Nona's Birthday, and how I came to Islam

     So today, well yesterday now is my Nona's(Grandmother) birthday. She is 73 and more active than I am. She is the most amazing person I know and will ever know. She is so kind-hearted and non judgmental in so many ways. She was the first person in my family that I spoke with about reverting to Islam. You see I am from Dearborn, Michigan. The most Arab populated city in America outside the Middle East. So hearing that I wanted to be like everyone else wasn't a big shock to her, what the shock was that I wanted to believe and act upon those beliefs. We all grew up in this atmosphere, most of my friends were Arabic, I ate with them, went to weddings with them. I was already accepted for just who I was. I didn't need to change for them one bit. It wasn't until after I graduated high school did I realize that something was lacking from my life. I didn't have, need or want anything specific, but something was missing. My family is not religious in any way shape or form. Yes we celebrate all the holidays but in all honesty it was just a convenient  time everybody could get together. So when a friend of mine asked if I would like to go to a masjid for a function I was happy to go. Just to see old friends and socialize. While at the masjid I saw every single person praying at the same time in synchronized fashion, all focusing on the same goal-Allah. It was so moving and peaceful that I wanted to be apart of it too. So after some heavy reading and finding the courage to tell my family I said my Shahada. August 21,2008. We cried, laughed and at times was tried to be talked out of it. Some people thought I was crazy to want to cover and wear boring plain clothes. I really really loved the sleek look of an all black abaya, but my mom thought it was gothic looking and hated it on me. I did play around with different styles but that isn't what Islam is about. It's very hard to be guided in a direction that my family didn't see necessary. I had all the freedom in the world to do what I wanted and I chose this path. For the first year or so I had to kind of live a double life. Living at home with my parents I had to respect their rules and tip toe around with my beliefs. My mom was as helpful as she could be. She respected that I no longer ate pork or wanted alcohol used for cooking certain foods. Turkey bacon from now on. That was nice. Ramadan was very hard and very lonely. I had only myself to get me through Suhoor and Iftar-being the times they took place. After I met my husband things felt a lot better but still not right. We were engaged for almost 2 years living in different states trying to stay together. It really was hard but having him in my life helped me get through difficult times. After we did finally get married and moved in together, then everything just fell into place. I could really be myself and practice my religion with his guidance and help.

     But back to my wonderful Nona, when I told her about reverting she said something that has stuck with me to this day. She said,"Religion is such a personal thing in someones life that nobody else has the right to tell you what to believe. You don't need a specific building or person telling you what to do or what not to do (she meant the Pope) God knows what is in your heart and what your intentions are." Thank you for always being the best person and giving me so much wisdom in life.

 The Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) has said, "Those who do not show mercy to our young ones and do not realize the right of our elders are not from us."