I have always been the ‘religious one’ in my family. From elementary school, I attended church services on my own. I would eventually sing in the choir, usher parishioners to their seats and teach Sunday school before a major conflict of faith drew me away from church.

I entered college searching for identity and, ultimately, a spiritual tradition that would not only prepare me for the afterlife but this one as well.

I eventually found that in Islam.

My first exposure to Islam was from a secular friend from a Muslim family. We discussed poetry, and he invited me to read the works of a famous Persian poet named Jalaluddin Rumi.

As I read Rumi, I began to identify with his thoughts about God and came to the conclusion that Rumi’s belief system was also my belief system.

After speaking to more people, I realized that Rumi was an orthodox Muslim, and I began my research into Islam.

Through my political involvements on campus, I began to interact with Muslims regularly.

They would invite me to break fast with them during religious holidays and eventually invited me to their Islam Awareness Week.

One of the key speakers that stood out to me was a graduate student who gave a talk on Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, in the Bible.

The talk, along with my own research, led me to the point of leaving Christianity completely because I could no longer believe Jesus was divine.

After speaking regularly to the graduate student mentioned above and other Muslims on campus for more than two years, I eventually made a decision to become a Muslim.

I decided that I would convert as soon as I learned how to perform the ritual prayers.

On the day I learned how to perform the ritual prayers, including how to say them in Arabic, I was stopped by the president of the Muslim Student Association and asked to comment on a rumor.

There were a number of people on campus saying I had converted, and he wanted to know if this was true and how he could support me.

I mentioned that I had not yet converted but had fulfilled my last requirement to and planned to convert that night at home.

He mentioned that there was no pressure and it was not his intention to force a decision from me. He explained the ritual bath that was also required before one converted.

I felt that my former self had been washed away in that bath, and that I was emerging without sin and could begin my new life without focusing on the negativities of my past.

As an afterthought, the MSA president mentioned that if I was going to convert that evening, I would be required to attend the Eid prayers the next morning.

I agreed, and a ride was set up for me. I performed my conversion ceremonies late that evening.

The next day, I found myself in the Los Angeles Convention Center, and as I walked into the main hall, I recognized people chanting a beautiful prayer that I too would pick up.

The significance of converting on Eid, one of the two mandatory days of celebration and a holiday that hearkens back to Prophet Abraham – illustrating the continuity of the Islamic tradition from time immemorial – did not reach me until much later.

But this unique conversion would set me on a course of discovering and learning about Islam wherever I had the opportunity.

These locations included the deserts of New Mexico, suburbs of Amman, Jordan, and the great and ancient metropolis of Cairo, Egypt.

Nuruddin Neal took his shahadah (proclamation of faith) in February of 2003 at the Muslim Students’ Association at UCLA.

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