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In the Name of Allah, most
Compassionate, most Merciful
Becoming Muslim
Christopher Shelton
My conversion to Islam began in my eighth grade year. There
was a Muslim student by the name of Raphael who first told me a
little about Islam. At the time he was not so knowledgeable
about Islam, but he put the initial interest in my mind which
never went away.
In the ninth grade there was another student by the name of
Leonard who claimed at one time or another that he was a Muslim
but he was more or less a 5 percenter. The one thing he did do
was to give me a pamphlet on true Islam which increased my
interest in Islam. I didn't hear much more about Islam until my
tenth grade year.
That year me and Leonard would sit in the back of geometry
class and blame all of the world's problems on white people
while we would exalt the status of black people above all other
races. At that time in my life I thought that Islam was the
religion for black people, but unfortunately the Islam I was
talking about was nothing more than black nationalism with a
slight touch of true Islam. It was very similar to The Nation of
Islam. As time went on I began to see that my black nationalist
views and my perception of what Islam was about became tired. It
was useless to hate almost all white people and to blame this on
Islam. Around the same time I totally denounced Christianity as
my religion. I got tired of the unintelligible doctrines and the
many contradictions within the religion.
The next year of high school I was conversing with a few
students about religion and they told me to buy a Qu'ran so I
did. I went to the nearest bookstore and bought a very poor
translation of the Qu'ran but it was the first real look into
the truth about Islam. Within a few weeks I took on the beliefs
of a Muslim even though I hadn't taken shahadah yet. Most of
what I was doing concerning Islam was wrong because I never had
a chance to go to a masjid because my mother totally forbade it.
As time went on I finally got an Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation
of the Qu'ran which opened my eyes to so much about Islam.
In the meantime my mother was doing everything in her power
to prevent me from embracing Islam. She took me to see her
preacher three times which was of no avail. As time passed I
began to learn more and more about Islam from various books I
could get my hands on. I finally learned how to make salat
correctly from one of these books. My mother was still trying
her best to make me become a Christian again.
My mother and I would frequently argue about religion until
one day my mother had enough and told my dad that I was going to
have to live with him. He had absolutely no problem with this.
The day after I graduated from high school I moved in with my
dad. I can see now that my parent's divorce was actually a
blessing in disguise. Their divorce provided me with a place to
live in which I could practice Islam freely. My dad had no
problem with my interest in Islam.
One day I called the Islamic Learning Center in Fayetteville
and a brother by the name of Mustafa told me to come down for
the Taleem (lesson) to learn more about Islam. Everybody was
extremely hospitable and Mustafa even gave me a ride home. After
three weeks of going to Jumuah (Friday congregational prayers)
and Taleem I finally took my Shahadah on July 2,1995. Ever since
then I have been an active member of the Islamic community. I am
also very pleased to say that Raphael (the person who gave me my
initial in interest in Islam) got back to Islam seriously and
took shahadah a few months before I did. We still keep in touch
even though he is in England.
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