was already Medina...I'm an American, and my mom is Mexican.

Answer 5

I only want to appreciate above response by HF as one of the most beautiful in the WHOLE of Yahoo! Answers.

Answer 6

I'm a muslim and luckily born as one too.

Answer 7

Very disatisfied in the ilogical answers to my questions in my olde religion.

Islam is the way, answers everything

Christianity

Yes

will do one day too long to tell

Answer 8

Born as one.
Nationality is a secret.

Answer 9

Because it encapsulated everything I thought to be the essences of humanity, because my heart was drawn to the words of God, and because I believed that great efforts were taken to show me this path that to refuse it would be a mistake on my part.

I took shahadah five years ago, after a couple years of studying it. Bad timing on my part but I'll get to that.

I was raised in a Baptist family, however they never were really that religious. We celebrated holidays and such, and the children went to sunday school, but the adults stayed home to watch football and play poker, lol!

I am American. Not meaning my parents immigrated here just before I was born, but meaning my ancestors immigrated here many many years ago; caucasian American, if you will. :-P

I didn't change my name, and actually my birth name spans the English, Jewish, Arab, Christian and Muslim heritage. I did change my last name after I got married 7 months ago. Most Muslims don't do this as the women generally keep their maiden name after marriage, but here in the states it's just more convenient to do so. Though tradition is becomming modernized and women are beginning to keep their names, hyphenate theirs with their husband's, and in some cases the husband is taking the last name of the wife.

Well, to make it short and sweet, it began with coworkers. Very very sweet people (except for one arrogant jerk, but he never practiced Islam anyways). They never came out and just started talking about their religion, they always waited until you came with a question. Once I got pretty interested, I was hooked! The more I asked the more I wanted to know! I was eventually given some websites to explore. It was so much information to digest, but it was something I felt I needed to learn. At least for myself. After a while someone came to me with a question I had never considered before. "Are you considering converting?" Oh, after that it was torture because that made my mind churn even more! Lol! I had already given up pork and alcohol (I was underage anyways so it wasn't doing me any good), and had come to respect my own body and modesty (I was young, and I flirted and flaunted just as much as anyone else the same age), I believed in all what I had learned so far, so what would prevent me from adopting this same way of life, of calling myself a Muslim? I couldn't think of anything! It still took me a while to make my conversion, but I had it in my mind that I wanted to learn as much as I could BEFORE converting so that when I did I would know I'm ready for it.
Then 9-11 happened.
I was on my way to school when I briefly overheard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I overlooked it as these things happened all the time. I got to class and no one else had heard about it, or at least they never mentioned anything about it. I left for my break before my second class when I noticed people were getting frantic. A friend had come to tell me that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I told her I had heard something about it on the radio, but she said it's worse, a second plane also crashed. Well I thought that was just freaky! There was a television in the library and people were gathering to watch the news to see what had happened. They were then talking about a terrorist attack. I saw the building with smoke pouring out when they showed the second plane hitting and I got chills. How could someone do that intentionally? Then the first building collapsed. I was frozen in place. People were gasping and started sobbing, everyone was calling family members and friends they knew who worked there (the phone lines were jammed, not very many could get through). Everyone was announcing that classes were cancelled, so I decided to go home. I left just before the second tower collapsed. I didn't want to be glued to the television because it was too depressing. The radio and the internet would be the same. So I read Quran and reflected on life and humanity, and the lack of conscious and good will. I remembered in my teachings that in Islam, a person who dies in a burning or collapsing structure is considered a martyr (as well as those who die in childbirth, from drowning, etc), guaranteed a place in heaven, and I thought to myself that through this great tragedy, this horrible evil, all these people who were left in the buildings are martyrs in the eyes of God. This comforted me more than anything. I still cried, I cried for the victims, I cried for the families, I cried for the lack of humanity within the criminals. But I felt better putting my trust in God and knowing that through all that happens, He knows more than us. Many others also saw the same as I did, as more people regained their faith that day.
My friend had invited me to the Friday prayer at the mosque earlier that week and I was more anxious now to go. Not only for learning, but the thought had come to me that we never know what could happen to us the next minute. If you have something good in mind that you want to do, don't wait to do it. You don't know if you'll get another chance. So back to the mosque, I was nervous, lol, worried about being proper and respectful to those that worshipped there. I had only met Arab Muslims, so that was what I was expecting to see. Boy was I shocked! I saw TONS of Americans, white and black, Africans, Asians, people I later discovered were Pakistani, Iranian, Indian, Turkish, even Lithuanian, Spanish and Scottish! One day I even passed by an older white man with a VERY southern accent talking about his farm (it was odd to me too, but it proves stereotypes aren't always truthful). The speech by the Imam was beautiful and really pulled my heart in, about standing up against evil and not being afraid, about respecting your neighbors no matter what religion, race or nationality they were, about protecting the oppressed and supplying the needy, all the things that could make any society stand out above the rest. The prayer began and I stepped to the side in respect of the worshippers. The verbal prayer was beautiful! I didn't understand a word, but my heart understood every bit of it. Everyone bowed down in unison, in complete submission to God. No one cared about what it looked like to have your forehead on the ground, they were too concerned with concentrating on their devotion to their Lord and hoping their hearts were pure for the sake of their Creator.
I had learned about what it takes to convert, so I told my friend I wanted to take my Shahadah. She explained to me what I would be saying, taught me the Arabic, then the English translation. I said both, made ablution, and began my new life as a Muslim.