My Journey to Islam

By Dawn Ross



Assalamu Alaikum to all Members,



Brother Maqsud asked me to write my story of my journey to Islam. There

is nothing very dramatic or remarkable in my story. I was living a very

comfortable life, active in my church, happy with my family, and not

facing any major difficulties. I wasn’t looking for Islam but Islam found

me. I’m hoping my story will promote a better understanding between

Muslims and Christians. I find both Muslims and Christians have many

preconceived notions of each other which are simply not true.



I grew up in rural northern Indiana. My father was raised in an

Amish/Mennonite (1) family and my mother was raised in a Baptist (2) family. I

had a very happy childhood amongst all my extended family of

grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We were all very close. Our faith was a

big part of my life. I can’t remember a time I didn’t believe in God. I

never once thought that our religious faith might have errors. My

childhood consisted of Church/Sunday School, Bible classes, summer youth

Bible camps and interaction with my Christian friends and family. All of

our holidays were centered on family and God. Thanksgiving, Christmas,

and Easter were all times for focusing on God, spending time with

family, and helping others. During the holiday season, our church collected

canned and packaged food, basic clothing and gifts for needy families.

There were many special programs at church and my family spent more time

in prayers and devotions. I know Christmas is very commercialized and

many Muslims who don’t know any Christians believe that’s all

Christmas is about. Christmas for my family was a time to focus more on God, to

celebrate the birth of Jesus (pbuh), and to do what you could to help

those less fortunate than yourself.



I attended a Baptist High School and a Mennonite College. I never

really interacted with people who believed differently than me. I did have

some problems understanding the trinity but it was understood to be a

mystery and I accepted that explanation. I also had some problems with

contradictions in the Bible but it was always explained by copy errors

and translation errors. My church believed the Bible to be the ‘inspired’

word of God not the ‘literal’ word of God. I explain this because

Christians have different beliefs about this issue. This is also difficult

for many Muslims to understand since Muslims believe the Qur’an to be

the ‘literal’ words of God. That difference explains why it’s not a big

issue for some Christians when you point out errors in the Bible because

they believe that the writers were ‘inspired’ by God and then it’s

possible that fallible human beings made copy errors and translation

errors.



My journey to Islam started with helping my daughter to find

information about Islam. During her Fifth Grade year of Elementary School, she

was trying to earn her World Religion Badge for Girl Scouts. She was

required to write a report about another religion. She chose Islam. I

helped her to find reading material and I read along with her both because I

wanted to monitor her reading and I was curious about Islam. One of the

requirements for the badge was she needed to talk to someone from the

chosen religion and ask them questions. This was the difficult part as

we didn’t know of any Muslims in our area. I tried calling some

organizations in some of the nearby larger cities but none of them returned our

calls. Finally, I thought of going online. I found a site where

children could get a penpal and she was matched up with a girl her age from

Iran. Luckily, the girl’s mother knew English and translated their

emails. They wrote to each other about their families, friends, school,

likes,

dislikes, and religious beliefs. The girls became good friends and

even started to think of each other as sisters. To sum it up, my daughter

earned her badge, gained a friend, and I started on my journey to

Islam.



The basic reading I had done with my daughter for her report had made

me curious enough to continue reading more in depth about Islam. I read

many biographies about the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). One story

which intrigued me was when the early Muslims emigrated to Abyssinia and

were protected by the Christian King Negus. This initiated me to start

reading about the early Christians and Church history to see how they

interacted with Islam and Muslims. I was surprised to find out there

were many early Christians who didn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus

(pbuh). Actually, the trinity and the divinity of Jesus (pbuh) were

imposed as church doctrine by the Council of Nicea 325 CE. How could such

integral beliefs of Christianity not be taught by Jesus (pbuh) himself?

This council also selected which books were included in the Bible and

which ones were discarded. I found it disconcerting to find out they

discarded the most early written eyewitness accounts and included the later

accounts of the gospels which were written by people who had no

personal contact with Jesus (pbuh). I read and agonized over these issues and

many others for over a year. Instead of being reassured of my beliefs,

the more I read, the more doubts I had about Christianity. It’s very

difficult to accept when you challenge your lifelong belief system and

find it to be lacking. Finally, I decided I needed to go beyond the

reading and talk to Muslims.



As previously stated, I didn’t know of any Muslims in my area so I

started with the Islam public chat rooms. The public chat rooms are

horrible with so much fighting and arguing. Finally, I met someone who was

willing to talk with me and answer questions. He was very knowledgeable

and answered many of my questions. He also suggested I try the user chat

rooms as there were people there who were trying to help people learn

about Islam. The Beginners to Islam user chat rooms were where I met

Brother Maqsud and Brother Dust. They both came online to try to help

others learn the truth about Islam. They answered my questions and

explained many things about Islam to me and to many others as well.



I started to read the Qur’an. I began with Sura Maryam because I wanted

to read what the Qur’an said about Jesus (pbuh). It wasn’t what I

expected. I would lay in bed at night reflecting and praying about what I

had read. I asked myself, “Does Islam have the right answers in my search

for the Truth about God?” There came a time when I realized I believed

Islam to be the truth. Islam is a beautiful religion because it is

simple and clear and isn’t bogged down with incomprehensible religious

doctrine. The concept of Tawheed, the oneness of God, is simple and easy to

understand. Islam is the same message brought to us by all the

prophets. The day I said my Shahada, I felt a peace I had never felt before. I

felt like I was at the end of a long journey when actually it was also

the beginning of a new journey. There is so much to learn about Islam.

I have been a Muslim for almost two years now. I read the Qur’an and

study as much as I can. I am fascinated by the study of Hadiths and I'm

slowly trying to learn some Arabic. I know I have much to learn.



I accepted to become a co-moderator of the Islamic Minds Yahoo group

(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IslamicMinds/ ) because I felt I could

help to be a bridge between Christians and Muslims. I am thankful to all

the members who send in great postings about Islam. I learn so much by

reading them and it encourages me to read and study more. I am also

honored to be a co-moderator of this great group Muslim Youth Connection.



I would like to invite any non-Muslim reading this to read the Qur’an

and to learn more about Islam. Remember that Allah (swt) guided you to

this page, to read these words for a purpose.



".... Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth unto Himself all

who turn (unto Him), Who have believed and whose hearts have rest in the

remembrance of Allah. Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find

rest!" Quran 13.27-28



your sister in Islam,



Dawn



Note: I included the following footnotes for those who are unfamiliar 

with these Christian Denominations.



(1) – Amish/Mennonite -The Amish are a religious group who live in 

settlements in 22 states and Ontario, Canada. The Amish stress humility, 

family and community, and separation from the world. The Amish have their 

roots in the Mennonite community. Both were part of the early 

Anabaptist movement in Europe, which took place at the time of the Reformation. 



(2) – Baptist - The Baptists form one of the largest Protestant 

denominations, with worldwide membership of nearly 35 million. Throughout 

their history, Baptists have sought to be faithful to the truth of the 

Gospel and to pattern the Church on the principles of fellowship found in 

the New Testament.