Hana Tajima: When Philosophical Questions Met Surat al-Ikhlas
British-Japanese designer Hana Tajima grew up in an artistic home in Devon, with an early interest in how people understand the world. During her first year at college she studied philosophy, became friends with Muslim students and spent her own time reading widely about religion.
Tajima did not describe her movement toward Islam as a sudden moment or a response to one person. She said that continued reading revealed ideas in Islam that resonated with what she had been seeking, until she reached a point at which she could no longer say that she was not Muslim.
Surat al-Ikhlas held a particular place in that process. Its account of God’s oneness and eternal self-sufficiency gave her a strikingly clear expression of eternity, a subject that had long occupied her thought. Muslim friendship opened a door, but it did not replace inquiry; broad reading and comparison matured into personal conviction.
Her original interviews place her entry into Islam at the age of eighteen, without publishing an exact day or month. On the day she became Muslim, she also began wearing hijab in public. She described the step as consistent with what she then understood, while acknowledging that it was not easy and that much learning still lay ahead.
At first, she became rigid with herself in worship, as though she faced a long list of duties in which she might fail. Over time, she learned to ask why an act of worship mattered and how to balance obligation, work and ordinary life. In her account, practice became meaningful rather than a set of movements performed from fear.
Her family supported her and most close friends remained, though some relationships changed. She also passed through a period of copying forms of dress that did not feel like her own because she assumed they were the only option. Gradually she recovered her artistic voice and designed modest clothing around beauty and choice rather than a single mould for women.
Her journey shows that a new religious identity need not erase a person’s past or personality. Knowledge may begin with a friend or a book, but conviction matures through testing ideas and reading their evidence. After the decision, a new Muslim needs gradual learning that connects worship to meaning and leaves room to build an honest life rather than borrow somebody else’s form.