Maria

I grew up in Oslo with no relationship to religion. Yet there was always a question I could not shake: is this really all there is?

In my twenties I began to read — first out of curiosity, then out of something like longing. When I read the Quran for the first time, it was as if someone put words to things I had always felt but never managed to say.

I was afraid of what it would mean. Would I lose myself? Instead I experienced the opposite. I found a calm and a direction I did not know I was missing.

The day I said the declaration of faith, I cried. Not from sorrow, but from relief. I was finally home.