LAHORE - This is the first Ramazan of 34-year-old Khadija Ahmad, who embraced Islam last year, along with her two schoolchildren, 10-year-old Fatima Ahmad and 8-year-old Ibrahim Ahmad. Prior to becoming Muslims, they were Sherry Torkildesn, Melanie Ann and Mark Ahmad, respectively.
While talking to TheNation, Khadija Ahmed said she embraced Islam at her own, which was so after a thorough study of English translation of the Holy Quran, though I was born to a Roman Catholic family. She has four sisters and one brother, and she is the second last of all five.
“My mother is still a Roman Catholic, but she has no problem with my kids and my conversion; rather she is happy for all of us. My father, a Roman Catholic too, expired about 10 years ago,” she said, while mentioning that she had been learning about Islam for the past many months. “I decided to study Islam for myself and my kids and drew my own conclusions. I found Islam to be a religion of deep love and spiritual truth, keeping Allah’s oneness in mind always,” she mentioned.
Khadija Ahmad started reading about Islam from the Internet and then decided to fast for Ramazan in 2012. “I am a single parent with two kids. During last year of our fasting, we got an English translation of the Holy Quran as a gift from my best friend.
I started to read it, was thoroughly engrossed and started to have deeper understanding with every reading. It opened my eyes to the wonder and mercy of Allah, and I found the fascination growing every day... it was all I could think about. No other religion including Catholicism influenced me in such a powerful way. Eventually, I began to look into Islam more closely. At first, I was only interested in looking at those issues which specifically dealt with women. I was surprised what I read, learned and taught myself a lot first, and about other women.
I started comparing and analysing where the real oppression of women lies in every other system and ways of life outside Islam,” she said.
After thorough understanding, Khadija Ahmad finally got enough courage to profess the Shahadah, that is, embrace Islam, at the Badshahi Mosque on the 16th of August 2012 (27th of Ramazan). “We, my kids and I, are practising Muslims. I thank Allah for leading us into Islam, the true religion,” she said, while praying that may all mankind find the right light and truth of Allah.