Gangs to parties, women converts speak up

Five brave souls shared their stories at Crescent Youth’s Ask a Convert, an exclusive sisters’ event, at Masjid Hamza last Sunday.

On the third week of every month, the youth are given the floor to ask their questions, to a knowledgeable person or panel of individuals on a given topic. But this past Sunday’s event was a shift from the normal topics of attitude, boys and backbiting. It was a first for the invited speakers, and a first for Houston to open the floor for women converts to make a positive impact on young Muslim girls. In respect for our sisters, who took the time out to inspire our young audience, we choose to keep the names of our speakers anonymous.

These sisters, whom most have never spoken to a crowd, told their stories of heartache, estrangement from family and friends, and their not-so-easy journeys to finding Islam.

But, whoever said life was easy?

Despite their lack of exposure to crowds, they faced young high school girls in hopes of getting an important message across: to refocus your past into a positive self-fulfilling experience to strengthen your faith.

The session opened with introductions across the panel, as each speaker recalled her experiences from growing up as young girls in Christian homes to time spent in high school, college and now.

One speaker shared her early years of partying and drinking.

Two of the other convert sisters talked about their years of friendship and environments with people involved in gangs and violence.

Another sister, whose husband was also on the same search to find satisfaction and truth in life, told of her experiences of going to a Buddhist temple to a church to Kabbalah, a Jewish discipline. She knew Muslims all her life, but they didn’t seem much different.

“My home girl in middle school was Muslim, but she did all the same stuff as me,” she said.

It wasn’t until her husband’s friend told them about Islam their quest to find the truth ended by accepting Islam.

They talked about being kicked out by their families and leaving makeup and revealing clothes in exchange for hijab. One speaker shared the extent of her attachment to makeup.

“I couldn’t go to the mailbox without makeup,” she said.

Another sister talked about having Muslim friends since middle school, but it was not until college where she discovered Islam in a philosophy class.

That really hits you.

Through our busy day we interact with non-Muslims at work, school, grocery stores, neighborhoods, clubs and organizations, but how often do we share our faith?

One of the suggestions for the best way to present our religion is through our own actions. Fasting, praying or wearing hijab can speak more than mere words.

In the midst of all these incredible stories, a few commonalities struck hard.

First, despite all the fun either from partying, drinking, gangs, violence, drugs and dancing that was at each of their disposal, they didn’t feel the satisfaction from life.

As a Muslim, regardless if you are born into the religion or a convert, we all go through ups and downs with our faith. At the end, it is in submitting to Allah do we find the ultimate peace, and these sisters had the same to say. They didn’t find true satisfaction from their seemingly fun life before Islam, until after they accepted Islam.

Second, they highlighted the importance of staying with good company, and as we all know from the hadith of the Prophet (s.a.), who we are can be defined by who our friends are.

Thirdly, they felt empowered and dignified with their hijab and modest appearances that no man could look at them inappropriately anymore.

Fourth, they regret nothing from their pasts because, it was these experiences, no matter how bad, and hardships, no matter how difficult, they endured to come to where they are now. It brought them to Islam.

Fifth, they advised us to respect our parents and the ties of kinship to the best of our ability. Their parents were strongly against their new found religion, but they appreciate their parents’ guidance to stay out of trouble. They may not share Islam, but it was their parents’ discipline that helped mold their characters.

These stories of heroism deserve to be told to many young girls. The struggles of these sisters are universal experienced by many in different times and places.

We ended the event full of inspiration and winded down with pilates by a local fitness trainer. But, the chicken salad sandwiches, cake and fresh fruits gave our entire gathering a delicious closing.

Prepare your questions and bring a friend for next month’s Q&A and activities that will address tips and pointers for young girls on how to share their faith.

Sara Ali contributed to this story.