Ibrahim Davison

Growing up I was raised Methodist, liberal Methodist at that. I was taught by my parents that God is God and Jesus(pbuh) was not a god. I guess you could call my parents 'part-time' Christians. They would attend church when it was Easter, Christmas, or whenever they felt guilty about not attending on a regular basis (and that was rare.)

My sister, the rebellious one of the family, instilled in me that I should question everything. She questioned my father on racism and taught me, to treat others as I wanted.

My world was perfect, until I was 13 years old. I went to a church and was told that I was being punished for commiting a sin. I began to wonder: how am I being punshed, for what sin, and according to the Bible, didn't Jesus(pbuh) die for our sins? The answers were none to good. First, I was being punished by having a rare heart condition that few children survive from, and that I was being punished because I was born. Wait!!!!!! Because I was born??? How can a person be punished for life before commiting a sin? Guilty for something I never had control of!

I began to question this reality I just was faced with. God was evil. I thought that we were to live a good life, without sin, and we would then get into heaven, at least that is what the Church taught me. I began to think, if God is evil by what I learned, then to fight evil, I had to fight God. I felt that the best way to go against God was to deny his existance. I became Athiest.

For the next 10 years or so I was in denial of His existance. I partied and did things that I am now ashamed of. I however, did start to read about the history of Palestine and Israel. I began to see that others were fighting over God.

Over the next couple years I slowly started to read about religion: Judaism, Hinduism and Buhhdism. They all taught to live a good life and you will be rewarded. Judaism taught that man was without sin. Great! But they too were hypocrits -- case in point Palestine. I still felt empty, I wanted God, but I felt he didn't want me.

In 1994, I took a class in college, Western Civilization. We had a test over Rome, Byzantium and Islam. I felt confortable with the first two, but Islam? I heard of it, but didn't know anything about it. So, I went to the MSA on campus and asked questions. The Muslims there answered every question politely. Every answer made sense to me. God (Allah-swt) was merciful, kind and forgiving. Man was without sin and all people were equall regardless of race, nationality, ect. Acceptance of other faiths was present. I took the test and got a good grade. I decided to continue to read up on Islam. The more I read, the more I felt that God was wanting me, I just never knew God. Now I did. Begining the first part of January 1995, I started to learn the Shahadah, a little bit of Arabic -- so that I could pray, and the basics of Islam. On March 17, 1995, I took the Shahadah in front of the Mosque. Alhamdulillah! I now felt accepted and loved by Allah-swt.

Story taken from http://www.islamfortodaysworld.com