- Feb 5, 2002
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Shereen Yusuff, who lives in Houston, Texas, converted to Catholicism from Islam after her encounter with Jesus Christ two years ago. Shereen, who was brought up in the Sultanate of Oman, worked as a petroleum engineer for many years after graduating in aerospace engineering from the prestigious Kharagpur Indian Institute of Technology. She is also an accomplished athlete. Her story was featured in HuffPost in 2014. She currently works as a breath coach. Shereen describes her faith journey in an interview with SW News:
You were raised in a Muslim family; how and when did you discover Catholicism?
I was quite religious as a child since my grandmother lived with us at the time, and I prayed 5 times a day with her. I don’t think I really understood Islam as a spiritual practice till much later in life because I had learned the religion in a language I couldn’t understand – Arabic. So, most of what I did was tied to rituals, which I did find very soothing, for example, fasting during Ramadan and praying five times a day. Later in life, around the age of 19, I got the opportunity to do my internship in China. It was the first time I was exposed to people who didn’t follow religion at all. I realized that religion wasn’t a necessary attribute to one’s identity and so decided to become an atheist.
In my early thirties, I had an encounter with God that I couldn’t really explain through science. I ended up sitting in silence for long periods of time during the day, trying to understand my encounter. A few months later, I started hearing a voice within me, which was very different from the usual voice that I have in my head. I started following the things the voice told me and one of them was to go back to religion. Since Islam was the only religion I knew at the time, I spent the next two years trying to become a devout Muslim and understanding Islam in a more spiritual way.
In October 2020, while I was in prayer, I felt Jesus call me and say, “Follow me”. At the time I only knew Jesus as a very prominent prophet in Islam. A little confused, I asked Him, “How?” This is when Mother Teresa came into my heart. I knew her as a lady who helped the poor because I used to live very close to the Indian metropolis of Kolkata but had no idea she was Catholic. When I went over to meet the sisters of her congregation, you can only imagine the sisters’ surprise that I, a devout Muslim, was asking them if I could serve in any way. The sisters said I would feel more at home with an organization that matched my Islamic values. By this point, I was already living a life where I felt that I would do God’s will no matter what He asked me to do. And so, believing that God was calling me to become Catholic, I decided right then and there, to begin my journey toward Catholicism. In April 2021, I was baptized into the Catholic Church.
How was your experience of the RCIA process?
Continued below.
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You were raised in a Muslim family; how and when did you discover Catholicism?
I was quite religious as a child since my grandmother lived with us at the time, and I prayed 5 times a day with her. I don’t think I really understood Islam as a spiritual practice till much later in life because I had learned the religion in a language I couldn’t understand – Arabic. So, most of what I did was tied to rituals, which I did find very soothing, for example, fasting during Ramadan and praying five times a day. Later in life, around the age of 19, I got the opportunity to do my internship in China. It was the first time I was exposed to people who didn’t follow religion at all. I realized that religion wasn’t a necessary attribute to one’s identity and so decided to become an atheist.
In my early thirties, I had an encounter with God that I couldn’t really explain through science. I ended up sitting in silence for long periods of time during the day, trying to understand my encounter. A few months later, I started hearing a voice within me, which was very different from the usual voice that I have in my head. I started following the things the voice told me and one of them was to go back to religion. Since Islam was the only religion I knew at the time, I spent the next two years trying to become a devout Muslim and understanding Islam in a more spiritual way.
In October 2020, while I was in prayer, I felt Jesus call me and say, “Follow me”. At the time I only knew Jesus as a very prominent prophet in Islam. A little confused, I asked Him, “How?” This is when Mother Teresa came into my heart. I knew her as a lady who helped the poor because I used to live very close to the Indian metropolis of Kolkata but had no idea she was Catholic. When I went over to meet the sisters of her congregation, you can only imagine the sisters’ surprise that I, a devout Muslim, was asking them if I could serve in any way. The sisters said I would feel more at home with an organization that matched my Islamic values. By this point, I was already living a life where I felt that I would do God’s will no matter what He asked me to do. And so, believing that God was calling me to become Catholic, I decided right then and there, to begin my journey toward Catholicism. In April 2021, I was baptized into the Catholic Church.
How was your experience of the RCIA process?
Continued below.
From Islam to Catholicism: The faith journey of an Indian Institute of Technology graduate | SW News
Shereen Yusuff, who lives in Houston, Texas, converted to Catholicism from Islam after her encounter with Jesus Christ two years ago. Shereen, who was brought up in the Sultanate of Oman, worked as a petroleum engineer for many years after graduating in aerospace engineering from the prestigious...
