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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Converts To Islam How Simple... and Simply Beautiful Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was Salaam ala Rasulillah; As-Salaam Alaikum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa-Barakatuhu Who believe in the Unknown, and fulfil their devotional obligations, and spend in charity of what We have given them; Who believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed to those before you, and are certain of the Hereafter.

They have found the guidance of their Lord and will be successful. As for those who deny, it is all the same if you warn them or not, they will not believe. Allah has sealed their hearts and ears, and veiled their eyes. For them is great deprivation [2: 3-7 Al-Quran translation by Ahmed Ali].

Although there are far more interesting stories of people becoming Muslim during the times of the Prophet (SWA), I feel that it is critical to recount to other Muslimahs and non-Muslimahs a story that can be easy to relate to given our current times and circumstances. Let me first give a comprehensive history of who I am, where I came from and who I was before Allah showed me the right path.

I was born in 1975 to an upper middle class Christian family living in the farmlands of Eastern Washington. I lead a very happy carefree childhood full of swimming in the lake during the hot desert summers, ice-skating and snow-mobiling in the winters and many boat and horseback rides in between. My life was full of more leisure than worship, as I barely remember going to Church.

Except for a few Easters spent looking for money in haystacks at the Golf and Country Club and ripping through piles of presents stacked around the Christmas tree, my understanding of God was limited to such experiences. It was not until many years later that I even realized what the religious reasoning was behind such holidays. In 1982, my reality became abruptly severed due to the divorce of my parents.

The world that I had known became a thing of the past, and I spent a lot more of my time crying and feeling angry than I did frolicking with friends as I had done before. It felt as if my parents had deceived me, and I started to become very unsure about life. New town, new schoolmates, new neighborhood, and new stepfather! Change is an inevitable way of this life, but it was still very foreign to my young mind.

During my first few years on the Island, I was fortunate enough to live in the neighborhood where the only Muslim family lived.