Yusha Evans – How Sister Sarah Came To Islam

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			Salam Alaikum Hi, guys, this is Sarah, you also know me as futile search. Today I am going to tell
you guys about how I came to Islam my conversion story.
		

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			I'm going to get right into it and go real quick, so that you guys aren't stuck here listening to me
forever. All right, so
		

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			I discovered Islam when I was 14 years old.
		

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			That seems like a pretty young age. And I think that it actually is a pretty young age to discover
		

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			the religion that you want to choose,
		

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			I actually wasn't looking for a new religion.
		

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			I was researching Christianity, because I used to be a Christian
		

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			of the Baptist sect. And
		

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			I, I was happy with Christianity. And so I wasn't looking for any religion. And I was reading the
Bible and things like that. And
		

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			so I actually kind of happened to stumble upon a song by accident, which sounds kind of funny, but
it's true.
		

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			And
		

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			so, I was on the swim team.
		

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			And at my school, and so I was at a swim meet one day, and we have large concrete steps at our
		

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			aquatic center that we go to,
		

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			for swimming, that the spectators can sit on and you can sit on if you're a swimmer, usually
swimmers sit higher up with our bags and stuff like that. And
		

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			so I was sitting on top of these concrete stats, and I looked down and I saw one of my friends,
mothers, and he told me his mom was gonna be there that day. And I was like, Oh, okay.
		

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			So I looked down on and she was wearing hijab. And
		

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			that was when I kind of thought, like, I wonder why she was I had never really put thought to it
before. Because
		

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			unless you're like, actually looking, it's kind of hard to spot a hijabi where I live.
		

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			But like now that I'm thinking about it, I like look around Japanese all the time, which is actually
kind of funny.
		

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			And I'm not sure what all the time means to everybody else. But you know, pretty often. And
		

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			so I thought like, I wonder why she was that. And so later that night, I was at my mom's work. And
my mom used to make me stay at her work with her for three hours at a time or so. And so I was
sitting there, I had finished my homework, I was bored. And
		

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			so I
		

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			got on my phone, which had internet access on it. And I googled Why do Muslim women were hid. I
didn't say who jobs are headscarves. And because I didn't know what it was called. And
		

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			so that led me to the Wikipedia page where I started reading about it. And it sounded kind of
interesting. And
		

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			but you know how on Wikipedia, certain keywords that lead to another article are highlighted, and
you can click on them. So I forget what word interested me but I clicked on another word. And then
so I started clicking on different words that lead to different things. And
		

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			one of them was the page for
		

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			Abrahamic faiths because it said that Islam is one of the Abrahamic faiths. And I didn't know what
that was. And so I went on that page. And it said that Islam, Judaism and Christianity are
		

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			three faiths that belong to the kind of clump called Abrahamic faiths, and
		

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			basically faiths who worship the God of Abraham. And so
		

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			I was like, Wow, I didn't know that like I always thought like, a law was some like far off distant
		

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			thing. You know, they
		

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			That thing and we do our thing, you know?
		

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			So funny thinking about it now, because I used to be kind of freaked out by the word. I was like, Oh
my gosh, what is that? So,
		

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			but then I was like, oh, okay, like, I get this. Now, I never knew what Muslims worship before. And
so
		

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			I doubt it really interested me. And then
		

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			when it got down into details about
		

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			the Abrahamic religions, it was either on that page, or I clicked on another page that had to do
with Christianity.
		

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			It basically said that Christians believe that God is split up into three parts the Father, the Son
in the Holy Spirit. And so I was
		

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			I was really confused. And I was like, Wait a second, like, I don't know what this is talking about.
And so I went on the page for the Trinity when I was talking about right now.
		

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			And I learned that Christians actually do believe that
		

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			God is split up into three parts. And
		

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			that was just something really shocking for me as a Christian at that time. Because what's kind of
funny is, the Trinity was never explicitly mentioned whenever I went to church, and we never grew up
learning about like, okay, kids, now we're going to teach the Trinity. That never happened for me. I
learned all these different kinds of Bible stories and things like that. And I learned that Jesus
was God's Son, and he was crucified, you know that, that kind of Christian stuff, but I never
learned specifically about the Trinity. So when I grew up, I never grew up believing in it.
		

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			And so I was just like, Oh, my gosh, it was just something that was just like,
		

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			this huge, huge part of Christianity. I don't believe in at all, like the main doctrine of
Christianity, like you have to believe that Jesus is part of God to be able to be saved. And except
for I'm pretty sure not Unitarians. I'm pretty sure Unitarians don't believe that.
		

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			But I was just like, Oh, my gosh, I've gone my whole life as a Christian. And I haven't known this.
And it was just something that was really surprising to me. And
		

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			I was talking with that same brother, whose mother I saw
		

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			brother and Ron, who I've mentioned in my videos a lot before he's, he's my best friend. And
		

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			I was, I was just telling him, I was like,
		

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			did you know like, I was like, did you know that? Christians believe that. God is three parts. I was
like, I can't believe I've gone my whole life. And I haven't known this. And he just like, was
laughing. He's like, seriously, You didn't know that? And I'm like, Oh, my God. I'm like, I'm a
Muslim knows more about my faith than I do. And I'm, I was just so surprised. And
		

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			I just like, remember that feeling of just like, Oh my God, because it's so weird. Like learning
that something that you believed in, like, your whole life, you've just missed a whole part. And you
just
		

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			don't even believe in that.
		

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			And so I was like, Oh my gosh, and so after a while, I stopped identifying myself as a Christian.
		

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			Are we actually at that time was
		

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			after that night, I was researching Islam or because there was a lot of different things that I saw
intriguing on a Wikipedia page and things like that.
		

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			But I definitely wasn't thinking like, Oh, I'm going to I'm gonna become a Muslim. It was just kind
of something that I was just researching. And I was like, okay, that's, that's interesting. But
		

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			I just
		

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			after a while, I stopped identifying myself as a Christian. And I started
		

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			identifying myself as
		

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			I think I forget what I call it now. But like
		

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			Abrahamic theist or something like that, like a,
		

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			like a non specific religion Abrahamic theist. Like,
		

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			I believe in the God of Abraham and stuff that I don't really fit into. You know, like Islam. I
		

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			I didn't know that much about Islam. And so I was like, no, not Muslim. I'm not Christian, I don't
believe in the Trinity. I'm definitely not Jewish, like, I believe in the prophethood of Jesus. And
		

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			so I was kind of just stuck somewhere. And so I started kind of looking more into
		

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			the different religions. So Christianity was off, Judaism was off, because the whole don't believe
in the prophethood of Jesus, even though I do think Judaism is a lovely religion at the same time.
And
		

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			I looked into that religion, Bohai or something.
		

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			I'm not sure how to say it, but it's like bH AI with like some apostrophes in there and stuff. And I
was like, Okay, this was like, made in like, 1940 or something like,
		

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			I don't know, I just don't think that that's good. And
		

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			that just pulled me off of that. And so the last one left
		

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			was Islam. And so yeah, I was researching. And
		

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			like I've said before, the biggest thing with converting religions is grappling with the idea of
		

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			shifting identities to something, you something you've identified with your whole life, and then all
of a sudden, everything changes. That's so hard to explain to somebody that's never happened before.
		

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			And it's, it's such a hard experience to try to relate to somebody else. But so I was going through
a lot of things within myself questioning what I really believed in what I wanted, and things like
that.
		

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			So the more I started researching a song, the more I really came to like it, and the more that I saw
in it, and
		

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			it just made a lot of sense to me.
		

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			And
		

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			I just, I think that
		

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			I started researching in like,
		

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			probably around March of,
		

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			of 2010.
		

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			Think 2000.
		

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			Yeah.
		

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			Yeah. I'm sorry, march of 2010. And
		

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			then I officially decided, Okay, I want to be Muslim. In June of 2010. I'm
		

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			so
		

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			sorry.
		

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			I
		

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			just,
		

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			it's so hard to explain how hard
		

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			at first, it was for me with things my family and stuff. My family just completely freaked out. And,
of course, things are still extremely hard now. But it's a different kind of hard. It's different
than that first initial thing of going, whoa, oh, my God, they like,
		

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			just don't accept who I am anymore.
		

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			But I've kind of come to terms to that with that. And it's hard in different ways. So
		

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			I was going through all those things with my family and stuff. And
		

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			so time for rest a little bit.
		

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			While in June, I knew I wanted to be a Muslim, but I wasn't ready to take my shot.
		

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			So time progressed a little bit in November.
		

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			On Thanksgiving, I went to my aunt's house, and
		

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			we were having food and everything. And I had already stopped eating pork since like June. And so
		

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			there was like different dishes and stuff until I asked her I wasn't sure about this one thing that
I knew sometimes my family will put bacon in, and I wasn't sure. So I just I was like, kind of to my
aunt Cindy. Hey, Cindy, do you have like, any like bacon or stuff like in there?
		

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			And then she's like, Oh, she's like, No, I don't think so. Why honey, and I was like, Oh, I just I
just don't eat pork products because I hadn't talked to my relatives, my extended family about it.
Of course. My nuclear family knew all about it.
		

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			And we're giving me help before it and are still giving me * for it. But
		

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			anyways, so
		

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			she, I was like, I was like, Yeah, I just don't eat pork,
		

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			about my food and stuff. And we sat down. And
		

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			we were eating, and I took a bite of that dish that I had asked about, and it did happen.
		

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			And I like kind of just like, put up my paper napkin and just kind of, into my napkin and just like,
Okay,
		

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			well, you don't swallow it, but it was gonna,
		

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			and so on. And so I was like,
		

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			Yeah, but I wasn't 100% sure if it was because there's some kind of needs that I get a little bit
confused on, whether it's pork or not. And I'm surprised to find out that it isn't.
		

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			Like, I mean, like, what I'll be eating, like certain kinds of turkey or something. It'll taste a
lot like pork sometimes. Which is weird. But um,
		

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			so anyway, sorry, about.
		

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			I saw I asked her I was like,
		

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			Anthony, you mean, did you? Did you put bacon in this? I was like, I just want to like, make sure
that I know that it's not some kind of like other meat or something. And she's like,
		

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			Oh, my gosh, Honey, I'm so sorry. Like, I
		

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			didn't want to tell my family yet. And
		

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			she, she's like, She's like, oh, and then, of course, everybody else did. He was like, what's wrong?
And she's like, I put pork in this. And I forgot that Sarah doesn't eat it.
		

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			Sitting there, and I'm like, Oh, my gosh. And they're like, and they're like, Oh, okay.
		

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			So my, my cousin, Misty, she's like, so you don't eat pork? And I was like, No, she's like, and
she's like, are you chewing? And like, what I like about how she asked that is that she didn't ask
like, like, immediately, like, Oh, so you're like, converting away from Christianity? Like, she just
like, asked like, it was normal. And so she's like, Oh, are you Jewish? And I was like,
		

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			no.
		

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			And she's like,
		

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			Oh, are you? And then she pauses for a second. She has this weird face. She's like, are you?
		

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			Like,
		

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			yeah.
		

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			And everybody's sitting at the table, like,
		

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			staring at Thanksgiving dinner? And
		

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			yeah, it was. It was awkward.
		

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			So I,
		

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			when we started getting into a big discussion about religion, and everybody started asking what
happened. And
		

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			my mom kind of was trying to stick in her jabs. And she's like, Oh, yeah, but why don't why don't
have my son's being terrorists and stuff like that, you know, the whole, the whole thing. And so
		

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			she
		

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			and so, my family was like, you know, like, I don't really like, I don't think bad about Muslims.
		

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			They're like, yeah, you know, like, my aunt was like, I think that there's a lot of different ways
to happen. And I think that
		

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			God really is very merciful, which is true. God is very merciful. And,
		

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			and she's like, and so they were like, asking me questions and stuff, like, genuinely, they weren't
just like, Oh, yeah, come on Jesus, like, what are you doing believe in Jesus, or else you're going
to the bottomless pits of *, you know, that kind of whole spiel that I have to deal with every
day. And so
		

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			it was like, it was just so amazing to me. And they were like, Wow, that's really interesting and
stuff. And like, even my grandma, who I figured would like, freak out was like, Oh, yeah, okay.
		

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			Oh, my gosh, it was amazing. And so that night, I decided I was officially ready to take my Shahada.
I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm so ready. I was like, I'm ready to do this.
		

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			I was planning on taking it in December, which is actually what you guys saw.
		

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			For my first video and that I said that I was planning on taking my Shahada, but it actually didn't
happen until a lot later.
		

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			And so I was ready to take my Shahada the whole time. And I was kind of grappling with the feelings
of
		

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			how to
		

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			do it the way that I always imagined and, of course,
		

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			as growing more and more into Islam, and I think it's really good that I actually had a while to
grow into Islam, and to make sure that I wasn't just getting that initial convert, like, Oh, my
gosh, gotta convert, gotta convert, you know, because sometimes you can just jump into things way
too quickly. And so, of course, by the time I took my shot at this
		

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			past August 11 2011, I was officially sure that I wanted to take my Shahada. And so I did. And it
was just a very great experience.
		

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			And so now, I'm just trying to get by day by day, the whole family thing, and
		

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			the rest of my family is very supportive. My dad's side of the family, we don't really talk about
it, cuz they know why they're, I don't think they're very until for my mom's side of the family very
supportive, which is very surprising. I would actually think that it would be more of the other way
around. But, um,
		

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			so that was something that was really good.
		

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			So trying to learn the law. I know three sorrows
		

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			I'm very proud of.
		

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			But of course, I have to learn more to be able to do so on a regular basis and I'm trying to do so
inshallah.
		

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			So, that is my conversion story, how I came to Islam. If you would like to ask questions about it,
or you want to know a little bit more details about something I could possibly make a video that's a
couple minutes more with about you guys's questions about things, and
		

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			I will be willing to do that for you, and
		

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			help, hopefully, inshallah, we can do that as soon as possible. And
		

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			I'm actually gonna be making a video about different questions. Next, not just about my conversion
story. So stay tuned inshallah.
		

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			So I'm sorry about this long video. probably haven't broken up into a couple parts that you guys
aren't getting exhausted with how long this video is?
		

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			Because I definitely understand getting exhausted with long videos. So
		

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			I'm going to wrap this up. Thank you guys, please comment question and subscribe. And messenger me,
I'll try to get back to you as soon as I possibly can get to a computer.
		

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			And so thank you to all my subscribers I always make to offer you guys cuz I really appreciate you
and please make to offer me that my family situation will get better and that my family will come to
accept my decision and let me practice freely. Awesome.
		

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			So thank you guys, as always.
		

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			That was my conversion story. And I am Sarah. You also know me as the fetal search as salaam alaikum