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Brad Johnson : My conversion to Islamic Beliefs
In the Name of
Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
A word of warning:
This information contains items of a personal nature and deals with sensitive
subject matter, in fact, it could shake the very foundation of your current
belief systems, so consider yourself forewarned !
What is Islâm
The belief and worship of the one God, the God of Moses and Abraham. The word
for God in Arabic is "Allâh"
What is Muslim
A Muslim is a person who is of the Islâmic belief
The Main Story
Why did I become a Muslim? To know that, you must first know some history of my
religious background.
In America, a lot of people have Christian beliefs. There are variations to this
belief, but they are pretty minor as a whole. At the "core" of all of them is
the belief that Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins, and that by
believing that, you are "saved" and your sins forgiven. I remember going to
"Sunday school" with my mom from the age of about 5 years old until I was 10,
when I quit going.
The early years:
In the 70's:
When I was in Junior High, I came to know a group of people in a "club" called
"Teen life". They were having a gathering near the school, and a friend asked me
to go. I went and they were having some kind of outdoor activity, I really don't
remember what it was now, whether volleyball, or a water balloon fight or what,
but something of interest to teens. After all that, we gathered around, and one
of the young adults started talking, and it wasn't too long and I realized that
theses people were religious, as they were talking about the Bible and what
"Jesus" had done for them. Oh great, I thought, a bunch of "Jesus Freaks". I
knew what that stuff was all about as I had been to Sunday school, and I wasn't
having any of it!
Well, I hung around, I'm not quite sure why, and basically had an open mind.
After some time, I don't know how many months it was, I did become a Christian,
and I studied and tried hard to do my best. I was pretty happy with it, and life
in general, as it was much better than what had been going on in my life before
this. I was going to Wednesday night Bible study, and church every Sunday, and
special functions on Saturdays, or meeting for the occasional bible study after
school. As I studied and learned more of the Bible, I began to tie various parts
of it together in my mind...
This all went on until my sophomore year, 10th grade. In the last few years, I
had studied the Bible quite a bit, and i had become quite knowledgeable, so much
so, that I began to notice the contradictions in the Bible (because of my
memorization abilities). Pretty soon, these things started to bother me very
much! I asked people more knowledgeable than me about these things and was
told,"you must have FAITH, my son". Well, I am a reasoning person, and blind
faith without a good explanation just did not sit well with me. So I prayed to
God for the answers. I almost always prayed to God, not to Jesus (This should
have been a hint). During the first part of that school year, I woke up one day,
and the feelings of joy and contentment I usually felt were gone! I realized I
just didn't believe any more. There was no warning, no hint, no prior suspicions
about not believing. Just this one morning, it was gone!
So, knowing what I knew of the Bible (I had memorized a lot!), I told myself,
okay, if you EVER see the things of the Revelation coming true, then it is all
true, and that will be your proof! Why the Revelation? Why not any other part of
the New Testament? Well, I have a near photographic memory and a good ability to
reason, and my logic was this: The very last verse (or nearly so) of Revelation
says, "Let he who adds to this book, be added to him the plagues described here.
Let he who takes away from this book, be taken from him, his share of the tree
of Life".
Now most Christians had argued that this meant any part of the New Testament. I
read it as being quite Literal. "Let he who takes away from this book meaning
Revelation. Have you seen how each part of the bible is titled? "The Book of
Mark", "The Book of John", "The Book of Matthew", etc. Each one is a book,
therefore Revelation is a book, and the wording says "this Book". So that is how
I took it!
Late 70's, 80's and 90's:
I went on from that point pretty much downhill. I started drinking, hanging out
with the wrong crowd, etc. I did that for many, many years, and had my share of
trouble over it. I drank and got drunk constantly. I held jobs because I only
drank after work, and with a tolerance built up, was not having hangovers the
next day, so I could function. But I was still unhappy in life, and not feeling
fulfilled like I had when I was religious and praying all the time. I had no
faith in God, myself, or anything else.
Then, on April 17th, 1999 while messing around on the computer and hooked into
the Internet, I got a chat request by someone I didn't know. I was surfing web
sites, and was looking for something, and not knowing who this was, I almost
didn't answer back, but something inside said, "oh go ahead!". So I did, and we
talked and chatted for quite some time.
She would stop talking every so often to pray, and I became interested in this
belief that was so strong that one would pray so much, no matter what. I asked
what beliefs she had. I learned that she was a Muslim and had Islamic beliefs,
so I started digging on the 'Net. I found a general web site about the Qur'an,
and later a complete english translation. So, I studied the Qur'an (Koran is
English terms) and the first reading was quite an eye opener! I learned that
this was a belief in the same God as Christians, the God of the Old Testament,
in fact the Qur'an references the material the Old Testament was written from!
Where it differed was in the New Testament, saying that Jesus was a Prophet, not
the son of God. It says that God alone is to be worshipped, there is no trinity,
no son. So I thought, "okay... ", and I kept reading. There were references to
the End Times, the Trumpets blowing, etc. This is the same kind of things as
spoken of in Revelation! So I'm thinking, "how interesting, now we're getting
somewhere!" I learned that the Qur'an was revealed to a Prophet named Mohammed
(Peace Be upon Him) in about 600AD, which is where the Islâmic calendar starts.
I learned some other things that would really shake up a Christian (What?!?
More?!?) Yes, it is stated that Jesus was not up on that cross at all, but a man
with a façade over him to appear as Jesus. God had taken Jesus up to be with
him, not crucified. All of this news took a while to really sink in, It was a
while before I could fully accept that. I read of Moses and Abraham and Adam and
Eve, and all of the other things I was familiar with of the Old Testament, where
they are mentioned. It is not nearly as detailed as the Old Testament, it does
not have to be, it says to reference the "Scriptures" as they were sent down
before. To the Jews, the people of Israel.
So, here I am, wondering about all of this, having the kind of religious
background I have, and hearing this new news. I think back to the day I lost my
faith in Christianity, and why. I think about what exactly it was that would
make me change my mind about God. Well, I have found the answers I seek! I do
believe what I read in the Qur'an. I once again have faith in God, and believe
that Mohammed was the last prophet sent to this planet. This is basically what
is needed to be a Muslim, other than praying 5 times a day, which is all spelled
out in the Qur'an.
On June 22nd, 1999 I "officially" did my Shahada (proclimation of faith), which
is detailed on another page. Many things changed after that, from almost that
very day! I totally lost all desire to drink or alter my reality in any way.
Within a week I quit smoking. I also lost the interest in having long hair. And
changes continue to happen.
I continue to read and learn, as I do not have the advantage of hearing this all
my life while growing up. But I think I can catch up!
This is the history and events that led to my becoming a Muslim, and I am quite
happy about it! So are all of the other Muslims I talk to!
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