lets have another islam thread.....a question....why convert?

simple question and hopefully i get an answer.
let me be fair and say i am not fan or religion. any religion. just being honest. i am not a believer and really dont understand people who are.
having said that it is all very interesting to me. all religions. the practices. customs. history. etc.

let me be clear about something out. i dont care about terrorism/terrorists. dont care about freedom/lack of. the bombings. none of that.
(for the sake of this thread i mean. just dont even want to get into it)

so please dont think i am making this question about any of that.

i am also not concerned with muslims that were born and raised with that faith. while i personally dont understand being a believer/follower of any religion i 'get it' when you are born into it and its all you ever knew.

im curious about the converts. especially converts from 'non muslim' countries.

what made you convert? why did you convert? what was the appeal of it?

i am asking about islam and not christianity or judaism because to me, islam seems to be a bit more on the strict side(well i am fascinated with judaism and its history and they do seem to have some strict practices too).

again, i know next to nothing about islam or being a muslim but .....

for women the whole covering your whole face/body.....whats that about? why would you at say 25 years old just decide you want to do that?
for me, why would you all of a sudden want women to do that?

the whole pork thing?

the whole prayer, prayer blanket, facing east or west or whatever it is and worship..... whats that about?

you making the pilgramage? whats that about?


just curious in general.
what is the draw?why decide you want to put yourself through any of that?


again, to be fair, i just dont get it. maybe for you all you feel it deep down in your heart and you feel it is right...awesome
more power to you. im just trying to understand why

i have very limited first hand experience with actual religion...most of it is from what i read and watch and my feeling of it simply just dont jive.
i think the clincher for me(at least 1 of them) was the fact that up until i was about 14 i had never been exposed to religion. my mom was kind of a hippie/free thinker type and my dad was a rough neck asshole pile of # that only cared about beer and scotch.

when i was about 14 my mom hooked up with a guy and they got married. still married to him. pretty good dude. anyway, we moved across country to be with him. he had a few kids much younger than me and they all went to a penticostal church. my mom agreed to bring me a few times for him, just to feel it out.
well it took me about 3 seconds to realize it was not my deal. im talking people were up and down the aisles, speaking in tongues and all that. that was my last formal experience with any religion.

just so you all know.

question still stands.

why convert?

As a woman I'd like to covert because of the fashion - my eyes are very beautiful and if I wore the full Hijab, it'd really show of my best asset.
Also I like checking out guys asses so always having to walk several paces behind would be to my benefit.

Hope my sincere and serious answers give you some help in your quest to understand this religion.

Here is a testimony for your thread, OP, since I'm not Muslim myself:

america.aljazeera.com...


I'm going to assume the answer is the same for all people who turned to religion or spirituality at one moment on their journey:

Because they weren't satisfied with their current life, beliefs and values, and wanted to try a new path.

nm i dont know

I converted for a number of reasons that would be too long to list here in one post.


Let me just say that I always believed in One God... All the messengers of God... And the Day Of Judgement...
Everything else was personal experience that fell into place when I read the Quran.


I was raised Catholic, yet never believed the dogma of someone dying for my own sins...
I never believed in extensions of God...
I never believed in public prayer...


The main tenets of Islam are belief in One God, The Messengers of God & The Day Of Judgement...
Then there are the 5 pillars...

Announcing the above,
Charity,
Prayer,
Pilgrimage (if possible)
& fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan (if possible)...

I had no problems with these Pillars...


Finally I read the Quran, not only did it explain my personal experiences that lead me to God...
But I agreed with the philosophy of Love, self defence, but mercy above all else.

Since you specifically asked converts, I won't say much. But you might want to know that even people who are raised in Muslim families aren't considered "Muslims" until we make our declaration of faith. This can only happen after we reach puberty & it has to be voluntary. For instance, I didn't submit to God until I was nearly 18yrs old, even though my Dad's an Imam. My Mom basically told us to learn about the world & just be the best people we could be.

So maybe you also should ask why Muslims chose to accept Islam? Every single person has a story to tell. Just as the members of every other religion may have numerous reasons why they accept those religions (or why they only accept specific denominations).

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

So maybe you also should ask why Muslims chose to accept Islam? Every single person has a story to tell. Just as the members of every other religion may have numerous reasons why they accept those religions (or why they only accept specific denominations).

to address this real quick.
i didnt ask because i get it.
your dad is an imam. clearly you have been around it all your life. no stretch that you 'accepted' it at 18 and whatever.
that i can wrap my head around.

cant wrap my head around someone not around it all their life then converting. trying to. thats why i asked converts.

originally posted by: TinySickTears

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

So maybe you also should ask why Muslims chose to accept Islam? Every single person has a story to tell. Just as the members of every other religion may have numerous reasons why they accept those religions (or why they only accept specific denominations).

to address this real quick.
i didnt ask because i get it.
your dad is an imam. clearly you have been around it all your life. no stretch that you 'accepted' it at 18 and whatever.
that i can wrap my head around.

cant wrap my head around someone not around it all their life then converting. trying to. thats why i asked converts.

No, you don't get it. I've read more translations of the Bible than I have of the Qur'an. I just gave away my Sufi books a few months ago, and I've probably studied more religions and occult sects than you even know exist. And just like a lot of other Muslims, my parents never pressured me either way on it.

I didn't become a Muslim because of my parents, the Qur'an, or even because of any of God's Prophets at all. I studied different philosophers & ideologies from Plato, Nietzsche, and Confucius to find out what theories matched what I felt made sense to me. I looked into what was released about from the Dead Sea Scrolls at the time, looked into the Cult of the Immortals, and different "primitive"/animist religions too. I looked into the Mazdakians, Hedonism, the original Cynics, and even Arianism (not to be confused with the Nazis' Aryanism). But flaws kept popping out that were simply too obvious to me.

But I still didn't become a Muslim because of that. I became a Muslim the same way most Prophets did; my personal relationship with God & Shaytan. I'd accepted that Shaytan was real before I even accepted that God was real. So I studied different occult sects like Hoodoo & paranormal conspiracy theories to see if it was simply a ghost, apparition, youkai, or simply something in my head.

And I constantly tested "God" to see if He was real or not. I keep making ridiculous demands, which He'd meet. He'd also chastise me, send messages to me, and prevent me from accomplishing my hidden plans by intentionally stopping me in the funniest or most outrageous way. But the scientist in me still wouldn't accept it. So the scientist in me would do "logical tings", like go out in storms & demand him make lightning in specific places as "proof" He was real. He did this twice, and then made the 3rd one strike in the place I was about to point to; but it was so close it seemed like everything turned white and I couldn't hear anything for a second. I ran back inside after that (i don't think i was actually struck but it was waay too close for comfort).

And even then I was still skeptical. Even when the "coincidences" kept lining up, when the "hallucinations" kept teaching me things, and the positive "intrusive voices" kept guiding me through the world, I was still skeptical. So they finally had enough of me when I was almost 18 and they absolutely crushed me. They all happened in tandem & let me know that what I was experiencing wasn't even a smidgen of what Hell was. I went to the hospital & they could find nothing wrong with me. And I still resisted for 2 full weeks. I was missing school (Senior year in high school) & all. Then I finally fell on my knees, face on the ground, and made my deal with those "presences". The situation/chastisement went away immediately. That's when & how I became a Muslim. And as ridiculous as that sounds, that's only the beginning of my path in Islam.

So, now you "get it" with me, right? It had nothing to do with your preconceived notions and I'm sure a most other Muslims have similar stories.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

i guess man.
sure your dad being an imam had nothing at all to do with it.

either way i stand by what i said.
the fact is you were raised around it so while i appreciate your honest input, i wasnt really looking for it.
i am curious about the people that converted or 'chose' to become a muslim after not having been around it for their whole like....you know, like you

either way. thanks for the input.

let me add that i suppose i didnt like the beginning tone of your post with the no i dont get it stuff.
i mean you studied all the religions and so many books and yeah yeah. in the end you 'chose' islam though.
kinda feel like if pops wasnt an imam you might have 'chose' maybe humanism or pastafarianism or something



another thing.
im sure your father, the imam didnt nudge you at all in those 18 years or looking right?
ok. if you say as much then i believe you.

originally posted by: TinySickTears
cant wrap my head around someone not around it all their life then converting. trying to.

I don't think you are trying very hard IMHO.

The answer is very simple and it's this:

Because they weren't satisfied with their current life, beliefs and values, and wanted to try a new path.

Actually it feels more that you are trying to confirm to yourself that converting to Islam when not raised into it is irrational and that no sane people would do something like that.

The truth is that Islam, like all religion, is basically a personal path and choice and the image you have of Islam might be very different from the image someone else has of it. To some people, the decadent lifestyle of the western world is repulsive and a philosophy of respect, love and service to others is more attractive.

It's all a matter of perspective so if you want to understand why they convert you have to learn to stop thinking inside your own personal views of the world and start trying to put yourself in other's people shoes.