Wow, another Muslim Australian on GAF? Never thought I'd see the day. Though unlike you I was born Muslim and my parents are Lebanese. Live in Melbourne.
Nice
where abouts? My parents live there so I go down there a lot. It is a small community so you never know, I might know people you know. I hang out with a couple of comedians from down there (Aamer and Nazeem), along with people like Waleed Aly
Always interested in hearing about converts. So far I've only met two Australians who've converted and they had really awesome stories to share. Do you mind sharing a bit about yours?
Sure thing, though it is kind of hard to compress the story... then again it isn't as interesting as any I've heard, one brother I know is Indigenous and a Bra boy, the brother found Islam and then found out he was Ahlul Bayt :-o crazy crazy story.
I was a very virulent atheist for most of my early life. I was studying at uni and had a sociologists interest in religion. I looked into all of the different faiths that I had access to with a kind of morbid curiosity.
I met a brother, Karim, through uni and started quizzing him about his religion. He didn't feel comfortable to answer some of my aqidah questions so he asked me if I wanted to come to a talk that was going on at the time. It was Ramadan.
So I rocked up to a class being held in Auburn in a basement lol. The teacher there was Sheikh Naeem Abdul Wali, a white convert who studied in Fatih in Turkey. I found that the aqidah of the Muslims was a sledgehammer to so many paper walls of my understanding. This is not to mention that the pious people amongst the Muslims had a moral character I had never seen.
Everyone has some idea of what they would like to be, but with most people I knew, and certainly with me, there was a huge gap between what that was and how they were. However amongst these individuals, there was no gap. They had such a beauty of character that I was awed. It strikes me to this day. A humbleness, a selflessness but also a strength.
I went to classes every day from then on, then after a two weeks, the Sheikh came up to me and asked me 'so why aren't you Muslim yet?'. So I took Shahadah in the basement with Karim and him. It was the greatest moment of my life. The fulfilment of the fitrah was such a deeply moving thing.
Since then I have never looked back, though we all have our set backs. I met my wife 6 months after my conversion, and so the other half of my religion was fulfilled. Most of my friends ditched me after my conversion, though it went both ways (I used to drink and party alot). The exception was a mate who when I converted asked me 'does it make you happy?' and I said yes, so he said cool, and we are still friends. Praise God for that.
My parents are both historians and were cool with it, though when I went to the Blue Mountains for a 'deen intensive' they had a bit of a freak out. My grandma was a hardcore Irish Roman Catholic and disowned me though. In general the rest of my family saw that the change was a positive one in me, I stopped partying and got serious about my life.
AlhamduliLlah.
Ah ok, so are your parents/siblings/wife etc religious? If so, are now also muslim?
My parents were raised religious but don't have a specific faith now. My sister is an atheist. My wife was born Muslim and was getting into the religion when I first met her.
I live at Holgate (obscure acreage area), it's close to Erina and about 20min from Gosford. You know the area?
An old housemate of mine was from Terrigal, and the wife and I went up the coast for our Honeymoon, we like to go up there every now and again. It is a beautiful place in some areas, though my housemate really dissed how it was to live there.
I am a white convert from Australia. I have been Muslim for more than four years now, I took my Shahada in Ramadan of 2006. I am now 24.
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