Understanding Conversion: Bridging the Two Selves

clipped from www.readingislam.com How someone experiences the world and how they view it and life can completely change after choosing Islam. Picture © Microsoft.com Sometimes I think about how much my life has changed over the past nine years. When I try to reflect back on my days before Islam, I often find it difficult to recapture what life was like. Sure I can remember events, people, places, and different experiences, but to go back and really feel what it was like, I have to reflect deeply. When I am able to reconnect with my "former self," I find it a remarkable experience. Although I am still very much the same person as I was in 1998, how I experience the world and how I view it and life has completely changed. Life is the same, yet different.  Understanding ourselves can be a great source of wisdom. Especially with those from the West, many, many engrained cultural values have to be challenged and overcome in order for "self-Islamization" to occur.