The Testification of Faith
"I testify that no one is God except Allah,
and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah"
People in this area are resolving to work on their Belief in:
People say:
"I resolve to study Aqeedah and then take Shahada in three months"
"I am thinking to believe in God"
"My Jummah Resolution is to learn more about Prophet Muhammad's life"
What do you have to say?
"I testify that no one is God except Allah,
and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah"
People in this area are resolving to work on their Belief in:
- Allah (God)
- Islam
- Prophet & Messenger of God Muhammad
- All Prophets and Messengers who came before Muhammad who also conveyed Islam
- Attributes of Allah
- Angels
- Jinn
- The Holy Books from Before (103 of them)
- The Holy Qur'an
- The Day of Judgement and all it entails
- Dwelling in Paradise (Jannah) or HellFire Forever
- Destiny (by the Will of Allah)
- All Prophets had excellent characters
- Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet, the seal of all prophets
- Knowledge about what takes a person out of Islam
People say:
"I resolve to study Aqeedah and then take Shahada in three months"
"I am thinking to believe in God"
"My Jummah Resolution is to learn more about Prophet Muhammad's life"
What do you have to say?
4 intelligent thoughts:
I hope you don't mind me commenting here! I am not Muslim; I am exploring Islam in hopes of eventually converting. (I mean, I actually WANT to convert, originally for family reasons, and so first, of course, I need to study the faith to make sure I can truly establish my own firm belief. I hope that makes sense!)
My Jummah Resolution is to focus this next week on being more outspoken about my studies of Islam. I read a lot on my own but feel shy discussing this with other people, even my husband (who is Muslim)... I think I just worry that people will not take me seriously? Well, I'm not entirely even SURE what I worry about! I imagine that, if I tell people, they'll say, "What?! Are you SERIOUS?!?!"
So, my resolution is to be more open about the fact that I am interested in and studying Islam. This includes reaching out to Muslim women on blogs and in real life with questions, discussing my readings more frequently with my husband, and even just giving a direct answer when other foreigners here ask me why I have stopped drinking alcohol. ;) Even just posting here at all with a resolution is part of it. :)
I see this as kind of related to Shahada, in an extreme "baby steps" kind of way. :)
Thanks again for organizing this blog; I think the idea of focusing our goals "out loud" like this can be very helpful!
Leslie congradulations on #1 being the first Resolutions Commenter!
#2, taking an interest in Islam and willing to talk more openly about it. It is a big step not just a baby step!
Just remember converting is as easy as saying it as soon as you firmly believe that "There is no God but Allah (without partners), and Muhammad is His Messenger". You don't need to know the full details before converting as long as you learn them immediatly upon saying Shahada. The most important and thus the first pillar of Islam is the testification of faith because without it the others have no application.
No pressure though of course lol because I know not many poeple will jump whole-heartedly head first into something they don't know about.
You are right to be a little nervous as many people will say exactly that but as you read and learn more you can counter-act that WHAT with knowledge. I'm happy for your resolution and it is indeed a sincere and honest one! It's not easy to face society's judgement about something as personal as religion.
If you want to read more about Muslim Women's lives feel free to browse the ALL MUSLIMAH directory (listed under my blogs) http://www.allmuslimah.blogspot.com/
and I'm sure you can see the inside world. Just remeber the main thing when watching people from a religion, they are poeple with faults like everyone else. They may do soemthing that is not condolned by Islam, sometimes in the name of Islam. So when you read things remeber if it doesn't fit with what you've learned about the basics of Islam write it down to ask someone with greater knowledge.
I hope your husband is someone you can easily talk to about this. If he's born Muslim I'm sure he has a great wealth of knowledge about islam jsut watch out for cultural differences lol. If he's a convert then I'm sure he shoudl have some great resources to refer you too! Either way definitly speak with Him more about it. It could build a bonding bridge between you. He will probably love that you are taking an interest in his realigion.
I'm proud of you and I look forward to hearing how your resolutions went.
~Brandy (Aminah-Zahira)
Ah, reading this reminds of a few sisters at the masjid......new converts...watching them take the shahada beautiful.....
Leslie, can we get an update?
Thanks to both of you for your nice comments, and I apologize for disappearing! We are having one of those weeks (...one of those months!) that is, you know, 50% BUSY and 50% just "blah." I can't seem to get anything done lately!
Yes, my husband is born Muslim. It's very funny - he is SO anxious to make sure that I know that he does NOT pressure me about religion, it kind of backfires - he knows I've been reading on my own, but when I tell him that I am still very interested, he always says, "Good... but there's no rush! Take your time! No rush!!" I will have to forcibly drag him into a longer conversation soon, I guess. :) Maybe this weekend.
I am not sure what my "next step" is. I'll come back to tell you on Friday. :)
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