On Being A Muslim

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,

I am a Muslim, alhamdulillah (thank you God). Allahuakbar (God is the greatest).I've been a Muslim even before I was born. Maybe you think I'm lying but it's the truth. When I was 7 months in mother's womb, she took me, by God's will to perform Umrah at the Holy City of Mekah and then visited our beloved Prophet, Muhammad SAW. She said, when she wanted to kiss the Hajarul Aswad, a path suddenly appears before her that led to the Holy Stone, and she was able to kiss it within minutes. For those who have been to Mekah, you would know how difficult and sometimes life threatening to reach the Black Stone.
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After I was born my parents were having a difficult time to reach a decision on what to call me, and my mother became very tired that she had to take a nap. Suddenly she heard a voice whispering a name for me, thus my name "The Sword of the Religion". Does my name make me a terrorist?
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Being Malaysians, we have many races who embrace many types of religions like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hindu, Sikh, Pagan and other religions or beliefs which I don't really know. We go to the same school, eat at the same canteen, study in the same room, play together etc but there's one thing that we don't do together: Pray. As Muslims, we have to pray 5 times everyday. So, I pray twice at school i.e. the Zuhr and Asr prayers. However, I've never seen my Non-Muslim friends pray because they don't need to pray so much unlike us Muslims.
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Because they are Non-Muslims, sometimes they ask us, isn't it burdensome to pray compulsory 5 times every single day. Well, from their perspective, yes. But that's because they haven't tried praying like us.
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Before we pray, we have to take ablution on the important parts of our body which have the most nerves.The water from the ablution will cool us instantly, That's why when we pray, we can feel a sense of relaxation. All the stress, anger and negative vibes seem to evaporate into thin air. When I went to Korea last year, a country where there's less than 5% Muslims (according to the Tour Guide), I could feel the stress rising up within me. Why? because their people never stop. They were constantly doing something, moving, working, commuting, etc. I was thinking, when do they rest? We humans are not machines. Even machines break down if you make it work 24 hours without stopping. You need to let it rest at regular intervals to make it perform its best. That's how I feel when I pray.When I pray, my whole physical body is resting including my heart, my brain, my eyes and my soul too.
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The essence of prayer is khusyuk. To attain khusyuk, you have to have an ikhlas heart. Ikhlas means you do it only for God and not for other motives. To perform solely for God, you have to have a kind and humble heart, free from any negative vibes. That's why I don't understand when people say that Muslims are terrorists and are only interested in killing people. If Muslims are terrorists, then all Non-Muslims in Malaysia would have extinct by now.
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Some people in the West think that Islam is restricting women because the women have to wear hijab but they never ask how it feels to wear the hijab. The Non-Muslims think that wearing the hijab is troublesome, hot and humid inside and very uncomfortable. However, my mom says the feeling of wearing the hijab is similar to the feeling of wearing your clothes. How do you feel walking in the streets without your clothes on? You'd feel uncomfortable and embarrassed right, because your soul is embarrassed, not your physical body. That's how the Muslim women feel when they don't wear the hijab. They feel uncomfortable and embarrassed as if they are naked in public, because their Muslim souls or spirits are embarrassed. I'm not sure whether it's the Prophet SAW or the Quran who says, " Wear the hijab, because it will differentiate you from the Non Believers." Now, many Muslim women do not take this statement seriously. From my understanding of the statement, if you don't wear hijab, then you are a Non-Believer, even if you have said your syahadah. Astaghfirullah.
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Maybe many of you out there think that a Muslim boy like me does not enjoy life. Well, I actually lead a very normal life like other teenagers. The difference maybe is I pray and the Non-Muslims don't pray like me (they pray their prayers). I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't eat pork and I am very conscious about the products that I use and foods that I eat to ensure it's clean and halal. I don't have a girlfriend even though I have many girl friends because I don't see the need to enter into a haram or forbidden relationship. I don't watch or look at forbidden sites on the web.Why did I do all these? This is to ensure that my heart is clean and my soul is pure, so that my prayers will be accepted by God and I will be able to enter Paradise.   .
If you come to my house, You'll see how it is to be a Muslim. Every morning, once we open our eyes from sleep, we brush our teeth, take our bath and ablution, wear nice clothes and perfume, then pray at the musolla with our neighbours, then we read the quran, In between the 5 times compulsory prayers, there are sunat or non-compulsory prayers. So we actually pray more than 5 times everyday. We also say the du'a everytime we do any actions.We fast every Monday and Thursday. We listen to religious talks everyday. We wish everyone peace and love every time we meet our fellow Muslims. We feed stray animals (even dogs, yes, we had a dog named Cico), keep the neighbourhood clean and respect everyone whether he is Muslims or not, and always try to do good like what the Prophet preached. That's why I don't understand when the world say that we are bad people. We are not because Muslims are forbidden from doing bad things. If we steal, our hands will be cut off, so who would want to steal. Even though the laws in Malaysia do not provide for the hand to be cut, I am more afraid of my mom than for my hand to be cut because if I disobey my mom, I will not enter Paradise, and I will be punished by God in this world and the next. As a Muslim, you don't need to be a monk or a priest to be close to God. Anyone who works hard in his worship will achieve it.
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Well, there are many things that I'd like to share with you on being a Muslim but let's just stop for now. I hope you have a better understanding on how it is to be a Muslim after you have read this post.As a Malay, it's difficult for me to write in English, but I do it because my audience is from all over the world and I hope everyone understands my writing. Thank you for accompanying me on this blogosphere journey. 
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Love and peace. Have a beautiful mind.
Daniel Zaydi