Source: Huffington Post
By Qasim Rashid; Visiting Fellow, Harvard University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal School of Islamic Studies
Every Muslim knows several, if not dozens, who chose to convert to Islam as a young adult or even later in life. According to Pew Research, “Two-thirds (67 percent) of all converts to Islam in the U.S. came from Protestant churches, 10 percent came from Catholicism, and just five percent from other religions. Nearly one-in-seven converts to Islam (15 percent) had no religion before their conversion.”
Not too long ago an old friend — let’s name him Adam — called me and dropped the hammer.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking… and I’ve decided to convert to Islam. Where do I begin?”
Adam’s call caught me off guard. Raised in a Catholic environment, Adam’s family was conservative and had little experience with Islam outside of news pundits and the media.
As a practicing Muslim who’s made the conscious choice to follow Islam, I figured I’d been down a road Adam was looking to begin traveling. So if you find yourself on a journey similar to Adam’s, then here are nine questions you should ask yourself before accepting Islam.
1. Have I thoroughly researched other faiths?
You must be asking, what does studying other faiths have to do with Islam? In a word, everything. You’re already on a journey to learn more about God. One of Islam’s Six Articles of Faith is “belief in all of God’s prophets.” So, from Adam to Zoroaster, it is important to study the various faiths.
My friend Adam will tell you what he, and many, experience while studying different faiths. First, all these faiths have much more in common than different. And second, Islam has created a system to truly unite humanity as it teaches its adherents to accept all these prophets of God.
Before accepting Islam, make sure you study as many different faiths as you can. That way, if you ultimately decide to accept Islam, you will have done so after experiencing various worldviews, rather than studying them later as a mere thinking exercise.
2. Have I prepared for the possible family and social backlash?
This was a reality for Adam, and is for many who accept Islam. And that doesn’t even account for the millions spent to promote Islamophobia to deter people from studying Islam in the first place.
Some find their families actually welcomed their choice, and others not so much. Some see their family research Islam for themselves to learn more, and others see family members become Google scholars to find all sorts of anti-Islam propaganda written by extremists and Islamophobes.
Be ready for whatever comes — good and bad. No one said it would be easy, just that it would be worth it.
3. Am I ready for the new lifestyle?
Islam is in fact a way of life. Every Muslim has two fundamental and equally important obligations — faith and works — both repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’an. Every Muslim has their duty towards God and their duty towards humanity. A Muslim is responsible to live a lifestyle upholding both obligations.
The duty towards God includes (but is not limited to) praying five times a day every day and on time, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and professing the declaration of faith that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger.” For Adam, fasting (especially last Ramadan with its 17-hour fasts) and praying five times a day on time were major adjustments.
The duty towards humanity includes giving charity regularly, paying the Zakaat when applicable, and living a life dedicated to the service of all humanity — Muslim or non-Muslim, believer or non-believer. In this tough economy, you better believe giving charity is a test of faith too.
Anyone considering Islam should be ready to uphold both of these important commitments and to maintain balance between them. Picture them as two wheels on a cart. Remove one and you end up in circles without accomplishing much. Maintain both and your journey as a Muslim will take you far.
Oh, and no more alcohol and no more pork. This is more difficult for some than others, but nonetheless is an important part of Islam’s dietary guidance.
Suggested Reading
Two Hundred Verses about Compassionate Living in the Quran
Categories: Islam, The Muslim Times
I would not consider asking myself one question. I know the Koran is a transliterated extension of the jews scriptures, as is the Bible, therefore I look directly at the jews scriptures knowing they are in reverse to us, the Gentiles, and are therefore anti our way of life and it is known to the Jews that they are psychologically forcing themselves upon us aware of the Gentiles’s ignorance of the subject of religion.
The Holy Quran is the only scripture that is that true uncorrupted Word of God Almighty. It has all the guidance that mankind needs for his present state of evolution and it is as prescribed by his Creator.
All other books are third person narratives. They were good and useful for their time. They have a lot of general truth and good in them but also a lot of corruptions. The religions advocated by these books have programs that have become redundant. Their followers try to cover the inadequacies by devising band-aid moral, social and economic solutions due to pressure from society, but whatever efforts they make provide only limited, symptomatic patch-ups but no far reaching universal solutions. They try to mend one tear and produce even wider splits elsewhere.
In whatever direction man looks, all he finds is deceit, degradation, demoralisation, disillusionment, destruction and spiritual death. Even when he looks towards His Creator, he looks at Him with reservations and instead of surrendering his ego, he starts dictating terms and conditions.
May God Almighty help us to wake up and choose the right path and submit himself to the will and designs of his Creator. Amen.
Peace be on you.
May I add one more point.
Before anyone make effort to convert to Islam, he or she should check what was said about Latter days conditions of Muslims and the remedy.
This hadith of Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh) tells all:
The Companion Abu Hurairah (r.a.):
One day we were sitting with Holy Prophet when Surah Jumua [chapter 62] was revealed. I inquired from the Holy Prophet, Who are the people to whom the words, “And among others who have not yet joined them” Salman, the Persian was sitting among us. Upon my repeated asking him the same question the Holy Prophet put his hand on Salman and said;If faith were to go up to the Pleiades, a man from these would surely find it. [Ref: Book of Hadith, Bukhari]
“faith were to go up to the Pleiades” means absolute weakness in Muslim in latter days and which cane be seen, it has started since late 1800.
The remedy was coming of a promised reformer a servant of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.).
According to Ahmadiyya Muslim he has been sent and he started a reformation movement in Islam to bring it back to its real form.
Holy Quran promises continuation of Khilafat to true believers who do good work.
[24:56] Allah has promised to those among you who believe and do good works that He will surely make them Successors in the earth, as He made Successors from among those who were before them; and that He will surely establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them; and that He will surely give them in exchange security and peace after their fear: They will worship Me, and they will not associate anything with Me. Then whoso is ungrateful after that, they will be the rebellious.
Ahmadiyya-Muslim has believed that By by the grace of Allah the Exalted Promised Man has come and now his fifth Khilafat continues to establish peaceful real Islam in world.
There has been a false Khilafat too in Middle East, but any right minded and right hearted person can see how fasle it is.
Thus any good soul who try to come to Islam, IMHO should see which Islam they are joining?
More @ https://www.alislam.org/introduction/index.html