The Version of Me Islam Built

What this episode covers

The first time I described Islam to a friend I told her it feels like standing near the ocean, with the breeze brushing your face and the rhythmic sound of waves sending serenity through your body. I was born a Muslim but I accepted Islam in 2021 while an Imam was reciting shahada for three men on YouTube. I was the fourth.When I wholeheartedly accepted Islam it was difficult. Not in terms of questioning if this was right but in being looked at as too rigid, too weird. And somehow on that road to learn about the Creator, I learned about myself. I began to see beauty in the mundane, my struggles as something that left an impact, my weaknesses as something to learn from.What moves me even more is when I look back at the small prayers I made without fully understanding them. As a child I wasn't good at English and I remember praying I would get better at it. Right now, how vocal I have become, how I am able to articulate and raise my voice for the things I believe in, that small prayer was answered in a way I could never have imagined. That is what bewilders me. How Allah can take a small distressed prayer and mold it into something so much bigger than what you asked for.I am not sharing this from the other side of the tunnel. I am still in it. But I am sharing this from the middle of it because that is exactly the space I wished someone had held for me.So if you are in it right now, hold on.P.s. And if my story resonates with you, go listen to the people living theirs - Sit With Aqsa, my other podcast, linked in this episode.

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