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By Michael David Shapiro<\/p>\n
am ethnically a Russian Jew.\u00a0 My quest began when I was 19 years old.\u00a0 I was recovering from my stint with Scientology (yes I was brainwashed into it).<\/p>\n
My belief in God was uncertain.\u00a0 My goals in life were to be a rock star.\u00a0 I was living in my Pasadena apartment and working as a secretary.\u00a0 Funny, I know.<\/p>\n
One night I was walking to the kitchen, and encountered a dark fellow.\u00a0 I remembered asking him: \u201cCan I keep this vodka in the fridge tonight?\u201d \u00a0We shook hands and went to sleep.\u00a0 After that point, my life changed drastically\u2026<\/p>\n
This dark fellow, a Muslim, was the first Muslim I had ever met.\u00a0 Extremely curious, I conversed with him about his faith.\u00a0 What\u2019s this stuff I hear about praying 5 times a day? \u00a0And about Holy War? \u00a0Who is this Mohammed guy?<\/p>\n
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Our talks were accompanied by our Christian roommate, Wade.\u00a0 Together, we created \u201cThe Jewish, Christian, and Muslim dialogue sessions\u201d.\u00a0 In it, we discovered many differences, and many commonalities.<\/p>\n
My interest had then shifted from sex, drugs, and parties, to a massive search for the truth.\u00a0 A search that I had to complete.\u00a0 A search for God.\u00a0 And a search for how to follow him.<\/p>\n
In my quest for the truth, I asked myself: \u201cOk let\u2019s start simple, how many God\u2019s do I think are out there?\u201d \u00a0I figured only one; knowing that a divided God is weaker than One God; figuring that if one God didn\u2019t agree with the other, there might be arguments and feuds.\u00a0 One God was my choice.<\/p>\n
Once I opened up my mind to the possibility of the existence of God, I analyzed both atheist and theist beliefs.\u00a0 The thing that directed me to the latter was the quote \u201cEvery design has a designer\u201d.\u00a0 With that in mind, eventually I woke up with certainty that God exists.\u00a0 I can\u2019t explain why, I just felt it somehow.<\/p>\n
This newfound excitement was accompanied by a sense of responsibility to follow the Creator.\u00a0 The world of religion was my next frontier.<\/p>\n
Then I asked myself, \u201cWhere do I start?\u201d \u00a0There are literally thousands of them.\u00a0 I need a way to narrow them down to a just a few.\u00a0 How do I accomplish such a task? \u00a0\u201cFind the ones that are monotheistic\u201d entered my mind.\u00a0 \u201cHey that makes sense, since I believe in only One God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ok, then.\u00a0 This ruled out Buddhism and Hinduism, both being polytheistic faiths.\u00a0 The major religions I encountered that fell under the title of Monotheistic, where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.\u00a0 Well since I\u2019m a Jew, I started with Judaism.\u00a0 One God, some prophets, 10 commandments, Torah, Jewish souls\u2026uh, what: \u201cJewish souls?\u201d<\/p>\n
While doing research this idea was brought to my attention.\u00a0 The story goes, \u201cif a person is born Jewish, then they have a Jewish soul, and they must follow Judaism.\u201d Hold on a sec\u2026that\u2019s discrimination, isn\u2019t it? \u00a0That\u2019s not universal.<\/p>\n
So God makes Jewish souls, and Christian souls, and Muslim souls, and Hindu souls? \u00a0I thought all men are created equal? \u00a0So, because one is born into a religion that means by the decree of God he must remain in it\u2026 even if the person believes it to be false? \u00a0Hmm\u2026I don\u2019t agree with that.<\/p>\n
Another thing really bothered me\u2026there is no strict concept of hell in Judaism\u2026then why be good? \u00a0Why not sin? \u00a0If I don\u2019t have fear of strict punishment, then why should I be moral?<\/p>\n
Moving on, I discovered Christianity.\u00a0 Ok, one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost\u2026one more time: one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost.\u00a0 Uhhh, please explain.\u00a0 How can all those things be one God? 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 right? \u00a0So how can you say you believe in only one God?<\/p>\n
Explanation after explanation, equation after equation, comparison after comparison, analogy after analogy, I couldn\u2019t grasp this concept.\u00a0 Ok let\u2019s keep looking here.<\/p>\n
Ok, next major doctrine: Jesus died for our sins and he did this because we all are polluted with \u201cOriginal Sin\u201d.\u00a0 So, Jesus Christ, the \u201cson of God\u201d, had to be murdered to save everyone from Hell and cure us of our sin \u201cgiven\u201d to us by Adam.<\/p>\n
Ok then, so are you saying that we are all born as sinners? \u00a0And to sin is to do something wrong right? \u00a0Then you\u2019re telling me that a one-year old baby is guilty of sin or doing something wrong? \u00a0Ok that\u2019s strange, so based on the actions of one man, all of mankind must suffer? \u00a0What\u2019s the moral of that story? \u00a0Punish the whole group if one deviates? \u00a0Why would God create such a rule? That\u2019s just not in agreement with my logic.<\/p>\n
So Jesus died because he \u201cloves mankind\u201d.\u00a0 Hold on, it says in the Bible that Jesus said \u201cfather, why have you forsaken me?\u201d \u00a0So, apparently, Jesus didn\u2019t understand why he was being brutally murdered.\u00a0 But you just said he \u201cvolunteered\u201d to be sacrificed.\u00a0 Anyway, I couldn\u2019t accept this belief.\u00a0 Ok, what\u2019s the next religion?<\/p>\n
Islam.\u00a0 Islam means submission.\u00a0 The main beliefs are as follows: One God, worship God five times a day, give 2.5% annual charity, fast during Ramadan (to be closer to God and appreciate life\u2026among other reasons) and finally journey to Mecca for Hajj if you are able financially.\u00a0 Ok, nothing hard to understand so far.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing that conflicts with my logic here.\u00a0 The Quran is a book with all of these interesting miracles and timeless wisdom.\u00a0 Many scientific facts only discovered recently where proclaimed 1400 years ago in this book.<\/p>\n
Ok, Islam had passed my initial religious prerequisites.\u00a0 But I wanted to ask some deep questions about it.\u00a0 Is this religion universal? \u00a0Yes, anyone can understand these basic beliefs\u2026no analogy or equation are needed.\u00a0 Does it agree with science? \u00a0Yes, dozens of verses in the Quran agree with modern science and technology.<\/p>\n
As I sifted through the countless logical facts that I read through and researched, one thing took my attention the most.\u00a0 \u201cIslam\u201d.\u00a0 The name of this religion.\u00a0 I noticed it is written many times in this Quran.<\/p>\n
However, recalling my prior studies, I didn\u2019t remember once seeing the word \u201cJudaism\u201d in the Old Testament or \u201cChristianity\u201d in the New Testament.\u00a0 This was BIG.\u00a0 Why couldn\u2019t I find the very name of the religions in those two books? \u00a0Because, there is no name in these books! \u00a0Thinking\u2026I noticed that \u201cJudaism\u201d could be broken down to \u201cJuda- ism\u201d and \u201cChristianity\u201d could be respectively \u201cChrist-ianity\u201d.<\/p>\n
So who is Juda? \u00a0Or Judah, rather.\u00a0 He was the tribe leader of the Hebrews when God revealed his message to mankind.\u00a0 So this religion was named after\u2026a person.\u00a0 Ok let\u2019s look at who Christ is.\u00a0 He was the person who delivered the message of God to the Jews.\u00a0 So this religion was named after\u2026a person.<\/p>\n
So in recollection, we can deduct that the names of these religions are people\u2019s proper names attached to \u201cism\u201d and \u201cianity\u201d.\u00a0 Regardless of that fact, the very names of those religions are not mentioned in their scriptures.\u00a0 I thought that was very odd.<\/p>\n
If I went door to door selling a product, and I said \u201cWould you like to buy this _______\u201d? \u00a0Wouldn\u2019t the logical question be: \u201cWhat is this _____ called?\u201d \u00a0I would make no money off of a product without a name.<\/p>\n
Naming is the very basis which humans identify with objects, both physical and non-physical.\u00a0 If religion is supposed to be practiced and spread to every person on earth, shouldn\u2019t there be a NAME for it?<\/p>\n
Moreover, shouldn\u2019t the name be given to us from God Almighty? \u00a0YES, my point exactly.\u00a0 The names \u201cChristianity\u201d and \u201cJudaism\u201d were not written in the Holy Scriptures.\u00a0 Humans named them, not God.\u00a0 The notion that God would ordain a religion for mankind to follow without a name is impossible for my mind to accept.<\/p>\n
At that point, both Christianity and Judaism lost their credibility as pure, logical, and complete religions, at least from my perspective.<\/p>\n
Islam is the ONLY of these religions to include the NAME of the religion in its scriptures.\u00a0 This is so huge for me.<\/p>\n
I realized I would follow Islam at that point.\u00a0 I then became a Muslim.\u00a0 I knew the truth.\u00a0 I was out of the darkness.\u00a0 I came into the light\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Michael David Shapiro am ethnically a Russian Jew.\u00a0 My quest began when I was 19 years old.\u00a0 I was recovering from my stint with Scientology (yes I was brainwashed into it). My belief...<\/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":[36,13,275],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-muslim","tag-convertd","tag-islam-2","tag-new-muslim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","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=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}