I’ve been going through some of my old journals (back to fourth grade) and notebooks and I’ve rediscovered beautiful notes and gems from books that I have read, classes I have taken, people I have interacted with, lectures I have listened to, and much much more. One unfinished quote or essay in particular struck me:
Alhamdulillah, I am a Muslim and have been practicing Islam for just over a year. I took my shahadah before Allah subhanahu wa ta ala and the angels. But my story as was decreed began long before that.
I don’t have any recollection of writing that but I most certainly did nor do I recall the reason for writing it or what I intended to say after that.
I sometimes like to reflect with other converts the process of accepting Islam, when to pray 2 rakah of fajr used to take 30 minutes of the sweetest stumbling trying to remember the words and motions, or hiding our Islam from our families and friends so much so that on occasion not knowing any better we prayed in the bathroom, and so on…
Ify Okoye 