Family - USRA

I have noticed that a lot of people tend to inquire about my family when we are talking about my conversion to Islam. I thought it would be a good topic to address in my blog. All my life my family has supported me. They love me, and one way they express this love to me is to help me get on a righteous path. My family all comes from a Christian background of different sects, from Mormon to Episcopal to Pentecostal to Catholic. As a youth, my mother was a devoted Christian, even doing radio broadcasts of messages from the bible in Guatemala where she grew up. She was very strict with herself in reverence of Allah with every aspect of her life. She prayed and fasted feverently. We never missed church on Sunday. She always taught me the bible at home and sent me to church school when I was a child every week. At any rate, my mom always kept in her heart the scripture from the bible in Solomon's book of Proverbs (22:6) that says:

"Instruct a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it."

This is so true. My mother put me on the path that led me to Islam. She instilled in me a love for righteousness and a passion for pursuing the truth and obedience to Allah. May Allah bless my mom richly for what gifts she has given to me through this. I really began to study the bible on my own at the age of 14. This is when I began understanding the words without needing much outside interpretation. I knew I was beginning to grow spiritually. My mom allowed me the room to decide for myself. She never forced me to go to church. She just set the example of attending church, reading the bible, prayer and fasting and worship and serving others. All of these values easily translated into Islam for me.

I became a very devoted Christian however, before I even began to study other religions. I wanted to make sure I had a solid foundation in my faith before I began studying other faiths. I think that this makes sense. How could I look into other paths without fully questioning and testing my own religion? Once I completed a few complete read-throughs and thoughtful studies of the bible, I began to ask the hard questions. I began to wonder why we did not worship in a fashion more similar to how Jesus worshipped. I began to wonder why we needed an intermediary between us and God if Jesus' disciples did not and neither did Jesus, peace be upon them. I began to wonder why we believed that Jesus had to die for our sins to be erased, when Allah is oft-forgiving? Why if we can just kneel and ask God for forgiveness and repent from our sins we can be forgiven, would we need Jesus to die and be resurrected for God to forgive us?

I believed that Jesus was destined to be a martyr, and he knew that he had to, but not for that particular reason. I wanted to pray directly to God as Jesus had given through his example. I wanted to throw myself before God in prostration as Jesus did, not standing proudly as we do in church today. I wanted to humble myself before God. I could do all of this as a Christian however, if I wanted to, so this yet was not enough for me to separate myself from Christianity. At any rate, back to the topic - my family. When I first began to study other religions I had just taken a break from my career of 10 years in professional baseball, international relations. I was back at home and I wanted to study Judaism because Jesus lived as a Jew and Hebrew was the language used by the Hebrews with Moses and was a divine languages used by God. It was also related to other beautiful languages like Arabic and Aramaic.

I was fascinated by the roots of Christianity and I wanted to to the bottom of things. Why Christianity was as it is today with churches and pastors and their style of worship and belief in Jesus as God and the holy spirit. I wanted to understand where it all came from and why we needed it. I also admired the story of the prophets including Jesus, peace be upon them and I wanted to learn more about them. I was considering converting to Judaism because I wanted to worship only one God as the prophets did, peace be upon them. I wanted to go closer to the roots, and Hebrew was a better translation of the word of God than English in the bible. I wanted to learn what was included in the Jewish bible that was no longer or never included in the Christian bible, which I will not negate because I have learned so much from it and it helped to form me.

When my family saw me observing the sabbath in a more holy and reverent way than when I was christian, and when they saw that I began to take care of what I eat (kosher) and when they saw how I changed how I dress and how much I was learning about religion, they were supportive of my thoughts to become Jewish, like the prophets were before peace be upon them. I studied a lot about the Jewish religion, and I still do today, but one thing did not allow me to ever become Jewish. They do not believe that Jesus is a prophet of God! I could never turn my back on Jesus. NEVER. I love Jesus and believe in his message and I believe he was sent of Allah.

So I was at a crossroad. I did not believe from what I had read in the bible, that Jesus wanted for us to worship him like a God. I think he had different intentions than that. He was sent of God to bring an important message. Isn't this special enough? I love him just as much now as I did when I believed he was God. I just do not worship him. I only worship God. So I was stuck. I could not be Jewish and I could not be Christian. And I believe religion is important because it gives you guidelines to follow in your life. If you just decide to believe whatever you believe and be on your own, you will miss out on a lot and may miss the target for the after life. This is when I began to study Islam. I already told you that story so I will get back to family.

When I began to study Islam, my mom knew it because I shared with her the Surat Maryam. We began to discuss what little we knew about Islam. I began to study and ask a lot of questions about it. The more I learned the more I realized this is the path for me. When my mom knew I was planning to convert to Islam, she fully supported me. She helped me when I began to learn how to pray Salat and she always liked to hear me read the Qur'an. She has even expressed interest in becoming Muslim and she asked me for a Qur'an in Spanish which I got for her. Al7amdulellah.

My father was also very supportive of me. My parents are divorced so he is not around me as much as my mom. When we are together, we always talk about Islam. He is fascinated by it too. My grandmother and the rest of my family are happy that I am happy. My stepsisters support Palestine and seem to enjoy learning about Islam and the middle east. They also have Muslim friends, so my family is exposed to Islam in many ways, but through our own independent paths as Islam is not mainstream where we grew up here in Washington. My stepsisters' aunt's husband is Muslim and he lived in Kuwait for many years. He is originally from Pakistan. He talks with my family about Islam too.

Already I see how my life changed as a result of applying Islam to my life. I am also happy that I will be able to study Islam in my university. I was accepted not only to one but both universities and I was praying that even one accepts me because both are difficult to get into. I will be a junior this year, so I have two years left before my master's degree now. Al7amdulellah. So in the end, I love my family very much. I am the first Muslim in the family. I do not say the only, because maybe someday more people in my family will also take this path. insha allah. Anyway, I am very happy for this new path and I hope to share more with you about it in the future. Please share with others my web site and don't forget to leave me a comment or sign my guestbook and map. Peace be upon you all.