Transliteration: "Ashadu an la ilaha illa (A)llah, wa ashadu anna Muhammadan rasulu (A)llah."
English: I bear witness that (or I testify that) there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.
After openly declaring the Islamic Creed (The Shahada) what next? What changes? What does the above statement encompass? How much does your life change?
It is required that you recite the shahada, because it is only after you recite it that you truly become a Muslim (we are all born Muslims). The shahada is the first of the five pillars of islam, this goes to show you that it is very important. But you don't just say the shahada and expect everything to be well with you instantly, there are changes you have to make in your life for you to become a COMPLETE MUSLIM.
The Shahada:
The shahada can be recited privately, but it is preferred that the revert recite it publicly. This is so that all can know that he or she is now a Muslim, and so that all can rejoice with him or her.
I am also a muslim convert; I reverted when I was eighteen, and I didn't do it because of peer pressure or because someone was forcing me I to it. I reverted because I wanted to, because I just felt that was the right thing for me to do. And when it finally happened, it all seemed like a dream to me... I don't know how to explain it, but I believe there are certain things that are MEANT to happen (things that have already been ordained by God). And I believe that when the time comes for those things to manifest, nothing can stop them from happening. Well, my reversion was one of them.
I reverted because I did believe that Allah has no partner. I was a Christian, but I was never really satisfied with the religion. I always felt as if there was something missing. And being an African - we are very religious here - I was in church almost every Sunday, but still, I felt like so etching was missing (I started feeling this since I was fourteen - it was during this period I really started to read about religion and I found that Christianity wasn't really doing it for me. There was something missing. Something didn't just feel right.
As I grew, I began to realise that what my church preached made Jesus equal to God, and some churches - till this day - even preach that God came to earth in form of Jesus, so they pray and worship Jesus. This seemed preposterous to me, and ever since I began to come up with questions that had no answers, I started to reduce my attendance in church, and whenever I was forced to go - by my mother or my aunts - I would always be waiting for the time to leave. Whenever we stood up to say the closing prayer, I always fel so relieved. It was at this point I knew that something was wrong.
God is not Jesus, and Jesus is not God. God was not born, neither does he give birth to... And now that I have researched into what is really meant by "Jesus is God's only begotten son", I believe that it doesn't really mean that God bore Jesus, I believe that it means Jesus is God's creation, and (correct me if I'm wrong) he probably took part (whether actively or passively) in the creation of the things that we see as the world today. And so that is why he is referred to as God's only begotten son.
My father is a catholic, and I also felt like something was wrong about the scary statue of Jesus crucified on a cross. The last time I was in a catholic church was when I was just five years old, but I still remember how uneasy I was about "Jesus" staring at me. I tasted the communion (i think thats what they call the thing they feed the congregation) only once, and ever since then I have never been to a catholic church.
As I grew the trinity also didn't seem normal to me, it was intriguing and interesting at first, but a few months before I became a muslim, when I was with a catholic family and they were reciting some of the prayers they usually recite, I noticed something. Something didn't seem right about the way they said their prayers! It is either they pray to Mary, or they pray to Jesus, or they pray to one of the so-called saints! I mean, am I worshiping Mary, Jesus or a saint? I should be worshipping God shouldn't I? So, why do I have to involve Jesus or Mary in it? Praying to either of those three people means I can as well pray to Moses, Abraham, and David! They were all close to God and they were messengers of God in one way or a other!
(More About The Trinity: Refer to the Good News Bible [2nd Edition 1994] (The Bible Societies / HarperCollins) on the Son of God - Matthew 3:17, Matthew 14:33, Luke 1:32 & 35, Luke 4:3, Luke 8:28 and so on. There are many more than these. See Wikipedia for a comprehensive list of Verses in the Holy Bible.)
In the next article, we'll talk about the five pillars of Islam and more about the path to becoming a Muslim...
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