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I've owned copies of the meaning of the glorious Quran translated into English for years, and I had an extremely difficult time in reading them & an even more difficult time in understanding what it was that I was reading. I could work my way through a Surah, sure; but I had no way of determining the context or what it meant. The (numerous) parentheses within (the text) were also extremely confusing to me as well as the fact that there were no annotations or historical context given to what I was reading. As a Christian, you grow up around many different types of Bibles. From those small enough to fit in a shirt pocket and written in conversational English, to massive tomes full of annotations, commentary, tables and maps. Depending on the publisher (and the denomination backing whichever given edition was being used), the study bibles could oftentimes be a good thing for helping to make sense of what you read. So when I heard about The Study Quran, I immediately took interest and checked on here to see if it was worthwhile, shortly after this, I ordered a copy from Amazon. This week, I received my copy of The Study Quran and set out to reading it. After navigating through the substantial introductory content, I decided to "open my heart" and pick a chapter out of order to begin reading. I believe I chose al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq, Al-Nas, al-Jathiyah, and have just finished al-Ma'idah this evening and despite feeling a burning conviction in my heart to be more serious about religion due to a dose of healthy "fear of the LORD" reading al-Jathiyah, my evening with al-Ma'idah and the truth about who Jesus ((عليه السلام).) really is has done something to me on the innermost parts of my being. I feel like I am falling in love with Jesus ((عليه السلام)) all over again... just Jesus ((عليه السلام)) for who he ACTUALLY is, and more importantly than that, I am falling head over heels in love with my LORD, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى). The ONE true God upon and from whom all existence was created. I feel so incredibly blessed right now to be able to finally differentiate from the prophet who I used to worship, but never felt like I truly knew and The one true God who sent him. As I made my best attempts to perform valid Salah today, I felt real for the first time in my life. I feel like I know who I am and who I could become now. at 34, that should be a terrifying realization... but its not. It feels natural, like something that deep down, I already know how to do and with each time I (attempt) to pray, it seems to become easier and more natural. This reminds me of a few cases in church in my early childhood that I had compartmentalized: When I first heard someone pray "In Jesus' name", I felt slightly put-off because I had always as a child, just prayed (now I realize that these prayers are actually supplications) directly to God. Without really thinking of Jesus at all. I knew of Jesus of course, but as a human being who I was told had been crucified, I don't remember ever praying directly to him until I was older and had started hanging around protestant evangelicals. Another case was how when I stayed with the Grey Friars in NYC briefly one Christmas season, I was enamored with the way that they taught us to prostrate ourselves upon entering the chapel and saying some of the Franciscan prayers. Again, it felt very natural and like something I should do. Fast forward through a long journey to where I am now. The Study Quran has already been a breath of clean, fresh air into the lungs of my soul. I'd even venture a guess that I am no longer a Christian, and that I have "awakened" to my life as a Muslim, as one who submits, finally. I highly recommend that if you did not already obtain a copy of The Study Quran that you do so immediately. If reading a few short Surah and being able to understand them has fundamentally changed my life in the course of four days, I cannot imagine the effect that Insha'allah, it will have on those of you who have lived this deen far longer than I consciously have. Alhamdulillah!

Changing faiths: Hispanic Americans leaving Catholicism for Islam21 August 2013 With more than 50 million Hispanics living in the US, the Latino community is now the country's biggest minority. While most are brought up within the Catholic Church, a number of them are turning to Islam. Precise figures are difficult to pin down as the US Census does not collect religious data, but estimates for the number of Latino Muslims vary between 100,000 and 200,000. The BBC's Katy Watson went to Union City in New Jersey - where the population is more than 80% Hispanic - to meet some converts. VIDEO : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23774334