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Hello to all! My name is Nicole, six years ago I met my best friend who later bacame my husband. My husband is Muslim and he was born in Jordan and came to The United States with his parents when he was 10. I was born here and have been a christian since birth. We have two beautiful children. Our daughter Rasha is 3 soon to be 4. She will be attending an Islamic school next year. Our son Sami is 1 soon to be 2. He is our baby. I get along very well with my husbands family, and it is because of them I have been learning about Islam. They answer many of my questions, and help me in any way they can, especially because I want my children to live a good life full of faith. I have learned much about Islam and I have much more to learn, but even now I can feel a pull towards converting, although I feel a need to have a better understanding of Islam before doing so. Due to ignorance and intolerance many of my family members and friends no longer speak to me for two reasons, firstly because I married a muslim man and secondly because I am teaching (along with my husband and his family) my daughter to follow Islam. I know in my heart that God has set a path before me. I was told when I was a teenager (after many, many medical tests) by four doctors that I would never bear children. Fourteen months after marrying my husband we conceived our daughter, and after a difficult pregnancy we had a beautiful daughter. I give all credit to God for her, he blessed me with her. When I became pregnant with our son, the doctor did not have a medical explaination to how I was 12 weeks along, when he said I should not have been more than 4. Again, A miracle from God. I believe with my heart that after I began to learn about Islam and defended Islam to non-believers God rewarded me and set me on the correct path. I hope God continues to influence my heart to the correct path.

Welcome to the forum Nicole, good to have you on board and thanks for sharing your story.

I look forward to more of your posts.

a lovely story.

it looks like u are ready to convert, i would refrain from delaying. who knows what might happen tomorrow and it might be too late.

inshallah god will reward ur efforts.

Assalamu alaikum
I have finally spoke to my husbands family about my intentions of converting. They are all very happy, and have promised to help me learn. My sister-in-law advised me to finish reading the Holy Qu'ran before I go to say the shahada, but when I am ready they will go with me. She said that she has been seeing more and more converts, and she is very happy that I am wanting to convert after learning Islam for the past 6 years. I started learning about Islam so I could have an understanding of my new family's beliefs and to show my respect of them, I never thought my journey that started 6 years ago by learning would have lead me to wanting to convert. Thank you for your kind comments and I hope if I have any questions this forum can answer them, and InshAllah when I go to say my shahada I will make sure I post about it. Thank you all!

Aww mashAllah.

Hi NicoleAbdel...

Thank you very much for your story. I appreciate it. I have had several Muslim friends from Iran, India and Morocco. After a number of honest conversations with them, I have found their common spiritual journey. I shared this story with other Muslims without any objection. If I am wrong, please correct me. Their spiritual journey is as if they were crossing a huge canyon through a narrow bridge made of ropes. They are afraid that they might fall off the shaky bridge to the bottom of the canyon by disobeying one of the religious duties they were supposed to follow at all times. They are not sure if they would meet their Creator face to face in heaven by successfully crossing the seemingly endless bridge. They appear weary and burdened with keeping all the religious duties and requirements at every moment. They are guilty of breaking one of them and afraid of Allah’s punishment for their failure. They are uncertain about their eternity in heaven in spite of their hard efforts.

Here was my short answer to them that I also want to share with you. Are you sure or uncertain that God loves us? I believe you are 100% sure He loves us. Are you sure or uncertain that God wants to bring all of us to heaven by crossing the canyon successfully? I believe you are also 100 % sure He wants to bring all of us to His place, heaven. Then, why does God not provide us the sure way to eternal life, because He created us as the focus of His love? Then, why does God make the way to heaven so difficult for His own children that even one of you is not sure of spending eternity with their own Creator? God wants to meet us much more than we want to meet Him, just as parents want to meet their children much more than children want to meet their parents.

The wonderful news is that the eternal life is a gift from God. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). This wonderful gift of eternal life is obtained by faith, not by performing religious duties and rituals. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). In fact the most precious things in life such as air that we breathe, Sun light that we receive, and our very life are all gifts from God or parents, for which we do not even pay a penny. Is this because they are cheap? No, they are more precious than diamond and gold. Actually they are priceless. We receive this wonderful gift of eternal life by accepting Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord, and thus becoming the children of God, and thus having confidence to meet our Creator face to face in heaven.

In all truthfullness I will be 26 years old in November, and for those 26 years I have spent as a christian I felt as if I was walking a tightrope across a canyon . (and by no means am I saying all christians feel this way I am only addressing what I was taught) I was constantly told I was going to burn in hell. I fell in love with a non-christian (I was told that is a no no in the bible) I smoked, I wear makeup, deodorant....I have always felt that those were pretty stupid things to be condemmed to an eternity of fire and torture . I always felt as though I was never doing enough when it cam to worshiping GOD. All the questions I asked never recieved an anwer except "you just have to accept it". Why then is the bible full of hypocracy? One page it says "All men sin" and on another it says "no sin shall enter heaven no not one" why does it tell women to cover their heads when they pray, yet none do? When I asked this I was told by a preacher, it was a cultural thing from the bible was written. WHAT? (1 Cor. 11:5-6) Also who is this great comfortor that is talked about in the book of John? I have been told it's the holy ghost. It does not say that. (John 16:7-14, John 14:16-26) Another thing is did the egyptian mythical god Horus have a mirrored life to that of the Christian Jesus (and he was "around" 1000 years before Jesus)? Another thing that I can't understand. Christians are against gays/lesbians (strictly speaking of what is written in the bible) yet Jesus never spoke about gays. Jesus spoke about forgiveness and to love thy neighbor, yet wasn't it a christian pastor in Florida trying to rally an internation "burn a qur'an day" ? Christians are not supposed to judge one another yet constantly say who is going to hell and who isn't. I thought that was up to GOD. I have not attended a church since 2003, when my Grandmother passed away, I loved her but she was an evangelical christian. She had stage 4 ovarian cancer, anyone who wanted to be around her could not be sick and had to have her flu shot, yet members from the congregation of her church came to "lay their hands on her to heal her" only GOD can use miracles to heal, he's GOD he does not need us to help him heal a sick person through faith. They put their dirty germ infested hands on her, she got sick, and died much sooner than expected. She sent money to "preachers" on TV who promised to send her a prayer rag that would heal her. I watched as she gave her social security money to these frauds, in exchange for an old dish rag. I walk through a store and hear "christians" making comments about women wearing the hijab that are walking in front of them, about they hope she don't blow walmart up. How is it ok to say hurtful things but call yourself a christian? How is it ok to call a newborn baby a terrorist (that actually happened to me when my daughter was born). Some people are good Christians and I am not saying all are bad, or anything. But I have an uncle to who is a preacher who is teaching that muslims worship a different GOD. and people are actually believing him. The jewish God, christian God and muslim God are all the same God. Allah is arabic for God, when a french person prays and says Dieu are they praying to an alternate God because they are praying in their native language? No. I will never tell someone of another religion they are wrong, none of us can say that with 100% accuracy until we die and go before God. But we are only on this Earth for a short period of time, why should it be like this? It shouldn't. I won't ask anyone to accept my faith, just as I won't tolerate some one asking me to accept theirs. My journey has been six long years in the making. I have a good grasp on what I was raised, but in MY heart I believe that I should be a muslim. I am not a stupid person, I have done my research, and I have learned a great deal. But in the end we are all responsible for our own actions on this earth, no one can answer for your sins the same way you cannot answer for anyone elses sins . Religion is a personal choice and a choice made for your eternal soul. I think if everyone understood that and just tried to understand everyone else, we would live in a much better world .

Hi NicoleAbdel…

Thank you very much for your story. I appreciate it greatly. I understand much of your story. Apparently you must have experienced Christianity as a legalistic religion. Namely, you were under constant threat with the fear of punishment and hell fire for doing what you were not supposed to do and for not doing what you were supposed to do. I am very sorry for your hurtful experience in the past. Apparently you did not experience the grace of God, the whole point of our faith. You have talked about so many issues. I hope to have enough time to answer all of them, but mention a few points in this post.

We should be allowed to ask any questions about God and some of them could be remain unanswered. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). We should accept that there are things with God that we cannot understand by our human reasoning. I do not think the Bible is full of hypocrisy. All men have sinned and thus cannot go to heaven unless their sins are completely forgiven. Covering the heads while praying is a cultural thing. Why is God angry to see women’s hairs, but not men’s hairs? Our God is not that picky. Of course the great Comforter is the Holy Spirit, because He was described as a divine Being. I do not think Jesus was copied from an Egyptian god Horus, which is your misunderstanding told by other people. The Bible is very clear that homosexuality is a sin. Did Jesus come to the world to tell people about every detail of which is sin and which is not, although it is clear in the Bible? Jesus came to show us the way to the Father through forgiveness of our sins on the cross. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Regarding Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, I offer my sincere apology to you and other Muslims. Most Christian organizations have condemned the small group of people for their decision to burn Qurans. Personally I have sent him three separate emails to tell him there are many other polite ways to convey his message.

I will try to answer the rest in the next post. This is my short description about my spiritual journey with God. When my children were small, I remember the deep satisfaction of watching them sleep. Sometimes the day had been filled with problems and disobedience, but asleep they looked contended, secure, and peaceful, and I was reminded of how much I love them. They do not have to do anything for me to love and enjoy them. I am happy to just watch them breathing, because they are my own children. This is how God loves His children. When they are sleeping, God gazes at them with love because they were His idea. He loves them as if they were the only person on earth. You may have had unpleasable parents or leaders as you were growing up. Please do not assume God feels that way about you or God were like them! He knows you are incapable of being perfect and sinless. God loves us just as we are, because we are His own children.

Hi NicoleAbdel…

Here is the rest of the answer. I agree with you that we are not supposed to judge others, although we do it anyway due to our sinful nature. According to your description, the congregation of your grandmother’s church should have been more careful. But more often God helps us through His people instead of doing it remotely in the distance. God is not far away, but very close and personal. I apologize that there are some people on TV to heal the sick just for money rather than out of compassion. You may be right that there are some Christians making bad comments about women in hijab. The major stereotyping of Muslims seems to be as a result of September 11 attack and following events such as Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan where hundreds of Muslim young men shouted "Allahu Akbar" with the Quran on one hand and with an AK 47 on the other hand. But we should avoid stereotyping of other people. As I talk to Muslims in depth, there are some differences in the nature of God in Islam and Christianity, while there are much similarities.

As a seeker for God I believe we were created to worship the Creator, not to perform religious duties and rituals to take away God's anger against us. Worshiping means enjoying God as much as we can, and expressing our joy and thanks in most genuine ways. We were created to be loved by God as the focus of His love, because "God is love" (1 John 4:16). Let us not miss our full potential as true human beings whose heart overflows with joy, thanks and freedom in a loving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Thanks you for the post.
Hi guys, Im a newbie. Nice to join this forum.

nm this post!

This post has been edited by Nazia1987: Sep 19 2010, 08:20 PM

Hi Nazia1987 and NicoleAbdel…

As I mentioned above, there are similarities between our God described in the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) and your God described in Quran, such as infinite, almighty, eternal and holy nature of God. But there are clearly some differences. Here is one of them. God’s love for us is unconditional in character, which is well-known in the Bible. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Regardless of whether we will obey Him or not, or whether we will submit to Him or not, He first gave us Jesus as God's forgiveness for our sins. This unconditional love motivates our deepest submission to God. But I see the opposite in Islam. First Muslims submit to their God. Then under the condition of their submission, their God (Allah) loves them, which is nothing but conditional love.