Since publishing The Shelter of Conversion, I’ve received a surprising amount of emails asking How people convert to Islam. I’ve responded to all of them but thought it would be worthwhile putting this marker down.

Sinead. Yusuf Islam. Ali. Malcolm. Chappelle. Ice Cube. Mos Def. Jermaine and Janet. Tyson. Shaq. Kareem. Everlast. Liam. These are the celebrity converts of which the Ummah is generally aware and mentions.

Hamza Yusuf. Yahya Rhodus. Muhammad Assad. Imam Zaid Shakir, who was by Ali’s side when the veil was lifted. All converts; among the best of us in the Ummah. Without question.

I’ve already mentioned to you the conversion of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf here, and his is a story worth all of your attention and time.

Aside from Ali and Malcolm, Jeffrey Lang is one of my favourites. His books Even Angels Ask, and Struggling to Surrender are essential reading as they detail his personal journey to Islam (first received through a dream). When searching myself, he helped me – a mathematician, his approach to our deen was as logical as my heart still requires.

They are the best among the Ummah because they chose it consciously, intentionally, with mindfulness. They were seekers first, never taking their relationship with God for granted.

There is no way anyone can argue against this – that the choice made after careful deliberation, outweighs being born into a thing, never investigating if you want the thing, and then actively landing on the thing.

It’s also why converts tend to adhere to the deen more than many of us born into it and taking it for granted.

So then: How do you do it, what needs to be done?

You say a thing. You can say it in front of people and make the declaration public, or you can keep it to yourself quietly until you’re ready to share it out loud – Ash-hadu anna laa ilLaaha illa Allah, wa ash-hadu anna Sayidna Muhammad rasool Allah.

I bear witness that there is no god but God. And that His final messenger is the messenger Muhammad.

Dunzo.

No one can touch you. No one can claim you are not a Muslim. You are folded into the Ummah immediately; you are family.

You don’t have to change your name, or wear hijab. Legit, you don’t have to do anything new, until you’re ready (such as prayer, and fasting).

You are treated accordingly by everyone in the Ummah. And if you are not, that’s on them, not you.

Here’s my favourite part. It’s carte blanche for you, baby. Literally every single thing you may have done in the past is considered clean-slated. Your record starts as of the moment of conversion.

You could have been gangbanging twelve people a day while snorting cocaine and blasted in alcohol bottles. You’re cleared in God’s books; Muslims have to treat you as cleared. New born. Untouchable.

This is not to mean that the harm you caused others pre-conversion is forgotten. They still need to forgive you; you still need to make amends. Rather, it means that your past actions are turned into good deeds because of Kun fa y’a-koon.

“Be, and it becomes.”

—————

Comments closed.