Traded hot pants for hijab, i converted to Islam AMA

[user14943608381]

I’m going to be occupied with a cluster feeding newborn so thought an Ama would be fun. So, I used to drink, go clubbing, love mini skirts and dating but I gave it all up and became Muslim. For a little while I even wore the face veil.

Ask me anything!

I’m pretty clued up in theology and the sharia for feel free to ask me anything on that too! (Disclaimer though some opinions are my own and not the ‘majority consensus’)

@Karwomannghia

Can you explain why you needed a religion to help you decide how you want to live your life? In terms of dress, alcohol etc, these are all lifestyle choices you’re free to make. Do you like the feeling of being locked in metaphorically?

How do you manage to get over following a religion that is very much culturally aligned with misogyny and homophobia despite what the original message was?

I didn’t feel like I needed a religion to tell me how to live my life. I’d say I found something that I wasn’t necessarily looking for and despite everything it made sense to me.

I remind myself that it wasn’t the original message, and it’s the original message I believe in and where I can I challenge any form of bigotry i encounter

@IHateCoronavirus

As you were raised Christian and are now Muslim, is there any difference between allah/god in terms of wrath/forgiveness?

I was raised with the misconception that Christians and Jews have always been the best of friends and Christians have protected Jews, this obviously is not true.

The vengeful angry god is the Old Testament god. I wasn’t raised to believe god was angry and I don’t believe it now.

Thank you for starting this thread and your patient replies to these comments, some of which I have found goady.

I work in a social care type role that involves visiting families at home. Sometimes I work with Muslim families.

I am wondering if there is a way of telling how devout a family is from looking at their home and dress? Is a woman necessarily more religious, for example, if she is more covered? If a family has converted one room in their house into a prayer room, would this also make them a more devout family? If a family are more religious, wld it necessarily follow that they have more socially conservative attitudes?

I am also interested in you and your fellow Muslim friends' position on transgender inclusion in female spaces. Is this a debate which happens in Muslim circles? Is there an official Muslim position on this?

What are your most and least favourite things about practicing Islam?

@Wpeoruahryclabegtt

Thanks for the thread. This may sound blunt, but you said you miss wearing some of your clothes. Well, why not wear them? Does it really have to be so black and white how you follow it? So much is open to interpretation as it is.

Do you speak Arabic? Which parts of the Quaran do you feel get mistranslated the most or are the most difficult to decipher?

Missed this one, sorry.

So I mean I can wear them, no one would stop me. I do feel like I shouldn’t though. I don’t miss the clothes all the time, just sometimes it can be hard to pick and outfit for a work do or you think ah yeah love that look but I know I shouldn’t wear it out and about.

Arabic, i used to go to tajweed and tilawa classes (quran classes) so I can read the alphabet and know some basic grammar and some conversational phrases but I can’t speak it. Ahh there’s lots and lots that I think get misinterpreted but I’m limited In my exegesis because I can’t speak Arabic and from my understanding it’s quite a vast language, ie one word can have several English translations. I think the term kafir gets used poorly but in general I think that scriptural literalism reduces the meaning of the text.

There are also two places where it says people of the book who do good deed and act righteously will go to heaven, yet a lot of Muslims think it’s only Muslims who go to heaven

A lot of born Muslims are incredibly hostile to converts

Why do you think that is? Christianity is generally welcoming to converts, and while converting to Judaism requires a lot of study, converts are not unwelcome.

@dangerrabbit

Thank you for starting this thread and your patient replies to these comments, some of which I have found goady.

I work in a social care type role that involves visiting families at home. Sometimes I work with Muslim families.

I am wondering if there is a way of telling how devout a family is from looking at their home and dress? Is a woman necessarily more religious, for example, if she is more covered? If a family has converted one room in their house into a prayer room, would this also make them a more devout family? If a family are more religious, wld it necessarily follow that they have more socially conservative attitudes?

I am also interested in you and your fellow Muslim friends' position on transgender inclusion in female spaces. Is this a debate which happens in Muslim circles? Is there an official Muslim position on this?

Like anything I’d say looks can be deceiving. The Muslim community has a bad habit of assuming because someone looks the part that they are. There were 2 influences a few years back that scammed their audience with this, names were umm Abdullah and Hasanat. They cultivated this image of being incredibly religious because he had a beard and wore a thobe and she wore a niqab but it came out that they had the most hedonistic lifestyle, the likes of which could make hugh Hefner blush.

As always actions speak louder than words, I’d say are the kind, considerate and soft in the way they speak, treat others with dignity etc that’s the mark of someone who truly believes. There are hadiths of people who look the part and pray 5 times a day but just to be seen to do it, and the words are meaningless to them, sadly these people are quite common.

To be perfectly honest I don’t know if there is an official postion on trans inclusivity. I know south Asian countries have the third gender think they’re referred to as qussra (someone correct me if I’m wrong) and in iran if you are repeatedly found to engage in ‘homosexual acts’ I think they do make the person have a sex change.

Traditionally speaking ‘effeminate men’ have been allowed in female only spaces

Thoughts on homosexuality?

Where did you meet your husband?

Salam @Namechangetimes100, I’m a south Asian Muslim and from a pretty conservative family. I am so sorry for your experiences with some people , everyone I know (friends too) welcome reverts with open arms and I’m really surprised that you’ve had such negative experiences. I mean don’t get me wrong I know of people like you describe too but in my experience they are the minority. Anyway I’ve really enjoyed your thread and pray Allah guides your in laws you feel more welcomed into the family. It makes me so sad to think of you celebrating Eid by yourself. Stay strong

@MissConductUS

A lot of born Muslims are incredibly hostile to converts

Why do you think that is? Christianity is generally welcoming to converts, and while converting to Judaism requires a lot of study, converts are not unwelcome.

Well In the beginning it’s all welcoming and praise but then few of the older generation would actually want their son or daughter married to someone outside of their culture.

Some Muslims just use converts for dawah porn (as I call it) confirmation that your faith is ‘the one’ and how bad other faiths are and then just ask lots of inappropriate questions.

I find the disdain tends to come from the older generation within a particular community and they just don’t believe white people can be Muslim. White is synonymous with Christian in their opinion.

This is just my experience though

This thread is really interesting, I feel like I’m learning a lot. Thanks op.

Great AMA, OP! You're very patient.

Is there a Muslim equivalent of a nunnery/monastery? Just wondering.

@GingerbreadVanMan

Salam *@Namechangetimes100*, I’m a south Asian Muslim and from a pretty conservative family. I am so sorry for your experiences with some people , everyone I know (friends too) welcome reverts with open arms and I’m really surprised that you’ve had such negative experiences. I mean don’t get me wrong I know of people like you describe too but in my experience they are the minority. Anyway I’ve really enjoyed your thread and pray Allah guides your in laws you feel more welcomed into the family. It makes me so sad to think of you celebrating Eid by yourself. Stay strong

I think it’s where I live.

Also has anyone in your family married a white person? DH felt the same about his family (except his mum) prior to our marriage but then peoples feeling came out, subtly because they know they’re in the wrong but it became apparent that his fam were all for converts when it was at a sage remove. They still believed you should marry in the family

@BiscuitLover3678

Thoughts on homosexuality?

Where did you meet your husband?

I know some think you can’t be gay and Muslim, i do not agree with this. I know the majority view is that it’s a sin but I just think live and let live. Fundamentally disagree with the notion of any sort of punishment for being gay and wholeheartedly support gay marriage.

We met online :) a Muslim dating app :)

@Wondering1000

Great AMA, OP! You're very patient.

Is there a Muslim equivalent of a nunnery/monastery? Just wondering.

There isn’t actually being celibate isn’t actually encouraged. It’s actually encouraged to get married and have a full robust sex life with your spouse

@Houseofvelour

What are your most and least favourite things about practicing Islam?

Least favourite is feeling like an outsider looking In sometimes, never really belonging.

Most favourite the love I have for my husband and my children is wrapped up In my faith. I also love finding verses or sayings that just bring a tear to my eye with their beauty, i find those quite often

@LastSummerHere

Are you not afraid that Jesus founded the TRUE church, Catholicism, and that Islam is Satanic? And because you left Christianity for a Satanic cult, you are destined for eternal torture? Does that not scare you?

No, because that’s ridiculous

Can you recommend a good app for learning to pray please? Or indeed recommend how you found it best to learn? Thank you

Did your DH date much before marriage? If so, has everyone he dated been Muslim?

Thanks for your reply OP. 💚

@LastSummerHere

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Also please learn sometbing about the historical jesus. Jesus didn’t found anything, he didn’t create a new religion, he led a small revisionist Jewish sect that used to preach about the end of times, which is why he was executed as a bandit by the Roman Empire. Jesus himself had a small following, it was jesus’s brother James who historically speaking is more widely referenced than Jesus, that really gained the popularity in this movement.

Early Christianity was like Judaism 2.0, it was when it the bible was canonised and made the state religion of the Roman Empire that efforts were made to make Christianity less jew-y. Getting rid of kosher, circumcision and the rituals and then the adoption of c mas etc.

Is the Muslim position that non-believers go to hell?

Apologies for not knowing how to word this more sensitively, it's a genuine question as I'm unsure of the general position on it.

@thecherryontop

Can you recommend a good app for learning to pray please? Or indeed recommend how you found it best to learn? Thank you

So I bought a little tajweed book, for al fatihah and some other short surats. I got the one with the English transliteration too so I could memorise that. Then I think I googled it and just sat down and memorised one bit at a time. I also used to go to the mosque and just copy copy copy x x