Greetings from an old friend of Husayn.

[Suleiman]

Assalamu Alaykum ya ikhwan,

Many of you would know Husayn in these forums. But I knew him from back when we were in high school, we were in fact good friends. We're going back to the early to  mid 2000s here.

This was a time when brother Husayn was a hardcore Shi'a and everyday was spent with him trying to convince me to become Shi'a. Him and his fellow Shi'a brethren even gave me a book, "Then I was guided". They almost had me convinced (I admit I was completely ignorant of history, the Qur'an etc). All I knew was that we loved the sahabah and loved the ahlul bayt. So br. Husayn took a couple of controversial issues and confused me etc etc.

Anyway cutting it short, my impending conversion to Shi'ism was chopped off from under me once I spoke to another brother about my thoughts etc.

When we finished high school, our ways parted as we went to different universities and a year later I moved to a different city. We lost touch after a year or two.

Now about a week back, for some reason I still had his number and texted him and he responded. We texted and he mentioned that a lot has changed about him actually. I asked him to elaborate. He replied that he was an upstanding member of Ahle Sunnah.

I gently probed further and he mentioned that he used to be a rabid Rafidi.

My jaw dropped and I couldn't believe it considering our mutual history and arguments.

Anyway, we caught up a bit on the good ole days and he referred me to this website.

And per his request, I have started this thread.

[Husayn]

Wa alaikum assalam,

Indeed - I remember giving you that book.

Funny thing is you returned it (whereas we trashed an anti-Shii book given to us by a Sunni).

I guess one side was more confident than the other.

[Hadrami]

Wa alaykumsalam, welcome to forum bro. Although ive never thought of becoming a shia, i used to really admire Iran & shia. Before i know ive been lied at most of the time. What makes you changed your mind from becoming a shia?

[Suleiman]

Wa alaykumsalam, welcome to forum bro. Although ive never thought of becoming a shia, i used to really admire Iran & shia. Before i know ive been lied at most of the time. What makes you changed your mind from becoming a shia?

You're asking me to remember events more than 10 years ago. To be honest I can't remember exactly what the brother said that turned me back from disaster.

I did however started reading a response to "Then I was guided" Book and it seemed to  make sense. After that university started, I sort of stopped caring about shia-sunni stuff for a while and Islam in general (although I prayed/fasted etc).

Then a year or so later I had a religious awakening so to speak. I started gaining knowledge about Islam, read the Qur'an with understanding etc etc.

Islam was just so simple and clear and I found no basis for the shia arguments in the Qur'an or history. What I found was "out of context" verses. Taking innocent events and turning them into malicious/conspiracy theories type stuff. Basically for me to believe the Shi'a, I had to have a very active imagination.

Summary: I was about to become a Shia because of my immense ignorance, their few emotional arguments got the better of me. But once I started learning about Islam, I realised how foolish I was.

[Furkan]

Wa Alaykum assalaam

This deserves a ...   Takbir

Allahu Akbar

[MuslimK]

Walaikum Salam wr wb,

Welcome to the forum brother.