As I stood there, I never felt so empty in my life.

As I stood there, I never felt so empty in my life. There was the big void where my soul was supposed to be and I felt like Moses (pbuh) and his followers being chased by the enemy from all sides only to be confronted by the impassable Red Sea! I realized that it was time to make the call they had made. The call of faith-the call of God! I decided to return to the church of my youth, a Baptist church in Washington D.C.

I heard that there was a new pastor preaching there that was thorough and I decided to try him out. Praise God, the preacher was young, dynamic, and effective. He really made the Bible come to life in his sermons and made living for God seem real and worthwhile. Coming from the position of a person who was ready to kill himself, these messages were beginning to fill my emptiness and make me want to live and give life another chance.

I remember the nervous excitement of accepting the call to new membership at church and the newness and freshness of being dipped into the water at my baptismal ceremony. I felt reborn! Clean! With the lips I accepted Jesus (pbuh) as my lord and saviour but deep down in my heart, I was just reaccepting the reality of God in my life! As I went deeper in my walk of faith the problem that had almost caused me to slay myself vanished like an illusion!

Like it was only there to make me turn to my Creator! This gave me a new drive, motivation, and a sense of purpose. I became very active to the extent of encouraging a few of my friends to join the church. I would watch and listen to the pastor in awe, day dreaming of becoming one myself. I honestly felt that the best thing to do for a living would be to help people turn to God. Something that had proven to be so successful in my life.

But at the same time I was always very open-minded, especially when it came to spiritual truth, I think this is what made me a vessel to receive the full truth, in Islam. After a while I began a private hobby of studying world religions. The first book I read, The Religion of Man, was actually one that I had borrowed from a friend. The first chapter I read was the chapter on Islam and it was a tremendous surprise!

It began with a little Arabian history and a biography of the (pbuh) followed by an explanation of the basic tenants and doctrines of Islam. I could not believe the similarity and relationship that it had with Christianity. It wasnt some foreign religion made up by some foreign man who worshipped some foreign God.