Young Muslim man guides Lithuania girl to Islam

Story by Sr. Gerda 

Edited by: J.Heydari 

I am from a little East European country called Lithuania,  

where Christianity is the dominating religion and where a babies first few days of life announce them as Christians.

I ‘ve never been an atheist but I never called myself a good Christian. At one point I began to think about why my parent's had not asked me if I wanted to be a Christian they simply christened me as a baby. I would attend church every Sunday, praying, helping out the priest, singing in the choir. I certainly had God within my heart, but I didn't understand the religion I had in front of me.

My younger years I remember how I struggled to be a good Christian. I really didn't understand the religion, but I was trying to. I read so many books about Christianity, I asked countless questions to the Priest. I had all the information but yet I could not call myself a Christian, I couldn't say  that I am a believer in this faith.

My life was difficult without a guide from God, scared, blind. Wherever I was I was searching for God. I felt he was close, I could feel his helping hand, even at times I felt he was talking to me. I felt as though I needed to find my direction, the life I was suppose to be living and that I had to look harder. If I looked harder I might better understand the signs. The signs, to me, were like jumbled words that I needed to decipher. 

I am the second child born to my parent's. My mother's delivery was painful, very difficult. I'm told I was lucky to survive the birth. In my life I survived  two very serious accidents, people would remark on them in astonishment that I lived through them.  I believe God saved my life for a reason. When considering this I began to appreciate my life. I realized how fragile the human life really is and only God knows when my life will end.  

This realization of life left me understanding and trusting God and enjoying his blessings even when I am feeling sick. Everything God gives us is with hope, hope that we will appreciate all his blessings, hope that we will understand that he does it for us. 

I had a horrible car accident around the time of graduations exams. I was left immobile, stuck in bed for no less then six weeks, only able to move my head. Even though I struggled to live, with the strength given to me by God  I managed to work towards finishing my exams and was ready to enter university.   My Doctor couldn't believe that I had made it and had even completed my exams. He commented that any other patient he had witnessed to have such a degree of serious injuries would only concentrate on the pain and the pain killers and nothing else. He thought it was not luck that it must be a miracle. I was surely blessed. After this moment in time I became even stronger in my belief in God, every day getting closer to him. Even though I felt so close to God I couldn't find him through the Church, for me, it was just not working.

For years I yearned for truly understanding God through a religion but this was only going to take place after meeting my husband, a Muslim. He would inevitably lead me to Islam and calm my soul. We fell deeply in love, a great blessing from God. In the beginning we did not speak much about religion, we looked to understand and know one another. One day, feeling in a great mood, just happy with my life, with the fact that I met this incredible man, he turned to me and gave me a gift. He said my gift to you is the best gift I can give you, it is my faith. I was so intrigued by every word when he read the Qur'an, when he told me of the Qur'an's miracles, every facet of his prayer, I was so interested in learning. This day he inspired me so much that I began to read about Islam, I searched for every bit of information I could find. After every book read, after every page turned I slowly and surely was becoming a Muslim, I was beginning to understand as God spoke to me through his religion. My soul felt so at ease. 

After several months of study I became a Muslim and the feeling was incredible, like being reborn. God loves me so much that he was allowing me to be reborn, he allowed me this gift when he knew I was ready to receive it. I was 21 years of age, smarter, wise enough to understand. Now I am a Muslim, nobody could understand how different and how good it feels to be a Muslim unless they are one. 

God showed me the sun in a different way then I saw it as a Christian child. The sun now has a different meaning to me. When the sun rises God sends to us light and sustenance to live, he shows us how much he loves us. His loves allows us to feel warmth, instead of cold, we are able to view the world through this light, all the many colours and textures. God makes night to show us he cares, he allows us to sleep and to rest our bodies and assures us that after night we will have light again.  We learn to trust in him each day. In this way he is talking to us and through our eyes we can see words in every one of his miracles. 

I am grateful to God for the gift of this world, for my life. He gave me a new start, he allowed me to see the world through the eyes I was meant to see. Everywhere I go and all that I do, God is there next to me. God welcomes me and I see signs all around me of this and I know I am walking on the right path. 

It took time to see the world this way but it all changed because the quality of my life changed through a man who pointed me to Islam. When my life began to change as I opened up to the religion of Islam my heart became full of love for God and he entered in.

I only wish the world could change this way. So many angry, tired faces that look for clam, for success, for a better life.  They walk around hating one another, jealous of one another, surviving only to fight one another. They cannot seem to live in peace they only seem to desire war. Every day the populous falls deeper into despair. There's only one way to stop it, if Islam were a way of life for all mankind and all found and believed in it as I have seen it their would be no wars. With God in every heart we would find true happiness, our lives would be joy. We could begin to build a better future for our children and we would no longer be afraid of one another.