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Since many of you have asked me who I am or
why did I embrace Islam, I am going to offer a brief version of my story.
One must keep in mind that it is difficult to condense over 5 years
of experiences, feelings, impressions, into a brief summary. I want to first
say that I write this not to draw any attention to myself, but only to give
all praises to Allah who has led us all to
Islam.
This is my story of how I embraced
Islam. Let me tell you a little about myself first. My Name is Shawn Smith
and I am from New Brunswick, Canada. I was brought up a Christian but did
not seriously practice Christianity until I was 17. At that age I took
Christianity very seriously and became very zealous in my faith. About 1.5
years later I attended a Christian
college in order to prepare myself to
become a minister. After graduating from this college I was an assistant
pastor for about 2 years. Over the process of time I became
disillusioned with the practice of any faith whatsoever so I stopped going
to church. Although I always believed in
God I was just not interested in any
religion at the time.
In 1988 I began University where
I completed my degree in Politcal Science and Sociology. I continued my studies
at the graduate level at the University of Western Ontario in London Ontario
Canada. University opened up new worlds of knowledge for me which
I never considered before. I never
attended University with the view to
getting a better job in the first place, but to learn about the world around
me.
It was during my stay in London Ontario
that I became most interested in studying Islam. The adjoining college was
offering a short non-credit course on Islam so I decided to sign up for it
with the goal of learning more about the Islamic faith. Although I had Muslim
friends before this for the most part religion was never discussed.
I did not agree with
everything that the instructor told
me in the Islam class but I still kept going back as I was very interested
in learning more. I was actually disappointed when the course was over. I
was elated when I heard there would be yet another course on Islam in the
next semester so I sat in on that also. It was the same
instructor.
I can't remember now all the things
that we taking place in my mind at that time but I do remember reading the
Quran (in english of course) and being affected by it very much. I read it
on a regular basis and soon became convinced without any encouragement from
anyone else that the Quran was indeed the word of God. This is where my gradual
transition to the
acceptance of Islam began. No one pressured
me. No one preached to meor tried to convince me.I was on my own and knew
very few people in London to begin with. I began to attend Jumuah prayers
on my own and also the sunday
lessons given by the Imam. Since Allah
has made me a strong willed individual, I am was not very intimidated by
my new surroundings, nor did I care then or now what others
thought.
It was on February 1993 that I finally
took my Shahadah and I have been Muslim ever since. Allah has blessed me
with a Muslim wife who I have been married to for 4 years on Sept 21,
1998.
I know this is not very inspiring, but
may Allah be thanked.
In closing I say all priases are due
to Allah.
My Allah keep you all
well.
Yahya Abdul
Rahman
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