My journey to the 2nd pillar

So after reading Aalyas and UmmTravis' journey's I thought I would post about mine. Now be warned it wont be as long, as cute or as inspiring but its my story and God knows best.

It all started with my journey into Islam, I just to go to 1 chat room, I cant even remember it now but there I met a few good people (actually bro A lol) and we would chat offline. One of the people was a brother in Africa who I spoke to often, I cant remember how we got on the subject but he decided that he was going to teach me to pray. So first we started with the basic movements and the short phrases (subhana rabbil atheem/Allah) after a week I knew what was supposed to be recited but didnt know those things, like I knew that surah al-fatihah and another surah was supposed to be recited after the long bits but I didnt know what to recite for surah al-fatihah if you get me. After learning all this I came across something saying that women pray differently than men and to this I told him, poor guy.. he didnt know that opinion and I told him, Im not going to learn all that again just cause Im a woman and I forgot about it. We would talk about other things after that and he would sometimes apologise for not looking into things. I didnt blame him, why would you look into something that you didnt know might be different for someone else? May Allah reward him for his intentions and efforts.

I found an online written document taking me through the movements and tried to pray once, I remember reading at the start of the prayer 'bring your hands ear height' can u imagine what I thought?? this nazi gesture just didnt fit in with what I was learning about the religion :) embarassing to think about it now heehee.. I remember reading more quran at that time and prostrating at the places pointed out and reciting the duaa given in my quran.

It wasnt until I was back at uni that things picked up again.. I must never have really forgotten things because just before converting I looked into things again and found a few hadith and websites that didnt see the need for a woman to pray differently than a man, and I go by this opinion now alhamdulillah. So I decided to pick things up again, I would write the verses out on flashcards (I still have them) with the english on one side and arabic on the other. Yes Im another who wants to learn both, although admittedly I dont remember half of the english now after reciting in arabic for so long *blush* So I actually started praying before I converted, I think it gave me a big push into converting because of how I felt when I did do it masha'allah. When I have my nose to the floor and Im reciting my prayers and asking my creator for forgiveness I just felt so at peace alhamdulillah.

I always like to tell sisters who are new to the deen that our religion wasnt given to Muhammed (saws) in a few weeks... 23 years!!! and that those who stumble and find the foreign tongue hard are given extra reward for every letter they receite.. subhanallah.. can u imagine??

Well thats my story.. see boring!! ;) jazakAllah khair for reading, would love to hear your stories