Page 7 The Islamic Bulletin Volume XXIV No. 28 told him, “It does not state anywhere in the Bible about the concept of the Trinity. I don’t see where this is coming from.” The only answer that he could give me was, “Do not let a few mistakes jeopardize your faith.” When I heard this, I realized that he didn’t have an answer for me. And the fact was that I was at a point in my life where I was trying to become a better person in this life, trying to become more religious, trying to get in touch with God, and I was lost. I was counting on the priest as an a’lim (scholar) and he couldn’t answer any of the questions for me. Thus, after doing research for about three months, I determined that Catholicism was not the way for me. I then decided to look at other Christian branches and their beliefs. However, after trying to adopt the beliefs and practices of the other branches, the same scenario would be repeated. I had always assumed that the different groups had a different Bible, but essentially they all followed similar concepts. Again, arguments would follow because they couldn’t answer my questions. People would start looking at me like I was crazy because I was asking questions about concepts that did not make any sense. So I would merely jump to another branch and I would still have the same problem. Then I decided to do some research on the religion of Christianity. As I researched, I found out that Christianity was never with the belief that Jesus was God. This was in fact a belief that was added on years later in history. I accepted this belief with certainty; for I had always believed that Jesus was never God and so this nowmade a lot of sense. I decided to then do further research and look into what was before Jesus and before Christianity; hence began my journey with studying Judaism. While studying Judaism, I noticed the same problems that I had with the descriptions of the prophets in Christianity to be the same in Judaism. I also found out that I would never be accepted because I was not born Jewish through my mother. I would never want to be in a religion where I am not accepted if I am not born into it. It doesn’t make any sense to me. So I left that alone and I went off, off course. Having just turned 21, I started studying Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. It was something that was really out of the ordinary, something I really didn’t understand. In Buddhism, you do not believe in God. I had always believed that I was brought here for a purpose and that I was created by a Creator. So I really couldn’t believe that Buddhism was the right path. The whole thing about Hinduism having a god for everything was to me much worse than Christianity. Here I would have a god for every element on earth and that was unfathomable. After having studied enough religions that didn’t make sense to me….... I thought, “God I’ve looked , but I could not find the perfect religion. So maybe there is no such thing as the perfect religion.” So there I was, full of questions and praying to God for help. I had a real fear of dying and not knowing the truth. I prayed and I prayed. I felt that God wanted people to go to heaven so He wouldn’t make it a mystery as to how to get there, how to live life accordingly, and how to understand Him. Maybe everything is distorted, I don’t know. Around that time, I decided that I would concentrate on being a good person. I would not be doing anything that I believed was inhuman or unethical. Once in a while, I would still pray to God. During that time, late 2008 and early 2009, My Space was very popular. I remember specifically reading a person’s post who was an artist. I went on his My Space and I remember reading something on his My Space that caught my attention. There is no god but Allah. There is no other god you should worship but Allah and he said it in Arabic as well, the Kalimah, which at that point I could not understand. Right then and there this intrigued me. Who is this Allah he is talking about? That is what intrigued me to do some research because I thought I had studied every religion that I could think of. This man on the internet is talking about Allah, the Creator of the Universe. I then did a quick Google search, “Who is Allah?” It came back with basic Google answers such as: Allah being the creator that Muslims worship, the God of the Islamic faith, etc. This surprised me because I had always thought that Islam was a branch of Hinduism. The only knowledge I knew about Muslims was how the media portrayed Muslims to be. But, at the point, I was like, I don’t really believe in the media that much. I am going to put that to the side and let me see what the Muslims have to say. What their doctrine says. I had never come across a Muslim before. Maybe I had come across some Muslims but I did not know they were Muslims, so I decided to do my own research. I did a Google search on the holy book of Muslims and came across the Quran. So, I went to Barnes and Nobles in Fairfield and came across an English version of the Quran. I went every single day to read a little more of the Quran. In the long run, I probably should have bought the book. I began reading Surah al-Fatiha, and came across the ayah that proclaims that there is One God that we should worship and no one else. After reading some parts of the Quran, my biggest question was how does Islam as a religion correlate to the other religions? Again, I did a Google search about the prophets and found Musa, Isa, Yusuf, Ibrahim, etc. , the same ones Judaism and Christianity talk about. While studying the prophets in Islam, I found that the prophets are looked at in a different, more positive way. They are not shown as criminals or alcoholics. The more I read the Quran, the more I became
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