Why reverts become better Muslims than born Muslims...

[Lajawab]

About a month ago, this new Imam started showing up in Masjid for the Jummah prayers…Our regular Imam having taken over another Masjid’s responsibilities as the Imam of that Masjid had gone someplace…

This new Imam’s Khutbas were very detailed and very knowledgable, and the way he spoke was clearly evident of years of study and meditation…The way he spoke could only have come from years and years of studying Quran and Sunnah…Sports a long Sharaee beard, wears Shalwar Qameez e.t.c…

He was also friends with my Egyptian friend, who later told me that Mash’Allah, this new guy, though being young, is extremely knowledgable regarding the Deen and its aspects…And the strangest part was, that this Imam was a white American and had reverted to Islam only seven years ago…He was a drug dealer, who had seen every aspect of life that life had to show…He was sent to prison where he befriended some Arab Muslims who taught him a little about Islam, but it was this little nudge that sent him on his journey of self discovery…

Also, this guy in our Masjid who reverted just a couple of years, great guy…Name was Jeffrey as a Christian, but changed to Jaffar after the wizard in Aladdin… Great brother and a good Muslim if ever there was one…

Also the most striking example that I can give would be of the Taliban…Right now in Guantanamo Bay, there are wrongfully held prisoners from 17 different nationalities, 18 if you include JW Lindh…Germans, British, Swedish, Swiss e.t.c. and most of them were reverts, but they had such a high degree of Eeman, they just packed their bags and left to join the Taliban…

The only reason that I could come up with is that these folks, who were non-Muslims and living in cultures where everything goes, having experienced all that was to be experienced, had truly become spiritually hollow…People usually turn to spirituality after a lot of heartaches, pain and suffering…It is after having been through the grinder, and being thoroughly drained of any will to live, that people search for a meaning in their lives, and it is Islam that gives them that what they had been searching for…

I remember an article which Omair posted by Imam Ibn-al Qayyim regarding the hollowness of the heart…These people, being completely drained of everything except their life force, return to Allah :swt:, and since Allah :swt: guides, He guides these people towards Himself, and whom Allah :swt: guides, none can lead astray…A good example also would be the lady who runs the website called “Jihad Unspun”…

Muslims who are born into Muslim households, who, unless they have either been given good religious teachings or foundation to start with, resort to doing things which are completely contrary to the teachings of Islam…Even then, those who have not had a good upbringing, who resort to enormous misdeeds in their quest for peace, after having experienced an age of ignorance and chasing desires, they finally settle upon their faith as a means to spiritual peace and truth and realize the truth as Allah :swt: guides them…

In both cases, Allah :swt: has guided these wayward souls to the truth, guided them towards salvation and peace…But in both cases, it was after being splashed upon by the filth of this world, and after being entrenched and completely defiled by Duniya, that they smell the sweet fragrance of Eeman, beckoning them towards itself, and like a shroud or covering, comes over them and completely surrounds them…It is then, that they never wish to leave its security…

But what about those, who though being born Muslims, continously, despite being called and guided towards the path, refuse to be shown the way? For these folks, no pleasure is too little…Though being Muslims, they have the fear of Allah :swt: in their hearts but do not have the mental capacity to realize His Existence…As a result, they sin, but not too much…So they just stand between pure Kufr and pure Islam, and should they die upon this stage, they will be raised according to the people that they loved, emulated or followed…

Not having sinned too much, these guys think they are OK with Allah (swt) and keep pursuing their desires, as a result of not having their desires completely fulfilled, they keep looking for ways to pleasure themselves until their end comes…Not having completely fulfilled themselves with earthly pleasures, and neither fulfilling the commands of Allah (swt), as a result, they die in disgrace and are raised among the losers in Aakhira…

That’s why it is said, the world is made for the unbelievers and the Aakhira for the believers…Either you indulge yourself here completely, or you indulge yourself with Allah (swt)…There is no middle point…With Allah (swt) at least you get to enjoy this world as well…

The choice is up to the hearer and the seer…Who hears better and who sees better, is Allah (swt)'s decision, but I believe the ultimate choice rests upon the individual to act upon and ponder upon what he sees and hears…

May Allah (swt) guide the Muslims to the Truth, for the Truth is the reality and all this is temporary, Ameen Summa Ameen…

Wallah-Alam

[Ibn_Sadique]

**Brother Lajawab **

What you have observed is very true. There is a well known saying that the people don’t value the things that they get for free. Those of us who are ‘born in Islam’ take it lightly; just we have not earned it but inherited it. Even though we believe it to be the right faith we mostly give it a lip service. Bright lights of the world attract us and we resolve first to make this worldly life of ours as comfortable as possible before we attend to the demands of our faith.

We, the born Muslims (except those who Allah (swt) has guided them) mostly ‘come back’ to Islam in old age praying and asking for forgiveness for our self-indulgence in Dunya.

The revert Muslims as you have very well pointed out have ‘earned their Islam’ by themselves. They have been there and seen the hollowness and emptiness of living life without true faith. Surely they must have gone through very difficult period while searching for the meaning of life. It is not easy to change one’s religion. The anguish and agony that they must have suffered when in self doubt and emptiness of their lives would have been torturous.

But once Allah (swt) has blessed them with Islam, these people really value Islam and adopt it as their complete way of life thus far excelling the born into Islam Muslims because truly these people have passed through the brimstone and earned their faith.

Another advantage these new converts have over the ‘born Muslims’ is that they don’t carry any cultural baggage with them. When they accept Islam they make a clean break with their cultural heritage and accept Islam in its purity.

Most of the ‘Born Muslims’ have a disadvantage of carrying their respective ‘cultural baggage’ with them which they seem to enjoy with relish rather than practice Islam in its pristine form.

The way the new Muslims conscientiously live their lives according to the Islamic requirements to the detail shows the value they give to Islamic way of life.

[Faisal]

Those who embrace Islam are of many kinds, and people revert to Islam for many reasons.

Those of them who embrace Islam after carefully studying and intellectually accepting that it is the true faith, invest a lot more time and energy in understanding about our deen. Many of them go forward to be good public-speakers and spread the knowledge.

Then again, born-muslims are also of many kinds and there are quite a few who invest a lot of time and energy in their study of Islam. Some of them are renowned scholars, or otherwise very knowledgable. Sadly we don't know about many of them, because these people may have never stepped foot outside their own country, and most of us are living abroad.

It is therefore a bit unfair to compare the lowest denominator of born-muslims to the highest denominator of reverts and come out with any conclusion.

At the end of the day, we all get what we deserve and what we work for.