My Journey To Becoming A Silent Muslim

My journey to becoming a silent Muslim

           

               My desire to become a Muslim was as a result of a lot of convincing and receiving uncountable love from my friends and accomplices. I have an account of many friends who convinced me but at least I accepted many and rejected few of their advice. Most of them kept offering me breakfast, lunch and dinner plus much unending love. All this was done to lure me to become one of them religiously and spirituality. With time I kept falling for this goodness and kindness. When Islam was being preached to me as an amateur, I really enjoyed the verses from the Hadith, being a lover of literature, I didn't take time to fall for these soothing verses despite the fact that I could still feel out of place for rejecting my religion. Practically I was an absentee seventh day Adventist, I don't remember how long I had taken to go to church and congregate with my fellow believers.Many of my friends came as a result of my calm, jovial demeanor, I don't know how they discovered that I was an outgoing person who loved friendship, I was jovial most of the time and kept smiling even if I didn't possess the nicest smile, I kept smiling to all exceptional of our differences. Some of them thought I had completely no temperament, this is because I didn't react negatively to whatever nonsense they uttered. I thought I was more than that age but I created that environment that made us feel on the same level and we became friends instantly. Sometimes they uttered insults and jokes about my behavior of unseriousness when it came to relating to them, when I realized they were insulting me, I kept my distance from them and to be sure they missed my jokes because whenever I cracked one, even a person with the most disorganized dental formula couldn't hold up as they burst up into derisive laughter.They called me various Muslim names; Ibrahim, Ali, and so many that I have lost count.

       To begin with, one of them called me Isa but I didn't like that character because there's a man I couldn't tolerate for his unwavering type of demeanor, he couldn't smile and had a trait of ignoring everything -to me he was trying to find his place in this environment. So I rejected Isa though it was Jesus in my christian faith. After acquainting myself with all the salutations..the notorious assalamu-alaikum, alhamdulillah and Bismillah, I was prepared to become a Muslim. When I approached Idi Mubarak, a friend called Adam promised me a lot in a bid to lure me into accepting Islam, I was the notorious doubting Thomas of the Bible... First he wanted me to always go to the mosque with him. He always said,"let's go to moscow for salat when time came".To make them feel at ease, I made a decision to join them in the five daily prayers of that particular day before idi. That evening Adam called me on the phone and we had a very hearty conversation. When I saw the phone ringing I picked it up and the voice on the other end was so excited, it was Adam:` hello Mr man!'                    

" Hello Mr Eltaher Adam Ali". I liked to call him all the names and to be sure, it made him feel a sense of belonging and was so ecstatic, this was because his name was a combination of his own name, his father's and his grandfather's. I called it in the right order.                     

  "I call you now to know the plan you having about.....eeh! the Moscow". He pronounced it that way since he was not in any way fluent in the English language as he was a sudanese asylum seeker in Uganda. So mosque to him was moscow(the capital of Russia). I replied to him happily understanding the topic;

`I am ready and willing man! we shall go and remember to teach me well while inside there'.                       

 He asked, "do you have galabeya?" I didn't understand so he asked again "Do you have galabeya for Moscow?" I said no, he continued on the other side that he saw me one night during a discussion of economics...I said I don't have galabeya......To simplify the whole issue for me, he asked again,"do you have dress for moscow?"then I completely understood what he meant, so I asked him " Do you mean the kanzu? " What is that..man!!?-what is kanzu...am fail to understand it".So to not confuse ourselves the more I said I have galabeya that my sister brought me from Saudi Arabia when she came back after kyeyo. He said okay, we shall go after wudhul That evening I received many calls and WhatsApp messages from most of my Muslim friends to confirm especially from my Somali friends, one of them was so fond of me to be sure, we were like brothers .he used to call me "xiniyade"and then most of them took on that particular nickname.i was always in doubt of the nickname for I thought it was an insult and kept asking all of them what it meant, they said it was something good not bad, they couldn't put it in the right words or the best English so one of them wrote it on Google and the response was good. We together discovered that xiniyade meant a "hero" or something to do with praise of someone that you think is a genius.i don't remember instances when I proved a genius to him but Osman kept insisting I was xiniyade, so I answered his call Xiniyade.. xiniyade...eeh.. hahaha .I could guess the happiness on the other end of the call. To be honest Osman was one jovial friend and whenever I met him it was fun, even if I had had a bad day, I could forget it immediately and laugh on no topic for sure. We laughed because we had just met. "Yes Mr Osman legend, how are you Boss",I asked in greeting. Am not boss, iam Osman Dahir legend. He liked to be called legend and all his social media platforms read legend. He once told me that he was arrested in his home country Somalia for trespassing and going on to swim in a conservatory water point, I laughed out loud and he joined in it and it went on to cause suspicion from the onlookers.Thank God our teeth were well brushed.So on phone he said after zuhr we were to head directly to Imran guesthouse for dinner and the entire bill was on him. But then Adam had also said I was to join him at Amina's restaurant for the same so I had to lie to one of them that I wasn't in the mood to "chop" so that I had to sneak out with one. I don't remember showing to them that I was a food fanatic,all they kept offering me was sumptuous lunches and dinners. And I was dying to receive another present from them apart from food and drinks. So Adam took us on vacation at the prominent sipi falls of the hills of kapchorwa. I had fun that day and when we were back, I fully assumed Ibrahim as my name for special events in the Islamic community. But as well I kept my original name not to lose meaning. I was now a silent Muslim.To be sure, Islam is a nice religion but my worry is the time I have to spend in salah, five times a day and first of all I have to cut my sleep early morning when its so sweet. This will automatically affect my entire day of study at campus -these were the thoughts I had when I wanted to convert. I also hate the fact that the prayers are time-tabled and apart from class and exam, I hate other timetables in life. Simply, I hate following timelines that are demanding but I am an all religious person. If I am to go to mosque,I will and also If any other place,I will go to pray from wherever at whatever time."Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to him"as stated by the Bible. "This is a work of fiction".