Thursday, April 9, 2009

The Beginning

For every revert into Islam there is a beginning. For me that beginning is stemmed in my background as a Christian. I grew up going to church, I grew up knowing God. As I grew I was very active in church. I was in the choir, I helped on a church planting team, I lead, ran the nursery program and even took seminary classes.

So how did that draw me to Islam? Well around the same time as 911 I began to question the religion of my childhood, began to question to many factions of Christianity and the very core beginnings of the christian world. I read many historical books. I began to doubt certain doctrines. I began to think, I began to wonder.

Then I saw how most Christians treat Muslims, and thought" hm, this is not the behavior of a real follower of Christ, is it?". I still believed in Jesus, his miracles and all that HE taught, not what others say he taught. I read and reread the New Testament many times during this time period.

Then one day on my street in Toronto, a Muslim family moved in. They had a daughter my daughter's age. The two girls played together. My daughter saw her friend wearing the hijab and asked why does she cover her head. I set out to answer my daughter's question.

I started up a friendship with this girl's mom and well my neighbor was a revert of 3 years, and had the same background I did, we talked a lot about doctrine, questions and what simply made sense.

For me what made sense was Islam. I said Lā ilaha illa al-Lāh, Muhammadun rasūlu l-Lāh “There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God" in english late last summer just days before Ramadaam. I spoke the words of the first pillar of my new faith and with that I began my journey, my new path as a muslimah.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Welcome to My World


Hello and welcome to my corner of the Muslim world. I am Hanan, a fairly new muslimah ( a convert, or in Islamic terms a revert).

I wanted to blog about my journey to Islam, and what I am learning as I take this huge leap of faith.

I live in Canada, but in a part that doesn't have many Muslims. Can you say I am the ONLY single female muslimah for miles around!

I reverted last summer when I lived in Toronto, so for my first 2 weeks in Islam I had sisters, but that didn't last long. I soon moved to where I am now, and well that left me without sisters to learn the deen(faith) from. It left me questioning, it left me wondering so many things.

It left me not even really understanding things like hijab, the salat, wudu, halal and so many other things. I had to learn the Salat from the internet and still I question am I doing it right. I don't know what it is like to pray with other sisters. I watched a video online to learn how to wear a hijab, which to be honest I don't do very much. I learned Wudu online as well. I read the Quran in English and with that it brought me clarity.

This blog is my way of reaching out to other sisters, it is my way of being part of the Islamic community. It is goal here to leave something of note, something that can help other new muslimahs. Thank you for stopping by!