Part 1
I was born and raised in Southern California, in Long Beach, which is the South Bay. It’s pretty close to the ocean.
My parents were hippies in the 1960s, so they were all over the place as far as philosophy, religion, etc. My dad had influences of Buddhism and Christianity and everything. And my mom was raised a Christian, a very devout Christian, actually in the Lutheran Church, but she sort of not really went away from it, the fundamentals were still there, but she wasn’t an active Christian, but we were raised by our grandparents.
I guess I wasn’t the typical child in the sense that I was always intellectually curious. I was never satisfied with just going to church. The typical Christian scenario is you go to church on Sunday, you commit sins the rest of the week, and do whatever you want, and then you just repent on Sunday. I mean, I was never satisfied, I always saw that as being hypocritical, and it was not very satisfying, etc. So I was always questioning the theology of Christianity, why they believe in this, etc, etc. So I never was just satisfied with people saying, believe, and just accept.
Like my brother, I would get in arguments with my pastor. He would literally kick me out of his office because they don’t welcome deep theological questions, because they’re not stupid. They understand the problems in their theology just as well as I did, and they don’t have very good answers a lot of the time. They tend to focus on the community, goodwill, charity, and doing good to your fellow men, which is great, I mean I’m all for that, and I was very happy that they did do that. But at some point, it’s like eating junk food, you want something more substantial, something more spiritually nourishing, etc. So I would continuously ask questions, and I wouldn’t get very satisfying answers.
So as a result of that, I started doing a lot of my own research. They couldn’t comprehend why I would even care. All of them were Christians, because their parents were Christian. I mean, frankly, if you ask them, that’s why they’re Christian, unfortunately, like why most Muslims are Muslims, I’d say. I know I’m skipping ahead, but most people in general, tend to, like the Qur’an says, we found our forefathers following this religion, so we’re following in their footsteps.
So most people in general are like that, including Christians, and so most of them, didn’t think that deeply about it, and didn’t care that much about it. They, like my brother was mentioning, went through confirmation class, which was kind of the Genesis, they just saw that this is a class they had to take and pass the test and get through it, so they could be considered a member of the church and they could take communion.
I didn’t see it that way. I saw it as an experience to really delve deeply into the philosophical, theological underpinnings in the church. But I was pretty much, me and my brother were the only people that saw that nobody else did. They’re just like, okay, when’s the final exam? What do we need to study? You know, that’s how they thought of it.
But the pastor was frustrated with us, so he communicated that frustration. My grandfather was frustrated, because I would ask him, you know, like he was telling you, I would look at the Bible, and I would say, this is the Gospel of John. And then I would look in the notes in the Bible, and I would say, the author anonymous. And I would take it to my grandpa: so they call it the Gospel of John, did John write it? And he would say, yeah, John wrote it. And I would say, I don’t know how much you know about Christianity, so I would say you mean, the disciple of Jesus, John? And he would say, well, we’re not really sure…. somebody named John probably wrote it.
There were several classes in our church about Islam, and they were, of course, very negative; this is a cult and etc. so I remembered those.
When my mother told us that she had become Muslim, when she came to San Francisco, and we’re living with our father, we were kind of shocked, horrified, didn’t know how to react, angry, all kinds of different reactions, because it’s as if she said, I’m going to go live on Mars or something weird. There’s no, you have nothing in your brain that would give you what the appropriate reaction is in that situation. So we just didn’t know what to do, we just were kind of amazed and angry; we saw it as a betrayal of us.
To be continued…
May 11 2025
Conversion Story by “Ali Smart” – Part 1
Part 1
I was born and raised in Southern California, in Long Beach, which is the South Bay. It’s pretty close to the ocean.
My parents were hippies in the 1960s, so they were all over the place as far as philosophy, religion, etc. My dad had influences of Buddhism and Christianity and everything. And my mom was raised a Christian, a very devout Christian, actually in the Lutheran Church, but she sort of not really went away from it, the fundamentals were still there, but she wasn’t an active Christian, but we were raised by our grandparents.
I guess I wasn’t the typical child in the sense that I was always intellectually curious. I was never satisfied with just going to church. The typical Christian scenario is you go to church on Sunday, you commit sins the rest of the week, and do whatever you want, and then you just repent on Sunday. I mean, I was never satisfied, I always saw that as being hypocritical, and it was not very satisfying, etc. So I was always questioning the theology of Christianity, why they believe in this, etc, etc. So I never was just satisfied with people saying, believe, and just accept.
Like my brother, I would get in arguments with my pastor. He would literally kick me out of his office because they don’t welcome deep theological questions, because they’re not stupid. They understand the problems in their theology just as well as I did, and they don’t have very good answers a lot of the time. They tend to focus on the community, goodwill, charity, and doing good to your fellow men, which is great, I mean I’m all for that, and I was very happy that they did do that. But at some point, it’s like eating junk food, you want something more substantial, something more spiritually nourishing, etc. So I would continuously ask questions, and I wouldn’t get very satisfying answers.
So as a result of that, I started doing a lot of my own research. They couldn’t comprehend why I would even care. All of them were Christians, because their parents were Christian. I mean, frankly, if you ask them, that’s why they’re Christian, unfortunately, like why most Muslims are Muslims, I’d say. I know I’m skipping ahead, but most people in general, tend to, like the Qur’an says, we found our forefathers following this religion, so we’re following in their footsteps.
So most people in general are like that, including Christians, and so most of them, didn’t think that deeply about it, and didn’t care that much about it. They, like my brother was mentioning, went through confirmation class, which was kind of the Genesis, they just saw that this is a class they had to take and pass the test and get through it, so they could be considered a member of the church and they could take communion.
I didn’t see it that way. I saw it as an experience to really delve deeply into the philosophical, theological underpinnings in the church. But I was pretty much, me and my brother were the only people that saw that nobody else did. They’re just like, okay, when’s the final exam? What do we need to study? You know, that’s how they thought of it.
But the pastor was frustrated with us, so he communicated that frustration. My grandfather was frustrated, because I would ask him, you know, like he was telling you, I would look at the Bible, and I would say, this is the Gospel of John. And then I would look in the notes in the Bible, and I would say, the author anonymous. And I would take it to my grandpa: so they call it the Gospel of John, did John write it? And he would say, yeah, John wrote it. And I would say, I don’t know how much you know about Christianity, so I would say you mean, the disciple of Jesus, John? And he would say, well, we’re not really sure…. somebody named John probably wrote it.
There were several classes in our church about Islam, and they were, of course, very negative; this is a cult and etc. so I remembered those.
When my mother told us that she had become Muslim, when she came to San Francisco, and we’re living with our father, we were kind of shocked, horrified, didn’t know how to react, angry, all kinds of different reactions, because it’s as if she said, I’m going to go live on Mars or something weird. There’s no, you have nothing in your brain that would give you what the appropriate reaction is in that situation. So we just didn’t know what to do, we just were kind of amazed and angry; we saw it as a betrayal of us.
To be continued…
By english • Chronicles of the converted to Shia • 0 • Tags: Ali Smart, Converted to Shia, Covnerted to Islam, Mostabserin, Reborn, Story