أنا مسير
My Journey
By: Triple A (احمد عبد الاول)
It was probably in October of 1980 when I made a decision to start attending church on Sundays again. As a child I had been raised in the Pentecostal Church and Sundays were always spent in church. A typical Sunday would be for my sister, two years older, and I to leave early in the morning to attend Sunday School classes which began before regular church services, my parents would leave later for the morning service, and when Sunday School classes ended my sister and I would join the congregation for the remainder of the morning service which would end in the early part of the afternoon. After the morning service my mother, sister, and I would visit with my older brother and his family have dinner with them and remain at their home for the afternoon. As evening approached, my mother, sister, and I, would be back at church for the evening service then return home that night.
I stopped attending Sunday School classes as I got older and church altogether in my mid teens so by the time I decided to start attending church again at least twenty years had gone by. I had begun feeling guilty about my absence from church and resolved that the coming Sunday my wife our children and I would start attending the morning service at one of the churches I had attended as a child and would continue to do so on a regular basis, but it never happened. By the time Sunday arrived I had caught a virus and had to remain at home. I was uncomfortable but not in any pain so I spent my days alone at home watching television, reading, and enjoying not having to go to work each day and being lazy, but I finally became bored. It was on one of those boring days as I was lying on the floor only half watching the television that I noticed a book on the shelf beneath the television set in the family room. The book was The Qur’aan; it was a M. M. Pickthall edition with the English and Arabic texts side by side on each page which had been given to me by a coworker and friend earlier that year. I had forgotten about even having it and it was exactly where I had placed it when I brought it home that day, still there because I had not been interested in it in the least. Until that point I was totally ignorant about Al Islaam, Al Qur’aan, and Muslims despite being born and raised in New York City and knew of them for most of my life. The only thing that I was aware about Muslims was that they dressed different.
So here I am lying on the floor, I'm bored and it’s fairly early in the day, so out of sheer boredom I opened the book and began reading it. Surprisingly, what I was reading was interesting so I continued to read over the next few days; the more I read the more it made sense to me. I estimate I had probably read about one third to half of The Qur’aan when I knew that I was going to be a Muslim, one of those people who dressed different. When the realization came to me it was subtle and there weren’t any miraculous events; there wasn't a blinding light from the heavens shining down on me, no thunder from the sky, no visions of floating beings, no strange power taking control of my body, there wasn’t even a booming voice saying “BE A MUSLIM”, nothing strange happened. What happened was the truth, that was what I was reading; my soul was convinced, it talked quietly to me, and when your soul talks to you, listen.
So I’m listening to my soul and know I'm going to be a Muslim, but how do I do it? Don’t forget I’m ignorant about Al Islaam except for what I was currently reading in The Qur’aan. I had grown up in the Pentecostal Church so I was aware of baptisms and knew all baptisms in Christianity were not carried out in the same way, but so far I had not read anything in The Qur’aan about it. Since I had not finished reading The Qur'aan maybe Muslims were also baptized and I just didn’t know how they did it, that made sense to me. Once I recovered enough from the virus to leave home I learned of an Islamic community where they held Saturday afternoon classes on Al Islaam, I'm feeling comfortable already now because I'm thinking these classes might be similar to the Sunday School classes I attended as a child, and which some adults attended also except theirs were called Bible Study classes. I probably only attended about three or so classes; just enough to learn from them that I needed to recite what they called Shahaadat (testimony, in Arabic, that there is no God except God and that Muhammad was his Deliverer) and I would be a Muslim. I did so on the evening of November 29th, 1980 right after one of the Saturday classes. When I arrived home that evening my wife was on the telephone but she let me know the call was for me, it was my friend who had given me The Qur’aan, he called to tell me he had recited Shahaadat the day before and was now a Muslim, then I told him I had just returned from doing the same thing. We both had a good laugh about that because we had not previously discussed anything about Al Islaam together, even after he had given me The Qur’aan. What had occurred came as a surprise to both of us and technically since we were now both "born again" Muslims, he's my older brother, by one day.
I was now supposed to be a Muslim, have recovered completely from the virus and returned to work. I continued reading The Qur’aan but I never did go back to church on Sunday’s, it was replaced by attending Jumuah (Friday) Khutbah’s (talks, lectures, sermons) at various Masaajid (Islaamic houses of worship). I began frequenting Masaajid around the city and becoming acquainted with other Muslim brothers, some of whom on learning that I was new to Al Islaam took me under their wing and began to teach me about diyn Al Islaam (way of life of submission to God) and about The Qur’aan.
Some people once they have learned how I came to Al Islaam have remarked that I had probably been searching for the truth, been looking for the meaning of life, or some other higher purpose. They made it sound as if I had been on some sort of spiritual quest. I correct them because as wonderful as all of those may sound none of it was the truth; it was no more than reading The Qur’aan to relieve boredom. If I was searching or on some quest it was not consciously, therefore I attribute it to just being blessed.
My Journey did not end there, it is going on even now, and I hope and expect it will continue to be so into the future. So, as My Journey continues I intend to come back to update this account of it as memories from the past sort themselves out, become clearer, and as the future unfolds and becomes the present for me.
Last Updated 02/12/2010