🌙 Do not abandon the Night Prayer (Salat al-Layl), for it brings countless blessings—both in this world and in the Hereafter.
It is said:
Of course, contentment (Qanā‘ah) is a treasure from which no one can ever be free of need.
🌺 Ayatollah Bahjat (may Allah have mercy on him)
📕 Hadith of Longing, p. 213
🌙 #NightPrayer #SalatAlLayl
🔗 https://t.me/rahyafte_com/73556
🆔 @rahyafte_en
It is said:
“If someone performs the Night Prayer and the next day says, ‘I have remained hungry,’ then he is lying—unless he was fasting. For Allah has guaranteed his sustenance.”
Of course, contentment (Qanā‘ah) is a treasure from which no one can ever be free of need.
🌺 Ayatollah Bahjat (may Allah have mercy on him)
📕 Hadith of Longing, p. 213
🌙 #NightPrayer #SalatAlLayl
🔗 https://t.me/rahyafte_com/73556
🆔 @rahyafte_en
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رهیافته-(تازه مسلمانان)
نماز شب را ترک نکنید که برکات بسیار دنیوی و اخروی دارد .می گویند : اگر ڪسی نماز شب خواند و فردای آن روز گفت : من گرسنه مانده ام ، دروغ می گوید ! مگر اینڪه روزه گرفته باشد . زیرا خداوند رزق و روزی او را تضمین کرده است . البته قناعت گنجی است که هیچکس از آن…
🌿 Professor Muhammad Legenhausen
“My Conversion to Islam Is a Complicated Story for Those Who Engage in Religious Outreach”
I was born into a Catholic Christian family in the United States. I began my education at a Catholic school, but I always had questions and doubts about Christianity. I remember that during high school, I came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not God, and I also could not accept the doctrine of the Trinity as it was taught to me.
📌 Published: February 5, 2016
🕰️ Reading time: 10 minutes
According to Rahyafte—a comprehensive platform dedicated to Islamic missionaries and converts—Professor Muhammad Legenhausen came to Iran after converting to Shiism. Following his studies at religious and academic institutions in Qom, he has continued teaching in Iran’s academic circles. He was also recognized as an outstanding figure at the 8th Conference of Distinguished Figures of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
🎙️ Could you tell us a little about your birthplace, upbringing, and the environment in which you grew up?
I was born in 1953 (1332 in the Iranian calendar) into a Catholic Christian family in the United States. I began my education at a Catholic school, but I always had questions and doubts about Christianity.
I remember that during high school I came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not God, and I could not accept the Trinity in the way it was being taught. Nevertheless, I still considered myself a Christian.
Later, I attended the State University of New York at Albany. While studying there, I gradually lost my interest in Christianity and eventually became an atheist.
I remained in that state until I was accepted into a master's program at a university in Texas. After graduating, I began teaching at Texas Southern University.
There, I met a number of Muslim students from different Islamic countries, including Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Nigeria.
I found their perspectives on various issues very interesting. I felt that they approached religion in a way that I had never experienced before. This encouraged me to investigate further.
The university authorities had given me the freedom to choose a subject that I wanted to teach. I chose Philosophy of Religion and taught it for two semesters. At the same time, I studied the major world religions together with my students.
Gradually, through these classes, I became more interested in Islam, until eventually I accepted Islam.
🎙️ Could you explain more about how you became a Muslim? What led you to accept Islam, and what was your emotional and psychological state at the time?
For those involved in religious outreach, my conversion to Islam is a complicated story, because academic, emotional, and many other factors were involved.
While I was teaching at Texas Southern University, I became acquainted with an Iranian student named Akbar Noujheh-Dehi. He was taking my Introduction to Philosophy course.
One day, Akbar stopped attending my class for about two weeks. I happened to see him at the university and asked him why he was absent.
He told me:
I agreed that this was important, but I also reminded him that he still had to study for the course!
We made an arrangement: I would take responsibility for introducing the Iranian Revolution to the students, and he would return to his studies.
After that, we became friends and did various things together.
Eventually, he graduated and returned to Iran. Later, I heard that he had gone to the front during the Iran-Iraq War and had been martyred.
Akbar and I often discussed his beliefs. He was an excellent student and spoke very sincerely. He had strong religious convictions and had no doubts about his faith.
It took approximately three years from the time I met Akbar until I became a Muslim.
“My Conversion to Islam Is a Complicated Story for Those Who Engage in Religious Outreach”
I was born into a Catholic Christian family in the United States. I began my education at a Catholic school, but I always had questions and doubts about Christianity. I remember that during high school, I came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not God, and I also could not accept the doctrine of the Trinity as it was taught to me.
📌 Published: February 5, 2016
🕰️ Reading time: 10 minutes
According to Rahyafte—a comprehensive platform dedicated to Islamic missionaries and converts—Professor Muhammad Legenhausen came to Iran after converting to Shiism. Following his studies at religious and academic institutions in Qom, he has continued teaching in Iran’s academic circles. He was also recognized as an outstanding figure at the 8th Conference of Distinguished Figures of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
🎙️ Could you tell us a little about your birthplace, upbringing, and the environment in which you grew up?
I was born in 1953 (1332 in the Iranian calendar) into a Catholic Christian family in the United States. I began my education at a Catholic school, but I always had questions and doubts about Christianity.
I remember that during high school I came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not God, and I could not accept the Trinity in the way it was being taught. Nevertheless, I still considered myself a Christian.
Later, I attended the State University of New York at Albany. While studying there, I gradually lost my interest in Christianity and eventually became an atheist.
I remained in that state until I was accepted into a master's program at a university in Texas. After graduating, I began teaching at Texas Southern University.
There, I met a number of Muslim students from different Islamic countries, including Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Nigeria.
I found their perspectives on various issues very interesting. I felt that they approached religion in a way that I had never experienced before. This encouraged me to investigate further.
The university authorities had given me the freedom to choose a subject that I wanted to teach. I chose Philosophy of Religion and taught it for two semesters. At the same time, I studied the major world religions together with my students.
Gradually, through these classes, I became more interested in Islam, until eventually I accepted Islam.
🎙️ Could you explain more about how you became a Muslim? What led you to accept Islam, and what was your emotional and psychological state at the time?
For those involved in religious outreach, my conversion to Islam is a complicated story, because academic, emotional, and many other factors were involved.
While I was teaching at Texas Southern University, I became acquainted with an Iranian student named Akbar Noujheh-Dehi. He was taking my Introduction to Philosophy course.
One day, Akbar stopped attending my class for about two weeks. I happened to see him at the university and asked him why he was absent.
He told me:
“Our people in Iran have made a revolution, and I think it is very important that the students here have accurate information about it. I felt that I needed to introduce them to this revolution, so I haven't been able to attend class.”
I agreed that this was important, but I also reminded him that he still had to study for the course!
We made an arrangement: I would take responsibility for introducing the Iranian Revolution to the students, and he would return to his studies.
After that, we became friends and did various things together.
Eventually, he graduated and returned to Iran. Later, I heard that he had gone to the front during the Iran-Iraq War and had been martyred.
Akbar and I often discussed his beliefs. He was an excellent student and spoke very sincerely. He had strong religious convictions and had no doubts about his faith.
It took approximately three years from the time I met Akbar until I became a Muslim.
During that period, I began visiting mosques and talking with Muslims. Gradually, I came to understand more of the attractions of Islam.
Initially, my goal was purely academic. I was curious about how Muslims thought. But the more I studied Islam, the more interested I became in it—almost unintentionally.
I learned how to pray and would sometimes perform the prayer. I especially enjoyed congregational prayer.
However, I still had not formally recited the Shahadah.
Then, one day, after Friday prayer, several African-American Muslims approached me in the mosque parking lot. They wanted to get to know me and asked about how I had become acquainted with Islam.
While speaking with them, I recited the Shahadah and formally became a Muslim.
I began to cry.
They were extremely happy, and that very day they asked me to become their prayer leader (imam). We agreed to work together more closely.
Later, with their cooperation, we established a Muslim association at Texas Southern University.
Most of the members of that group were Sunni Muslims. But from the beginning, I had no doubt that I would eventually become a Shiite Muslim. I had already read Nahj al-Balagha, and I had decided that I would either accept Shiite Islam or remain without religion.
🎙️ Why did you recite the Shahadah and formally become a Muslim after meeting those African-American Muslims? Did something special happen at that moment?
No. It did not happen all at once.
I had already thought extensively about Islam. However, meeting those American Muslims encouraged me to take the final step.
Before meeting them, I was already on the threshold of becoming a Muslim and had become very close to Islam.
Their sincerity impressed me. I found their devotion very appealing, and their meeting with me encouraged me to accept Islam and drew me even closer to the faith.
🇮🇷 After formally accepting Islam, what changes occurred in your daily life? And how did you decide to come to Iran?
The number of Muslim students at the university had increased, and as a result, I had some disagreements with university administrators.
They wanted me to work in university administration and become involved in paperwork and management. I only wanted to teach.
So I decided to come to Iran.
One of my Iranian students introduced me to Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati—who at the time was Iran's representative at the United Nations. After that, I resigned from the university and seriously decided to come to Iran.
My original plan was to stay in Iran for two years, learn something about Islamic philosophy and gain a deeper understanding of Islam, and then return to the United States.
With the help of Dr. Velayati, an invitation was arranged from the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran, and I planned to come to Iran.
At Dr. Velayati's office, I happened to meet Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi. He had been on a trip to the United States, where I had previously met him. Dr. Velayati introduced me to him, and we spoke together.
At the end of our conversation, Ayatollah Mesbah asked me to come to Qom and work at the Imam Khomeini Institute, which at the time was operating under the name Baqir al-Ulum Foundation.
I told him that I could come if he sent me an official invitation.
However, I could not wait for the invitation, so I went to the Institute of Philosophy in Tehran and began studying Islamic philosophy with Dr. Gholamreza A'vani. He worked very hard to teach me.
Before coming to Iran, I had studied some Persian literature. But whenever someone greeted me, I could not even respond properly! Speaking Persian was very difficult for me.
Dr. A'vani suggested that, in order to improve my Persian, we should begin studying Islamic philosophy through Persian texts.
So I began studying Islamic philosophy through the philosophical treatises of Suhrawardi. It became something of a source of amusement among my friends!
After some time, Dr. A'vani said:
Initially, my goal was purely academic. I was curious about how Muslims thought. But the more I studied Islam, the more interested I became in it—almost unintentionally.
I learned how to pray and would sometimes perform the prayer. I especially enjoyed congregational prayer.
However, I still had not formally recited the Shahadah.
Then, one day, after Friday prayer, several African-American Muslims approached me in the mosque parking lot. They wanted to get to know me and asked about how I had become acquainted with Islam.
While speaking with them, I recited the Shahadah and formally became a Muslim.
I began to cry.
They were extremely happy, and that very day they asked me to become their prayer leader (imam). We agreed to work together more closely.
Later, with their cooperation, we established a Muslim association at Texas Southern University.
Most of the members of that group were Sunni Muslims. But from the beginning, I had no doubt that I would eventually become a Shiite Muslim. I had already read Nahj al-Balagha, and I had decided that I would either accept Shiite Islam or remain without religion.
🎙️ Why did you recite the Shahadah and formally become a Muslim after meeting those African-American Muslims? Did something special happen at that moment?
No. It did not happen all at once.
I had already thought extensively about Islam. However, meeting those American Muslims encouraged me to take the final step.
Before meeting them, I was already on the threshold of becoming a Muslim and had become very close to Islam.
Their sincerity impressed me. I found their devotion very appealing, and their meeting with me encouraged me to accept Islam and drew me even closer to the faith.
🇮🇷 After formally accepting Islam, what changes occurred in your daily life? And how did you decide to come to Iran?
The number of Muslim students at the university had increased, and as a result, I had some disagreements with university administrators.
They wanted me to work in university administration and become involved in paperwork and management. I only wanted to teach.
So I decided to come to Iran.
One of my Iranian students introduced me to Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati—who at the time was Iran's representative at the United Nations. After that, I resigned from the university and seriously decided to come to Iran.
My original plan was to stay in Iran for two years, learn something about Islamic philosophy and gain a deeper understanding of Islam, and then return to the United States.
With the help of Dr. Velayati, an invitation was arranged from the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran, and I planned to come to Iran.
At Dr. Velayati's office, I happened to meet Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi. He had been on a trip to the United States, where I had previously met him. Dr. Velayati introduced me to him, and we spoke together.
At the end of our conversation, Ayatollah Mesbah asked me to come to Qom and work at the Imam Khomeini Institute, which at the time was operating under the name Baqir al-Ulum Foundation.
I told him that I could come if he sent me an official invitation.
However, I could not wait for the invitation, so I went to the Institute of Philosophy in Tehran and began studying Islamic philosophy with Dr. Gholamreza A'vani. He worked very hard to teach me.
Before coming to Iran, I had studied some Persian literature. But whenever someone greeted me, I could not even respond properly! Speaking Persian was very difficult for me.
Dr. A'vani suggested that, in order to improve my Persian, we should begin studying Islamic philosophy through Persian texts.
So I began studying Islamic philosophy through the philosophical treatises of Suhrawardi. It became something of a source of amusement among my friends!
After some time, Dr. A'vani said:
“If you want to learn philosophy properly, we should read the same treatises of Suhrawardi in Arabic as well.”
So we studied the same three philosophical treatises of Suhrawardi again, this time in Arabic. It was a wonderful experience.
🎓 How did your cooperation with Ayatollah Mesbah and your work at the Imam Khomeini Institute begin?
My work at the Imam Khomeini Institute began quite unexpectedly.
I had a friend from Texas who was originally Iraqi but had grown up in the United States. One day, he told me that he wanted to come to Qom to propose marriage to an Iraqi woman living in Iran, and he asked me to accompany him.
While we were in Qom, I happened to see one of Ayatollah Mesbah's assistants, whom I already knew, on the street.
He asked me to accompany him to see Ayatollah Mesbah.
When we met him, he was very pleased that I was in Iran and asked why I had not come to Qom.
I told him:
He immediately replied:
That meeting led to my traveling from Tehran to Qom once a week to teach at the Baqir al-Ulum Foundation, which is now known as the Imam Khomeini Institute.
The following year, this increased to two days a week.
Since I wanted to improve my Persian further, I decided to remain in Iran for another year and moved to Qom.
The following year, one of my students introduced me to someone for marriage.
💍 How did your marriage come about?
Our marriage was also rather unusual.
We had only met a few times when I decided to marry her. I did not know the woman or her family very well. I accepted the marriage largely because I trusted the student who had introduced us.
Before the wedding ceremony, I went to the shrine of Lady Fatima al-Ma'suma (peace be upon her) and prayed extensively, asking God to help me make the right decision and have a successful marriage.
After our marriage, I began working full-time at the Baqir al-Ulum Foundation.
At that point, my entire goal changed.
I thought that if I remained in Iran and taught seminarians, I could be of greater service.
🏅 How do you feel about being recognized as a distinguished figure in Iran despite being an American?
It is a great honor for me.
I feel very grateful. First of all, I thank God that I have been able to be of service in this country. I am also grateful to the Iranian officials who recognized my work.
The Iranian people have a positive view of me, and because of that, I feel an even greater sense of responsibility.
I hope that I can continue to serve even more.
🌱 What do you consider the most important factor behind your success?
The grace of God.
(He pauses for a moment.)
When I look back at my life, I see many wrong actions and mistakes. But it was God's grace that opened the way for me.
About twelve years ago, when I was on pilgrimage for Hajj, everything went wrong.
I lost my passport. Then my group left me behind in Jeddah, and I became separated from the caravan. Every step I took seemed to bring another problem.
Yet somehow, every problem was resolved.
And they were resolved in such a way that I felt as though the sea had been split for me just as it was for Prophet Moses (peace be upon him).
I could not overcome those difficulties myself. I was incapable of solving them. Yet they were somehow resolved.
I mention this because I want you to understand that my success is due to God's grace, not my own ability.
I have always felt that I cannot move forward by myself, but somehow God opens the way for me.
Even on that Hajj journey, when I was returning from Mecca to Iran, my plane ticket had been left in the pocket of the head of our caravan, who had returned to Iran earlier than us.
When I told the airport officials that I did not have my ticket, they asked:
When I gave them the name of the head of the caravan, the official excitedly said:
He immediately called him. Once he confirmed that my ticket was with him, the official said:
And I boarded the airplane without my ticket.
It was an extraordinary thing.
🎓 How did your cooperation with Ayatollah Mesbah and your work at the Imam Khomeini Institute begin?
My work at the Imam Khomeini Institute began quite unexpectedly.
I had a friend from Texas who was originally Iraqi but had grown up in the United States. One day, he told me that he wanted to come to Qom to propose marriage to an Iraqi woman living in Iran, and he asked me to accompany him.
While we were in Qom, I happened to see one of Ayatollah Mesbah's assistants, whom I already knew, on the street.
He asked me to accompany him to see Ayatollah Mesbah.
When we met him, he was very pleased that I was in Iran and asked why I had not come to Qom.
I told him:
“I was waiting for an official invitation.”
He immediately replied:
“Then I will give you an official invitation right now.”
That meeting led to my traveling from Tehran to Qom once a week to teach at the Baqir al-Ulum Foundation, which is now known as the Imam Khomeini Institute.
The following year, this increased to two days a week.
Since I wanted to improve my Persian further, I decided to remain in Iran for another year and moved to Qom.
The following year, one of my students introduced me to someone for marriage.
💍 How did your marriage come about?
Our marriage was also rather unusual.
We had only met a few times when I decided to marry her. I did not know the woman or her family very well. I accepted the marriage largely because I trusted the student who had introduced us.
Before the wedding ceremony, I went to the shrine of Lady Fatima al-Ma'suma (peace be upon her) and prayed extensively, asking God to help me make the right decision and have a successful marriage.
After our marriage, I began working full-time at the Baqir al-Ulum Foundation.
At that point, my entire goal changed.
I thought that if I remained in Iran and taught seminarians, I could be of greater service.
🏅 How do you feel about being recognized as a distinguished figure in Iran despite being an American?
It is a great honor for me.
I feel very grateful. First of all, I thank God that I have been able to be of service in this country. I am also grateful to the Iranian officials who recognized my work.
The Iranian people have a positive view of me, and because of that, I feel an even greater sense of responsibility.
I hope that I can continue to serve even more.
🌱 What do you consider the most important factor behind your success?
The grace of God.
(He pauses for a moment.)
When I look back at my life, I see many wrong actions and mistakes. But it was God's grace that opened the way for me.
About twelve years ago, when I was on pilgrimage for Hajj, everything went wrong.
I lost my passport. Then my group left me behind in Jeddah, and I became separated from the caravan. Every step I took seemed to bring another problem.
Yet somehow, every problem was resolved.
And they were resolved in such a way that I felt as though the sea had been split for me just as it was for Prophet Moses (peace be upon him).
I could not overcome those difficulties myself. I was incapable of solving them. Yet they were somehow resolved.
I mention this because I want you to understand that my success is due to God's grace, not my own ability.
I have always felt that I cannot move forward by myself, but somehow God opens the way for me.
Even on that Hajj journey, when I was returning from Mecca to Iran, my plane ticket had been left in the pocket of the head of our caravan, who had returned to Iran earlier than us.
When I told the airport officials that I did not have my ticket, they asked:
“Then how do you expect to board the plane?”
When I gave them the name of the head of the caravan, the official excitedly said:
“He is my friend!”
He immediately called him. Once he confirmed that my ticket was with him, the official said:
“No problem.”
And I boarded the airplane without my ticket.
It was an extraordinary thing.
My entire Hajj was like this, from beginning to end.
I think my whole life has been like this.
I believe that this Hajj was a sign from God for me. God showed me that you have no power of your own; you cannot accomplish everything yourself; everything is ultimately in God's hands.
🤔 If you had not become a Muslim, where do you think you would be today, and what would you be doing?
God knows.
I cannot imagine what would have happened.
Sometimes I discuss this with my son. He always says:
🔄 If you could go back and live your life again, what would you try to change?
It would certainly be good if we could avoid the mistakes, sins, and wrong actions we committed in the past.
This is another subject I discuss with my son.
When I tell him:
he says:
🔎 What things have mattered most to you throughout your life?
One of the things I have pursued since childhood has been the search for truth.
My father always insisted that we should think for ourselves and discover the truth for ourselves.
When I came to Iran and met Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, he repeatedly told me:
This is extremely important to me: to make an effort to discover the truth.
It is the most important issue in my life, and I always think about it.
☪️ After you became a Muslim, did any of your relatives or friends become Muslim because of you?
Many of my friends cut off their relationships with me after I became Muslim.
And because I have spent most of my time in Iran, I do not have much contact with many of my former acquaintances.
There are a few people who became Muslim, although they were not among my close relatives or friends.
However, many people have told me that reading my works made them interested in Islam and encouraged them to investigate the religion further.
🇮🇷 What is your opinion of the Iranian people, and how is your relationship with them?
I do not have much contact with all segments of society. Most of my interactions are academic, with seminarians, students, and professors.
But I like the Iranian people very much, and I prefer living in Iran.
I have been very fortunate to find seminarians and professors who are not narrow-minded at all during discussions.
We discuss many different issues, including Western thought, and they are genuinely interested in intellectual dialogue.
I am optimistic about the future of the seminarians I have met here, and I hope that, God willing, they will play an important role in strengthening religious life among the people in the future.
📚 Have you had a dream in life that you particularly wanted to achieve but have not yet accomplished?
My aspirations and goals are mainly related to academic and scholarly work.
I have written some materials, and I hope that by completing and publishing them, I can contribute to the Shiite school of thought.
For example, I have written articles on various subjects, including the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and “The Concept of God in Shiite Thought,” which examines different aspects of Shiite philosophy and theology.
If God grants me the opportunity, I would like to write a book introducing Shiism to people around the world.
I have also written articles about Avicenna, and I hope to compile them and eventually publish them as a book.
🌳 You spend most of your time teaching, researching, and doing academic work. What do you do for recreation?
I do not have any particular recreational activities.
Usually, our vacations are limited to the summer. I go to visit my mother in New York, and we spend time together as a family, going to parks and other recreational places.
🤲 Finally, is there anything else you would like to say?
I am very grateful to you, and I am very happy that I have been able to be of service here.
I think my whole life has been like this.
I believe that this Hajj was a sign from God for me. God showed me that you have no power of your own; you cannot accomplish everything yourself; everything is ultimately in God's hands.
🤔 If you had not become a Muslim, where do you think you would be today, and what would you be doing?
God knows.
I cannot imagine what would have happened.
Sometimes I discuss this with my son. He always says:
“Dad, if you had not become a Muslim, I would never have existed!”
🔄 If you could go back and live your life again, what would you try to change?
It would certainly be good if we could avoid the mistakes, sins, and wrong actions we committed in the past.
This is another subject I discuss with my son.
When I tell him:
“I wish we could go back in time and avoid making those mistakes,”
he says:
“If you had not made those mistakes, you probably would have made other mistakes.”
🔎 What things have mattered most to you throughout your life?
One of the things I have pursued since childhood has been the search for truth.
My father always insisted that we should think for ourselves and discover the truth for ourselves.
When I came to Iran and met Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, he repeatedly told me:
“You must be a seeker of truth.”
This is extremely important to me: to make an effort to discover the truth.
It is the most important issue in my life, and I always think about it.
☪️ After you became a Muslim, did any of your relatives or friends become Muslim because of you?
Many of my friends cut off their relationships with me after I became Muslim.
And because I have spent most of my time in Iran, I do not have much contact with many of my former acquaintances.
There are a few people who became Muslim, although they were not among my close relatives or friends.
However, many people have told me that reading my works made them interested in Islam and encouraged them to investigate the religion further.
🇮🇷 What is your opinion of the Iranian people, and how is your relationship with them?
I do not have much contact with all segments of society. Most of my interactions are academic, with seminarians, students, and professors.
But I like the Iranian people very much, and I prefer living in Iran.
I have been very fortunate to find seminarians and professors who are not narrow-minded at all during discussions.
We discuss many different issues, including Western thought, and they are genuinely interested in intellectual dialogue.
I am optimistic about the future of the seminarians I have met here, and I hope that, God willing, they will play an important role in strengthening religious life among the people in the future.
📚 Have you had a dream in life that you particularly wanted to achieve but have not yet accomplished?
My aspirations and goals are mainly related to academic and scholarly work.
I have written some materials, and I hope that by completing and publishing them, I can contribute to the Shiite school of thought.
For example, I have written articles on various subjects, including the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and “The Concept of God in Shiite Thought,” which examines different aspects of Shiite philosophy and theology.
If God grants me the opportunity, I would like to write a book introducing Shiism to people around the world.
I have also written articles about Avicenna, and I hope to compile them and eventually publish them as a book.
🌳 You spend most of your time teaching, researching, and doing academic work. What do you do for recreation?
I do not have any particular recreational activities.
Usually, our vacations are limited to the summer. I go to visit my mother in New York, and we spend time together as a family, going to parks and other recreational places.
🤲 Finally, is there anything else you would like to say?
I am very grateful to you, and I am very happy that I have been able to be of service here.
I hope that God grants us the opportunity to serve even more.
🌿 Professor Muhammad Legenhausen
🔗 Source: Rahyafte — Comprehensive Platform for Missionaries and Converts
#Islam #ShiaIslam #ConversionToIslam #MuhammadLegenhausen #IslamicPhilosophy #Shiism #JourneyToIslam #SearchForTruth
🆔 @rahyafte_en
🌿 Professor Muhammad Legenhausen
🔗 Source: Rahyafte — Comprehensive Platform for Missionaries and Converts
#Islam #ShiaIslam #ConversionToIslam #MuhammadLegenhausen #IslamicPhilosophy #Shiism #JourneyToIslam #SearchForTruth
🆔 @rahyafte_en
Forwarded from Rahyafte (The Guided Ones)
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🇷🇺 Why Do Some Russians Become Shia Muslims?
A recent academic study offers a fascinating look inside a little-known phenomenon.
🔎 In a study titled “Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia,” researcher Akif Tahiiev examines something that has received surprisingly little scholarly attention: people in Russia who choose to become Shia Muslims.
Published in the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, the study draws on existing research, ethnographic material, online sources, and interviews with Shia converts — including interviews conducted in Moscow in 2023.
And the stories are more diverse than one might expect.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧠 The search for truth
According to Tahiiev, one of the most prominent motivations among the converts he studied is intellectual and spiritual inquiry.
Many did not describe their conversion as the result of a sudden emotional experience.
Instead, their journeys involved:
• reading and comparing religions
• studying Islamic theology
• questioning previously held beliefs
• searching for a coherent worldview
• and eventually discovering Shi‘ism
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✝️➡️☪️ From Christianity to Islam
One of the striking cases discussed in the study is Taras Abdul-Karim Chernienko, born in St. Petersburg in 1976.
He grew up in an intellectual Christian family and was encouraged by his parents to study different religions and cultures.
As a teenager, he began searching for answers.
He eventually became Muslim at 16, in the early 1990s — a period when both Russian Muslims and Russian Shias were still relatively few.
What attracted him to Islam?
Part of the answer was his understanding of Jesus.
Chernienko was looking for a faith that would neither reject Jesus nor worship him as God, but would recognize him as a pure and sinless human being.
That search led him to Islam.
Later, he became one of the prominent figures among Russian Shias and translated important Shia works into Russian, including Nahj al-Balagha.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 Philosophy → Islam → Shi‘ism
Another remarkable figure discussed in the study is Amin Ramin, who holds a PhD in philosophy.
His journey was different.
He explored the foundations of:
✝️ Christianity
☸️ Buddhism
✡️ Judaism
🕉️ Hinduism
☪️ Islam
Eventually, he came to accept Islam — and then made another intellectual journey:
Sunni Islam vs. Shia Islam.
He ultimately chose Twelver Shi‘ism.
His search did not stop there.
He later studied at seminaries in Qom and Najaf, learned Arabic and Persian, and became involved in translating and producing Shia literature in Russian.
He also founded the Arsh313 project, containing articles, books, videos, podcasts, prayers and hadith in Russian.
In other words, for him, conversion was not the end of intellectual exploration.
It became the beginning of it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🕌 But not everyone follows the same path
The study identifies several different pathways into Russian Shi‘ism.
1️⃣ Ethnic Shias becoming practicing Muslims
Some Azerbaijanis, Lezgins and other traditionally Shia populations grew up identifying culturally as Shia but were not particularly religious.
For them, “conversion” can mean something different:
Not changing from Sunni to Shia —
but moving from cultural identity to conscious religious practice.
Tahiiev includes Azerbaijani interviewees who described this kind of transformation as a form of conversion.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2️⃣ Sunni → Shia
There are also people who first become Muslim through Sunnism and later discover Shi‘ism.
One example is Kamal Anton Yevstratov, a journalist from Voronezh.
He converted to Sunni Islam in 2007 after visiting Egypt.
Only one year later, he became Shia.
His initial attraction to Islam came through Arabic culture, language and independent study of the Qur'an.
Then his journey continued inside Islam — from Sunni Islam to Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
3️⃣ Atheists and agnostics → Shia Islam
The study also identifies people with no religious background, particularly atheists and agnostics.
A recent academic study offers a fascinating look inside a little-known phenomenon.
🔎 In a study titled “Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia,” researcher Akif Tahiiev examines something that has received surprisingly little scholarly attention: people in Russia who choose to become Shia Muslims.
Published in the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, the study draws on existing research, ethnographic material, online sources, and interviews with Shia converts — including interviews conducted in Moscow in 2023.
And the stories are more diverse than one might expect.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧠 The search for truth
According to Tahiiev, one of the most prominent motivations among the converts he studied is intellectual and spiritual inquiry.
Many did not describe their conversion as the result of a sudden emotional experience.
Instead, their journeys involved:
• reading and comparing religions
• studying Islamic theology
• questioning previously held beliefs
• searching for a coherent worldview
• and eventually discovering Shi‘ism
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✝️➡️☪️ From Christianity to Islam
One of the striking cases discussed in the study is Taras Abdul-Karim Chernienko, born in St. Petersburg in 1976.
He grew up in an intellectual Christian family and was encouraged by his parents to study different religions and cultures.
As a teenager, he began searching for answers.
He eventually became Muslim at 16, in the early 1990s — a period when both Russian Muslims and Russian Shias were still relatively few.
What attracted him to Islam?
Part of the answer was his understanding of Jesus.
Chernienko was looking for a faith that would neither reject Jesus nor worship him as God, but would recognize him as a pure and sinless human being.
That search led him to Islam.
Later, he became one of the prominent figures among Russian Shias and translated important Shia works into Russian, including Nahj al-Balagha.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 Philosophy → Islam → Shi‘ism
Another remarkable figure discussed in the study is Amin Ramin, who holds a PhD in philosophy.
His journey was different.
He explored the foundations of:
✝️ Christianity
☸️ Buddhism
✡️ Judaism
🕉️ Hinduism
☪️ Islam
Eventually, he came to accept Islam — and then made another intellectual journey:
Sunni Islam vs. Shia Islam.
He ultimately chose Twelver Shi‘ism.
His search did not stop there.
He later studied at seminaries in Qom and Najaf, learned Arabic and Persian, and became involved in translating and producing Shia literature in Russian.
He also founded the Arsh313 project, containing articles, books, videos, podcasts, prayers and hadith in Russian.
In other words, for him, conversion was not the end of intellectual exploration.
It became the beginning of it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🕌 But not everyone follows the same path
The study identifies several different pathways into Russian Shi‘ism.
1️⃣ Ethnic Shias becoming practicing Muslims
Some Azerbaijanis, Lezgins and other traditionally Shia populations grew up identifying culturally as Shia but were not particularly religious.
For them, “conversion” can mean something different:
Not changing from Sunni to Shia —
but moving from cultural identity to conscious religious practice.
Tahiiev includes Azerbaijani interviewees who described this kind of transformation as a form of conversion.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2️⃣ Sunni → Shia
There are also people who first become Muslim through Sunnism and later discover Shi‘ism.
One example is Kamal Anton Yevstratov, a journalist from Voronezh.
He converted to Sunni Islam in 2007 after visiting Egypt.
Only one year later, he became Shia.
His initial attraction to Islam came through Arabic culture, language and independent study of the Qur'an.
Then his journey continued inside Islam — from Sunni Islam to Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
3️⃣ Atheists and agnostics → Shia Islam
The study also identifies people with no religious background, particularly atheists and agnostics.
Their journey can be more difficult.
Someone from a Muslim cultural background may already have some familiarity with Islamic concepts.
A Russian from a traditionally Orthodox or strongly secular environment may have to learn Islam itself and Shi‘ism simultaneously.
And there is another obstacle:
📖 Russian-language Shia resources are much less abundant than Sunni resources.
According to Tahiiev, this scarcity makes the path toward Shi‘ism more demanding.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚖️ Is politics a major reason?
This is where the study becomes particularly interesting.
Shi‘ism is sometimes associated with political resistance, Iran and revolutionary politics.
But Tahiiev argues that political motivation is not the dominant pattern among the prominent Russian converts he studied.
For most of the people discussed, the central themes were:
🧠 intellectual inquiry
🔍 search for truth
🙏 spiritual searching
📚 theological study
🤝 personal networks
There is, however, an important exception.
Fatima-Anastasia Yezhova was strongly influenced by the political and revolutionary dimension of Shi‘ism.
She encountered Islam as a teenager and was deeply influenced by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, ideas of resistance and the Palestinian question.
Her story shows that politics can matter — but it is only one of several pathways.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌍 A post-Soviet story
Perhaps the deeper explanation offered by the study lies beyond individual personalities.
The Soviet Union spent decades marginalizing religious life and promoting atheism.
The result was not simply that people stopped practicing religion.
It also meant that many people inherited religious identities without detailed religious knowledge.
This is especially visible among Muslim ethnic groups.
A person could identify as Azerbaijani, Tatar or another Muslim ethnicity while knowing very little about Islamic theology or even the Sunni–Shia distinction.
After the Soviet collapse, religion became available again — and people began exploring it.
For some, that exploration eventually led to Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 So what does the research actually tell us?
The Russian case challenges a simple idea of religious conversion.
It is not always:
“I was one religion → something happened → I suddenly became Muslim.”
Sometimes it looks more like:
Question → Study → Doubt → Comparison → Search → Discovery → Practice
And sometimes there is another stage:
Islam → further questioning → comparison between Sunni and Shia traditions → Shi‘ism
For others, it is:
Cultural Shia identity → religious awakening → conscious Shia practice
The researcher therefore describes conversion as a deeply personal but socially embedded process, shaped by intellectual interests, personal relationships, historical circumstances, available religious resources and, in some cases, political ideas.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📌 One important caveat
This is not a statistical survey of all Russian converts.
The study focuses largely on publicly active or well-known converts and people who were able to articulate their experiences.
Ordinary converts — including people who enter Shi‘ism through marriage, family relationships or gradual socialization — are much harder to observe.
So the findings should be understood as illustrative rather than statistically representative.
And this makes the study perhaps even more interesting:
We are not looking at “how many” people converted.
We are looking at how people explain why they converted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📖 THE ORIGINAL ACADEMIC PAPER
Akif Tahiiev
“Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia”
Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
Vol. 34, No. 2 (2025), pp. 92–117
DOI: 10.3167/ajec.2025.340207
🔗 Full paper:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399917744_Becoming_a_Shia_in_Russia_Reasons_for_Conversion_to_Shi%27ism_in_Russia
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💭 Perhaps the most fascinating question is not simply why people become Muslim — but why, after discovering Islam, some continue searching until they arrive at Shi‘ism.
Someone from a Muslim cultural background may already have some familiarity with Islamic concepts.
A Russian from a traditionally Orthodox or strongly secular environment may have to learn Islam itself and Shi‘ism simultaneously.
And there is another obstacle:
📖 Russian-language Shia resources are much less abundant than Sunni resources.
According to Tahiiev, this scarcity makes the path toward Shi‘ism more demanding.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚖️ Is politics a major reason?
This is where the study becomes particularly interesting.
Shi‘ism is sometimes associated with political resistance, Iran and revolutionary politics.
But Tahiiev argues that political motivation is not the dominant pattern among the prominent Russian converts he studied.
For most of the people discussed, the central themes were:
🧠 intellectual inquiry
🔍 search for truth
🙏 spiritual searching
📚 theological study
🤝 personal networks
There is, however, an important exception.
Fatima-Anastasia Yezhova was strongly influenced by the political and revolutionary dimension of Shi‘ism.
She encountered Islam as a teenager and was deeply influenced by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, ideas of resistance and the Palestinian question.
Her story shows that politics can matter — but it is only one of several pathways.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌍 A post-Soviet story
Perhaps the deeper explanation offered by the study lies beyond individual personalities.
The Soviet Union spent decades marginalizing religious life and promoting atheism.
The result was not simply that people stopped practicing religion.
It also meant that many people inherited religious identities without detailed religious knowledge.
This is especially visible among Muslim ethnic groups.
A person could identify as Azerbaijani, Tatar or another Muslim ethnicity while knowing very little about Islamic theology or even the Sunni–Shia distinction.
After the Soviet collapse, religion became available again — and people began exploring it.
For some, that exploration eventually led to Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 So what does the research actually tell us?
The Russian case challenges a simple idea of religious conversion.
It is not always:
“I was one religion → something happened → I suddenly became Muslim.”
Sometimes it looks more like:
Question → Study → Doubt → Comparison → Search → Discovery → Practice
And sometimes there is another stage:
Islam → further questioning → comparison between Sunni and Shia traditions → Shi‘ism
For others, it is:
Cultural Shia identity → religious awakening → conscious Shia practice
The researcher therefore describes conversion as a deeply personal but socially embedded process, shaped by intellectual interests, personal relationships, historical circumstances, available religious resources and, in some cases, political ideas.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📌 One important caveat
This is not a statistical survey of all Russian converts.
The study focuses largely on publicly active or well-known converts and people who were able to articulate their experiences.
Ordinary converts — including people who enter Shi‘ism through marriage, family relationships or gradual socialization — are much harder to observe.
So the findings should be understood as illustrative rather than statistically representative.
And this makes the study perhaps even more interesting:
We are not looking at “how many” people converted.
We are looking at how people explain why they converted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📖 THE ORIGINAL ACADEMIC PAPER
Akif Tahiiev
“Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia”
Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
Vol. 34, No. 2 (2025), pp. 92–117
DOI: 10.3167/ajec.2025.340207
🔗 Full paper:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399917744_Becoming_a_Shia_in_Russia_Reasons_for_Conversion_to_Shi%27ism_in_Russia
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💭 Perhaps the most fascinating question is not simply why people become Muslim — but why, after discovering Islam, some continue searching until they arrive at Shi‘ism.
ResearchGate
(PDF) Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia
PDF | The article examines the underexplored phenomenon of conversion to Shia Islam in Russia, where Shias form a small minority within the Muslim... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
🇷🇺 Twelver Shi‘ism in Russia: A Small Minority with a Much Bigger Story
What does Shia Islam actually look like inside contemporary Russia?
A new peer-reviewed study published in August 2026 offers one of the most up-to-date academic overviews of Twelver Shi‘ism in Russia.
The study, “Twelver Shiʿism in Russia,” was written by Akif Tahiiev of Goethe University Frankfurt and published in the Database of Religious History.
🔗 Read the full study:
https://zenodo.org/records/21807483
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
☪️ Three different communities
One of the most interesting points is that Russian Shi‘ism cannot simply be reduced to “Iranian immigrants” or “Azerbaijani Muslims.”
The study identifies three overlapping communities:
1️⃣ Indigenous and long-established Shias — particularly Azerbaijanis and Lezgins in Dagestan and major Russian cities.
2️⃣ Migrant communities — including people from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries with significant Shia populations.
3️⃣ Converts to Shi‘ism — people from Slavic, Turkic and other ethnic backgrounds who have adopted Twelver Shi‘ism.
Together, these groups form a much more complicated religious landscape than the usual image of “Muslims in Russia” suggests.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🗺️ The story begins in the Caucasus
Shi‘ism is not entirely a new arrival in Russia.
There is a historically rooted Shia presence in southern Dagestan, especially around the city of Derbent.
But during the post-Soviet period, Shi‘ism expanded beyond these traditional areas.
Today, Shia communities can also be found in major urban centres such as:
📍 Moscow
📍 Saint Petersburg
📍 Yekaterinburg
Migration played an important role — but so did religious revival and conversion.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🇷🇺 What does it mean to be Shia in Russia?
Here the study becomes particularly fascinating.
A Shia Muslim in Russia may simultaneously belong to several different social worlds:
Russian + Muslim + Shia
or
Azerbaijani + Russian + Shia
or
convert + Russian + Shia
These identities do not necessarily contradict one another.
In fact, the author argues that Russian Shi‘ism is shaped by the interaction between religion, ethnicity, nationality and migration.
This creates forms of Shi‘ism that are distinctly local.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔍 Shi‘ism is often seen through ethnicity
One of the problems facing Russian Shias is that people do not always recognize Shi‘ism as a distinct religious identity.
Instead, Shias may simply be perceived as:
🇦🇿 Azerbaijani
🇮🇷 Iranian
🌍 foreign migrants
In other words, people may notice their ethnicity before their theology.
This is especially significant because Russia's Muslim population is overwhelmingly associated with Sunni traditions.
Shi‘ism therefore occupies a more complicated position.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 And then there are the converts
Conversion is one of the three major processes shaping contemporary Russian Shi‘ism.
The converts are not simply one ethnic group.
They can come from Slavic, Turkic and other backgrounds.
Some enter Islam and subsequently discover Shi‘ism.
Others move directly from Christianity, atheism or another worldview toward Twelver Shi‘ism.
And some people from traditionally Shia ethnic backgrounds undergo another kind of transformation:
They grow up identifying culturally as Shia but later become religiously observant and consciously committed to Shi‘ism.
The author's earlier research specifically examined these conversion trajectories and found that intellectual inquiry and spiritual searching were particularly important among the converts studied.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📖 A Russian-language Shia world
Another important part of the story is knowledge production.
For a religious minority, books, translations, websites, videos, podcasts and social media can become essential.
This is particularly important for Russian-speaking Shias because much of the traditional Shia scholarly literature is not originally available in Russian.
What does Shia Islam actually look like inside contemporary Russia?
A new peer-reviewed study published in August 2026 offers one of the most up-to-date academic overviews of Twelver Shi‘ism in Russia.
The study, “Twelver Shiʿism in Russia,” was written by Akif Tahiiev of Goethe University Frankfurt and published in the Database of Religious History.
🔗 Read the full study:
https://zenodo.org/records/21807483
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
☪️ Three different communities
One of the most interesting points is that Russian Shi‘ism cannot simply be reduced to “Iranian immigrants” or “Azerbaijani Muslims.”
The study identifies three overlapping communities:
1️⃣ Indigenous and long-established Shias — particularly Azerbaijanis and Lezgins in Dagestan and major Russian cities.
2️⃣ Migrant communities — including people from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries with significant Shia populations.
3️⃣ Converts to Shi‘ism — people from Slavic, Turkic and other ethnic backgrounds who have adopted Twelver Shi‘ism.
Together, these groups form a much more complicated religious landscape than the usual image of “Muslims in Russia” suggests.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🗺️ The story begins in the Caucasus
Shi‘ism is not entirely a new arrival in Russia.
There is a historically rooted Shia presence in southern Dagestan, especially around the city of Derbent.
But during the post-Soviet period, Shi‘ism expanded beyond these traditional areas.
Today, Shia communities can also be found in major urban centres such as:
📍 Moscow
📍 Saint Petersburg
📍 Yekaterinburg
Migration played an important role — but so did religious revival and conversion.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🇷🇺 What does it mean to be Shia in Russia?
Here the study becomes particularly fascinating.
A Shia Muslim in Russia may simultaneously belong to several different social worlds:
Russian + Muslim + Shia
or
Azerbaijani + Russian + Shia
or
convert + Russian + Shia
These identities do not necessarily contradict one another.
In fact, the author argues that Russian Shi‘ism is shaped by the interaction between religion, ethnicity, nationality and migration.
This creates forms of Shi‘ism that are distinctly local.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔍 Shi‘ism is often seen through ethnicity
One of the problems facing Russian Shias is that people do not always recognize Shi‘ism as a distinct religious identity.
Instead, Shias may simply be perceived as:
🇦🇿 Azerbaijani
🇮🇷 Iranian
🌍 foreign migrants
In other words, people may notice their ethnicity before their theology.
This is especially significant because Russia's Muslim population is overwhelmingly associated with Sunni traditions.
Shi‘ism therefore occupies a more complicated position.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 And then there are the converts
Conversion is one of the three major processes shaping contemporary Russian Shi‘ism.
The converts are not simply one ethnic group.
They can come from Slavic, Turkic and other backgrounds.
Some enter Islam and subsequently discover Shi‘ism.
Others move directly from Christianity, atheism or another worldview toward Twelver Shi‘ism.
And some people from traditionally Shia ethnic backgrounds undergo another kind of transformation:
They grow up identifying culturally as Shia but later become religiously observant and consciously committed to Shi‘ism.
The author's earlier research specifically examined these conversion trajectories and found that intellectual inquiry and spiritual searching were particularly important among the converts studied.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📖 A Russian-language Shia world
Another important part of the story is knowledge production.
For a religious minority, books, translations, websites, videos, podcasts and social media can become essential.
This is particularly important for Russian-speaking Shias because much of the traditional Shia scholarly literature is not originally available in Russian.
Zenodo
Twelver Shiʿism in Russia
Twelver Shiʿism (Jaʿfari or Ithna ʿAshari) is the predominant branch of Shiʿi Islam globally, constituting the majority tradition in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan. In Russia, Shiʿi Muslims are a small subset of estimated 20 million local Muslims, who…
The development of Russian-language Shia literature has therefore become part of the process of building a religious community.
In other words:
Translation is not merely translation.
It can become a form of community-building.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌐 The digital Shia community
This becomes even more important in the post-Soviet environment.
A person living hundreds or thousands of kilometres away from a Shia religious centre can now access:
📚 books
🎙 lectures
🎥 videos
🕌 religious lessons
📖 Qur'an translations
📜 hadith
💬 online discussions
Digital media therefore helps overcome one of the biggest problems faced by a small religious minority:
geographical isolation.
The Russian-speaking Shia community does not have to exist only inside a mosque.
Part of it exists online.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🇷🇺🇮🇷 Russia and Iran
The relationship between Russia and Iran adds another layer.
Greater political and economic cooperation between Moscow and Tehran has increased the visibility of Shi‘ism in Russia.
But the study makes an important distinction:
Greater visibility does not mean formal recognition.
According to the research, Russian Shia communities remain outside the country's dominant institutional framework of “traditional Islam,” which is largely organized through Sunni-dominated Spiritual Boards of Muslims.
So Shi‘ism can become more visible without necessarily becoming institutionally equal.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ A complicated relationship with the state
The study also notes that certain Shia networks are viewed with suspicion by Russian security authorities, particularly when they are perceived as having links to foreign religious actors.
This creates a complicated environment.
On one hand:
📈 greater visibility
🤝 stronger Russia–Iran relations
🌐 growing transnational connections
On the other:
🔎 state monitoring
🏛 limited institutional representation
⚖️ an ambiguous position within Russia's religious framework
The result is neither complete isolation nor full institutional integration.
It is something much more complicated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 So, how large is Russian Shi‘ism?
This is where caution is necessary.
The study itself points out that estimates of the Shia population vary considerably.
Some older claims have suggested very large numbers, while other estimates are much lower.
The author warns that activists from different religious communities may have incentives to overestimate their numbers, while other observers may underestimate them.
There is therefore no simple, reliable census figure for the number of Twelver Shias in Russia.
And this is an important lesson:
A religious community can be socially significant without having a precise population number.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔎 The bigger picture
The Russian case tells us something important about the spread of Shi‘ism outside the traditional Shia heartlands.
Shi‘ism does not move only through migration.
It also moves through:
📚 books
🎓 education
🤝 personal relationships
🕌 religious institutions
🌐 digital media
🔍 individual searches
🧠 intellectual conversion
And once it arrives somewhere new, it does not simply reproduce an Iranian, Iraqi or Azerbaijani model.
It interacts with the local society.
Russia is therefore developing its own forms of contemporary Twelver Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💭 Perhaps the most interesting question is this:
What happens when a global religious tradition enters a society where it is neither the majority nor completely foreign?
Russia offers a fascinating case study.
Here, Shi‘ism is simultaneously an inherited identity, a migrant religion, a minority tradition — and, for some people, a newly discovered faith.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📖 THE ORIGINAL STUDY
Akif Tahiiev
“Twelver Shiʿism in Russia”
The Database of Religious History, 2026
Published: August 5, 2026
🔗 Full study:
https://zenodo.org/records/21807483
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21807483
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In other words:
Translation is not merely translation.
It can become a form of community-building.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌐 The digital Shia community
This becomes even more important in the post-Soviet environment.
A person living hundreds or thousands of kilometres away from a Shia religious centre can now access:
📚 books
🎙 lectures
🎥 videos
🕌 religious lessons
📖 Qur'an translations
📜 hadith
💬 online discussions
Digital media therefore helps overcome one of the biggest problems faced by a small religious minority:
geographical isolation.
The Russian-speaking Shia community does not have to exist only inside a mosque.
Part of it exists online.
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🇷🇺🇮🇷 Russia and Iran
The relationship between Russia and Iran adds another layer.
Greater political and economic cooperation between Moscow and Tehran has increased the visibility of Shi‘ism in Russia.
But the study makes an important distinction:
Greater visibility does not mean formal recognition.
According to the research, Russian Shia communities remain outside the country's dominant institutional framework of “traditional Islam,” which is largely organized through Sunni-dominated Spiritual Boards of Muslims.
So Shi‘ism can become more visible without necessarily becoming institutionally equal.
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⚠️ A complicated relationship with the state
The study also notes that certain Shia networks are viewed with suspicion by Russian security authorities, particularly when they are perceived as having links to foreign religious actors.
This creates a complicated environment.
On one hand:
📈 greater visibility
🤝 stronger Russia–Iran relations
🌐 growing transnational connections
On the other:
🔎 state monitoring
🏛 limited institutional representation
⚖️ an ambiguous position within Russia's religious framework
The result is neither complete isolation nor full institutional integration.
It is something much more complicated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 So, how large is Russian Shi‘ism?
This is where caution is necessary.
The study itself points out that estimates of the Shia population vary considerably.
Some older claims have suggested very large numbers, while other estimates are much lower.
The author warns that activists from different religious communities may have incentives to overestimate their numbers, while other observers may underestimate them.
There is therefore no simple, reliable census figure for the number of Twelver Shias in Russia.
And this is an important lesson:
A religious community can be socially significant without having a precise population number.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔎 The bigger picture
The Russian case tells us something important about the spread of Shi‘ism outside the traditional Shia heartlands.
Shi‘ism does not move only through migration.
It also moves through:
📚 books
🎓 education
🤝 personal relationships
🕌 religious institutions
🌐 digital media
🔍 individual searches
🧠 intellectual conversion
And once it arrives somewhere new, it does not simply reproduce an Iranian, Iraqi or Azerbaijani model.
It interacts with the local society.
Russia is therefore developing its own forms of contemporary Twelver Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💭 Perhaps the most interesting question is this:
What happens when a global religious tradition enters a society where it is neither the majority nor completely foreign?
Russia offers a fascinating case study.
Here, Shi‘ism is simultaneously an inherited identity, a migrant religion, a minority tradition — and, for some people, a newly discovered faith.
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📖 THE ORIGINAL STUDY
Akif Tahiiev
“Twelver Shiʿism in Russia”
The Database of Religious History, 2026
Published: August 5, 2026
🔗 Full study:
https://zenodo.org/records/21807483
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21807483
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Zenodo
Twelver Shiʿism in Russia
Twelver Shiʿism (Jaʿfari or Ithna ʿAshari) is the predominant branch of Shiʿi Islam globally, constituting the majority tradition in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan. In Russia, Shiʿi Muslims are a small subset of estimated 20 million local Muslims, who…
This study is particularly interesting when read alongside Tahiiev's 2025 research on conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia — one examines the people who become Shia, while the other examines the wider community they become part of.
🆔 @rahyafte_en
🆔 @rahyafte_en
🧭 From Atheism to Twelver Shi‘ism
One person's journey from disbelief, to belief in God, to Islam — and finally to Shi‘ism.
In May 2026, a Reddit user introduced themselves with a remarkable description:
They then opened an AMA — an “Ask Me Anything” — answering questions about their journey from atheism to Islam and eventually to Twelver Shi‘ism.
This is not an academic study or a journalistic investigation.
It is a personal testimony.
And that is precisely what makes it interesting.
🔗 Original AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/1toicd6/i_am_a_former_atheist_who_has_converted_to/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧠 The first question: Does God exist?
The person says they were raised in a secular environment and remained an atheist until their teenage years.
Their change did not happen because of one dramatic event.
When asked what changed their mind about God's existence, they gave a surprisingly simple answer:
The consistency and order they perceived in the universe.
They also said they became convinced that the Qur'an's challenge could not simply be dismissed.
In other words, their path began with a fundamental question:
Is there actually a God?
And for them, the answer gradually changed from no to yes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌌 Not one sudden revelation
One of the most revealing answers came when they were asked whether there had been a particular moment when they realized God exists.
Their answer?
No single moment.
Instead, they described it as a gradual realization.
This is an important distinction.
Conversion stories are sometimes portrayed as dramatic:
⚡ one experience
⚡ one conversation
⚡ one miracle
⚡ one emotional moment
But this person's account was different.
It was more like a process:
Doubt → questioning → reflection → belief
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
☪️ Why Islam?
Once convinced that God exists, another question emerged:
Which religion?
The person says that Islam made sense to them because of its emphasis on the absolute unity of God.
Tawhid became central to their understanding of Islam.
Rather than seeing Islam as something they simply inherited from family or culture, they describe reaching it through a personal search.
This is especially significant because they had grown up without a Muslim religious background.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔍 But why Shi‘ism?
This is where the story becomes particularly relevant to our series.
The person did not simply stop at:
“I believe in God.”
Or even:
“I believe in Islam.”
They continued asking:
Which understanding of Islam is theologically correct?
Their answer was Twelver Shi‘ism.
They specifically mentioned several concepts that became important during their study:
📜 Ghadir Khumm
👑 Imamate
📖 Hadith al-Thaqalayn
They said that as they researched these subjects, they found the Shia understanding increasingly compelling.
So their journey can be summarized as:
Atheism
⬇️
Belief in God
⬇️
Islam
⬇️
Study of Islamic traditions
⬇️
Twelver Shi‘ism
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 The interesting part: the search didn't stop after Islam
One of the strongest themes in this testimony is continued questioning.
The person could have stopped after becoming Muslim.
Instead, they continued researching different interpretations of Islam.
This resembles a pattern found in the academic research we examined earlier.
Akif Tahiiev's 2025 study of conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia found that some converts moved through several stages of intellectual and spiritual inquiry before arriving at Shi‘ism. The study identifies intellectual inquiry and spiritual searching among the major motivations reported by the converts interviewed.
The Reddit testimony is obviously only one person's experience.
But the basic structure is strikingly similar:
Question → investigation → comparison → conviction
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🕌 What was the hardest part?
One person's journey from disbelief, to belief in God, to Islam — and finally to Shi‘ism.
In May 2026, a Reddit user introduced themselves with a remarkable description:
“I am a former atheist who has converted to Twelver Shi'a Islam.”
They then opened an AMA — an “Ask Me Anything” — answering questions about their journey from atheism to Islam and eventually to Twelver Shi‘ism.
This is not an academic study or a journalistic investigation.
It is a personal testimony.
And that is precisely what makes it interesting.
🔗 Original AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/1toicd6/i_am_a_former_atheist_who_has_converted_to/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧠 The first question: Does God exist?
The person says they were raised in a secular environment and remained an atheist until their teenage years.
Their change did not happen because of one dramatic event.
When asked what changed their mind about God's existence, they gave a surprisingly simple answer:
The consistency and order they perceived in the universe.
They also said they became convinced that the Qur'an's challenge could not simply be dismissed.
In other words, their path began with a fundamental question:
Is there actually a God?
And for them, the answer gradually changed from no to yes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌌 Not one sudden revelation
One of the most revealing answers came when they were asked whether there had been a particular moment when they realized God exists.
Their answer?
No single moment.
Instead, they described it as a gradual realization.
This is an important distinction.
Conversion stories are sometimes portrayed as dramatic:
⚡ one experience
⚡ one conversation
⚡ one miracle
⚡ one emotional moment
But this person's account was different.
It was more like a process:
Doubt → questioning → reflection → belief
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
☪️ Why Islam?
Once convinced that God exists, another question emerged:
Which religion?
The person says that Islam made sense to them because of its emphasis on the absolute unity of God.
Tawhid became central to their understanding of Islam.
Rather than seeing Islam as something they simply inherited from family or culture, they describe reaching it through a personal search.
This is especially significant because they had grown up without a Muslim religious background.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔍 But why Shi‘ism?
This is where the story becomes particularly relevant to our series.
The person did not simply stop at:
“I believe in God.”
Or even:
“I believe in Islam.”
They continued asking:
Which understanding of Islam is theologically correct?
Their answer was Twelver Shi‘ism.
They specifically mentioned several concepts that became important during their study:
📜 Ghadir Khumm
👑 Imamate
📖 Hadith al-Thaqalayn
They said that as they researched these subjects, they found the Shia understanding increasingly compelling.
So their journey can be summarized as:
Atheism
⬇️
Belief in God
⬇️
Islam
⬇️
Study of Islamic traditions
⬇️
Twelver Shi‘ism
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 The interesting part: the search didn't stop after Islam
One of the strongest themes in this testimony is continued questioning.
The person could have stopped after becoming Muslim.
Instead, they continued researching different interpretations of Islam.
This resembles a pattern found in the academic research we examined earlier.
Akif Tahiiev's 2025 study of conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia found that some converts moved through several stages of intellectual and spiritual inquiry before arriving at Shi‘ism. The study identifies intellectual inquiry and spiritual searching among the major motivations reported by the converts interviewed.
The Reddit testimony is obviously only one person's experience.
But the basic structure is strikingly similar:
Question → investigation → comparison → conviction
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🕌 What was the hardest part?
Reddit
From the religion community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the religion community
Interestingly, when asked about the greatest challenge of becoming a Twelver Shia, the person did not mention learning Arabic, attending a mosque or changing their daily lifestyle.
They identified something much more fundamental:
Going from having no belief in God to having an absolute belief in God.
That is a much bigger psychological and philosophical transition than simply changing religious affiliation.
For someone raised as an atheist, the starting point is not:
“Which religion is true?”
It can be:
“Is there anything beyond the material world at all?”
Only after that question is answered does the next one become possible.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 What can we actually learn from this story?
We should be careful not to turn one person's experience into a general rule.
This is a single self-reported testimony, posted anonymously on Reddit.
It cannot tell us how common this pathway is.
But it does give us a fascinating example of one possible route:
Atheism → Theism → Islam → Shi‘ism
And it shows that conversion can involve multiple separate intellectual decisions rather than one single leap.
First:
“I believe God exists.”
Then:
“I believe Islam is true.”
And finally:
“I believe Twelver Shi‘ism best explains Islam.”
Three different questions.
Three different stages of the journey.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌱 A second recent example
Interestingly, another Reddit testimony from May 2025 describes a similar journey.
That person says they were raised by atheist parents and began searching for spiritual answers as a teenager.
After exploring several religions, they came to believe in monotheism and eventually Islam.
They then chose Twelver Shi‘ism, mentioning the stories of Sayyidah Fatimah, the Twelve Successors, Karbala, and an interest in Iranian culture among the factors that drew them toward Shi‘ism.
Again, this is an individual testimony — not statistical evidence.
But having two recent, independent personal accounts with a similar broad structure is noteworthy.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💭 Perhaps the most interesting question isn't “Why did they become Muslim?”
It's this:
Why didn't their search end with belief in God?
For these individuals, becoming convinced that God exists was only the beginning.
They continued searching for answers about:
Who is God?
What is revelation?
Why Islam?
Who should lead the Muslim community?
What happened after the Prophet Muhammad?
What is the significance of Ghadir Khumm?
What is the role of the Ahl al-Bayt?
And eventually, their answers led them toward Twelver Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📌 SOURCE
Personal AMA published on Reddit:
May 26, 2026
🔗 Full testimony and Q&A:
https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/1toicd6/i_am_a_former_atheist_who_has_converted_to/
A related 2025 testimony:
https://www.reddit.com/r/progressive_islam/comments/1kojtwh/i_was_raised_atheist_and_that_was_what_i_believed/
📚 For academic context:
Akif Tahiiev, “Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia”, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2025.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399917744_Becoming_a_Shia_in_Russia_Reasons_for_Conversion_to_Shi%27ism_in_Russia
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sometimes a religious journey doesn't begin with faith.
Sometimes it begins with a question.
And sometimes one question leads to another — until a person finds an answer they are willing to build their life around.
#Islam #ShiaIslam #Shiism #TwelverShia #Conversion #Atheism #Faith #IslamicStudies #AhlulBayt
🆔 @rahyafte_en
They identified something much more fundamental:
Going from having no belief in God to having an absolute belief in God.
That is a much bigger psychological and philosophical transition than simply changing religious affiliation.
For someone raised as an atheist, the starting point is not:
“Which religion is true?”
It can be:
“Is there anything beyond the material world at all?”
Only after that question is answered does the next one become possible.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 What can we actually learn from this story?
We should be careful not to turn one person's experience into a general rule.
This is a single self-reported testimony, posted anonymously on Reddit.
It cannot tell us how common this pathway is.
But it does give us a fascinating example of one possible route:
Atheism → Theism → Islam → Shi‘ism
And it shows that conversion can involve multiple separate intellectual decisions rather than one single leap.
First:
“I believe God exists.”
Then:
“I believe Islam is true.”
And finally:
“I believe Twelver Shi‘ism best explains Islam.”
Three different questions.
Three different stages of the journey.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌱 A second recent example
Interestingly, another Reddit testimony from May 2025 describes a similar journey.
That person says they were raised by atheist parents and began searching for spiritual answers as a teenager.
After exploring several religions, they came to believe in monotheism and eventually Islam.
They then chose Twelver Shi‘ism, mentioning the stories of Sayyidah Fatimah, the Twelve Successors, Karbala, and an interest in Iranian culture among the factors that drew them toward Shi‘ism.
Again, this is an individual testimony — not statistical evidence.
But having two recent, independent personal accounts with a similar broad structure is noteworthy.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💭 Perhaps the most interesting question isn't “Why did they become Muslim?”
It's this:
Why didn't their search end with belief in God?
For these individuals, becoming convinced that God exists was only the beginning.
They continued searching for answers about:
Who is God?
What is revelation?
Why Islam?
Who should lead the Muslim community?
What happened after the Prophet Muhammad?
What is the significance of Ghadir Khumm?
What is the role of the Ahl al-Bayt?
And eventually, their answers led them toward Twelver Shi‘ism.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📌 SOURCE
Personal AMA published on Reddit:
May 26, 2026
🔗 Full testimony and Q&A:
https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/1toicd6/i_am_a_former_atheist_who_has_converted_to/
A related 2025 testimony:
https://www.reddit.com/r/progressive_islam/comments/1kojtwh/i_was_raised_atheist_and_that_was_what_i_believed/
📚 For academic context:
Akif Tahiiev, “Becoming a Shia in Russia: Reasons for Conversion to Shi‘ism in Russia”, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2025.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399917744_Becoming_a_Shia_in_Russia_Reasons_for_Conversion_to_Shi%27ism_in_Russia
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sometimes a religious journey doesn't begin with faith.
Sometimes it begins with a question.
And sometimes one question leads to another — until a person finds an answer they are willing to build their life around.
#Islam #ShiaIslam #Shiism #TwelverShia #Conversion #Atheism #Faith #IslamicStudies #AhlulBayt
🆔 @rahyafte_en
Reddit
From the religion community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the religion community
🔴 The Telegraph:Trump “weighing nuclear attack on Iran” as peace deal expires.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
🔗 https://t.me/asrzohur110/3442
🆔 @ASRZOHUR110
🆔 @rahyafte_en
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
🔗 https://t.me/asrzohur110/3442
🆔 @ASRZOHUR110
🆔 @rahyafte_en