m u s l i m v o i c e s - The University of Texas at Austin

y ricardo tores by ricardo tores
God, Dios, Allah
Knowledge, Self Determination
and maybe maybe maybe Me?
I learn through so many fountains especially those I love and those I know and inspire. Spiritually I’ve been
lost for lets say many, many years, months, days, minutes, and seconds without peace and harmony.
One thought inspired by the HIGHEST, cannot be defeated only by the Devil with physical pleasures, I
think?
Not Sure, not quoting any one, just me.
So how did I begin the search for this peace and harmony as the base of my life? I haven’t understood to
the fullest yet.
Why? I don’t know maybe you can help.
But what I have found in the last few years of my life is you have to put
God, Dios, Allah, as your FOUNDATION.
Do you know God has unlimited names as many as there are languages, as there are Positive
words, encouraging messages; from the Most High to the most encompassing. Isn’t His word, when spoken
the most BEAUTIFUL, most BENEVOLENT.
I ponder why? Believers and non-Believers wonder why?
You know what the answer is? I do not know, if you do please let me know.
It is one of the many wonders of Allah, Dios, God.
Why Believers and Non-believers, because that is how life is separated in my book, and I think in
Allah’s Book, which should hold more Significance than any of the personal books we live as human.
The most beautiful story is His. The most Encompassing is his.
So how do I answer why I am a Believer instead of a non-Believer?
How do I answer this important ‘Why’?
With a what, when, where, and what again and Who!
What? How did I Find GOD? I don’t know I only know I was lost.
When? I believe, but am not sure truly, it was in the last twenty-two plus years of my life. I am still not
strong in my path, word, sentence, or even paragraph He wrote about me. But that will take my whole
Book of my life to find out. I can only read what He already read to the past human beings, and wish that
my words bring a change for others.
Where? Again I am confounded. I believe in these new lands: Latin and North America.
I am Latino, but a MUSLIM first.
What again? A book. Not the Torah, not the Gospel, not the Quran. A book named “The Alchemist.”
If you get a chance read it, the author is Paolo Coehlo. Inspiring writer, spiritual at heart.
By Whom? Another story: a simple man, a man I admire, a man we as Muslims and Christians, Jews,
human beings should admire as much as Martin Luther King. It is in fact his opposite - Malcolm X.
(If you are interested please refer to his movie by Spike Lee, or the book,
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, by Alex Haley.)
So why ISLAM?
Because of what it means for us humans to do. SURRENDER TO GOD. Not to someone I believe has
inspired me by Dioses (God’s) grace. Not Mohammed, not Jesus the son of Mary, not my own Dad, and
only, ONLY, by his WORD.
The Quran, the Gospel (Bible: New Testament), and the Torah (Old Testament).
about the author
Ricardo is a recent convert to Islam. Originally from Venezuela, he is studying History at UT. Currently
he is working and hopes to travel abroad to Latin America to help educate people in need and to
show others what Islam really is. In his free time, you’ll find him writing poetry or shooting hoops.
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April 2006 ! Issue 1