The feel of Islam

These lines are extracted from some stories of Muslim converts, about how they felt the moment they found the new faith.

When I said the words, it was like a big burden I had been carrying on my shoulders had been thrown off. I felt like a new-born baby."
(Aisha Bhutta)

One day while I was doing my routine housework, I started watching a documentary about the fastest growing religions in the world. Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism were the featured religions. When the history of Islam was featured, I thought, “This is it!” My heart literally changed its rhythm. I can’t explain it… it can only be experienced. My eyes cried over the sound of the Athan (the call for prayer) until I could barely see the screen. I remember going to the PC and searching frantically for this “music” I had heard. It was not music, but a call to worship Allah.
(Nazeeha bint Renard)

As soon as the videotape had finished, I experienced the truth being unveiled to my spirit. I felt a huge burden of sins flying off my back. Moreover, it felt like my soul was rising above the earth, refusing the makeshift delights of this world in favor of the eternal joys of the Hereafter. This experience, coupled with the long process of reasoning, solved the 'purpose of life puzzle'. It revealed Islam as the truth, thereby replenishing my 'spiritual landscape' with belief, purpose, direction and action. I therefore entered the gate of Islam by saying the declaration of faith required to become a Muslim
(Brother Yahya)

Instinctively I felt Islam settle in my heart without any resistance, and talked to my mind with ease, I found my self fitting in it as if I was born to be a Muslim, the prayer satisfied me and my need to get closer to God, and I fasted last Ramadan and read the whole Quran, I found myself spiritually involved in that religion accepting it from all angles
(khadijah)

He made me recite the Kalima and then told about Muslims and Islam. Now I was neither anxious nor feeling any burden on my mind. I was feeling myself very light. I felt like I had swum from polluted to clean waters.
(Bint Arshad Sahi)

Pronouncing my Shahada was such a CLEANSING experience, and since this time, I have often just cried and cried and cried. How wonderful!
(Dawood Kinney)

I swear by Allah that when I took the shahadah, I felt the strangest sensation. I felt as if a huge, physical weight had just been lifted off my chest; I gasped for breath as if I were breathing for the first time in my life.
(Shariffa Carlo)

I had spent my life longing for a truth in which heart would be compatible with mind, action with thought, intellect with emotion. I found that reality in Islam. With that reality came true self-confidence and intellectual freedom. A few days after I took the shahadah , I wrote in my journal that finally I have found in Islam the validation of my inner thoughts and intuition. By acknowledging and accepting Allah, I have found the door to spiritual and intellectual freedom.
(Karima Slack Razi)

I cannot express the joy I felt. I cannot express the weight that was lifted from my shoulders. I had finally received my peace of mind.
(Natassia M. Kelly)

One day I woke up with the words, "OK, I believe, I will go and revert to Islam", and from that moment on, all of my turmoil and anxiety was gone Alhamdulillah.All of the pain I had felt from my past experiences, including my daughter's death, were gone. The nightmares stopped, and I felt the most incredible peace.
(Madonna Johnson)