THE RADIANT MUSLIM

There are people who abhor the notion of converting for the sake of marriages. Whether or not the party who converted truly believes in his/her new faith isn't relevant here; If it was voluntary and a personal choice, great. If not, that's another issue altogether. The bottom line is that these people simply do not believe that two people have to be of the same faith in order to get married. That it is far from the epitome of racial harmony and acceptance that others celebrat

This is a follow-up to the post 'My journey in science and religion' where I discussed the evolution of my religious beliefs since I was a child. We ended off that post with my interest in Islam being sparked after a conversation with my husband. I was then posed with a dilemma: Science or Religion? Surely they were incompatible; there were scholars who made a living and a career out of debating against one or the other. As a science student who worshiped science, how was I g

At the beginning I was born into a family that was not too religious. My grandmother was Buddhist so that was what we practiced at home – burning joss sticks, joss papers, praying in front of the altar etc. I would tag along whenever my parents were instructed by my grandmother to make offerings at temples and during the Hungry Ghost Festival. They identified more as freethinkers and practiced Buddhism in our home mainly on behalf on my grandmother as she was old. At the same

Few years ago, a mailman arrived and dumped a gigantic parcel on my door step. "I didn't order this!" "Is this your address?" "Ya." "Then it's yours." "Huh? It must be a mistake. I never ordered this!" "Just doing my job, please sign here ma'am." And I was left with the huge parcel at my door. I gingerly peeled open a corner of it and a human emerged. He was quite short and plumpy with slight curls in his hair. He had a genuine smile and a big heart which I could see thr

This happened in the Ramadhan of 2015, just after I converted. I was extremely grouchy on this day for 3 reasons: - Aizat told me that the mosque we were going to had no aircon - Aizat and I were supposed to have our iftar at a Pasar Malam but he changed our plan at the very last minute to meet at Orchard instead (and I hate Orchard) - I was craving for vadai (vegetable fritters) to break fast with but again, we were in the middle of Orchard (Aizat still had the audacity to s

Whenever someone converts to another religion, a lot of assumptions will be made on the circumstances that surrounds the conversion. Was it for love? Was it just to get married? Don't convert for marriage Or to be with someone you love. I've read many comments that assumed that I converted to Islam just to marry my husband. Or that I was forced to convert. I believe that most people (my parents included) have this perception that Islam is one of the hardest religion to practi

This has been sitting in my draft for the longest time. I initially had the idea of writing this because there appears to be a lot of assumptions being made on the circumstances that surrounded my conversion. So here goes! Not a lot of people know about this but I was pretty unhappy few years back, after I graduated from university. I would have sudden panic attacks where I would be paranoid about my parents meeting harm. One incident was particularly bad. My father had gone

Following the CNA interview where my family and I shared about my journey to Islam, I've had several people get in touch with me on Facebook. A group of them were Muslims whose other halves were learning more about Islam. They asked for tips and advice on how they can be a greater support to their partners, which was really heartening. Having spoken to them, I realized that most of the issues that they were facing were similar, and they often revolved around the same aspects

For as long as I can remember, I've always been fascinated with light and radiance. I hated the darkness. I hated dark rooms. I didn't like to be in places where there was no natural light. There was once I had a mini panic attack when I was showed the place I had to work in for the job I was applying for. I withdrew my application on the spot and left the room. In 2011, I enrolled into a life coaching program. We spent weeks working and discovering about ourselves. At the en

This is a continuation of the first post I did on performing Umrah as a convert. Umrah can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of us, so make the most of it. There were times when I lost my temper, when I was grouchy because I didn't have enough sleep and when I judged others. No one is perfect. And no one is going to be. So don't fret! When you find yourselves in these moments, seek His forgiveness and resolve to be better after that. WHEN YOU ARE THERE 1. Be thank

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. All praises be to Allah. I reverted to Islam in May 2015. Alhamdulillah, Allah had eased the journey for me. I was able to recite the Shahadah, in the presence and under the full support of my family and friends. My husband and I had our nikah in September 2015. I was fulling expecting to be going on a romantic honeymoon, but Aizat had other plans. He told me that before anything else, he wanted us to perform our Umrah together as husband and wife. T