• Portuguese sister
    She was born a Catholic Christian and lives in Luxembourg
    She says she refused to believe that Christ is Allaah
    She did not understand the Trinity at all
    I researched Islam
    And I continued searching

    Then she married a Muslim
    And I continued searching

    Then I reverted to Islam after searching
    And not because of her husband

    Her mother cried in protest against her conversion to Islam
    Her father protested against her hijab
    Her relationships with others were affected
    She lost more friends

    They told her
    You will not be as beautiful as you were before wearing the hijab
    They told her people will talk bad about you
    They told her everything they could to repel her
    But in the end, she didn't care
    More than her interest in steadfastness in Islam
    They were forced to accept her conversion to Islam

    After accepting them
    She started explaining to them what Islam is
    Who is the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him?
    Who is the Prophet Muhammad, may Allaah bless him and grant him peace?
    Why is she determined to convert to Islam?

    We ask Allaah Almighty to make us and our sister steadfast in this great religion
    And to make her happy with the conversion of her family to Islam.

    Translated from Arabic
    Portuguese sister She was born a Catholic Christian and lives in Luxembourg She says she refused to believe that Christ is Allaah She did not understand the Trinity at all I researched Islam And I continued searching Then she married a Muslim And I continued searching Then I reverted to Islam after searching And not because of her husband Her mother cried in protest against her conversion to Islam Her father protested against her hijab Her relationships with others were affected She lost more friends They told her You will not be as beautiful as you were before wearing the hijab They told her people will talk bad about you They told her everything they could to repel her But in the end, she didn't care More than her interest in steadfastness in Islam They were forced to accept her conversion to Islam After accepting them She started explaining to them what Islam is Who is the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him? Who is the Prophet Muhammad, may Allaah bless him and grant him peace? Why is she determined to convert to Islam? We ask Allaah Almighty to make us and our sister steadfast in this great religion And to make her happy with the conversion of her family to Islam. Translated from Arabic
    0 Comments 0 Shares
  • Rumkale (Roman Castle), Urfa which was home to many civilizations throughout history and an important center for early Christianity as it is known to be a place where the copies of the Bible were reproduced is open to tourism.

    Rumkale, which straddles the boundary between the southeastern provinces of Gaziantep’s Nizip and Yavuzeli districts and Şanlıurfa’s Birecik and Halfeti districts, is located on a hill surrounded with rocks in the region where Merzimen Stream flows into the Euphrates. It is home to structures from the Urartu, Babylon, Sumerian, Seljuk and Ottoman eras.

    The castle and its vicinity also draw tourists thanks to its natural beauties along the banks of the Euphrates River, particularly in spring months.

    Johannes, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, is said to have settled in Rumkale during the Roman era and reproduced copies of the Bible in a rock-carved room.

    The area was occupied by various Byzantine and Armenian warlords during the Middle Ages. The castle served as the seat of an Armenian patriarch in the 12th century.

    From 1203 to 1293, it was the residence of the supreme head (Catholicos) of the reunified Armenian Church. In 1293, it was captured by the Mamluks of Egypt, following a protracted siege.

    Restoration works that have been carried out by the Culture and Tourism Ministry have come to an end in the eastern and western walls of the castle as well as in the Barşavma Monastery, which was built in the 13th century in the north of the castle.

    #best0fturkiye #bestoftheday #best #fyp #turkiye #türkiye #travel #traveling #antep #natureview #travelphotography #discover #tourists #keşfet #exciting #rumkale #photography #photooftheday #touristspot #naturalbeauty #turkey #exploretheworld #tbt #tour #tourism #touring #tourist #adventure #church #naturephotography
    Rumkale (Roman Castle), Urfa 🇹🇷 which was home to many civilizations throughout history and an important center for early Christianity as it is known to be a place where the copies of the Bible were reproduced is open to tourism. Rumkale, which straddles the boundary between the southeastern provinces of Gaziantep’s Nizip and Yavuzeli districts and Şanlıurfa’s Birecik and Halfeti districts, is located on a hill surrounded with rocks in the region where Merzimen Stream flows into the Euphrates. It is home to structures from the Urartu, Babylon, Sumerian, Seljuk and Ottoman eras. The castle and its vicinity also draw tourists thanks to its natural beauties along the banks of the Euphrates River, particularly in spring months. Johannes, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, is said to have settled in Rumkale during the Roman era and reproduced copies of the Bible in a rock-carved room. The area was occupied by various Byzantine and Armenian warlords during the Middle Ages. The castle served as the seat of an Armenian patriarch in the 12th century. From 1203 to 1293, it was the residence of the supreme head (Catholicos) of the reunified Armenian Church. In 1293, it was captured by the Mamluks of Egypt, following a protracted siege. Restoration works that have been carried out by the Culture and Tourism Ministry have come to an end in the eastern and western walls of the castle as well as in the Barşavma Monastery, which was built in the 13th century in the north of the castle. #best0fturkiye 🇹🇷 #bestoftheday #best #fyp #turkiye #türkiye #travel #traveling #antep #natureview #travelphotography #discover #tourists #keşfet #exciting #rumkale #photography #photooftheday #touristspot #naturalbeauty #turkey #exploretheworld #tbt #tour #tourism #touring #tourist #adventure #church #naturephotography
    0 Comments 0 Shares
  • The Arbëreshë, also known as Albanians of Italy, are an Albanian ethnolinguistic group in Southern Italy, mostly concentrated in scattered villages in the region of Calabria and, to a lesser extent, in the regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Molise and Sicily.

    They are the descendants of Albanian refugees who fled Albania, and later some from Morea between the 14th and the 18th centuries following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.

    Nowadays, most of the fifty Arbëreshë communities are adherents to the Italo-Albanian Church, an Eastern Catholic Church.

    The Arbëreshë speak Arbëresh, a Tosk Albanian variety involving code-mixing with regional Romance languages of Italy. It is of particular interest to students of the modern Albanian language as it retains speech sounds, morphosyntactic and vocabulary elements of the language spoken in pre-Ottoman Albania. In Italy, the Albanian language (and not specifically Arbëresh) is protected by law number 482/99, concerning the protection of the historic linguistic minorities.

    It is estimated that there are about 100,000 Italo-Albanians (400,000 if including those outside of Italy); they constitute one of the oldest and largest minorities in Italy. Being Italian and Arbëreshë are both central to Italo-Albanians' identity.

    Among the Arbëreshë the memory of Skanderbeg and his exploits was maintained and survived through songs

    The Arbëreshë cuisine is a mix of Albanian cuisine with Sicilian, Calabrian, and Lucanian influences. Traditional dishes include: Strangujët, Kanojët and Bukë

    Arbëreshë people in their traditional clothes
    The Arbëreshë, also known as Albanians of Italy, are an Albanian ethnolinguistic group in Southern Italy, mostly concentrated in scattered villages in the region of Calabria and, to a lesser extent, in the regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Molise and Sicily. They are the descendants of Albanian refugees who fled Albania, and later some from Morea between the 14th and the 18th centuries following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Nowadays, most of the fifty Arbëreshë communities are adherents to the Italo-Albanian Church, an Eastern Catholic Church. The Arbëreshë speak Arbëresh, a Tosk Albanian variety involving code-mixing with regional Romance languages of Italy. It is of particular interest to students of the modern Albanian language as it retains speech sounds, morphosyntactic and vocabulary elements of the language spoken in pre-Ottoman Albania. In Italy, the Albanian language (and not specifically Arbëresh) is protected by law number 482/99, concerning the protection of the historic linguistic minorities. It is estimated that there are about 100,000 Italo-Albanians (400,000 if including those outside of Italy); they constitute one of the oldest and largest minorities in Italy. Being Italian and Arbëreshë are both central to Italo-Albanians' identity. Among the Arbëreshë the memory of Skanderbeg and his exploits was maintained and survived through songs The Arbëreshë cuisine is a mix of Albanian cuisine with Sicilian, Calabrian, and Lucanian influences. Traditional dishes include: Strangujët, Kanojët and Bukë 📸 Arbëreshë people in their traditional clothes
    0 Comments 0 Shares
  • Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi (1137 – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the title Salah ud Din ,was the founder of the Ayyubid Sultanate. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first Sultan of both Egypt and Syria. He is popularly known for liberating Al-Quds, the land of Jerusalem or the first Islamic Qiblah.

    Sultan Salah ud Din spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, Ayyubid territorial limit spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, the Maghreb, and Nubia. The Sultan was indeed Kurdish by race but far from being any ethno nationalist.

    He was an Orthodox Sunni Muslim and also a disciple of the Sultan ul Awliyah, Shaykh Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jillani (رحمه الله تعالی) the leader of Sunni Orthodoxy and 13th direct descendant of the Fifth Rightly Guided Caliph Sayyidina Imam Hassan ibn Ali رضي الله عنهم . So, Sultan Salah ud Din Ayubi Hazretleri has the honor of having this unique spiritual link which reaches to the King of all Prophets Sayyidna Muhammad ﷺ.
    [Source: Saladin, Pearson Longman. p. 48]

    Sultan Salah ud Din was famous for his kind, generous, and forgiving nature. Despite the horrendous slaughter of Muslims by Crusaders' when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Sultan granted amnesty to all common Catholics and even to the defeated Christian army, as long as they were able to pay the aforementioned ransom (the Greek Orthodox Christians were treated even better because they often opposed the western Crusaders).

    20th-century French author Albert Champdor described Sultan Salah ud Din as "Le plus pur héros de l'Islam" (English: The purest Hero of Islam) through his book. As early as 1202/03, Walther von der Vogelweide urged the German King Philip of Swabia to be more generous like Salah ud Din, who believed that a king's hands should have holes to let the gold fall through.
    [Introduction to the History of the Muslim East, Historical Bibliography. University of California Press. p. 166.]

    In April 1191, a Frankish woman's three month old baby had been stolen from her camp and sold on the market. The Franks urged her to approach Salah ud Din herself with her grievance. According to Baha ad-Din, Sultan used his own money to buy the child back:

    He gave it to the mother and she took it; with tears streaming down her face, and hugged the baby to her chest. The people were watching her and weeping and I (Ibn Shaddad) was standing amongst them. She suckled it for some time and then Sultan ordered a horse to be fetched for her and she went back to camp.
    [Lyons, Malcolm Cameron; Jackson, D. E. P. (1982). Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War]

    Sultan Salah ud Din died of a fever on 4 March 1193 (27 Safar 589 AH) at Damascus, not long after King Richard's departure. In Sultan Salah ud Din's possession at the time of his death were one piece of gold and forty silver pieces. He had given away wealth to his poor subjects, leaving nothing to pay for his funeral. He was buried in a mausoleum in the garden outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.
    [Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad (2002). The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin]

    May the Nur of Jenab e Haqq Allah Azzawajal fill the grave of Sultan Salah ud Din. Amin

    #islamicknowledge #tarih #Saladin #Egypt #kurdish #IslamicHistory #March #today
    #TodayInHistory #knowledge #historical
    Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi (1137 – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the title Salah ud Din ,was the founder of the Ayyubid Sultanate. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first Sultan of both Egypt and Syria. He is popularly known for liberating Al-Quds, the land of Jerusalem or the first Islamic Qiblah. Sultan Salah ud Din spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, Ayyubid territorial limit spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, the Maghreb, and Nubia. The Sultan was indeed Kurdish by race but far from being any ethno nationalist. He was an Orthodox Sunni Muslim and also a disciple of the Sultan ul Awliyah, Shaykh Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jillani (رحمه الله تعالی) the leader of Sunni Orthodoxy and 13th direct descendant of the Fifth Rightly Guided Caliph Sayyidina Imam Hassan ibn Ali رضي الله عنهم . So, Sultan Salah ud Din Ayubi Hazretleri has the honor of having this unique spiritual link which reaches to the King of all Prophets Sayyidna Muhammad ﷺ. [Source: Saladin, Pearson Longman. p. 48] Sultan Salah ud Din was famous for his kind, generous, and forgiving nature. Despite the horrendous slaughter of Muslims by Crusaders' when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Sultan granted amnesty to all common Catholics and even to the defeated Christian army, as long as they were able to pay the aforementioned ransom (the Greek Orthodox Christians were treated even better because they often opposed the western Crusaders). 20th-century French author Albert Champdor described Sultan Salah ud Din as "Le plus pur héros de l'Islam" (English: The purest Hero of Islam) through his book. As early as 1202/03, Walther von der Vogelweide urged the German King Philip of Swabia to be more generous like Salah ud Din, who believed that a king's hands should have holes to let the gold fall through. [Introduction to the History of the Muslim East, Historical Bibliography. University of California Press. p. 166.] In April 1191, a Frankish woman's three month old baby had been stolen from her camp and sold on the market. The Franks urged her to approach Salah ud Din herself with her grievance. According to Baha ad-Din, Sultan used his own money to buy the child back: He gave it to the mother and she took it; with tears streaming down her face, and hugged the baby to her chest. The people were watching her and weeping and I (Ibn Shaddad) was standing amongst them. She suckled it for some time and then Sultan ordered a horse to be fetched for her and she went back to camp. [Lyons, Malcolm Cameron; Jackson, D. E. P. (1982). Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War] Sultan Salah ud Din died of a fever on 4 March 1193 (27 Safar 589 AH) at Damascus, not long after King Richard's departure. In Sultan Salah ud Din's possession at the time of his death were one piece of gold and forty silver pieces. He had given away wealth to his poor subjects, leaving nothing to pay for his funeral. He was buried in a mausoleum in the garden outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. [Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad (2002). The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin] May the Nur of Jenab e Haqq Allah Azzawajal fill the grave of Sultan Salah ud Din. Amin 🤲 #islamicknowledge #tarih #Saladin #Egypt #kurdish #IslamicHistory #March #today #TodayInHistory #knowledge #historical
    0 Comments 0 Shares
  • What happened when the Pope offered Sultan Fatih Mehmet II the largest kingdom in the world if he converted to Catholic Christianity?

    #Islam #Mehmet #Ertugrul #Ottoman #tarih
    #christian #pope #vatican #italy #Kingdom
    #catholic #convert #istanbul #offers #history
    What happened when the Pope offered Sultan Fatih Mehmet II the largest kingdom in the world if he converted to Catholic Christianity? #Islam #Mehmet #Ertugrul #Ottoman #tarih #christian #pope #vatican #italy #Kingdom #catholic #convert #istanbul #offers #history
    0 Comments 0 Shares
  • Being born as Muslim is blessing,& dying as Muslim is honour,those who seek the truth & find Islam rejoice it
    Hilarion Heagy,a former Catholic priest announced that he reverted to Islam..

    He uploaded a blog post of his journey to Islam
    Under his new Muslim name,Said Abdul Latif
    May Allah keep him steadfast and firm upon the deen
    Ameen
    Being born as Muslim is blessing,& dying as Muslim is honour,those who seek the truth & find Islam rejoice it Hilarion Heagy,a former Catholic priest announced that he reverted to Islam.. He uploaded a blog post of his journey to Islam Under his new Muslim name,Said Abdul Latif May Allah keep him steadfast and firm upon the deen 🤲 Ameen
    1
    0 Comments 0 Shares
  • MOTHER AND DAUGHTER’S FAITH JOURNEY LEADS TO ISLAM

    Marina Zouaghi and her family moved into their new home in Oak Creek only two days ago, yet the house is orderly and welcoming to a guest, with a platter of miniature cream puffs, grapes, and nuts on the coffee table. Her mother, Jill Ochoa, greets me as Marina comes from the kitchen with three glasses of Chinese gunpowder tea flavored with mint.

    Marina’s 3-year-old son sits on a couch reading with his grandmother, while her 7-month old daughter Amel swings in a baby swing; the baby is quiet and content until a little attention from a guest has her clamoring for more.

    We’re gathered to talk about the two women’s reasons, emotional, spiritual, and deeply personal, for becoming Muslims. Both Marina and her mother now wear hijab. Marina says of her first contact with a covered woman, “I was kind of afraid of it. I didn’t know what it was.”

    Marina’s journey began about nine years ago, when, in her early 20s, she worked “doing a little bit of everything” – barista, waitress, delivery driver – for an Egyptian couple who owned a coffee shop called Sphinx and other businesses. It was Marina’s first encounter with Muslims. “I started working there during Ramadan,” Marina says, and “I kept trying to feed them.”

    Marina asked her employers and co-workers why they fasted, and “everybody gave me a different reason.” Some of those reasons included understanding the feelings of people who don’t have enough to eat. And Marina, “being Christian at the time,” thought, “then I should be doing it too.” She began to fast as best she could. “One time I was delivery driving, and it was so hot and busy on the East Side. I bought a strawberry frappé and downed it, and then I continued fasting.”

    She also “tried being modest, or what I thought was modest. I quit wearing nail polish for the month and wore a longer skirt.”

    But an interesting thing happened. “At the end of the month, it felt good, and I got really interested in Islam and started studying it more.”
    She joined the Muslim Student Association at Alverno College, where she was an international business student. There she met Sakina, who taught her the basics of how to pray. “She was really cool, very non-judgmental. I would show up to her apartment and she would teach me different things and answer my questions.”

    One day, a friend called her at work. The friend concluded their conversation with the words, “Jesus is with you,” and Marina thought, “She means ‘God is with you.’” Her own response brought her up short. “I froze because I realized I had had a . . . change in my belief system. I was very nervous that my fundamental beliefs had changed.” Muslims believe that only God is Divine, Jesus, Muhammad, Moses and others are viewed as great prophets.

    However, the end result was, “I decided that I wanted to become Muslim.” Now, when she saw women wearing hijab, “my fear had turned to envy.” Jill bought Marina her first modest outfit, a maxi dress from Target, and Marina “felt like a queen on the East side.” When she decided to begin wearing a headscarf, she “watched a lot of YouTube videos. If you want to learn how to wrap a hijab, it’s on YouTube.”

    On June 29, 2012, Imam Ziad at ISM said the words, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his final messenger,” this is the Muslim testimony of faith. Marina repeated them, “and that made me a Muslim. Then we all went out to eat.”

    She has never looked back. Becoming Muslim “changed things – health, finances, self-respect, outlook.” And all the changes were positive. “I felt really restless before – that subsided when I became Muslim. I was much calmer.” Her mother agrees. “Me and her dad [saw] that she was happier, wasn’t as stressed.”

    Less than a month after her shahada, Marina married Messaoud Zouaghi, who had come to Milwaukee from Algeria to study at UWM. Most of the wedding guests had never been to a mosque.

    Marina met her in-laws for the first time on Skype, but she and her husband subsequently traveled to visit them in Algeria. Jill and Messaoud’s mother Noucha now talk regularly. “I was so worried about Marina traveling abroad,” Jill says. But Noucha told her, “My son is now your son and your daughter is my daughter.” Today, Jill says, “I don’t worry about her when she’s with them. I know they will take care of her.”

    A Mother Follows in her Daughter’s Footsteps

    Jill Ochoa was baptized a Catholic. In her 30s, she became an Evangelical Lutheran. In 2009, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disease of the digestive system, a condition that is aggravated by stress. “I had gotten to the point with Christianity where I kept having questions about my faith and never got the answers I wanted. . . It was always that I didn’t have enough faith. The sicker I got, the angrier I became.”

    Though she approved of the changes in her daughter since her conversion, she didn’t necessarily understand the reason for those changes at first. One night, “I was digging through the Bible,” Marina says, and finding passages that supported her Muslim faith. “I was crying and it shocked [my mother] and she got overwhelmed.” Jill told her daughter, “I’m never becoming a Muslim, I just want to understand you better.”

    But Jill got an email from a friend to attend an interfaith panel at MSOE, “and I said okay, and that was the day I decided I wanted to be a Muslim.”

    On the panel were an imam, a priest, a rabbi, and a Christian pastor. Jill asked, “If someone does something horrific to a child, and they ask for forgiveness before they die, do they still go to heaven?” The priest and pastor both said yes. The rabbi said, “We’re not quite sure what happens.”

    But the imam said: “We think of this world like a scale. Not every deed weighs the same. When you go before God, you want to have more good deeds than bad deeds. You don’t just say you’re sorry. Sometimes you have to answer for them.”

    Jill went down to the lakefront early one morning and sat at the end of a pier. “I put my head on the ground and prayed and felt this overwhelming hit of peace and strength. I felt someone was there with me, and I wasn’t alone.”

    When she told her husband she wanted to become a Muslim for her birthday, he said, “So, no present?”

    But Islam was her present. Jill was 47 at the time of her conversion, when she too began wearing hijab. At a family picnic on a warm summer day, people kept asking her, “Aren’t you hot? Aren’t you hot?” But they also noticed something else. “I started getting some respect and some strength that I didn’t have before,” Jill says.

    To date, two more of Jill’s daughters have converted to Islam, Jade, who became Muslim 3 years ago, and Melissa, who became Muslim on the 27th day of Ramadan this year, before her marriage to Jorge Vazquez, who attended her shahada. One daughter, Mariah, remains Christian
    MOTHER AND DAUGHTER’S FAITH JOURNEY LEADS TO ISLAM Marina Zouaghi and her family moved into their new home in Oak Creek only two days ago, yet the house is orderly and welcoming to a guest, with a platter of miniature cream puffs, grapes, and nuts on the coffee table. Her mother, Jill Ochoa, greets me as Marina comes from the kitchen with three glasses of Chinese gunpowder tea flavored with mint. Marina’s 3-year-old son sits on a couch reading with his grandmother, while her 7-month old daughter Amel swings in a baby swing; the baby is quiet and content until a little attention from a guest has her clamoring for more. We’re gathered to talk about the two women’s reasons, emotional, spiritual, and deeply personal, for becoming Muslims. Both Marina and her mother now wear hijab. Marina says of her first contact with a covered woman, “I was kind of afraid of it. I didn’t know what it was.” Marina’s journey began about nine years ago, when, in her early 20s, she worked “doing a little bit of everything” – barista, waitress, delivery driver – for an Egyptian couple who owned a coffee shop called Sphinx and other businesses. It was Marina’s first encounter with Muslims. “I started working there during Ramadan,” Marina says, and “I kept trying to feed them.” Marina asked her employers and co-workers why they fasted, and “everybody gave me a different reason.” Some of those reasons included understanding the feelings of people who don’t have enough to eat. And Marina, “being Christian at the time,” thought, “then I should be doing it too.” She began to fast as best she could. “One time I was delivery driving, and it was so hot and busy on the East Side. I bought a strawberry frappé and downed it, and then I continued fasting.” She also “tried being modest, or what I thought was modest. I quit wearing nail polish for the month and wore a longer skirt.” But an interesting thing happened. “At the end of the month, it felt good, and I got really interested in Islam and started studying it more.” She joined the Muslim Student Association at Alverno College, where she was an international business student. There she met Sakina, who taught her the basics of how to pray. “She was really cool, very non-judgmental. I would show up to her apartment and she would teach me different things and answer my questions.” One day, a friend called her at work. The friend concluded their conversation with the words, “Jesus is with you,” and Marina thought, “She means ‘God is with you.’” Her own response brought her up short. “I froze because I realized I had had a . . . change in my belief system. I was very nervous that my fundamental beliefs had changed.” Muslims believe that only God is Divine, Jesus, Muhammad, Moses and others are viewed as great prophets. However, the end result was, “I decided that I wanted to become Muslim.” Now, when she saw women wearing hijab, “my fear had turned to envy.” Jill bought Marina her first modest outfit, a maxi dress from Target, and Marina “felt like a queen on the East side.” When she decided to begin wearing a headscarf, she “watched a lot of YouTube videos. If you want to learn how to wrap a hijab, it’s on YouTube.” On June 29, 2012, Imam Ziad at ISM said the words, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his final messenger,” this is the Muslim testimony of faith. Marina repeated them, “and that made me a Muslim. Then we all went out to eat.” She has never looked back. Becoming Muslim “changed things – health, finances, self-respect, outlook.” And all the changes were positive. “I felt really restless before – that subsided when I became Muslim. I was much calmer.” Her mother agrees. “Me and her dad [saw] that she was happier, wasn’t as stressed.” Less than a month after her shahada, Marina married Messaoud Zouaghi, who had come to Milwaukee from Algeria to study at UWM. Most of the wedding guests had never been to a mosque. Marina met her in-laws for the first time on Skype, but she and her husband subsequently traveled to visit them in Algeria. Jill and Messaoud’s mother Noucha now talk regularly. “I was so worried about Marina traveling abroad,” Jill says. But Noucha told her, “My son is now your son and your daughter is my daughter.” Today, Jill says, “I don’t worry about her when she’s with them. I know they will take care of her.” A Mother Follows in her Daughter’s Footsteps Jill Ochoa was baptized a Catholic. In her 30s, she became an Evangelical Lutheran. In 2009, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disease of the digestive system, a condition that is aggravated by stress. “I had gotten to the point with Christianity where I kept having questions about my faith and never got the answers I wanted. . . It was always that I didn’t have enough faith. The sicker I got, the angrier I became.” Though she approved of the changes in her daughter since her conversion, she didn’t necessarily understand the reason for those changes at first. One night, “I was digging through the Bible,” Marina says, and finding passages that supported her Muslim faith. “I was crying and it shocked [my mother] and she got overwhelmed.” Jill told her daughter, “I’m never becoming a Muslim, I just want to understand you better.” But Jill got an email from a friend to attend an interfaith panel at MSOE, “and I said okay, and that was the day I decided I wanted to be a Muslim.” On the panel were an imam, a priest, a rabbi, and a Christian pastor. Jill asked, “If someone does something horrific to a child, and they ask for forgiveness before they die, do they still go to heaven?” The priest and pastor both said yes. The rabbi said, “We’re not quite sure what happens.” But the imam said: “We think of this world like a scale. Not every deed weighs the same. When you go before God, you want to have more good deeds than bad deeds. You don’t just say you’re sorry. Sometimes you have to answer for them.” Jill went down to the lakefront early one morning and sat at the end of a pier. “I put my head on the ground and prayed and felt this overwhelming hit of peace and strength. I felt someone was there with me, and I wasn’t alone.” When she told her husband she wanted to become a Muslim for her birthday, he said, “So, no present?” But Islam was her present. Jill was 47 at the time of her conversion, when she too began wearing hijab. At a family picnic on a warm summer day, people kept asking her, “Aren’t you hot? Aren’t you hot?” But they also noticed something else. “I started getting some respect and some strength that I didn’t have before,” Jill says. To date, two more of Jill’s daughters have converted to Islam, Jade, who became Muslim 3 years ago, and Melissa, who became Muslim on the 27th day of Ramadan this year, before her marriage to Jorge Vazquez, who attended her shahada. One daughter, Mariah, remains Christian
    0 Comments 0 Shares