American Muslim

A Second Chance




Asalaam Alaikum (Peace be with you),

I am not the biggest fan of pop/rock radio these days and much rather prefer to listen to lectures, audiobooks, NPR (especially "This American Life"), etc. However, there are some songs that I have heard lately that have really got me thinking about my life in ways that I didn't think was possible. In particular, I find myself transfixed in the car when either Nickelback's "If Today Was Your Last Day" or Shinedown's "Second Chance" are on the air.


The latter, in particular, is quite an amazing song - more of a ballad really from a hard rock band. But the lyrics are so darn fitting for my life and the problems/struggles faced by many of my friends, particularly those who have converted to Islam (alhamdulillah) and are facing daily obstacles.

"Tell my mother, tell my father/

I've done the best I can/

To make them realize, this is my life/

I hope they understand/

I'm not angry, I'm just sayin'/

Somtimes goodybe is a second chance."

As I have written about before, Hindu converts to Islam in particular face some daunting challenges in trying to balance their families expecations of who they think their children should be versus who the children want to be. I know all too well the emotional blackmail games my parents have played with me as they portray me as the worst son in the world, even as I struggle and plead with them to see me as the same son they gave birth to, albeit one who practices a different religion.

"Second Chance" is such a fitting song to my life and that of my friends who left Hinduism for Islam. One of my former Hindu friends who took the shahadah and became Muslim last year finally told her parents recently about her conversation and their response was so typical, so similar to what I went through and every other Hindu convert as well. Her parents were crying asking her what they had done wrong as parents and she was crying, trying to convince them they had done nothing wrong, but that she had to make a decision to live her life in her own way and that it was not a reflection of them as parents. That is a pretty unifying theme in the stories of Hindu converts to Islam - most of us lived in loving homes and were close to our parents, until we told them of our conversions and then all hell broke loose.

Just as it has taken three years for my parents to slowly realize that although I may be Muslim, I am still the same Shyam in many ways and hopefully a better son then I was before. May Allah (SWT) soften the hearts of all the Hindu parents who are angry, perplexed, confused and hurt and make all the new Muslims always good to our parents and show them that we are the same loving children they brought into this world.