My name is Darrick Abdul-hakim.\u00a0 I am a 20-year-old Muslim brother living in the United States.\u00a0 I currently attend Cupertino University, which won\u2019t be for long since I am transferring to a University that suits my major. I am going to major in Old Hebraic and Arabian Literature and History, the fancy name for this study is Semitic Literature.<\/p>\n
I converted to Islam on Oct 12, 2001 at Isha Prayer.\u00a0 So far I must say, the Islamic quest has been exhilarating.\u00a0 There is nothing novel about my conversion, but it\u2019s an interesting one at that.<\/p>\n
I grew up as a Christian who had a good deal of information.\u00a0 I was very excited to express my Christian belief to my friends, co-workers and colleagues.\u00a0 However, at the age of 17, life became a bit more complicated than before.\u00a0 I began to observe my fellow Christians in more depth.\u00a0 I was shocked how most didn\u2019t practice the Christian faith to 100% expectation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the Biblical scriptures.\u00a0 For example, the belief that Jesus claimed to be God was a church addition.\u00a0 Jesus certainly never asserted that he was the God of the world.<\/p>\n
I tried to save my faith in Jesus, but, it was time to go, I needed a more realistic understanding to the world.\u00a0 So, I prayed to Jesus, trying to see if there still lies an answer. \u00a0But, as time went on, I began to notice that the Church life was not it.<\/p>\n
I wondered what would happen if I were to become more religious, but that never happened and instead I left the Christian life and bid it farewell.\u00a0 Not only that, but also my faith and belief in God, slipped quietly out the door.\u00a0 I was now an agnostic, not knowing what faith to follow, or knowing if we are surrounded by God or not, I was just lost in a chaotic world.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t an atheist, I was just confused about who, or what God really was.<\/p>\n
Things didn\u2019t pick up.\u00a0 Immediately following my rejection of the faith and church, my grandma died.\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t question life before, I certainly did now.\u00a0 I began to have thoughts about the Universe whether we are really humans at all.\u00a0 I began to ask why I should remain moral (I refused to drink because I felt it was a sin, interesting for someone who didn\u2019t have a faith or believed in a God!). I began to question my own existence.\u00a0 I began to contemplate whether I should be here or not and on account of this, I had seriously considered suicide.\u00a0 I wanted to quit my job because I was coming under stress, by this time I was 18 years old.<\/p>\n
Alhamdulilah, I had the comfort of friends to keep me from committing such a catastrophe.\u00a0 But, I was still without a faith, life couldn\u2019t get much better from my end, and I still didn\u2019t know how to cope with my grandmother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I began to read for myself.\u00a0 I ran across a book, which was discussing the world\u2019s faiths, and I came across Islam.\u00a0 I simply never had given Islam any thought at all.\u00a0 On the following day, when I was on my way to work I saw a man with a copy of the Quran in his hand so I asked him if I could see it, Alhamduliah (all praise is due to Allah) he not only let me see it, he gave it to me! I was stunned, excited, and compelled.\u00a0 I went to read it and was amazed by its literature; the things I didn\u2019t notice before struck me.\u00a0 It was comprehensible, and lucid for the layperson like myself.<\/p>\n
On September 11th, I saw the world trade centers go crashing down.\u00a0 I wondered to myself, could the teachings of Islam have provoked such an act? Could Islam be this bad?<\/p>\n
But, the more I read, the more I found out that Islam was a faith that denounced all forms of extremism.\u00a0 Islam by all means is peace.\u00a0 We certainly wouldn\u2019t judge Christianity by the barbaric abortion clinic bombings, or we wouldn\u2019t describe Judaism as an ethnic faith that just wants a Jewish world from the Israeli who assassinated the Israeli prime minister in 1995 because he felt the Prime minister was an apostate of God. Why must we do the same to Islam? 9\/11 compelled me to learn more about Islam.\u00a0 I bought and read a total of 10 biographies on Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him.\u00a0 I was amazed by his life.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t look at Muhammad from a Christian perspective, but from a Historical, Political and cultural perspective.\u00a0 After my readings into Islam, I decided to convert.\u00a0 I was on a quest for the faith, and I found it.\u00a0 Alhamdulilah.<\/p>\n
Now, after my conversion, I have read a large number of books on Islam.\u00a0 I still am currently reading the Biographies of Prophet Muhammad.\u00a0 I can truly say that life now is much better!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Darrick Abdul-hakim.\u00a0 I am a 20-year-old Muslim brother living in the United States.\u00a0 I currently attend Cupertino University, which won\u2019t be for long since I am transferring to a University that...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[36,275],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-muslim","tag-convertd","tag-new-muslim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}