Thinkerman Posted November 1, 2002 Rewards of knowing God 10/31/2002 - Religious Social - Article Ref: IC0210-1778 By: Brandon Sumner IslamiCity* - Perhaps I am not your stereotypical revert in that I am a 44 year old single white male who is employed as a diesel mechanic. I feel that I have finally found the correct and truthful path to God after a very long search and the wonderful people at IslamiCity have been a blessing to me. I was raised a Christian by wonderful, loving parents, of whom my mother was a minister but they also graciously allowed me to find my own way in life and I praise them for that. I spent the majority of my youth in the typical pursuit of irreverent and materialistic things, as many young in western society are prone to do but at about the age of 30 started feeling that there was some higher purpose that I was missing, some spiritual truth that I was lacking and I began a search to find it. Always a student of intellectual reading material such as poetry, prose, philosophy and such I began my search by reading books. I started with the nature religions such as Wicca but quickly grew frustrated as there were as many different approaches to the spirit as there were authors to write them. I then became interested in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. These kept me more engaged as there is an endless supply of material on the subjects and they do offer many good counsels and self improvement techniques but I still felt as if something were missing. I just could not come to grips with the no self and no God theories that they profess to. I felt that there was indeed a higher power, one I desperately wanted to commune with but also knew that the tradition of my wonderful parents was not my path. One day about a year ago I happened upon a book on Sufism by Hasarat Inyat Khan while looking for some guidance after the untimely death of my dear father and found the introduced concepts to be totally enlightening, they just clicked and made perfect sense to me. That and all of the media attention after the terrible events of Sept. 11 served to fuel my desire to know Islam, and to know God. I see now the beauty and truth written in the noble Koran and after much research and the recommendations of a Muslim newspaper correspondent I had written to here in Denver, came to find IslamiCity and decided to take Shahada with one of the wonderful volunteers whom so graciously called me at my home and talked freely with me about my path. I look forward to becoming a good Muslim, to my relationship with God and all of His followers and encourage all who may have thoughts of following this path to do so without regret. Life is so fleeting and the rewards of knowing God are so great. Peace be upon you all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the grace of God, Brandon Sumner from USA declared his testimony of faith (shahada) at IslamiCity on September 27, 2002. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
