Introduction - Part 3

OK, so where we last left off I was a freshman in college. A few years later I became frustrated with school, so I dropped out, moved to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking (my long-time dream and obsession), then worked there for awhile, decided I hated it, then moved back and applied to business school. Whew, that was a lot.

During my last year of college, the woman who was to later become my wife introduced me to Islam. I didn't really know much about it, despite doing a project about it in high school and taking a class called "Islamic Civilization" in college. Seriously, I still didn't know anything about it. I think that's the way we think about Islam in America; something to know about as a "culture" but not as a faith or way of life. In fact, go into any bookstore in the religion section; Islam is typically not grouped with Christianity and Judaism (as it ought to be), but instead with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and other "eastern religions". Uh, excuse me, weren't Jesus (peace be upon him) and Moses (peace be upon him) born in the Middle East as well? In a used bookstore I even saw the Islam section way at the bottom next to the Witchcraft section. What?

Furthermore, I didn't know Muslims believed in Jesus, and that he was considered a prophet and not God incarnate. My wife's dad started giving me books to read, the first of which was about who Jesus really was and what he actually taught.

The interesting thing about that book was that most of the quotes were actually things Jesus said in the Bible. It's actually quite remarkable; everything he says in the Bible actually agrees with the teachings of Islam!

For example, Jesus never says that God is "three in one" as Christians believe, or that people can only be saved by his forgiveness of their sins. He clearly says that he prays to God, so does that mean he's praying to himself? In fact, the strongest passage that Christians use to support the Trinitarian doctrine ("there are three on earth: the Father, the son and the holy spirit) is actually a later addition. It was a note written in the margin by a scholar that later found its way into the main text!

It all started to make sense. Everything in Christianity that didn't make sense is explained in Islam. The more I read about this religion, the more and more I felt at peace. The humbleness of the daily prayer, the brotherhood and sisterhood, the beauty of the Words of the Qur'an; they all touched me and made me realize this is the truth.

Not to mention the food people brought to the mosque was always really good.

It was just before my college graduation that I officially converted to Islam after seriously studying it and visiting the mosque for about nine months. Shortly after that, I married my wife.

There have been a lot of trials along the way, and many things in my life I've had to change. I don't drink anymore (and I used to do that a lot), I don't eat pork anymore (if you're American you'll know that pork is in everything), and I pray five times a day (very hard to get used to). It's a new life, but it's a good life.

About nine months after we were married, my wife was offered a job in Boston, so we packed up the car and drove across the country. We now live on the East Coast (no accents yet) and we're blessed to have found a very strong Muslim community. With the blessings of Allah I managed to get a job after a month of being here and things are going pretty well, alhamdulilah (praise be to God).

I find that now in Boston my faith has grown stronger and I'm able to go to the mosque far more often than I did in Seattle (mostly because it's now a ten minute walk away instead of a twenty minute drive).

I hope this blog will allow you to experience what it's like to be a new Muslim in this country, and I hope to chronicle all the ups and downs, challenges and opportunities that I am sure to encounter along the way.

As we say in Islam, assalamu alaykum, or peace be upon you.