Sister 'Nomadic Soul' and her conversion

[Bolani Muslim]

Me: Tell us a bit about yourself?

NomadicSoul: I am almost 20, live with both my parents and two younger sisters. Alhumdulillah, I am a student studying International Relations and Arabic

Me: Tell us something about the background of your parents and family.

NomadicSoul: My mother is originally from Yemen but her mother has Turkish ancestry. My father is an East African Indian. Both my parents, myself and my middle sister were born and bred in East Africa. Youngest sister was born and bred here [London]. My mother has ancestry that links her family back to the family of the Prophet (saw) and in her family, everyone is Sunni with a few following the Zaydi school of thought.

She converted to Shi’aism a year after her marriage with my father. My father’s lineage goes back to his ancestors [wayyyyy back!] being Hindu but converted to Shi’ite Muslims.

Me: Did anyone in your mother’s family oppose her conversion/marriage?

NomadicSoul: My mother wasn’t from a practising background and her first proper encounter with religion was when she married my father. Then during a period of their married life, they encountered a life/death situation and my mother made a pact that if they got out alive; she would become a Shi’a and that’s what happened; she also witness miracles during the holy Shi’a pilgrimage to Karbala and syria; no one in her family has opposed this as such.

Me: Were your family strict Shi’as? What was thier attitude towards Sunnis?

NomadicSoul: My family were strict to a certain extent; strict being a very relative term and it has evolved over the years. In Kenya where we spent our early years, everything was “Shi’a-fied” from the private school we went to to our extra curricular activities. There was a close knit “Khoja Itnasheri” community[Khoja being East African and Indians and Itnasheri being the 12-ers]. Practices included celebrating all the 12 Imams’ birthdays, commemorating the story of Karbala during Muharaam with ritual such as ma’tam [the beating of the chest] and so forth.

Me: were you aware of the traditional Sunni Islamic perspective and opinions on Shi’as and Shi’aism?

NomadicSoul: No, I was only to learn of my mother’s background when we came to London. I knew of Sunnis in the madressa we went to; we got taught about thier aqeedah etc in a derogatory way which almost ensured we never considered it. Me: So true!

Me: What sparked the interest in Sunni Islam? What made you want to learn more about it?

NomadicSoul: Coming into contact with more Sunnis and my mother’s side of the family; having more access to material such as books and so forth. A major factor was my friends; I remember them taking me to a Sunni mosque and this lady, who despite not knowing me said Salaam to me and that struck me, coming from a background where it would be quite weird to do that-more so because of cultural reasons, although one must note things are changing in the Shi’ite community. I think in a few words, it was the purity of Sunni Islam, for example, the concept of not needing to go through “Imams” to make du’a to Allah amongst other things.

Me: what similarities/differences did you find between Shi’as and Sunnis?

NomadicSoul: The first two lines of the Shahadah are the same- they add “aliyun waliyun, wasiyun rasulallah, wa khalifatulillafasl” which means “Ali is the wali of Allah and that he is the successor of the Rasul of Allah and he is the first Khalifah”.

A few hadiths and understanding of certain concepts are similar but the difference is almost everything else

Me: Describe your transition from Shi’aism to Sunnism? Was it gradual/spontaneous?

NomadicSoul: It was a bit of both if that makes sense. My understanding of Sunni Islam was gradual but my move towards it was more spontaneous.

Me: Would you say you “converted/reverted” to Sunni Islam?

NomadicSoul: Yes, alot of the times it feels like I have. It meant re-learning how to pray; re-defining alot of things in my understanding; in fact I’d say it was much harder than a normal revert because they’d have a blank canvas. It was almost like I had to sit there and erase my already painted one.

Me: How did you feel when you were contemplating converting/reverting? What thoughts were going through your head?

NomadicSoul: Fear of my family and their reaction to it. I didn’t tell them for a long while and they found out accidentally too! My extended family still doesn’t know.

Me: How did you convert? anything formal?

NomadicSoul: Not really…no

Me: Did you tell anyone? How did they take it, in particular your family?

NomadicSoul: I made it public to those around me like friends, that was pretty much it. Most of my friends were happy with the exception of two of my Shi’a mates. My family didn’t take it too well and still don’t!

Me: What are people’s reactions (i.e Sunni Muslims and Shi’as) when you tell them you used to be Shi’a?

NomadicSoul: Most are fascinated and intrigued as to why I did it.

Me: Has anyone else in your family converted to Sunni Islam?

Not that I know of..

Me: What problems, if any, did you face in becoming a Sunni Muslim?

NomadicSoul: Well, lack of support and as a result of being left on my own to understand the deen. I guess, most of the talks nowadays, require a certain level of knowledge and understanding of the terminology etc to fully take benefit of the message being propagated.

Me: How long have you been a Sunni Muslim now?

NomadicSoul: About a year.

Me: What are you plans for the near future? What do you want to do after studying?

NomadicSoul: Insha’Allah, after learning Arabic, I want to continue furthering my knowledge of the language; particularly in etymology of words as well as my understanding of the deen through traditional methods abroad.

Me:How do you feel about the situation in Iraq? the sectarian violence?

NomadicSoul: Sad at the state of the Ummah; sad that we have to fight each other.

Me: Do you have a message for the Shia’s out there or Muslims in general?

NomadicSoul: I think Shi’as need to draw the line between culture and religion. More of a focus needs to be on the religion. I mean, I never even knew of the concept of Khush’oo’ in salat until I became a Sunni Muslim. Focus needs to be diverted to those things that are important in the deen; things that will help us gain the pleasure of Allah.

Oh, and if there is anyone else out there who has converted from Shi’aism to Sunni Islam, get in touch, I’ve yet to meet one!

Me: How do you feel about Shi’aism, and what is your attitude towards Shi’as now that you are a Sunni Muslim?

NomadicSoul: No comment

Me: and finally, would you like a strawberry shake?

NomadicSoul: Yes pleaaaase!

Jazakallah khair for sharing your experiences with us. May Allah keep you strong and continue to guide you in all that you do. Ameen

***Nomadic Soul requested that I add the following from her:

The differences between sunnis and shias are not as clear-cut and as simple as people make out to be. Even now, I’m still not so clued up on every single difference; its a very detailed subject and I feel like I’ve only just touched the surface but with du’a and istikhara, insha’Allah, Allah will guide me. No doubt, there are overlapping concepts and so forth. Infact, some ideas are totally opposite in both sects and misconceptions of both sects exist. I was talking to a friend who has had loads of sunni friends become shia and they put it down to the fact that sunnis have now become devoid of spirituality and emphasize on “outer aspects” and sunnis find shias are more spiritual; that was an interesting thought.

When I became sunni, everyone confused me on this madhab/salafi/hizbi/everything else issue and people were too busy telling me that a jilbaab was fardh and a niqaab was fardh and no-one told me about the aqeeda or whether i was praying right. I think there came a point where I had even questioned this move. But alhamdullilah, that questioning only strengthened me. It’s a complicated and very long story but i guess, I learnt one important thing and i think this is an implicit message in Malcolm x’s autobiography; you should never shut any doors because you might infact be closing a door of opportunity to guidance and truth. I would have never imagined myself becoming a sunni a few years ago but life is strange subhana’Allah. And people when you see reverts, go easy and focus on important things. cater the naseeha/dawah to the individual. ”
https://usma.wordpress.com/2007/01/18/from-shia-to-sunni/