Aslamoalikom/ Merhaba/Hey/ Hola/ Bonjour everyone
A belated Eid Mubarak
Reminder : Is it time for any prayer? If yes, go ahead and pray then come back
Dedicated to @ThesmilingServant or Scatteredpearlz. I miss u huni! when did u change ur name?
Anyway, here is the story :)
********
“Aslamo alikom. My name is Barbara. I’m 24 years old. I’m French girl from Lille. I’m a master degree student studying sociology and humanity (human development). I’m Muslims for three years now alhamdulillah”
Barbara lives in Lille as she studies there. She was raised in one of the French villages in the north. At this time, she never knew anything about Islam
“Religion, for my parents, was fashion and dressing. There wasn’t much discussion about God but I was always on a relationship with God without even knowing who is God! I was feeling his presence! I knew that I could have a contact with him in another way. One night, I told myself that there’s a better way to know God and that one day, I would love to be… be closer to him” she said while wiping the tears that fell involuntarily from her eyes
Being close to God has a unique pleasure; only those who are honest with God (SWT) will feel this pleasure. Barbara was so affected by Allah’s mercy upon her that He chose her and guided her to Islam
“I move to Lille to continue my study and I had a room in the dorm. There I knew a Moroccan student but she wasn’t religious. She didn’t talk about Islam and was living the western life. I didn’t know anything about Islam through her. She suggested that I would visit her parents in Morocco for two weeks and since we had the residence, food and tickets that were cheap, we travelled. There I discovered something that was a shock to me! As if… as if we are in a totally different planet”
Barbara says that the media always ruin the reputation of Islam and Muslims but when she travelled to Morocco, she was surprised by the welcoming treatment of the people there, from their kindness and their smiles that never leave their faces
“When I returned to France, I told myself that it’s time for me to have an idea about Islam and have my own opinion about it and this was out of curiosity without any pre-judgment. I started to read Quran, learn it and write the French verses that I want to know more about then I decided to stop for a while. This all happened within six months.”
These six months weren’t easy for Barbara. She finished reading the translated Quran. She was very deep and precise while reading so she can learn more. She also looked for all the suspicions and how Muslim scholars replied. She also discover the other part of her personality: Barbara, the believer
“I tried to read Quran and understand it very well. I had a Catholic knowledge before but I… I doubted a lot of things in it as they were not logical so I… I stayed away from it…” Barbara stopped for while remembering these days when she was reading Quran for the first time and remembering how Allah was talking to her directly through Quran. Such feeling is amazing no doubt but at the same time, it’s so emotional. She was so deep in thoughts and when asked about her feelings at the moment, she said:
“Whenever I was reading Quran, I…” She stopped as she couldn’t hold her tears. She then continued with tears still falling “Despite the fact that I was a very strong person who rarely cried, rarely bore the difficulties and rarely helped people, when I read Quran and started to help people, I felt that I… I belong to God. I’m his slave and this is what I feel at the moment. I feel I’m His slave. This is the very strong feeling I have now. We may be strong but without Him we are worthless! I was that kind who rarely cried but after reading Quran, I knew that Allah is my God and I’m literally nothing without him. If it wasn’t for Islam, my life would have been … meaningless.”
