ة You Shall Know The Truth And The Truth Shall Set You Free من قبل Koki Noor.
Salaam Alaykum, my name is Jared Craig Morris. I am 26 years old and my birthday is August 5. I was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, living there or in Hamilton County most of my life. I am a single father to a beautiful 3 year old little girl and she is partially why I am here today.
I was an extremely devout Christian. I had never thought of converting to another religion. In fact, I had felt compelled to become a Pastor (the non-Catholic equivalent of Priest) from the time I was about 12-13 years old. All of my being had gone into that goal of becoming a Pastor. I read every book I could find on Christianity by the leading scholars, served in every way I could to help me prepare for my future as a Pastor and studied the Bible nonstop. All my life, until I started to really seek out Islam, that was all I wanted to do.
My story really starts about 3 and a half years ago. I had just started at my current place of employment and met a convert. This brother and I would have a lot of conversations at work about Islam and Christianity and the differences between the two and also how they were very similar. Eventually, he found employment elsewhere but we kept in contact.
On June 7, 2010, my daughter, Mary Lee Rose, was born. I remember when the midwife placed her in my arms, she instantly stopped crying and as I looked into those beautiful eyes, I knew that there was no doubt in my mind that there was a God. Not that I was questioning my faith or God’s existence at that point, it just further strengthened my belief in Him.
I really didn’t start questioning whether Christianity was the right path until sometime in 2012. I started getting frustrated with Christianity as I looked at Islam and saw a few documentaries on it that showed how devout the followers were. In Christianity, you can’t get a person to pray over their meal, much less pray just for the sake of worshiping their Creator. I also looked at the way that Christians live. They don’t live in a way that honors their God. I also looked at the doctrine, one that I had a lot of trouble with is, in Christianity, it doesn’t really matter how you live as long as you believe in God and that Jesus Christ was His son and that he died and rose again. As long as you believe that, you get into heaven. That means, you can live an incredibly sinful life and, as long as you said that you believed, you got into heaven. Now, I had tried living the most biblical life possible. Abstaining from many different things that the Bible spoke against. It got to the point where I was asking myself, “What is the point? Why am I torturing myself when I know that I’ll go to heaven just because I believe?” I was honestly getting angry at the mediocrity of the worship and the lack of holy living of my, now former, brothers and sisters. When I saw how devout Muslims were to their faith, I was jealous and angry. How can a religion be false when they are one of the largest religions in the world and at the forefront of their followers minds and at the forefront of every action, is their God? For a while I ignored these thoughts as I was still devout and still pursuing a life as a Pastor. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was nowhere near perfect and failed at nearly every turn, nor did I pray to God just to pray or worship Him, I was just as guilty as everyone else and that made me even more angry.
After several months of ignoring these urges to seek Islam, I found myself at rock bottom. My fiance and I had just broken up, for good. I was having trouble keeping up with the bills as my mother lives with me and was unemployed. It seemed like no matter how much I tried to be a good Christian and be a good man, it was never good enough. I always got the short end of the stick. Out of frustration and to stop ignoring what my heart was leading me towards, I finally started actively seeking Islam.
I met with a few brothers in May, at Al-Huda, over a two day period for about 6 hours, if not longer, where they told me what Islam and to be a Muslim really means. They showed me what the Qu’ran says about Jesus (PBUH) and about the story of his birth in the Qu’ran. We also discussed what the Qu’ran says about terrorism and violent acts being done and how America, and the terrorists for that matter, have taken verses out of context in the Qu’ran to further their own views and justify their actions and how the Qu’ran specifically condemns persecution of innocents and also many, many different areas and, of course, who Muhammad (PBUH) was and his life.
I left those couple of meetings with a lot on my mind and on my heart. I mean, I’ve been in the Christian church all of my life, believing that Jesus Christ (PBUH) was the son of God, I had dedicated most of my life to service my God and my faith. How can I just throw all that away? At the same time, how could I continue in my faith if I was questioning it so much? I continued learning and even brought some of my questions and concerns to my pastors who couldn’t give me a biblical answer to any of the questions that I asked them and said that, basically, I was being an idiot. However, the Qu’ran answered in a way that made sense. I still wanted more proof and more evidence that Islam was the religion for me.
I was invited me to the Civic Leadership class held every other Sunday at the masjid. It was there that I received that final proof that I needed and learned about the political aspects of Islam and what it believes in terms of politics and made my first real friends in Islam, those friendships that I can tell will last for the rest of my life and where I feel a brotherly connection. After a few more weeks of questions and reading up on the literature from the course, I informed a brother that I was ready to take Shahada.
I had been invited to the fundraiser for the parking lot at Fishers High School on Saturday July 13th, 2013 and told a brother, that day that I was ready to take Shahada. I was nervous because I wasn’t used to being in front of so many people and yet here I was, about to declare that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad (PBUH) is His prophet. I finally took my Shahada. Immediately, I felt different. I felt that I was truly without sin for the first time in my life. I felt so welcome as many brothers came and hugged me and exchanged information with me and welcomed me to the community. Ever since then I have been nothing but welcomed and I can’t thank Al-Huda for that enough.
In the week and a half since my conversion I have learned so much and have a different attitude about life and people in general. Inshah Allah, I will continue to learn and find my place in Islam. I have been asked many times by brothers and sisters about how I feel since my conversion to Islam. I guess the only word I can use is fulfilled.
Your brother Jared
I was an extremely devout Christian. I had never thought of converting to another religion. In fact, I had felt compelled to become a Pastor (the non-Catholic equivalent of Priest) from the time I was about 12-13 years old. All of my being had gone into that goal of becoming a Pastor. I read every book I could find on Christianity by the leading scholars, served in every way I could to help me prepare for my future as a Pastor and studied the Bible nonstop. All my life, until I started to really seek out Islam, that was all I wanted to do.
My story really starts about 3 and a half years ago. I had just started at my current place of employment and met a convert. This brother and I would have a lot of conversations at work about Islam and Christianity and the differences between the two and also how they were very similar. Eventually, he found employment elsewhere but we kept in contact.
On June 7, 2010, my daughter, Mary Lee Rose, was born. I remember when the midwife placed her in my arms, she instantly stopped crying and as I looked into those beautiful eyes, I knew that there was no doubt in my mind that there was a God. Not that I was questioning my faith or God’s existence at that point, it just further strengthened my belief in Him.
I really didn’t start questioning whether Christianity was the right path until sometime in 2012. I started getting frustrated with Christianity as I looked at Islam and saw a few documentaries on it that showed how devout the followers were. In Christianity, you can’t get a person to pray over their meal, much less pray just for the sake of worshiping their Creator. I also looked at the way that Christians live. They don’t live in a way that honors their God. I also looked at the doctrine, one that I had a lot of trouble with is, in Christianity, it doesn’t really matter how you live as long as you believe in God and that Jesus Christ was His son and that he died and rose again. As long as you believe that, you get into heaven. That means, you can live an incredibly sinful life and, as long as you said that you believed, you got into heaven. Now, I had tried living the most biblical life possible. Abstaining from many different things that the Bible spoke against. It got to the point where I was asking myself, “What is the point? Why am I torturing myself when I know that I’ll go to heaven just because I believe?” I was honestly getting angry at the mediocrity of the worship and the lack of holy living of my, now former, brothers and sisters. When I saw how devout Muslims were to their faith, I was jealous and angry. How can a religion be false when they are one of the largest religions in the world and at the forefront of their followers minds and at the forefront of every action, is their God? For a while I ignored these thoughts as I was still devout and still pursuing a life as a Pastor. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was nowhere near perfect and failed at nearly every turn, nor did I pray to God just to pray or worship Him, I was just as guilty as everyone else and that made me even more angry.
After several months of ignoring these urges to seek Islam, I found myself at rock bottom. My fiance and I had just broken up, for good. I was having trouble keeping up with the bills as my mother lives with me and was unemployed. It seemed like no matter how much I tried to be a good Christian and be a good man, it was never good enough. I always got the short end of the stick. Out of frustration and to stop ignoring what my heart was leading me towards, I finally started actively seeking Islam.
I met with a few brothers in May, at Al-Huda, over a two day period for about 6 hours, if not longer, where they told me what Islam and to be a Muslim really means. They showed me what the Qu’ran says about Jesus (PBUH) and about the story of his birth in the Qu’ran. We also discussed what the Qu’ran says about terrorism and violent acts being done and how America, and the terrorists for that matter, have taken verses out of context in the Qu’ran to further their own views and justify their actions and how the Qu’ran specifically condemns persecution of innocents and also many, many different areas and, of course, who Muhammad (PBUH) was and his life.
I left those couple of meetings with a lot on my mind and on my heart. I mean, I’ve been in the Christian church all of my life, believing that Jesus Christ (PBUH) was the son of God, I had dedicated most of my life to service my God and my faith. How can I just throw all that away? At the same time, how could I continue in my faith if I was questioning it so much? I continued learning and even brought some of my questions and concerns to my pastors who couldn’t give me a biblical answer to any of the questions that I asked them and said that, basically, I was being an idiot. However, the Qu’ran answered in a way that made sense. I still wanted more proof and more evidence that Islam was the religion for me.
I was invited me to the Civic Leadership class held every other Sunday at the masjid. It was there that I received that final proof that I needed and learned about the political aspects of Islam and what it believes in terms of politics and made my first real friends in Islam, those friendships that I can tell will last for the rest of my life and where I feel a brotherly connection. After a few more weeks of questions and reading up on the literature from the course, I informed a brother that I was ready to take Shahada.
I had been invited to the fundraiser for the parking lot at Fishers High School on Saturday July 13th, 2013 and told a brother, that day that I was ready to take Shahada. I was nervous because I wasn’t used to being in front of so many people and yet here I was, about to declare that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad (PBUH) is His prophet. I finally took my Shahada. Immediately, I felt different. I felt that I was truly without sin for the first time in my life. I felt so welcome as many brothers came and hugged me and exchanged information with me and welcomed me to the community. Ever since then I have been nothing but welcomed and I can’t thank Al-Huda for that enough.
In the week and a half since my conversion I have learned so much and have a different attitude about life and people in general. Inshah Allah, I will continue to learn and find my place in Islam. I have been asked many times by brothers and sisters about how I feel since my conversion to Islam. I guess the only word I can use is fulfilled.
Your brother Jared
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