Thanks for the welcomes )

Thank you sister Comrox?

(The cachepa system on this forum's got me learning capital cities like no tomorrow lol)

Peace be upon you )

I've been offline completely for quite some time now; but evidently now I am back, thank God for my new laptop and internet connection!

My name is Steven James, I am 25, Muslim; I uphold the Qur'an and therefore reject haddith. I joined this forum originally a few years back and I've had conversations with Edip and some of the other members here - I initially joined Islam after realizing it to be the truth, originally inspired by Ahmed Deedat, Zakir Naik and others from Peace TV; I submitted to God because I couldn't argue against the teachings of the Qur'an.

Soon after becoming the white-english-muslim guy (*) I began to see flaws in the system so to speak. The initial pull to Islam was for me that I really couldn't challenge it's teachings - every time I read the Qur'an or studied Islam I was left with a deepening feeling of "this makes perfect sense". However, the more I became involved with the Sunni community and learned about haddiths and what not, things began to not make sense to be I seemed to be the only muslim I knew who read the verses in the Qur'an commanding us to "not divide into sects, each happy with what it has", and I slowly began to realize that the actions of the 'muslims' based on their following of hear-say is responsible for their "state" in the world today.

• • to this day when I meet another Muslim and I say asalaam 'alaikum, I am welcomed with salaam brother, where are you from? - which is always met with surprise when I say England, born and bread English ) lol

To be honest my faith has been up and down over the years - but I realize that this was because of my own actions. I was a bad person before I became Muslim and the past has had funny ways of catching up on me; still I am the fool who went back to impious actions and I have no-one to blame but myself - BUT Thank the Lord of all that exists; I've come to realize the error of my ways and it's my intention to strive in the cause of God.

I am here to make friends, learn and increase my understanding (I need to learn Arabic!) and network with like-minded people.

If you wish to know anything about me, or just talk, or what-ever, feel free to drop me a message. God willing I will get online and contribute when I can - it's really uplifting seeing that there seems to be more and more people converting to Qur'an based Islam.

Thanks for reading my short introduction - peace be upon you all.

Steven