بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Some would think that taking the shahada would be the end of the road on the journey to Islam. However, the shahda is only the beginning. After officially professing my faith in Islam came another obstacle; I had to tell me parents, who seperated and divorced when I was 4. My mother knew of my interest in Islam, and although she did not understand why I wanted to be a Muslim, she accepted it. Telling my father was an entirely different story.
My father came from a somewhat conservative, all-American background. He was raised in the Roman Catholic church and had very strict views on what was acceptable. We already had a difficult relationship, and I knew that telling him might break what we had. So I waited to tell him. I waited until I had garnered enough knowledge and courage to tell him. The response was worse than I had imagined. I became painted as this horrible family and religion traitor. What came next shocked me even more. Ridiculous insults to Islam, as well as outrageous (but unfortunately common among western non-muslims) slurs and slanders to the Prophet Mohamedﷺ. I was in utter disbelief listening to my father condemn me and virtually kick me out of his life, refusing to speak to me for months. Unfortunately this also strained my relationship with my stepmother, brother, and my sister. I felt alienated from the world because I had already given up what I was comfortable doing (obviously for good reasons), been disconnected from the majority of my friends who were non Muslims, developed a strain in half my family and had been virtually disowned by the other half.
But Alhamdulillah, Allah guided me through these first hardships. I made new friends at the masjid, and started learning new things to occupy my time with. Instead of trying to go to the mall to steal clothes or pick up girls, I went to the masjid to pray and picked up the Qur'an. Some of my friends still remained close, and my cousin began studying Islam as well. Another good friend of mine, named Tyler, had increasing curiosity into Islam. Frequently he would call me and ask me for advice and guidance spiritually. He told me how he didn't believe in Christianity but did believe in God. So I started giving him da'wah. I gave him my old English copy of the Qur'an. Since I was new to Islam I didn't want to give him misinformation, so I taught him what I knew and I took him with me to the masjid. After a short amount of time studying together, and many countless hours he spent alone studying, he felt he was ready for his shahda. So we went to the masjid, only 8 months after I had reverted, and he took his shahada.
With an old friend now becoming a Muslim, it really helped to keep me on top of my deen. I was also making many new friends at school and at the masjid. Some of my old friends who tried to teach me Islam in the past suddenly became my new best friends. They started teaching me more than the basics. I started learning about the traditions, sayings, and lifestyle of RasulAllahﷺ. From there I started studying the hadiths on my own. Islam seemed more and more perfect the more I was learning about it. Although I had yet to give up all of my past ways, I was taking bounds and leaps towards living a life for Allah swt...
سلام عليكم
عبدالرحيم
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