A Love that was There from the Start

Written by: Robin Alexander

Growing up in a religious household, reading was priority for our family. My mother and father always read the bible to my brother and I. My mother’s words still echo in my head today, “read like your life depends on it.” Through the years aside from reading books for school, the only reading we ever did was for religious purposes. We always sat together as a family and read bible chapters and discussed them.  Because of this, reading became something that was mundane and systematic. It almost got to the point that I dreaded to read. I loved book fairs when I was in middle school, but I didn’t have the urged to read books.  I went to mainly get accessories like book marks, pencils and things of the like.  It wasn’t until I was in high school that I found my self searching for more.

Searching for Reason

Written by: Tasmim Hoque

I was raised as a Muslim. Not by choice. I did not understand why I had to pray five times a day, fast for a month or avoid consuming alcohol and bacon that everyone else indulged in. When I asked my mother to answer these questions, she would always give me the same reply, “you are a Muslim.” I accepted that answer for the majority of my life. I prayed alongside my mother and brother, I fasted during the month of Ramadan and I avoided alcohol and pork like the plague. I felt like a robot that was programmed to perform these tasks until I was no longer satisfied with my mother’s answer to my religious questions. I wanted to understand the purpose of these rules. That is why I started attending Islamic da’wah (lectures) to understand my worship. I learned every rule written for Muslims was created for self-improvement. Offering prayer throughout the day reminds a person: they are not alone, they can request for help, and they will always be forgiven with genuine repentance. Fasting for a month humbles a person by letting them experience the pain of hunger and encourages them to give charity to the less unfortunate. Removing alcohol and pork from a person’s diet eliminates the risk of intoxicants and disease. The more I learned about Islam, the deeper I fell in love with the kindness, humility, and equality it gave to its followers. This is how I found my religion.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.