Brace yourself it’s long.
In the name of ALLAH, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
As-salamu 'alaikum wa rahmatu Allaho wa'barakatu. My name is Park Dong-Shin and I was born in Busan, Korea and I am currently living in Seoul, Korea. I am writing this to share with you something important about my life, how I have embraced a life full of joy and how I found the true meaning of life in 24 years of life-long enduring pain, darkness, doubts, and confusion which I have been living in up until now.
When my father was young, he was an engineer of a ship who sailed the far sea. I grew up being familiar with other cultures and races because I came into contact with different foreigners who paid visits to our house and my father would always tell me interesting things about them from a very young age.
My father told me that he had been blessed with me at an old age as an answer to a prayer from God, and hence he gave me the name that has the Chinese character ‘Shin (信)’ meaning 'believing' in the hope that I would sincerely believe in God. He wanted to leave me 'faith' as an inheritance because he was not rich, and I, as a Sabbath believer(Seventh-day Adventist Church), have lived a life with obedience to the Bible and observance of a discipline.
Later in life, my family arranged a place to stay and began the country life with an old and a retired father. For the first time, I began spending more time with my father since he retired as I have always lived with my mother and sister. He often used to talk about what he goes through in the sea and what life is like overseas in the past, and I still vividly remember that now as well.
Having started sailing from his early years, he spent half of his life far out in sea. But to my father who had lived a life without any big accidents, he was mostly and solely depended on God’s words and faith which kept him going. All the foreigners crews used to ask my father to pray for their safety whenever they faced a violent strong storm in the sea. But, it was not all easy. My father endured the lonely and difficult life of a sailor by always relying on the Bible and praying to God on land and sea to protect him and keep him safe from any accidents in the sea.
He managed to live a life at that dangerous sea very well without any fear or accident, but unfortunately he suffered more hardships on land. People often considered him unfriendly and was seen as a scary figure/sailor due to the nature of his job i.e. being a sailor who lived most of his life in the sea. In fact, I often did not understand him and hated him for his job as well. My family and I were cornered as atheist who did not believe in God but we actually kept on the Sabbath, did not even eat pork , and despite saying that we believed in God and the Bible as a heresy and an extremist, we were still cornered as such.
Church life was no difference, but rather the same. Although my father believed in God for a very long time, depended on God’s words, and taught lots of foreign crews the Bible, he was not appointed as a deacon, let alone taking an elder position of a church.
He was more knowledgeable and had a stronger faith than any elders or pastors. Nevertheless, he was not acknowledged by people. In fact, church positions, such as an elder of a church, were given to the newly joined individual believers with higher reputation and/or good position in their daily work.
Despite being relatively young at the time, I was still able to see the difference in how my family were treated by the church because of the poverty we were living in, it was rather unfair. Every month the church would hold an open session where people come in and donates towards the church, however, my father was only making a small contribution in these sessions. A donation does not matter in quantity but rather it's the persons intention and heart that should've been considered, no matter how much my father donated, be it small or a large sum, he participated in those sessions and made a contribution towards the church. This was unfair, and represented the faith rather very poorly to me.
During the IMF crisis which occurred in Korea during the late 90's (around 1997), my family went through obstacles and suffered a lot, and eventually my parents divorced. With my family breaking up, I ended up living alone in the dormitory of the school I had to attend, the Christian Mission School. Unlike the school's name, it's students were not God followers but rather following worldly desires, I felt out of place, it was a place full of greed and materialism and I felt discriminated there. I was sure there was more to life than running after worldly desires. All of these experiences led me to the road of seeking and searching for the meaning of life. I wanted to know what my purpose in life is, why I needed to live, and where is God.
I was greatly interested in politics, history, and religion. I met and talked to many individuals who evangelised to me, and made me search for many churches that are divided to different denominations. Nonetheless, I've always prayed to God to lead me to the right path.
There were particularly many Protestant churches in Korea and they kept declaring the reform and making denominations. I decided to take a basic doctrine class and study about it, but later found that their interpretations were all different even though they believe in the same God and the same Bible. Although, I was able to find few things in common, I did not understand why there should be too many interpretations if you believe on the same God and the same Bible. There was also another issue which I found contradicting. They state that they believe in the one and only God but focused on dividing God into three entities. I could not understand why the Almighty God should be divided, and whenever I questioned them at the church, they always tried to squeeze out explanation to justify it. Surely, if it was right, an explanation would be easy to give?
Moreover, in Christianity, every individual is born as a sinner! Throughout your life, your labelled as a sinner and it's engraved within you since birth. How does a newly born child be a sinner? I agree that every human commits many sins, but we are not born sinners if Jesus really died for our sins? Then why are we all still sinners? And does this mean everyone goes to heaven or hell? In addition to that, any individual who does not attend the church would automatically be sent to hell. I found no logic in all of this and did not understand any of their reasoning and explanations. The right religion would be logical. The church tried to take God’s authority to use it on people as well. Just like the Romans in the past, today's politicians and the Popes of Protestant churches are being worshipped and idolised as well, and they intercept people’s loyalty and obedience that is supposed to be received by God.
Some people say that we must believe in their denomination in order to be saved, and if that is the case, then how many people on Earth can be saved, indeed? Is God that narrow-minded? Another concept, that I could not comprehend is Christians calling God as father. Some people argue that there is 'mother' God because there is a 'father' God. And, of course there is Jesus as the 'son' of God. Does God also exist in a form just like humans and thus engage in sex and bring up offspring? Does God eat? Drink? Defecate? These are all what humans do, and humans are also limited. Thus, does God, too, have a limit? Shouldn't God be limitless?
I could not find the truth in any religion or any Christian organisation. I even attended many of the 'Believers meetings' in search for the truth, but couldn't gain or find what I was looking for. They often used such gathering as a mean of socialising, they laughed and enjoyed among themselves. As a matter of fact, they were actually greedy hypocrites who trampled on the poor. With all this, I couldn't help but to think that Christianity might be the most wicked religion, not only in Korea, but also in the world history of mankind. These so-called religious people gather once a week at the church, fuss about repenting and pretend to be 'Holy' and at the same time go on sinning knowingly, saying that we are all sinners anyway. That was it, I did not have any more places to go and could not escape from it.
Korean Muslim - Converts Story - Abdullah Dongshin Park
I found hope of mankind in Islam and then I became a Muslim.In the name of ALLAH, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
As-salamu 'alaikum wa rahmatu Allaho wa'barakatu. My name is Park Dong-Shin and I was born in Busan, Korea and I am currently living in Seoul, Korea. I am writing this to share with you something important about my life, how I have embraced a life full of joy and how I found the true meaning of life in 24 years of life-long enduring pain, darkness, doubts, and confusion which I have been living in up until now.
When my father was young, he was an engineer of a ship who sailed the far sea. I grew up being familiar with other cultures and races because I came into contact with different foreigners who paid visits to our house and my father would always tell me interesting things about them from a very young age.
My father told me that he had been blessed with me at an old age as an answer to a prayer from God, and hence he gave me the name that has the Chinese character ‘Shin (信)’ meaning 'believing' in the hope that I would sincerely believe in God. He wanted to leave me 'faith' as an inheritance because he was not rich, and I, as a Sabbath believer(Seventh-day Adventist Church), have lived a life with obedience to the Bible and observance of a discipline.
Later in life, my family arranged a place to stay and began the country life with an old and a retired father. For the first time, I began spending more time with my father since he retired as I have always lived with my mother and sister. He often used to talk about what he goes through in the sea and what life is like overseas in the past, and I still vividly remember that now as well.
Having started sailing from his early years, he spent half of his life far out in sea. But to my father who had lived a life without any big accidents, he was mostly and solely depended on God’s words and faith which kept him going. All the foreigners crews used to ask my father to pray for their safety whenever they faced a violent strong storm in the sea. But, it was not all easy. My father endured the lonely and difficult life of a sailor by always relying on the Bible and praying to God on land and sea to protect him and keep him safe from any accidents in the sea.
He managed to live a life at that dangerous sea very well without any fear or accident, but unfortunately he suffered more hardships on land. People often considered him unfriendly and was seen as a scary figure/sailor due to the nature of his job i.e. being a sailor who lived most of his life in the sea. In fact, I often did not understand him and hated him for his job as well. My family and I were cornered as atheist who did not believe in God but we actually kept on the Sabbath, did not even eat pork , and despite saying that we believed in God and the Bible as a heresy and an extremist, we were still cornered as such.
Church life was no difference, but rather the same. Although my father believed in God for a very long time, depended on God’s words, and taught lots of foreign crews the Bible, he was not appointed as a deacon, let alone taking an elder position of a church.
He was more knowledgeable and had a stronger faith than any elders or pastors. Nevertheless, he was not acknowledged by people. In fact, church positions, such as an elder of a church, were given to the newly joined individual believers with higher reputation and/or good position in their daily work.
Despite being relatively young at the time, I was still able to see the difference in how my family were treated by the church because of the poverty we were living in, it was rather unfair. Every month the church would hold an open session where people come in and donates towards the church, however, my father was only making a small contribution in these sessions. A donation does not matter in quantity but rather it's the persons intention and heart that should've been considered, no matter how much my father donated, be it small or a large sum, he participated in those sessions and made a contribution towards the church. This was unfair, and represented the faith rather very poorly to me.
During the IMF crisis which occurred in Korea during the late 90's (around 1997), my family went through obstacles and suffered a lot, and eventually my parents divorced. With my family breaking up, I ended up living alone in the dormitory of the school I had to attend, the Christian Mission School. Unlike the school's name, it's students were not God followers but rather following worldly desires, I felt out of place, it was a place full of greed and materialism and I felt discriminated there. I was sure there was more to life than running after worldly desires. All of these experiences led me to the road of seeking and searching for the meaning of life. I wanted to know what my purpose in life is, why I needed to live, and where is God.
I was greatly interested in politics, history, and religion. I met and talked to many individuals who evangelised to me, and made me search for many churches that are divided to different denominations. Nonetheless, I've always prayed to God to lead me to the right path.
There were particularly many Protestant churches in Korea and they kept declaring the reform and making denominations. I decided to take a basic doctrine class and study about it, but later found that their interpretations were all different even though they believe in the same God and the same Bible. Although, I was able to find few things in common, I did not understand why there should be too many interpretations if you believe on the same God and the same Bible. There was also another issue which I found contradicting. They state that they believe in the one and only God but focused on dividing God into three entities. I could not understand why the Almighty God should be divided, and whenever I questioned them at the church, they always tried to squeeze out explanation to justify it. Surely, if it was right, an explanation would be easy to give?
Moreover, in Christianity, every individual is born as a sinner! Throughout your life, your labelled as a sinner and it's engraved within you since birth. How does a newly born child be a sinner? I agree that every human commits many sins, but we are not born sinners if Jesus really died for our sins? Then why are we all still sinners? And does this mean everyone goes to heaven or hell? In addition to that, any individual who does not attend the church would automatically be sent to hell. I found no logic in all of this and did not understand any of their reasoning and explanations. The right religion would be logical. The church tried to take God’s authority to use it on people as well. Just like the Romans in the past, today's politicians and the Popes of Protestant churches are being worshipped and idolised as well, and they intercept people’s loyalty and obedience that is supposed to be received by God.
Some people say that we must believe in their denomination in order to be saved, and if that is the case, then how many people on Earth can be saved, indeed? Is God that narrow-minded? Another concept, that I could not comprehend is Christians calling God as father. Some people argue that there is 'mother' God because there is a 'father' God. And, of course there is Jesus as the 'son' of God. Does God also exist in a form just like humans and thus engage in sex and bring up offspring? Does God eat? Drink? Defecate? These are all what humans do, and humans are also limited. Thus, does God, too, have a limit? Shouldn't God be limitless?
I could not find the truth in any religion or any Christian organisation. I even attended many of the 'Believers meetings' in search for the truth, but couldn't gain or find what I was looking for. They often used such gathering as a mean of socialising, they laughed and enjoyed among themselves. As a matter of fact, they were actually greedy hypocrites who trampled on the poor. With all this, I couldn't help but to think that Christianity might be the most wicked religion, not only in Korea, but also in the world history of mankind. These so-called religious people gather once a week at the church, fuss about repenting and pretend to be 'Holy' and at the same time go on sinning knowingly, saying that we are all sinners anyway. That was it, I did not have any more places to go and could not escape from it.
