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From: convex!jgreat@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Janet Greathouse)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: HOW I REVERTED TO ISLAM
Message-ID: <1990Dec10.164125.23775@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 10 Dec 90 16:41:25 GMT
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Salaam Alaikum.

Indeed, the term "reverted" refers to going back to something. Muslims
who at one time were not Muslims, and who have since chosen Islam, use
the word because it exactly expresses what they mean:

   re vert ; from the latin re (again) and -vertere, -verti (to return 
             back to, to roll back, to come around again in due course.)


According to the Qur'an, each of us is born Muslim, which means born
in submission to Allah. However, not all of us are blessed with being
born into Muslim families where Islam is lived and taught. When we are
born into non-Muslim families and are taught to believe either a
religion other than Islam, or no religion at all, then we become not
Muslim.

As persons born into such non-Muslim families grow and, Insh'Allah,
discover Islam and its perfection, they, upon accepting Islam and the
Islamic way of life, `revert' to it.  Though they may be learning of
it intellectually for the first time, it is not the first time their
hearts have felt submission to Allah, for He created all of us
initially in complete submission to Him. You phrased it interestingly
when you asked, "Does it [the use of the word revert] have any special
significance to Muslims, suggesting something like the soul coming
home even if they weren't Muslims before?"  You see, we _were_ Muslims
before.

Thus the correctness of the term `reverting' to Islam. 

I know, Subhana'Allah, I'm a revert.   :)






Khudahafiz.