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Inner Revolutions | Muslim Americans and the Legacy of Imam Khomeini (r)

I Wanted Him to Adopt Me

Marilyn Reed was mothering three children on her own in 1977 when she first learned about Islam.

“My life was a typical life of people who are not following any type of moral code. I wasn’t living a correct life. And I had become disenchanted with how life was going. I began to question myself: why was I doing the things I was doing? I looked at my three children and didn’t want them to grow up wrong. My family was Christian but I never saw them go to church. I always believed in one God, so I asked to be guided to the Truth.’”

The next day on her way to work, Reed exchanged greetings with a man on the sidewalk. She later discovered he was a student at the law school where she worked. He came into her office, the two remembered each other, and he began to tell her about about Islam.

“I asked him questions: ‘why were we created? what was the purpose of life?’ His answers began to fill a void in me. I fell in love with what he was telling me, the knowledge – not him. He was just an instrument that guided me to Islam.”

Two months later, Reed became a Muslim. She changed her name to Najah Siddiq, and taught herself how to pray. In 1979, Siddiq was practicing Sunni Islam when she learned about the revolution in Iran.

“I had a lot of Muslim friends and we all knew this was a true revolution, but we held on to our Sunni beliefs. Some went over to Saudi to be educated, and this put doubt in their minds about the Shia.”

After the revolution, Siddiq began to attend programs at the Islamic Education Center in Maryland.

“It felt so alive. There were lots of speeches, and I took my children every week. This experience opened my eyes more.”

Siddiq says she doesn’t know how she got invited to Iran. Others in her group were public speakers. But she felt like Allah invited her there to be a witness.

“Meeting Imam Khomeini reminded me of the covenant we made to Allah before we came into this existence, when we were in a pure state. That this life is a journey, and we should strive to do those things that will get us back to that pure energy so that when we go back to Allah (swt), we’ll have that purity forever in the akhirah (afterlife).”

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