My Journey to Islam by Anne Stephens (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

My journey to Islam started by the blessing of Allah, at the early age of nine. It was in 1949, that my parents, who were practicing protestant Christians, decided to send me to a Catholic private school in England which was administered by the nuns of the Sisters of Mercy Order.My parents sent me to that school for several reasons: first and foremost was that I would receive a better education. Secondly, that I would learn the good manners and code of ethics from the Sisters of Mercy. In fact our school motto was “Manners maketh man”! From the moment I entered the school I was captivated by all the statues I saw; they were like brightly painted dolls. I didn’t have many dolls at home as the Second World War had not long ended and they weren’t available in the shops. Each classroom had a table with a statue, some I was told were of Jesus, some of Mary and the others were of saints - that is Christian Awlia - and around these statues students placed flowers they brought from their gardens at home to adorn them. It was very attractive to me since I was only a nine year old.There were only a few protestant children in my class and when it came to the daily religious instruction we were separated from the Catholics by sitting in the back row of the class, but of course we listened in. In the meantime, my parents made sure I attended my own church’s Sunday School not far from our family home every week.I was around ten or eleven, when Allah caused me to start thinking about religion. I had noticed that each day around eleven o’clock the school bell would ring and everyone would stand and say the Angelis. The Angelis is a prayer praising Mary said on a rosary (a rosary is similar to Muslim prayer beads). The Angelis is the biblical quotation of Gabriel when he breathed into Mary that reads, “Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with you, blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus”. The Catholics would also supplicate saying, “Holy Mary Mother of … pray for us”, this was followed by the lord’s prayer which is a prayer Jesus taught. Not long after I started to notice many of the prayers in the morning assembly were directed to the virgin Mary. I loved Mary, but I didn’t think it was right to be praying to her. Some time after I started to question the validity of saying my prayers to Jesus, who I really loved, but once again I thought it wasn’t right to be saying my prayers to him, even though he loved little children. The reason being in my young mind was that it wasn’t Jesus who created me, rather I was created by God. I didn’t mention my thoughts to my parents as I knew I would get into trouble, so I kept them to myself. The years passed I would go to the church and feel I was a bad person because I just could not bring myself to say some of the prayers we said in church each Sunday, especially the creed - the creed is the Christian articles of faith (Akidah). What really troubled me was that in the creed it says Jesus went to Hell for three days after he had suffered so much on the cross and after all, Jesus told us that Hell was a terrible place created especially for the punishment of sinners.Remember, in my young mind I was still under the impression that God was the father – may Allah forgive me - and my mind prompted me to think that if I was a mother or father I could not let my son go to Hell. After all, the Christian religion strongly preaches that God, “the father”, is the God of Love, and what parent who is all powerful and loving would let that happen! I also thought to myself that if Jesus in all his purity and proximity to God went to Hell for three days, what chance did I have to escape from it with all my sins! The answer was a resounding “none”.Then one day at my church’s Sunday School, I overheard a teacher describing the parting of the sea by Moses to a new teacher. The teacher told the newcomer that they did not teach the parting of the sea ...