1. What is your religion?

Islam. Sunni Islam. I try to subscribe to the Hanafi madhab, i.e. school of thought, or jurisprudence. 

2. How long have you been that religion?
My family is Muslim, parents are immigrants, mom’s background is religious with some actual education though she seems to have forgotten it almost as soon as she step foot here at age 18, married to my dad. My dad came from a village so their version of Islam was entirely cultural. E.g. where he comes from anything written, any paper, is treated with holy reverence. So you can imagine his cultural shock when he came to New York for his graduate studies…with newspapers thrown around everywhere. He educated himself about Islam but I don’t know when, where, for how long, to what extent. Neither parent really taught us anything. 

They did, however, hire Bangladeshi teachers that tutored us in reading and reciting Arabic without comprehension for a time (replaced Saturday morning cartoons… baddest of bad ideas). We did not understand why pronunciation was different from teacher to teacher… and trying so hard to read Arabic text would put me to sleep (sign of a health issue that was neglected). I do not recall being taught anything about God, Prophet Muhammad, Islam, yet we were urged to perform the prayers and eventually fast, simply by following what others did. I had some traumatic experiences in a masjid where I was being taken to learn. My parents thought I was being taught how to pray and other things, but all we did was follow the other kids, not even the hujur (teacher). The hujur himself would just beat the kids with a stick when they were disobedient (2,000% unIslamic). But I was never beaten in my life, at least not by adults, so of course the kids gradually turn on me. Needless to say what with the increasingly obvious hypocrisy of *every single Muslim* I encountered I increasingly grew further away from both brown people and religion.

In the 8th grade I went to a Catholic school and had religious and theological studies there. I found that they, too, were hypocrites. I don’t remember the particulars but I remember learning about their faith either a belief or a form of application both of which were visibly either not followed or altogether rejected… like serving pork in the cafeteria. Nothing was being done to curb the perversion of the youth, I mean they were literally perverts, flipping skirts, etc. and all the problems seemed to have been avoided. Teachers were removed regularly, punishment assignments were given regularly. I worked my ass off that year, as hard if not harder than I would in college some 4 years later.

In high school I tried to reconnect with Islam but I simply could not find any decent reading material around me. I wanted to learn about love in Islam and other things. But all I could find were insufficient philosophical arguments and Do’s and Don’t's. Hardly even comparable to the 8th grade education I got on another Abrahamic faith. With the pressures I faced in high school and the pseudo-apathy, angst, etc. that it yielded I only grew further and further away.

It wasn’t until mid-2007, age 23, when everything, college, work, family, health were all hitting the fan that I began to look at religion again and soon began to follow Islam. 

So it depends on how you view it. Maybe I was always Muslim. Maybe I was Muslim up until traumatic event. But I personally feel as if I converted to Islam in June 2007.

3. What made you choose that religion?

It wasn’t because I was troubled per se and looking for a way out, rather growing up with health issues you understand over time the connection between mind, body, and heart, i.e. that they are not separate entities, you as a person are whole, are one. There seemed to be something missing, though. So I took as premise another unobservable component, a human spirit or soul, and took as premise I was not the first man in history to do so. Believing in a soul has profound implications. In the search that sprung from there Islam was the furthest thing from my mind… until a friend had linked me to some Sufi discourse on the soul (http://maarifah0.blogspot.com/2007/01/soul-in-islam.html). Being familiar with the ritual aspects of worship in Islam I now had to discard all my preconceptions and misconceptions and let it sink in… Islam was actually an immensely spiritual religion. I wanted something spiritual that wouldn’t require that I leave my life so to speak, rather make the best of it. So I looked more and more into it and only became more intrigued. Eventually I hypothesized if this material is what it says it is it would necessitate spiritual elevation even in following it mechanically (i.e. that was my secular way of thinking like, “listening to what God is telling you, obedience, etc.”), something I wasn’t seeing anyone around me do, ever. The more I got into it the more there was no turning back, there was just so much to learn, so much to fall in love with. I had been hated on for so many things in my life for no reason, the friction I got for “becoming” Muslim (and all that from other Muslims!) did not bother me in the least.

4. Where do you go to worship (What type of Church/temple/mosque etc)?

In Islam the term for worshiper is ‘abd. The meaning is closer to slave than worshiper, i.e. we are owned by God, being “religious” is not a weekend thing, not an at home thing, not a 9-5 thing. There are so many forms of worship… there’s the personally obligatory sort, the community sort, the optional sort, and then virtually anything that if you intend it for the sake of God it can be elevated from just a plain permissible worldly action to a religious action. The lowest act of imaan, of faith, is picking up trash off the road e.g. cleaning or removing harm. Every letter of the Qur’aan recited is inherently an act of worship, 10 hasanat (reward) each. 

There are 2 different types of prayer. One is the supplication sort where you literally pray to God, like raising or cupping your hands and making your wishes. This can be done anywhere at any time, it is called du’aa. It is known as the essence of worship. The 5 daily prayers which is obligatory on every sane Muslim after puberty are a ritual sort which can be offered anywhere except for graveyards and bathrooms. The Prophet said the world is [made] a masjid (meaning rendered clean). These prayers, the salawat, have a specific timing every day and are meant to be prayed in their time, one before dawn, one right after noon, one in the afternoon, one right before evening, and one in the evening. The daytime ones I would pray at work, the others I would pray at home. There is also a Friday prayer that takes the place of the noon prayer, it is called Jum’uah, one part of it is listening to a religious sermon, khutbah, about problems in the community and propositions (or just… the khateeb (person giving the sermon) going on about whatever he wants lol), followed by salah. So on Fridays I go to a masjid for the Friday prayer. If there were a masjid closer to me I would try to go there for at least one prayer every day if not all of them.

For classes we generally try to rent halls if we’re charging. So those and other Islamic events usually end up hosted at a university, e.g. SJU, QC, NYU, one of the CUNYs, etc. If it’s smaller we might find a masjid ready, willing, and able to host it. 

5. How often do you go worship?
I try to be in a constant state of worship. This post if I maintain the right intention is an act of worship.

6. Anything else you would like to add about you and your religion?

I wouldn’t know where to start or where to finish. I lack that kind of wisdom. As awesome as I find my religion it is important not to lose track of things. One of my favorite ayat of the Qur’aan are http://quran.com/2/207-208 The exegesis (islamibayanaat.com/EMQ.htm it’s in English) for these are awesome, 207 is about those who literally gave up all their wealth to emigrate from a land of persecution to the land where they can practice their religion, instead of fighting their enemies and probably winning though it’s 1:3, he opted to reveal the location of his wealth. That section ends there and a new one starts in 208, the contrast being balance, balance your sincerity and the way to balance that sincerity is with knowledge, the way to balance sincerity in the action is with knowledge–don’t go to extremes, not excess, not too little. 208 though is what every single Muslim needs to know. God says to believers to enter silm, peace, meaning the religion of Islam here, *compleeeeetely*. The linguistics mean either the entirety of the believer enters Islam or the believer enters the entirety of Islam, meaning you absolutely cannot just take one aspect and run with it, you can’t take the ritualistic aspect, or spiritual aspect, or preaching aspect, or family aspect, or social aspect, or political aspect, or war aspect and make it everything. And it also says do not follow the footsteps of Shaytan. Part of the obvious meaning is that shaytaan (Satan and his ilk) will be using his cunning to prevent that from happening. You can read the exegesis of 2:168-169 to learn more. But I had the opportunity to ask a scholar who had a Ph. D. in exegesis of the Qur’aan about this ayah, about this phrase. In short he said the phrase following the footsteps of shaytaan is like becoming like him, i.e. leaving behind your humanity, as if leaving humanity itself.

And that is what I would like to remind people about under zealousy and over-zealousy. Whether you fall in love with the religion or hate it don’t forget who this religion was for to begin with. It’s like a technology, a utility. It is for *people*. If you’re trying to uphold the religion for the religion’s sake then you’re doing it wrong and run the risk of leaving behind your humanity. If you’re attacking for the sake of something else then know Islam is not even alive, it’s not something you can assault, most people are probably doing it wrong anyway. Calm down and be good to your mother.

I love all the comments.

@versatil - lowest act/branch of faith meaning closest and most practical. (something I learned only recently.)