Habeeba Husain Mecca B. didn’t know what to expect when she walked into the funeral service of her late cousins. The Philadelphia native entered the mosque feeling very out of place and uninvited. She was raised Christian, but her cousins were Muslim. One had drowned, and the other [...]
Laura El Alam “Joyless, exhausted, and gloomy.” Those are the words that came to my mind about the first few Muslims I got to know after I took my shahada twenty-five years ago. In retrospect, now that I’m a fifty-year-old mother of five, I can understand why [...]
Laura El Alam I’ve lived as a Muslim for twenty-five years now, but I remember my earnestness and enthusiasm when I was a brand new convert. In my naivete, I believed that going forward, I would always find it easy to avoid sins. After all, I felt convinced [...]
Habeeba Husain Philadelphia born and raised Angelina Rivera grew up participating in church every Sunday at her mother’s request. She considered herself Christian and was fairly practicing. Interestingly enough, she said it was because of her regular attendance in the congregation and listening to the pastor that questions [...]
Laura El Alam I remember the first time I ever went to a mosque as a new convert. In my carefully-chosen outfit of loose pants, a long-sleeved blouse, and headscarf, I was certain that I’d fit right in with the women around me. After all, I felt extremely [...]
Laura El Alam New converts in the United States and other Muslim-minority countries often have questions about which kinds of meat are halal (permissible) to eat. Abstaining from pork is obvious, but what about the beef sold in supermarkets, or the chicken served at fast food restaurants? Are [...]
Laura El Alam Those of us who embraced Islam as an adult have many years of life experiences behind us. The things we did and the people we spent time with shaped us into who we are. While not all of our pre-Islamic habits, friends, and behaviors were [...]
Habeeba Husain Growing up with a Jewish background, Nissa knew that a person who wanted to accept Judaism would be ritually turned away three times before a rabbi accepted the potential convert’s request on a fourth attempt. But she never imagined she herself would run into three different [...]
Laura El Alam This March, God willing, I will celebrate my twenty-fifth shahadaversary, a term coined by some of us converts to mark the day we made the testimony of faith (shahada) and officially embraced Islam. I will also, God willing, turn 50 this year, which will mean [...]
Interview By: Melissa Barreto Candice Elam's Journey to Islam Candice Elam, DNP, FNP-C, accepted Islam 19 years ago. Like many converts, her choice meant practicing a new religion, navigating changing family dynamics, and learning how to maintain her own identity in the wider, and often ethnocentric, Muslim communities. This [...]
