Pakistan Defence

to me, this was brand new and fascinating.... then I saw another picture.... this was I believe in 2012.... I think during the summer....

I saw a picture which said you should sleep on your side and not your stomache..... it was another I think what I now know is called a meme... a Muslim meme

I was very intrigued about this.... it is strange to me now because I make sure not to lay in my stomache..... but when I was that age, apparently I used to sleep on my stomache....

so the idea of sleeping on my side was brand new to me...... so I tried it...... I had been having trouble sleeping and now I started sleeping better

I started learning more about Islam and I became more interested in it and wanted to learn about it.

However, when I was that age I don't think I had ever actually met any Muslims except I had some Muslim neighbors down the street who I don't think my family had ever talked to.... I don't think I ever talked to them

so I didn't know actual Muslims.... then after I turned 19 in August 2012.... I started randomly meeting people who would turn out to be Muslims.... and they would start teaching me

right after I turned 19 I went to California (I'm from Texas)..... and this was when I started randomly meeting Muslims

and then I started going to this mosque...... my living conditions were very difficult at this time........ I remember I was dealing with a lot of difficulties and things seemed really chaotic.... so I would go and sit in the mosque and read the translation of the Quran

and it was kind of like a peaceful place for me to escape to.....

I would sit in the mosque though and I remember I would have no idea what was going on... I would just sit there reading a translation of the Quran (Yusuf Ali translation)

I think the people would even go and pray salat in congregation and I would just sit there reading.... I knew very little about Islam

one day the man who runs the mosque saw me and I think he realized I had no idea what was going on and I knew very little about Islam....

he asked me if I had taken the Shahadah..... I didn't know what that was.... he had me go up to the front of the mosque in front of the people and take the Shahadah.... I was 19, it was early 2013

I remember how little I knew in those days.... I didn't know what a hadith was

I remember I would have weird, bizarre interpretations of the Quran.... I didn't know what tafsir was and I had no idea how to correctly interpret what I was reading... I would have weird interpretations and I would have no idea how to correctly interpret what I was reading

but that was more than six years ago...... it was a very long process to begin both to learn about Islam and to understand it..... however, Islam is very important to me.... I'm not at all a scholar but I have more of an understanding of the basics than when I first became Muslim

I am mestizo. I don't think I'm related to the moors.

Is Omar your name or it’s just a user name because I know Hispanics still use the name Omar

Omar is my Muslim name.