Timea Aya Csányi was just 14 years old when she stepped foot for the first time to Egypt. He did not expect a few years later to return to see the land of the Pyramids with pride, not as a tourist but as a Muslim.   

Egypt has captivated Timea ever since she felt the friendliness and kindness of the people towards her and her family. The atmosphere of the market crowds is mesmerizing and the Arabic humming is unusual, but very pleasant.

At the time, Islam was only to fascinate him as an interesting part of their culture, but nothing more. After returning to his country in Hungary, Timea began to feel in love with Egypt. He joined a language center to learn Arabic, and he intensively read endlessly about Arabs.

Life without God

During her early years of high school, Timea became part of a man who grew up with freedom. He drifted away with the flow of friends and his surroundings. No one advised him to remember and worship God.

However, a few years later, just past the age of 16, Timea felt herself just sitting down and thinking about how life had no purpose. He felt alive just to have fun, fight, and die in the end? That's it? No way.

"Finally, I backed away from my friends and started looking for God," Timea was quoted as saying from the About Islam page, Tuesday (13/4).

Timea really doesn't know why she's interested in beliefs and religion, especially more than ever. His conscience led him to draw near to God.  

His first clear thought was to go to a place of worship of a religion embraced by his family. However, he soon discovered that his family's religion was full of contradictions and false claims.

Just at a time when Timea felt something was wrong in life and needed to be fixed, God put him in the most perfect place he had ever been.

Back to Egypt

Timea is an active volunteer of an international NGO in her country, Hungary in Budapest, which offers it to represent them in a conference organized by the European Union with the theme "Educational Exchanges Involving People with Muslim Cultural Backgrounds".

"They sent me and I can't hide how happy I am to see the Egyptians again after all this time," Timea said.

The conference was basically about Islam and Muslim life. She vividly remembers three feelings to this day that overwhelmed me during the week: a feeling of respect for Egyptian girls for their modest clothes, and the way they dealt with other participants. They are highly educated, open-minded, but at the same time, they follow the rules of their religion and are very proud of it.

Timea was proud when I walked with them on the street. Many people, unfortunately even today, look down on them and feel sorry for them while they are so respectable in my eyes that I don't even dare to show up in clothes other than a long-sleeved pullover with long jeans in front of them.

And lastly, no less importantly, the feeling of shame caught me when we passed a pub or disco full of drunken youths or when we saw a group of girls standing in the bus terminal in fancy dress. They received confusing comments from passing men. 

"The conference was the first time I have truly realized that Islam is not just the religion of Arabs and Turks, but the message is for everyone regardless of their background, nationality, or language. In the end, wanting to know more about Islam, I really know what my next move is," Timea said.

More steps forward

Surfing the internet, Timea realized that I was not alone with the Issue of Islam. She found many forums with Hungarian converts and she exchanged several emails (emails) with a much-loved Muslim sister who invited me to a meeting of a group of Muslim women where the knowledgeable woman gave a lecture based on Koranic verses. They all greeted him warmly and he felt very comfortable with them, especially as his talk deeply touched his heart.

"Every meeting fills my soul with a lot of energy, and keeps me motivated. I can't put the books that I get from them, I learned from Youtube videos how to pray and I even memorized the first verse of the Qur'an (al-Fatihah), however, I am still not a Muslim," timea said.

However, all his questions are answered with Islamic logic. He wanted to get more confirmation that I was on the right path. She was also afraid of the consequences of her decision that would change her entire life, as well as worry about the reaction of family, classmates, and teachers.

As every new Muslim feels, Timea also can not be separated from the shocking reaction from her family and friends. They already knew that Timea attended lectures at the local mosque, she often met with Hungarian converts.

"They saw me praying, even before converting to Islam. So, they know I'm interested in Islam, but they think it's only temporary. But I didn't, and when they asked me about my new clothes, the books I read, I honestly told them: I'm a Muslim," Timea said.

That story happened nine years ago. Once, while going to a weekly meeting, Timea read a book about people who died in a state of ignorance without witnessing god's oneness and that Muhammad was His messenger. The book was like telling him: What are you waiting for? What if your current bus has an accident and you die?

"That's when I could no longer delay this decision and felt that whatever happened to me, I had to testify in front of the girls who encouraged me in recent weeks: "Ashhadu an la ilaha illa'llah, wa Ashhadu An-na Muhammadan Rasulullah," Timea recalled. That is the story of Timea how God endowed him with His guidance that brought him out of darkness into the light of Islam.