Lopez Casanova
A Non-Denominational Christian's Journey to Islam
Many times, my Jewish and Christian friends from other sects visit my Christian non-denominational church. Often times, I visit their churches as emotional support or encouragement when needed.
In 2007, I was curious to visit the Islamic Center of San Diego. However, I was afraid to naively get involved in something that might be contradicting or offensive to Christianity. I had a pile of fears. I was afraid that I would not understand what was being lectured in Arabic. I was afraid of the unknown and the foreign.
I thought, since I don't speak Arabic fluently, I might accidentally do or say something wrong and be put on the spotlight in front of people. I feared that if I went to the mosque, I would be so lost in there and not know what to do or say in the proper timing. My biggest fear was to participate in something that might offend God, so I decided not to go visit.
In the summer of 2008, I joined a Christian missionary team and traveled to Jamaica, a third world country. There were 300 individuals, eight teams, and no Bibles. We went there to serve the needy and help the poor. After seven days, there were over 55,000 people in Jamaica who converted to Christianity. That summer, when I came back home from Jamaica, I was praying to God for a spiritual mentor and guide. I wanted to serve God and I was asking for direction.
God provided me with a new great Muslim friend (I thank God because when I was
a Christian and now as a Muslim, He always answered my prayers). I invited my new Muslim friend to church with me. Funny me, I thought I would influence my friend to convert to Christianity. I remember my friend said that the church was a nice place, but the problem with Christians is that they believe in the trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Mary. I just laughed and said: "The Trinity means: the Father the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not the Mary."
I realized how horrible it sounds when someone makes an uneducated comment on a religion they know nothing about. Naturally being the competitive person that I am, I decided to study the basics of Islam just so that I would never make an uneducated comment on Islam and accidentally offend my Muslim friends. I was just planning on studying Islam over the surface to be cultured and educated. I was not learning with the intention to convert.
I started to discover all the similarities between Christianity and Islam. This is when I learned that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share many stories and prophets, and that they can trace their roots back to the same historical lineage. In fact, there are more similarities between Christianity and Islam than differences.
Practicing Christians typically bow down their head and close their eyes to pray for food before each meal. One time in a public place, my Muslim friend said to me: "Please excuse me I have to pray, is it okay with you if I pray here?" I said: "Sure why not?" After having Muslim classmates and friends for two years, this was the first time I learned about salah (the five daily prayers), and I was in awe, in complete astonishment by it.
Sometimes I was personally embarrassed to pray for my food in a public restaurant, but my Muslim friend was not embarrassed to pray in a public place on the knees with the face on the floor, bowing down to God. I could not believe what I was seeing.
As a Christian, I felt ashamed because I should be the one leading by example on the way to worship God, yet my new Muslim friend was better than me by not being afraid of the surroundings and bowing down to worship God in public.
This is when this friend became my best friend. I thought this friendship would be a positive influence on my life, and if anything, I would become a better Christian from learning the Islamic religious discipline. From that day going forward, I was never afraid to pray for my food in public.
The following Sunday, my Muslim friend joined me again to my Christian church. I thought for sure my Muslim friend was going to convert to Christianity one day. Little did I know that Muslims are very disciplined and rooted in their religious doctrine to the degree that some of them memorize the entire Quran, word for word, at a very young age.
I was delirious to think my Muslim friend from Saudi Arabia would convert to Christianity. I learned that some Muslims read the entire Quran in the month of Ramadan since childhood. This shows the extent of my lack of knowledge of the Muslim community at that time.
This time, my Muslim friend asked: "I have to prepare for prayer, is it okay with you if I play the Quran CD in the car?" To be polite, I said: "Yes, I don't mind." After all, I was only listening and observing. I was not participating. Since I was a child, I was introduced to God as a father figure, my Creator and Sustainer, so I used to praise God with all my heart and soul, and this act of worship gave me an inner peace that I cannot describe in words.
Listening to the recitation of the Noble Quran on a CD was an earthshaking experience for me. I have no words to describe the feeling of my soul when I listened to the Noble Quran that day. Still today I experience this amazing feeling every time I hear a recitation of the Quran, but the first time I was so confused. I could not conceive the fact that I could be experiencing this feeling with something that was foreign to Christianity.
If Christianity was the religion of God, then how was it possible to feel God with me through this CD? I didn't understand any of the words in the CD because it was in Arabic, but my soul understood, and it was an inevitable attraction; I was drawn to it as a magnetic force. I was afraid of this feeling. I could not conceive the fact that I could be feeling God with me through something outside of Christianity.
I was confused and afraid but I wanted to learn more about it. I was spiritually hungry and trusty to learn more. So, I decided to view the DVD called, "The Legacy of Prophet Muhammad". When the DVD was over, I started crying, but I didn't know exactly why. After learning about the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), I knew this was the life example to follow in serving God. Whether I called myself Christian or Muslim, I knew this was the way to be submissive to God. This was when I embraced Islam and continued to learn more about it.
I was still thinking that Islamic discipline would just make me a better practicing Christian. I was only learning the similarities, so I didn't see the need to change my religion. I was just convinced to follow my religion more closely.
When I started to learn about the Islamic principle of monotheism, I took a pause. Monotheism was a crossroad for me. Now this was a serious matter that would directly conflict with my Christian religious doctrine.
I knew that if I spoke to my Christian friends, family, or mentors, they would center me back to Christianity immediately. And if I spoke to my Muslim friends, they would push to convert me to Islam. So I decided to isolate myself from everyone and spend some time alone with God in prayer.
I set aside my studies of Islam and both my Christian and Muslim friends. I was confident in my knowledge of the Bible and my own ability to study and understand the Biblical holy scriptures. I knew I should be able to find the answers there on my own. As my mother taught me, the answers would be in the Bible; the Bible was my source, and that would be enough to answer all my questions, clear my confusion, and set me on the right direction.
To be continued…
On Islam
