u/Shqiponj

I don't really know where to begin, but I need to say this somewhere. I was raised Muslim, and for years I have struggled with questions about faith, identity, and where I truly belong. Outwardly, I have often tried to fit into what was expected of me, even withdrawing my Christianity and trying to suppress what was happening in my heart. But Jesus kept finding His way back to me.

For more than a year especially, I have tried to be honest with myself about this. I've read the Gospels, thought deeply about Jesus, His life, His words, His suffering and His resurrection, and I keep coming back to the same conclusion: Jesus is my Lord.

No other religion feels like home to me in the same way Christianity does. There is something about Jesus that reaches somewhere deep inside me. I don't just admire Him intellectually. I love Him.

But there is another part of myself that I am also hiding: I am gay. And honestly, that makes everything even more complicated.

I don't feel at home in many churches because so many Christians and churches are unfortunately not accepting of LGBTQ people. At the same time, I don't want to give up Jesus. I don't want to choose between my love for Christ and being honest about who I am. Right now, I feel most at home with progressive Christianity, where I can believe in Jesus while also being accepted as a gay person. I know Christianity is much bigger than any one church, but I still desperately want a Christian community where I don't have to hide either my faith or myself.

Sometimes I feel like I've failed Jesus. I've been afraid. I've withdrawn from Christianity because I was trying to fit in because of my background and former religion. I have to keep much of this secret from my family and from people around me, and that hurts more than I can explain. I don't know when I'll be able to tell them. Maybe someday I will be able to openly say, I am a Christian. I love Jesus. And I am gay.

For now, I carry Jesus quietly in my heart. And honestly, that's the one place where nobody can take Him away from me. Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I love Him, and I don't want to lose Him.

So please, if you're reading this, pray for me. Pray that I find peace, courage, a safe Christian community, and a way forward. If anyone knows good resources, books, or online YouTube channels where I can watch sermons for LGBTQ-affirming/progressive Christianity, I would genuinely appreciate them!

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu brothers and sisters. I cannot believe that Allah has even granted me to write these very words, but I feel like I have no practicing Muslim community to share this with, and a bit of worry.. 

I prayed Salah after a year, and I am literally shaking because I cried my heart out to Allah. To cut it short: I was born Muslim in the west, non-practicing family, Iwas the only one practicing Islam in my family, but.... over a year ago, I left Islam, and became Christian, but everyday I could not stop learning or comparing the religions, and deep in my heart Islam always formed how I live,  I still could not bear to for instance, eat pork? I always spoke well of Islam. Still! Because what the Qur'an taught somehow... still sticked to me in my "conscience" even when reading the Bible etc... and yes what drew me was only too immense love for Isa a.s, which I know is wrongly put, but I know.. that Allah has always been the Lord of my heart, somehow. I hope Allah forgives me.

And when I felt so bad (spiritually and emotionally) a couple of weeks ago, after more than a year I took my prayer mat and just cried my heart out seeking tawbah, because I am not at rest in my heart without Islam. My heart knew that when I have no other door, and no religious prayer moved my heart like that to Allah.

Islam was such a major part in my life, so I never understood how I could walk so far..  I missed it sooo much! For a year I went "back and forth" sometimes.. Shirk is such a grave matter, that I literally cry and feel so ashamed in front of Allah. He is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, so I hope with all my soul that He accepts me back. I took Shahadah. But I am worried still..

Can I come back? I feel so ashamed.. some people knew of my doubts and etc, but know that I am back in the fold of Islam. But I think too much of what people will think, etc. But I deeply believe that Allah is ONE, without partners, and that I wish for Him to forgive me.. I miss my deen so much. 

All I want to say: do not take Islam for granted, and keep it with all your power and strength. May Allah forgive us all! 

May Allah help us all be steadfast on his deen, Amin!

I left, I wandered, I forgot for a while,
Yet Allah never turned me away.
Even when my heart was far from Him,
His mercy was closer than I could ever understand.

I returned with sins I cannot count,
With a heart that only He could see.
And still, the door of tawbah was open.
Still, He let me come home.

Alhamdulillah,
for a Lord whose mercy is greater than my mistakes,
whose forgiveness is greater than my sins,
and whose love brought me back
when I had forgotten the way.

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

Basically, I made an earlier post about how I came back to Islam after a year, after leaving but now I am back. Thank you and may Allah bless you all who commented. I want to rewrite it a bit better.

All I want to say is, in a shorter one, I keep my hope in the mercy of Allah. It's been a year ago since I touched my head on the prayer mat, and Allah has put me back onto that very same prayer mat for me to make sujud, and I hope Allah can forgive me.

I thank Allah who has even granted me to write these very words, but I feel like I have no practicing Muslim community to share this with, and a bit of worry.. 

I prayed Salah after a year, and I am literally shaking because I cried my heart out to Allah. To cut it short: I was born Muslim in the west, non-practicing family, Iwas the only one practicing Islam in my family, but.... over a year ago, I left Islam, and became Christian, but everyday I could not stop learning or comparing the religions, and deep in my heart Islam was always forming how I live,  I still could not bear to for instance eat pork? Because it still sticked to me what the Qur'an ordered me... and yes what drew me was only immense love of Isa a.s, which I know is wrong, but I know.. that Allah has always been the Lord of my heart, somehow.

And when I felt so bad a couple of weeks ago, after more than a year I took my prayer mat and just cried my heart out seeking tawbah, because I am not at rest in my heart without Islam. My heart knew that when I have no other door, and no religious prayer moved my heart like that to Allah.

Islam was such a huge part of my life, so I never understood how I could have walked so far away from it.. I missed it so, so much! For about a year, I kept going back and forth, struggling with my faith. Shirk is such a grave matter that I literally cry and feel deeply ashamed before Allah. He is Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem, and I hope with all my heart and soul that He accepts me back. I took my Shahadah again, but I still feel worried and afraid.

Can I come back? I feel so ashamed.. some people knew of my doubts and etc, but know that I am back in the fold of Islam. But I think too much of what people will think, etc. But I deeply believe that Allah is ONE, without partners, and that I wish for Him to forgive me.. I miss my deen so much. 

All I want to say: do not take Islam for granted, and keep it with all your power and strength. May Allah forgive us all! 

I am on this path and Allah is my witness that my heart really aches for my mistake, and I hope for His rahma. I just needed to write it out as a "testimony" of my shahadah somehow..

May Allah help us all be steadfast on his deen, Amin!

I’m studying English at university and have also taken some introductory linguistics courses, and I’ve realized I genuinely love this field.

We’ve covered things like morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, morphemes, allomorphs, etc., and I keep finding myself wanting to go deeper outside of class. The problem is that I don’t really know where to continue exploring this world in a more informal/self-study way.

I’m especially interested in the English language specifically: history of English, dialects, language change, sociolinguistics, etymology, accents, grammar development, all of that stuff. I’d love to specialize further in English linguistics in the future.

So I’m wondering:

• What YouTube channels do you recommend?
• What books are considered “must-reads” for someone already past the absolute beginner stage?
• Are there any good forums, websites, blogs, online communities, or even podcasts for linguistics lovers?
• What helped you stay engaged with linguistics outside university?

This is mostly for spare time because I genuinely enjoy it and want to become more knowledgeable beyond my courses. I feel like I’ve discovered a field I could nerd out about forever 😅

Jag läser just nu ämneslärarprogrammet med inriktning gymnasiet och har engelska som förstaämne. Jag är ungefär halvvägs in i utbildningen och ska snart välja andraämne, vilket känns både spännande och lite stressande 😅

Just nu lutar det åt religion eller samhällskunskap, alternativt historia i “värsta fall”. (Jag veeet SO är katastrof på arbetsmarknaden man har inte så mkt val). Jag har däremot varken intresse eller behörighet för exempelvis matematik eller biologi/fysik/kemi.

En plan c) jag också funderat på är att läsa master i engelska och kanske forska vidare senare för att kunna bli adjunkt/lektor i framtiden. Till och med haft tankar på att undervisa utomlands? Online? Vart som helst de finns jobb.. hur långt kan engelskan ta mig tro?

Så jag tänkte fråga er som är nyexaminerade gymnasielärare eller redan jobbar som lärare:
Hur ser arbetsmarknaden ut för er? Är det svårt att få jobb? Ångrar ni era ämnesval? Och har ni några tips kring hur man bör tänka strategiskt inför framtiden?

Tycker läraryrket känns väldigt rätt för mig egentligen, jag älskar språk, presentationer, att förklara saker och mötet med människor men ibland blir man ändå lite orolig över framtiden och vill höra hur det ser ut för andra 🙏

Jag läser just nu ämneslärarprogrammet med inriktning gymnasiet och har engelska som förstaämne. Jag är ungefär halvvägs in i utbildningen och ska snart välja andraämne, vilket känns både spännande och lite stressande 😅

Just nu lutar det åt religion eller samhällskunskap, alternativt historia i “värsta fall”. (Jag veeet SO är katastrof på arbetsmarknaden man har inte så mkt val). Jag har däremot varken intresse eller behörighet för exempelvis matematik eller biologi/fysik/kemi.

Samtidigt är jag väldigt IT-intresserad och har funderat på om det vore smart att läsa lite IT-/programmeringskurser vid sidan av, kanske på halvfart, för att eventuellt kunna undervisa i programmering eller liknande gymnasieämnen i framtiden.

En plan c) jag också funderat på är att läsa master i engelska och kanske forska vidare senare för att kunna bli adjunkt/lektor i framtiden. Till och med haft tankar på att undervisa utomlands? Online? Vart som helst de finns jobb.. hur långt kan engelskan ta mig tro?

Så jag tänkte fråga er som är nyexaminerade gymnasielärare eller redan jobbar som lärare:
Hur ser arbetsmarknaden ut för er? Är det svårt att få jobb? Ångrar ni era ämnesval? Och har ni några tips kring hur man bör tänka strategiskt inför framtiden?

Tycker läraryrket känns väldigt rätt för mig egentligen, jag älskar språk, presentationer, att förklara saker och mötet med människor men ibland blir man ändå lite orolig över framtiden och vill höra hur det ser ut för andra 🙏

Tjena. Funderar på att plugga dessa kurser, vad anser ni om Mittuniversitetet och är kurserna bra? Det är ju fristående.. kan jag ta ut en examen efter dessa?

https://www.miun.se/utbildning/kurser/datavetenskap/

Massa 7,5hp som går till A,B,C

Förstår att det inte är kanske ens i närheten till KTH, civ.ing, etc, men pluggar redan till en annan examen men vill gärna ha detta som ett sidospår eftersom IT intresserar mig.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently studying to become a high school teacher in Europe, where our system allows us to continue our subject studies after the teaching programme and build toward a full Master’s degree. As part of my path, I’ll be earning a Bachelor’s degree in English, and my plan is to continue on to a Master’s in English as well.

My strongest academic interest lies in linguistics, although I also find literature genuinely engaging and intellectually fulfilling. At different points, EARLIER, I’ve briefly considered moving into tech or programming (just because I've had some interest in tech, and some people talk down on humanities, sadly and say there are better job market for stem but that's not me at all!), but I’ve always come back to languages and the humanities because it’s where I feel most at home and my heart lies in study of language..

Long term, I’m seriously considering pursuing a PhD in English, ideally with a focus on linguistics, and possibly working in academia. At the same time, I’m aware that this path is highly competitive and not always straightforward in terms of career prospects.

So I suppose my question is: in 2026, is this still a worthwhile path to pursue? For those of you in academia or who have taken a similar route, how do you evaluate this decision today, especially if you have a strong passion for the field but some uncertainty about long-term stability?

Thank you!

Hey there! I need some advice from my brothers and sisters in Christ. This may seem as a not-so-important, thing to make a post about but it’s actually something that is important in our lives: entertainment and what we’re watching.

As a Christian, and a new believer, I just feel like some movies and shows.. are not so great to watch for our souls anymore. I’m on Netflix and just want some tips, what do y’all watch? I have watched The Chosen, The Forge, I’m here not only looking for purely religious movies but can also be “sitcoms” or drama shows.. does really not matter, as long as it is appropriate and discerned as okay to watch.

I believe being a Christian really stretches to even the choice we make when watching a movie or show.

I feel like a lot, lately, is so dark.. Either it’s true crime or horror or supernatural (I don’t like any of these), I want more light-hearted and feelgood.. even Christian, that’s just a bonus.

God bless.