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Summary of Question:	My Son Converted To Islam
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Thursday, 6/24/2004 3:27 PM MDT

my son converted to islam and he has ruined our lives and brought complete sadness and embarresment to our lives. being born sikhs should he be allowed to convert and what should i do with him? i tell him that we are all sikh and we will die sikh but he says you can only be a sikh if your practicing, is this correct? no matter how much we show him this hurts us he wont renounce or compromise, he says how can you compromise aspects of your religion. as a sikh how should i deal with this the correct way. because family wont accept him and his marriage will now be to a muslim as will be his children so should i accept them into my family and house. he says he cant change his belief not even for his family he says that many prophets/gurus suffered much worse in order to stick to their beliefs. is there anyway i can bring him back to sikhism.

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Sat Siri Akaal. Wow, your son is STILL your son. He is absolutely correct that a Sikh is not so just by his or her birth, but by how s/he ACTS, or specifically practices as a Sikh. Conversion is not 'allowed' nor 'disallowed' in Sikhi. I converted from Catholicism --the faith of my parents-- why couldn't a person born into a Sikh family realize that the path that suits him is Islam, not Sikhi? If he is unhappy as a Sikh and if he happy as a Muslim, then so be it. You did your best to raise him, but he is old enough to make his own choices and just because those choices don't agree with you doesn't make him OR you bad. It just IS.

By all means welcome him and his family into your home. The right to choose is an inherent part of Sikhi. Guru Tegh Bahadur died because a Hindu was being asked to convert. You think this isn't the same? We did not just fight for our right to live and believe as Sikhs, we fought for the right of all to live and worship as whatever befits us. I know it's painful, but accept it in your hearts and realize that the Hand of God is on both your heads, not just on yours. Guru ang sang,
-DKK