Musa ibn Islam al Filibini (formerly Jay) is a new Muslim revert. He contacted IslamicFinder recently and shared his story with us. If you also wish to write for us and share your story with us, kindly contact us and get a chance to get your story published on our site and help us inspire Muslims all over the world!
A little about Myself
I am a former Overseas Filipino Worker who worked in Jeddah, KSA and here is my story.
It was during my time working in Jeddah that I learned the true Islamic Aqidah. It was not via social media or via broadcasted news filled with Islamophobia. Far from the news that reached my home country, I discovered the true beauty of Islam during my time working in Saudi Arabia.
I worked in a company in Jeddah for around 2 years, from 2007 to 2009. It was during this time that I got to experience the actual "khuluqul hassan" of Muslims. The way my colleagues treated me and everyone around them is what first attracted me to Islam. I was probably one of those many who were blessed to have such good Muslim colleagues.
What inspired me to embrace Islam?
It's actually a combination of Tawfiq & Irshad (I hope I interpreted it right). Divinely inspired and via da'wa from Muslims in our company in the sense that in order to have an advantage during our friendly debates I used the internet to search for the English translation of the Holy Qur'an. True enough, I found the one translated by Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Ali. While reading the English translation, it took me only up to Surah Maryam to convince me that Islam is the most superior religion.
If my memory will serve me right, I was using the IslamicFinder website to search for the English Qur'an during the early phases of my conversion. It was in its old format back then. I discovered the site via the same boss whom I first revealed my intention to embrace Islam to. We were using the IslamicFinder date converter in order to get the expiry dates of our peoples' passports from Hijri to Gregorian calendar.
Some signs….
Before converting, there were sleepless nights because far from being convinced, I didn't want to convert to Islam with the wrong reasons. Subsequently, I started seeing various signs; for instance, once I saw a pure white dove while preparing my morning meal, another time I woke up to the sound of the Athan and saw the crescent moon shining against a dark Jeddah night. In addition, the khuluqul hassan of my Arab, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Somali, and Bangladeshi colleagues was such that it pushed me further to learn about Islam.
I still can't help but feel goose bumps whenever I reminisce the look in my boss’s teary eyes and the trembling voice when I revealed my intention to embrace the one and true religion, Islam.
And so after more than six months of soul searching and consulting my family; which is Christian, I converted to Islam and have been a Muslim ever since.
A little about my family
My family has deep roots in Christianity, with a paternal uncle being a priest and his sister being a nun working in the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines. So naturally they were not entirely thrilled when they came to know about my decision to convert to Islam. Fortunately I did not face a lot of resistance from my family. My family in the Philippines, was not very enthusiastic about my conversion, given their Christian background, however they were not discouraging either.
While we have this so-called Mamasapano & Marawi fitnah, Alhumdulillah, the light of Islam still shines in my country and I still firmly believe what ALLAH (SWT) has said in the Holy Qur'an in Surah Ash-Sharh;
"For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease. Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease." (Quran 94:5-6)
JAZAK ALLAHU KHAIR.
Musa ibn Islam al Filibini (formerly known as Jose Jay Jennifer A. Daquilanea)
