Yes! EX-Catholic woman accepted Islam
Here is her story of strange things..
Asalamu Alaikum, I was a Catholic Christian. (name and email address deleted for privacy)
In the beginning of this year 2006, my intention was to get a stronger connection to God. Little did I know, Islam would find me.
I thought I would be attending Church more often and follow Christianity more closely. Also, after one night tired and crying I kneeled to the floor and begged God to show me his light and I would follow.
I can explain what brought me to that moment, but it would take another long letter to describe. So, I will just proceed to my next point: To my beautiful surprise, Islam found me and I am submitting as I go in my journey and following Islamic practices, as I’m learning them.
I took my Shahada 9/24/06, and I’m in the process of learning to pray and follow Islam more and more closely. Prior to my Shahada, I lived a decent life mixed with some western culture ideas. It was normal to chat online and have friends.
Throughout my life, I have never really had male friends, until last year recently, when I decided to be more open to the idea of friendships. I acquire 5 male friends, but still felt a little unnatural for me.
One of the male friends I asked was from myspace.com where I requested a male friend as a friend. My focus back then was not on gender, my focus was having a balance social circle of friends, whether it was online or online. He called my attention for a couple of reasons: One-he wrote a very strong statement, which I interpreted as screaming for help, and reason two: was because at that time I was getting more and more intrigued on what “Muslim” meant. My ignorance back then thought “Muslim” was the actual religion versus being “Islam”. All this occurred prior to being Muslim and my intrigueness of Islam.
We started exchanging chats since July on and off. I sincerely just viewed him as a friend (no feeling attraction is what I mean, when I say friend) I learn through my experience of having male friends that if you can see a male without personal attraction and it can be called a friend, but there is also a fine line, where our weakness can overturn that view.
So, that did not work out in my preference. This theory of my prior to becoming Muslim was proven with Islam. I have disconnected myself from those friends with the exception of one, which is the gentleman I’m referring myself to in this letter. My way of helping him back then was to marry him and save him from his situation. I feel that anyone is entitled to come to this country and have the opportunity to advance oneself.
My background is Mexican and I have personally experience the sadness of family members dying to come this nation. I actually have proof of our chats, I literally printed our initial conversations for some odd reason. He refused my help and said that is not the idea of marriage and that he did not want my charity. I realized that and I agreed. As our conversations grew, I started developing confidence to tell him about my interest in Islam and going to lectures.
Sometime in September things took a different route, slowly I developed an attraction for him. His whole intention from, he only knows, is to get married. Actually, all our debates since the beginning have been on marriage. (Yes, the beginning was full of debates), but one day I felt the sense of loosing him, and somehow I changed my views. I decided to myself that I am literally going to take him serious, see him as a possibility of marriage and really in a serious manner consider marrying him. Since then we have the intention of marrying each other. In my very young journey in Islam (and very recent 9/24/06), I am learning that it’s not Islamic to co-mingle with men other then my brothers and Dad.
I do have the understanding that its ok to talk with other men just to serve the purpose of communication for necessity, but no more then that. As my way of life is changing, how do I handle this situation? I am attracted to him, I don’t want to loose him, I do have the true intention of marrying him and form a family where we both may please God, InshaAllah, but I’m not sure of how to handle this situation. What do I do at this point of my journey in Islam? How do we handle this situation in an Islamic way? He lives in another country and I live in Chicago.
I believe I have handle myself well and decent within the limited knowledge I have of Islam and my values put together. I do fear Allah and its one of the primary reasons, Im seeking advice in my prayers and a scholar yourself. All we have exchanged is pictures of each other (decent) and he has called me 4 times. But, I believe the handle of this situation is out of my reach at this moment because my knowledge is very young and limited.
I love Allah and put Allah first in my life, this is the reason I seek through my prayers God’s guidance and your knowledge on how to handle this particular situation. I may have already said that.
My bottom line is that I want to make and do the right thing to please and have God’s blessing InshaAllah, if I marry this man over us, as well as my family’s. My family is Catholic, Im a revert to Islam and Im trying to learn and apply as much information as I can, but I have stumble accross the topic and I’m not sure on how to handle it.
I truly believe in my heart this man is good and his intentions are good and his faith is bigger then mines. These are my primary reasons to even consider him as a husband. I truly believe he can be a good husband, a great father that will guide his family closer to God. Otherwise, I will not waste anyone’s time. But, I am also writing to you because your knowledge will help determine my direction with this man and the handle of this situation in this particular time of my journey in Islam.
Please excuse my ignorance and God forgive me for anything ignorant I might have said. Please advise. Thank You.