How I found Islam
When I was ten years old, I lived in Nebraska. I was in Mrs. Vinounus's 5th grade class at Norman Rockwell Elementary. It was a fun class, we used to read a lot in that class, also we would have our own time to read. We would pick our own book from the shelf that my teacher kept in the classroom. My favorite book that I liked to read was called Where is Batool. It was actually a book for children who were learning English. It was written in both English and Urdu. Urdu is the official language of Pakistan. At the time I did not know any thing about the language that was in the book or that Pakistan even existed! And although I didn't know about it, It was still exciting to read and look at the pictures inside of it. The story of the book actually took place some-were in London. The family in the book were Pakistani Muslims. The woman in the book took her 5 children to the market when the youngest one, named Batool, gets lost and every one searches for her. The mother wore the traditional scarf that Muslim woman wear.

At the end of the school year, I was going to move to Florida. My teacher gave me that book as a good bye gift since I liked it so much. We moved to Florida in 1996. I still didn't know anything about the writing in the book, but I still loved to look at it and read it a lot. I kept the book for two more years, still not knowing anything about it.

In 1998, when I was in 8th grade, I saw a girl at my school who wore the scarf, the same as the woman in my book.. The kids at school used to make fun of her,wich I hated. I would always tell them to stop it.

One day in 8th grade, I had brought that book into my reading class, so that I could read it. Later that day I was standing in the lunch area waiting for the bell to ring. I had my book in my hands on top of my other books. The girl who was wearing the scarf, was standing near me and must have seen it, because she came up to me and said "Thats my language." and of course I was interested in talking to her. She told me that she and her family had moved her from Pakistan and that the book was written in urdu, wich was the official language of Pakistan.

The next day, I met her cousin, Saira, who also attended My school. They were both in 7th grade at Pinellas Park Middle School. Her cousin and I became very close friends. WE even talked on the phone, and I would go to her house and visit her. I asked her about her religion, wich is called "Islam." I was very interested in every thing that she had to say about it.

A few months after I met Saira, she went to Paksitan with her mother and sister. I gave her my address so that she could write to me and tell me how she was. I never heard from her. She told me that she was going to be gone for two months, but two months passed by and still no word from her her. I thought then, that she wasn't coming back.

On December 26, she called me, I was so supprised and happy to hear from her, and to know that she was home safely. About a week after her arrival, her family moved in to an apartment complex. We started to get together a lot and do things together. The more that I would be with her and learn about her and her religion and country, the more I became interested in Islam. I was interested in Islam becouse of the teachings are so wanderful.

The summer before my 9th grade year is when we really became close friends. I would spend the night at her house go and go places with her, including the Mosque (the muslim place of worship), At this time Islam was becoming a part of my everyday life, and I really liked that. I learned about Islam for a year and by the next summer, 2000, I decided to embrace Islam. I was relly confident about what I was doing. I knew I was making a big decision. Although my mom and step dad pretty much saw it coming, I didn't tell them about it. I even fasted the month of Ramadan with out them knowing. In may 2001, I told them. They were okay with it I guess.

To this day, I am still friends with those two girls I met in 8th grade, I still have that book, and most of all , I am still Muslim.