بسم آلله الرحم الرحیم

Assalam Aleykum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barkatahu,

My name is Christina Morra and I reverted to Islam three years ago on March 18, 2007 or the 28th of Safar. I have been asked many times why I chose to become Muslim, so Inshallah I will try my best by telling some of my experience and thoughts before that miraculous gift in my life and how I think they were, by Allah's grace and mercy, very important for bringing me to the straight and true path in life, Islam. 

First, I was born in a devout although perhaps untypical Christian family, by which I mean that my family is very large for one thing, I have three brothers and three sisters, and also when I was 6 years old they stopped attending church. They believed basically in reading the Bible at home and couldn't find any church whose doctrine they agreed with, so we were always at home. I believe the religiousness of my family was an important foundation and start for my becoming Muslim. I consider my journey to Islam really to have begun from my birth. One of the things in Islam that I learned early on was the concept of fitra, that simply speaking babies are born in a pure state, free of sin, and exactly the way they should be, and that we can call this baby a Muslim. And it is only his parents which teach him to be a Jew or Christian. I was very attracted to this beautiful belief in Islam because I could wholeheartedly agree with it. And the fact that Muslims try to return to this state and be the best people they can be seemed to be true to me. In Judaism and Christianity it is believed that people are born into their respective religions and each believes that they are the chosen people with great limitation and consequences to people from other religions. Christians including my family believe the only way to go to heaven is to accept the core concepts of Christianity, that is, to believe that Jesus was the Son of God or God incarnate who died for man's sins. My parents expressed it clearly that this is the way and only way to enter Heaven and all other people would go to hell. This did not seem right to me. It did not seem right in the nature of God and His relationship with people and the criteria for entering heaven. I had Muslims friends and I could not accept that although they believe in God and believe in being good people who do good deeds they would still go to hell. I remember that I had the thought that if Christianity were true somehow I would rather God let me go to hell and be with my Muslim friends. My friends aside, I also thought about all of humanity and looked at a person as just another way that God could create a person; I couldn't accept ethnocentrism/racism and feeling superior to others by demeaning them.

I met my friends online from all over the world and I first began to learn a little about what Islam was from a few of them. So, not all of my friends were Muslim, but Alhamdulilah I had a few friends and they were really good Muslims. Before that I did not know anything. I had one memory of an encounter with a Muslim who was working with my father at his work. At this time, I learned how to say Assalam Alaikum and was in childhood simplicity very impressed with this stranger who seemed very gentle and peaceful all dressed in white. I later learned that it is very good to say salam to children. I later recalled this memory and wrote an essay for college to express myself and my love and interest in different cultures and humanity. I got a personal reply to this essay saying how the adviser really liked my essay and looked forward to meeting me. My English teacher also said my essay was beautiful. As time passed I became closest friends with people who were Muslim and I did wonder about that and became more interested to learn about Islam.

When I went to university I took a religious studies class, but the material and lecture I didn't find very representative or accurate or adequate about Islam I realized that Islam is what I had most want to study by enrolling in that class, so I took a class on Classical Islam. I was also studying Persian because of my love of learning languages and I decided not to continue my major in architecture because I did not like studying it. My best friend (and brother) then and now, Ehsan, was one I met online and we studied Qur'an together and I asked him my questions about Islam. He came to the US, my home country, from his home country, Iran, so we were able to talk to each other very much. I then traveled to Texas to meet him and I also met other Iranians there.

I came back to my university adn it was at this time that I enrolled in Classical Islam. I studied Islam with Ehsan in addition to studying my coursework and maybe I can say I preferred studying with him over my course material. I was completely satisfied with everything that I learned in Islam. As I now wanted to major in Linguistics, the original Arabic of the Qur'an being right there on the page was very important to me. I was very impressed by some ahadith we read in my class; I remember now one in particular "When a person calls his brother (in Islam) a disbeliever, one of them will certainly deserve the title. If the addressee is so as he has asserted, the disbelief of the man is confirmed, but if it is untrue, then it will revert to him.'' [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. It is hard to express the meaning in different words, but I understood a deeper meaning that only Allah truly knows what is in our hearts, so we shouldn't judge and least of all not act on our own judgments. I also learned that in Islam, unlike Christianity, we (as Muslims) are always striving to do good deeds for Allah's sake inshAllah, which is what is pleasing to Him although of course we are by nature not perfect or worthy of anything, and cannot even judge ourselves that we are guaranteed Paradise. So how can we judge others? My religion is the religion in which humans have abundantly so many chance to receive forgiveness that even a prostitute can enter heaven by watering a dog, a simple good deed but it was so pleasing to Allah. This makes sense to my God-given reason about what the incomprehensibly bountiful nature of the All-mighty must be like.  In short, Islam answered my questions and solved all my problems with Christianity. I was wondering if a religion could be perfect. I believe that humans should have a religion, that God communicates with people and wouldn't abandon them. I found the concept of God in Islam, that He is one undoubtedly, and so true to His majesty, so I felt I could trust this religion and everything I find in it to be the truth and perfect. It had the things I found myself must be true and also it shared the values that my parents wanted me to have from their religion, Christianity. I would not have considered a religion which was not monotheistic or a religion of a previous scripture. Also, everything I learned and specifically about Islam proved to me that I was right in believing that it is the true and perfect religion of God. It is the most God conscious religion.

Before I reached this point, I was thinking that I should learn more about Islam. I also wanted to be sure or be able to imagine what it would be like to actually be a  Muslim myself. I wasn't learning Islam to convert, but I felt drawn to it and also I defended it in my papers and even an English presentation when I was studying at university. An important step in my journey was that I had a dream. In the dream I converted to Islam and was telling my friends. This made me feel at peace and happy with becoming Muslim. I also think now how God was obviously very close to me at that time and that he "touched me" with this dream.  In my dream I also lead a group of people in shouting Allahu Akbar, so that a man dressed in white Islamic clothes could pray. In the end I witnessed a miracle of a dead dog coming back to life and speaking to me. The dream was very vivid and I woke up immediately after it finished  remembering everything. Ehsan had my dream interpreted. Shortly after that I went to Texas and he encouraged me to say shahada as my soul had "already shaken hands with Islam." He began to teach me how to pray although I had seen him pray before and found prayer very beautiful. I had two things holding me back; however, I still thought I needed to learn more. Islam is a very vast and encompassing religion and  way of life and I wanted to convert on a special day. I was about to fly back to Tennessee from Texas when the plane experienced some turbulence before ever beginning to fly off the ground. It made me think about death's coming at any time. If I died I would meet my creator without ever becoming Muslim. I did not want that, so I thought very hard to remember the Arabic words for saying shahada and said them to myself with God as a witness. I also had known that this day the day Prophet Muhammad (saws) died and I liked that I was entering Islam on the day that a Muslim, although the most important one for Islam, went out of this world.

I have not always done the right things in life, but InshAllah I will always come to know Prophet Muhammad (saws) and follow him by the guidance and mercy of Allah (swt). Later I said shahada again with better Arabic with Ehsan as my witness. This was the special day of the birthday of the Prophet (saws). I always found it difficult before to imagine my future, what I will do and what I will become. Now I think that is because I had not found my path in Islam. The fact that I didn't have Islam before and how much it means to me now gives me reason to believe that I should make my life on it. InshAllah Allah will guide me and allow me to and open my way for studying Islam now and throughout my life so that I may help in preserving and spreading His beautiful Truth. Alhamdulilah true Islam is so beautiful, devote of racism and hatred, a perfect sociology and guide for everything a person needs and a society needs. I really believe, looking at my own case, that a person really living Islam is what is necessary to make this world a better place and to create a firmer place for Islam in this world, not great debates about religion and great assertion to remove the false images of Islam directly by means of arguments. Alhamdulilah I met such people and inshAllah I will be such a person, for His sake.

That is my story. There is a lot more that I could tell but I tried to keep it concise and to the main points and thoughts I had at the time to keep it more concise. I would have to write a book to explain my whole life and why my being Muslim is a part of me and I choose to be it every day and inshallah always will. I am attaching some pictures which I painted. Alhamdulilah Allah gave me the gift of ability and love of art. I used to draw and paint portraits but after converting I stopped making them and now I make Islamic art inshAllah. I recently started up again in this way, so I only have three. I hope you can use them well and they will also help express what words couldn't about my being Muslim. May Allah continue to guide and bless us all. Have a good day :)

Best wishes,
Christina