Interview: From Islamophobe to Muslim

 

The first night I read the Quran changed my existence forever.

Can you tell us about that night? What was your religious standing then?

Sure thing. At that point (before reading the Quran) I was in my own standing without a name. I was going back to church as I mentioned; I was having a bit of nostalgia for my upbringing. When my step father and mom met I was 7 years old and through them both I became a Christian. They are still Godly today � as Godly as one can get.

There were some things of Christian doctrine I did not agree with. For example, the belief that only Christians go to heaven and that hell was forever troubled me. I�m a history buff and I know about how the Roman Empire influenced Christian doctrine and the problems different Christian sects had with each other. I just couldn�t swallow many things that most Christians in my area believed in. I believed in Jesus but to have to believe he had to make a bloody sacrifice just so I could go to heaven just didn�t seem right to me, especially in the last dozen years. I totally believed that people of other faiths may get their reward, for how could it be right that a Christian who gets drunk all the time, smashes beer cans on his head, and raises hell gets into heaven because he believes in this doctrine, but my righteous cousins who identify themselves as Muslim don�t? I hated Islam then, don�t get me wrong, but I refused to believe that my cousins or anyone else of any faith have to go to hell because they have a different path to God. I already believed this for a dozen years prior to reading the Quran. So if I had to label what I was, I would say �New Age Spiritualist with a Christian streak.� I also had something of a mystical outlook on God.

Now, what happened that night was remarkable. I was reading the Quran and I was reading it slowly � I never read slowly. It seemed like each verse drew me in. I was getting more and more interested in what I was reading. I would re-read, go back, and re-read again. It must have taken me 3 hours to read the first 2-3 Surahs.

All night long, God moved me to read it. I read about God, charity, mercy, tolerance, defending oneself, Jesus (a.s.), Moses (a.s.), philosophy, about how it�s important to submit to God and put your trust in Him. The verse 2:62 [1] just blew me away when I read it, how Jews and Christians will get their heavenly reward. I was floored! I was always told Islam was anti Jewish and Christian. There are some differences between the sects and the Quran does talk about it, but the tolerance and the subject matter of helping others had a striking difference from what I was taught. It wasn�t just the words, it was the force behind the words. I remember on many occasions just pausing and wondering what in the world was happening.

It was after a few hours into reading it when I heard a voice within me say �You asked me, you wanted to get to know God more, so here I am.�

I immediately remembered the childhood song I was thinking about a week or two prior to this. I had been praying in my backyard, looking at the full moon in the style of my Cherokee ancestors, and asked God how to get to know him better. I even sang an old childhood song while looking at the moon, praying, �I want to know you Lord much more than I do.�

After a few hours without knowing anything I knew I was reading the word of God.

Rest of part 1: Part 2.